Well, the US is out of the round of sixteen at the World Cup. Wrongo didnât watch. Itâs maybe arbitrary on his part, but he really has quite a bit of antipathy about the Gulf countries. Those countries have oil, without which they would simply be backwater places with doctrinaire religions and impossible politics.
Another thing: Last week, Edward Snowden swore an oath of allegiance to Russia and has received a Russian passport, his lawyer said Friday. The 39-year-old former intelligence contractor was granted Russian citizenship by Vladimir Putin in September. He faces espionage charges and 30 years in prison in the United States if he were to return, but he no longer faces extradition to the US. On to cartoons.
When will Trump get his just desserts?
Why was it necessary for Dems to portray the possible railroad strike as a problem caused only by labor?
With all we hear about Elon, Trump, and Bezos, why are they still glorified?
Republican Rep. Kevin McCarthy is having some trouble becoming the next House Speaker:
According to the LA Times, come January, more than 80% of Americans will live in states with governments entirely controlled by one of the two major Parties. That means when all the new legislators and governors are sworn in, 39 states will be controlled by the same Party, a seven-decade high.
That means Americans will have to live with greater differences in their schools, workplaces, and doctorsâ offices as they move cross state lines. A citizenâs right to carry a gun, to get an abortion, to join a union and the rate a minimum-wage job pays, will now depend almost entirely on whether their state is Blue or Red.
Canât let Sunday go by without talking about Jack Smith, appointed special counsel by Attorney General Merrick Garland to carry forward the Trump Jan. 6 and Mar-a-Lago investigations.
It does have advantages: It makes it simple for the DOJ to refuse Rep. Jim Jordanâs demands for information about the various Trump investigations. You canât subpoena a special counsel during an investigation.
Second, It ensures the continuity of any prosecution after 2025, no matter who is elected. Thatâs important since itâs possible that neither the stolen documents nor the coup attempt investigations may be completed by then. And it isnât the first time a special counsel was appointed when Congress changed hands. Remember that John Durham became a special counsel in December 2020 as Bill Barr was deciding to leave as Attorney General, and the Congress was about to change hands in January 2021. That shielded Durham from political interference in case Trump lost the election. Durham investigated potential criminal misconduct that might have occurred during the Trump-Russia probe without success. His investigation continues today. On to cartoons.
While we were focusing on the midterms, Biden flew to Egypt to appear at the COP27 climate conference where he took a brief victory lap before heading to Cambodia and then to Bali for the G20 summit (which Putin is skipping).
This particular climate conference is largely focused on what, if anything, the industrialized countries owe to poor nations that are suffering climate disasters which they did little to cause. The catch phrase for this is âClimate Reparationsâ.
Itâs hard for America to be a global leader on climate given our internal political issues. Weâre always going to be just a few Electoral College votes away from electing a climate denier. So the world canât count on us. But America will never pay climate reparations. We must at least TRY to get clean water in US cities first.
Even after 157 years, we wonât really consider paying reparations to the descendants of our fellow citizens for the sin of slavery. The political will to pay reparations to brown skinned folks on the other side of the world will never be a majority view in America.
There was both good news and bad news about the 2022 midterms. The good news is that the outcomes were not as catastrophic as predicted. The bad news is that they were bad enough. While all the races arenât finished and all the votes arenât counted, we know the Senate will be controlled by the Democrats. It’s likely that the GOP will control the House. Still, itâs very clear thereâs a very large segment of American voters who fail to read the writing on the wall about the threat of an authoritarian takeover of American democracy. Even though that writing is in large, blinking neon letters. On to cartoons.
The authoritarians are pensive:
The incredibly shrinking authoritarians:
The Georgia runoff doesnât mean what you think it means:
Pond, Horsethief Canyon Wildlife Area, CO – October 2022 photo by Ray Mathis
(There will not be a Sunday Cartoons column tomorrow. Wrongo and Ms. Right are visiting with family.)
Despite not having Sunday cartoons, hereâs one to focus your mind between now and Tuesday:
Regarding the midterms and what they might bring, we should do all that we can in these final hours to bring about the result we want. A fatal flaw would be losing control of the House and Senate because some people didnât care enough to vote.
But as with most potentially game-changing events, we will have to wait for the votes to be tallied, all the while hoping we’ve done enough. It will make for an anxiety-provoking few days.
And Wrongo is worried by the thought that the Dems might lose. But we only truly lose when we cease to resist the autocratic forces on the Right who would tear down democracy. And what about if we win? There canât be complacency with a win either.
