CSotD: Friday Short Takes
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I don't suppose we'll ever close out Benghazi, but let's start the day with a juxtaposition that shames the exploitation of the Benghazi dead in the service of partisan foolishness.
Rob Rogers points out the waste and the committee's desperation to find something they can claim as a payoff.
As noted yesterday, a couple of the GOP committee members complained that the report was fact-based instead of including speculation, and they're ginning up the idea that Clinton purposefully lied in the initial hours about the cause of the attack.
But even Head Fisherman Trey Gowdy admits that's thin gruel.
Those who hate Hillary Clinton will continue to beat the drum about what she knew and when she knew it, but Gowdy admits it's a dead end.
Pressed on whether he endorses the GOP bumper-sticker slogan that “Hillary Lied, People Died” Gowdy said: “You don’t see that T-shirt on me, you haven’t seen that bumper sticker on any of my vehicles.”
When asked if Clinton lied, the former prosecutor added. “That’s a word you couldn’t use in a courtroom.”
It also seems like a poor attack given the Cheney Administration's farcical, patently false claims of WMDs and a resulting death toll of thousands, and hundreds of thousands if you include the people the Bushies don't think of as people.
So here's my latest theory:
At some point in about 2014, the heads of the Republican and Democratic Party ran into each other, had more than a few drinks, and proposed a contest in which they would test voters' party loyalty.
The bet was that they would each nominate the least acceptable, most disliked candidate they could field and then see whose loyalists were, indeed, most loyal.
I think going outside the GOP to dredge up Trump was cheating. But the Democrats played fair, and they'll probably win the bet.
And then we'll have an ex-president wandering around the executive mansion talking to old friends instead of disappearing to his ranch or his favorite fishing hole or off to build houses for Habitat like other ex-presidents.
Too bad Lurleen Wallace is dead: She would have some good advice on how to handle having a retired executive looking over your shoulder.
In any case, here we are and I guess we should make the best of things, though this isn't the most inspiring bumpersticker.
Meanwhile, over in Prickly City, Carmen has signed up with the Libertarians, which promises to be an interesting arc.
The nice thing about Libertarians, as opposed to other third-party dreamers, is that they don't have an established investment in opposing White Privilege, so there's no cognitive dissonance for them in throwing away their vote to prove a point.
I"m not against making a point: I supported John Anderson, but only in light of the obvious landslide that was about to occur. I also voted for George McGovern to try to cut the margin of victory in that debacle.
It may be that, by November, things will be totally lopsided and stomping your feet will be as useful a gesture as anything.
Or maybe not.
I think I'll print up a bunch of these, just in case.
Why don't more people do this?
Ed Stein has drawn the curtain on "Sleeper Ave," his memoir of growing up in Waco in the 1950s.
I've enjoyed the series, which has been featured here a couple of times, but he told the stories he wanted to tell and decided it was time to shut things down.
Imagine what the comics page would look like if everybody quit when they ran out of things to say, or wanted to retire, or died?
Yes, it is kind of like imagining what Ralph Nader or Ross Perot or Jill Stein or Gary Johnson would do as president, because it ain't-a gonna happen, so you're free to picture it any way you'd like.
And I suppose if Sleeper Ave had gone completely viral and was spinning off all sorts of film deals and stuffed toys and such, Stein might find the decision harder. As it was, I don't know how much of a following he had, but I'll bet it was a quality group.
You should go there and poke around, because it's some good stuff.
I wish more creative people would quit when they ran out of things to say, and not just in this business.
A Bicentennial Minute
The KFS Archivist offers a selection of cartoons from July 4, 1976, and notes that our Bicentennial came in the midst of Watergate and in the wake of Vietnam, when the national mood was a bit down, but I remember a lot of hoopla and merchandising.
On the other hand, I spent the day digging up and replanting our front lawn, so I guess the celebrations weren't all that distracting.
And I do remember writing, but never being able to market, a satiric response to a particularly foolish feature article that speculated on how the Revolution would have been different if we'd had television back then.
I can't recall my entire response, but it included a TV Guide listing for a sitcom called "All in the Colonies," with a brief synopsis of an episode in which the daughter brings home a member of the Sons of Liberty and there ensues much zany humor.
It's possible I wasn't in the properly respectful, patriotic mood, but I did get a copy of TIME Magazine's special issue, which was based on what they would have covered and how, had they been around back then.
And assuming they weren't a willing tool of the Crown, but never mind. I suppose that issue is still in a box around here somewhere.
In any case, I'll likely do some comics from Fourth of Julys past either Sunday or Monday, so go read the Archivist's selection and let your appetite be whetted.
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