Some days I read this, and wonder how/why people want to allow some historical happenings to repeat, while ignoring history that ought to be recalled to keep earned progress. Then there are items that make me smile to recall how they were so bad when they happened, but wouldn’t it be great if misspellings were what is so bad these days?
December 21, 1919 Amidst a strike for union recognition by 395,000 steelworkers, the “Red Scare” was launched with the deportation of Alexander Berkman, Emma Goldman, and some 250 other radicals. They were deported to Russia aboard the S. S. Buford (“The Soviet Ark”). Emma Goldman and Alexander Berkman also organized against World War I J. Edgar Hoover, heading the Justice Department’s General Intelligence Division, advanced his career by implementing to the fullest extent possible the government’s plan to deport all foreign-born radicals. S.S. Buford “Sasha & Emma” Read more about Emma & Alex
December 21, 1956 The Montgomery, Alabama, public buses were officially integrated. This happened following a successful boycott of city buses led by Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr., and initiated by Rosa Parks’s refusal to move to the back of the bus. “UH UH, I’m not going your way!” Bus Boycott cartoon by Laura Gray from 1956
December 21, 1965 American political activists Tom Hayden, Staughton Lynd, and Herbert Aptheker began a visit to Hanoi, the capital of North Vietnam. Invited by the North Vietnamese, they went despite the U.S. travel ban. Lynd and Hayden wrote “The Other Side” following their trip, explaining the Vietnamese perspective.
December 21, 1968 Hundreds of supporters visited jailed Vietnam War resisters at Allenwood Federal Penitentiary in Pennsylvania, organized by the Fellowship of Reconciliation.
December 21, 1982 President Ronald Reagan signed, after Congress had passed it unanimously, the first Boland Amendment. Representative Edward Boland’s (D-Massachusetts) legislation prohibited the use of U.S. funds for either overt or covert efforts by its intelligence agencies to overthrow the Nicaraguan government.
December 21, 1989 Vice President Dan Quayle sent out 30,000 Christmas cards with the word beacon misspelled “beakon.” “May our nation continue to be the beakon of hope to the world.” — The Quayles’ 1989 Christmas card.
December 21, 1991 Eleven former Soviet republics and Russia peaceably declared an end to the Soviet Union and formed the Commonwealth of Independent States. Azerbaijan, Armenia, Belarus, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan and Ukraine agreed to cooperate on the basis on sovereign equality.
The peddlers of misinformation are high on their own supply Read on Substack
(Thanks to BruceDesertRat who comments here, for linking this really useful Substack!)
Well, I was going to post about proposals for bank deregulation, but I think that can wait for a bit. The news of the moment is the looming prospect that the federal government will shut down over the weekend.
We’ll have to see how much damage this does, but it’s already clear that assuming the worst happens — and it’s hard to see how it won’t — this will be the dumbest shutdown ever. I’d say that the incoming Musk administration (so far Musk, not Trump, appears to be calling the shots) is trying to hold itself up for ransom, but it doesn’t even rise to that level. This isn’t like 1995, when Newt Gingrich shut down the government in an attempt to extract cuts in Medicare and Medicaid — a move that seemed (and was) a foolish act of petulance, but at least had a ghost of motivation.
No, Musk is demanding — apparently successfully — that Republicans in Congress renege on a deal they had already agreed to, a continuing resolution that would keep the federal government going for the next few months. Why? Because, Musk says, of the outrageous provisions in that CR.
Except none of the items Musk is complaining about are actually in the bill. No, Congress isn’t giving itself a 40 percent raise. No, the bill doesn’t fund a $3 billion stadium in Washington. No, it doesn’t block future investigations into the Jan. 6 committee. No, it doesn’t fund bioweapons labs.
I have an embarrassing admission to make. I thought that Muskaswamy’s obvious problems with getting DOGE going would have inspired, not humility — never that — but at least a bit of caution. That is, I imagined that Musk would by now have at least an inkling of two things.
First, finding big-ticket examples of government waste is hard, because the government mostly spends money on things people want. Here’s a nice chart from the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, showing where the money goes:
Yes, the federal government is an insurance company with an army.
Second, you shouldn’t trust claims about the budget coming from Some Guy on the Internet. You might have imagined that the world’s richest man could have a couple of fact-checkers on retainer to help ensure that he isn’t making clearly stupid assertions. But nooo.
In a barrage of posts on X Musk pushed misinformation about a more or less routine, place-holding bill that was basically a way to keep the ship of state afloat until Trump takes charge. Maybe this was in part a power play, an attempt to make Republicans in Congress show fealty to a man who clearly imagines that he’s the real president — and Trump, by meekly endorsing Musk’s position, did in fact convey the impression that Musk is leading the guy who is supposed to be in charge by the nose. But this political theater will have real consequences, for America, for Trump, and for Musk himself.
Musk has asserted that shutting the government down for a month would do no harm. And it’s true that Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid funding — which is where the bulk of the money goes — will continue. But many services people rely on will be disrupted, especially if the shutdown goes on for more than a month, which seems all too likely given Republicans’ razor-thin House majority and the dominance of misinformation in many members’ thinking.
Maybe Musk himself doesn’t expect to experience any hardship, but put it this way: I’m glad that I won’t need to renew my passport any time soon, that I don’t expect to be trying to get through airport security for a while, and especially glad that I don’t rely either on food stamps or on small business loans. For all of these things have been disrupted in past government shutdowns.
Do Musk and Trump know any of this? Almost surely not.
Beyond the specifics, my guess is that antics like the potential shutdown will do much more damage to the Musk/Trump administration than they realize. (There’s also this other guy — JV Dance or something? — but he clearly doesn’t matter.)
First, since the election financial markets have clearly been betting that Trump will do very little of what he promised during the campaign — that we won’t really have a trade war, just some minor trade skirmishes, that we’ll have symbolic deportations rather than a mass roundup of immigrants, and so on. Markets have, in effect, discounted the disastrous consequences that would follow if Trump honored his own promises.
But a government shutdown in response to completely false claims about what’s in an innocuous short-term funding measure suggests that the peddlers of misinformation are high on their own supply. Trump may really believe that foreigners will pay tariffs, that U.S. trade deficits subsidize the rest of the world, that there’s a reserve army of American workers available to fill the gaps deportation would create. I don’t want to put too much weight on the latest market fluctuations, but it is starting to look as if investors are questioning their own complacency.
Second, many, probably most people who voted for Trump believed that he really is the character he played on The Apprentice — a highly competent manager. The other day I said that Trump was elected by low-information voters; this wasn’t a slur on Americans’ intelligence, it was a reference to survey results showing that Trump’s edge depended entirely on support from voters who don’t pay much attention to politics:
How will these voters react if, as seems all too likely, the second Trump administration is instead marked by rolling chaos?
Anyway, it’s pretty remarkable. Inauguration Day is still a month away, yet the chaos monkeys have already taken over. (snip)
Some western observers don’t quite understand why General Igor Kirillov was a legitimate military target (see: what is a “general”?) or understand that lying war criminals are actually bad. Kirillov was behind the dumb propaganda that there were US/Ukrainian biolabs about to threaten the RU/UKR border. I always thought this was a little bit of a backhand at the US for claiming mobile biolabs in Iraq before 2003. But it is totally not the case and never was. And the fuckers who play games with the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant have no business talking up Ukrainian “dirty” nuclear bomb threats anyway.
Which brings me to Elon Musk, incoming US president in fact if not in name, who is goofing with a government shutdown even before his old-age addled proxy is sworn in, threatening the GOP Speaker (presumptive) of the next Congress and also lying his dumb goofy pale face off. He says this on his dumb loss-leader propaganda site:
Remember me just recently pointing out Liz Churchill to you? Well, this is her, boosting hypnotically cult-like speaking pro RU and pro-Assad Trump DNI hopeful Tulsi Gabbard: (snip-embedded tweet on the page, also see some ‘shtuff’ from this blog’s nemesis, Libs Of TikTok)
December 15, 1791 The Bill of Rights became law when Virginia ratified the first 10 amendments to the United States Constitution. Read The Bill of Rights The Bill of Rights Defense Committee (emphasis mine -A. It’s an important site these days!)
December 15, 1930 Albert Einstein, 1930 Albert Einstein urged militant pacifism and the creation of an international war resistance fund. Einstein stated in New York that if two percent of those called for military service were to refuse to fight, and were to urge peaceful means of settling international conflicts, then governments would become powerless since they could not imprison that many people. He struggled against compulsory military service and urged international protection of conscientious objectors. He concluded that peace, freedom for individuals, and security for societies depended on disarmament; otherwise, “slavery of the individual and the annihilation of civilization threaten us.” Einstein on Peace and World Government
December 15, 1946 Vietnamese leader Ho Chi Minh sent a note to French Premier Leon Blum congratulating him for his selection as French Premier and asking for peace talks. France had exercised colonial power over the Vietnamese as part of French Indochina, formed in October 1887 from the provinces of Annam, Tonkin, Cochin China, and the Kingdom of Cambodia; Laos was added in 1893. Vietnamese nationalists, however, had demanded independence for the three provinces at the end of World War II.
