I’ve just been down the rabbit hole to a strange and crazy alternate universe.
It wasn’t my intention to go there.
It started with this story:
Since May of 2020, Miami Beach police had been handing out flyers to motorists who received traffic citations, and according to the story…
“The flier explained how to resolve minor traffic tickets online by visiting the Miami-Dade County Clerk of Courts website, but a missing hyphen sent drivers to a Trump site instead.”
This sounded crazy to me – police handing out flyers directing people to a Trump merchandise website?
Not even in Ron DeSantis’ Florida would police officers do something so blatantly political.
Would they?
This was absurd, and since I love the absurd, I decided to learn more.
The flyers were intended to tell motorists their options after receiving a traffic citation:
A helpful public service, yes?
The citation continues detailing Option #2 and goes on to Option #3:
And there are two references to the Clerk of the Court website, with one small difference:
The first reference is miamidadeclerk.com.
The second reference is miami-dadeclerk.com.
What a difference a dash makes.
The second website does, indeed, take you to the right place – the Miami-Dade County Clerk of the Courts:
That first reference, however – the one missing the hyphen – takes you here:
And according to this article:
“The un-hyphenated site does not appear to be linked to an official entity for the former president or his political apparatus as he prepares for a potential 2024 campaign.
“Instead, the miamidadeclerk.com link instantly redirects to an online store on findsale.com. Click on the Trump merchandise there, and users are taken to an Amazon page where merchandise branded with ‘Trump 2024’ is for sale.”
This story appeared in mid-February, and it appears some changes have since been made to findsale.com – I didn’t find any Trump merchandise listed there, but I’ll take the Miami Herald’s word for it.
And since the Miami Herald talked about Amazon, I decided to see what all the flap was about:
I went on Amazon and searched for “Trump 2024.”
And down the rabbit hole I went into that strange and crazy alternate universe.
There is Trump 2024 merchandise on Amazon.
There’s a veritable tsunami of the stuff: a plethora of items.
And rest assured, these items display all the dignity, intellect, eloquence and finesse we’ve learned to expect from Trump.
Like these items:
These 3’ x 5’ flags (flagpole not included) “are made of premium 100% polyester with double stitched all around the edge.”
The description also offers the assurance that the items are “a must-have flag for all TRUMP supporters.”
But wait – there’s more!
Including Trump 2024 socks:
And just $7.99 a pair! These handsome, colorful socks are sure to catch the public’s eye the next time you’re hanging off the side of the Capitol Building:
There are items for those with a religious bent:
Items for those with a rhinestone bent:
And a t-shirt with this slogan for those who – like Trump – are just plain bent:
There are Trump facemasks:
Someday, you can show the facemasks to your grandchildren and tell them, “See this? It’s a facemask. The government said we should wear ‘em. And we told ‘em…
Hell no, don’t you ask,
Trumpers don’t wear no f***king masks!
And the Trump team has totally cornered the market on tchotchkes: windsocks and wristbands and keychains and pins and bottle openers and…
I was drowning in the tsunami Trump 2024 stuff.
It was time – way past time – to get out of the rabbit hole.
I returned to the real world, and turned to the Miami Herald article to see if I could learn how that missing hyphen typo in the police flyer happened.
The article says the flyers:
“…began circulating countywide in May of 2020 promoting the new online options. The program rolled out as courts grappled with restrictions and health concerns from the COVID-19 pandemic.”
Like I said earlier – a helpful public service.
“A court spokesperson provided the original flier sent to Miami-Dade police in May 2020 that included the appropriately hyphenated website address in all mentions.”
But then – for reasons unexplained:
“Miami Beach produced its own version of the notices, and the error was inserted at some point during the printing process…”
Why would Miami Beach produce its own version of the flyer?
No explanation is offered.
Though this piece of information is:
“Court administrators said Miami Beach – where President Joe Biden won 60% of the 2020 presidential vote – appears to be the only agency with the typo in the kind of fliers that that began circulating countywide in May of 2020 promoting the new online options.”
Miami Beach, where Biden won 60% of the presidential vote, one of the few places in Florida that went blue in 2020:
Miami Beach, where police were handing out flyers directing people to a Trump merchandise website.
Not even in Ron DeSantis’ Florida would police officers do something so blatantly political.
Would they?
OMG…Here’s a police officer… in Florida…in uniform…in October 2020…at an early voting site…
And what’s that on his face?
I Hate Houseguests 