2025 Universal Studios Trip #1 (11/27/25) Part 1
Dec. 4th, 2025 05:28 pm( Part 1: The Morning )
I’m generally against “bothsidesism,” but one thing I believe conservatives and liberals have in common in the U.S.: We both find the other side’s choices completely, utterly incomprehensible.
And nothing is harder to comprehend, in the lefty (a.k.a. my) mindset, then why so many Americans support goddamn fucking Donald Trump. He’s lost some supporters, to be sure, but he seems to have a solid core of followers who will not be shaken off, no matter what he says or does. Even Trump has sometimes seemed impressed by his followers’ loyalty, famously joking, “I could stand in the middle of Fifth Avenue and shoot somebody, and I wouldn’t lose any voters, OK? It’s, like, incredible.”
Nearly all of the reasons given in this cartoon – although I’ve written them in an exaggerated and mocking way – are real reasons I’ve seen Trump supporters give. The exception is the white supremacy panel – I’ve never seen someone outright admit that white identity politics is why they support Trump. But research shows it’s a major factor.
It’s not the deepest cartoon I’ve ever done, but it’s always fun to draw one of my “Nine Jerks” cartoons (as Becky calls them). Not needing to keep characters or settings consistent from panel to panel is so relaxing and frankly makes it faster, making it practical to do nine panels instead of my usual four. And drawing over-the-top angry expressions never fails to be fun.
Also, lots of room for chicken fat, even though it slows me down. Doing the chicken fat has added a lot to my enjoyment of my work.
TRANSCRIPT OF CARTOON
This cartoon has nine panels.
PANEL 1
A grinning man stands in his living room.
MAN: That TV Star billionaire son of a billionaire is an underdog like me!
PANEL 2
A woman standing behind a fence gestures at her phone.
WOMAN: Trump kills random Venezuelans on boats with no trial or evidence… But Democrats seem smug, which is much worse.
PANEL 3
A man in a suit is overcome with fury and shouting.
MAN: Because filthy pet-eating invaders are poisoning America with their dirty blood! (But I’ve got nothing against immigrants).
PANEL 4
A man in a compound surrounded by barbed wire hugs a gigantic gun and yells.
MAN: Because Democrats wanna take our guns!
PANEL 5
This central panel contains the title, “Reasons To Support Trump.” Below that, a nice looking smiling woman talks, and in the background a Klansman adds something.
WOMAN: Not because I’m a closet white supremacist! Heck no!
KLANSMAN: Same!
PANEL 6
A housewife in an apron, surrounded by children, happily talks.
HOUSEWIFE: I like that the President has traditional family values! Like Donald with Ivana Marla Melania.
PANEL 7
A man looks up from reading a newspaper.
MAN: Because Trump is fighting “cancel culture” by getting people we don’t like fired or deported!
PANEL 8
A man in a suit gestures towards a teacher in the background, who looks indignant.
MAN: Because woke “teachers” indoctrinate our kids into being trans!
TEACHER (thought): Yeah, right. I can’t even get them to use deodorant.
PANEL 9
An woman in her living room talks to us angrily.
WOMAN: Liberals are evil terrorist loving pathetic loser cucks who hate freedom! And they say such mean things about Trump!
CHICKEN FAT WATCH
“Chicken Fat” is long-dormant cartoonist speak for irrelevant details we stick in because it amuses us.
Panel 1: Igor, Marty Feldman’s Young Frankenstein character, is peering in the window. (He’s drawn in black and white, like the film). There’s a framed picture of Montgomery Burns on the wall. The man’s sports shirt says “42,” a reference to the Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy novels.
Panel 2: A flyer taped to the tree says “WANTED: A poem as lovely as this tree. Contact Joyce.” A groundhog wearing a top hat and a scarf has popped out from the ground.
Panel 4: A poster taped to the wall shows an adorable mom holding a gun; the caption says “My other mom is the NRA.” One of the gun crates has a sign on it saying “Caution: Bang! Bang!”
Panel 6: A surprised looking infant hangs from one of the hooks on the wall. One of the children is smoking a cigarette. One is Little Orphan Annie, as she looked early in that comic strip. One has a t-shirt with a superhero named “I.P. Man.”
Panel 7: The newspaper, entitled “The Right News,” has a giant headline saying “Is Zohran Secretly Hamas?” A smaller subhead says “We imply yes!”
Panel 8: On the blackboard, below a complex looking algebra equation, it says “You’re right. You’ll never use this math in real life. Ha ha suckers!” Elsewhere, it says “E=M.C. Hammer” and, in a list format, “1. Fee 2. Fie 3. Foe 4. Fum”.
Panel 9: The cat is a pirate, with a big loop earring in one ear, an eyepatch, and a wooden leg. The vase has Charlie Brown’s shirt’s stripe on it.
So, the Esteemed Research Institution of which I now have the honour to be a (jolly good!) Fellow sent an invite last week to come along this arvo and decorate the Christmas tree in the common room. Bringing, if one so desired, some bauble, perchance alluding in some way to one's research interests.
My dearios, I realised I had The Very Thing! Some Years Ago I acquired a mini-Giant Microbe syphilis spirochaete, the adorable cutie, and though I say it myself, this went over a treat, with people taking photos and so on.
Had social converse - though a certain sense of Don't You Know Who I Am, though there is no reason why people who don't work in my area/s should know, it is a long while since I have been on ye meedjas.
***
Feral wallabies have featured here on previous occasions: apparently there are now 1000 on the Isle of Man: and
[T]here appears to be a continuous population across southern England, with a few hotspots. There have been regular sightings in the Chilterns, plus in Cornwall, where they appear to be breeding.
How do YOU define "middle-aged"?
30-60
6 (18.2%)
35-65
10 (30.3%)
40-70
11 (33.3%)
other set of numbers
4 (12.1%)
vibes: raising a child and/or secure place to live (home ownership, v stable rental), or could/should be
1 (3.0%)
other vibes
1 (3.0%)
other other
0 (0.0%)
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I switched my Fic Updates DW Journal over to “entries are displayed in the journal-specific style” mode, realized for the first time how glitchy it looks on mobile, and spent a good chunk of today fussing with borders/margins/font sizes until I finally felt better about it.
The journal has mostly been “crossposting links from AO3” for a decade now, but in the past couple years I had a resurgence of using it for “behind-the-scenes about the writing” posts (all for Cover of Knight reasons). Finally came around to thinking, you know what, I want them to look customized.
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Sometimes you post a thing and it just hits, huh? I put that art of “Lydia Deetz singing Gravity” on DA, and overnight it became the most popular thing I’ve uploaded there in years.
“DA doesn’t want live-action superheroes, it wants Cartoon Ladies” isn’t exactly news, but still. Watching those numbers zoom upward sure was something.
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This mural of a giant kitten is amazing. (By Oriol Arumi at Torrefarrera Street Art Festival in Torrefarrera, Cataluna, Spain.)
Fund artists! Think of how many other cool things they could do!
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Speaking of support for artists:
Anyone reading this who makes Clip Studio assets? I have points that need to be spent/gifted before the end of the year, so drop a link to yours (here’s a link to mine, for comparison) and I’ll send you some.
I have over 6,000 Clippy to burn, so please share this around. I’ll give some to everyone who responds, until/unless I run out.
