(Matt Davies via GoComics.com)
.
.
What’s on the agenda for the weekend?
.
(Jeff Danziger via GoComics.com)
.
.
(John Deering via GoComics.com)
.
.
(Clay Jones via GoComics.com)
.
.
(Drew Sheneman via GoComics.com)
This post is in: Foreign Affairs, Open Threads
What’s on the agenda for the weekend?
Comments are closed.
germy
I don’t understand the Deering cartoon, the one with them under a bridge.
What am I missing?
David ? ☘The Establishment☘? Koch
@germy:
Putin is a troll and Biden is presidential
geg6
@germy:
Putin is the troll under the bridge.
zeecube
A beautiful morning in S.E. Louisiana, even if a little soggy from last night’s storm. Today’s agenda is wallpaper.
NotMax
AFAIK no one here has yet brought up this nugget of moronium.
Cheryl Rofer
Nice, AL!
I’m gonna do a small promotion for Nuclear Diner. Every Sunday my colleague Molly collects political cartoons for a “Sunday Funnies” feature. Not always about foreign policy, but worth checking out in your travels around the web.
David ? ☘The Establishment☘? Koch
Joe and Jill’s Excellent Adventure: G-7, The Crown, NATO, European Union, facing down Putin.
Victory after victory – Putin may be a world class poker player, but Uncle Joe owns the casino.
OzarkHillbilly
@David ? ☘The Establishment☘? Koch: @geg6: Yes, so why is Biden in deep* water?
*actually kinda shallow but can’t see any meaning to that so, deepish?
germy
@David ? ☘The Establishment☘? Koch:
@geg6:
But Biden is sitting at his desk in water up to his knees? Why not have him talking to Putin from the top of the bridge?
I like how the various cartoonists depict Putin. They love undermining the “heroic” image he and his handlers promote.
Cameron
@zeecube: Isn’t a big storm coming your way? Of course, I saw that on Accuweather, which means it’s probably not happening.
debbie
That last one is the best! Putin’s Useful Puppet must feel very left out and lonely.
Gin & Tonic
@geg6: Looks more like Nixon to me.
MattF
@NotMax: Solipsism: the belief that you are the only conscious entity in the universe. Bertrand Russell told the story of a solipsist whose only problem was that no one agreed with her.
debbie
@germy:
It doesn’t look to me like the water is up to his knees. Joe’s sitting there with his arms crossed over his chest. He doesn’t seem too concerned about being in the river. Maybe the river is crazy, rushing world events?
Other MJS
@Gin & Tonic: I saw Nixon also. Back to the drawing board for this one, IMO.
NotMax
On a more placid plane, couple of lesser items to share on a lazy Saturday morn.
1) Weekend repast respite: compare and contrast.
2) Noticed that 1989’s never quite reached top drawer status feature The Package is on Prime. Holds up fairly well so far as intrinsic watchability is concerned. Biggest weakness is it wants so hard to be the The French Connection in khaki that the template constricts both plot and character development from going where they would more naturally flow.
Anyhoo, mention it for a duo of other reasons. First, occurred to me on viewing the other day that it can be considered by now a period piece, in that there are any number of scenes and situations in its pre-cell phone milieu which could be handled oh so much more rapidly or adroitly in today’s electronic ecosystem.
Second, because the actor portraying the U.S. president bears more than a passing resemblance (albeit bespectacled) to Biden today.
zhena gogolia
@debbie:
I think if we have this many competing interpretations, it’s a bad political cartoon.
I don’t get it at all.
zeecube
@Cameron: @Cameron: The storm hit around 4 pm yesterday and did not let up until about 2 a.m. Forecast when I retired for the night was more rain so it was a pleasant surprise to wake up to sunshine and blue skies.
The Dark Avenger
@germy: what traditionally lives under a bridge?
germy
Yes, the bridge cartoon, my first impression was that Biden was talking to Nixon.
debbie
@zhena gogolia:
Very true.
germy
Matt Bors has given up political cartooning.
It’s a shame. I didn’t always agree with him, but he was good. He’s the one who came up with the “And yet you participate in society” gotcha guy.
Elizabelle
I love how Macron is having his Putinmallow with a good red.
