Kevin Drum points out that for all the hysteria about government acting to make sure as many Americans as possible have health care, the only group that is strongly against it is wealthy Republicans.

And it's worth quoting what Drum predicts about what Trump is going to do to fulfill his promise of "something terrific" that will make sure everyone is covered…

Unfortunately, the answer is pretty obvious: he's going to propose a replacement plan that does hardly anything for anyone and then he's going to lie about it — loudly and relentlessly. Congressional Republicans will all join in, and the press will then report that the effect of the replacement plan is "controversial." Because, really, who can say what it does? All those numbers are pretty confusing, after all.

William V Kone wants to know…

What was the shortest turn around time you ever had for a comic? Such as the editor calls you on Monday for a script by Tuesday so the pencils can be done and to the inker on Wednesday for printing Friday?

Hmmm. Well, often I have been given one day to write a comic and then it was someone else's problem to get it drawn by some print deadline. As recounted here, I had to write a Flintstones "Treasury Edition" in two days, which by page count was like writing two regular comics in two days. Soon after, I had to write another Treasury Edition in two days and on that one, I was the editor and getting it drawn was my problem. I wrote about that here.

I should caution any new writers reading this that there are good things and bad things about getting a reputation for being fast. The good things involve the fact that editors or TV producers sometimes come to you in a panic: "Can you possibly write this for us by Tuesday?" The rep can bring you work that you might otherwise not be offered. Also, you usually (not always) work in a situation where the boss or bosses really don't have the option of putting you through endless meetings or outlines or rewrites. They pretty much have to go with whatever you hand in. Sometimes, they're even so desperate that they'll offer you extra bucks or you can demand them.

And at least for me, there's a big difference between getting something written tonight because it has to be submitted for consideration tomorrow, and getting it written tonight because it's being recorded or filmed tomorrow. With the latter, there's a greater sense of exhilaration and the need to get it as right as can be. A lady trapeze artist once told me that she's working with a net, she can't possibly pay as strict attention to every little nuance as when she's without one. I don't like having to write at the last minute but there is something exciting about it.

The downsides? Well, once they know you can do it in one or two nights, they might start thinking that's all they ever need to give you. One time, a lady at ABC called on a Monday and asked me to write a pilot for a Saturday morning cartoon show in a hurry. I asked, "Can I have until next Monday?" She said, "Mark, if we had until next Monday, I would have called you on Friday!" And of course, sometimes you don't do your best work under rush conditions…but the people who later judge that work can't be expected to care that you were a hero for getting it done at all.

I think the biggest crunch I was ever involved in on a comic book was the first issue of Boogeyman, a comic Sergio Aragonés and I did for Dark Horse in 1988. Somehow — it's a long story — the four-issue series was scheduled, the covers of all four were drawn and advertised and there was a looming on-sale date for #1 before anyone had told me. Everyone thought I knew but I didn't.

To make things worse, when I did find out about it, Sergio was off in Europe at some comic art festival and I was about to leave for a week in New York. Once we were both back and able to start on it, we had something like eight days before the first issue should have been delivered to the publisher. There was a little bit o' pad in the schedule so no one was panicked when it took eleven or so. Fortunately, the Señor draws very fast and Stan Sakai (who did the lettering) is speedy and very, very reliable so it got done and printed with no problems. We were fortunate it was a black-and-white comic since Sergio's work takes a long time to color.

I have a Rejected! column coming up shortly about meeting deadlines, why that's usually a good idea and some of the phony reasons creative folks give — to others and themselves — for not meeting them. Thanks for the question, William.

Let's start the week off with a rousing game of Numberwang!

The Investigation Discovery Channel has a new "docu-series" called Is O.J. Innocent? The Missing Evidence. It theorizes — with apparently numerous disclaimers and reminders that this is just a theory — that O.J. Simpson did not commit the famous double murder and that his son Jason did. I'm not sure I want to watch this thing.

I spent way too much of my life and attention on the Simpson trials…and years ago, I spent too much studying the Kennedy Assassination. About the latter, I came to the conclusion that the discussion had passed out of the realm of rational discourse. It was now controlled by people who were hysterical about rejecting The Official Explanation simply because it was The Official Explanation. There was nothing in it for them, in terms of money and/or attention, if the world accepted The Official Explanation. So it had to be off the table even though it was way more likely than any other scenario.

