There isn’t much glory to be poured upon the Americans who are making Trump’s incipient authoritarian regime viable. From the Republican voters who reflexively voted for him because he was the nominee to the military volunteers who will fight any war he orders them to fight to the journalists who won’t hold his feet to the fire to the Congressional Democrats who limit their opposition to his nominees to asking a few questions, there is plenty of blame to go around.
American Heroes in the Age of Trump
Ted Rall
Ted Rall is a syndicated political cartoonist for Andrews McMeel Syndication and WhoWhatWhy.org and Counterpoint. He is a contributor to Centerclip and co-host of "The Final Countdown" talk show on Radio Sputnik. He is a graphic novelist and author of many books of art and prose, and an occasional war correspondent. He is, recently, the author of the graphic novel "2024: Revisited."
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Well, gee, The New York Times managed to call Trump’s statement about millions of illegal votes “a lie”. That takes real backbone.
Don’t forget the cops – including the highest in the land – who threw their support behind the candidate voted most likely to create a police state.
I assumed the helmeted one to the left was a cop, an easy mistake to make in this post-delegitimized-posse-comitatus age of a militarized police force.
I once had a conversation with a retired police chief of a neighboring town in a coffee shop after Bush the Lesser took office, in which I asked him if after a coup he would arrest people who acted in resistance, such as in Vichy, France.
He was old and as I mentioned, retired, and his face turned very red and so I took that and his silence as an answer without pursuing any further, because I didn’t want to feel responsible for him having a stroke.
Yeah, shouldn’t the militarized police forces also be commemorated? 🙁
preferably with a memorial…
> militarized police force
When I was young, I remember seeing a lot of pictures of life in “Communist” states showing armored police holding machine guns on the corners.
I always thought it was a Bad Thing, but evidently it’s goal to be aspired to.
I also remember a picture of [Russian leader of the day] pinning a medal on a little girl for turning her parents in as enemies of the state.
So now we have the drug war and the Global War Of Terror and we’re encouraging kids to do just that.
We also have a President who admires the strong man Russian leader of the day.
The terrorists don’t need to destroy our freedoms, we’re doing just fine on our own, thenguverramush.
“thenguverramush”?
Wassat mean?
Just me bein’ silly.
At the end of every concert, Elvis was heard to say,
“Thang you, Thang you verra mush”
😀
Oh…
Got it.
🙂
Let’s not forget the ones who made a pointless resistance that they themselves backed off of.
Example: 1. Trump threatens to withhold federal funds to “sanctuary cities.”
2. Mayors of those cities say they will not be coerced by that, and will continue to defy Trump.
(We’re here right now. Lots of people talking about how they’re gonna resist Trump.) What comes next? Trump will withhold the funding and the various mayors and so forth will cave in. They always do.
I get the «T», Ted, but what do the red horizontal stripes on that flag stand for – the bleeding welts raised on the back of a captive, when his captors tire of waterboarding him and start lashing him instead ?…
(Not to imply that any of this was a drastic change from what went on previously – after all, killing for food under any leader has been the US military’s watchword since about forever….)
Henri
@ mhenriday –
It surprises me that you would not recognize the significance of the nine (9) stripes on that flag. I am certain that you are aware of the symbolism of the thirteen (13) stripes on Old Glory. So let me offer this explanation: Ted’s nine stripes represent the states that were (are) key to the presidential election. There are some states that seem always to get the most attention when they are classified as a swing state, or a state that can swing an election. (See this link: http://www.palmbeachpost.com/news/national/trump-clinton-states-that-will-decide-the-election/A8RYMd5ghFGhxy4699xACI/ )
Colorado (9 electors)
Florida (29 electors)
Iowa (6 electors)
Minnesota (10 electors)
Nevada (6 electors0
New Hampshire (4 electors)
North Carolina (15 electors)
Virginia (13 electors)
Wisconsin (10 electors)
Mein verehrter Lehrer, I can only bow to your erudition ! But I still hold that those stripes can be understood as the results of the lash….
Henri
@ mhenriday –
Of course my post was pure off-the-cuff bullshit.
I don’t know if the stripes have any significance at all.
😀