CSotD: Of Distractions and Credibility
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Today is Victory Day in Russia, though yesterday was VE Day elsewhere in the world. Russia marks the day the papers were signed, rather than the day the war ended.
And today, as mentioned before, they’re marking the day with a parade that, Adams notes, doesn’t feature the usual display of weaponry, because their tanks and other cool stuff is off in Ukraine and, by the way, not doing so well.
However, Putin is determined to have his parade anyway, and Schopf offers a suggestion as to how he might fill in for the missing armaments, though having them fall off the end of the table might be a bit more realism than is wanted.
Seems Ukraine has regained a healthy bit of territory from its invader, as well as delivering a deadly spanking in the form of a reported 352,000 dead Russian soldiers. Moscow did well against the Germans a few generations ago, but this is starting to look like a replay of Afghanistan, which was also not a victory.
Cartoon Movement has a collection of cartoons mocking Putin’s less-than-hardy parade, including Ukrainian cartoonist Serhiy Kolyada’s suggestion that Russia is awash in victims of the war and frightened of more drone attacks, having recently lost an oil depot and more of its Black Sea fleet.
Nor is Kolyada the only Ukrainian having fun at Putin’s expense. When a nation has a former comedian as head of state, it may not be surprising for a bit of sarcastic trollery to slip out once in awhile.
Smile, Voldya: You’re on Candid Camera!
Or at least on Ukrainian GPS.
Still on the topic of quick conquests gone awry, Dear Leader’s easy-peasy, in-and-out attack on Iran appears to be taking a little longer than expected, at least by him if not by the nations that weren’t asked for help until it became obvious that he needed some.
One of the problems appears to be that he and Hegseth are absolutely convinced that might makes right and that you can bomb someone into submission, a lesson Hegseth might question after serving in Afghanistan — “The Graveyard of Empires” — and that Trump might have second thoughts about, had he played a more active role in Vietnam.
Juxtaposition of the Day
There was a dark joke back in the Vietnam days that the best solution for the US would be to declare victory and go home, and Dear Leader appears to be trying it now, except for the part where you go home.
Fiore reminds us of W’s premature declaration of victory in Iraq and Rowe paints Trump as a sidewalk crazy making repeated claims that nobody else believes.
Well, perhaps if Dear Leader made a single claim without shilly-shallying back and forth, he’d have more credibility.
As it is, a lot of observers, both here and throughout the world, seem to be shifting to Horsey’s view that everyone involved is cray-cray and that, while Iran seems unlikely to knuckle under, Trump seems equally unlikely to come up with a solution that doesn’t just involve blowing things up.
Not that Trump doesn’t have his loyalist supporters. Varvel echoes Dear Leader’s good news about having destroyed Iran’s rocket emplacements and reduced its arms to a paltry pile of remnants.
Unfortunately, Varvel’s Friday cartoon followed Thursday’s announcement from the CIA that Iran still has 75% of its mobile launchers and 70% of its missiles, and can hold out for several months more, which doesn’t seem to echo either Trump’s claims or Varvel’s analysis of the situation.
Iran is reportedly starting to have trouble feeding its people, but, then again, with gasoline selling for $4.60 a gallon, there are Americans also finding it hard to both commute to work and have money for groceries.
Bennett points out that the GOP seems to be moving towards the kind of one-party rule that gives the central government more authority, but as quickly as Tennessee and Florida seem determined to act, they’re unlikely to have their Brave New World fully in place before the November mid-terms, and it seems — judging from both instinct and history — that the people who object to expensive gasoline and faux-monarchy will be more motivated to turn out to vote than the people who feel everything is just fine, thanks.
Leahy is not alone in suggesting that the release of intelligence on potential alien life was a purposeful distraction, though he seems to have skipped a few steps, in that Iran was apparently intended as a distraction from the Epstein Files.
At this stage, it’s becoming a little hard to know what is intended as a distraction from which.
For instance, there might be a call for a distraction from the decision to add a billion in taxpayer funds to make sure there’s a really good bunker under the ballroom, a move that continues to draw attention to the ballroom, in case Dear Leader’s constant talking about it and ripping up the east end of the executive mansion wasn’t doing that.
There’s also starting to be chatter in contrast to Matson’s view, because with only 28% of Americans supporting the ballroom and 58% opposing it, some Republicans — particularly those up for re-election — are loyal to the party and to Dear Leader but very unhappy about having to go on the record in favor of dropping a billion on an unpopular vanity project.
And it certainly doesn’t help matters to have a NYC billionaire real-estate developer go on the public record as saying
I consider the phrase ‘tax the rich’ – quote tax the rich – spit out with anger and contempt by politicians both here and across the country, to be just as hateful as some disgusting racial slurs.
He was complaining about a proposed tax on second homes with a value of $5 million or more, a sentiment that could conceivably alienate people who struggle to afford first homes with more modest price tags.
I haven’t done the research, but I suspect they’d make up a sizeable voting bloc.
But putting aside all the distractions, cartoonist and Vietnam veteran Danziger updates an old song, introducing today’s musical selection:
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