If the O.J. matter hasn't quite reached that stage yet, it's sure getting there fast. I think I need to stop following this stuff.

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I took a sweep of the 'net this morning reading arguments about Donald Trump. Those who support him seem to be most interested in trashing Saturday Night Live as a crappy show that is on its last legs. I have no interest in defending the show's quality, which seems to go up and down but always feels like it's down. I no longer TiVo it or try to watch the whole thing. I skip it and then the next day, I watch the one or two sketches online that are generating buzz.

It's interesting though that some Trump supporters have picked up one of Donald's more adorable traits. If he disagrees with someone about something or just plain doesn't like what they say about him, the list of insults nearly always includes that their business is failing…so to these Trump backers, SNL is a failing show that will be off the air any day now.

Only it won't be. Ratings are stronger than they've been in fifteen years and they weren't failing back then, either. It may be the most secure show on network television…and at the moment, they probably have Donald Trump to thank for that.

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Trump keeps promising "health insurance for everyone" with better care at more affordable prices than Obamacare. He says the plan is almost finished but no one has seen a trace of it. What we have seen are plans that take insurance away from everyone and raise costs.

I'd love to see him make good on his promises but I don't see how that's possible without reversing all sorts of Republican principles about not interfering with private enterprise and not taxing the rich and not giving handouts to the poor. I'm thinking the plan is to just reconfigure so fewer people have health insurance, the ones who do get less for their money, and to denounce anyone who says this isn't much, much better as a liar and a loser.

Alexey Kovalev is apparently a Russian journalist. Having spent some time trying to cover Vladimir Putin, he has some advice to reporters who will be trying to cover Donald Trump. It is not encouraging.

It's true: The Ringling Brothers Circus is shutting down…and I believe I've read that the Big Apple Circus and a few others have folded their tents. I'm sure there are a few others trampling around the country still but traditional circuses are becoming like classic burlesque or medicine shows or other forms that exist as nostalgia or historical pieces, not current entertainments.

I'm sure we can all name many reasons, one being how there's so much high-tech amusement about that the low-tech stuff seems real pedestrian. Another (of course) is that we no longer find trained animals as wonderful as audiences once did. And I'm told that location has something to do with it. There are no longer as many large, undeveloped properties in our cities where a circus could set up for two weeks before moving on to the next town. Cirque du Soleil has to pay a lot for those spots which is one of the reasons their shows are pricey. They're usually terrific but they're pricey.

Also: Classic clown makeup was invented to be seen from a great distance in the cheap seats. I think a lot of people who see it close-up on TV or in movies come to the attitude that most of it is pretty creepy.

And I'll toss one more possible reason into the mix and I'm not sure how much of a factor this might be. Over the years, I've met maybe two dozen performers who worked in actual, for-real, non-Cirque circuses. Maybe it's just the ones I've met but all of them really, really hated the circus. Didn't like the lifestyle, didn't like the pay, didn't like the living conditions, didn't like how hard they worked…

Some said they'd loved it at first because it was new and exciting and in some cases, fulfilling of a dream to join the circus. As time goes on though, a lot of dreams settle down into jobs and often not particularly good ones. A juggler I met once told me that it was fine when he was twenty but later, when he got to thinking he'd like to marry and raise a family, it didn't seem to be the place to do that.

Alas, if the thing you do best is to walk a tightrope or be shot out of a cannon, there aren't a lot of other places you can do those things. Offhand, the only one that comes to mind would be to become a Donald Trump spokesperson. Which can make performers resent their situation more. Circuses are supposed to be happy places and I wonder if unhappy employees take the shine off that.

I haven't been to a circus in a long time…like around the time I was only 1.5 times the height of The World's Smallest Man. I recall liking the music and excitement and some of the acrobats but not most of the animal acts or freakish elements. The clowns struck me as silly, not funny, and the whole place had a really unpleasant odor. Also, I recall an awful lot of manipulation to get us to applaud more and applaud louder…and I kept thinking, "Maybe if you put on a better show, we would."

Since I wasn't going to them anyway, I don't see this as a personal loss. I just hate to think of all those people being put out of work…a tiny, rainbow-painted car pulling up outside the Unemployment Office and a dozen clowns getting out to go in and file for benefits…

Some of you are probably already tired of playing Numberwang. So for a change of pace, let's play Numberwang!

