2020 Memes

Created by Susan Eckenrode with image attribution if known. Click on any thumbnail to begin a slideshow.

2019 Memes

Created by Susan Eckenrode with image attributions if known. Click on any thumbnail to begin a slideshow.

With the oceans now rapidly rising

A new scientific analysis finds that the Earth’s oceans are rising nearly three times as rapidly as they were throughout most of the 20th century, one of the strongest indications yet that a much feared trend of not just sea level rise, but its acceleration, is now underway.

 

[…]

 

An acceleration of sea level rise, after all, is an expected consequence of ongoing global warming, and there are projections that it could rise as high as 5 to 15 millimeters per year (1.97 to 5.9 inches per decade) in extreme climate warming scenarios, according to Dangendorf.

 

[…]

 

Just how much control we are able to exert over the rate of sea level rise will critically depend on how rapidly global greenhouse gas emissions come down in coming years — making the entire outlook closely tied to whether the United States sticks with the rest of the world in honoring the Paris climate agreement.

 

“Sea levels will continue to rise over the coming century, no matter whether we will adapt or not, but I think we can limit at least a part of the sea level rise. It will further accelerate, but how much is related to how we act as humans,” Dangendorf said.

 

Scientists say the pace of sea level rise has nearly tripled since 1990
The Washington Post

 


 

With the oceans now rapidly rising,
inundation is on the horizon.
Our Denier-in-chief
will be drowning in grief
when he finds himself greeting Poseidon.

Lily Beth Baker, 5/27/17

“Look at me all day long every day”

America is a naturally narcissistic nation. From “exceptionalism” to being the “last best hope of Earth,” we are raised to believe that life on this planet revolves around those of us who live somewhere here in “God’s country.” But even with a history of believing that we are the sun around which all other countries orbit, it has fallen to our nation’s narcissist-in-chief to take us to a level of self-obsession that makes Kanye West look like Thomas Merton.

 

It is not just that Donald Trump is an egomaniac. Most presidents have a pathological need for approval and attention. It’s why they suffer the slings and arrows that come with seeking the country’s top office. Egomania is for Hollywood actors and House committee chairmen who think the rule of law doesn’t apply to them. Trump is a Transcendental Solipsist. It is not just that he has a strong sense of self. His view of the universe does not extend a single inch beyond the boundaries of his own interests. That is why normative concepts like truth or commonly held values or the national interest are completely alien to him. There is Trump world, and then there is oblivion.

 

[…]

 

If you doubt that the impact of the shift to All Trump, All the Time News is making it hard to focus on much of what might otherwise be worthy of our attention consider this: Since taking office, the Trump administration has ramped up military operations in Yemen and Iraq; committed to deploying over 1,000 additional troops in Syria; stood by as civilian casualties have soared and watched as a strategically important province in Afghanistan fell to the Taliban — all without making so much as a ripple in the public consciousness of the United States.

 

The Soul-Sucking, Attention-Eating Black Hole of the Trump Presidency
David Rothkopf, Foreign Policy

 


Look at me all day long every day
and hang on each word that I say,
as I bask in the glow
of what I don’t know
while pretending I do, you can pray.”

Lily Beth Baker, 5/26/17

An example of classic projection

House Oversight Committee Chairman Jason Chaffetz, who is leading one of the congressional investigations of Russia’s election interference and its possible ties to the Trump campaign, said he’s concerned by a report in The New York Times that President Trump called fired FBI Director James Comey a “nut job” at a meeting with Russian government officials.

 

“I hope that’s not true, I don’t know if that’s what was said or not,” the Utah Republican told ABC News Chief Anchor George Stephanopoulos of the report about the president’s May 10 meeting.

 

Chaffetz hopes Trump didn’t call Comey ‘nut job’ to Russians
ABC News

 


An example of classic projection
by a POTUS who lacks introspection–
Calling Comey a nut job
is a curious cut lob*
that’s reflecting his own predilection.

*cut lob – to hurl an unkindness at someone

Lily Beth Baker, 5/20/17

 

Get prepared for a deafening clatter

Trump and his staff have held meetings to determine the best response to The Washington Post’s report that the president leaked intelligence about an ISIS plot to the Russian ambassador and foreign minister in the Oval Office, Foreign Policy reported.

 

Retaliation against Trump’s predecessor was apparently a popular option.

 

President Trump’s investigation distraction:
Point to Obama’s use of intel-sharing program

Salon

 


Get prepared for a deafening clatter
and a lot of nonsensical chatter
with intent to distract
from each relevant fact
that might get to the heart of the matter.

