CSotD: Only Slightly Political

Pearls Before Swine (AMS) gets political this morning, and I’ll admit I can’t tiptoe around the general topic either.

It’s not easy to avoid thinking about. My social media this morning consisted of a mix of leftover St. Patrick’s Day stuff — and I don’t intend to get into that again — and loads of clips from Trump’s outrageous speech this past Friday, in which he promised a bloodbath, said migrants were animals and promised that we were heading into what was likely to be our last election.

The Dayton speech would make an interesting post, but there are only a handful of political cartoonists in this country who work weekends, so we’ll have to wait for them to respond.

Meanwhile, however, I would note that I’ve got my social media curated to the point where I wouldn’t see half the outrageous things Dear Leader and his loyal minions say if other people didn’t forward them.

That’s not the same as being ignorant: I read several newspapers and magazines as well as posts from thoughtful political analysts, so, for instance, I know that Trump’s promise of a bloodbath was (A) in the midst of a discussion of Chinese automobiles and (B) in the midst of a speech so unhinged and rambling that it’s hard to know what refers to what in his stream-of-unconsciousness diatribes.

Though I gather that Dumb Ass thinks exporters pay tariffs, since he keeps saying how much money he got from China through tariffs. Tariffs, of course, are paid by American consumers. You.

To which I would add that I’d be more comfortable if I thought this were the most foolish, ignorant thing he believes.

When Rat divides people into Smart and Stupid, it brings to mind that MAGAts are as equally isolated in their media habits as I am, only they’re living on a diet of ignorance, fear and hate and I doubt they experience the kind of cross-pollination found in my feed.

Though granted, the MAGAt material I see is accompanied by “How stupid is this?” and I suppose they get to see things tagged as “How woke is this?” given that “woke” in their world means something bad, like caring about people who don’t look like you.

So there’s a lot of stupid out there but we’ll have to deal with it another day. I just hope that when some powerful hatemonger promises bloodbaths, insults immigrants and predicts the end of free elections, more people are horrified than are delighted.

Ann Telnaes points out the fake re-election of Vladimir Putin, in which she observes that the balloting there was “Absolutely Fixed.” We should also remember that he, along with Xi and Kim Jong Un and Orban and other dictators, are Trump’s heroes and role models.

That’s not an empty political accusation. It’s based on Trump having specifically said that he wishes the American people would “sit up at attention” the way North Koreans do for their leader, and his having complained to Gen. Kelley that American military officers are not as loyal to him as Nazi generals were to Hitler, et cetera.

No doubt he wishes he could have fair and free elections like his pal Volodya.

On to lesser things

Ed Hall’s commentary on the NCAA men’s basketball tournament reminds me that Robert Half Accountemps used to issue a press release every year at this time, detailing the amount of office time wasted in discussing and betting on the tourney.

They landed on my desk, since I was the business writer, and went right into the wastebasket, since I sat in the newsroom and was a daily witness to the amount of time wasted on discussions of weekend events, of children’s doings, of recipes that came out well, of the latest catch-phrase on Seinfeld and onwards but never ever upwards.

Having worked in an open office, in an office with a door and at home, I am astonished that anybody gets anything done in an open office, to which I would add that March Madness lasts about three weeks but a baseball fantasy league can generate mind-numbing chatter for half the year.

I’ve also worked — or tried to — amid planning for a destination wedding. You have no idea.

Apparently Robert Half has lightened up and now suggests March Madness may even boost productivity.

He must have won last year’s office pool.

This one is political: As Pat Bagley says, Big Pharma is actively opposing Joe Biden’s push to lower prices on prescription drugs in the United States.

I’m not too deeply invested in this fight: I recently learned that I can save massive amounts of money ordering prescriptions from Amazon rather than using my health coverage to purchase them in person. And before you criticize me for not shopping locally, let me remind you that the national chains drove local pharmacists out of business several decades ago.

Meanwhile, Trump’s call to end the Affordable Care Act is getting some pushback from Congress, which is good. Some years ago, I had a routine office visit with my doctor, who spotted something and had me tested for cancer, which I had, which we dealt with, which I survived.

Without the ACA, I wouldn’t have been able to afford that visit and so it wouldn’t have been spotted. The oncologist said I’ve have been gone in six months.

I’ve since voted in two presidential elections, so maybe Dear Leader has a point.

Speaking of shopping locally, Between Friends (KFS) had an arc about Susan buying a pair of boots on line and hating them. I buy plenty of clothes on line, but not shoes, because not only do arches and toes vary, but if you find the right maker and the right size, you run the risk of them changing suppliers, which they seem to do every three or four months.

But, yes, it’s very convenient, as long as you don’t care what you get.

Back to health care: I get annoyed when cartoonists recycle old gags, but that makes me particularly delighted that Mark Anderson chose, instead, to force Andertoons (AMS) readers to replay this old chestnut on our own.

It’s not a cheap laugh if you make people work for it.

I’d finish with this Deflocked (AMS), but, then again, I’ve already put you through it.