Like a black hole, there is no bottom when it comes to anything dealing with Trump. Corruption, cruelty, lies, narcissism, nepotism, cronyism, you-name-it-ism. But of course there’s always the old standby, pure 100% weapons-grade chuckleheadedry. 

Traditionally, the White House press corps is composed of some of the best journalists a venue has to offer (though in many cases, like with Fox, their best is orders of magnitude worse than average). However, when your entire administrative policy is based on lies, having an actual journalist asking questions gets awkward quickly, which is why Trump has been ousting them and holding press conferences loaded with right-wing sycophants, lackeys, and “influencers” who have no experience or inclination in real journalism.

Thanks to my friend Drew Curtis (who runs Fark.com) I found out about one of these lickspittles attending the influencer conferences by the name of Kambree Nelson, who is the “ambassador” from the right-wing American First Policy Institute (which was specifically founded to promote Trump’s agenda).

Ms. Nelson is not by any means qualified to report on anything, let alone the White House. I base this on numerous reports (such as Daily Dot and Esquire) that she spent some time thinking the Moon had disappeared.

Yes, you read that right. This is a nonsensical conspiracy theory that something is amiss with the Moon. You see, sometimes for days at a time the Moon completely disappears, vanished, gone from the sky. Then, miraculously, days later it suddenly reappears. The adherents to the conspiracy theory for some reason think this is all very suspicious and that astronomers have been lying to you for, well, forever about it.

I know, I know. I’ve seen a bunch of videos on TikTok from people who couldn’t find the Moon in the sky; some asked honestly where it was, while many others seemed bent on promoting the conspiracy theory.

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For a while, before I tired of it, I left comments on those videos, gently telling them about how moon phases work, linking to my Crash Course Astronomy episode on Moon phases, and letting them know that for several days every month the Moon passes between us and the Sun, appearing at best as a thin crescent and so close to the Sun that you can’t see it, before waxing once again and becoming easier to spot in the sky even before sunset.

Some of them responded positively, some negatively, and most just ignored my comment or didn’t respond at all.

Ms. Nelson went on Xitter and made these same claims about the Moon disappearing, and even denied reports from others that they could see it in the sky. It appears she’s also sympathetic to another conspiracy theory that the Sun used to be yellow but is now white. It’s a common misconception the Sun is yellow; it’s actually white and always has been (as I like to point out, if the Sun were yellow then clouds would look yellow too). I won’t go into it here, but it may be that using a yellow crayon to color the Sun in drawings when people are little plays into this, plus the only time you can look at the Sun at all is near sunrise and sunset, when it can look yellowish (or orange or red).

Also, if the Sun were changing color I’m pretty sure astronomers would notice. Unless that’s something They Don’t Want You To Know (cue X-Files theme)

So my point is that someone like Ms. Nelson shouldn’t be anywhere near a keyboard, let alone be a correspondent to the White House.

This regime is so embarrassingly awful. It would be funny if it weren’t so acutely dangerous and creating lasting, generational damage. They’re also going to kill a lot of people in the next four years through their aggressive anti-Constitutional and anti-science policies, all the while making our country that much more incurious and less intelligent at the same time.

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