CSotD: Priorities

Nick Anderson is right, and the observation might have been just as apt back when Obama first took office and the GOP leaders openly promised to oppose anything he came up with.

At the time, there were jokes that Obama should propose breathing so we could watch the Republicans asphyxiate themselves, but it seemed just about that childish and nothing that wouldn’t resolve itself.

Well, it didn’t, and, to borrow John Dean’s metaphor, it has metastasized into not simply an annoyance or a national problem but an international issue.

I suppose after watching an affable, marginally competent front man make speeches on behalf of the Cheney Administration for eight years (while destroying the Middle East), there was some reason to hope that the GOP would step in to similarly direct the reality television conman voted into office.

Well, fools can hope. Sometimes that’s what distinguishes them as fools.

 

So here’s an interesting

Juxtaposition of the Day

(Chip Bok)

 

(Lisa Benson)

These aren’t the only two cartoonists to condemn the latest crazy policy announcement, but it means more that the brickbats are flying in from the right, and I’d note that Nikki Haley and even noted suckup Lindsey Graham have expressed their opposition.

This could be one of those dubious Trump inspirations that never gets off the ground.

I’ve got little to say about either cartoon. Benson is right that the crossing guard has deserted the kids, and Bok is correct that the military must surely wish someone would rein in their CIC. I’ve got nothin’ more.

Though Bok notes what I’ve heard, which is that Trump made the decision after talking to Erdogan, which shows a fatuousness bordering on the criminal.

I first heard the expression “If you want to know what he thinks, find out who he spoke to last” back in the ’80s, applied to a Canadian premier of a prairie province where, with all due respect, it was more amusing than critical.

That level of abject foolishness and irresponsibility, however, matters a great deal more in national governance and in the current context.

Turning the Kurds over to the tender mercies of the Turks is not only an unforgivable betrayal, but I think unprecedented in the middle of a war, despite Dear Leader’s cheerful announcement that ISIS is defeated.

A fact he probably got from his good friend Erdogan.

We deserted the montagnards, once we were out of Vietnam, but it was more from a lack of follow-through than any genuine betrayal. We screwed up.

And we were wrong to encourage the Marsh Arabs to rise against Saddam Hussein and then fail to support them. I think we mostly justified it by not letting the public know it had happened.

But publicly deserting vulnerable allies in the middle of a conflict and painting it as a way to make peace is a new level of betrayal, and should shock the most calloused, pragmatic consciences.

The Kurdish people have stood by our modest military presence and have done courageous, admirable work in resisting Assad and his allies in the region.

There is no excuse for abandoning them to genocide.

None.

Shame on us.

And I hope this Carpe Diem panel contains as much truth as it does humor. For all our sakes.

Letting the stable genius, for all his great and unmatched wisdom, run wild could turn out to be a betrayal of everybody on the planet.

 

Now here’s a second

Juxtaposition of Sellout Bastards

(Kevin Siers)

 

(Matt Davies)

In case it was only on the sports page and you missed it, this kerfuffle began when Houston Rockets owner (edit: General Mgr — see comments) Daryl Morey — whose team has a significant fanbase in China — had the nerve to express support for democracy and freedom:

And then he came back from the woodshed holding his buttocks, took down that tweet and posted this:

 

Vox has a good analysis of the whole sorry business, including Ted Cruz standing up for freedom over profits, and Marvel/Disney standing up for profits over artistic integrity. You are free to be surprised at whatever surprises you, I guess.

We don’t seem to know whether Morey’s ass-whupping was doled out by China or by the NBA brass, but, then again, the point is that, like the pigs and farmers in the final scene of “Animal Farm,” it’s becoming a little hard to tell the capitalists from the communists.

You Hong Kong protesters can go stand over there with the Kurds. We’ve got profits and priorities that don’t include any of you.

 

Life imitates art

Tank McNamara struck timing gold again yesterday, beginning a story arc about the futility of the Washington Redskins on the day they fired their coach.

They used to say of baseball’s Washington Senators that they were “First in war, first in peace and last in the American League.”

The ‘Skins — 71 and 109 since 2008 — are easing towards that proud legacy.

At least they’re managing to make Bill Hinds look like a genius, FWIW.

 

Juxtaposition of Life Imitating Life

(Pros and Cons)

 

(Non Sequitur)

It seems generally true that women are first to pull the rip cord, or the trigger, depending on how things play out.

I’ve tended to fall into the “Neither one of us wants to be the first to say goodbye” camp, in which things just fade until someone makes the move and the other sighs and deals with it.

However, the two times I was genuinely dumped, I’ll confess I responded like the guy in Pros & Cons: “Where shall I ever find another like her?”

“Why the hell would you want to?” not occurring to me until much later than it should have.

The really foolish part being that it was those others, the bittersweet near-misses, that might have been nursed back to health.

Though it’s probably equally foolish to believe that, too.

Ah well. No need to get all Jimmy Webb over it.

 

Christopher Baldwin has just launched the latest iteration of “Space Trawler.” This is the first episode, and you can quickly catch up since today’s is only the second.