More Accurate Than Nostradamus

Cartoonists of both the comic strip and editorial variety often make more accurate predictions of what lies ahead than those made by the celebrated French astrologer, physician, and reputed seer of the16th Century.

Walt Kelley's famous Pogo comic strip, published on Earth Day in 1971, foreshadowed the Great Pacific Garbage Patch and the other man-made, ecological messes whic now befoul the planet.

Kelly, of course, had access to news reports on the growing trash problem, so his prescience was informed. Other cartoonists, however, had no idea that their cartoons would one day accurately presage the personality, behavior, and world view of the man-child who would become the 45th President of the United States.

Bill Watterson is one such cartoonist. His Calvin and Hobbes strip ran from 1985 to1995. Six-year-old Calvin can easily be viewed as a young Donald Trump. 

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In contrast, Jeff Stahler is a currently active cartoonist, but today's Moderately Confused offering suggests that he may have been inspired by a video clip of an earlier Trump speech. 

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But the prophecy prize goes to H. L. Mencken. David Horsey of the Los Angeles Times, who on November 9, 2016, added artwork and commentary to a 1920 Mancken quote, which laid bare the truth about Trump and his supporters before Trump was even born.

Here's the cartoon. To read what David Horsey had to say, click the link below the image.

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No News is NOT Good News

I wrote the commentary below in 2005 as part of a conversation about how the press covers - or rather fails to cover - important issues facing our country.

I believe my assessment is as accurate today as it was then, with only a three-word revision needed. In the last sentence above my signature, "a Texas accent" becomes "an orange toupee." 😎

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You ask, "Why on earth would the AP put out that the issues have been widely debated?" Allow me to offer an answer.

The AP, in lockstep with every other mainstream "news" organization, has succumbed to the notion that its job is to report how people "feel" about issues rather than to report the facts behind those issues, with the understanding that a well-informed populace will use those facts to arrive at intelligent conclusions and to make well-informed decisions.

Within this imbecilic news paradigm, investigative journalism consists entirely of telling us how many people disagree on either side of a given issue. That's very much like reporting on the number of angels capable of dancing on the head of a pin and just as useful. The leaders of such sadly uninformed society, of course, are those who convince a dumbed-down public that they speak with the authority of God.

Once this has been achieved, all who disagree become irrelevant because by their very disagreement they prove that they lack the faith necessary to do what's "right."

Why on earth would the AP put out such a statement? A better question would be, is it any wonder that a smirking clown with a Texas accent sits in the White House?

George A. Denino

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The one thing that doesn't abide by majority rule is a person's conscience.
--Harper Lee, writer (1926- ) "To Kill a Mockingbird"