Category Archives: Political commentary

World’s Richest Asshole

Posted on by under Economic issues, education, Global Issues, History, Political commentary, Racism & Bigotry, Social commentary

I know it seems that I quote Robert Reich a lot lately, but he is wise and his words most often convey the things I’m thinking with added knowledge and insight.  These days, one cannot log onto any news site or pick up a newspaper without seeing Elon Musk’s ugly mug and reading about his infuriating attempts to stick his nose into other countries’ business.  Let’s see how Mr. Reich views this …

The Muskrat Goes Global

Why is the richest person on earth with the largest political platform in the world and the next U.S. president in his pocket becoming a global neo-fascist? What can be done to constrain him?

By Robert Reich

07 January 2025

Elon Musk repeatedly asserts, without evidence, that British Prime Minister Keir Starmer covered up the abuses of young girls by gangs comprised largely of British Pakistani men, in cases that date back to before 2010 when Starmer was head of Britain’s public prosecutions.

“Starmer was complicit in the RAPE OF BRITAIN when he was head of Crown Prosecution for 6 years,” Musk posted to the top of his account on Friday. “Starmer must go and he must face charges for his complicity in the worst mass crime in the history of Britain.”

In fact, Starmer, who heads the Labour government, did not cover up abuses. Instead, he brought the first case against an Asian grooming gang and drafted new guidelines for how the Crown Prosecution Service should deal with cases of sexual exploitation of children, including the mandatory reporting of child sex offenses.

Musk also calls Jess Phillips, the Labour government’s under secretary for safeguarding and violence against women and girls, a “rape genocide apologist” because she pushed back on calls for a national inquiry into child sexual exploitation in Oldham, a town near Manchester.

In fact, Phillips, who has long campaigned for women’s rights, has called for a local investigation by Oldham authorities rather than the central government. Women’s rights supporters say Musk’s labeling Phillips a “rape genocide apologist” is threatening her safety.

Yesterday, Starmer warned publicly that Musk’s baseless accusations “crossed a line,” adding that “once we lose the anchor that truth matters, in the robust debate that we must have, then we are on a very slippery slope.”

Musk’s global reach

Musk’s lies about the left-wing British government and his support for far-right groups are parts of an emerging pattern. Musk is also:

  • boosting the far-right party in Germany with neo-Nazi ties, known as Alternative for Germany (AfD), before elections early next month. Musk signaled his support for AfD in mid-December, writing in a post on X that “only the AfD can save Germany.” He also penned an oped in a German newspaper recently, describing the party as the “last spark of hope” for the country. Musk is planning an online “discussion” on X with the AfD’s leader and candidate for chancellor, Alice Weidel, amplifying the party’s neo-Nazi ideology.
  • attacking the Italian judiciary for curbing Italian Prime Giorgia Meloni’s hardline anti-asylum immigration policies. Musk has met regularly with Meloni, who has called him a friend, and appeared at a youth event for Meloni’s party.
  • urging support for Britain’s far-right MP Nigel Farage’s anti-immigration Reform U.K. Party. Musk says he might donate upward of 100 million pounds ($127 million) to Farage’s group.
  • demanding Britain “free Tommy Robinson,” the far-right founder of the English Defence League — an Islamophobic, nationalist group and anti-immigrant agitator whom, Musk charges, is in jail for “telling the truth.” In fact, Robinson is in jail because he was found to have defamed a teenage Syrian refugee and then defied a British court order by repeating the false claims. (Robinson has been previously jailed for assault, mortgage fraud and traveling on a false passport to the United States, where he has sought to establish ties with right-wing groups.)
  • allowing on X inflammatory lies of a kind that incited anti-immigrant riots in Britain last July, following the killing of three girls in a mass stabbing in the town of Southport. After Britain arrested more than 30 people, Musk condemned the government for what he called an attack on free speech.
  • calling Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau an “insufferable tool” over comments Trudeau made in support of Kamala Harris, and predicted he “won’t be in power for much longer.” (Yesterday, Trudeau announced he will resign.)

Where Musk is getting this power

As the richest person in the world, politicians everywhere now recognize his capacity to pour money into their parties and political campaigns, as he did by investing a quarter of a billion dollars to get Trump elected.

He also owns X, formerly Twitter, which (as of December 2024) has 619 million monthly active users. He has manipulated X’s algorithm to boost his own posts, which now reach 210 million.

But Musk’s real power these days comes from his proximity to and presumed influence over Donald Trump, soon to be President of the United States.

Musk has hardly left Trump’s side since the election, meaning that Musks’s opinions (amplified by his social media platform) cannot be ignored by politicians around the world who are trying to decipher Trump’s opinions.

One prominent member of Germany’s center-left Social Democratic Party is asking that Germany determine “whether [Musk’s] repeated disrespect, defamation and interference in the election campaign were also expressed in the name of the new U.S. government.”

This combination — the richest person in the world, owner and manipulator of the biggest political messaging platform in the world, with direct influence over Trump — puts Musk in the position of being able to move other nations toward the neo-fascist right.

Why Musk is doing this

Not for money. As it is, he has far more than any human can utilize.

Partly, it’s ideological. He calls himself a “free speech absolutist,” which puts him at odds with Europe’s and Canada’s aggressive responses to hate speech online. (Britain, Musk says, “is turning into a police state.”)

But the roots of Musk’s neo-fascism probably go deeper.

I am no psychoanalyst but I imagine that as an immigrant from South Africa, Musk is especially triggered by poor people of color moving into white nations. His father smuggled raw emeralds and had them cut in Johannesburg.

Part of his shift to the radical right also comes from Musk’s transgender child. As Musk told conservative commentator Jordan Peterson, “I lost my son, essentially,” claiming she was “dead, killed by the woke mind virus. I vowed to destroy the woke mind virus after that.” (Musk’s daughter, Vivian Jenna Wilson, now 20, told NBC News that Musk was an absent father who was cruel to her as a child for being queer and feminine.)

