Comic Strip of the Day Editorial cartooning

CSotD: Quick Draw Reactions

Kristi Noem’s sudden fall from grace called for some quick reactions from cartoonists and I think they acquitted themselves well as a group. Not every take was brilliant, but several were quite good, particularly from a cold start. I’m sure there will be some others landing in the next day or two, but you snooze, you lose, and with things coming at us so fast lately, you’ve got to be quick on the draw.

Dogs figured in a lot of cartoons, but I particularly like McKee’s, because the reason Noem’s shooting of her puppy was so astonishing was, first, that she seemed proud of it and bragged about the leadership it showed. Well, McKee shows Trump finally stepping up to his duties here, though he isn’t bragging about it.

In fact, not only did Trump take her out to the gravel pit, but then he told us the governmental equivalent of that old story that she’d been adopted by an old couple in the country where she’d have lots of room to run around. To scale it up, he said he was naming her “special envoy for The Shield of the Americas,” which drew a lot of Marvel Universe jokes but didn’t fool many people.

Ohman throws in the goat that she also took pride in shooting that day, apparently for no reason beyond his acting like a goat. I think the goat deserves a place at the hearings, too, but they don’t get nearly as much sympathy as puppies, mostly, I think, because so few people encounter them on a regular basis. Note the halos, by the way: These are the actual slaughtered animals, speaking from the grave.

In the hearings that sealed her fate, Tom Tillis berated her for taking a 14-month-old, largely untrained puppy on a hunt in the first place, and added that her incompetence as a dog trainer and cruelty as a human being were what cost poor Cricket her life.

I think you could level the same charges at Trump for assembling an entire Cabinet of poorly trained puppies.

I think Cousineau fails by suggesting that Trump is cold-blooded, and by showing other heads on stakes. This is the first firing in his current administration and, as said, he softened it with that ridiculous story about making her a special envoy to the Justice League of America.

I think the country, and the world, would be better off if he were more inclined to lop off heads, though her side piece, Cory Lewandowski, also got the gate.

Still, there’s plenty of blame to be shared among the Senators who confirmed the appointments of these dabblers and incompetents. At least Noem chose an excellent breed as the gun dog she never knew how to train.

Telnaes was among several cartoonists who portrayed Cricket’s revenge, and she kept it simple, though Cricket was female and probably more inclined to squat. However, my little female does add to markings, and, besides, we don’t know that this good dog is Cricket anyway.

Anderson, for instance, portrays Cricket’s revenge as being carried out by her friends and relatives. He also makes it into a dumping of Noem and her bankie, which carries a mafia-like message about screwing up and embarrassing Dear Leader.

Pope criticizes Canadian PM Mark Carney and Australian PM Anthony Albanese for their failure to stand up to the bull(y) the way Spanish PM Pedro Sanchez did, refusing to allow the US to use the jointly run bases at Morón and Rotafor to strike Iran, saying

Spain opposes this catastrophe, because we understand that governments are there to improve people’s lives, to solve problems, not to worsen them. And it is absolutely unacceptable that leaders who are incapable of fulfilling this task use the smokescreen of war to mask their incompetence and line the pockets of a select few.

Trump has threatened to cut off trade with Spain in revenge, but Sanchez remains unmoved and German Chancellor Friedrich Merz advised Dear Leader that trade with Europe is an all-or-nothing proposition.

Kelley takes a different view of the war, but he may have stumbled into a logical flaw by noting how happy ex-pat Iranians seem to be about the American attacks. There are reasons that people choose to leave the land where they, and their ancestors, were born, and the bulk of ex-pat Iranians aren’t likely to be fans of the current government.

Given the demonstrations that have rocked Tehran in recent weeks and earlier than that, it shouldn’t be hard to find jubilant Iranians there, too, but there are reports that the Republican Guard is on edge, and going out to publicly celebrate is definitely not advised.

Meanwhile, there are plenty of people there, particularly out away from Tehran itself, who are loyal to the current government and don’t want to have Dear Leader choose their next head of state.

Juxtaposition of the Day

Gas prices have already risen in response to the closure of the Strait of Hormuz, through which passes about 20% of the world’s petroleum. It’s certainly true that this cut in supply has not yet been felt at the pumps, or even, yet, at the refineries, and both Hudson and Davies accuse the companies of profiteering.

