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Tuesday, July 5, shall forever be known as the anniversary of former FBI Director James Comeys foray into politics.

Six years ago today, Comey held an infamous press conference at the height of the 2016 presidential election, in which he announced that although Hillary Clinton hadnt committed any crimes in using a private email server as secretary of state, shed still done things Comey personally thought were extremely careless.

In hindsight, I think its clear July 5 was also a foundational moment for Trumps perversion of the Justice Department.

Comeys announcement may well have helped tank Clintons campaign. (Hes kinda, sorta, not-really apologized for his language at the press conference, and a late-stage announcement that he was investigating new Clinton emails). But I argue the political impact goes even deeper than 2016. In hindsight, I think its clear July 5 was also a foundational moment for Trumps perversion of the Justice Department. Comey showed Trump the value of a DOJ willing to launch or close investigations based on pretext and politics.

In fact, Trump was so impressed with how Comeys Clinton investigation worked in his favor that he reportedly asked Comey to end an investigation into former national security adviser Michael Flynn, and to meddle in the investigation into Trump, as well.

Comey didnt go along with his boss, but by then Trump was so hooked on the drug that is fascism he merely fired Comey with hopes of replacing him with a more loyal stooge.

After Comey was fired, Trump embarked on a scorched earth campaign to establish a more servile DOJ. He pressured then-Attorney General Jeff Sessions to fire Comeys second-in-command, FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe, for his role in the Russia probe. Then, Trump pressured Sessions himself to resign. Trump briefly named the masculine toilet" guy (a.k.a. Matthew Whitaker) acting attorney general before appointing Bill Barr, the ultimate Trump sycophant, as his new AG.

Short of literally waging an insurrection, Barr did pretty much everything Trump wanted as attorney general, from targeting his political critics to surprise, surprise opening pretextual investigations to varnish Trumps image.

During his four years in office, Trump cycled through a series of DOJ officials whom he used and discarded. But you never forget the first time. And Comey showed him why.

Ja'han Jones is The ReidOut Blog writer. He's a futurist and multimedia producer focused on culture and politics. His previous projects include "Black Hair Defined" and the "Black Obituary Project."

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'It changed everything': Comey and '16 outcome - MSNBC

LOS ANGELES -- Weeks prior to the 2016 presidential election, candidate Donald Trump began to toss some new red meat to his carnivorous supporters -- the possibility of a rigged election. His poll numbers pointed to a defeat, possibly a resounding one. Democrats, myself included, were not especially worried about the outcome.

As Nov. 8 approached, Trumps warnings about a fixed election grew more frequent and more vehement, jacking up the belligerence of the MAGA crowd beyond the usual racist anti-immigration frenzy and customary Hillary Clinton-bashing.

At the time, many of my fellow Democratic friends and I believed that Trump was a harmless blowhard who enjoyed the adulation of raucous rally crowds and hoped for no more than a resurrection of his failed TV career. Many pundits held similar opinions.

Blowhard, yes. Harmless, no.

To many observers, this rigged-election business seemed a lame, pre-emptive attempt at cushioning the blow when Trump lost by an embarrassingly wide margin. Many of us believed that Trump might even be relieved by a loss, sparing him from a job for which he had no experience or qualifications. He was just interested in polishing his brand, we told ourselves, and he certainly did not want any nosy congressional investigations of his murky financial empire. After all, he had refused to reveal his tax returns, so there was reason for curiosity.

Clearly, we were being nave. Granted, this was before candidate Trump had had the power to actually do anything other than make promises about a wall and rant about rapists and murderers invading America from the southern border, but his rabid followers -- of which, surprisingly, there were millions -- were no less moved by his descriptions of what he intended to do as president. His rallies were packed and no less unruly and inflammatory than they are today. Suddenly, the possibility of a stolen election became an effective propaganda ploy. Hillary was a criminal, Trump told his troops, and her election would be a travesty. (Remember Lock her up!?)

