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Opus 398 (November 21, 2019). Down the rabbit hole this time, we plunge deeply into politics. It’s almost all editoons, making up for their absence last time (we dropped this entire department last time, you remember—because we were already running too long—so this time, we’re picking up where we left off last time), but also some diatribes and other thankless verbal whirligigging from Yr Etr. We also include a couple newsy notes left over from the last posting and a sidebar of unknown history of Fred Harman and Red Ryder, so, you’ll be happy to note, it’s not all politics. Here, briefly, is what’s here, by department—:
Correction John Adams
NOUS R US Lynda Barry Dubbed Genius What Scarfe Couldn’t Draw Marvel Depoliticizing Perlmutter Ordered Out
THE FROTH ESTATE The Alleged “News” Institution A New Giant Newspaper Publisher
TRUMPERIES More Idiocies from the Trumpet
EDITOONERY Rounding Up a Month-and-a-Half’s Worth
Joe Hill Lyrics by Joan Baez
QUOTE OF THE MONTH If Not of A Lifetime “Goddamn it, you’ve got to be kind.”—Kurt Vonnegut
Our Motto: It takes all kinds. Live and let live. Wear glasses if you need ’em. But it’s hard to live by this axiom in the Age of Tea Baggers, so we’ve added another motto: Seven days without comics makes one weak. (You can’t have too many mottos.)
And in the same spirit, here’s—: Chatter matters, so let’s keep talking about comics.
And our customary reminder: don’t forget to activate the “Bathroom Button” by clicking on the “print friendly version” so you can print off a copy of just this installment for reading later, at your leisure while enthroned. Without further adieu, then, here we go—:
CORRECTION. When I observed that Alan Moore’s name wasn’t among the credits for the tv “Watchmen” series, I had forgotten (and Michael Rhode reminded me) that Moore won’t let his name be attached to adaptions or other subsequent manifestations of his masterpiece. So Damon Lindelof wasn’t at fault or being ungenerous. Still, the idea of “watchmen,” a story about costumed do-gooders in a somewhat more realistic everyday mode than usual, is Moore’s, and anyone coming along attempting to put Moore’s shoes on is guilty of stealing shoes. Moore is adamant about disowning his work for DC Comics. In a recent interview, he said: “I have felt that since I am apparently not allowed to own the work that I created in the same manner than an author in a more grown-up and worthwhile field might expect to do, and since my protests at having my work stolen from me are interpreted by a surely young-at-heart and non-unionized audience as evidence of my “grouchiness” ... the only active position that is left to me is to disown the works in question. I no longer own [even] copies of these books. ... As I would hope would be obvious, to separate emotionally from work that you were previously very proud of is quite a painful experience and is not undertaken lightly. However having to answer questions about my opinions regarding DC Comics latest imbecilic use of my characters or stories would be much more harrowing.” Elsewhere in the interview, Moore wishes he weren’t famous so he could go about his business in his hometown “without attracting so much attention.” I wonder if he’s thought about shaving his long beard and cutting his long hair. Surely those aspects of his personal appearance attract attention—even among those who don’t know who he is.
BEFORE WE START, THERE’S THIS (WORTH REPEATING)—: It was John Adams who declared that “the government of the United States has been emphatically termed a government of laws, and not of men.” What, exactly, does that mean? How does a government of laws function that makes it different from a government by men? A government by men exists as long as there are men powerful enough to boss everyone else around. A government of laws functions like a game. It works as long as everyone plays by the rules, the laws. When people stop playing by those rules, that game, like any other game, deteriorates and soon ceases to be. Unhappily, we have a situation today of some people not playing by the rules. Trump has ordered that no one in the White House staff or in the State Department testify before the House committees that have subpoenaed them. Those who obey this order are not playing by the rules. If you’re subpoenaed, you must show up. That’s the rule, the law. People who disobey that law are undermining American democracy, a government by laws. If you don’t play the game by its rules, the game is pretty quickly over.
NOUS R US Some of What Gives Us Fits
BARRY DUBBED GENIUS Graphic novelist, cartoonist and creativity educator Lynda Barry of Madison is one of this year's winners of the prestigious MacArthur Foundation fellowship, commonly known as a "genius" grant. In naming her one of its 2019 fellows, Jim Higgins at the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reports, the MacArthur Foundation praised Barry for "inspiring creative engagement through original graphic works and a teaching practice centered on the role of image making in communication." Barry, 63, is known for her graphic novels, including One! Hundred! Demons! (2002), a contemporary riff on a 16th-century Zen painting, and The Good Times Are Killing Me (1988), and for her long-running Ernie Pook’s Comeek, a weekly comic strip that appeared in alternative publications. She is also an associate professor of interdisciplinary creativity in the art department at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. "In her 'Writing the Unthinkable' workshops, she leads students through exercises that emphasize the physical process of writing and drawing, often under time pressure, to stimulate creative thinking," the MacArthur Foundation noted.
SCARFE COULDN’T DRAW IT His grotesque, iconic caricatures have become his trademark over his long, storied career, but cartoonist Gerald Scarfe says there’s one thing he couldn’t draw, reports Jane Graham at bigissue.com. In his Letter To My Younger Self, the 83-year-old tells the story. “My younger self was confident that he could draw absolutely anything. But it turned out not to be quite true,” he told The Big Issue. “When I went into the American morgue in Saigon during the Vietnam War, the American sergeant said, Are you sure you want to do this? And I said yeah, I’m an artist, I draw anything and everything. “Then I went into this tin hut, where the floor was awash with blood and bits of human beings. I didn’t want to put my foot down in case I trod on any flesh. There were 12 operating bunks, and they had men on them. Dead men. And what had never struck me before, having been brought up on John Wayne films where everyone is shot and they fall over in a full heap, was that bodies which are shot can end up in bits, without arms or legs or heads. They had become lumps of meat and ribcages. “I told the sergeant I just couldn’t handle it, and he said, Thought not. We went outside and I found I was sweating and clutching my armpits. It seemed like hell. I do pride myself as an artist on being able to draw anything— but Vietnam ... my God, it was horrific.”
