CSotD: Stating What Should Be Obvious
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I wish more cartoonists had spoken up before Dear Leader reached his out-of-court settlement, but my impression is that it isn’t a done-deal yet, at least in part because his lawyers failed to file the appropriate papers. Which is the sort of thing that happens when you hire people who won’t tell you when you are screwing up: They screw up, too.
In any case, the judge had just been about to rule on whether it was possible to sue yourself, which was what the case amounted to, and had plenty of amicus briefs and suchlike pointing out that Dear Leader controlled both his own matters and the IRS.
And she may still be able to cancel a settlement that isn’t in the interests of justice. I was once in the room for a plea deal when, after the sentencing plan was explained, the defendant was asked to enter his plea. He said, “Guilty, but I didn’t do it,” at which point the process halted.
We can hope for something along those lines, but it will help if the Democrats continue to let the judge know where they stand, which in turn relies on the public letting their legislators know how they feel about it.
So I hope cartoonists keep up the pressure, because while I’m sure Dear Leader never sees the newspapers, congressional staffers do.
The other evening I had Nichole Wallace on and while I generally enjoy the conversations, they’re certainly one-sided, so I decided to switch over the Fox and see how they were covering things. Turned out instead of having experts offer slanted-but-insightful views of the news, they were just sitting around swapping wisecracks and giggling.
The guy in Bagley’s cartoon looks a lot like Jesse Watters, who is frequently quoted for wisecracks and giggling, and while his shallowness (and tragically fragile masculinity) may be appalling to some of us, there’s no doubt he is popular with some others of us.
And we all vote, or at least we should all try.
There have been plenty of drinking fountain cartoons in response to the SCOTUS undermining of the Voting Rights Act, but Bennett’s stands out because he addresses the notion that it’s all about Republican/Democratic representation, which it sorta kinda is.
But which it also sorta kinda is not, because if 90% of a particular group votes a particular way, you’re excluding them no matter how genteelly you phrase things. And we’ve all heard the joke about the Southern Belle who learned to say “Fascinating!” because it sounded so uncouth to say “Bullsh*t!”
The explanations for gerrymandering are indeed fascinating, and Horsey sums them up well.
But I heard Stacy Abrams give a more straightforward analysis of all this on the Guardian’s new podcast, in which she not only explained the current situation but pointed out that the struggle has advanced a long way since her father was arrested at 14 for registering Black voters in Dixie, while her mother, at the same age, was apparently just more adept at evading the authorities.
Crowe offers a solution, and he’s not alone in suggesting that it’s time to reinvigorate the voter registration drives of the Freedom Summer of 1964. That wasn’t an easy time, and people were murdered for participating in the voter registration drives, but it changed the nation and it would be criminal neglect to let the nation change back.
There may not be a need for actual buses, but there is definitely a need for clipboards, for courage and for energy.
Fortunately, Stacy Abrams isn’t the only Black person who was raised to expect decent, fair treatment by parents who had, in their youth, lived under Jim Crow. Tennessee may be able to shut out Black representation in their legislators, and strip those they deem “uppity” of their committee assignments, but nobody is going to the back of the bus anymore.
I told you so
Constant Readers will recall that I ran this Henry Payne cartoon a few days ago and marveled at his resurrecting Anthony Fauci and blaming him for the response to the hantavirus outbreak.
Well, Newsguard, which “tracks the false claims and conspiracy theories that shape our world — and who’s behind them,” reports a dingbat rumor that may explain things:
It’s nonsense, and little surprise that it started out on Xitter. That’s not to say that a journalist couldn’t get a lead on a story there, but given Xitter’s stew of bots, propagandists and conspiracy buffs, you’d be both foolish and irresponsible not to seek confirmation from a more dependable source.
Start with this advice: Anyone posting a factual news story will include a link to the aforementioned “dependable source.” Distrust any unlinked report as gossip.
And that’s true across all social media, not just Xitter.
Here’s a more complex commentary. I don’t often agree with Varvel, but this one poses an uphill battle, because there’s so much chatter about students and AI that you can readily find confirmation that kids are using it to boost their grades. And certainly some are.
Asha Rangappa mourned Princeton’s cancellation of its 133-year-old honor code, which blamed the ease of cheating, made possible by AI and small electronic devices, for the decision.
However, she cited both a study and a Yale presentation that differ from the common wisdom:
You’d think that the main reason would be that they’re trying to get a good grade. But efficiency, not grades, seems to be the primary motivation. The students just don’t see the point in spending a lot of time, say, generating their own ideas for a paper or working through multiple iterations of them
Without denying that there are some students obsessed with grades, I’d agree that most students just want to graduate, however they manage it.
Juxtaposition of the Day
Slingstad may be right that the best part of statues of proud politicians is that you can pull them down, while Wexler captures their main function until that happy day.
And if you have to say it’s not a Golden Calf, it’s a Golden Calf.
My Irish pub band used to sing a song on the topic:
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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