After the election I decided to reduce my news consumption; it was causing more anxiety than it was worth. I also wanted to try to write more humorous columns (I write for Raw Story, Salon, a few others.) I tried it at least a half dozen times, but the truth is, I couldn't find much humor in what was happening. The funniest thing is that Trump's incompetence will be what sinks him, but even that is more tragic than funny. Jeff Tiedrich and Borowitz are keeping the faith admirably, and they deserve every subscriber they get. So yeah, I hear you, but it's a struggle.
I laugh out loud every Saturday morning reading "Xeets and Giggles", which is Jay Kuo's Saturday column. (He writes "The Status Kuo".) For the rest of the week, I live on Jeff Teidrich's "everyone is entitled to my opinion". Without them, I'm not sure how I'd survive the darkness of these days.
Same here. Jeff comes through for us every day with his version of the idiocy that is the completely wrong right these days. And Jay’s Xeets and Giggles awaits.
I recently checked out Randy Rainbow's (sometimes obscene) "Low Hanging Fruit". One of the first chapters, where he announces his candidacy for President, had me laughing so hard that my dog got very concerned. There's a paragraph where he discusses the importance of Greta Thunberg's work as an environmentalist that made me laugh so hard, I literally couldn't stop for 5 minutes. I've never done anything this bizarre before in my life, but I reread that paragraph every night before I go to sleep because it never fails to get me laughing (literally) out loud. Not sure how many more weeks I'll keep this up. :-)
Yes, even if the election doesn’t affect me directly, it certainly will if trump insists on his 25% tariffs including to 🇨🇦. So I’ve reduced my reading focusing instead on Substacks from authors who aren’t constantly angry and outraged. I’m doing my bit to bring down the tone in my household by not discussing what I read. It avoids a lot of exasperation.
Yes, if we are financially comfortable we are somewhat insulated from his economic clownfuckery. But his malevolence affects everyone in some way, and that includes everyone on the planet. The president of the US is the most powerful and influential person in the world. The election of him will not endear us to the rest of the regular people of the world. The only ones happy are Putin, Orban, Xi, Netanyahu, and all the other dictators and fascists.
Seriously? Canada? doesn't affect you directly? What about when Trump crashes the global economy? When the US dollar is not longer the stable underpinning of currencies worldwide? What about when public health crises unchecked by government sanity sweep across the border? What about when Trump's stable of corporate billionaires decides to exact its toll on nations other than the US (don't you use Starlink or big pharma?) What about when Trump builds a wall across the northern border of the US and refuses to allow Canadians to do business in the US or visit relatives here? What about when NATO falls and Putin sends the US military into places it never should be (Canada if you don't do Trump's bidding)? What about if Xi or Putin decides they want to add North America to their holdings?
I’m sorry that you feel such angst. Unfortunately, we don’t have a voice in whom your citizenry deems an acceptable candidate to sit in the highest office in the land. He is unfit to become the 47th President, and we can only hope that his offensive tongue and behavior can be mitigated by more rational people. I have enough other stuff to worry about without adding to my daily stress with “what abouts”.
The top scientist of a top science of ❤️EMOTIONAL MATURITY ❤️(Cognitive Behavior techniques, aka CBT) has developed CBT2.0 which is a much faster (10X?❤️) treatment that YOU WILL NEVER EXPERIENCE because it requires therapists to kill their ego, which they will "never" do:🤔🙈🙉🙊🫣🤯
The saying, what doesn't kill you makes you stronger, applies here or something like that, right. Are we getting stronger? Wiser? Braver? Madder? I'm just getting tired of seeing this mess and his face in the media and the thought of this going on for four years is awful.
Always! First of all the best "journalists" in America today are our comedians: Stephen Colbert, Jimmy Kimmel, Seth Meyers, John Oliver & more speak truth to power & expose the ludicrous hypocrisy of Trump & his GOP thugs
Using mockery & insults.show all of US who they really are & we feel stronger & more united for it
Well I sure hope we can! In this case, the wannabe emperors will more likely than not steal OUR clothes. I also think that our younger elected officials seem to be the opposition’s most effective communicators and they need to be “everywhere, all at once.”
