When the shit hits the fan,
you’ll be sittin’ on the can
when the whip comes down!
–rolling stones.

Right now, in Egypt, Cairo’s fabled Tahrir Square is packed full of people protesting the continuing military police state, protesting the release of police charged with crimes of brutality and military trials for civilians.

Right now, in Greece, newly-enacted harsh economic austerity measures have brought students and workers into the streets by the thousands in protest.

Meanwhile, right now, in the Bad Old USA, the Obama Administration has extended the infamous Patriot Act and is preparing to gut Medicare and Social Security as part of a harsh economic austerity program. So, how are Americans responding to this? Why, they’re slobbed out on their apathetic fat asses, falling asleep watching the latest news on Casey Anthony.

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…said the spider to the elephant.

Lately, the US media have developed an annoying habit of declaring every damn’ two-bit rinky-dink Congressional election a Referendum On (Insert Issue Here). This time, though — in the same manner that a thousand monkeys on a thousand keyboards could write a Shakespeare play given enough time — the media managed to get it right by stating that the victory of underdog Democrat Kathy Hochul over GOP screecher Jane Corwin in a special election in New York is, in fact, a referendum on the GOP’s Medicare/Medicaid “reform” proposals.

While the GOP’s “reforms” tanked in the Senate, most Republicans there are still clinging to it like the Raft Of The Medusa, although the Washington Post — in its classically understated fashion — refers to Senate Republicans as “uneasy”, although a more accurate characterization would be “pissing their pants”. As ol’ Jerry Garcia said, The Wheel’s turnin’ and you can’t slow down, can’t let go and you can’t hold on… They’re stuck where they are, like the mutant fly with the human head in that old Grade “B” horror movie, able to do nothing but give out with desperate, hopeless, tiny shrieks for someone to “Help mee-eeeee… HELLLLP MEEEEEEEE…!”

Mind you, these days, I’ve never been the type to believe that this country’s problems will be solved through an ethically bankrupt two-party system or an electoral system that’s broken beyond repair — or through elections at all, for that matter — but, still, I can’t resist the urge to do the Happy Dance after seeing a nasty rich old howler like Jane Corwin having her ass greased by a rookie Democrat.

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Y’know, I really am jealous of the Greeks – not because of the shape their economy’s in, nor because of the corruption of their government and its servility to capital, nor because of the state-imposed “austerity” programs they struggle against. I’m jealous of the Greeks and other Europeans because they haven’t forgotten how to fight in the streets – unlike US activists, for whom “direct action” these days means standing around, waving signs or holding candles in front of the White House in the dark.

In Greece right now, unionists, students and anarchists are taking on the police, kicking ass and taking names in the streets. They aren’t taking “austerity” lying down. They’ve made the country virtually ungovernable. Meanwhile, in the bad old USA, “progressives” are “fighting” the imminent loss of hard-won social safety nets by waving signs, having vegan potluck dinners and teach-ins, and voting Democratic – in spite of the mountain of evidence that the Democratic Party doesn’t give a rat’s ass about them today (as if they ever did).

I was inspired to do this cartoon after seeing a recent article on Al Jazeera, as well as a large piece in the Washington Post, detailing the extent of the Greek uprising currently going on, as well as the extensive involvement of militant anarchist youth.

C’mon, Americans – off your asses and into the streets. It’s time to get your Greek on!

The Washington Post, 05.14.11, “Into The Arms Of Anarchy”, page A1
The Washington Post, 05.14.11, “Into The Arms Of Anarchy”, continues page A5.

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I read on the AP wire earlier this week that the recent McDonald’s “Hiring Day” resulted in the hiring of 50,000 new burger-flippers, news that was of course deliriously cheered by the Beltway Insider crowd as part of its collective pants-pissing over the creation of 230,000 new jobs last month — nearly half of which were on the order of Wal-Mart greeters, Home Depot cashiers, the aforementioned burger flippers, and other assorted shit-wage jobs. So, I decided it was time to redesign the Great Seal Of The United States to reflect current American reality.

The news that really grabbed me, however, was a report from a McDonald’s hiring day in Cleveland. At one of many such events designed to portray McDonald’s as a decent place to work, a fight broke out between two women; the fight escalated to the point where one of the women ended up hitting three people with a car before fleeing the scene.

I’m lovin’ it.

Great Seal v2.0 on black t-shirt at CafePress, $20.99.

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