CSotD: The Art of Not Getting It
Skip to commentsDana Summers (Tribune) shows what happens when you only watch Fox News but not, for instance, when they carry the debate between Trump and Harris, in which she explained her position on Ukraine, as she has several other times.
To which I would add that, if she has repeated her stump speech often enough that he’s making fun of her for it, he shouldn’t need to put a K on her so his readers would know who she is.
There’s a lot of just not getting it going around, and I don’t think much of it is unintentional.
For instance, Steve Kelley (Creators) pretends not to understand DEI, because what diversity means is that, if several cars are safe and reliable, get great mileage and have plenty of cargo space, you might want to pick the one that doesn’t look just like all the others.
Henry Ford said “Any customer can have a car painted any color that he wants so long as it is black.”
Kind of the opposite of how Kelley’s dealer works.
Juxtaposition of the Day
Phil Hands is pleased to see inflation finally down, but Daniel Boris points out that “Bidenomics” has been established as a campaign issue and the GOP isn’t letting it go no matter how much good news is coming out of the Fed and Wall Street.
Prices are still up, but prices aren’t the economy and they will adjust as the larger elements make themselves felt. Something I’ve seen on social media is the change in prices at fast food places, but I haven’t seen any charts of the change in wages at fast food places, and while that doesn’t explain everything, it is certainly a factor.
As is the voluntary nature of eating fast food. You don’t like the prices? Make a sandwich instead, and have an apple in place of those French fries.
I got a fill-up two days ago for $2.95 a gallon. Dave Granlund notes the dark side of lower gas prices, however, because high gas prices are indeed a motivator for people to buy more economic vehicles. My little Honda gets something over 30 mpg and, besides, it only holds a little more than eight gallons, so a fill-up doesn’t break the bank.
It’s also closing in on 10 years old and I have no intention of getting back into making payments, but, if I did, it would be for a hybrid, and I’d still want to stick to something of a sensible size, though that makes it hard to see around the bulbous monsters everybody else seems eager to own.
But grumpy old man ranting aside, I agree with Granlund that one good thing about high gas prices is the disincentive to drive those beasts. Most other countries seem to have high gas prices and small cars, but that’s not the American Way.
Juxtaposition of the Day #2
Voter fraud laws are, as Anderson and Handelsman point out, largely a solution in search of a problem, and if conservatives were truly opposed to wasteful spending, they’d take note of the millions of dollars wasted seeking fraud in the wake of Trump’s loss in 2020.
That’s assuming they might also be appalled by the law-breaking that went with it. Mistakenly thinking that having served time meant your right to vote was restored can cause illegal voting, but trying to pressure Georgia officials into creating thousands of fake votes, or inciting a riot to overturn the results, or setting up fraudulent electors, is apparently, to them, just political strategizing.
Ramirez calls for IDs in order to vote, which is the law in all but 15 states. It is theoretically sensible, but it poses a problem for the poor and elderly who may not have IDs or live near places where non-driver IDs can be obtained. And, no, there’s no bus you can take to the next city in a lot of rural communities.
When I lived in New York State, I was required to sign a ledger to vote and officials could see my signature from previous years on the lines above. That’s not the same as showing an ID, but it functions the same way after the first time you vote.
Plus, you’ll find that neighbors generally know each other anyway, though that assumes you aren’t shutting down polling places. I worked at the 2020 elections and saw a lot of people I knew, though I’m not native to this city or even to New Hampshire.
The other thing I encountered in NY was that the church hosting the polling place would have a bake sale going on, and I’ll bet you could get a drink of water while you waited, but we rarely had to wait long because there were so many neighborhood polling places.
Juxtaposition of the Day #3
The racist lies about Haitians in Springfield have been disproven, but that hasn’t stopped Trump and Vance from continuing to tell them, and I don’t suppose it has stopped bigots and morons and Fox viewers (but I repeat myself) from believing them.
Ohio Governor Mike Dewine had a guest column in the NY Times (gift link) in which he said the stories were lies and were unfair and were hurting Springfield but he still supports Trump and Vance, which tells you everything you need to know about the Republican Party and justifies Stahler’s cartoon.
As for Bagley’s cartoon, not only are the Haitians in Springfield legal migrants helping the local economy by filling jobs others didn’t want, but Trump’s plan to build concentration camps and deport not just illegal migrants but — as Paul Noth suggests — naturalized citizens as well is clearly an assault on our workforce as well as our sense of decency.
Noth’s cartoon also suggests that Trump’s forces would round up people who would then have to prove their right to be in the country, which sounds a lot like guilty until proven innocent.
Though, BTW, I’d suggest that if, like Chris Britt (Creators) and some other cartoonists, you’re still telling Vance/couch jokes, you can’t fault Trump and Vance for lying about Haitians.
Fred
George Paczolt
Mike Peterson (admin)
Sue
Joseph Nebus
AJ
Mike Tiefenbacher
Carl Pietrantonio
Mike Peterson
Brian Fies
Robert Osterman
Steven
Paul Berge