It was the Pig Fair last September
A day I well remember
I was walking up and down in drunken pride
When my legs began to flutter
And I fell down in the gutter
And a pig came up and lay down by my side.
As I lay there in the gutter
Thinking thoughts I dare not utter
I thought I heard a passing lady say
“You can tell the man who boozes
By the company that he chooses.”
And with that the pig got up and walked away.
Adam Zyglis is one of several cartoonists to point out the hypocrisy of Lauren Boebert attacking others for setting a bad example for children and then being thrown out of a theater for vaping and for a mutual groping session.
The thing should speak for itself and Boebert, who barely held her seat in the last election, seems likely to lose it in the next. But let’s not count the votes before they’re cast, because there is a substantial portion of the population that sees piggish behavior as “independent” and “provocative.”
And Marjorie Taylor Greene is in no danger of losing in 2024, given the deep red nature of her district, having won two-thirds of the vote in her district in ’22.
I’ve known too many good, decent people who live in mobile homes to use the term “Trailer Trash” to describe this pair, but I’m perfectly willing to employ the old expression “brought up in a barn,” even though pigs generally live in a sty.
And when I read that Boebert had flipped off theater management and asked “Do you know who I am?” I immediately thought of this classic Fred Pegram cartoon from Punch:
Alas, the gag depends on an assumption that decent people wouldn’t even know who these vainglorious upstarts were, but a good look at the self-described “Freedom Caucus” reveals that — despite being called by its critics the “Clown Caucus” or “Toddler Caucus” — a good number of people not only know who they are but are favorably impressed.
The pig doesn’t get up and walk away but nuzzles in closer and votes to re-elect them.
Which, as RJ Matson suggests, leaves us with grim prospects for a solution to the budget crisis, a serious issue that the Toddler Caucus invented following an earlier agreement.
Even a conservative like Lisa Benson (Counterpoint) sees Kevin McCarthy’s inability to resolve the problem, though she seems to blame it on the entire Republican Party rather than a cadre of disruptive extremists.
But, then, she’s right. A well-functioning major party would not be held captive by a handful of nitwits, but the GOP seems unable to stand up to them, or to Senator Tuberville, and remains dutifully loyal to Dear Leader who has no reciprocal loyalty to them.
When the Whig Party self-destructed in the lead up to our previous civil war, it didn’t implode like this, but fragmented into a number of relatively sane and responsible splinter groups.
God knows they weren’t afraid to stand up for their beliefs and to criticize each other.
Despite the risk that the pig might get up and walk away.
And then there’s this fellow, memorialized by David Rowe, who has the advantage of having watched the evolution of Rupert into Lachlan from the vantage point of Australia, whose media is firmly in Murdoch’s grip but is a small enough country that they can identify the personalities at the top of the ladder.
As he predicts, it’s unlikely that switching from father to son will have any appreciable impact on the doings of their empire. It is, simply, the next stage in the process.
Darrin Bell (KFS) does a good job of not just capturing the family legacy but of pointing out the breadth of the damage already done.
There is speculation that when the “Chairman Emeritus” actually shuffles off this mortal coil, a family fight will break out and Lachlan will be forced to sell off the company in chunks, but that seems more of a vain hope than a serious prediction, and doesn’t address the matter of who would buy the pieces and what they’d do with them.
After all, as another Aussie, Glen LeLievre, points out, Rupert set a standard, not only for where he cast his line but for the success with which he did so.
The idea that the empire could split into parts is not out of the realm of possibilities, but the notion that the new ownership could shift things back into the mainstream and remain profitable, or even viable, seems more than far-fetched.
Before you make the pig get up and walk away, you’d better line up someone else to cuddle with. Whatever you think of his fanbase, Rupert built himself a huge audience that would be hard to replace with castoff bits of the mainstream networks.
Juxtaposition of the Day
It’s not hard to measure how far we’ve fallen, particularly after Kevin McCarthy refused to allow Volodymyr Zelenskyy to address a joint session of Congress, putting an exclamation point on the GOP’s efforts to unseat Biden by abandoning Ukraine to Putin’s butchers.
Now we have reports that Russian TV will be regularly featuring Tucker Carlson, the reincarnation of Lord Haw Haw.
And 28 GOP congressional members have sent a letter to Biden purportedly calling for a stricter accounting of our support but basically demanding an end to it.
Davies accuses the GOP of purposely ignoring Zelenskyy’s pleas, while Hall marks his appeal to the UN in stark terms. It’s a powerful combination.
Recalling the support America Firsters gave Germany’s National Socialist Party, there was at least the partial justification that they trusted Neville Chamberlain’s assurances and Lindbergh’s fanboy naivete.
But their ignorance appears deliberate enough that this well-known Dr. Seuss political cartoon appeared a mere two months before Pearl Harbor. They knew.
All you’d have to do today is change the title to “Putin the Wolf,” the rightwing having retained the “America First” slogan.
Here’s where we went wrong: As the Russians were executing bound civilians, raping women and young girls and bombing civilian targets, our journalists made a conscious decision not to show photos and video of the bloody atrocities.
We should have.
Better to apologize to a few triggered pearl-clutchers today than to the entire world tomorrow.
