Dialogues on MAGA Economics: A Tariffying Spectacle

Illustration by Michael DiMilo Featuring the Fabulous Dadbots: Dave S., Mark M., Mark O., Dennis C., and Geoff Carter Good am, members of the resistance:   Comms channel: reminder to follow protocols and scramble all correspondences.  Idea for political cartoon: Then and now axis of evil.   Trying to understand how tariffs might trickle down, not just …
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Kickass Asks Questions

Illustration by Michael DiMilo By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, has never eaten anyone’s homework nor chewed the cover off a banned book, but he is volunteering to assist the keeper and Phyllis in dealing with their current list of outrageous questions which includes the following:             *Is there no stopping the utter madness of …
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Kickass and POTUS Eviction

Photo by Geoff Carter By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, notes, along with the keeper, Phyllis and thousands of Sunday’s “Hands Off” demonstrators, that having made their feelings known they will now demand that the most recent POTUS election be declared null and void on the grounds of illegal vote buying, easily proven by …
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Kickass and No First Dog

Attribution: Photo by charlesdeluvio on Unsplash By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, joins the keeper and Phyllis and the entire citizenry on this April 5, 2025 to message the demented chief herding mutt that he is not qualified to take the herd down the road to greener pastures and he needs to turn himself in to the …
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Kickass and Tariffs

Attribution: Michael Coghlan from Adelaide, Australia, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, bypasses the keeper and Phyllis in offering his own canine explanation of just how the orange poodle’s tariff system works:              “First, consider the world to be a big tree which all of the male dogs have been …
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A Man of Little Consequence

Illustration by Michael DiMilo By Geoff Carter We watch Law and Order reruns a lot at our house. It’s kind of the default viewing choice when nothing else is on. It’s a great show; the writing, acting, and direction are top-notch. It’s realistic—or as realistic as TV can get (how can so many beautiful Assistant DAs could …
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Kickass Thanks Elon

Attribution: DonkeyHotey, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, having forever marked Wisconsin as his territory, joins the keeper and Phyllis in sending a thank-you note to Elon for his generous participation in the recent state supreme court election won by Susan Crawford: “Elon: “Thank you so much for helping …
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Kickass and the April Fool

Attribution: Osmar Schindler (German, 1869–1927), Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, turns this April Fools Day over to the keeper:    THE APRIL FOOL    “Who’s the biggest April fool? “Not me, not you, we’re cool.        “Is it Elon Musk as the loan arranger “Buying votes as the foreign stranger?        “Is …
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Kickass and the Hodag

Attribution: The Wide World Magazine, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, joins the keeper and Phyllis in celebrating the capture of what was first thought to be the Rhinelander Hodag but turns out to be Elon Musk who was nabbed while trying to stuff currency into the personal body …
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Kickass and ICE

Attribution: Cgoodall, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, agrees with the keeper that it is only a matter of time until he and Phyllis are accosted by black clad masked young men who demand that they come along peacefully as the deportation process has advanced to their category—that being “elderly …
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Altered States

Illustration by Michael DiMilo By Geoff Carter In the late 1970s, when I was still in college, a movie named King of Hearts was the popular midnight movie (before it was preempted by Eraserhead and the ubiquitous The Rocky Horror Picture Show). The film was about a French town taken over by inmates of an insane asylum during World War I. The …
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Kickass Hiding Under Bed

Attribution: Photo by kuaileqie RE on Unsplash By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, woke up to the dripping of the keeper’s poetry on a rainy Sunday: ‘If I had a Telsa I would sell it. “if I were a Repub you would smell it. “If the mad POTUS has his way And tells his lies with every …
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