December 15, 1973 The American Psychiatric Association reversed its long-standing position and declared that homosexuality is not a mental illness and “…deplores all public and private discrimination in such areas as employment, housing, public accommodation…” Read the APA policy on discrimination against [gays]
December 15, 2000 The Chernobyl nuclear power plant was shut down 14 years after becoming the site of the world’s worst nuclear accident ever. Nearly nine tons of radioactive material – dozens of times as much as the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombs – were released in the explosion. The radioactive fallout affected 23% of Belarus, with 4.8% of Ukrainian territory and 0.5% of Russia. The Belarussian government spends 30% of its annual budget dealing with the aftermath of Chernobyl.
December 14, 1917 U.S. peace activist and suffragist Kate Richards O’Hare was sentenced to five years’ imprisonment for a speech denouncing World War I. Occupying a neighboring jail cell was Emma Goldman, the well-known anarchist organizer, feminist, writer and anti-war critic was imprisoned for obstructing the draft. O’Hare was one of a number of prisoners Socialist Party leader Eugene Debs cited in his “Canton Speech” for which he in turn was imprisoned. More about activist Kate Richards O’Hare Read the speech
December 14, 1961 In a public exchange of letters with South Vietnamese President Ngo Dinh Diem, U.S. President John F. Kennedy formally announced the United States would increase aid to South Vietnam, including the expansion of the U.S. troop commitment. Kennedy, concerned with recent advances made by the communist insurgency movement in South Vietnam, wrote: “We shall promptly increase our assistance to your defense effort.” President Ngo Dinh Diem President Kennedy and Secretary of Defense McNamara Kennedy – Diem letter exchange
December 14, 1980 At Yoko Ono’s request, John Lennon fans around the world mourned him with 10 minutes of silent prayer. In New York over 100,000 people converged on Central Park in tribute, and in Liverpool, England, his hometown, a crowd of 30,000 gathered outside of St. George’s Hall on Lime Street. johnlennon.com “You may say I’m a dreamer. But I’m not the only one.” Time capsules to mark John Lennon’s legacy
December 14, 1985 Wilma Mankiller became the first woman to lead a major American Indian tribe when she took office as principal chief of the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma. Wilma Mankiller on the day in 1985 when her election as chief of the Cherokee Nation was announced
December 14, 1994 After eight years of negotiations, the United States finally agreed to honor New Zealand’s ban on nuclear weapons in its territory. U.S. Navy ships armed with nuclear weapons no longer visited New Zealand’s ports.
December 14, 1995 Leaders of the states that were parts of the former Yugoslavia signed the Bosnia peace treaty, formally ending four years of bloody and vicious ethnic/religious conflict. The Dayton Accords, as they are known, committed the Balkan states of Serbia, Croatia, Bosnia-Herzegovina to accept a division of territory, a process to deal with the more than 2 million refugees, and the introduction of 60,000 NATO peacekeeping forces. The negotiations were led by U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Richard Holbrooke, and held principally at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base near Dayton, Ohio. The Dayton Accords
12.9.2024 Xiajing Zhu and Cornelia (Connie) Pechmann
Many top Republicans, including Donald Trump and Senators Tim Scott (South Carolina), Marco Rubio (Florida), and Ted Cruz (Texas), refuse to accept the 2020 election results. Many other Republicans falsely assert the 2020 election was rigged and have stated that they stood ready to fight if Trump was not declared the 2024 winner.
In a new Journal of Marketing study, we explain what underlies these Republicans’ thought processes and behaviors and how the majority of news media and social media contribute to this problem.
The Lethal Combination: Polarization and Misinformation
Our team finds that political polarization triggers Republicans, but not Democrats, to spread misinformation that is objectively false. Although Republicans may understand the content is very likely false, they are willing to spread it. We also discover the reason why Republicans respond to political polarization by conveying misinformation, while Democrats do not: Republicans strongly value their party winning over the competition. Democrats do not value winning nearly as strongly; they place more value on equity and inclusion, seeing the world in a fundamentally different way than Republicans.
