Donald Trump – The Course of True Love (fantasy art)

As Stormy Daniels continues her testimony in the Donald Trump hush money case, we examine the course of true love (slideshow at bottom):

Donald Trump – The Course of True Love 01

 

Donald Trump – The Course of True Love 02

 

Donald Trump – The Course of True Love 03

 

Donald Trump – The Course of True Love 04

 

Donald Trump – The Course of True Love 05

 

Donald Trump – The Course of True Love 06

 

Donald Trump – The Course of True Love 07

 

Donald Trump – The Course of True Love 08

 

Donald Trump – The Course of True Love 09

 

Donald Trump: Larger Than Life (fantasy art)

UPDATE 1

Donald Trump – Larger Than Life – A803

I used to post a lot of anti-Trump stuff during the period 2016-2021. After the 1/6 insurrection, and the various civil and criminal court cases Trump was facing, I posted much less about him. I was really hoping fate had dealt him the legendary “one-way ticket to Palookaville.” (See On The Waterfront, the 1954 film by Elia Kazan.)

Much to my horror, the current conventional wisdom is that Trump actually stands a chance of being re-elected! So I feel as though I need to suit up for the occasion. I have mixed feelings about getting back into anti-Trump mode. Politics is (at best) a quaternary concern of this blog. (Quaternary is what comes after tertiary. I looked it up.) The main focus of this blog is (or should be) “Personal Explorations in Ethics, Spirituality, & Art.” I admit I sometimes honour this in the breach.

This past year, I’ve gotten much more interested in art and much less interested in opinions. So it seems only natural that leading up to the 2024 election, I would express my anti-Trump sentiment through art — namely cartoons, drawings, courtroom sketches, mock photos, etc. which poke fun at the Donald and denizens of Trump World.

My typical disclaimer is that I’m a firm believer in peace and understanding. It should go without saying that nothing in these images is intended to provoke violence or hatred. On the off chance that you come away with a feeling that Donald Trump is not a good guy, I urge you to express that feeling peacefully by voting for Joe Biden this November.

I recently completed the Looking Up to Women project, which for me was a kind of milestone. It represents the sort of thing I would like to spend my time doing. I see it as having lasting value — if to no one else, then at least to me as a perpetual student of art and spirituality.

By contrast, my Trump parodies are bound to have a short shelf life, sure to be consigned to the dustbin of history once the would-be monarch fades into well-earned obscurity, except perhaps as a hideous folk legend, or a future civilization’s discovery of a bust of some ancient king despised by his subjects:

The bust of an evil king, discovered in an archeological dig by some future civilization

Soviet Propaganda Posters Parodied

An artist responds to current trends in politics, culture, assassination, and technology

I’ve been a man of few words lately. For the past year I’ve been much more interested in images, which have some advantages over opinions. While opinions are often clutched fiercely and yelled loudly, images can be more subtle and persuasive. Perhaps the highest types of images have no prosaic meaning, express no opinions, but simply reflect something deep about the nature of the universe.

Popular art is less lofty, but still retains the benefit of being open to interpretation. My parodies of propaganda posters (below) are really not limited to poking fun at Russia. One prose meaning to be gleaned is that authoritarianism and totalitarianism are not unknown in the Era of Trump. These tendencies are found in every society, and correspond to something dark in human nature.

Likewise, the tendency to manipulate people by gathering detailed information about them is not limited to, say, the old East German Stasi. Randy Newman may never have written a song about the Privacy Policies you find on corporate web sites, but “if you paid attention, you’d be worried too.” The unholy alliance between technology and snooping has been a theme of science fiction for at least 60 years. A classic 1963 episode of The Outer Limits titled “O.B.I.T.” comprises a dark, expressive televisual essay on the subject.

Nor is credulous techno-utopianism confined to emerging nations. There are segments of my own country, America, which are obsessed with tracking the latest releases of iPhones or nVidia graphics cards, as if these things would change the face of human civilization. But Materialism 2.0 is really not much different than 1.x.

