Stephen Ist
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stephenist.bsky.social
Stephen Ist
@stephenist.bsky.social
420 followers 730 following 280 posts
Gen-Xer, living in the world punk and dystopian sf warned me was on the horizon. Focused on detrumpifying the planet. he/him

https://www.tumblr.com/istesque | https://mastodon.online/@stephenist
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stephenist.bsky.social
A meme for at most three people who are probably not on Bluesky.
A sad orange robot man saying Olivia Nuzzi’s line about RFK jr., "He desired. He desired desiring. He desired being desired. He desired desire itself." The image is a still from the end of the execrable 1989 film Millennium. The movie ends (spoiler) with the line “It is not the end. It is not the beginning of the end. It is the end of the beginning.”
November 18, 2025 at 2:19 AM
stephenist.bsky.social
A repurposed meme of a cartoon trump urinating on the red white and blue word America. The words “Mega MAGA trickle down” are in the upper right corner.
November 1, 2025 at 1:59 AM
stephenist.bsky.social
Who robbed the Louvre right answers only
A black and white photo of a hip young woman with 1980s hair, an avuncular older man with a beard in a a sweater, and a trendy (at the time) young man in a t-shirt all with confident expressions.
October 19, 2025 at 9:04 PM
stephenist.bsky.social
Trump shitting on America you say? #nokings
Trump as an orange pile of shit taking a shit. The words “not this shit again” are emblazoned in white against a blue background.
October 19, 2025 at 6:06 AM
stephenist.bsky.social
Tfw the on hold voice at your pharmacy changes slightly and no longer lists how many callers are in front of you.
September 24, 2025 at 3:08 PM
stephenist.bsky.social
In an off-white circle in the lower left of this image is a woman with her mouth agape and her hand cupped as if to project sound. Red concentric circles radiate from that corner and intersect with blue concentric circles running in the opposite direction. Extending from the woman’s cupped hand are the words “YOU’RE IN AN ECHO CHAMBER” in a somewhat triangular pattern. On either side of that are the same words, reversed or inverted and repeated until they fill the image. Each repeated instance is increasingly more translucent as they reach the edge of the picture.
September 23, 2025 at 12:04 AM
stephenist.bsky.social
Lol! I thought the same.
August 4, 2025 at 10:57 PM
stephenist.bsky.social
“More people are considering AI lovers, and we shouldn’t judge”
A black and white image of a man in a suit and wearing glasses as he stares in horror as a woman wearing glasses, with mussed up hair and disheveled clothing, hovers over him menacingly (and seemingly contentedly) with her metallic hand composed of scrap metal threatening his face. The last line of this film feels relevant.
July 22, 2025 at 11:00 AM
stephenist.bsky.social
If you see this, post a Marvel cover you love.
The giant purple robot Shockwave has carved into a wall the words “ARE ALL DEAD” under the comic book’s stylized logo “THE TRANSFORMERS”. His laser gun is still smoldering from the bit of graffiti-making and he has his body and cycloptic eye turned toward the viewer, with his fist clenched, suggesting we might be next. Image grabbed from https://philipjreed.com/my-ten-favorite-transformers-comic-book-covers-of-the-marvel-era/
July 20, 2025 at 1:30 AM
stephenist.bsky.social
Light #spoilers for a 35 year old flick. The grim visage of the M.A.R.K. 13 population control droid from the 1990 film Hardware. Its skull-like head is painted red, white and blue with white stars. The background is bathed in an eerie red light and its camera-lensed eyes mimic this glow. A cartoon party horn has been added, extending out from its mouth. Red, white and blue streamers are blowing out from the end of the horn. Text has been added in the upper left reading “‘HAPPY’ 4TH” Party horn from https://www.vecteezy.com/vector-art/12540918-cartoon-party-horn M.A.R.K. 13 pic from https://www.popoptiq.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/maxresdefault-1.jpg
July 4, 2025 at 7:44 PM
stephenist.bsky.social
Time for this again
The stylized logo of The New York Times colored orange and yellow to look like Trump. Hopefully a transparent png. #memes #nyt
July 4, 2025 at 3:34 AM
stephenist.bsky.social
“Consequences for my actions are illegal! Thank you for your attention to these matters.”
Donald J. Trump @realDonaldTrump EVERYONE, KEEP OIL PRICES DOWN. I’M WATCHING! YOU’RE PLAYING RIGHT INTO THE HANDS OF THE ENEMY. DON’T DO IT! Jun 23, 2025, 9:35 AM
June 23, 2025 at 1:55 PM
stephenist.bsky.social
The proverbial Nazi bar on a crowded evening. Lots of random people milling about, waiting for tables or watching the goings on. The tables are occupied by men wearing Nazi armbands with the stylized X of X-Twitter replacing the swastika. They each have a beer in front of them. A woman at the bar is speaking to a man: “Wow! This place is busy. So everyone here is a Nazi?” She asks. He replies, “No. Us journalists come here to cover this important topic. The Nazis get the good seats… and service.” A man nearby, overhearing the conversation, adds “And they get paid to be here.”
June 9, 2025 at 5:22 AM
stephenist.bsky.social
Artificial intelligence when I was a kid.
