You outline how clearly the strategy is to silence whatever ‘they’ don’t like. Their humanity is disappearing with every greedy racist move. When will Trump appear in uniform? Noem is leading the way. Great cartoon Mark.
Hope Noem remembers to strap on her $50,000 Rolex watch. That watch is the most revealing detail of her various costumed appearances. Such ostentatious bling reveals how beneath all the bluster and posing, just how insecure, empty and vapid she knows she is. With all their glitzy jewelry, fancy cars, big estates and designer shitwear, the wealthy always give that away. Appearance of material wealth is confirmation of inner poverty and deprivation and self disdain.
As another example, notice how Trump has filled his "Offal" Office with glitzy gold vases, candle sticks, furniture and a weird golden decoration above the fireplace. All of it screams out, "I know I'm a stupid nerd, but look at all the gold, that must mean I'm special, right! Right?"
Your original cartoon... Ooo, it's almost too scary! Trump & co. are attempting to sew our mouths shut, but we're going to keep speaking out. The truth will set us free!
I hear what you're saying, but until the Constitution is officially dismissed, it is the official legal standard. As a citizen, I can choose to be loyal to the 'rule of fiat' by a cadre of diaper-wearing mice or what is the legal standard of the land. I chose the first. The last thing citizens should be doing is acquiescing to their own enslavement.
If the corrupt wealthy want to ignore our Constitution and laws we are obligated to refuse their diktats. We have had plenty of other times when the rich and powerful told us to shut up; that we didn't have a right to speak. Hell, Eugene Debs ran for president from a jail cell because of his -- correct -- opposition to US entry into WW I.
Donald Trump & Co. can say "I am your ruler." And I can reply, "F-off, Asshat." If enough people do that he becomes just another idiot yammering in a corner. Ultimately, the choice is up to the people, and the choice is to be free or meekly step into chains. Freedom of speech has always been and always will be a fight because, as I noted in the post, those in power are terrified of free thought and expression and until the people decide to abandon that right, we still have it, no matter what the mental and moral midgets in power declare.
As in so many times in the past, so too now ... the obligation of a patriot is to not comply.
I take constitutional loyalty as the refusal to recognize rule by fiat. That is not the system of the Constitution, which is to say, it is not United States jurisprudence or governance.
I refuse acquiescence to enslavement on the ground that citizens have a right to a constitutionally submissive government.
Moreover, citizens have a right to institutions and processes of state that are truly their own. And they have the right to have leaders who speak through their own lips.
The hermeneutic key to understanding my take on the words, ‘unstated premise is that the Constitution is “legally inoperative.”’
‘Unstated’ means that, as you indicate, no apparent, official act [as yet] has been taken. ‘Legally inoperative’ is to be understood in the sense that it is regarded by the REGIME as having or requiring no restraints on executive power.
Obviously, the Constitution exists even if I assert the contrary. The intention here is to facilitate the formulation of the charges for which the guilty will be made answerable.
More, the history to which you allude [the ‘plenty of times’ in which the ruling class repressed the majority] must be addressed.
The American Revolution struggled for independence from colonial rule; but it was also a political compromise that ultimately upheld the slave-owning class interests. The Revolutionary War did not address injustices such as slavery and social inequality. But it did lay the groundwork for future conflicts, especially the Second Revolution, the so-called Civil War, which began to address the contradictions inherent in the first.
The Second, Revolutionary War is a critical moment in the struggle against slavery and for working class rights. Especially, it is fitting to note this today, the day that marks 160 years since President Abe Lincoln’s assassination.
The ultimate purpose of the Second American Revolution was a realization of the promise of the Declaration of Independence of human equality, and to ensure that ‘government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth,’ as Lincoln put in the November 1863 Gettysburg Address.
Current events show that this struggle must be taken up again. Moreover, it is necessary that mechanisms be created to suppress this tendency.
Lincoln’s Second Inaugural Address cast the Second Revolution as inevitable punishment for the crime of slavery, a retribution visited on the whole people, South and North.
