CSotD: As The World Turns

Ann Telnaes continues to draw the committee as it works and her array provides a nice precis of the day’s events, which is handy for viewers and ought to be intimidating for other cartoonists, since, while a lot of cartoonists can put out multiple sketches of an event, her half-dozen are each about one step short of finished work.

I chose this one to highlight because, if I still lived in my old hometown, Elise Stefanik would be my Congressional Representative and because I continue to ponder why I find her so annoying.

That is, I know why: She comes across as the class tattletale, and the one who would raise her hand a minute before the bell to remind the teacher to assign homework.

Though her obsession with the whistleblower suggests that she has little patience with tattletales, preferring to prosecute the witnesses rather than the defendants.

My issue is that I need to stop demanding that women come across as men and learn to judge them based on what they say rather than how they say it.

I have learned to listen to Kirsten Gillibrand without being distracted by the fact that she sounds like she huffs helium, but I generally agree with her, which makes it easier.

However, contemplating my response to Stefanik yesterday made me realize that I never had a problem with Kelly Ayotte, who was my Senator, and with whom I never agreed but who nonetheless came across as an intelligent person, if utterly heartless.

I respected her without liking her, and, these days, I think even more of her for having not re-emerged as a GOP hero, because they could sure put her telegenic, quick-witted, sharp-tongued personality to good use.

Perhaps she is one of the good ones, the ones who are slipping away quietly as things disintegrate.

 

Meanwhile, John Branch does a nice job of portraying another telegenic, sharp-tongued GOP female assett, who apparently wasn’t as quick-witted as we all thought.

It may be that Ayotte and others are waiting for the process to end and planning to step forward to help rebuild a shattered Republican Party, but Haley appears to have come out of retirement with the express purpose of leaping aboard the sinking ship.

What I’ve been hearing — and it may be a function of how I’ve cultivated my social media — is people expressing disappointment in Haley because they thought more of her, and who are not only disappointed in what she said but baffled by her having brought it up when nobody had asked her.

Granted, she’s hawking a book, but, geez, there’s a time to speak up and a time to shut up and, if she needed to sell the book, she could have stuck to talking about her childhood.

 

Adam Zyglis offers a pragmatic explanation for GOP loyalty, and he’s probably right, although I’m pretty sure President Pence would rubber-stamp whatever names were handed to him.

It’s possible, however, that Pence would hesitate to take the American Bar Association completely out of the process as Dear Leader has proposed, a move that would make it easier for the GOP to nominate and confirm inexperienced, unqualified and incompetent judges who happen to vote the right way.

 

In any case, I find David Rowe‘s portrayal of King Canute himself not nearly as delightful as the way he has drawn the desperate, drowning courtiers as they cling to the elephant and hope for a change in the tides.

At this point, someone steps forward to point out that, in the original poem, Canute knows he cannot command the tides and only attempted to do so with a deliberate goal of failing, in order to curb the flattery of his followers, saying:

‘Let all men know how empty and worthless is the power of kings, for there is none worthy of the name, but He whom heaven, earth, and sea obey by eternal laws.’

However, judging from the storm of derisive tweets coming from the White House, it’s not 100% clear that King Trump doesn’t consider himself that latter monarch.

 

While, as Mike Thompson observes, it’s easy enough to tell when he’s watching.

Which makes it hard not to think that, unlike Canute, he really does think he can command the tides.

 

Dear Leader may not want to sit in the chair under oath and take questions, but he’s present in the room nonetheless, perhaps even adding to the articles of impeachment.

 

Meanwhile, back on Wall Street

Lisa Benson notes the merger of Gannett and Gatehouse (New Media), which was accompanied by promises to the stockswappers and beancounters that, yes, they would find ways to trim another $300 million from the resulting 250-newspaper chain’s expenses.

They’ve bumped the two guys with journalism experience off the resulting Board, but it’s okay. One of the people staying has relevant experience in selling shoes.

It’s particularly striking because many of us just heading into retirement can remember when Gannett was the villain, when USAToday first came on the scene and was derided as the McPaper, and working at a Gannett paper became the worst hell in the industry.

Most papers over the years, alas, managed to marginalize their coverage with cut after cut after cut, while making similar “savings” in the backshop, such that Gannett no longer stood out as a rotten place to work.

But they’ve all got excellent profit-margins, and that’s all anyone at Corporate cares about.

And that’s what this merger promises: Fewer reporters and more of them rookies, smaller papers with fewer pages and less reason for anyone at City Hall to fear that a reporter may notice what they’re up to.

Funny thing: The merger is being criticized by the News Guild, or, more precisely, what used to be the News Guild but is now “NewsGuild – a sector of the Communications Workers of America.”

On accounta they merged, too.

All the cool kids are doing it.

 

Not sure when this Pearls first ran — the date is blurry. But it’s relevant today, so here it is.

2 thoughts on “CSotD: As The World Turns

  1. Maybe the shoe guy on the New Media board will end up as ambassador to Lower Slobovia..
    As a fan of Charlie Danierls, I am glad to be updated that the song is now “The Devil Went Down to South Carolina.”..

  2. The Pearls Before Swine by Pastis was posted to his Twitter on Nov 4, 2018. Like you said, still relevant!

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