CSotD: Fifth Avenue Fake Out
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In the essay that goes with today's cartoon, Clay Jones concedes that he's doing more reporting than satirizing, and I have no problem with that. Sometimes that's all you need to do.
At least that's what we thought before the election, when we were certain that simply exposing the ridiculous contradictions and outright lies would alert voters to the potential train wreck.
That worked well, didn't it?
Well, wotthehell. I'm tired of analyzing all the things the Democrats could have done and didn't.
More relevant after yesterday's alleged press conference is that Trump is successfully playing to his base, and so what matters is not how the Democrats lost but, rather, how Trump won, because he's still doing it.
The time for "wait until they get smart" is over, and finding ways to smarten them up is going to take some serious effort because they are perfectly happy believing what they want to believe.
Jones is not the only cartoonist to note that "fake news" now means "any report that doesn't please Dear Leader," but, because he doesn't look for a gag or a way to spin it, he ends up making the clearest point: Trump cut off a responsible network in favor of a known fabricator.
And no amount of fact-checking is going to dissuade the faithful, even when it's clear that Trump is not simply spinning but is saying things that are absolutely not true.
Again, he may not be actively lying.
When he says there are 96 million people who can't get jobs, for example, it's a foolish figure that includes everyone over 16 who is not employed: Students, the retired, those with medical or mental/emotional problems that keep them from working and even those who have elected to be stay-at-home parents, which I think is one of those things that is supposed to Make America Great.
But I don't think Trump looked at that number and said, "I know this is irrelevant and foolish, but I'm going to say it anyway."
I think he said it because it appeared to back up his view of our economy and therefore he believed it.
At one of the places I worked, I used to sit through department head meetings where we'd have comparisons of circulation or revenue and I would have to ask, "Is that compared to last month or compared to same period last year?" because it makes a difference, at least to people who know what they're doing.
In that case, the company went out of business, but I think, for all his bankruptcies, that Trump does understand that sort of thing.
Which leaves my prime theory, that he simply says things that feel good coming out of his mouth, even if they make no possible sense in the real world.
Steve Sack has been on a roll lately, and he nails this: Whether or not the Russian rumors pan out, Trump has such a rich and constant track record of promoting clear, obvious, blatant lies that he's hardly in a position to demand more responsibility from anyone.
For sheer brass, his childish mewling over the Russian papers, and his subsequent bullying of the press, answers the question, "Have you no sense of decency, sir? At long last, have you left no sense of decency?"
So now what?
I've seen comments from people in other countries asking why the Republicans don't simply get rid of this lunatic and put in someone mentally stable, but it's not that simple.
Granted, the Republicans did bring impeachment charges against a president who was not frank about his dalliance with a consenting adult, which is very close to impeaching him for being a dumbass, since he could easily have said, "None of your damned business" instead of trying to parse the difference between actual intercourse and other sexual contact.
However, being a dumb ass is neither a high crime nor a misdemeanor, and thank goodness, given how many people we've already got in our prisons.
The 25th Amendment allows the President to be removed for being "unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office," but that has more to do with, for instance, Woodrow Wilson's stroke or "What if Kennedy had survived the shooting?" than for simply being a dumbass or an inveterate liar, and, if the president objects to being designated as incapable, it requires a two-thirds majority of both houses to remove him.
Which means that, unless Trump starts ordering people to commit burglaries, we're likely going to have to deal with the guy for four years.
Though I would urge the press not to attend any more "press conferences" that include a claque of laughing and applauding Trump fans.
I mean, good lord, if he has no sense of decency, somebody should.
And on a related issue
New Hampshire Public Radio reports on the budget-based firing of Granite State fixture Mike Marland, who, from a base at the Concord Monitor, had been producing regional editorial cartoons for the past 29 years.
That's a familiar, if depressing, story, but here's an interesting twist I haven't seen before: Marland has been taken on by online news provider InDepthNH.org.
And here's what intrigues me about it: The website is holding a fundraiser specifically to pay him. There are Patreon-type efforts galore by individual cartoonists, but I've never seen the sponsoring organization make the attempt.
At the moment, the results are a bit anemic, but it's only been 24 hours. This is the sort of effort that should get support not simply from people in New Hampshire who want to see the cartoons, but from other people who want to see this sort of thing succeed so they can replicate it in their own areas.
Now here's your moment of regional zen
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