Trump's War Against America

In today's earlier post, I wrote about Donald Trump's war against Iran.

Added note about that: 

Trump has said that Iran's military is "obliterated".

Then he asked for other nations to help defend the Strait of Hormuz from attacks by Iran's military.

You know, the one Trump said was obliterated? 

Meanwhile the response from other nations has been 1 of the following:

1. Silence
2. A cautious "we'll have to think about it"
3. A firm NO!

Basically, Trump broke this thing, he needs to buy it.

So that's what's going on with Trump's war against Iran.

But what about that other country Li'l Donnie is at war with?

How goes Trump's war against America?

Well, it's kinda scary.

Der Führer latest attack on the world's leading alleged democracy is the SAVE Act.

Well, what fresh hell is this latest fuckery?

The SAVE Act a.k.a., the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility Act (H.R. 8281/H.R. 7296) is a proposed federal law requiring individuals to provide official written proof of U.S. citizenship to register to vote in federal elections.

Now what pray tell would be allowed as "official written proof of U.S. citizenship"?

Don't think you're gonna saunter up to your local elections board office and register to vote with your driver's license or your student I.D. or your honorary Justice League membership card. 

What you need to prove your citizenship is your birth certificate.

God help you if you've lost the damn thing cause it takes time and money to replace it.

And God help you if it doesn't have the same name you have now because that's a real deal breaker. 

So if my wife Andrea needed to register to vote, the current Mrs. Long may have some difficulty in that is NOT her last name on her birth certificate. 

Thankfully she doesn't need to register to vote but Li'l Donnie would just love to extend the proof of citizenship requirement to actually showing up to cast  a ballot.

And besides married ladies who took their husband's last name, guess who else the SAVE Act fucks over?

Every MAGA head's favorite enemy of America, them thar dang transgenders.

Dadgum transgenders ruin everything! I think I saw one at a Cracker Barrel last week and my chicken 'n' dumplings tasted funny! 

Where was I? Oh yeah...

Need an alternative to providing a birth certificate? Well, the SAVE Act helpfully provides another option: your passport.

About half of Americans do not have a passport.

Count me among them.

And if you do want to get a passport, it takes time (approximately 3 to 4 weeks) and money (last I check, around $186) to get one.

Along with proving your citizenship to register to vote, the SAVE Act severely curtails mail in voting. 

Former President Jimmy Carter was against mail in voting.

It's true because Donald Trump said so.

OK, sarcasm alert! 

Of course it's a lie because Li'l Donnie's lips were moving.

Carter was a proponent of mail in voting and voted that way in the last years of his life.

Do you know who else has voted via a mailed in ballot?

His name rhymes with Fonald K. Grump.

By the way, once signed into law the SAVE Act would go into effect immediately.

So fuck you if you haven't registered to vote in time for the 2026 midterms. 

Anyway, der Führer is doing a full course press on Congress passing the SAVE Act NOW above all other considerations.  The House passed the measure along party lines but the Senate is not eager to take it up.

 Republicans need some Democrats to cross party lines to vote for this piece of shit legislation to pass with 60 votes and that ain't gonna happen.

So Trump is yelling at Senate Republicans to get rid of the filibuster so Republicans can pass this damn thing with a simple majority.

Which is great for Li'l Donnie's short term gain to fuck over Democrat voters but Senate Repubicans know their majority hold on the Senate is not forever and they worry what terrible things Democrats might push through without worrying about a 60 votes threshhold.

God forbid they might push through universal health care or some other awful thing.

About the SAVE Act....

May I play Devil's Advocate for a moment?

OK, that was fun.

Where was I? Oh yeah....

Isn't making sure non citizens are NOT voting a good thing?

Well, yes it is.

And guess what? It's ALREADY against the law for non citizens to vote.

AND it is NOT a problem that is actually a problem.

There is no evidence that this is some kind of widespread epidemic of fraud.

A non-citizen trying to vote has happened. There was one case of it in Florida where someone from Canada tried to vote.  

We know this because the system works: the guy was identified and caught. 

Studies by the very conservative, very right wing Heritage Foundation have concluded there is very little actual fraud happening in our election system.

