CSotD: Homers and Whiffs
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I could launch a separate blog titled “Cartoon Maps,” given the number of cartoonists who have reimagined the Western Hemisphere according to Trump.
Some were pretty good, some were not. But Bob Englehart went for simplicity rather than cleverness, and wins for going to the heart of the matter and pointing out the arrogant jingoism behind both Trump’s imperialist dreams and his America First attitude towards other nations and other people.
Similarly, a lot of cartoonists took at shot at Trump’s silly “Gulf of America” proposal, and most did fairly well with it, either emphasizing his ego — hardly a “stop the presses” insight — or his arrogance towards Mexico, which is also kind of a given.
Lalo Alcaraz, rather, uses the concept to declare the gulf that divides our nation. That observation generally takes the form of graphs showing how much money is controlled by how few people or the disparity between the compensation of CEOs and average workers.
Alcaraz puts that unfairness into a graphic form that is easier to process than a graph, and certainly more quickly grasped than an extended discussion of things.
And if you look at pay disparities between executives and workers in other countries, this really is the Gulf of America. One of my editors insisted that, if you were going to use a pun in a headline, it had to be not just catchy but relevant and applicable to the matter at hand. This pun fits that rule.
I’m letting DD Degg track the Ann Telnaes Tribute cartoons, though I’ve enjoyed them. But Stellina Chen managed to combine that issue with the anniversary of the Charlie Hebdo murders, and, as someone cartooning from Taiwan and thus living in the shadow of Beijing, she is uniquely qualified to point out that there are many ways to suppress the truth and stifle expressions of opinion.
I’d add, relative to Chen, that I once cited a Hong Kong cartoonist on CSotD and got a frantic email asking me to scrub the reference. Taiwan remains independent, but China claims it as a breakaway province and I’m sure Chen is keenly aware of how things operate on the other side of the straits.
Money, however, can be more powerful than bullets. Quod erat demonstradum.
Juxtaposition of the Day
Bennett is more clever, Darkow more direct. But while they both offer imaginary scenarios, Bennett stretches credibility by portraying Trump as showing any sympathy, even hypocritical sympathy, to the people of a Blue State. As said here before, it’s beyond partisan loyalties and an element of his narcissistic personality: He can’t experience empathy on any recognizable level, or do a credible job of faking it.
Both cartoonists, however, address a tear in the social network. In civilized society, the Social Contract is a hallmark of both democratic nations and legitimate monarchies.
Hobbes explained “liberty” as the right to flow with the river, as opposed to the chaos of allowing people the freedom to do whatever they wanted. He explained that life without some form of social contract was “nasty, brutish and short,” but insisted that the King was divinely appointed by God to set the direction of that river, and that the contract was that his subjects agreed to obey him (and thus God.)
The Founders were more directly influenced by Rousseau and Locke, expecting laws to limit criminal behavior but for society to run on a spirit of voluntary cooperation.
However, we may be headed towards a Hobbesian system. As Tom the Dancing Bug suggests, the Founders’ vision is being challenged.
That view of society fits nicely with the classic explanation given in The Wizard of Id:
It seemed a lot funnier back in 1965. Today, it’s just a simple fact, and I’m sure that, after Dear Leader puts restrictions on what California must do to get help with their wildfires, he’ll impose the same obligations on the Red State of Florida for its frequent hurricanes.
Though if we look at this governmental extortion in the simple terms Mike Luckovich employs, we’ll realize that Florida is already in compliance, and likely will remain so if their next governor is Matt Gaetz.
The wildfires in California, as Michael Ramirez (Creators) says, are largely due to the mayor of Los Angeles cutting the firefighters’ budget, a point made by several conservatives which is marred only by the facts.
While Mayor Bass did propose a 02.7% budget cut, it didn’t happen and the department ended up with a 0.7% increase over the previous fiscal year. And accusations of cuts from the state are similarly based on proposals, not on final figures, which while showing cuts from expected levels, were also higher than spending in previous years.
When partisans comment about government budgets, it’s hard to separate genuine errors from purposeful lies, but good reporters, even if they’re not on the business beat, should have some understanding of rudimentary statistics and financing. Passing along bad information is a violation of journalistic ethics, regardless of why you got it wrong.
The cynicism at the heart of editorial cartooning should extend, as the man said, to believing half of what you see and none of what you hear. Or as the editor of Chicago’s City New Bureau put it, “If your mother says she loves you, check it out.” Which, of course, I did.
And to show that my rules apply on both sides of the aisle, I object to the last panel of this otherwise excellent K Chronicles. Several liberal sources have criticized use of inmate firefighters, but I wonder what they know.
I had a friend who’d done time in a juvenile facility in Texas and they worked in the cotton fields. He didn’t mention pay but he certainly wasn’t a volunteer.
By contrast, this former “incarcerated wildland firefighter” explains why he volunteered and how they were treated. Prison industries generally deserve scrutiny, but minimum security doing a job in the woods that you volunteered for and enjoy isn’t the worst way to serve time.
People also suggest that, despite the training, cons won’t qualify for jobs with a fire department after release, but this fellow explains that wildfire service means your record is expunged.
Sigh. More well-intentioned people should watch Sullivan’s Travels.
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