It was supposed that ending slavery it would remake ‘The South’ in the image of the Free North. Instead it gave the US 4,000,000 people with no land or property, and naught but their own labor power to sell. Amid calls for land redistribution, Lincoln’s Republican Party, which achieved its main objectives of preserving the Union and ending slavery, instead upheld the sanctity of property.
1865 was a spark; it ignited a New Industrial Era, the ‘Gilded Age.’ In the half century from 1865 to WWI, the US, an overwhelmingly agricultural society, transformed into the world’s leading industrial power. That was the world into which, on November 5, 1855 at 300 North 3rd St., Terre Haute, Indiana, a son was born to Marcellus and Elizabeth.
They named him Eugene Victor Debs. Such was the world into which Master Debs came to awareness and began his working life.
The Second Revolution dropped the curtain on Act I, where slavery was the antagonist. The curtain raised on a new cast — robber baron capitalists and industrial workers, as Karl Marx’ prescient words indicated.
Debs found his way into the American Railway Union which he helped found. He gained stature by his participation in the Pullman Strike, which responded to wage cuts and high rent in company-owned housing.
Indeed it is not coincidence that the Great Uprising of Railway workers with coast to coast general strikes began in 1877. After the disputed 1876 election, Reconstruction ended with a sordid deal with the Southern elite.
You say correctly that Trump’s gangsterism has been seen before. But what has yet to occur are first the massive uprisings and strikes, the likes of which exist beyond memory and are found only in textbooks and historical documents.
The other thing that has yet to be addressed concerns property relations. What Lincoln’s Republican Party failed to do, workers now must do. Mechanisms must be set in place to counter the tendency which has persisted and plagued the US Republic since its inception. If you wish to call it a Third America Revolution, I won’t argue.
Mark, know that your work does matter. Keep working and keep writing. And rest assured— I have no intention of surrender whatsoever.
I visited Canton, Ohio where Debs delivered a ‘toned down’ version of his speech. To this day, Eugene Victor Debs is my President.
Great review of the never-ending struggle to mature the US from 'Just-Us' to Justice. I think your revolution stage model is a good frame. And I totally agree on your assessment of Eugene Debs. What a hero. Imagine the nation and world we would be in if we had followed his path.
I agree that there needs to be mass movements -- actions to bring the machine to a halt. Let Jeff Bezos and his little pack of twerdy executives do the packaging and mailings at one of his "Amazon Fulfillment Centers" for a week and see how well that works out. The billionaires are nothing without the workers and the customers. Their wealth was looted from the labor of the workers and scammed from consumers. Withholding labor and boycotting products and businesses is the cudgel that needs to be picked up.
Several years ago I came up with a pin I had made up and would hand out at protests: "Billionaires? Our kids can't afford 'em."
Language is so important in politics. No billionaire is "worth" a billion dollars and -- no -- they didn't "earn" a billion dollars. They may "have" a billion and they may have stolen, scammed, looted and robbed their workers for that loot, but, no, they did not "earn" that money.
And, no, billionaires do not "contribute" to candidates and elections. They buy, pervert, hijack, corrupt, pollute, destroy and own our politicians and elections.
The whole language around billionaires needs to be reframed to reflect reality.
So will those hundreds of thousands/millions who showed up for the recent Hands Off protests and the Sanders/AOC Oligarchy Tour actually DO something? Take real action? I'm waiting and from my small perch try to move things along.
Perhaps that happens when the budget cuts take effect in the fall and peoples' Head Start programs, school lunch, Medicaid, disability, funding for local infrastructure and other federally supported programs that make life a little easier suddenly disappear. When all the Trump/Musk/Maga bullshit goes from hot air and steam to reality in the neighborhood and at the dinner table. Will the fascist state be strong enough to break such resistance? The next six months could be pivotal.
You outline how clearly the strategy is to silence whatever ‘they’ don’t like. Their humanity is disappearing with every greedy racist move. When will Trump appear in uniform? Noem is leading the way. Great cartoon Mark.
Hope Noem remembers to strap on her $50,000 Rolex watch. That watch is the most revealing detail of her various costumed appearances. Such ostentatious bling reveals how beneath all the bluster and posing, just how insecure, empty and vapid she knows she is. With all their glitzy jewelry, fancy cars, big estates and designer shitwear, the wealthy always give that away. Appearance of material wealth is confirmation of inner poverty and deprivation and self disdain.