On X, Musk continuously criticizes transgender rights, including medical treatments for trans-identifying minors, and the use of pronouns if they are different from what would be used at birth. He has promoted anti-trans content and called for arresting people who provide trans care to minors. Last July, Musk said he was pulling his businesses out of California to protest a new state law that bars schools from requiring that trans kids be outed to their parents. After Musk bought X, then known as Twitter, in 2022, he rolled back the app’s protections for trans people, including a ban on using birth names (known as “deadnames” for transgender people).

Perhaps the major reason for Musk’s recent effort to push other nations to the neo-fascist right is his newfound thirst for right-wing global politics. After effectively (at least in Musk’s mind) winning the presidency for Trump by spending more than $250 million and unleashing a maelstrom of pro-Trump and anti-Harris lies over X, he now seeks even more of an authoritarian rush.

It will not be the first time in history that someone is seduced by the thrill of unconstrained power, although it may be the first time that so much of it is concentrated in one unelected megalomaniac.

What should be done about Musk?

For the time being, particularly under Trump, there is little that we in America can do to constrain Musk except by boycotting Tesla and X.

Canada and Britain and other European nations, meanwhile, should, at the very least:

  • enact laws and regulations to prohibit non-citizens (like Musk) from financing activities that could affect their elections.
  • maintain, if not strengthen, laws and rules against hate speech, and ensure that they are applied to social media companies, such as Musk’s X.
  • refuse to contract with Musk’s Space X and its Starlink satellite division, or with Musk’s other corporations (Tesla and the Boring Company).
  • disengage from any joint ventures or technology transfers involving Musk, including xAI, his artificial intelligence company.

Heartbreaking

Posted on by under Election 2020, Election 2024, History, Law and justice, Political commentary, Social commentary

I hadn’t planned to write another post about January 6th at this time, but then yesterday I came across a piece written by Aquilino Gonell, one of the Capitol Police officers who was seriously injured on that fateful day, January 6th, 2021.  His words moved me so much that I felt I had to share them with you.  When Trump and others refer to the events of that tragic day as “a day of love”, remember these words by Officer Aquilino Gonell … he was there, he saw, he felt … there was NO love!

I Was Nearly Killed on Jan. 6th. Four Years Later, I Feel Betrayed All Over Again.

The people whose lives I protected sided with my attackers. But they weren’t the only ones to let me down.

By Aquilino Gonell

06 January 2025

FOUR YEARS AGO, ON THIS VERY DAY, I kissed my wife and son goodbye and went to work in the Capitol, where I served as a member of the U.S. Capitol Police. There were indications that it would be a different day than most, with supporters of then-President Donald Trump gathering in Washington, D.C. to oppose the certification of Joe Biden’s election.

But that morning, when we showed up, none of us anticipated what lay ahead. By the afternoon, an angry mob of insurrectionists had descended on the Capitol complex, storming the security barricades in an effort to overturn the election. It quickly became violent.

I immigrated from the Dominican Republic at 12 years old. Though I struggled to adjust and assimilate, I learned to love this country. When I was able to, I joined the U.S. Army and served overseas, including in Iraq for 545 days. I was diagnosed with PTSD upon returning home. January 6th added another layer to that trauma. In fact, it was worse than any day I spent overseas.

In Iraq, I had the expectation that at any moment I could be killed by the enemy. But on January 6th, that feeling was constant. It was the longest day of my life, with more than forty people assaulting me—individually and in concert with others—over the course of exhausting, harrowing hours, all because the person who had incited the mob and had the authority to send the reinforcements chose to watch the siege on TV. As the attack unfolded sixteen blocks away, he cheered it from the comfort and safety of the dining room just off the Oval Office. While immigrant officers like myself were defending the Capitol, his minions—many native-born rioters—attacked it.

That person, Donald Trump, has now been re-elected. And today, exactly four years after January 6th, his victory will be certified by Congress. The U.S. Capitol Police will be there again, to ensure that the proceedings go off uneventfully. But this time around, the sitting president, Joe Biden, won’t inspire a mob to commit acts of violence. We will have a peaceful transfer of power. Trump will allow for it—because this time, he has won.

AS SOMEONE WHO HAS DEVOTED the last few years of his life to advocacy on behalf of democracy and public safety, I am grateful to see a peaceful transfer of power take place. But I also can’t help but feel a sense of betrayal on this anniversary of January 6th. I feel betrayed by the Department of Justice for not moving faster and with more purpose to hold accountable those who inspired the riot that day. I’m sickened that surviving benefits (Public Safety Officers’ Benefits) have not been approved for officers who were injured, physically and mentally, in the line of duty. I feel betrayed by the U.S. Supreme Court, which chose to declare presidents criminally immune for all “official acts” even if they threaten our constitutional and democratic institutions. I feel betrayed by those people who claim that they support the rule of law but gladly cheer on the people who violently attacked police officers.

And I feel let down by the members of Congress who turned their backs on us even as we saved their lives. And yes, we saved their lives that day.

Many members of Congress would not be here to vote to certify Trump’s re-election without our actions four years ago. The mob didn’t get to them, but not for lack of trying. They’re here today because four years ago officers like myself did what we did inside the Capitol tunnel. Had the mob taken that entrance, a lot of members would have been hurt or killed.

Some of these same elected officials—who claim to be on the side of the rule of law—are now defending the January 6th rioters and calling on Trump to pardon them. He has said he intends to do so. And adding insult to our injuries, some members of Congress are inviting rioters to Trump’s inauguration, bringing them back to the site of the building they desecrated. This infuriates me. It is dishonorable. We cannot expect these lawmakers to stand up to Trump or defend the Constitution in the future.

