Janet Mills Quits (Finally): Voters Sigh In Relief (And Tell Chuck To Butt Out)

<This image says it all... (
Victoria Sunday/The Daily Beast/Getty Images)>

Suggested Soundtracks:
"Nowhere Man" (The Beatles); "Don't Dictate" (Pentration)

<i.>

Last month, Maine's Democratic Governor Janet Mills finally bowed to the inevitable, and ended her sputtering vanity campaign for the seat held by her Republican counterpart, Susan Collins. Sticking to the script that politicos have been crafting since the 2000s, Mills announced she was "suspending" her campaign -- rather than quitting -- a distinction that won't impress 

The only noteworthy aspect is why Mills -- who blamed lack of financial resources -- stuck it out as long as she did, amid polls giving insurgent oyster farmer Graham Platner opening a 33-point lead in their forthcoming Democratic primary. Perhaps, like most of her fellow Boomer-era voters, Mills was praying for the Beatles to return -- with their dead counterparts, in Ed Sullivan-era black and white -- with a sprightly ode to slay the demons of rap, metal, or any new song recorded after 1980. 

I can almost hear the campaign theme ringing in my head, powered by those bouncy, yet raw, untrained, Please Please Me-era guitars: "Ooh, ooh, Janet, baby, you're the one for me/Vote for Janet, 'cause she always aims to please/Janet's my top choice, she always knows best/She stands heads and shoulders above all of the rest!"

Instead, Governor Mills will have settle for exiting on her shield to the strains of "Nowhere Man," the one who's always "making all his nowhere plans, for nobody," although she chalked up her decision to lack of resources. Even there, she lagged far behind, with a modest $2.6 million, versus the $4.0, 4.1, $4.6 or 4.8 million reported for Platner, depending on which source you believe (WBUR/Boston, Open Secrets, The New Republic, or Ken Klippenstein, respectively).

The news leaves Platner on a glide path towards nomination, though he obviously has much work to do between now and November. However, he seems up for the challenge, in contrast to Democratic party elders -- who remain stuck in a different era, and often give the appearance of being readier to die than change. But we'll get to that point momentarily.

<A tad premature, as results bore out...

Janet Mills For Maine/YouTube capture>

<ii.>

So what qualified Janet Mills's campaign as a vanity effort? Simply put, the vanity of the man who recruited her (Democratic Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer), in defiance of common sense realities, starting with her age (78). While Ms. Mills showed noteworthy spine in standing up to Trump -- and, by most accounts, proved herself an effective and popular governor -- it's hard to reach any other conclusion.

After all, had Mills somehow gotten past Platner, and Collins, she would have become the oldest freshman Senator in our history. Is that the sort of history the Democratic Party should make? It would have cast her as yet another member of an entrenched American gerontocracy whose 79-year-old President, Donald Trump, is practically a spring chicken alongside Senators Charles Grassley (92), or Kentucky's dark gremlin, Mitch McConnell (84), who stepped down as Republican majority leader, but doggedly clings to his office, regardless. 

Actually, let's take that back. At 75, Schumer is probably the spring chicken of this particular story, but the basic point still stands. In any event, the only problem for Schumer -- and the donor class that he actually represents -- was Platner's ability to whip up a significant cyclone of energy around his candidacy, as Ken Klippenstein's brutal takedown of Mills's withdrawal announcement (see below) suggests.

If Platner amassed a 4-1 financial edge over Mills, it's because "people wanted him," Klippenstein asserts. End of story. Buying into Mills's "lack of funds" alibi amounts to "a verbal sleight of hand that makes it sound like a budgeting problem, like her campaign manager overdrew her checking account," he adds.

Not that Mills didn't try to find a workaround for her problems, though. When her initial attempts to take down Platner didn't work -- he's inexperienced, he's unelectable, he's weird, and so on -- Mills hit on a novel idea. If elected, she promised to serve only one term, hopefully easing concerns about sending yet another septuagenarian to a Congress that's bursting at the seams with them.

Which begs the question of why she was running at all, considering how long it will take America to recover from two Trump eras -- as even voters who expressed admiration for Mills, like baker Bev Chapman, told the New York Times (see link below): "'She’s been a great governor for Maine,' Ms. Chapman said, 'but new blood is needed and we need more progressives running who are not afraid to stand up to the current administration.'"

Of course, another (unspoken) reason for Mills's workaround not working any miracles is that it sounded just like the sort of pandering from veteran politicos, once they're cornered -- and don't see an obvious way out of the box canyon. But all the workarounds in the world can't save a candidacy that voters won't support, as Klippenstein notes:

"She would have been 86 at the end of her first term. Think about that. At a moment when even mainstream Democrats are beginning for generational change, the party's solution to flipping a must-win seat was a 78-year-old whose pitch was essentially 'I have been around a long time.'"

<"Oh, it's your treat this time?
Fine, I'll take you up on it. 

Just don't order me any oysters, thanks!"
(YouTube capture)>

<iii.>

In fairness to Schumer, not all of his Senate seat picks seem like total busts, as the Politico story (see link below) points out. Democrats seem reasonably happy so far with how Sherrod Brown, Roy Cooper and Mary Peltola are running in Ohio, North Carolina, and Alaska, respectively -- red states that must flip for the Democrats to retake the Senate this fall. Brown, in particular, is a marquee progressive -- something that Schumer's defenders cite as proof that he cares less about ideology than winning.

Michigan voters see something else afoot, however, in the Democratic establishment throwing its weight behind Haley Stevens -- a perennially chirpy, pantsuit-clad, ardent AIPAC disciple -- over progressives Abdul El-Sayed and Mallory McMorrow, in the Wolverine State's Senate primary (August 4). The situation has strong echoes of the Mills debacle, to the point of McMorrow warning that she won't support Schumer keeping his job if the Democrats retake the Senate:

“Let it play out,” McMorrow told POLITICO on Thursday evening. “This is a moment for Democrats, and I mean Democratic voters on the ground, to decide what party we want next. It is our turn. It is not the party’s turn anymore."

