Illustration by Michael DiMilo By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, defers to the keeper and Phyllis this day in the midst of the calendar confusion that occurs between February and March and which is supposedly corrected by a “Leap year.” This year the February-March confusion was further complicated by the unexpected appearance of the …
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Category:Politics
Kickass and Complaints
Photo by Bill Stokes By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, reports that the keeper who never aspires to “Good boy!” status, was gratified recently with proof that some of his communication efforts are succeeding in reaching readers. Fellow Vista West residents B and C were among those who took the trouble to respond to …
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Taken for Granted
Illustration by Michael DiMilo By Geoff Carter “Don’t it always seem to go/ That you don’t know what you got ‘til it’s gone/” –“Big Yellow Taxi” by Joni Mitchell Humans have a peculiar tendency to become quickly accustomed to surrounding circumstances—particularly good circumstances—and then to subsequently take them for granted. The excitement of getting a …
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Kickass and VA Eye Clinic
Attribution: Marianne O’Leary Creative Commons Attribution 2.0, Wikimedia Commons By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, stays home this morning as the keeper and Phyllis trot off to the VA eye clinic to learn more about the recent changes in the keeper’s AMD–Age relatd Macro Degeneration. After years of careful monitoring and treatment by the …
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Kickass and Obedience Commands
Attribution: Elf at the English-language Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, assists the keeper and Phyllis in passing along the suggested responses to the standard “Obedience Class” commands as they have been revised by Musk the Insufferable and his trusty Tin Man sidekick. *SIT!: Place your hindquarters as …
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Coup D’uhtat
Illustration by Michael DiMilo By Geoff Carter Donald Trump came swaggering into the Oval Office on the first day of his second term like a sailor on his first night of shore leave—and he behaved pretty much like a drunken sailor, too, signing executive orders like bad checks and—figuratively—standing on the bar proclaiming he was …
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Kickass and Dog Shelter
Attribution: Photo by Hermes Rivera on Unsplash By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, in an effort to help the keeper and Phyllis understand what contrary things are occurring in their world encourages them to think of themselves as being stray mutts in a corporate-owned animal shelter that has a contract to provide dog meat to North Korea …
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Under God
Illustration by Michael DiMilo By Geoff Carter When I was growing up, we were required to say The Pledge of Allegiance at the beginning of every school day. From fourth grade on, we studied our country’s history and its government. We were taught that we the people were self-governed, that we chose our own leaders …
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Kickass and Dog Show
Attribution: Photograph: Bohemianroots, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, will be relaxing now that a giant Schnauzer named Monty has taken best-in-show honors at the 2025 Westminster dog show. Adapting the keeper’s philosophy about that kind of thing, which holds that if he had been there he would have …
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The Fascist Cookbook
Illustration by Michael DiMilo By Geoff Carter (Originally published September 26, 2024) A refresher course on Project 2025. This is where our country is presently headed. I grew up during the late sixties and early seventies when youth counterculture was king. Rock and roll, pot, LSD, free love, and political activism were all part of …
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Train Wreck
Illustration by Micheal DiMilo By Geoff Carter Watching the confirmation hearings for some of Donald Trump’s new cabinet appointees has run the gamut from unbelievable to harrowing to downright frightening, like a giant runaway locomotive barreling down the track towards a school bus stuck on the tracks. Some of his nominees seem to have no …
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Kickass and the Price of Eggs
Attribution: Eugène Delacroix , Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, reports that the keeper’s life-long amicable relationship with chickens keeps forcing him to consider the price of eggs as the issue most needing his expert attention, even exceeding the obvious ongoing coup of the US government. The coup, by single …
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