Sunday, June 30, 2019

Musical Sunday


As Donald Trump continues to embarrass the nation at the G-20 summit and prepares to hijack the Fourth of July celebration to stroke his own ego, this parody of the Kingston Trio's classic song "Where Have All the Flowers Gone?" is particularly timely ...



Expect better from the current administration ... but prepare to be disappointed.

Have a good day and enjoy the rest of your weekend. More thoughts coming.

Bilbo

Saturday, June 29, 2019

Cartoon Saturday


We've almost survived June. Almost ...

Yet another woman has come forth with a credible allegation of sexual misconduct (actual rape, this time) against Donald Trump; a pregnant woman in Alabama has been charged with manslaughter in the death of her unborn child after being shot in the stomach ... the woman who shot her has gone free, and the woman was indicted because police say she was at fault for initiating the shooting; during a meeting with Russian president Vladimir Putin on the sidelines of the G-20 summit in Japan, Donald Trump joked about Russian interference in the upcoming presidential election, wagging a finger at Putin and saying "don't meddle in the election, please;" in a convoluted non-decision, the Supreme Court declined to get involved in solving the problem of politically-motivated gerrymandering, allowing existing gerrymanders to stand and effectively killing future lawsuits on the topic; and the first candidate debates of the 2020 election season took place on Wednesday and Thursday as 20 Democratic hopefuls took to the stage in Miami in an attempt to separate themselves from the herd.

There hasn't been a White House press briefing in months, which makes one wonder why the Executive Branch is funding a public information function at all. How about some cartoons about the media?

The sign-off I'd like to see ...



 When the occupant of the Oval Office threatens to jail journalists, it's a good talk to have ...

I agree ...


It's not true that nobody's buying fairy tales any more - Donald Trump still enjoys strong support among part of the population ...



 Me, too ...

Sigh ...


It's quite the stress test!


You could get whiplash listening to explanations coming out of the White House and its apologists ...


Fox is probably hiring ...


Yes, fairy tales can be useful preparation for later life ...


We just need to survive one more day to put the sad month of June behind us ... I'm crossing my fingers.

Have a good day and a great weekend. More thoughts tomorrow, when Musical Sunday returns.

Bilbo

Friday, June 28, 2019

Great Moments in Editing and Signage


The last collection for June ...

Well, it is good advice ...


Such a deal! ...


Anything I could say would just get me in trouble, so I'll pass on this one ...


Memories of mom ...


I think someone in the marketing department needs to consider another line of work ...


Well, what would you expect? ...


I thought it would have been Exhibit A ...


Not for my granddaughters ...


Strange, but true ...


Sometimes, the wife just has to step in and take charge ...


And that's it for the final collection of great moments for June. Be sure to come back tomorrow for the last Cartoon Saturday of the month ... more thoughts then.

Bilbo

Sunday, June 23, 2019

Poetry Sunday


I almost never feel my age, even in the early morning and late evening ... except, of course, after a day spent in the hyperactive company of my grandchildren. This classic poem by Charles Kingsley talks to the changes we see and the way we experience the world as we grow older, if not wiser.

Young and Old
by Charles Kingsley

When all the world is young, lad,
And all the trees are green;
And every goose a swan, lad,
And every lass a queen;
Then hey for boot and horse, lad,
And round the world away;
Young blood must have its course, lad,
And every dog his day.

When all the world is old, lad,
And all the trees are brown;
And all the sport is stale, lad,
And all the wheels run down;
Creep home, and take your place there,
The spent and maimed among:
God grant you find one face there,
You loved when all was young.

Have a good day, and enjoy the rest of your weekend ... hopefully with that one face you loved when all was young.

More thoughts coming.

Bilbo

Saturday, June 22, 2019

Cartoon Saturday


Sigh ...

Donald Trump "officially" launched his reelection campaign at a raucous rally in Orlando ... I wasn't aware Hillary was running against him; Iran shot down a US reconnaissance drone over the Persian Gulf, raising tensions in an already sensitive area; Donald Trump told Fox News shouting head Sean Hannity that DOJ investigators are studying whether his personal phone calls were secretly monitored by U.S. intelligence agencies during the 2016 campaign; Chinese leader Xi Jinping made an official visit to North Korea, the first such visit by a Chinese leader in more than a decade; and Democratic presidential wannabe Joe Biden drew criticism for his remarks about working with segregationist senators in years past.

This week, in honor of Donald Trump's official launch of his 2020 reelection campaign, how about a collection of cartoons about life in hell? ...

It's all in the marketing ...


Yes, you can make things worse ...


I used to do that commute ... at least, it felt like it in DC traffic ...


