…isn’t about the Knicks — although the front page and many inside pages are.<\/p>\n
No. Today the Daily News takes on Trump’s birthday celebration and is so clear, so correct I must post it here, especially for those who don’t read the Daily News or understand what it is.<\/p>\n
***<\/p>\n
The solemn grounds of the White House will be sullied this evening as the UFC puts on a <\/em>fight right on the South Lawn on the occasion of Donald Trump\u2019s 80th birthday, a preview <\/em>of the hyper-political celebrations that have swallowed the forthcoming commemoration of the nation\u2019s 250th year. The competitors held a weigh in and press conference at the <\/em>Lincoln Memorial, complete with some shoving for the cameras.<\/em><\/p>\n It is almost laughably crass. We doubt that a satirist could really have come up with <\/em>anything more comical than this, and in fact we\u2019re not the first to notice some parallels to the parody film \u201cIdiocracy,\u201d in which a dumbed-down culture produces a White House and president devoted to commercial spectacle as things crumble outside.<\/em><\/p>\n Though it\u2019s easy to laugh at this, we shouldn\u2019t forget what underlies it. Trump is<\/em> That\u2019s why this is being put on during the relatively minor holiday like Flag Day, because that was just a convenient pretext. This is a show for the president\u2019s birthday, which will also allow his pals, like UFC CEO Dana White, to make a quick buck, as is his way.<\/em><\/p>\n As the fighters are mauling each other in the gaudy octagon in front of the People\u2019s House, the steep funding cuts facilitated set in motion by Elon Musk and Robert F. Kennedy Jr. are leading to thousands of preventable deaths abroad and the axing of scientific and medical research here that will kill many more around the world.<\/em><\/p>\n The Justice Department is busying itself interfering with voter registration efforts in Ohio when it\u2019s not investigating the president\u2019s political opponents, and armed, mask agents roam the streets, brutalizing people apparently at random. The biggest circus in the world couldn\u2019t distract from all of that.<\/em><\/p>\n In some ways, though, this is the most apt and most honest celebration of our current moment in American history. A staid celebration of our democratic norms and freedoms would be nothing but a farce, even a mockery. This spectacle is much more reflective of what Trump intends for the country. We believe he will fail.<\/em><\/p>\n This low moment will go down in the history books, but we hope that it will go down as a mere warning of what can happen when we allow a con man to get so far in subverting everything our country is supposed to represent. It will not be lasting, something we got a reminder of just Friday night as crews removed Trump\u2019s name from the Kennedy Center after a judicial order pointed out that his vanity renaming was illegal.<\/em><\/p>\n This physical scrubbing of his name from where it never belonged precedes a more<\/em> …isn’t about the Knicks — although the front page and many inside pages are. No. Today the Daily News takes on Trump’s birthday celebration and is so clear, so correct I must post it here, especially for those who don’t … Continue reading
\nintentionally desecrating many of our nation\u2019s most hallowed symbols, tossing out the celebration of national unity and progress that has been envisioned to create yet another rally for himself and his political movement, because he thinks (and has long thought) that he is synonymous with the state itself.<\/em><\/p>\n
\nwidespread cleansing. Starting with the breaking of his subservient Congress after the upcoming midterms, our leaders must work to restore our country. Then we can laugh at the UFC fight.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"