The Importance of Good Dog Training
A comic about training your dog for troubling times.
I would have posted this comic a couple weeks ago. However over the last couple of weeks, I’ve was battling a case of the super flu, a topic on which I’ll be using as next week’s comic.
As for today’s comic, I’ll stop dillydallying and get right to it.
I apologize if I caught you off guard with that last panel and didn’t provide a warning. Given the horrors of what we’ve been experiencing here in the US, I thought a shock to the system was in order.
I only wish more people would wake up to see the reality of how the Trump administration and its oligarch enablers are trying to change our country. It especially enrages me since my ancestors can be counted amongst the founders of the United States. So I’ll be damned if I stand by and do nothing while some racist schmucks try to ruin that legacy.
Also let’s not forget the proud immigrant heritage of the great melting pot of diverse knowledge and ingenuity that enriched our country far beyond the class and racial limitations that constrained other nations.
It’s this diversity in cultures, religion, and ethnicity in the US population, which I believe gives us a unique strength to withstand the attempts of a fascist takeover by small-minded, racist Christian Nationalists.
Our differences are what unite us. No amount of fear, intimidation, or propaganda will overcome that.
While I was sick with the flu I came to this conclusion as I took that time to start diving into Hannah Arendt’s “The Origins of Totalitarianism.” At 900 pages it’s a giant tome of a book. But if you wanted to know everything about the racism, antisemitism, imperialism, tyranny, authoritarianism, and their mechanisms throughout history, it’s THE book to have on your shelf.
If you find the size of that book too intimidating, then let me suggest that you read two other books. First, there’s Timothy Synder’s “On Tyranny” which is a quick 128 pages to take in. After that, read Jason Stanley’s “How Fascism Works.” Both are great books to bring you up to speed on the evils of tyrants and the twisted minds behind the Trump Administration.
Arendt’s book offers far too many theories and historical analogies for me to discuss in any thorough detail in this little column. However, as I stated, the one premise made clear to me was how much Trump and his gang of raging imbeciles will never be able to totally install fascism in the US.
In all the other nations in the world where fascism has taken root, the one thing that made it so easy to accomplish in those nations was the fact that the majority of people all had shared commonalities regarding ethnicity, religion, and cultures.
But here in the United States, we’ve striven to be the complete opposite: a beautiful, chaotic mess of a people who will fight for their right to be different.
If you don’t think this is true, I challenge you to visit any part of the country and pick an argument with someone over their favorite local food, sports team, hobby, religion, or, dare I say it, choice of pet.
The other thing that gives me hope in our country is what we are currently seeing in how the residents of Minneapolis are responding to the evils of ICE. They’re banding together to confront and oppose the overreach by Trump’s Gestapo and helping to protect their neighbors from being attacked and abducted.
This isn’t the only place in the country where there’s been resistance against these lawless authoritarians. Portland, Los Angeles, Lewiston, and many other cities refuse to bow down to this tyranny.
These protests will spread as the evils of the Trump Administration become more and more apparent, as the concentration camps become more exposed. Trump and his gang of imbeciles are deathly afraid of more Americans seeing the truth of their ugly evils. That’s why they’re spinning as many wild lies as possible in the hopes that they’ll belittle the movement and the truth. However, Trump and his goons have already lost this battle when over 50% of the country is standing against Trump.
Because of this, I firmly believe that the U.S. will never fall fully into fascism. However, as the history of our fighting spirit has shown it does put us at a higher risk of breaking into civil war. But before that happens, let’s all work to defeat and remove Trump via all legal means necessary.
Remember: Illegitimi non carborundum
What gives me hope is that more Americans are seeing that the Trump Admin is a reboot of Hitler's Reich. It's finally ringing in people's ears. After the first shocking month of his current term, I wrote a piece called "We Didn't See This Coming?" It was illustrated with a photo of the railroad track into Auschwitz. But the MAGAs are still in love with Das Furher. There was a kerfuffle here in "Mayberry" where the GOP Women's group decorated their Christmas tree in the local museum with photos of Trump. Someone had the temerity to steal those photos and dump them in the garbage. I and another Letter to the Editor writer asked the burning question, "So who is the central figure of Christmas? Trump or Jesus? (Memories of John Lennon's comment spring to mind.) Our letters were answered by a woman who claimed to be the "chaplain" of the GOPs here and she called us specious and uninformed. When I wrote again, asking that same question, the editor said, "By the time you rebuttal makes it into print, this argument will be forgotten." Such is life in MAGA Maybery.
Perfect! Dog training is so vital, especially when encountering cold weather elements 🤣