Random Thoughts 4/27/26: More Ballroom!

I was up too today.  We have the loudest cat in the history of domesticated felines, and she doesn't take my "stop yelling!!" instructions seriously, at all, at any time of day, particularly during the wee hours of the morning. 

After getting up and trying to appease her with her favorite cat food (which she didn't want to eat today) and getting myself some coffee, I scrolled through the latest news about the White House Correspondents Association (WHCA) dinner, which I'm sure by now everyone knows was interrupted and ultimately canceled because a lone gunman who had issues with the FOTUS and/or members of his administration decided Saturday night needed some violence to shake things up. 

While there have been lots of stories about the bad guy's 'manifesto' and about the security and how close he didn't actually get to anyone in the room, and some 'tales from the crypt' from reporters who were there, I spent my time trying to wrangle my random thoughts on statements from the FOTUS and the CoolAide Cabinet (that's the MAGA influencer horde) about how the incident at the WHCA event was a reason why we need the One Big Beautiful Ballroom the FOTUS is dead set on having, whether anyone likes it or not, into something at least somewhat coherent. So, without further ado,

Just THINK of the many benefits that would flow to ALL Americans if we were able to host conventions at the new White House Ballroom and Casino!! Oh, crap - sorry, that last part is top secret. Pretend we're in a Satirical Comedic Information Facility (SCIF).

We NEED a giant ballroom at the White House - what a wonderful way to get Americans into 'our house! I mean, most of us will never get to make a separate trip to take the tour because of our social media history, or our voter registration info (Wrong Party? No Tour for You!), or (especially for the married ladies) the mismatch between our birth certificates and our LinkedIn 'Yes, that's really my resume, not one I pulled off ChatGPT' profiles. 

Now that I think about it, the way things are going, I soon won't know a single person who could pass a security check - and damn proud of it, frankly. But I digress; that's the nature of random thoughts.

Back to the task at hand: think of the activities that could be held there, if only they made the darn thing big enough! A YUGE ballroom is what we need. I mean, if the billionaires who are donating to pay for access to the administration - er, sorry, I meant to proudly pay for the facility - want more ballroom (don't they all?), they just need to spring for a bigger ballroom!! Not this four- or five-story-tall, 90,000-square-foot thing that's proposed, but one that has five, six, or even 1000% more floorspace! Just think of it!

A bowling convention, with temporary lanes, hundreds of teams, and weeks - yes, weeks! - of activity, bringing REAL Americans to the People's House! Or, the NCAA's March Madness Final Four, with boatloads of gamblers who could spend their downtime in the casino wing - darn it, pretend I didn't say that. If I'm not careful, I'm gonna end up in trouble!

CPAC! TPA! NRA! The Union of Out-of-Favor Dictators! Huge Crypto-TikTok-National Security Conferences! The Association of Former White House, Pentagon, and Local News Correspondents! The Billionaire Boys Club - their membership is growing by cheats and bounds, almost daily! Plus, they could probably help out with bunker design! Big Pharma - those conventions are massive, and I've heard they give out lots of free samples! Research Scientists - they don't have anything else to do anymore... why not let them convene at the glorious facility to commiserate, instead of having to do that via Zoom from their basement labs? Gatherings of white South African farmers, or Scandinavian Trump Card holders! The possibilities are endless!

Farm equipment displays all over the White House lawn, and inside the ballroom, especially those from Case and New Holland; after all, they make stuff in red and blue, true American colors! Sorry, John Deere, that green and yellow just don't cut it anymore - Bad Boy Mowers can handle it from here, as long as nobody brings any of those electric and battery models - just the good old 'drill baby drill' kind (insert that famous John Dean scream here). Heck, we could even have a real Tesler car sales floor, not just a couple of cars! And how could I forget military equipment? We have the best of the best, once we replenish our supplies - and we could even have the Trump family drones on display! My patriotic heart is practically beating out of my chest! 

Boxing matches! UFC cage fights! Cornhole Championships! Heck, we could even bring back Jarts, in celebration of our country's glory days when kids were kids and ERs were plentiful! And what a wonderful place to hold the new annual Congressional Paintball Tournament? Much safer than that outdoor baseball tournament, right? 

And medal presentations, in a room full of gold!! The FIFA Peace Prize! The Trump Epstein Prize! The Melania Einstein Prize! And what better place to host ceremonies for Olympic Gold Medals Won by Men! Maybe even the Noble Prize folks would want to come here for their annual festivities! And, oh, for heaven's sake, I almost forgot Pardon Parties! Woo hoo!

And just think of how cool the State of the Gold-Plated Union speeches would be! Lots of political speakers; patriotic music (yes, Kid Rock and Lee Greenwood, I'm talking about you!); miniature statues and representations of some of our wonderful national parks and monuments; merch tables - can you even imagine?! Dozens of DoorDash Grannies, legally-present farmworkers, many more relatives of crime victims, and so much more! And don't forget the Democratic and Republican Party conventions! How fun!

Between the room rental, banquet setup, media setup, catering and bar fees, entrance fees, and the money spent in the casino (oops, I said it again...), we could probably fund Social Security for another few years, or shave a few thousand percentage points off the National Debt! Not to mention that we'd need thousands of low-paid AMERICAN workers to staff the facility, and if we just hurry up and build the darn thing, they won't have to pay taxes on their tips, OT, or Social Security - honest!

This is a brilliant idea - we REALLY need that ballroom, dammit! Let's end the lawsuits, end the petty bickering, think way more bigger, and get this thing built! 