In other words, whenever there is political polarization—that is, fierce competition between political parties—Republicans feel their backs are against the wall and come out swinging. They are willing to convey misinformation that is likely untrue, but not definitively false, to help their fellow Republicans win and Democrats lose. Democrats are less triggered by political polarization—they do not value their party winning over other values, so they do not respond this way.
We conducted six studies that demonstrate this. Our first study examines fact-checked statements in the news media and on social media by public figures over 10 years (2007–2016). Our second study extends this analysis to 16 years (2007–2022). We find that when there was political polarization in the news cycle, Republicans conveyed significantly more misinformation than Democrats.
We verify our findings in three online studies where we surveyed U.S. adults who identified as either Republican or Democrat. We put these individuals in politically polarized situations—for instance, we showed them Senate Republican and Democratic leaders arguing. We then showed them misinformation from current social media. For example, Republicans saw news such as “Democratic Senators are secretly pro-Russia” and “Democratic Senators are purposely manipulating gas prices,” while Democrats saw news such as “Republican Senators are secretly pro-Russia” and “Republican Senators are purposely manipulating gas prices.” In politically polarized situations, Republicans were significantly more willing to convey misinformation than Democrats to gain an advantage over the opposing party.
Our last study examines the speeches of U.S. presidents over 94 years (1929–2023), spanning the 31st president Herbert Hoover to the 46th president Joseph Biden. We find that in political polarized situations, such as during election periods, Republican presidents talked more about “we” and “us” than Democratic presidents, indicating they were more focused on their own party and partisanship.
To summarize, Republicans react to political polarization by putting out partisan misinformation. This can have a deleterious effect on the state of democratic institutions and processes. For instance, in the year following the 2020 U.S. presidential election and accompanying misinformation about election fraud, 400 restrictive voting bills were introduced in 47 U.S. state legislatures. Additionally, 14 states passed restrictive voting bills that, for instance, shortened the mail-in voting period, eliminated election day registration, and/or reduced ballot drop box access. These changes have decreased voter turnout and engagement, particularly among minority voters. (snip-MORE; it gets more interesting as it goes along, to me)
December 11, 1946 The General Assembly of the United Nations voted to establish the United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF) to provide health and rehabilitation to children living in countries devastated by World War II. What does UNICEF do today?
December 11, 1961 Two U.S. Army air cavalry helicopter companies arrived in Vietnam, including 33 Shawnee H-21C helicopters and 425 ground and flight crewmen. They were to be used to airlift South Vietnamese Army troops into combat, the first direct military combat involvement of U.S. military personnel.President Kennedy had sent them to bolster the U.S. advisors, in the country since the 1950s, in light of the inability of the Government of Vietnam’s armed forces to resist the Viet Cong insurgency movement and the Army of the Republic of [North] Vietnam. Shawnee helicopter
December 11, 1961 A U.S. Supreme Court decision outlawed the use of disorderly conduct statutes as grounds for arresting African Americans sitting-in at segregated public facilities to obtain equal service. The case began in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, where a group of negro Southern University students bought some items then sat at the lunch counter of Kress Department Store. Their polite requests to order food were ignored because the lunch counter was only for the use of whites, and police arrived to arrest them. Convicted of “disturbing the peace,” they were expelled from Southern University and barred from all public colleges and universities in the state of Louisiana. The Court overturned their convictions because there was no evidence indicating a breach of the peace. The decision in Garner v. Louisiana
December 11, 1972 New Zealand Prime Minister Norman Kirk (Labour Party) announced withdrawal of his country’s troops from Vietnam and a phase-out of his country’s draft just three days after taking office. Prime Minister Norman Kirk
Anti-War demo Parliament Buildings in Wellington, 1969 3,890 New Zealand military personnel had served there, suffering 37 dead and 187 wounded. This had given rise to a large and vocal anti-war movement. History of the anti-war movement in New Zealand
December 11, 1984 More than 20,000 women turned out for an anti-nuclear demonstration at Greenham Common Air Base in England, where U.S. nuclear-armed cruise missiles were deployed. Some tried to rip down the fence surrounding the base. Poster of Broken Missile taped to the fence of Greenham Common by a protester, 1982 A Greenham Peace Camp scrapbook
December 11, 1994 In the largest Russian military offensive since its 1979 invasion of Afghanistan, thousands of troops and hundreds of tanks crossed the border into the Muslim republic of Chechnya. Just two weeks prior, a Russian covert operation to undermine the government in Grozny, the capital, had been foiled and Dzhokhar Dudaev, Chechnya’s first elected president, had threatened to have the perpetrators executed.The Chechens had declared their independence from the Commonwealth of Independent States, comprising Russia and most of the countries previously part of the Soviet Union. Chechnya had been a Russian colony since 1859, and in 1943 Josef Stalin deported the population en masse, their return to their homeland not allowed until 1957.
