"No Thanks, Trump"

Like me, you've probably noticed the nauseating "Thank you, President Trump" TV ad which has been running for a week or so.  It is 30 seconds of Grade A, unadulterated bullshit propaganda, so comically awful it could be a parody, but it's not.  It's meant to be serious.

The ad is paid for by America First Policies, a dark-money group of wealthy Trumpanzees.  They might just as well call themselves the Fake News Friends of Joseph Goebbels.  I will not re-post the video because when you watch it, your eyes and ears feel like they've been raped.  In a half-minute, a succession of paid actors and brainwashed children thank the Abominable Showman for:

"Making America great again."  (Meaningless sloganeering found on cheap Chinese trucker caps.  However great the U.S. may be, Trump is rapidly making our country less great.)

"Cutting my taxes."  (I get $17 a week and higher health insurance premiums, while the top 0.1% get $285,000.  Thanks, but no thanks.  And it was the GOP Congress that did it.  All Trump did was sign it.)

"Fixing our economy."  (Post-Crash, our economy improved steadily under Obama, and the trend continues under Trump.  He has "fixed" nothing.)

"Keeping my family safe."  (Safe from whom?  Mexicans?  Muslims?  Black people?  This is right-wing code, thinly veiled racism.  And does saber-rattling with North Korea keep me safe?)

"Putting America first."  (More meaningless sloganeering.  What his policies and rhetoric are doing is putting us on an island, more and more isolated from the rest of the world.  Alone, not first.)

"Supporting Israel."  (America has always been Israel's biggest supporter.  But Trump's Jerusalem policy is inflammatory, destabilizing, and has already provoked more violence.  All reasonable nations oppose it.  It's not support, it's stupidity.)

"Reminding us to stand for the national anthem."  (Right-wing race-baiting designed to misrepresent legitimate protest and turn it into anti-American "disrespect."  When Trump called the take-a-knee black athletes "sons of bitches" who should all be fired, it was rather more than a reminder.)

"Letting us say Merry Christmas again."  (Letting us?  Was there a prohibition?  Did I miss the repeal?  This is a lame, re-heated, leftover Bill O'Reilly non-issue -- never a problem to begin with.  We're a large, diverse nation, and as long as Trump remains in office, I intend to say, "Happy Holidays!"  Fuck him!)