
Abandon All Hope Ye Who Enter Here
At the same time as Game of Thrones returns, and its creators announce what will inevitably be a majorly controversial series for 2019, President Trump prepares the long-awaited season finale to the whirling scandal of his 6-month old presidency, raising the stakes by tantalizing the nation with the appetizing question of whether AG Sessions will be fired in what’s sure to be a firefight, if the Russia investigation will evaporate into thin air (as Congress presses for sanctions on Russia), and if Obamacare will ever actually be repealed; additionally, Trump rolls out a controversial and quickly contradicted declaration that trans-gendered individuals will be banned from military service. Vice President Pence, continuing to pledge his loyalty to Trump from the stands, waits patiently to pounce.
More bombastic, newcomer Anthony Scaramucci marks his addition to the cast with a threaten to “fire everyone,” in order to get a hold of the leaks coming out of the Communications department and in the wake of the sad departure of Sean Spicer (“Spicey”), and recently an explosive phone call where he railed against Steve Bannon and Reince Preibus in order to prove his loyalty to President Trump.
Meanwhile, Hillary Clinton prepares the debut of her book appropriately titled What Happened? (though I like one of the suggested Twitter alternatives Murder She Wrote) and North Korea threatens to blow up America’s corn fields, thereby ending the obesity epidemic, as they hint at what’s sure to shake up the 2018 series return — nuclear tipped intercontinental ballistic missile. Lengthening Reagan’s shadow, Kid Rock also teases at a Senate Run in Michigan, while not denying he’s not just in it to sell T-shirts.
One can only hope that all of these questions will be answered in this season’s finale of Survivor, but what is sure is that more questions, more scandals, and more confusion will proliferate in the coming weeks. Stay tuned.
All jokes aside, the last week has been a mess for the Trump White House, and perhaps one of the most frustrating yet (it’s difficult to top “Modern Presidential”) for his base, of which I am an ever reluctant part of. Trump’s poor attempt at diversion from the Sessions drama by announcing the transgender ban was perhaps his most juvenile action yet, and only highlights the fact that nothing is happening, aside from the GOP’s tweet that plenty of things are happening, and that Congress is building towards something — but what?
Everything is a scandal, everything is a tease, everything is a cliffhanger
Today, I had the unfortunate happenstance to listen to a song by a band called the Chromatics called “I Can’t Keep Running” (listen, if you dare). It’s a perfect piece of absolute tease, with its glimmering twinkles that override a series of crescendos leading nowhere, a brief piano adagio that also goes nowhere, and airy vocals reminiscent of eighties synth pop, and for as much as I disdain the song, it’s perhaps the perfect metaphor for what’s happening on the Hill today — nothing. Republicans, so inept at holding power, have no idea what to do at the behest of a president who is equally and increasingly incompetent at a job he didn’t imagine would be so difficult, who runs the White House like he would any of his dreadful ventures in television and film. Everything is a scandal, everything is a tease, everything is a cliffhanger — and I’m not sure how much longer I can hang on.