Other Democratic newcomers, like Illinois Lieutenant Governor Juliana Stratton -- the presumptive successor for its retiring incumbent Senator, Dick Durbin -- have voiced similar feelings; so did Platner, when he launched his upstart campaign to unseat Collins last summer. As Robert Reich notes on his Facebook page, voters remain angry and unforgiving with a system that's left so many so much worse off than ever: 

"That rebellion continues to this day. Yet much of Washington’s Democratic elite is still in denial. They prefer to attribute the rise of Trump and, more broadly, Trumpism — its political paranoia, xenophobia, white Christian nationalism, misogyny, homophobia, and cultural populism — solely to racism. Well, racism is certainly a part of it. But hardly all.

"In 2024, Democrats didn’t even get to choose their nominee from the primary process, since Biden dropped out after a dreadful debate performance and was replaced by Kamala Harris — leaving some Democrats feeling like higher powers were picking their nominee.

"The anti-establishment groundswell has by now spread to independent voters — who are now a whopping 45 percent of the electorate and have moved sharply against Trump. It’s one of the most dramatic shifts in recent political history."

To put it another way, whoever reads the room -- starting with those angry, disaffected independent voters -- will walk away with the keys to the kingdom, as Trump did, when he first got elected, in 2016. Bernie Sanders might have walked away with them, too, had the establishment not wrenched the nomination away from him -- a steal fueled by the mistaken impression of being able to coexist with wolves in sheep's clothing. Rest assured, it's not a mistake that progressives will -- nor should -- make in 2028.

<The attack ad that never ran: 
A preview of what awaits Platner this fall? 
Time will tell...
(National Senate Republican Committee,
YouTube capture>

<iv.>

The efforts to sink Platner share parallels with the campaign to take down Zohrani Mamdani, who became mayor of New York. Both races featured recycled faces (Andrew Cuomo, Janet Mills) caught flatfooted by insurgents who outworked and outhustled them. Both challengers attracted an avalanche of attack ads and negative press coverage, much of it generated by pundits who ignored or simply misread what was happening on the ground.

Much of that negative messaging focused on making Mamdani -- and now, Platner, or any progressive daring to follow in their footsteps -- seem like the offspring of Hitler, Manson, and Satan. The attack ad prepared for Mills (above) is a small sampling of just how far Republicans will go, since it's impossible to imagine such a mild-mannered figure as Mills causing nightmares for anyone (other than the donors who wrote her checks, and now experiencing a major case of buyer's remorse).

The whiff of Mills's desperation seemed obvious from the beginning, when her campaign unearthed ancient online posts as grist for attack ads against Platner -- specifically, "regarding his use of a slur for people with disabilities, and his comments on Reddit from more than a decade ago about Black people not tipping at restaurants and about sexual assault," as The Independent reports (see link below).

Yet Platner has weathered those storms, because people are weary of giving incumbents a free pass -- while their challengers must come across as lifetime Boy Scouts who only hang out with the likes of Donny Osmond, as they while away their days drinking milk, and listening to the Jungle Book soundtrack. 

The upstart generation has its flaws, "but I think there's an expectation by voters today that if you seem perfect, you're probably hiding something," as an anonymously quoted Democratic consultant mused to Politico. All that pearl clutching over a decade-old post seems downright absurd, when we look at the tramping of democracy, nonstop grifting, and maximalist power abuses that characterize the Trump regime.

Obviously, Platner won't enjoy the same commanding financial advantage against the overstuffed Collins, who -- unlike Mills -- can count on an avalanche of dark money to bail her out of a jam. All the same, she offers a perfectly doable pickoff -- if Platner does his job correctly, by demolishing her artfully woven facade of "concerned" moderation.

It's an act that Status Quo Susan, as we'll call her, has honed to perfection over her five-term Senate career. We know the routine well, which typically kick-starts with some tricky issue or other. Status Quo Susan will furrow her brow, purse her lips, hemming and hawing through her latest non-answer -- amid noises of how "alarmed," "concerned," "disturbed," or "troubled" she claims to feel about it -- before she finally votes as her tribe expects, and demands.

It's a routine that sometimes stretches to Hamlet-style proportions, as Collins demonstrated during the Brett Kavanaugh debacle -- where commentators made much of her studious note-taking during the explosive confirmation hearings, amid allegations of serious sexual predation against him. In the end, Status Quo Susan joined Vichy Democrat Joe Manchin to ease Kavanaugh over the finish line, 50-48 -- a spectacle that caused some wags to question the scrupulousness of her note-taking.

Again, which of these capsule summaries feels more worrying? A decade-old Reddit post that may or may not reflect its author's current mindset, or the latest chameleonic shift of a career politician who hasn't held a traditional town hall meeting with her constituents since the Clinton era -- over 25 years ago? (Platner, in contrast, has already 61 town halls.) If that isn't entrenched arrogance, what is?

It's the reason, presumably, why Amanda Litman, co-founder of Run For Something, tells the Independent: “People are hungry for change — the institutions that got us to this point cannot be the ones to get us out of it.” Indeed, and so noted.

This, more than anything, is the type of circle that voters -- particularly Democratic ones -- are beyond tired of squaring, as Klippenstein asserts: "People are fed up with an establishment that doesn't listen, that tells them everything is under control, even as it drives the country into a ditch. So they're taking the keys away."

Democrats would do well to consider taking those same keys away from Schumer -- and his equally tepid passive-aggressive counterpart, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries -- if they retake one or both houses of Congress this fall. It may not the outcome that either of them prefers, but it's what their base demands, and their party deserves -- to say nothing of a country that's crying out, loudly and clearly, for something else. --The Reckoner 

Links To Go (Hurry, Hurry, Herd
Those Gerontocrats Right To The Exits):
Ken Klippenstein:
Voters Take Keys Away From Elderly Politician:

https://www.kenklippenstein.com/p/voters-take-keys-away-from-elder

New York Times:
For Many In Maine, No Tears Over Mills's Exit...:
https://archive.ph/r1MfD

Politico:
Schumer Faces Renewed Scrutiny After Mills Meltdown:
https://www.politico.com/news/2026/04/30/chuck-schumer-janet-mills-meltdown-2026-00902217

The Independent: Step Off, Chuck!:
https://www.the-independent.com/news/world/americas/us-politics/schumer-senate-democratic-primaries-mills-b2969045.html

Mad King Watch (Take XVI): Bitchy Bitch Catches A Break After All

 

<This collection appeared in 2005, in the middle
of the never-ending Iraq War -- some things 
never change, blah-blah-blah...
God, it's getting so tiresome,
hearing that telltale mantra:

"History doesn't repeat...it rhymes!">

When we  recently addressed this subject, Roberta Gregory's massive forthcoming Bitchy Bitch anthology seemed dead in the water -- figuratively and literally -- after an Iranian missile struck the ship carrying them through the Strait of Hormuz. For a few weeks, it seemed, we had the prefect metaphor to serve up on the futility of America's latest never-ending war. If creators like Roberta Gregory can't catch a break, who can, right? Certainly not the millions of us lumbering under the weight of crushing food, gas and housing costs, that's for sure.

