Do you know how the term “Fake News” was coined? The term first appeared in the 1890’s when newspapers, mainly in New York, competed for subscribers by printing the most sensational news. Another term for fake news that I learned in school was “Yellow Journalism.” In this case, the term refers to a cartoon strip that appeared in Hearst newspapers called ‘Hogan’s Alley,’ which featured a character called “the yellow kid.”

The Yellow Kid

It was sensational news coverage in Hearst papers like the sinking of the USS Maine in Havana Harbor that whipped up American anti-Spain sentiment that resulted in an actual war with Spain. And the Yellow Kid got the blame.

Fast forward to 1988, and The Onion started publishing satirical news articles. The term “Fake News” was firmly attached to The Onion and its many copy cats.

Then Donnie D Cups got his hands on the term and applied it to legitimate news that criticized him for his many faults and misdeeds.

So it is not without a little irony that today we hear that “The Onion” made headlines in the legitimate news when they bought, at Alex Jones’ Infowars bankruptcy auction, Jones’s website, its social media accounts, its studio in Austin, Texas, its trademarks, and its video archive for an undisclosed sales price. 

Mark Bankston, lawyer for Neil Heslin and Scarlett Lewis, asks Alex Jones questions about his emails and text messages during trial at the Travis County Courthouse, Austin, Texas, U.S., August 3, 2022. Briana Sanchez/Pool via REUTERS

This is all brought to you by the lawsuits filed by Sandy Hook parents who successfully sued Jones for a collective $1.5 billion (yes, a billion with a “b”). No way these assets will cover his tab, but that wasn’t the point was it?

Fake News absorbs Fake News, and we go full circle.

I have to admit, the appointment announcements that we have heard about recently make absolutely no sense at all, which is not surprising in the least. It’s sort of like last time, but this time, it looks like someone is playing a parlor game.

I mean, really. Why did Don the Con appoint former Texas governor Rick Perry to head up the Department of Energy at the beginning of his previous term of office? His expertise? Hardly. His degree was in Animal Science, and his expertise before politics was driving Air Force cargo planes.

So why was he tapped by Bronzer Boy to be his Secretary of Energy? In the end, the only thing I could come up with at the time was that it resulted from an on-stage, on-camera primary debate faux pas when he forgot which executive branch departments he would eliminate as president. He forgot that one of his target departments was the Department of Energy. Remember his “Oops” moment?

So what could be funnier than appointing Rick Perry to the department that he forgot he wanted to eliminate?

Making appointments to critical government positions has apparently become a parlor game at Mar-A-Lago these days. The game apparently begins with the question, “Wouldn’t It be funny if…” And the winner is the one that comes up the most uproariously funny answer. And then it’s funnier still when Donald does the deed.

Or so it seems to me.

For example. Wouldn’t it be funny if child sexual trafficking Matt Gaetz was appointed Attorney General? Oh man, the Libs are gonna scream bloody murder. What an opportunity to collect some Liberal tears.

Wouldn’t It be funny if Libertarian and Pro-Putin propagandist Tulsi Gabbard was appointed Director of National Intelligence? That would be a knee slapper! They’re gonna think she’s passing information to Vlad!

Wouldn’t It be funny if Pete Hegseth, a clownish Fox News Weekend anchor, got appointed Secretary of Defense? Sean Hannity will be livid!

Wouldn’t It be funny if Christy Noem was appointed Secretary of Homeland Security? Undocumented migrants won’t know who she is, but disobedient puppies will all run for cover.

Parlor games. It has to be something like that, or it doesn’t make any sense. If this keeps up, Andy Borowitz’s comment that “we’re gonna need a bigger clown car” is more truth and less funny.

I don’t know what I was thinking. How can one not be able to string two sentences together after seeing the Presidementia-Elect trounce yet another over qualified presidential candidate? It is, after all, a target-rich environment.

Witness the delicious MAGA backlash at the news leaked yesterday that Captain Bonespurs has picked fellow Floridaman, Marco Rubio to be 4th in line to be president (after Ridgerunner JD, MAGA Mike (?), and whoever President Pro Tem of the Senate will be) should something awful happen to him.

Raw Story has gathered some amazingly predictable quotes from Don the Con’s bevy of butt munchers.

Laura “Looney” Loomer: “Why are people inside Mar-a-Lago leaking Trump’s possible cabinet picks to the media? Not a good sign that things are being leaked already.”

Libertarian “comedian” Dave Smith: “Might as well give Liz Cheney the State Department. Awful sign.”

Charlie Kirk: “Folks, word of wisdom. If Trump hasn’t confirmed it on Truth [Social], don’t jump to conclusions and don’t believe everything you see.”

That’s more than one word, Charlie.