PEOPLE FAIL TO REALIZE that we were simply doing our jobs that day. They accuse me and my fellow officers of letting the mob in, of siding with Democrats, of hating Donald Trump. No. I sided with the law. I did it to the point that I lost my health and my career. And I’ve been a faithful public servant in the Army and as a law enforcement officer for twenty-five years.

I did what I did on January 6th because it was my job. I kept my oath. And since that day, I’ve felt an obligation to tell the American people exactly what we experienced and went through. They deserved to know the truth. My expectation was that our elected officials felt the same way—that they would not condone but condemn what happened, denounce the violence, and hold accountable the people responsible for it.

I did my part. They did not do theirs.

Instead, they gave the former president a platform to run again. The Republican officials who were the target of the mob contorted themselves to justify Trump’s actions. Others remained silent when they could have spoken out. Mitch McConnell refused to use his power to hold Trump accountable during Trump’s second impeachment. Kevin McCarthy flew to Mar-a-Lago to kiss the ring. They chose politics over what was best for the country. Donald Trump would not be president-elect today if not for those two individuals. They helped him turn January 6th into a badge of honor. While privately excoriating and expressing concern about Trump’s transgressions, publicly they have been staunch supporters.

This is the fourth anniversary of January 6th. This one hits harder than the other three and makes the moral injury far greater. What took place was an unforgivable, cardinal sin. But clearly much of the country, including one of our political parties, has chosen to reward those who committed it.

January 6th — Never Forget

Posted on by under Election 2020, Election 2024, History, Law and justice, Political commentary

Today is the day that Congress will certify the results of November’s election.  It is also the 4th anniversary of the January 6th, 2021 attempted coup/insurrection that was incited and plotted by the very person whose electoral win will be certified today.  A bit of irony, don’t you think?  In my view, this day four years ago was one of the most tragic days in U.S. history, along with December 7th, 1941 (the day Pearl Harbour was attacked) and September 11th, 2001 (the day the U.S. was attacked by planes piloted by puppets of Usama bin Laden).  This day is one that should live in infamy, should serve as a reminder that there are forces within the U.S. who would gladly bring about its demise as a democratic republic.  Representatives of those forces are now serving in the U.S. Congress, and the person who incited the insurrection will soon occupy the Oval Office, to the detriment of this nation and its people.

I am appalled by the attempt to re-write the history of that day by some, such as Republican Representative in Congress, Mike Collins, who claims that …

“On #ThisDayInHistory in 2021, thousands of peaceful grandmothers gathered in Washington, D.C., to take a self-guided, albeit unauthorized, tour of the U.S. Capitol building. Earlier that day, President Trump held a rally, where supporters walked to the Capitol to peacefully protest the certification of the 2020 election. During this time, some individuals entered the Capitol, took photos, and explored the building before leaving.”

BULLSHIT!!!

I share with you today Robert Reich’s view … one that is wise far beyond that of many of those who currently serve in our Congress — a view that bears repeating.

A day that shall live in infamy, as should Donald J. Trump

The last time a presidential vote was certified, the losing incumbent attempted a coup against the United States. We must never forget his treachery.

By Robert Reich

05 January 2025

The man who instigated a riot at the U.S. Capitol four years ago tomorrow to stop the certification of Joe Biden as president will be certified president.

The peaceful transfer of power lies at the heart of American democracy, but Trump sought to overturn the result of the 2020 election and has not been held accountable.

We must never forget his treachery.

When Vice President Mike Pence walked into the Capitol four years ago tomorrow, on January 6, 2021, he faced a withering pressure campaign by Trump, who had already twisted the arms of governors and election officials around the country to change the result of the election in his favor.

Pence was about to throw out the slates of false electors that Trump and his henchmen had hyped for weeks — coaxing loyalists in five swing states to submit signed certificates falsely claiming they were “duly elected and qualified” members of the Electoral College.

But as Pence began the electoral vote count, thousands of Trump supporters, many of them armed, stormed the Capitol. Some chanted they wanted to “hang Mike Pence” for refusing to block the certification.

They came directly from a rally Trump held on the Ellipse, in which Trump repeated his false claim that the election had been stolen and told the crowd, “if you don’t fight like hell, you’re not going to have a country anymore.”

According to the indictment from the office of Special Counsel Jack Smith, Trump directed those supporters to the Capitol “to obstruct the certification proceeding and exert pressure” on Pence. The indictment further states:

After it became public on the afternoon of January 6 that the Vice President would not fraudulently alter the election results, a large and angry crowd — including many individuals whom the Defendant had deceived into believing the Vice President could and might change the election results — violently attacked the Capitol and halted the proceeding.”

The FBI estimates that between 2,000 and 2,500 people entered the Capitol Building during the attack, some of whom participated in vandalism and looting, including the the offices of members of Congress. Rioters also assaulted Capitol Police officers. They occupied the empty empty Senate chamber while federal law enforcement officers defended the evacuated House floor.

Within 36 hours, five people died. One was shot by Capitol Police, another died of a drug overdose, three died of heart attacks or strokes, including a police officer who died the day after being assaulted by rioters. Many were injured, including 174 police officers. Four other officers who responded to the attack died by suicide within seven months.

“President Trump was wrong,” Pence said subsequently. “I had no right to overturn the election. And his reckless words endangered my family and everyone at the Capitol that day, and I know history will hold Donald Trump accountable.”

But Trump has not been held accountable.

A week after the attack, the House of Representatives impeached Trump for incitement of insurrection. In February 2021, after he had left office, the Senate voted 57–43 in favor of conviction, but fell short of the required two-thirds, resulting in his acquittal.

Senate Republicans then blocked a bill to create a bipartisan independent commission to investigate the attack, leaving the House to organize its own select committee.

