The Beast from 10,000 Unfathomables

Or, Orange Sky at Morning

The Rising Con. Illustration by Barron Donaldson, used by permission.

A long-ago college classmate posted the illustration above on Facebook to express his elation in having helped reelect former President Donald J. Trump who, in case anybody’s forgotten, is a convicted criminal, a self-described sex offender, and the proud ringmaster of a horrendous 2021 riot in Washington, D.C., that was a violation of his Constitutional oath and an act of treason.

And his acolytes insist they’re not a cult.

The nicest thing I can say about this image is that it’s not as offensive as memes I’ve seen that compare Donald of Mar-a-Lago to Jesus of Nazareth.

For non-MAGAts like me, the image suggests not a new day or another “Morning in America” but a sci-fi/horror movie like Godzilla in which an ugly, angry monster slowly rises from beneath the sea and prepares to wreak havoc and destruction across the land.

And then there’s the irony of the image: the second coming (lower case intended) of a demagogue who insists human-induced climate change is a “hoax” and has sworn he’ll use his power to kill regulations and programs that would mitigate its destructive effects, Florida be damned.

Maybe he’ll propose building a seawall.