MARVEL DEPOLITICIZING It’s no secret, says Chloe Maveal at comicsbeat.com, that Marvel has recently come under fire from the public about their so-called “apolitical” stance surrounding their content, despite a storied history that includes Captain America punching Hitler on the cover of his debut issue. Most recently, legendary graphic novelist Art Spiegelman, author of Maus, was asked by Marvel to remove his reference to Donald Trump as “the Orange Skull” in his introduction to the upcoming collection published by the Folio Society, Marvel: The Golden Age 1939-1949. The essay meant to be included in the collection was thankfully published in full by The Guardian. However, there is no turning back for Marvel when it comes to telling a Jewish author of a graphic novel about the Holocaust — who is contributing to a collection of comics that were extremely political for their time — that they’re not allowed to be political. If that’s not enough of a shocker for Marvel fans, a new essay seems to have been revised by the hyper-apolitical agenda of Marvel Publishing. Appearing initially in the retailer preview of the publisher’s much-anticipated 80th anniversary issue Marvel Comics No.1000, a full page illustration of Captain America by John Cassaday and Laura Martin was accompanied by an essay about America by Mark Waid. Meant to illustrate the weight of 1941’s release of Captain America, one of America’s most iconic heroes, Waid’s essay was clear in its intention of giving Cap his due while making pointed criticism on the state of America as we know it now. Here, in italics, is the essay, written as if spoken by Cap—:
I’m asked how it’s possible to love a country that’s deeply flawed. It’s hard sometimes. The system isn’t just. We’ve treated some of our own abominably. Worse, we’ve perpetuated the myth that any American can become anything, can achieve anything, through sheer force of will. And that’s not always true. This isn’t the land of opportunity for everyone. The American ideals aren’t always shared fairly. Yet without them, we have nothing. With nothing, cynicism becomes reality. With nothing, for the privileged and the disenfranchised both, our way of life ceases to exist. We must always remember that America, as imperfect as it is, has something. It has ideals that give it structure. When the structure works, we get schools. We get roads and hospitals. We get a social safety net. More importantly, when we have structure, we have a foundation upon which to rebuild the American Dream — that equal opportunity can be available to absolutely everyone. America’s systems are flawed, but they’re our only mechanism with which to remedy inequality on a meaningful scale. Yes, it’s hard and bloody work. But history has shown us that we can, bit by bit, right that system when enough of us get angry. When enough of us take to the streets and force those in power to listen. When enough of us call for revolution and say, “Injustice will not stand.” That’s what you can love about America.
It’s evident that while Marvel clearly saw this as too political, it is a view of America and patriotism that many readers of the issue would stand behind. It’s one that rings true to the all-American experience of and feelings about the country, through the eyes of a flag-bearing hero. But, apparently, that was just too much for Marvel — no matter how true it may read — as Waid’s essay is edited to be far more neutral in the final, published version of Marvel Comics No.1000. The page now reads (in italics):
Masks are designed to hide things. Some heroes wear them to protect their true identities so as to shield their loved ones from retaliation. I have a different reason. I wear mine as a reminder to people that Captain America isn’t a man. It’s an idea. It’s a commitment to fight every day for justice, for acceptance and equality, and for the rights of everyone in this nation. At its best, this is a good country filled with people who recognize that those—not hatred, not bigotry, not exclusion—are the values of true patriotism. Several others have had occasion to don this suit and carry this shield over the years. I have faith that someone else will continue that tradition long after I’m gone. Maybe it’ll be your neighbor. Maybe it’ll be you. I’m not the first to represent those values. I won’t be the last.
There is a clear delineation of the intentions of the two essays. One denotes something relatable and wide-sprawling that readers can — in true Marvel fashion — see out their window, however sad that may be. The other puts a strict focus on the character and the idea of shielding people from their true selves. This is no real surprise though, as Marvel CEO Ike Perlmutter is a close friend of Donald Trump and is a frequent member of his Mar-a-Lago club in Florida. He has also been noted as being one of Trump’s largest individual campaign donators, having reportedly donated $360 thousand to his re-election campaign. While Captain America, specifically, may have a history with punching nazis, fighting communism, and doing whatever it takes to fight for what’s right in the world including free speech and justice, it’s clear that Marvel is changing gears. The publisher seems less concerned with continuing that fight than with depoliticizing one of its most political figures in a truly contentious era of United States history.
FITNOOT by ol’ RCH hizownself. When we covered Art Spiegelman’s essay in Opus 396B last month, we pooh-poohed the idea of Marvel being apolitical despite the “political” evidence of Captain America socking Hitler in the jaw 80 years ago. And the same “political” opposition to Nazi Germany and to Japan after Pearl Harbor prevailed through most of Marvel’s Golden Age. But that kind of politics—the politics of wartime— is greatly different from Waid’s politics in which America falls short of its ideals but is worth loving anyhow. (Waid’s essay is nicely done, by the way— with admirable logic and generous heart.) Marvel appears disposed to avoiding that kind of politics. In a country that is as divided politically as the U.S. is these days, taking one side or the other in a product designed for mass consumption is assuming more risk than almost everyone in the mass production game is likely to go for. So in the sense being discussed above and in Spiegelman’s post-essay essay, comics are likely to strive for apoliticality. That doesn’t make them bad or chicken-hearted. It makes them realists. Of which we have yet another example—...
PERLMUTTER ORDERED OUT The influence of Ike Perlmutter on Marvel movies was dedected and eliminated. Disney executive Bob Iger’s new autobiography The Ride of A Lifetime, looks at a number of contentious moments in Disney’s history, including dealing with Marvel Studios, says Rich Johnston at bleedingcool.com. And includes the claim (to which we alluded in Opus 396B) that Iger overruled concerns about the box office potential of Black Panther and Captain Marvel and ordered Marvel Comics chair Ike Perlmutter to put the movies into development. The book states that current Marvel Studios head Kevin Feige was on board with both movies, but cites an unnamed Marvel exec in the New York offices that movies led by black actors underperformed in the international film market. Ditto superhero movies with women leads. Hence the objection to Black Panther and Captain Marvel. Iger responded that such conventional wisdom was outdated, and limited opportunities for filmmakers and for films that might resonate with international audiences worldwide. “I’ve been in the business long enough to have heard every old argument in the book,” Iger said, “and I’ve learned that old arguments are just that: old, and out of step with where the world is and where it should be. We had a chance to make a great movie and to showcase an underrepresented segment of America, and those goals were not mutually exclusive. I called Ike and told him to tell his team to stop putting up roadblocks and ordered that we put both Black Panther and Captain Marvel into production.”
THE FROTH ESTATE The Alleged “News” Institution Two giant newspaper publishing chains have merged. Gatehouse closed a $1.1 billion take-over of Gannett to become the country’s largest newspaper company “by far,” reported Tali Arbel of the Associated Press. The merger brings together about 260 daily newspapers as well as “hundreds of weeklies.” The new company will retain the name Gannett. The new honchos pledge to retain frontline reporters but also to cut costs by laying off some workers at a savings of $300 million. “We believe we have a strategy that will result in ... not just preserving local journalism but letting local journalism thrive,” said Mike Reed, who will be the CEO of the new combined company. The company operates the Arizona Republic, the Providence Journal, and the Austin American-Statesman among many others. Elsewhere, the McClatchy Company, “a storied newspaper publisher,” is weighed down by pension obligations and debt and could file for bankruptcy within the next year. The Sacramento, California based company operates 29 newspapers across the nation, including the Miami Herald, Charlotte Observer and Kansas City Star.