You are right! Humor is the best medicine for dealing with the incompetence and ignorance (Musk, for instance) of trump’s henchmen. They prove every day that they aren’t very smart.
Somehow, this makes me think about the great Jack Benny/ Carol Lombard movie "To Be or Not To Be," when they tell a joke: If they named a brandy after Napoleon and a herring after Bismarck, what's Hitler going to be? A piece of cheese (because cheese is stinky). Our beloved leaders doesn't enjoy jokes....I've never seen him smile....
You're right about that. He lacks any sense of humor. I believe that is associated with his complete lack of empathy. Both have to do with normal interactions with other human beings. He is incapable of that.
Heaven knows that we will need a sense of humor to get through the madness of these coming years. But nothing will deflate this pumped up buffoon who is full of hot air as rapidly as the thrust of a joke.
Let's turn him into a laughing stock - and I could not be more serious about that.
I agree. Humor has a twofold purpose. Turning their threats and ignorance into a punchline loses its punch. Although I’m not certain given the stuff Musk spreads that he worries about it being factual.
A lot of people who only “know” the ACLU as some evil entity that is against their “christian values” might believe it is funded by the government. Exposing foolishness in one or two brief sentences can help derail fake news.
Jeff Teidrich writes a daily Substack that helps me do just that. He brilliantly reduces everything down to its most base idiocy. I’d blow a gasket without him.
After reading the sentence about the French taunter in “Monty Python and the Holy Grail," I considered another scene from the same movie. Earlier this morning I watched a MeidasTouch video where Ben called the president-elect a weak man who pretends to be strong. For those who have seen the movie, can you remember the Knights saying they were not afraid of taking on the dreaded creature in the cave? They marched on the cave and were attacked by a rabbit. "Run away! Run away!" they cried as they turned tail and ran. https://youtu.be/XcxKIJTb3Hg?si=CMIntqOidwv86ga1
Keeping with the Monty Python theme, I think DOGE could be equivalent to The Ministry of Silly Walks [ https://youtu.be/ncOKgthE3AM?si=NHEFT4uOWLioRVC5 ], except the two co-heads are serious, and the repercussions for the country are dire. They do not know how the government is funded (and believe that the ACLU is a government agency!). It would be hilarious if it weren't so serious.
In 2020, I spent mid-January to the end of March in various healthcare facilities (not COVID-related). After an emergency surgery in January, my surgeon (who is a visiting surgeon working in other hospitals during the week) would call in every day to check on me. She was told I was up and joking with the nursing staff. During her last visit with me, she said that she saw the fact that I could be joking around as a positive sign, telling me that people who can keep their sense of humor have better outcomes from surgery. I hold on to that observation now during this unsettling time.
"'A lawsuit is a fruit-tree planted in a lawyer’s garden', and I can only imagine the number of apples and oranges growing in your backyard.” It doesn't get any better than that!
One doesn't know whether to laugh or cry these days. A terrible murder of United Health CEO in NYC , & people are actually cheering. The stretch between the haves & havenots widening in dining - the rich going to classy, exclusive places, less fortunate going through drive-ins. Multiple companies doing what Musk has in mind for civil servants, firing long time workers , many just before Christmas.
Social security no longer paying for Part B, taking out $185 monthly deduction from checks. Part D Medicare - prescriptions - generic up from $1.55 to $4.90 , other , $4.60 to $12.15.
Hard to be optimistic when the sun seems to be settling, not rising. I'm not laughing much these days.
Sometimes life is simply too absurd NOT to laugh at it. Congratulations on your many years together, Steven; may you and your wife enjoy many more healthy years together! Your wife is absolutely correct in that a sense of humor is vital to maintaining any marriage and/or friendships. my husband and I have also enjoyed a long marriage of 53+ years in which we weathered many of our own emotional and health crises along with our children and families. If we didn’t stop to laugh at some of those events, we’d both end up in the nuthouse. As other commenters here have noted, bullies, almost by definition, psychotically crave to be taken seriously. There is nothing I’d like to see more right now. than Trump and his pack of billionaire bullies handcuffed, andescorted out of the White House and Congress by our military, which they desperately want to control. Oh,and the exit march song set to the Monty Python musical theme should be something like.’Hail To The Cheat’!
