Once again: clarity, truth and strategic passion. Thank you Steve. The quotes are daunting. That millions of people swallow the lies whole and consume them readily is most disturbing.
Like every historical horror period and violent crisis: this will pass. We must remain steadfast and strong during peak dreadfulness.
I don’t know that this one this time will pass. Many factors of current doom before us are exponentially different from past such global moments of peak dreadfulness.
And even if so, God knows what losses humanity will incur to arrive at such a passing.
Nearly a decade ago, I briefly had a Facebook account. I quit Facebook because it was apparent then that it was a perfect vehicle for spreading propaganda and disinformation. I doubt Zuckerberg misses me. I quit Twitter when Musk turned it into a rightwing propaganda machine. I know he doesn’t miss me either, but people quitting Twitter/X have had some impact on his bottom line. After watching NYT and WaPO sane wash Trump and MAGA, I dropped both subscriptions. That decision was further vindicated when WAPO chose to placate Trump prior to the election. I know I wasn’t alone in making that choice, and I hope the consequences are magnificent by WAPOs cowardly refusal to post an editorial cartoon critical of America’s most prominent, feckless billionaires.
So this morning, I took another step. I dropped “Amazon Prime”. It amounts to nothing but a transfer payment of $131 from me to Jeff Bezos. I have better uses for that money. I dropped Disney a couple months ago. In recent weeks I have also dropped Netflix. I assume that another feckless billionaire or irresponsible multinational corporations also benefits from such subscription services.
I have also purged Morning Joe, MSNBC, and CNN among others from my YouTube feed.
Will they notice? Perhaps not, but I try to keep in mind something my son observed a while ago: As a social media user, you are the cattle, not the rancher.
Alone, each of us is simply a data point for these billionaires. But I do believe that we can collectively impact their on their bottom lines in some manner influence their behavior by BOYCOTTING the most egregious offenders. Protest with your pocket book. Forego the major expenditures and abandon those media outlets that have repeatedly betrayed your values. Punish the oligarchs by denying them the only thing they value.
I find that I'm transitioning to the substacks community. One particularly nice thing about them is offering to publish the readers' comments (like this one).
Same here in all but Netflix. The founders have stood tall against recent authoritarian pressures as great Democratic Party donors and advocates for equity across the world.
Exactly!! Thank you! I have done the same, about to leave Facebook but for some friends I really treasure … All of us individuals add up, that’s what counts! And deny them attention.
I’ve done the same, Kim. Dems were adrift post election, but slowly, methodically we are finding new sources of REAL news. Like The Bulwark (Tim Miller, Sarah Longwell) or the independent people like Adam Kinsinger & Steve Schmidt. I’m feeling a brand-new coalition of center-left & center-right individuals coming together over the cause of democracy. I will gladly spend my money on news sources who tell me the TRUTH.
Well done Kim! Prime is the toughest….may do that soon. For various reasons I never
have been on social media and I have dropped WAPO, NYTimes, and all news.
It is amazing the amount of time I spent listening to MSNBC and reading the papers.
Now it is Steve, HCR and Joyce. My life is free from propaganda and appeasers.
In many ways this time feels to me like a movie: we know the dark force will conquer soon
and it is terrifying. But we also know the good, brave and caring are collectively and systematically organizing, perhaps not overtly but physiologically. That alone is
effective. And, as hard as it is to believe, a huge buyers remorse will present itself
when MAGA sees they are nothing but pawns. This actually may be happening now.
Most of them are not clever enough, but their MG Reps. are. I am hopeful revolt within that
I refuse to stop watching/listening to a few of who I consider to be truth tellers on msnbc; Joy Reid, Rachel Maddow, Lawrence O’Donnell, Nicole Wallace, & Chris Hayes. The remainder I have no use for. I hope that those few journalists will find another platform to land on when the pressure by their overlords to sanewash gets to be too much.
The brolicarchy and Trumpler’s return to the oval sickening — utterly enabled by America’s too numerous-to-count, decades-roaring-towards-us, corrupt, racist systemic government failures, impotent check-your-spine-at-the-door legislators, and stupid, uneducated, fact-challenged, “me here now” shortsighted voters.
The selfish, spineless, epically corrupt morbidly-rich assholes kissing up to Trumpler are the very essence of our new American tyranny. Just watch; it’s going to get very dark for 99+% of our citizenry.
