Not sure you’ve noticed (or care), but I’ve been making a concerted effort to carry on here without as many invocations of larger scale current affairs and world events, but I can only hold my tongue on these subjects for so long, so feel free to skip this post, if that sort of thing burns your toast. I’ll get right back to the trivial nonsense in short order.
A couple of years back, I eased up on my comment-vetting with an eye for re-enabling more of a dialogue with anyone bothering to read this stuff. However, in short order, a very dependable troll seized on the opportunity to lob a few characteristically objectionable remarks of the not-even-slightly constructive or enlightened variety into the Comments box and that was, once again, that. The last I checked, the source of that tireless firehose of hateful sewage is still dutifully spraying, but those colorful contributions are now funneled directly into a blocked list that remains unread and routinely block-deleted. I suppose I admire their tenacity, though.
So, while I’m not throwing those doors back open, I am curious to read some actual, sincere feedback. I’m pretty sure there is at least handful of readers here from the other side of the fence (I’m looking at you, Was Proxy) who can conduct a reasonable exchange on the subjects without it degrading into a pointless volley of nasty name-calling.
So, here’s my question, and not just for the folks on the Right, but to my fellow Lefties and anyone caught in the middle. How are YOU feeling about everything that’s been going on, in the past few weeks?
How are you feeling about the recent confirmations of inarguably ill-qualified figures like RFK Jr., Tulsi Gabbard and Pete Hegseth, and the worryingly likely confirmation of demonstrable idiot Kash Patel? How’re are you feeling about the appointment of Russell Vought, the pen behind most of the initial executive orders and one of the masterminds behind Project 2025?
How are you reconciling the promises Trump’s already failed to deliver on, like the much-ballyhooed price of eggs?
How are you feeling about Elon Musk’s priapic rise – with seemingly unchecked, unfettered access – in the dismantling of the federal government?
I mean, there’s the inarguably stupid garbage, too, like the re-naming of the Gulf of Mexico, the bullshit about plastic straws, the design to acquire Greenland (let alone that Georgia congressman’s proposal to name it “Red, White and Blueland”), and the ongoing allusion to Canada becoming the 51st State. How’s that embarassing crap sitting with ya?
Some would toss Trump’s frequent comments about the U.S. commandeering Gaza and “owning” it, permanently displacing 2,000,000 Palestinians in the process, to build some doubtlessly tacky resort into the “stupid garbage” pile, too. Sure, this sounds – and, mind you, IS -- fucking ridiculous (and ought to be solid grounds for invoking Section 4 of the 25th Amendment), but even if it is just “outrage porn,” as the Lincoln Project describes it, designed to distract the citizenry from more nefarious doings that are moving forward, the blithe suggestion of the U.S. occupying any real estate (and, let’s face it, that’s how Trump really views the scenario) in Gaza will potentially come with a very unpleasant price. While Gaza is not technically part of the Arab Peninsula, it’s well close enough, and let’s remember that America’s presence in that region following the Saudis’ entreaty for support following Sadam Hussein’s invasion of Kuwait is precisely what prompted Al-Qaeda to start making plans to fly planes into our buildings. Just saying.
How’s this all working out for you? Let me know.
The illustration up top is by the inimitable Gerald Scarfe, whose signature work you might remember from Pink Floyd The Wall.
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