Year: 2017

I am happy to report that I paid off the IRS. Every dime that was owed to them. For the first time in this century, I don’t have to worry that the mailman is going to bring a certified letter saying the government is seizing all my property. For the first time in my marriage to Kathleen, we don’t have to worry about finances.

The lion’s share of credit naturally goes to you guys. To the hundreds of people who came through and got us to within range of the goal.

Further credit must go to Erik Larsen, who asked me if I had any artwork from some of the comic book greats. I did have a couple of pages that I had acquired twenty years ago for a couple of thousand dollars (back when money wasn’t a problem.). I had no idea that the prices for such things had skyrocketed in the intervening decades. I sold the pages I had and that income enabled me to cover the remaining gap.

I have some money left over, but that’s gone straight into the bank to hold onto for next year since I have NO desire to let this happen again. I initially got into trouble because money I had set aside disappeared: the equivalent of heading to the bank to deposit a briefcase full of cash and getting knocked out from behind. With my finances now fully in my control, I can assure everyone this won’t happen again.

In order to make sure it doesn’t, I will be starting a patreon account to ensure continued income even during slow writing periods, so be sure to keep your eyes out for it.

And thank you all again for your support. The letters of support I have received have been deeply moving. I cannot begin to express my gratitude.

PAD

Happy Cinco de Mayo for those few of you who still have health care.

1) At least chicken noodle soup is cheap. Remember how seven, eight years ago the GOP was going batshit crazy because they declared that Obama was ramming through his medical plan from hiding? Despite the fact that it went through a year’s worth of hearings? Well, apparently the House decided to live up to the scenario that they painted years ago by rushing through their own version of health care with no hearings and not even text of the bill available to be read. House members have freely admitted they didn’t read it before giving it a big thumbs up. Conservative estimates indicate that 24 million people will lose their coverage, and the fees for older patients will go up as much as 750%. Furthermore the states will have the option of doing such things as allowing insurance companies to jack up rates on people with pre-existing conditions, and Medicaid will be slashed. But hey, don’t worry: if you’re in the top 1% you will get a big tax cut, and Congress passed a bill that makes them immune from the health care changes. So the only ones who will be affected is people who voted for Trump and people who voted for Hillary. I’ve no idea whether this thing will pass the Senate, but if it does, the GOP may want to kiss goodbye to their jobs because when the full ramifications of this screw fest manifest over the next two years, 2018 is going to be a really bad voting year.

2). Whoever said he wouldn’t last 100 days in the pool lost. So Trump made a whole slew of promises during the campaign about everything he would accomplish in his first hundred days. Of all of them, the only one he managed to accomplish was to fill the Supreme Court seat that they managed to steal from Obama. The rest of them remain unfulfilled. Not that he hasn’t tried: his Muslim ban keeps running into court trouble, his endeavor to build a wall has zero support in Congress, ISIS is still doing just fine, thanks. So his attempts typically fall short because his ideas are almost unilaterally stupid.

Did he do anything right? Well, he didn’t attend the press dinner on Saturday. Good thing. It would have been like inviting a senile Mohel with Parkinson’s to perform at a bris.

PAD

It’s May the 4th, after all. It’s kind of an obligation.

Oh, just to mention, I will be appearing on Free Comics Day at Fourth World Comics in Smith Haven, New York, from 10AM to 12 Noon. See you May 6th.

PAD

I was going to give Trump a break this week. I didn’t want to think about him today. Why? Because today is the one-year birthday of my first grandson, Anthony Jack or simply A.J. You don’t usually give gifts to yourself on someone else’s birthday, but I felt like giving myself a little treat: no Trump.

And then he said this:

In an interview with Reuters, Trump decried the lack of privacy in his new role, stating that he was used to having little privacy in his old life, but this one was much worse. He also detests the constant Secret Service monitoring, declaring “You’re really into your own little cocoon because you have such massive protection that you really can’t go anywhere.” He misses being able to drive himself, misses so much about his old life.

But the real kicker was this:

“This is more work than in my previous life. I thought it would be easier.”

Oh my God. Oh my freaking God.