MomSense
Yesterday we resumed our meet for pizza before kid goes out with friends and I go home after work. It was sooo nice to do that again. Thank you POTUS Joe. It’s a little thing but a BFD after what we all went through.
I’m having the rest of my grilled eggplant, ricotta and basil pizza for breakfast.
Ken
Obviously the river represents cryptocurrency, and the bridge the gold standard (it’s even labelled “GENEVA”, a call-out to the gnomes of Zurich), and then Putin and Biden…. hmm, no, that doesn’t work either.
This was all much easier when cartoonists just drew a giant rat and labelled it “TAFT ADMINISTRATION”.
raven
@OzarkHillbilly: I left you something back yonder.
MattF
OT. If you were wondering how those poor, innocent Italian satellites were forced into changing Presidential votes, here’s an explainer.
germy
I’ve always liked Tom Toles. He has his own style, and you immediately recognize his characters.
Luckovich can be funny sometimes. He reminds me of Mort Drucker. But every time someone dies, Luckovich does the corny “gate of heaven” tribute.
debbie
@raven:
How’s your back doing?
germy
I like this one from Ruben Bolling:
https://thenib.com/history-lessened/
SFAW
@MomSense:
Save some for me, I’ll be right over. Shouldn’t take me more than 2 or 3 hours, depending on traffic and the NH/York tolls
prostratedragon
@OzarkHillbilly: Where I am there are these commercials for an insurance company where the spokesman is a crisp-looking man behind a desk, no matter what the scene of the commercial is. In one case, he and his desk were floating in a swimming pool. That’s what that cartoon reminded me of.
In general, is it such a wrong thing that all day Wednesday I had “Face to Face” running through my mind?
debbie
@germy:
Very few will ever surpass Paul Szep, who the Internet tells me is still active. His Nixon was genius!
Dorothy A. Winsor
@germy: That’s a good one
MomSense
@SFAW:
Otto’s pizza is the best. I like the one on Read street better than Congress.
germy
@debbie:
His characters are instantly recognizable. No guessing necessary.
Have you seen his version of Giuliani? It’s perfect.
NotMax
@germy
“The original gated community.”
You’d think by now Heaven would have installed a turnstile.
:)
germy
Billy Fuccillo has died.
He’s the car dealer with the “It’s Huge!” slogan.
People in Florida and NY will remember his commercials.
Baud
Happy Juneteenth. Looking forward to next week’s holiday.
If the Dems want to earn my vote that is.
germy
More humor:
We Asked Our Former History Teachers Why They Didn’t Teach Us Black History but They Were Too Busy Also Coaching Football
SFAW
@Gin & Tonic:
Me, too. Must be because we’re old.
Ken
@Baud: Father’s Day and the Summer Solstice not enough for you?
And I see the 22nd is National Take Your Cat to Work Day, which seems to misunderstand cats in a fairly fundamental way.
Oooo, the 24th is National Work From Home Day! How excitingly different!
From the list at https://www.calendarr.com/united-states/calendar-june-2021/.
debbie
@germy:
Yes, just now when I googled him. Great!
Baud
@Ken:
No one gets off for Father’s Day. Including most dads.
germy
It’s good for the cat to see where the money is coming from for cat food, litter and vet visits.
Benw
Happy Juneteenth!
Going with the family to a Juneteenth celebration/march and then to the botanical gardens.
Baud
@Ken:
The 23rd National Work from Home Day must have been quite the party.
debbie
@SFAW:
The nose is much too small to be Nixon’s. They’re usually ski-jump sized.
Josie
There are a couple of good cartoons today over at Juanita Jean’s place.
https://juanitajean.com/
Frankensteinbeck
@OzarkHillbilly:
I don’t think there is a reason. Putin is a troll and Biden is a president. That’s all. So the real answer is ‘because it’s not a good cartoon.’
As a wise and very large man one said, they can’t all be gems.
raven
@The Dark Avenger: bats
germy
artem1s
@NotMax:
The Package mmm, Gene Hackman. can’t believe I haven’t seen that one. I’ll have to check it out
NotMax
@SFAW
Taste of a memorably imagined Nixon portrayal. And another.
