CSotD: A Hurricane of Wilseys
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Hurricane Ian has made landfall in Florida and there’s little funny in what this powerful storm is doing, but, then again, it is producing a lot of material for cartoonists like Clay Jones, largely because of the Republican Party’s track record, in Florida generally and on storms and climate change specifically.
Several people have noted that both Marco Rubio and Ron DeSantis, when he was in Congress, voted against aid for victims of Superstorm Sandy in 2013, and it is notable that all the GOP screaming about socialism disappears when they’re the ones who need the government aid. And, of course, their screeds against “communism” become laughable when they start telling private industry how to conduct business.
But, in his essay, Jones points out a less farcical result even of Trump’s totally farcical attempt to redraw a hurricane’s path with a Sharpie: As ridiculous as it was, it was part of an ongoing process of undermining American faith in science and, in this case, the weather bureau.
There are a number of cartoons showing DeStantis boarding up windows with plywood covered with the hateful, ignorant slogans he’s made part of his brand, including climate change denial, but it might be worthwhile to see how this attitude, adopted by voters in his area, has impacted their willingness to evacuate when warned to.
Populist demogougery is a good route to power, as long as you don’t mind leaving a trail of victims. And have no scruples about cashing those relief checks you didn’t want anyone else to have.
It’s kind of a race to see if the hurricanes become more destructive than the rhetoric.
The Jan 6 Committee postponed its Wednesday hearing in light of the hurricane, and Ann Telnaes wonders aloud about a potential witness we haven’t heard much from.
The postponement was wise, given that, even though the hearing itself would have concluded before Ian made landfall, the coverage would have shifted from traitors and subversion to reporters standing in the rain. Both deserve coverage but, however you view their relative importance, only one could be time-shifted.
The connection between this cartoon and Jones’s is this: Trump may have been cunning or he may simply be an arrogant, ignorant man, but there were people around him trying to jam on the brakes and others enabling his prideful destruction, and the Committee needs to lay out who did which.
Meadows has testified, but reportedly offered little new material, and perhaps we’ll hear more when the Committee makes its final televised presentation, but the real teeth in this investigation are Merrick Garland’s, not the Committee’s.
Telnaes addresses that issue as well, since DOJ has begun catching up with some key rioters but, as she notes, has not yet charged the leader of the insurrection.
At a very young age, my stepdaughter announced that she didn’t want “any more wilseys,” in response to her mother’s frequent reply to her requests of “We’ll see.”
I don’t want any more wilseys, either, and I’m hesitating to purchase Maggie Haberman’s new book, “Confidence Man,” which is — according to the Daily Beast as well as Reliable Sources and others — loaded with examples of the horrors inside the Trump White House.
I wish I thought her revelations would change minds, but, if the facts were going to make a difference, they already would have done so. I’m pretty sure luxuriating in the sewage won’t make me feel any better.
So we’ll see how things develop, but, at this point, the big wilsey is how it spurs voters to turn out in November.
Juxtaposition of the Day
It’s important not to let liars and traitors get away with what they did in the past, but we shouldn’t dwell so much on the Beer Hall Putsch of Jan 6 that we ignore the ongoing, upcoming process, as happened in Germany in the past century.
As Faulkner observed, ““The past is never dead. It’s not even past.” If we’re not careful, it will be future.
Judge is not exaggerating: The latest Trump rallies have included Q-Anon elements both in the audience and on the platform, and Brodner is also on target, as large sums of money are being spent to help elect supporters of the attempted insurrection.
Most voters will have choices in November that include at least one election denier, including some candidates poised to take positions from which they can negate election results they don’t like.
And we can tie Nick Anderson’s warning into Clay Jones’s rant about how the Trump forces have taught people to distrust the government when it warns of approaching disaster.
It’s not just about the Germans who “didn’t know” what was happening in those camps. I remember the 1983 trial of Klaus Barbie, “The Butcher of Lyon,” which tore the cover off the French myth that they’d all been active in the Resistance.
There were plenty of collaborators, and they all tell the same stories.
Our grandchildren will hear about how we all stood up and opposed the horror.
Maybe the stories will even be true.
We’ll see this November.
Juxtaposition of the Day #2
I’m trying, meanwhile, not to be too paranoid about the scoffing over electric cars that I’m seeing both in cartoons and on social media. I’d hate to think the petroleum industry was actively encouraging public skepticism, but I remember how the tobacco companies conspired to undermine health warnings.
Besides, if the Russians can set up troll factories to flood social media with disinformation from fictional accounts, why couldn’t oil companies do the same?
However, it’s not just coming from skeptical individuals, genuine or paid. As Hudson notes, there’s plenty of foot-dragging in the Australian government and I’d be surprised to find that political donations from petroleum interests didn’t have a similar impact here.
South Africa at least has the excuse that they can’t keep their lights on under current demands, never mind as electric cars become more common.
It seems incomprehensibly foolish to insist that America can’t upgrade our power grid and improve our ability to generate electricity in a sustainable manner.
“Incomprehensibly foolish” as in “suspiciously cynical.”
Finally, Jeremy Banx offers a vision I’d love to see come true.
We’ll see.
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