THANK YOU FOR YOUR ATTENTION TO THIS MATTER.

TGIF 10/4/19

Good week? Bad week?  Why does it seem it's all one and the same?

Don't believe me? I have concrete evidence, things I've seen with my own two eyes on Twitter or Facebook or Instagram or the Google.

Or heard first hand through my radio. Or saw on the news. Or watched unfold live.

Essentially, like a good whistleblower, I can check both of the boxes on the form, where the rules have not changed: "I have direct personal knowledge" and "I heard it from others."

So, you tell me: is this indicative of a good week, or a bad week?

• The folks at Merriam-Webster offered to had to help us with simple definitions: impeachment, treason, bribery, perjury, and maladministration - which is a great word, and fitting. 

• The president went before the press and asked China to interfere in our election. 

• Third-quarter fundraising totals are out for the Democratic candidates. Here's how it look, according to the campaigns: Sanders ($25.3M), Warren ($24.6M), Buttigieg ($19.1M), Biden ($15.2M), Harris ($11.6M), Yang ($10M) and Booker ($6M). Big losers? Biden, down $6.8M and Buttigieg, down $5.8M compared to last quarter's official FEC filings. Time to thin the herd, I think?  

• And, this happened: a journalist was made to 'confess' that he writes propaganda by a CBP agent at Dulles International Airport. If true, it follows a long string of similar harassment of reporters by CBP officials. The whole 'enemy of the people thing', I guess.

• A House Intelligence Committee staffer received outreach from the whistleblower looking for guidance on how to file a complaint. As was completely appropriate, the staffer advised the person to contact the Inspector General and to obtain legal counsel - and then the staffer told Committee Chair Adam Schiff that what had transpired. So then Adam Schiff goes on multiple talk shows and obfuscates and avoids and yes, lies, unless you can't tell whether when he used the word 'we' he was using the editorial we, as all politicians do, or if he was speaking specifically about the Committee as a whole. We (and by that I mean you and me and everyone else) still doesn't know the answer to that. And so Schiff, one of the leaders of the impeachment effort, earns four pinocchios from the WaPo fact checkers.  

And if you're experiencing some kind of 'gang that couldn't shoot straight' flashback, we're with you. Or, at least, I am.

Woe is we.

TGIF, everyone.

Trump in Transition (v40)

Oh, this is just SO rich.

The president, who has been on the record as an enemy of a free press for his entire term, going back at least as far as when lied about the size of his manhood inauguration crowd and threw a fit when the press disproved his blatant false statement.

It has not slowed down, at all.

He loved the press when he was making a name for himself and his gold plated toilets and all that back in the day, but now that the press (other than the Trump News Network, of course) is no longer lapping up what he's dribbling, it's a different story.

The Trump administration equates boisterous, lie-filled, race-baiting political rallies and machine-gun-esque tweet storms and pre-flight gaggles as official communications and transparent dealings with the press, but doesn't like to hold actual press conferences where the people - that's you and me - are allowed, through the press corps, to get answers to some of our questions.

Why? Because administration officials either

• don't like lying on behalf of the president any more, especially since we now know conclusively that they do that, or
• they don't like being called out on their lies, or
• they don't like having to answer questions,or even worse, having to answer followup questions, which you don't have to do on Twitter or Instagram, or
• perhaps they're waiting for their emoji flash cards to come in, not sure. (They probably should have gotten a Prime membership.)

There have been two formal press briefings this year -- two official opportunities for the White House press corps to gather en masse and ask questions, all the while Press Secretary Sarah (Transparent and Honest) Sanders proclaims that this president is the most transparent and accessible ever in his dealings with the media. 

And so we come to this: the administration is revoking the 'hard pass' credentials of many reporters who cover the White House. The hard pass allows them access without additional scrutiny or delay for a two-year period; without it, they have to apply for entry, either for the day, the week, or for six months.  Hard passes are lost if a person hasn't been working at the White House "at least 50% of the time over the previous 180 days." Random exceptions are being granted, although there apparently aren't clear guidelines on what's worthy of one.

Access is not being limited to the Hannitys and Carlsons and Pirros and the Fox-and-Friendsers, of course -- because they are not reporters, and they don't participate as such.

They are the propaganda ministers of this administration, with unfettered, 24-7-365 access to the president, helping drive his #MakingAmericaHateAgain message and helping him swat away the information that's being reported by actual journalists.

The reason for this? It's about security, they say. It seems there is an unknown number of hard passes in circulation, which poses a security risk, according to Sanders.

Which is kind of comical, actually.

• The Trump administration allowed people access to national security information without full and appropriate security clearances. 

• They issued security clearances against the judgment of the people who make decisions on clearances for a living. 

• They dealt with a foreign policy emergency in the public dining room of the president's money-making club, in full view of diners, who were seen taking photos of the goings-on. 

• The president regularly charges the press as being the enemy of the people, which has inspired his followers to send bombs to media outlets, and more.

I don't pretend that all journalists are good ones, or that there isn't a bias in the media -- after all, "there are good people on both sides -- on both sides." Media outlets on the right of center tend to report one way, and those on the left of center tend to report a different way. But that doesn't make them our enemies - it challenges us to read with intention, to discern the unconscious or conscious bias, and to act accordingly.

We have the right and responsibility to determine what to believe.  And we have the right to have elected officials, most importantly the president, answer our questions. That's not a privilege, as this administration seems to think.

And nothing that this White House does in its dealings with the media - and by extension, with you and me - earn it the "transparent" or "honest" label, including this latest action.