;)
sdhays
@MomSense: I like most pizza better than Congress.
;-)
WaterGirl
@MomSense: I perpetually have your youngest as 10 years old in my mind, but I imagine that he is well past 10. Yes? Maybe 17?
Danielx
@Gin & Tonic:
my thought exactly
Mo MacArbie
I had no trouble interpreting the cartoon. It’s fine. Maybe it’s because I never use the pie filter.
MomSense
@WaterGirl:
You’re right. He is seventeen going on 30 but sometimes 10. It’s a confusing age.
Kay
I thought the fake “critical race theory” debate had real potential to become a disaster for the promoters so I’m watching happily as it happens.
They’re now distributing Klan flyers at school board meetings.
zhena gogolia
Penzey’s Juneteenth newsletter is well worth reading.
debbie
@Kay:
“Heritage” Americans at work again!
MagdaInBlack
@Kay: Well, we aren’t hiding it anymore, are we? Here’s our website so you can learn more. Good lord. ( KJV, as noted in the flyer)
Elizabelle
I think the third cartoon is fine. It’s obviously Putin. He is the troll under the bridge. Biden has to be in the water, because that is what usually flows under bridges. And Biden brings the whole of his office and power with him.
Ah well.
Elizabelle
@Kay: The last line on those flyers (and LOL, Loyal White Knights):
Trust me, ‘holes. We do. We do.
Anyway, when I see flyers like that, I do wonder if they’re a parody, or real.
rikyrah
Good Morning Everyone ???
Ceci n est pas mon nym
Here’s an important issue: Beer. And speaking of foreign affairs, Belgian beer.
I had no beer for 14+ months in lockdown. Had my second post-lockdown beer last night and it was strange. It’s one of those places that has a million things on draft, so I thought I’d like a nice ale, the direction I kind of lean in summer. And I ordered a Belgian, as I’ve enjoyed Belgian beers in the past (though usually the wheat beers).
I dismissed the menu words about “fruity flavor” as just menu talk, like “overtones of oak and chocolate”. Big mistake. My beer, called a Belgian red ale, actually tasted like fruit juice mixed with beer. It was bizarre, though I bravely managed to finish it. This was way beyond the little bits of flavoring you get in some beers, of chocolate or pumpkin or coffee or other weird stuff.
Anyone have any experience with this stuff? WTF did I just drink?
Also, this was a take out order. They told me they could “can” any beer on tap. Little did I know they actually meant they could package it into its own sealed, pop-top can. I’ve never seen that before.
WaterGirl
@MomSense: Ha! Confusing for him, or confusing for you? :-)
Danielx
Odd occurrence this past week – got a call on landline (yes, still have one) from a woman with a Chinese accent asking if I wanted to sell my house. I said no, but it seemed bizarre.
Steeplejack
@rikyrah:
Good morning! ?
Central Planning
@MattF: instead of investigating the allegations, it would be nice if someone (FBI?) investigated the source of the allegation, or found the source.
I feel like I could say ACORN switched votes by paying off poll workers to do the switching. The RWNJs would get wrapped around the axle looking at the votes instead of checking that the allegation was credible.
The Blazing Saddles line about “…the common clay of the new west. You know. Morons.” Keeps running through my head.
Ceci n est pas mon nym
@Danielx: Many years ago, a Hasidic community decided they wanted to create their own town in Monroe, NY. A friend of ours in Monroe described how you’d hear a knock on the door, open it, and find the Hasidim at the door holding wads of cash and asking if you wanted to sell your house right now, on the spot for cash.
Apparently that worked well enough that they created the village of Kiryas Joel.
Baud
@rikyrah:
Good morning.
Danielx
@Ceci n est pas mon nym:
I’ve seen a peanut butter stout for sale and was told it was good. I gave it a pass…no flavored beers, thankyewverymuch.
MattF
@Danielx: Comes with a complimentary Epi-pen.
MomSense
@raven:
How are you feeling?
Ceci n est pas mon nym
@Danielx: There was pumpkin-flavored beer in my fridge for months after one Thanksgiving, via one of the kids. I finally sampled it and it wasn’t bad.
