Thick as a Brick, or Why America Loves Donald Trump
by Kim Pederson…….
On this day (August 22) in 1880, George Joseph Herriman was born in New Orleans. George grew up to be a cartoonist. Among other strips, he created the iconic cartoon Krazy Kat in 1913 and continued drawing it until his death in 1944. It’s iconic because, as Wikipedia describes, its “mixture of offbeat surrealism, innocent playfulness and poetic, idiosyncratic language has made it a favorite of comics aficionados and art critics for more than 80 years.” Here’s a sample from one strip: “Agathla, centuries aslumber, shivers in its sleep with splenetic splendor, and spreads abroad a seismic spasm with the supreme suavity of a vagabond volcano.” This language and his drawing style give you a notion of why cartoonists such as Charles Schulz, Robert Crumb, and Art Spiegelman number among the many Herriman influenced greatly.
A black and white drawing of a man wearing a brimmed hat, seated at a drawing table, with his right hand on his forehead. He holds a cigarette in his right hand, and is surrounded by cartoon characters: a mouse on his hat, a long-billed bird looking over his left shoulder, a cat in front of him, and a dog to his right.
If you’re not familiar with the KK strip, think of Itchy and Scratchy on The Simpsons less the rampant blood and dismemberment (or Tom and Jerry or Herman and Katnip) and you’ll get the idea. In the Herriman cartoon, Krazy Kat, “a guileless, carefree, simple-minded cat,” nurses an unrequited love for a “grumpy” mouse named Ignatz. Ignatz despises Krazy and constantly schemes for opportunities to throw bricks at Krazy’s head, which the latter interprets as a sign of affection.
Today, Herriman’s acumen outlives him in a way he probably never would have imagined. As countless pundits struggle to dissect and account for Donald Trump’s popularity in the ongoing 2016 presidential circus, the answer is right here in front of us. We (all of us are enjoying the sideshow, come on, admit it) are Krazy Kat and Donald is Ignatz. Every time he hits us in the head with another brick, we love it and look forward to the next one. To steal from Jethro Tull, Donald’s motto might be “I may make you feel but I [won’t] make you think.” What better way to make America great again, right?
*”George Herriman 1922-10-21 self portrait” by George Herriman – Entre Comics. Licensed under Public Domain via Commons
**”1937 1107 kkat brick 500″ by George Herriman – Image from GreatCaricatures.com. Licensed under Public Domain via Commons
This article first appeared in ratblurst on August 22, 2015.
Donald Trump? Why not.
In this great , highly financed , country that people think is free exists a mold that is the foundation of both major parties. The mold attaches to the hard working citizens that have been enslaved with debt the world has never seen. Our new babies have a Social Security number stamped on their behind in order to maintain “the gold standard” that backs all the new money printed and the new debt incurred by our federal and state governments.
Jobs have taken a one way ride to foreign shores never to come home again. Financial giants have screwed Gramma and Grampa
by convincing them to take their savings from banks to stocks and bonds . Stocks and bonds being one step up from the local bookie. The government facilitated this by lowering interest rates to ridiculous low rates that give no return .
The two major political parties, thru state governments, have given the insurance companies a great new source of money by forcing health insurance onto people, by forcing flood insurance onto homeowners and by forcing uninsured motorist insurance onto car buyers.
The mold scum list goes on and on and keeps bankrupting hard working citizens. Yes, I said CITIZENS. Those individuals with social security numbers.
Now, back to Trump. The man who is telling it like it is, the man who knows that we voters are thanking him for a bit of fresh air in politics and the man who knows we are done listening to the Bushs and Clintons and their buddies tell us how well we have it.
Maybe I cannot stand The Donald but I probably will vote for him because I have grown to hate the establishment. Go Donald.
Minutemen, Anyone who thinks Donald Trump is not part of the establishment you are so enraged with, is as delusional as someone (like you) who thinks he has a solution to anything other than his own self indulgence. Anyone who does what he does (he calls it real estate) is constantly involved being a politician. You don’t just build what he builds without some big time finagling, and he has accepted millions in public money in order to enrich himself, which was never that important for him because he was born into gazillions of dollars. In the end, whenever a demagogue comes along, be it Hitler, Huey Long, Joe McCarthy, and a host of others, it is only people naive enough to fall for it that stokes his fire. I’d hope you could see the light. If you are going to reject what you rightly point out should be rejected, try to find someone worthy of your discontent. ciao, Jerome