CSotD: Code Name: “Penndejo”
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There was a quick flurry of Sean Penn gags in the political cartooning sector, and I emphasize "gags" because none of them made a coherent point beyond "Hollywood celebrities sure are flaky liberals."
Which ignores the massive number of flaky conservative Hollywood celebrities, but never mind.
Signe Wilkinson cuts through that burst of pointlessness to the main issue, which is that the interview, such as it was, skated right past the morality of El Chapo and focused on the personality.
And then Antonio Rodriguez Garcia emphasizes the point that it is really more about the personality of the reporter himself, and his cheerful self-aggrandizement.
Which is the fact.
The gravitas of this very important article by an even more important writer starts in the second graf:
Espinoza and I have traveled many roads together, but none as unpredictable as the one we are now approaching. Espinoza is the owl who flies among falcons.
I might not have questioned the self-important memoirs of Ernest Hemingway if I'd read this first, because, by comparison, Hemingway seems downright self-effacing and focused on his topic.
It's impossible to satirize Penn's love of Penn:
I take no pride in keeping secrets that may be perceived as protecting criminals, nor do I have any gloating arrogance at posing for selfies with unknowing security men. But I'm in my rhythm. Everything I say to everyone must be true. As true as it is compartmentalized. The trust that El Chapo had extended to us was not to be fucked with.
Dude, if El Chapo thought you could fuck with him, he wouldn't have agreed to meet with you. He knows you're a candy ass.
And if he had any doubts, they disappeared the minute you agreed to let him approve the article before it ran.
My expectations of both Sean Penn and Rolling Stone are low enough that I am neither shocked nor dismayed at the ridicule loaded on both by On The Media's analysis, which starts with titling the segment "Sean of the Jungle," and has more fun with this ridiculous piece of mierda than I have space to even attempt. For instance:
How about that Rolling Stone? Fresh off its triumphant expose on gang rape at the University of Virginia –where the only thing the story got wrong was that the rape and coverup didn't technically, y'know, happen – Jann Wenner and his team had surpassed themselves: Any publication can print drivel. Any can print celebrity drivel. But celebrity drivel in sympathy with pure evil? That is something!
Hit that link for the best six minutes of your day, and the most laughs, unless you hit the link for the article itself, which will convince you that Garfield was going easy on them.
But OTM also discussed the serious aspects of all this.
Celebrity drivel is funny, but real journalists get killed doing their jobs down there.
Have a Snickers, Sean.
And while we're in Hollywood …
I like this Benjamin Schwartz panel from the New Yorker's cartoon of the day, but the problem really is more insidious.
He'd have re-cast it anyway. Oscar considerations would be way down the list of reasons.
You've come a long way, baby.
I'm grateful for two things
I'm grateful to Tom Spurgeon for pointing out this comic — and this source of comics — over at his blog.
And I'm grateful to the cosmos that I was not on this road trip. Go read the rest of the story.
You'll be multiply grateful, too.
Juxtaposition of the Day
I may not be able to do a lot of juxtapositions on this topic much longer. I get the feeling the implosion has started and they're all gonna be like this.
Hillary's biggest problem in the editorial cartooning sector and elsewhere is that she came in with plenty of people already willing to attack her, and she's only adding to it.
If — and, despite the headliners she's lining up to sing her praises, it's very much "if" — she wins the nomination, this latest bout of dubious attacks on Sanders is going to eat away at what was very likely at the outset: That the people who prefer Bernie would vote for her if she got the nod, simply to prevent a Republican victory.
The question is, will young people's infatuation with The Notorious RBG be enough to make them realize that the next president will very likely appoint her successor — and likely a few of her colleagues as well?
If nothing else, Hillary and her Mini-Me's latest efforts show a fundamental lack of understanding of Millenials.
This election is beginning to look like a test of how many demographics you can totally piss off and still win.
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