Lately Steve has been writing quite a bit about how the democrats lost the election because the leaders of the party weren’t authentic about Biden’s condition. I would like to ask Steve by what % impact does he think that had. As a psychologist for 40 years, my observation is that the greater percentage of impact causing trump’s win has come from the right wing news sources, primarily Fuks not News. During trump’s presidency and since the mainstream media devolved into a dangerous and untrustworthy source. All of this media decline filled with disinformation, gaslighting, propaganda, whitewashing and news-disappearing has massively brainwashed the public that believed it was seeing facts. Add to this impact the percentage caused by Russian propaganda filtering into all of the social media sites and loading them with bullshit. It’s hard for me to believe that another, more charismatic, democratic candidate that was running from the beginning would have handily overcome these other influences. Tragically, we’ll never know for sure.
Also, two other obsessive thoughts I’ve had: The Republicans have been the party of lies, hate and division since way before the Tea Party, going all the way back to the McCarthy hearings.
I think if Nixon had a Fuks not News he never would have resigned or been impeached.
Yes, I agree that massive amounts of propaganda is the single biggest reason T. won. The right began creating a giant propaganda machine back in the 70s. Watergate taught them an important lesson about press freedoms. With social media, it is now so far out of hand it's beyond the pale. I know people who genuinely believe it is the Dems who post a danger to democracy. Democracy dies under a pile of bullshit.
Agree totally. I adored Kamala, she inspired millions, but she is black and a woman. No way she had a chance against the Nazis. I can not think of another D who could have beaten Trump. The billionaires, the 35 years of propaganda streamed in every military base, barber shop and Red household, Citizen’s United, the delay in prosecuting Trump all added to his slim victory.
He will be dead at some point. Question is, can a creep wearing eyeliner
In a truly disgusting display of sartorial slavish devotion to our felonious, lying, corrupt, grifter president-elect many of his political sycophants and allies are dressing like Trump, extra-long red ties, ill-fitting suits, and white shirts. Among them are House Speaker Mike Johnson, former North Dakota Governor Doug Burgum, and Senators Tim Scott, J.D. Vance, and Tommy Tuberville. https://www.yahoo.com/entertainment/bizarre-way-trump-allies-showing-181124092.html
Spineless, fearful, pathetic, unprincipled, corrupt, ass-licking, authoritarian minions. They should wear brown shirts and pointy white hats symbolizing the mindless hate they’re enveloped in.
Warning: all red light alerts flashing at highest level. And here we are…
They will show up 1/6/25 if they can get there [DC govt, Fed govt except for essential workers, etc VA & MD all closed for blizzard 1/6] in their cult garb.
I'll add some, too. A narcissistic sociopath, "the owner of no good quality" (Shakespeare), a financial and sexual predator, an arrogant bullyboy, a serial tax dodger, an adjudicated felon, an immoralist of the highest order, and "a dreadful man" (says a British friend).
How depressing it is to know that our next POTUS is a convicted felon! He won't be able to vote, but he can still be POTUS! WTF! How the hell did we come to this? Maybe we will get so deep in the hole, that the government will have to reform, to save itself! Or, maybe it is too late! The next four years will be the ultimate test, to see if democracy, as we know it, will hold up! Where is the calvary?
That is what I was trying to suggest. Insanity combined with all the other words that have been and are used to describe a particular thing about him. These other words leave me waning as not enough as when pebbles are thrown against a window when I want a boulder.
great art. Your drawings always tell the truth. Keep shining your expertise on all of us patriots and America and hopefully, around the miserable globe.
What an egotistical, perverse man we have coming into the presidency. Orange posted this on 1/3:
“The Democrats are all ‘giddy’ about our magnificent American Flag potentially being at ‘half mast’ during my Inauguration. They think it’s so great, and are so happy about it because, in actuality, they don’t love our Country, they only think about themselves.
Nobody wants to see this, and no American can be happy about it. Let’s see how it plays out. MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!” – Orangey raging on Truth Social.
What stands out so clearly is that it is Trump who is "only think(ing) about (himself)." He is incapable of recognizing that expressing grief over the death of a great, honorable, kind, competent man and president like Jimmy Carter is normal and the right thing to do. But, to Trump, it only diminishes his revealing in his victory.
Also worth noting is, "they (people who Mourn Jimmy Carter's death) don't love our country." It is Orangey who neither understands or loves our country.
Worth note, President Carter checked out under Joe’s presidency giving us two final gifts:
1.
Emphasizing the incongruities and extremes of Oval occupants as we focus on and celebrate the remarkable life and selfless spirit of President Carter, America’s good, kind, wise, visionary man, against the grotesque, grifting, vile, vulgar, corrupt, lying life of oily-orange shit-bag Trumpler, far and away America’s worst POTUS ever and most divisive person to near the Oval.
2.
