CSotD: Split Decisions

Well, perhaps not so much of a bang as a whimper, but I like David Horsey’s take on the Iowa Caucus tech failure because the donkey has a full cloud of balloons in hand but is focusing on the one that burst, or fizzled, or whatever.

There’s been a lot of chatter over the failure of the app, but, while the results have been dribbling in, what hasn’t been appearing is an explanation of “So what?”

Well, except for those who insist that it’s a plot cooked up to suppress the chances of Bernie, which is significant because I’ve been promoting the view that the whole Bernie Bro thing was a Russian bot plot, but now I’m seeing conspiracy theories emerge from people whom I know are not only American but real.

Which doesn’t mean it’s not being fed and nurtured by Russian trolls, just that it’s got a toehold.

We won’t know the significance until after a few more primaries at the earliest, perhaps not until Election Day, but I’m still insisting that it’s one freaking balloon and we’ve got a whole bunch more.

And even that balloon isn’t completely busted. As noted yesterday, the facts are there, on paper, and it’s a matter of collecting and reporting and the only point in speedy reporting was to let those of us in New Hampshire know who we’re supposed to vote for, the alternative being that we pay attention to what the candidates are actually saying.

Relax, folks: The geographic center of the 48 contiguous states is not in Iowa. It’s in Kansas.

You know, where the Chiefs play.

And contiguous is fine. We don’t care about Alaska or Hawaii because by the time their polls close in November we will have announced the next president because the important thing is speed in reporting results, and we really don’t care if they vote or not.

Though the people complaining that Iowa is too white might want to look at their demographics and think about who’s being left out of the process.

 

I got a giggle out of Matt Davies‘ cartoon, since a lot of the condemnation of the Iowa Caucus app is, indeed, coming from Republicans who might want to deal with the lumber in their own eye before they fret too much over the mote that’s making Democrats blink.

And, by the way, I’ve seen some more right-wing cartoonists posting pro-Bernie cartoons, or, at least, cartoons condemning the DNC for not giving him a fair shake.

If you want to be paranoid about something, that might be worth pondering.

 

However, there is one righteous man among the Republicans, and David Rowe manages to tie in his stance with the death of Kirk Douglas, contrasting the honor of the brave men in the movie with the behavior of the lackeys and lickspittles of the GOP.

 

Closer to home, Pat Bagley also shows Romney opposing the Tyrant, but salutes a home-state Senator he has often criticized by noting the lyrics of a hymn much loved among Mormons.

 

And I’d note that you don’t have to be a member of the Latter Day Saints or religious at all to find Romney’s speech and his courageous stance inspiring. As a recovering Catholic, I find that righteousness is a pretty good policy even if you don’t believe that “Angels above us are silent notes taking.”

The most arrogantly cock-sure atheist could surely find inspiration in this:

I acknowledge that my verdict will not remove the President from office. … My vote will likely be in the minority in the Senate. But irrespective of these things, with my vote, I will tell my children and their children that I did my duty to the best of my ability, believing that my country expected it of me.

 

At the other end of the moral scale

I use a lot of Clay Jones’ cartoons and nearly always agree with him, but I’m gonna part with him here.

We tossed the term “pig” around too easily and indiscriminately in the decade before Limbaugh came on the scene, such that calling him a pig doesn’t begin to describe his shameful pioneering role in encouraging knuckle-dragging bigots and subhuman hatemongers to crawl out from under their rocks.

But taking pleasure in his cancer, or even just calling it “karma,” is tres uncool, and I hope I would feel that way even if I had never been told I had advanced cancer.

Note, by the way, that I’m still around, and I only have to be screened once a year now, not every six months, so let’s not bury ol’ Rushbo quite yet.

I wish he’d shut up, and I wish Reagan’s laissez-faire policies hadn’t rescinded the Fairness Doctrine and given him free rein to spread his hate, ignorance and bile.

And I recognize that his toxic influence on our society is precisely why we have a president who would award him a medal.

But all those opinions hinge upon my being a better man than he is.

That, in turn, requires that I extend some pity, perhaps even a little sympathy.

Like MacDuff, I will dispute it as a man, but I must also feel it as a man.

Granted, this George DuMaurier cartoon ran in 1895, but it has achieved new relevance with Senator Collins’ explanation of her backdown from her original statement that she could vote to support the President because he would go forward a chastened man and sin no more.

“Parts of the call were fine” put me immediately in mind of the curate’s egg.

This particularly hurts because we had a very good working relationship when I was an editor in Maine.

But friendships between journalists and sources are delicate as egg shells, and just as liable to go rotten as the flesh within.

 

And now this

I have no idea if Marty Two Bulls Sr. was trying to make a particular point, but he sure made me laugh and I needed that.

By contrast, I’m not sure I needed this: