Sunday Smiles

David Strom 2:30 PM | May 04, 2025
meme

Donald Trump has a number of talents, but of all the things he excels at, getting liberals riled up is his superpower. 

That makes him entertaining for those of us who dislike liberals, but in and of itself, it doesn't make him a good president. However, unlike my liberal friends, I also don't believe it makes him a bad president. "Owning the libs" is not an achievement that will save our country or ensure the long-term flourishing of our nation, but the libs deserve every moment of discomfort they get. 

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After all, MAGA people and indeed all Republicans have spent over a decade being called terrorists, Nazis, a threat to our nation, and just about every awful thing in the book by the Best™ people, so forgive me if I am not appalled when those same people feel a tad insulted. 

Liberals marinate in hatred for all things Trump, including any person even tangentially related to him. When I was flying back from Washington, I was chatting with my seatmate, and Trump's name came up. A woman across the aisle blew up at the mention of his name.

As I have written many times, much of the hatred for Trump comes down to the fact that he serves the role that the Tribunes of the Plebeians served in the Roman Empire. In a highly aristocratic society, the plebs needed a voice, and even the Roman Oligarchs recognized that the long-term survival of the Republic depended on the plebs not feeling so put upon that they rose. 

In the generation before the Caesars came to power--all emperors were Caesars, named after Julius himself--the Tribunes of the Plebeians became powerful political figures precisely because the aristocrats grew increasingly out of touch with the ordinary people. The Gracchi Brothers were the most powerful and politically threatening Tribunes in the late Roman Republic, pushing for reforms to empower the plebs and reform a system that was impoverishing the ordinary Roman. 

Like Trump, they came from money. Like Trump, they bucked the Establishment. They were killed, while Trump has so far not suffered the fate of assassination or being tossed in jail, although both have been tried. It took liberals 5 minutes to go from denouncing violence against Trump to explaining why he deserved it. 

The classic "I don't approve of violence, but..." exemption that liberals have embraced. Riot, vandalize, call for violence, or even shoot somebody, and it's A-OK as long as you can justify it with some BS that sounds liberal. 

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Trump trolls the establishment, and this, as much as anything, drives the elite nuts because he exposes their hypocrisy as well as undermines their social and political power. If doing so is an end in itself, each troll is a minor triumph, but all the trolling in the world will not change the course of our decline. 

What will is cutting the funding of the elite, which, as we all know, stems mainly from their decades-long control of federal funding and looting of the Treasury. DOGE has exposed a great number of the grifts the left has been running--the amounts of money being funneled into left-wing projects and pockets are truly astonishing. Hundreds of billions a year. 

Create a project, throw a pretty term like "promoting democracy" or "renewable energy" on a program, and the gusher of money flows out of the Treasury like oil strikes in Pennsylvania in the 19th century. Stacey Abrams can open a bank account with $100 and get a grant for $2 billion in a flash. 

Finding the grifts is not enough, though, and just like "owning the libs," the follow-up is what matters. As Trump fights in federal courts to make his cuts stick, the people who could solve Trump's problems are sitting on their hands at the Capitol Building down the street. All the legal challenges- indeed, the judiciary's right to even slow Trump down- could be stopped instantly if the appropriate legislation were passed. 

Chances are, it's not going to happen, because just enough Republicans will stall his agenda and refuse to sign onto budget cuts that will not be reversible by any court. Further, Congress has the right--laid out in the Constitution itself--to tell the Courts to back off on certain issues. They could, in dire circumstances, even dissolve District Courts should they so choose, although I think that would be a last resort and shouldn't be tried. 

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If Republicans can't cut the most ridiculous elements of the Inflation Reduction Act--an Orwellian rebrand of the Green New Deal--chances are good that Trump will be thwarted in cutting the budget materially. 

Too many Americans--and for this, we have the Pravda Media mostly to blame--are unaware of just how precarious the country's finances are. If things keep moving at this pace, hyperinflation will hit within my and your lifetime, and America will be cooked. Nobody wants to face that fact because the solution is for the grifts to be stopped. 


SUNDAY MEMES


No, Vienna International Airport does not have a desk specifically for people who mistakenly thought they were flying to Australia. This claim, along with similar ones about Salzburg Airport, stems from a viral social media meme that misrepresents a 2009 advertisement by Commend International, an Austrian intercom company. The ad, displayed at Salzburg Airport, jokingly featured a sign reading, “Sorry, this is Austria not Australia! Need help? Please press the button,” to promote their communication systems. Both Salzburg and Vienna airports have confirmed no such desk exists, and there are no documented cases of passengers mistakenly landing in Austria instead of Australia. The confusion between the two countries’ names is real but exaggerated in this context.
















































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