According to the following article from Politico, Donald Trump and the Republicans are struggling to find ways to attack Kamala Harris and are throwing out wild claims to see if anything sticks.
Maybe I'm not sufficiently thorough in perusing editorial cartoons, but it seems to me that there are a lot of "artists" who "avoid controversy and produce a bunch of bland cartoons" - they may be boring and losing readers, but it seems the newspapers keep publishing the cartoons because the newspapers themselves do no want to risk losing subscribers.
Also, your comment on 15-year-old umpires reminded me of a time I got "drafted" to be first base umpire for a Little League game (one of the teams for which I had last played only 2 years earlier). There was a guy on 1st, and the first baseman was my best friend's younger brother (also my former teammate). The runner took off early, and I threw whatever piece of laundry they'd given me, but no one saw that as they were watching the runner... and said runner actually scored due to the overthrows/missed catches that so often happen in that age group. When I made the kid come back to 1st base, it was kind of like today's political climate: half the parents thought I was an exceptional umpire while the other half felt I was as blind as a bat and the scum of the earth.
It's certainly not their only problem, but you can see how well avoiding controversy is working for newspapers.
And your experience as an amateur umpire is one shared by a lot of people who made the mistake of trying to help out people who want to play baseball. I once umpired about half a men's league amateur game because the real umpire didn't show up. They weren't paying me and begged me to do it and then bitched about every call that didn't go their way. After about 5 innings I walked off the field and have never been tempted to umpire again.
The La Jolla socialite publisher is Helen Copley, correct? She was hired at the San Diego Union as Mr. Copley's secretary and worked her way up to the top by marrying the boss. That's quite a painful memory, no doubt, being fired for a cartoon of non-Republican messaging.
You are correct about the publisher. I wouldn't describe getting fired there as painful and it was over my body of work, not just one cartoon. I would describe it as a learning experience and while it didn't seem that way at the time, something that helped me get where I was eventually going: Jim Scott, my first editor at the Star and the guy who hired me, seemed to think being fired from the San Diego Union was a good sign.
Maybe I'm not sufficiently thorough in perusing editorial cartoons, but it seems to me that there are a lot of "artists" who "avoid controversy and produce a bunch of bland cartoons" - they may be boring and losing readers, but it seems the newspapers keep publishing the cartoons because the newspapers themselves do no want to risk losing subscribers.
Also, your comment on 15-year-old umpires reminded me of a time I got "drafted" to be first base umpire for a Little League game (one of the teams for which I had last played only 2 years earlier). There was a guy on 1st, and the first baseman was my best friend's younger brother (also my former teammate). The runner took off early, and I threw whatever piece of laundry they'd given me, but no one saw that as they were watching the runner... and said runner actually scored due to the overthrows/missed catches that so often happen in that age group. When I made the kid come back to 1st base, it was kind of like today's political climate: half the parents thought I was an exceptional umpire while the other half felt I was as blind as a bat and the scum of the earth.
It's certainly not their only problem, but you can see how well avoiding controversy is working for newspapers.
And your experience as an amateur umpire is one shared by a lot of people who made the mistake of trying to help out people who want to play baseball. I once umpired about half a men's league amateur game because the real umpire didn't show up. They weren't paying me and begged me to do it and then bitched about every call that didn't go their way. After about 5 innings I walked off the field and have never been tempted to umpire again.
The La Jolla socialite publisher is Helen Copley, correct? She was hired at the San Diego Union as Mr. Copley's secretary and worked her way up to the top by marrying the boss. That's quite a painful memory, no doubt, being fired for a cartoon of non-Republican messaging.
You are correct about the publisher. I wouldn't describe getting fired there as painful and it was over my body of work, not just one cartoon. I would describe it as a learning experience and while it didn't seem that way at the time, something that helped me get where I was eventually going: Jim Scott, my first editor at the Star and the guy who hired me, seemed to think being fired from the San Diego Union was a good sign.