Returning to the Philippines

One of the gratifying things about doing this here blog is that every so often, I see spikes in views of an entry I made years ago of R.C. Bowman's cartoons in 1900 for the Minneapolis Tribune about the American occupation of the Philippines. I imagine that there is a history teacher somewhere who references that post in his/her class materials about the Spanish-American War.

So today, let's catch up with the American occupation of the Philippines in 1921.

"It Ought Not to Take Long to Decide" by J.N. "Ding" Darling in Des Moines Register, ca. Jan., 1921

More than two decades after booting the Spanish from the archipelago halfway around the world, the U.S. was still in charge over there. Certain isolationist Republicans and Bryanist Democrats were still uncomfortable with the U.S. having become a colonial power, and with a new isolationist administration about to begin, there was a push to consider letting go of the Philippines. 

Labor interests feared that competition with Filipino labor would depress wages; business interests weren't happy competing with cheaper Philippine sugar and tobacco. The idea of counting all those non-white people as American citizens didn't sit well with a lot of residents of the 48 states, either.

"Uncle, Can't I Go Out and Hunt Wolves?" by Albert Reid for National Republican, ca. Jan., 1921

The argument against it rested on concern over Japanese military build-up. The U.S. and Japan were both beefing up their naval forces, resuming a pre-war rivalry in the Pacific Ocean.

"Each Thinks He Is Being Pursued" by Carey Orr in Chicago Tribune, Jan. 3, 1921

We'll return to that topic next week. Suffice it to say that although there was plenty of war-weariness in this country, there was also plenty of suspicion that our erstwhile ally had designs of Pacific hegemony.

"The New Aesop" by Gale in Los Angeles Times, ca. Jan., 1921

As President, Warren Harding sent a commission to the Philippines to report on whether the Philippines were ready for independence. The commission ultimately decided against letting the Philippines go, citing all the benefits they saw the U.S. as having brought them, from Manila's sewer system and improved mail delivery, to religious liberty and a free press.

"The Philippinos in Danger," unsigned, in Manila Independent, by Jan., 1921

For an example of that free press, we have here a Filipino editorial cartoon that Cartoons Magazine included with the others in today's post. The title may well have been added by the American magazine, since it seems a poor fit with the dialogue. Binibini Philippines quite reasonably asks Uncle Sam to unchain her if he and Japan are going to fight — although it's hard to tell whether Japan-San is playing with his battleships or grabbing at the lady while she isn't looking.

Now, Now, Little Lady

Less than a month after hordes of Trumpanzees stormed the U.S. Capitol, egged on by a defeated President who simply couldn't wrap his mind around the idea that losing an election means you have to leave office, the Republican Party came out firmly in favor of forgetting all about it.

The Arizona GOP has officially censured fellow Republicans Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey, former Sen. Jeff Flake, and Cindy McCain (widow of the party's 2008 presidential nominee) for having the temerity to suggest that Joe Biden won the 2020 election. Oregon's GOP issued a letter claiming that the assault on the Capitol was somehow a "false flag" operation perpetrated by liberals. And all but five U.S. Senate Republicans voted to declare the House's January 13, 2021 vote to impeach Trump unconstitutional, because a week later, Trump wasn't president any more.

Since it is settled law that you can't charge a president with a crime and haul him into court, that leaves only impeachment. Republicans were quick to impeach back when they cornered a Democrat into lying about a blow job; their position back then was that censure simply wouldn't do.

For weeks, Democrats in the minority had pushed for a floor vote — censuring Bill Clinton for his behavior and substituting a censure resolution for impeachment articles by sending the latter back to the House Judiciary Committee. The parliamentary tactic was rejected as non-germane; an appeal vote failed and House Democrats briefly exited the chamber in protest.

So we have the problem today of whether and how to hold a president accountable for his actions when he or she is supposed to be handing the office over to someone else.

I have not found any evidence that our Founding Fathers ever considered the possibility of a future President of the United States refusing to accept the results of an election that he lost. Somehow, the very idea was inconceivable; John Adams and his son were none too happy to turn the presidency over to Thomas Jefferson and Andrew Jackson, respectively, but they did it without filing spurious lawsuits, firing half the Justice Department, or entertaining pillow salesmen's proposals for martial law.

Likewise Martin Van Buren, Millard Fillmore, Grover Cleveland, Benjamin Harrison, Herbert Hoover, Gerald Ford, Jimmy Carter, and George H.W. Bush all dutifully handed over the keys to the Oval Office to the men who defeated their bids for reelection.

Woodrow Wilson, whatever his faults, recognized that if he lost his 1916 reelection bid (which appeared to be the case when he and the morning papers went to bed Election Night), that the four months before Charles Evans Hughes would be sworn in to succeed him could leave the U.S. without solid leadership with World War I raging overseas. Wilson reportedly planned to appoint Hughes Secretary of State, then resign along with Vice President Marshall so that Hughes could take over sooner.

Donald Trump's disgraceful behavior may be an outlier now, but there is no guarantee that it won't become standard procedure in the future.

In fact, there is every indication that, at least as far a the ReTrumplican Party is concerned, that is exactly what will happen.

Q Toon: Welcome to the Job

Signalling a reverse after four years of Trump Health & Human Services appointees who were devoted to okaying religion-based discrimination against transgender persons, President Biden's nominee for Assistant Health Secretary is Dr. Rachel Levine, a transgender person herself.

Pediatrician Dr. Levine has been Pennsylvania's Secretary of Health since 2017, and before that the state's Physician General. In those posts, she has overseen Pennsylvania's response to COVID-19 and the opioid epidemics, and established the state's medical marijuana program. If confirmed as the nation's Assistant Health Secretary, she would be, among other things, the Surgeon General's boss.

A Republican state legislator from western Pennsylvania, Jeff Pyle, responded to Dr. Levine's appointment by posting a derogatory image about her on his Facebook page, sparking immediate backlash. "I had no idea" that the post would be "received as poorly as it was," he mewled after deleting his post.

Breitbart News persistently misgendered and deadnamed Dr. Levine throughout its reporting on her nomination. Over at Fox Noise, Tucker Carlson attacked her appointment and

falsely referred to Levine’s gender as her “sexual orientation or sex life,” saying, “This is like the perfect encapsulation of everything I despise about neoliberalism. You're supposed to be thrilled by this person's sexual orientation or sex life or whatever, her personal life.” He concluded with a rant that Levine’s nomination was “an effort to see how big a middle finger can we wag in the face of the country..."

But at least he got her gender right. You take your progress wherever you can find it these days.

This Week's Sneak Peek

I am completely distraught by Packers Coach Matt LeFleur's decisions to go for a 2-point conversion when he should have let Mason Crosby kick, and to send Mason Crosby out to kick a field goal when only a touchdown would save the game.

So this week's cartoon is kind of dark.

Gulf War I

It's time for the thirty-year-old thread of cartoons at this here blog to go to war with Iraq.

in UW-M Post, Milwaukee, Wis., January 14, 1991

President George H.W. Bush gave Iraqi President Saddam Hussein an ultimatum: withdraw from Kuwait by January 15, or the international coalition Bush had been painstakingly assembling since Iraq annexed the emirate in August would attack. Hussein called Bush's bluff.

in UW-M Post, January 22, 1991

And it was no bluff.

There was no "Khattam Shud military base," by the way. Khattam Shud is the villain in Salman Rushdie's Haroun and the Sea of Stories, which I had recently read. It also translates as "completely finished."

in UW-M Post, January 29, 1991

Not that we could know in January that the war would be over in a matter of weeks. As Hussein and his commanders pulled their army back from the front to defend the capital (and seemed more committed to shelling Israel than hindering U.S. military advances), coalition forces prepared for a possible siege of Baghdad, urban warfare, and the prospect of heavy civilian casualties.

in UW-Parkside Ranger, Kenosha, Wis., January 31, 1991

The retreating Iraqi army burned oilfields in their wake, to the alarm of environmentalists the world over. 

"Don't Look Now" was a follow-up to "Before, During and After," even though my parents may have been the only people to see both cartoons at the time.

in UW-M Post, January 31, 1991

I liked this cartoon so much I drew it twice, once for the Parkside Ranger and a week later for the UW-M Post. The second cartoon is a slight improvement over the first, in which there was only one cot; the Bushes in the later cartoon are also doing more than just standing around in their cell.

Hammerin' Hank

 “God put you here for a reason. And the reason he put you here is not for you to stand still. He put you here to make you understand that ... you gotta do all you can to try and make things better for other people.” — Henry Aaron

Bernie Brewer

I had to come back for just one more.