CSotD: Timing
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Chan Lowe dropped this cartoon 24 hours before Bernie Sanders made his address to his followers, which was some very good timing.
If True Believers could be chilled out by such things, Bernie's speech would disabuse them of the ideas that (A) he's going to run a third-party campaign or (B) they should boycott the election or throw their vote away on an ideal but unelectable candidate.
But True Believers are so-called because they are utterly resilient to reality, even when the object of their veneration says "This campaign has never been about any single candidate. It is always about transforming America" and then pledges his support to defeating Trump and lays out a multi-point program to reform the system without his becoming President.
To be fair, let's talk timing: We shouldn't judge the impact of a speech delivered at 8:30 pm a mere eight hours later, particularly given that even young people have been asleep for at least half that time.
It was a good speech, it was as inspiring as anything he has said throughout the campaign, perhaps it will remind them of the things he promised from the start.
Here's the video. We'll see how it sets with them after they've had a little time to absorb it.
And even then, why should idealistic first-time campaigners be more perceptive than professional reporters?
The watchdog press somehow managed to twist his words to fit the Established Narrative, producing such tone-deaf headlines as
Bernie Sanders offers a concession-style speech — without a concession
Sen. Bernie Sanders doesn't end presidential campaign
Bernie Sanders Vows To Fight Donald Trump, But Won't Quit Democratic Race
Bernie Sanders withholds endorsement of Hillary Clinton
Granted, some of are click-bait that don't match the story that follows, but they represent that dogged insistence on staying with a line that works:
Al Gore said he invented the Internet.
John Kerry lied about his service record.
The Clintons committed fraud in the Whitewater dealings.
Elvis is alive, the moon landing was faked, Obama is a Kenyan-born Muslim
And Bernie will never give up his challenge to Clinton's nomination.
Okay, he didn't say, "I quit." He simply outlined how the revolution was to continue.
But a well-intentioned cocker spaniel could interpret it, if the cocker spaniel were indeed well-intentioned.
I continue to believe that the vast majority of Sanders supporters will go along with the sentiment in Lowe's cartoon: It's not an inspiring moment, but it's a necessary one. And I want to believe that a fair number will take up the challenge to stick with his long-term reform movement.
Mostly, I like the bumpersticker because it's pithier than "I don't like her either but for now let's save the Supreme Court and then reform the party over the next few years."
Meanwhile
There have been a number of cartoons lately comparing the rise of Trump to the rise of Hitler, with the idea being that Germans were naive in not challenging him before things got completely out of hand.
Lest anyone call it Monday Morning Quarterbacking, Jason Togyer posted this reminder that Herblock brought the issue up in 1940, six years before the Trumpster was even born.
Though it was, indeed, too late by then.
<insert bromide about repeating the same action
and expecting different results>
Words, Words, Words
Tom Toles on the latest distraction from the rightwing echo chamber.
I agree with the President that it's not simply a pointless distraction but that attributing things to the Islamist extremists gives them more power. And it's not simply that they like being credited with attacks they had nothing to do with.
Adding to the media narrative gives them power by increasing their paradoxical attraction.
Nobody ever wanted to burn flags until there was an outcry against the burning of flags, at which point it became a fad among a minor subset of disaffected protesters, who then got attention as the loop became self-feeding.
And, when I interviewed Bobby Seale in the early 80s, he said one of the biggest issues that destroyed the Black Panther Party was their ignoring of poseurs and hangers-on. They should never have tolerated, he said, the fakers who dressed in leather carcoats and berets but had no connection to the principles he and Huey Newton had laid out.
Similarly, any screwball with a Muslim background can pin his sociopathic behavior on loyalty to ISIS and be unchallenged by both ISIS, who welcome the chaos, and bigots who would rather not confront problems that fester closer to home.
Ouch
Speaking of timing, I'm sure Mark Parisi penned this Off the Mark gag weeks ago, but I hope someone at the syndicate remembered it and gave at least Florida papers, if not all clients, a heads up. (Update: See comments)
You would think it couldn't get through anyway, but modern production makes it quite easy: Editors never see the comics page because, at nearly every paper in the country, there's nothing on it that they have to proof. It's puzzles and Ann Landers and comic strips, none of which are locally produced, and it's put together in the backshop, not the newsroom.
In the days of paste-up, hard copies of comics were put into place on an actual paper page and there was a chance that someone would see it and bring it to the attention of the Powers That Be.
However, today, pages are assembled on a computer and the individual strips are simply pulled into a box on a template. The operator doesn't have to see the strip so much as monitor the fact that it popped in and fit.
Then, rather than printing as a full-sized negative or set of negatives to be hand-fitted for burning onto a metal plate for printing, the plate itself prints out and is crimped and fitted onto the press without anyone seeing the images on it.
Thus a cartoon goes from the syndicate to the breakfast table without being seen.
Until the editor's phone starts ringing.
Now here's your moment of zen:
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