Dana 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.
Before the last election, then-governor Larry Hogan said that Maryland had the second most secure voting system in the country. I’ve heard that Colorado is first. Odd that neither one requires an ID to vote, innit? I’ve voted in Maryland since 1988 and I’ve never been asked for an ID. Could it be that Maryland knows something that other states don’t?
Vance and the couch: So I’m supposed to feel guilty that, for once, and unbelievable lie that won’t go away is finally working against the Republicans? Sorry, I’m enjoying it too much. And it’s not only about time, but long overdue.
As long as you don’t feel bad about the lie that is working for them.
I agree with you on this point about Vance/couch. And I also want to thank you for your commentaries. I look forward to them every day.
I’ll believe there’s a resemblance when the Vance Couch Sex joke makes someone call in a bomb threat on a furniture store.
Personally, I think the opposite.
I was annoyed at the prevalence of “couch jokes” until JD flat-out said that the truth doesn’t matter, so I say keep ’em coming.
Just because you’ve learned the source of the infantile couch joke was a known satirist doesn’t mean that Vance isn’t erotically stimulated by them, is it? He’s never denied it, that I’m aware of. That is exactly Trump, Vance and the MAGAGOP’s argument, that the “proof” is whatever you want to believe–the difference being that the couch joke isn’t racist and doesn’t endanger anybody’s life, including Vance’s. This smells like false equivalency to me, even if it’s not something I find funny or even find particularly offensive (consenting furniture not being a real thing). Besides, there are dozens of far more valid criticisms to be made about that moron.
“(I know they’re US citizens, but who’s gonna tell la migra?)”
Ok, gotta jump in here. I was “La Migra” (U.S. Border Patrol) for 23 years. It’s a tough 4.5 month academy before you even start. It was drummed into our heads *repeatedly*, that people from Puerto Rico were US Citizens. If there is any group of law enforcement that knows whose status means they are USC (US Citizens), it’s La Migra.
Fair enough, but if your accent and skin color cause some Trump Trooper to stop you on the street, how do you prove you’re Puerto Rican and not Dominican or Honduran? If the MAGAts get their way, we’re headed for “Show me your papers.”
I’ve always thought that the point of the couch joke was that everyone knew it wasn’t real but it still needled Vance anyway. Nobody believes it, certainly nobody on the political left, while much of the political right seems to believe the pet-eating lies. Another difference is that the pet-eating lies have forced schools to close and gotten children bullied, and are liable to get people hurt or killed, while there have been no reported threats of violence against La-Z-Boy stores.
Ramirez misses the point that buying alcohol, cigarettes, porn, or lottery tickets are not rights endowed to U.S. citizens by the Constitution, whereas voting is. You shouldn’t need an ID to vote any more than you would to print pamphlets (an argument that many would extend to owning firearms, although I would recast that as “you shouldn’t need an ID to join a well-regulated militia”). Besides, as you say, it’s a solution in search of a problem. Why would anyone risk prison to cast a single vote that’s statistically unlikely to make a difference or reward them personally in any way? Too much risk for too little reward.
Of course, you realize that the low gas prices are collusion between Biden and big oil to get Harris elected. /S
Regarding the couch… “If I have to create stories so that the American media actually pays attention to the suffering of the American people, then that’s what I’m going to do.”