A few weeks back I was watching video of Donald Trump boarding Air Force One, on his way to give the commencement speech at Virginia's Liberty University. I saw him leave the motorcade, climb the airplane's exterior staircase, and pause at the top before entering the fuselage. As usual, he turned to wave at the cameras, and I was struck by the "loneliness" of the entire image. There was no one visible waiting inside the cabin and unlike most recent flights, no First Lady at his side. The President was alone, completely alone, and the visual became the perfect metaphor of his Presidency so far. And I don't mean that as a bad thing. As I've said many times, I really like President Donald Trump.
SNL pulled out all the stops in its season finale before the POTUS left the country for his first overseas trip. Alec Baldwin donned his yellow wig & orange makeup, the Rock & Tom Hanks announced their 2020 candidacy, and anti-Trump politics fueled the following sketches, inserting politics into everything possible. I was reminded of something I'd read about a week ago, and please forgive me but I can't remember the source. It was a news story that described how SNL has crossed the line between comedy and "ridicule," and it focused on Sean Spicer - and Melissa McCarthy's increasingly-cruel portrayal of him. It's one thing to "mock" a public figure, like Kate Mckinnon's dead-on Clinton impression (the way she moves her hands like claws is spit-out-your-coffee brilliant). But unlike Darrell Hammond's equally dead-on Trump ("a-ba-ba-baaaah"), Baldwin's impersonation is as offensive as black-face ... and I'm completely baffled that the PC-movement allows it to happen. And as a gay Trump supporter, whenever I watch comedians like Baldwin ridicule the President, it's hard not to feel like they're ridiculing me.
SNL pulled out all the stops in its season finale before the POTUS left the country for his first overseas trip. Alec Baldwin donned his yellow wig & orange makeup, the Rock & Tom Hanks announced their 2020 candidacy, and anti-Trump politics fueled the following sketches, inserting politics into everything possible. I was reminded of something I'd read about a week ago, and please forgive me but I can't remember the source. It was a news story that described how SNL has crossed the line between comedy and "ridicule," and it focused on Sean Spicer - and Melissa McCarthy's increasingly-cruel portrayal of him. It's one thing to "mock" a public figure, like Kate Mckinnon's dead-on Clinton impression (the way she moves her hands like claws is spit-out-your-coffee brilliant). But unlike Darrell Hammond's equally dead-on Trump ("a-ba-ba-baaaah"), Baldwin's impersonation is as offensive as black-face ... and I'm completely baffled that the PC-movement allows it to happen. And as a gay Trump supporter, whenever I watch comedians like Baldwin ridicule the President, it's hard not to feel like they're ridiculing me.
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With the exception of Trump's recent overseas trip (..."Let's hear it for the rainbow tour, it's been an incredible success"...), the media has declared all-out-war against our President, singling him out for ridicule/destruction with the same subtlety as Kim Jong Un threatening the West. It's gone beyond "respectful dissent," and the anger the left displays towards Trump reminds me of childhood bullies, shouting "faggot" through fences during lunchtime recess. I...just...don't...understand...how this behavior has become acceptable. Can anyone see how wrong this is? Does anyone realize how discriminatory this is? I mean, we protect people for being ostracized because of race, gender, gender identity, age, handicaps, physical/mental illness, and almost every combination in between ... yet its *okay* to gang up on Trump supporters like whites on blacks in 1960s Mississippi? Jesus fuckin' Christ, it literally took Kathy Griffin holding a bloody orange head for liberals to say, "welllllll, maybe that's a little too far." Can you imagine the shitstorm had a conservative comedian done the same thing with an Obama head? Or how about a redneck holding a (insert ANY group with a protected status HERE) head? See where I'm going with this? Again, this is coming from a GAY guy. And specifically as a guy who's finding it increasingly difficult to separate the art from the artist, the news from the source, and the intolerance from people who claim to be the most tolerant of all. That being said...
With all the garbage competing for headlines yesterday, it was easy to miss the most important story of the day, in The Washington Post: "This millionaire has a promising idea for space exploration. But he says aliens are already here." The story involved Robert Bigelow's 60 Minutes interview, his company's involvement with the International Space Station, and his pursuit of private space travel. Most importantly though, Bigelow revealed his firsthand knowledge of the existence of extraterrestrial life - and described the millions he'd spent so far, investigating the subject. Mr. Bigelow is the latest in a long line of major public figures - from world leaders/US Presidents to the Vatican's chief astronomer - who've gone on record to acknowledge ET existence. Ironically, like the ridicule of Trump supporters, CBS framed Bigelow's ET belief with disbelief before showing that part of the conversation: But on this canyon road just outside Las Vegas, Robert Bigelow's story takes a turn that some may find, to put it lightly, improbable. He told us this is where his grandparents had a close encounter with a UFO. But that still couldn't shake Robert's "I don't give a damn - I don't care" attitude towards viewers who dismissed him as a crackpot: CBS: You don't worry that some people will say, "Did you hear that guy, he sounds like he's crazy"? Bigelow: I don't care.
