CSotD: News Roundup
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Dolly Parton’s death dominates political cartoons today. I’m not a fan of obituary cartoons, but I think it’s fitting that so many cartoonists used her Coat of Many Colors as a motif, since it was not only a well-known crossover hit for her, but an indicator of her impact as a generous person who acknowledged her humble origins, refused to go uptown once she was successful, and paid the world back both with her personality and with her wealth.
Obituary cartoons rarely carve new ground and de Adder did well not to try to be clever or to go for cheap tears, but to simply mark her passing.
Darkow joins the flood of back-to-school cartoons, but with a serious message in this era of dangerous government misinformation. I’m not sure how you could express this in a cartoon, but part of the insane quackery being foisted on the nation is a misunderstanding that only the unvaccinated are in danger from collective ignorance.
Vaccines are effective, but they aren’t all-powerful, and when you have a number of infected people in a closed system, it tests the efficacy of vaccination. Some of the vaccinated kids will still be infected if exposed to germs and viruses, and classrooms are well-known as petri dishes, particularly in the first few weeks of school when teachers and kids are exposed to each other when their natural resistance hasn’t been tested for several weeks.
In 1978, we were at an intellectual point that allowed Saturday Night Live to joke about medieval medicine with a Steve Martin skit, Theodoric of York, Medieval Barber.
It’s sad and dangerous and grotesquely irresponsible that, a generation later, we’ve sunk back to a level of scientific knowledge that is barely more sophisticated than what the skit was mocking.
Perhaps I’ve been wrong to blindly follow the medical traditions and superstitions of past centuries. Maybe we barbers should test these assumptions analytically, through experimentation and a “scientific method”. Maybe this scientific method could be extended to other fields of learning: the natural sciences, art, architecture, navigation. Perhaps I could lead the way to a new age, an age of rebirth, a Renaissance! [ thinks for a minute ] Naaaaaahhh!
I remember when that was funny.
Danziger points out the many reasons thoughtful, educated people promise to vote against the current reign of folly, but perhaps the punchline here is the arrival of the trayful of martinis, because it seems natural that a table full of elite, sophisticated people would be drinking an elite, sophisticated drink. It makes his caption, “Something for Everybody,” ironic, because we’re about to test the meaning of “everybody,” bearing in mind that Trump was re-elected in 2024 despite the chaos of his first administration.
The crowd Danziger depicts is not the feckless, head-in-the-clouds nincompoopery of a New Yorker cartoon. I remember a New Yorker cartoon from a half century ago, in which a group of white suburbanites in a fancy livingroom sang “Ol’ Man Ribber” in negro dialect, the joke being their lack of connection with anyone not in their own elite demographic.
Danziger, rather, shows a crowd that is well aware of the current horrors being foisted on America and the world, but leaves us with the question of whether they represent any sort of viable political group.
It’s a critical question, not only about the numbers of those who see through the bafflegab, but whether they will get up from the table and actually go vote, or order more martinis and continue to gripe.
The decision by the USPS to prepare to yield to Trump’s efforts to stifle mail-in ballots and make voting more of a federal than a state-run activity does indeed carry a smack of “Show us your papers,” given the plot to compile a national list of approved citizens.
I remember being shown anti-communist films in grade school in which we were warned about secret police demanding to see our papers, and an atmosphere in which we were under constant surveillance. now here we are, with masked police who do not display badges, cameras on every street corner, and now a list of good citizens and a round-up of bad people to be placed in concentration camps.
But we’re not quite there yet, and yesterday’s Supreme Court decision needs to be viewed carefully. It did not give a go-ahead to compiling that list, but, rather, said that the states challenging the plan had moved too quickly and had to wait until the thing actually existed rather than challenging something that hadn’t quite happened yet. It’s critical to recognize, too, that they did not strike down a similar suit by the League of Women Voters.
Joyce Vance addressed the matter twice, first as the decision came down and then again as the implications became more clear. She has a sharp legal mind and combines a sensible “don’t panic” response with a reminder that while it may be too early to freak out, later it may be too late.
Danziger again, and this time challenging Trump’s bizarre decision to recreate the US Navy of the 1940s, which is yet another case of his taking a fancy that makes no sense, will cost a great deal of money and is likely to represent a downgrade of our military readiness.
Danziger served as an intelligence officer during the Vietnam War, but here’s a reflection on Dear Leader’s cunning plan from a more recent veteran, Senator Mark Kelly (D-AZ):
I’ve launched off the front of aircraft carriers hundreds of times, have a Master’s degree in aeronautical engineering, and am a test pilot and even I wouldn’t suggest to the Navy how to engineer specific systems on its ships. Donald Trump should stick to what he knows best — ballrooms, bankruptcy, and b*llsh*t.
And while Dear Leader is redesigning aircraft carriers and ordering anachronistic battleships the Navy doesn’t want or need, let’s not ignore that he and Hegseth somehow forgot to tell us that Iran essentially wiped out our major base in the Persian Gulf.
Which is why the Abraham Lincoln had such major resupply issues.
But let’s end with Dolly, whose status within the music industry was reflected in the quality of the backup players she could assemble:
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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