CSotD: Friends Near and Far
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The World Cup hasn’t kicked off yet and we’re already reaping the whirlwind that began with FIFA creating a “peace prize” for our president.
If Rifai seems to be making a prediction of Trump defacing the World Cup, it’s more on target than FIFA’s awarding him a peace prize two months before he launched the current war in Iran (but six months after his initial bombing of that nation).
Juxtaposition of the Day
Goris depicts the image that has made some futbol fans nervous about coming to the United States for the World Cup, and Chappatte is more specific, though he posits a situation in which the Border Patrol and ICE worry about whether tourists are fans of the team when the real concern is whether they are fans of the host nation.
The fun has started before the first game, including one of the officials for the tournament having been refused entry despite being Africa’s leading soccer referee, or maybe because of that. Omar Artan was turned away because he is Somali and therefore in the crosshairs of the government’s hostility towards people from that nation.
Andrew Giuliani, executive director for the White House Task Force on the World Cup, said “We want people to be able to come here and enjoy this World Cup while also making sure that we can keep the country safe.”
FIFA backed up the exclusion: “In line with previous FIFA events, a host government ultimately determines who receives a visa and who is admitted into their country.”
Jones dropped this cartoon the day before Dear Leader was to attend the NBA playoff game at Madison Square Garden, where he indeed was caught nodding off in the course of the game.
The other prediction floating around was that fans would boo the president, which was a gimme, since, aside from his cratering approval rating overall, his attendance at the game required fans to show up two hours early for security screening, and cancellation of a block party outside Madison Square Garden where ticketless fans could watch the game on a big screen.
You might expect Trump to get booed in a notably Blue city in a notably Blue state, but I don’t consider Ann Coulter a left-wing libtard, which suggests that Dear Leader’s grip on his own end of the political spectrum seems to be slipping a bit.
He wasn’t the only politician at the game, but NYC Mayor Zohran Mamdani wasn’t booed because he apparently never turned up on the Jumbotron, having purchased a standing-room ticket for $1,000 rather than being gifted with a skybox seat.
And despite efforts to portray him as a commie villain, Mamdani is getting credit from other observers for working towards his promises and being an overall good guy, including his signing an executive order cancelling bedtime so kids could stay up and watch the finals on TV.
The Knicks and Spurs weren’t the only ones playing games last night.
A more serious issue of national imagery has been playing out overseas in the form, as Jennings suggests, of a nasty bout of Ugly Americanism, and while she frames it as Trump and Vance destroying America’s image, one of the most notable bits of damage came from within their administration, rather than directly from either of them.
Secretary of War Pete Hegseth — and that title is on the verge of becoming official — made a D-Day speech in Normandy that, the Guardian reports, was “condemned as grotesque stupidity,” by both historians and Britain’s prime minister.
Hegseth turned a memorial for those who died on that day into a political screed, saying “Sadly, today, different European beaches are stormed by different, dangerous ideologies,” and calling on European nations to resist immigration.
“When will European capitals do something about that invasion, or is it too late? I pray not, and I believe not,” he declared, adding “The men who fought and died here restored freedom to Europe. That freedom must be maintained by this generation of leaders and war fighters, or what they fought for was merely temporary.”
Vance has also angered Britons with anti-immigrant remarks about a murder which attracted Bok’s attention, though both got the story wrong.
The case involved a confrontation in which the perpetrator told police his victim had begun a fight with racist name-calling. The police cuffed the alleged perp, only then noticing a stab wound in his chest that proved fatal despite their CPR.
The sentencing report describes the incident in detail, and exonerates the officers — who were wearing body cams — for not immediately seeing the wound against the victim’s dark shirt or detecting his internal bleeding.
Vance took the opportunity to post a lengthy message on Xitter in which he blamed the killing on immigration:
He should still be alive today, and he would be if the last few generations of European elites had stood their ground against the politics of self-hatred and the mass invasion of migrants, many of whom despise the West and the people who love it.
Aside from the tone of his message, the problem was that the murderer was born in England. Vance assumed that, because he was Sikh, that he was a foreigner, making his entire hostile rant a product of anti-minority assumptions.
Prime Minister Starmer condemned Vance for “trying to interfere in our democracy and seeking to stir up division on our streets,” and condemned Reform Party leader Nigel Farage for his divisive remarks.
The Nowak family are grieving after Henry’s horrific murder. They have said they do not want his death to be used to create further division, hatred or tension. We should be respecting their wishes.
My fourth-grade social studies book. The introduction read:
The earth is my home. I want to know more about it.
I want to know more about the boys and girls of other races and other nations who share this earth with me. All of them are my friends. I want them to have nourishing food to eat, good clothes to wear, and comfortable homes in which to live.
I will do my best to make this a happy world, where people everywhere live always in happiness and peace.
I’m still trying.
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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