Resist!

Since the election of Donald J. Trump as president of the United States many Americans have taken to protesting his policies in different ways. What policies have they protested against so far and what will they protest against in the future? The answers may not be easy during these Strange Adventures but let’s examine just a few protests which focus on delivering a message to President Trump in Washington DC!

January 12, 2017: The Women’s March on Washington

Many Women, actually, many human beings,  believed that Mr. Trump expressed misogynistic viewpoints during his campaign for president and were concerned this could influence Trump’s actions as president.  This resulted in a massive March in Washington DC! Certainly the Trump administration is hostile to many issues that women, indeed, many people, care about deeply. The designer of the Obama hope poster, Shepard Fairey, even helped promote the event by printing full page advertisements of the posters he created for the occasion, to be used as impromptu  protest posters! The Women’s March on Washington had up to one million protestors; there was much networking and political organizing and many consider it a success!

March 9-13, 2017: Dakota Access Pipeline Protest

Many people, especially The Standing Rock Sioux tribe, are trying to stop the Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL)  in North Dakota, which has a chance of destroying local waterways. They are also concerned that some wildlife and some sacred sites could be damaged by the DAPL. Bill Moyers provides more information. The protesting has taken on an  urgent air after President Donald Trump signed an executive order reviving plans for the DAPL. The Episcopal Church and the Unitarian Universalists are just two of the groups that support the struggle of the Standing Rock Sioux tribe, and there are other groups, including many veterans! We wish them success against possibly over whelming odds. Trump seems as though he would not understand or even listen to the protests!

April 22, 2017: March for Science

The March for Science is on Earth Day this year! Scientists will march to preserve funding for, and to increase interest and belief in, science! Many scientists believe the Trump administration is anti-science and anti-funding science. Many Trump appointees and even Donald Trump himself seem dubious about established scientific theories. Scientists and anyone that cares about science and ecology are being treated like enemies by Trump.But NOVA asks, is this crossing a line for scientists? We always wish success for science!

September 16, 2017-Juggalo March

Yes, fans of the musical group, Insane Clown Posse, known as Jugglealos, vowed they would march on Washington D.C. to protest the FBI declaring them to be a criminal gang! The fans follow their favorite band around the country, similar to how Deadheads used to follow the Grateful Dead around the country, though the music is much different and their culture is very unique and complicated.They also have a contentious relationship with Donald Trump! If they march it could be the Strangest Adventure Washington DC has ever seen!

There are of course, other issues  that many Americans disagree with Trump about. 

More protests and events in the Washington DC area in 2017 via The Peace Center. All protestors are welcome to Washington DC. Perhaps that is the only way some people think they are being heard now.

Black Power!

Most comic book fans think Amalgam Comics, a joint effort of Marvel Comics and DC Comics, was only printed in 1996 but most forget that Amalgam comics were also printed as early as the 1970’s. Black Power was arguably the most famous character of this early, experimental Amalgam Comics era. 

Jefferson Lucas was raised in the slums of Yorktropolis. Later, he received great powers from a suit that the criminal Gambini had experimented on in a  prison laundry laboratory. In the first issue he established that his name was Black Power. He needed super-powers to fight The Pin-Whale Gang; they were corrupting his neighborhood. Later Jefferson discovered these powers were always within him. He also fought the KKK, when they were causing racial strife in Yorkopolis! Black Power had his most famous adventures in the future era of 1984!

Amalgam was published on an informal basis over the years and never sold very well. Not to let that stop them but Amalgam even attempted the universe spanning Secret Crisis Infinite Wars in the 1980’s where Amalgam introduced the character of Grandmaster-Flash. The quality of that series, many fans felt, was inferior to DC Comic’s similar Crisis on Infinite Earths or Marvel Comic’s Secret Wars, plus there were only four issues of SCIW as opposed to eight issues of those other titles. Did DC and Marvel consign their second rate writers and artists to work on SCIW? Many fans have speculated yes! Did the big two conspire to keep Amalgam low quality to keep them from stealing readers from their own titles? Did early Amalgam have a meaningful impact on the world of comic books? Only time will tell.

Trump Versus The GOP!

Last time Billionaire Developer/Reality TV Star Donald Trump was featured on TheStrangest Adventures we presented what Donald Trump and other celebrities had to say about Trump.  It’s no secret that Donald currently tops the Republican polls, though no voting occurs before February. The schedule is here for the curious. Also it’s no secret that Trump has made a point of insulting his opponents, his favorite tool to do this is Twitter, the perfect media for someone with a fourth grade vocabulary, like Donald Trump. Plus Twitter is free. Whether by Twitter, on TV or in front of large crowds, his childish taunts and insults have raised a few eyebrows. Here are just a few notable examples.

JebBush has been covered by The Strangest Adventures before. Trump says Jeb is “Low Energy”.

ChrisChristie-More about Christie here and here. Trump seems angry that Christie hugged President Obama.

TedCruz-Trump question’s Ted Cruz’s eligibility to run for president, just more birtherism from the Donald. 

CarlyFiorina-Apparently he likes to rub it in that she got fired.

LindseyGraham-Trump calls Graham an idiot and then gives out Graham’s cell phone number at a live event.