Oh, yes. Those with a real sense of humor (as opposed to just recognizing a joke when one sees it) will survive. Real humor has its roots in a flexibility of thought that is capable of juxtaposing two things and seeing the absurdity. That ranges from good puns to "your mother was a hamster and your father smelt of elderberries." It is the flexibility that matters, and that is a flexibility that is also good at finding solutions to problems. It tends to arise in more liberal people more than conservative. We HAVE to keep our sense of humor, both because it is how to stay sane and because we will need to have it when the GOP ultimately goes down in flames and solutions to their chaos are direly needed.
The current crop of Trump Upper Minions gives us the absurd in quantity. Relish it.
Although I’m struggling right now to maintain a sense of humor, I agree it’s vitally important to do so - as long as we also never let humor disguise the deadly serious threats facing us.
After the election I decided to reduce my news consumption; it was causing more anxiety than it was worth. I also wanted to try to write more humorous columns (I write for Raw Story, Salon, a few others.) I tried it at least a half dozen times, but the truth is, I couldn't find much humor in what was happening. The funniest thing is that Trump's incompetence will be what sinks him, but even that is more tragic than funny. Jeff Tiedrich and Borowitz are keeping the faith admirably, and they deserve every subscriber they get. So yeah, I hear you, but it's a struggle.
I laugh out loud every Saturday morning reading "Xeets and Giggles", which is Jay Kuo's Saturday column. (He writes "The Status Kuo".) For the rest of the week, I live on Jeff Teidrich's "everyone is entitled to my opinion". Without them, I'm not sure how I'd survive the darkness of these days.
Same here. Jeff comes through for us every day with his version of the idiocy that is the completely wrong right these days. And Jay’s Xeets and Giggles awaits.
I recently checked out Randy Rainbow's (sometimes obscene) "Low Hanging Fruit". One of the first chapters, where he announces his candidacy for President, had me laughing so hard that my dog got very concerned. There's a paragraph where he discusses the importance of Greta Thunberg's work as an environmentalist that made me laugh so hard, I literally couldn't stop for 5 minutes. I've never done anything this bizarre before in my life, but I reread that paragraph every night before I go to sleep because it never fails to get me laughing (literally) out loud. Not sure how many more weeks I'll keep this up. :-)
I love Randy Rainbow. I forgot about him in all this confusion.
Sold! I don’t have the book yet and will. Thank you.
Great! Let me know if that part of the book cracks you up as it did me!
I’ll try to remember to do so. My guess is it will. Thank you.
Posted the same!!
I'm too angry to find the humor in Trump's incompetence any longer—I just want him and everyone who supports him GONE.
I admire the fuck out of Andy Borowitz and Jeff Tiedrich for being able to laugh in the Trump Nazis' faces....
And look at Jay Kuo's "Xeets and Giggles". (That's what he uses for his Saturday "essay" on his great substack, "The Status Kuo".)
And I am BEYOND grateful for what may prove to be their tremendous courage, if the situations continues to darken.
Yes, even if the election doesn’t affect me directly, it certainly will if trump insists on his 25% tariffs including to 🇨🇦. So I’ve reduced my reading focusing instead on Substacks from authors who aren’t constantly angry and outraged. I’m doing my bit to bring down the tone in my household by not discussing what I read. It avoids a lot of exasperation.
Yes, if we are financially comfortable we are somewhat insulated from his economic clownfuckery. But his malevolence affects everyone in some way, and that includes everyone on the planet. The president of the US is the most powerful and influential person in the world. The election of him will not endear us to the rest of the regular people of the world. The only ones happy are Putin, Orban, Xi, Netanyahu, and all the other dictators and fascists.
Seriously? Canada? doesn't affect you directly? What about when Trump crashes the global economy? When the US dollar is not longer the stable underpinning of currencies worldwide? What about when public health crises unchecked by government sanity sweep across the border? What about when Trump's stable of corporate billionaires decides to exact its toll on nations other than the US (don't you use Starlink or big pharma?) What about when Trump builds a wall across the northern border of the US and refuses to allow Canadians to do business in the US or visit relatives here? What about when NATO falls and Putin sends the US military into places it never should be (Canada if you don't do Trump's bidding)? What about if Xi or Putin decides they want to add North America to their holdings?
