Remember the days when used car lots were simply called used car or second-hand car lots because the cars they sold were used? Then it caught on that a better marketing ploy was to de-emphasize the fact that the cars were “used” or second-hand and call them pre-owned as if the people who drove them before didn’t actually use them. When I thought of the idea of a title for my diary today I wanted to find a free image to use of a used car lot sign for my illustration and found the perfect one considering that it had a rocket on it. This image was on the Wikipedia page for “used car” and is from a Library of Congress collection. It is a sign for a used car dealership in Utah in 1981. I added the caricatures of Putin and Trump.
Assuming Trump runs for president again, what are low-information Americans who are not totally brainwashed members of the Trump cult voters going to believe?
Come the run-up to the 2024 election will they believe Trump and those supporting him when they accuse candidate Joe Biden of being owned by the Progressive Wing of the Democratic Party? After all they want you to believe they are dastardly socialists or communists in the mold of Che Guevara, that they are out to confiscate your guns, corrupt our youth with perverted ideas about gender, and teach children that slavery was bad. On the other hand, will they believe the Democrats who will hopefully convey a persuasive argument that Trump was a candidate used and very much owned by Vladimir Putin?
Trump himself is mired in his own delusional malignant narcissism where he has continued to show incredibly poor judgment by praising Putin and refusing to condemn him in no uncertain terms. See: Trump praises Putin for his move into Ukraine, calling it 'genius (YaHoo News)' and Trump defends praise of Putin even as he calls Ukrainian President 'brave' (CNN Feb. 27).
Now with Putin showing himself to be a modern day Hitler it is not too early for the Democrats and anti-Trump Republicans and former Republicans, including of course those in The Lincoln Project, to start a campaign to remind the public of stories like this which include numerous photoshopped images:
… also in the Daily Mail:
- Media outlets are mocking Donald Trump over his summit with Russia's Vladimir Putin in Helsinki on Monday
- Headlines went as far as calling the US President 'treasonous', 'weak' and labeled him an 'autocrat'
- Backlash follows Trump's extraordinary embrace of Putin - a longtime US enemy
- White House has struggled to explain why Trump aligned so closely with Putin
- Lawmakers in both major parties appeared shocked with Trump's suggestion that he believes Putin's denial of interfering in the 2016 elections
… and from The Guardian:
… and this from the Daily Mirror:
And then there are all the inimitable DonkeyHotey (pronounced Don Quixote) and his caricatures of Trump and Putin which can be used in stories. This one of Putin carrying Trump is the most well known. Below is a caricature used in Paying Russia Back for Election Interference Is an Exercise in Futility story which I hadn’t seen before.
My related diary with the DonkeyHotey Putin carrying Trump caricature:
The Poll:
At the start of the Russian invasion of Ukraine I posted this poll in the diary above. Of the 164 who took it 111 were pessimistic or very pessimistic that Trump’s praise of Putin would lead to an erosion of his support among his MAGA base. Let’s see if these numbers have changed now that the ruthless killing of civilians by the Russians is getting substantial media attention.
