Humor, and its edgy cousin, ridicule, have had an important role in human discourse since, I suppose, the dawn of language, roughly one hundred thousand years ago. Five hundred years before Jesus arrived on earth the Greeks used ridicule in burlesque plays as a way to criticize Athenian war policies. In Medieval societies, satire was widely used by certain elites to shame public figures who acted dishonorably. Sound familiar? During the Enlightenment, possibly because humans began to take themselves too seriously, ridicule was viewed by some as incivility, even as others continued to defend it saying it was a weapon of truth, a valuable tool in opposition to bigotry and fanaticism. Fast forward to modern times, ridicule is widely acknowledged by bloggers and other mediums of despair as the last refuge for the hopeless. When individual human agency is futile to change, where you refuse to succumb and cheer the cause of your captors, thrust your arm at the sky, hold it rigid there with middle finger taught and laugh out loud, ridiculously loud. If nothing else, it’s the American Way
9 thoughts on “The Last Laugh”
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Morning, Rod. Wondering this morning if you’re going to today’s group therapy session to bolster your “entertainer” “last laugh” material?
https://www.nokings.org/
Funny! Unfortunately, I need to sit this one out as HW is in training today to provide hospice care, so I’m solo on dog duty
I’ve been thinking, it must suck for the maga faithful to feel betrayed by the Great Orange Fruit and yet remain unshaken in their idolatry of it. Something like what I imagine a pious man feels when he closes his eyes at night, someone who has suffered years of chronic pain yet remains unshaken in his faith of a benevolent God. That is a kind of cognitive dissonance I’m sure I will never come to understand. While I can sympathize with the afflicted, I would think that they might at least understand why we, the unafflicted, should want to get together on a Saturday afternoon and share in our contempt for this malevolent force in the world. I mean, why not
Rod, over all the years I’ve been acquainted with you through the interwebs I never conceived that you would be as afflicted as you seem to be with Trump Derangement Syndrome, let alone the disdain you express against individuals of Christian faith, as if such faith is an affliction rather than a powerful means of grasping reality and sound guidance. I do not know whether to pity you, or simply consider you a fool.
Oh good grief, John, not you too, with the TDS canard [insert eye roll here]
Tune in to one of his press conferences, John, then ask yourself if this is the man you trust to make a you, your family, or your community Great Again, or whether in fact it looks and talks more like someone between refills of his Leqembi
Pfft…
By now everyone in the world understands the true nature of the malignancy in Washington, John. It’s the people who continue to defend or apologize for it who are afflicted. You’ve a years-long acquaintance with my worldview? Then surely you understand by now I’m a libertarian, we have a long tradition of speaking truth to folly in Washington, regardless of its prefix, D or R (or, today, M).
As for “disdain,” I think you need to read more carefully – sympathy != disdain. I wrote: “While I can sympathize with the afflicted…”
Rod, while indeed there is a stage four malignancy in Washington, and long has been, Trump is more akin to a new treatment for the said maligancy, though you evidently cannot see it. Your support of the therapy needing no kings groupies aligns you not with Libertarian minded individuals but rather the Far Left’s unhinged support of failed political systems.
In regards to your criticism of my stating that you disdain individuals of the Christian faith, and my reading of your utilization of the word disdain, perhaps you should more closely read what you have written, or maybe you’re the one with an affliction.
See, this is what we mean, ya’ll have been duped into thinking the disease is the cure – Q.E.D.
Why, maybe if I marinated in Faux News all day I would, finally, be able to “see” what I cannot now see
There’s a syndrome going around alright, but it ain’t TDS, it’s called Stockholm Syndrome. Maybe you’ve heard of it? Good news is I hear a lot of sufferers are coming around lately, waking up to the reality that Orangy and his Oligarchs haven’t kept their promises to make the folks great again
Evidently, Rod, you must consider Trump a miracle worker, able to right the ship the moment he assumed the title of POTUS. I guess you, as many individuals already have, require instant gratification of your your political wants.
John supposed: “I guess you, as many individuals already have, require instant gratification of your political wants.”
Well, it’s only because he himself told us what to expect, John!
Little trip down memory lane
1. First came the unprecedented flurry of executive orders in week one to undo the horrors of the former administration
2. Then the wholesale appointment of sniveling toadies to fill every role in the inner circle, to be subservient (or else) to the will of one man, guess who
3. Then the neutering of congress (both houses)
4. Then the weaponization of the DOJ against perceived enemies
5. Then the unleashing of the mighty DOGE
6. Then tariffing the shit out of (ungrateful!) trade partners
7. Then shaming allies into paying their fare share for pointless wars (which, btw, the Orange One assured us, America will NEVER, EVER again get involved in, not like those miserable garbage democrats did, Biden and Obama – SAD!)
8. Then – ta da! – the Big Beautiful Bill
9. Finally, last but not least, there’s the omnipotent force of Supreme Leader’s will, to which (he believes) the arc of the future bends (proof readily available on utube)
I could go on and on
All this and more was intended to be music to the ears of TheAmericanPeople, capped by the crescendo, American Liberation Day! (4/2/2025). The big bad Biden witch is gone! On with greatness! they cheered. Start up the band, fist-pumping Orange One be in the house!
Fast forward to today, crickets.
One year later and it is the TheAmericanPeople the Supreme Leader loudly announced on national TV and tRuth Social (an oxymoron if ever there was one) he would make Great Again, who are now, instead, like, WTF? It was all schadenfreude. Instead, what the folks got was unprecedented self-aggrandizement by Supreme Leader, self-enrichment at a scale never before seen by a president, not in all 250 years of American history, and not to the benefit of the folks (which was obvious to those of us suffering TDS), but at the expense of the unwitting folks
Then, lately, to add insult to injury, the folks get another unlawful Mideast war (er, “excursion”), which Pistol Petey says they gonna need another $200 billion (min) to pay for, likely more! All this grift packaged inside the most stupid and un-serious political mind the world has ever seen. Prompting the folks to be even more like, what the actual fuck is going on?
These are not people who demand instant gratification, John, obviously. These are people who now (finally) understand they were duped, and pissed off that they were lied to
More and more of the folks are steaming mad, all the while the Orange One continues to gaslight them and gild himself, along with his family and oligarchs, in gold. POTUS ratings are in the tank, where once there was gas or diesel, but who can afford that these days, certainly not the farmers, the few who are left after the tariffs anyway. The folks be getting sick and tired of filling government coffers with tariffs (taxes) they have to pay!
Can you even imagine the level of maga outrage and mob contempt directed at Biden had all this – hell, any one of these crimes – occurred on his watch?
Anyway, it seems there’s a reckoning coming, we can hope
Coda:
I do not enjoy nitpicking your word choices, John, but really, “Evidently?” You’ll find no evidence anywhere on this blog that would indicate I think the Orange One is a “miracle worker” in his role, because no such evidence exists. Actual evidence is all to the contrary. Same, btw, with any 20+ year search of this blog you might care to do, looking for evidence of “solidarity with Far Leftist causes” you earlier insinuated I have. Nada. Zero. Zip.
The points you make regarding what Trump has not delivered, as promised, Rod, simply proves that Trump is most definitely not a king.