Cartoons Monday!

TSA on ICE, Trump backs down on Iran, Joan Baez, Jesse Welles and The Kinks, more.

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Ben Meiselas: “Trump putting masked agents to terrorize people in front of airports is the precursor to polling locations.”

Trump last night: “PEACE THROUGH STRENGTH, TO PUT IT MILDLY!!!”

This morning as stock market falls he postpones massive attack on Iran’s infrastructure. Ron Filipkowski:

Market manipulation. The timing of Trump threats (usually Friday nights) then backing down (usually early Monday mornings) on war and tariffs tell you all you need to know.

Lucian K. Truscott IV:

Here is what Donald Trump told the press about Kharg Island on Friday as he prepared to fly to his resort in Palm Beach to play golf this weekend. “We can take out the island anytime we want. I call it the little island that sits there so totally unprotected.”

This is an outrageous lie. Iran has not left the island and port from which it ships 90 percent of its oil unprotected.

And then he said this: “We’ve taken out everything but the pipes. We left the pipes because to rebuild the pipes would take years for them.” Trump was standing there on the grassy lawn of the White House wearing a suit sounding like he was talking about a construction project, not his war.

It’s not boots on the ground. It’s blood on the ground. At the whim of one man, the blood of thousands has already been spilled. No matter who it belongs to, all blood is precious.

Anyone who speaks casually about the death and destruction and madness of war is a despicable monster.

Paul Krugman this morning: “To say that insider trading might be driving U.S. policy would have been outrageous. in the past. Who thinks that that’s beyond the realm of possibility now?”

While Rome burns, fiddlers play. “Tokenmaxxing”: Tech employees compete on leaderboards to show how much A.I. they’re using. They’re racking up exorbitant bills in the process.

Trump this morning on his former national security adviser Joe Kent, who quit in protest over Iran war: "I'm not a fan of the guy ... His wife was killed. He remarried fairly quickly." Note: Trump had sex with Stormy Daniels four months after Melania gave birth.

Music Picks

Joan Baez joined Jesse Welles for a singing of his “No Kings” in Berkeley on Saturday night. Large crowd seemed to appreciate it.

Meanwhile, a bit of a flap across the pond after Moby in The Guardian for some reason commented on the Kinks Klassic “Lola,” calling the lyrics “gross and transphobic. I like their early music, but I was really taken aback at how unevolved the lyrics are.”

Dave Davies, lead guitarist and brother of the song’s writer, the eternal Ray, rose in defense and even posted a response by afriend of the band, the famous trans singer/actress Jayne County, who wrote:

When I heard the song I was both thrilled and amazed that the Kinks would be singing a song about a trans person and wondered if anyone else had picked up on it! Who was cool or hip enough to realize what The Kinks we’re singing about! Lola will always be one of those songs that for me ‘broke the ice’ so to speak! A song that breaks down barriers and brings a used to be, hush, hush subject to the forefront and makes it sound perfectly natural to be singing a song about a ‘girl’ named Lola! I don’t think the radio stations picked up on the subject matter but a lot of the fans did and that’s what really matters... Being Trans myself this will always be a very special song to me.

Ray singing it in 1970, the year before we met:

From Tunes to Toons

Ann Telnaes

Brodner:

Wuerker:

Tjerd Royaards:

Goris:

Dering:

Sheneman:

Photo Finish

From my camera to you, “Bald Eagle Under the Bridge.”