CSotD: Ruffled Grousers
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There’s a lot to grouse about these days, and Wiley does a nice job of summing it up: We’ve got people regretting previous statements and people boasting over their insights, and a significant amount of it all is unearned.
I wouldn’t attribute it all to podcasters, but they’re about the only commentators who revisit past work to any meaningful extent.
At the moment, commentators have a lot to either regret or repeat. The advantage of the Reflecting Pool brouhaha is that it’s so clearly idiotic that you’re not sticking your neck out to voice an opinion, which also makes it a handy topic upon which to preach, given that it’s clearly foolish and doesn’t drag in a lot of complex side issues.
Not so the primaries in NYC, where the most unfortunate, avoidable, unnecessary scandal is that Congressman Dan Goldman stopped in at a coffeeshop so his seven-year-old daughter could use the bathroom, and things seemed to go well, he later told CNN.
I had such a nice interaction with the barista in the coffee shop. She was wearing a hijab, I didn’t know her, but she couldn’t have been nicer and allowed my daughter to go use the bathroom, and I honestly was so grateful for her kindness that I felt like I should buy a coffee, and so I did, and I gave her a large tip.
Apparently, however, some keyboard warrior on the staff recognized him as the more pro-Israel candidate in the race and posted a nastygram on the coffeeshop’s Instagram page announcing that he was barred from the shop. I’d bet it wasn’t an official statement, but, whoever posted it, this local Gotham City kerfuffle touched off a nationwide firestorm, including Bok’s cartoon.
And the NYPost’s coverage was markedly different than what the Scripps wire service wrote, because that’s where we’re at these days.
The whole thing seems unnecessary, given that Goldman got his backside kicked in the primaries regardless of where he buys coffee, and given that NY’s 10th District has the highest Jewish population in the country, at between 27.5% to 37.6%, it seems unlikely that voters went along religious lines, given that both candidates were Jewish, but differed on their degree of criticism of Netanyahu’s Gaza operations.
And who knows, perhaps other things? But Lander was endorsed by Mayor Mamdani and Bernie Sanders, so that his victory, and those of two other Mamdani-backed candidates, touched off this
Juxtaposition of the Day
First of all, we need better social studies teaching so that people will know the difference between communism and socialism, at least to the extent of knowing they are two different things and only one of them bears the hammer and sickle.
But it seems that the real panic stems from the remnants of the Red Scares of the 1920s and 1950s, and the fact that voters not only support Bernie Sanders and AOC but do so with enthusiasm similar to the above vote spread between Lander and two-time incumbent Goldman. And that New Yorkers seem to like what Mamdani has done so far and what he’s promising.
A very strong strain of “The people have spoken, damn them,” which illuminates one of the weaknesses of democracy: People keep voting for the candidates they want instead of the people they’re supposed to support, and while that includes a few socialists, you can look at the White House to see an opposing example of the same issue.
Clay Jones suggests that a lot of the opposition to socialism comes from people who have been programmed to hate it without having been taught what it is. But as his NYC character suggests, other people for some reason seem to enjoy seeing tax money go to things like feeding the hungry and providing health care for everyone.
Jones elaborates on the phenomenon, and concedes that what happens in NYC doesn’t necessarily reflect the Democratic Party as a whole. Several well-known national figures in the party are, as he says, looking for more centrist policies, and we’ll have to see how that shakes out in the midterms, but Bernie’s been in office since 1981, except for two years he voluntarily took off to lecture in college.
That is, he was the socialist mayor of Burlington a decade before Zohran Mamdani was even born.
Juxtaposition of the Day #2
Meanwhile, Giorgia Meloni could not be much further from being a socialist if she wore jodhpurs and jackboots, and, as Schrank points out, was once one of the few democratically elected leaders in the world who was well-disposed towards Donald Trump.
But he fixed that, in a stunning display of boorishness that seems to demonstrate why he has such a loyal contingent of incels supporting him. Misogyny is a major element in the American rightwing, and Pete Hegseth chose as the preacher for one of his Pentagon prayer sessions his own pastor, Douglas Wilson, who preaches in favor of a tradwife-style society and advocates repeal of the 19th Amendment which gave women the right to vote.
Which might explain why Hegseth has fired and blocked so many high-ranking female military officers.
In any case, the overall manosphere atmosphere of the administration might explain why Dear Leader behaved with such arrogant bad manners towards Meloni.
Giorgia Meloni is not a tradwife and not only wasn’t having any, but wasn’t going to quietly pretend she — and her nation — had not been insulted.
Donald Trump’s statements are completely fabricated. I am frankly appalled. I don’t know why the President of the United States behaves this way towards his allies; after all, it’s not the first time it’s happened. I can only say it’s a pity that he doesn’t show the same determination with the enemies of the West, with the enemies of the United States.
Nor did her government, and its opponents, let her stand alone.
It all — not just Meloni, not just Hegseth and not just E. Jean Carroll or Stormy Daniels — falls under both “This isn’t what I voted for” and “I told you so.”
Neither one of which solves anything. That takes determination, not despair.
Keep the faith, and keep on keeping on.
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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