However, in all fairness, gas prices are traditionally based on replacement cost, and it has always been more than an issue of LIFO or FIFO, but, rather, a longer view of anticipated cost. You are not required to approve of this, but it is how the industry has always operated.

Though if Dear Leader takes over both Venezuela and Iran, he’ll have access to plenty of petroleum and he’ll probably cut prices down to pure cost rather than take any sort of profit. After all, as Karoline Leavitt has explained, he makes no profit from being president and, indeed, has lost money while in office.

And if you believe that, I know a guy who will sell you a seaside condo in Gaza.

Anyhow, here’s a song for Kristi, who should have been nicer to Cricket, who I’m sure would have given her and Cory a place to crash, as long as they brought their own blanket:

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Comments 27

  1. Remind me again, where and when did I hear the old “we’ll be greeted as liberators!” before? How’d that turn out?

    Funnily enough, I just saw video last night of the parents of the girls in the school that was targeted in our “not-politically-correct” war. I don’t recall seeing many happy faces or dancing in it. Steve Kelley must not get the same channels I do.

    (And, as an aside, why is Obama even in the cartoon? Wingnuts can’t seem to stop themselves from beating that dead horse.)

    1. I don’t disagree with your other points, but that is Minority House Leader Hakeem Jeffries (not Obama) being portrayed next to Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer.

      1. I think Abby Normal can be forgiven insofar it looks to me like Kelley reused an old Obama caricature to portray Jeffries.

  2. Prices this week at the Sheetz near me (Central PA): $3.19/gal on Monday, $3.39 Wednesday, and $3.89 Thursday. The Weiss across the street has stayed at $3.19.

    1. Pretty much the same at Wawa.

  3. Noem’s transfer is a calculated move and reassignment to defend the western hemisphere…not a firing. Trump’s crushing it and 10 steps ahead.

    1. To loosely quote the bar psychiatrist: tell me, Joe, what color is the sky in your world?

      1. The color of the sky is whatever God-Emperor DJT says it is, obvs. I’d feel sorry for knobs like Joe if they weren’t responsible for throwing my country down a hole.

  4. These cartoons about dogs are great, but they completely miss the point about WHY Noem got fired. Trump doesn’t care about dogs, or pets in general. He is the first President to not have a pet (I think, but it is at least a long running tradition). A man who treats other people like animals, certainly would think even less of actual animals. I honestly don’t even think that the deaths of 2 Americans in ICE activity, or the affair, or the over spending, or the funding stalling moved the needle at all.

    Her cardinal sin, was saying that the 220mil she spent on advertising herself (and sometimes DHS), which she improperly fast tracked out of a competitive bidding process so that she can line the pockets of friends/family, was supported by Trump himself. When something works right, all the credit goes to Trump, but when something has a negative perception, his acolytes are expected to take the bullet, even when it is his fault.

    Noem misread the room. She thought that by saying Trump supported it would provide some credibility or at least weight behind it, lend some authority. Instead, because she couldn’t understand that this specific topic had very negative optics (only Trump can publicly grift, cronies are expected to be more subtle) she came off as trying to shield herself, instead of taking the bullet. Heck, its possible that Trump did actually give her the support to do it, but she didn’t read the room and realize how unpopular it was.

    This is exactly why she was fired, instead of taking a bullet, she dodged it and it hit Trump. It was never about her dogs, her affairs or her other various misdeeds. Incompetence can be dealt with and is even an asset, but not protecting the king is a death sentence in a loyalty driven administration.

    1. Good summary, Derek; totally agree.

      1. Yes, point made perhaps too quickly in the comments on Anderson’s cartoon. I deleted (for space) a comparison of Jimmy being whacked in Goodfellas not for killing a made man so much as for not respecting Paulie in doing so. Respect is foremost.

      2. “Jimmy” ? You mean “Tommy”, don’t you? Joe Pesci played Tommy DeVito in Goodfellas, purportedly got whacked for killing Billy Batts. But who knows really? It’s a damn movie after all.

