I’m almost embarrassed to have to confess to having gone for the “Democrats need a clear message” horseshit for this long before some kind of metaphorical anvil fell on my head from the top of a metaphorical skyscraper and I suddenly realized that oh, f’crissake, the Democratic Party has been giving me a great big loud-ass and clear message since at least 1996, when Ralph Nader first ran on the Green Party ticket, and that clear message is —
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“Not a single Roman work of art — sculpture, coinage, or painting — displays a salute of the kind that is found in Fascism, Nazism, and related ideologies… It is also unknown to Roman literature and is never mentioned by ancient historians of either republican or imperial Rome. The gesture of the raised right arm or hand in Roman and other ancient cultures that is attested in surviving art and literature had a significantly different function and is never identical with the modern straight-arm salute.”
— Martin Winkler, in “The Roman Salute: Cinema, History, Ideology”
…just in case you run into any fashy apologists or Musk symps trying to explain it away by saying it’s a “Roman Salute”.
So just cut the crap already, ‘cos all the wide-open fash are wide-open loving it and — like the original — the Early 21st sequel also features craven-ass collaborators, in the form of the Democratic Party.
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“By pardoning his son, Joe Biden has reneged on a public promise that he made repeatedly before and after dropping out of the 2024 presidential race. The president and his top White House spokesperson said unequivocally, including after Trump won the 2024 election, that he would not pardon Hunter Biden or commute his sentence…”
—CNN, 12.02.2024
Still waiting for the Liberal chatterers at CNN and MSNBC to unload with two solid hours of screeching about how nobody is above the Rule Of Law™.
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Yeah, yeah, I know… but the only way to properly express the mood of this piece was to set it in a dark, grim mid-20th dive, with a permanently-circulating ceiling haze and ashtrays you could cave someone’s head in with.
Dude should know by now that that old wives’ cure never works. He’s heading for a king-size Trumpover.
It’s a quarter to three.
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So, that was the “October Surprise” this time around, huh? That was really it? Old Uncle Joe, movin’ kinda’ slow, suddenly decides to pipe up about some of Trump’s throwaway trash talk and immediately shits out a Basket Of Deplorables moment, right out on live TV in front of god and his cat and everybody, less than a week before the “election”? Well done. Even if MSNBC immediately changed its format to All Abortion Rights Horror Stories All The Time, it probably still wouldn’t be enough to save the DNC’s asses.
Just trying to imagine the scene around the DNC campaign offices right now… imagining Uncle Joe, still and quiet for all these weeks — they really thought they had him buried this time — suddenly clambering clumsily out of the grave like Tor Johnson in Plan 9 From Outer Space to drop a big, hot steaming Gaffe From The Beyond.
Mind you, I’m not arguing with the truth of El Presidente’s blabbage about Trump supporters being garbage, here; that’s as maybe — but, still, when you’re a sitting President of the United Snakes Of Amerika who’s had to drop out of a re-election campaign after your brain fried out on live national TV, and who’s proudly facilitating and defending the brutal, venal crimes of two of the most garbage human beings walking the Earth at the moment, and whose actions in the past year have at last fully revealed American/Western traditions and institutions to be complete garbage… you might want keep a lid on that name-calling shit.
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On top of this CNN Town Hall shartage, my regular “Random 15″ from MSNBC included Kay-Kay speaking at a rally where she makes the big buildup to the working class, only to cap it with a declaration that she will ban price gouging on groceries…
all in that classic delivery of hers, that sounds as if she studied public speaking under Hillary Clinton, like a foreign actress who had to learn her lines phonetically. Dear GOD, just listen to that scolding junior-high principal voice, so full of passion and conviction when she talks about goddamn CHEAP GROCERIES. …and the crowd’s going wild for that shit; just listen to ‘em, as if cued by an electric sign, like a game-show audience.
This, apparently, is going to be her signature achievement if she wins the “election”, if her hands aren’t too full with the goddamn GENOCIDE. Yeah… not a Great Society, or voting rights, or going to the Moon… nahh, just cheap groceries.
