CSotD: Power of the Press
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The banishment of the press has ended, thanks to some solidarity among the press corps and a judge who had apparently read the Constitution. However, as anticipated here Wednesday, the boycott cost Dear Leader a lot of coverage of the arrival of Xi Jinping.
We can assume this bothered Trump, since he had taken the unprecedented step of meeting Xi at Andrews instead of greeting him at the White House but, it being an international story, there was coverage that included a photo of him saluting the national anthem instead of placing his hand over his heart as a non-veteran or anyone not in uniform should do, and then, as Morland noticed, visibly wincing at the roar of the flyover while Xi stood impassively next to him.
Morland takes the message advanced by other commentators that the scenario demonstrated that this was not a meeting of two equals but indicated, rather, that Xi is in a dominant position. MSNBC even aired a clip of Xi’s last visit, when he was greeted at the White House by a relaxed, friendly Obama without a lot of fanfare and certainly without any wincing.
Relaxed. Friendly. Come on, work with me here.
Juxtaposition of the Day
Espinoza is more direct in his appraisal of their relationship, while Varvel demonstrates the sort of commentary Trump may have had in mind when he said he thought the Chinese press was preferable to our own.
It’s certainly polite to echo Trump’s viewpoint that he won’t ask for limits on our development of artificial intelligence because of the risk that China would get ahead of us, but there’s no indication that he said that directly to Xi, and no evidence that we have any material advantage over Beijing.
We’ve even reversed a ban on selling them advanced chips, with 25% of revenue going to our Central Government, which owns a portion of Nvidia but is definitely neither Marxist, socialist nor communist.
But as Mike Smith suggested before the meeting, Trump may well feel himself at a disadvantage, which would explain why he stated a preference for “friendly” news coverage in which reporters who stray from the official version of things can be locked up indefinitely.
Trump was unhappy to see Kaitlan Collins covering his appearance at the United Nations, and he can’t have been pleased with her explanation that his ban, still in force at that point, did not apply to events beyond the White House.
What’s the point of being a dictator if you can’t dictate stuff?
Trump is all in favor of the free press, as long as they abide by the needs of national security. But it turns out that one of the Big Fat Secrets they reported on came not from a leak by an insubordinate subordinate but from a security risk named James Bowman, who covers up his disloyal spreading of secrets by doing so under the assumed name of JD Vance.
But no danger: As Anderson notes, nobody is tampering with the top-secret Epstein files. Well, except these guys.
Coming to a parking lot near you!
In other news, there’s still no word from Senator McConnell, but we have at least seen him and he has apparently voted in the Senate, so whether or not he has anything to say or the ability to say it is a minor issue. In case you missed it in the comments the other day, Kentucky has changed their law so that Democratic Gov. Beshear cannot simply appoint a replacement, and so apparently all those Weekend at Bernie’s cartoons were prophecies, not jokes.
A joke would be more like this.
Granlund came up with something I hadn’t thought of but certainly should have, because here in New Hampshire we have a ballot proposal coming up that would cap school budgets, which puts me in mind of a school board budget meeting I covered in Maine.
The school there not only was adding wood pellet heating for their main building but had had students design and build a windmill that generated power to augment their utilities. However, while the pellet furnace was being evaluated and purchased and installed, they were facing a serious increase in the cost of heating oil.
I assume that by now that school is heated by wood pellets, but other schools in other places still rely on heating oil, though I suppose that if they can’t afford to run their buses, they won’t have to heat their empty buildings. And we’re talking 30 mile routes, so don’t tell the kids to walk.
Maybe we need a national ballot measure to cap the cost of petroleum. Or at least one that requires enforcement of Article 1, section 8.
Here’s Looking at You, Kid
Not sure why this latest technological development is being mocked by British cartoons, because it was announced in Menlo Park the other day that Meta is now offering smart glasses without cameras, presumably available everywhere.
As Jennings and Venables suggest, this is an opportunity to look like a perv without actually being a perv, which seems a lot like a way to look like a dork. Or perhaps a way to look like the kind of dork who wants people to think he’s a perv. And for only $529.
The coverage in the Guardian explains that, according to Meta, “the new glasses with screens in the lenses squeeze capabilities previously reserved for a full headset into a light set of spectacles that rest on a user’s ears.” Which I guess would be pretty handy if you have been burdened by walking around in a full headset.
The stripped down perv glasses — and, BTW, I think once they’ve become known as “perv glasses,” you’ve already lost the marketing war — allow you to make phone calls, listen to music and consult with AI. They just don’t include a camera.
As it happens, I already have a device that lets me make phone calls, listen to music, consult AI and even take pictures, and it fits right in my pocket.
I don’t know if anyone thinks I’m a pervert, but at least I don’t have it scrawled across my face.
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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