Treason is not patriotic

Why does anyone take these traitors seriously?

It’s bad enough when they literally talk about secession when they don’t get their way.    And when they encourage gun owners to break the law if they don’t like it.  Or support right-wing zealots who talk about killing the President as if that were a patriotic thing to do. And then they support a rich rancher who gives the law a middle finger and literally says he does not acknowledge the existence of the United States.  ranchero Quite often, many of these people fly the flag of the traitors who declared war against our country so they could keep humans in slavery, and they’re proud of that fact.   

And then they proclaim, with a straight face, that they love America and are patriots.

Well, no.  No, they don’t and no they aren’t.  People who love America do not declare treason against it.

Don’t get me wrong — this isn’t just about free speech.  They have every right to protest and speak out against government policies they don’t like.  And hey, there’s even a place for peaceful protests and civil disobedience.

This is none of those things.

We need to speak up and tell these people that they do not represent the views of honest, patriotic Americans.  And we need to call out these hypocrites who yelled “traitor” whenever anyone ever said anything bad about George W. Bush.  (Ann Coulter even wrote a book on that topic, yet she remains completely silent about real actual examples done by people she happens to agree with.)

You know this is true:  If people on the left were doing the things mentioned above, the right would be the first to call them traitors.

And this time, they’d be right.

Editorial cartoon: Clone war

Got GOT?

Game of Thrones (“GOT”) is the most popular fantasy series today, and deservedly so.  I enjoy the books and am thrilled that the TV series is so well done.

I am looking forward to tonight’s episode, but mostly wanted to post this meme I just made and also to share my George R.R. Martin story.

starkravenmad

I met George R.R. Martin at a convention last fall where we were both guest authors.  Well, him more than me.  (If you don’t know about my novels, click here.)   I had previously met him probably ten years ago at another convention — before the Game of Thrones TV show — but we never spoke at that time.

As it turned out, Martin’s room was right down the hall from mine and we kept ending up in the elevator together.  He knew I wasn’t stalking him because most of those times, I was in the elevator before him.

The first time there were some other fans on the elevator who asked for a picture with him, and he obliged.  They got off before our floor, so it was just us.  We walked out and headed down the hall and the conversation went like this:

Martin:  I do get tired of posing for pictures all the time.

Me:  Well, you’re quite famous now.

Martin:  I wasn’t unknown before.

Me:  True, among us.  But you were never a guest on Conan before.

Martin:  True.

Around the third time we were on the elevator together, he pushed he button for our floor and then asked the others what floors they needed, and then after everyone left, he turned to me.

Martin:  I always wanted to be an elevator operator.  If the writing thing hadn’t worked out…

We both laughed and went on to our rooms.

The final time we ended up together, the conversation went like this:

Me:  I finally figured out why you have a character named “Hodor.”

Martin:  Oh?

Me:  I was thinking about your comment about wanting to be an elevator operator.  It’s clear to me now that “Hodor” is short for “Hold the door.”

Martin:  (laughing)  You don’t know how close to the truth you are!

So there you have it.  If we ever learn why Hodor says “Hodor” (which, as readers know, is not his given name) and it has something to do with elevators, remember:  You read it here first.

EDIT: Follow-up years later (with a special guest appearance by George RR Martin)

Editorial cartoon: The GOP’s appeal to Latinos…

See? I wasn’t exaggerating.

A few weeks ago, I argued that America had become an oligarchy, run by the rich.

I also pointed out that this pretty much started under Reagan.   oligarchy

A recent study by Princeton confirms both of my points — that our government is now run by and for the very rich, and this has been happening since Reagan drastically reduced taxes on the 1% and got rid of regulations that prevented the kind of abuses that have led to the wealth in our country being divided in a way it hasn’t been in a hundred years.

We can fix this.  We outnumber them.  We can outvote them all.

But this won’t happen until we make it happen.  And that means telling both parties that we won’t put up with it any more.

 

 

Editorial Cartoon: No animals were harmed

Jon Stewart: America’s toughest journalist

I know, right?  Isn’t that a ridiculous headline?

Not because Stewart is a lightweight;  far from it.  He does ask important questions and doesn’t let his interviewees off the hook.  Jon Stewart

The ridiculous part of it is that it should be someone else.  It should be a real journalist, not a comedian who talks about politics.

But the White House says that Jon Stewart was the toughest interview Obama faced in the 2012 election, and that’s not right.  And Jon Stewart would be the first person to tell you that.

Some of the problem is that the ones who would ask the tough questions don’t get to.  There are some great journalists out there, but the news stations keep them away from the politicians for fear of losing their access or something.  They should get Matt Tiabbi in there and stir things up.

And some just ask dumb questions.  Obama isn’t scared of Bill O’Reilly no matter how much O’Reilly thinks he is.  Obama did a huge interview with him recently where he laughed off O’Reilly’s conspiracy-minded questions about Benghazi and Obamacare.  That was easy.

And it should never be easy.

Editorial Cartoon: Indian Traitor

Breaking news! Something happened 102 years ago!

I am not making this up.

People in doctor waiting rooms and airplane terminals were shocked today to learn the new breaking news from CNN:  The Titanic has sunk!

102 years ago.

cnn

This is breaking!  You have to know this!  It’s almost as important as the breaking news CNN has reported every day concerning the downed airplane, which generally is along the lines of “nothing found yet.”  Breaking!

Saturday Night Live even did a skit satirizing this last weekend, and now CNN is more absurd than the skit.

I am not making this up.

 

Editorial cartoon: Minions