Guess what? There's more to the story than meets the eye, as Roberta stated last week (4/7/26) on her Facebook page. I just happened to see her statement, which we'll post here, in the name of correcting the record:

"OK, here’s the BITCHY! latest, from Eric at Fantagraphics….with a lot of help from an NPR reporter who decided to investigate… and found out the CONTAINER was on the ship stuck in Hormuz and reportedly fired upon, but the books were never in it!

"They were still in India all this time but nobody at Fantagraphics was told this. So all that hoopla earlier was based on misinformation from somewhere in the chain of command that became an exciting but erroneous news item." "Trust NPR to give you the real deal! So apparently the books are delayed, but soon to be on their way, though taking the long way, past the Cape of Good Hope. "So let's all hope real good, not just for cargo going from there to here, but an end to this stupid war!"

This latest development reminds me of that line from "The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance" -- not the Gene Pitney song, but the brilliant 1962 film based on it: "This the West, sir. When the legend becomes fact, print the legend." That issue aside, our basic points still hold: whether it's comic books or cars, constant disruptions aren't a box office winner for any business. You can't bludgeon other nations into submission via tariffs, and you can't build one by remote control, especially if they don't welcome you there. Now that Hungarians have figured out those points, and finally retired their resident illberal architect (Viktor Orban), it's time to follow suit here in November. While Trump himself obviously isn't on the ballot, his Congressional enablers definitely are, which means we have one more chance to avoid slipping on the proverbial banana peel for the third time. It's the least we can do. --The Reckoner Links To Go (Hurry, Hurry,

Before The Legend Becomes Fact)

Gene Pitney: The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (Lyrics in the description): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PhsZkPlMQk8

"Liberty Valance": That Iconic Scene: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=363ZAmQEA84&t=54s

Mad King Watch (Take XV): War Is A Bitch: Bitchy Bitch Versus The Strait Of Hormuz

 

 <https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/news/2026/mar/17/war-is-a-bitch/>

Every summer, our town holds a massive outdoor art fair. Over the last 30-odd years or so, it's grown from a fairly modest event, featuring mostly local vendors, whose wares took up roughly half a dozen blocks, to one of the nation's premiere art fairs. It's a spectacle that stretches out over the whole downtown area, starts with a massive Friday night kickoff party, live music, and a silent auction -- one that attracts vendors from 25-30 states nationwide.

I've covered about half a dozen fairs in my time, which usually requires interviewing some vendors, to pop the inevitable question: What motivates you to load a trailer full of your own art, or somebody else's work, and lug it all over the country? Can you really make a living that way?

I once posed that question to an elderly gentleman from Georgia, who responded, without blinking: "Yes, you can. I spend about 20-25 weekends every year, doing shows like this." Then he paused, to drop the punchline, with a sly grin: "But let's remember something. Art isn't anything that people need, because they have to do silly things like buy gas, and pay their mortgage."

That conversation always cracks me up, whenever I revisit it. You can just imagine the average person's thought process, right?

Ah, who cares about those silly comic book people? My kid could do that! That isn't a real job! They should be out here, on the coffee bar/gas pump/loading dock/supermarket checkout station/scut job of your choice with me, blah-blah-blah-blah... And so on, and so forth. 

I thought about that conversation again, after hearing of the delay in the Stateside arrival of a new book, Bitchy: The Exasperating Existence Of Midge McCracken. For alternative comics mavens, this anthology counts as a major event, marking the first compilation of Roberta Gregory's groundbreaking character...essentially, every comic between two covers, but didn't save under your bed, hoard in your drawer, or something along those lines.

For those who don't know Bitchy or her creator, this snapshot summary from TV Tropes does the job: "A series of comic books by Robert Gregory, featuring the titular character Midge and her coworkers. Midge is permanently stuck in a bad mood -- hating her coworkers as well as all other people, and giving them every reason to hate her. Published as stand alone albums, as well as in Naughty Bits. Has a spin-off called Bitchy Butch." (Examples of signature stories follow the quote, which I also recommend, for those who aren't already in the know, to catch the drift.)

Suffice to say, Bitchy ranks among the signature characters in the alternative comics pantheon. If you're having a crappy day, or can't put up with all the shit sandwiches the world keeps slinging, this is one of the comics to read. You'd either end up feeling slightly better about your latest predicament, or at the least, you could take comfort, knowing that someone else out there felt as pissed off as you were.

And you wouldn't get a ton of social-work-speak blather ("You can't control what other people do," blah-blah-blah). It was okay to feel that way, because once you finally got a better place, whatever pissed you off wouldn't matter, anyway. Unlike a lot of creators, Gregory doesn't talk down to her audience, or invalidate how they feel, which was one of the reasons I enjoy her comics.

The anticipation for the Bitchy anthology kept building, as Gregory posted periodic updates to her Facebook pages. Fantagraphics, her publisher, began taking pre-orders. I could feel the excitement jumping off those Facebooks page, as fans weighed in on what they looked forward to seeing...

...until that one Iranian missile struck a certain ship, bound with print runs of the Bitchy anthology, and The Atlas Comics Library No. 9, as Fantagraphics announced on March 13 (edited for punctuation and space):

"The report we have is that the ship has limped to a safe port, where we await further news. Our thoughts are with the crew, and we hope and pray for their safety. The two books were printed in India and were bound for the Port of New York.

"Both books had been scheduled to go on sale in early June, but that timeframe now seems unlikely. If the books themselves were not damaged and the crippled ship's cargo can be offloaded to another vessel, and that vessel can then safely exit the danger zone, it could add a month or more to the delivery time.

