Attribution: Photo by infinyd photo on Unsplash By Geoff Carter “Faith is the strength by which a shattered world shall emerge into the light.” —Helen Keller She would know. Trapped in a world of silence and darkness as a child after being afflicted with an acute fever, fully aware that a world existed outside her perception must have …
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Category:Politics
Kickass and Democratic Weather
Attribution: Photo by Shūto Yabuta on Unsplash By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, on this rainy morning of Sept. 30, 2026 joins the keeper in applauding the democracy of rain–step out into it and you get wet no matter who or what you are, or might think you are too important to get rained on. The same …
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Tipping Point
Illustration by Michael DiMilo By Geoff Carter Last week, Florida Representative Maria Elvira Salazar broke ranks with the Republican ranks by airing a television ad critical of Trump’s deportation policies. Speaking directly to the camera, she said “Mr. President, some of your immigration enforcement efforts have gone too far,” warning him that Hispanic voters who …
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Kickass and Getting Shots
Attribution: Photo by National Cancer Institute on Unsplash By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, noted that the keeper and Phyllis got their “shots” yesterday at the drug store where a friendly young man said he did about 50 every day and his future schedules were full. As he waited, the keeper experienced a daytime dream of sorts: …
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The Elephant in the Room
Illustration by Michael DiMilo By Geoff Carter We try to keep an eye on the news at our house, particularly the political news. We watch CNN, network news, some of the other more partisan cable shows, and listen to various podcasts and reading independent sources like Heather Cox Richardson. Lately—in the last two months or …
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Kickass Watches the Sunrise
Photo by Bill Stokes By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, watched from his napping position as the keeper crept out of bed sometime before 6:33 am with the inexplicable uneasy feeling that the sun may not rise as usual. As he watched the dark eastern horizon there was the gradual emergence of a red …
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The Longest Day
Attribution: UA_Flight_175_hits_WTC_south_tower_9-11.jpeg: Flickr user TheMachineStops (Robert J. Fisch) derivative work: upstateNYer, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons By Geoff Carter We all remember where we were that day twenty-five years ago. I was just getting to work. It was a normal day, a beautiful day. The school year was just beginning, and an air of optimism …
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Working Class Blues
Illustrated by Michael DiMilo By Geoff Carter (Originally published September 7, 2025) We marched in the Labor Day parade last year. I fell in with my old union, the MTEA, as we lined up with firefighters, machinists, ironworkers, electricians, plumbers, and hospitality workers. Thousands participated. It can be argued that what truly made America great was …
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Scorched Earth
Attribution: NASA Earth Observatory images by Joshua Stevens, using GEOS data from the Global Modeling and Assimilation Office at NASA GSFC. Story by Adam Voiland., Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons By Geoff Carter As malignant, cruel, narcissistic, greedy, criminal, vindictive, juvenile, misogynistic, incompetent, racist, destructive, deceitful, power-hungry, stupid, and un-American he is, Donald Trump is …
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Kickass and the Cherry Trees
Attribution: Андрей Романенко, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, in utilizing trees for territorial marking purposes, recognizes their importance in meaningful communication. It is therefore easy for him to understand just how upset the keeper and Phyllis are over the news of a hundred or so 60-year-old cherry trees …
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Kickass and the Has-Beens
Photo by Bill Stokes By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, reports that the keeper did a little turn-back-the-clock number with the kind help of friends Ken and Joel with a lunch gathering of current “has-beens,” a group that has been in existence since before Pat Lucy left Wisconsin to become ambassador to Mexico. The …
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His Natalie
Attribution: The White House, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons By Geoff Carter Linus had his security blanket. Calvin had Hobbes. Radar had his teddy bear. Ernie had his rubber duckie. Milton had his red Swingline stapler. And the Dude had his living room rug (it tied the room together, man). Donald Trump has a blonde. …
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