Hey, B'Abbott! Climate Change is REAL!

So...here we are in Hurricane season and only a week or so after Harvey walloped Texas, Irma has begun to hammer Florida. And yet...Governor Tweedledumb of Texas remains one of the biggest Climate Change deniers, but wait, he has company, Governor Tweedledumber of Florida. And they have lots of buddies, too. Members of their respective state delegations in the U.S. Congress voted against the disaster response assistance, "on principle," because the bill was tied to raising the debt ceiling. Seriously? What principle would that be? Some variant of trickle-down, voodoo economics? Something like, "Record (Hurricane-spiked) tides drown all lives?"

Knuckleheads.

Beyond their culpability in rolling back all policies that would have mitigated climate change as well as their Orwellian efforts to stifle even the mention of climate change in all official state communications, they are likely to squander this opportunity to reset and replace such policies with ones that are climate-smart and sustainable. Call it whatever you want - throwing good money after bad - but they are likely to bring back those very same no holds barred, regulation-free policies that promote hyper-development and socioeconomic inequality. These are the same policies that contributed so much to climate change in the first place and to the very conditions that enable it to have such a deadly impact on our communities. I tell you what I prefer to call it: insane, in line with Albert Einstein's definition of insanity: "Doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results."

With more hurricanes already on the way, these knuckleheads, and the nincompoops who voted them into office, will have every opportunity to to test the veracity of that definition. Good luck with that.

Say it Ain't So, Joe - A First-Ever Imperial Wardrobe Two Fer

I want to first extend my sympathies to all of the folks in Southeast Texas who are currently enduring the most epic shock in recent or recorded history. I'll come back to that topic in another blog, because this isn't/wasn't just a "natural disaster," but no is not the time for that discussion.

It is the time, however, to try to unpack the President's sucker punch to the Constitution and the institution of the administration of justice. Of course, I could be talking about any number of raging dumpster fires set by the Donald and his minions, but in this case I'm talking about his pardon for ("Sheriff") Joe Arpaio. This is the self-styled Heinrich Himmler of the Southwest who terrorized anyone who might have resembled being Hispanic by ordering his deputies to aggressively round up possible illegal immigrant and then place them in detention centers, which Arpaio himself proudly referred to as "concentration camps." These detention centers were in the middle of the desert, and detainees were forced to live under the 145 degree sun with only a tent to protect them from the elements. And then there's their loss of dignity from having their liberty stolen by some jack-booted fascist thugs, who gleefully beat them while they were cut off from their loved ones and their livelihoods.

He would have certainly made "die Fuhrer" proud with his flagrantly ethnocentric-based abuses of human rights.

Of course, with pedigree like that, it's hardly a surprise that our Putin-worshiping, Nazi-lover of a President would extend a presidential pardon to Arpaio, whose terrorist tactics provide a concrete example of putting Trump's fear-based, hate-driven white nationalism into practice. Barring a miraculous growth spurt in spinal tissue among the Republican Party, this is what we have to look forward to for the next 3+ years. G-d help us all.

Winin' 'n' Dinin'

Just back from a much-needed break in the lovely Sacramento Mountains of New Mexico. Of course I couldn't keep away from the news, especially not with the events in Charlottesville last week. No, I wasn't surprised at what happened. What was surprising was that the Nazi scum's muscle didn't open fire on the counter-protesters.

And I was especially not surprised by Trump's embrace and defense of the Nazi scum and their actions. Okay, I get it. His was the first full-throated defense of the indefensible by a U.S. president. So, what? All of the other presidents, many of whom were also racists and anti-Semites as much in word as in deed, get a pass because they used a dog whistle and not a bullhorn? It's got to be both and. All of the past U.S. presidents who failed to protect and promote justice for all citizens should be called to account by historians (acts of omission), AND all of them who perpetrated such acts of injustice should also be called to account (acts of commission).

Donald Trump, of course, is simply off the scale, so one cannot even consider him in the same conversation. He is simply the...worst...president...EVER. Period, Full Stop. The End.