"We have no information on the cargo ship’s itinerary, but our speculation is that it was dropping off other cargo from India to that region or picking up additional cargo bound for the U.S."

"Bitchy Bitch is most exasperated by this unexpected turn of events, echoing the title of one of Weird World's horror stories "When a World Goes Mad!"

I've scoured Facebook for updates, but haven't seen many. This statement from Roberta's timeline (3/14) seems as close as we'll come for awhile,: "For all you lovely folks eagerly awaiting my upcoming humongous BITCHY! book, scheduled to come out April 21, I’m afraid there’s a potential delay, so I beg you to please be patient. Like most big, top-notch books these days, they were printed overseas…. And put on a container ship bound for New York. "And the ship stopped in Dubai to take on more containers… right before Trump decided he wanted to surprise the world with a war on Iran….and the only route out of Dubai is through the Strait of Hormuz….and I think you can all tell where this is headed. (And where the ship is NOT headed anytime soon.) Sigh. I’m not happy about this nor are the folks at Fantagraphics…"

So, yeah, it looks like we might have to settle in for a long, long wait. Which is only fitting for our latest never-ending war, now closing on a month, and a week -- after the Trump regime's Ali-esque predictions for a quick ending have fizzled. Good thing he didn't get into "naming the round," right? Just as well. At first glance, this sort of event comes off as an extreme example of just how hard events happening 6,000-odd miles away can rattle our cages. But the ripple effects don't end there for an industry already reeling from Trump's infamous here-today-gone-tomorrow-back-next-week tariffs, as this thoughtful, insightful Comics Journal article (see links below) explains. When you're regularly sourcing paper and ink, on top of finding the most cost-effective printer for your wares, it's not hard to feel the pain voiced by the likes of Mad Cave Studios: “Even modest increases in tariffs on books — or on components like paper — create difficult tradeoffs. Publishers are being cornered into a place where the options are either raise prices, cheapen the product, or take the hit. None of those feel good."
While bound printed matter like books have been exempted from the tariffs, that break doesn't apply to the materials and processes required to produce it, which raises major headaches for foreign publishers. (Nor does it apply to apparel or games, two major income sources in their own right.) As Gregory and her fellow creators have already noted, most mass printing jobs end up happening overseas -- in countries like Canada, China, and India -- for boring economic reasons, like affordability and flexibility. It's an ironic twist for globally conscientious publishers pining for more domestic options, as Uncivilized's supremo, Tom Kaczynski, openly admits: "I’d prefer domestic production. Everything becomes simpler: shipping, timelines, and other logistics become easier to manage.” Makes sense, right? But there are some interesting knock-on effects that audiences may not consider, starting with an overall reduction or restructuring in foreign-USA business, while publishers and creators struggle to find workarounds for whatever ails their bottom line, as François Vigneault, marketing manager for Pow Pow, of Canada, suggests:

"Negotiating distribution contracts, deciding on print runs, and figuring out shipping times, it's all much more complicated than it ought to be. Every hour you have to spend trying to figure out what is going on, and how you are going to respond to this stuff, is an hour you can't spend on the fundamental elements of the business of publishing great graphic novels."

For newcomers, those realities may require taking a back seat to better-established peers -- if someone else publishes them -- or scaling back the ambition and frequency of their ventures, if they're putting out their own work. It also likely means fewer opportunities to interact and collaborate, as Conundrum's publisher, Andy Brown, makes clear:

“As a Canadian I am far more concerned about the fact that the very independence of my country is under threat due to this ‘trade war.’ I will not cross the border into the U.S.A. And many of the artists I publish have told me they feel concern for their safety if they do. So that means no more U.S. festivals, no in person sales conferences, no U.S. tours. So that will affect sales and the bottom line far more than tariffs. I will be seeking out European markets even more.”

And remember, the Journal article ran in May 2025 -- before images of innocent people getting beaten, kidnapped and murdered on the streets of Chicago and Minneapolis by anonymous masked goons became horrifyingly familiar sights everywhere. It's not hard to imagine a foreign publisher pausing over the latest Trump regime outrages that they may spot online, as they sigh: "Right, we're giving the good old USA a miss this year. And maybe for a couple more years, too."

This is the perverse flipside of protectionism, as critics are reminding everyone right now, with a wink and a gloat. Domestic businesses that try to plan for the future, and build a stable profit structure, end up getting punished, because they're responding to arbitrary policies, rather than real market conditions, as the Journal suggests.

The end result is a less competitive, less responsive market, and a shrinking audience pool. With tariff-related costs estimated at $3,800 per household, it's fair to say that comics might rank well below those "silly things," like gas and housing costs.

While yesterday's announcement of a two-week cease fire -- if it holds -- may come as welcome relief for Bitchy Bitch fans, it doesn't address the broader economic pain caused by Trump's "now you see it, now you don't" style of governance. Uncertainty tends to exert a serious drag at the box office, now that all those cherished MAGA assumptions about trade -- that there's an army of idle natives who can't wait to make shoes, or pick fruit, in searing 90-degree temperatures -- haven't panned out. 

If nothing else, the current chaotic spectacle should extinguish, once and for all, the Trumpian notion of some uber-creative amateur pulling out the royal flush that's magically eluded the other players at the card table. But, hey, what do those silly comic book creators know, right?

For that matter, what do the working man and woman, struggling to pay for "silly things" -- like gas in the tank, or the monthly mortgage -- know, as they watch those costs soar up, up and out of sight, even as their wallets stay flatter and more parched than ever? Time will tell how that struggle plays out in the November midterms, but we'll just have to grit our teeth through it, before the course correction finally comes. Until then? To put it kindly -- there is much work to be done. "Much," as Marley's ghost would say. --The Reckoner

Links To Go: Hurry, Hurry, Before Comics
Cost More Than The Gas In Your Tank:

Comics Beat
Two Fantagraphics Collections Delayed:
https://www.comicsbeat.com/two-fantagraphics-collections-delayed-after-cargo-ship-damaged-by-iranian-missile/

The Comics Journal
Comics And Trump's Tariffs 2.0:
https://www.tcj.com/comics-and-trumps-tariffs-2-0-they-might-fuck-us-up-at-any-moment/

The Duck Webcomics
War Is A Bitch:
https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/news/2026/mar/17/war-is-a-bitch/

TV Tropes
Bitchy Bitch Entry
https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/ComicBook/BitchyBitch

<Before that missile strike:
Roberta Gregory poses proudly with her creation>:

https://www.comicsbeat.com/two-fantagraphics-collections-delayed-after-cargo-ship-damaged-by-iranian-missile/

Mad King Watch (Take XIV): No Kings #3 Happening Today

 

Sums up the current mood, doesn't it?

