CSotD: Pressroom Potpourri
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Bagley and Telnaes are rarely this far apart politically, but that’s not the factor here: Bagley posted his cartoon prior to SCOTUS hearing the birthright citizen case, and Telnaes posted hers afterwards. It’s the difference between anticipation and realization, though I suppose what looks like an 8-1 or 7-2 victory for the plain-text of the Amendment could turn out otherwise.
Either way, whoever laughs last, laughs best.
Part of the problem is not doing your homework, and Dear Leader once more demonstrated his colossal ignorance: There are 30 nations in the world that offer birthright citizenship.
And when you don’t know what you’re talking about, you do well to hire people who do, but Trump’s solicitor general was stumped in this exchange:
JUSTICE GORSUCH: “Do you think Native Americans today are birthright citizens under your test?”
SOLICITOR GENERAL SAUER: “Uhh… I think so? I have to think that through.”
It’s an interesting question, because until about a century ago, they were not, which a good constitutional scholar should know because of a couple of keystone cases, but also because sovereignty is still an issue around reserves, where not everybody wants to be considered an American citizen.
Akwesasne, the Mohawk reserve that straddles the US/Canadian border, has constant issues of legal control and smuggling, because of treaty rights going back to the Jay Treaty. Anyone in law enforcement, border issues or government should know of these confrontations.
Sauer should have known that. And Gorsuch, being a Coloradan, probably did.
When I covered the 1990 Census, they put out a listing of tribes that smelled hinky, so I called around and no tribal authorities believed the numbers.
The serious side, a Colorado source said, was the number of people who left the Rez and became homeless.
But there were other issues: A Navajo tribal administrator laughed and said, “I wish they’d tell us. We have no idea how many people are out there.”
Which is an issue with the SAVE Act: A lot of Indians who claim US citizenship wouldn’t be able to vote because, particularly out West where reserves are huge, there are no street addresses. It might also be hard to come up with birth certificates. This is a way, intentionally or through thoughtlessness, that you can suppress the non-white vote.
It’s too soon to expect cartoons about last night’s National Address, but since he didn’t say anything new, older cartoons will work as well, and Zyglis seemingly credits Dear Leader with the ability to bamboozle the yokels, assuming that there is, in fact, a pea under one of those shells.
That may, however, prove to be an unwarranted assumption, though the notion that he likes to please the oil industry is hardly in question. Still, the number of cunning plans he previously spun into bankruptcy hardly makes him seem much of a con artist.
Juxtaposition of the Day
However much Dear Leader’s presidency has worked so far, his adventure in Iran has accomplished very little but to touch off an international oil crisis and potentially release a flood of terrorists on the world.
I don’t think anyone is defending the Iranian regime, but its nuclear ambitions had been under control and are still seemingly distant, and it’s not clear how destroying entire neighborhoods in Lebanon will make Hezbollah cease to exist.
It certainly won’t make them friendly.
The only person besides Netanyahu who approves of Trump’s war so far is Putin, who saw Dear Leader drop sanctions against Russian oil, restoring a much-missed source of income to a country that has apparently been assisting Iran in targeting US military installations.
And despite his declared intent to starve Cuba into submission, Trump also broke his own blockade and allowed a Russian oil tanker to make a delivery to the island.
In fact, there are any number of ways in which Dear Leader’s policies make it hard to envision Russia as an adversary, including his long-standing contempt for NATO, which exists primarily as a bulwark against Russian aggression.
And just as it’s not clear whether Dear Leader is Putin’s friend or adversary, it’s not clear he knows why NATO exists or what its treaty involves.
The treaty states that NATO nations will come to the aid of a member who is attacked. For instance, if Dear Leader decided to attack Denmark through Greenland, other members would be required to assist Denmark, and during that looming crisis, they began the agonizing process of planning to fulfill their treaty obligations.
And as Trump was reminded — or more likely informed for the first time — NATO nations came to our aid after the 9/11 attacks and, though he accused their troops of cowardice and malingering, fought and died alongside our own in Afghanistan and Iraq.
But NATO didn’t fight in Vietnam because we weren’t being attacked. And neither did Donald J. Trump, apparently due to cowardice and malingering.
Now we see military adventures right in America, where Apache helicopters have gone off-course to salute Trump fan Kid Rock. Normally, this type of skylarking would draw suspensions for the joyboys responsible, but Secretary of Manliness Pete Hegseth dropped the investigation of the crews because they were being patriotic when they disobeyed orders.
However, he dropped several Black and female officers from promotions lists for reasons undisclosed, though the NYTimes reports that Hegseth’s chief of staff, Ricky Buria, stopped promotion of another Black female officer because her new role would have put her in a prominent position at Arlington Cemetery events.
Mr. Buria told Mr. Driscoll that President Trump would not want to stand next to a Black female officer at military events, the officials said.
There are, amid all this drek, some hopeful signs. Steve Kelley, who it seems is always willing to throw shade on liberal concerns, has joined the call to keep a closer eye on insider trading that has been a concern for progressive cartoonists but seems not to be drawing fire from the rest of the mainstream press.
And Sorensen continues to make the logical connections between the various aspects of society that seem determined to add up to disaster.
Go thou and do likewise.
Mike Peterson has posted his "Comic Strip of the Day" column every day since 2010. His opinions are his own, but we welcome comments either agreeing or in opposition.
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