• Ringling Brothers Circus closing down. Apparently, it's because all their clowns quit to accept positions in Trump's cabinet.

Republicans talk about "repeal and replace" with the Affordable Care Act but they've had seven years to present a good replacement and all we've heard from them are a few different partial plans which they themselves can't agree on.

So while they're in a hurry to repeal, it's looking like it'll be a long time — maybe never — before we get the "replace" part. And what of those whose lives depend on decent, affordable health care now? Well, if the Paul Ryans of the world cared in the slightest about them, they'd have a solid replacement in place before they even thought of repeal.

Actually, while Obamacare needs some improvements, it's way better than what we had before and way, way better than nothing. Why do many people think otherwise? Because this stuff is hard to explain and folks like Paul Ryan keep lying about it and quoting bogus statistics.

I'm just going to link you to Ezra Klein on this one. Donald Trump is having a war of words with Congressman John Lewis. There is no way Trump can win such a battle with Congressman Lewis but he can knock his 37% approval rating down another notch or two.

I had the pleasure/honor of meeting Mr. Lewis at Comic-Con last year. He is a man of substance, achievement and courage and he continues to be that.

My first obit of 2017 and it's going to take a while.  That's because Dick Gautier did so much in his career.

You may know him best as the star of the short-lived sitcom, When Things Were Rotten, or as the recurring character of Hymie the Robot on the long-running sitcom, Get Smart.  He was on dozens of other sitcoms as a guest star and sometimes as a regular.  Mr. Terrific was one of the latter.  His was often the first name to come to mind when some producer said, "We need a real good-looking guy who can do comedy."

He was also a stage actor, most notably the original Conrad Birdie in Bye Bye Birdie.  If you wanted to hear a hilarious mix of bitterness and admitted denial, you only had to ask him if he was bothered he didn't get the role in the movie.

He was also a screenwriter and a stand-up comedian and a cartoonist and a very good joke-teller…a very funny man.  Now and then, he even played Superman or Batman in a sketch of a commercial.  (Some folks referred to him as "The guy you get when you can't afford James Garner."  The first time I heard that someone was considering turning Will Eisner's great comic book The Spirit into a TV show, I was told, "They're hoping to get Jim Garner, which means they'll probably end up with Dick Gautier."  Years later when a pilot was finally made, "they" got neither.)

He was serious about his cartooning, by the way.  He even published several "how-to" books about caricatures and the few times I got to really talk one-on-one with him, that's what we talked about.  I always thought he had the talent to be another James Garner but given the choice, would have preferred to be Mort Drucker.

I have, of course, a story.  When we were doing Garfield and Friends, I needed an actor for one episode to play two roles — an unctuous game show host and a snotty French waiter. If this had been live-action, I would have hired Dick for the latter so I booked him to do both voices. When he came in, we talked about cartooning for about three minutes, then he asked about his parts. I told him about the waiter and he went immediately into the perfect attitude and accent. Okay, fine.

Then I told him about the game show host and said, "Chuck Woolery on Love Connection." He nailed it instantly, adding the proper soupçon of oiliness. I was impressed with how instantly he nailed both characters…and then it was into the studio.

This was a seven-minute Garfield cartoon and we recorded those very fast. Most shows would take 30-60 minutes for a seven-minute cartoon. All the actors though were sharp, their first reads were fine and as far as I, the director, was concerned we had everything needed in about thirteen minutes. Dick was not in the other cartoons we were recording that day so I told him he could leave, thanked him for a great job and had my assistant get him to sign the paperwork.

He looked kind of odd but he signed and left without saying much. I suppose if I hadn't been so preoccupied with prepping the next thing we'd record, I would have paid more attention to it.

Twenty minutes later, I got a call from Dick's agent. "What was wrong with Dick?" he asked. I said nothing was wrong with Dick. He was perfect. The agent said, "Well, he's sitting here in my office, concerned. He said you let him do one take, then threw him out. He's sure you hated what he did and got rid of him so you could get someone else to come in and redo his lines."

I said, "Put him on." The agent did and I told Dick, "I'm using what you did. I threw you out because I had everything I needed. You did it right the first time."

He said, "That's such a relief to hear. I was just disappointed because, you know, when I left you, I was out of work again. I was just hoping it would last longer. And besides, I still had three and a half hours on the parking meter outside."

