CSotD: Easter Monday Clean-up
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This being Easter Monday, my jaunt through the cartoons was quick, with most cartoonists apparently pausing for the holiday, which I understand. But Ed Wexler leapt upon Dear Leader’s profane, hostile, unhinged social media posting at least enough to point out how undignified the F-bomb was.
It’s fair to note that Trump is not the only president to have used profanity, and to concede that one weapon in the journalist’s toolbox, if you dislike someone, is to quote him accurately and not clean up his grammatical errors, his um’s and like’s and his occasional profanity.
However, the term “expletive deleted” was frequent in Nixon’s White House tapes because he was talking to his staff, not to the press. It was definitely off the record because he wouldn’t have spoken that way with a reporter present.
Trump deliberately dropped that F-bomb in a Truth Social posting. You can’t blame anyone but him for the fact that the public saw it.
And I think Wexler is right that his MAGA faithful find it bold and courageous, though if anyone talked like that at dinner, they’d reach across the table, slap his face and demand an apology.
Which brings us to David Rowe’s commentary on the posting. Thanks to being in Australia, Rowe is often first off the mark in commenting on recent events and he’s also less hampered by propriety than most American cartoonists.
Normally, Dear Leader’s F-bomb would be lightened in the press to something cute and inoffensive like “F-bomb,” and I’ve eliminated a few cartoons from consideration here because they used profanity for no particular reason beyond emphasis.
But Trump’s vulgarity, in combination with its intentional use, its overall hostility and its bizarre inappropriateness on the holiest day in the Christian calendar, makes it necessary and newsworthy to quote him directly.
And besides, that ghastly, offensive timing is another proof of his faux-Christian posing, in which he claims to read the Bible but can’t quote a single verse or properly name a book within it, and speaks of “eating my little cracker” rather than “taking communion.” Not to mention allowing someone to compare him to Jesus in a blasphemous, literal way.
He seems the personification of Christ’s warning against hypocrites who “love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by others.” Quoting him directly is a necessary part of journalism, either for reporting or for commentary.
So Rowe’s profanity appears here as reasonable, necessary commentary, which doesn’t mean that every cartoonist who spices up his work with F-bombs is now going to gain admission, and I imagine most editors would similarly prefer to take angry phone calls over something more substantive.
It’s like showing up for a job interview without your pants.
Continuing the Easter theme, Heller uses the bunny to comment on our prospects for success in Iran, or possibly Ohio. I’m not sure that stretch of Eurasia is the “Mideast” rather than the “Middle East,” though I’ll acknowledge which term fits more easily on a shield.
What I am sure of is that Western nations entering into war there are fighting a Holy War whether or not they recognize it themselves, and not only is it impossible to kill off every militant believer, but the more people you kill, the more intent the survivors become upon vengeance.
You might as well try to help that Nigerian prince move his money as go to war in the Middle East. Either way, it’s a chump’s game and you can’t win.
Another Aussie chimes in to emphasize not only the futility of Trump’s adventurism but his lack of solid reasoning and the negative impact he is having on the world economy.
Pope’s choice of metaphors also reminds us that all the king’s horses and all the king’s men are not going to be able to undo the harm of Trumpty Dumpty’s ill-considered failure. Australia gets its petroleum from refineries in Asia, which get their crude oil from the Middle East, and it doesn’t matter because oil is priced worldwide, not by region.
Which, incidentally, is why America’s potential oil independence isn’t going to cut prices at the pump for us, either, which may hit $6 a gallon, even with a rapid end to the war. All the king’s horses and all the king’s men notwithstanding.
I heard a story on NPR yesterday about the big tax returns people are getting, thanks to Trump’s breaks, and how they’re taking vacations and buying cars with the money, and my response was that these dumb bunnies are gonna wish they’d saved it, because not only will gas keep climbing but the price of anything brought to market with gas or diesel or jet fuel is going to climb, and USPS is joining private carriers in adding fuel surcharges.
Juxtaposition of the Day
Keep your hands off your 401k!
If you’re old enough to currently be drawing from it, it’s now an IRA, not a 401k anymore, and if you’re not that old, then let it ride because stocks follow the economy and it will one day look okay again.
Also, if you are nearing retirement age, you should have it set to gradually, automatically reduce volatility so that, by now, it’s no longer bouncing along with the Dow Jones. If you’re nearing retirement and didn’t do that, it’s a little late and certainly not the right time to be playing around with it.
But assuming you’re not retired, there are a lot of things you can do that will be better than raiding your 401k and paying taxes and penalties. If you’re got teenage kids, send them to work at McDonald’s for $18 an hour. Take a second mortgage. Sell plasma.
Sell your second car, or at least park it, and either start carpooling or using public transit. If you park it, mail the keys to a friend who lives at least 300 miles away so you won’t be able to cheat.
But don’t compound the damage by messing with your 401k.
Anyway, Easter is over now, and you can resume your normal life.
Though watch out: There may be penalties for early withdrawal.
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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