An image of a plastic handheld “Pocket Game” from the late 1970s-early 1980s made by Tomy. The top two-thirds are orange plastic with a yellow sticker showing cartoon images, like a pig, clown and caterpillar, with the game title “Sentence Nonsense” emblazoned across it. The bottom third has five little windows that allow one tile containing one word each to fall in, forming a random sentence. The sentence in the window for this picture is “The Excited Electric Car barked at once!” The image was pulled from a web search that took me to https://gashu-boy.weebly.com/games.html
May 8, 2025 at 5:06 PM
stephenist.bsky.social
A split-paneled, comic-style image of a falling man against a vague, abstract background. The first image shows the man at a distance, in the upper half of the frame and a rectangle that contains the words “THE GENIUS OF THE HOLE:” The second panel is a closer image of the same falling man, but now the abstract image has red splotches at the bottom, reminiscent of blood. Text boxes contain the words “NO MATTER HOW LONG YOU SPEND CLIMBING OUT, YOU CAN STILL FALL BACK DOWN IN AN INSTANT.” “-MAX PAYNE”
May 7, 2025 at 4:29 AM
stephenist.bsky.social
I humbly resubmit my logo update for the NYT.

They could at least be upfront about their support.
The stylized logo of The New York Times colored orange and yellow to look like Trump. Hopefully a transparent png. #memes
May 2, 2025 at 1:48 AM
stephenist.bsky.social
What's a line delivery you think about a lot?
A man sitting in a stone chair behind a stone table with his arms raised above his head. He is wearing an old-timey suit and he is smiling in that deliriously demented fashion that indicates religious mania. Closed captioning at the bottom reads “[Applause] it is time”. I’d write it as “IT IS TIME!”
April 30, 2025 at 12:34 AM
stephenist.bsky.social
Translate is really helpful here
April 21, 2025 at 7:27 PM
stephenist.bsky.social
Dr. Oz’s comments are in the same ballpark as what Congressman Grayson was criticizing as the Republican healthcare plan back in 2009.
A picture of Congressman Alan Grayson with the words “The Republican health care plan: don't get sick... The Republicans have a back up plan in case you do get sick... This is what the Republicans want you to do. If you get sick America, the Republican health care plan is this: Die quickly!” Taken from AZ Quotes.
April 20, 2025 at 1:38 AM
stephenist.bsky.social
In light of recent events, a proposed change of title for the next reissue.
The album cover for Nation of Ulysses’ “13-Point Program to Destroy America” retitled “Nevermind,” in the stylized text from Nirvana’s album. The top fourth of the cover art is taken up by the previously mentioned text against a black background. The remainder shows a black and white photo of the five members of the band looking stoic and surrounded by five colored stock images. There’s a woman applying make up, factory machinery, a horse race, a kid with headphones on listening to an ancient radio, and what appears to be a group of boys reaching forward with one hand, reminiscent of a Nazi salute. Maybe they are exercising.
April 13, 2025 at 6:57 AM
stephenist.bsky.social
Some cringeworthy “jokes” by Parade Magazine to serve as a warning that April Fools is here again.
“Knock, Knock! Who's there? April! April who? April Fools!” texts against an orange background. A calendar with eyes is on April 1. The logo for Parade magazine is in the lower center frame. All images from https://parade.com/living/april-fools-jokes “ What did the villain say to the superheroes that thought it was still March? It's April, Fools!” text against a light blue background. Silhouettes of a superhero and a villain are placed on either side of the text. The Parade Magazine logo is in the lower center of the frame. “What's a stepladder's favorite holiday? April Stools' Day!” text against a green background. The silhouette of a stepladder is to the left of the text. The Parade Magazine logo is front and lower center.
April 1, 2025 at 12:23 PM
stephenist.bsky.social
me when I'm doing some banger posts
Gravitational Lensing By A Black Hole illustration from hubblesite.org showing the measurement of the deflection of starlight by a foreground black hole. It shows a grid representing spacetime curvature, with an arrow indicating the path of light from an observed star to its real position. A doodle has been added with a stick figure holding a square. Above the figure text reads “Me with iPad (On planet Earth). A line emerging from the iPad doodle shows a blusky logo labeled as “My post” going deep into the black hole to disappear forever.
April 1, 2025 at 5:08 AM
stephenist.bsky.social
Kash Patel with eyes wide open, as if he is actively sharting himself, during today’s Senate Intelligence Committee hearing. The word “ZOINKS!” Has been added above his shoulder to the left and Scooby Doo — looking startled and saying “RUH RO!” — has been added to the right.
March 26, 2025 at 12:44 AM
stephenist.bsky.social
An image of a collage showing two dapper gents dressed in suits from the turn of the last century. They are standing in a field of debris and destruction. The gent on the left has the head of a donkey. The gent on the right has an old boxy tv set for a head. They are facing each other. A mostly obliterated building stands defiantly in the upper half of the frame, against a backdrop of orange smoke. The lower half is filled with bloodstained red ruble and Day-Glo green sludge which is covering a sidewalk. Text emerging from the donkey gent reads “Any minute now he’ll do something so egregious that the entire country will turn against him. Then we’ll have him right where we want him.” TV gent says “Why won’t you admit he’s been the most transformative leader in the history of humanity?!” Any resemblance of the donkey to Chuck Schumer is purely intentional. Keywords: US Politics, Donald Trump, digital collage, memes, US media,
March 21, 2025 at 12:59 AM
stephenist.bsky.social
I’ve been thinking a lot about an old post somewhere to the effect of, “when the schoolyard bully steals your ball, holds it above your head, and when you demand it back he says ‘What ball? I don’t see a ball…’ he isn’t offering to enter into an honest debate, he’s exercising his unchecked power.”
A red kickball against an off-white/tan background mimicking the background of René Magritte‘s The Treachery of Images. In a cigar shaped oval superimposed over the red ball are the words “Ceci n'est pas un BALLON”. Treachery of Images image from https://www.nouveautourismeculturel.com/blog/2020/08/27/lart-habite-la-ville/1rene-magritte-ceci-nest-pas-une-pipe-1929/ Kickball image from https://clipart-library.com/clipart/1661782.htm
March 17, 2025 at 11:52 PM