Tom Toles for October 25, 2020

Making trump a US president was an evil act of our political system and a large minority of voters in 2016. The evil spawned by that act will be with us long after trump is gone and require great effort to repair.

So does the good, by the way. But yeah.

Without a unified common cause, bitter partisanship will linger — being nurtured by a [well-funded] binary opposing party system — and our “government” will still be dysfunctional.

Let’s look at QAnon, shall we?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1SoJI_KNV0Q

Chilling.

…but only if we should let them.

And to further consider the quotation from “Julius Caesar,” what, if ANY “good” will be “interred with his bones”? Metaphorically, that is, after Donald Trump’s passing?

It’s odd that Julius Caesar may have been a better choice as dictator of the Roman Empire than having it ruled as a “Republic” under the corrupt, self-serving senate of the time. He might have instituted intelligent fundamental reforms and centralized a needed more efficient government.

After a brief internal struggle, Octavian did that, anyway, as the heir of Julius, and then as emperor. From a broad Roman perspective, there followed a 200-year period of unbroken peace and prosperity. Ironically, a nostalgia developed and remained among some for a falsely perceived simplicity during the days of the former Republic. Running an Empire was a complicated business, but desirable if done correctly and with firm ethics enduringly maintained.

Those in the Roman senate who yearned for the Republic were called “Republicans.” They considered themselves as idealists toward the embrace of “liberty.” But liberty can be construed in a broad or narrow way. That senate’s idea of “liberty” had come eventually to allow a small group of greedy aristocrats to distort the laws and plunder the state virtually without legal restraint.

That situation should sound familiar today. However, Donald Trump is certainly no “Caesar” fit to reform the government from present senate corruption. He instead has embraced that corruption; and judging from the results in many areas, has altogether made a mess of things. The Executive and Legislative branches are in much disarray, and the Judicial branch has nearly lost its integrity. And the fall of constructive American influence, once nearly Empiric in scope, may be near. The dark legacies of Trump and corrosive, twisted Trumpism will live after him.

What he said above. I no longer have words to convey what I feel. I would feel guilty and maybe couldn’t live with myself after, but I am angry enough to condemn my soul with actions forbidden by God’s law.

I cannot forgive and have found a yearning for trading eyes and teeth. Mercy has been washed from me. So be it, I will render unto Caesar, but also noted, Trump is no Caesar. Well said, PraiseofFolly.

That’s a whole lot of evil to to leave behind.

The Oligarchs that have taken control of this country no longer neet Trump. They have SCOTUS, and thanks to recent rulings, control of much of Congress, and thanks to Trump, most Federal Judges.

Moscow Mitch has finally achieved the dream of conservatives and set back the country for decades. They are now happy that everyone’s lives will be as miserable as theirs!!!

The tragedy is the large % of Americans, who supported and still support this a$$ clown.

Even if all republicans are voted out they have totally screwed up this country for the next 5 years already.

If the republicans lose the Dems need a Truth and Reconciliation committee to asses the damages to the USA and the blame and the reparations needed from the destructive right wingers.

‘Terrified little boy’ Trump is going to ‘burn it all down’ because he can’t face losing the election: Mary Trump

https://www.rawstory.com/2020/10/terrified-little-boy-trump-is-going-to-burn-it-all-down-because-he-cant-face-losing-the-election-mary-trump/

The evil may live…no guarantee, that any of humanity will be alive.

Well, maybe trump, now that he’s immortal.

“What? Me worry?”

Another good reason to lower the educational bar.. Keeping the peasants ignorant makes it easier for state propaganda to do its work.

mmm, if we really work hard on it and manage to destruct our civilization, the evil we do won’t live too long after us, earth will, in time, recover. I’m all for it.

From a commentary by Ziblatt and Levitsky, authors of “How Democracies Die”):

A century ago, like today, the United States experienced disruptive economic change, an unprecedented influx of migrants and the growth of behemoth corporations. Citizens believed that their political system had become corrupt and dysfunctional. Progressive reform advocates like Herbert Croly argued that Americans were living in a democracy with antiquated institutions designed for an agrarian society, which left our political system ill-equipped to cope with the problems of an industrial age and vulnerable to corporate capture.