I’m sorry that you feel such angst. Unfortunately, we don’t have a voice in whom your citizenry deems an acceptable candidate to sit in the highest office in the land. He is unfit to become the 47th President, and we can only hope that his offensive tongue and behavior can be mitigated by more rational people. I have enough other stuff to worry about without adding to my daily stress with “what abouts”.
https://robertreich.substack.com/p/kamala-and-the-politics-of-joy/comment/63771557
comment on Kamala and the politics of joy.
❤️Reich❤️[and me]:"Laughing together is one of the important signs of [my ability to see my faults, aka "death of the ego"].
Contrast this with [endless exaggerations of anxiety cured by the morphing placebos of] anger, hate, and grievance."🤔🙈🙉🙊🫣🤯
❤️Scientist on the laughter required to kill my ego and see my exaggeration of threats: http://books.google.com/books?id=XX0VFH7TXvoC&pg=PA216
The top scientist of a top science of ❤️EMOTIONAL MATURITY ❤️(Cognitive Behavior techniques, aka CBT) has developed CBT2.0 which is a much faster (10X?❤️) treatment that YOU WILL NEVER EXPERIENCE because it requires therapists to kill their ego, which they will "never" do:🤔🙈🙉🙊🫣🤯
https://drive.google.com/file/d/10sB0fqSY4fbyuRvWeSvif6HXW1gDFXru/view?usp=sharing
Such important truths!
The saying, what doesn't kill you makes you stronger, applies here or something like that, right. Are we getting stronger? Wiser? Braver? Madder? I'm just getting tired of seeing this mess and his face in the media and the thought of this going on for four years is awful.
Always! First of all the best "journalists" in America today are our comedians: Stephen Colbert, Jimmy Kimmel, Seth Meyers, John Oliver & more speak truth to power & expose the ludicrous hypocrisy of Trump & his GOP thugs
Using mockery & insults.show all of US who they really are & we feel stronger & more united for it
Watching great comedies is a balm for the soul
I’d “stuff the ballot box” with likes for your comment - and the reminder about other voices that are important.
Well I sure hope we can! In this case, the wannabe emperors will more likely than not steal OUR clothes. I also think that our younger elected officials seem to be the opposition’s most effective communicators and they need to be “everywhere, all at once.”
You are right! Humor is the best medicine for dealing with the incompetence and ignorance (Musk, for instance) of trump’s henchmen. They prove every day that they aren’t very smart.
Not only are they not that smart but they're not smart enough to see their ignorance and incompetence.
They have absolutely ZERO self awareness.
Somehow, this makes me think about the great Jack Benny/ Carol Lombard movie "To Be or Not To Be," when they tell a joke: If they named a brandy after Napoleon and a herring after Bismarck, what's Hitler going to be? A piece of cheese (because cheese is stinky). Our beloved leaders doesn't enjoy jokes....I've never seen him smile....
You're right about that. He lacks any sense of humor. I believe that is associated with his complete lack of empathy. Both have to do with normal interactions with other human beings. He is incapable of that.
Only when the crowd shows their adoration for him can the narcissist smile. But it is in recognition of his evil intentions...I have them now!
Heaven knows that we will need a sense of humor to get through the madness of these coming years. But nothing will deflate this pumped up buffoon who is full of hot air as rapidly as the thrust of a joke.
Let's turn him into a laughing stock - and I could not be more serious about that.
I agree. Humor has a twofold purpose. Turning their threats and ignorance into a punchline loses its punch. Although I’m not certain given the stuff Musk spreads that he worries about it being factual.
A lot of people who only “know” the ACLU as some evil entity that is against their “christian values” might believe it is funded by the government. Exposing foolishness in one or two brief sentences can help derail fake news.
I believe that we can indeed hold on to our humor. I believe that we can also help those that feel they can't.
Yes, that’s equally important.
Humor can’t help but emphasize the absurdity of where we find ourselves!
Jeff Teidrich writes a daily Substack that helps me do just that. He brilliantly reduces everything down to its most base idiocy. I’d blow a gasket without him.
Lately I have a difficult finding humor in what he writes and the comments are mostly just name calling which I don’t find necessary.
His substack used for make me laugh but that was before trump was elected 2024.
