CSotD: Random points
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Okay, now THAT was a nothingburger!
The only real news was the scene in the parking lot, which was more specific than the general rumblings of "I've been threatened" but, then again, provided no details. It would have been nice if she'd said she told the receptionist at the fitness center "You won't believe what just happened out there."
But apparently she didn't, or Anderson Cooper didn't ask her if she had or it got cut out of the interview.
Anyway, I didn't see much I didn't already know, and 60 Minutes did a more revealing interview with the Clintons over the Gennifer Flowers thing before the 1992 elections and then we all voted for him anyway.
I'm not suggesting a "Whatabout" defense but rather suggesting a "Whogivesadamn?" defense, which is that the people who are willing to believe Stormy didn't learn anything they didn't already know and the people who either don't believe her or don't care will still not believe her or won't care.
Finding out that JFK was a horndog was painful because we'd constructed that whole Camelot thing, but he was dead before it came out and that's no more politically important than finding out that Eisenhower had an affair with his driver in Europe during the war.
And, speaking of JFK, we're coming up on the 50th anniversary of Chappaquiddick, which was a disappointment only in the sense that we already knew Teddy was the family fuckup and all Chappaquiddick proved was that he was a bigger fuckup than we thought, but he was also a brilliant legislator so he kept getting re-elected.
Point being that, if there is anybody who thought Donald Trump was a decent, honorable husband, they probably won't believe Stormy, and there are probably a whole lot more people who don't give a damn, because the Access Hollywood tape was a lot more disturbing and they didn't give a damn about that.
The good news being that I think there were a lot of people who voted for Trump to send a message, to offset Hillary Clinton's predicted electoral mandate, and they sure aren't going to do that again.
But they didn't need Stormy to convince them, either.
Clay Jones was equally unimpressed with the non-revelations, and his rant is worth a read. Like me, he's less astonished by the sex than by the cover story Trump's personal attorney concocted:
What needs to be discovered is if Cohen’s unbelievable explanation is true and he’s really that stupid. If not, we need to find out if he was reimbursed and by who. Was it Donald Trump, the Trump Organization, the Trump Campaign, another party, or another company? Maybe it was the porn fairy.
If Cohen can avoid jail or being disbarred, I know a lot of people who would happily hire an attorney who pays his clients' obligations out of his own pocket.
But apparently Dear Leader did read a book last night.
Or at least he heard about one.
Speaking of horndogs
Zapiro has spent the last 20 years illuminating the personal and political shortcomings of South African President Jacob Zuma for the Sunday Times, famously putting a showerhead on his head after Zuma, in a rape case, opined that you could prevent the spread of AIDS by showering after sex.
That's over, his contract abruptly terminated, apparently because he had begun also drawing cartoons for the Daily Maverick, an upstart paper that has made significant strides in establishing itself as reputable and, boy, would it be nice if some American publisher were to emulate it over here.
There's nothing unusual, I suppose, in demanding exclusivity, but if ever a cartoonist had the national standing to break that tradition, it would be Zapiro, and it seems like the Sunday Times is cutting off its nose to spite its face.
Something we don't need to encourage American papers to emulate because they've got it down to a science.
Africartoons ran his farewell cartoon from the Times, and there is also a feature of his best Zuma cartoons on the Maverick, and, while the finer points require a knowledge of South African politics, he's world-class and you'll still get some laughs.
The biggest takeaway being that Zapiro treads a line in that he is not as extravagantly vulgar as a lot of European cartoonists, but mixes his ink with considerably more peri peri than Americans can get away with.
Which I would wish them to emulate except that, given the level of courage in American newspapers, the only thing they'd end up imitating would be that part where he gets fired, and it wouldn't take 20 years.
Juxtaposition of the Day
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(I don't often agree with Gary Varvel and even less so with Mike Lester, but I admire thoughtful cartooning even when I disagree with the conclusions, so I keep an eye on them.
These are both funny and insightful and suggest that, however firmly talk radio hosts have the rings set in the noses of some conservative cartoonists, they aren't jerking the chains on these guys.
I don't accept Lester's suggestion that the clever Democrats snookered Dear Leader, but the fact remains that he didn't get what he promised the Deplorables they'd have, and Lester illustrates it in a way that makes it impossible not to laff, even if you don't agree with him at all.
And Varvel's slap at Government By Twitter is likewise an unexpected jab at Dear Leader's lack of organizational coherence.
Mysteries of the Internet
I don't know what's going on with Soup to Nutz and assume he's not being sent off for drawing cartoons for the Daily Maverick, but yesterday GoComics showed only the color plate and not the black plate with the captions.
It was a pretty good cartoon and I found it elsewhere.
Now they've got a daily from 2009 on the site, black plate only, and no archives.
Enquiring minds want to know.
A Big Mooseketeer Starts the Next Generation of Cartoonists
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