So why the big push for the SAVE Act?

The only reason why modern Republicans get into a tizzy of a snit over anything these days: Donald Trump's ego.

Widdle Donnie Trump got his feelings hurt in 2020 when he lost the election.  Because der Führer sees himself as the best President ever in the history of Presidents, he cannot conceive of a nation that saw him as a lying, petulant, bullying, unintelligent, sociopathic, dishonorable, treasonous, gutless, moronic, heartless, soulless, slimy, loathsome, vile, incompetent, psychotic, crooked, disgusting, reprehensible, revolting, horrible, malicious, obnoxious, hateful, small minded, despicable god damn, motherfucking piece of shit! 

So the only answer has to be the election was stolen. 

And he will NOT let go of that lie.

And he has enough snivelling syncophants in Congress and in his administration to take action on all his whims.

And Donald Trump's assault on how we vote is not the only attack he's making on America.

OK, this post is going on too damn long so just link here to Li'l Donnie's boast about reshaping the media to fit his narcissistic  propoganda.  

der Führer is trying to control not just how we vote but how we think. 

And that is the state of Trump's war against America. 

And unlike his war against Iran, Li'l Donnie has willing supplicants to help him.

Trump's War Against Iran

So how are things going with Trump's war against Iran?

• It's going great! 
• We're ahead of schedule!
• We're winning! 
• We have won! 
• It's nearly complete!
• It is complete!
• We're done! 
• Why are you still here? War's over!
• Where are you going? We've got a war to fight!
• We've only just started! 
• We've destroyed the Iranian leadership!
• The Iranian leadership better watch out!
• We're gonna destroy Iranian leadership again!
• It's not a war, it's an "excursion"!
• Iran started this! 
• It's Joe Biden's fault!
• The Strait of Hormuz is perfectly safe! 
• We're not worried about the Strait of Hormuz!
• What burning oil tankers?
• Higher gas prices are not something to worry about!
• It's not against Iran, we wanna help Iran!
• Iran must be destroyed!
• Iran is already destroyed!
• We're gonna keep destroying Iran!
• Kill! Kill! KILL!!!!!

Hopefully that helps you get a handle on things.

Congratulations! You understand this... war thing as well as Donald Trump, Pete Hegseth, Marco Rubio, Lindsay Graham and the whole gang!

Donald Trump as well as a lot of Republicans in general operate under an over inflated sense of American might.

The United States has the biggest, most bad ass military ever and our mere arrival on the scene somewhere should cause our enemies to immediately prostrate themselves before us and give up. 

Making that assumption is a bad idea.

Because it never works.

Der Führer and his minions never anticipate that whoever we're attacking may not like being attacked.

And will do something about it.

Yes, the United State's much vaunted military is totally bigger and stronger than Iran's.  

That doesn't mean Iran will roll over and play dead. Whatever shit they've got, they will use it to fend off the invader.

What Iran's got is a shit ton of drones.

And they're using them. 

American military service members fighting this war may be doing so from a distance but not out of reach of Iranian drones.

Which has resulted in American dead.

There's been a cavalier attitude towards American losses and pain. 

The self described "Secretary of War" Pete Hegesth declares coverage of American war dead is designed to make Donald Trump look bad.

Hegseth is a bratty child playing a game of war with real lives and real bullets. His press briefings are not informative but rife with jingoism and propaganda. 

He's also taken issue with our press photographers take pictures of him.

You mean photos like this one? 

That looks less like a leader of the Pentagon and more like a toddler who's lost his binky.

While Hegseth and Trump are playing games with this war like it's some kind of real life "Call Of Duty", Americans are having to deal with some real shit.

With the Strait of Hormuz jammed up by Iranian drones and blocking the transport of Middle Eastern oil, oil companies have immediately jacked up the price of gas. 

Trump and his minions are telling us to stop whining, gas has only gone up a little bit and it's only temporary and we need to make sacrifices for some ill defined, inadequately explained greater good. 

Higher gas prices are a small price to pay to not have Iran hit us with a nuclear bomb any minute now. 

Assuming Iran was really going to nuke us any minute now.

