this week in stupid: February 22 edition
fake-Donny dances, Proud Boy prances, and so much more...
as another stupid week comes to a close here in America, let’s look back at some of the highlights.
monday: how is this not a cult
fuck me, it’s a cult.
some MAGA mom hired a Donny Convict impersonator to be the star attraction at her little boy’s birthday party — and holy shit, the kid is into it. he’s fucking thrilled that Dear Leader came to his party. he’s dancing right along to YMCA.
could someone please call Child Protective Services? what kind of ugly propaganda is mom filling this wee cultist’s head with, that he’s this excited to hang with some fuckwad tarted up as a racist game show host?
come on, can we just let children be children? there will be plenty of time later in this boy’s life to learn to be an intolerant asshole. next time, hire some dude dressed up as a cowboy — or an astronaut. let the kid have a childhood.
to his credit, Bogus Donny is pretty good as his job. he’s got the jacking off two invisible dicks dance down to a science.
do you think he’s wearing a diaper, just for verisimilitude?
tuesday: Delano? what’s a Delano?
imagine being a political writer — no, not just a writer, but the Managing Editor of Politico’s Playbook — and having to be informed by your readers that FDR existed.
actually, you don’t have to imagine it, because it really happened.
ON CONSEQUENTIAL PRESIDENTS: Thanks to all who emailed in to suggest Franklin D. Roosevelt had a more impactful start to his presidency than the latest iteration of Donald J. Trump, per the question posed in yesterday’s Playbook. Long hours of trawling through the historical archives (OK, reading this Wikipedia entry) suggests you may have a point.
veteran political writers had a field day with this, as they should have.
worthless scribbling doesn’t get much more worthless than thank you for telling me about the New Deal, I had no idea.
this is why political reporting sucks all ass right now in America. an internet loudmouth like me — or readers like you — shouldn’t be better-informed than the Managing Fucking Editor of Politico Playbook.
granted, Jack Blanchard is British — but that’s all the more reason to make sure ahead of time that he’s knowledgeable enough to write about American politics. who was FDR should be the first question Politico asks their prospective writers and editors, no matter where they’re from.
now let’s go live to Jack Blanchard for his reaction.
wednesday: you definitely don’t have to hand it to her
oh look, our Republican-led House of Representatives has formed a “task force in the declassification of federal secrets” — and look who they put on it: Handy Oakley, the woman who can’t even keep her own passion for lap hockey a secret.
this is one of the last things we need, to have a bunch of conspiracy-swallowing dunderheads like Roamin’ Hands Lauren and Anna Appalling Lunatic pawing through our nation’s most-closely-guarded files and going oh yeah, Putin should definitely see this. declassified!
but does it even matter, when all of our state secrets are going to eventually end up in some golf motel shitter?
remember, the Supreme Court ruled that Donny is a Very Special Boy who gets to declassify documents with his mind. he doesn’t need Handy Oakley to do his job for him.
thursday: punctuation, how does it work?
a picture is worth a thousand words, so feast your eyes on a bunch of grown-ass men wearing jackets bearing the words “Born to Ride Donald J. Trump.”
who wants to tell them?
friday: instant karma’s gonna get you
it’s been a shitty week, so let’s just sit back and enjoy pardoned Proud Boy Enrique Tarrio smacking the phone out of some woman’s hand and then immediately getting arrested for assault, handcuffed and carted away.
as the assaulted woman puts it,
“you don’t get to just put your hands on people. you don’t get to come here and do whatever the fuck you want. you just assaulted me, and now you’re getting arrested. good fucking job, you idiot.”
she’s right, isn’t she, John Lennon?
saturday: ?
hey, it’s still morning as I sit here writing this — but give it time, I guarantee you that some dipshit wingnut is going to do something stupid before the day is over. you can set your watch to it.
everyone is entitled to my own opinion is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.
do you have a nomination for This Week in Stupid? email me at jefftiedrich@gmail.com. thanks!
here’s your daily reminder that I can be found on Blue Sky at this link.
this is going to be my closing message for the foreseeable future:
practice self-care. do what you need to do to keep sane. if that means you need to disengage with my daily posts for a while, I get it. this community of ours will still be here when you return.
to all the people who have signed on in the days since the election, welcome aboard. settle in as we all try to deal with the shitfuckery that’s ahead of us.
we are all in this together, and we are all here for each other.
My nomination for This Week In Stupid? The fucking sick joke of a healthcare system in this country.
I know His Flatulency is trying to distract us in every way imaginable, but remember that there is a true crisis that we really, REALLY need to address. Right fucking now.
Imagine walking into a grocery store, reaching for a carton of eggs, and being told it’ll cost you $450. Not because of bird flu - but because a group of rich men in suits decided you have no other choice.
That, friends, is what it’s like to have a chronic health condition in the United States of America.
I have diabetes. Insulin is not optional for me; it is a necessity. Without it, I risk blindness, organ failure, amputations, and ultimately death. And yet, the price of my survival is dictated by pharmaceutical companies that prioritize profit over human life, and by politicians who dangle “affordable healthcare” as a campaign promise while doing nothing substantial to fix this crisis.
Like millions of Americans, I am an independent contractor. I work hard, pay my own taxes, and receive zero benefits—no health insurance, no PTO, no retirement contributions. When I shop for health insurance through the ACA Marketplace, my “affordable” plan costs me nearly $600 per month after subsidies. Despite paying that outrageous premium, my insulin still costs $450 for a three-month supply. That’s a quarter of my paycheck just to stay alive - and that number excludes my other medications, co-pays, and other health-related expenses. And if I ever lose my job? I’d become just another statistic—one of the thousands who die every year from rationing insulin because they simply cannot afford it.
And before anyone suggests it: no, losing weight is not a guaranteed cure. I have tried. I am trying. I have made changes, I have lost weight, and yet I still need insulin. The idea that Type 2 diabetes is just a matter of personal failure is a lazy, harmful myth. Diabetes is complex—it involves genetics, metabolism, and countless other factors beyond just body size. And even for those who achieve remission, there’s no guarantee it will last. The truth is, no one should have to gamble with their health in a system that sees them as nothing more than a financial asset.
If I were to die because I couldn’t afford my medication, I’d want my corpse loaded onto a trebuchet and launched straight through the window of the nearest Congress member’s office. Because that’s how absurd this situation is: Americans are dying, not from lack of medical advancements, but from the greed of corporations and the indifference of those in power.
Healthcare should not be a luxury. Survival should not depend on income. And insulin—discovered over a century ago and sold for $1 by its creators so it could be accessible to all—should not cost hundreds of dollars per vial. The system is broken, and people are dying while we wait for those with the power to fix it to stop treating our lives as a bargaining chip.
So here I am, shouting into the void, hoping someone listens.
Because this isn’t just my fight. It’s all of ours.
Love, love, love seeing Mr. Tarrio getting another invitation to a jail cell. Fuck that guy.
And what kind of sick mother would do that to their kid? 🤦♀️. The deprogramming of America is gonna be a long process.