CSotD: Hits and Misses
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Timing is everything, and, when I first saw this Matt Wuerker (Politico) piece, I planned to feature it with an amusing discursion on Willie Sutton, who was something of a celebrity bank robber, in that, after serving his time, he popped up on the interview circuit. As it happens, he denied ever saying that he robbed banks because that’s where the money is, but conceded that, if anyone had ever asked the question, that would have been the obvious answer.
Anyway, Wuerker reposted the cartoon with an allusion to Sutton, which pretty well scooped me. Never mind.
And he’s right. What goes for Sutton goes for Biden: It’s a pretty obvious answer to the question.
Ditto with this Jimmy Margulies (KFS) cartoon: Their motivations are, similarly, obvious.
The big revelation this week has been that Kyrsten Sinema, who has come out in opposition to Biden’s legislation to lower drug prices, is the recipient of significant donations from pharmaceutical companies, though they aren’t her largest donors.
Which raises the issue but then justifies Margulies in making the point less specific to her: It’s certainly not as if she were the only person in Congress who has reason to think kindly of the industry.
That doesn’t let her off the hook, but it does suggest another reason to get money out of politics.
If we needed another.
If anyone thought there was a chance in hell of it happening.
Judging from some emerging grumbles on social media, Matt Davies is out in front of what I expect to be a large crowd decrying the media fascination over the (apparent) murder of Gabby Petito.
Davies doesn’t make it an issue of racial preference, though others have, but I’m not sure this is the case I’d go to the mattresses for, since she and her boyfriend had apparently collected a sizeable audience for their ongoing highway adventures, making them of public interest before she disappeared.
There is, granted, an element of middleclass privilege in her family’s ability to raise a louder stink than others might have.
It’s one of those issues with which you should agree but with which you should also exercise some caution, since the numbers of missing are a bit squishy.
It’s problematic that police often refuse to take on a missing persons case until a certain amount of time has passed, but, then again, there are a lot of missing person messages posted on Facebook that are followed shortly by “Never mind, she came home.”
And look at it this way: A case that stands out can become a beacon for all the ones that don’t.
Maybe someone needs to launch something similar to The Innocence Project, and put teams of people to work examining missing person cases that have been unjustifiably closed or ignored.
Bearing in mind that the Amber Alerts that have sprung up across the nation are named not for the color but for one particular little girl who caught the public’s attention.
You have to start somewhere.
And, speaking of young women in need of our help, here’s a
Juxtaposition of the Day
These are in alphabetical order because, while they range in time from the 16th to the 19th, the vagaries of syndicate posting makes it unfair to claim that this one or that one was “first.”
And a hat-tip to Clay Jones, since I only saw two and shrugged it off, but he pulled up the third, which elevates it to whatever that elevates it to.
I had earlier passed along Lee Judge’s cartoon of Simone Biles “sticking the landing” on a prostrate FBI agent, because I felt it was a stronger statement about their failure to investigate and the courage of the Olympians in coming forward.
I’m intrigued, mind you, that three (male) cartoonists seized upon the “hit in the crotch” element, but I still prefer an approach that salutes the young women who testified.
It’s an example of young women who can command media attention raising awareness of an issue that impacts a whole lot of other young women who don’t have that kind of access.
Sometimes privilege includes the ability to lead.
The Return of the Coneheads
An update on my research into Presidential Ice Cream: I’ve managed to connect every President of the United States to ice cream except for James Monroe, John Quincy Adams, William Henry Harrison and James Garfield, which is to say that we know for certain that 42 out of 46 Presidents — that’s 91 percent — enjoyed the frosty treat.
I’d add that, as Vice President, it’s highly likely that Monroe dined with Madison, whose wife not only gave her name to a brand of ice cream but was famous for serving it on the slightest pretext, in a variety of flavors that included oyster.
I’d also point out that, as president, Monroe’s chef was Augustus Jackson who also cooked for John Quincy Adams and Andrew Jackson before leaving the White House to become a pioneering innovator in the ice cream industry. (Update — see comments)
This does not mean that John Quincy Adams ate ice cream, since he was apparently extremely conservative and abstentious in his dining habits. But, if he wanted it, he certainly had an excellent source.
As for Garfield and Harrison, I never found evidence that they didn’t eat it. I just couldn’t find evidence that they did.
After all, neither provided a full year of White House cookery to sort through.
The other thing to point out in this juxtaposition is that neither Varvel nor Benson specify what horrific, overwhelming crises that Biden is ignoring in order to enjoy his tasty snack, only that he’s in very deep peril as are we all.
And, besides, Sean Hannity says taking a vacation on the beach is selfish.
Now, if Biden had wandered off to a golf course, that would be diffo.
Then he’d be allowed to eat ice cream.
Or even pizza. With a fork. Amid high-level talks.
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