CSotD: Triumph of hope over experience

Mike Peters might want to resurrect this 1973 cartoon, now that we have found peace in Afghanistan.

That link includes the text of the agreement between the US and “the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan which is not recognized by the United States as a state and is known as the Taliban.”

Which terminology I guess saves all the arguing over table shape and who gets to sit there that we went through in Paris a half century ago.

In fact, the government of Afghanistan that is recognized by the United States as a state was barely mentioned, let alone represented.

I note that not only does the agreement not say much about the current Afghan government, but the word “women” does not appear in it. However that NPR article does note that the Deputy Whatever of the (etc etc) Taliban recently wrote

I am confident that, liberated from foreign domination and interference, we together will find a way to build an Islamic system in which all Afghans have equal rights where the rights of women that are granted by Islam — from the right to education to the right to work — are protected, and where merit is the basis for equal opportunity.

So, as long as we all agree on “the rights of women that are granted by Islam,” that’s cool, right? Right? Hello?

Leaving only the issue of whether the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan which is not recognized by the United States as a state is known as the “Talli-ban” or the “Tolly-bahn.”

Even NPR, champion of international pronunciation, can’t seem to agree.

Well, what the hell. Kissinger accepted his Nobel Prize while Le Duc Tho, North Vietnam’s designee, declined the honor, accepting instead South Vietnam.

In this case, Mike Pompeo doesn’t have Kissinger’s distinctive voice, but, then again, he’s not the one who would be phoning the committee to volunteer for the medal.

Worth noting, by the by, that we admitted some 65,000 Vietnamese refugees after the fall of Saigon, but that was a long time ago in a galaxy far away.

Today, we still are quarreling over letting our Iraqi translators escape the death squads, and we’re not sure what happened to those Kurds who were standing next to us just a minute ago.

But I’m sure President Costanza will line up to claim his medal.

 

Meanwhile, back on the home front

I’m sick of surgical mask cartoons, but that’s simply Clay Bennett‘s cue to drop one that puts me on the floor.

There have been any number of criticisms of Wednesday’s press conference, but Bennett boils it down to “put on a happy face” and that pretty well sums up the whole thing.

This is one to save for the awards, because by the time they call for the 2020 entries, I suspect, and fear, that his refusal to face reality will have born some bitter fruit.

 

Michael Ramirez promotes the idea that the incredible crash of stock prices is not due to the coronavirus and how factory closings, store closings and other disruptions of the supply chain have impacted the international economy.

Rather, he contends, the worst crash since 2008 is due to the fear that not only will Bernie Sanders win the presidency but will achieve a Democratic sweep of Congress that will allow him to achieve his goal of Medicare For All.

I might have gone to Charlie Weaver for the block, but we’ll see how this works out.

 

Meanwhile, whatever the cause, Jeff Stahler offers about the only 401k joke that includes good advice.

As I’ve said several times, your 401k will rebuild itself. I will admit, however, that those of us who have changed our 401k’s into IRA’s and are using them may have a different viewpoint.

I’m semi-retired and expect to drop that “semi” before the year is over, and I’m watching my income while I’m doing my taxes, because this would be a lousy time to have to dip into my IRA to pay the IRS.

But, again, the issue is dipping into it. Even once I’m fully retired, I can tighten my belt and stay out of my IRA, as long as the car keeps running, the dog stays healthy and I don’t start losing teeth.

That’s what “retirement planning” looks like from the starving artist end of the scale. If you’re somewhere else on the continuum, just batten down the hatches and wait out the storm.

And don’t waste energy blaming Bernie for the economy until you see how he does on Super Tuesday, having gotten his butt kicked pretty good last night.

Plus, if he does win, we’ll probably restore the Constitution, at which point Congress will once more have to start approving whatever the president wants to do.

 

That’s almost a year away. In the meantime, Matt Davies offers this issue-by-issue summation, while social media offers their own commentary by summoning up quotes from the past.

Chairman Mao had his little red book of wisdom, and Dear Leader has similarly left a record of his penseés in the form of tweets like

 

And

(Update — Okay, this one turns out to be fake. My fault I believed it and didn’t check, his fault that it wasn’t a stretch). 

 

You don’t have to leaf through Trump’s old tweets to find absurdities, though, and Bill Day managed to work the Sharpie hurricane incident into a solid commentary.

I suspect Dear Leader’s dubbing of the coronavirus as a Democratic hoax is related to his firm belief that any criticism of him is not simply part of a conspiracy but heretical.

After all, he is “The Chosen One.”

 

https://youtu.be/RGwkXF3bNd0

And, though Peter denied the Lord thrice, Mike Pompeo is not nearly so disloyal.

Blessed are those who have seen, and have yet not believed.

 

 

Finally, in lieu of a closing musical number, Christopher Boyer posted this cartoon, to which someone commented about Chicken Little.

But while, in that old tale, the sky wasn’t falling, the hawk in this picture is very real, whether Dear Leader acknowledges it or not.

 

Which sets me up to repeat a favorite folk tale, this one from Southern Nigeria. (Illustration by Marina “Rinacat” Tay)

In fact, reading it over now makes me feel a whole lot better about things. Wise folks, those Southern Nigerians.