The least-informed person in the room
In one of the 3,742 books Bob Woodward has written (uncertain of which one and definitely don’t care) he made a point worth remembering: in any Oval Office meeting it’s quite likely the least-informed person in the room is the President of the United States.
As Bob pointed out:
Politicians spend their time running for office and getting elected is what they know about and they only absorb enough information about foreign policy or economics or the best count for a hit and run (2-0 or 2-1 by the way) so they can answer questions in public or not look like a dumbass in a debate, which goes a long way in explaining why smart politicians don’t answer the question they were asked, they answer the question they wish they were asked.
A technique most of us would be wise to adopt because when we get asked, “Where were you last night?” we could then answer, “The main export of Brazil is soybeans.”
As a political cartoonist, I can relate to the politician’s approach to knowledge because it’s my job to know just a tiny bit about a whole bunch of things and I have often described my pool of knowledge as being a mile wide and an inch deep so you definitely don’t want to dive in head-first.
This is why presidents have advisors: most of the time they don’t know all that much about the subject at hand, but despite their lack of comprehensive knowledge, guess who gets to make the final call?
Which is what inspired the above cartoon.
We’re letting politicians – some of the least-informed people in the room – decide whether the pandemic is over and because these clowns want to get re-elected they’re going to do whatever the mob wants and if that includes burning witches at the stake or having “whites only” drinking fountains, most politicians will light the torches or get to work on painting the signs.
Come to think of it, a fair number of politicians are America’s worst instincts personified and politicians who tell us things we don’t want to hear tend to not get re-elected or in extreme cases, get shot, but enough about the Kennedys.
The good politicians tend to quit when they realize what they’ll have to do to stay in office which is why journalist-writer-and-drug-abuser Hunter Thompson once asked how low does a man have to stoop to become President of the United States.
Right now the popular thing to do is to end COVID-19 restrictions and why would we listen to an immunologist or public health official when we have a failed divorce lawyer turned county legislator to make the decision for us?
Really can’t see what could possibly go wrong with this system.
On a heavier subject
I read a Washington Post story about people going back to work in offices and after 15 months sitting around their house eating Twix bars and day drinking drug store whiskey while wearing the same sweat pants 10 days in a row, a number of people are finding out their old work clothes no longer fit.
Worthwhile fashion hint:
If you’re returning to the office your employer is probably going to want you to wear pants unless you’re a pole dancer or a newscaster (two professions whose morals are somewhat indistinguishable) because TV people invented wearing work clothes from the waist up and comfortable clothes from the waist down and they’ve been doing it for a long time.
Little known fact: Walter Cronkite liked to wear board shorts and flip flops while telling America the way it is and that’s a little known fact because I just made it up.
Although…
I watched some old news footage from the day John Kennedy was assassinated and back then it was totally acceptable for someone to deliver the news while smoking a Lucky Strike.
I don’t know about you, but I’d find newscasters much more convincing if they came on my TV with their ties undone, sleeves rolled up, puffing a cigarette, next to a full ashtray and a half-finished shot of bourbon and started the news by saying:
“Well, you’re not going to believe this shit…”
Instead we get people who look like department store mannequins come to life and for some reason that reminds me of a picture I once saw in a Montgomery Ward’s catalogue of some male model wearing nothing but BVDs with his T-shirt tucked in to his shorts, smoking a pipe.
Which I’m assuming would be the correct attire if Fred MacMurry attended a wife-swapping party, which might be difficult in Fred’s case because Fred was one of the many TV fathers whose wife was mysteriously “dead” because that was more acceptable in the 1950s than being divorced and they always had some weird older “uncle” hanging around for comic relief and I’ve reached the Point in Life where I think I could play that role with my eyes closed which is probably what I’d want to do if Fred was going stroll through the living room wearing nothing but Fruit of the Looms while puffing on a Meerschaum.
I’m assuming the outfit would be completed by black socks and a pair of Florsheim wingtips so try to get that image out of you head if you can. (Hey, if I’m going to feel slightly oogy, so are you.)
Capitol police and 600,000 dead Americans
A while back the assistant chief of the Capitol Police resigned and according to The Hill more than 70 officers have left the department since January 6th which as you might recall is the date a bunch of lunatic Trump supporters stormed the Capitol.
The Capitol Police have been widely criticized for not being ready for an event they knew was coming and some of the people doing the criticizing are the same politicians who mishandled the COVID-19 pandemic (which they knew was coming) and mishandled it so badly that over 600,000 Americans are now dead.
As the cartoon suggests, start getting rid of people in Washington, D.C. for being incompetent and you couldn’t get a decent 3-on-3 basketball game going.
OK, that’s it for today because my stream of consciousness is starting dry up in the heat which we all should have known was coming because the lab coat people have been talking about climate change for a long, long time, but don’t worry, because I’m sure the problem will be handled by the least-informed people in the room.
Once again, I just can’t see what could possibly go wrong with this system.
Have a nice drought, everybody.