CSotD: Knaves, Fools & the Servant of Two Masters

We’ll get to knaves and fools in a minute, but first a salute to unintentional genius, as The Brilliant Mind of Edison Lee (KFS) magically riffs on the McDonald’s e coli outbreak despite having been scripted and drawn well before it happened.

Sometimes the Fates smile and make you look really smart, but, alas, there are some combinations of hubris and nonsense that even they can’t spin into anything positive.

Thus Pantalone’s question in The Servant of Two Masters, “What are we to make of this fellow? Is he knave or fool?” and Dr. Lombardi’s answer, “I really don’t know. Probably a little of both.”

Speaking of which, David Rowe pictures the fool or knave (probably a little of both) who serves two masters, the running joke in this farce being that the servant thinks he is the master, or, at least, that they admire him and that they do his bidding rather than the other way around.

Murdoch is a knave and certainly no fool, though he’s 93 years old and, as the athletes say, “Father Time is undefeated.”

Murdoch’s offspring have been in a battle for succession to his empire that may be more reminiscent of King Lear than of Goldoni’s commedia, but what’s more interesting at the moment is that Murdoch and Musk had a semi-secret meeting recently in which no doubt they discussed their mutual servant, Donald.

Both men have used their executive muscle to keep negative news about Dear Leader out of Fox, the Post and the Wall Street Journal, and suppressed at Xitter, forming a powerful media cabal that adds a touch of irony to conservative complaints about liberal censorship.

Juxtaposition of the Day

Ben Jennings

John Darkow

While Murdoch is undoubtably a knave, Musk is harder to pigeonhole as knave or fool, and “a little of both” seems to fit the man who overspent on a social medium that he then proceeded to drive into the ground, and yet has used to spread his own beliefs while proclaiming his love of free speech.

As Rod Hilton posted nearly two years ago

He talked about electric cars. I don’t know anything about cars, so when people said he was a genius I figured he must be a genius.
Then he talked about rockets. I don’t know anything about rockets, so when people said he was a genius I figured he must be a genius.
Now he talks about software. I happen to know a lot about software & Elon Musk is saying the stupidest shit I’ve ever heard anyone say, so when people say he’s a genius I figure I should stay the hell away from his cars and rockets.

It might also be wise to stay away from the bribery pointed out by Jennings and Darkow.

As Jennings says, it’s purely a move to put Dear Leader back in the White House, while, as Darkow notes, it’s likely illegal, as a form of paying people to vote.

Indeed, it appears ol’ Muskie has put his cunning plan on hold, following a letter from the Department of Justice warning him that it does seem against the law.

Ignorance of the law is no excuse, but, as Darkow suggests, that maxim seems more likely to be applied to people handing out free water to voters in line than to plutocrats handing out million dollar checks.

La Cucaracha (AMS) explains that non-citizens voting, even if the lies were true, would be no match for well-heeled villains with legal backing.

As Ann Telnaes illustrates, SCOTUS is no longer even pretending to be nonpartisan and uncorruptible.

Between failure to recuse in obvious conflicts of interest and refusal to admit that accepting expensive gifts is unethical, the court has become overbalanced not with conservatives so much as with grifters who are rewarded for being conservative.

On a historical note, we should acknowledge that rightwingers once hated the court for being too liberal because SCOTUS was doing things like dismantling Jim Crow, insuring that people could vote and making freedom of religion, press and speech the law of the land.

Well, that’s changed.

Michael De Adder uses a distinctly Canadian metaphor to explain a distinctly American issue, as the six rightwing judges smooth the ice for Trump’s rock of despotism to knock democracy out of the house.

It’s an apt metaphor, and it ran in the Toronto Star, whose readers understand the sport of curling as well as the perils of sleeping with an elephant.

It’s not necessary to educate Americans about curling, but they might need a brush-up on economics, since this Gary Varvel (Creators) cartoon will likely make sense to voters who don’t know how the world works.

The question, of course, is what millionaires and billionaires could raise the prices of in order to pay their taxes, given that most of their wealth comes from stock-swapping and investments.

Meanwhile, Golden Boy still has no idea how tariffs work and persists in his foolish belief that exporters in other countries pay them. Even if he were correct, adding a tariff on, say, an imported pair of crappy gold hightops would obviously raise the price of those ugly-ass shoes.

You don’t have to be a graduate of Wharton to understand this. The mystery is how a graduate of Wharton could fail to understand it?

I wish Mike Luckovich hadn’t bothered with the explanatory headline, because I think we all get it, or, at least, those of us who can get it did get it and the Deplorables can’t be reached anyway, particularly those who also admire Hitler.

Predictably, the Deplorables have countered by questioning General Kelly’s patriotism and judgment and experience, or by calling him a liar because there were two people in the room and Trump hasn’t confirmed the conversations.

Mox nix, because, as the officers in Mike Smith (KFS)‘s cartoon worry, if Trump wins they won’t be able to serve with honor anyway.

Some day we’ll look back on the generals like John Kelly, Mark Milley and Jim Mattis who tried to warn us, but we may be looking back through barbed wire.

You can blame the MAGAts and Deplorables if you like, but it will be our own damn fault if there isn’t a major blue wave to sweep the place clean in two weeks.