CSotD: While You Were Out

The headline I really wanted to use derived from a place Then-Wife worked, in which they printed up some of those pink “While You Were Out” notepads but with the heading “While You Were F****** Off,” which would be accurate for today’s discussion but inappropriate overall.

To which I will add, as a dire warning, that I have a folder full of nearly two dozen corgi cartoons which I will put up in a single, wretched posting if you don’t all start paying attention to the rest of the world, a sentiment I will touch off with this

 

Juxtaposition of the Day

(Morten Morland)

 

(Martin Rowson)

 

 

(Patrick Blower)

Even the British are questioning current priorities, as Morland notes all the unfinished, unaddressed concerns of the average person while the fanfare passes by in the street. I like that he is not arguing over how money is spent but rather that real issues are being ignored.

Meanwhile, Rowson takes a more complicated view, depicting a person who should have affordable energy and a warm dwelling place still teary-eyed and fascinated by the panoply. It’s less a political accusation than a sad observation, and more touching than Blower’s also-excellent point that somehow this whole thing appears to be deeply embedded, despite what seem obvious inequities in the system.

I would note that the majority of the corgi commentary seems to be coming from outside the UK, which ties in neatly with our theory for the day that there is some wisdom in “staying in your lane,” particularly since corgis are the least of it: There are plenty of things right here that people also don’t quite seem to grasp.

 

Jeff Koterba, whose work I often like, starts us off with a non-political pratfall by completely missing the meaning of “quiet quitting.”

If the kid were quiet-quitting his homework, he’d have completed the entire assignment fully and properly, but then declined to do the additional recommended reading or go for any of the extra-credit opportunities.

He’s not the one who failed to do his homework.

 

Bob Gorrell (Creators) offers a muddied example of not getting it, because it’s not clear if he honestly believes that Hillary Clinton’s technical violations were on a par with Trump’s theft of documents, one seemingly obvious difference being that many of the classified emails on Clinton’s server were only classified after she had received and stored them.

But Comey’s announcement of a maybe-follow-up that didn’t happen is far from comparable to the ongoing situation in Mar A Lago.

Clinton shouldn’t have been conducting official business on a personal server, certainly, and the fact that not everyone was clear on such things a dozen years ago is scant coverage for her security blunder, though it’s not like the documents were wrapped in folders declaring them Top Secret, since, to repeat, most of the classified information she had was not so designated when she obtained it, whether it should have been or not.

More to the point is the fact that she cooperated fully with both the actual investigation and the Congressional inquiry, testifying for 11 hours without taking the Fifth once.

Provide your comparison on that score.

 

Mike Lester (AMS) joins a chorus of foot-draggers who object to the move to electric vehicles and, specifically, to California’s decision to end sales of new gas-powered cars and trucks in a dozen years, basing their dissent on the fact that we’re not ready yet.

Indeed we are not. Nor were we ready to send astronauts into space in April of 1961 when JFK said

It didn’t take 12 years. It only took eight.

Alan Shepard became our first astronaut a month after Kennedy’s speech, but readers of “The Right Stuff” will recall that the Mercury astronauts were derided at the time as performing a feat that could be done by monkeys. I interviewed Shepard once, and he told me he had no problem trusting his life to technology.

Granted, a monkey could not look at history and see how much automotive technology can advance in a dozen years. But most people could, unless they were dead set against believing in the nation.

Space technology had changed markedly by the time Shepard walked on the Moon, ten years after JFK’s speech.

Not 12.

 

Gary McCoy drew this cartoon as Russia was shutting down energy exports to the EU but before Ukraine went on an offensive tear. There’s no doubt the move will make things rough for EU countries, but not as rough as Ukraine appears to be making things for Russia.

We’ll cover that another day — it’s generating a fair amount of commentary — but, meanwhile, here’s Zelenskyy’s response to the cutoff:

Tucker Carlson and the other Putin groupies, meanwhile, remind me of an old Willie ‘n Ethel cartoon:

The True Patriots emerge!

Amid all the errors and miscues, Clay Jones gets one right on two levels.

First, he shames the ambulance-chasers who are flooding both social media and cable TV with faux-patriotic offers to abscond with a portion of veterans’ settlements, and then he doubles down on the well-deserved insult, pointing out that these shysters are racing to the bottom of a scum-layered pond with the few remaining attorneys willing to risk their licenses representing the Orange King.

I’m absolutely in favor of helping anyone damaged by contaminated water, at LeJeune or elsewhere. A guy I knew in high school died of Agent Orange damage, since he was in the Army, not the Marines. But whatever the source of the toxins,  his three Bronze Stars and three Purple Hearts didn’t protect him in the end.

I’m told that the VA has not been aggressive in representing Marines over this, but, if so, maybe we should unleash Jon Stewart on the case, instead of relying on people who want to pocket a share of what the vets are entitled to.

Daytime TV is a snake pit. I miss the days of the Pocket Fisherman and the Veg-a-Matic, before advertising seemingly became devoted to cheating vulnerable people out of their structured settlements and the equity in their homes.

Hell, I miss the days when Joe Namath was sexy and JJ Walker was funny.

I know. We were wrong about that, too.