Fascinating Footnit. Much of the news retailed in the foregoing segment is culled from articles indexed at https://www.facebook.com/comicsresearchbibliography/, and eventually compiled into the Comics Research Bibliography, by Michael Rhode, which covers comic books, comic strips, animation, caricature, cartoons, bandes dessinees and related topics. It also provides links to numerous other sites that delve deeply into cartooning topics. For even more comics news, consult these four other sites: Mark Evanier’s povonline.com, Alan Gardner’s DailyCartoonist.com, and Michael Cavna at voices.washingtonpost.com/comic-riffs. For delving into the history of our beloved medium, you can’t go wrong by visiting Allan Holtz’s strippersguide.blogspot.com, where Allan regularly posts rare findings from his forays into the vast reaches of newspaper microfilm files hither and yon.
FURTHER ADO On Friday, October 12, the Trumpet announced that a deal with China had been reached. But this, like most of Trump’s victories, was all hot air. Nothing was yet committed to paper; nothing written down. It was an agreement on principles. And none of it that I saw described had to do with intellectual property, which was one of the big reasons for the trade war. And the tariffs were not reduced at all that I could see: Trump merely postponed enacting another round of them. In short, phooey.
TRUMPERIES Still More of the Idiotic Antics of the Nation’s Clown in Chief IT’S BEEN A WHILE since we last sampled the work of the nation’s editoonists, but the Trumpet has been forging ahead in his usual fashion regardless of what anyone says. This department is devoted to annotating the visual interpretations of his antics rather than of his policies as Prez. But we also have uppermost in our minds the undeniable fact that the antics are often his policies. In
our first visual aid, Ann Telnaes gets us off on the right foot at the
upper left with an image of a formal portrait of the Trumpet and his inner
circle—i.e., his family. Her skill as a caricaturist is on high alert with this
crowd, and she never disappoints. When she’s not producing animated editorial
cartoons for the Washington Post, she does static editoons—and, even,
just sketches. The picture at hand is one of the latter. Next around the clock, Monte Wolverton illustrates a jolly pair of jingles by Randy Cate. The rhymes and rhythms perfectly invoke the songs they echo. Below that, we have Rick McKee with a picture of the Trumpet that perfectly captures his flawed view of the world in which he manufactures an alternate reality and then lives in it—using his ever-active Sharpie. The Sharpie as a metaphor for creating fictional realities is now firmly established in the tool kit of the nation’s editoonists. Below McKee, the always hilarious Mike Peters explains why the memorial statue for the battle of Iwo Jima is missing. The post-combat image of heroism on the battlefield has been destroyed by Trump’s obsession with his silly wall (which is already being breached by smugglers with chain saws). And then Tom Toles shows why the Trump Administration has done nothing about the Saudi Arabian murderers of Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi. The Trumpet always has his eye on the Main Chance (the money). This is what happens when you put a “businessman” in the White House. In
our next array, we begin at the upper left with a visual metaphor that evokes
Michelangelo’s Sistine Chapel painting of God creating man (Adam), an image
that Mike Luckovich deploys to comment on the Trumpet’s claim to be “the
Chosen One”—the Christ? Or, as depicted here, God himself at the head of a
hooded klutch of Klan members. Next, David Horsey portrays the Trumpet as the spoiled brat that he is. This is a common metaphor for our always amusing Prez, and here, Horsey has embroidered the usual infantile portrayal with the characteristic so-called “reasoning” of the Trumpet. Below Horsey, Bill Bramhall revives the Sharpie metaphor in which the Trumpet uses a Sharpie to construct a fictional “reality” in which he delights to live. Here, the alternate reality creates Trump’s soaring approval rating. Back to Luckovich at the lower left with an image of the inaugural swearing-in ceremony to which he applies the utterance that has come to characterize Trump’s relationship with the president of Ukraine—creating an impeachable offense. Ann
Telnaes returns in the next display to depict the Prez at the G7 meeting as
a clown, saying all the things that the Trumpet has, actually, said, which
makes them all the more unbelievable. Bill Bramhall returns with a hilarious image of Rudy Giuliani as the creature that Frankenstein/Trump employs as a lab assistant. And then David Horsey dissects the Republicon Party, showing the three types that presently make up the Grandstanding Obstructionist Pachyderm. The crazed guy in the MAGA cap at the end is probably not an accurate portrait of the most devoted of Trump’s adherents. But it’s close. It’s an hysterical metaphor that people of my political persuasion delight in. In
the next visual aid, Kevin “KAL” Kallaugher gives us a delicious picture
of the Trumpet and his creature, Rudy Giuliani. The imagery tellingly
contradicts what the Prez is saying: wrapped in a straight jacket, Trump is
clearly not mentally fit for his office. And by association, neither is Rudy. Incidentally,
the Washington Post’s tally of Prezidential fibs reached 13,435 “false
or misleading claims” as of October 9 Finally, to conclude our survey of Trumperies committed over the last couple months, we have Pia Guerra’s picture of the Trumpet playing with a handful of Sharpies to rewrite the Constitution. And then, just for fun, here’s the comic strip Over the Hedge by T Lewis and Michael Fry in which the ever-hilarious Hammy joins the national parade of presidential candidates. Why not? What’s one more silly candidate?
MOTS & QUOTES The Trumpet once explained that the Presidency was much like a reality tv show in which the objective was to beat the villain. And in the case of Trump’s Presidency, he had to find a villain with some degree of regularity.
EDITOONERY The Mock in Democracy IT’S BEEN MORE THAN A MONTH since we last viewed and pondered the workings of editorial cartoons. And that’s our purpose in this department: to enhance our appreciation of editooning by pointing out how these cartoons work to achieve their satirical objective. And in the month or more since we last ventured onto this turf, there’s been a lot of action, so the sheer quantity of editoons to examine is, shall we say, daunting. Nothing daunted, however, we plunge herewith onward—: The most egregious instance of the Trumpet’s sheer ignorance and overweening autocracy that was committed in the last month was his ordering the withdrawal of U.S. forces in northern Syria. He collaborated with Turkey’s dictatorial president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, to clear the way for Turkish troops to invade Syria and kill as many Kurds as they could, killing Kurds being Erdogan’s purpose in crossing the border into Syria. The Kurds being U.S. allies in the struggle against ISIS, Trump’s maneuver was a betrayal of monstrous proportions. Despite outcry from around the world, Trump seemed oblivious of the damage he’d done to American prestige and reputation. In
our visual aid on the subject, Lisa Benson leads off at the upper
left. Next around the clock, Dave Whamond offers an image of the Trumpet in the Oval Office, where he’s so ignorant of the circumstance in Syria that an aide must explain it to him with maps and charts (because Trump is too dumb to understanding any written explanation). His utter ignorance is further demonstrated when he asks if it’s too early to pardon Turkey. He views the Presidency as a power base, nothing more. Next, Steve Breen creates a painful metaphor for the U.S. role in northern Syria. He invokes the historic image of World War II American soldiers raising the flag in victory over Japanese troops in Iwo Jima; in Breen’s picture, it’s the Kurds, our erstwhile allies, who are poised to implant the flag of U.S. victory, but the flag here has become a spear, skewering the Kurds. The melding of historic image and present practice makes bitter the American treachery towards our Kurdish allies. At the lower left, Emad Hajjaj’s imagery of the Statue of Liberty as oil derricks in the Syrian desert proclaims the real interest of the U.S. in Syria, an interest the Trumpet amply demonstrated when he re-located the American troops from the northern border to the oil fields on the east. We care more about oil than about our erstwhile allies; Trump’s truth is hard to swallow. Trump seemingly didn’t understand what all the fuss was about in the wake of his Syrian decision. He did, however, realize that lots of people were fussing at him. “He seemed alone against the world,” Dana Milbank observed in the Washington Post. “The House condemned his sudden Syria pullout in a lopsided 354-60 vote. Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell repeatedly branded Trumps’ actions ‘a mistake.’ The Italian president visited the White House with rebukes from Europe on Syria, NATO, and trade. ... “And Trump acted the way he increasinlgy has lately: as if the walls are closing in, he lashed out, indiscriminately, in all directions. His unfocused rage was as cogent as a primal scream and as subtle as a column of Turkish tanks. “He attached the media and the Democrats, of course. ... But he also attacked NATO members and the European Union. He attacked Germany, Spain and France. He attacked his guest (‘Italy is paying only 1.1% of gross domestic product for defense’ instead of the mandated 2%). He attacked Google and Amazon. He attacked those seeking to rename Columbus Day. He floated a new conspiracy theory, saying, ‘I happen to think’ 2016 election corruption ‘goes right up to President Obama.’ Sickeningly, he attacked just-abandoned Kurdish allies as if they deserve the massacre they are now receiving. ... “He even attacked his fellow Republicans over Syria, unleashing particular fury on the GOP legislator who has compromised himself more than any other to appease Trump, Senator Lindsey Graham. “More revealing was who Trump didn’t attack: Turkey and Russia. ...” All that was “mild compared with much of Trump’s wandering fury. He trained it on Pelosi and Adam Schiff; on the ‘military industrial complex’; on delinquent NATO members trade policy; on Obama’s military spending; on the EU’s digital tax; on ABC News; and even on a disturbance in the back of the room [at a press conference] (‘Excuse me? Is there a problem back there?’). “His fury only increased each time he was confronted with reality. Asked earlier about Erdogan rejecting a cease-fire, Trump shot back: ‘He didn’t say that at all.’ (Erdogan said, “We will never declare a case-fire.”) Trump then coldly washed his hands of the Syrian mess, saying, ‘I wish them all a lot of luck.’ ... “Such incoherent rage, combined with confusion distinguishing between friend and foe, is uniquely disconcerting coming from the most powerful man in the world. Trump once worried that ‘the world is laughing at us.’ Now the world is staring at us, mouth agape”
THE IMPEACHMENT INQUERIES OF THE TRUMPET have now become a daily soap opera like the Watergate hearings a generation ago. Just as Trump has connived to get himself in the news every day, so have the Democrats now arranged for some crumb of impeachment news to fall into view every day. And the gasbag class pounces on every crumb with endless drooling speculations. Now that the hearings are being broadcast daily, we’ll probably have to endure this episodic epic for some months to come. As the old consumer warrior Ralph Nader pointed out, “Trump’s tactic is to dominate the news cycle every day as if his presidency is a reality show and he is the star.” Nader goes on: the House committees investigating Trump “are documenting his massive obstruction of justice, otherwise known as blocking law enforcement and the rule of law through intimidation, firings, and other forms of political coercion. They are filling in the details of the ten categories of obstruction described in the Mueller Report. They are cataloguing all the ways Trump is using his office to enrich his businesses. ... “Over 10,000 Trump lies mean cover-ups, secrecy in government, deceiving innocent citizens about the air, food, water, and workplace dangers, megalomania, about drug prices and health insurance for all. Lies matter: they tell us something about the President’s mental instability, his detachment from reality, and the willingness of a large minority of the people to believe the fibs. ... “The House already has enough evidence of Trump spending money for purposes not authorized by Congress, such as shifting $3.5 billion from Pentagon schools and other services to building his porous wall. ...” In
the accompanying exhibit, Clay Bennett’s empty outline of the Trumpet
captures the moment memorably. Lisa Benson, a determined right-winger even as she is betrayed by Trump, offers a metaphor of the impeachment proceedings as a circus: at Nancy Pelosi’s bidding, the formal inquiry will become the “big top” of the never-ending circus of American politics for the duration. Next around the clock, the metaphor by Michael Ramirez, another voice dedicated to the right, is the classic cliche of the cart before the horse: in his image, politics before evidence, with Nancy Pelosi in the driver’s seat. Bill Bramhall’s effort made me laugh: it’s so vividly Trumpian. Here’s Adam Schiff, head of the House Intelligence Committee, hauling subpoenas by the armload, and the Trumpet behaving just like the Trumpet godfather, summoning William Barr to do his bidding. And his bidding, as usual, is extreme and brutal. In
our next visual aid, Nick Anderson takes the mobster image another step:
the “inner circle” protecting the Trumpet looks like a bunch of gangsters. At Counterpoint, we encounter the world's first cartoon-led news media company, pioneered by the most talented and thought-provoking political cartoonists. “We bring you strong opinions from the Left and the Right. One thing we never do is play it safe. We feel it is neither possible nor desirable to be completely objective in discussing the news. To be human, is to have a point of view. Some news sources are more biased than others, but the problem is no one admits it. By showing multiple viewpoints on the news, with a deliberate attempt toward ideological balance, we hope to create more meaningful discourse. Our goal with this newsletter is to seek truth through diverse perspectives.” If you enjoy our Editoonery Department, you’ll also enjoy Counterpoint. Try it; you’ll like it. And it’s cheap—i.e., free. The next image is by Nate Beeler, who makes Trump the literal “head” of the Grandstanding Obstructionist Pachyderm. That his tongue should be the pachyderm’s trunk is, of course, ludicrous. But apt. According to Pat Bagley, when the GOP attempts to smear the otherwise persuasive and authoritative witness, Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman, the slime adheres to the GOP. Tom Toles’ image shows the Trumpet caught in the impeachment trap. And that makes him furious. It seems to him that the world is engaged in a conspiracy against him. The remark of Toles’ observer echoes Trump’s sneeringly wholly fictional description of the final moments of ISIS leader al-Baghdadi as he realized he was trapped.
