CSotD: Random Delights
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This Ben Jennings piece on Britain’s plan to re-open elementary schools takes a second and then, once you see it, becomes brilliant.
Of course, it’s not just the teacher whom that shadow pursues, but she, as symbol of the schools, will take the brunt of what happens next, including sending all those innocent little ones back home to infect and kill Grandma.
Which leads us to another culture on another continent for our
Juxtaposition of the Day
A standoff continues between two tribes of the Lakota Nation and South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem over roadblocks on state highways to prevent the spread of the coronavirus onto tribal land.
The latest wrinkle appears to be that Noem has gone running to the Great White Father because she’s not making any progress on her own. Neither is the virus, on either of the two reserves being blockaded.
This puts an interesting spin on Alcaraz’s citing of the old smallpox blankets story, which is dubious at best: There’s only one actual example of white men giving out smallpox-infected blankets and no proof that it worked.
It hardly matters, because whether it’s history or legend, it’s a handy symbol of bad intentions and, in this case, it’s marvelously apt, since the two reserves have a combined total of one (1) case of Covid-19 and Noem is essentially demanding they risk a great many more.
The puncturing of her word balloon with an arrow being a reasonable summation of how things are going for her in South Dakota, where the tribes are standing firm and have substantial backing in the overall community.
As that linked Indian Country story reports:
(Remi Bald Eagle, Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe spokesman,) said the tribe was looking at the feasibility of a three-part plan Noem introduced to it earlier this month.
“We were working on that, and we told her that we would,” Bald Eagle said. “Next thing you know, she runs off and does something like this, so it’s a little confusing.”
Putting her in cavalry togs says a great deal, and whether to negotiate or fight is an equally old issue: The last days of Crazy Horse were consumed with internal politics among the Oglala over whether to sign another treaty or go out in a blaze of glory.
Whatever the internal debates among Lakota may be, the quickest way to unite them is to provide yet another example of double-dealing from the Hat People.
And speaking of lying dog-faced pony soldiers …
There are so many good hydroxychoroquine cartoons out there that narrowing it down to three was a real task, but these three seem to represent the main themes:
Gorrell, a conservative, dismisses it as quackery. He’s not afraid to criticize Trump, but it takes something outrageous and here he is, depicting the president as gullible if not dishonest.
Margulies is under no such restriction, and, if you’ve never been in NYC, you may miss the poke-in-the-eye gag here, because he places Dear Leader among the conmen who peddle bogus knock-offs and pirated garbage on the streets.
Brown tops it off by labeling it one more bizarre bit of anti-science nonsense intended to distract the public — the media, certainly — from consideration of more serious matters.
And puts a pangolin on Dear Leader’s head, which alone is worth the price of admission.
Meanwhile, back in Foggy Bottom …
Mike Luckovich salutes the Senate for their lack of response to the crisis …
… while Paul Fell takes them to task for the heartlessness that shapes what little response they do have.
“Squander it on rent and food” is more polite than the Sixties stand by, which came from some rock band saying that, if they’d gotten their fair share of royalties, “We’d have just pissed it away on groceries.”
That latter became the go-to phrase, for instance, when a doctor came to our parenting class wearing a camel-hair blazer that clearly cost three weeks of our earnings.
But we were kidding: Once we paid him, we weren’t gonna have any money to piss away on groceries.
And, if anything, the gap between Them and Us has widened since then.
And Matt Davies is not the only cartoonist to suggest that full speed ahead in the minefield is perhaps not wise policy.
The visual metaphor is brilliant, while the WWII reference brings to mind the fact that what really bailed us out of the Great Depression was the war.
And, no, simply attacking Iran won’t do it, particularly since our last several Republican wars have been put on our tab rather than paid out of pocket.
Republicans hate deficits unless you either cut taxes on the wealthy or blow up stuff, and preferably both.
My grandfather had a theory that we should forego the next war and simply build all the planes and tanks and bombs and then throw them into the ocean. Of course, we’d have to avoid lubricating and fueling them, but I like the general idea and the fish could fornicate in the artificial reefs to their little hearts’ content.
(I know, but if they’d try it, I’m sure they’d change.)
When you think about it, the Lend-Lease Program and all that were just a way to get other countries to buy our stuff, only since then we’ve stopped making anything anyone wants.
Malaysia and Vietnam might be able to manufacture their way out of the economic horse latitudes, but Trump is still nattering on about coal mines, which he never re-opened because there’s no market for coal.
As for the New Deal and the WPA and all that, I can’t find much fault in a jobs program that let Gordon Parks take pictures like this while Harlan (No, Ralph, dammit. See comments.) Ellison and Saul Bellow and John Cheever interviewed folks.
Hell, vote an honest man into office, we might even help pay for good reporting. (I don’t want to think what that would look like now.)
Anyway, First Dog doesn’t believe “Business as Usual” will spark an acceptable recovery:
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