        😀

      3. Yes, Jimmy was DeNiro’s character. My bad. And it’s just a damn movie, but a damn good movie.

    2. I agree that she was fired for making Dear Leader look bad, but does it matter that the cartoons feature dogs? I’d like to suggest that it doesn’t. I don’t read any of the cartoons here as saying that she was fired because she killed Cricket.* Of course, it’s Friday evening and I’m tired, so maybe I’m missing something. Noem is best known, or at least widely known, for the Dog Incident, and it seems reasonable** that dogs all over would be rejoicing. It’s also easier to portray. I’m not sure how I’d depict looking Dear Leader look bad in a way that would be as recognizable as a dog cartoon.

      *Chris Hayes pointed out that Cricket lasted as long as her tenure at DHS.
      **Suspend your disbelief. I’m talking metaphor.

  5. Don’t forget about the killing and other atrocities from ICA – at her instigation and “leadership”. Dark “humor”, but almost everything about the Trump administration is dark – except his oranageness.

  6. I actually don’t believe ANY of Trump’s corrupt and lickspittle cabinet are in it for the money or the respect of Trump. I believe every single one of them has aspirations for the 2028 nomination, and Noem was especially transparent about becoming the heir apparent, reflecting Dear Leader’s cruelty, narcissism and human indifference.

    Trump not only doesn’t care about dogs, he actively spews his hatred for them with every chance he gets when insulting people he despises, showing a curious ignorance that “cheats like a dog,” “lies like a dog” and “ugly as a dog” have never been popular idioms. My theory is that sometime during his infancy, childhood, teen years or adulthood (perhaps all of the above), he teased, threw rocks at, or kicked a canine of some kind, who, like the 13-year-old Epstein victim, took a big bite out of him instead of licking him (in the latter’s case, this finally explains/corroborates Stormy Daniels’ graphic description). I’d love to see his behavior if someone asked him to hold their pup for him, just to watch him recoil in terror and order its execution as a domestic terrorist.

    1. I’m not sure what happened the other times he was bitten by a dog that he had teased, but as a young adult he tormented one of those little terriers who chewed him badly about the ankles, an injury which resulted in the formation of bone spurs. Ever since, he has regretted that the incident has prevented him from showing what he sees as his truly valour by going to war. Unfortunately, his fragile ego does not allow him to see that it was his own errors that caused this and so he visits its consequences on others.

  7. It’s had little coverage in the corporate media, but Interior Secretary Berglum has been in Venezuela this week.
    Berglum is a ‘former’ oil industry executive who joined Noem in turning the Dakotas into a boom & bust environmental disaster.

    1. Sorry. His name is Bergum. I guess I’ve been pretty glum this month.

      Why does Steve Kelley exist?

  8. Let’s look on the bright side…only 1,051 more days to go.

  9. The U.S. has been the world’s largest oil producer for nearly a decade. Obama set energy independence as a national goal, and thanks to the shale oil boom, he basically achieved it. The U.S. now produces more oil than the next two countries (Saudi Arabia and Russia) combined. Of course, some people got flammable drinking water as a result, but the argument was that flammable drinking water was better than wars in the Middle East.

    The problem is that, as the world’s largest oil producer, U.S. oil companies benefit tremendously from higher oil prices (especially because the cost of extracting oil from shale in the U.S. is significantly higher than extracting crude in the Middle East) — and wars in the Middle East happen to be very good for bringing oil prices up. So now instead of going to war to take the oil, we’re going to war to keep it off the market.

    Not only do higher prices benefit U.S. oil producers, they also hurt China, which is dependent on imported oil. In fact, oil is one of the very few foreign products China really needs. So anti-China hawks also like higher oil prices.

    Biden pursued a strategy of trying to keep oil prices low to de-fund Russia’s war in Ukraine and to try to keep inflation under control. Trump, to the extent he has a strategy, seems to be following a strategy of high oil prices — consumers be damned.

    By the way: if “world’s largest oil producer” sounds like an enviable title, remember that the USSR also held that crown just before its collapse.

  10. …”special envoy to the Justice League of America”…..Hilarious. Ann Telnaes cartoon the best of the bunch.

  11. Hamas and Hezbollah will do a bang-up job running Iran for the next 10 years.

    1. Hamas will not be tolerated in Iran; they are Sunni. Hezbollah, OTOH. . .

  12. JLA? I can see her as the modern Element Woman. By the way, it’s just the Justice League these days and Superman no longer fights for “the American way”. The overseas market, y’know.

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