Kal Kallaugher notes the increasingly authoritarian nature of our perverse executive branch as it veers further from its Constitutional moorings and closer to the extremist views of its worst supporters.
The Prez seems to be slipping his moorings in all sorts of ways, mostly in that, between his tweets and the formal statements coming from the White House, he appears to be less and less, how shall I say this, reflective of things in the real world.
For instance, Sarah Sanders proclaims that there’s no point in releasing his taxes because Congress is too stupid to understand them anyway, which, even if true, ignores the clear, obvious, well-known fact that Senators and Reps maintain staffs of experts that certainly do include people who can analyze tax returns.
She has to know this, and so is playing on her belief not that congressmen are stupid, but that voters are.
Which, y’know, so far, so good, if you ignore the midterms.
Meanwhile, Himself posts an inflammatory, out-of-context video urging his followers to hate Rep. Ilhan Omar in particular and Muslims in general, which fits both with his declared Islamophobic beliefs and his refusal to distance himself from white supremacists.
And he then doubles down with an arrogant declaration about a different group of not-white people, which raises the question — aside from of what to do when the concentration camps at the border are full — of when the President of the United States began referring to himself with the royal “We” and “hereby demanding” anything.
“L’etat, c’est moi” is something that only a king can say, and that only a particularly arrogant king would say, and, while our founders instituted a system of checks and balances to avoid such attitudes, it doesn’t work when those entrusted with it refuse to step up.
Ann Telnaes pulled this June, 2018, piece out of storage in response, since his tweet had made her cartoon less a satire and more of a clinical observation.
Our royalist cartoonists, however, have posted cartoons commenting on how the leaders of the sanctuary cities are responding with horror over the idea, despite the plain, easily researchable fact that none of them have.
In fact, Oakland’s mayor said she’d welcome them, though she feels it is “an outrageous abuse of power,” and mayors of Chicago, Philadelphia, New York, Portland and others have echoed her response.
Which is to say, proclaiming that these cities would not accept these migrants is not an opinion, and is not simply wrong, but is a lie, and not simply a lie, but, under the circumstances, a damned unpatriotic lie that undercuts the process by which we keep government honest and responsive.
Meanwhile — though Stuart Carlson sees it differently — Sarah Sanders explained that Dear Leader was only kidding all those times he praised Wikileaks and encouraged people to read its postings, and that he is telling the truth now when he says he is actually totally ignorant of what it is.
Given the prominence of Wikileaks in the 2016 elections, given the number of times it was mentioned in the debates, given the role it plays in the closely-watched Mueller probe, it makes you wonder if she’s preparing us for the defense attempted by Vincent “Chin” Gigante, head of the Genovese family, who shuffled around in a bathrobe and otherwise attempted to portray himself as insane.
Which (A) didn’t work as a legal defense for Chin, and (B) is a problematic position to take if Dear Leader is contemplating a second term.
Though I don’t suppose it would trouble his GOP allies in Congress any more than Gigante’s act bothered the members of his organization or impeded its operations.
Here’s the flaw in our system: The 25th Amendment assumes a legislative branch that is more loyal to the people than to the President.
Can’t we talk about something more pleasant?
Special praise for Zits today, which not only echoes my recent remarks about the futility of forcing reluctant students to contemplate their future, but manages to work in an Animal House reference as well as a suggestion of Notre Dame, given that ND is the only major college within commuting distance of Mishawaka.
Where my great-great-grandfather lived while building the first building on the ND campus, but that’s a story for another day.
Arcs to watch
It isn’t often that the first strip in a story arc makes it obvious that this is one to watch, but we’ve got three of them this Monday:
I’m going to assume that everyone in Wallace the Brave‘s merry band will return with ten fingers and ten toes, but that’s as far as faith will carry me. Well, and that Spud will be traumatized, but that’s a given.
I once rescued a hatchling snapper who was headed away from water rather than towards it and kept him for about two years. It was like having a little tiny dinosaur in the house to the extent that, when he stopped being tiny I released him back into the wild, because what had been amusing was becoming potentially a little dangerous.
And, no, there was no danger of his having become socialized to humans. He was the least sociable creature I have ever encountered. In fact, his lack of sociability was fascinating.
Even if he wasn’t, in fact, prehistoric.
The other thing people believe about turtles is that they are slow.
Well, watch your fingers. And don’t expect a lot of small talk over dinner.
And if you’re looking for people with even less-refined social skills, join Monty for a ritual cleansing of the wallet.
And if you still haven’t hit the bottom rung of antisocial behavior …
Retail is about to be visited. I have no idea where Norm Feuti is going to take this or who is going to end up turned inside out, and cannot wait to find out.
Finally, in honor of our mad king …
Saw the Zits cartoon this AM and had the same guess about ND .
But, I’m writing about your great great grandfather. 1st bldg at ND? The log cabin?
No, the Old College. The brick building near the lake, just down the hill from the cabin.
That looks like “Medfield College” on the wall behind the Faber recruiter, which if I remember correctly, was the college in several 1960s Disney movies.
Well, my Mother was born in 1910,, so I bet your musical assertion was wrong.