The Bollard Bulletin: November 5, 2024
Cartoon Tuesday: The clown before the storm
It’s not that Mainers aren’t shocked and disgusted by the prospect of a second Trump presidency. It’s that we’ve long been inured to being ruled by an imbecilic villain, having endured eight consecutive years under the flabby fist of Republican Gov. Paul LePage, who’s boasted of being “Trump before Trump.”
In this political cartoon from 2011 by Bollardhead creator Martin Shields, we see our erstwhile emperor riding the GOP elephant, its tusks cruelly broken off for profit, shitting on the heads of hapless “mainstream” Republican U.S. Senators Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins. The directive stamped on the animal’s ass, in LePage’s native French, is a reference to his infamous entreaty to anyone offended by his decision not to attend an NAACP event in honor of Martin Luther King Jr.: “Tell ’em to kiss my butt.”
Offended by the coarseness and take-no-prisoners partisanship of our modern Congress, Snowe quit the Senate the following year, and after the deadly coup attempt at the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, she called for Trump to resign and hand over power to Joe Biden.
Collins voted to acquit Trump during his first impeachment trial in early 2020 — the one about trying to get Ukraine to investigate Biden — saying he’ll surely “be much more cautious in the future” about brazenly abusing his power. But Collins bravely (sic) voted to impeach Trump for inciting the J6 insurrection in February of 2021, when he was no longer in power. Rather than vote for Kamala Harris this year to help thwart another Trump term, Collins has proudly declared she’ll be throwing her vote away by writing in the name of failed GOP presidential contender Nikki Haley.
Can’t say we didn’t warn ya…
Music
Blue Portland Maine
Open mic
7 p.m., donation (21+)
Byrnes Irish Pub (Brunswick)
Irish Session (open jam)
6 p.m., no cover (all ages)
Flask Lounge
Open DJ night
8 p.m., no cover (21+)
Gritty McDuff’s
Travis James Humphrey (country, rock, pop)
6 p.m., no cover (all ages)
Henry’s Public House
The Dapper Gents (covers w/ cello)
7 p.m., no cover (all ages)
club guide
Performing Arts
Comedy Open Mic at Blue Portland Maine (650 Congress St., Portland) at 9:30 p.m. Donations (21+). 774-4111. blueportlandmaine.com.