Mike Lester for May 12, 2018

Great comic. MAGA

So far Trump has done nothing to make America great again. His pulling out of treaties only means other countries will not longer trust the US to keep it’s word and will make it much harder to make future agreements. He is damaging our country by his actions.

Yeah, the U.S. really has been coming off as a strong nation and leader the past 17 months. Keep deluding yourselves.

Wonder how many US patriots don’t know (or care) that the many different displays— like having the flag on a doormat, are a violation of US Code?

§176. Respect for flag

(d) The flag should never be used as wearing apparel, bedding, or drapery… (g) The flag should never have placed upon it, nor on any part of it, nor attached to it any mark, insignia, letter, word, figure, design, picture, or drawing of any nature.(i) The flag should never be used for advertising purposes in any manner whatsoever. It should not be embroidered on such articles as cushions or handkerchiefs and the like, printed or otherwise impressed on paper napkins or boxes or anything that is designed for temporary use and discard. Advertising signs should not be fastened to a staff or halyard from which the flag is flown.(j) No part of the flag should ever be used as a costume or athletic uniform. However, a flag patch may be affixed to the uniform of military personnel, firemen, policemen, and members of patriotic organizations….

For the full flag code, look here: http://www.usflag.org/uscode36.html

The US began as an imperialist country; the Monroe Doctrine and the idea of Manifest Destiny are explicit statements of US imperialism. The process of direct annexation stopped with the Spanish-American War, but after that the US built up a system of hegemonic economic control, first in Central America (and Cuba) and to some extent in South America. One aspect of WWII was a war between the US and Japan for control of the Pacific; think of Hawaii and the Philippines, etc. In the Post-War period, the Western empires began to fall, and the US did what it could to shore up the imperial system or to replace it. Vietnam is the obvious example: the US funded the French IndoChina war, and then when the French lost, the US installed its own puppet regime and eventually ran its own war in IndoChina. Meanwhile, the Soviet Union was trying to build up its own imperial system, and so the US was able to use anti-Communism to oppose reform and revolutionary movements around the world. The result of all this was a system of corporate control based largely in the US, with some benefit to US citizens, but mostly to the benefit of the corporate elites. All of this story has been extensively documented. But people like Lester are promoting a myth, we can call it the Myth of the Doormat, which turns this story upside down, claiming that the US somehow was the victim of this process.

Sieg, heil! Amerika über alles!

“In retrospect, the era of American hegemony — the moment of the “sole superpower,” when the United States was the “essential” country — was remarkably brief…It depended on perceptions: belief in American wealth, fear of American military power, admiration for American values. It depended on the absence of opponents: the collapse of the Soviet Union, the relative weakness of China.

Above all, it depended on an American willingness to invest: in diplomacy, in military power — but above all in alliances. By forging mutually advantageous agreements with Germans or South Koreans, the United States had far greater influence than it would have had otherwise. "

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/global-opinions/trump-has-put-america-in-the-worst-of-all-possible-worlds/2018/05/11/ff68940c-5553-11e8-9c91-7dab596e8252_story.html

You know the rest of the world we’ve always been wiping our asses with? Yeah, they’re about to light their metaphorical doormats on fire.

The US is everyone else’s doormat? Are that many Americans really that stupid? The US runs the whole show. Everyone jumps to our tune OR ELSE. We’re an Empire ffs. I mean I’m proud to be an American and a citizen of the Empire but geeze. Quit with the victim mentality you loser.

Is there any way to flag the actual cartoon? This is incredibly offensive.

I’m curious as to why the cartoon shows what seems to be a British bulldog and a woman reading “something Royalty” in English. What’s his beef with the UK?

Interesting that Mike Lester portrays “the rest of the world” as having the appearance most other cartoonists reserve for Trump supporters.

My own experience is that no significant group outside the US dresses or behaves like that, neither left nor right, neither pro- nor anti-US, neither pro- nor anti-Trump.

But of course, that’s not the only thing about the cartoon that comes entirely from Mr. Lester’s imagination rather than from reality.

Mikey is partly correct (and totally extreme right). Trump and his leaders/followers/sycophants have been wiping their feet (and other body parts) on the Flag, the Constitution, etc…

Mr. Lester, keep up expressing your opinion in your art. Thank you for doing as I do, and ignoring the folk who actually think that their opinion means anything to anyone else. They’ve no comprehension that somebody has to read what they write for it to have an effect. They’re reading yours, and it keeps your comic popular with GoComics and their advertisers. Point made.

Lester portrays “the rest of the world” as a fat, ignorant redneck. Classic right wing “up is down” obfuscation!

North Korea. Wanna bet that most of the reason the fat kid is changing his mind is the evidence that their testing facilities are collapsing.

As far as the cartoon, Lester, have you been smoking again?

mike lester.What a sad, little man.

There’s no reason to analyze Lester. Indeed, I’m surprised there are this many replies. Lester’s lost in a wasteland of reactionary confusion.