Der Furor, Take Two

At noon today, Der Furor will take the oath of office as President of the United States for the second time; he is only the second president in our history to be elected to two non-consecutive terms (the other was, as you surely know by now, Grover Cleveland).

I am dreading his second term more than I did the first, for many reasons. He is a miserable human being. He is bombastic, amoral, self-centered, greedy, and focused more on personal loyalty in his minions than in their competence to fulfill their duties of office. His idea of presidential gravitas is to use demeaning schoolyard nicknames for his opponents and critics. His towering ego makes him easily manipulable by friends and enemies alike. His approach to every issue and problem is purely transactional, answering the essential question "what's in it for me?" He prides himself on disdain for norms of presidential behavior and is, as presidential historian Douglas Brinkley once commented, "just a bull carrying his own china shop with him when­ever he travels the world.” Finally, because he will head an administration informed by the experiences of his first regime and supercharged by the work of conservative organizations exemplified by Project 2025 ... which he disowned during the campaign but has happily moved to implement now that he's been elected.

In short, Der Furor is ready to be a terrible president for the second time.

But having said that, there are some positions he has espoused (often out of convenience rather than conviction) that make sense and that I could support (in principle, if not in execution).

First, Der Furor is correct that we have a problem of unregulated and uncontrolled immigration. His approach to the problem is, however, ludicrously simplistic, unworkable, and ignores the fundamental problem of outdated and inadequate immigration law. Building a "big, beautiful wall" will not keep out those anxious to enter the country ... it didn't work for the East German government in Berlin* and it won't work here. Rounding up and deporting millions of illegal/"undocumented" aliens in massive sweeps is both unconstitutional (for various reasons) and detrimental to the economy (he seems to think that American citizens are lining up to take the difficult, low-wage, service and agricultural jobs now largely being filled by those he would deport). At the same time, he appears anxious to support his billionaire tech supporters by offering more "H-1B" visas for the high-tech workers they need. He has not said a word about taking legislative action to fix the issues with our immigration system that have created the situation he now rails about ... you may recall that he directed his minions in Congress to kill the bipartisan border security bill that gave conservative Republicans almost everything they asked for. I have, myself, offered a detailed plan to fix our immigration system, which has been graciously accepted and then ignored by my elected representatives for years. 

Second, our tax system is a mess and needs to look as if someone designed it for sound economic reasons. Der Furor's answer is to cut taxes for the very wealthiest Americans and for big businesses, on the long-discredited assumption that they will invest all that saved money in actions that boost the economy, resulting in lower prices and other benefits that will eventually "trickle down" to the poorest Americans**. In his confirmation hearing, Der Furor's Treasury Secretary nominee Scott Bessent said that the "single most important economic issue" was extending tax cuts for the wealthy and businesses. I think that even a lot of the underinformed people who voted for Der Furor would have a hard time swallowing that. Tax laws should address the needs of the lower and middle classes as well as the top 1%.

Third, looking to the larger economy, I think we definitely need to have some changes made, although the sort of changes that would most benefit average Americans would be opposed by big business in our current market economy. For instance, Mr Bessent (who we met in the previous paragraph) also said in his hearing that he saw no need to increase the national minimum wage ... which has remained unchanged at the national level at $7.25/hour since 2009, 16 years. Prices for food staples, basic medical care, and essential medicines are squeezing the lower and middle class, but I have yet to see any sort of plan that adequately addresses them ... there's no magic wand to wave that will fulfill feel-good but difficult to achieve campaign promises like: "Starting on Day One, we will end inflation and make America affordable again;" "Groceries, cars – everything. We're going to get the prices down;" "... we're going down and getting gasoline below $2 a gallon;" and "We will eliminate regulations that drive up housing costs, with the goal of cutting the cost of a new home in half."

Finally, some reform of our Civil Service is needed, although the horrendous "Schedule F" plan which would replace professional, merit-based government employees with ones loyal to Der Furor, regardless of merit, is hardly the answer. When I worked in the Pentagon as a military officer, I (very) occasionally  supervised or dealt with government civilians who were utterly worthless in their positions, but were all but impossible to fire, even for cause. Junking the merit-based Civil Service in favor of presidential loyalists is not the answer ... improved personnel management regulations that make it easier to remove non-performing employees is needed. 

Those will do for starters. In summary, I could get behind some changes and improvements in our government, but Der Furor and his extreme conservative, wealthy, and religious supporters are hardly the ones to provide what we need.

What do you think?

Have a good day. Hope for the best but plan for the worst.

More thoughts coming.

Bilbo

* I served in West Berlin while The Wall was still up, so I think I can speak with some authority on this.

** As Will Rogers once said, "The money was all appropriated for the top in the hopes that it would trickle down to the needy. Mr. Hoover didn't know that money trickled up. Give it to the people at the bottom and the people at the top will have it before night, anyhow. But it will at least have passed through the poor fellow's hands."

Poetry Sunday

This past Thursday, January 16th, we celebrated the birthday of Canadian poet Robert W. Service, the man known as "The Bard of the Yukon" for his epic poems and stories of the gold miners of the Canadian west. His poems, although they contain ethnic slurs and occasional language no longer considered appropriate, are full of wonderful imagery and colorful characters. My two favorite Service poems are "The Cremation of Sam McGee" (which I love to read aloud) and today's offering ...

The Ballad of Blasphemous Bill

by Robert W. Service

I took a contract to bury the body of blasphemous Bill MacKie,

Whenever, wherever or whatsoever the manner of death he die --

Whether he die in the light o' day or under the peak-faced moon;

In cabin or dance-hall, camp or dive, mucklucks or patent shoon;

On velvet tundra or virgin peak, by glacier, drift or draw;

In muskeg hollow or canyon gloom, by avalanche, fang or claw;

By battle, murder or sudden wealth, by pestilence, hooch or lead --

I swore on the Book I would follow and look till I found my tombless dead.

For Bill was a dainty kind of cuss, and his mind was mighty sot

On a dinky patch with flowers and grass in a civilized bone-yard lot.

And where he died or how he died, it didn't matter a damn

So long as he had a grave with frills and a tombstone "epigram".

So I promised him, and he paid the price in good cheechako coin

(Which the same I blowed in that very night down in the Tenderloin).

Then I painted a three-foot slab of pine:  "Here lies poor Bill MacKie",

And I hung it up on my cabin wall and I waited for Bill to die.

Years passed away, and at last one day came a squaw with a story strange,

Of a long-deserted line of traps 'way back of the Bighorn range;

Of a little hut by the great divide, and a white man stiff and still,

Lying there by his lonesome self, and I figured it must be Bill.

So I thought of the contract I'd made with him, and I took down from the shelf

The swell black box with the silver plate he'd picked out for hisself;

And I packed it full of grub and "hooch", and I slung it on the sleigh;

Then I harnessed up my team of dogs and was off at dawn of day.

You know what it's like in the Yukon wild when it's sixty-nine below;

When the ice-worms wriggle their purple heads through the crust of the pale blue snow;

When the pine-trees crack like little guns in the silence of the wood,

And the icicles hang down like tusks under the parka hood;

When the stove-pipe smoke breaks sudden off, and the sky is weirdly lit,

And the careless feel of a bit of steel burns like a red-hot spit;

When the mercury is a frozen ball, and the frost-fiend stalks to kill --

Well, it was just like that that day when I set out to look for Bill.

Oh, the awful hush that seemed to crush me down on every hand,

As I blundered blind with a trail to find through that blank and bitter land;

Half dazed, half crazed in the winter wild, with its grim heart-breaking woes,

And the ruthless strife for a grip on life that only the sourdough knows!

North by the compass, North I pressed; river and peak and plain

Passed like a dream I slept to lose and I waked to dream again.

River and plain and mighty peak -- and who could stand unawed?

As their summits blazed, he could stand undazed at the foot of the throne of God.

North, aye, North, through a land accurst, shunned by the scouring brutes,

And all I heard was my own harsh word and the whine of the malamutes,

Till at last I came to a cabin squat, built in the side of a hill,

And I burst in the door, and there on the floor, frozen to death, lay Bill.

