Ann Telnaes, Liz Cheney, Soviet America and Kim Jong-Trump

On January 7, 2015, the French satirical magazine, Charlie Hebdo, was the object of a terrorist attack that claimed the lives of 17 people, including 11 journalists, catroonists and security personnel at the Paris offices the magazine. The perpetrators were militant Muslims of Algerian descent who claimed to be defenders of the prophet Muhammad who, along with Jesus, Moses, the Pope, and all religions and religious figures, have always been the subject of satirical cartoons by Charlie Hebdo.. The victims were French atheists, christians and muslims.

On January 3, 2024, Washington Post cartoonist Ann Telnaes quits because the owner of the Post, Jeff Bezos, censored a satirical cartoon depicting many billionaires worshipping at the feet of Kim Jong-Trump. Pulitzer Prize winner Telnaes said, “I have had editorial feedback and productive conversations—and some differences—about cartoons I have submitted for publication, but in all that time I’ve never had a cartoon killed because of who or what I chose to aim my pen at. Until now”.

Telnaes had worked at the Washington Post since 2008. She described the political cartoon that did not get published, saying it “criticizes the billionaire tech and media chief executives who have been doing their best to curry favor with incoming President-elect Trump.” The cartoon featured Facebook and Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, Los Angeles Times publisher Patrick Soon-Shiong, the “Walt Disney Company/ABC News” depicted as Mickey Mouse and Washington Post owner Bezos. A rough draft of the scrapped cartoon can be seen below.

A rough draft of Ann Telnaes’ scrapped cartoon (Credit: Ann Telnaes/Substack)

Telnaes had criticized Bezos for his handling of the Washington Post in the months leading up to Trump’s election. On Bezos's order, the Post did not endorse a presidential candidate in 2024 for the first time in decades, leading to three editorial board member resignations and widespread canceled subscriptions.

“Owners of such press organizations are responsible for safeguarding that free press— and trying to get in the good graces of an autocrat-in-waiting will only result in undermining that free press,” the cartoonist said of her former boss.

“As an editorial cartoonist, my job is to hold powerful people and institutions accountable. For the first time, my editor prevented me from doing that critical job. So I have decided to leave the Post,” she said. “I doubt my decision will cause much of a stir and that it will be dismissed because I’m just a cartoonist. But I will not stop holding truth to power through my cartooning, because as they say, ‘Democracy dies in darkness.’”

How long before totalitarian autocratic rule in America "inspires" madmen to go into offices and homes of opponents and dissidents of MAGA's Dear Leader Kim Jong-Trump? In France, radical militant and terrorist Islam has tried to repress freedom of the press, indeed the French's own "Freedom to Blaspheme" - religion doesn't have more aura than other ideologies and should be treated equally to them, including be open to criticism and satire, and be debunked for the violent genocidal bullshit it has inflicted on humanity for millennia. The French people remain attached to their "laicité" (secularism) that protects anyone's right to worship or not worship but not in the public sphere, and that protects anyone's right to criticize, satirize, or mock any ideology or religion or leader or politician. 

The barbarity of Kim Jong-Trump is that he is turning America into an early version of a western Christian Taliban that will crush freedom of expression - and soon freedom of conscience - and that is unable to truly separate religion from state. Billionnaire Jeff Bezos is "protecting" fellow billionnaire Kim Jong-Trump from "blaspheme" be censoring cartoonist Telnaes, and in that he is killing freedom and sanctifying Trump to the level of a god who is beyond reproach. Just like other dictators and autocrats (Assad, Putin, Kim Jong-Un, Xi Jinping, Maduro, Ortega...) around the world. The USA is now officially a banana republic.

Finally, former Representative Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) and Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.) were awarded the Presidential Citizens Medal this week by President Joe Biden for having lead the congressional investigation into the January 6, 2021 insurrection to topple the US government.

In response, Trump criticized the move, claiming Biden awarded the duo “fake medals” and labeling Cheney as “corrupt.” “Biden rewarded her only because she hated ‘TRUMP,’” he wrote on his garbage Truth Social media. Like all dictators and autocrats, it's all about him, and not about democracy, institutions, the rule of law and the constitution. 

Cheney responded on X (not yet censored by Elon Musk!), “Donald, this is not the Soviet Union, you can’t change the truth and you cannot silence us.” She went on to tell Kim Jong-Trump, “Remember all your lies about the voting machines, the election workers, your countless allegations of fraud that never happened?.... Many of your lawyers have been sanctioned, disciplined or disbarred, the courts ruled against you, and dozens of your own White House, administration, and campaign aides testified against you.”

“Remember how your former Vice President prevented you from overturning our Republic?” Liz Cheney said. “We remember,” she continued. “And now, as you take office again, the American people need to reject your latest malicious falsehoods and stand as the guardrails of our Constitutional Republic — to protect the America we love from you.”