Pope Trump - and - A Comparative Image By Francis Bacon

                                      Portrait of Donald Trump, As Pope Of The World's Catholics

                                             Photo Of One of Trump's Tantrums

                    Francis Bacon's  Study After Velazquez's Portrait Of Pope Innocent X

     Catholics around the world have been mourning the death of Pope Francis, and

celebrating the installation of Pope Leo XIV.  It seems difficult to believe that anyone 

who holds the highest political office of any powerful nation at this time, would

want to mock the head of this religion's membership of approximately one and a 

half billion people, but one president was just stupid enough to do it.

     Donald Trump was in attendance at the funeral services for Pope Francis, and after 

he returned to this country, an AI portrait of Donald Trump, dressed as the Pope, was 

released to the world.  Why would he chose to thumb his nose at the religious beliefs 

of so many people? This is just further proof that Trump's gargantuan ego far outweighs 

his very minuscule intelligence quotient.  When he was asked about the portrait, he 

pretended to know nothing about it, but I have not heard him issue any kind of statement  

denouncing this image as the disgusting mockery of a religious faith that it is.  He sees

this image as no different than his other portraits, dressed as comic book heroes, which 

he prints and sells on his worthless trading cards.

     In the early 1950's, a British artist by the name of Francis Bacon, who became known 

for painting twisted and distorted images of human figures and faces, painted a series of 

paintings based on Velazquez's Portrait of Pope Innocent X.  The paintings became 

known as his "Screaming Popes" series.  Bacon claimed that the paintings were simply

his reaction to the colors in the Velazquez work; art critics praised the work for capturing

"raw emotion" in paint.  If Bacon were still alive today, he would have a ready made 

model for a raw emotion screamer in Donald Trump.  The photo of Trump caught

having one of his tantrum screams, is an almost perfect match for that of the Screaming

Pope painting, and it is a much more honest image of Trump, than that of a saintly and

revered leader of a religious faith.  

     I don't know how the Catholics are feeling now, about such a repulsive image as 

that of "Pope Trump". but I should think that it is stirring up plenty of "raw emotion"

for many of them.  

                                                                   Eugene P. McNerney 

  

The MAGA Cult's Gifts to America - and - Goya's Vision

 

                                                   Francisco Goya, one of his "Dark" paintings

                                                   Wall mural from residence                                       

     The report on the first quarter of the year is in, and the Trump administration has taken

our economy into a nose dive; the economy has stopped growing and is now shrinking.

Economists are saying that if the second quarter is as bad as the first, the country will be 

in a recession.  Under the Biden administration, our economy was showing renewed 

growth and was the envy of the world; but now Donald Trump, the leader of the MAGA 

cult, and his totally inept cabinet are destroying all of the policies which were truly making 

America great again, while at the same time they are removing the personal protections 

for our health and welfare.  Trump's cabinet members were not chosen because of 

extraordinary training or experience or ability; they were chosen simply because of 

their lap-dog loyalty to Trump.  His cabinet meetings are nothing but an opportunity 

for each of these sycophant toadies to worship Trump with love and lavish praises.

     Goya's darkly satirical view of cults, as seen in the wall mural above, clearly shows

his low opinion of the intelligence of the human race, and our willingness to worship at 

the feet of whatever false profit comes along with an empty promise to cure all of our 

problems.

     We should all remember that cult leaders are just con-artists, selling another brand 

of snake oil.  Cults have been with us since the beginnings of civilization; they can be 

religious or political or a combination of both.  Political cult leaders often rely on 

portraying themselves as being like a savior: the only person in the world who has the 

ability to give his followers all that they need or desire.  Popular cult leaders such as 

Trump, often speak to their followers for hours without ever saying anything sensible 

or even logical, but filled with repeated doses of hatred and lies about those "others" 

who are the cause of all of the country's problems.  He promotes xenophobia and

homophobia and any other kind of racist phobia which amplifys the fears of

the MAGA followers.  Hitler did the same thing at his rallies, blaming his countries 

financial and social problems on the "wrong" kind of people, who he said were 

poisoning society.  Nazism and Magaism are two sides of one coin.  

     We should all be familiar with the great cataclysm of World War Two, which

resulted when Hitler gained complete control of his country, and caused the deaths 

of many millions, and massive destruction around the globe.  Then in the end, 

when he was faced with giving up control of the lives of millions of people, he 

blamed his losses on his countrymen and shot himself.  That is a familiar pattern 

with cult leaders.  When Jim Jones was faced with the prospect of giving up 

control of  the followers in his Peoples Temple, he had them all drink poisoned 

Cool Aid, and shot himself.   And when David Karesh was being forced to 

give up control of his followers, in the Branch Davidian cult compound, he 

shot and burned them to death, and killed himself.

     Like Hitler, Trump has no interest in public service, he is a fascist who only 

wanted the presidency for self-enrichment and self-aggrandizement.  Now we hear 

that he is planning for a military parade for his birthday, which will cost the tax-payers 

about a hundred million dollars.  Perhaps he is jealous of the Chinese premier, who 

gets to celebrate his power by reviewing military parades with thousands  of troops, 

tanks, missiles and rockets, rolling past him in the grand public square in Beijing.   

     It should have been obvious to any rationally thinking person, that the fascist 

Trump was lying when he promised to reduce the price of groceries and reduce 

inflation as soon as he was elected president.  It should have been equally obvious

that he was lying when he said that he would end Russia's invasion of Ukraine on 

day one of his presidency.   It should be obvious to everyone by now, that 

everything Trump says is a lie and he is incapable of telling the truth about anything.

And yet his cult of followers voted for him because they think those "other" kinds

of people are getting too big of a slice of the American pie.  It will be interesting 

to see how many of the MAGA followers begin to realize that Trump is not

working for them, when they begin to see ever higher prices on everything they

buy, and rows of empty shelves when they go shopping. 

     So what has the MAGA cult given us?  Our government which was designed 

to serve for the good of the people, is now being chopped off piece by piece, 

until it serves only Donald Trump and his billionaire pals.  What a gift!

                                                         Eugene P. McNerney

A Hope For Spring

 

                                                Hibiscus blossom, with original ballerina painting  

     The weather during January, here in the center of our country's forty eight, contiguous 

states, has been colder than in the city of Anchorage Alaska.  But here in our snowy, 

deep freeze, I sometimes get little reminders of Percy B. Shelley's famous line, "If winter

comes, can spring be far behind?"

     There is a hibiscus tree here, which was started from a cutting brought back from 

Arizona, over half a century ago.  It is in a large pot, and is heavier than a person of my 

age should be carrying around, but last fall, I dutifully brought it back inside for the winter 

again.  It doesn't receive proper sun-light in the house, but it still offers up it's little, 

cheerful flowers. Hibiscus blossoms are a bit like the ballerinas of the flower world, with 

the delicate pleats of the petals, and also, their one-day life-span, is a reminder of 

the relatively short careers of most ballerinas.

    The colors of the blossoms of this hibiscus variety reminded  me of a little painting 

of mine, called Topaz Ballerina, so I set one in front of the painting, a took the picture

for this blog posting.      

     The older we grow, the more rapidly the seasons come and go, often before we

we are able to take full advantage of the opportunities of the warm months.  But

some little blossoms in the winter are a reminder that hope still springs eternal.

                                                              Eugene P. McNerney

Climate Clataclysm - and - Burning Man 3

                                                          Burning Man 3,  original mixed media

                                                         10" X  8", unframed

 

     Los Angeles has been burning for days now.  Eighty thousand people have been 

required to evacuate from their homes.  Entire sections of the city have been reduced

to ashes, including schools, churches, grocery stores, pharmacies, service stations,

and all business related buildings, along with over twelve thousand houses.  The home

owners who escaped the fast moving fires, often fled with nothing more than the clothes

on their backs.  Those who were not able to escape in time, perished in the flames!

     In this blog, on August thirty first, and again on November twenty fourth of last year, 

I spoke about the looming peril of the climate crisis, for all of humanity, and I speculated

on our almost suicidal denial of what is coming for us.  We continue to buy gas guzzling

vehicles and continue to burn coal in our power plants.  But the most disturbing, of all of  

the offenders, are the people who have the power to make significant changes, but prefer 

to put profit ahead of what is best for our country and for the world. 

     The Biden administration made significant efforts in moving us toward renewable 

energy and electronic vehicles, but those efforts my well be erased by the greedy 

motivations of the expected Trump disasters.  President Biden removed much or our

nation's coastline from environmentally hazardous, off-shore oil drilling, but Trump has

already vowed to let big oil exploit those and other areas as much as they want, all

in the name of profit, and in continuing denial of global warming.  It's going to be

business as usual forTrump: drill baby drill, and burn baby burn!  

     We are all familiar with the way Trump handles national climate disasters.  Who 

can forget the images of him opening a carton of paper towels, and tossing a few rolls

to a crowed of hurricane victims, and then later on he withheld their hurricane relief

funds, which were approved by congress!

   After this new disaster in Los Angeles, the question now again is, are we going to

be able to fight the profiteers and save our planet, or are we all going to end up 

walking into the final fires.

                                                Eugene P. McNerney

 

 

Burning Man 2 - and - Turning Up The Heat

 

                                                         Burning Man 2 

                                                        Original mixed media,  8" X 10", unframed

      On August thirty first of this year, I posted some comments related to the yearly

festival called Burning Man.  I used the name of that festival as a reminder of the fact

our planet is in a climate crisis, due to global warming, caused by our continued burning

of fossil fuels.  The year 2023 was the hottest on record, and 2024 is already set to

break that record.  The overheated, turbulent air and oceans, are creating ever more

intense and numerous storms and hurricanes around the globe, with massive flooding,

as well as droughts and out of control wild fires, killing people and destroying property 

and vital infrastructure.  Heat related deaths are increasing every year.

     The Biden administration has passed some significant legislation to help increase our

reliance on renewable green energy, and reduce our use of oil and coal, despite constant

Republican opposition.  But on November 5th, a misinformed and ignorant block of

voters, swept away progress, and returned an insurrectionist, convicted felon to the

office of the president of our nation.  He is already busily appointing his anti-science,

anti-truth vandals to head all of the important branches of the administration.  The

man he has put in place of policy for energy production, is an oil man, who uses

environmentally dangerous method of extracting oil from the land, and he is a man 

who puts personal profit ahead of what is best for the nation and the world.  He denies 

global warming, as do the rest of the Trump cabal, despite the mountain of scientific

proof of the oncoming disaster.  He is determined to turn up the heat.  Burn

baby burn!

     The scientists tell us that we are approaching the tipping point, beyond which

we will not be able to prevent our planet from becoming uninhabitable. It looks

like we may well destroy ourselves, but it wont be the bomb that gets us, it will be

our own human greed. 

                                                     Eugene P. McNerney

 

 

 

A Felon For President - and - When will we ever learn?

  

                                                             A Felon For President

                                                             mixed media, 8 X 10"

     During the glory days of news papers in America, the political artists were great 

commentators on the stupidities of the people we trust to govern our nation.  The above

cartoon, is one from about thirty five or so years ago, which I have adapted to a different

Republican running for high office, than the crook in the original version.  All I had to do 

was change politicians, from the old, crooked Republican who was running for the 

Senate, to our best known, Republican felon today, who is now running for president.

     Forty years ago, this cartoon would probably have gained more laughs than it will now.

We have become tiresomely accustomed to the knowledge that the members of the 

Republican party tend to be more interested in their own financial rewards than they are 

concerned about the general welfare of the people or the country.   So now we don't need 

more humorous reminders of their repeatedly blatant, criminal behavior.  Sadist of all, 

in this pervasive cultural decline of honesty in political campaigns, is the realization that

such a large segment of the population, is accepting lies as some kind of alternative truth.

Recently, at a Trump political rally, I noticed that a number of people were proudly waving

signs declaring that they were proud to be voting for a felon.

    When our respect for truth and justice in America has fallen this low, how long will

it take us to climb out of such a mass attack on our democracy?   Is recovery from this

much intentional ignorance even possible? 

                                                                                Eugene P. McNerney

Burning Man

 

                                                            Burning Man,  mixed media 

                                                             8 X 10" unframed

     The annual festival called Burning Man is happening now, and the culmination of the 

event, the burning of a giant effigy of a man, is probably taking place as I am writing this.

I don't know much about Burning Man, other than the brief history I've read, and the 

mentions in the news.  I have never attended the week long event, which takes place in 

one of the most inhospitable dry lake-beds in America, but it seems to attract world wide 

attention.  It began in 1986, at a California beach party, burning a wooden figure of a man

in celebration of the summer solstice, like some kind of salute to a pagan ritual.  Since 

then it has evolved into the extraordinary event it has become.  I've always thought 

of it as the ultimate celebration of personal self expression, but I understand that they

are much more high minded than that now.

     But of course the thing that gets my attention about the name Burning Man, is how

it fits with climate change.  Our summers are getting hotter and longer every year, and

more people are dying of heat than ever before.  If something is not done soon, to 

reduce our carbon emissions, all of us on this planet could perish.  And yet we have 

these right-wing politicians taking contributions from big oil and coal interests, and 

putting business profit ahead of the health of the people and our planet.  We have

all heard their mottoes,  "Drill baby drill!", and "Burn baby burn!"  Keep those

profits rolling in for big business.

     Man is truly the only deliberately,  self-destructive animal.  Can we change 

before it is too late?  Or, are we all going to be burning men?

                                                              Eugene P. McNerney