Tom Blanton, Heroic Hell-raiser for Freedom, R.I.P.

Tom Blanton

One of America’s top political satirists and funniest hellraisers passed away this week. Tom Blanton did one of the best daily roundups of government oppression and outrages stories on the Internet.  His Project for a New American Revolution was an inspiration for me and thousands of other folks over the years.  Tom was also one of the best and funniest headline writers I knew. He was principled, courageous, and talented as the day is long.

Tom was mocking the Iran War even before Trump’s victory proclamations reached the double digits. Here’s an April 17 post on his Flickr page:

Tom Blanton

Tom’s artistic talent could add laughs to any topic.  After I wrote in the Wall Street Journal about my experience working as a Santa Claus in Boston, Tom made a graphic themed to my favorite beer:

Tom Blanton Raging Bitch art

Tom consistently exposed the Dark Side of warmongering that the media & political elite ignore. In 2011, Tom recommended a new way to celebrate Memorial Day:

It used to be that Memorial Day was to honor dead soldiers. In recent years, we are asked to also honor veterans (who already have a day) and active duty members of the armed services. This may be an indication that the politicians feel there aren’t enough dead soldiers…

I think Memorial Day should simply be renamed Tombstone Day and people should decorate their yards with styrofoam tombstones like they do for Halloween. True-believers might even consider a few flag-draped coffins made of cardboard and maybe hanging dismembered arms and legs made of rubber from their trees.

I commented that Blanton’s proposal would provide a shot in the arm for party stores during the slow period between Valentine’s Day and Halloween. And it would be a spark for conversations that were far more substantive than the usual flag waving.

Tom never curtsied to police or to SWAT teams.  In 2014, he created an updated version of one of my childhood favorites entitled CHALK LINE FEVER.

Tom Blanton

When Wikileaks began exposing U.S. government crime waves around the world, politicians and agency chiefs rushed to hector people not to read about official crimes. Tom in 2010 made the perfect art retort:

Tom Blanton

Tom was also an eagle-eyed cultural critic, such as a classic post on the mind control benefits of television:

Tom Blanton

When I wrote about how TSA screeners and angry newspaper editors always gave me guff, Tom explained the problem: “It has come to my attention that many of these hostile editors may have you confused with Blind Sheik al-Bovard. This guy was a piano player who penned a few hits in the 70’s (Rock The Cash Bar, Sheik Ya Booty, and the classic Mini-Burka, No Panties) and is now trying to establish a global caliphate from his base in Freedonia.”

Tom Blanton art

In a 2006 blog post, I scoffed about the proper way to celebrate Constitution Day during the President Bush’s fanatical war on terrorism. Tom had the best suggestion:

Real Americans should celebrate Constitution Day by doing their part to fight the war on terror in their own neighborhoods.

First, identify that neighbor whom you suspect may pose a gathering threat. Things like facial hair, unusual schedules, and bringing in unknown materials in shopping bags are sure signs that something is up.

Next, notify all the other neighbors that the suspect neighbor is a madman who is building bombs in his home to kill everyone in the neighborhood.

Then, go to the suspect neighbor’s house and ask to look around. If he resists or if he refuses to let you rip up the floors in his house, it is obvious that he must be hiding something.

Finally, wait until the suspect neighbors go to sleep, blow up their car, set their tool shed on fire, break out their windows, enter their home, tie them up, make them take off their clothes and put bags on their heads, play a Spinal Tap CD really loud, and interrogate the family until they admit to their evil plans.

In the event these people don’t talk, drive them over to your cousin’s house and tie them up in his garage and have him interrogate them from time to time.

Meanwhile, be sure to report to your Neighborhood Association how you have made the neighborhood safe, but not completely safe.

Repeat the process with a new suspicious neighbor

After he saw a piece I wrote about “Treason Mania” in early 2021, Tom created this art to affirm my faith in elections:

Tom Blanton

Tom had no patience for hypocrisy or carnage from either political party. His mockery of Obama’s “Liberty Drones” was 24 karat:

Tom Blanton