The response was a sweeping reform movement that remade our democracy. Key reforms — then regarded as radical but now taken for granted — included the introduction of party primaries; the expansion of the citizen referendum; and constitutional amendments allowing a national income tax, establishing the direct election of U.S. senators and extending suffrage to women. American democracy thrived in the 20th century in part because it was able to reform itself.

Critics of reform assert that counter-majoritarian institutions are essential to liberal democracy. We agree. That’s what the Bill of Rights and judicial review are for: to help ensure that individual liberties and minority rights are protected under majority rule. But disenfranchisement is not a feature of modern liberal democracy. No other established democracy has an Electoral College or makes regular use of the filibuster. And a political system that repeatedly allows a minority party to control the most powerful offices in the country cannot remain legitimate for long.

Democracy requires more than majority rule. But without majority rule, there is no democracy. Either we become a truly multiracial democracy or we cease to be a democracy at all.

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/10/23/opinion/sunday/disenfranchisement-democracy-minority-rule.html

“[W]ithin the hollow crown / That rounds the mortal temples of a king / Keeps Death his court and there the antic sits, / Scoffing his state and grinning at his pomp, / Allowing him a breath, a little scene, / To monarchize, be fear’d and kill with looks, / Infusing him with self and vain conceit, / As if this flesh which walls about our life, / Were brass impregnable. . .” William Shakespeare: Richard III; Act III, scene ii.

“The king is a thing…”

“A thing, my lord?”

“…of nothing.”

- Hamlet

I know that the toon is directed at Hump, but I think the quote is most appropriate to McConnell. Did others see the video of his laughing when Amy McGrath confronted him with unemployed, sick and dead Kentuckians?

The cool thing about Shakespeare is that all his best quotes are quotes he “borrowed”. Often from the Bible or from other literature of his time. But the best, like this, comes from the common sense of the people in his audience. He connected with us, and said what we’re thinking.

Even after over 500 years. Dude was brilliant.

EVERYONE, from both of our polarized sides, should read MARTENS link. I certainly learned a few things. . https://www.nytimes.com/2020/10/23/opinion/sunday/disenfranchisement-democracy-minority-rule.html

After trump leaves the White House, he’s gonna run for Pope.

Timeless… well done

Challenge for Trump supporters: Name four accomplishments in his four years. Vaguenesses like “greatness” or “values” don’t count. Neither do things he’s only talked, bragged, or lied about. What “good” will be interred with HIS bones?

Border wall: not built.

Afghanistan War: still going.

“Easy to win” trade war: still going, sales down, prices up.

Coal-mining and auto-making jobs: still gone.

Unemployment: worst since Great Depression.

Farm bankruptcies: rising daily.

Rural broadband: nope.

America’s infrastructure: still crumbling.

College debt: staggering.

Postal service: under attack.

Social Security: threatened.

Public schools: funding diverted to for-profit and religious ones.

Drug-abuse and homelessness crises: worse than ever.

Climate change: wants to keep burning fossil fuels.

America’s standing as leader of the free world: trashed.

“Art of the deal”: Won’t negotiate with Congress; broke America’s word on Paris Climate Accords and Iran nuclear bargain; did slap new label on NAFTA.

Law and order: more top administration and campaign officials under indictment in four years than previous seven presidents in 43.

Business management: Cabinet a revolving door of firings and resignations; majority of federal agencies under unconfirmed acting heads.

Nazis and Klansmen: “fine people”.

Our troops: “losers”, “suckers”, bonus insults for POWs and Gold Star families.

Health care: best in the world — and free — if you’re him.

Coronavirus: total, colossal, unmitigated, blundering, mismanaged catastrophe.

So go ahead, try to find those four gold nuggets in that gigantic pile of manure. Then face the hard reality: he’s running the country the same way he ran his casinos, university, and airline — into the ground. Using other people’s money. Taking no responsibility. Stiffing the people who actually do the work. Because when it’s always all about him, it’s never going to be about you.

{Off-topic:} – This article treats some of political-science’s puzzlements about public-opinion-etc in this Trump-era. -https://www.alternet.org/2020/10/political-scientist-dismantles-the-folk-theory-of-democracy/

10 years with a deliberately undercounted census.

Excellent artwork Tom ♥