In case you wondered where that economy-wrecking idea came from ...


Caveat emptor ...


With a little extra effort, he could have had a gig as White House Press Secretary ...


The ladies will appreciate this ...


Aromatherapy in hell ...


Oops ...


AHA!! I knew it!! ...


Have a good day and a great weekend. Enjoy the hell out of it. More thoughts tomorrow, when Poetry Sunday returns.

Bilbo

Friday, June 21, 2019

The Left-Cheek Ass Clown for June, 2019


I never lack for candidates to receive my biweekly Ass Clown Awards, and as the 2020 presidential slog gets underway in earnest, the number of potential awardees has exploded across the political spectrum ... and not just in terms of those trying to climb the greased pole of presidential politics. The easiest choice would be simply to anoint Donald Trump every two weeks were he not already the recipient of a lifetime "achievement" award and thus no longer eligible for consideration, but others need the recognition, too.

This week, the churning cesspool of ass-clownery has pushed an amazingly large chunk to the surface, and made the selection a bit easier than usual. I have put on my shoulder-length insulated gloves and skimmed the greasy surface of the pool to draw forth

The Left-Cheek Ass Clown for June, 2019


and the award goes - for the seventh time - to

Senate Majority Leader
Mitch McConnell (R, KY)


Senator McConnell has well-earned his adopted nickname of "The Grim Reaper" for his role in single-handedly bringing the legislative branch to a grinding halt in the service of a feckless president and a relentless agenda to turn the United States into a conservative dystopia rejected by most Americans.

Since the beginning of the year, Senator McConnell has refused to bring to the Senate floor for debate a single bill passed by the Democratic Party-controlled House; the only actions he has allowed the Senate to take have been the rubber-stamp approval of an assembly line of deeply conservative judges (132, according to a recent count) in the service of his attempt to completely remake the judicial branch of government. He is, of course, famous for his comment in 2012 that his top priority was to make Barack Obama a one-term president, and for his comment this past week that Obama was elected to "pay for the original sin of slavery," and for his shameless hypocrisy - the most glaring example of which came last month when he said the GOP-controlled Senate would confirm a Trump-nominated Supreme Court nominee should a vacancy on the court occur in 2020 (the final year of Trump's term), after refusing to even consider President Obama's nomination of Merrick Garland in 2016 (the final year of his).

Many years ago I heard a wonderful bit of German army slang that described an inept and useless soldier - "Er ist der Bremsklotz am Siegeswagen der Nation" - "he's the brake shoe on the national victory train." There can be no better description of the role of Mitch McConnell, who has turned the Senate - once known as the world's greatest deliberative body - into a useless sham that exists only to force a fiercely conservative reordering of American government and society.

Ladies and Gentlemen, Dear Readers, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell ... the shame of the Senate and the proudly acknowledged "Grim Reaper" of the legislative branch ... is our Left-Cheek Ass Clown for June, 2019 - his seventh such award.

Have a good day. Come back tomorrow for Cartoon Saturday, because we need the laughs.

More thoughts then.

Bilbo

Sunday, June 16, 2019

Father's Day, 2019


If you were looking for Musical Sunday, don’t despair – because today is Father's Day and I have my traditional (and slightly updated) tribute to fathers today, you'll still get your poetry fix this week, just a day late.

Today is Fathers’ Day, the day we honor the man who contributed half of our chromosomes and many of the life lessons that shaped us into who we are.

Fathers don’t get the same degree of respect that mothers do. They work in design, rather than production, after all, and don’t earn the credit that mothers do for going through nine months of pregnancy followed by months of sleepless nights and years of worry. And truth be told, many fathers don’t earn that respect. For all too many men, fatherhood is an unfortunate side effect of good sex, and a child is an impediment to the enjoyment of life. For many men, fathering a lot of children by a lot of women is the imagined sign of a manly stud ... not of lives betrayed by a thoughtless ass who thinks with his man parts* instead of his brain and heart.

Luckily, though, there are many good men out there trying their best to be good fathers. It’s not an easy job, and not everyone is good at it** ... but fortunately, enough do.

I have often reflected back on the course of my life, and I've come to the conclusion I’ve been a better grandfather than I was a father. This is probably normal. You’ve seen more of life, and had more experiences – good and bad – to share. If you’re the grandfather, you get to be the gentle, wise, let-‘em-do-what-they-want fellow the children love to see, rather than the grouchy, tired father who has to put bread on the table, crack the whip, and enforce the discipline. You get all the joy of holding and loving the children with none of the negatives ... when the baby needs changing, for instance, there's none of that messy fuss - you just give her back to her mother. What's not to like?

