Copyright independent
The White House has launched a spoof MySpace page satirizing Democrats and blaming them for the government shutdown, which will become the longest in American history if it is not resolved by Wednesday. Dubbed “MySafeSpace,” the page, mimicking one of the earliest social media platforms, is hosted on the official White House website and is set up as a mock profile of House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries. A meme of Jeffries wearing a Mexican sombrero and mustache, which President Donald Trump previously posted, is used for the profile picture; the theme is echoed in the choice of wallpaper. The detailed parody includes links to mock blog posts supposedly written by Jeffries that, in fact, click through to unfavorable stories about the Democrats regarding the shutdown, as well as an audio player carrying Linkin Park’s “What I’ve Done” and a rogue’s gallery of Jeffries’ “friends.” Among their ranks are former President Joe Biden, a sinister Antifa activist, billionaire George Soros, Kilmar Abrego Garcia, Chucky from the Child’s Play horror film franchise, and “Tampon Tim,” a disrespectful allusion to Minnesota Governor Tim Walz. “Hey we’re Democrats in the House and Senate,” a bio states. “We love DEI, transgender for everyone, and handing out taxpayer benefits to everyone. We couldn’t care less if our men and women in uniform get paid or if our neighborhoods are safe – we just love playing politics with people’s livelihoods.” Other personal digs at Jeffries include the page listing “Chuck E Cheese Obama” among his nicknames, the 2016 all-female remake of Ghostbusters, and the recent Rachel Zegler-starring live-action Snow White among his favourite films, presumably because they are considered laughably woke by the page’s creators. The Independent has reached out to the White House and the Democratic National Committee for comment. With the shutdown in its 34th day at the time of writing, with no sign of a breakthrough, Trump and the Republicans have been at pains to pin the blame for federal workers going unpaid on Democrats, who have refused to support a stopgap spending bill without an extension of Covid-era healthcare subsidies being included. Without such a provision in place, the opposition has argued, insurance premiums for more than 20 million American citizens could more than double from $888 to $1,904 once the current subsidies expire on December 31. Polling has indicated that the administration’s strategy has backfired, however, and it is the GOP that a majority of the public holds responsible for the impasse. The president himself has called on his party to abolish the Senate filibuster to force through a deal, but has otherwise not intervened on Capitol Hill, preferring instead to troll Jeffries and Chuck Schumer, the Senate Minority Leader, on Truth Social. MySpace was launched in the summer of 2003 by developers Tom Anderson and Chris DeWolfe, and quickly became a staple of teenage life in the early 2000s, providing an online platform for youths to communicate, share their pop cultural tastes, and post rudimentary memes and videos. Its popularity quickly boomed, and it rose to become the largest social networking site in the world between 2005 and 2009, ultimately paving the way for the coming of the much more intricate and all-consuming Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat, and TikTok in its wake. Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp bought MySpace in July 2005 for an astonishing $580 million and has since been bought and sold several times, with pop star Justin Timberlake a co-owner from 2011 before selling to Time Inc in 2016, which was in turn purchased by Meredith Corporation, and which has since placed the site in the hands of Viant Technology. Incredibly, it remains alive and well to this day.
