CSotD: Noise-some, squat, and nameless animals

Mike Thompson leads off today’s roundup of graphic commentary on Congressional Republicans’ assault on the United States government, not only because it’s a dramatic image but because he points out the hypocrisy of the GOP pose of favoring “law and order” when the law is on their side, and ignoring it when it is not.

 

And, if we may go back a little over a century and a half, today’s headline is taken from Charles Sumner (R-Mass)’s May 21, 1856, remarks on the Senate floor on the topic of those who favored admitting Kansas as a slave state.

His rhetoric inspired Congressman Preston Brooks (D-SC) to enter the Senate chamber the next day and beat him unconscious, an incident captured in this cartoon by John L. Magee.

 

We’re not there yet, and, in his remarks about his cartoon, Pat Bagley refers to the GOP stunt as a “panty raid,” and points out that one of the play actors was his own Utah rep, who sits on the committee but nonetheless took up the role as a person who wasn’t able to know what was happening.

 

Now, to be fair, Rep. Stewart is from the party no longer of Lincoln but of a president who, as Drew Litton gleefully notes, believes that Colorado shares a common border with Mexico.

Though, to be more than fair, Dear Leader later said that he was only joking for the benefit of the many people from Kansas and Colorado who were in the audience at his rally.

Which was in Pittsburgh.

 

However, as Matt Wuerker notes, it is still possible to protect and defend the President, as long as you are willing to be, or pretend to be, equally blind to logic and deaf to instruction.

An inventive intersection of the actual, and pop culture, meanings of the term “minion.”

Particularly given that “collaborator” is such an ugly, ugly term and so unfair to these elected officials, among whom, I’m sure, there are some very fine people, as shown in our

 

Juxtaposition of the Day

(Ed Hall)

 

(Darrin Bell)

Hall goes directly for the parallel, Bell is a little more subtle, letting the tiki torches speak to the barely coincidental coincidence.

It’s an interesting and important connection, because, at the time of Charlottesville, the main objection was less to their racist chanting than to the president’s praise of “both sides.”

His grasp of decency being roughly on a par with his grasp of geography.

However, if we thought it was hard to defend a man who praises neo-Nazis as “very fine people,” we now know that his minions will not only defend him but build upon and expand the example of mob rule he has endorsed.

 

In fact, Dana Summers offers his own torchlight parade imagery, his rioters oddly proclaiming themselves the GOP while waving the banner of impeachment.

If you add in the fact that, in the movie, the enraged villagers were a lynch mob and the villains of the piece, it makes Summers’ intent harder to fathom, except that Adam Schiff is a lunatic and it’s unfair to only allow 45 members of the Republican Party to attend and participate in the hearings.

Summers is not the only illogical one: GOP Party Leaders keep charging that the impeachment hearings are simply an attempt to overturn Trump’s election, which makes you wonder what they think the proper purpose of impeachment is?

I mean, besides to punish people for oral sex.

 

On the same topic, but not

Ann Telnaes offers a less metaphorical, more graphic depiction of mob rule, and I like the fact that she doesn’t hide her fury, but I’m particularly grateful that she includes not just a cell phone, but pizza.

It opens the door for discussion of a critical issue.

Cell phones are not permitted in the secure area, but then again, if Republicans gave a damn about cell phone security, not only would they demand that Dear Leader get a secure one, but they would insist that Rudy Giuliani stop butt-dialing reporters while discussing illegal activities.

Though I suppose, after all, that we did elect a man who cheerfully shares top secret information with Russian officials, is eager to disclose closely guarded technical capabilities and owes his election to the release of stolen data, which he requested.

So what are a few breaches of security in the Capitol Building?

Especially when the NY Daily News presents us with a crisis that threatens our very culture:

Eventually, pies of pizza were seen being delivered for the stubborn Republicans holding court in the secure room.

“Pies of pizza” seemed like an editing error, but, when I Googled it, I found several iterations. It’s a real phrase.

“Pies of pizza” boggles the mind. “Pizza pie” itself is a bit redundant, but “pies of pizza” truly clangs upon the ear.

Once I knew the phrase was out and running around, I began to suspect that it was a New Yorkerism, like “standing on line” when everyone else stands in them.

A little Googling, and my suspicions were confirmed. This is an excellent source for everything about pizza, but, come on, man …

You wouldn’t order water, but a bottle of water. And so with pizza, you would order a pie, or slice. This basically translates to a “pie of pizza” or “slice of pizza”. If you just said “a pizza” or a “piece of pizza” it doesn’t make sense there.

I’m certainly willing to stipulate that a lot of things don’t make sense there, but, still, if you’re standing in (or “on”) a pizzeria and you ask for a slice, you don’t mean a slice of cucumber.

Nobody says “piece of pizza,” but, that aside, you’d rarely say “slice of pizza” either.  You’d specify what kind of slice you want: Cheese, pepperoni, whatever.

Maybe you’d point, but you’d still just say “gimme a slice,” just as you’d point at the bottles and say “gimme a wattah.”

The whole thing is a pizza and a slice is a slice.

You’re in America. Speak English.

Pies of pizza will not displace us.

(UPDATE: Turns out it wasn’t pizza anyway. It was ketchup bread.)