CSotD: The Whole World is Watching
Skip to commentsJennings is an ocean away, but he focused on Compton, name-checking an old-school rap with the scene of confrontations between authorities and citizens, as discussed in this next-day description of local residents cleaning up.
Those who live there are looked down upon by the forces of ICE and Donald Trump, with a sense of bullying and oppression that contrasts with the above-linked story of regular people trying to get their lives back on line.
I was in England in 1965 when the Watts riots broke out, and it seemed, from the reports, that the whole city of Los Angeles was on fire. A few days later, we ran into some Americans who had just arrived and were able to tell us that the damage, horrific as it was, was contained to a relatively small part of the city.

This map has been making its way around social media now, indicating how limited the current area of unrest is in relation to the city.
It doesn’t mean the demonstrations and confrontations don’t matter, but authentic perspective does, given the propaganda condemning “riots” and declaring that only more troops, more confrontation and more hostility will save the nation.
The President spoke yesterday to troops at Fort Bragg, telling them that the media is lying and saying “What you’re witnessing in California is a full-blown assault on peace, on public order and national sovereignty carried out by riders bearing foreign flags with the aim of continuing a foreign invasion of our country.”
Of course, they aren’t witnessing it, but military training involves accepting direction from those who outrank you.
As for a “foreign invasion,” the outsiders are not the people who have lived there for generations or the newcomers in search of the same opportunities every other immigrant has sought.
As Wilcox suggests, the invasion is on the part of troublemakers, personified by the man who sent them.
Morland is not as direct as Wilcox’s Molotov cocktail, but more systemic, portraying Trump as conducting an operation to direct the chaos so that he can declare an emergency and impose control.
Which is more accurate, the violent assailant or the clever conductor?
We’ve seen how Trump takes a half-understood concept, like the use of tariffs in the late 19th century, and works it into a policy, refusing to be dissuaded by people who attempt to fill in the blanks in his dubious notion of how it all works.
It doesn’t matter how much planning has gone into his demonization of foreigners and his attacks on West Coast culture. Since neither is rational, the critical issue is the outcome, not the origin.
And there are plenty of people who happily accept his view of foreigners and of Californians, and feel that neither group represents “true Americans.”
Accurate briefings would describe a carnival atmosphere, complete with taquerias and line dancing, as well as angry confrontations with armed, masked military figures. Chappatte jokes about which aspect is emphasized.
I’ve noted many times that, if 500 people sit quietly listening to speeches and one person is dressed as Uncle Sam walking around on stilts with a toy machine gun, that one person will be in the photos of the demonstration the next day. Similarly, the person running around with a Mexican flag or hurling rocks at the police will get more attention than the 500 chanting for peace.
I’d pity the reporter who came back to the newsroom and said most people were pretty chill and only a few show-offs and publicity hounds were really raising hell.
If it bleeds, it leads. It’s not necessarily propaganda, except in Murdochland. But people singing “Give peace a chance” just aren’t nearly as interesting as someone dressed as Uncle Sam and wielding a toy machine gun.
I’m reminded of a remark by Peggy Charren, founder of Action for Children’s Television, who said that, if she were sitting in a rocking chair reading to her small children and two men began fighting in another part of the room, the kids would stop listening to the story and watch the fight.
Commercial media is based on that observation, and so are rising dictatorships.
Is Donald Trump actively studying the life of Bashar al-Assad for tips on how to become a dictator? Quaddura is making that part up, but having lived in Syria until 2015, he’s had a front-row seat to Assad’s rise to power. It adds a credible perspective to any parallels he may be sensing at the moment.
There is a quote floating about without clear parenthood which states “Donald Trump is a stupid man’s idea of a smart person, a poor man’s idea of a rich man, and a weak man’s idea of a strong man.”
Emmerson draws it as a picture, conceding Trump’s ambition to be a strong man while mocking his physique: He may talk like Robert Duval, but he hardly resembles him.
Another orphaned quote, attributed to both Muhammed Ali and Dizzy Dean, is “It ain’t bragging if you do it.” The question raised in several of these cartoons is where the bragging leaves off and the doing begins.
Garabet notes that Trump has an army to back up his braggadocio, and “this time” serves as a reminder of other times when American gunboat diplomacy has been practiced around the world.
It’s worth pointing out that, in addition to his drumming up of military spirit at Fort Bragg, Trump has also seen to the elimination of JAG officers to enforce military law and the reduction of experienced officers at the head of the armed forces.
The result is that a lot of the people who might remember Trump’s insults of the past are gone, and the armed services are tilted more towards young warriors and officers who may not steer them in the direction envisioned by the term “citizen army.”
Saving the saddest for last, though it fits with our opening story of people sweeping up their neighborhood.
Looking through foreign perspectives shows hostility towards Trump but not towards the US. Rather, like Descheemaeker, cartoonists express regret for the promise that is being lost.
It’s a small world after all.
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