Would it be a surprise to know there was no credible evidence that Iran was going to nuke us any minute now but der Führer certainly thought they were.

So there! 

We're at war because Trump felt like there was a threat.

And presumably this war will end when Trump feels like it. As he said in an interview on Friday, the conflict will end “when I feel it, feel it in my bones.” 

How can he feel his bones through all those layers of fat?

To add further Trumpian insult to American injury, the same people who slashed safety net programs for food and medical assistance because we couldn't afford them are perfectly OK spending BILLIONS of dollars a DAY for this so- called "excursion" into Iran.  

Whatever this thing with Iran is called, war was always inevitable.  With a thin skinned ego maniac in the White House desperate to show off how strong he is and an over funded military apparatus just sitting there under the name "Department of WAR", well, it was only a matter of time before we declared war on somebody. 

______________________________

By the way, how are things going with that other country Trump is at war with?

Sorry, haters of political shit but there's a 2nd post coming up today:  Trump's War Against America.

Star Trekking - Boldly Going

 

As long time readers of I'm So Glad My Suffering Amuses You know.....

OK, if you really are a long time reader of I'm So Glad My Suffering Amuses You, I mean this with all the love in my heart...seek help.

Where was I?

 
Oh yeah.

As long time readers of I'm So Glad My Suffering Amuses You know, I frequently dedicate exclusive space to my Doctor Who fandom.

Well, the editorial staff of I'm So Glad My Suffering Amuses You...

Hey, step out and say "hi" to the folks! 

A fun bunch of guys, the editorial staff.

So we're launching a dedicated space to my other sci-fi fandom, Star Trek.

Starting today, we're going to go Star Trekking! 

So what in the name of the Great Bird of the Galaxy will be happening in this new dedicated space?

NEW STAR TREK! Next week I will do a deep dive in the just concluded first season of Star Trek: Starfleet Academy.  

OLD STAR TREK! There will be posts on Star Treks gone by! I'm already half way done on a post about an episode from the first season of Star Trek: The Next Generation. 

WHAT THE HELL STAR TREK! Whatever damn thing pops in my noggin that's Trek related. Secret Hideout: good or bad for Star Trek? Let's dig into to that question. The evolution of Stat Trek uniforms? I have some thoughts about that. 

This will be my space for all things Star Trek.

Join me as we go... Star Trekking! 

Let's close out with this silly short called "Star Trekkin'!" 

Live long and prosper, y'all! 

Movie Time: Follow Me Quietly

It's...Movie Time!

Today's cinematic themed post goes back to 1949 for a film noir called Follow Me Quietly.

Calling this entry "film noir" may be giving this too much artistic credit.  Follow Me Quiety is more a "just the facts, ma'am" police procedural with an almost quasi documentary kind of vibe.

This movie was directed by Richard Fleischer. Never heard of him? That's OK, neither have I.

The film stars  William Lundigan, Dorothy Patrick and Jeff Corey and no, you don't know who they are either and I'm drawing a blank as well.

Well, with this ringing endorsement, let's plunge right in to Follow Me Quietly.

The city is in the grip of terror.

A killer is on the loose. 

A mysterious sinister figure known only as "The Judge".

His victims? Anyone he deems as immortal and worthless.

Police Lieutenant Harry Grant is tasked with bringing this killer to justice.

Which ain't gonna be easy as he leaves skant clues.

To help him and his squad get a handle on who the hell this fiend is, Grant has a faceless mannequin set up to which they add clothes, hair or any other features they can discern which each successive murder. 

Each piece of knowledge on who the Judge really is paid for in blood.  

The body count keeps going up and Grant is frustratingly no closer to bringing this killer in.

Maybe plucky girl report Ann Gorman can help! If her reckless nose for news doesn't get her killed.  

Grant finds Gorman to be a terrible nuisance. She's also gosh darn cute. Oh, he's gotta get her off this beat, tracking down murderers is no place for a girl, yadda yadda yadda, you know the drill.

And of course it's Ann Gorman who uncovers the crucial piece of information that finally puts Harry Grant wise to the identity of the Judge.

