Comic Strip of the Day Editorial cartooning

CSotD: And Now The News, More or Less

I suspect Biden’s decision to let Ukraine fire US-supplied missiles over its border, and his decision to supply the Ukrainians with anti-personnel mines, were an effort to shore up their defenses before Trump comes into office and begins catering to his great good friend Putin.

He may well choke off their aid, but it would require a more openly Russia-friendly effort to tell them to back off from fighting their invader.

But I’m actually featuring Steve Breen (Creators)‘s cartoon because it’s a rare example of the proper use of the term “lame duck,” which refers to the period between the election and the start of the new government, and specifically to those who will no longer be in office, and to a Congress about to be recast.

It’s recently been corrupted to refer to any president in his second term, which is foolish because the public has given that executive a four-year mandate, while the reference is to someone who no longer operates with voter approval but remains temporarily in office.

Biden is a lame duck. Trump is not. We are in the midst of a lame duck congress, which happens to be confirming a lot of judges while it still has a Democratic majority in the Senate, a perfect example of why the term exists. (Regardless of how you feel about that particular action.)

Meanwhile, Steve Brodner notes the hatemongering and fear-exploitation going on in the House of Representatives, where Nancy Mace (R-SC) — whose campaigning included a boast about her support of LBGTQ+ people — has explained that she likes them as long as she doesn’t actually have to be in the same room with them.

Which reminds me of an old joke from the days of the Civil Rights Movement: “I love Negroes. My family always owned several.”

Her demand that Sarah McBride, and any other transexual people who happen to be in the Capitol, use whichever bathroom is specified on their unredacted birth certificate, has gotten back-up from Speaker of the House Mike Johnson, who is apparently terrified of peeing in the company of someone with a vagina.

The solution to enforcing this critical rule is simple: Any Representative or visitor who wishes to use a restroom should first go to the well of the House and either drop trou or lift skirt and exhibit his or her genitals to the Speaker for verification.

We can’t be too careful.

Though, as Ann Telnaes points out, Speaker Johnson feels we can, indeed, throw caution to the wind when it comes to sex trafficking and pederasty on his side of the aisle, and is hiding the report on the prospective attorney general’s adventures in drugs, orgies and paying for sex with underage girls.

The fact that Gaetz reportedly not only bragged about his doings but showed photos to other members of Congress might make Johnson’s attempt to cover things up difficult, while there’s a good chance the report, or the information in it, will become an exhibit in Gaetz’s confirmation.

However, as Andy Marlette (Creators) points out, the Republicans who once favored open government have suddenly closed ranks and continue to protect their fair-haired boy from accusations, evidence and sworn testimony.

Which is likely futile, since there’s an excellent chance that it’s already been leaked, given that portions of it have appeared in the media.

Matt Wuerker (Politico) suggests history of sexual assaults by Cabinet members in the Trump administration may not be a bug but, rather, a feature.

And the hits just keep on coming, as his nominee for Education Secretary is being sued for allowing her employees to violently rape underage boys.

Linda McMahon’s prominence at WWE is due in large part to her husband, Vince, stepping down after his own series of sexual assault accusations.

It’s also relevant that, before the Apprentice catapulted Trump into the big time, he was a performer, along with Vince McMahon, in pro-wrestling extravaganzas.

Whether he continues to base his appeal on fans who can’t tell when they are falling for a con game is open to discussion, but the answer seems obvious.

Hannah Arendt and Ruth Ben-Ghiat have both noted that obvious falsehoods may mislead the public but, more important, make it impossible for them to tell truth from fiction.

If fans realize that pro wrestling is phony, it can make them assume that everything is equally phony, which is why, as Saleno Zito wrote in 2016, “the press takes (Trump) literally, but not seriously; his supporters take him seriously, but not literally.” 

They think it’s all fixed and they’d like Trump to strap Biden into a chair and shave his head.

Bob Englehart suggests that voters have gone back into their silos, but I haven’t seen any evidence that they had emerged in the first place, certainly not in the results of the election.

There’s also a both-sidesism to this that I’d question. Those who watch Fox apparently have little idea what’s really going on, but I haven’t heard that CNN and MSNBC viewers and readers of the Washington Post or NY Times are equally isolated.

It seems unlikely that Fox and Newsmax viewers will hear that Trump’s nominations aren’t undergoing the standard FBI background checks and that they often seem both unqualified and morally repugnant.

Juxtaposition of the Metro Area

Matt Davies — Newsday (Long Island)

Bill Bramhall — New York Daily News

Drew Sheneman — Star-Ledger (Newark)

It seems bizarre to read of wildfires in what, growing up in the Adirondacks and having lived in the Champlain Valley, we thought of as the Metro Area, but that part of New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania has had fires now for some weeks, and not just brushfires but crowning fires, the kind that involve entire trees rather than just the undergrowth.

These three cartoons appeared in the order shown, which may be why Davies doesn’t point out the aspect of climate change and denial that Bramhall and Sheneman focus on.

You might expect these current disasters to wise everybody up, but Hurricane Sandy flooded the area and killed 53 people a dozen years ago, yet denial is about to become national policy.

Nothing new: In 1970, Spirit based a song on a graffito: “Death is Nature’s way of telling you something is wrong.”

It didn’t quite crack the Top 100.



Comments 11

  1. Ben R

    If I were a religious man, I’d say we were being collectively punished in rather devious and nefarious ways, besides the obvious ones, for our collective sins.

  2. Ruth Anne in Winter Park FL

    From what I heard them say, the rules about restroom use are directed specifically at trans women. Would love to see multiple legislators invite trans constituents to visit to discuss their issues – visitors whose birth certificates say female, who now sport full beards, and who may need to use a restroom while they are there.

    1. Lou

      I feel that if Sarah McBride is not allowed to use the ladies’ restroom in Congress, then whenever she feels the need to go, she should just do so on the Speaker’s desk or podium, whichever she is closest to. No sense having an accident when you can do a deliberate.

  3. Wiley Miller

    Why is it that the one aiding an ally to defend itself with missiles from an invader that has devastated their country with missiles being accused of fomenting WWIII and not the invader?

    1. Dave Palmer

      More to the point, why should we respect the “red lines” of someone who obviously doesn’t respect ours? That’s exactly what led to the last World War. Japan invaded Manchuria, Mussolini invaded Ethiopia, Franco invaded Spain, Hitler invaded Czechoslovakia, and the “civilized world” stood by. Thanks to their complacency, 75 million people lost their lives. Letting bullies have their way rarely leads to a more peaceful world.

  4. Bob Ingersoll

    Well now the House Ethics Committee report on Matt Gaetz won’t come out in his Senate confirmation hearing, either. Earlier today Gaetz withdrew from consideration for the post of Attorney General.

    1. Ben R

      I have a sneaking suspicion that it’ll see the light of day.

  5. Janet

    I read that because Gaetz was re-elected that he could return to Congress in January 2025. It would be a travesty to have him back, but at least then the report might come out officially.

    1. Mike Peterson  (admin)

      Apparently his letter of resignation included a pledge not to take his seat in the next Congress. Open seats in the House must be filled by special election, so he could run again, but (apparently) he can’t just change his mind and take his place in the next Congress.

Leave a Reply

Search

Subscribe to our newsletter

Get a daily recap of the news posted each day.