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It turns out Little Suzie Newsykins wants a little more than a Trump indictment, even though that tops her (and my) Christmas list. The Department of Justice received a serious nudge from the January 6 House committee this week in the form of a criminal referral that listed four charges, including inciting insurrection.
Thanks to Elon Musk, Twitter has become a test case of what happens when you put all the worst things about social media on one platform. Of course Facebook and Instagram have had their share of problems, but I just can’t keep from looking away when the world’s (formerly) richest man destroys Twitter while simultaneously touting himself as a free speech savior — all while ginning up the social media machine with right-wing racists, antisemites and conspiracy theorists.
Republicans and Democrats in Congress recently joined together to force rail workers to accept a contract with exactly zero paid sick days and one measly “personal day.” Thanks to the 1926 Railway Labor Act, lawmakers sided with (surprise, surprise!) multibillion dollar rail corporations instead of workers.
China’s “zero Covid” policy has sparked rare protests across the nation of nearly a billion and a half people. Which led me to think about our very own failed “zero” policy here in the United States. Zero corporate tax. To be fair, it’s not a policy per se, but is clearly an aspiration that has been achieved.
As we revel in the joy and wonder of Thanksgiving, let us be particularly thankful that a good number of billionaires are making asses of themselves. (I focused on American billionaires in this cartoon since Thanksgiving for Billionaires is, of course, a U.S. holiday.)
Just as the Republican Party is trying to distance itself from Donald Trump after a disappointing showing in the midterm elections, the twice-impeached, insurrection-inciting, soon-to-be-indicted former president is reminding the nation he is still the leader of the party.
As I write this, the U.S. House and Senate are still up for grabs as votes are being counted in the midterm elections. The one thing we do know for certain right now is that there was no Republican “red wave” that so many pundits and pollsters had predicted.
Republicans are once again tripping over themselves trying to explain away the fact that their extremist rhetoric has radicalized people and led to violence. Whether it’s the loopy conspiracy theories of the MAGA right or the more tame “jokes” of moderate Republicans, they all seem to have difficulty grasping the facts.
According to some polls and pundits, it’s definitely not looking too good right now for the Democrats in the midterm elections. Republican candidates are leaning into inflation, gas prices and crime in an attempt to undermine the electorate’s confidence in Democratic candidates.
Trump and Ye (aka Kanye West) are now partners in antisemitism who have both been justifiably banned from various social networks. Trump has gone on to form Truth Social and now Ye apparently wants to buy Parler, a failing right wing cesspool that had its heyday around the time of the January 6th insurrection.
President Joe Biden was caught off guard when Saudi Arabia and Russia joined together to lead OPEC to cut oil production by 2 million barrels a day. After Biden’s fist-bump visit to Jeddah, Saudi Arabia over the summer, he thought he had a deal with Mohammed bin Salman to increase production.
With Julian Assange facing extradition to the United States, we’ll likely be hearing more about his case and see more protests around the world very soon. His legal battle against extradition from the UK to the United States has been winding its way through the British courts for months. If he’s brought to the United States, the WikiLeaks founder faces a sentence of 175 years for charges that include 17 counts of violating the Espionage Act.
It has been, as they say, a year. While some undoubtedly good things happened in 2022, we’re still paying for the sins of systemic racism, plutocracy and Trumpism. (And of course, all three of those things often roll into one big toxic ball.)