CSotD: Slouching Towards Jerusalem
Skip to comments
Just one day — one goddam day — could we please put this shitshow on hold long enough to enjoy some silly cartoons?
Well, that's why I've instituted "Friday Funnies."
Meanwhile, we have the above photo compilation for an article from Ha'aretz, showing the cheerful, happy people at the brand new American embassy in Jerusalem, contrasted with the reason that the United Nations has repeatedly, overwhelmingly voted not to recognize Jerusalem as anybody's capital city at least until things have been straightened out between Israel and Palestine.
Donald Trump has his opinion, of course, but his opinion was rejected by the world, as it certainly was out in the countryside.
And, while the article is hard-hitting, the photo could have been worse. Jack Ohman makes a similar point with more candor, thanks to both the flexibility and the distance cartooning provides.
Showing that many actual dead bodies in a photograph would be unbearable, but, in a cartoon, they simply symbolize the lack of humanity our telegenic nepotistic representative is showing the world on our behalf.
Nor — if everything were not so expertly draped with clean linens — would it be kind to Americans scanning the news over breakfast to show Doctors Without Borders working desperately on two tables at a time to save the unarmed protesters shot down by Israeli soldiers while the speeches were going on.
Nobody wants their morning spoiled by what that group has to say about the events of the past 24 hours, killjoy things like
What happened today is unacceptable and inhuman. The death toll provided this evening by Gaza health authorities—55 dead and 2,271 wounded—including 1,359 wounded with live ammunition, is staggering. It is unbearable to witness such a massive number of unarmed people being shot in such a short time.
Yes, some of them threw rocks and bottles. And some of them tried to scale the wall in protest. But, while Israeli soldiers have shown their ability to pick off members of the press at long distance, there is no indication of anything so intentionally precise in these shootings.
At which point, the Onion jumps in with a posting that is at once totally wiseass and, alas, totally believable.
Thus we find that politics, indeed, makes strange bedfellows …
Okay, usually not as literally as Ann Telnaes depicts the saying, though she's right about that, too.
And, yes, we'll get back to how Trump stepped in to help a Chinese telecom company accused of stealing US technology mere hours after his project in Indonesia secured a half-billion dollar loan from China.
Gotta wait for more cartoonists to catch up on that one.
Back in Jerusalem, however, I was thinking of my own "strange bedfellows" as I found myself agreeing with both Andrea Mitchell and Mitt Romney — neither of whom I have ever counted among my besties — that the strangest of all strange bedfellows selected to give the blessing of the new embassy is a deranged anti-Semite who shares, along with much of Trump's evangelical base, the belief that Armageddon is within our reach if only we poke the Jewish and Muslim bears with a sharp enough stick.
Whether or not we are actually being led by lunatics, we are certainly being led by people who rely upon lunatics for their support, and I'm not sure how you separate those two factors, or any reason you should have to.
Except that I suppose the First Amendment's religion clause keeps this bizarre belief from triggering the 25th Amendment.
As Andy Marlette points out, most Americans probably don't know what's going on in Israel and Palestine or why moving the capital to Jerusalem is such a big deal.
Though "What's the difference?" is a pretty good question.
The pretty good answer will come when Robert Mueller reveals what the pretty boy who is the poster child for the "Find A Cure For Nepotism" campaign has wrought, and I kind of doubt he'll be talking about Ashton.
On the other hand, maybe Ashton could revive his practical joke show, Punk'd, only use it this time to help Trump supporters recognize when they're being scammed.
On accounta they're more apt to see it that way than by reading Jen Sorensen's explanation of the fraud.
And they're very unlikely to read this very sympathetic Twitter thread, which pretty much says what I've been thinking. (You may have to refresh it to get it to reload to the start. And don't bother with the responses, too many of which simply prove her point.)
Anyway, if this whole thing sparks Armageddon and the heavens open and we're all assumed up — except the Jews, Mormons, Muslims, gays, blacks, yellows, reds, atheists, Catholics and other unforgivens — I'll print a retraction here.
Since I fully expect to still be down here to do it and would be humiliated if things proved otherwise.
But I'm going to assume that the only result of all this will be a non-result — a lack of peace in the Middle East, a failure to resolve the Palestinian issue — and please don't insult my intelligence by saying we didn't see it coming, because we damn well did, including Morten Morland, who depicts the event perfectly.
And David Rowe, who illustrates how Netanyahu and Trump have conspired to slam the door on a peaceful solution.
Comments 2
Comments are closed.