Ice, white ice, like a winding-sheet, sheathing each smoke-grimed wall;

Ice on the stove-pipe, ice on the bed, ice gleaming over all;

Sparkling ice on the dead man's chest, glittering ice in his hair,

Ice on his fingers, ice in his heart, ice in his glassy stare;

Hard as a log and trussed like a frog, with his arms and legs outspread.

I gazed at the coffin I'd brought for him, and I gazed at the gruesome dead,

And at last I spoke:  "Bill liked his joke; but still, goldarn his eyes,

A man had ought to consider his mates in the way he goes and dies."

Have you ever stood in an Arctic hut in the shadow of the Pole,

With a little coffin six by three and a grief you can't control?

Have you ever sat by a frozen corpse that looks at you with a grin,

And that seems to say:  "You may try all day, but you'll never jam me in"?

I'm not a man of the quitting kind, but I never felt so blue

As I sat there gazing at that stiff and studying what I'd do.

Then I rose and I kicked off the husky dogs that were nosing round about,

And I lit a roaring fire in the stove, and I started to thaw Bill out.

Well, I thawed and thawed for thirteen days, but it didn't seem no good;

His arms and legs stuck out like pegs, as if they was made of wood.

Till at last I said:  "It ain't no use -- he's froze too hard to thaw;

He's obstinate, and he won't lie straight, so I guess I got to -- saw."

So I sawed off poor Bill's arms and legs, and I laid him snug and straight

In the little coffin he picked hisself, with the dinky silver plate;

And I came nigh near to shedding a tear as I nailed him safely down;

Then I stowed him away in my Yukon sleigh, and I started back to town.

So I buried him as the contract was in a narrow grave and deep,

And there he's waiting the Great Clean-up, when the Judgment sluice-heads sweep;

And I smoke my pipe and I meditate in the light of the Midnight Sun,

And sometimes I wonder if they was, the awful things I done.

And as I sit and the parson talks, expounding of the Law,

I often think of poor old Bill -- and how hard he was to saw.

I think perhaps I'd better double-check the instructions I'm leaving behind for when I shuffle off my mortal coil.

Have a good day and enjoy the rest of your weekend. More thoughts coming.

Bilbo

Cartoon Saturday

Hope you're enjoying the last days before Der Furor and his team of engineered incompetents* takes over ...

Israel and Hamas have agreed on a cease-fire in the Gaza war, although no one seriously believes it is a promising sign for peace beyond the agreed-upon period; the first volume of Special Counsel Jack Smith's investigation (the election subversion case) was released by the Department of Justice, not that it makes a difference; President Biden delivered his farewell address from the Oval Office, warning of the coming dangers of oligarchy and artificial intelligence; MAGA world is hysterical over former First Lady Michelle Obama's refusal to attend Der Furor's inauguration - they view it as a grievous insult, even though neither Der Furor, his wife, nor any of his family attended the Biden inauguration in 2021; and in England, a former doctor has been sentenced to prison for running a mobile circumcision service which ignored basic hygiene rules and caused "painful cruelty to children" ... he apparently cut too many corners. 

It's time for another random collection of cartoons because, why not? ... 

Truth in advertising ...

It seems like a reasonable alternative ...

My last job interview ...

This is what I should have included when we upgraded our kitchen ...

Sad, but true ...

Der Furor's new cabinet officers always take his calls with the right response ...

My new excuse ...

If our schools were really indoctrinating our children ...

Guidance for the incoming administration ...

Uh, oh ...

And that's it for this week's Cartoon Saturday - I hope it's put you in the right mood to face the coming change of administration.

Have a good day and a great weekend. More thoughts coming tomorrow, when we head to the Frozen North with Poetry Sunday. See you then.

Bilbo

* The topic of this coming Monday's post.

Great Moments in Editing and Signage

How better to close out a week of weirdness than with a new collection of editorial and signage bloopers?

Need any old people? ...

No comment ...

You can save money by ordering a meal that includes its own beverage ...

I think there's one business that's going to do really well in the next four years ...

Der Furor's Department of Labor is strongly supporting schools like this ...