Russian President Boris Yeltsin, who ordered the invasion, would not deal with Dudaev, and had raised him to the rank of chief enemy, ignoring Chechen-Russian history. The main attack was halted by the deputy commander of Russian ground forces, Colonel-General Eduard Vorobyov, who resigned in protest, stating that he would not attack fellow Russians. Yeltsin’s advisor on nationality affairs, Emil Pain, and Russia’s Deputy Minister of Defense, Colonel-General Boris Gromov (esteemed hero of the Soviet-Afghan War), also resigned in protest of the invasion, as did Major-General Borys Poliakov. More than 800 professional soldiers and officers refused to take part in the operation. Of these, 83 were convicted by military courts, and the rest were discharged.
(I’ve been really enjoying this trip of his, through his column. Iceland sounds like my kinda place. -A)
Good morning from American soil, and to be more specific, Baltimore.
Six decades of oppressive dictatorship collapsed Sunday as Syrian rebels entered Damascus and sent tyrant Bashar Al-Assad fleeing to Russia. Russia and Iran were the backers who kept the Assad regime afloat and now have eggs on their faces for betting on the wrong dog.
Syria was Russia’s toehold in the Middle East and Mediterranean as they have two bases in that nation. If Russia wants to keep those bases, they’ll have to negotiate with the people they’ve been dropping bombs on for the past 13 years. They may feel some kind of way about that. For Iran, it could limit its ability to spread weapons to its allies in Syria, Lebanon, Yemen, and even Gaza. For Syria, this brings an end to 13 years of civil war that pummeled cities and left hundreds of thousands dead. Refugees from all across the region and Europe may finally be able to return home…maybe.
Even as a coalition of rebels liberated the capital and freed thousands of prisoners while promising to build a coalition government, American forces were striking known Islamic State camps inside Syria. Israel sent its military inside Syria to protect its border along the same region it captured from Syria decades ago. Some of these groups in the coalition are considered terrorist organizations by several nations. One of the groups was al-Qaida’s branch in Syria, but now they’re all wearing smiley faces. These groups, backed by Turkey, are saying, “Trust us. We’re the good guys.”
Vladimir Putin granted Assad exile in Russia, but it’s not like the former Syrian dictator will be sleeping on the Russian dictator’s couch. Assad left Syria with about $2 billion in assets that should belong to the people he ruled over. For them, Assad left cities in ruin along with a devastated economy. His people are suffering, but he’ll be OK.
I wonder how much American money Donald Trump will take with him when he flees for exile in Russia.
I’m home.
I’m home, back in my country. Not home home, like back in my apartment or even my city.
I woke up at 5 a.m. because my body still thinks it’s in the London time zone. Sleep has been fighting me for the past two weeks and I don’t think it’s ready to quit yet.
Yesterday morning started in Reykjavik as I got on a shuttle at the Reykjavik Creepy Arms Inn, which took me to a bus station that took me to the Keflavik airport, about 45 minutes from the capital…which was just overrun by Syrian rebels. Kidding.
Keflavik Airport was built by the United States military after England invaded Iceland during World War II. Why did England invade Iceland? So the Germans wouldn’t. There wasn’t any fighting when England invaded. They just showed up in four ships one morning and took over like it was India or something. The British built the regional airport in Reykjavik during their occupation. The “invasion” rescued Iceland from the Great Depression as there were just as many foreign soldiers in Iceland as Icelanders. The United States took over occupying Iceland before it entered WWII so England could use more of its troops to fight Nazis (who we used to think were the bad guys before we started voting for them). I think a movie should be made about the invasion of Iceland and it would be a comedy.
I started this cartoon in the airport where NONE of the electrical outlets work. There were dozens of tables in the airport for passengers and each one had at least four outlets…and none of them worked. I charged my phone by draining power from my iPad during the flight, that is, after I had drawn the day’s cartoon of course. I finished the cartoon during my flight and I probably freaked out passengers who walked by as they saw me drawing skulls. People are always sneaking peeks over my shoulder, and often regretting it.