THE
UKRAINIAN PHONE CALL is the subject in our next array. Next around the clock, Dave Whamond takes insinuation to assertion, picturing the Trumpet as a Mafia don, threatening poor little Ukraine. Then John Cole has some fun with “quid pro quo,” offering various illuminations about its meaning, each one a different declaration of guilt. And then at the lower left, R.J. Matson shows the Trumpet claiming his innocence of “quid pro quo” (getting something in exchange for something) but with his hand in the cookie jar, an image that denies his claim. With
the next exhibit, we enter various categories of miscellaneous. Steve Sack’s paper airplane excuses that don’t fly is a deft metaphor for Boeing’s troubles with their big flying coffin. Then Clay Jones pictures a couple GOPachyderms being critical of Democrat morbidity while prematurely digging a grave for liberal justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg. Leading
off the next visual aid, Bob Englehart pokes fun at those whose religion
prevents them from getting their children vaccinated by showing that wearing
pots on their heads is also, apparently, a matter of religious
conviction. This silliness is contradicted by the sserious threat these
enthusiasts pose to the general welfare (not to mention health) of their
communities. Bud Plante memorializes Veterans Day by remembering the fallen with tombstones as far as the eye can see or the pen portray. Against that stark picture is the comical remembrance in Beetle Bailey—comical but significant because the Walkers don’t often vary the routines of the strip to recognize a reality beyond it.
WE
RETURN TO POLITICS in the next array, with the GOP Elephant starring in several
editoons. Brodner’s cartoon comes from The Nation magazine’s online OppArt feature. Curated by Brodner, Andrea Arroyo, and Peter Kuper, OppArt features daily artistic dispatches from the front lines of resistance, about which they say: “At this dangerous moment in history, our actions will determine our very survival. As artists, we use our pens, our pencils, our brushes, and our ideas to cast a light on darkness and combat the forces that are driving us towards a precipice.” Back to the array at hand, we see that Christopher Weyant has again strayed off cartoon turf of The New Yorker to conjure an image of the cliche of elephants being frightened of mice, making a metaphor to illustrate the relationship between the GOP and the Trumpet: Republicons think Trump’s so popular that his disapproval can destroy their re-election chances, and Weyant makes their timorousness ludicrous with his imagery. Nick Anderson takes up the topic of the polarization of American politics with an x-ray image that shows Uncle Sam’s affliction.
Bill Bramhall imagines Trump in the reviewing stand, watching a parade of goose-stepping followers—the image of a dictatorial regime, Trump’s not-so-veiled aspiration. Then Michael Luckovich deploys a well-know image from the game of Monopoly to suggest that Elizabeth Warren’s healthcare-for-all plan is wholesale thievery.
TAKE A BREAK AND
HERE, we’ll take a well-deserved break from these serious matters political and
satirical, and, instead, we’ll ponder and appreciate a couple pages of
advertising from Golden Age comicbooks. And Fred Harman drew his cowboy hero Red Ryder and his Navajo kid sidekick countless times to promote the sale of Daisy air rifles (“BB guns” in the parlance of the day). My airing this antique relic may prompt some of you to wonder—“Wot the hell?” Here I am, one of the world’s most vociferious anti-gun advocates, and here’s this ad promoting the sale and use of firearms in a comicbook ostensibly aimed at young readers, making gun rights converts of them all whether they know it or not. Well, yes. All of that. And I’m sure Red Ryder sold lots of guns and made gun ownership and firearm firing sacred among many if not most of those who bought the Cowboy Carbine (only five bucks, or less). But I’m celebrating nostalgia by posting this full-page ad, not gun rights. Or lefts, either, for that matter. Just because we have some “bad” in our collective past doesn’t mean we disown the past and everything associated with the malevolence. We can back in the nostalgia while disdaining the abomination. And we ought to do both. We can walk and chew gum at the same time. So I enjoy Harman’s artwork while deprecating the promotion of guns. But the Red Ryder ad includes another element that is even more disturbing than the glorification of firearms. Little Beaver (the Navajo kid) recites the ten rules in the “sportsman’s safety code” in the most gawd-awful of stereotypical Indian accents: “Me will never point-um gun at anything me not intend to shoot-um.” Indeed. After a generation’s exposure to stuff like this, is it any wonder we’re a bigoted gun-tottin’ nation? Well, it’s still Harman’s drawing that attracts me, not the guns or the code or Little Beaver’s accent. Can you believe that Harman got away with Little Beaver talking this pidgin English for the nearly 30 years of the strip’s run? Well, he did. You betchum, Red Ryder. Which only shows, dramatically, how prejudiced we were. (And still are, for that matter.) Incidently, the Wikipedia write-up of Red Ryder is seriously flawed in giving packager Stephen Slesinger credit for inventing the strip. Red Ryder was a slightly morphed version of a comic strip Harman drew and syndicated himself (1933 - 1938), Bronc Peeler. Red looked like Bronc only a little better attired. Given the similarity of the two characters, Slesinger could scarcely be credited with creating Red Ryder. Bronc Peeler ended July 2, 1938, and Red Ryder began on November 6 of that year. Harman was working in Slesinger’s shop after Bronc Peeler ended; he was writing and drawing a book Slesinger was going to publish (probably the Big Little Book, Cowboy Lingo; a Big Little Book adaptation of Bronc Peeler appeared the same year, 1938), but it was Little Beaver that was responsible for Red Ryder’s creation. For the whole story, visit Harv’s Hindsight for August 2004. To give that story a footnote, Slesinger turns out to be the villain in the Red Ryder saga, not its hero, as Wikipedia has it. Since Harman was “discovered” while working for Slesinger, Slesinger negotiated the contract with the NEA syndicate, giving himself ownership of the strip. And that wasn’t all. In the usual contract, the cartoonist and the syndicate split 50/50 the revenue from subscribing newspapers. But Slesinger negotiated for himself half of Harman’s share, which left Harman with a measly 25% of the total revenue. Red Ryder proved a remarkable success (fostering movies and a merchandising empire), appearing in about 700 newspapers; so Harman could live quite well on 25%. When he gave up the strip in order to indulge his passion for painting, he hired another artist to draw the strip (Harman had been assisted by many other artists over the years), and he negotiated another 50/50 deal with that artist, who, in effect, earned only 12.5% of the strip’s revenue. That was enough for a while, but not enough for a career. When that artist sought greener pastures elsewhere, Red Ryder died. But it didn’t have to end that way. When Slesinger died, his wife Shirley met with Harman and other factotums to sort out Slesinger’s affairs. While sorting, they unearthed a letter signed by Slesinger, who, in the letter, relinquished to Harman his, Slesinger’s, ownership and his share of the income from Red Ryder. That would have resulted in Harman getting his rightful 50%. Upon discovering the letter, Shirley suddenly announced that it was time for lunch, and they all repaired to a nearby restaurant. When they returned, the letter was somehow missing. And it was never found again. So Harman lost his 50 percent the same day he got it. This story was told to me by Fred Harman’s son, Fred Harman III, while we were sitting in his office in the Harman Museum and Gallery in Pagosa Springs, Colorado. Shirley Slesinger was as sharp a deal-maker as her husband; she even sued Disney over rights to Winnie the Pooh. (But that’s another story for another day.) While browsing the paintings and original comic strip art on the Museum/Gallery walls, I came across the accompanying drawing—of horses, horses in all kinds of postures and positions.
