CSotD: The Blame Game
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Venables makes an important point: It’s not over. It’s not clear where we are now, but it is clear that all the same players are still present, and there’s no reason to think any of them plan to change their spots just because one crisis has been put aside. Sort of.
In fact, German points out, the immediate crisis has only kinda sorta been put aside, given that Israel has decided that the ceasefire doesn’t apply to their desire to wipe out southern Lebanon. Though of course it’s important to remember that criticizing Mussolini meant you hated Catholics, criticizing the leaders of the Democratic Republic of the Congo means you hate Black people and criticizing Netanyahu means you’re antisemitic.
In any case, and why ever you feel that way, it’s a little hard at the moment to tell how much Israel’s actions threaten the fragile peace in Iran, but it certainly does seem, as German suggests, that they’re in a position to deep six what peace we’ve got, and if they were to put down their weapons, it would then be someone else’s fault if the ceasefire didn’t hold.
It’s not as if every world leader doesn’t seem to have enemies at the moment, though some only by virtue of their connections to one of the above.
As Morland points out, some of those alliances are hard to parse. Apparently both Trump and Putin want to see Viktor Orban win his upcoming election, and it’s not just a vague wish for the American administration: They’ve dispatched JD Vance to Hungary to actively campaign on the dictator’s behest.
But why not? If we can still pal around with Putin while he passes on intelligence to the Iranians so they can target our military bases in the Middle East, what exactly are the limits to who we like and why?
I’m old enough to remember rightwingers screaming “Go back to Russia!” at antiwar protesters during Vietnam. Now they blame George Soros, who most of them couldn’t pick out of a lineup. I don’t know if they hate him for being Hungarian, for being Jewish or because they’ve been told to hate him.
I don’t suppose looking for logical answers is a particularly wise use of anyone’s time at the moment.
Though if you are trying to figure out who’s who, Sorensen has assembled a little quiz for you to ponder. She’s not the first person to go this route, but as long as “Bellicose Babblers” continue to make threats, it will be worthwhile, and it’s particularly valuable because she’s apparently not making any of it up.
Lord knows, between people who think this is a time for amateur satire and those who share startling accusations without any proof of its validity, it’s getting difficult to sort out the real stuff. I’ve been to five rodeos, I’ve gone to the National Stock Show three times and I’ve attended countless cowboy street breakfasts, but I think that, in the last 24 hours, I’ve doubled the total amount of horse and bull dooty I’ve ever seen, right here on the Intertubes.
And that’s not counting the kind of “drone attack” Judge points out that we’re all subject to. It is good to see some Congress Critters stand up and point out that Dear Leader appears to have slipped a cog or two, though I’m not sure what they can do about it. The 25th Amendment (A) isn’t going to happen, since the cabinet has to approve it and (B) would give us President Vance, which isn’t much of an improvement.
And we certainly can’t contemplate impeachment until after the midterms, if we can hold out that long while Dear Leader monkeys with the system.
And note, too, that, before Nixon was faced with certain impeachment, they just happened to coincidentally boot out Spiro and replace him with Gerald Ford.
As Emmerson says, there is a deafening silence coming from Congress despite the crisis down the street in the Executive Branch. Not only do they not stand up to Dear Leader, but when he threatened an absolute, textbook genocide in Iran, they didn’t even come back into session.
To once more cite my experience with rodeos and suchlike, the traditional term describing our current Legislative Branch of our government is “tits on a bull.”
The antidote is to preserve our voting rights and sign up as many sane people as you can find before November.
Brown suggests that sitting around waiting for Dear Leader to come to his senses seems futile at best. He can make blunder after blunder and never think that perhaps he was in error. Quite the opposite: He’s proud of having done things that, in other nations, would prompt resignation.
And Brown’s depiction of him in a straitjacket is a reminder that, like OJ Simpson and Jeff MacDonald, he honestly, sincerely believes himself to be completely innocent.
Anderson accuses Hegseth of being a narcissist, but there’s plenty of toxic narcissism available to spread around, and, yes, any faults revealed of a narcissist are both wrong and someone else’s fault.
Boris points out that Vladimir Putin doesn’t need pee tapes or other compromising blackmail materials to keep Trump where he wants him. Putin was building a career in the KGB while Trump was building, and bankrupting, hotels and casinos.
A modest Trump would recognize the mismatch and bring experts aboard to assist in dealing with the Russian, but Trump was valedictorian of his college class and turned down a chance to be a professional athlete and also believes he can pull “The Art of the Deal” on Putin.
Putin knows he doesn’t have to make an effort and can just reap the benefits of dealing with an unqualified, prideful amateur.
At the moment, however, I think Adams has things sized up most accurately: Everybody claims to have won, nobody admits having lost and there’s nothing to be gained by trying to learn either from what did happen, from what nearly did happen or from what never did happen.
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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