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So, I’m out doing my laps earlier this week, and I spot this lawn sign in front of a house about 2 blocks around the corner from us — and all I can think is that somebody in the DNC’s ad agencies isn’t quite clear on the concept of “joy”. Not just as an intelligent human, but as a designer and art director with 30+ in the biz, I gotta say that this choice of color and typography does NOT bespeak “joy”.
The sign glowers at me, dark and mean, telling me to “choose joy” as if issuing an order, as if implying “…or ELSE” — coming off like the latest in a long line of fascistic, authoritarian slogans: War Is Peace, Freedom Is Slavery, Ignorance Is Strength; Arbeit Macht Frei; Country Over Party. Choose Joy, or else.
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I wish I’d screenshot or bookmarked the tweet I spotted on Facebook featuring a grinning Kay-Kay and Netanyahu shaking hands, with a headline announcing the latest amount of my tax money being shipped off to fund a genocide in Palestine. Not that it matters that much these days, as it’s always such an insanely stonking amount of cash that remembering the actual goddamn number doesn’t seem that important anymore.
Luckily, though, I did save this headline from the Washington Post a couple of days ago, about how the Small Business Administration’s disaster relief fund is already tapped out. Tough luck, MAGA Boy, the money to rebuild your surf shop just went to bomb a bunch of people living in tents.
What goes around, America…
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For the past month or so, MSNBC has been clutching every available pearl over how Donald Trump and his deformed minions will handle the possibility of losing the “election”. Will they pitch a fit, scream “fraud” and try to lay siege to Capitol Hill to disrupt the electoral vote count and stage a putsch as they did in ‘21?
Personally, I can’t help asking the same question about the Donkeycrats — how will they handle losing to a dude who resembles a villain from an old Columbo episode and whose followers are some of the most intensely stupid beings walking upright on Earth; how will they roll with a well-deserved ass-paddling at the polls after spitting in the faces of every Muslim-American and every American who actually cares about piddling shit like genocide?
Will the Democrats, on facing defeat, do some institutional soul-searching, self-examination and self-evaluation, accept responsibility and get to work on solutions or — as they’ve always done — pitch a fit, scream “fraud”, blame the Left, blame Russia, create a climate of good old-fashioned McCarthyist bullying, fear, suspicion and suppression and try to litigate and investigate their way into power, as they did in ‘17?
Bwah ha ha ha ha ha hah, d’ahh, fuck it, man; who are we kidding?
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My customary Random 15 Seconds Of MSNBC the other morning featured some nasal-vocal-frying “guest analyst” from some dime-a-dozen downtown think tank babbling to the effect of “…Dick Cheney is changing hearts and minds — great!” while discussing ex-VP Dick Cheney’s announcement that he’s voting for Kamala Harris. Hot damn diggety, talk about a positively ringing endorsement.
Looks like the DNC is totally hitting the goddamn trifecta this time around, too — they’ve got Liz Cheney denouncing Trump, her old man — a known worldwide war criminal — announcing he’s voting for Kay Kay, and they’ve actually FLOATED GEORGE W. BUSH AS A SPEAKER AT THEIR GODDAMN CONVENTION, F'CRISSAKE.
So, am I the only one here who remembers when the DNC thought that Cheney was the walking, talking, living, breathing earthly embodiment of pure evil and that George W. Bush was THE WORST PRESIDENT EVAH? No, really, I mean it, ‘cos I need to make absolutely 110% sure that I didn’t totally fucking hallucinate the past quarter century.
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It's a Sunday morning as I write this, and I can't stop imagining Liberals all over Amerika seeing Genocide Joe's grinning mug on slices of burnt toast and considering it a clear sign that he should stay in the race — when what it actually means, of course...
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MSNBC has gone into full-on Panic Mode, peak Pay No Attention To The Man Behind The Curtain Mode, completely off-scale He’s Not Dead, He’s Just Resting Mode — and I’m love, love, loving it.
