Oh. Wait. No, there isn’t.
Because this time the insurrectionist fucks got what they wanted.
There’s a riot going on
Post this, yo
Salud to cartoonist Ann Telnaes, who quit The Washington Post after a cartoon critical of Management — and by Management, I mean Jeff Bezos, Mark Zuckerberg, Sam Altman, Patrick Soon-Shiong, and Mickey Fuckin’ Mouse, who are all managing to affix their chapped lips to the Pestilence-Erect’s ass at once — got croaked by the WaPo’s editorial-page bots.
At her Substack HQ, Telnaes explains:
As an editorial cartoonist, my job is to hold powerful people and institutions accountable. For the first time, my editor prevented me from doing that critical job. So I have decided to leave the Post. I doubt my decision will cause much of a stir and that it will be dismissed because I’m just a cartoonist. But I will not stop holding truth to power through my cartooning, because as they say, “Democracy dies in darkness.”
Ho, ho. “Just a cartoonist.” Telnaes knows, as I do, that a sharp pen can puncture a gasbag as thoroughly as a sword, and encourages onlookers to snicker at the well-deserved deflation.
As Boss Tweed once said after getting righteously stuck by cartoonist Thomas Nast:
“Let’s stop those damned pictures. I don’t care so much what the papers write about me — my constituents can’t read, but damn it, they can see pictures.”
I kinda wish I still had a WaPo subscription to cancel. Mebbe I’ll sign back up so I can cancel the fucker again.
See Mike Peterson at The Daily Cartoonist for more about Telnaes and her stellar work.
Not-so-little fluffy clouds
Clouds we got, sometimes. Rain, snow? Not so much.
The mornings are chilly in these early days of the Year of Our Lard 2025, but once the sun finally creeps over the Sandias, shortly before 9, things warm up considerably. The weather wizards predict a high of 60° today.
Yes, I said 60°. Six-oh degrees Fahrenheit. In January.
Good for the healthful outdoor exercise, for those of us who take it. Unless we’re talking skiing. Also, not so much for the plants and wildlife and drinking water come summer. See John Fleck for more.
In the meantime, we need not bundle up like the Michelin Man for running and riding so far this winter. It’s been so unseasonably warm that my brother geezers, who ordinarily are traveling to ski or working out in the gym, have called a ride for today.
In the early afternoon, of course. No need to wear the hair shirt. We are not children, with their barely tested HVAC systems fresh from the factory.
Meanwhile, Miss Mia Sopaipilla gets to bird-watch at the patio door, where I scatter a little seed for the house finches and dark-eyed juncos who don’t feel like battling the bigger birds at our feeders.
There’s a little bit of Sylvester and Tweety Bird going on there in her little mind. Bad ol’ puddy tat. …
In other news, the cuckoos in the House of Reprehensibles nearly give their Squeaker the bird. Says NYT’s Carl Hulse: “House Republicans certainly relish their internal drama.” Dinner theater for the insane.
Happy New Year
Last leaf on the tree, 2024
I didn’t mark my first New Year until 1955, so 2025 will be an anniversary of sorts as we teeter on the brink of another spin on the annual merry-go-round.
In 1955, the first nuclear-powered submarine, the USS Nautilus — in which the late President Jimmy Carter had a hand — put to sea for the first time, a few days before the Pentagon announced its plans to develop ICBMs equipped with nuclear warheads.
But it would be a Soviet sub that launched the first ballistic missile.
The Warsaw Pact and the Southeast Asia Treaty Organization were established.
Emmet Till was lynched. The Vietnam War officially began. Claudette Colvin and Rosa Parks were arrested for asserting their civil rights on public transportation. A time bomb blew up United Airlines flight 629 over Longmont, Colo., killing everyone aboard.
The Westboro Baptist Church held its first service in Topeka, Kan.
The Salk polio vaccine was approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.
The first McDonald’s franchise opened, in Des Plaines, Ill., as did Disneyland, in Anaheim, California.
The first atomic-powered electricity to be sold commercially powered Arco, Idaho.
Jim Henson introduced Kermit the Frog v1.0 in the premiere of his puppet show, “Sam and Friends,” on WRC-TV in Washington, D.C.
Little Richard recorded “Tutti Fruitti.”
General Motors became the first U.S. company to make a profit of more than $1 billion in a single year.
Steve Earle, Eddie Van Halen, Michael Pollan, Steve Jobs, Brendan Gleeson, Angus Young, Barbara Kingsolver, Eric Schmidt, Colm Tóibín, Dana Carvey, Mick Jones, Willem Dafoe, Luis Alberto Urrea, Gwen Ifill, Bill Gates, Dave Alvin, and Steven Wright were born, among others.
Charlie Parker, Wallace Stevens, James Dean, Shemp Howard, and Albert Einstein died, among others.
Since before I can remember the world has been coming to an end. And yet, somehow, we persist.
The last leaves on the tree? Maybe. Tom Waits was still hanging on in 2011 when he released “Bad As Me,” with the song I stole for my headline.
I’ll be here through eternity
If you want to know how long
If they cut down this tree
I’ll show up in a song
But I notice he hasn’t given us any new music since. …
Mad Blog Media 