I don't think this sign appeared during the search for new Cabinet officers ...

Say, what?? ...

It's part of the business model for for-profit prisons ...

I've heard that models manufactured in Septober tend to be better made ...

Only in Texas ...

And that's it for this week ... I hope you had a laugh at some editor's or sign-painter's expense, and that you'll remember to send your Great Moments to me for future use.

Have a good day and get ready for your last pre-Furor weekend. More thoughts coming.

Bilbo

National Hat Day

Today, January 15th, is National Hat Day, on which people are encouraged to wear their favorite hats or hats particular to their occupation. Nurses wear their caps, chefs wear their toques, football players and firefighters wear their helmets, military personnel wear their berets, kepis, field caps, flight caps, or "wheels," and other workers wear their specialized headgear to work and to various events. Or just for the hell of it ...

A side note about military headgear: dress hats worn by field-grade (majors, lieutenant colonels, and colonels) and general officers in the Air Force are decorated with embroidered clouds and lightning bolts, and are colloquially known as "darts and farts" hats; the embroidered acorns and oak leaves on the hats worn by senior Army personnel are called "scrambled eggs."

January 15th was supposedly chosen as National Hat Day in part because it commemorates the day in 1797 when, according to a possibly apocryphal story, haberdasher John Hetherington wore a "tall silk hat" so unusual that caused a riot. According to a report of the day,

John Hetherington... was arraigned before the Lord Mayor yesterday on a charge of breach of the peace and inciting to riot, and was required to give bonds in the sum of £500 [for having] appeared upon the public highway wearing upon his head what he called a silk hat... a tall structure, having a shiny lustre, and calculated to frighten timid people.... several women fainted at the unusual sight, while children screamed, dogs yelped, and a young [boy] was thrown down by the crowd which had collected and had his right arm broken. 

 

And lest we forget, the latest in popular headgear, particularly on the extreme right, is the tinfoil hat, supposedly worn for protection against mind control by the evil government, surveillance by aliens, or other imagined persecutions. Tinfoil hats come in many styles, from the most basic ...

to the most complex and exotic ...

Tinfoil hats are available in a wide range of looks to match every stylistic desire ... 

And for those who are especially worried, there are options for whole-body protection... 

Have a good National Hat Day, and wear those lids with pride!

More thoughts coming.

Bilbo

The Supreme Court and the Seven Deadly Sins

I have long been fascinated by the Christian* tradition of the Seven Deadly Sins, and I've written several posts about them and their manifestation in the modern world. In case you're not familiar with the Seven Deadly Sins, they are

Pride - pride is considered the original and the worst of the seven deadly sins. It leads to irrational self-confidence, impulsiveness, and an unwillingness to seek or heed good advice. Vainglory (unjustified boasting**) is considered a form of pride.

Greed - an inordinate desire to acquire or possess more than one needs, especially wealth.

Wrath - uncontrolled feelings of rage or hatred, or a desire for vengeance for perceived wrongs.

Envy - sad or resentful covetousness towards the traits or possessions of someone else.

Lust - while we think of lust in the sense of intense sexual desire, it actually means an fierce desire for anything, such as money, power, or social position.

Gluttony - usually thought of in terms of gross overeating, it is the overindulgence or overconsumption of anything to the point of waste.

Sloth - indolence, laziness, or the habitual avoidance of exertion. Unlike the other six deadly sins, sloth is a sin of omission (the failure to perform ones responsibilities) rather than commission (of some act that is wrong or immoral).

It occurs to me that most of the conservative members of the Supreme Court reflect one or more of the Seven Deadly Sins:

Greed, Wrath, and Envy mark Justice Clarence Thomas. His eager acceptance of gifts and services from wealthy friends and patrons, regardless of the perception of ethical compromise, are clear examples of greed, while his disdainful refusal to even consider them to be a problem, and his accusation that those who point out such problems are motivated by racism rather than concern for justice shows wrath. He is also guilty of envy, which drives him to seek from questionably ethical sources the better things of life he believes his meager salary as a Supreme Court justice denies him.