If he had lost in 2016, how far would Trumps hard-core loyalists have gone to see him installed as president?

In swing states like Pennsylvania, Hillary lost by just over 44,000 votes; in Wisconsin, it was a deficit of approximately 23,000 votes; in Michigan, a mere 11,000. Had she won those swing states and a few others by narrow margins, resulting in her election, would Donald Trump have cried foul even after recounts in each swing state showed no substantial cases of fraud? No doubt his followers would have been enraged -- but how enraged? Enraged enough to take action?

John Blumenthal

Would Trumps hard-core devotees have been angry enough to go to great lengths to steal the election away from Hillary Clinton?

Would the Big Lie have been born as early as 2016?

At the time, congressional power lay solidly with Republicans in both Houses Paul Ryan was House Speaker; Mitch McConnell was Senate Majority Leader; congressional committees were chaired by Republicans. By then, McConnell had already proven himself to be primarily interested in power after all, he had vocalized his goal to make Barack Obama a one-term president and later denied our 44th president his constitutional right to appoint a Supreme Court Justice.

And the prospect of a Hillary Clinton presidency was anathema to a great many Republicans.

Would some swing-state election officials have disqualified Democratic ballots? Would legislators have overturned their states votes? Would the House of Representatives have refused to certify some Clinton electors? In other words, would we be where we are now six years ago, in the midst of a Big Lie movement and its accompanying existential threats to democracy?

A stretch of the imagination? Probably, but certainly no more surreal than the shocking facts about Jan. 6 that are now being exposed before our very eyes.

An award-winning novelist and former magazine editor who co-authored the movie, Blue Streak, John Blumenthals work has appeared in The Los Angeles Times,The Chicago Sun-Times,Playboy, Publishers Weekly, Salonand Huffington Post. This was written for The Plain Dealer and cleveland.com.

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What if Trump had used the Big Lie in 2016, if hed lost that election? John Blumenthal - cleveland.com

On June 7, I won the Democratic Party primary in New Jerseys Seventh Congressional District, on my way to what I hope will be my third term in the House. The same day, I also accepted the nomination of the new Moderate Party, formed substantially by state Republicans fed up with the extremism of a party led by Donald Trump.

The Moderate Party is an experiment: an alliance between Democrats of all stripes, independents and moderate Republicans hoping to win an election while pursuing a reform to the election laws that could empower swing voters to save our democracy from toxic polarization.

Third-party candidates have long been viewed as spoilers in American politics, for good reason. Ralph Nader and Jill Stein had no chance of winning the presidency, yet drew enough votes from Al Gore in 2000 and Hillary Clinton in 2016 to help tip those elections to Republicans. On the right, libertarian candidates tend to draw votes away from Republicans.

It doesnt have to be that way. In several states, including New York and Connecticut, third parties can channel their energy into endorsing and placing on the ballot candidates who also run as Democrats or Republicans, giving their members the option to cast tactical votes for a major party candidate under a banner that better reflects their values. This is known as fusion voting, when two parties fuse and form a coalition to support the same candidate.

Fusion parties were common in 19th century America. During the 1890s in North Carolina, for example, Republicans and Populists ran a unified slate that temporarily ousted the white supremacist Democratic majority.

In New York, the main parties operating under this system, the Working Families and Conservative Parties, occupy the left and right wings of the political spectrum. But if fusion parties were permitted nationwide, the political force most likely to form one would be the center. Such a party might be especially attractive to Republicans disgusted with their national partys embrace of election lies, vaccine denial and QAnon conspiracy theories, but who are turned off by the left wing of the Democratic Party and remain reluctant to pull its lever.

I represent the median Congressional district in America half the districts are more Democratic, and half more Republican. The voters I meet every day in my district have views that defy tribal party stereotypes, no matter which party they have registered with.