After an 18-month investigation including more than 1,000 witnesses and nine televised public hearings, the House’s select committee identified Trump as the “central cause” of the Capitol attack by the pro-Trump mob.

The panel, made up of seven Democrats and two Republicans, voted unanimously to recommend charges to the Justice Department to prosecute Trump for seeking to overturn the results of the 2020 election.

Following a special counsel investigation by the Justice Department, Trump was indicted on four charges in August 2023.

But after Trump’s reelection to the presidency, all charges were dismissed.

Of the 1,424 people charged with federal crimes relating to the riot, 1,010 pled guilty,and 1,060 have been sentenced. Enrique Tarrio, then the chairman of the Proud Boys, received the longest sentence, a 22-year prison term.

***

Trump and his lackeys in the Republican Party have since promoted a revisionist history of the event — downplaying the severity of the violence, spreading conspiracy theories, and portraying those charged with crimes as hostages and martyrs.

Trump has tried to recast the violent events as a “day of love.” He has promised that in the first day of his new administration he would consider pardons for those who have been prosecuted for their roles on Jan. 6.

On December 8, 2024, in his first broadcast news interview since the 2024 election, Trump said members of the House committee that investigated the riot “should go to jail.”

***

That Donald J. Trump — the same person who instigated a coup four years ago tomorrow, when Congress last gathered to certify an election — will become President on January 20 is an assault on the rule of law and the foundations of our democracy.

We must never forget. January 6, 2021 should live in infamy, as should Trump.

I Hereby Resolve That I Will NOT Bend a Knee

Posted on by under education, Free Press Issues, History, Law and justice, Political commentary, Racism & Bigotry, Social commentary, Trump's Staff Picks

I don’t think that even I realized just how angry I am until this afternoon when I tried to throw a rock into the window of a CVS Pharmacy!  Probably a good thing my pitch landed about 3 inches below the targeted window, else I might be writing this from a jail cell tonight.  Though breaking a window may not be justifiable, my anger certainly is and I am not alone.

John Pavlovitz, who I quote fairly often, wrote of his resolve for the coming times that have stoked anger & angst in so many of us, and I fully concur with what he says.  I will not bend, but will fight with whatever weapons I have against those who would turn this nation into a full-blown autocracy, a nation by, of, and for only the white and the wealthy.  Here’s what John has to say …

I Do Not Obey in Advance

By John Pavlovitz

04 January 2025

I did all I could over the past year to avoid our nation winding up here in this sad and sickening place, and since we almost inexplicably now have, I refuse to kiss the ring or bend the knee or sell my soul, no matter how many already have or will end up doing so.

I refuse to normalize him.

I did not vote for him, he does not represent me, and I do not believe he is at all deserving of being here—and so I grieve his ascension and resist his ugliness.

I object to him in totality: to the ways he humiliates women and vilifies immigrants and threatens critics and devalues people of color and disregards the law.

I declare my fierce repulsion at his tremendous cruelty, his lack of compassion, his contempt for dissension, his absence of simple decency.

As we face an unprecedented assault on the free press and the access to news and liberty to speak freely, I want it documented that I did not look the other way when women accused him of assault, when he engineered an insurrection, when the reality of his Russian alliances came to light, when he weaponized our highest court—though large portions of the American media and its people chose to look the other way.

Let the record show that my faith would not allow me to fall in line behind this godless, joyless, loveless man while so many professed religious people did; that I saw nothing resembling Jesus in him, and that to declare him Christian would have been to toss aside everything I grew up believing faith manifested in a life.

I do not buy into the fear that he perpetuates of those with brown skin or foreign birthplaces or exchanged pronouns and I reject the racism and bigotry and homophobia that characterized his campaign, marked his supporters, and is evident in his assembling Administration.

As he spends countless early morning and middle-of-the-night hours on social media, broadcasting a steady stream of hateful, incoherent, and dangerously irresponsible messages—I am preparing to stand as a steady and sturdy barrier between him and the disparate people of this nation who he will prey upon, regardless of whether they voted for him or not.

As I watch him assemble a kleptocratic Cabinet of billionaires and bigots, of people woefully unqualified to steward our children, our safety, our healthcare, our financial stability—I will be fortifying myself to push back at every turn with the resources at my disposal, meager as they might be on their own.

I promise to join together with other good people to loudly resist and oppose every unscrupulous, dangerous, unjust and dishonest act he and his new Administration engage in, so that we might consolidate our power and magnify our voices.

History has been littered with horrible people who did terrible things with power, because too many good people remained silent. And since my fear is that we are surely entering one of those periods in our story, I wanted to make sure that I was recorded for posterity:

I do not believe he is normal.
I do not believe he is emotionally stable.
I do not believe he cares about the full, beautiful diversity of America.
I do not believe he respects women.
I do not believe he is pro-life other than his own.
I do not believe the sick and the poor and the hurting matter to him in the slightest.
I do not believe he is a man of faith or integrity or nobility.
I do not believe his concern is for anything outside his reflection in the mirror.

I believe he is a danger to our nation, a threat to our safety, careless with our people, and reckless with his power.

I believe America will be less secure, less diverse, less compassionate, and less decent under his leadership.

And so, I proudly declare my future resistance to his grotesque version of American “greatness,” no matter how difficult this becomes.

Right now I am terribly worried for my country, concerned for our planet, scared for the future of my children, and greatly saddened that 77 million Americans seem okay with all of this.

I am profoundly not okay with any of this, and so before he even steps foot back into the Oval Office to further poison this beautiful nation, I defiantly fly a preemptive middle finger that reaffirms my opposition to his criminality and sociopathy.

In advance of all that is coming, I will not obey.

I hope I’m not alone.

