I have no desire to watch two savages beat each other in an octagonal cage. I appreciate that others do. To each his own. But was the “garish spectacle” at the White House, enmeshing government with crass commercialism culminating in a fighter proclaiming Michelle Obama is a man, and ironically putting some sort of necklace around Trump’s neck which he praised as “bling,” what should come from the presidency?
My views are captured fairly well by Will Leitch, that this was an absurdity.
If you found it bizarre, surreal and downright flabbergasting to witness the spectacle of the Ultimate Fighting Championship holding a massive event on the White House lawn, with sweaty men being escorted from the Oval Office to a glowing octagon to go punch each other as the president and his war cabinet cheered them on, you were not alone. You should know that the fighters and many people in the U.F.C. appeared to feel the same way. Maybe even more so.
Of course, the fighters felt so in the good way, not the disgraceful exhibit of Trump debasing everything about America for his own glorification way.
Assuming, however, that not everyone here shares my opinion of the evening’s “festivities,” it seems appropriate to offer anyone who wishes to express their view. Was this Trump fiddling while Iran burns, a manifestation of the decline of America, the death of what little dignity remained in the White House after Trump redecorated the Oval Office in early Bordello, the demonstration of faux masculinity by an obese draft dodger, the debasement of the last remaining shred of integrity as Crypto.com was plastered on every open space that wasn’t bought by another advertiser?
The president looked legitimately delighted to greet each fighter. It may, in fact, have been all a birthday boy could have possibly wanted: to see all his favorite toys punch each other in his honor. One does wonder if some of that time might have been better served hashing out the finer points of a preliminary agreement to end the war with Iran — a deal that was announced by Mr. Trump on Truth Social before the event. The reported details changed repeatedly throughout the night, even as the Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff and Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth sat in attendance at the event alongside Mr. Trump.
Or was this just good clean fun for an underrepresented cohort who enjoyed blood splattered beneath a claw? Perhaps there was something about this extravaganza I missed?
Discover more from Simple Justice
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
I think the Iran deal would have been just as much of a clusterfuck whether Trump was more involved or not. I think our relative lack of bargaining power is driving that situation more than anything else. But to the question in the post, I think this is just more of the same and I would gladly allow this garbage in return for more coherent policy decisions in other matters.
Not to quibble, but the clusterfuck is of Trump’s own making, no deal would be necessary if it weren’t for Trump.
Actually, a deal was in place until 2018, when Trump ended it…
So, basically, he’s a serial clusterfucker.
Unfortunately, the kind of minds that dream up this garbage are largely incoherent ones. And unsurprisingly, a movement based on up-is-down, vice-is-virtue, etc, turns out to be a project of American decline, as opposed to greatness.
Thankfully I didn’t have to spend the money to watch. I wouldn’t have anyway but having seen the movie “ Idiocracy” I really didn’t need to. It ( the White House fiasco) was sadly damn close to the movie.
Did anyone watch that might tell me… Did President Camacho… I mean Trump ride in on a chopper?
What about the Birthday Bash? Well, I for one was disappointed. The Emperor Commodus didn’t hesitate to step in the arena club in hand, lion pelt over his shoulders like the demigod Hercules. He would kill wild beasts, and the with sword and shield would kill a chance of gladiators (always unarmed)to the roar of approval of the entire coliseum. But, alas, Our Augustus has now turned 80. It is not reasonable for us to expect him to step in the octagon and replicate Commodus. Others should have done this for him. J.D. Vance, or Little Marco, or both. Yes both. They could have fought each other to determine the succession. The glory of it! The winner, just before delivering the final blow, would have been stopped by Our Augustus who would have spared the loser. The loser would then be declared the successors successor. Imagine the power of that image. The glory. But J.D. and Marco aren’t ready yet, which is why there needs to be a third and possibly fourth term.
To be honest, the comparison with the Roman Emperor may be a bit unfair. Some might say the Birthday Bash was quite the Commode-show. And consider the alternative – as David Pollack said on OAN about the other party “They’d probably be having like a Pride show or something for two hundred and fiftieth with, with, you know half-naked men.”.
The comparison to ancient Rome reminded me of:
“History repeats itself, first as tragedy, second as farce.” – Karl Marx.
(My AI pointed out the Marx was not making a generalization, but rather summarizing 19th century French history.)
I’ve almost finished my complete thoughts on the card.
This may surprise some people, but I didn’t hate it.
And not to spoil what everyone else will read soon, but there’s something really inspiring about an American fighter, draped in the American flag, walking out of the Oval Office after staring at the Declaration of Independence to Johnny Cash’s “Ain’t No Grave” flanked by a Medal of Honor Recipient and a FDNY Captain as he makes his way to the Octagon as a serious underdog beating the shit out of the Spanish champion on a night to honor America’s 250th birthday.
Dollar cage fights on the White House Lawn. To quote Trey Parker and Matt Stone: “America! Fuck Yeah!”
You might want to seriously consider laying off the moonshine.
I find myself more ambivalent than some over all this. The regrettable practice of going all in with an offensive spectacle that’s going to offend half the country is unfortunately something we’re going to have to live with for a while here and probably beyond the current administration.
On the other hand, yelling crude insults at any of the First Ladies from the White House lawn is something that any participant should actively avoid ever doing at an official White House event.
But is the alleged underside of American culture worth celebrating? There is a NASCAR driving, UFC adulating part of it that never gets celebrated while we pretend like someone reciting semi-coherent, kind of uplifting poetry is more who we are (or maybe who we aspire to be).
This administration has not been about putting America’s best foot forward it seems to me but rather about the part that has been (and continues to be in very real ways) left behind or the part we like to isolate from. Maybe that barbaric side of our culture is not meant for the spotlight but is there a value in saying it has a value?
I don’t know myself but I’m attempting to think outside my own box here.
Apologies for my own incoherence here.