As long as there are forces seeking to âtear it all downâ thereâs a need for continued work to energize Democrats. We may have political victories, but we canât become complacent. Sorry to say, but democracy only sustains itself through the efforts of those who commit to its continued defense.
Itâs also essential that we take the long view of whatâs happening in our country. We are clearly in a battle between autocrats and (small d) democrats. The Democratic Party wants Americans to live in a democratic country that regulates capitalism and provides a social safety net. The autocrats do not.
This battle is going on throughout the world.
Regardless of what happens on Tuesday, after the election we will regroup and figure out how to go forward.
Hereâs Wrongoâs wish that you have a calm weekend. That means he hopes that our Saturday Soother will help bring some calmness along with coffee.
Last Monday we returned to the Mansion of Wrong and saw evidence that wildlife are our neighbors. The flesh of the pumpkin by our front door was completely gone, and there were tracks in the remaining pumpkin mush that were consistent with that of a racoon, who are known to eat them. Also, a large animal (Bear?) tore open a big ground wasp nest on our lawn. Nothing remains but the new hole in the ground and a few broken honeycombs.
Not sure what message the animal kingdom is sending us. But Wrongo assumes itâs a reminder that we live in a large ecosystem that until the last century was dominated by wildlife.
Letâs start Saturdayâs effort to not think about the midterms with a hot steaming mug of Kona Extra Fancy ($45/12oz.) from the Roberts familyâs San Francisco-based San Francisco Bay Coffee. It seems expensive, but inflation is cruel to coffee drinkers. The roaster says that it has flavors of dark chocolate, persimmon, roasted almond butter, and magnolia. That probably explains the price.
Now, grab a seat in the sun (it will be 72° here today) and watch and listen to Beethovenâs âTriple Concerto in C Major, Op. 56 No. 2â. Here it is performed live in 2019, by a superstar trio of Anne-Sophie Mutter on violin, Daniel Barenboim conducting and on piano, and Yo-Yo Ma on cello, at Philharmonie, Berlin:
Yo-Yo Ma says:
âFor me, in the Triple Concerto, itâs the constant invention that always takes me by surprise. You know what I love about the piece? Itâs so celebratory, so positive.â
Candlewood Lake, New Milford, CT – October 2022 photo by Julia Turk
Thoughts on the Thursday before the midterms:
Wrongo is hoping to give thanks for whatever November brings, but heâs increasingly concerned about the midterms.
Memes about hammers are making the rounds. Letâs start with whether Paul Pelosiâs attacker was a good or a bad guy with a hammer. Wrongo guesses that depends on your political viewpoint. Rep. Claudia Tenney (R-NY) retweeted this photo that mocks Paul Pelosi for having his head bashed in with a hammer by a MAGA radical:
Tenney won her seat in 2020 by around 100 votes. She took office a month after Jan. 6, so she didnât vote on certifying the election results. She has now vacated her redistricted seat in the 22nd district to run in the neighboring 24th instead.
She is what Republicans have become. Itâs true that victims of political violence can be found among both US political Parties, but as David Frum says in The Atlantic:
â…if both Republicans and Democrats, left and right, suffer political violence, the same cannot be said of those who celebrate political violence. Thatâs not a âboth sidesâ affair in 2020s America.â
You don’t see Democratic candidates carrying assault rifles in their campaign ads. Republican candidates, on the other hand, are now more likely to pose with AR-15s than they are with their wives and kids. More from Frum:
âYou donât see Democratic House members wielding weapons in videos and threatening to shoot candidates who want to cut capital-gains taxes or slow the growth of Medicare. Democratic candidates for Senate do not post video fantasies of hunting and executing political rivals, or of using a firearm to discipline their childrenâs romantic partners. Itâs not because of the Democratic members that Speaker Nancy Pelosi installed metal detectors to bar firearms from the floor of the House…â
âThe New America think tank found last year that, since Sept. 11, 2001, far-right terrorists had killed 122 people in the US, compared with only one killed by far-leftists. A study from the Center for Strategic and International Studies last year found that, since 2015, right-wing extremists had been involved in 267 plots or attacks, compared with 66 for left-wing extremists. A Washington Post-University of Maryland survey released in January found that 40% of Republicans said violence against the government can be justified, compared with only 23% of Democrats.â
Political violence in America is driven primarily by the far Right, not the far Left. And the far Right is now the mainstream of the Republican Party. Itâs hard to see how this ends well. Maybe we should be calling them the Wrong Wing. You canât call them the Right Wing because they are completely wrong on every issue.