Lily Beth Baker, 5/19/17

Perhaps he’s as mad as a hatter

If Arendt is right and we are susceptible to radical evil because we cannot conceive of it, then the work of opposition must begin with learning to call it what it is. So here is a definition for our time: Radical evil is the manipulation of others’ perception of reality in order to increasingly concentrate power and wealth in the hands of the few. It is a strategy to sow chaos in order to take advantage of the fear that chaos brings. It is the twisting of facts to frighten citizens into believing that their safety requires them to turn against others. And it is the collapsing of what is good and moral into what is rich and powerful, and ruthlessly using that wealth and that power to accrue more wealth and power.

 

That is why our efforts have to be aimed not at diagnosing Trump, but at stopping Trumpism. To call it madness is to try and bring it into the realm of the familiar and to miss the real threat that Trump embodies: He thrives in turmoil, he has an uncanny ability to bend the world to his reality, he is charismatic and ruthless, hypnotic and terrifying, and we, in this country, have rarely seen his like before. To fight Trumpism, we must actively expose and combat the overpowering reality he is trying to create—and we must abandon the comforting delusion that Trump is delusional.

 

Stop Saying Donald Trump Is Mentally Ill
Slate

 


Perhaps he’s as mad as a hatter;
Perhaps he’s just mean… what’s it matter?
(Though collusion’s suspected)
the man was elected
by our sisters and brothers… what’s sadder?

Lily Beth Baker, 5/19/17

 

If he’s president even a year

“I know that there are those who are talking about, ‘Well, we’re going to get ready for the next election,’” she [Representative Maxine Waters] said, mimicking her more cautious colleagues. “No, we can’t wait that long. We don’t need to wait that long. He will have destroyed this country by then.”

 

Liberals are planning a series of nationwide protests on July 2 known as “Impeachment Marches” to increase the pressure.

 

“We expect them to call for impeachment,” said Delia Brown, one of the organizers of the march in Los Angeles. “This is now the zeitgeist, it’s the demands of people we’re responding to.”

 

Democratic Leaders Try to Slow Calls to Impeach Trump
The New York Times

 


 

If he’s president even a year
and impeachment’s not kicked into gear,
if he’s still in our midst,
we’ll defy and persist
’til we’ve booted his ass outta here!

Lily Beth Baker, 5/18/17

 

All the turmoil is taking a toll

It’s not judges or senators who will save us from the worst of Trump, which is most of Trump. His undoing will come from within. Be as cynical as you want about Washington — I certainly indulge myself — but there remain insiders with consciences, and some of them actually work for the president. They’re willing to work against him if circumstances warrant it. Circumstances have been warranting it, and here we are.

 

What we’re witnessing is astonishing. I don’t mean Trump’s actions — including the infuriating reports that he divulged highly classified information to Russian visitors and had asked James Comey to lay off Michael Flynn — though those do qualify. I mean how reliably Trump’s embarrassing or outrageous behavior always reaches journalists, as government officials use the very media that he demonizes to expose his recklessness, ridicule his cluelessness, warn Americans about his intentions and head him off at the pass.

 

This much leaking this soon in an administration explodes the norms of the White House every bit as much as Trump’s own conduct does, and it’s an indication more powerful than just about any other of what kind of president we have. He is so unprepared, shows such bad judgment and has such an erratic temper that he’s not trusted by people who are paid to bolster him and who get the most intimate, unvarnished look at him. Some of them have decided that discretion isn’t always the keeping of secrets, not if it protects bad actors. They’re right. And they give me hope.

 

Blessed be the tattletales in the Trump White House
Opinion, The Seattle Times

 


 

All the turmoil is taking a toll
at the prospect there’s more than one mole
bent on bringing him down.
Will king trump lose the crown
for which he has ransomed his soul?

Lily Beth Baker, 5/17/17

Our reality show President

Democracies are fragile, after all. They need informed and engaged citizens to survive. “I’m afraid the frustrated public is tuning out and waiting for the storm to pass,” she said. “The problem is, it could be too late.”

 

And so the enduring image from the surreal week is not Russian officials (photographed by a Russian government staff member, no less) yukking it up with Trump in the White House.

 

It’s not Deputy Attorney General Rod J. Rosenstein looking shellshocked on Capitol Hill.

 

It’s not even the jobless Comey puttering in his yard.

 

No, the enduring image is Trump’s press secretary, Sean Spicer, half in shadow Tuesday night, as he told journalists to “just turn the lights off” so he could brief them without being filmed. Metaphors don’t get any better than that.

 

We’re only four months into this presidency. The lights need to stay on.

 

How the chaotic Trump news cycle confuses and misinforms the public
Margaret Sullivan, Perspective, The Washington Post

 


Our reality show President
has erected a really big tent
where he practices pitches
for determining which is
his most outrageous act to present.

Lily Beth Baker, 5/15/17