CSotD: Wherefore Art Thou “Ontario”?
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Trump’s war on Canada is getting plenty of praise at Xitter, but Telnaes asks if the response of genuine, three-dimensional conservatives will be as positive as that of the bots and trolls that dominate Musk’s playground. She recalls Dear Leader’s bizarre response to a hurricane in Puerto Rico, where he tossed paper towels to people devastated by flooding.
In this case, it turns out that about half of our toilet paper comes from Canada, which makes for a comic scene but, IMHO, won’t have the same impact as the shortage of gasoline. The thing is, toilet paper is bought in the store along with other things. Whatever price increase might happen, you won’t stand there watching your bill tick upward like you do as you fuel your car.
However, it’s one more straw on the camel’s back. It’s also a commodity that falls prey to panic-buying in the face of hurricanes. If people start panic-buying toilet paper in response to Trump’s inexplicable tariff policy, that may give it more sway than it deserves.
Another matter being debated at length is the impact of both the Iran War and Trump’s economic war with Canada on the nation’s farmers. That there is one is undeniable: They’ve lost two major sources of fertilizer and the price of diesel fuel has gone up by more than half in the past year, while a lot of farm equipment is imported and we’re in the midst of a drought. And, as the newspaper that fellow has says, we’ve lost significant overseas markets for corn and soybeans. And the cutting of AID and SNAP has reduced once-welcomed markets for American fruit, grain and vegetables.
The debate is internal among farmers who have been loyal Trump supporters but see the damage he’s done, and also on the liberal side between those who want to welcome farmers and ranchers to the resistance and others who prefer laughing in their faces.
Meanwhile, the renaming of Lake Ontario is causing an uproar that even reaches into the funny pages, as only the most deeply loyal MAGA supporters find the move anything but ridiculous.
Whamond touches on the King Midas in Reverse theme that has been playing for the past year or so, about the reflecting pool but also the State Fair and the parade and the MMA match on the White House lawn. Dear Leader is launching ego trip after ego trip and seeing each of them fall to ashes without ever sparking a flame. His IndyCar race drew a good TV crowd, but locals found it disruptive, with street and airport closures, and expensive.
Whamond, who is Canadian, plays the renaming as one more grandstanding move gone astray,
And Australian cartoonist Megan Herbert suggests that it’s not only pointless but a case of ignoring the more crucial issues facing Americans for a victory that probably wouldn’t matter to them even in good times, but adds insult to injury in the current context.
Acceptance of the new name has become a litmus test, and Joy of Tech is not the only place where Google is being criticized for their decision to immediately change their maps to reflect Dear Leader’s change — more or less, at least.
It’s hard to put a number to what is happening, but social media is full of people praising Mapquest for standing its ground and vowing to switch over to their mapping instead of Google’s. No telling if it will rise to the level of public pushback that ABC got for cancelling Jimmy Kimmel to placate Dear Leader, but the parallel, if not the volume, is already there.
Steiner hits a similar but more pointed note, suggesting that renaming the lake is doubly foolish given the Trump administration’s rescinding of environmental laws.
It is also picking up speed by those who use it to launch gags. There are plenty of maps on-line in which one lake is changed to “Epstein” and here Joe Heller uses the renaming to mock transexual people, who have become a popular target of ridicule, comparing the renaming of the lake to their “petty and idiotic” insistence on being accepted as they are.
Even if you sympathize with Epstein victims and transexuals, but there’s some benefit in that the more laughter the renaming provokes, the more dignity Dear Leader is losing.
Juxtaposition of the Day
International Cartoonists, however, are blaming climate change deniers for the stunning disaster in Nepal, and given Trump’s active denunciation of the phenomenon — from defunding alternative power sources and withdrawing environmental protections to openly mocking the vast majority of experts who believe in climate change as part of a hoax — it’s not surprising that the British and Turkish cartoonists let him personify the cause of the horrors.
Body, the New Zealander, casts the blame more widely, blaming not just the political deniers but the people who have been sleeping through the warnings and will not likely see a connection between their lack of action and the growing toll of dead and missing following the melting and collapse of a glacier they didn’t know existed.
And he adds the expected impact of the Super El Niño which is already beginning to effect weather and will do so thoughout the coming year.
Juxtaposition of the Day #2
Foreign cartoonists are not accepting either Donald Trump’s cheerful explanation or Interim President of Venezuela, Delcy Rodriguez’s willing acceptance of the United States taking a major portion of Venezuelan oil for itself.
Just as he has been cagey about the source of the beef he is importing, Trump has also been unforthcoming about what private company may be the recipient of this vast quantity of oil or how much of it may become the property of the Central Government, but analysts are already explaining that it won’t have any impact of gasoline prices in the United States for several years, if ever.
From Mexico, Antonio Rodríguez sees it as an assault on Venezuela, while Syrian Cartoonist Bahady sees it as an overall attack on freedom and liberty, with both suggesting Trump’s greed rather than patriotism as his motivation.
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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