Greed, Wrath, and Pride mark Justice Samuel Alito. Like Justice Thomas, Justice Alito happily accepts questionable gifts (greed), bristles at any criticism of his behavior (wrath), and clearly believes he's above criticism, anyhow (pride).

Sloth and Pride mark Chief Justice John Roberts. His foot-dragging reluctance to lead the court to a clear stand on politically difficult decisions (sloth) undercuts his role as the Chief Justice, while and his tone-deaf defense of a court that has a clear crisis of public confidence (pride) reflects a reluctance to deal with the obvious.

Lust and Gluttony seem to work well for Justice Brett Kavanaugh, although he's tried to keep his head down after the exposure of his college era drinking and sexual issues during his confirmation hearings. "I like beer" is not the sort of historic quote one expects to hear in that environment.

Sloth applies to Justice Neil Gorsuch insofar as his emphasis on "textualism" and "originalism" reflects a reluctance to deal with the intellectual and moral difficulty of interpreting a 250-year-old Constitution to account for political and social conditions its drafters never imagined.

I'm not sure yet which (if any) of the deadly sins Amy Coney Barrett represents ... so far, she's a bit of an unknown quantity, generally very conservative, but with sudden flashes of independence and a willingness to work with the liberal justices. If I update this post in the future, perhaps I'll have more of an idea. 

While I'm dumping on the conservative wing of the court, are the three liberal justices guilty of any of the Seven Deadly Sins? Not to the same extent as Thomas, Alito, Roberts, Kavanaugh, and Gorsuch, although I think that anyone who reaches a seat on the Supreme Court is at the very least probably guilty from time to time of the sin of pride.

And in less than a week, the Court must contend with a new president who embodies all seven of the deadly sins. This is not likely to turn out well.

Have a good day, and try to avoid the Seven Deadly Sins.

Believe me, I know it's hard.

More thoughts coming.

Bilbo

* Actual Christian, not Republican Christian.

** And who is the poster child for vainglory?

The Decline of Public Speaking

Unlike many people, I enjoy public speaking. I've been a member of several Toastmasters International clubs over the years, and have won prizes in public speaking contests. I've spoken in front of audiences as small as two and as large as more than a thousand, and often serve as a master of ceremonies for various events. I also judge high school speech and debate competitions (having been originally volunteered by my granddaughter, whose debate team needs to provide judges to participate in competitions). And while I enjoy public speaking, I also enjoy listening to a well-crafted, well-delivered speech that combines good preparation with skill of delivery appropriate to the subject and the occasion.

I've been thinking a lot about public speaking lately, because there isn't much of it that's very good any more. As Hansell Duckett once noted, "What this country needs is more free speech worth listening to."

I'm currently reading "Hitler: Ascent (1889-1939)," book one of a two-volume biography by Volker Ullrich. It's common nowadays to compare Der Furor to Hitler, and - as this detailed, thoroughly researched, and very readable biography demonstrates - comparisons of their personalities, methods, actions, and general behavior are very much on the mark ... with one major exception, as my friend Trang pointed out in her comment on my Facebook post recommending the book:

"There's one big difference between Hitler with his oratory skills and der Furor whose lack of eloquence is astounding. The man can't ever seem to utter a complete sentence that makes sense."

Trang's comment was spot-on. Whatever else he may have been, Adolf Hitler was a spellbinding orator with a brilliant ability to match his preparation and delivery to the audience. Der Furor, on the other hand, is a terrible speaker - his speeches are not the focused, compelling addresses of an educated statesman speaking with the gravitas of office, but stream-of-consciousness monologs, full of bizarre claims, childish insults, gross misrepresentations, rambling non sequiturs, and self-indulgent blather. It's a style he likes to call "the weave" as if it were some profoundly brilliant oratorical technique only he can master, and one that appeals to less-educated audiences with short attention spans, who want to be entertained rather than informed or persuaded. If Der Furor were to compete in any high school speech contest I was judging, I'd have to seek the organizer's permission to give him a low enough score.