Where I started the cartoon. Every retailer has to scan your boarding pass before they can sell you something, like someone’s going to sneak into the terminal while fighting off the very dickish Icelandic security guards (oh, they suck) to purchase one of the Icelandic hotdogs. You’ll see.
On the plane, I shared a row with a young lady and we started whispering to each other as the plane filled up with people, hoping that nobody would take our middle seat. We were counting the passengers left in the aisle and praying for the doors to close. I was like, “If someone does sit here, don’t let it be another fat guy. Please god, no fat guys.” Nobody did which made it a more comfortable flight for both of us. I had elbow room to draw and she had some extra room to nap. It was a long flight. My back still hurts.
Sorry for not doing all this in chronological order. How long am I allowed to blame jet lag? President Biden blamed jet lag from two weeks before for his dismal debate performance. Maybe he thought he was still on London time and the answer to the next question will arrive in five hours. Anyway, I decided to eat something good the night before for my last meal in Iceland, and I chose well.
Readers LOVE the food pics. At least they do on Facebook. This is a haddock covered in horseradish sauce, and it wasn’t as expensive as I expected. It came with broccoli and potatoes over rice. It was great and there was something done with the potatoes I can’t figure out, but they were excellent. Most of the other diners were eating cheeseburgers.
When I was done, the waitress asked if I wanted dessert…no thank you…or coffee. Coffee? Oh, god yes.
Nectar of the gods, people. Nec…tar…of…the…gods. I almost cried. Of course, I got more coffee the next morning at the airport and I have two cups with me now that I took from the continental breakfast downstairs in my B’more hotel.
After the haddock and coffee (that could be an emo band name), I braved the weather and 55 mph winds (I’m still not on the metric system), and saw my friend Renata one last time and I met her coworker Isak, who was born and bred in Iceland but has spent significant time in Astoria. How expensive is Iceland? Isak thinks New York City is cheap.
The patch Renata is showing off is her football team in Brazil, which her family has been following for decades, something Americans can understand. Also, Renata is reading the blog. Say hi to her in the comments. Renata, there are hellos in the comments.
Renata told me I couldn’t leave Iceland until I could finally accomplish pronouncing “Gull,” a very good lager made in Iceland. It was a constant theme of my stay on that frozen island. I still can’t say it properly. If you go to Iceland, order the beer and ask your server how it’s pronounced. It will fuck with you.
And I was wrong. The haddock was not my last meal in Iceland. Take a deep breath before you look at the next picture. I don’t want to start a panic.
Admit it. You did a little jump in your seat. This is the Icelandic hotdog. Rene, my niece from Alabama, was in Iceland a few months ago and tried it. She hated it. I thought she was probably too good for hotdogs but gave her points for trying it, and then I tried it, and yeah…she’s right. I didn’t love it.
We invented the hotdog so this must be how Don McClean felt when he heard Madonna’s cover of American Pie.
This was purchased from Bæjarins Beztu Pylsur, who created this dog. They have stands in the capital and a couple in the airport. It’s not a large airport yet they have two stands for these things. As the young lady handed it to me, she either said, “Have fun” or “Have a great time.” I can’t remember, but I thought it was cute. I saw a few people running for their flights while carrying a hotdog.
So that’s a dog made from lamb mixed with beef (I think) and it’s covered in APPLE ketchup, sweet mustard, remoulade, and crispy fried onion. At least that’s what it says on the website (I research for you). I’m religiously opposed to ketchup on hotdogs and any red-blooded American caught doing so should be sent to Guantanamo to think about what he did, but I tried this. I figured if I was going to try an Icelandic dog, then I should try it the way the Icelanders intended, but even with apple ketchup, it’s still not right. My defense for the ketchup is that I was on foreign soil.
On my flight, I saw a young man with two slices from Sbarro, which is worse than putting ketchup on a hotdog. He probably thought it was real pizza. I saw a lot of pizza in Iceland and I was like, “Nope!”
Yes, I am a bit of a food snob, but I’m the kind of food snob who enjoyed that Icelandic haddock but can also appreciate a Whopper and will eat a hotdog (a real American hotdog) from a Manhattan street cart.