After reading the sentence about the French taunter in “Monty Python and the Holy Grail," I considered another scene from the same movie. Earlier this morning I watched a MeidasTouch video where Ben called the president-elect a weak man who pretends to be strong. For those who have seen the movie, can you remember the Knights saying they were not afraid of taking on the dreaded creature in the cave? They marched on the cave and were attacked by a rabbit. "Run away! Run away!" they cried as they turned tail and ran. https://youtu.be/XcxKIJTb3Hg?si=CMIntqOidwv86ga1
Keeping with the Monty Python theme, I think DOGE could be equivalent to The Ministry of Silly Walks [ https://youtu.be/ncOKgthE3AM?si=NHEFT4uOWLioRVC5 ], except the two co-heads are serious, and the repercussions for the country are dire. They do not know how the government is funded (and believe that the ACLU is a government agency!). It would be hilarious if it weren't so serious.
In 2020, I spent mid-January to the end of March in various healthcare facilities (not COVID-related). After an emergency surgery in January, my surgeon (who is a visiting surgeon working in other hospitals during the week) would call in every day to check on me. She was told I was up and joking with the nursing staff. During her last visit with me, she said that she saw the fact that I could be joking around as a positive sign, telling me that people who can keep their sense of humor have better outcomes from surgery. I hold on to that observation now during this unsettling time.
"'A lawsuit is a fruit-tree planted in a lawyer’s garden', and I can only imagine the number of apples and oranges growing in your backyard.” It doesn't get any better than that!
One doesn't know whether to laugh or cry these days. A terrible murder of United Health CEO in NYC , & people are actually cheering. The stretch between the haves & havenots widening in dining - the rich going to classy, exclusive places, less fortunate going through drive-ins. Multiple companies doing what Musk has in mind for civil servants, firing long time workers , many just before Christmas.
Social security no longer paying for Part B, taking out $185 monthly deduction from checks. Part D Medicare - prescriptions - generic up from $1.55 to $4.90 , other , $4.60 to $12.15.
Hard to be optimistic when the sun seems to be settling, not rising. I'm not laughing much these days.
I understand, Rita.
Exactly. I’m laughing in my personal life, but not at the political stuff.
It’s going to be difficult! But using Monty Python to help us keep our sanity is a brilliant idea!
Sometimes life is simply too absurd NOT to laugh at it. Congratulations on your many years together, Steven; may you and your wife enjoy many more healthy years together! Your wife is absolutely correct in that a sense of humor is vital to maintaining any marriage and/or friendships. my husband and I have also enjoyed a long marriage of 53+ years in which we weathered many of our own emotional and health crises along with our children and families. If we didn’t stop to laugh at some of those events, we’d both end up in the nuthouse. As other commenters here have noted, bullies, almost by definition, psychotically crave to be taken seriously. There is nothing I’d like to see more right now. than Trump and his pack of billionaire bullies handcuffed, andescorted out of the White House and Congress by our military, which they desperately want to control. Oh,and the exit march song set to the Monty Python musical theme should be something like.’Hail To The Cheat’!
Oh, yes. Those with a real sense of humor (as opposed to just recognizing a joke when one sees it) will survive. Real humor has its roots in a flexibility of thought that is capable of juxtaposing two things and seeing the absurdity. That ranges from good puns to "your mother was a hamster and your father smelt of elderberries." It is the flexibility that matters, and that is a flexibility that is also good at finding solutions to problems. It tends to arise in more liberal people more than conservative. We HAVE to keep our sense of humor, both because it is how to stay sane and because we will need to have it when the GOP ultimately goes down in flames and solutions to their chaos are direly needed.
The current crop of Trump Upper Minions gives us the absurd in quantity. Relish it.
Indeed, we're all hoping that incompetence keeps some of the malice at bay!
I can't like this enough 🎯
🏆🏆🏆🏆
thanks. LOLGOP’s post today addresses this whole “using humor” thing in a nicely nuanced way.
I love the fact that this attorney included the Monty Python photo in his response! So on point!
Although I’m struggling right now to maintain a sense of humor, I agree it’s vitally important to do so - as long as we also never let humor disguise the deadly serious threats facing us.
Yes, that’s where I’m trying to find my balance.