A Free Press Hero — Ann Telnaes

Posted on by under Free Press Issues, History, Political commentary, Social commentary

Ann Telnaes is a political cartoonist who has worked for The Washington Post for the past 16 years, and yesterday she resigned from her job because the powers-that-be at The Post attempted to stifle her voice.  I applaud this woman for standing up for what is right, for standing up for a free and responsible press.  Here is her essay explaining the situation …

Why I’m quitting the Washington Post

Democracy can’t function without a free press

By Ann Telnaes

04 January 2025

I’ve worked for the Washington Post since 2008 as an editorial cartoonist. I have had editorial feedback and productive conversations—and some differences—about cartoons I have submitted for publication, but in all that time I’ve never had a cartoon killed because of who or what I chose to aim my pen at. Until now.

The cartoon that was killed criticizes the billionaire tech and media chief executives who have been doing their best to curry favor with incoming President-elect Trump. There have been multiple articles recently about these men with lucrative government contracts and an interest in eliminating regulations making their way to Mar-a-lago. The group in the cartoon included Mark Zuckerberg/Facebook & Meta founder and CEO, Sam Altman/AI CEO, Patrick Soon-Shiong/LA Times publisher, the Walt Disney Company/ABC News, and Jeff Bezos/Washington Post owner.

While it isn’t uncommon for editorial page editors to object to visual metaphors within a cartoon if it strikes that editor as unclear or isn’t correctly conveying the message intended by the cartoonist, such editorial criticism was not the case regarding this cartoon. To be clear, there have been instances where sketches have been rejected or revisions requested, but never because of the point of view inherent in the cartoon’s commentary. That’s a game changer…and dangerous for a free press.

(rough of cartoon killed)

Over the years I have watched my overseas colleagues risk their livelihoods and sometimes even their lives to expose injustices and hold their countries’ leaders accountable. As a member of the Advisory board for the Geneva based Freedom Cartoonists Foundation and a former board member of Cartoonists Rights, I believe that editorial cartoonists are vital for civic debate and have an essential role in journalism.

There will be people who say, “Hey, you work for a company and that company has the right to expect employees to adhere to what’s good for the company”. That’s true except we’re talking about news organizations that have public obligations and who are obliged to nurture a free press in a democracy. Owners of such press organizations are responsible for safeguarding that free press— and trying to get in the good graces of an autocrat-in-waiting will only result in undermining that free press.

As an editorial cartoonist, my job is to hold powerful people and institutions accountable. For the first time, my editor prevented me from doing that critical job. So I have decided to leave the Post. I doubt my decision will cause much of a stir and that it will be dismissed because I’m just a cartoonist. But I will not stop holding truth to power through my cartooning, because as they say, “Democracy dies in darkness”.

Thank you for reading this.

What Day Is It, Anyway? ‘Toon Day!

Posted on by under Bits 'n Pieces, cartoons, Economic issues, Holidays, Humour, Political commentary, Racism & Bigotry, Social commentary

The holidays have really messed with my head!  Yesterday (Thursday) I thought it was Monday all day long, and today I keep thinking it’s Saturday.  Long story short, my mind is bouncy today and I’ve not managed to sit down and put my thoughts into any remotely coherent order, so instead of making you listen to me ramble, I’m giving you some ‘toons to laugh (or more likely groan) over!  My stash isn’t as full as usual, for the cartoonists have taken a few holiday breaks over the past two weeks, but I have a few good ones to start your weekend off …

Just A Few Little Bits

Posted on by under Bits 'n Pieces, guns, Political commentary, Racism & Bigotry, Social commentary

Take heart, friends … just 669 more days until the mid-term elections where Democrats are almost certain to show the Republicans in Congress the door and take back control of both the House and Senate!  See, there is a light at the end of the tunnel!!!

Okay, so now I started on a positive note … and now onto just a brief snippet of snark.

Well, 2025 sure has started off with a BANG in more ways than one …

Three hours into the new year, a domestic terrorist—a veteran of the U.S. military, born in Texas—drove his pick-up truck into a crowd in New Orleans, killing fourteen. A few hours later in Las Vegas, an active-duty officer with U.S. Army Special Operations, also born in the United States, parked a Tesla Cybertruck outside of the Trump International Hotel in Las Vegas and shot himself in the head. Shortly after, the truck, which had been rigged in advance, exploded. Seven people sustained minor injuries. And then, in the early hours of January 2nd, ten people were wounded in a shooting at a nightclub in Jamaica, Queens at an event to celebrate the life of a child who died because of gun violence.

Meanwhile, even though both perpetrators of the first two events were born and bred in the U.S., immigrants are being blamed by those whose brains have been largely eaten by worms, such as Felon Trump, Margie Greene, and countless others.  Intelligence and thoughtfulness aren’t requisite for membership in the Republican Party these days.

One thing really lifted my spirits yesterday, and that was seeing President Biden award the Presidential Citizens Medal to former Representative Liz Cheney and Representative Bennie Thompson for their hard work and dedication to truth and justice throughout their careers, and in serving on the January 6th Committee.  When Ms. Cheney’s name was called, the public address announcer said she was being honored “for putting the American people over party.” Cheney received a standing ovation from those in the East Room as she stood with President Biden.

18 others received the award, including Mary Bonauto, who argued for marriage equality in front of the Supreme Court as part of the Obergefell case.

Today begins the next act of the congressional circus when the House of Representatives attempt to elect a speaker.  Republican support for Mike Johnson to continue as the House Speaker is waning, and at least one Republican has said he absolutely won’t vote for Johnson.  That leaves room for only one more defector on the Republican side of the aisle to throw the entire thing into chaos as was done in January 2023.  If they fail to elect Johnson, then there is likely to be another sh*tshow for … days?  Weeks?  Months?  During that time, Congress cannot convene, and therefore will be getting paid, but not be doing a damn thing.  Given that there is a maga majority, perhaps it’s best they do nothing, for almost anything they do will go against the best interests of We the People.

