My “Trump’s America” movie looks as if it will have a happy ending *UPDATED*

I wake up happy every day in Trump’s America because I’m convinced that I’m watching a wonderful documentary in which America and Americans are thriving.

Trump's America happy movieOne of the points Scott Adams makes repeatedly is that reality is an essentially fluid concept. In order to make sense of the world, we run everything through filters, kind of like our personal 3-D glasses.

Some of these filters are obvious. If you were Japanese, December 7, 1941 was a good day; if you were American, it was not. Same thing in reverse for August 6, 1945 — if you were Japanese, that was a very bad day indeed, while it was a great day for Americans, especially those American troops who would no longer have to fight every step of the way to achieve the inevitable victory over mainland Japan. Perspective matters when we view events in our lives.

Adams’ favorite analogy (or, at least, I think it’s his favorite analogy) is to say that Progressives and conservatives in America are watching two different movies. I certainly see that in my own life as a conservative living in a Progressive enclave. For the last year, my movie has been a wonderful documentary about a revitalized America. Meanwhile, my friends think I’m in a crazy fantasy and that their dystopian horror movie about a chaotic, hate-filled world is the real documentary.

Of late, and with Adams’ in mind, when I talk to Progressives, I’ve taken to telling them about Adams’ two movie theory. I then say, not that my movie is the one true documentary, the reality that history will affirm, but that “I hope that future events reveal that my movie is the correct one, because it will be a better world for our children and grandchildren.”

Because I’ve phrased my optimism as a “hope,” not a “fact,” Progressives can’t argue with me. After all, they’ll sound pretty mean-spirited, almost evil, if they say they prefer that their horror movie, the one in which their descendants suffer, ends up proving to reality.

Once I’ve established that my movie is just that — a filter coloring my understanding of events in Trump’s America — I then proceed to list to Progressives all the things that give me hope. Again, because I’ve already acknowledged that this is simply my perspective and I respect theirs (so I lie a little), I don’t get an argument. They actually listen.

I thought I’d share with you the many reasons that I am watching a very happy movie and am more confident with every day that my movie will prove to be the real-time documentary, not the lunatic fantasy:

1. The economy is wonderful. Don’t listen to me on that point. Listen to — gasp! — an article in The New York Times:

The real question in analyzing the May jobs numbers released Friday is whether there are enough synonyms for “good” in an online thesaurus to describe them adequately.

So, for example, “splendid” and “excellent” fit the bill. Those are the kinds of terms that are appropriate when the United States economy adds 223,000 jobs in a month, despite being nine years into an expansion, and when the unemployment rate falls to 3.8 percent, a new 18-year low.

“Salubrious,” “salutary” and “healthy” work as words to describe the 0.3 percent rise in average hourly earnings, which are up 2.7 percent over the last year — a nice improvement but also not the kind of sharp increase that might lead the Federal Reserve to rethink its cautious path of interest rate increases.

And a broader definition of unemployment, which includes people who have given up looking for a job out of frustration, fell to 7.6 percent. The jobless rate for African-Americans fell to 5.9 percent, the lowest on record, which we would count as “great.”

From where I stand, that’s a movie that’s making me smile. Anyone who wants a horror movie filled with poor people instead of a happy economic documentary movie is mean.

2. Things are improving for America’s minorities. Again, don’t listen to me. I’ll just repeat a sentence from the above quotation: “The jobless rate for African-Americans fell to 5.9 percent, the lowest on record, which we would count as ‘great.'” I think it’s great too.

I also happen to think American minorities are benefiting from more than just the good economy. I think it helps that Trump has put up a “no trespassing” sign for those in the country illegally or those contemplating coming into the country illegally.

Face it: Illegal aliens are not taking away my job as a lawyer. Illegal aliens are taking away Mr. Black Person’s job as a gardening entrepreneur or Ms. Hispanic Person’s job as a housecleaning entrepreneur. I love entrepreneurship. I just think those in this country legally, especially those with deep roots in the country, should get first dibs.

3. The Left is revealing its true self and it’s not pretty. Ignore the unfortunate Roseanne tweet, which is anomalous. I genuinely think that Roseanne didn’t realize consigliere Jarrett was black. She’s not a highly educated, informed woman. She was also coming from a place of Ambien and mental health issues. Most significantly — and this gets to my point about the Left revealing itself red of tooth and claw — Roseanne forgot that, now that she’s identified with Trump, she can no longer get away with the vulgar, insulting fare that’s common currency in Hollywood.

