Friday’s inauguration was sparsely attended in relation to previous inaugurations. No one really expected there to be the same kinds of numbers witnessed for the Barack Obama inauguration, and no one could hold anyone guilty of not achieving those numbers. But, as we learned over the weekend, the crowd for trump’s inauguration, as can be seen in the post immediately before this one, became the talk of the weekend, especially after more than twice as many protesters showed up to march in Washington D.C. the day after the inauguration.

Here’s a brief breakdown of the weekend’s events:

Friday: trump is inaugurated and gives a speech noted for its bleak, dark, and cynical tone. The Washington Mall is shown in photos to be rather empty compared to other presidential inaugurations, and video of the inauguration parade revealed nearly empty spectator bleachers in front of the White House.

Saturday: an estimated 500,000 people descend on Washington D.C. to march in protest to what donald trump represents. Marches in other cities and other countries around the world bring the number of protesters to well over 5 million. That afternoon, while nearly all news channels were providing live coverage of the world’s protests (except for Fox News, who didn’t want their audience aware of how unpopular trump is), the new president decided to send out his press secretary, Sean Spicer, to complain about the media’s reporting of the inauguration crowd numbers. Many immediately speculated this was a stunt to steal attention away from the marchers.

Sunday: presidential “counselor” Kellyanne Conway appears on the Sunday morning news shows (except for CNN, who has been blacklisted by trump) and tells NBC’s Chuck Todd that Sean Spicer was offering “alternative facts” on Saturday when he laughably claimed that trump’s inauguration had the largest crowd in inauguration history.

Monday: Sean Spicer clarifies his Saturday statements by claiming that the news media’s coverage of president trumps dismal approval is making the new president very, very sad.

Now, keep in mind that, while all of this is happening, trump is back in the Oval Office being handed Executive Orders to sign that he hasn’t read, won’t read, and whose content he is disinterested in learning. These executive orders have had the effect thus far of harming first-time homebuyers, Obamacare recipients, and women in foreign nations relying on government aid from the United States.

There is a strong possibility that this endless parade of absurdities oozing from the White House is a calculated effort to keep us paying attention to silliness while real harm is being inflicted across our nation and world.

We’ll keep watching.

 

Meanwhile, in news that doesn’t matter…

Stacey Dash, former Clueless co-star and black woman who denounced black history month, who claimed that the fight for trans rights was “tyranny by the minority”, who claimed that channels like BET need to be eliminated got fired from Fox News…back in September. No one noticed. The Hollywood Reporter confirmed the news on Sunday, four months after the fact.