The Judge is Charlie Roy, a middle age man of sour disposition and rather unattractive appearance who can't get laid so he's taking his sexual frustration on people he thinks he's morally superior to. 

Or something.

Grant has Roy cornered in a refinery but our killer ain't gonna be taken that easily and makes a run for it through the refinery's catwalks where he....

(I know, you've gotten there already)

...falls to his death.

The film ends with Harry Grant and Ann Gorman on a date.

Well, that didn't sound like much.

And it wasn't. With a run time of 59 minutes, there's not a lot of time to do much than run the numbers of this crime... I don't wanna use the word "thriller" as that might imply the presence of actual thrills... or Michael Jackson. 

Back in 1949, the New York Times was also dismissive of the film. "There is no intelligent reason why anyone should heed the proposal of Follow Me Quietly...for this utterly senseless little thriller is patently nothing more than a convenient one-hour time-killer between performances of the eight-act vaudeville bill."

More recent assessments have been kinder.   

Gene Triplett of The Oklahoman:  "This obscure gem packs a remarkable amount of thrills and dramatic weight into a mere 59 minutes".

Paul Mavis of DVD Talk rated it 4.5/5 stars and called it a "strange, unsettling film noir mystery, with a disturbing subtext".

Follow Me Quietly is... functional.  

1. There are murders.
2. There are people who want to stop the murders.
3. The murders are stopped.

What more do you want?   

_____________________________

Tomorrow on the blog: the debut of a regular blog feature as I look back on the 60 year history of Star Trek.

We're goin' Star Trekking! 

What's Eating You? It's Only Your Friday Video Link

Your Friday Video Link addresses the topic of cannibalism.

If you're hungry, I mean really REALLY hungry, how long should you wait before resorting to cannibalism?

How many minutes must one wait before turning to human flesh to sustenance?

Wait! Minutes?

Surely one can wait longer than that!

Surely.

But I am... so... hungry....

The good folks at Make Some Noise on Dropout give us something to thing about.

Granola or human flesh?

Well, there really is no choice is there.

And the good people of South Park confront their own cannabil conundrum as well.

Eric Roberts tasted like ham. (I mean, did you see his over the top performance as the Master in the Doctor Who movie?)

Well, that is that for this week's Your Friday Video Link.

Until next time, remember to taste good.... oops, I mean be good to one another.  

Tatjana Wood

 One of the great comic book colorists passed away recently.  

Tatjana Wood died February 27 at the age of 99.

Tatjana Wood around 1950. 

She was born Tatjana Weintraub  Darmstadt, Germany, on March 2, 1926.  She married artist Wally Wood in 1950 and worked as an assistant on some of his stories.

She went to work as a colorist for DC Comics where she provided colors for most of DC's covers from the 1970's and '80's.

Below is a sample of her cover color work for Tom Yeates' cover for Saga of the Swamp Thing#1.

Here are a couple of pages of her interior coloring work over Steve Bissette and John Totleben when Alan Moore was writing Swamp Thing.

In today's earlier post, I referenced that Swamp Thing and Abby Arcane have sex with the help of a sweet potato. 

Actually, it was a  yam.

And this spash page colored by Tatjana is from that issue.

Tatjana Wood was also the colorist for Camelot 3000 by Mike Barr and Brian Bolland. 

From The Question#1 by Denny O'Neil, Denys Cowan and Rick Magyar, dig Tatjana's use of blue to make the figure in the forefront pop and establish a tense and ominous mood. 

Tatjana won the Shazam Award in 1971 and 1974 for best colorist and was inducted into the Will Eisner Award Hall of Fame  in recognition of her talent and her contributions to the comic book industry in 2023. 

Any story with a color credit for Tatjana Wood was the promise of an issue that would at least look fantastic, elevating good art to great art.

Tatjana's gifts and talents were a blessing to the art of comic books and she will be missed.  

You Can Just Go To Hell With Dave-El's Spinner Rack and the Justice League

If you're in the DC Universe, oh, the places you can go.

The undersea kingdom of Atlantis!

The savage world located in Earth's center, Skartaris!

The tropical island paradise of Themyscira!

Or you can go to HELL! 

I'm not talking about my last trip to Disney World.

