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Jerome Nicolas @jeromenicolas.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

With a cameo by Edward G. Robinson:

Photo of three corrupt corporate executives in the film, with the central villain in the center. On the right is a wide faced man chewing a cigar. Edward G. Robinson was a famous actor who played a lot of gangsters and was often photographed smoking a cigar.

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Jerome Nicolas @jeromenicolas.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

Addendum: Toshiro Mifune as Don Draper and Clark Kent:

Picture of Mifune with his glasses on. His character wears glasses throughout the movie. He looks a bit like George Reeves in the role of Clark Kent/Superman (1952–1958).

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Jerome Nicolas @jeromenicolas.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

Saw Akira Kurosawa's masterful film noir take on Hamlet, The Bad Sleep Well (1960). It stars Toshiro Mifune as Don Draper and Chevy Chase as Count Dracula.

Picture of the villain who is not actually played by Chevy Chase despite the uncanny resemblance. His salt and pepper hair is slicked back.

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Jerome Nicolas @jeromenicolas.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

I presume you're familiar with his political cartoons(?)

Cartoon by Ron Cobb showing a cross section of a house. Inside, a family is saying Thanksgiving grace, but just under the house foundations are the bones of Native Americans.

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Jerome Nicolas @jeromenicolas.bsky.social · 18/09/2026

Some classic (2023) Love Boat Insanity from Tumblr

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Jerome Nicolas @jeromenicolas.bsky.social · 10/09/2026

John Fetterman did a Joe Lieberman. Hardly surprising, but it's a handy reminder that centrists are covert conservatives, and formalizing their status is essentially the "will they/won't they" trope of American politics.

Photo of Fetterman with the text "Democratic Senator John Fetterman denounces socialism in a video for the GOP convention." Joe Lieberman had spoken at the 2008 GOP convention

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Jerome Nicolas @jeromenicolas.bsky.social · 07/09/2026

Somebody finally fixed that fashy meme.

The text is the original meme's "Hard times create strong men. Strong men create good times. Good times create weak men. Weak men create hard times." But the strong men pictured here are FDR and LBJ, while the weak men are Reagan and Trump.

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Jerome Nicolas @jeromenicolas.bsky.social · 07/09/2026

Alas, it's only for sixty days, so he'll be out by Xmas.

Parody DVD box art for a Hallmark-style X-mas movie entitled "A Very Merry Conviction: Love in in the air. Bail is not." The man is in an orange jail jump suit and has Matt Bevin's face.

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Jerome Nicolas @jeromenicolas.bsky.social · 04/09/2026

Speaking of rich libertarian shits, you knew Burning Man was over when Grover Norquist enjoyed it. Full Disclosure: I never went to Burning Man, but I did own a Utilikilt for a bit.

Fake ad for Burning Man boasting attractions such as "50,000+ Caucasians," "Bitcoin, Probably," scabies, garbage, influencers, etc.

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Jerome Nicolas @jeromenicolas.bsky.social · 30/08/2026

Likely late to this party, but I'm delighted to learn that this word is both a hobbit surname and slang for scientists.

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Jerome Nicolas @jeromenicolas.bsky.social · 27/08/2026

The word "possibly" is possibly doing heavy lifting here.

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Jerome Nicolas @jeromenicolas.bsky.social · 11/08/2026

And in 2015, he used a phrase that was coined to devalue BLM. Literally the first sentence in the article that I posted:

The first sentence in the article I posted: "Pete Buttigieg, the mayor of South Bend, Indiana, and upstart Democratic presidential hopeful, on Thursday expressed regret over using the politically charged term 'all lives matter' in 2015, explaining that he didn't understand it was coined to 'devalue' the Black Lives Matter movement."

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Jerome Nicolas @jeromenicolas.bsky.social · 04/08/2026

I suppose I could’ve just said “Anecdotal.”

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Jerome Nicolas @jeromenicolas.bsky.social · 02/08/2026

I mean, this classic graphic might be the byproduct of oblivious privilege, but that headline ain’t. It anticipates predictable criticism and gets ready with lies. It’s also privileged, but knowingly so.

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Jerome Nicolas @jeromenicolas.bsky.social · 02/08/2026

The “but” suggests a deceptive headline rather than an oblivious one. The writer’s trying to argue that the majority of ordinary New Yorkers are impacted by a tax on unoccupied second homes in hyper pricey NYC.

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Jerome Nicolas @jeromenicolas.bsky.social · 02/08/2026

What the polls show is a tight race. I could cherry-pick polls too. This one shows Stevens losing to Rogers by 4 points rather than 3.

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Jerome Nicolas @jeromenicolas.bsky.social · 02/08/2026

James Carville if DSA wins any more primaries:

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Jerome Nicolas @jeromenicolas.bsky.social · 29/07/2026

Scoff if you want, but the phrase "politically homeless" is tightly tied to bothsidesing by this point. It has become a stock gag for @nytpitchbot.bsky.social. Yes, it mocks the NY Times' cosplay objectivity, but it also mocks centrist thinking habits which fetishize bipartisanship.

Screencap of three NY Pitchbot posts that parody centrist op-eds:

“Under Trump, America is committing war crimes. But under Biden, there were irritating student protests at a college I did not attend. I have never felt more politically homeless. … Trump just stole $2 billion from the Treasury and gave it to a bunch of criminals and traitors. But my local public radio hosts won't stop talking about ‘third spaces’. I have never felt more politically homeless. … Trump is about to start a nuclear war. But a singer I've never heard of said something about the US being stolen land on awards show that I didn't watch. I have never felt more politically homeless.”

