CSotD: And the Beat Goes On
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Bennett specializes in understatement, using bland illustrations that force the reader to fill in the meaning.
It’s dangerous in that some readers have problems understanding even clearly stated messages, but you can dismiss that crowd for just that reason: They aren’t going to get it anyway.
For those able to process subtlety, this type of messaging is more effective because it makes the cartoon a participatory event in which they invest some of their own thought and values. Mauldin frequently employed it as well, laying out a situation and letting the reader figure out the meaning.
This cartoon hits just as SCOTUS has given Alabama permission to inject a new map into what is an ongoing election, which in itself breaks its own precedent as set in Purcell v Gonzalez, and also marks another blow to the Voter Rights Act, in that the new map that was approved cuts the power of Black voters in half.
Joyce Vance, who is both an experienced attorney and an Alabama resident, has an excellent takedown on the decision, but Bennett sums it up well, because we’ve reached a point where it seems that, unless a redistricting effort actually includes the N-word, SCOTUS is willing to look the other way.
Juxtaposition of the Day
A pair of false-balance cartoons from a pair of cartoonists who don’t usually take that route.
Hands is correct that “they both do it,” but the cartoon ignores the fact that the rush of gerrymandering was initiated in Red states and Blue states followed suit in an attempt to retain the existing balance of Republican and Democratic seats in the House.
In other words, it’s possible for Blue states to plead self-defense, which makes a more interesting discussion.
Does it confuse voters? Well, probably, particularly if, as in Alabama now, it comes while an election is already in progress. But you only get to vote in one state, so the fact that it’s happening in several should not pose a problem at the ballot box.
Stahler’s cartoon poses a different question, which is why would the two routes differ? I realize that, in a coin-flip situation, you might vote for the person who you’ve met or who shares your love of a particular sports team, but we’re hardly in a political situation where you should be flipping coins very often.
Honorable people keep both head and heart in synch.
Nothing has changed in the 387 years since Richard Lovelace wrote a poem of a young man leaving his lover to go to war, apologizing for their separation but not for his decision:
I could not love thee (Dear) so much, Lov’d I not Honour more.
I’m still hearing talk of the 25th Amendment, but German answered it long enough ago that he’s got Tulsi Gabbard in this array of why it can’t work.
It’s probably a good thing that the Amendment requires that “the Vice President and a majority of either the principal officers of the executive departments or of such other body as Congress may by law provide” make the decision that the President is unable to discharge his duties or it would become a tool for political hijinks.
The amendment came after JFK’s assassination, addressing the question of “What if he’d survived?” and bore in mind Eisenhower’s earlier heart attack. It’s not about political differences, but, more to the point, however you feel about Trump’s cognitive abilities, he has surrounded himself with loyalists.
As for impeachment, even assuming the Democrats regain both houses of Congress in November, impeachment is easy — it’s happened to Trump twice — but to convict an impeached president and remove him from office takes a 2/3 majority of the Senate. Maybe it shouldn’t be that way, but that’s how it is.
As Lenny Bruce said, “The truth is what is, and what should be is a fantasy. A terrible, terrible lie that someone gave to the people long ago.”
On the other hand, it’s not as if Dear Leader isn’t experiencing any setbacks. Not only did he have to cancel his concert after nearly all his acts dropped out, but he’s been getting pushback from the MMA fighters right from the start about the planned fracas on the South Lawn. This article is from five months ago, so it’s no secret that a lot of top names want no part of the extravaganza.
And, holy guacamole, but they aren’t necessarily delicate in how they decline the honor.
Even Joe Rogan, who is slated to be the announcer, and Dana White, head of the company/league involved, have serious reservations about the thing.
Meanwhile, Dear Leader won’t repeat his embarrassing parade: He’s building an audience with free tickets to service members, if they’re fit and trim.
So it’s like a Bob Hope Show, except that Bob went to where the GIs were, rather than making them pay their own travel expenses.
As Burns wrote, “O wad some Pow’r the giftie gie us, To see oursels as others see us!”
He suggested that it would free us from blunders and foolish notions, but that assumes a sense of shame not everyone possesses.
While it seems everyone else in the world sees the failure of his self-declared war in Iran, Trump himself can’t face defeat, and so Morland portrays him going through the stages of grief only to decide to try the same thing in hopes of a different outcome.
I wish I thought Morland had it wrong, but I wouldn’t bet on cooler heads prevailing in the Caribbean.
Meanwhile, I suppose we should take some cold comfort in the fact that the foolishness Wilcox portrays as happening in Australia can be found here as well.
It would certainly be a better world if her cartoon didn’t apply in either place, but perhaps if these things are universal, there’s hope of someone coming up with a way to deal with them.
It seems that Dear Leader has turned his back on Kyiv, but the Ukrainians seem to be doing fairly well without us, and, as Schrank puts it, Russia is reportedly taking heavy losses on the battlefield.
Perhaps “Hang in there” is good advice after all.
Hang in there.
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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