Now consider last week's funeral of former president Jimmy Carter. Speaker after speaker gave heartfelt, excellent eulogies ... not an easy type of presentation to write or deliver. Each eulogy brilliantly mixed love, respect, and humor in memory of a man remembered less as a great president than as a decent and humble human being. I cannot imagine that Der Furor could have risen to the challenge of the moment, and I cringe* to think of what will happen if we need to have a state funeral while he is in office. In July of 2022 I wrote a blog post reimagining the Gettysburg Address as Der Furor would have  delivered it that can serve as an example of the sort of soaring presidential rhetoric we can expect again in the next four years.

A few years ago, drama and theater critic Peter Marks wrote, “... if you’ve ever listened to some of the desultory rhetoric from the well of the Senate, you know that American politics has not exactly built an assembly line of Ciceros.” We live in a time when attention spans are short and good public speaking is insufficiently valued. It's a time when crude tweets that sow hatred and division carry more weight than soaring oration that inspires and motivates. 

And that's sad.

Have a good day, and support your local school's speech and debate clubs.

More thoughts coming.

Bilbo

* Yes, I know it's on the banished words list for this year, but it just seemed right.

Musical Sunday

Break's over, back on your heads, as the old joke goes. The last few Musical Sundays have been dedicated to the sort of beautiful songs that make me feel good, but as January 20th approaches and we see more and more of the coming buffoonery, it's time to start working some more ... timely ... songs into the mix. I think this one does a good job of exposing the duplicity at the core of the MAGA hierarchy ...

Sorry about the injury done to Tennessee Ernie Ford's classic protest tune, "Sixteen Tons." Here are the lyrics:

Some people say they can’t find engineers

For workin’ this country and buildin’ careers

It’s not so much that there is a dearth

They just don’t want to pay what they’re worth

[chorus]

You hire H1-B, what do you get?

An immigrant willing to slave and sweat

Don’t have to pay much ‘cause if you let ‘em go

They can’t stay ‘round this country no mo’

When running for office just to rile up his base

Donald said immigrants would leave this place

Vivek and Elon said “do what you’re told”

“Now we’re in charge, time to pay what we’re owed”

[chorus]

Vivek wants to guarantee our livelihood

Says American culture just ain’t no good

“Stop venerating jocks,” I heard him preach

“We need to worship Urkel and Screech”

[chorus]

Elon is stuck with his Twitter site

Where Nazi’s and MAGA continue to fight

He can’t help yelling to the MAGA base:

“Take a big step back, fuck yourself in the face”

[chorus]

Have a good day and enjoy the rest of your weekend. More thoughts coming.

Bilbo 

Cartoon Saturday

Okay, I'm ready to send this week back for a refund  ...

Disgraced attorney and former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani was found in contempt of court (for the second time, by different judges) for his endless stonewalling of attempts to get him to satisfy the $148 judgement against him for defaming two Georgia election workers; in a narrow 5-4 decision, the Supreme Court declined to stop Der Furor's sentencing on his New York hush-money convictions, and he was duly sentenced (although without punishment) by Judge Juan Merchan; in a press conference at Mar-a-Lago that was crazy even by his standards, Der Furor proposed renaming the Gulf of Mexico as the "Gulf of America"; the North Carolina Supreme Court blocked the certification of Democratic Justice Allison Riggs as the winner of her state Supreme Court race because her GOP opponent challenged the legitimacy of 60,000 ballots; Edgar Welch, the man who in 2017 entered Comet Ping Pong, a pizza restaurant in Washington, D.C., armed with an assault rifle and loaded revolver in search of an alleged child sex ring linked to Hillary Clinton, was killed by police in Charlotte, NC, when he resisted arrest on a charge of felony probation violation; and in Malta, authorities finally repaired some local roads after someone spray-painted penises around hazardous but long-unrepaired potholes. 

With all the crazy political news, we need something exciting to take our minds off the prospect of Der Furor taking office in a mere nine days. Sex ought to do it ... 

It's not just a human problem ...

Like I just said ...

Well, at least he's doggedly pursuing it ...

Didn't know the leaning tower was male, did you?

The bride of Frankenstein isn't impressed ...

Uh ... I'll just bet she is ...

He forgot to write himself a reminder of where he hid it ...

