21 February—A fan of the Garfield comic strip in the Republican-American thanked The Monitor for confirming her belief that elements of panels were used more than once “with additions and subtractions.” Some other cartoonists also do it, but it’s not as obvious. There’s really nothing wrong with the practice, especially since the graphics merely enhance the text. If you take away the art, you’d still have clever text. But it wouldn’t be as much fun to read.

And two particularly percipient readers wrote in to congratulate The Monitor for scooping Mitch McConnell on his own decision, announced just yesterday, to retire from the U.S. Senate next year at the end of his seventh term. That’ll be 42 years sitting on his ass on the people’s payroll.

Most readers won’t recall that Trump v. McConnell a week ago opined that “Mitch isn’t afraid of Trump now. Because he won’t be running again.” Mitch turned 83 yesterday, not at all old for a U.S. Senator, to be sure. Strom Thurmond, for instance, polluted the Senate into his 100^th year. And Charles Grassley is the oldest currently sitting senator at 91.

Even though Sen. McConnell didn’t actually tell The Monitor’s Capitol poop scooper that he planned to retire, it was pretty obvious last year, some time before his refusal to kowtow to Trump, that his health would be a good excuse for him not to run again.

The problem is that McConnell’s replacement is likely to be a Trump ass-kisser. While Kentucky has an anomalous exceptionally popular Democrat governor, it’s a very Republican state. And as of yesterday, Gov. Andy Beshear insisted he wouldn’t be running for the U.S. Senate next year, as did Lt. Gov. Jacqueline Coleman. But things change.

And there’s always hope that because the Trump-Musk GOP, besides screwing the country and screwing up royally, will have pissed off so many voters by the next congressional election, 2026 will see Democrats reclaim both houses. Otherwise the United States and the whole world are doomed . . .