Suddenly, the cockles of my heart are thawing as I observe that Von Shitzenpantz’s own MAGA elite are now doubting what they see and hear. It is literally the opposite of what we now call “sanewashing.” Nominating a person who is arguably a moderate conservative with experience in the area of foreign relations rather than another clueless candidate for the looney bin has got to stick in their craws.

I wonder what you call the opposite of “sanewashing.”

I have some advice for MAGA maniacs. A maxim that has served me in the past as far as Pumpkin McPornhumper goes: Pay no attention to what he says, watch what he does.

Tom Homan is in the cat bird’s seat today. Bronzer Boy’s former ICE Administrator has been given carte blanche as the new Border Czar (aka “Deportation Czar”) which confirms, in my mind anyway, that the Project 2025 chapter on immigrant deportations is well on its way to becoming reality.

Homan: Bring me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses. NOT!

While not an author, Homan is credited on page xxviii of the nefarious plan to reinvent America into a Trumpian Paradise as a “contributor.” And his appointment to head up Don the Con’s Department of Mass Deportations is our very first indication that Project 2025’s blueprints for a fascist state is very much on The Orange One’s agenda.

Homan has a plan, and it is outlined on pages 133 through 153 on the 922-page document that is intended to replace the US Constitution.

Among other things, it proposes the use of so-called “Blackies Warrants” to raid workplaces where they suspect they might find undocumented immigrants trying to earn money. Blackies Warrants are named for Blackies House of Beef that was raided by La Migra in 1978. The warrant has already been challenged under the 4th Amendment but has gotten a mixed result – one win, one loss.

But probably the most heinous words out of Homan’s mouth came in an interview by 60 Minutes journalist Cecilia Vega last month. Answering Vega’s question, “Is there a way to carry out mass deportation without separating families?” he responded.”Of course there is. Families can be deported together.”

Imagine that. A child, a natural born American citizen, will have the opportunity to be deported along with their undocumented parents. That’s one way to solve the immigration problem that doesn’t break up families. 

Still waiting for the 1-800 number we can call anonymously to denounce our neighbors, co-workers, and competitors. Coming soon to an SS headquarters near you.

Promises kept.

It was just eight years ago that we all got ice water splashed in our collective face when Don the Con erased Hillary Clinton’s glide to victory. Then, four years ago, there was literal dancing in the streets when Joe Biden, as a youthful septuagenarian, kicked Bronzer Boy out of DC.

Now we’ve come full circle and await the onslaught of another four years of street brutality, migrant detention facilities, boons for billionaires, and overturned alliances.

And whatever else they can think of to throw in.

Times are bleak, and they don’t do anything for my ability to string two cogent sentences together, either. But I do hope to recover sometime before we bid a fond farewell to governmental sanity. Hopefully it will be short-lived.

Andy Borowitz, who authors the subscription website The Borowitz Report, seems to be similarly deflated. So much is the case that he filed this serious piece on his website, which is free for this one posting. .

I suggest you read it. It might help. It did help me somewhat.

Reflecting on a lifetime of presidential elections today. My first, as a 20 year old college student, was 1972. Viet Nam was heavy on all of our minds as our friends and brothers were getting drafted, some not coming back. Protests everywhere. Richard Nixon won. I feel for the young people who are new voters and now feel like I did in 1972. My track record is not great (6/14). I have lived in blue and red areas of red states, in blue and red areas of blue states and overseas. Even with deep disappointments, I have never felt as devastated as 2016, and did not want to feel that way again. Which is why I did not watch returns, and locked up the whiskey. Oh well, here we are, gut punched again by a felon who has no business running for president of anything. My sparkling wine is still in the fridge.

In earlier times, people all sat down to watch the nightly news with Walter Cronkite, and I think we were all better aware of reality. Decades of misinformation from too many sources have taken a toll on the electorate. Our education system is under attack. Our justice system is no longer just. Separation of church and state has been blurred. Our national empathy and understanding of people who are not like us is disappearing. Too many people caring about only themselves.

I don’t know what the answer is. You can’t stop people from watching/reading poor ‘news’ sources and believing them, no matter how many facts you counter with. You can’t undo racism and misogyny. I’m so afraid that until the consequences of hate touch the haters personally, nothing will change. It will take a shooting at your kids’/grandkids’ school, a loved one dying of sepsis when they can’t get a D&C, suffering shortages of fruit and vegetables, meat and dairy, when all the harvesters and processors are rounded up and put in camps to deport. When they can’t find any elder care or day care providers. When their imported cheap products at Walmart and the Dollar store become unaffordable due to tariffs. We will all suffer, but those who can least afford it will suffer most. The wealthy oligarchs are calling the shots.

I will keep trying to understand, and be thankful I live in a state that fits me. That my daughters live in states that will take care of their reproductive health. And I will move forward, as soon as I’m done grieving. It might be a while.