So stop looking at Roseanne and, instead, start looking at all the other utterly appalling awfulness that the Progressives have been dishing out since Trump won. Julie Kelly has written a marvelous open letter to her Ex-Friends who are Progressives, and I’ll just quote some of it here:

On November 9, you awoke from a self-induced, eight-year-long political coma to find that White House press secretaries shade the truth and top presidential advisors run political coverfor their boss. You were shocked to discover that presidents exaggerate, even lie, on occasion. You became interested for the first time about the travel accommodations, office expenses, and lobbyist pals of administration officials. You started counting how many rounds of golf the president played. You suddenly thought it was fine to mock the first lady now that she wasn’t Michelle Obama. Once you removed your pussy hat after attending the Women’s March, you made fun of Kellyanne Conway’s hair, Sarah Sanders’ weight, Melania Trump’s shoes, Hope Hicks’ death stare; you helped fuel a rumor started by a bottom-feeding author that U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley slept with Donald Trump. You thought it was A-OK that Betsy DeVos was nearly physically assaulted and routinely heckled. You glorified a woman who has sex on camera for a paycheck.

[snip]

And that white, male patriarchy that you were convinced would strip away basic rights and silence any opposition after Trump won? That fear has apparently been washed away as you hang on every word uttered by James Comey, John Brennan, and James Clapper. This triumvirate is exhibit “A” of the old-boy network, and represents how the insularity, arrogance, and cover-your-tracks mentality of the white-male power structure still prevails. Yet, instead of rising up against it, you are buying their books, retweeting their Twitter rants and blasting anyone who dares to question their testicular authority. Your pussy hat must be very sad.

But your daily meltdowns about Trump-Russia election collusion have been the most entertaining to observe. After Robert Mueller was appointed as Special Counsel, you were absolutely convinced it would result in Trump’s arrest and/or impeachment. Some of you insisted that Trump wouldn’t last beyond 2017. You quickly swallowed any chum tossed at you by the Trump-hating media on MSNBC, the New York Times and the Washington Post about who was going down next, or who would flip on the president.

For the past year, I have watched you obsess over a rotating cast of characters: Paul Manafort, Donald Trump, Jr., Jared Kushner, Carter Page, Reince Priebus, Jeff Sessions, Michael Flynn, Steve Bannon, Sam Nunberg, and Hope Hicks are just a few of the people you thought would turn on Trump or hasten his political demise. But when those fantasies didn’t come true, you turned to Michael Avenatti and Stormy Daniels for hope and inspiration. It will always be your low point.

That above is the usual generic awfulness the Left has displayed for almost two years now. Some of the really specific awfulness showed up in the past two days, when Samantha Bee (who doesn’t want her lily-white kids going to school with black kids) called Ivanka a “c**t” for openly loving her child:

The above is a bad thing to do in Trump’s America. It was not the same, of course, in Obama’s America. Back in Obama’s America, when parents illegally entered this country with their children and ICE separated them, it was a good thing. In Trump’s America, though, it’s a bad thing and no one is allowed any more to love their own children unless they agree that no criminals should ever again be parted from their children. We can achieve that by imprisoning children all over America in the same cells as their parents but, frankly, it doesn’t seem very safe for the kids….

Anyway, Samantha Bee did not get fired for her insult, nor did her show’s writers or directors or producers. TimeWarner, the parent company, seems good with the whole thing. Most Americans, however, think it’s tacky to call a lovely young woman — one, moreover, who hasn’t killed anyone, who has a business that provides paychecks for countless people, who is part of a rapprochement between Saudi Arabia and Israel (more on that in a minute), who speaks out on women’s issues, and who is Jewish — a c**t.

That was bad. Worse was the pile on. I won’t demean this blog by embedding the pile-on tweets. Let’s just say that Proggie types from Sally Fields to Minnie Driver to a host of others, really enjoyed typing the word c**t over and over and over and over. They enjoyed even more saying that it’s not an insulting term to women (it is) but is, instead, a complimentary term, with the real insult being to use such a lovely word to describe the utterly evil Ivanka (you know, the Jewish gal who employs people, helps bring peace to the Middle East, supports women, etc.).

In my movie, when Proggies behave this way, they don’t look good, they look bad. And because I don’t like the Proggie world view, when my documentary shows them looking bad, that makes me happy. I’m always happy when bad people get discredited based upon their own words and actions.

4. Donald Trump is on the verge of ending the Korean War. Indeed, just today, he announced that the June 12 summit with Kim Jong Un is back on the calendar.

That peace talks are happening on Trump’s watch is not a coincidence. That is, it’s doubtful that Kim was ready to negotiate in 2018 and would have done so with whichever person ended up in the Oval Office. In my documentary, these talks are happening because Trump broke the stale paradigm of the last decades, which saw America either ignore or pander to North Korea. Trump threatened, he joked, he enticed . . . he did everything but ignore or pander. Behaviorism says that, when you change your behavior others will necessarily change their behavior. And we’re on the verge of peace. What a happy movie moment.

5. Donald Trump is bringing down Iran’s evil mullahs. In 2009, Barack Obama was so anxious to strike a deal with Valerie Jarrett’s and John Kerry’s Iranian friends that he stood silently to the side as brave Iranians took to the streets to protest their brutal, oppressive regime. By 2015, Obama was sending those same mullahs pallets of cash, along with the promise that he’d end sanctions (despite lacking the authority to do so), allowing them to pump up their economy in other ways. Oh, and of course he said they could poise themselves to go nuclear on a moment’s notice. Good times, good times . . . if you’re a mullah.

