Book review of Garry Trudeau’s Yuge!
Yuge! 30 Years of Doonesbury on Trump. G. B. Trudeau, author (Universal Uclick). Relatives and friends know that I’m an avid reader and that my reading tastes range far and wide. This little gem was a recent gift. Like Adam Schiff’s Midnight in Washington, my review of this book is appropriate for both my writer’s blog and my political blog. So here goes!
Mr. Schiff’s book probed more serious matters (emphasis on Trump’s first impeachment) associated with the psychotic sociopath’ (a spot-on diagnosis from twenty+ mental health professionals, including his niece) and wannabe dictator and admirer of Vladimir Putin, Donald J. Trump, aka “The Donald,” Il Duce, and “f&%$ing moron.” The last quote is from ex-SecState Tillerson and provides a nice segue to Trudeau’s lampooning of the idiot who tortured sane people in the US and around the world for four years as POTUS until Mr. Biden pommeled him in the 2020 election. (Yes, it was a pommeling!)
One can learn a lot from reading (or should—Trump never does; he didn’t even read his national security briefings). And Trudeau’s cartoons are often such bold and profound lessons that many right-wing leaning newspapers place them on the editorial page, if they publish them at all. The cartoons speak truth to power and the Goebbels-like schlock the Good Ole Piranhas bombard us with almost every day.
I’ve always been fond of cartoons and comics. I learned to read and write somewhere around three-years-old by trying to design my own comic books. I needed to know what to put in those balloons! (Instead, I go after Trump, Putin, Xi, and all their ilk in words.) I never learned to draw very well—my father was the artist—but I’ve always admired those who can do everything, both draw the characters and fill in the balloons! Garry Trudeau is a genius for doing just that.
In this cartoon collection covering thirty years of the narcissistic conman’s life, I learned that I’d missed some great political satire during my sojourn in Colombia. I could argue that reading Gabo in Spanish might be more edifying—his composite of several Latin American dictators in Autumn of the Patriarch (Otoño del Patriarca) nicely covers Trump and his ilk as well, except that Trump didn’t invade a country like Putin and hasn’t poached an enemy’s head and served it to guests like Gabo’s composite dictator…yet. (He has threatened to walk down NYC’s Fifth Avenue, though, and shoot someone.)
I learned that Trump has been a butthead for a long time, mostly exploiting workers and evicting renters in the tristate area (for his followers, the “marching morons,” as described by C. M. Kornbluth in his famous sci-f novella, the tristate area is Connecticut, New Jersey, and New York, those awful “blue states” he and you hate so much). In the process, he blew through $30 million his psycho daddy gave him, had several bankruptcies, and wrote the Art of the Deal (or his ghostwriter did?), as if those obvious failures qualified him as a business genius. (At least Putin, whom Trump greatly admires, earned his money the old-fashioned, autocratic way—by putting in the work to steal a country.)
As a historical document, Trudeau’s collection belongs in every serious university’s political science and business departments’ reference list. My only critique? Garry should branch out and cover Kim, Putin, and Xi. After all, Trump wants to be like them, a president-for-life so he can suppress and oppress all opposition to him and make Trudeau disappear. Let’s not give Il Duce that chance in 2024. (I wonder if Trump is such a moron—or is it just approaching senility?—that he confuses Garry with Justin. No matter. He hates them both.)
Even though we often laugh at the chaos of American democracy (that’s healthier than crying), it’s worth saving it from the destruction that Trump and his cronies want to happen as their march toward fascism continues on.
***
Comments are always welcome. (Please follow the rules on my “Join the Conversation” web page.)
Leonardo and the Quantum Code. Who gets the new code for quantum computers based on ideas in a recently discovered Leonardo Da Vinci’s notebook? Surprise, surprise! Autocrats are up to their dirty tricks here—and maybe even the US?—and they send spies and assassins to steal the technology. One of Esther’s brilliant old friends from her Oxford days has created the code. In the background, another bad player, who’s always interested in new technology, lurks as well. Can Esther and Bastiann protect her old friend? Find out here. This novel is available wherever quality ebooks are sold by reliable ebook dealers (that excludes Amazon).
Around the world and to the stars! In libris libertas!