Steeplejack
@Ceci n est pas mon nym:
Yeah, that’s a thing—a “crowler” (can + growler [“a container for beer bought by the measure”]). My local, Dogfish Head Alehouse, does those. During the pandemic I would occasionally get a burger and onion rings for takeout with a crowler of their 60 Minute IPA. Equal to a couple of pints of draft. Did that last week, and I think I am about ready to venture back to dine in at the bar one weekday.
I usually steer clear of beers with oeno-adjacent verbiage, so I can’t help you there.
Central Planning
@Ceci n est pas mon nym: I bought 4-pack of PBR Coffee Beer over a year ago. I can’t find the right time to try it. Morning seems too early, and I don’t want to be up all night.
Raoul Paste
@Ceci n est pas mon nym: About that wretched beer that you barely managed to finish…
“Every drop was poison, pure poison . And the portion was so small! !”
Danielx
@Ceci n est pas mon nym:
I have gotten flyers from real estate agents asking if I was interested in selling, but a phone call seemed pushy to me. I’d be rude if someone called this morning while I’m enjoying the breeze on the back porch – no I like my house and I don’t want to move so go away.
MattF
@Danielx: It’s a competitive business. I got a phone call from a realtor on the day I moved into my just-purchased condo apartment.
MontyTheClipArtMongoose
@Ken: coinbase! how low can you go? fiat money! what a brother know.
Timill
@Ceci n est pas mon nym: Probably a lambic.
https://www.craftbeer.com/styles/belgian-style-fruit-lambic
I’m quite fond of them, but if you’re not expecting it, it’ll be a shock.
MontyTheClipArtMongoose
@Kay: qu qlux qlan is sinister phase ii of the storm.
mrmoshpotato
@Ceci n est pas mon nym: Southern Tier Pumking – mmmmmmm.
Dorothy A. Winsor
The real estate market is hot right now. I’m guessing real estate agents are looking for clients, and potential buys are scouring neighborhoods where they want to live and houses are scarce.
trollhattan
From Digby’s place, life with a rescue beaver. Popping in through the dog door slayed me. Also, too, dam-building activities in the livingroom.
trollhattan
@Ceci n est pas mon nym:
Seems like a missed opportunity to create the Village of Billy Joel.
trollhattan
@Dorothy A. Winsor:
I’m waiting for the twofer offer: buy our house and extend our car warrenties. One-stop schlepping!
Baud
@trollhattan:
It’s got a great Italian restaurant.
topclimber
@germy: I already have the boss and many work tasks at home everyday because let’s face it, cats are boss.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Baud: With a Piano Man.
Captain C
@trollhattan: That would have to be in Long Island.
debbie
@Dorothy A. Winsor:
Yep. They’ll buy anything..
Jim Appleton
@trollhattan: Kiryas George.
mrmoshpotato
@trollhattan:
Your Anti-Virus license is about to expire too!
geg6
@trollhattan:
OMG, too much cuteness! The noises he makes kill me.
Kathleen
@NotMax: He made it popular with his base because he told him the day celebrated slavery.
SFAW
@Ceci n est pas mon nym:
Why on earth would anyone voluntarily drink Belgian “beer”? It’s not quite like eating bagels and lox, where the bagel is replaced by Wonder bread and the lox is replaced by fruit-flavored Spam, but it’s not far off.
Not as bad as tire rims and anthrax, of course.
SiubhanDuinne
Oh, no, such sad news. The Bidens’ Champ died today. Here’s Joe’s statement:
RIP, Champ. You were a very good boy and we loved having you as First Dog for the last few months.
debbie
@SiubhanDuinne:
This is very sad news. I loved his stoicism. RIP, Champ.
Baud
@SiubhanDuinne:
Oh no. RIP, good boy.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@SiubhanDuinne: I know the feeling the Bidens have all to well, RIP Champ.
trollhattan
@SiubhanDuinne:
Awww, Champ. Safe journeys, buddy.
Baud
WereBear
Awwww. Champ sounds like an awesome example of an awesome breed. They were fortunate to have him into his old age.
May there be a truck made of bacon in Doggie Heaven for him.