Zeroing out Trumpler effect as sitting president during this sad time of reflection, allowing our nation to bid the most appropriate farewell to the great Jimmy Carter.
Yes, the flag being at half mast, on inauguration day is driving Trump crazy! It also happens to be MLK, Jr. Day! I choose to walk in our MLK Parade, rather than watch "felon Trump" lying through the whole presidential oath! (How can an oath truly be an oath, if the guy doesn't believe a word it says?)
The MAGAt Green Beret should have put his money where his mouth was: he should have led the purge. Instead, he died like the bigmouth coward that he was. BTW, as one who works in animal protection, please don't use the word "pig" as an insult. Pigs are smart, sensitive and intelligent animals, they don't need to be compared to vile beings like Trump. Thanks.
I agree, we should stop assigning the worst characteristics of humans to animals. They do not in any way share those vile qualities. It’s a hard habit to break, but we should try.
We have begun the age of propaganda controlled media. 1984 is here and the Orwellian world is beginning to peak. Trump said he was going to turn the clock back to a simpler time. Well that time is coming soon. Authoritarianism is simple. You either conform to the will of Trump or you will have the weight of the government come down on you. It is simple because they will tell you what you can read, who you can love and who you will support for elections from this day forward.
As long as we have the substack communities where we readers can post our comments (where the rest of us can read them) we will be aiding the survival of our rich tradition of American humor. Remember when we named our dogs "king", "prince", "queen" ?
If one looks at things solely from a political strategy, we could say that people like Vance, Cruz, Graham, and many others made the right decision. They aligned themselves with MAGA and were required to have their faces up Trump’s ass crack. And they were rewarded for it with political power by 77 million Americans.
I am unsure if we will avoid blowing it up eventually. Generally the track has been not to have the best and brightest in our governance. We have the least intelligent up front — the states are the best example. And this is not something happening here, but around the world. China, Russia, and India are in the same boat.
Around what and who do we rally? Trump, FoxNews and X own the airwaves and are defining ‘truth.’ Is there a media source that has replaced the euphemism ‘misinformation’ with ‘lie’? Has any media source stopped printing the outright lies that Trump spews with every breath? Will any television network refuse to air his inauguration speech, especially those segments espousing hatred? If he were treated like pornography, we’d stand a chance. Until then, he has the louder bullhorn, one heard, unfiltered, by far too many people.
I suggest you watch Medais Touch, the largest professional, lawyers and prosecutors with years of experience, Democratic news source in the world. They have had personal interviews with Biden, Harris, Canada's AG, DOD JAG DOD Prosecutors, Mexico's trade secretary and other dignitaries.
I’m hoping, & definitely encouraging everyone who did NOT vote for trump to not watch the inauguration. Have your TV on that day, but tuned to any channel that will not be airing the inauguration, nor breaking in to even show clips of it. Perhaps HGTV, ID, or the Food Network. We want it to have the lowest ratings of any show in history. That will anger the orange turd more than just about anything, other than those flags at half-staff.
Most everyone reading this blog already agrees, more or less, that a big, bad storm is coming in the wake of the 20 Jan 2025 inauguration. But no one seems to really know the exact parameters (or even the inexact parameters) of that storm - only that it will most likely be really really awful for everyone except the corporations and the wealthy. Out here in the hinterlands of the so-called Texas hill country, we've been wracking our brains to figure out how to "fight back." In addition to all the usual things (finding community, letters to the editors of our local papers, joining groups like Indivisible, etc etc), we're going to set up our own little Rapid Response Team to alert local left-leaning residents to contact their elected reps whenever we hear about a particular issue that our illustrious state officials or Congress or president is going to take that will adversely effect most of us (i.e., folks not making a bajillion dollars every day). We don't necessarily think any of our emails or calls will dissuade any of them from voting in lockstep with Herr Trump, but at least they'll know we're still here and still in active opposition to their various attempts to take over the country. And well, hopefully it won't get us all shot!
I certainly understand you blue dots out in the Hill Country must feel lonely. My sister, & her spouse live in Kerrville, my nephew & his family live in Seguin, & they are maga trump voters. All the rest of my extended family live around TX & are also maga & believe the lies pumped out on Fox & FB.
It breaks my heart, but I just can’t be in contact with them right now as I consider it to be a massive moral failure to have voted for Republicans, particularly now. Bravo to you & your group, keep up the good fight.
Reference to more info about Jefferson also suggested it would be unlike Thomas J to reference God in a speech since he believed religion should not be involved in politics. Bad Mike J. and bad for main media for not checking.