The No Kings protests return today, after a roughly six-month hiatus, to confront a President who seems ever more unmoored to any kind of objective reality., especially in light of his unilateral crusade for remote control regime change. Over 90 events are planned in Michigan alone, most spanning the 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. shift, though "local listings may vary," as TV Guide used to tell us. So check the particulars of any event before you go (see link below).

This third installment promises to be the largest one yet, with organizers forecasting seven to nine million participants at some 3,000-odd events nationwide. By any measure, today's events amount to a major display of defiance, as the Trump regime continues its slow, but steady, unraveling.

Nowhere is the disconnect more glaringly apparent than the ever-shifting rationales  for the Iran War, now entering its fifth week. The predictions of a quick finish are a distant memory, one that makes mincemeat out of this Trumpian boast: "We figured it will be four weeks or so. It's always been about a four-week process, so -- as strong as it is, it's a big country, it'll take four weeks -- or less." 

And, presumably, hash of this one: "It won't be difficult." Or this one, tossed out to CNN: "I don't want to see it go on too long." (How long, of course, wasn't specified.) Or this one, via "War Secretary" Hegseth Ham Sandwich: "This is not a so-called regime change war." So much for that idea, apparently, though even that has a conditional contingency, as Trump sees it: "If they rise, they rise." 

Glad we cleared all that up, eh? All jokes apart, however, it's worth pondering the mental disconnect that's deposited us in this most miserable of places, and why it bears addressing -- however, whenever, wherever we correct our national course. Imagine the mental thought process that prompted all those Black, Gen Z and Latino voters, among the more obvious suspects, to give Trump another try in 2024:

"Donald or Kamala? Hmm, looks like a tough one. How can I vote for a chick who hasn't worn a dress since 'Silver Spoons' went off the air? She does seem more stable than Trump, though. I can't imagine her leading us to war with Russia, or China, or any of those rogue nation states.

"But my eggs and my gas have never cost more! Just like Biden, she keeps saying, 'Look at those charts, look at those graphs! Why all the bitching? You've never had it so good!' Guess I'll just go for the man-baby. He'll blow up everything, and gas will be back at two bucks a gallon, before you know it. At least he's not boring, right?"

Obviously, I'm exaggerating for effect, but not by much. The scary thing is, this imagined rundown is probably more complex than the reasoning most voters likely employed to give Trump another bite at the apple. Essentially, as we've suggested before, economics played the greatest tipping point.

Sadly, Biden nor Harris never understood the reality that macro stats don't pay the bills, politically speaking, nor do they win affection in the voting booth. Learning that the official unemployment rate has never been lower offers cold comfort when you can't afford the food on your table. 

But neither should we allow those proverbial broken clocks -- the ones who finally admit that giving Trump another turn at the wheel might not have been the greatest idea, from Marjorie Taylor Greene, to Joe Rogan, and all the rest of them -- off the hook, either. Another reminder of this idea crossed my mind, via this sentence from this MSN article (see link below):

"Wall Street is sounding the alarm as Trump's Iran war threatens to crater an already fragile economy, with financial analysts warning the protective guardrails shielding the U.S. from economic catastrophe are rapidly eroding."

The effect further snowballs, as we see from these words, a few paragraphs later: "Gregory Daco, EY-Parthenon's chief economist, warned of systemic vulnerability. 'The U.S. is now confronting inherent fragilities,' he said. 'The typical buffers that would prevent any type of external shock -- like an oil price shock -- from disproportionately affecting the economy are smaller than usual.'

"'Downside risks are rising, and this is an extremely fluid situation,' Daco added.

"The financial sector is rapidly losing confidence in the administration's economic stewardship, Politico reported. A Bank of America survey of global fund managers released Tuesday found inflation expectations surging, with 28 percent now expecting Democrats to retake both houses of Congress in the midterms -- up from just 20 percent a month ago."

To which I can only respond, "Gee, guys. Guess what? Did any of these possibilities ever cross your mind, before you lined up on the dais on Inauguration Day, and began prostrating to your preferred golden calf? Apparently not. So what am I supposed to feel here? Because of all the emotions, sympathy is not among them."

You can guffaw through the rest as you wish. Whoever wrote those sentences surely has a bright future as a standup comedian, even if it's an unintentional one.

But we must not lose sight of how deep the need for accountability runs, whenever this madness finally, mercifully, and thankfully runs its course. We can talk about "Trump-proofing" our increasingly sclerotic democratic system, so that someone else like him cannot bend and break its rusting guardrails beyond repair, and beyond redemption.

We can pass whatever reforms are needed, to give people a long-overdue modicum of relief from the implicit dictatorship of make believe money, so they can regain a real and meaningful measure of control over their lives once more.

We can work on retaking our media landscape back from the feral tech bros and amoral billionaires wishing to twist it around their grimy little fingers, as the likes of Bari Weiss are already demonstrating -- in vying to soft sell their Dear Leader's worst attributes, Tiger Beat-style. The only difference being, of course, that Tiger Beat didn't pass off its '70s pop idol promotional blitzes as actual shoe leather journalism.

We can do any or all of those things. But unless we start a conversation with those who enabled this madness -- starting with, "Just what did you see in this man?" -- none of those objectives will matter. Without that conversation, we will simply end up duking it out again, four years now -- if not with JD Vance, Trump's hopeful heir apparent, then someone who sounds just like him.

With those thoughts in mind, I'm leaning towards these words from Polly Toynbee in The Guardian, as a more pertinent and relevant point of inspiration:

"Trump calls on the Iranian people to rise up and overthrow their religious dictatorship. The rest of the world is willing the American people to rise up – progressives, Magas and stock marketeers alike – against their wildly out-of-control president who has no exit strategy because he never had an entry purpose. This world-changing conflagration will cost his citizens dear and they need to frighten him out of war: unpopularity is all he fears."

