CSotD: Dear Leader Speaks
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There are approximately one kabillion Tylenol cartoons out there, but I’m letting Marlette speak to the topic, because Dear Leader did an absolutely masterful job of throwing up a distraction. Not only are the editorial pages full of Tylenol commentary but there are news features and social media postings explaining just how inaccurate the warning was.
A few of the cartoons — and we featured one — point out that prenatal Tylenol is far less of a threat to children than unregulated firearms, which is true. But, while that’s certainly true, we know the GOP won’t do anything about guns.
Nearly all the distractions Trump throws up could be countered by asking why he doesn’t do anything about guns; asking the question is playing his game.
If you are going to feature something trivial, do as Anderson does and tie it into larger, more addressable issues. Anderson doesn’t prescribe a cure for any of these situations, but he helps keep them top of mind, and using a truly wacky delusion as a hook makes this a call for people to focus on the crisis.
Which was certainly on display at the United Nations, prompting this
Juxtaposition of the Day
Was that bizarre speech the ravings of a lunatic, or the threats of a would-be mob boss? Or is this one of those moments where you choose based on your own situation? Is your country vulnerable to the threats of an extortionist, or are you secure enough to just shake your head and laugh?
Bearing in mind, of course, that he could be both, and, to repeat the phrase again, even if they’re clowns with flamethrowers, they’ve still got flamethrowers.
That’s true both domestically and internationally, though international observers at least have the consolation of not having voted for the Leopards Eating Faces Party.
Calleri, from his vantage point in Germany, dismisses Trump as a clown, squirting water on the General Assembly and honking red, white and blue nonsense from his horn.
Cuban cartoonist Osval makes a more pointed criticism, saying that Trump sees the entire world in terms of the United States and has no interest beyond his own shores.
I don’t think you need a globe to see the distance between Germany and the United States and that between the US and Cuba, before you get into the history of relations, relative sizes of their economies and other ways in which Osval and Calleri’s points of view might differ.
Nor do I think you have to live in either country to agree with one or the other or both.
Le Lievre, from Australia, doesn’t try to parse the speech in geopolitical terms but frames Trump as a bull offering the world his most abundant product. We laugh at clowns, but Le Lievre’s not laughing. He is, rather, expressing contempt, placing himself midway between those who see it as nonsense and those who see it as a threat.
Of laughter, fear and contempt, contempt may be the least desirable reaction. Meanwhile, if Trump’s goal was to inspire admiration, he seems to have missed that target entirely.
Bunday, from the UK, isn’t satisfied with a gut reaction to the speech, but chooses a much more analytical approach, showing how Trump has deliberately and methodically worked to kill the olive branches and thus destroy the peace-keeping mission of the United Nations.
And, after all, Dear Leader told the world that he’s right about everything and that
America is blessed with the strongest economy, the strongest borders, the strongest military, the strongest friendships, and the strongest spirit of any nation on the face of the earth.
That may be a bit of puffery nobody should take seriously, but he condemned the other nations to hell, and added
In my first term, I built the greatest economy in the history of the world. We had the best economy ever, history of the world, and I’m doing the same thing again, but this time it’s actually much bigger and even better. The numbers far surpass my record-setting first term.
That can be checked by math and proven not just bragging but an insult to the listeners’ intelligence.
And he topped it off with a blatant lie, repeating his fatuous claim of having made peace around the world in a way that directly insulted his audience:
It’s too bad that I had to do these things instead of the United Nations doing them. And sadly, in all cases, the United Nations did not even try to help in any of them. I ended seven wars, dealt with the leaders of each and every one of these countries, and never even received a phone call from the United Nations offering to help in finalizing the deal.
Fact is, the UN’s blue helmets have been in several of the places where he claimed to make peace, and he’s been to few of them.
Meanwhile, his boasting about ending the war between India and Pakistan was not only denied by those countries, but the resulting whining and squabbling damaged our relations with India and has potentially driven the world’s 4th largest economy into the arms of China.
Nice play, Shakespeare.
And, predictably, he repeated how much he feels he deserves the Nobel Peace Prize. As Wuerker notes, even if he hadn’t larded on those dubious claims of having flown around the world causing peace, the unannounced bombing of Iran would likely upset any legitimate claim, even without consideration of our sponsoring of Israel’s war on Gaza or Trump’s shifting loyalties in Ukraine.
Banx ran this cartoon well before Dear Leader’s speech, but it certainly didn’t lose any punch with Trump not only proclaiming his worthiness for the prize but the clamoring since of his loyalist hangers-on about how deeply he deserves it.
Nobody else believes this, and I suspect that the best way to prevent yourself from winning the Nobel Peace Prize is by demanding it.
And although Trump warned the rest of the world to stop worrying about climate change, there is no Nobel Prize for Hot Air.
Too bad. He’d have had that one wrapped up.
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