I'm reading "Hitler's First Hundred Days" by Peter Fritzsche. Quite illuminating story of how in just 3 months, Germany went from a struggling democracy to a full blown dictatorship.
Then I do a thought experiment. How far will MAGA go? The answer is quite simple. MAGA will go as far as we let them. The Cybertruck Fire guy wrote something that is virtually indistinguishable from what the Nazis believed: That political opponents are enemies of the people, and should therefore be exterminated. Would MAGA go that far? Would MAGA, if they got the power, line up and shoot democratic politicians, Liz Cheney, and the rest of the patriots who are courageously standing up to Trump? Is there any crime or atrocity that MAGA won't ultimately sanction if Trump tells them it's necessary to make America great again? I know plenty of these people, ex-friends and family, and based on that, I doubt it. They will just need the right kind and quantity of propaganda and they will go from "beat Democrats/RINOs at the ballot box" to "beat up Democrats/RINOs" to "shoot Democrats and RINOS."
The Nazis enjoyed some advantages MAGA (up till now) lacks. They had hundreds of thousands of SA Brownshirts (Stormtroopers) who had the spare time because of mass unemployment and were motivated by the loss of WWI and the stab-in-the-back big lie. MAGA has a big lie (stolen election) and their own Horst Wessel (Ashli Babbitt). They even have their own stormtroopers, who call themselves "proud boys" etc. But they don't, at this point at least, have enough of them to pull off what the Nazis did. Trump's pardon of J6'ers will be the start of an attempt to grow their own brownshirt movement, and it will be telling to see how many people flock to their banners.
MAGA needs brownshirts to run amok and create chaos and havoc on the streets, beat and intimidate supporters of democracy, and to provoke resistance so they can justify martial law or enact some kind of "emergency powers" or "enabling act". The tools to do these things are not as robust (yet) in the US as they were in 1933 Germany, but can any serious person doubt MAGA would employ violent dictatorial powers if they get the chance? Trump is no Hitler, who was evil but disciplined, intelligent, and ideological to the extreme. Trump's only ideology is his own narcissism and he is completely undisiplined, and if anything saves us, it may be that. But what comes behind Trump? Vance? Musk? Something even worse that we haven't even fathomed yet?
We don't really know what is going to happen. But we do know one thing with absolute certainty. MAGA is a fascist movement that keeps getting more radical and violent every day, and their plans for us are likely darker than we can even imagine. We would be fools to underestimate them.
Speaking of Hitler getting the German Parliament to pass an "Enabling Act," it seems to me that our own Supreme Court created its own equivalent of the "Enabling Act" when they gave Trump and future presidents immunity from prosecution for crimes committed while in office.
"The tools to do these things are not as robust (yet) in the US as they were in 1933 Germany, but can any serious person doubt MAGA would employ violent dictatorial powers if they get the chance?"
My unfortunate answer is, no serious person would doubt that Trump and his MAGA followers, especially white supremacist militias like the "Proud Boys" would use violence to force us all to bend the knee to Trump. What a horrible thought.
Once the population is frightened enough, we will allow ourselves to be stripped of all our rights; we will all cower before an oligarchical thuggery.
Extreme fear is a powerful motivator and the Magats will have no problem employing it. As Trump said, "Can we shoot them in the legs?" This time the guns will be aimed at us as well as migrants.
This is chilling..I have always admired her work, so accurate and to the point, and seeing this happen to her makes me so sad and just worried beyond belief.
Once again: clarity, truth and strategic passion. Thank you Steve. The quotes are daunting. That millions of people swallow the lies whole and consume them readily is most disturbing.
Like every historical horror period and violent crisis: this will pass. We must remain steadfast and strong during peak dreadfulness.
I don’t know that this one this time will pass. Many factors of current doom before us are exponentially different from past such global moments of peak dreadfulness.
And even if so, God knows what losses humanity will incur to arrive at such a passing.
I pray among other things that you are right.
It will pass, but it will be bloody and it won't be soon.
Nearly a decade ago, I briefly had a Facebook account. I quit Facebook because it was apparent then that it was a perfect vehicle for spreading propaganda and disinformation. I doubt Zuckerberg misses me. I quit Twitter when Musk turned it into a rightwing propaganda machine. I know he doesn’t miss me either, but people quitting Twitter/X have had some impact on his bottom line. After watching NYT and WaPO sane wash Trump and MAGA, I dropped both subscriptions. That decision was further vindicated when WAPO chose to placate Trump prior to the election. I know I wasn’t alone in making that choice, and I hope the consequences are magnificent by WAPOs cowardly refusal to post an editorial cartoon critical of America’s most prominent, feckless billionaires.