As another example, notice how Trump has filled his "Offal" Office with glitzy gold vases, candle sticks, furniture and a weird golden decoration above the fireplace. All of it screams out, "I know I'm a stupid nerd, but look at all the gold, that must mean I'm special, right! Right?"
More on Noem's fancy play jewelry watch as a substitute for dinner worth: https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2025/03/31/kristi-noem-donald-trump-rolex-daytona-watch-cecot-el-salvador-immigrant-prison/82737095007/
Your original cartoon... Ooo, it's almost too scary! Trump & co. are attempting to sew our mouths shut, but we're going to keep speaking out. The truth will set us free!
If you want to keep up with the latest on immigration news, check out Austin Kocher's Substack. His latest post is chilling: Trump is Quietly Building a Deportation Army out of State and Local Agencies https://austinkocher.substack.com/p/trump-is-quietly-building-a-deportation
Next step is for Uncle Sam to be a full on walking-dead zombie!
Thanks for the referral, I'll checking it out.
The United States Republic has fallen. It doesn’t exist, because the constitution doesn’t exist.
The unstated premise is that the Constitution is legally inoperative.
The system currently operating is called ‘rule by fiat.’ The ‘President’ issues diktats, and they are implemented.
No appeal can be made to a constitution under such conditions.
I hear what you're saying, but until the Constitution is officially dismissed, it is the official legal standard. As a citizen, I can choose to be loyal to the 'rule of fiat' by a cadre of diaper-wearing mice or what is the legal standard of the land. I chose the first. The last thing citizens should be doing is acquiescing to their own enslavement.
If the corrupt wealthy want to ignore our Constitution and laws we are obligated to refuse their diktats. We have had plenty of other times when the rich and powerful told us to shut up; that we didn't have a right to speak. Hell, Eugene Debs ran for president from a jail cell because of his -- correct -- opposition to US entry into WW I.
Donald Trump & Co. can say "I am your ruler." And I can reply, "F-off, Asshat." If enough people do that he becomes just another idiot yammering in a corner. Ultimately, the choice is up to the people, and the choice is to be free or meekly step into chains. Freedom of speech has always been and always will be a fight because, as I noted in the post, those in power are terrified of free thought and expression and until the people decide to abandon that right, we still have it, no matter what the mental and moral midgets in power declare.
As in so many times in the past, so too now ... the obligation of a patriot is to not comply.
I take constitutional loyalty as the refusal to recognize rule by fiat. That is not the system of the Constitution, which is to say, it is not United States jurisprudence or governance.
I refuse acquiescence to enslavement on the ground that citizens have a right to a constitutionally submissive government.
Moreover, citizens have a right to institutions and processes of state that are truly their own. And they have the right to have leaders who speak through their own lips.
The hermeneutic key to understanding my take on the words, ‘unstated premise is that the Constitution is “legally inoperative.”’
‘Unstated’ means that, as you indicate, no apparent, official act [as yet] has been taken. ‘Legally inoperative’ is to be understood in the sense that it is regarded by the REGIME as having or requiring no restraints on executive power.
Obviously, the Constitution exists even if I assert the contrary. The intention here is to facilitate the formulation of the charges for which the guilty will be made answerable.
More, the history to which you allude [the ‘plenty of times’ in which the ruling class repressed the majority] must be addressed.
The American Revolution struggled for independence from colonial rule; but it was also a political compromise that ultimately upheld the slave-owning class interests. The Revolutionary War did not address injustices such as slavery and social inequality. But it did lay the groundwork for future conflicts, especially the Second Revolution, the so-called Civil War, which began to address the contradictions inherent in the first.
The Second, Revolutionary War is a critical moment in the struggle against slavery and for working class rights. Especially, it is fitting to note this today, the day that marks 160 years since President Abe Lincoln’s assassination.
The ultimate purpose of the Second American Revolution was a realization of the promise of the Declaration of Independence of human equality, and to ensure that ‘government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth,’ as Lincoln put in the November 1863 Gettysburg Address.