They support the police whether its protecting our homes from criminals or our Capitol from insurrectionists. They think we should enforce our immigration laws, but that our economy needs and our nation should welcome legal immigrants. Theyre pro-business, but think corporations should pay taxes, and that the success of American business depends on leading the world to clean energy. They support the Second Amendment, but with reasonable restrictions like background checks and red flag laws.

In the small towns and suburbs I represent, there is also a yearning for community. They want politicians to focus on fighting inflation, not fueling culture wars.

Thanks to gerrymandering, its been estimated that only around 40 of Americas 435 House districts are truly competitive. Most elections are thus decided in primaries that push Democrats left and Republicans right, encouraging each side to fight and block the other rather than find common ground. Even in middle- of-the-road districts like mine, primaries can give an advantage to more extremist candidates. For example, the Republican nominee in my race, Tom Kean Jr., was once seen as a moderate. But this year, facing a contested primary, he sent a mailer to voters bragging that no matter what Trump does, Kean has his back.

A centrist fusion party could restore to Americans in the middle some of the leverage they have lost. Were hoping New Jersey will be a test case for national reform. My state banned fusion parties in 1921, under the influence of major party machines. The new Moderate Party is filing a legal challenge to this law, arguing that Americans have a right to form parties that nominate the candidates of their choice.

Imagine if my Republican House colleagues Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger could form a party of moderate voters and offer the validation that comes with its line on the ballot to the next Democratic presidential nominee so long as that nominee promised to respect the Constitution and to govern from the center. If I were to win my congressional race by, say, two points, and five or 10 of those points came from supporters of the Moderate Party, I would work hard to keep their support. After all, if I didnt, they could endorse someone else possibly a Republican in the next election.

Our political system today rewards and encourages divisiveness that has already led to violence and could tear our country apart. We need new rules that promote responsible leadership and cooperation.

Tom Malinowski, Democrat of New Jersey, represents the Seventh Congressional District.

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Opinion | A Viable Third Party Is Coming, and Its Starting With a New Jersey Lawsuit - The New York Times

Many people, myself included, have experienced something akin to emotional whiplash with this latest news, as if we had to speed through stages of grief while riding Kingda Ka. I was shocked when I read it and couldnt fathom what it would mean to not have Wendys trademark Wendy-isms at my beck and call. What will my day be like without a How you doooin? or her asking her audience to Clap if as a means of audience polling. Then, of course, came the pain that my friends and I shared in our group chat. I began to bargain: why cant you take all of alt-right YouTube instead, Lord? And then I began to feel the magnitude of the loss.

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Its getting really hard to keep track of Disneys stance on queer issues and whether the right or left hates them at any given moment.

Yes, there will always be Wendy clips online. Classics like the confrontational Omarosa interview and the infamous What was that? reaction video have circulated far beyond the repository that was the hit daytime shows YouTube page. And of course, there are plenty of pages dedicated to making compilations that will never fail to pull a smile out of me.

But for every bop that rightfully boomerangs all over the internet, there are countless other deep cuts and B-sides that are lesser known but no less cherished. For example, theres the interview with Rita Moreno where she confesses to Wendy that she slept with Elvis Presley just to get back at Marlon Brando. Who else would Moreno tell this to!? Or take the clip where Wendy mistakenly laughs that Pete Davidsons father is not in his life before an audience member informs her that he actually died during the 9/11 World Trade Center attack. Macabre? Sure. But that was the beauty of the Wendy show. So much of the humor came from the unscalable heights of her charisma, but so much of it was also incidental. Though her show was built around gossip, the air around it was one of festivity, disarming fun and nonchalant joy. As the world turns to shit, its going to be hard to get through it without her.

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The Wendy Williams Shows YouTube Channel Is Gone - Them

'Minions: The Rise of Gru' and 'Stranger Things season four

Despicable Me was a new IP aimed at todays kids, while Stranger Things works for young audiences who couldn't care less about its pop-culture inspirations.

I dont think that the various Tik-Tok kids who showed up to theatrical showings of Minions: The Rise of Gru wearing suits made the difference between an $85 million Fri-Mon opening (on par with Despicable Me 3) and a $125 million Fri-Mon opening (akin to Minions). This online meme/call-to-action was successful because it was directed at a film that the young participants wanted to see. The tongue may have been as much in cheek with #GentleMinions as it was with #MorbiusSweep. Still, participants either already wanted to see the Minions sequel in theaters or had a casual interest in a movie they expected to enjoy, which was pushed into ticket sold status by participating in this specific online game. Simply put, audiences showed up this weekend in droves because Minions: The Rise of Gru looked like a lot of fun. Of course, thats a vast simplification, or is it?

LONDON, ENGLAND - JUNE 20: Steve Carell andMinions characters attend the "Minions: The Rise Of Gru" photocall in front of the newly unveiled Big Ben at Parliament Square on June 20, 2022 in London, England. (Photo by Karwai Tang/WireImage)

Despicable Me was a new franchise aimed at kids and not their parents.

Why did Minions: The Rise of Gru break a record for an Independence Day holiday opening weekend? Its partially for the same reason that Stranger Things has become the first English-language Netflix release to top 1.1 billion global hours viewed in the first 28 days. The middle school and high school-aged teens who showed up in theaters this weekend would have been young children when Despicable Me opened theatrically in 2010, and the kids who stumbled onto Stranger Things are now six years older. At the time, Illuminations Despicable Me was an original animated feature from an upstart studio (Illumination) aimed at kids of that moment in time. It wasnt a reboot, revamp or relaunch of a formerly successful IP from generations past. It was a new kid-targeted IP aimed at todays kids, which created new marquee characters (Gru, the Minions, etc.) and pop culture icons.

The Universal-released Despicable Me opened a week before Chris Nolans Inception, on the tail-end of when the mere idea of a big-budget animated fantasy, be it from DreamWorks, Pixar or Blue Sky, was an almost automatic theatrical event. Despicable Me grossed $251 million domestic from a $56 million debut and $543 million worldwide on a $69 million budget. It was also a leggy and crowd-pleasing performer in theaters and at home. Despicable Me 2 was not the result of franchise plans or cinematic universe aspirations but because moviegoers saw and liked the first film. Despicable Me 2 earned $368 million domestic in July 2013 from a $143 million holiday debut and $975 million global on a $76 million budget, more than any prior animated release ever at the time. Minions grossed $1.1 billion in July 2015, while Despicable Me 3 earned $1 billion in July 2017.

Minions: The Rise of Gru was supposed to open in July 2020, five years after Minions and three years after Despicable Me 3. It has now been five years since the respective last installment. Absence did make the heart grow fonder. Those young kids who grew up on the series aged to tweens, teens and young adults who never stopped at least somewhat enjoying the anarchic and comparatively non-sentimental antics of the mad scientist and his bizarre, yellow-skinned henchmen. It was, alongside DreamWorks Animations How to Train Your Dragon (2010, 2014 and 2019), the definitive animated franchise of the 2010s. It was aimed at kids instead of nostalgic adults. In 2022, Minions is still cool in that semi-ironic Shrek fashion. It also serves as a grim piece of pre-Covid nostalgia for kids who have spent much of their lives suffering through a Trump presidency and a global pandemic.

BROOKLYN, NEW YORK - MAY 14: Noah Schnapp, David Harbour, and Gaten Matarazzo attend Netflix's "Stranger Things" Season 4 New York Premiere at Netflix Brooklyn on May 14, 2022 in Brooklyn, New York. (Photo by Bryan Bedder/Getty Images for Netflix)

Merely ripping off Point Break or Flash Gordon gets you The Fast and the Furious or Star Wars.

Meanwhile, Netflixs Stranger Things was a comparative underdog when it debuted in the summer of 2016. It wore its references and inspirations on its sleeve. Still, the Duffer brothers.-created 80s-set supernatural thriller was an original story with new characters who, by the shows relative quality and appeal to kids entirely unaware of the references, became themselves marquee characters. Audiences who watched the fourth season didnt care as much about the pop culture homages or needle drops. They wanted to see what happened next to Eleven, Steve, Nancy, Max, Mike, June (Winona Ryder in a shrewd casting) and Hopper. Kids who loved Star Wars didnt know or care about John Ford westerns, Flash Gordon serials or Akira Kurosawa actioners. Stranger Things has become a massive hit with kids who dont have Pavlovian responses to 80s pop culture callbacks. Its a defining rip-off, dont remake triumph.

It stinks that the decade since The Amazing Spider-Man has seen a total normalization of reboots. A 2007 movie like Disturbia, which ripped off Rear Window (quite well, natch), is now downright aspirational. Hollywood would now remake Rear Window (possibly as a six-hour eight-part Peacock miniseries). This is partially because corporate consolidation has led to big companies getting the rights to make the genuine article. Amazon doesnt need to make their own Robocop (which was itself a resurrection fable by way of The Wraith) when they can just reboot the existing MGM-owned IP. To be fair, Sony and Universal showed with Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle and Jurassic World that you can make something old feel new again. However, when you merely rip off Point Break, you get The Fast and the Furious and pop culture icons (Dom, Letty, Brian, Han, Hobbs, etc.) from that $6.6 billion-grossing franchise.

When you mix James Bond with Alan Quarterman, you get Indiana Jones. When you rip off Poltergeist with a modern sensibility, you get Insidious, which is currently developing its fifth installment. Does anyone remember the 2015 remakes of Poltergeist or Point Break? The Child's Play remake did its own thing alongside Don Mancinis previous Chucky flicks and the ongoing Syfy television series. But its a one-and-done, like most remakes. Meanwhile, Annabelle was a blockbuster spin-off trilogy of evil doll chillers that helped push the Conjuring Universe past $2 billion global. Stranger Things remains Netflixs crowning achievement regarding worldwide viewership and IP viability. Its become so successful that actual 80s-set properties and revamps like It and Ghostbusters: Afterlife have essentially tried to crib its style. It didnt invent 80s pop culture nostalgia (see also: The Wedding Singer and Super 8), but it arguably perfected it.

'Minions: The Rise of Gru'

Minions: The Rise of Gru and Stranger Things season four were generational coronations.

Weve been dissecting the terrible performance of Pixars Lightyear for the last three weeks, and Id be inclined to say, Whoops, Solo: A Star Wars Story again! and leave it at that save for the consequences of its failure. The entire theatrical future of Disneys animated films is now at stake. We now must deal with alt-right political actors proclaiming Lightyears failure as tied to online controversy over A) a same-sex kiss between two married grandmothers and B) Chris Evans replacing Tim Allen as Buzz Lightyear. Meanwhile, those same demos declare the triumph of Minions 2 as an anti-woke victory even as Minions are asexual and occasionally dress in drag. The same folks crowing about Top Gun: Maverick being a victory for conservative entertainment would be the same ones pointing out its multiple minority characters (including... gasp, a lady pilot) had it tanked.

Top Gun: Maverick and Transformers are a testament to the potential for adult-skewing nostalgia. Concurrently, Minions and Stranger Things are examples of new franchises aimed at todays kids being successful enough to become iconic and pop culture-shaping regardless of the homages, references or past-tense inspirations. Following years of Covid-caused delay, these new installments acted as generational coronations for both respective franchises. Their reception celebrated the triumph of the (comparatively) new amid a near-constant flow of refurbished, recycled and relaunched hand-me-downs with huge box office and viewership partially driven by the demographics which helped make them successful in the first place. The #GentleMinions meme and the record-crushing Stranger Things ratings are prime examples of what can still happen when you create new kid-friendly entertainment for todays kids. After all, you make more money from the first Harry Potter than trying to discover the next Harry Potter.

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'Minions 2' And 'Stranger Things' Show The Power Of Original Franchises - Forbes