With so few days to go until the midterms, Wrongo has closed his wallet for all candidates. On our local TV stations, the same ads run constantly, and seem to have little impact. Few of them are any good anyway. Most repeat some version of their national Party line.
It may be too little too late, but the esteemed Rachel Bitecofer who weâve featured often, was participating on a podcast hosted by Jill Wine-Banks. Wine-Banks asked about better messaging for Democrats. And without hesitation, Bitecofer said:
âIf Republicans win, you lose . . . .â
Doesnât that ring true? âIf Republicans win, you lose.â If that had been the Democratsâ slogan for the midterms, it would have led to some great talking points:
Who do you want in Congress â someone who doesnât want to extend the child tax credit or someone who does?
Someone who doesnât want to provide paid family and medical leave, or someone who does?
Someone who doesnât want to protect Social Security and Medicare, or someone who does?
Someone who doesnât want a $15 hourly minimum wage, or someone who does?
Someone who doesnât want to deliver affordable, quality childcare, or someone who does?
Someone whoâs against healthcare for all, or someone whoâs for it?
“If Republicans win, you lose” has been true in every election since 1932. So, itâs better late than never to use it as a messaging tool.
We havenât posted cartoons in a while. Here are a couple to get you in the mood for voting:
Voting is like driving: If you want to go backwards, you select R. To go forward, you select D.
(Today weâre leaving for London. Regular columns will resume on 11/1. In the meantime, if turbulence occurs, keep your tray tables in their upright and locked position and your hands inside the blog.)
John Dick, CEO of Civic Science, has a weekly newsletter that is worth your time. This week he asks:
âWhat if weâre just talking ourselves into all of this? Admittedly, I partied too much in college to get good enough grades to go to a respectable grad school to become an economist. Iâm out of my league here.â
Dick wonders why economists are so sure that we canât escape inflation unless we head into a deep recession. He also wonders (as does Wrongo) if currently, thereâs a doomsday loop at work. Itâs true that there are times when regardless of the news, the stock market goes down. More from Dick:
âOh no! The job market is too good. Wages are growing too fast! Employees have too much leverage in the workplace! The dollarâs too strong! Peopleâs homes are worth too much! Weâre all screwed!!!â
The news media dutifully reinforces the doomsday loop. And who proffers answers? Very few. So, around we go, blaming the politicians in one Party for something they cannot solve, and neither can the other Party. And thus, the prophecy fulfills itself. On to cartoons.
Hurricane Ian should remind us of one thing: Weâre all in this life together. Itâs easy to let your partisan flag fly with âgotchasâ since weâre talking about Florida.
We could be smug watching Republicans like Governor DeSantis, who happily stoked outrage about âgovernment tyrannyâ over vaccines and masks, getting frustrated when his constituents fail to follow evacuation orders.
We could go for the schadenfreude when watching the up-by-your-bootstraps types in Florida line up for government assistance from FEMA. Or what was the best part? Watching DeSantis, whose entire MO is trolling Biden and the Democrats, happily accepting help from Dark Brandon and the federales.
âBut hereâs the thing: Weâre not talking about debating points. Weâre talking about human beings…. Whoâve had tragedy visited on them. And the only responses should be empathy, charity, and love.â
On to cartoons.
Uncle Sam does his job, regardless of politics:
Some say that stronger hurricanes aren’t an indication that the climate is changing:
Liz Trussâs big bet since taking over as UK prime minister is to lower taxes just like St. Ronnie and Trump did in the US. Said Truss:
âLower taxes lead to economic growth, there is no doubt in my mind about that,â
Trickle down will work this time, we promise, say UK Conservatives.
The tax reductions will require the UK government to borrow bigly to balance their budget. They hope that there will be so much growth that the UK will make it all back in future tax payments. Just like in the US, the lie is that these tax cuts will pay for themselves! Something that has never happened.
The UK Treasury said that the top personal rate will be cut from 45% to 40%. That will be more beneficial for the wealthy than the majority of British society. Shortly after the cuts were announced on Friday, the pound sank almost 2.6% to its lowest level against the US dollar since 1985. Wrongo hates to quote Larry Summers, but he said this:
“The UK is behaving a bit like an emerging market turning itself into a submerging market…it is pursuing the worst macroeconomic policies of any major country in a long time.”