And that’s about all the snark I have for now … well, no it isn’t, but it’s all I feel like writing about at the moment … I’m still somewhat in holiday mode, I think.

DAMN The Oligarchy!!!

Posted on by under Economic issues, education, Election 2024, Environmental Issues, Free Press Issues, Law and justice, Political commentary, Social commentary

Most who have followed Filosofa’s Word for a year or more know that I have zero empathy or tolerance for millionaires or billionaires.  When there are people dying all around the globe because they lack food, potable water, shelter, and healthcare, there is no viable justification for a “chosen few” to sit atop billions of dollars that could feed, clothe and shelter the rest.  None.  Today, the U.S. has the highest level of wealth inequality  in the nation’s history.  WHY??? Tragically, the incoming administration plans to stretch that wealth gap even more, fawning over those who have lots of money while kicking the rest of us to the curb.  Thom Hartmann ponders some of the reasons the Republican Party worship wealth.  It is a bit lengthy, but well worth the time, I think.

Why Do Republicans Hate a Prosperous Middle Class?

The real reason GOP policies target wages, unions, and public education.

By Thom Hartmann

02 January 2025

Donald Trump, a billionaire himself, will soon become president with a cabinet worth at least a third of a trillion dollars. Add Musk, and you’re over $800 billion in wealth held by this small handful of people.

By comparison, the entire combined net worth of Joe Biden’s cabinet is $118, million. That’s about one-tenth of one billion dollars: $0.118 billion. All of them, combined, including Biden himself, are worth what some of these billionaires make in a day.

To become a billionaire, generally you have to have a singular priority. One that is reflected in your work, your life, and your politics. And that priority, contrary to the poor MAGA suckers Trump and his billionaire buddies convinced to vote for him in November, has nothing to do with average Americans or the middle class.

If anything, it has to do with sucking as much wealth out of the middle class as possible to make yourself a billionaire. Just since Reagan‘s tax cuts, they’ve taken $50 trillion from us.

Remember Trump and Musk laughing about how Musk fired people when they tried to unionize?

How Jeff Bezos does battle with Amazon employees who want a union?

Or how Republicans have kept the minimum wage at $7.25 an hour — half of what it is in Australia and most of the rest of the developed world — and will seemingly fight to the death to keep it there?

How did we get here? How did the Republicans pull us off? How and why did it happen?

This Spring will be the 22nd anniversary of my radio program. During that entire time, I’ve run a contest for anybody who can name even one single piece of legislation from the past 40 years (since Reagan) that was:
— authored by Republicans,
— principally co-sponsored by Republicans,
— passed Congress with a Republican majority,
— signed by a Republican president,
— and benefited average working people or the poor more than it did the GOP’s donor class.

Outside of a feeble-attempt bill to regulate spam callers during the first Bush administration and legislation reversing the Osage Allotment Act of 1906, nobody has ever won the autographed book prize.

Every developed country in the world has some variation on a free or low-cost national healthcare system, and free or subsidized higher education.

In most developed countries homelessness is not a crisis; nobody goes bankrupt because somebody in their family got sick; and jobs pay well enough and have union pensions so people can retire after 30 or 40 years in the workforce and live comfortably for the rest of their lives.

But not in America. Republican politicians have fought tooth-and-nail for generations to prevent any of those things from happening here.

Which raises the question: “Why?”

Why do Republican politicians promote hateful messages and cruel policies? Why are Republican-run states the real “shithole” parts of the US with the highest rates of poverty, violence, early death, disease, and illiteracy?

What motivates these Republican politicians to say they’re for the “little guy” when the only policies they pursue are to cut taxes on the rich, gut unions, destroy public schools, and ship jobs overseas?

It’s not about ideology.

Republicans don’t hate Social Security and Medicare, for example, because they’re afraid that those programs are going to somehow turn America into a “socialist” country. They hate those programs because they’re paid for with tax dollars, and greedy Republicans hate to pay their fair share of taxes.

It’s not just about racism, although it often appears that way.

The reason Republicans work so hard to keep Black and Brown people down is because they subscribe to a weird economic theory that “requires” an underclass who do most of the hard work for very little money. Thus, morbidly rich Republican “donors” — being part of the overclass — can reap the benefits of increased corporate profits while keeping their taxes low so they can stuff the extra cash into their money bins.

If their use of racist language and Confederate iconography brings in a few more low-IQ white voters, that’s just icing on the cake. They can use the racist yahoos to get themselves reelected so giant corporations will continue to stuff their SuperPACs with lobbyist cash they can use for their own retirement.

It’s not about charity.

Republicans say that the housing, healthcare, and other needs of poor people should be taken care of through “private philanthropy” instead of government. What they’re really saying is that they don’t want to pay their fair share of taxes to maintain a healthy society.

By cutting government support for poor and working-class people, as Anand Giridharadas documents so well, those very average Americans will become more dependent on the noble philanthropists among the billionaire class and less bonded to their own nation’s government.

It’s not about Christianity, although they’re constantly invoking Jesus for everything from pushing the death penalty on women who want to get an abortion to giving bigots the legal right to discriminate against gay, lesbian, and trans people.

Jesus never once mentioned abortion and decried bigotry, but they regularly ignore and even flout His teachings in the Sermon on the Mount and His warnings in Matthew 25. They protect multimillionaire evangelists’ tax-free status, and the preachers repay them by preaching politics from the pulpit.

It’s not about saving Americans from the pandemic or concern for public health.

Last time he was president, Trump used the Defense Production Act to force mostly brown and Black meatpackers back to work, not to keep Americans safe. As long as the factories were humming and the stock market was rising, a few hundred thousand dead Americans were just collateral damage.

It’s not about conservatism.

They’re not interested in slowly or “cautiously” improving society, or “conserving” anything other than the balances in their own checking accounts. They like to use the word “conservative,” but they’ve rendered it meaningless at best and code for “racist” or “obsessively selfish” at worst.

It’s not about making the world a better place.

Republican politicians deny climate change, deregulate industries that poison our air and water, and do everything they can to screw working people out of unions, good wages, and decent benefits. They’re totally down with pesticides that are killing our pollinators while they poison our atmosphere with their carbon emissions, all just to make a buck.

It’s not about having a better-educated electorate or populace.

They’ve spent decades trying to destroy our public education system that was, in the 1960s, the envy of the world. When they did away with free and low-cost college education during the Reagan years they kicked off almost $2 trillion worth of student debt which is preventing people from starting families, opening small businesses, or even buying their first house. But it sure is profitable for Republican-donor bankers!

It isn’t about “culture.”

They do a good-old-boy NASCAR/Duck Dynasty routine to bring in the rubes, but there’s no way Donald Trump would ever invite the average Republican voter with a giant flag and a pickup truck to any of his golf clubs, nor would Ted Cruz want to vacation with one of them or their families in Cancun. And if any of their daughters were raped, they’d be getting an abortion in a New York minute.

It’s not about “gun violence.”

As long as their investments in weapons manufacturers are profitable and the problem of gun violence is limited to poor- and working-class Americans, Republican politicians don’t give a rat’s ass about “gun safety.” Although they’re happy to use guns as a wedge issue to bring in male voters who are insecure about their own masculinity.

It’s not about “protecting our children.”

The main through-story of the GOP attacks on queer people is that “they’re coming for your kids.” If Republican politicians actually cared about our kids, they’d do something about America being the only country in the world where gun violence is the leading cause of childhood death.

Republican politicians know that most pedophiles are straight men, but attacking defenseless minorities has been the cheap trick of craven demagogues from the eras of crusades, pogroms, and witch burnings to this day.

It’s not about immigrants taking jobs from working-class Americans.

After “reforming” our immigration laws in 1986, Ronald Reagan stopped enforcing the laws against wealthy white employers hiring people who are here without documentation (even though those employers were — and are — committing a crime by hiring undocumented workers).

As a result, entire industries like construction and meatpacking that once provided good union jobs have been de-unionized, their former American-citizen union employees replaced by low-wage workers without documentation.

And when the spotlight gets shined on those industries, Republicans are more than happy to put poor, hard-working brown people in jail, but there’s no way they’re ever going to go after wealthy white employers. The Trump administration, for example, kicked off the midterm election year of 2018 by raiding over ninety 7-Eleven stores, hauling off undocumented Hispanic people for the cameras they invited to the arrests. Not a single employer went to jail, although they were the ones who initiated the “crime.”

Republican politicians don’t give a damn about your job, particularly when they can find somebody else to do it cheaper, although they do have to put on a little show from time to time to keep the racists happy.

In fact, now they are fighting to bring more workers into the country who will do tech coding and be waiters at Trump’s gaudy golf motels.

It’s not about putting America or Americans “first.”

Reagan and Bush the Elder negotiated NAFTA and revived the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) so businesses could offshore entire factories. Since the Reagan administration instituted neoliberalism in 1981, over 60,000 factories have left America, taking along with them at least 15 million jobs.

Donald Trump’s rewrite of NAFTA even gave American companies a huge new tax break if they’d move their factories from America to Mexico.

At the end of the day, all Republican politicians care about is money. Greed is their principle animating force, and what binds them to their morbidly rich donors.

The greed embraced by Republican politicians — and the billionaires and CEOs who fund them — is why average Americans can’t have nice things. It’s why we and our children must walk the tightrope of life without the same safety net other countries — from Canada to Costa Rica, France to Taiwan — offer their citizens.

It doesn’t matter to Republican politicians how many Americans die unnecessarily, how many of our fellow citizens struggle in misery and poverty, how many children’s growth is stunted or bodies and brains are poisoned by industrial and mining waste being poured into our air and rivers or terrified by active shooter drills in our schools.

It’s a safe bet that over the next four years Trump and Republicans in Congress will not give my listeners an opportunity to win that contest.

As long as the money keeps rolling in and the GOP’s billionaire patrons keep paying less than 3 percent in income taxes, greed is all Republican politicians care about or are willing to fight for.

Some Wise Advice For What’s Ahead

Posted on by under Free Press Issues, Global Issues, History, Political commentary

Yesterday, Robert Reich shared an essay from a former journalist who lived through the autocratic takeover in Turkey and who offers some valuable advice for us going forward.

Trump will overplay his hand. Be ready for when he does.

By Robert Reich

01 January 2025

I sometimes share with you perspectives about what we’re up against from non-American writers and journalists. Asli Aydintasbas, a visiting fellow at the Brookings Institution in Washington D.C. and a former journalist, published this short essay recently in Politico Magazine. As we prepare for Trump’s regime, I thought you’d find her views useful.

***

American democracy is about to undergo a serious stress test. I know how it feels, in part because I lived through the slow and steady march of state capture as a journalist working in Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s Turkey.

Over a decade as a high-profile journalist, I covered Turkey’s descent into illiberalism, having to engage in the daily push and pull with the government. I know how self-censorship starts in small ways but then creeps into operations on a daily basis. I am familiar with the rhythms of the battle to reshape the media, state institutions and the judiciary.

Having lived through it, and having gathered some lessons in hindsight, I believe that there are strategies that can help Democrats and Trump critics not only survive the coming four years, but come out stronger. Here are six of them.

  1. Don’t Panic — Autocracy Takes Time

President-elect Donald Trump’s return to power is unnerving but America will not turn into a dictatorship overnight — or in four years. Even the most determined strongmen face internal hurdles, from the bureaucracy to the media and the courts. It took Erdoğan well over a decade to fully consolidate his power. Hungary’s Viktor Orbán and Poland’s Law and Justice Party needed years to erode democratic norms and fortify their grip on state institutions.