How in the hëll can any grown man, much less the POTUS, be this astoundingly stupid? Everyone with the slightest amount of brains knows that being the president is one of the hardest jobs in the entire world, with the only harder one being a bank guard in Alaska (everyone is wearing ski masks.) Easier? How can he never have looked at pictures of his predecessors? Hëll, his predecessor: Obama aged twenty years over the last eight. Did Trump think that Obama just hit a rough patch? A job that ages men the way this one does can’t in any way, shape or form be considered easier than pretty much any other job anywhere, ever. We are forced to the unavoidable conclusion that Donald Trump is quite simply the most stupid man ever to hold this office. Ever. He makes W. look like a member of Mensa.

Easier. Jesus Christ.

You know what? Here’s a picture of A.J. to make us all feel better.

So recently there were blackouts in Los Angeles, New York and San Francisco. Tons of people were inconvenienced as subways, airports and trollies all came to a grinding halt. Yet officials claimed there was no connection.

Yet I am reminded of a line from the book Goldfinger: “Once is happenstance. Twice is coincidence. Three times is enemy action.”

Am I the only one who hears about this and pictures the opening ten minutes of a Michael Bay film? We cut from one stricken city to the next to the next, watch millions of citizens become stranded, and then we cut to a warehouse or office with a guy sitting in front of a computer, and he’s saying to the mastermind, “It worked perfectly. We were able to shut down all the power to the transit systems of New York, Los Angeles and San Francisco. We did it.” And the mastermind says, “We did nothing. This was just a dry run. Now…now comes the real fun.”

And we cut to Bruce Willis as John McClane stuck on a New York subway, getting into a face off with a big, burly and pìššëd øff commuter before having to knock him cold. “I can’t wait to get my hands on whoever screwed things up this bad,” he growls.

Welcome to “Die Hard After Dark.”

PAD

A busy, busy week for Trump and the Trumpettes.

1) Finally North and South Korea agree on something–They both hate Trump. He’s been waging a Twitter war with North Korea and now he managed to pìšš øff South Korea by stating in an offhand and inaccurate manner that Korea used to be part of China. So now both the good Korea and the evil Korea are angry at him. I’m not certain whether a united Korea is a good thing or a bad thing, but if they are united in their hostility toward us, I don’t see how that can possibly benefit us.

2) THIS guy is the Attorney General?–On a conservative radio show, AG Jeff Sessions declared, “I really am amazed that a judge sitting on an island in the Pacific can issue an order that stops the president of the United States from what appears to be clearly his statutory and constitutional power.” It is of course hugely insulting that we would dismiss one of the states in the Union as “an island in the Pacific.” I suppose technically it’s true that that’s what it is, but the patronizing attitude cannot be ignored. The fact that the judge is in Hawaii is irrelevant; if the ruling had happened in a Manhattan court, would he have referred to THAT as “an island off New Jersey?” Furthermore, why in the world is he amazed that a judge can do this? Of COURSE a judge can do this. It’s a Federal Court judge and he naturally tossed out Trump’s insanely unconstitutional Muslim ban as a matter of legal principle. How can the man who ostensibly oversees law in this country be amazed at how the law works?

3) You can’t criticize him! He’s the President!–Trump naturally launched an attack on protestors who demanded that he release his tax returns. He dismissed them all as the actions of paid organizers, which is his usual stunt. Funny thing: it has been pointed out that when people are hyper obsessed about something, it is typically because they themselves are guilty of it. Look, for instance, at the over-the-top ministers who decry gays that are subsequently caught out as being sexual predators on young boys, or the anti-gay senators who get snagged in gay scandals. Since Trump is constantly ascribing bribery to the opposing side, it makes sense that he himself routinely paid people to be supporters for himself or attackers of his opposition. Furthermore, Trump decries as “ridiculous” the charting of what he accomplishes in his first hundred days. Which makes sense considering that his accomplishments during that time include his utter failure to overturn Obamacare, his failure to keep Muslims out of the country, and his failure to hurt the Syrians by lobbing missiles at them that did nothing to stop the Syrians from launching more airplanes from the bombed runways within hours of the bombing. Any sane observation seems to be that his major accomplishment is that he managed to last a hundred days in the office.

Did he do anything right? Well, this is a definite win: His administration managed to free one Aya Hijazi, an Egyptian-American air worker who was held for three years in Egypt, charged with human trafficking and child abuse. Let’s just hope she’s not Muslim or Trump might not let her back into the United States.

PAD

Actually, this is been a remarkably busy week for me. And now I’m down in Miami at the Florida retro SuperCom. So I’m afraid I don’t have time to produce one this week. However, if any of you would like to volunteer information, this is the place to do it. Go nuts.

PAD