That is what today's third round of national actions are all about. There is a reason why Abraham Lincoln said, "Public sentiment is everything." And it's about time that the ruling class found that out, however they end up learning that particular lesson. --The Reckoner

Links To Go: Hurry, Hurry, 
Before "King Lear" Reads Like A Documentary:

MSN: Wall Street Sounds Alarm
That Trump May Be Leading US To Economic Catastrophe:
https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/markets/wall-street-sounds-alarm-that-trump-may-be-leading-us-to-economic-catastrophe-report/ar-AA1YYvPi?ocid=msedgntp&pc=LCTS&cvid=69bc7c52f62a4665bcab5b933bfa65c6&ei=14

No Kings: Find An Event Near You:
https://www.nokings.org/

The Guardian: Polly Toynbee: It's Trump's Mania,
But Now All Of Us Will Pay The Price:
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2026/mar/23/war-unprecedented-depression-trump-mania-iran

Yahoo News: A Running List Of
The Most Inspirational Trump Quotes About The Iran War:

https://www.yahoo.com/news/articles/running-list-most-inspirational-trump-200211377.html

Mad King Watch (Take XIII): Notes On The (Apparent) Eve Of World War III

 

<"Missing In Action..."/The Reckoner
Pahlavi Head Shot:
European Union, 1998-2026>

<i.>

A maximalist-minded President launches a series of strikes against a nonwhite-governed enemy, in its latest saber-rattling display of its endless appetite for controlling others. Rather than rallying around the flag, however, the overall effect is closer to the sound of one hand clapping, or the sudden implosion of a damp wet paper bag, amid rampant levels of social and political inequity. To steal a rhetorical flourish from Winston Churchill, never have so many toiled for so little, and never have so few owned so much more than the rest, always at their expense.

If you think you're living in the world of 1896 -- or going from zero to 1939, in 10 seconds or class -- welcome to the club. if you're still harboring any doubts, this weekend's strikes against Iran should finally settle them. What's most remarkable about our latest bout of Middle East madness is how little the governing classes  have learned from calamities like the endless Iraq war of 2003, and the chaotic August 2021 withdrawal from Afghanistan, that finally climaxed our 20-year military adventurism there.

Suffice to say, neither instance proved the satirical proposition that I remember seeing in one of Tom Tomorrow's cartoons on this very subject: "They'll be too busy making cheap oil for their new American friends to stay mad at us for long." We'll revisit that idea shortly, but it's a thesis worth repeating, as Trump sleepwalks into the same box canyon that derailed his Biden and Bush-era counterparts -- that nations can never be created, nor managed, by remote control.

Nevertheless, we seem ready to repeat that mistake once more, if Trump's scarlet-coated rhetorical flourishes to Iran's beleaguered masses are any indication: "America is backing you with overwhelming strength and devastating force. Now is the time to seize control of your destiny and to unleash the prosperous and glorious future that is close within your reach." Yet bombing alone has never proven enough to generate regime change all by itself, as the Allies learned in World War II, for example. Or should have learned, perhaps, in Afghanistan and Iraq.

The other basic problem, as experts cited by the Wall Street Journal suggest (see link below), is that no matter how the dust settles, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps will still hold all the guns. Without boots on the ground, or some other event  forcing their hand, they won't be going anywhere -- nor switching sides -- any time soon. "There is no organized opposition ready to seize this moment,"  as one of those experts, Mohammed Albasha, told the Journal. "The likely outcome is not reform, but consolidation, closer to a closed military state."

Indeed. Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei's death has already spurred the emergence of a collectivist leadership that can hold the reins until the situation stabilizes, and eventually, choose a successor. If Iran's military fortunes fall further -- which isn't yet a given -- that same group could head for the hills, and coordinate some type of insurgency, if need be, similar to the Afghan or Iraqi experiences. 

Whatever scenario unfolds, neither seems likely to include a job opening for Iran's former crown prince. Judging by Reza Pahlavi's initial public statements, he seems afflicted by the same wishful thinking bouncing around the halls of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue: "This is a humanitarian intervention; and its target is the Islamic Republic, its repressive apparatus, and its machinery of slaughter -- not the country and great nation of Iran."

For all the richly justified hatred that Iranians harbor toward their government, we doubt that "humanitarian" will be the word they associate with the missiles and munitions raining down on their country. Nor is the same brutal regime that instigated over 7,000 verified deaths in its latest crackdown likely to post a Craigslist-style ad ("Wanted: New Leader To Usher Transition Away From Theocracy. Unlimited Potential And Benefits"), nor a billboard in downtown Tehran ("Reza, Where Are You? Phone Home").

<Simply drowning in the devil's excrement? 
Edwin Drake, the first man to succeed in drilling for oil:
https://www.bbc.com/news/business-49499443>

<ii.>

So where does this latest twitch of the Trump circus leave us? Undoubtedly, some of it's driven by petrostate nostalgia, since few blocs exert such outsized influence as the fossil fuel industry -- which accounts for just eight percent of the US economy, even by its own figures alone Yet that statistic doesn't tell the whole story, for the industry "is also woven into the U.S. political fabric in ways that resemble the structure of petrostates," as Inside Climate News suggests:

"Wyoming gets 59 percent of its state budget from fossil fuel revenue; North Dakota, 29 percent; and Alaska, 21 percent. Other states, though less reliant, take in staggering sums, led by Texas, at $14.6 billion annually; California, $7.8 billion; and Pennsylvania, $4.4 billion. And the money going into state coffers reflects the far larger impact the industry is having on state economies and jobs.

"Because institutions like the Electoral College and the U.S. Senate give states outsized power compared to their populations, fossil fuel-reliant regions can hold considerable sway over national politics and policy." It's the reason, the Climate News piece goes on venture, that Democratic nominee Kamala Harris shied away discussing from the Biden administration's attempts to move toward renewable energy, and pledged not to ban fracking, in "a vain effort to win the swing state of Pennsylvania, the nation’s No. 2 natural gas producer."

Such skewed petro-politics are also the reason why Pennsylvania's newly-minted Senator, John Fetterman, has gone from denouncing fracking as a "stain" on his state, to an aggressive proponent of it; why industry-backed boondoggles like clean coal and carbon capture continue to get federal funding; and why oil and gas interests rooted so openly for a Trump restoration, one that promised a golden opportunity to line their pockets like never before.