âLiz Truss just announced the UKâs biggest giveaway to the rich since 1972, which resulted in an IMF bailout. Now the pound is crashing in the middle of the worst inflation since the 70s. Bold strategy….Letâs see if it pays off.â
Itâs hard to believe this will go well with the UK already in a recession. On to cartoons.
On Friday, the DOJ filed a motion in the 11th Federal Circuit Court for a partial stay of judge Cannonâs order appointing a special master to review the stolen documents that the FBI recovered at Mar-a-Lago (MAL). They are asking the federal appeals court to temporarily block Cannonâs ruling that prevents the DOJ from using thousands of pages of government documents seized from Trump at MAL.
It came after judge Cannon, for the second time in two weeks, issued a ruling in Trumpâs favor that flabbergasted legal experts. From the WaPo:
âUS District Judge Aileen M. Cannon on Thursday night rejected the Justice Departmentâs request to allow it to review the documents seized from Trumpâs residence at Mar-a-Lago that were marked classified. Cannon previously ruled that a special master review all the seized documents, at least temporarily delaying the governmentâs criminal probe.â
âPlaintiff has no claim for the return of those records, which belong to the Government and were seized in a court-authorized search. The records are not subject to any possible claim of personal attorney-client privilege. And neither the Plaintiff nor the court has cited any authority suggesting that a former President could successfully invoke executive privilege to prevent the Executive Branch from reviewing its own records.â
Letâs leave it to Robert Hubbell to point out the double standard at work in a recent Supreme Court decision: (brackets and emphasis by Wrongo)
“Here is a fun fact: âExecutive privilegeâ is not mentioned in the Constitution. Instead, the Supreme Court ruled that executive privilege is âimpliedâ in the Constitution because it is âinextricably rooted in the separation of powers under the Constitution.â
Another fun fact: The Constitution does not mention âseparation of powers.â So, executive privilege is an implied right based on an implied principle [in the Constitution].
Compare the Courtâs recognition of the implied right of a president to invoke executive privilege to the Courtâs recent pronouncement in Dobbs regarding reproductive liberty: âThe Constitution makes no reference to abortion, and no such right is implicitly protected by any constitutional provision.â
With its decision in Dobbs, the Supreme Court eliminated an implied right that offends its religious agenda.
But Cannon and most likely, the Supremes will likely protect Trump by implying a right based on the general structure of the Constitution. On to cartoons.
Judge Cannon bars the DOJ from Trump. We thought weâd hit bottom and then we heard knocking from below:
Itâs 21 years since the attack on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. As Michael de Adder says:
Twenty one years on, America is more at war with itself than with any foreign terrorists, despite having troops deployed in 80 countries. Our society and our democracy are threatened from within in a way that Osama bin Laden could never have managed. And where are we today? Cartoonist Mike Luckovich has a thought:
If ever so briefly after that fateful day. Today we face threats that might end our democracy:
Weâve nearly lost our social cohesion
We arenât dealing with income inequality
Weâre seeing racism grow
We see clear threats to the right to vote, or whether our votes will even count if we cast them
In these 21 years, Republicans have moved from being the Party of national security to the Party of grievance and anger. As Elliot Ackerman wrote last year in Foreign Affairs:
âFrom Caesarâs Rome to Napoleonâs France, history shows that when a republic couples a large standing military with dysfunctional domestic politics, democracy doesnât last long. The US today meets both conditions.â
MAGA asks the wrong question:
When you have no policies, this is what you get:
Letâs close today with a song by Mary Chapin Carpenter that she wrote back on the first anniversary of 9/11. Carpenter was inspired by an interview with Jim Horch, an ironworker who was among the early responders at the WTC site. Hereâs part of what Horch said:
âMy responsibility at the site was to try to remove big pieces of steel. The building fell so hard there wasnât even concrete. It was dustâŚ.I started to feel the presence of spiritsâŚnot very long after I was there. The energy that was there was absolutely incredible andâŚit was more than just the people that I was working withâŚit was energy left behindâŚ.One day when I was working, I felt this energy and it felt lost and it wanted to go home but it didnât know how to go home and it came to me to go to Grand Central Station. When I got off the subway, I walked into the Great Room. Into where the constellation is in the ceiling. And I walked around the perimeter andâŚout of the building. I didnât feel the energy anymore. I could feel it leave.â
And hereâs Carpenterâs âGrand Central Stationâ:
