“Why is Trump popular? Can’t people see that a lot of it is all an act and showmanship?”
-Progressives, Democrats, Liberals, RINOs, Legacy Media
This line of attack and argument has been used for a decade now to no avail against supporters of Trump. Calling him fascist, calling his supporters fascist (and Nazis, ofc), insinuating that everyone is stupid (low-information is the code phrase) to believe that he is anything but the Devil incarnate is the only approach the Left continues to take. They keep missing the one element to the enduring popularity of Trump: Many believe that he actually loves America. That’s it.
Look at the full transcript of his initial speech in 2015 when he came down the escalator to announce he was running for president. Read it in its entirety and notice something missed from the media coverage that a lot of Americans picked up on. While MSM focused in on the comments about illegal immigration on the southern border and how much of a meanie Trump was for saying out loud not everyone coming to the country will be flag-waving, apple-pie eating Americans, the important meat of the speech centered on the plight of large swathes of America where the financialization of the economy had left them in the dust. This spoke to those who remembered the mockery of phrases like, “Learn to Code” and “Bitter clingers to religion and guns.” Long memories of promises not kept by past “conservatives” extolling the false benefits of NAFTA or free trade agreements. How no one in political blinked an eye as their towns and cities were hollowed out from these policies. The GOP ‘Grifted off Patriotism” for decades, showing hardly the slightest concern for their political base.
He isn’t perfect and we all know that. Yet, just by a figure like him occupying the American political landscape he has pulled back a curtain and revealed to many how vacuous the platitudes are from Progressives and their sycophant media truly are. For this, identifying the powerful forces working against the American people, he has done the entire country a tremendous service.
Category: Guest Contributors
Guest Contributor – ArthurinCali – 14MAY2025 – A Young Man and the Sea
What’s so interesting about Oliver Widget?
“Oliver Widget, a man from Oregon has captured the attention of millions for his decision to sail around the world with his cat Phoenix.”
“Receiving a medical diagnosis of a strong possibility of becoming paralyzed in the future would cause most to become more cautious in their decision-making.”
“The genuineness of Oliver’s videos is an aspect that cannot help but come across watching them. Oliver is not a trained media personality and himself admits that social interactions are not his forte. Yet, this lack of polish and veneer from his persona are what add a depth of authenticity to him. What you see is what you get: a guy on a sailboat with only his pet cat traversing the Pacific for the first time giving unscripted moments on the journey.”
Guest Contributor – Tregonsee – 14MAY2025 – Review – Watchmen (2009)
So the original story is by Alan Moore. He was fairly famous in the comic book industry in the 1980’s when this was originally published. Take a moment and find a picture of Alan Moore on the internet, I’ll wait… Are you back? Given that image you will likely be unsurprised to find out he is a notorious and unrepentant anarchist and rather unhinged (even for an anarchist). Other efforts by him include V is for Vendetta and Batman: The Killing Joke. The Watchmen Series was a 12 issue mini-series from DC published in 1986-1987 set in an alternate history where the US has Dr. Manhattan (who is more overpowered than even say super man, his abilities verge on the godlike).
It was rather cutting edge for its period with its serious antihero vibe.
The movie came much later in 2009 after many years of wandering into development hell. In many ways its cinematography and dialogue come straight from the comic series art by Dave Gibbons and Alan Moore’s dialogue. It does skip/compress several subplots, and change the method of the ending though not its source (Ozymandias/Veidt) nor its intent (forestall or avoid WWIII). It was one of the first R rated comic book movies (previous having limited themselves to PG-13/PG) and also one of the first to release in the late February slot to take advantage of College spring break.
As a fan of the original comics I thought it rose to slightly above meh say 6/10. It loses much of the complexity of the original, which given the size of the 12 issue series was somewhat unavoidable even with its bloated 3 hr+ run time. As Chemist notes if you don’t already know some of the plot points it is going to be a whirlwind. Heck as the original comic book doled out over a year it was confusing until the last few comics at the end where all the threads got tied together and many of the hints in the original lurk in the subplots that were excised.
There is an animated retelling done by DC Animation scripted by J. Michael Straczynski and Dave Gibbons from the original It is split into 2 90 minute subsections. It does a better job at keeping more of the necessary beats to help you see the solution and keeps to the original ending. It is maybe a 7.5/10.
Honestly, if you like comics, find a perfect bound version of the original comic books is available this is available for ~$20 the price of 4-5 fancy coffees. It is less than the $24 I paid in 1986-87 for the original comics. Do not try to go buy these at a comic book store (except for the perfect bound single volume version). They’re moderate collector items at $20-30 a each for even poorish quality copies and the first the last and (potential Spoiler) the one where they break Rorschach out of prison run for probably twice that each. As much as a crazy tinfoil hat wearing jerk as Alan Moore can be this is easily in the top 5 of comic series I have read in 50 years of reading comics and is probably better than 90% of most comic/SciFi writing.
Tom’s World – 09MAY2025 – Graveyard Art
Guest Contributor – Tregonsee – 08MAY2025 – More Dune
The fever dream that is David Lynch’s Dune owes far more to the earlier Jodorowsky attempt at a Dune Movie (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jodorowsky%27s_Dune#Background ) than to Frank Herbert’s novel. These things include
- Stunt casting Sting mirrors Jodorowsky’s intent to cast Mick Jagger for Feyd Rautha
- The art work in the Lynch version is greatly affected by both Jodorowskys use of H.R. Giger (then mostly unknown) and Jodorowsky’s use of Moebius (of Heavy Metal Comic book fame) to help create the cinematics and layout
- The bizarre ending involving the Weirding Modules and Rain on Arrakis steals from the Jodorowsky ending (though doesn’t go QUITE so acid trip as Jodorowsky) and totally diverges from the Dune Module
I did see it in the theater when it came out. It has some good points ( Patrick Stewart as Gurney Halleck, the overall look) but it is of its time and strongly affected by the Jodorowsky work which is NOT what a Dune originalist would like. Here, 41 years on it seems very dated and of its time. Of the three attempts at Dune that got to the screen it is probably the weakest.
Guest Contributor – Arthurincali – 08MAY2025 – Review of Dune
ArthurinCali has put together a review of David Lynch’s 1984 motion picture adaption of Frank Herbert’s science fiction novel Dune.
For you Dune fans go over to his substack and see what he has to say about both the book and this movie version.