By the way, four things Iceland doesn’t have: Snakes, mosquitos, an army, or McDonald’s. For awhile, I didn’t think it had coffee either. I should also mention I never got coffee in Liverpool either, but there was tea. It sufficed.
I’m a member of an author’s group in Fredericksburg. I think the rule for membership is that you have to have written a book. My two cartoon books count and I was invited after I won my RFK award, when I officially became a big shot. Basically, all it does is have dinners every few months which are usually held at a nice expensive German restaurant next to the train station. There’s lots of schnitzel. There was a dinner last night and the leader of the group was pushing me to make it.
My plane landed at 5:20 p.m. in Baltimore and the last train to Fredericksburg was leaving at 6 p.m. I was gonna have to get off the plane. Anyone who’s ever flown can tell you it can take 20 minutes to get off a plane. After landing in London, an old lady was telling her husband to look in the overhead bin again to make sure they didn’t forget anything. She kept saying, “Look in the bin, Harold.” He’d say, “I did look in the bin.” And she’d say it again. “Look in the bin, Harold.” “I looked in the bin.” “Look again,” Harold.” “I looked.” This went on a few more times. As they were holding everyone up over this bin shit, someone still in their seat, unable to get out because of this couple, shouted, “Look in the goddamn bin, Harold.” Ok. That person was me. And guess what. There was something in the bin Harold missed. Anyway, after getting off the plane in Baltimore, I would have to get through U.S. Border Patrol and Customs, whose employees are a LOT nicer than the Iceland Asshole Patrol posing as airport security. I asked a suit-wearing security guy where my airline’s check-in counter was located, and he interrupted, saying “I’m security, I don’t take questions.” He wouldn’t even hear the question and as I tried to say something else, he interrupted me again, and again. Finally, I told him he was a dick which made him look at me as if nobody had ever told him that before which is impossible when you’re a real dick. I saw him again later and he glared at me, so I said, “And your haircut’s stupid too.” And it was stupid, as it was some self-inflicted mohawk-looking thing. Who wears a suit with a mohawk? And how did a guy with a mohawk get a job in security without it being in a place like a casino in Atlantic City? Anyway, after getting through Customs, which can take from two minutes to an hour, I would have to get my luggage from baggage claim, catch an airport shuttle (which can take longer than Customs), get to the train station, and catch the train. There was no way I was going to do all that in an hour.
I took a shuttle to my hotel and got to talk to a nice lady from London as if I knew London. Oh, yes…don’t get me started on the Tube. Harumph.
So, I spent the night in Baltimore. Unfortunately, because I didn’t want to spend a lot of money just to sleep over for one night, I stayed in the same inexpensive hotel where they once gave me a room they had already booked, and I ended up walking in on a large hairy naked guy doing things to himself. Thankfully, that didn’t happen this time, and nobody has walked in on me either…yet.
Listen, I don’t really hate large people and I kinda am one myself, but it shouldn’t make me intolerant if I don’t want to sit next to them on an airplane or walk in on one while he’s naked doing things to himself. Get a room! Well, he had one. It wasn’t his fault.
I was also invited to a lunch today hosted by the Fredericksburg Advance, the local publication I’ve been drawing a weekly (most weeks) cartoon for over the past year or so. I’m not making that event either. I have to take a train from Baltimore to take a train from DC, and that one’s leaving until 1 p.m. Hell, I should get moving now.
I grabbed dinner last night at Glory Days (think Applebees, TGY Fridays, Ruby Tuesday, etc), had an American beer (not Coors), and watched American football. I had fried haddock.
Now, that’s an American haddock. Eh, the haddock in Reykjavik was better.
Now, can I pat myself on the back to end this? I just spent two weeks traveling abroad and produced a brand new cartoon and blog EVERY FUCKING DAY while doing it. Am I insane or what? During my trip, every cartoonist back in the states took the weekends off. And, I think I did a pretty good job of covering the issues during those two weeks, which involved a lot of drawing and researching on planes, trains, buses, and other things.
Some of my colleagues say I’m the hardest-working political cartoonist in the business. Well, yeah. It’s not like I’m expecting a Pulitzer Prize for this, but can I at least get a cookie?
On that note, don’t you dare call what I just did a “vacation.”