Busted!

As robots come more and more into the mainstream, this could be a significant issue in the future ...

From dough boy to hard roll? 

 

And that's it for our NSFW-lite collection of cartoons for this week. I hope it helped take your mind off the impending change of administrations.

Have a good day and a great weekend, and be sure to come back tomorrow for the first Musical Sunday of 2025 and more thoughts. See you then.

Bilbo

The Right-Cheek Ass Clown for January, 2025

Well, Friends, a new year is upon us, and at just over a week old, it promises to provide broad new horizons of ass clownery with the start of the 119th Congress, the return of Der Furor to the presidency, and the spread of social, political, and religious lunacy across the nation and around the world. The evidence of this first week indicates that this will be another year in which the vast number of candidates will make the selection of individual ass clowns for dishonor difficult, but someone's got to step up to the challenge, and it'll continue to be yours truly.

Ladies and Gentlemen, Dear Readers, let's blare those trumpets and roll those drums as we announce the first award for the new year - 

The Right-Cheek Ass Clown for January, 2025

and the winner is

America's Billionaire Class

You can argue, as many have, that the capitalist market system is responsible for the fundamental strength of America and the delivery of the standard of living we enjoy ... at least, the one we enjoyed a bit more when it was more affordable. But the capitalist market system has also produced the socio-economic structure we now have, in which 95% of the wealth is concentrated in the hands of a tiny few, and the middle-class dream of home ownership and higher education has grown increasingly out of reach. It has produced a system in which the ratio of CEO wealth to worker wealth vastly favors the upper crust.

I firmly believe that hard work and ingenuity should be rewarded, and that a person who has created value for others is entitled to a portion of that wealth as a reward for their success. The problem we have today is that we no longer recognize the concept of enough. 

I like to think that I have enough. Enough to live in a comfortable home. Enough to put food on the table. Enough to help out my children when they need it. Enough to take an occasional nice vacation. I have enough.

But how much is enough if you're an Elon Musk or a Mark Zuckerberg? If you earn more in an hour than your employees earn in a year or two? If you can afford two (or three, or four) homes in different states or on different continents? Is that enough?

Elon Musk spent a quarter of a billion dollars to get Der Furor elected. Enough to hire teachers and build schools, enough to improve healthcare, enough to repair crumbling roads and bridges. Instead, this man chose to spend a small part of his fortune to elect a flawed, incompetent charlatan to the presidency.

The billionaire class has spent an enormous amount of money contributing to Der Furor's inauguration events and parties. I'm guessing it won't be enough to help them when he eventually turns on them.

Billionaire CEOs with employees who live paycheck-to-paycheck have more than enough, and should be happy to share the bounty with those who do the work that makes them rich. At the very least, they should be prepared to pay their fair share of taxes to support the system that benefits them. They should recognize that, as President Obama once reminded them, to a storm of scorn, that they had a lot of help from ordinary people to realize their fortunes.

Read this report published in October of 2024 by the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis - "The State of US Wealth Inequality." Here are two of the Key Takeaways:

- The top 10% of households by wealth had $6.9 million on average. As a group, they held 67% of total household wealth.

 

- The bottom 50% of households by wealth had $51,000 on average. As a group, they held only 2.5% of total household wealth.

Household wealth distribution in the United States in the 3rd quarter of 2024 looks like this, according to data from the Federal Reserve as of December 20th, 2024:

- The top 1% owns $27.10 trillion.

- The bottom 50% owns $3.89 trillion. 

If you've had to decide between medical care and food, shelter, or clothing, or if you've had to work multiple jobs to make ends meet, you can justly criticize those at the very top of the economic ladder.

Ladies and Gentlemen, Dear Readers, the Right-Cheek Ass Clown for January, 2025 is America's Billionaire Class. Think about them if you are far enough down the economic ladder to realize that you and your children don't have enough.

And if you've had enough, plan to vote out the billionaires in 2026 and 2030.

Have as good a day as you can afford, and come back tomorrow for Cartoon Saturday, when we will try to spice up your January with some cartoons praising the horizontal tango.

More thoughts then.

Bilbo.