Miss Bianca
@SiubhanDuinne: Aww. I am sadder to hear of Champ’s passing than I am of some (okay, most) humans. What that says about me, I don’t know. But RIP, Champ.
zhena gogolia
@SiubhanDuinne:
Oh, how sad. What a great dog.
Suzanne
RIP Champ Biden!
Baud
@Miss Bianca:
What it says, it says double for me.
SiubhanDuinne
@Baud:
For many of us here, I suspect.
J R in WV
A shame to lose an old companion, Champ, although 13 is quite aged for a German Shepherd. We took in a cousins’s German Shepherd, Captain, who was a very good girl. She was taken in by my Grandma after cousin’s divorce and he moved to attend law school.
But as she aged and needed more assistance than Grandma could provide, we brought her to the farm, where she was happy until she reached the point where we had to take her on that final trip to the vet.
She was 13. A very affectionate family member! Our first dog, actually, got along with all the cats just fine.
The Pale Scot
@germy:
TFG! He is mostly responsible for my dropping cable TV wathing, football will be better this fall
Amir Khalid
I saw this strange headline on the CNN site
Why are there quote marks around the word beloved? Is CNN hinting at something?
germy
@Amir Khalid:
My guess is that they’re quoting the Bidens’ description of Champ.
Steeplejack (phone)
@Amir Khalid:
It’s a direct quote from the Biden statement. Shows that CNN is not editorializing.
MontyTheClipArtMongoose
@Baud: #OurRevolution has already slammed this as more #idpol windowdressing to distract from the neoliberal hollowing of the American workingclass.
Brachiator
@germy:
There was no Pulitzer this year for editorial cartoon. As newspapers die, I guess that the art of the editorial cartoon will also fade away.
germy
@Brachiator:
It doesn’t seem to be a career anymore.
There was a time when a young cartoonist would join a paper and then stay there for forty years. Those days are gone.
Chetan Murthy
@Ceci n est pas mon nym: When I first moved to France for a job, I’d heard about all these Belgian beers, and a colleague told me “try Kriek” so I got one: a cherry beer, as it turned out. Jesus, *undrinkable*. But I learned that there are a million Belgian beers, and the diversity in Belgian beers overtops the diversity in the rest of the world combined.
So seriously, if you drink around a bit, you’ll find Belgian beers you love, I’m sure. Aside from Aventinus (German), Belgian beers are my favorite. Been drinking Leffe Blonde for 20yr, and sure, it’s done gone and sold-out, but hey, I can buy it at my local bodega, so that’s progress, to *me*.
WaterGirl
@Chetan Murthy:
“drink around”
I have never heard that phrase before… Is that kind of like sleeping around?
edit: Was it Mary Tyler Moore who, on one of her shows, said “I haven’t been around the block, but I’ve been nearby” ?
Another Scott
ObOpenThread.
I just heard a rebroadcast of a This American Life episode – #506 – Secret Identity.
Fascinating, and troubling topic.
My mind naturally runs turns to the topic of Q and TFG and GQP and all the rest…
Do we have an epidemic of Delusional Disorder in the USA, or is it just much easier now for them to have a loud voice in our politics via their being fed nonsense by bad actors? Or both…
:-(
Cheers,
Scott.
Brachiator
@germy:
Sadly true. And I don’t think there will be any physical newspapers 25 years from now. We will read about editorial cartoonists in history books.
SFAW
@Miss Bianca:
I’d like to test that concept for myself. I’d like to read of the demise(s) of Traitor Turtle, Rupert and Lachlan Murdoch, Cruz, Hawley, McCarthy, Abbott … then I’ll see if I shed as many tears for them as I have for Champ.
Another Scott
Maybe Adam hasn’t been around a lot ’cause he’s in Dublin??
Cheers,
Scott.
2liberal
The housing market is very hot. I’m getting spam texts, phone calls, letters to sell my condo in the PHX-burbs.
Uncle Cosmo
Yeah, but at least that’s the Phonyix burbs. I’m getting a similar bombardment re my 85-year-old interior-group row house in a 85% AA community in Baltimore City.
(ETA: On further review, probably different dynamic – house flippers looking for owners in financial straits, planning to offer them half of what the place is worth in cash on the barrel. IOW, vulture crapitalists.)
Richard
@Benw:
Yay!