CSotD: US Department of Scandals
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The Epstein case doesn’t seem to be disappearing, much as Dear Leader wishes it would. Even supporters like Summers are finding it hard to ignore.
Though what Summers dismisses as a small, yapping dog, Bramhall sees as a more deadly predator. I’m reluctant to pass along alligator images, since traders in cruelty have made the reptile a celebratory fetish, but depicting one as karma has a certain appropriate charm.
“He who launches the cruelty will suffer from the cruelty” or some such.
Trump has a tiger by the tail, Ariail suggests, and as a fan of the Bakersfield Sound, I appreciate the ear worm, though it more appropriately echoes the Young Lady from Niger who inexplicably rode on a tiger, though the beast neither rhymes with the country nor is found there.
Still, if such a thing were possible, I’d like to see a tiger from the Congo or the Niger and especially when lashing of its tail.
But however you personify his dilemma, the Champion of Distraction seems to be having trouble getting people to ignore this problem, and attacking Rosie O’Donnell seems like some genuine desperation.
Juxtaposition of the Day
Ramsey mocks the Autopen controversy, but Beckom appears to be taking it seriously.
Yes, Joe Biden used an Autopen, which makes him no better than Harry Truman, Dwight Eisenhower, John Kennedy, Lyndon Johnson, Richard Nixon, Gerald Ford, Jimmy Carter, Ronald Reagan, George HW Bush, Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, Barack Obama and Donald Trump, but certainly no worse.
To be honest, I’m not sure Ford was in office long enough to have used the device, but I got a nice letter from Jackie Kennedy after donating to the JFK Library following his assassination and even at the tender age of 13, I didn’t think she’d actually signed the thing herself.
It reminds me of the Great Teleprompter Scandal of 2012, in which it was revealed that Barack Obama used a Teleprompter, like every president since Eisenhower and like his opponent at the time, Mitt Romney.
I have not researched to find if people were scandalized when Warren Harding rode to his inauguration in one of them new-fangled automobiles or when he gave a national speech on the wireless, but perhaps they found enough legitimate things to attack Harding over that his use of gizmos didn’t register on the pearl-clutching scale.
The idea is that Biden used the Autopen because he couldn’t sign his name anymore. And he thought his uncle taught Theodore Kaczynski and that George Washington seized British airports during the Revolution.
Or maybe that was someone else.
More scandal at a cannabis farm in California, and Chip Bok is technically correct that, under a federal law no longer being enforced, growing weed is illegal, though it’s perfectly okay under California law.
Underage workers without papers were allegedly found there, though the youngest was 14, which means it would have been legal for them to be working there if they’d had papers. And kids are generally allowed to work on farms anyway or else we wouldn’t have 4-H and the FFA, would we?
I wonder if it’s legal to send children to serve life sentences and undergo torture in unnamed countries without them at least getting a trial before a judge?
I’d say “I guess we’ll find out,” but I guess we won’t, because it’s a matter of national security.
But the fact that children have been working on farms for as long as there have been children and farms seems less important than the fact that Gavin Newsom is emerging as a credible Democratic candidate for the presidency, assuming we continue to have elections.
And so, according to Walters, not only does California use the world’s smallest teenagers as farm labor, but Newsom is personally responsible for the innovation.
Ramirez offers a view which suggests he’s actually looked into matters, though I’d fault him in that only about 10% of avocados are grown in the US, so the price increase for them would be due to Trump’s import taxes, not local labor costs.
However, it’s good that she broaches the topic of “guest workers,” because I’m familiar with them.
There was recently a re-posting on social media of a 2018 news story about an attempt to replace braceros with American teens which quickly fell apart to the surprise of absolutely nobody who knew anything about farm labor.
The guest workers I knew were Jamaicans working the apple orchards in Northern New York when I was a business writer there. They were legal and many of them returned year after year to the same orchards, where they were welcomed and treated well.
They were somewhat middleclass back in Jamaica. One fellow told me his wife was a teacher and he was buying a hot water heater at the local hardware store for his daughter, who had a beauty salon.
The growers were legally obligated to advertise harvesting jobs for American citizens, but it didn’t slow down their use of guest workers because few people ever applied for the work and those who did only lasted a few days.
I’d note that apples don’t sell for $68 each, but they’re not free, either, and if all farmworkers were paid enough to be able to buy hot water heaters for their daughters, you’d see prices of lettuce and radishes go up.
Which would be fair, but when did “fair” come into this conversation?
I remember when “fair” was an element in the question “Who’s gonna pick our crops?” and Benson is right that it was being asked by liberals.
And also by Cesar Chavez as he strove to organize farm workers in the West.
I remember being involved in a fundraiser for striking farmworkers in Colorado’s San Luis Valley and pamphletting on behalf of exploited workers at turkey slaughterhouses in Indiana, but what I remember more than the activism was the outpouring of support from regular people who, for years, boycotted non-union lettuce and table grapes.
I’ve seen them recently, marching against kings, and against ICE, and in favor of fairness.
Perhaps, as Phil Ochs wrote, “This country is too young to die.”
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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