I think that, from the father's perspective, we have our children too early in life. We're still learning how to be adults, and all of a sudden we're fathers, responsible for teaching our children all the lessons of life that we haven't even learned yet. Our children grow up as much in spite of our mistakes as because of our excellence in parenting.

When you get to be a father, you look at your own father differently. It was Mark Twain who supposedly once said, "When I was a boy of fourteen, my father was so ignorant I could hardly stand to have the old man around. But when I got to be twenty-one, I was astonished at how much the old man had learned in seven years."

It's true.

A good father, as I came in time to understand, is a gift beyond all price. The gold standard for fatherhood is, of course, my own father. He fought the Nazis*** in the skies over World War II Europe, ran his own business, raised four children and buried one, and cared for mom through the long years of misery as Alzheimer's gradually destroyed the mind of the dynamic and witty woman he loved. Dad left us three years ago, and I no longer get to hear his jokes and stories and learn the lessons he still had to teach, yet he remains the man to whom I owe whatever shreds of honor, decency, and ... well ... manhood that I can claim.

This was the man who took the war to the Nazis in 1944 ...


After the war, he turned successful businessman, running his own photographic studio and drawing the attention of the ladies ...


At the Mount Vernon Wine Festival in 2002, he was surrounded by admiring ladies (from left to right: our friends Susan and Nadja, his granddaughter Yasmin, and Agnes) ...


With my brother Mark and I, on the occasion of Mark's retirement from the Navy (our brother Paul served in the Army, but wasn't able to be there) ...


And here he is in December of 2013 at his 90th birthday party in Pittsburgh, surrounded by the friends, fishing partners, and family members who came out to honor him in spite of some really ghastly winter weather ...


I'd like to think I made him satisfied, if not proud.

If you’d like to know more about the life of this wonderful man, you can read my remembrance here.

It's politically correct (bordering on mandatory) nowadays to say that a child can grow up just fine in a household with same-sex parents, but you'll never be able to convince me that it's the same as being raised by a father and a mother who love each other, treat each other with dignity and respect, set a good example, teach their gender-specific life lessons, and subordinate their own dreams and desires to the momentous task of raising a brand new human being.

Have a good day. Honor your father. And if you're a father, be a good one ... preferably a better one than I was. Your children ... and indeed, the future ... are depending on you.

More thoughts coming.

Bilbo

*  As the late Missandei would have said. If you're into "Game of Thrones," you'll get it.

** As I have had the sad occasion to learn.

*** The real ones, the ones that murdered millions of innocent people and destroyed most of Europe, not the imaginary ones to which ignorant people in this country compare their political opponents.

Saturday, June 15, 2019

Cartoon Saturday


Boy, what a week it's been ...

Donald Trump told an interviewer that he saw no problem with accepting information about his political opponents from a foreign government and not informing the FBI ... but then quickly reversed himself after the predictable yet useless firestorm of outrage developed; the Office of the Special Counsel has recommended White House counselor Kellyanne Conway be fired for violations of the Hatch Act ... the White House, predictably, has refused; several oil tankers have been attacked in the Gulf of Oman, with blame falling - not surprisingly - on Iran; actor Cuba Gooding, Jr, has been accused of "forcible touching" of a woman at a Manhattan bar; and the wife of California GOP Rep. Duncan Hunter pleaded guilty to conspiring with her husband to convert campaign funds for personal use, and has agreed to cooperate with prosecutors.

The news has been so odd lately that I thought we might need some stronger-than-usual cartoons to distract us from the ugly reality of life. So, here's a collection of cartoons about sex, because why not? ...

Lights, camera, no action! ...


Sometimes it's tough to give up the electronics for very long ...


I saw this same cartoon situation many years ago, but the caption was, "Are you sure she's got a friend?" ...


Well, she did give fair warning ...


We linguists can be very particular ...


It helps you to perform the act with ... relish ...


Some men really can read a woman's mood ...


Oops ...


Carefully. Very carefully ...


So, what was your first hint? ...


Have a good day and a great weekend. More thoughts tomorrow, when I reprise my annual Father's Day post. See you then.

Bilbo

Friday, June 14, 2019

Great Moments in Editing and Signage


It's that time again ...

Such a deal! ...


The last one was the worst ...


Um, no thanks ...


From the summertime Department of Well, Duh ...


What an outrageous, arbitrary, and unconstitutional infringement on the poor soul's right to bear arms ...


I checked ... it's not in my garage ...


No penguins? I'm taking my business somewhere else! ...


It's a paper-saving move ...


Sentimental value ...


Hmmm ...


And so it goes. Have a good day, and come back tomorrow for Cartoon Saturday. More thoughts then.

Bilbo