CSotD: Weekend Update
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Our little slapfight continues and the world — in this case, Ireland — watches with a combination of fascination and detachment, realizing that they dare not be too detached because of the global stakes at risk and they shouldn’t be too fascinated because it’s degrading to watch it like an episode of Jersey Shore.
Though here in America we’re watching the Gestapo/ICE raids with genuine horror, so that the cat fight serves as a bit of comic relief.
It is indeed a rare treat: In Gladiator, the emperor comes down into the arena and fights Maximus to the death, but in real life such wet work is carried out by lackeys.
Plus, Maximus was a good guy. I don’t know that it works to have two villains fighting each other, but it’s been entertaining so far.
I’ve seen other “couples therapy” gags, but Mellor makes the point that there may be collateral damage, though I suspect a lot of people are hoping for that. If nothing else strikes you as funny in this mess, see how he’s drawn the children.
Come on. Cowboy up.
We really shouldn’t pretend there aren’t other problems in the world that deserve our attention, and not only does Anne Derrene have a good grip on our response to Gaza but she printed this up in several languages because all sorts of people feel this way.
There has been a genuine effort to control media access to the target zone, but it has also taken, Wilcox says, a conscious effort to avoid knowing what goes on there, and that latter part seems to be getting a bit shaky. Reports have been emerging and examinations of various incidents have become common knowledge, and there is only so much you can avoid knowing.
There is the political side to be reckoned with, but not every country is entangled in the politics like the US is. Then again, even the entangled have limits on how long they can listen to explanations for civilian deaths.
American cartoonists may not want to wander into the political swamp, but Reynolds is in South Africa, Murdoch is from New Zealand and Wilcox is Australian. Their views seem different from the perspective in this country.
World support for the war is fading. After pianist Jayson Gillham made a statement about IDF forces targeting journalists, the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra cancelled a concert they had scheduled with him.
The resultant blowback from offended musicians and music lovers is credited with the MSO’s “biggest loss in its 118-year history, as legal bills and termination payments helped blow a $3.3 million hole in its budget.”
Americans have other issues to fight over, and we can hope the squabble between Trump and Musk will open the door to some genuine accounting of what the DOGE assault on the budget really accomplished.
Musk and his children’s crusade fell far, far short of their goals, and not just because many of the cuts they recommended were illegal. They fell for a bad case of Will Rogers’ Syndrome, in which, golly gee, people think complex problems are vulnerable to aw-shucks down-home solutions.
I love Judy Holiday, and it was inspiring when, in The Solid Gold Cadillac, she portrayed a common secretary who defeated the evil Big Wigs by collecting all the voting proxies from small investors around the country.
But the evil Big Wigs are too smart to leave that many voting shares out amongst the Great Unwashed, and they’ve found other ways to make sure simple solutions don’t frustrate their complicated intentions.
Hence the advice to be “shrewd as serpents and gentle as doves.” You don’t have to sell out, and you shouldn’t. But you’d better come up with a plan, and then keep your head on a swivel.
It’s doubtful that Musk had a real plan, and the best outcome of his feud with Trump may be an investigation into what he genuinely accomplished, plus a fracturing of the GOP bloc that has protected Dear Leader from criticism and opposing viewpoints.
Granlund warns, however, that those drowning in the resulting economic chaos should not expect a lot of help from anyone a notch above them.
In the days of a healthy middleclass, there might have been a rising up of voters demanding real change.
In the wake of Watergate — and the CIA/FBI scandals that broke in that same period — people demanded and got changes in the system to ensure a more open, honest, approachable and responsive government.
Most of which were subsequently swept away or ignored, backsliding that would have filled the streets in Europe but here only drew a sigh and perhaps a letter to the editor.
It’s possible that the current merging of the middle class with the poor will create a more combustible electorate, but, as with the Civil War, the Depression and Vietnam, changes require passing the nation through a blast furnace.
One hopeful concept is that Dear Leader’s clumsy, taco-style economic threats will have impacts well beyond our shores.
Adams shows Trump bullying the European Union instead of sitting down to play his cards fairly, and the more bluster and tariffs and threats and nonsense come from 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, the fewer allies will be left to help cover for bad ideas.
Certainly, if Dear Leader ends up with Putin, Xi and Orbon as his only pals, he’ll find out how a transactional relationship really works in the cold, hard world, and that golden sneakers and funny money don’t impress the big boys.
Even without a realignment of America with tyrants as our best friends, there may well come a time when today’s insiders find themselves not so comfortably placed.
The loyalist throng is celebrating having raised record tariffs thus far this year, but the cheering will come to a halt once people realize who was actually paying those tariffs.
As long as the suckers think the money is coming from China and Canada and other countries, it’s all fun and games. When they realize that it came from the higher cost of living they face, the mood may shift.
But people need to feel some pain before they ask good questions.
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