David Rowe picks up on both themes for today: King Charlie has been diagnosed with cancer, and so has Uncle Sam, at least in the John Dean sense of there being a cancer on the presidency. We’ll get back to that second part.
As for the King’s cancer, Matt is refreshingly sarcastic about the vague announcement. Britain has been told that the King has been diagnosed and that it’s been caught early and that it’s not prostate cancer.
Which is more open than in the past when the peasantry was told nothing, but, then again, it’s not open in terms of what most people reveal in most cases these days.
As some of you may know, I’ve been there. Not being king; the other part. What I learned from my experience is that no two cases are alike, which makes it hard to comment intelligently on someone else’s situation. Fellow patients seem to be the only people who know that.
I wasn’t expected to make it and yet here I am, while others were expected to recover but didn’t. I told my grandkids that I wanted to live forever but nobody’s ever done that, and cautioned them that, even if I did somehow recover, I could still get hit by a bus on my way out of the hospital.
And I told the rest of my family that, if I succumbed to the disease, I didn’t want any crap in my obit about a brave fight. As a confirmed stoic, I had no such plans.
Anyway, here I am nearly seven years later, and King Charlie’s still here, too. I’ll assume that he’ll follow his doctors’ advice and you can assume that I’ll look both ways before stepping off the curb
We’ll see how it goes.
Juxtaposition of the Day
I suppose King Charlie gets the big bucks in return for being a public spectacle, but it’s got to be more fun when you’re just riding around waving to the throng.
Still, he got through his divorce and the subsequent death of his ex-wife and all the negatives surrounding his siblings. Drawing this kind of attention would be absolutely bizarre for anyone else but probably fits into his expectations just fine.
I feel sorry for Harry, though, because he sorta kinda saw the light but, after a lifetime of programming, couldn’t manage to really break free. He kept his title, for instance, which is sort of like an alcoholic who quit drinking but still enjoys a glass of wine with dinner.
Either you’re on the bus or you’re off the bus, and he’s still fifth in line for a throne he doesn’t want.
All this royal folderol seemed amusing back when Anne was getting speeding tickets and Margaret was saying stupid things in public, but the comedy is turning dark indeed.
Still, as David Rowe suggested, our own cancer seems more grotesque at the moment.
I think that there’s no doubt about the seriousness of the problem we’ve got. We have a cancer within—close to the presidency, that’s growing. It’s growing daily. It’s compounding. It grows geometrically now, because it compounds itself. — John Dean, March 21, 1973
Dean warned Nixon of the corruption within his administration, but Rowe declares Trump himself to be the cancer, and Kevin Necessary expands on a crisis in which the two party system has metastasized into a system in which the parties not only do not speak to each other but in which one is forbidden to even engage in bipartisan legislative efforts.
It’s come to the point where the obvious nominee for the presidency has declared that anyone donating to his rival’s campaign will be cast out. And, while his threat sparked contributions to her, the party hierarchy has no problem acceding to his priorities.
We should expect, in any democratic nation, that accusations would flow and that political cartoonists would take them up. Did Bob Gorrell (Creators) read and analyze the bill which was just made public a few days ago? It doesn’t matter if his intention is to reflect the GOP’s reaction.
We can assume he wouldn’t have drawn the cartoon if he strongly disagreed, of course, but his record is of party loyalty, and that’s how this stuff works.
Juxtaposition of the Metaphors
The image of a puppet is so universal that it’s hardly surprising when two cartoonists simultaneously use it to illustrate Mike Johnson’s obvious loyalty to the upcoming party nominee. And more than two cartoonists did, though some used a marionette rather than a hand puppet.
It’s not breakthrough symbolism, but it’s effective cartooning.
This pairing, however, made my Spidey senses tingle, because, while Ramirez’s cartoon ran earlier (and was featured here then), I doubt Summers simply copied the idea. However, a Google search didn’t turn up a speech or column making the comparison and thus furnishing inspiration for both cartoonists.
I’ll be more interested to see the fate of the GOP Senators who labored to produce a bill that gave their party most of its requirements, only to be rejected by the Freedom Caucus and therefore doomed.
Are the Republicans working to seal the border, or to purify their membership?
Pat Bagley shows the puppet we should be more concerned about, because Tucker Carlson has gone turncoat, claiming to have the only interview with the Russian leader who has turned away interview requests from real Western journalists for years.
And jailed Russian journalists who didn’t toe his line. Or worse.
Which would make Carlson simply a stooge, except that voters in this country listen to him.
While back home, John Cole compares two presidents who have claimed immunity. Trump got slapped down by a federal court, but has not yet seen if SCOTUS feels differently now than they did 50 years ago, when Nixon lost unanimously.
Fox News doesn’t care, but we should. In 1974, there were three major networks, plus PBS, and they all carried the news people needed to know.
Those who rejected the truth did it in barrooms and under rocks.
Those who proclaimed the truth had their voices heard, and if you’re not old enough to remember, you have no idea how Barbara Jordan thrilled our hearts.
Groucho Marx: “I intend to live forever, or die trying.”
Steven Wright: “I intend to live forever. So far, so good.”
Woody Allen: “What do you want people saying about you in 100 years? That I look good for my age.”
I remember very clearly the day you called to tell me your diagnosis. I just sat in my cubicle and wept. (And not because I was going to have to take on your duties!)
I’m SO glad you fought heroically, or stoically, or curmudgeonly. It’s nice to have you around.
Watching Representative Jordan was depressing. She again has made me realize how far we have fallen as a country. Many of today’s members of Congress could not even understand the words she uses, let alone compose such an eloquent and well-researched constitutional blueprint of the process of impeachment and the duties of the governing body to which she was elected. I don’t know how we recover from the dumbed-down quagmire that we’ve created. I hope it isn’t too late.
My thoughts as well.
Mike Johnson claims to get his orders directly from God, when it’s really just Trump.
Of course, the GOP considers Trump to be God so it’s a moot point.
I subscribe to the print edition of the Boston Globe, seven days a week. The price just went up to $100 per month and that’s at the special senior citizen rate.
The truth is behind a paywall. Lies are free.
Wait’ll you see what it costs when you’re the last one.
My mother subscribed to her local paper since around 1961. Eventually she was being charged $75 per month for home delivery, which was twice the rate that the paper’s subscription page said it was. I got them to reduce it to around $25 per month, but they didn’t actually deliver a paper. I finally cancelled the subscription. It never was a Great Newspaper, but it’s sad how far it has fallen.
Thank you for the marvelous voice of Barbara Jordan. Even those of us old enough to remember can stand to be reminded.
I have always considered it an enormous loss for the country that Barbara Jordan never sat on the Supreme Court.