I loved watching the Chair of the Congressional Black Caucus blustering that Biden Is The Nominee, Dammit, He’s Playing 10-Dimensional Chess, Has X-Ray Vision And Is Just Pining For The Fjords in a desperate attempt to convince us — or mostly himself — that Genocide Joe really can see around corners, and I loved a recently-rehabbed post-MeToo Chris Matthews in fine voice, literally shouting at the viewers that Uncle Joe can slice’n'dice Trump with one hand tied behind his back and is just stunned right now, and he doesn’t want any shit about it.
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Ever since the last “debate”, I and millions like me are walkin’ on sunshine because finally, at long last, the mask is finally off. After that classic episode of Must-Not-Unsee TV, there’s no getting around the fact that our ruling class is entirely incompetent, that democracy and the “rules-based order” are s sham, and that Amerika and the West have fallen and can’t get up.
MSNBC, CNN and the New York Times are boiling with Liberal panic and denial right now — panic and denial so thick you can smell it through the TV set — and I can’t pretend I’m not enjoying it. Joe Scarborough was priceless; dude was shouting — like, really yelling — about how insanely awesome Joe Biden is, how he could leap tall buildings and has x-ray vision and rescued the economy and is the only thing standing between us and fascism, yelling so loudly that you could hear the echo in the studio; absolutely hilarious. You could almost see the little wisps of cartoon steam coming out of his ears.
In the “weighing how to respond” department, I hear that most rich-ass DNC donors have been upping their day-drinking game when lacking the cajones for suicide.
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If there were a sure sign that the Donkeycrats are pants-shitting panicked at the prospect of traditionally-Leftish/progressivish voters abandoning their worthless asses en masse at the polls over the genocide in Palestine, it’s the fact that the likes of MSNBC and the Washington Post just can’t stop the tubthumping over the economy and the “consumer confidence” polls just out this week.
Never mind the piss-poor public health response to COVID19, or the historic re-enactment of the fall of Saigon in 2021, or the piss-poor disaster response in Maui last year, or the metric fuckton of cash flushed down the shitter for a bunch of Ukrainian Nazi hillbillies, the wide-open support of fascistic ethnic cleansing in Palestine, the continued attempted instigation of world war — nahh, screw that shit; the consumer confidence numbers are in and the economy is rockin’, so let’s turn that frown upside down, ya’ fusty proles.
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“Haven’t you heard? It’s a battle of words!” the poster bearer cried;
“Listen, son,” said the man with the gun, “There’s room for you inside!”
— Pink Floyd, “Us And Them” (1973)
Throughout MSNBC’s nonstop, never-ending, ceaseless, mind-numbing, soul-crushing, forever-grinding-on coverage of Trump’s little bullshit real-estate fraud trial, they pretty much paused only to scream and yell and bitch in befuddlement about how the Donmonster could possibly still be the goddamn GOP front-runner and bitch bitch bitch above the law and whine whine whine rule of law and snarl growl yell democracy is at stake, followed by a pivot to their illustrious GOP primary coverage in which their chirping mutant anchortarts just couldn’t shut the hell up about how Trump and the GOP’s rhetoric is about “us vs. them” and the Democrats are all about “us”.
…and all I could think of in that moment was how thoroughly the Democratic Party groundlessly scapegoated and demonized Russia for their own ineptitude and general suckage in the Easiest Slam-Dunk Election Ever In All Of Recorded Human History Including The Lascaux Cave Paintings, and how just how much of the Democratic Party’s attitude and general M.O. involves demonizing, scapegoating and otherizing — whether it’s people calling out their Russiagate sham, their idiotic policy decisions or their collaboration with fascists, or pretty much anyone on the left calling out their poor record with ethnic minorities, students, the working class, the poor, or pointing out their long-established reputation for warmongering, you can pretty much count on the Democrats to stand on their record, no matter what.
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“REGRET From Military”, it says here.
That’s right — REGRET for “unintended harm”.