New Year’s Prediction for 2025

I’m sidestepping 2024 and moving directly to 2025 (without passing go or collecting two hundred dollars). My prediction for 2025 is that if Donald Trump is re-elected, he’ll move White House operations to Mar-a-Lago. I think it would go something like this…

Wishing everyone a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

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Trump Glares at a Statue of Trump

Making a statue of Donald Trump is a tall order! We called on Henry Moore and Fernando Botero for inspiration. And who better to photograph the scene than Leni Riefenstahl? But Trump wasn’t satisfied…

Surely a monument to authoritarianism!

R.I.P. Fernando Botero (1932-2023)

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Donald Trump Back in the News

A speech in Waco, a new TV interview, an old defense in the Stormy Daniels saga, and some scathing parody pics of the former president

He’s baaaaack! Donald Trump recently returned from Waco, Texas, where his campaign speech was laden with the gentle remonstrance and appeals to sense and sensibility which have so endeared him to the American people.

Donald Trump in the style of Charles Addams, by Michael Howard and Stable Diffusion

See Trump Declassify Documents – Photoshop Pics

I made some Photoshops showing Donald Trump declassifying documents using the Magic Mirror method from Romper Room.

This vindicates his claim that he can declassify documents by mental telepathy. For his efforts above and beyond the call of duty (or sanity), he receives a Romper Room School diploma. Click on each image to enlarge to 1280×720:

Donald Trump declassifies documents using the Romper Room Magic Mirror method

Donald Trump: Declassified by mental telepathy!

See Donald Trump go to the head of the class (his distinct lack of class notwithstanding)

Downing Street Cat Resigns

EXCLUSIVE! Larry the Cat’s long, detailed resignation letter in full

After an extended period in which the Tories propped up Boris Johnson, there’s been a sudden outbreak of the eleventh hour conscience bug (apparently highly communicable), culminating in a mad rush to get on board with Operation Spay Big Dog. But what of the cat?

Donald Trump and the Bad Hombre Open

The Bad Hombre Open, a  tennis tournament sponsored by Donald Trump, presumably with other people’s money

Another year has come and gone, and with the summer solstice arrives another edition of the Donald Trump Bad Hombre Open, held at Trump’s mountain retreat in Guadalajara, Mexico — just another connection between the Trump family and rackets.

Boris Johnson thanks Sue Gray

Straight from the Ministry of Euphemism, and drier than a sherry excreted by Wilfrid Hyde-White, Sue Gray’s non-report  about not-parties at No10 has finally dropped. No names are mentioned, so it’s left to the reader’s imagination who did what, and to whom.

Gray stresses that due partly to constraints placed upon her, and to her own internal deliberations, she can’t actually tell us much that is not of a general, non-specific nature, and that her non-report is not meaningful. (The latter fulfils the formal requirement of any ministerial report by stating the bleeding obvious.)

To students of the English language, her non-report is perhaps most striking for what it does not say. UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson was understandably grateful:

Couched as it is in generalities, and relying on the nebulous term ‘gatherings’, her report nevertheless notes that ‘The excessive consumption of alcohol is not appropriate in a professional workplace at any time’ and ‘Pastoral care and support will be provided to all staff involved’. Translated from the bureaucratese to the vernacular, this apparently means ‘Fizzy-good make feel nice’:

Bereft of detail, still, the Sue Gray non-report implies that the Tories are in need of major rehab, not just a quick Alka-Seltzer behind the cricket pitch.

Michael Howard

The views expressed are my own, and do not represent any other person or organization.

The Boris Johnson Funnies – Collect them all!

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Boris Johnson – How to tell a party from a work event

For those not following UK politics, Prime Minister Boris Johnson has faced withering criticism for a scandal known as #Partygate. The New Yorker gives the lowdown to Americans in a lively piece by Rebecca Mead.