Current events show that this struggle must be taken up again. Moreover, it is necessary that mechanisms be created to suppress this tendency.
Lincoln’s Second Inaugural Address cast the Second Revolution as inevitable punishment for the crime of slavery, a retribution visited on the whole people, South and North.
It was supposed that ending slavery it would remake ‘The South’ in the image of the Free North. Instead it gave the US 4,000,000 people with no land or property, and naught but their own labor power to sell. Amid calls for land redistribution, Lincoln’s Republican Party, which achieved its main objectives of preserving the Union and ending slavery, instead upheld the sanctity of property.
1865 was a spark; it ignited a New Industrial Era, the ‘Gilded Age.’ In the half century from 1865 to WWI, the US, an overwhelmingly agricultural society, transformed into the world’s leading industrial power. That was the world into which, on November 5, 1855 at 300 North 3rd St., Terre Haute, Indiana, a son was born to Marcellus and Elizabeth.
They named him Eugene Victor Debs. Such was the world into which Master Debs came to awareness and began his working life.
The Second Revolution dropped the curtain on Act I, where slavery was the antagonist. The curtain raised on a new cast — robber baron capitalists and industrial workers, as Karl Marx’ prescient words indicated.
Debs found his way into the American Railway Union which he helped found. He gained stature by his participation in the Pullman Strike, which responded to wage cuts and high rent in company-owned housing.
Indeed it is not coincidence that the Great Uprising of Railway workers with coast to coast general strikes began in 1877. After the disputed 1876 election, Reconstruction ended with a sordid deal with the Southern elite.
You say correctly that Trump’s gangsterism has been seen before. But what has yet to occur are first the massive uprisings and strikes, the likes of which exist beyond memory and are found only in textbooks and historical documents.
The other thing that has yet to be addressed concerns property relations. What Lincoln’s Republican Party failed to do, workers now must do. Mechanisms must be set in place to counter the tendency which has persisted and plagued the US Republic since its inception. If you wish to call it a Third America Revolution, I won’t argue.
Mark, know that your work does matter. Keep working and keep writing. And rest assured— I have no intention of surrender whatsoever.
I visited Canton, Ohio where Debs delivered a ‘toned down’ version of his speech. To this day, Eugene Victor Debs is my President.
Great review of the never-ending struggle to mature the US from 'Just-Us' to Justice. I think your revolution stage model is a good frame. And I totally agree on your assessment of Eugene Debs. What a hero. Imagine the nation and world we would be in if we had followed his path.
I agree that there needs to be mass movements -- actions to bring the machine to a halt. Let Jeff Bezos and his little pack of twerdy executives do the packaging and mailings at one of his "Amazon Fulfillment Centers" for a week and see how well that works out. The billionaires are nothing without the workers and the customers. Their wealth was looted from the labor of the workers and scammed from consumers. Withholding labor and boycotting products and businesses is the cudgel that needs to be picked up.
Several years ago I came up with a pin I had made up and would hand out at protests: "Billionaires? Our kids can't afford 'em."
Language is so important in politics. No billionaire is "worth" a billion dollars and -- no -- they didn't "earn" a billion dollars. They may "have" a billion and they may have stolen, scammed, looted and robbed their workers for that loot, but, no, they did not "earn" that money.
And, no, billionaires do not "contribute" to candidates and elections. They buy, pervert, hijack, corrupt, pollute, destroy and own our politicians and elections.
The whole language around billionaires needs to be reframed to reflect reality.
So will those hundreds of thousands/millions who showed up for the recent Hands Off protests and the Sanders/AOC Oligarchy Tour actually DO something? Take real action? I'm waiting and from my small perch try to move things along.
Perhaps that happens when the budget cuts take effect in the fall and peoples' Head Start programs, school lunch, Medicaid, disability, funding for local infrastructure and other federally supported programs that make life a little easier suddenly disappear. When all the Trump/Musk/Maga bullshit goes from hot air and steam to reality in the neighborhood and at the dinner table. Will the fascist state be strong enough to break such resistance? The next six months could be pivotal.
Thanks for the supportive words.
Solidarity.