I mean the literal Hell.

The abyss, the pit. 

A place of damnation and torture.

A region of cursed pain and torment.

And you can get there from here.

I mean, it's not like hopping a bus from Bakerline to Centennial Park in Metropolis but in the DC Universe, it's a real place you can go.

Like the Justice League.

In recent issues of Justice League Unlimited, Mr. Terrific has been leading a team of heroes into Hell to confront the demon Neron.

Some back story: over in the DC K.O. event book, Darkseid is coming and a bunch of heroes have been attempting to secure an ultimate power source to be come King Omega in order to have the power to repel Darkseid once and for all.,

(I'll cover that ground some more in next week's Spinner Rack post.) 

Meanwhile the Justice League is expending considerable effort to fortify or evaculate the Earth in advance of Darkseid's arrival.  A herculean enterprise made more difficult by Neron's fuckery.

Seems Neron has co-opted a bunch of Earth's super villains to take advantage of all this chaos to scoop up bunches and bunches of souls for Neron to snack on.

Mr. Terrific assembles a team to get tell him to knock it off.

And to do that, they gotta go where Neron lives.

Which is Hell.

The premise of Justice League Unlimited is that every hero on Earth is a member of the League.

And even that expansive mandate has undergone a glow up.

There are now heroes from elsewhere in time and the multiverse. 

Like Batman is from the future, Terry McGinnis who we know from Batman Beyond.  And Superman is from the past when he was in that god awful electric blue phase.  

Mr. Terrific starts off with a team of ten but by issue #14, his task force has been whittled down to seven.

And the demons and monsters of Hell ain't done whittling. 

Aquaman gets an awesome kickass moment taking down a very large demon by his own damn self. 

His epic heroism is rewarded with a terrible and ferocious death.

This is Hell after all.

And then there was six.  

And the whitling just won't stop and by the time Mr. Terrific actually makes it to Neron, he is all alone.

Or is he? 

A treacherous betrayal puts the kibosh on Mr. Terrific's desperate plan.

The physical lives of everyone on Earth maybe forfeit to Darkseid.

And all their souls now belong to Neron. 

There's a mighty deep dark hole to crawl out of before this saga is done.

Reflecting on the Justice League's journey to Hell brought my thoughts back to a fondly remembered classic comic book from my youth that also featured DC characters on a quest into Hell.  

That story was "Down Amongst the Dead Men" by Alan Moore,  Stephen R. Bissette & John Totleben  from Swamp Thing Annual#2 from October 1984.   

Some back story: in the regular monthy series, Swamp Thing had a major confrontation with his arch nemesis Anton Arcane. Things do not go well for Anton but just as he does, he gets one last "fuck you" at Swamp Thing by killing Anton's niece Abby (and Swampy's girlfriend) and sending her soul to Hell.

Well, I guess Swamp Thing's gotta go get her, I reckon.

(That cover and the double page spread above was colored by Tatjana Wood who sadly passed away about 2 weeks ago. More about her in today's 2nd post.)

With help from such DC supernatural stalwarts like Deadman, the Phantom Stranger, the Spectre and the Demon Etrigan, Swamp Thing descends into Hell to rescue Abby.

There's this great scene where Swamp Thing ponders why God allows Hell to exist and Etrigan replies that God grieves that Hell even exists and that it's foundations are built not by God but by Man.  

Swamp Thing runs into Anton who is being ass raped by demons with red hot pokers but it's worth it to know he fucked with his enemy by sending Abby to Hell.

Anton asks Swamp Thing how many years has he been in Hell.

Swamp Thing replies that Anton Arcane has only been in Hell for one day.

Anton's blood curdling scream splits the brimstone air as Swamp Thing shambles away on his quest.

Long story made short: Swamp Thing finds Abby and gets her the hell out of, you know, Hell. 

In a couple of months, Swamp Thing and Abby will consumate their relationship.  

Yes, they have sex.

It involves a sweet potato.

It's quite a beautiful experience.

Back to present day comics....

Next week the Spinner Rack looks in on the DC K.O. event.

Which hero...or villain... will become King Omega?

Will it be enough to stop Darkseid?