Dick was 85 and he passed last night at an assisted living facility where he'd been for some time, fighting a long illness. Here's an obit from the Hollywood Reporter but if you really want to know about him, read the four-part interview our pal Kliph Nesteroff did with him. Here's Part One and you should be able to find your way to the others from there. He was a very clever, nice man.

A couple of folks have sent me a link to an essay by Adam Gopnick about the beautiful music of America…beautiful music that the Trumps of the world cannot hear.

Mr. Gopnick suggests (somewhat) that the reason Trump can't get any great musicians to play at his Inaugural Gala has something to do with him lacking a certain music in his soul.  There might be something to that.

Others are suggesting it's because entertainers are mostly Liberal and even the ones who are Conservative are afraid of being blacklisted or shunned within their industry.  There might be a little more to that but I would suggest that there are more Conservative folks in The Industry than may seem apparent. Seems to me they aren't more vocal because they just plain don't want to have the conversations.

I have a few friends who still believe that Trump will be far better for America than Hillary would have been.  They just don't want to have to defend the "grab them by the pussy" video (and others) and the lies and insults and all the flip-flops on promises and the increasing likelihood that Trump is going to leave the presidency many billions richer for having exploited it.

It's awkward to argue that someone will be a great leader while at the same time having to admit that in some areas, he's a pretty slimy, rude S.O.B.  One of those friends used to insist that Obama had to release his birth certificate, college records and every other document he had…and if he didn't, that was a prima facie admission that that was something incriminating in those papers.  Okay, so how does one now explain why it's fine and dandy for Trump — a man with a history of crooked business dealings and mounting evidence of Russian money — to withhold the tax records that are commonly made public?

Which brings me to what I think is the main reason they can't get entertainers to appear at his gala. I think people — and this includes many who are really, really glad he got elected — are afraid to gamble on being linked with Trump unless they see a good possibility of a really, really big payoff.

Remember the aforementioned "pussy" tape? There are rumors of other tapes around that are as bad or much worse. And that Russian dossier may be partly or wholly phony but given Trump's reckless "I can do anything and get away with it" attitude, how confident can anyone be that it's not real or that there won't be a similarly-bad real one released next Tuesday?

One of the things that brought Nixon down was when it became known that (a) there were tape recordings of hundreds of hours of private White House conversations and (b) that they'd probably be made public. At that point, lots of prominent Republicans who might have continued as Nixon defenders dove under their desks and stopped backing the man. They all thought, What if I throw all my integrity and effort behind this guy on Tuesday and then on Wednesday, a tape is released showing he ordered the Kennedy assassination? Or even the Watergate break-in or anything clearly illegal?

Some might even have worried the tapes would yield proof that Nixon had interfered with the peace talks to end the Vietnam War in order to boost his election chances. That sure seems to be confirmed now but it was rumored then. Would you put your reputation on the line for that guy?

You might gamble it on Trump if you thought he could make you zillions of dollars, as many do. I don't think you'd risk it to sell a few thousand more CDs. Imagine if you agreed today to appear and then next Monday, someone released one of those rumored tapes from the set of Celebrity Apprentice with Trump using racist epithets. Imagine reporters pounding on your door to ask if you're going to take a stand against that by canceling your appearance. There's a no-win situation.

I'm not saying such tapes actually exist but there have been so many embarrassing revelations about Trump that you can't be all that sure. It's not a gamble most people would take with so little possible upside.

In the early eighties, I got to spend an hour or two with Sammy Davis Jr. Someone else in the room asked him about the famous photos of him hugging Richard Nixon and he said with a note of real shame, "I'll never live that down." A lot of entertainers are refusing to perform at Trump's coronation because, like most people in this country, they didn't want him as president.  But some of them are thrilled he won and they're saying no because they don't want to be linked with a guy who has a 37% approval rating…with a great many easy-to-imagine scenarios out there that could drive it even lower.

And by the way: I really am trying to think less about this stuff, which will lead to writing less about it. But I'm not doing very well at that, am I?

And as we all know, it's customary for the 24,006th post on a blog to be a rousing game of Numberwang! Let's go!

• Oops. Paul Anka dropped out.

• Inaugural Gala show now down to 3-4 Rockettes, "water" ballet by Russian whores, flute-playing unicyclist, trained seal act and Paul Anka.