For ordinary people in Iran, though, the times have not been so good. Theocrats are seldom good economists, so the Iranian economy has gone from bad to worse despite Obama’s lifting sanctions. Moreover, as Iranians get poorer, they can’t help but notice that the mullahs and their friends in the Iranian guards have been getting richer.

Then along came Trump and Pompeo, who announced that they are going to destroy the mullahs economically and through every other form of leverage possible, all to remove one of the world’s most dangerous actors and to free the Iranian people. Interesting things have been happening as the Iranian people have started feeling the love from America. The mainstream media is utterly silent about it, but here are some interesting things going on in Iran. First, there were the women removing their headscarves, something the media downplayed.

Those women are brave and what they’re doing is tremendously important. Perhaps it was their courage that inspired something even more interesting — and something, again, that the American media is mostly ignoring:

These strikes remind me strongly of the Solidarity strikes in Poland that marked the beginning of the end of the Soviet regime. The strikes started with the dock workers and then they spread. The difference back then was that the American media was mesmerized by the sight and covered the story with wonder and awe. Now, of course, the American media is horrified because these strikes indicate that Trump’s hard line policies — opposing the government and supporting the people — are making for a very good movie. Censor! Censor!

While our media is ignoring the pressure against the mullahs in Iran, Prime Minister Netanyahu is paying close attention. That’s how we ended up with this lovely video:

I am so loving this documentary about the end of the Mullah regime in Iran. I expect a happy ending.

6. Trump will bring peace to the Middle East, or at least peace in Israel’s neighborhood. Remember when I mentioned above that I’d connect Ivanka to peace in the Middle East? Now’s the time.

When Trump made his journey to Saudi Arabia, Ivanka and Jared went with him. And there, in that traditionally misogynistic, antisemitic kingdom, Ivanka was treated like a queen. Jared was treated with respect too — and as you think about that, keep in mind that he’s an Orthodox Jew.

Despite being an Orthodox Jew, Jared apparently has a genuinely good friendship with Prince Mohammed bin Salman (MbS), the Saudi reformer. With help from the entire Trump clan, MbS has realized that Saudi Arabia has a choice: wither away in an Iran-controlled Middle East or ally itself with America and Israel against Iran.

MbS has chosen the latter course. This means turning the kingdom away from the insane Wahhabism that’s controlled there for so long and, instead, moving into a more secular future. MbS knows that, in dealing with his imams, the threat of a dominant Shia Iran hangs over their heads too.

Look, I have no brief for the toxic Wahhabism that Saudi Arabia seeded all over the world. To the extent that Islamism is ascendant, it is so in significant part because the Saudi royal house funded it in worldwide madrassas so as to keep the Imams’ supporting their reign. I also know that you can’t instantly drag a country from the 7th century into the 21st. There are still nasty things going on in that desert kingdom. However, now that Saudi Arabia is now trying to turn away from extremism and is moving into the light, I’m not going to kick it in the face. We never get perfect allies. We take our allies with warts and all.

The Saudis, Jordanians, Egyptians, and other somewhat Western-oriented Muslim nations in the Middle East will never love Israel. But thanks to significant help from the Trump administration, they’re finally wising up to the fact that Israel is not their enemy. They’re also reaching the point at which they can no longer convince their citizens that Israel is the cause of all Middle Eastern ills. In a connected world, people are wising up and demanding more from their leaders. It’s the wise leader who abandons the toxic Palestinians and embraces a new peace.

Again, this documentary promises to have a happy ending.

7. My president will protect my Second Amendment rights. Donald Trump respects the Second Amendment. I won’t say more. I’ve said more here already.

8. Not everything is sunshine and light in my documentary. Outside of America, I think Europe is swirling the drain. The continent’s suicidal embrace of Islam, which saw European nation’s bowing down to Merkel’s decision to open Europe’s gates to the entire green belt of Islam, from Afghanistan to North Africa, means that Islam is finally going to conquer Europe, and it will do so at Europe’s own request. 

Because Europe bequeathed to us a world filled with great beauty and science, not to mention the whole Enlightenment thing, what’s happening is sad. But I’m not too heartbroken. In the last decade, Western Europe has proven to be an anti-American, ungrateful socialist blob. Worse, it’s enthusiastically embracing Islamic antisemitism. For those reasons, I say to hell with it. Europe had its day and it decided to commit suicide. End of story.

I do recommend, though, that those still in Europe who love Western values and who are not antisemitic (or are actually Jewish) get out while they still can. Having to emigrate can be a terrible thing, and I don’t envy those who have to do it, but the late 1930s show that it’s often the only way to stay alive.

What’s your documentary look like? Does it have other happy bits I missed? If you’re watching the dystopian documentary, please feel free to discuss it here, but do understand that if you are obscene, abusive, or threatening, I will ban you.

UPDATE: Here’s something I forgot: