This Carbon Based Life

By David Glenn Cox

Years ago, there was a cartoon strip titled “Snuffy Smith.” Snuffy was the poor, old, put-upon sod with a bad temper, and the highlight of the cartoon was always Snuffy blowing his top at some outrage. Yesterday, Donald Trump had invited the nation’s governors to breakfast. Trump enters the room and tells the press to hit the bricks and scram. Children, leave the room! Snuffy is about to act inappropriately and blow his top. According to the ears in the room, Snuffy used all kinds of the hottest sort of language. And they say politics is boring!

I would have bought that ticket! The day Trump’s second term died. It was obvious which way the court would rule. Only, nothing is certain of this court. They could rule that a circle was a square. But at least on paper, this one was obvious. Trump held a six to three advantage on the court and lost six to three the other way. Meaning it wasn’t even close. Trump carried the purchased justices, Freebooting Thomas and reliable Kavanaugh. That’s what Jefferey Epstein said: Kavanaugh was reliable. And he was correct.

But what Jeffrey meant was the unspoken great divide and the true role of the Supreme Court. The court is the unelected thumb on the scale of the United States to protect the monied and propertied interests. Liberal or conservative are just a showcase for the amusement of the penny stinkers in the cheap seats. Was Dredd Scott a free man or lost property to be recovered? Lost Property! Was child labor a societal shame or necessary for a profitable coal mine or sewing mill? When FDR was trying to pull millions from destitution, who worked feverously and tirelessly trying to stop him? Brown vs. Board of Education? Separate but equal is fine, especially if it’s more separate than equal. Citizens United? Money equals FREE Speech. How much Free Speech did you earn last year?

This is what so distressed Snuffy yesterday. We bought you! You’re paid for! You’re supposed to work for us! Imagine coming in second in your own crooked beauty contest. But the court displayed yesterday who they actually work for (Hint! Not us.) and it’s not Snuffy either. It illustrates that Donald Trump or any president is only the shift manager at McDonalds. He can hire people or fire people. He can set the schedule and lock the door at closing. He can tend the business, but he can’t change the price or the ingredients of the Big Mac. You fuck around with big money and they’ll rap you on your knuckles!

I got a real kick out of Fox News pouring out tea and sympathy for poor ole Snuffy as suddenly the Dow Jones average in the lower right-hand corner of the screen immediately reversed from negative and began to rise. Conservative? Liberal? Money! Money had spoken, and Snuffy could piss and moan and chew the carpet and cuss out the governors all he wanted, and money couldn’t care less.

The tariffs were the center tent post of Snuffy’s economic agenda, and the court just kicked it over. No tariffs, no power. No big stick to threaten and cajole other nations with. Of course, like a petulant five-year-old, Snuffy fumes. “That’s all right! Just you wait and see! I have other tariffs! I’ll teach you, you’ll see!” Only, if Snuffy really had these better tariff tools, why didn’t he use them first? Because he wanted to act unilaterally with a big stick. And the other tariffs available don’t allow him to act as a dictator.

Snuffy is screwed, blued and tattooed as the clock runs out at the midterms. With no time left to start again, and now the line forms with their hands out demanding refunds. Snuffy said, “This decision hurts America.” But as a monarch who sees himself as the nation, what he means to say is this hurts Snuffy! The nations of the world just watched Snuffy have his britches pulled down and his backside paddled beet red. The town bully dragged home by his ear in front of God and everyone to the howl of international laughter.

No tariffs means no policy and no power, we’re right back where we started. Snuffy had depended on a supine, slumbering, spineless Congress. Now he must wake them and seek their cooperation. The cult of personality just got kicked in the nuts. The advantage of having an autocrat in charge gave the rump Republicans the opportunity to actually do nothing! “Duh, vote for us! We do whatever Trump says!” Explaining why, as Trump’s milk begins to curdle, congressional Republicans find themselves in electoral cottage cheese. But, but, but we did what Trump said!

Now, Trump’s tent has collapsed. Act in haste and repent in November. Like Stalingrad, Snuffy has suffered a defeat without any redemption possible. He will attempt to put the best face on it. He will threaten and bluster to beat the band, but it’s all over. The trouble we face now is the rage of the unhinged dictator seeking retribution and acting out even more irrationally. “I’ll show them! And when the economy goes into the drink, I’ll be the one to point fingers and laugh! I’ll show them! This is all their fault!” As Snuffy explodes.

The only good news for Snuffy is that the decision knocked Epstein off the headlines for the day. It allows the media a day off from sane washing Trump. If it wasn’t for the Supreme Court decision they might have to explain away Trump’s disastrous speech. Where he declared himself so big and brave, he asked if he could give himself the Congressional Medal of Honor. Duh, Congressional? He ranted about how he went to Afghanistan and he wasn’t a bit scared!

Then he reprised it by saying how the media would blow it all out of proportion, as if he was serious or something. We’re veterans here now; we know. He was serious. The draft dodger wants the Medal of Honor for visiting a battlefield after the war’s over. The same way he wanted a Nobel peace prize while attacking a sovereign nation. But Snuffy was only shifting the blame. It’s not his fault for speaking like a crazy person. It’s the media’s fault for reporting on him speaking like a crazy person. They should know by now, he’s perfectly sane and only joking when he speaks like a crazy person. Nobel prize? Kennedy Center? Ballroom? Battleship and Snuffy is going to heaven too. Oh, he’s only joking! Whoa, tough crowd. Testing? One, two, three Is this thing on?

Just another ill lucid special event to be covered over like a turd in Trump’s cat box. Something else to not report on. Behind the Epstein scandal, which  grows like a creeping vine and can’t be stopped. The trail of bread crumbs leads to where? And now, the advance becomes a retreat. Napoleon returns from Moscow in rags. Nobody loves you when you’re down and out. Soon the deflector shields will come down and stop working altogether and the Congress will turn on him. The churn will begin to swirl as the handle is pulled down. The King is dead! Watch Snuffy as he explodes.

Donald J. Trump, 47^th President of the United States January 20, 2025 – February 20, 2026

“I’m not crazy about reality, but it’s still the only place to get a decent meal.”
― Groucho Marx