The only losers, of course, are the rest of us -- who will be cheerfully expected to pay more at the pump, which ends up being the most common collateral consequences of any prolonged conflict. I still hold vivid memories of the spring 2005 price spikes -- when gas soared from $1.60, to almost $3.50 per gallon -- and people at my newspaper of the time openly shed tears over the implications: "Whatever happened to the national interest?" 

I remember thinking, maybe we should have asked that question before we slapped an endless war on the national credit card. While those spikes came a couple years after the Iraq chaos, they still unfolded in a market that was still struggling to find its feet. 

Whatever or whoever was to blame, I couldn't overlook the consequences for my wallet, since I drove a 40- to 50-mile round trip to work every day at the time. When the Squawker and I worked out the math, we figured that I was losing about $20 a day, before I even got out of bed.

Even now, I struggle to describe how demoralized it felt, of heading to work, knowing you're going to lose money -- which is a far cry from the angst that oil and gas interests feel at failing to extract every last egg from the golden goose. It's the reason, I imagine, for the celebrated quote uttered in 1975 by Juan Pablo Pérez Alfonzo, who'd been Venezuela's petroleum minister during the 1960s:

"It is the devil's excrement.
We are drowning
in the devil's excrement."

<Time to swap out that fancy linen, perhaps?

The ethically challenged Mr. Jorkin ponders his options...

"A Christmas Carol," 1951: YouTube capture>

<iii.>

Having been largely relegated to the dust of  scholarly obscurity, Alfonzo's lacerating observation has gained new life in recent years, notably after the Trump-sponsored snatching of Venezuela's tinpot strongman, Nicholas Maduro. On a more basic level, it reflects what those on the losing side of the petro-political divide know all too well -when the deck feels stacked.

Time will tell how the Iran crisis fits into that equation, though -- honestly -- the effect on oil prices is only one of many reasons to oppose the Orange Man's latest off-kilter gambit. Start with his 2024 victory speech pledge: "I'm not going to start a war. I'm going to stop wars." So much for that idea in a two-month period that's already seen three foreign entanglements.

Follow with the notion, ingrained since our beginnings, that only Congress can authorize any sort of military actions -- but don't linger endlessly on the "technical" or "management" arguments, as I call them, since they won't save us from this man's excesses, anymore than they did Bush's or Biden's Middle East missteps. "But you can't do that!" is catnip to any bad actor's ears, and Trump is no exception; alas, it's going to take much stronger medicine to finish the job.

However, what makes this outburst of Iranian interventionism feel especially egregious is the social backdrop it's unfolding against. Never have Americans felt more economically battered and beleaguered, yet received so little social support, in coping with the myriad of social ills they face (see the Hill link below).

Half now struggle to pay bills on time, which isn't impacting the stealth purchasing of warehouses needed to ramp up Trump's deportation machine, at a reported cost of $45 billion -- on top of an $11.25 billion increase for operating it, plus $100 million to acquire all these structures in the first place, amid record levels of homelessness (an estimated 771,840 on any given night), and housing costs exploding beyond any reasonable level.

Or we might focus on proposals announced last month for the Pentagon's first-ever $1.5 trillion budget, for an agency that has now failed eight consecutive audits (the only one among 24 departments that has been unable to meet that metric). Other ill effects will make themselves felt in other ways that not may be readily apparent at the time, but still come with a cost.

A good example is last week's announcement of the Pentagon's decision to cut off Anthropic at the knees -- because its CEO didn't want its AI products deployed for mass surveillance. Not to worry, though, since OpenAI's feral tech bro, Sam Altman, tripped over himself to fill the gap -- striking a deal only hours after Anthropic had been elbowed aside (see MSN link below). Altman's indecent haste to help the Trump regime build its long-cherished surveillance state recalls a nifty exchange from the 1951 adaptation of A Christmas Carol:

"We're all cutthroats
under this fancy linen,
Mr. Snedrig."

"I must ask you
to speak for yourself,
Mr. Jorkin."

And that's before we get to these massive data center projects -- including 32 alone threatened for Michigan -- that Altman and his kind seek to impose on the rest of us, in all their infrastructure-straining, job-draining, utility bill-jacking, wallet-busting glory, But that is the greater picture staring down at us. For affordable food, housing or utilities, the political class claims that it simply cannot rummage enough coins from under the ouch -- a reluctance that completely deserts them when they roll out their pet projects.

Giant holding pens, for real or imagined "others"? Open the checkbook; money's no object! Data centers and defense contractors? You wouldn't want them shivering in the rain and snow, do you? Innocent Americans potentially targeted as terrorists, or enemies of the state, thereby impacting their ability to make a living? Sorry, can't rethink the blueprint. Our republic would simply fall apart!

If this disconnect doesn't mobilize people, then nothing will, though it will undoubtedly take a sustained campaign to turn back this latest tide of madness. Whether that happens with the November midterms -- or, to coin the Doobie Brothers' phrase, "taking it to the streets," if Trump actively tries to derail or interfere with them -- remains to be seen.

Easy answers will hardly abound, as the risks continue to pile up. Yet this is, paradoxically, when we must find our greatest resolve, and steel ourselves for the enormous task that lies ahead, as the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists noted, in assessing the aftermath of Trump's 2024 victory:

"We do this not because our success is guaranteed. Given the forces mobilized against us, we are clearly the underdog. No white wizard will come to our rescue. But we have truth and justice on our side. And the stakes simply couldn’t be greater. We continue to fight for a livable planet, for us, our children, and future generations. Because it’s worth fighting for."