Harman did the drawing, it is claimed, to defy a so-called art critic who attempted to belittle the art of the West by saying that horses presented only a half-dozen postures, and once you had mastered them, you knew all there was to know about how to draw horses. Harman had obviously mastered a whole lot more than a half-dozen poses. How many? Maybe a thousand? Dunno. I haven’t counted them.
BACK TO WORK—: Immigration
is the topic in our next display. Next around the clock, an image by Tom Toles reveals what’s next in Trump’s immigration agenda—wall-off all the undesirable parts of the nation as well as Mexico. Below Toles is Dave Granlund’s metaphor for additional border security ideas floated by the Trumpet. Primitive but, doubtless, effective. Alligators will do that. Then Joe Heller presents several instances of children being innocent of crimes committed by their parents—including illegally crossing the border into the United States. Impossible to deny the validity of the argument. Incidently, the Trumpet’s newest policy on asylum-seekers is to return then to Honduras (the world’s most violent culture), or one of the other high-risk Central American countries—a policy that makes a mockery of the policy of asylum itself, which guarantees a hearing to anyone seeking asylum who manages to set foot on U.S. soil. Those people have endured notable deprivations to get to the U.S. in order to escape from the countries whose violence they are fleeing. And now the Trumpet’s announced intention is to return them to the very places they’ve fled. Geez. Climate
change continues to attract editoonists’ attention as more and more nothing is
done about it. Then Kevin “KAL” Kallaugher presents a comic strip that demonstrates how Trump’s environmental policies enrich the polluters. First, he removes the prohibitions preventing pollution, which, in turn, prevents polluters from wasting money on keeping the waters clean. Hence, their profits improve—the money bag gets more and more swollen. David Hitch assembles an angry mob protesting all the Liberal efforts to preserve a decent climate, and the MAGA guy, a passionate Trumpster no doubt, makes a point about himself that the enthusiasts seem to ignore. Without the signs, this cartoon would make no sense, but Hitch’s drawing is so energetic and engaging in its exaggerations that I couldn’t pass it by. In
the next exhibit, Pat Bagley takes up the Trade War issue with a visual
metaphor of a battle in the Old West, wherein the seriously delusional Trumpet
thinks he’s winning but the reality is that farmers and manufacturers are the
casualties. I confess that I don’t understand the referents for Nate Beeler’s cartoon at the lower right, but his caricatures of the trio I applaud. Nancy Pelosi isn’t that good (no one has yet captured both cheekbones and toothy grimmace), but Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is flat on. Trump, as usual with Beeler, is also masterful. Nor is the issue that prompts David Fitzsimmons’ editoon entirely evident; it refers, perhaps, to a local issue in Arizona. But even without a specific referent, the cartoon makes a point about how the U.S. treats indigenous peoples, the reader of the newspaper being a Native American. The little bird making a closing comment is often in the corner of a Fitzsimmons cartoon; it’s a quail, he tells me, just another of the local Arizona fauna.
WE
PAUSE AT THE HOUSE HEARINGS on impeachment for a couple zingers about the
misbehaviors of the Trumpet. Mitch McConnell comes in for a couple lumps. He has steadfastly refused to permit any laws to be passed about security for elections even though alarms are going off all over the place. He’s gambling, I suppose, that the Russians still like Trump. Steve Sack’s picture explains how Mitch (“Moscow” Mitch, friend of Russian election interference) can ignore all the alarms. Then Kevin Siers turns to Mitch’s equally oblivious response to repeated calls for legislation on gun control. For Siers, Mitch is a Death incarnate, and he’s swept gun regulation under his gown. Guns
and gun violence still top many editoonists’ lists of issues that haven’t been
attended to. In
our next visual aid, Ruben Bolling’s comic strip depicts people of
nearly willful blindness trying to find the cause of so much violence in the
country. The
next array begins with David Fitzsimmons asking unanswerable questions. Clay Bennett’s metaphorical love affair he more accurately dubs as a symptom of mental illness. Rob Rogers gets the final say on the topic with a heart-rending image and Uncle Sam murmuring, “What have we become?” What indeed. Next,
we take up again the House hearings on the alleged impeachable behavior of the
Trumpet. Dana Summers reveals another GOP approach to the hearings by showing how frail the case is against Trump, dependent, largely, upon hearsay. But that’s true only of the first couple days of testimony. Lt. Col. Vindman’s testimony is scarcely hearsay. By the time he testifies, presumably, the Republicons will have concocted some new defense against the truth. Trump’s
July 25th telephone call to the prez of Ukraine is, so far, the
major impeachable offense the Trumpet has committed: the Constitution mentions
bribery specifically. Correctly seen as an attempt to bribe the Ukrainian, Trump’s maneuver is inarguably an impeachable offense. Mick Mulvaney, the Trumpet’s acting Chief of Staff, says the Ukrainian sort of deal, trading military aid for something, is done all the time. And that’s why Trump is so outraged that this time, it’s raising such a rumpus. And they’re both right: it’s done all the time. In 1961, Brazil, like the U.S., had a new president, Janio Quadros. Quadros inherited an economy in crisis. He implemented an austerity program, of which the United States (John F. Kennedy) approved. But when the U.S. offered $300 million in foreign aid in return for cooperating with U.S. opposition to Castro’s Cuba, Quadros rejected it. The offer, he felt, was an insult to Brazil’s autonomy: it was tantamount to a bribe. Done all the time. Well, there is a difference. Most deals of this sort benefit U.S. policies and programs. The Trumpet’s deal benefitted only his own political future. It was personal rather than patriotic. It’s to our misfortune that our Prez can’t tell the difference. And perhaps, it’s to his misfortune, too. Back to our visual aid, Steven Breen presents the two predictable reactions to the Ukraine misdemeanor. On the one hand, those for whom Trump is “not my president” will find “everything” about the Ukrainian phone call “bothersome.” On the other hand, those defiant Trump supporters will never hear anything that troubles them about the phone call. Or anything else that’s negative about their beloved Prez. Both views are inviolate and immutable. Neither party is ever going to change his/her view. We haven’t explored the Biden situation much, so here goes—:
From The Week—: SUPERFICIALLY, IT MAY APPEAR that Trump and Biden acted similarly in using “the leverage of American government money” to pressure Ukraine, said David Graham in TheAtlantic.com. But “Biden’s intervention was aimed at fighting corruption,” and his push for a tougher prosecutor would have “made it more likely, not less, that Burisma [and his son Hunter on Burisma’s board] would be in the crosshairs.” In contrast, Trump appears to have been engaging in corruption himself by threatening to withhold U.S. military aid unless Ukraine smears his political opponent. Biden was acting in the U.S.’s interests, while Trump was thinking only of his re-election prospects. Unfortunately, there are other facts, just as accurate, which may doom Joe Biden’s bid for the presidency. The tip of the iceberger is a question, asked at The Week: Why did Hunter Biden think joining the board of Burisma was a good idea—run, as it was, by an ethically challenged oligarch? The answer is indicated in a New Yorker article by Adam Entous, quoted and referred to by the Washington Post’s David Von Drehle (on or about October 6-7). “The real story of Joe Biden and his troubled son Hunter is full of pain,” says Von Drehle. Hunter’s life is littered with attempts and failures. He “tried the arts, law, finance, political influence peddling. The consistent themes are booze and cocaine. Entous’ profile groans under a litany of failed rehabs. “Directionless Hunter has a six-figure job at a bank run by Biden supporters. When Hunter grows bored, there’s another lucrative job under the tutelage of a former Biden staffer. When Hunter wants a house he can’t afford, he received a loan for 110% of the purchase price. And when he goes bust, another friendly banker mops up the damage. ... “The New Yorker piece becomes a gonzo nightmare—much of it narrated by Hunter himself [in interviews]—of hallucinations, a car abandoned in the desert, maxed-out credit cards, a crack pipe, a strip club and a brandished gun.” Then there was the “Ukrainian oligarch who hired Hunter at a princely sum [$50,000/month] to do nothing much. Joe Biden’s response, according to his son, was : ‘I hope you know what you are doing.’... “The story of the Bidens, father and son, is more pathetic than nefarious,” Von Drehle concludes. But while it’s scarcely a tale of illegalities, it is one of influence peddling and courting. And it can be seen as sabotaging Biden senior’s plans for the immediate future.
THE DEMOCRAT STRATEGY for impeachment is to put all their egg in one basket. They’re concentrating on the Urkraine phone call bribery and Trump’s ensuing obstruction of justice. I think that’s a mistake. Pelosi, who’s engineering all this, has her eye on the American public, what it will believe about the Trumpet. And she thinks Americans cannot absorb all the convolutions of other Trumpet misbehaviors and perversions. But that’s a mistake because everyone knows that when the case gets to the Senate, Trump won’t be removed from office. The Senate is controlled by the Republicons, who, as we’ve seen, tremble with fear at the idea of going against the Trumpet. So no conviction is likely. Since no conviction is likely, the Democrats are not motivated by that expectation. Moreover, bribery and obstruction are not the issues for Democrats. Bribery and obstruction may be legal matters, but that’s not the issue. The Democrat House is going to impeach Trump because obstruction and various of his other behaviors betray a monarchial ambition. He wants to be king of the United States. And that is precisely what the Founders wrote many parts of the Constitution to prevent from happening. Hence, the imperative for impeachment in the House even if the Senate will never endorse it. They’re impeaching him for his unConstitutional ambition. And in order to make Trump’s unfitness for the job obvious, the Democrats in the House ought to list all of Trump’s monarchial sins, thereby making a statement about the Constitution and Trump’s ignoring of it. Trump is not, really, being impeached for “crimes and misdemeanors.” He’s being impeached because he ignores and flouts the limits on his powers imposed by the Constitution. He wants to be king, and that, for the Founders, is an impeachable offense.
ANOTHER BREAK, BRIEFLY—: AFTER ALL that, we need another break. And for this one, we offer mostly visuals, beginning with some antique postcards, the kind men like (with pictures of saucy ladies). And from there, we gradually sidle up to photographs of Yr Edtr embracing a statue of a naked lady. Well, you have to see it to believe it, so here we go.
BACK
TO THE VISUAL AID we abandoned in mid-analytical appreciation. Next, Rick McKee deploys several images of the GOPachyderm to describe the evolution of a Trump scandal, mocking the logic that the Trumpet and his minions have followed in such instances. By successive steps, the incident is denied, then acknowledged but dubbed innocent, effectively rendering it nonexistant. In
the next exhibit, Michael Luckovich creates a memorable visual metaphor
for the financial relationship between the bloodsucking top 1% and the rest of
us, victims all, using the Monopoly Money Man effectively as a symbol for the
wealthy 1%. Mike Peters returns with a succession of images of the Trumpet being choked by “squid pro quo” despite his protestations to the contrary. With every utterance, he’s more entangled. The last image in this exhibit I don’t actually fully understand. Leon Kolankiewiecz illustrates an article about world population, which, alleges Tesla CEO Elon Musk, is going to collapse rather than increase until it consumes itself. He contends that a diminishing birth rate will reduce a world population that otherwise threatens to overwhelm the ability of the planet to support it. Most ecological and earth scientists say we can’t continue adding more people forever to a finite planet with a shrinking resource base and a beleaguered climate. They agree that the population will eventually decline but because of rising death rates not a declining birth rate. How Kolankiewiecz’s editoon fits into this isn’t altogether clear. At first blush, it’s just a statement about the increasing population. But whey do all those little people have canes? Does that signal a rising death rate? Dunno. But it’s a great image, pure and simple (if you discard the canes).
