Simanaitis Says
On cars, old, new and future; science & technology; vintage airplanes, computer flight simulation of them; Sherlockiana; our English language; travel; and other stuff
ENOUGH OF THE TRUMPKRIEG!
TODAY, APRIL 5, 2025, MANY AROUND THE COUNTRY will express their objection to the chaos caused by the Trump administration. We have witnessed injustices heaped upon injustices, some so immense as to endanger the world order, others so petty as to boggle rationality.
Perhaps it’s not too late to gin up a poster for an event nearby. In the interest of facilitating this, SimanaitisSays has collected appropriate choices here, together with factual documentation. Suggested poster wording is shown in boldface.
Whom to Believe? Trump? Putin? Neither! Thomas L. Friedman provides the facts. This image will surely confound bystanders.
A macho photo of Putin that’s not topless. Back in 2010, Renault F1 had sponsorship from Russian Lada. Image from premier.gov.ru.
Science, Alternative Fact. This one’s pre-owned, but you’re welcome to echo my feelings from Fullerton, California, April 22, 2017.
Image by Dottie Clendenin.
If you seek current facts along the same line, check out “Facts. Not Trump’s ‘Alternative Facts’ “
U.S. Science Upended. This image comes from AAAS Science, credited to Stephan Schmitz/FOLIOART.
Trump—Of All People?!—Controlling the English Language. This, I noted, is “tantamount, of course, to RFK Jr. in charge of health and human services. Or an unelected Musk being in charge of anything governmental.”
This is my official Republican symbol. You’re free to use it.
Woke Words. Alas, there are so many flagged words that you’ll have to turn the list sideways on the poster.
Don’t Box Me In. Here’s ∏wacket, aka Pi for short. He plays an important role in my keeping wits together in these Trump/Vance times.
The Risk of Crypto. I learned a lot about cryptocurrencies from Eric Budish’s “Trust in Scale: The Economic Limits of Cryptocurrencies and Blockchains.” Succinctly, the cost of their trust grossly exceeds their value.
Image by Mark Humphery/AP from The Nation. Inversion all too likely.
The Emperor’s New Cash. A fable, with respectful cribbing of Hans Christian Andersen. I’d use the same inverted image for a poster, but do give Mark Humphery credit for the original.
“The Most Happy Felon”—A Screenplay. For awhile there, I was considering “Short-Fingered Vulgarian,” but this has already been used (as was this Dorothy Mackaill image from Wikipedia.)
There, got your attention. But there’s a perfect image for the poster. It has a downside, though: The Queens felon admires it (and posts it in the White House).
Image by Fulton County Sheriff’s Office via The New York Times.
Heil! Er, Hi! There’s an entire subgenre of posters for the unelected DOGE chainsaw wielder. My fav seems to have him recalling earlier days.
Image from The Guardian.
The one showing him pensively with a Tesla in the background is already poster-ready, but lacks nazi imagery. An alternate heading: “Geez, It Was O.K. When Henry Ford Hated Jews.”
Fail Fast, Learn Faster?? Googling “SpaceX failure” yields a bunch of poster options; albeit so does “SpaceX achievement.” But maybe it’s not a rational business model when human beings are nearby.
Image from spacenews.com.
DOGE Flunks Arithmetic. Surely Musk could find a more capable bunch of nerds. Or at least a few with some sense of proportion.
0.000008 Percent of Federal Budget. This describes investment in the U.S. National Plant Germplasm System, the scientists of which “quietly enable and safeguard our food system, worth around $1.5 trillion.”
Again, turn it sideways.
Why Svalbard Tariff?? And, by the way, have you read Rachel Treisman’s “Trump’s Tariffs Are So Far-Reaching They Include Several Remote, Uninhabited Islands,” NPR, April 3, 2025. She recounts, “Also facing a 10% tariff are [Norwegian Territories] Svalbard and Jan Mayen, which Census Bureau data show had no trade with the U.S. last year either.”
A Brazilian researcher stands in front of Norway’s Svalbard Global Seed Vault, February 25, 2025. Image by Crop Trust/LM Salazar via grist.org.
Perhaps some batshit-crazy D.E.I. hunter learned that Norway’s Svalbard Global Seed Vault is the largest facility in the world promoting crop diversity.
I hope you have an encouraging day of protest. It seems I’ve got an early start. ds
© Dennis Simanaitis, SimanaitisSays.com, 2025
Simanaitis Says 
Looked up Svalbard import/export with US. It’s always a net positive number on the US export side, usually at least double, sometimes <undefined> when the US exports to them but doesn’t import anything. Values are in the low (or sub-) single-digit millions if non-zero. This justifies, therefore, a protective tariff by Svalbard rather than the US. Not that they have the ability to actually produce much for import substitution – their exports are mainly coal (sometimes to Russia!), services (like that seed bank), and nature pictures. Perhaps a little fish.
Face it, tariffs by the US are just a large national sales tax.
A critical one today. Thanks, Dennis. We’re going to the anti-Bratman/Muskrat rally in our town in a few minutes. Today, as most here gathered know, there are such rallies in every city, and most towns, across the entire nation. Be there.