I am not suggesting that the United States is immune to these patterns, but it’s important to remember that its decentralized system of governance — the network of state and local governments — offers enormous resilience. Federal judges serve lifetime appointments, states and governors have specific powers separate from those granted federally, there are local legislatures, and the media has the First Amendment as a shield, reinforced by over a century of legal precedents.

Sure, there are dangers, including by a Supreme Court that might grant great deference to the president. But in the end, Donald Trump really only has two years to try to execute state capture. Legal battles, congressional pushback, market forces, midterm elections in 2026 and internal Republican dissent will slow him down and restrain him. The bottom line is that the U.S. is too decentralized in its governance system for a complete takeover. The Orbanization of America is not an imminent threat.

  1. Don’t Disengage — Stay Connected

After a stunning electoral loss like this, there’s a natural impulse to shut off the news, log off social media and withdraw from public life. I’ve seen this with friends in Turkey and Hungary with opposition supporters retreating in disillusionment after Erdogan’s or Orbam’s victories. Understandably, people want to turn inwards.

Dancing, travel, meditation, book clubs — it’s all fine. But eventually, in Poland, Hungary and Turkey, opponents of autocracy have returned to the fight, driven by a belief in the possibility of change. So will Americans.

Nothing is more meaningful than being part of a struggle for democracy. That’s why millions of Turks turned out to the polls and gave the opposition a historic victory in local governments across Turkey earlier this year. That’s how the Poles organized a winning coalition to vote out the conservative Law and Justice Party last year. It can happen here, too.

The answer to political defeat is not to disconnect, but to organize. You can take a couple of days or weeks off, commiserate with friends and mute Elon Musk on X — or erase the app altogether. But in the end, the best way to develop emotional resilience is greater engagement.

  1. Don’t Fear the Infighting

Donald Trump’s victory has understandably triggered infighting inside the Democratic Party and it looks ugly. But fear not. These recriminations and finger-pointing are necessary to move forward. In Turkey, Hungary and Poland, it was only after the opposition parties faced their strategic and ideological misalignment with society that they were able to begin to effectively fight back.

Trump has tapped into the widespread belief that the economic order, labor-capital relations, housing and the immigration system are broken. You may think he is a hypocrite, but there is no doubt that he has convinced a large cross-section of American society that he is actually the agent of change — a spokesman for their interests as opposed to “Democratic elites.” This is exactly what strongmen like Erdoğan and Orban have achieved.

For the Democratic Party to redefine itself as a force for change, and not just as the custodian of the status quo, it needs fundamental shifts in how it relates to working people in the U.S. There is time to do so before the midterms of 2026.

  1. Charismatic Leadership Is a Non-Negotiable

One lesson from Turkey and Hungary is clear: You will lose if you don’t find a captivating leader, as was the case in 2023 general elections in Turkey and in 2022 in Hungary. Coalition-building or economic messaging is necessary and good. But it is not enough. You need charisma to mobilize social dissent.

Trump was beatable in this election, but only with a more captivating candidate. For Democrats, the mistake after smartly pushing aside President Joe Biden was bypassing the primaries and handpicking a candidate. Future success for the party will hinge on identifying a candidate who can better connect with voters and channel their aspirations. It should not be too hard in a country of 350 million.

Last year’s elections in Poland and Turkey showcased how incumbents can be defeated (or not defeated, as in general elections in Turkey in 2023) depending on the opposition’s ability to unite around compelling candidates who resonate with voters. Voters seek authenticity and a connection — give it to them.

  1. Skip the Protests and Identity Politics

Soon, Trump opponents will shake off the doldrums and start organizing an opposition campaign. But how they do it matters. For the longest time in Turkey, the opposition made the mistake of relying too much on holding street demonstrations and promoting secularism, Turkey’s version of identity politics, which speaks to the urban professional and middle class but not beyond. When Erdoğan finally lost his absolute predominance in Turkish politics in 2024, it was largely because of his mismanagement of the economy and the opposition’s growing competence in that area.

Trump’s appeal transcends traditional divides of race, gender and class. He has formed a new Republican coalition and to counteract this. Democrats too, must broaden their tent, even if means trying to appeal to conservatives on some issues. Opposition over the next four years must be strategic and broad-based.

Street protests and calls to defend democracy may be inspirational, but they repel conservatives and suburban America. Any grassroots action must be coupled with a clear, relatable economic message and showcase the leadership potential of Democratic mayors and governors. Identity politics alone won’t do it.

  1. Have Hope

Nothing lasts forever and the U.S. is not the only part of the world that faces threats to democracy — and Americans are no different than the French, the Turks or Hungarians when it comes to the appeal of the far right. But in a country with a strong, decentralized system of government and with a long-standing tradition of free speech, the rule of law should be far more resilient than anywhere in the world.

Trump’s return to power certainly poses challenges to U.S. democracy. But he will make mistakes and overplay his hand — at home and abroad. America will survive the next four years if Democrats pick themselves up and start learning from the successes of opponents of autocracy across the globe.

Memes To The Rescue!

Posted on by under Bits 'n Pieces, Economic issues, education, History, Holidays, Humour, Political commentary, Racism & Bigotry, Social commentary

There seems to be an abundance of ‘stuff’ floating around in my mind today … snippets of this, that, and the other, none of which form a full and coherent thought, but just keep popping up with bits ‘n pieces of thoughts.  In other words, Filosofa’s mind is bouncing again … sigh.

So, since I cannot seem to settle in on a topic, nor even a snarky snippets post that would be read-worthy, how ’bout I share some of the memes I’ve collected over the past week or so?  Hopefully by this afternoon, a coherent thought will form in this old, wrinkled brain!

I think this is my favourite!!!

One of my all-time favourites!