I thought you’d include this Clay Bennett cartoon in an juxtaposition with the Darrin Bell on: https://www.gocomics.com/claybennett/2023/09/23?ct=v&cti=1431568
I chose Bell’s because it showed the global reach and because I thought “setting things on fire” was more descriptive than “wrecking everything.”
Dear Mike,
I just saw this and it seems to be a bitter/sweet glimpse into your world:
https://www.gocomics.com/reallifeadventures/2023/09/23
Wonder if it’s a glimpse into theirs? As someone noted in the comments, that’s how long they’ve been around.
A handsy couple in a pitch-black theater (the video is night vision) getting a bit rowdy during an adult play which encourages audience participation is a bit juvenile, but not quite on par with ‘Gender Queer’ porn which libs advocate for children.
Please provide documentation of “libs” advocating pornography for children. (Not day to day depiction of other lifestyles, but pornography, as you specified, at least on a level with mutual public masturbation.)
**link to a poorly researched Daily Wire article coming in 3…2…1…***
The NEA promotes traditionally liberal causes, with the majority of its donor support going to Democrats, according to OpenSecrets, a research organization tracking political finances. The following link is an example of “lifestyle-depictions” the Left generally finds entirely acceptable for children: https://www.pavementeducationproject.com/copy-of-excerpts-3
“What about porn in schools? What about drag queens? What about Obama’s tan suit? What about that time AOC said that thing?”
Give me a break. If she was a Dem she’d be out on her ear already and Faux News would never shut up about it. Lord knows Al Franken got kicked out for less. Never mind the fact that this is a woman who loves to shove her Christian bonafides in everyone’s face every chance she gets—but I guess calling someone a hypocrite only works if they’re capable of feeling shame.
No, the fact is it’s not that big a deal to you because she’s on your team. That’s all it’s ever been with you people—no better than Monday night football.
Easy. The rule here is to dispute the content without abusing the commenter.
Apologies; I’m unable to delete the comment on my end but feel free to remove it if you’re able.
The musical “Beetlejuice” is an adult play that encourages the audience to masturbate? Come on, man. You’re skating on very thin ice. Be honest. Seriously.
Unless the handsy couple are the voice and face of the family values lobby. And let’s not forget vaping in the face of a pregnant woman. None of this qualifies as audience participation.
Dear Mike, I’m always amazed at the gross distortions and wild unsubstantiated accusations some people put in comments. I have yet to see a live performance at a theater with a well lit stage that was ‘pitch black’. What others there saw and reported as going on with that couple was WAY more than ‘handsy’ and ‘a bit rowdy’. And, I too have never read or heard credible reports of liberals advocating ‘Gender Queer’ porn for children. The fact that some people want to put a fig leaf on the statue of David, that has been seen and appreciated by millions of adults and children for centuries, makes me laugh..
There’s no denying that today’s GOP would support Hitler 100%
I love how these wingnuts are pushing the “ZOMG libs are giving porn to kids!1!” narrative when the “controversial” books like “Gender Queer” (and I guess Ann Frank’s diary since they decided to go after that now, too) are aimed at middle schoolers and above. As in 7th grade or so.
Do these people not remember being in 8th grade? By the time I was in 8th grade, I had already seen the “period movie” and I knew about “how babies are made”, and at that age every girl my age was passing around worn-out VC Andrews novels with a crack in the spine where the “good part” was. I swear these nimrods are trying to create some kind of Victorian-style adolescence that never actually existed.
If anyone desires a so-called “controversial” book, they can buy it. Making it unavailable to children/minors in public libraries isn’t a ban…it’s being prudent and responsible to the emotional, social, and developmental well-being of children. In regards to adolescent behavior, I never realized Lefties were such prudes when it comes to making out in a theater.
Dear Mike, attempting to return to positive, productive dialog, My earlier comment about the ‘real life adventures’ comic should have communicated that I like that strip and that when good strips end it is sad. And, that as you, and other cartoonists, have pointed out, it is so unfair that excellent comic authors get paid so little for contributing so much richness to our lives.
Also, I found this at SMBC
https://www.smbc-comics.com/comic/2012-04-07 which allows downloading of the e-book:
http://www.smbc-comics.com/ebooks/Bobby%20and%20the%20Gurg.pdf
I haven’t read it all but the beginning is promising. I’d appreciate your opinion.
Thanks again. You, too, add much richness to our lives with your work.
shermanj (and others) – sorry for the delay in posting your comment. Our AI puts any two-link comment into a holding pattern until we (the humanoids) check the pending queue and physically release it.
For some unknown reason other comments occasionally end up there too (it’s not the spam folder).
Dear D. D. Degg, thanks for the nice ‘RHB’ (Real Human Being) response. Thanks for your work keeping the S.S CSotD sailing on. On a lighter note: It’s nice to know we are put in the company of Monty Python (Spam, Spam, Spam & Eggs and Spam)
Much as I’d like to take credit for improving The Daily Cartoonist with the addition of Mike Peterson, it was John Glynn responsible for recruiting Mike and his engaging columns.
This reminds me of a well worn and durable quote. “Those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it.” I see two trends here. The first one is a repeat of the 30’s and the return of Facism. A side effect is the Freedom(?) Caucus pandering to “Adolf” Putin. The second trend I feel is happening is the return of good Ole “Tail Gunner Joe” and finding phantom “enemies” threatening our “freedoms”. I maybe wrong, but today’s political climate sure does resemble the past.