CSotD: Elsewhere Amid The Chaos
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Creating a multi-panel, multi-gag comic poses an obvious problem: You have to be insightful with each panel, and most cartoonists do well to produce five in a row when they’re producing a single comic each day without trying to tie them all into a specific theme.
McFadden is lucky while the rest of us are not, because the United States government is producing so much chaos and crisis that he was able to pick five examples, add a little sarcastic exaggeration and score a good gag in each panel.
The overarching theme of a combined loss of freedom, justice and sanity isn’t hard to illustrate at the moment, thanks to the cooperation offered by the Trump administration and its hangers-on.
In fact, there was a spot of good news for cartoonists recently, as Elon Musk announced he was getting back into politics. Arwa Mahdawi, who has a gift for sarcasm, repeated a Musk quote — “You know, I’ve generally found that when I get involved in politics, it ends up badly” — and responded “Oh, we know, Elon. We most definitely know” as she proceeded to elaborate on the theme.
The Chinese do not have a curse, “May you live in interesting times,” but here we are, doing it anyway.
Speaking of who never had that wise saying, Ariail points out that Dear Leader’s admiration for Xi Jinping and Vladimir Putin, and his imperialist ambitions, sets them free to indulge in their own plans to bring the world back to an 19th Century atmosphere of conquest, expansion and colonialism.
This is quite a break from a half century of the US standing as a bulwark against such tyranny, in which our nation joined both NATO and much of the UN in isolating Stalin and Mao Tse Tung. Now Dear Leader claims Xi and Putin as his buddies, is abandoning NATO and downgrading our role at the UN while he pursues an expansionist form of imperialism unseen since the Soviet Union disbanded, freeing the nations of Eastern Europe.
It puts Trump, and by association the United States, among a dismal group that should astound anyone old enough to remember way, way back a decade ago.
This — as Ehlers suggests — is not to say that we were blameless champions of freedom and the autonomy of nations, but we were perhaps indicative that, as Lord Acton said, “Power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely.”
Our system, and those in most of Western Europe, avoided absolute power, by happenstance if not deliberate intention. We had checks and balances, however imperfectly applied. Again, anyone more than 12 years old should miss those days, though it’s hard to tell if you watch Fox or wade into what used to be Twitter.
Fortunately, the courts have tended to align themselves with the rule of law, at least below the level of Mitch McConnell’s hand-picked SCOTUS gang. It’s extremely unlikely that the Secretary of Greasy Kid Stuff’s attempt to criminalize telling people to obey the law is going to pass the laugh test in any courtroom, though his point may be less to convict Mark Kelly than to intimidate military officers of lesser status.
Intimidation seems a major part of the Trump administration’s approach to governance, and Anderson’s cartoon isn’t all that far from reality. Despite a Court of Appeals decision declaring that citizens have a right to record police actions so long as they don’t interfere with those activities, the masked police are harassing and attacking witnesses. It’s hard to assert your legal rights when you’re face down on the concrete being handcuffed, and even harder when you’re in danger of being shot in the head.
And while over-eager policing may be a case of poor administration — I say that having dealt with the Chicago cops in the 60s — today we have Stephen Miller openly declaring that might makes right, a barbaric policy that has been enforced against American citizens and inhabitants but is also becoming a lynchpin of foreign policy.
It wouldn’t take a great deal of force for Trump to take over Greenland, but, as a test case for his unbridled ambition, it’s a worthy experiment, particularly since we’ve already got a military base there and there’s no reason to doubt that both Greenland and Denmark would allow expansion if Trump is truly so frightened by the open waters around the island.
And certainly it seems plausible that Greenlanders would strike a deal to allow American extraction of minerals for a fair price.
Though we probably shouldn’t overthink things. America’s need to seize Greenland could have more to do with Stormy Daniels and Toad, and Dear Leader’s fascination with the Village People, than with military preparedness and rare earth.
The overthrow of Maduro has created chaos not only in Venezuela but here as well. Trump has not installed a reform government there but is removing the Temporary Protected Status from the 600,000 Venezuelans who fled the still-current government, a move which could be challenged, given that the courts have reversed similar moves to take protection away from other refugees.
Kosplay Kristi says they can apply for refugee status, but that would involve revealing yourself to her goons, who are known for kidnapping people at immigration hearings.
As for oil executives flooding the nation, let’s not get ahead of ourselves.
The petroleum industry must surely feel that their investments were wise. Trump approached them for a billion dollar campaign contribution, and, once in power, proceeded to do everything in his power to end alternative energy projects and stifle production of electric vehicles.
But swapping out the president of Venezuela for his vice-president isn’t proving as attractive a payoff.
As Matson puts it, Trump has aligned himself with the major oil companies and, yes, worked to exclude Congress, though that’s something of an overall policy anyway.
However, the major companies are not leaping at the chance to “go in, spend billions of dollars, fix the badly broken … oil infrastructure, and start making money for the country.” Dear Leader’s timeline for the rebuilding seems unrealistically short and his guarantees dangerously insufficient.
There aren’t a lot of feet in gold high-tops under that boardroom table.
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