CSotD: And Another Thing …
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JD Vance seems to be looking forward to the 2028 presidential election. He blamed the Iran war for the Republicans’ sweeping losses, which, as Anderson points out, sure seems like he’s trying to put some distance between himself and Trump.
Will it work? I’d be surprised, particularly since he also said that the problem wasn’t affordability, which I don’t think is going to play with the public. We get back to the two main promises Trump made, to bring prices down and keep us out of new wars. If you want to present yourself as independent of the administration, you have to face the fact that you were elected because of egg prices and your party was rejected because of gas prices.
Pretending you weren’t in the room isn’t gonna play. Ask Hubert Humphrey how having been LBJ’s veep skewed his chances against Nixon in 1968.
If the Republicans want any chance of holding the White House, they’re going to have to at least come up with some different faces, even if they fail to come up with some different policies.
In 2012, after Obama routed Mitt Romney, Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal wrote up a report on what the Republicans needed to do to become competitive. The takeaway phrase was that they had to stop being “the Party of Stupid.” They didn’t listen and won eight years in the White House, which isn’t much of an incentive for change.
We’ll see what they come up with in two years, but I’d be surprised if JD had a major role in it.
Juxtaposition of Sore Losers
I’m not sure how old Mike Lester is, but he’s certainly been around long enough to remember the gentle, refined sportsmanship the Republicans exhibited on January 6, 2021. No, they didn’t riot the day after the elections. They waited and attempted a coup when the votes were about to be confirmed, at which point they broke into the Capitol, assaulted police, stole souvenirs, threatened to kill the vice-president and smeared feces on the walls.
Which I shouldn’t have to tell anyone over the age of about 10. In the words of Michael Corleone, “Don’t tell me you’re innocent, because it insults my intelligence and makes me very angry.”
Varvel could have exhibited his islamophobia in a more reasonable way, by showing Iran grateful to have people in power who oppose the war. But he didn’t, and instead used the occasion to demonstrate bigotry. It would be offensive enough from anyone, but for somebody who frequently cites his Christianity in his political cartoons, it’s doubly so, and evidence that his view of Christ ignores the answer Jesus gave to “Who is my neighbor?”
Jesus gave the example of a Samaritan, someone outside the Jewish faith, who helped a mugging victim when others would not. That was his explanation of the second great commandment, “Love thy neighbor as thyself.”
As this explanation of the matter says, “This guiding directive is not presented as optional but as a key form of obedience.”
Schrank offered a pessimistic view of the elections in Israel, and it seemed realistic for his Gazan to despair of anything good coming from them. However, the success of Arab political parties and resistance to Netanyahu seems as if there may be a coalition government with Netanyahu’s rightwing allies out and a combination of moderate parties from both faiths.
There have been demonstrations by moderate Israelis wanting Netanyahu out, and if the proposed coalition comes to power, that Gazan father may find that he spoke too soon.
Gaza, however, is not the only place where Israel is clashing with Arab residents. Wolterink doesn’t pull his punches in criticizing the settlers who, under the shelter of the military, have assaulted West Bank residents, burned their homes and olive orchards and killed livestock in an effort to drive them off the land.
Hajjaj, a Palestinian Jordanian, offers a more touching portrait of a West Bank resident who simply wants to continue his ancient lifestyle of growing olives, and fears the violent settlers, portrayed here as zombies.
It may advance the discussion of matters both on the West Bank and in Gaza if the Jewish/Arab coalition comes together and governs effectively, since it would be harder to dismiss criticism of the government as anti-Semitic.
Meanwhile, what is equally important at the moment is Trump’s decision, announced just before our elections, to end US financial support of Israel. Both he and Netanyahu have said the nation is now in a position to be self-supporting, and while it didn’t help Trump here, it might be a positive there, even for Netanyahu, who seems to be on his way out.
There is talk that Hegseth may be on the brink of being fired, but his view of the military as a testosterone-soaked macho fighting machine had led to a de-emphasis on the drone warfare that Ukraine has been using to keep the Russian bear at bay. He has suddenly awakened to the need for drone development, but it might not be enough to save his job.
As Kal notes, drones are the future of warfare, and both Ukraine and Iran are making use of the new weaponry, which has been compared to the invention of the machine gun. The most effective warriors now are well away from the front, while Russia is losing tens of thousands of soldiers at the front, attacked and killed by drones.
Hegseth’s preferences notwithstanding, survival these days has little to do with pushups and weight-lifting, though his boss has committed to building a type of ship that the Japanese air force mostly knocked out of World War II before the fighting had begun..
Juxtaposition of the Day #2
The next two years are likely to be transitional, with Trump hanging onto power despite a congress with majorities in opposition to him. The interesting question is how things will change with the 2028 elections.
The plutocrats described by Sipress and mocked by Davies may find themselves forced once again to work within confining rules, but I’m confident they’ll still find a way to advance their personal ambitions regardless of the overall costs.
Keep on keeping the faith.
Mike Peterson has posted his "Comic Strip of the Day" column every day since 2010. His opinions are his own, but we welcome comments either agreeing or in opposition.
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