This Week's Sneak Peek

When I originally sketched out this week's cartoon, there weren't any people in the frame. Halfway through inking, I realized that somebody needed to be in the cartoon just to make it more visually interesting.

This corner of the 'toon, anyway.

Off to the Races

If you think the 2020 presidential race has started too early, you would probably have found agreement with most people 100 years ago about the 1920 contest.

But not in the press.

"The Sphinx" by Carey Orr in Chicago Tribune, January 6, 1919

Nor in political circles, where the end of World War I was tailgated by speculation that General John "Black Jack" Pershing might throw his peaked cap into the presidential ring.

"General Pershing's Politics" by Ted Brown in Chicago Daily News, ca. January, 1919

Political cartoonists of the day didn't know whether to peg the popular general as a Democrat or a Republican, which made it difficult for the more partisan among them to decide whether to draw him favorably or critically. But for someone who had been champing at the bit to charge the German lines, Pershing showed no eagerness to cross the line into party politics.

"Won't He Show Some Interest..." by Herbert H. Perry in Sioux City (IA) Journal, ca. February, 1919

Although he and President Wilson were in accord on military policy for the Mexican Punitive Expedition and World War I, Pershing was in fact a Republican. There would be an effort to draft him to accept the Republican presidential nomination. Pershing remained coy throughout, letting it be known that he had no interest in a political campaign but "wouldn't decline to serve" if elected.

He wasn't.

"Harmony!" by Edward Gale in Los Angeles Times, ca. February, 1919

The progressive and conservative wings of the Republican party were largely agreed on the major issues of the day: they opposed Wilson's wartime nationalization of the railroads (not intended as a permanent measure anyway); they opposed those high income taxes on the rich we mentioned last week (favoring high tariffs instead); and most opposed involving the U.S. in international organizations such as Wilson's cherished League of Nations. Opposition on that last front was led by Senators Henry Cabot Lodge of Massachusetts and William Borah of Idaho; although as far as Lodge was concerned, his opposition was more politically strategic than principled.

"The lute without rift" in Gale's cartoon references Alfred Lord Tennyson's "Idylls of the King," in which Vivien uses the phrase as a simile for a tiny disagreement that rots a friendship:

"It is the little rift within the lute

That by and by will make the music mute,

And ever widening slowly silence all."

"O for the Touch of a Vanished Hand..." by William C. Morris for George Matthew Adams Service, ca. February, 1919

Former President Theodore Roosevelt's plans to run for president yet again were spoiled by his death in January, leaving the political class wondering to whom the GOP would turn in 1920. William Morris's cartoon depicts the Republican party gazing forlornly at its fallen hero, dissatisfied with alternative candidates Gen. Leonard Wood (a friend of Roosevelt's and the early favorite), Senators Hiram Johnson, Borah, Lodge, Warren Harding, and, on the floor, former President William Howard Taft.

The caption is another reference to Tennyson: this time, his poem "Break, Break, Break," written to mourn the death of his dear friend and champion, Arthur Hallam.

"...A Shortage of Skilled Chauffeurs" by Jay N. "Ding" Darling" in New York Tribune, February 27, 1919

On the Democratic side, party leaders were ready to move on and replace the incumbent president, but lacked an obvious heir. Nowadays, the incumbent vice president usually has the inside track to win his/her party's nomination when a president retires, but that was not the case any time before World War II.

"An Opportunity that Didn't Materialize" by Carey Orr in Chicago Tribune, ca. January, 1919

Vice President Thomas Marshall had twice proven his usefulness to the Democratic ticket in helping carry Indiana, then a swing state. He was a popular, witty guy; you may have heard of his "What this country needs is a good five-cent cigar" remark (to a senator expounding a rambling vision for America). Or perhaps you've heard his tale of the father of two sons, one who went off to sea and the other who became Vice President, and neither of whom was ever heard from again.

"Now Just Where Is Our Vice-President At?" by W.A. Rogers in New York Herald, ca. January, 1919

In spite of being the first President and Vice President to serve two terms together since 1817-25, Marshall and Wilson did not get along well. Wilson didn't trust Marshall and in a contravention of tradition, went around the Vice President to deal directly with senators.

Whatever policy differences the two might have had, it seems to me that it was more of a matter of personal style: the priggish and scholarly Wilson didn't appreciate the Hoosier's candor and sense of humor. Wilson moved Marshall's office out of the White House ostensibly so that the Vice President would not be bothered by so many visitors. Marshall was, however, left in charge of cabinet meetings while the President spent extended periods of time in Europe negotiating the Paris Peace Accord.

"Made His Pile and Went Broke" by R.O. Evans in Baltimore American, ca. January, 1919

A more likely successor to Woodrow Wilson as of 1919 was his recently resigned Secretary of the Treasury — and Wilson's son-in-law — William McAdoo. His bold policies, notably closing the New York Stock Exchange for four months at the start of World War I and thus preventing European governments from liquidating their stock holdings, turned the U.S. from a debtor nation into the world's leading economic powerhouse. He also was in charge of U.S. railways during the war. He had a shameful record on racial discrimination, but that wasn't going to hinder anyone's presidential aspirations in those days.

"President Wilson Declares He Will Return to Private Life in 1921" by Wm. C. Morris for George Matthew Adams Service, ca. March 1, 1919

On February 28, Wilson announced that he would not run for a third term. Democrats were probably not quite as distressed by his decision as Morris depicts.

Republicans ran against Wilson anyway.

Q Toon: Phoning It In

In a surprise move last week, the Corrupt Trump Administration announced a campaign to decriminalize homosexuality worldwide.

The announcement was particularly curious, given Trump's cozy relationship with some especially bad actors on LGBTQ rights around the world (the U.S. voted with them last year against a U.N. resolution against capital punishment for consensual same-sex activity), and with the antigay right in this country.

True, he did promise at the 2016 Republican National Convention to "do everything in my power to protect our LGBTQ citizens" — he even included the Q in the acronym. But he also included the T, yet has singled out transgender Americans for sustained hostility and discrimination.

Trump's promise then was a swipe at Islam, and, according to former Trump flack Sean Spicer, a bone thrown to persuade one convention delegate to withdraw his name from a "Never Trump" petition:

The final name that needed to be scrubbed from the petition, Spicer writes [in The Briefing: Politics, The Press, and The President], was that of Washington, D.C., delegate Robert Sinners. The book describes an alleged deal between Sinners, who Spicer says told the Manafort team “he wanted Donald Trump to support gay rights,” and senior Trump communications advisor Jason Miller.
“Jason assured Sinners that Trump would be the most ‘inclusive’ candidate the Republican Party ever had,” Spicer writes....
Sinners then reportedly signed “a form that officially removed his name from the petition,” and the deal was done.

The new campaign appears to be the pet project of Richard Grenell, Trump's Ambassador to Germany (who is also in the running to be named Ambassador to the United Nations). Grenell is a disciple of National Security Adviser John Bolton; his name showed up in my blog in 2012 when Mitt Romney dropped him as a foreign policy adviser as a sop to religious right-wingers alarmed that Grenell is openly gay.

Grenell cites the recent execution in Iran of a man accused of being gay as the impetus for the campaign:

Grenell called the hanging “a wake-up call for anyone who supports basic human rights,” in Bild, a leading German newspaper, this month.

“This is not the first time the Iranian regime has put a gay man to death with the usual outrageous claims of prostitution, kidnapping, or even pedophilia. And it sadly won’t be the last time,” Grenell wrote. “Barbaric public executions are all too common in a country where consensual homosexual relationships are criminalized and punishable by flogging and death.”

As much as it is heartening to see our government standing up for LGBTQ rights in Iran, it is hard to imagine the Corrupt Trump Administration doing the same for LGBTQ rights in Saudi Arabia, where LGBTQ relationships are also "criminalized and punishable by flogging and death." After all, Trump could barely scrape up any trace of disappoval of the Saudis' murder of openly heterosexual journalist Jamal Khashoggi.

Nor have we heard much from him about antigay repression in Russia, especially the disappearance, torture and murder of hundreds of LGBTQ Chechens.

As with virtually everything else about life in North Korea, we know precious little about the plight of its LGBTQ citizens; a gay defector last year painted a picture of oppression and forced denial. Homosexuality isn't technically illegal there; but as in any totalitarian country, the government can label anything "contrary to a socialist lifestyle," "obscene," or "decadent" as an excuse to prosecute whomever it wants.

It's a safe bet that safeguarding the rights of LGBTQ Koreans did not come up in conversations between Kim and Trump in Vietnam this week. Rather, the Corrupt Trump Administration's sole concern in LGBTQ rights anywhere is their usefulness as a wedge between western European liberalism and the Iranian theocracy.

Trump has not been able to persuade other signatories to the 2015 Iran nuclear deal to join him in abrogating the agreement, in which Iran promised to limit its nuclear activities and to allow the International Atomic Energy Agency to monitor their compliance, in exchange for the lifting of economic sanctions. Without European cooperation, Trump has no leverage to force some presumably more punitive deal on Iran.

So is he just being clever, calculating that liberal western politicians would rather go back to Square One on Iran's nuclear ambitions (even as nuclear powers India and Pakistan have begun shooting at each other) than to appear antigay? Maybe.

Or maybe not.

News reports this week suggest that, contrary to my cartoon, Vice President Mike Pence is more aware of the administration's brand new policy than President Trump himself is.

A reporter asked Trump about the global initiative, which is being spearheaded by U.S. ambassador to Germany Richard Grenell, the highest ranking openly gay person in the Trump administration.
At first, Trump seemed not to understand the question, asking the reporter to repeat it.
“Say it?” Trump said.
When the reporter referenced the push to decriminalize homosexuality across the globe, Trump professed unawareness and said something about reports in his administration.
“I don’t know which report you’re talking about,” Trump said. “We have many reports.”

This Week's Sneak Peek

No more lonely nights

Will you be alone

All you got to do is

Pick up your telephone 

And dial 634-5789

(That's my number)

634-5789

Making Amends

It's time to explore another example of the U.S. Constitution affecting Americans' everyday lives...

Detail from "The Rectangle" by Frank O. King, in Chicago Tribune, February 16, 1919

But — surprise! I'm not talking about the Eighteenth Amendment today, but the Sixteenth.

"The Coming Serenade" by Sidney Greene in New York Evening Telegram, ca. January, 1919

In a way, the 16th Amendment establishing the federal income tax was necessary for the passage of the 18th, since the federal government was going to need to replace the revenue from taxes levied on alcohol. The federal government had also been heavily reliant on tariffs, which progressives denounced as overburdening lower income groups — since the poor spend a greater percentage of their income than rich people do.

Although tariffs were blamed for inflation, they had the benefit of being a hidden tax, collected a little at a time within the price of goods. The income tax, on the other hand, was initially collected all at once on March 15; payroll deduction wouldn't come around until World War II.

So kwitcherbitchin about how small your refund is this year. That refund is your interest-free loan to Uncle Sam. Your great-great-grandpa not only didn't get a refund, he had better have saved up enough throughout the year to satisfy IRS expectations.

"Guess Who!" by Wm. C. Morris for George Matthew Adams Service, February, 1919

When the federal income tax was first levied in 1913, the tax rate was a modest 1% tax on net personal incomes above $3,000, with a 6% surtax on incomes above $500,000. Since the Liberty Loans had fallen well short of their goals to fund military readiness for and participation in World War I, Congress raised the top income tax rate for 1918 to 77% on income over $1,000,000 (the equivalent of about $17,000,000 today). The effective average rate for the rich, however, was only 15%.

Form 1040 in 1916.

As for the typical filer, single persons with income in 1918 of over $1,000, and married persons with income over $2,000 were required to file income tax returns. That first one or two thousand bucks were exempted from income, and there was a $200 exemption for each dependent in a household. New in 1918 was the complication that if one was married only half of the year, one was limited to only half of the marital exemption.

Interest on the purchase of Liberty Bonds was also exempt, but interest paid on loans for the purchase of those bonds was not deductible. In all, federal tax law took up a few hundred pages, compared to over 72,000 pages nowadays.

"Interment Public" by Cyrus Hungerford in Pittsburgh Sun, ca. March, 1919

If Cy Hungerford's take on taxation hackneyed and shopworn, here's one from Nelson Harding from a totally different point of view from all the other cartoonists on this page.

"Swamped!" by Nelson Harding in Brooklyn Daily Eagle, March 18, 1919

Finally, lets circle back 'round to Frank King, who offered several ideas for repurposing all those soon-to-be unemployed bar rails by installing them in other establishments. They might even, he suggested, turn paying taxes into an enjoyable social activity.

Detail from "The Rectangle" by Frank O. King in Chicago Tribune, March 2, 1919

Because that's why folks went out drinking in those days. So a guy could put one foot up.

Oh, heck, as long as we're back on the subject of Prohibition anyway, here's John McCutcheon anticipating a lot of folks making a run for the border once the United States' taps ran dry.

"When the U.S. Goes Dry" by John McCutcheon in Chicago Tribune, March 10, 1919

Mexico must have been sorely tempted to build a wall to keep out all the drunken gringos.

Q Toon: Please Hold Your Applause Until the End

Thanks to Kevin Hart's having to withdraw as host of this year's Oscars because of some homophobic remarks, the Academy Awards will air this Sunday without a host. Having thus shaved some eight or nine minutes from the 7.5-hour telecast, the Academy floated some other trial balloons to tighten up the program.

One idea was to have some of the more esoteric awards given out during the commercial breaks. That balloon was immediately shot down by sound mixers and film editors upset at the prospect of not being able to tell their children to go to bed on live TV. Which is why they went into show biz in the first place.

Another idea was to perform only two of the five Best Original Song nominees. After loud protest from the musical community, a compromise has been reached and four of the songs will be performed.

There are so many other ways to save time at the XCIst Academy Awards. Why waste all that time having the winners walk up to the stage from their seats in the audience, stopping to shake 20-30 hands along the way? Have all the nominees standing on stage the whole time. The Best Supporting Actor and other early nominees can all take their seats as soon as their winner is announced, and I can assure you that the Best Picture nominees will want to see the proceedings move right along.

And let's limit each broadcast to one single lifetime achievement award, say, the Irving Thalberg Award To The Oldest Person In The Room Without An Oscar Yet.

On second thought, that award would soon go to the orchestra conductor, and there would be nobody to play him offstage once he starts thanking all the cellists, his grade school music teachers, and Otto Lagervall.

Pete Buttigieg

With so many candidates declaring their presidential candidacies for 2020, I'd better start these candidate caricatures early.

To say that South Bend, Indiana Mayor Pete Buttigieg is a long shot to become the 46th President of the United States is to belabor the obvious. The last time a sitting mayor won his party's presidential nomination was in 1812, over two centuries ago (but who's counting?), and that guy lost to James Madison. (Besides, that guy, DeWitt Clinton, was also serving as Lieutenant Governor of New York at the time, and yet his demonstrated skill at multitasking still failed to impress the electorate.)

On the other hand, every other candidate for the 2020 Democratic nomination is a long shot as well, simply by virtue of there being so many of them.

So what does Mayor Buttigieg bring to the party? He's a veteran of the war in Afghanistan, openly gay and married, and at 37 years of age would be the youngest president in U.S. history, succeeding the oldest. He has been mayor of his fairly conservative city since 2012, winning 80% of the vote in his reelection bid. He remains "highly popular" there and a "sure bet" for a third term had he chosen to run, according to the South Bend Tribune.

As he seeks to take the leap from South Bend to the White House, here's his elevator pitch:

"For what it's worth, I have more years of government experience under my belt than the president, and more years of executive experience than the vice president, and more years of military experience than I think anybody to reach that office since George H.W. Bush. So I get that I'm the youngest person in the conversation, but I think experience is one of the main reasons I hope to be taken seriously."

As a veteran, he has practical opinions on American foreign policy and believes that the Corrupt Trump Administration is frittering away our leadership of the free world. As a rust-belt mayor, he has had to deal with the Corrupt Trump Administration's hamfisted tariff policies and the worsening trend of megacorporations pitting municipalities against each other to see which can prostitute itself more than the rest.

"Economic development incentives have their place, but that doesn't mean that you can — and actually I think the example that's most vividly showing this now is what's happening in Wisconsin with Foxconn. Even when you do land a company also often you're landing one if they're that sensitive to incentives that may not be that sticky and may respond to somebody else's incentives in a few short years."

With a crowded field, it's anyone's race to win, and Democrats have developed a preference for fresh new faces in the past 50 years. Hardly anyone outside Georgia had heard of Jimmy Carter when he was just one of a dozen presidential aspirants in 1975; Barack Obama had held political office for only two years at the national level when he launched his campaign in 2007 in a field of eight.

So could Buttigieg go all the way? Stranger things have happened.

One of them is declaring national emergencies as we speak.