YOU
REALIZE that we could go on like this forever, right? There are more editoons
published every day than I can see let alone comment on for the purpose of
enhancing our enjoyment of the genre. So let me begin to wrap up with a few
cartoons I’ve just discovered. In the next display, Pia Guerra offers a picture of the Trumpet drying his hands on the “cover” he’s draped over the dead bodies of some Kurds. Guerra’s perfect likenesses in beautifully detailed drawings have been gracing the “Comics” section (two pages of them) in the magazine In These Times for several months. In the same section, I found the comic strip by Matt Bors. In it, the Kurds have discovered a way to regain Trump’s support—just build a Trump Tower and funnel the revenue to Trump. Bors gets in one last fillip with a reference to the murder of Jamal Khashoggi, the sometime Washington Post columnist whose critical views on Saudi Arabia resulted in a contract going out on him. Those who murdered him dismembered the corpse with a bone saw. Now, ostensibly the Trumpet needs a bone saw to dispose of Giuliani. Next around the clock, Signe Wilkinson has the Trumpet propping himself against a door to keep inside all kinds of truths about finances, Ukrainia deals, treatment of women, etc. So great is the press of such secrets that Trump must exert his entire body weight against the door to keep its secrets hidden. Finally, just today comes Nick Anderson’s image of a fresh new whistle-blower, Stephen Miller, ostensibly the Trumpet’s advisor on immigration —including, it has now been revealed, how to appeal to white supremacists as Miller has been doing for years. And
that’s about it, kimo sabe. Just one more exhibit, which I post without the
usual comment. In the cartoon at the upper right, his caricature of Rudy Giuliani, just perfect; ditto the Trumpet. And the little canaries singing “quid pro quo”—an exquisite touch. The little figure at the lower right of the cartoon is another caricature of Rudy, who’s muttering, “Me? What happened to ‘us’?” I don’t know why the Turkey character in the first cartoon has a moustache; Erdogen has a moustache, but just a little fuzz on his upper lip, not the handlebar sort Fitz shows here. But, no matter. All the rest, every jot and tittle, is a wonder to behold. So behold.
Joe
Hill
I dreamed I saw Joe Hill last night, Him standing by my bed, "They framed you on a murder charge." Says
Joe, "But I ain't dead," And
smiling with his eyes, Went on to organize, Went
on to organize." Where
working men defend their rights, It's there you find Joe Hill! I dreamed I saw Joe Hill last night, Alive
as you and me.
PERSIFLAGE & FURBELOW Someone on Quora asked, "Why do some British people not like Donald Trump?" Nate White, an articulate and witty writer from England, wrote the following response: A few things spring to mind. Trump lacks certain qualities which the British traditionally esteem. For instance, he has no class, no charm, no coolness, no credibility, no compassion, no wit, no warmth, no wisdom, no subtlety, no sensitivity, no self-awareness, no humility, no honour and no grace – all qualities, funnily enough, with which his predecessor Mr. Obama was generously blessed. So for us, the stark contrast does rather throw Trump's limitations into embarrassingly sharp relief. Plus, we like a laugh. And while Trump may be laughable, he has never once said anything wry, witty or even faintly amusing – not once, ever. I don't say that rhetorically, I mean it quite literally: not once, not ever. And that fact is particularly disturbing to the British sensibility – for us, to lack humour is almost inhuman. But with Trump, it's a fact. He doesn't even seem to understand what a joke is – his idea of a joke is a crass comment, an illiterate insult, a casual act of cruelty. Trump is a troll. And like all trolls, he is never funny and he never laughs; he only crows or jeers. And scarily, he doesn't just talk in crude, witless insults – he actually thinks in them. His mind is a simple bot-like algorithm of petty prejudices and knee-jerk nastiness. There is never any under-layer of irony, complexity, nuance or depth. It's all surface. Some Americans might see this as refreshingly upfront. Well, we don't. We see it as having no inner world, no soul. And in Britain we traditionally side with David, not Goliath. All our heroes are plucky underdogs: Robin Hood, Dick Whittington, Oliver Twist. Trump is neither plucky, nor an underdog. He is the exact opposite of that. He's not even a spoiled rich-boy, or a greedy fat-cat. He's more a fat white slug. A Jabba the Hutt of privilege. And worse, he is that most unforgivable of all things to the British: a bully. That is, except when he is among bullies; then he suddenly transforms into a snivelling sidekick instead. There are unspoken rules to this stuff – the Queensberry rules of basic decency – and he breaks them all. He punches downwards – which a gentleman should, would, could never do – and every blow he aims is below the belt. He particularly likes to kick the vulnerable or voiceless – and he kicks them when they are down. So the fact that a significant minority – perhaps a third – of Americans look at what he does, listen to what he says, and then think 'Yeah, he seems like my kind of guy' is a matter of some confusion and no little distress to British people, given that: ◆ Americans are supposed to be nicer than us, and mostly are. ◆ You don't need a particularly keen eye for detail to spot a few flaws in the man. This last point is what especially confuses and dismays British people, and many other people too; his faults seem pretty bloody hard to miss. After all, it's impossible to read a single tweet, or hear him speak a sentence or two, without staring deep into the abyss. He turns being artless into an art form; he is a Picasso of pettiness; a Shakespeare of shit. His faults are fractal: even his flaws have flaws, and so on ad infinitum. God knows there have always been stupid people in the world, and plenty of nasty people too. But rarely has stupidity been so nasty, or nastiness so stupid. He makes Nixon look trustworthy and George W look smart. In fact, if Frankenstein decided to make a monster assembled entirely from human flaws – he would make a Trump. And a remorseful Doctor Frankenstein would clutch out big clumpfuls of hair and scream in anguish: “My God... what... have... I... created?” If being a twat was a TV show, Trump would be the boxed set.
RCH: I’m not sure that “twat” to an Englishman is the same thing as it is to an American. One definition from a slang dictionary published in England is “a term of abuse.” But “twat” in Brittain has been female genitalia since the 1700s. Oh, well.
AND NOW—: Just to end on a happier note that political discussions usually inspire, here’s a verbatim report from a recent issue of The Week (November 22): When Ethan Crispo walked into a Waffle House in Birmingham, Alabama, for a midnight snack, he quickly assumed that he’d go home with an empty stomach. There were 30 customers in the restaurant and—because of a scheduling mishap—only one harried employee, Ben, who was cooking the food and cleaning up. Then, a customer asked Ben for an apron, stepped behind the counter and started washing dishes. Two other diners began busing tables, and the restaurant was running smoothly again. “Humanity isn’t just good,” said observer Crispo. “It’s great.”
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