The latest fillip is his claim that he innocently mistook a party for a work event. Far worse than Trump’s covfefe miscue, Johnson’s non-apology apology is the gaff that launched a thousand memes. Naturally, I had to get into the act:

Boris Johnson for Allegra
The Boris Johnson Christmas Special

The latest twist really calls for a mini-tutorial in Event Identification for Dummies. This Channel 4 News reconstruction of a party at 10 Downing is just the ticket. You know it’s not a work event when there are a) snowball fights and b) puppet shows:

My parody is actually based on Good Cheer, a 1926 Hal Roach Our Gang comedy short which strikes me as rather avant-garde. You can view the short on Vimeo here:

Good Cheer (1926)

Michael Howard

The views expressed are my own, and do not represent any other person or organization.

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The Boris Johnson Christmas Special (video)

Hilarious parody of the Partygate scandal, in which UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson and staff were accused of partying while most of the country was in Tier 3 lockdown due to COVID-19. Statements by Johnson and aide Allegra Stratton are met with quips and comebacks by leading characters from British comedy. “Reconstructions” of alleged party incidents take the form of clips from Beat Girl (1961) and Godzilla vs. the Smog Monster (1972). Note the reference to “Life Cry,” a fictional alcoholic beverage introduced by Fran Katzenjammer in the Black Books episode “Elephants and Hens.” Watch below:

Alternate link (HD): https://archive.org/download/boris-johnson-christmas-special/Boris%20Johnson%20Christmas%20Special.mpeg4

Potent quotes:

“There is nothing funny about this!”

“Absolute rubbish!”

“Talk to the hand, ’cause the face ain’t listening.”

The Boris Johnson Funnies – Collect them all!

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Boris Johnson for Allegra (parody)

(click to enlarge to 1280×720)

I’m of two minds whether to comment on this Photoshop parody, which I worked hard to create. I had thought to simply let the image speak for itself — perhaps any explanation would only spoil it. But it also seems like a good opportunity to ponder why we love memes, and how they can reveal deep connections between different subject areas — in this case, UK politics and US drug commercials.

US viewers who’ve never heard of Allegra Stratton can get up to speed with this news story:

The Channel 4 story is itself open to parody at the point where they show fake footage of people partying, labeled “reconstruction.” I would have used a scene from Plebs or maybe Black Books (the episode where Fran Katzenjammer and her GFs dance drunkenly to vintage Bananarama). The point is that Allegra Stratton was caught joking about COVID restrictions, and forced to walk the plank so as to take the heat off Boris Johnson, who evinced fake outrage.

Melania Trump Honours Fred Sanford

In a moving and heart-warming farewell message delivered on Martin Luther King Jr. Day, Melania Trump paid tribute to the immortal Fred Sanford:

(click to enlarge)

Her remarks caused some confusion, as she was apparently under the impression that Fred Sanford is a real, living person rather than a deceased TV character. Actor/comedian Redd Foxx, who played Sanford on the show Sanford and Son, died in 1991.

Were Foxx still alive and kicking in his TV persona, he would undoubtedly have responded “I’m coming Elizabeth!!!”

Top 10 Anti-Trump Posts

Breaking: Ethics and Spirituality blog endorses Joe Biden.

UPDATED! I’m not much of an activist (more of a satirist, really). But desperate times call for desperate commentary, so I’ve tried to pitch in by demonstrating why Donald Trump is not fit for office. There are folks who make more eloquent spokespeople, or have bigger megaphones, but I try and do what I can.

There’s an erudite discussion going on in some circles about whether or not Trumpism constitutes a form of fascism. We should remember that fascism tends to take on characteristics particular to the nation in which it arises. We should not expect American fascism to look exactly like German or Italian historical varieties.

Regardless of political classification, one thing I know for sure is that Donald Trump is an obnoxious bully. How is it possible that such a man came to be the leader of America? What does this say about our national character?

Trump Doctors Parody #1

(click to enlarge)

Thank you, Senator, your statement has been duly noted. 😉

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