What he really means in the story below is that many people surging into the work force will depress wages and make workers even more desperate to get and keep a job no matter how bad or low wage it is. Hugs
Megan Kelly who made her fame by writing a book about the sexual harassment / abuse at Fox Is trying to give a boost to a man who paid a woman he sexually abused and harassed. Everything Hegseth is accused or from adultery, sexual assault, and his excesses alcohol problem are all court-martial offenses. He would be in charge of people that if they did what he did they would face demotion, jail time, loss of money, and more. How he can be in that position if republicans really respect and care about the military they wouldn’t even let this guy near the job. Hugs
In the below story notice two things. He is picking Fox entertainment rage TV people to be in his cabinet because he is a media made billionaire personality and he loves the showmanship. That is what made him a great con man and politician is his love of the camera and the attention, he glories in it.
Read the full article. In 2017, Crowley registered as a foreign agent for a pro-Putin Ukrainian billionaire after withdrawing from consideration from a national security post when her book and PhD thesis were hit with accusations of plagiarism. She first appeared here when she spread claims that Barack Obama is secretly Muslim. Crowley is a Project 2025 contributor.
In this post notice the attack on immigrants along with the outright lies about no deaths. Anything for the maga base and the authoritarian fascist government is grand. Why? For me the question is why does the internet troll Marge want to see the tRump proclaimed goals? White supremacy! She is from a deep Georgia community that has long felt that the white people were superior to others. So white people attacked the capital and attempted to destroy democracy so what, they were white. Not those filthy non-white people who keep coming here trying to make our white supremacy culture less supreme. Hugs
The story below shows how desperate the right is to please donors by cutting the domestic spending part of the government. That is the part of the government that helps the people but puts nothing in the pockets of the wealthy. They fail to understand that the main function of the government is to promote the common good and the welfare of the people. From the preamble itself. … (P)romote the general Welfare … That means the government is to help the people. The reason the treasury is so shy of money is that the republicans when in power keep giving more of the general revenue generated in the US to the most wealthy instead of helping the general welfare with such as infrastructure, what the people need, and common defense. Basically so people understand every time the republicans reduce the corporate tax rate, the taxes charged against realtors, the taxes charged against wealthy people, the tax rate of wealthy estates, they are robbing from the US people and public all that money to run the country and help the public. Just like other countries of advanced incomes do. Which is why the republicans demand they stop doing it as it makes the US look bad for being a profit is king country. Hugs
The story below shows how fundamentalist Christians and right wing bigots attack the LGBTQ+ for being different and not following their faith … but at the same time they don’t live up to their own faiths doctrines. Hugs.
Read the full article. Yager first appeared here in 2020 for his successful bill that forces public schools to allow kids to miss class for up to one hour each day in order to attend church. Along with raft of anti-trans legislation, most recently Yager voted for a bill allowing county clerks to refuse to officiate same-sex marriages.
“The plans could mean that thousands, if not hundreds of thousands, of migrants would be permanently displaced in countries where they do not know any of the people or the language and have no connection to the culture.”
The Diapered Rapist a fucking idiot, who can’t handle a task a 6 year old can manage.
Read the full article. Boyd is now claiming that he was referring to a “bundle of sticks,” telling reporters “look it up in the dictionary.” Video of the exchange is below. Boyd, not incidentally, was named to Trump’s “South Carolina Leadership Team.”
Where are the pro left progressive big money trying to promote progressive ideals? This is why the right so often win, their big money backs them no matter what. Hugs
This is the woman on a crusade against the first trans person in the House of Representative also used to support the trans people. Her entire thing is being the center of attention. That is her entire goal. Hugs.
Read the full article. Roberts, who had threatened violence if Trump did not win, appeared here earlier this week when he called for seizing the endowments of public and private universities if they don’t hew to Trump’s anti-diversity edicts and end the “woke mind virus.”
Just how insecure are these republican people demanding everyone but themselves be Rambo and Chuck Norris in some super action movie. It is a stupid throw back to the religious stereotype of men and women they want to force the country into. The idea that men are always he-man moneymakers and women are all attractive women waiting at home to serve their man after cleaning their home and making their meals all day. Give it up already. The goat herders in the deserts of the Middle East may have felt that way over 2500 years ago but we know better now. Hugs
A man from racist South Africa who feels non-white people don’t have enough authority and black people have too many rights is pushing hard to repopulate the world with his and other wealthy white men’s sperm. Say what? Yes Musk is on record saying that he needs to father as many children as possible to ensure the white race continues. Similar to what Jeffery Epstein felt as he raped multiple young girls. Look these facts up and stop admiring these trust fund wealthy kids of exploiters. Hugs