Oh, for Christ’s sake, why do these goddamn thugs even bother? Who do they think they’re kidding? Do they think that after nearly 3 months of genocidal brutality, fascistic bullying, threats and media lies, Genocide Joe’s little buddy actually expects us to believe that they REGRET this goddamn horror show?
The threat of the Bad Old Rethuglicans taking over stopped scaring me nearly 30 years ago, and right now it scares me even less, if such a thing is possible. Four more years of Trump? Big goddamn deal; we’ve ALREADY been through 4 more years of Trump, so I could give the slightest molecule of a rat’s ass who “wins” your goddamn “election” next year. For all I care, the Democrats can get their asses shredded so goddamn bad that they have to be identified via dental records. At this point, I don't care so much about defeating Trump as I do about defeating America.
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Well, kiddies, for those of you following the little Democracy™ game, it’s no secret that DNC voters are about as enthusiastic over Joe Biden next year as they’d be over having to eat glass. So, for all those desperate Dems who can’t seem to bust out of the electoral prison, the idea of a primary challenge sounds made of awesome.
So, who do they get — a fresh, bold progressive insurgent in the Bernie Sanders mold? Nahh, hell no, man — they get a xenophobic antivax Kennedy spawn and a bougie self-help guru who’s the “spiritual adviser” to Oprah. OPRAH, f’crissake. Hell, man, if that’s not a prime qualification for the White House, I’d like to know what is.
Hello, Second Trump Administration.
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It is with anxiety, chagrin and dread that I present this, my first cartoon of the 2024 Presidential “election” slog…
…and despite the massive disappointment and lack of enthusiasm of huge swaths of Democratic voters, Gropin’ Joe announced his re-election campaign kickoff with a promise to “finish the job”… at which point yours truly, like millions of others, is cringing and asking themselves: what job would THAT be — immiserating the poor and the working class? Terrorizing immigrants and bullying our next-door neighbors? Fattening up the war profiteers and Wall Street? Beating down anti-war dissent in public media? Dragging us into World War III?
Lotta big jobs to finish there, Joester; guess you’re going to need four more years to thoroughly screw things up, huh?
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While I continue getting over surgery and tryna' get back into a drawing groove, n'shit... let's flash back to another war that Liberals of both parties lied, blustered and bullied their asses off to drag us into... originally did this for an immediate post-election protest response in DC; it got blasted all over, but I never actually did a blog post, except for this sloppy-ass blurb on my old static html site... so, here it is. Let's climb aboard the TARDIS, kiddies, and set the dial for the turn of the century:
---------------
So, I wake up one early morning recently; as usual, my wife's already awake and has NBC's "Today" jabbering on the TV. In the thinning fog of my fading REM state I hear candidate John "Lurch" Kerry being interviewed, and he's telling us how he plans to continue to uphold the corporate/military agenda, after which a Bush campaign ad denounces Lurch for being "too leftist". I think: jeezus, it's too damn' early for this shit. Lurch says he'll keep doing what the Chimp started, and the Chimp accuses Lurch of being too leftist, it's only 7:15am, and my brain is already hurting.
Somebody, stop this torture. Somebody make it stop. Somebody, make...it...sto-oopppppp!
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I present for you now, ladies'n'gents, my very first cartoon of the 2024 Presidential campaign — and leave all hope behind...
Human remains were reportedly found in the landing gear of a US military plane after it departed Kabul airport, with harrowing unverified footage purporting to show a person trapped on the plane’s exterior as it took off...
...In footage too graphic to publish, presumably filmed through a window by a passenger on board the plane, the person was seen trapped outside the craft in mid-flight, though it is unclear exactly when the video was captured or how long after the C-17 took off.
— RT.com, 08.17.2021
...and the tweet in question has since been pulled for "violating the Twitter rules" — though, luckily, that evil, terrible old Russian-controlled media nabbed us a frame or two. I wish I'd jumped on it and downloaded a copy of the video as soon as I saw it — barely 7 months in, and we already have a disgustingly apt visual metaphor for the entirety of the Biden Years.
This is your future, working-class America.
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