BobbyJindal- Donald loves to rub it in other candidate’s faces when they don’t poll well.

John Kasich- Trumps says Kasich was incompetent as a managing partner of Lehman Brothers.

GeorgePataki-Trump says Pataki was a terrible governor of New York.

RandPaul- Donald declares Rand to be truly weird.

RickPerry- Trump says Rick Perry is so dumb that he should be forced to take an IQ test. In all fairness Perry was smart enough to quit running for president!

MarcoRubio-Trump says Rubio is the most disloyal guy. And then there was the time Marco Rubio responded to Obama’s State of the Union speech.

RickSantorum-This time Trump brags that he owns a plane, something Santorum lacks. There’s more about Rick Santorum here and here.

ScottWalker-Trump says Walker’s Wisconsin is over levered.

Here at The Strangest Adventures, we stand amazed at how well Trump is currently doing in the polls. He feigned shock when Dr. BenCarson, who seems to be rising in the polls, questioned Trump’s commitment to Christianity based on Trump’s lack of humility. We could find no comments of note about Jim Gilmore or Mike Huckabee, they’re seemingly beneath his notice. However we’d be remiss if we didn’t inform you of the time Donald Trump posted a graphic of himself that included SS soldiers! Twitter was not kind to him on that occasion. Today CNN hosts the second Republican Debate, let’s see how things stand after this one, Trump complained bitterly for weeks about the “unfair questions” he was asked at the last debate. In the unlikely event that Trump gets the nomination in 2016 then gets elected as President, it will be the strangest adventure this USA has ever been on!

Postscript 

This graphic is a homage of X-Men #141 which began the "Days of Future Past" storyline, which later was adapted into a movie. There's also a bit of Trump's "Art of the Deal" thrown in for good measure. In case anyone thinks we cheated by not including every candidate, this is what Trump is covering over in the graphic.

Election 2014-One for the Bizarros!

What a bizarre election. As I predicted before here the Republicans took control of Congress, and in a big way. They took advantage of how this was been the lowest voter turnout since 1942. There were some interesting results, --- Tim Scott of South Carolina was the first black senator elected from the South since Reconstruction. Mia Love, great name by the way, was the first Black Republican woman (she’s also a Mormon!) elected to the Senate. Elise Stefanik, at 30 years old, is the youngest woman ever elected to Congress. These folks represent the future of the GOP. Very interesting!

Also Chris Christie, head of the Republican Governor’s Association was pleased to see every Republican governor that ran got reelected or newly elected as the case may be. All conservatives, to one degree or another, which makes the other election results perplexing. On most of the issues the voters chose the least conservative option.

Marijuana was a big winner, the people of Washington State and Alaska voted to create recreational marijuana markets, while Washington DC voted to legalize possession. Alaska, Nebraska, Arkansas and South Dakota all voted to increase the minimum wage, another big winner and again, a position most conservatives abhor. North Dakota and Colorado rejected the notion of granting personhood to fetuses; this is the third time the measure has been voted down in Colorado. This schizophrenic voting pattern puzzled me; the same people that voted for typically liberal causes voted in or reelected conservative candidates. This put me in mind of the Bizarros.

The Bizarros were created by a flawed duplicator ray Lex Luthor had invented. They had white, angular faces and backwards grammar and thinking. They follow the Bizarro code, which is "Us do opposite of all Earthly things! Us hate beauty! Us love ugliness! Is big crime to make anything perfect on BizarroWorld!" Chronologically, first Superboy then Superman had Bizarro duplicates, as did many of Superman’s friends. Eventually there was an entire Bizarro civilization including a Bizarro Justice League, all living on the square planet Htrae. There is even a Lego Justice League Vs. The Bizarro League straight to DVD movie due out in February 2015! One Bizarro has really got my attention though, Bizarro-Flash, but then I’ve always been fascinated by super speedsters. Bizarro-Flash was introduced in Lois Lane #74, published May 1967.

A malfunction occurred during his creation, and he had the “horrible face and voice” of a normal person, and a reversed color scheme from The Flash. The other Bizarros rejected Bizarro-Flash and sent him off into space. He ended up on Earth to baffle and bedevil Superman. Eventually he morphed into a “normal” Bizarro with chalky white skin and terrible grammar and subsequently returned to Bizarro World. Later, he returned to Earth and joined up with Reverse-Flash, which was very odd as they were so close in appearance.

 He also teamed up with Bizarro-Green Lantern also known as Yellow Lantern. Bizarro-Flash even teamed up with the Flash on occasion! In The Flash #199, Bizarro-Flash forsakes his usual partner Yellow Lantern for the Flash. Notice this cover is yet another homage to The Flash #123, Flash of Two Worlds.  OK, that’s enough Bizarros for today. Me am getting tired!

Getting back to the matter of the recent election, it raised a few questions. Will this new era in Congress mean a united Republican Party or will they be overwhelmed by the Tea Parties versus the establishment Republicans? Will Congress finally find an attorney that will sue Obama? Will the Republicans try to impeach Obama? One thing is for sure. The Republican takeover of Congress means there will be a huge change in how nothing gets done!