Please Read This
In addition to the almost 30 editorial cartoons and images in this diary on the Brazilian Insurrection; Trump’s reaction and connection to it; women’s rights; and a really interesting 1999 interview with rock legend David Bowie, I have already posted as many in the comments section. Part 2 has over 35 cartoons in the text of the diary, more in comments, and a special tribute to guitarist Jeff Beck who recently passed away.
All in all, you’ll get to see more than110 cartoons in both diaries.
Editorial cartoons on other issues include ones on George Santos (if that’s what his name is); Kevin McCarthy’s bumpy ride to becoming Squeaker of the House; classified documents found in Biden’s offices outside the White House; Republican chaos in the US House of Representatives; the Russia-Ukraine War; turmoil in Iran; the gun culture in America; the Republican agenda for 2023 and beyond; and floods in California.
Thanks for supporting these diaries.
Credit for the above cartoon: Pat Byrnes (Twitter), Tampa Bay Times
Taking a Cue from Trumpism
Imagine a right-wing president losing a political election and not conceding defeat to his opponent, as tradition demands, and repeatedly refusing to legitimize his successor’s victory at the polls. His conspiracy-minded supporters — fed incendiary language and discredited conspiracy theories by the president himself and his political allies — decide to storm the institutions of power and engage in widespread destruction.
Without regard for the country’s democratic institutions or the election results, thousands enter federal buildings for no rhyme or reason. Other than trying to reinstall their leader to what the demonstrators fervently believe is his rightful place, i.e. the presidency, their goals are unclear. Engaging in silly theatrics, violence, and mouthing words that defy reason and logic, the protesters are gradually forced to disperse. Most seem utterly convinced that they were trying to right a legitimate political wrong — even as available evidence and analyses suggested no claims of fraud or election rigging. And who did they think was responsible for instigating these attacks? Some imaginary leftist radicals — not the delusional conspiracy theorists and hate mongers supporting the defeated president — were determined to make the “peaceful protesters” look bad.
A belief in democratic principles entails accepting political defeat and graciously accepting the verdicts rendered by the electorate. That seems to be an alien concept for some people.
The above scenario did come to pass in Brazil a few days ago. Supporters of the far-right, defeated President Jair Bolsonaro stormed Congress, the Supreme Court, and presidential offices before police arrested over 1,200 of them. The security forces defending these government institutions were heavily outnumbered when the attacks began. That it looked and sounded eerily similar to the January 6, 2021 insurrection in Washington, DC, was certainly not a coincidence.
The United States has exported many goods, services, and ideas over the decades needed by the rest of the world. A blatant disregard for the rule of law (New York Times link, subscription required) is one of Donald Trump’s gifts to the world.
Sunday’s riot laid bare a daunting threat to Brazilian democracy: Unlike past putsch attempts in Latin America, this one was driven by deeply rooted conspiracy theories.
Delusions over the election extended to many protesters’ explanations of what had happened in the riots. People filing out of the encampment on Monday morning, carrying rolled-up air mattresses, extension cords and stools, each had a clear message: Mr. Bolsonaro’s supporters had not ransacked the buildings. Rather, they said, those causing the damage were radical leftists in disguise, bent on defaming their movement.
Whatever security lapses may have occurred, Sunday’s riot laid bare in shocking fashion the central challenge facing Brazil’s democracy. Unlike other attempts to topple governments across Latin America’s history, the attacks on Sunday were not ordered by a single strongman ruler or a military bent on seizing power, but rather were fueled by a more insidious, deeply rooted threat: mass delusion…
“If there was no Trump, there would be no Bolsonaro in Brazil. And if there was no invasion of the Capitol, there wouldn’t have been the invasion we saw yesterday,” said Guga Chacra, a commentator for Brazil’s largest television network, who lives in New York and tracks politics in both countries. “Bolsonarismo tries to copy Trumpism, and Bolsonaro supporters in Brazil try to copy what Trump supporters do in the United States.”
Trump’s Mini-Me in Brazil
Attribution for the above cartoon: Ed Wexler @EdWexler
Insurrection 2.0
MAGA, Brazilian Style
“A senior judge on Brazil’s supreme court ordered the arrest of two top security officials in the capital on Tuesday, days after backers of ex-president Jair Bolsonaro stormed the congress, presidential palace and supreme court in the apparent hope of overthrowing the government,” the Washington Post reports.
Clean-Up Time in Brazil
Uncle Sam: “Back in My Day… “
Brazilian Trumpism
Authoritarianism Infection
Bolosonaro Thugs in Action
We Know the Answer
Well Said
More on the Insurrection
Same Old Insurrection
Entirely Predictable
All Roads Lead to…
A Country’s Shame
What Really Happened on January 6th
Democracy in Peril
Move Along, Nothing to See Here
Incendiary Rhetoric
Women’s Rights and the Workplace
Click this link for a visual explanation — Mama’s Gotta Work.
“Are the Dems on Your Side?”
The “Show Me” State Needs a New Name
Finally…
How the Internet Will Affect Our Lives — David Bowie in 1999
Rock legend David Bowie is being interviewed by Jeremy Paxman, one of the UK’s best-known television journalists. For 25 years until 2014, Paxman hosted Newsnight on BBC TV. It was a program not unlike Ted Koppel’s Nightline in which major figures from politics, science, journalism, music, film, academia and other walks of life were interviewed by Paxman. You can watch a longer version of this interview on YouTube.
What Bowie says about the internet’s potential is amazingly accurate. He points out that “We’re on the cusp of experiencing something exhilarating and terrifying.” Do watch the entire interview clip.
Here’s the transcript.
Paxman: But what is it specifically about the internet? I mean anybody can say anything and it all adds up to what? It seems to me that there’s no cohesion about it in the way there was something cohesive about the youth revolution in music.
Bowie: Absolutely! Because I think that we, at the time up until at least the mid-70s really felt that we were still living under the… in the guise of a single and absolute created society where there known tryth and know lies. And there was no kind of duplicity and pluralism about the things we believed in. That started to break down rapidly in the 70s and the idea of a duality in the way that we live. There are always two, three, four, five sides to every question. The singularity disappeared and that, I believe, has produced such a medium as the internet which absolutely establishes and shows us that we are living in total fragmentation. I don’t think we’ve even see the tip of the iceberg. I think the potential of what the internet is going to do to society, both good and bad, is unimaginable. I think we’re on the cusp of something exhilarating and terrifying!
Paxman: It’s just a tool, isn’t it?
Bowie: No, it’s not. It’s an alien lifeform.
Paxman: What do you think when you think then…
Bowie: (Laughs) Is there life on Mars? Yes, it’s just landed here.
Paxman: It’s simply a different delivery system there? You’re arguing about something more profound.
Bowie: Oh yeah! I’m talking about the actual content and the state of content is going to be so different to anything we could envisage at the moment where the interplay between the user and the provider will be so in sympatico. It’s going to crush our ideas of what mediums are all about.
Anything Wrong With “American Graffiti?”
Film Director Jean Luc-Godard and Paris 1968