We couldn't have said it better. When all is said and done, let us hope that we're up to the task. --The Reckoner

Links To Go

Associated Press: Trump Statement On Iran:

https://apnews.com/article/iran-us-trump-address-f662a4f3378535d81197be699fb35a3e

Bulletin Of Atomic Scientists:
Welcome To The American Petrostate:
https://thebulletin.org/2024/11/welcome-to-the-american-petrostate/

Inside Climate News:
Trump's "Energy Dominance Agenda"
Sounds Like A Petrostate Plan To Some:
https://insideclimatenews.org/news/26112024/will-the-united-states-be-a-petrostate-under-trump/

MSN: Cancel ChatGPT Movement 
Goes Big After Open AI's Latest Move:

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/technology/cancel-chatgpt-movement-goes-big-after-openai-s-latest-move/ar-AA1XfZpY?ocid=msedgntp&pc=LCTS&cvid=69a48ece529343999b303c0471c868a2&ei=67

The Hill: America's Cost-of-Living Crisis
Is Entering its Most Brutal Phase:

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/opinion/opinion-america-s-cost-of-living-crisis-is-entering-its-most-brutal-phase/ar-AA1XjvPt?ocid=msedgntp&pc=LCTS&cvid=69a48bae4e1944f0a4e93208a8bffa9f&cvpid=2ad3332b7eeb40e6982228ecc305e935&ei=127

Wall Street Journal:

The Iranian Force Built To Defend The Regime...:

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/the-iranian-force-built-to-defend-the-regime-now-faces-the-ultimate-test/ar-AA1Xiy27?ocid=BingNewsSerp

<Suggested Soundtrack: "For My Country," the A-side

of this 1983 single released by UK Decay:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XF9Dn9bb98o&list=RDXF9Dn9bb98o&start_radio=1>

Smashing and crashing,
Disguised as terrain:
Count up the memories,
We'll go back again

For the honor I don't ask why,
His majesty's pleasure my honor to die:
For -- my -- country!
For -- my -- country!

Life's Little Injustices (Take XXVI): To Renew, Or Not Renew... (That Is The Question)

<"This Property Is Condemned"/Take I, The Reckoner>

If I've learned anything from apartment living it's this. Laundry rooms make great communal spaces, because they offer a place for people to drop some real knowledge, to coin a phrase from the hip-hop world. People let their guard down -- removing dirt from our clothes has a way of easing the stiffest of social fronts -- and tell you what's on their minds.

This weekend, I found myself working through the usual mountain of clothes, sheets, and assorted odds and ends -- a few raggedy pillow cases there, a stray towel over there -- when a young woman with bluish-tinted hair bounded into the room.

I had one more load to do, but needed to wait for her, since she had the three working washing machines going. With one drier already going, I just needed to kick-start the last load, and I'd be done for the night.

That's when the conversation really got rolling, after she gestured to the long silenced fourth washer. "How long have you lived here?"

"About 20 years," I responded. "Why do you ask?"

My questioner's eyes bugged open wide. "Really? Wow. How long has that washer..." She gestured at the plaintive "Out Of Order" sign taped to the lid. "Been like this?"

"Hmm, let me think," I ventured. "At least since last summer, I'd say."

"Couldn't be," the young woman scowled. She shook her head vigorously from side to side. "Because I moved in here last April, and it was already broken."

I presumed that my questioner had seen the plaintive exchange, hastily scribbled on that homegrown "Out Of Order" sign:

"Will this ever be fixed?"

"No."

"Fair enough. OK, then, it's probably been broken since the previous summer." A tinge of curiosity stirred in my brain. "If you didn't mind my asking, what's your experience been like here?"

"That's the thing," she responded. "I had a situation where water kept coming down from my upstairs neighbor, into my hall closet, and it got really moldy in there."

"Well, how did they address it?" I asked.

"They just painted right over it! They didn't even clean it out, really." She laughed, almost to herself. I swear I could her brain going: Uh-huh. Yeah, so what'd you'd expect?

"Anyway, I wasn't really using it that much, so I just moved everything out of there, that I already had."

"Sorry to hear that. If you didn't mind my asking..." I paused, to consider the framing of my next question. "What are you paying here, at the moment?"

"$1,255 per month," the young woman responded. "And when my lease comes up next month, I don't think I'll renew. Because the way I see it, you're not improving on anything, so why I should pay more to keep on living here?"

"I see the logic there," I agreed. "As for our household, we did look at other options, but didn't see anything worthwhile -- so we're standing pat, for now. Sometimes, it's easier to work with what you have."

"I definitely get that." The young woman began tossing the contents of her three loads into the driers.

"Usually, if you're looking for a better deal," I continued, "these things come down to timing. Something comes up, and you have the cash to do something about it. If you only have one or the other, you're stuck for a bit longer."

"Oh, for sure." The woman flashed a knowing smile, and finished packing up the driers. "But I don't think I'll be sticking around."

"Well, good luck to you, either way," I said.

"Same here. It's been nice talking with you." And with a great big flourish, she slammed the last of the three driers shut, and headed out, freeing me to start my final load, and finish my final task for the night.

Will she fare better than I did, in light of the shrunken housing market that prompted our household to put that search for the promised land (of lower rent) on hold? Time will tell, though the official word doesn't seem terribly encouraging, as the opening salvo from this Michigan Municipal League policy brief, issued in October 2024, appears to suggest:

"Michigan’s housing landscape faces a conundrum— a surplus of buildings coupled with unmet demand for housing units that people both like and can afford. As the composition of Michigan households evolves, with an average size of 2.48 people per the most recent American Community Survey (ACS) data in 2022, the mismatch between existing housing stock and actual needs becomes even more apparent.

"The release of Michigan’s Statewide Housing Plan in 2023 has further spotlighted the runaway problem facing every Michigan community: with housing prices up a whopping 84 percent since 2013, Michigan residents are facing numerous barriers to securing appropriate housing access."

There you have it, then. That old demon of supply and demand, the usual suspect driving so many of these discussions, doesn't appear to have grown anymore forgiving than it seemed back in 2008, when the housing bubble burst with such a resounding pop. Actually, the MML brief isn't all doom and gloom, as it offers some interesting potential solutions, as you see (click the link below).

Still, if there's a reason for why so many Americans feel caught in a mousetrap, it's not hard to see why. As usual, it comes down to lack of options and lack of resources, creating the familiar knock-on effect of falling further and further behind, with the bounty on the horizon fading ever farther from sight. --The Reckoner

Links To Go (Hurry, Hurry, Before
Your Rent Rockets Skyward Again)

Michigan Municipal League:
Hacking Michigan's Housing Potential:
https://mml.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/MML-Policy-Brief-House-Hacking-10_3-Final.pdf

US Census: Nearly Half Of Renter Households
Are Cost-Burdened, Proportions Differ By Race:
https://www.census.gov/newsroom/press-releases/2024/renter-households-cost-burdened-race.html

<"This Property Is Condemned"/Take II, The Reckoner>