Photo by Pixabay from Pexels By Mark Mamerow Them that’s got shall get Them that’s not shall lose So the Bible said and it still is news —“God Bless the Child”, Billie Holiday and Arthur Herzog Jr. The muckraking site ProPublica recently published an expose on the ridiculously low levels of income taxes paid by the superrich. Using data …
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Category:Politics
Kickass and the Cicada Interview
Photo by Michael Kropiewnicki from Pexels By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, will be using his extraordinary communication powers to help the keeper interview the Maryland cicada that recently landed on Joe Biden’s shirt collar. Kickass: “The QAnon idiots say you may be a sign of something. What might that be?” Cicada: “That I am the premature reincarnation …
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Kickass and Fear of Hair
“Boris Johnson 2016” Foreign and Commonwealth Office, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, is trying to assist the keeper in dealing with his—the keeper’s Chaetophobia, which, everyone knows, is the extreme fear of hair. After undergoing four years of shock treatment during the Trump hair carnival, the keeper was approaching some …
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Swamp Things
Artwork by Michael DiMilo By Geoff Carter Politically, the past five years have been—to say the least—turbulent. An ruthless grifter was somehow elected to the highest office in the land; he brazenly tried to steal us blind (and was more than a little successful). He was also sublimely incompetent. His administration either badly bungled and/or …
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Kickass and Republican History
Artwork by Michael DiMilo By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, notes with the keeper that the gerrymandered chokehold the narcissistic Republicans have on the democratic political system will be its downfall: a kennel operating for the benefit of only a few tall dogs with no meaningful sustenance for the hordes of mutts cannot endure. …
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Qualified Immunity: There’s a Catch
Photo by Sora Shimazaki from Pexels By Mark Mamerow “That’s some catch, that Catch-22,’ Yossarian observed. “It’s the best there is,” Doc Daneeka agreed. —Catch-22, by Joseph Heller Readers of Joseph Heller’s brilliant World War II black comedy Catch-22 see the war from the bemused and frustrated perspective of Captain Yossarian, a bombardier. Throughout the novel, Yossarian’s desire …
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Living in the Past
Artwork by Michael DiMilo By Geoff Carter “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal. –Thomas Jefferson We’ve been taught to respect and believe these hallowed words since we were children. Of course, after a close examination of U.S. history, no one—except perhaps a child—is naïve enough to believe them. Shortly …
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Kickass and “Weather Through Filibuster”
Ralf Roletschek (GFDL 1.2 or FAL), via Wikimedia Commons By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, is assisting the keeper in deciphering a Repub-designed program to deal with rotten weather over the Memorial Day weekend. Called “Weather Through Filibuster” or WTF for short, the program is based on the Repub held contention that warm sunshine is the …
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Kickass and Homeless Cricket
“North Portland Homeless Tent Camp”Graywalls, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, reports that the keeper and Phyllis, while driving through Madison ‘s Reindahl park–named after a shirt-tail predecessor of the keeper’s, happened upon a couple of puzzling scenes: men playing cricket and, not far away, the remains of a …
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Kickass and Repub Revisionists
United States Library of Congress, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, joins the keeper in noting yet another instance of modifying the record as the 100th anniversary—May 31, of the Tulsa massacre approaches. Despite the recent eye-witness account of 107-year-old Viola Fletcher before congress, in which she recounted details of …
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The High Road
Artwork by Michael DiMilo By Geoff Carter Sometimes we find our greatest strengths in the strangest places. One of our most fierce advocates for fighting climate change is an eighteen-year-old Swedish high school student. An outspoken advocate for woman’s rights is a twenty-three-year-old Pakistani who nearly died in an assassination attempt. That didn’t frighten her; …
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Kickass and McViewitis
TapTheForwardAssist, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, reports that the keeper’s recent preoccupation with vision issues may have been misguided in that he apparently didn’t see what he saw. In comparing notes with others who did not see what they saw, the keeper refers to an apparent new affliction …
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