CBS is airing parts of the John Dickerson interview with Trump to evoke interest for the full interview special. Have we ever sufficiently addressed the utter banality of Donald Trump? The mind-numbing vapidity?

The more they try to clean up Trump’s image, the more they discredit the office of the presidency. Not a bad outcome.

But is Ivanka running the White House now? Was that the imaginary Deep State’s idea of a soft coup?

Satire is the art form of the oppressed, the social protest of the powerless, the voice of rebellion. When sarcasm & ridicule are used by the social elite, it is nothing more than an attempt to have a laugh at the expense of the oppressed.

Mark Twain is a writer who tried to have it both ways. In “Huckleberry Finn” he wrote a white savior novel demeaning Blacks that always makes white people feel proud but has never fooled Black school children who despise it.

No one knows the charade of having a laugh at our expense better than women–starting with the mother-in-law jokes. Even rebuttals to our objections are stock-in-trade: “Can’t you take a joke?” “Lighten up!”

Satire needs to be rescued from the damage Charlie Hebdo is inflicting. Ridiculing & demeaning others is not the point. Giving voice, emboldening the powerless, & social protest is what it’s all about. Otherwise it’s just oppression in a joke. Horse manure served as gourmet food.

(Reposted from May 1, 2015)

In his second invitation to Philippine president Rodrigo Duterte for a state visit to the White House, Trump openly endorsed Duterte’s death squad campaign against the poor. This should be included as documentation in impeachment proceedings against Trump who has not divested himself of business interests in the Philippines, including particularly Trump Tower Manila.

Trump has a vested economic interest in Duterte’s policies of slum clearance through arson, forcible evictions, & death squad vigilantes.

Just as the US establishment is trying to clean up Trump’s demento image, there is clearly a campaign to establish serial killer Duterte as a statesman. He is scheduled for a state visit in the coming months to Russia & to Israel. He has already visited Aung San Suu Kyi in Myanmar, Xi Jinping in China. To complete the rounds of tyrants, he has yet to make a state visit to Modi, Assad, Erdogan, & al-Sisi.

Duterte cannot be allowed to enter this country without battalions of human rights activists out protesting his death squads along with the US military buildup in the Philippines.

(Photo is Demento Duterte from AP)