Memes of the Times

NOTE: This first meme features a quote from American socialist activist and trade unionist Eugene Debs (1855-1926). Debs was recently highlighted in a piece by Michael K. Smith in CounterPunch. According to Smith, Debs “[made] socialism as American as the Liberty Bell.”

Related Off-site Links:
Who Was Eugene Debs? – Michael K. Smith (CounterPunch, November 14, 2025).
Trump’s Flailing on the Economy Is Worse Than Biden’s – Aaron Blake (CNN, November 11, 2025).
Wake Up! Trump Is Moving Swiftly to Become the First American Dictator – Thom Hartmann (Common Dreams, October 1, 2025).
Memo to Future Historians: This Is Fascism, and Millions of Us See It – Michael Tomasky (The New Republic, October 10, 2025).
How to Stop Tyrant Trump From Destroying Our Country – Ralph Nader (Common Dreams, October 26, 2025).
“Trump’s Gestapo”: Chicago Marches to Resist ICE and National Guard Deployment – Julia Conley (Common Dreams, October 9, 2025).
Pastors Speak of Brutality of Arrests at Hands of Local Cops at Broadview ICE Facility – Violet Miller and Casey He (Chicago Sun Times, November 16, 2025).
Soldiers Must Disobey Unlawful Orders Under Trump – It’s Their Legal Duty – Marjorie Cohn (Truthout, November 25, 2025).
“Absolutely Pathetic”: Senate Democrats Denounced for Caving to GOP in Shutdown Fight – Jon Queally (Common Dreams, November 10, 2025).
“The Epstein Class”: The Elite Network Around the Sexual Predator – Democracy Now! (November 25, 2025).
Emails Reveal Epstein’s Network of the Rich and Powerful Despite Sex Offender Status – Jesse Bedayn (PBS Newshour, November 26, 2025). 86 Democrats Join GOP in Voting for “Very, Very Stupid” Resolution Condemning Socialism – Julia Conley (Common Dreams, November 21, 2025).
Denouncing Socialism Can’t Stop a Generation That’s Embracing It – Sou Mi (Left Voice, November 24, 2025).
What’s Next for the Left: An Interview with Jill Stein – Sabrina Salvati (Sabby Sabs, November 16, 2025).
The British Mamdani? Meet Political Star Zack Polanski – Mehdi Hasan (Zeteo, October 23, 2025).
Kamala Harris Paid the Price for Not Breaking With Biden on Gaza, New Poll Shows – Ryan Grim (Drop Site, January 15, 2025).
Kamala Harris Admits Biden Administration Failed Gaza – Novara Media, November 13, 2025).
Introducing California Governor Candidate Rudolph “Butch” Ware – CBS News Los Angeles (September 5, 2025).
Despite the Smiles, Mamdani Must Know That Trump Remains a Fascist Rattlesnake – Norman Solomon (Common Dreams, November 25, 2025).


See also the previous Wild Reed posts:

THE RISE OF FASCISM IN THE U.S.
• Derek Johnson on the “Courage to Call Fascism by Its Name”
• James Greenberg: “I Am in Mourning for America”
• “If a Praying Minister Isn’t Safe, None of Us Are”
• Historian John Lestrange on the Meaning and Manifestations of Fascism, Past and Present
• James Greenberg on Trump’s “Larger Design” – the Construction of a Military Dictatorship
• “A Power Grab the Likes of Which This Country Has Never Seen”


THE FAILURES OF THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY
• Authoritarianism With a Blue Sticker
• Robert Reich on the “Big Ugly Cave” by Senate Democrats
• Kshama Sawant on the Democrats’ Shutdown Cave
• David Norton: “The Democratic Party Serves Capital, Not You”
• Mike Figueredo: “Elected Democrats Have No Real Interest in Doing What the Base Wants”
• Tony Pentimalli on the Fallacy of the “Safe Political Center”


ISRAEL AND GAZA
• Two Years of “Indescribable Horror”
• No Justice, No Peace
• Progressive Perspectives on Kamala Harris’s Book, 107 Days


DEMOCRATIC SOCIALISM
• Matthew Cooke on the Fallacy That Socialism “Doesn't Work”
• No, Hitler and the Nazis Weren’t Socialists
• Socialist Equality Party: Quote of the Day
• “Hopeful and Grounded”: Omar Fateh’s Vision of Democratic Socialism
• Mark Harris: Quote of the Day


ZOHRAN MAMDANI
• Zohran Mamdani and the Future of the Democratic Party
• Progressive Perspectives on Zohran Mamdani’s Win in New York City
• Matthew Cooke on the Real “Mamdani Effect”
• Quote of the Day – November 21, 2025
• Trump and Mamdani: “A Case Study in How a Bully Behaves When He Can’t Rely on Fear”


BUTCH WARE
• Butch Ware on “Red & Blue vs Green Politics”
• Butch Ware: Quote of the Day – October 6, 2025
• Butch Ware on His Run for California Governor and the Wider Goal of Disrupting the Duopoly
• “The Moment Is Ripe”: Butch Ware on Building a “True Oppositional Alternative” to the Duopoly


ZACK POLANSKI
• Zack Polanski’s Message of Hope
• “The Answer, Actually, Is Hope”


SIGNS OF HOPE
• Kanipawit Maskwa: “The Land Still Remembers”
• “We Intend to Defend Our Democracy”: The “No Kings” Protests of October 18
• “The Answer, Actually, Is Hope”
• Eddie Glaude: A “Radical Refusal” Is Happening
• “One Badass Lady”
• What the Wind Says


See also:
• Memes of the Times – September 21, 2025
• Memes of the Times – July 27, 2024
• Memes of the Times – May 21, 2020
• Signs of the Times – April 25, 2017
• At the Minnesota Capitol, Signs of the Times (May 16, 2011)