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Jerome Nicolas @jeromenicolas.bsky.social · 27/07/2026

"Don’t use our resources. Don’t rely on our volunteers"? Who do you think your volunteers have been all this time? They're the very people who're now flocking to DSA. You centrist quislings have been berating and betraying the party's base for decades. You aren't the party - they are.

Screen capture of a tweet by Jamie Harrison, the former chair of the Democratic National Committee:

"I say this with no ill will or animosity: if you hate the Democratic Party, then please don’t run for our nomination. Don’t use our resources. Don’t rely on our volunteers. Don’t use our infrastructure. Don’t ask Democrats to invest their time, money, and energy in your campaign. Focus on building the party you actually support. Political parties aren’t perfect, but they’re built by millions of people who knock doors, make calls, organize meetings, and fight for the values they believe in. If you don’t believe in the party, then don’t ask its members to carry you across the finish line."

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Jerome Nicolas @jeromenicolas.bsky.social · 26/07/2026

The best film adaptation of the Odyssey, wrong answers only

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Jerome Nicolas @jeromenicolas.bsky.social · 23/07/2026

Wow. That old Twitter energy really brings me back. The tags are fantastic. I'd say they likely have better things to do than get involved in this, but since they aren't doing much to meaningfully oppose Trump I suppose I shouldn't assume. Maybe they'll write me a strongly worded letter.

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Jerome Nicolas @jeromenicolas.bsky.social · 21/07/2026

More black and brown progressive candidates are on the way and centrists are terrified by this. And how do they respond? By trotting out the problematic progressive strawman of course. Yes, every group has bad actors, but clearly centrists have way more of them and progressives have way less.

Picture of Hillary Clinton being chummy with Harvey Weinstein at an event.

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Jerome Nicolas @jeromenicolas.bsky.social · 21/07/2026

Of course, "The Squad" getting elected in 2018 dramatically symbolized the demographic make up of progressives. It was initially all WOC then - Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Ilhan Omar, Ayanna Pressley, and Rashida Tlaib. More WOC followed in 2020 along with some MOC.

Photo of the four aforementioned members of The Squad.

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Jerome Nicolas @jeromenicolas.bsky.social · 21/07/2026

We saw this in the 2020 campaign too. Sanders' base was majority women. Indeed, he was the only candidate who could say that. Likewise, his base was the least white.

Graph in an August 2019 Pew poll showing the demographic makeup of different candidates' bases in the 2020 Democratic primaries. Sanders' was the least male and the least white. Women made up 53% of Sanders' support. Warren was second with 49% and Harris was tied for third with Biden at 48%. Sanders' support was only 49% white. Warren's was 71% white. Biden and Harris were in between at 56% and 59% respectively.

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Jerome Nicolas @jeromenicolas.bsky.social · 21/07/2026

I see centrists are reusing the discredited “white Bernie Bro” charge against lefties again - despite the fact that the left’s candidates and voters are overwhelmingly women and POC. This has always been the case because these groups want the progressive policies lefties advocate. From April 2017:

A graph by The Hill on the Harvard-Harris survey that was the first to show that Bernie Sanders was the most popular sitting politician in the US in April 2017. Women liked him more than men did - 58% vs 55%. Only 52% of whites liked him compared to 62% of Asians, 68% of Hispanics, and 73% of African Americans.

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Jerome Nicolas @jeromenicolas.bsky.social · 14/07/2026

I like the subtle nod to British politics

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Jerome Nicolas @jeromenicolas.bsky.social · 04/07/2026

One way to celebrate America’s 250th birthday would be to read my chapter on how some of the founders had favored economic equality. It’s free on my blog: conservatismisun-american.blogspot.com/2020/12/why-...

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Jerome Nicolas @jeromenicolas.bsky.social · 24/06/2026

My head jumped to another comparison, but all three abstract designs seem pretty cool to me.

Photo of the iconic abstract pattern-painted "Partridge Family" school bus with the TV show's cast members sticking their heads out the windows.

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Jerome Nicolas @jeromenicolas.bsky.social · 09/06/2026

Apparently there's a furniture design convention and/or exposition that should seriously consider a name change.

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Jerome Nicolas @jeromenicolas.bsky.social · 01/06/2026

Rewatching Rushmore for the first time since I saw it in the theater back in 1998. It’s unexpectedly timely.

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Jerome Nicolas @jeromenicolas.bsky.social · 01/06/2026

Fred likes Vangelis. One day, he will catch the pale blue dot.

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Jerome Nicolas @jeromenicolas.bsky.social · 19/05/2026

I keep seeing think pieces on the irony of billionaire businessman Tom Steyer being the progressive champion in the California Governor race, but all I can think of is this meme.

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Jerome Nicolas @jeromenicolas.bsky.social · 18/05/2026

Bike enthusiasts are always confusing people

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Jerome Nicolas @jeromenicolas.bsky.social · 17/05/2026

Apparently Apple isn’t any better about product testing than any other company. This soundtrack is of course one album, but the Recently Added screen on my iPhone broke it into three.

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Jerome Nicolas @jeromenicolas.bsky.social · 16/05/2026

People often forget how Trump-like Reagan's administration was. It's almost as if corruption is in the modern GOP's DNA. Reagan-admiring centrists seem especially forgetful. (Signe Wilkinson political cartoon from 1984)

The setting is a cafeteria labeled "Reagan Administration Lunch Room." The tables have little signs labeled "Under Investigation" and "Under Subpoena." One guy in a suit holding a tray asks another "I'm under subpoena. Where are you sitting?"

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Jerome Nicolas @jeromenicolas.bsky.social · 09/05/2026

Not *every* principle. It faithfully applied “Move fast and break things.”

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