CSotD: Random Stuff
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I like Molina’s political commentary and agree that it feels as if the Trump gang just pulled an oldie-but-goodie campaigning point out of the files. Maybe it’s a hangover from Dear Leader’s early reliance on Tailgunner Joe’s old lawyer, Roy Cohn. It’s a stupid, pointless, evil thing to grab at, but we’ve seen stupid, pointless, evil things work for this crew before, so it shouldn’t be dismissed.
But what I particularly like is that I looked at this and said to myself that Molina had done an excellent job of imitating Herblock’s style, which is particularly appropriate because he was influential back in the days of the Red Scare. And then I saw the “apologies” note and smiled to myself because when you nail it this well, you don’t have to tell us your inspiration.
Well done.
As long as we’re playing with history, here’s some. This cartoon ran on the front of the January 30, 1973 issue of Straight Creek Journal, an alternative paper in Denver. The issue mattered to me because inside was my first non-college article, for which, BTW, I was paid nada, because that’s how publishing in alternative media often worked.
My copy disappeared in one of the 10,000 moves I’ve made since then, but the cartoon — obviously drawn upon LBJ’s death — stuck in my mind and I have often searched for it with no luck. Last week, however, I stumbled across an on-line archive of odd Colorado publications and there it was and now I know why I never found a copy elsewhere.
Check out the signature. It was drawn by Ed Stein, then of the College Press Service, and perhaps wasn’t published elsewhere. It’s nothing like his work since, but remains a curious vestige of a time we were two young guys kicking around the Mile High City unbeknownst to each other.
I hope they were paying him, because this is a really nice piece of work.
I mentioned this in the comments the other day, but then got curious and tracked it down again. It’s from April 2, 1897, a time when a lot of reporters were former copy boys and clerks and would have learned Morse code in those lowly positions.
The date is about a month after McKinley’s first inauguration, but stories like this tended to kick around awhile, so it may have actually happened sooner. McKinley was technically pretty hip and had been inaugurated before a movie camera and had the ceremony audially recorded. When the war with Spain broke out, he set up a large room full of telegraph machines on the second floor of the White House to make sure he knew how things were going.
Which conjures up an amusing picture of the new president seeing where the old telegraph office was and where the reporters sat waiting and getting all kinds of scoops. Don’t know if he was amused or horrified, but I wish I’d been there.
You will note that this did not put an end to leaks in the White House, but reporters have had to work harder for them.
One more historical note: I have no particular insights about Jay Clayton, our newly confirmed director of national intelligence, but every time I see his name, I read it as Jan Clayton, who was Jeff’s mom on the original Lassie program.
I’m sure either one of them would be better than Tulsi Gabbard, as would Lassie.
And now for some national unintelligence: The case against James Comey is falling apart even faster than anyone might have expected, though we should remember that even these idiotic indictments not only require the target to pay an attorney but spark a flood of harassment and death threats.
It’s also a sign of how deeply the DOJ is in the control of a temperamental nincompoop who, in any other position, would be fired rather than obeyed. Working for him is like being sent for a left-handed monkey wrench or to bring back 50 feet of shoreline, only you get to make a fool of yourself on a national stage and possibly risk disbarment.
Meidas quotes a Politico report that the indictment relies on “8647” being a credible threat on Trump’s life, based on the term “86” being Mafia slang for murder. But Sammy the Bull Gravano begged to differ, and sent Comey’s defense team to interview former mob prosecutor John Gleeson, who told them
The claim that ‘86’ is mafia jargon for ‘kill’ is preposterous. If it weren’t made in the context of seeking to deprive a man of his liberty, it would be laughable.
Meanwhile, Joyce Vance has a significantly detailed takedown of the case, which is nonsensical but still has to be defended because you never know these days what sort of loyalist lickspittle may be sitting on the bench. On the other hand, she reproduced the table of contents of the defense’s brief, as an indicator of how incredibly stupid the case is:
Pam Bondi earlier disproved the old maxim that you can indict a ham sandwich by failing to convince the grand jury that a submarine sandwich was a deadly weapon. But the fact that DOJ was able to indict Comey for photographing seashells is why you have to stifle your giggles and defend the case as if it made some sort of sense.
He who laughs last, and all that.
Juxtaposition of the Day
A mere sampling of the outraged response to FIFA’s cunning plan to sell off 20% of itself to investors headed by — wait for it — Joshua Kushner, Jared’s brother.
Just when you thought nobody could hate FIFA and Gianni Infantino any more than they already do, and that they had already sold out as much as possible.
But this cunning plan may not go anywhere, because it relies on selling shares in running the World Cups, both men’s and women’s, and if the deal goes through, they may have to play those tourneys without anyone from European, North American or Asian teams, since EUFA, Concacaf and the Asian Football Confederation are boycotting all FIFA events over the move.
Infantino got the job as head of FIFA because his predecessor was too corrupt.
“Hold my beer” indeed.
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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