So this morning, I took another step. I dropped “Amazon Prime”. It amounts to nothing but a transfer payment of $131 from me to Jeff Bezos. I have better uses for that money. I dropped Disney a couple months ago. In recent weeks I have also dropped Netflix. I assume that another feckless billionaire or irresponsible multinational corporations also benefits from such subscription services.
I have also purged Morning Joe, MSNBC, and CNN among others from my YouTube feed.
Will they notice? Perhaps not, but I try to keep in mind something my son observed a while ago: As a social media user, you are the cattle, not the rancher.
Alone, each of us is simply a data point for these billionaires. But I do believe that we can collectively impact their on their bottom lines in some manner influence their behavior by BOYCOTTING the most egregious offenders. Protest with your pocket book. Forego the major expenditures and abandon those media outlets that have repeatedly betrayed your values. Punish the oligarchs by denying them the only thing they value.
I find that I'm transitioning to the substacks community. One particularly nice thing about them is offering to publish the readers' comments (like this one).
At this rate of dropping things, you will soon be living in a cave! Seriously, this indicates how many organizations have bent the knee.
Same here in all but Netflix. The founders have stood tall against recent authoritarian pressures as great Democratic Party donors and advocates for equity across the world.
Exactly!! Thank you! I have done the same, about to leave Facebook but for some friends I really treasure … All of us individuals add up, that’s what counts! And deny them attention.
I’ve done the same, Kim. Dems were adrift post election, but slowly, methodically we are finding new sources of REAL news. Like The Bulwark (Tim Miller, Sarah Longwell) or the independent people like Adam Kinsinger & Steve Schmidt. I’m feeling a brand-new coalition of center-left & center-right individuals coming together over the cause of democracy. I will gladly spend my money on news sources who tell me the TRUTH.
Well done Kim! Prime is the toughest….may do that soon. For various reasons I never
have been on social media and I have dropped WAPO, NYTimes, and all news.
It is amazing the amount of time I spent listening to MSNBC and reading the papers.
Now it is Steve, HCR and Joyce. My life is free from propaganda and appeasers.
In many ways this time feels to me like a movie: we know the dark force will conquer soon
and it is terrifying. But we also know the good, brave and caring are collectively and systematically organizing, perhaps not overtly but physiologically. That alone is
effective. And, as hard as it is to believe, a huge buyers remorse will present itself
when MAGA sees they are nothing but pawns. This actually may be happening now.
Most of them are not clever enough, but their MG Reps. are. I am hopeful revolt within that
Party will help turn the tide.
I refuse to stop watching/listening to a few of who I consider to be truth tellers on msnbc; Joy Reid, Rachel Maddow, Lawrence O’Donnell, Nicole Wallace, & Chris Hayes. The remainder I have no use for. I hope that those few journalists will find another platform to land on when the pressure by their overlords to sanewash gets to be too much.
The brolicarchy and Trumpler’s return to the oval sickening — utterly enabled by America’s too numerous-to-count, decades-roaring-towards-us, corrupt, racist systemic government failures, impotent check-your-spine-at-the-door legislators, and stupid, uneducated, fact-challenged, “me here now” shortsighted voters.
The selfish, spineless, epically corrupt morbidly-rich assholes kissing up to Trumpler are the very essence of our new American tyranny. Just watch; it’s going to get very dark for 99+% of our citizenry.
Lately Steve has been writing quite a bit about how the democrats lost the election because the leaders of the party weren’t authentic about Biden’s condition. I would like to ask Steve by what % impact does he think that had. As a psychologist for 40 years, my observation is that the greater percentage of impact causing trump’s win has come from the right wing news sources, primarily Fuks not News. During trump’s presidency and since the mainstream media devolved into a dangerous and untrustworthy source. All of this media decline filled with disinformation, gaslighting, propaganda, whitewashing and news-disappearing has massively brainwashed the public that believed it was seeing facts. Add to this impact the percentage caused by Russian propaganda filtering into all of the social media sites and loading them with bullshit. It’s hard for me to believe that another, more charismatic, democratic candidate that was running from the beginning would have handily overcome these other influences. Tragically, we’ll never know for sure.
Also, two other obsessive thoughts I’ve had: The Republicans have been the party of lies, hate and division since way before the Tea Party, going all the way back to the McCarthy hearings.
I think if Nixon had a Fuks not News he never would have resigned or been impeached.
You are right! We’ve been sitting in a perfect storm of many factors resulting from stupid, naive Dems and evil, corrupt, lying GOP
.
Joe’s antique-ness just a slice of the very large Democracy Failure pie.
