CSotD: The Willis Administration
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What are we gonna do with this guy?
His nonsensical insistence that law enforcement not look into lawbreaking and his posturing as an imperial power "demanding" their obedience is drawing forth think pieces about how "The Constitutional Crisis is Here" and comparisons to Nixon's Saturday Night Massacre.
Ann Telnaes makes the most dramatic (American) mockery of him, and I've also seen a couple of cartoons comparing him to the Queen of Hearts in Alice.
Which you would think would be enough to get him laughed off the world stage, except that, while he is a man who has no idea how the presidency operates, he was elected by people who bought his nonsensical posturing, and they have no idea how it works, either.
Here are the two things that help me understand what's going on:
One is that I have either had corporate blowhards as clients, or worked my way up the ladder far enough to report to them, or have sat as a reporter in board meetings and watched them froth and fulminate.
Donald Trump is not a particularly unusual example of a bullying, marginally competent corporate bullshit artist.
People point to his record of bankruptcies, lawsuits and stiffing of contractors and say that, if it weren't for Daddy's millions, he'd have never succeeded.
True, but not the point. If not for Daddy's millions, he'd be posturing and bullying in obscurity, and running some widget factory into the ground.
We know who he is because — like Paris Hilton, like Lizzie Grubman — he inherited enough money to put himself in the limelight. You can blame the Gotham City media and their obsession with gossip and glitz, but it hardly matters. Here he is.
The other is that I've watched some really cheesy TV and movies, in which soldiers and doctors and detectives act the way stupid people think soldiers and doctors and detectives act. Bruce Willis and Chuck Norris have built entire careers based on the unschooled fantasies of stupid people.
And Donald Trump is behaving the way these barroom clowns think a president acts.
And as long as barroom clowns represent a substantial voting bloc and a marketing demographic worth pandering to, the fact that Trump is a bully, a blowhard and a fraud doesn't matter in the least.
Steve Greenberg notes the litany of nonsensical contradictions Trump represents, and it's a well-curated collection of hypocritical inanities and betrayals.
But don't look for a mob with torches and pitchforks, because there isn't one. And there won't be.
Check out the reviews of "Live Free or Die Hard," in which Bruce Willis is able to jump on and off of moving jet fighters.
Critics Consensus: Live Free or Die Hard may be preposterous, but it's an efficient, action-packed summer popcorn flick with thrilling stunts and a commanding performance by Bruce Willis. Fans of the previous Die Hard films will not be disappointed.
It's all harmless fun until that same level of judgment is applied to the real-life President of the United States.
And so here we are, as Dave Granlund depicts it, under the rule of an absurd narcissist.
We might wish that, when Bruce Willis wanted to make a movie in which he jumps on and off of fighter jets, the studio heads would laugh and throw him out and make another "Sophie's Choice" or "Citizen Kane" instead.
We might wish that the Republican Congress would step up and put some restraints on the Head Nincompoop In Charge.
But when your goal is to sell tickets, or to attract voters, decision-making operates on a less idealistic level.
And the fact that the whole world is watching doesn't matter. In this case, Stephff is watching from Thailand, from where he can see both China and the United States with a level of clarity you're unlikely to find in either place.
The whole world is watching, but the whole world doesn't get to vote.
It comes down to a meme that was around about a year ago, that said that, if you've ever wondered what you would have done in Germany in the '30s, now you know:
You'd have done what you're doing right now.
Comforting the afflicted:
If it's any comfort — and it certainly is to me — Ann Telnaes has just launched a weekly comic at GoComics called "Mo" about a waitress by that name with a friend who is a bartender.
And we could all use a friend who is a bartender about now, so I'm looking forward to it.
Here's a snippet of the first episode, the rest of which you will find here.
In case all that's not depressing enough
On what he admits is a tangential but important connection, Tom Spurgeon linked to this story about the fellow who created the cover art for Jethro Tull's Aqualung, and about the definition and limitations of "Work For Hire."
As Spurgeon says, it contains some important lessons for cartoonists as well as album-art-designers, because you have to understand what you're selling when you take on a gig.
I feel bad for the guy more because it's upset him so much than for what actually happened.
That may be because I've done so much work for hire that I kind of assume you're going to see other people profit from your efforts.
Besides, as I go through my clipfiles, for every piece that stands out as true quality, there's a lot that doesn't stand out at all and then probably as many as in that first category that were crap.
It all evens out.
However, when I started writing serialized children's stories for newspapers, I was careful to establish with my paper that these were mine, and specifically not work for hire.
I also gave my artists a commission on all sales and copyright to their art.
For a few years, we all made some modest but welcome money.
Then newspapers did what newspapers did.
yesterday sceptres and crowns
fried oysters and velvet gowns
and today i herd with bums
but wotthehell wotthehell
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