Your Violence is Not Justified

I'm going to post a very unpopular opinion. Please, join me for this most fantastic voyage!

I've been noticing a disturbing trend on Facebook lately. Friends and strangers I find myself agreeing with politically have been posting memes and text about how funny, karmic, and just downright awesome the assault on alt-right leader and white nationalist Richard Spencer was.

In case you've been hiding from the world for the past few days, and who can blame you if you were, you may have missed the video of a man in a mask sucker punching Spencer as he was doing a street interview with a journalist. He was explaining the meaning behind Pepe the Frog, which apparently has become a mascot for the alt-right, when the attack took place.

And the internet cheered. Punching a Nazi quickly became more popular than kitten videos and "datboi" memes, which needs to come back in a big way. It became apparent that a big chunk of the internet believed punching someone you disagree with in the face is absolutely okay.

Possibly, for the first time in history, the internet was dead wrong.

Numbers Don't Lie (But the Trump Administration Does)

The inauguration of Donald John Trump was the biggest event in human history - bigger than the civil rights marches of Dr. Martin Luther King, bigger than the Beatles playing for the first time on American television, and even bigger than the crucifixion of Jesus Christ.

President Trump is the answer to all of our prayers to God, even more so than his only begotten son, who was a loser that didn't do as much for humanity in his lifetime as our new savior will do in the next four years.

Say goodbye to all crime, poverty, and the evil Muslims who toss burning American flags at our good Christian neighbors as they tear across this once great country in their quest to bring us to our knees.

Donald Trump is Batman, Superman, Gumby, the Pope, and the entire Marvel roster (except Jubilee) rolled into one. Only he can save us, and now that he is in power we can make America great again™!

And if you believe any of that, you may have just earned yourself a position in Trump's cavalcade of talking heads and alt right puppeteers. Congratulations! I do have some bad news for you though - all of the best positions in the cabinet have been taking by the highest donors.

I know what you're thinking right wingers, alt righters, working class who have lost hope, neo Nazis, and the like - give Trump a chance. The election is over, the bad blood has settled, and now it's time to respect our new commander in chief and see him for what he REALLY is. Not the lie spewing megalomaniac, or the hate mongering caricature of a real human - we get to see the REAL Trump, and we need to give him a chance because we're Americans dammit and we want to see America succeed!

Well, I hate to break it to you, but we did give him a chance. And in the first weekend of his term he's already lost my trust and any hope that his presidency will amount to anything more than I already assumed it would.

The time for jokes are over. The humor is gone. Now is a time of distrust and fear the likes of which I've never experienced in my thirty four years on this Earth, and I'm going to tell you why.

A Return to the Pokemon TCG

 Like many kids in the 90's, I was a fan of Pokemon. I could never satisfy my lust for the anime merchandise, since it was released in the US before anything else.

My brother and I found out about the trading card game leading up to the original video game release. Naturally we wanted it, and like so many other kids, once we had it in our hands we had no clue how to play.

Playing the game was never a huge deal to me, I actually lost interest in that aspect quickly.

No, I just wanted to collect the cards.

I liked the art and it was just another way to "catch them all." Plus there was a certain thrill to opening a booster pack and wondering if you'd get that holographic card that you'd been hoping for.

I was an avid collector though the first few expansions. I had the original starter box set with the classic holo Machamp, and lucked out with a first edition at that. That luck continued with boxes for the Jungle and Fossil expansions, but my favorite box came with a holo Vaporeon. I still love that card to this day. I didn't have a ton of money at the time, so I didn't get as much as I'd like.

It didn't help that I was also getting into anime at the time so my budget was getting stretched thin from various fandoms at once.