CSotD: Take A Sip From The Firehose
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As Herbert suggests, we’ve got a full plate, in keeping with Steve Bannon’s advice to flood the zone with shit so that the opposition has no time to deal with any of it.
As Dan Perkins (“Tom Tomorrow”) told the Irish Times in Trump’s first administration,
[It’s] like waking up and saying ‘I’d like a glass of water’ and then having someone spray you in the face with a fire hose. One of the biggest challenges of the Trump presidency has been coming up with something satirical that’s crazier than the things that are actually going on.
Peter Brookes doesn’t actually expect Trump to show up in London with Putin and Musk in tow, but the cartoon emphasizes the odd baggage that Dear Leader has assembled around himself, which makes it hard to know who you’re dealing with, particularly since Trump has resumed his usual schedule of playing golf and more or less leaving the governing of the nation either on autopilot or in other hands.
Juxtaposition of the Day
A major part of our problems right now is the large number of people who genuinely don’t get it. When Jeff Bezos declares that only one point of view will be published in the Washington Post, Danziger calls it the snuffing of the light, but Allie apparently sees no problem and accuses those who want to see contrasting opinions of whining.
This is the way the world ends, not with a bang, but a whimper. It’s the difference between the brutal repression of dissent seen in 1984 and the bland, unquestioning acceptance of authority in Animal Farm.
It is not necessary to repress the mass of people because they will comfortably accept whatever reality is dangled in front of them.
Thus Dana Summers assumes that cowardice and cover-up explain why the Epstein Files have not been covered by the major media after their release by Pam Bondi, when the fact is that what Bondi released was a collection of material already in the public domain and heavily redacted.
The release was not covered because it wasn’t a release. It was a publicity stunt and the media had actual news to cover instead.
Though I’ll give Summers credit for recognizing Putin’s joy at the disastrous confrontation between Zelenskyy and Trump’s brigade of loyal bullies. Dear Leader may be tap-dancing around his shift of American foreign policy to the Kremlin party line, but the Russians are quite open in their delight.
The question being, if a rock-ribbed conservative like Summers can see it, why doesn’t everyone?
There are a number of “Why aren’t you wearing a suit?” cartoons floating around, but I like Neff’s take because it is appropriately Kafkaesque.
Not only did Dear Leader begin the meeting at the White House door by mocking his guest for being underdressed — a foretaste of the bullying that followed — but the “question” was then asked by one of Trump’s hand-picked journalists, Brian Glenn, who is not only part of the rightwing network Real America’s Voice but is the boyfriend of Marjorie Taylor Greene.
History buffs pointed out online that Winston Churchill visited America during World War II dressed in sympathy with his nation’s soldiers, and there’s no record of FDR or any of his cabinet badgering him over his fashion choice.
Perhaps because they shared his goals.
Deering is not the only one to note that formal dress is not required in the White House, as long as your loyalties are properly aligned.
And particularly if you seem to outrank everyone else in the room. Musk didn’t spend a quarter of a billion dollars getting Trump elected just to watch from a distance.
He’s not shy about expressing his opinions, either, whether they align with facts or not.
As Robert Ariail suggests, Musk is not planning to lose money on the deal, nor is he bothering to be particularly subtle about it.
And why should he be? The days when Jimmy Carter put his peanut business into a blind trust are a half century in the past, and our current president profits not only from renting golf carts and hotel rooms to his security detail during outings but on speculating in bitcoins and encouraging others to do the same.
Meanwhile, Elon’s muskrats uncovered waste in the FAA’s contract with Verizon, but the problem was fixed by giving the lucrative contract to Starlink.
As Sal Tessio said, “It was only business.”
The courts have begun to take action against the excesses of Musk and his Doge brigade, but as Margulies notes, as quickly as they rule against him in one case, he pops up again somewhere else, and, meanwhile, actually striking him seems impossible anyway.
Court rulings, Sheneman points out, only have as much importance as Dear Leader and his crew give them. The ones that go against them can, indeed, be ignored.
Who’s going to make them obey? Nine old people in black robes? Or a Congress in which the majority party is cowed by fear of losing their jobs or, worse, by threats on their lives and on those of their families?
And if the military, shorn of “disloyal” leadership and legal restraints, is called out, will they abide by the Code of Military Justice and the Geneva Conventions or will they follow whatever orders they’re given on the spot?
Telnaes follows last night’s Oscars with a set of awards for “Best Performance of a Russian Operative” and two trophies in the category of “Best Supporting Toadie.”
Constant Readers know how little I think of awards, despite having won a shelf-load of Lucite baubles, because awards are often given more for hip timeliness than for artistic excellence, and judges often seem inclined to go with the flow rather than to recognize true quality.
However, this is still a democracy, and Dear Leader is only awarded whatever we, as a people, choose to give him.
If he is to get the award he truly deserves, I fear it will only come in the afterlife.
In lieu of music today, cheer yourself up by hearing how the Guardian is dealing with these issues.
Mike Peterson has posted his "Comic Strip of the Day" column every day since 2010. His opinions are his own, but we welcome comments either agreeing or in opposition.
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