The Lyin' King

It was almost within 24 hours of my last post that the Mooch got shown the door by Gen. John Kelly, the new White House Chief of Staff. I just can't keep up with this clown show, but then nobody really can. So, as much as I know I should pick something that is right in the moment topical, I couldn't resist this idea, which seems to be a bit more timeless, if there's ever any such thing with the current administration.

I guess I'm unconsciously reading into the future. At some point, this savagely idiotic operation that is the Trump administration will begin eating its own young. Hence, the idea of portraying Junior as Simba, because I'm guessing he'll be the first of the brood to get thrown under the bus, or chucked over the cliff, as it were. And who better than to do the chucking then the administration's very own Jabba the Hutt, Steve Baboonon? Meanwhile, the Donald, a.k.a., MoFo-suh, will be sitting sphinx-like, if only for a NY minute, until he launches into another whiny embrace of victimhood, blaming everyone but himself for the deep pile of fecal matter he's managed to bury himself under.

Good luck, General Kelly; you're sure as heck gonna need it with this "pride" of lyin' so-and-so's.

Scarmoochie

When I finally saw Scarface in its entirety, I have to admit I felt a little let down. It was sooooooo over the top, but what else would you expect from Oliver Stone, who wrote the screenplay.

Sooooooo...it should be no surprise in another life-imitating-art moment that Anthony "Tony Montana" Scarmoochie would exhibit the same over the top flamboyance and pissantry, coming into his new position as Comms Director with a blaze of vulgar profanity-laced tirades. People refer to him as Trump's mini-me but I think that's giving Dr. Evil's alter-ego a bad name. By the third installment of the Austin Powers series I actually found the little fellow to be kind of sympathetic.

Not so with the Mooch, and don't blame it on his Noo Yawuh roots. Not all New Yorkers are such unrepentant, insufferable jerks. No, this is another deeply flawed individual who's looking to cash in working for an epically flawed president. At some point he'll be hung out to dry, too, in the dysfunctional merry-go-round that is the Trump "maladministration." And when that happens, I'll be the first to wave and say, "Say good-bye to my little friend!"

Three Alarm Fire

While his "agenda" was going up in smoke last week with the health care bill debacle, the Donald decided it was the right time to play fireman, something about promoting products that were "made in America." Let's leave aside the facile notion that in the current globalized, networked economy there's any significant volume of production that is built solely in one country. Let's focus instead on the rank hypocrisy of Trump and his brood trotting out this bit of red meat for their supporters when they clearly practice and benefit from overseas production/assembly/etc. of their many lines of schlock.

Oh, and lest we forget, the biggest accomplishment in trade policy this marketing "genius" pulled off was to sell off the integrity of our nation's political and governance institutions to Russia in return for receiving systematic hacking and media propaganda services during the 2016 election. If the Donald wants to blow off doing his job and play fireman instead so that he can ride on a firetruck put out fires he might start with dousing his own trousers, which he manages to light on fire every time he opens his...whichever orifice...to unleash another pants-on-fire barrage of bunk.

The Whopper

What I really appreciate about the Trump regime is its bottomless capacity to debase itself and the nation and people it purportedly serves, which would be...us. There are no lies too large or outrageous to heap on top of the already unwieldy pile of prevarication and deception. These folks really have no shame. I really do believe that they always knew that at some point the gig would be up. They're just waiting, daring us all really, to try to stop them.

Meanwhile, they'll abuse the office of the presidency and the executive branch for as long as the spineless, amoral Republican party sees it to be in their interest to let them do so. I guess that means that there will be no shortage of opportunities for me and my fellow cartoonists. That's the good news. The bad news is the heavy social cost this deadly charade of "governing" is exacting on our society and our institutions.

I hear so many people ask (rhetorically, I can only assume), "How can these people live with themselves?" I imagine the answer is very simple: soundly. Easy to do when they lack any sort of moral compass or if they do, it's been warped to point due south, straight down the crapper. Kind of like crap sandwich...like the Whopper! Hmmmmm...fast food...