It would be one thing if Robert Bigelow were a conspiracy blogger, or a snowflake celebrity who's read every David Icke book. But this is the man who founded Bigelow Aerospace, one of four private multi-million dollar companies driving the space race in the exact same way that Henry Ford once drove the automotive industry. Space travel is as inevitable to the 21st century as cars were to the 20th, and in less than a hundred years, we went from horse & buggy to men on the moon. Dismissing this successful businessman is no different than dismissing another successful businessman who happens to hold the current Oval Office ... and less we forget the exciting foreshadowing he gave us in his inauguration speech: We stand at the birth of a new millennium, ready to unlock the mysteries of space, to free the Earth from the miseries of disease, and to harness the energies, industries and technologies of tomorrow. The world is about to change in a very big way, so it's important we stop ridiculing that change's messengers.
It would be one thing if Robert Bigelow were a conspiracy blogger, or a snowflake celebrity who's read every David Icke book. But this is the man who founded Bigelow Aerospace, one of four private multi-million dollar companies driving the space race in the exact same way that Henry Ford once drove the automotive industry. Space travel is as inevitable to the 21st century as cars were to the 20th, and in less than a hundred years, we went from horse & buggy to men on the moon. Dismissing this successful businessman is no different than dismissing another successful businessman who happens to hold the current Oval Office ... and less we forget the exciting foreshadowing he gave us in his inauguration speech: We stand at the birth of a new millennium, ready to unlock the mysteries of space, to free the Earth from the miseries of disease, and to harness the energies, industries and technologies of tomorrow. The world is about to change in a very big way, so it's important we stop ridiculing that change's messengers.
My next novel - When People Go Away - is set against the backdrop of Donald Trump's election, and the change in the social fabric that his Presidency represents. Trump's victory was more than just conservatives fighting back liberals; it was the Brexit-like beginning of a shift in the way we understand our world - and the fear that's resulting as we start to grasp our place in the cosmos. Hundreds of years ago, we were frightened once we realized that the Earth might not be flat, and that the sun was one of many in heavens too vast to imagine. Now, today, we're aware of other planets, other galaxies, and even other dimensions that exist beside - and within - our own. It's human nature to get lost in that fear, and to hide by retreating into familiar, angry places - to avoid being overwhelmed.
Speaking of harnessing new energies/industries/technologies, earlier this week I came across an article about the Ford Motor Company, and how the corporation now realizes that gas-powered engines are approaching obsolescence, and must be replaced by new/cleaner ideas. Yesterday I read a story explaining that within a few years, up to 50% of the current retail workforce will also be eliminated, again by new technology - and as a 15-year Barnes & Noble vet, that one hit close to home. (Did you know there are YouTube channels devoted to exploring dead malls?) It's hard not to feel caught in an invisible tsunami as wave after wave of new ideas, technologies, and evolving social trends hit us like trucks, making us wonder if anything we learned in college applies to the modern world. Such change makes us insecure, so we lash out at those we feel are the reasons for our frustration, but when we ridicule the messenger, we're just showing others how scared we really are -
Speaking of harnessing new energies/industries/technologies, earlier this week I came across an article about the Ford Motor Company, and how the corporation now realizes that gas-powered engines are approaching obsolescence, and must be replaced by new/cleaner ideas. Yesterday I read a story explaining that within a few years, up to 50% of the current retail workforce will also be eliminated, again by new technology - and as a 15-year Barnes & Noble vet, that one hit close to home. (Did you know there are YouTube channels devoted to exploring dead malls?) It's hard not to feel caught in an invisible tsunami as wave after wave of new ideas, technologies, and evolving social trends hit us like trucks, making us wonder if anything we learned in college applies to the modern world. Such change makes us insecure, so we lash out at those we feel are the reasons for our frustration, but when we ridicule the messenger, we're just showing others how scared we really are -
And when we've got that much fear in our faces, no amount of orange makeup can hide it.