Cartoon counter-punch
Billionaires in space, drug company spending and Ali v. Foreman, my favorite boxing match ever...
This comes from Wikipedia so the odds that it’s correct are about 50-50, but you’re going to have to live with that because it’s the first explanation that came up when I Googled “what is a counterpunch” and at these prices that’s all the research I’m willing to do:
“A counterpunch is a boxing punch that immediately follows an attack launched by an opponent. It exploits the opening created in an opponent's guard.”
When someone throws a punch they create an opening; you can’t throw a punch with your right hand and protect the right side of your face at the same time, a left jab leaves your left ribs open.
And that…by some fairly obscure logic…brings us to political cartooning.
Where babies and cartoon ideas come from
When asked where he got his cartoon ideas, the late, great political cartoonist Jeff MacNelly said he had the greatest gag writers in the world and they all worked in Washington, D.C. (BTW: I’m not actually going to explain where babies come from, but if you want to blame politicians, in many cases, they’re responsible for that as well.)
Jeff’s point was this: politicians do and say some goofy shit and that gives cartoonists a chance to counterpunch.
What follows are some news events and my reaction to them.
A Confederate statue is removed
The Kansas City Star had a story about a statue of Robert E. Lee being removed in Charlottesville, Virginia because some people found it offensive and that led me to wonder what would happen if we took down every statue that somebody found offensive?
That gave me an opportunity to comment on Conservative xenophobia and the first thought that comes to mind is Thank God And The Baby Jesus (feel free to thank Yahweh or Jehovah or Buddha or Muhammad or Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson…I’m open minded when it comes to deities) we have immigrants from different cultures because I’ve eaten English cooking and I’d much rather have a Carnitas Burrito or some Chicken Pad Thai than eat Spotted Dick which is an actual English dish and not some new and virulent STD.
Richard Branson shoots himself into space
I do not (as some MAGA-hat wearers apparently believe) wake up and say, “Gee, I’d really like to draw another Donald Trump cartoon because the first 2,000 weren’t nearly enough.” To inspire a cartoon Trump actually has to do something that’s preferably stupid and cartoon-worthy like having police attack peaceful protestors so he can hold up a Bible that he’s apparently never read.
That, my friends, is Cartoon Gold.
This isn’t quite as good (hard to top that Bible image), but on the same day Richard Branson shot himself into space, Donald Trump went to a CPAC (Conservative Political Action Conference) meeting in Dallas and once again tried to sell the idea that he got cheated out of the Presidency despite the fact that there’s no evidence of that happening.
Also…
This is the guy who thinks football players who take a knee during the national anthem ought to get kicked out of the NFL for disrespecting the flag. To be fair (a temporary policy) Trump never said anything about dry humping or molesting the flag, so just like Bill Cosby, he gets off on a technicality.
We leave Afghanistan
I first read this in The Best and the Brightest – David Halberstam’s book about the Vietnam War – and I’ve talked about it before, but we still haven’t learned this lesson so it looks like I’m going to talk about it again.
Whenever we contemplate invading a country we need to ask ourselves an important question: what do we do if we win? How long do we stay? (OK, that’s actually two questions, but both are on the same subject so quit being picky and things will go much more smoothly.)
As the cartoon suggests, we have limited options and to continue our boxing metaphor: the people who live in the countries we invade are like Muhammad Ali, lying back against the ropes, letting George Foreman (the US of A) punch himself out.
On the upside, if the comparison holds that means we’ll go on to develop a very popular grill and have loads of children named George.
Just in case you weren’t aware: the real George Foreman has 12 kids and his five sons are all named George which I’m guessing makes things a little confusing around the dinner table, but I’m not going to criticize because I failed to name any of my sons “Beelzebub” when I had the opportunity and I think “Now batting…Beelzebub Judge” would have sounded awesome coming over the Yankee Stadium PA system, which as every American male knows is the true test of how cool a name is.
Drug company spending
As anyone who pays for prescription drugs already knows, they can be outrageously expensive and the drug companies explain the cost by saying they have to spend a ton of money on research. But according to a report recently issued by the House Committee on Oversight and Reform:
“This report finds that the world’s leading drug companies have used price increases to boost payouts to investors and executives while spending less on research and development.”
Also…
“From 2016 to 2020, the 14 leading drug companies spent $577 billion on stock buybacks and dividends—$56 billion more than they spent on R&D over the same period.”
And…
“Many drug companies spent a significant portion of their R&D budget on finding ways to suppress generic and biosimilar competition while continuing to raise prices, rather than on innovative research.”
So if you’ve been thinking you have to pay more for your prescriptions so some drug company executive can own a bigger boat, you might be on to something.
That’s it for today and now I have to spend some time finding someone doing something stupid so I can draw about it and these days, that shouldn’t be all that hard.
OK, I posted this piece and seconds later realized George Foreman has an incredibly inconvenient 'e' in his name. My bad.