Yes, I agree that massive amounts of propaganda is the single biggest reason T. won. The right began creating a giant propaganda machine back in the 70s. Watergate taught them an important lesson about press freedoms. With social media, it is now so far out of hand it's beyond the pale. I know people who genuinely believe it is the Dems who post a danger to democracy. Democracy dies under a pile of bullshit.
Agree totally. I adored Kamala, she inspired millions, but she is black and a woman. No way she had a chance against the Nazis. I can not think of another D who could have beaten Trump. The billionaires, the 35 years of propaganda streamed in every military base, barber shop and Red household, Citizen’s United, the delay in prosecuting Trump all added to his slim victory.
He will be dead at some point. Question is, can a creep wearing eyeliner
inspire???
Unfortunately Sarah, I find I must agree with you.
Sarah- thank you.
I feel like there was no way to overcome the lies and the ignorance, plus the love for the racists and the hate.
In a truly disgusting display of sartorial slavish devotion to our felonious, lying, corrupt, grifter president-elect many of his political sycophants and allies are dressing like Trump, extra-long red ties, ill-fitting suits, and white shirts. Among them are House Speaker Mike Johnson, former North Dakota Governor Doug Burgum, and Senators Tim Scott, J.D. Vance, and Tommy Tuberville. https://www.yahoo.com/entertainment/bizarre-way-trump-allies-showing-181124092.html
Spineless, fearful, pathetic, unprincipled, corrupt, ass-licking, authoritarian minions. They should wear brown shirts and pointy white hats symbolizing the mindless hate they’re enveloped in.
Warning: all red light alerts flashing at highest level. And here we are…
They will show up 1/6/25 if they can get there [DC govt, Fed govt except for essential workers, etc VA & MD all closed for blizzard 1/6] in their cult garb.
The English vocabulary does not adequately describe the terribleness of the character of Trump. But there is one I might use today: Megalomaniac.
Irene, may I add a few? Evildoer. Pathological Liar. Ignoramus. Humorless. Rabble rouser. Dangerous. Menacing.
Oily-orange, narcissistic, sociopathic, visionless, compulsive, self-important, simpleton shit-bag.
Also, thief, rapist, sexual abuser, and all-around Ugly American.
"Megalomaniac."
Emphasis on "maniac".
And Fuckhead !
I'll add some, too. A narcissistic sociopath, "the owner of no good quality" (Shakespeare), a financial and sexual predator, an arrogant bullyboy, a serial tax dodger, an adjudicated felon, an immoralist of the highest order, and "a dreadful man" (says a British friend).
How depressing it is to know that our next POTUS is a convicted felon! He won't be able to vote, but he can still be POTUS! WTF! How the hell did we come to this? Maybe we will get so deep in the hole, that the government will have to reform, to save itself! Or, maybe it is too late! The next four years will be the ultimate test, to see if democracy, as we know it, will hold up! Where is the calvary?
We need a totally new word to describe him. Nothing currently is dark enough
That is what I was trying to suggest. Insanity combined with all the other words that have been and are used to describe a particular thing about him. These other words leave me waning as not enough as when pebbles are thrown against a window when I want a boulder.
Well, he's getting to be pretty old. Maybe the clock will run out?
OMG! Then we will be stuck with Vance-just as horrible, but much younger! Or, it could be Don Jr. or any of the other equally horrible Trump's!
It is a nightmare that never ends!
Brainless Buffoon with Smarmy Sycophants up his ass crack in quivering fealty. Crackheads.
And that term fits Elonia to a "T".
Ann T. Thank you for the sacrifice and
great art. Your drawings always tell the truth. Keep shining your expertise on all of us patriots and America and hopefully, around the miserable globe.
What an egotistical, perverse man we have coming into the presidency. Orange posted this on 1/3:
“The Democrats are all ‘giddy’ about our magnificent American Flag potentially being at ‘half mast’ during my Inauguration. They think it’s so great, and are so happy about it because, in actuality, they don’t love our Country, they only think about themselves.
Nobody wants to see this, and no American can be happy about it. Let’s see how it plays out. MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!” – Orangey raging on Truth Social.
What stands out so clearly is that it is Trump who is "only think(ing) about (himself)." He is incapable of recognizing that expressing grief over the death of a great, honorable, kind, competent man and president like Jimmy Carter is normal and the right thing to do. But, to Trump, it only diminishes his revealing in his victory.
Also worth noting is, "they (people who Mourn Jimmy Carter's death) don't love our country." It is Orangey who neither understands or loves our country.
Worth note, President Carter checked out under Joe’s presidency giving us two final gifts:
1.
Emphasizing the incongruities and extremes of Oval occupants as we focus on and celebrate the remarkable life and selfless spirit of President Carter, America’s good, kind, wise, visionary man, against the grotesque, grifting, vile, vulgar, corrupt, lying life of oily-orange shit-bag Trumpler, far and away America’s worst POTUS ever and most divisive person to near the Oval.
2.
Zeroing out Trumpler effect as sitting president during this sad time of reflection, allowing our nation to bid the most appropriate farewell to the great Jimmy Carter.
Holy shit, it is mind bending what is coming…
Yes, the flag being at half mast, on inauguration day is driving Trump crazy! It also happens to be MLK, Jr. Day! I choose to walk in our MLK Parade, rather than watch "felon Trump" lying through the whole presidential oath! (How can an oath truly be an oath, if the guy doesn't believe a word it says?)
He is a sick, little man. And his followers are pathetic. Waiting for the real shit show to begin.
reveling, not revealing!
I think we knew what you intended to write. 👍
The MAGAt Green Beret should have put his money where his mouth was: he should have led the purge. Instead, he died like the bigmouth coward that he was. BTW, as one who works in animal protection, please don't use the word "pig" as an insult. Pigs are smart, sensitive and intelligent animals, they don't need to be compared to vile beings like Trump. Thanks.
I agree, we should stop assigning the worst characteristics of humans to animals. They do not in any way share those vile qualities. It’s a hard habit to break, but we should try.
Thank you, P.J. Well said.
My eyes were opened to that by vegan author Colleen Patrick-Goudreau. She inspired me to become vegan.
We have begun the age of propaganda controlled media. 1984 is here and the Orwellian world is beginning to peak. Trump said he was going to turn the clock back to a simpler time. Well that time is coming soon. Authoritarianism is simple. You either conform to the will of Trump or you will have the weight of the government come down on you. It is simple because they will tell you what you can read, who you can love and who you will support for elections from this day forward.
As long as we have the substack communities where we readers can post our comments (where the rest of us can read them) we will be aiding the survival of our rich tradition of American humor. Remember when we named our dogs "king", "prince", "queen" ?
If one looks at things solely from a political strategy, we could say that people like Vance, Cruz, Graham, and many others made the right decision. They aligned themselves with MAGA and were required to have their faces up Trump’s ass crack. And they were rewarded for it with political power by 77 million Americans.
Only right for them in the briefest of moments - historically.
They’ll be deemed the gutless monstrous lemmings they are in history’s archives — if we should manage not to blow it all up.
I am unsure if we will avoid blowing it up eventually. Generally the track has been not to have the best and brightest in our governance. We have the least intelligent up front — the states are the best example. And this is not something happening here, but around the world. China, Russia, and India are in the same boat.
Thank you Steve. We could lose everything.
Around what and who do we rally? Trump, FoxNews and X own the airwaves and are defining ‘truth.’ Is there a media source that has replaced the euphemism ‘misinformation’ with ‘lie’? Has any media source stopped printing the outright lies that Trump spews with every breath? Will any television network refuse to air his inauguration speech, especially those segments espousing hatred? If he were treated like pornography, we’d stand a chance. Until then, he has the louder bullhorn, one heard, unfiltered, by far too many people.
I suggest you watch Medais Touch, the largest professional, lawyers and prosecutors with years of experience, Democratic news source in the world. They have had personal interviews with Biden, Harris, Canada's AG, DOD JAG DOD Prosecutors, Mexico's trade secretary and other dignitaries.
"Medais Touch".
This and a raft of other YouTubers. And Substacks have a key role in the new information pipeline.
I’m hoping, & definitely encouraging everyone who did NOT vote for trump to not watch the inauguration. Have your TV on that day, but tuned to any channel that will not be airing the inauguration, nor breaking in to even show clips of it. Perhaps HGTV, ID, or the Food Network. We want it to have the lowest ratings of any show in history. That will anger the orange turd more than just about anything, other than those flags at half-staff.
Most everyone reading this blog already agrees, more or less, that a big, bad storm is coming in the wake of the 20 Jan 2025 inauguration. But no one seems to really know the exact parameters (or even the inexact parameters) of that storm - only that it will most likely be really really awful for everyone except the corporations and the wealthy. Out here in the hinterlands of the so-called Texas hill country, we've been wracking our brains to figure out how to "fight back." In addition to all the usual things (finding community, letters to the editors of our local papers, joining groups like Indivisible, etc etc), we're going to set up our own little Rapid Response Team to alert local left-leaning residents to contact their elected reps whenever we hear about a particular issue that our illustrious state officials or Congress or president is going to take that will adversely effect most of us (i.e., folks not making a bajillion dollars every day). We don't necessarily think any of our emails or calls will dissuade any of them from voting in lockstep with Herr Trump, but at least they'll know we're still here and still in active opposition to their various attempts to take over the country. And well, hopefully it won't get us all shot!
Hi CindyO in Texas,
I certainly understand you blue dots out in the Hill Country must feel lonely. My sister, & her spouse live in Kerrville, my nephew & his family live in Seguin, & they are maga trump voters. All the rest of my extended family live around TX & are also maga & believe the lies pumped out on Fox & FB.
It breaks my heart, but I just can’t be in contact with them right now as I consider it to be a massive moral failure to have voted for Republicans, particularly now. Bravo to you & your group, keep up the good fight.
Thank you, Steve! Political cartoons and art in general are weathervanes of the state of our country.
Reference to more info about Jefferson also suggested it would be unlike Thomas J to reference God in a speech since he believed religion should not be involved in politics. Bad Mike J. and bad for main media for not checking.
I'm reading "Hitler's First Hundred Days" by Peter Fritzsche. Quite illuminating story of how in just 3 months, Germany went from a struggling democracy to a full blown dictatorship.
Then I do a thought experiment. How far will MAGA go? The answer is quite simple. MAGA will go as far as we let them. The Cybertruck Fire guy wrote something that is virtually indistinguishable from what the Nazis believed: That political opponents are enemies of the people, and should therefore be exterminated. Would MAGA go that far? Would MAGA, if they got the power, line up and shoot democratic politicians, Liz Cheney, and the rest of the patriots who are courageously standing up to Trump? Is there any crime or atrocity that MAGA won't ultimately sanction if Trump tells them it's necessary to make America great again? I know plenty of these people, ex-friends and family, and based on that, I doubt it. They will just need the right kind and quantity of propaganda and they will go from "beat Democrats/RINOs at the ballot box" to "beat up Democrats/RINOs" to "shoot Democrats and RINOS."
The Nazis enjoyed some advantages MAGA (up till now) lacks. They had hundreds of thousands of SA Brownshirts (Stormtroopers) who had the spare time because of mass unemployment and were motivated by the loss of WWI and the stab-in-the-back big lie. MAGA has a big lie (stolen election) and their own Horst Wessel (Ashli Babbitt). They even have their own stormtroopers, who call themselves "proud boys" etc. But they don't, at this point at least, have enough of them to pull off what the Nazis did. Trump's pardon of J6'ers will be the start of an attempt to grow their own brownshirt movement, and it will be telling to see how many people flock to their banners.
MAGA needs brownshirts to run amok and create chaos and havoc on the streets, beat and intimidate supporters of democracy, and to provoke resistance so they can justify martial law or enact some kind of "emergency powers" or "enabling act". The tools to do these things are not as robust (yet) in the US as they were in 1933 Germany, but can any serious person doubt MAGA would employ violent dictatorial powers if they get the chance? Trump is no Hitler, who was evil but disciplined, intelligent, and ideological to the extreme. Trump's only ideology is his own narcissism and he is completely undisiplined, and if anything saves us, it may be that. But what comes behind Trump? Vance? Musk? Something even worse that we haven't even fathomed yet?
We don't really know what is going to happen. But we do know one thing with absolute certainty. MAGA is a fascist movement that keeps getting more radical and violent every day, and their plans for us are likely darker than we can even imagine. We would be fools to underestimate them.
Speaking of Hitler getting the German Parliament to pass an "Enabling Act," it seems to me that our own Supreme Court created its own equivalent of the "Enabling Act" when they gave Trump and future presidents immunity from prosecution for crimes committed while in office.
so true
"The tools to do these things are not as robust (yet) in the US as they were in 1933 Germany, but can any serious person doubt MAGA would employ violent dictatorial powers if they get the chance?"
My unfortunate answer is, no serious person would doubt that Trump and his MAGA followers, especially white supremacist militias like the "Proud Boys" would use violence to force us all to bend the knee to Trump. What a horrible thought.
Once the population is frightened enough, we will allow ourselves to be stripped of all our rights; we will all cower before an oligarchical thuggery.
Extreme fear is a powerful motivator and the Magats will have no problem employing it. As Trump said, "Can we shoot them in the legs?" This time the guns will be aimed at us as well as migrants.
MAGA must be stopped.
This is chilling..I have always admired her work, so accurate and to the point, and seeing this happen to her makes me so sad and just worried beyond belief.