CSotD: O Tempore! O Mores! O Boy!
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I didn't want to be political today. And I wouldn't have had to, if everyone had obeyed the original directive and done a "Fats Domino at the Pearly Gates" cartoon like they were supposed to.
But then — as Nick Anderson so well illustrates — news surfaced that the Democrats had paid someone to do research on their opponent in the 2016 elections, whereupon all the conservative cartoonists got a second directive cancelling the Fats Domino tributes.
So let us all take a moment to be horrified that, for the first time in American politics, a campaign has paid someone to do a little research — perhaps even dig up some dirt — on their opponent.
We might even cite that over-used quote in "Casablanca" in which the police captain, under orders from the Nazis … no, never mind.
We'll just link to this article summing up the whole sordid scandal. And perhaps we'll add this pull quote, so that the bloodhounds will know where to start sniffing.
Or, rather, where to stop. Because, hell, there's no news in that.
Democratic, not Republican, funding is the point.
Plus this
And as long as we're covering current events, I'm okay with cartoonists commenting on Amazon's open invitation for communities to solicit their secondary headquarters, as long as they're not shocked, shocked. (Dammit, I wasn't going to go for the cheesy reference).
I like Rob Rogers' take because, first of all, it's a clever tie-in of the Harvey Weinstein scandal, which none of us know about because the liberal mainstream media refuses to cover it. (At least, that's what it apparently said in another lockstep directive to conservative cartoonists.)
I also like Rogers' take because Pittsburgh has a good case for landing the HQ: It's a very pleasant city with a vibrant local culture, good educational institutions, plenty of tech, and its infrastructure has been largely rebuilt since the steel days, which puts it above a lot of other Rust Belt locations.
But what I really like is that, while Rogers cites the competitive zeal (there were 238 cities making bids), he only expresses disdain, not shock, at the idea that someone promising 50,000 jobs would expect tax breaks and similar incentives.
Which doesn't surprise me, because I've met Rob and he's not eight years old. I really don't understand commentators who react as if they were.
Back when I was turning 40, I participated in a program by the local chamber that walked 40-and-under sorts of young professionals through an extended series of day-long presentations on government and industry, providing an inside view of how these things actually work.
I know many chambers still offer those programs and I think anyone commenting on politics or business ought to take one. You can't make intelligent comments on things you don't understand.
And, by the way, Pittsburgh would also be a hip, symbolic choice. The city became the center of the steel industry in olden times because it was where the Allegheny and the Monongahela formed the Ohio, so it was already where tons of products flowed from the Northeast down the Mississippi, and, consequently, it was also a railhead and crossroads for industries further upstream.
Its choice would be a salute to history, and a testimony to the new reality, where decisions need not be so based on geography that it diminishes other considerations.
Speaking of new realities …
Today's Alex celebrates, or possibly bemoans, the speed of change.
I finally broke down and traded in my flip phone for one that can do all sorts of things I don't need to have done, but I still pay for things with debit cards and I'm not sure how many stores out here in the hinterlands are re-tooled for phone payments anyway.
We do have chip-readers now, though the way they're configured, it takes three or four times longer to pay for anything than it did when we just swiped our card and entered a PIN.
And we still have to enter a PIN. But it's better because it's new.
I'm still a pretty hep cat, and I bought a new carbon-fiber wallet when my organic, artisanal wallet wore out. It's slim and hip and doesn't press on my sciatic nerve.
It also doesn't have a place for cash or for a store of business cards, because nobody uses cash and I guess nobody hands out business cards, either.
I do feel guilty using a debit card when I'm just grabbing a loaf of bread, because I hate the idea that the store has to pay a percentage to Mastercard on such a minor purchase, but, then again, the people who own the store have probably figured our cashless society into the price of the bread to begin with.
On accounta they're hip, too. We're all so hip that being hip isn't hip anymore.
Bonus Earworm!
Meanwhile, back at the Bat Cave
As Carpe Diem notes, we old folks do occasionally have trouble adjusting to these new technologies.
Though my best stories on the topic come from about a quarter-century ago, when we weren't old enough for that to be the excuse, but the newness of the technology was.
Except that the newness of it all should have made us that much more vigilant.
Whatever the reason for our blunders, there weren't many excuses.
Filthy jokes sent on "Reply All" to a corporate email list — twice! — by upstanding professional women, or a VP who sent some preachy drivel to a corporate list instead of to his Preachy Religious Drivel list.
Best of all came when a fiery feminist attorney posted something to a family law discussion list and the abusive fathers' rights trolls went ballistic because it showed the address of a different list member, proving that they were sockpuppets and frauds.
Turned out that, while we knew they were in cahoots, we didn't know that they were also in bed. He'd neglected to log out, she assumed she was still on her own account. Hilarity ensued.
O tempore! O mores! O boy!
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