CSotD: Conversations in a wind tunnel
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Perils of working too far in advance: Prickly City (AMS) doesn’t seem aware that watching gas prices has become nearly a joyous practice.
Around here, they’ve gone down 30 cents since my last fill-up, which means that, instead of thinking I’d better top off before they go any higher, I’m wringing out every mile in hopes they’ll go even lower before I have to stop.
Granted, they’re not where they were three years ago, but if Biden is why they went up, he must also be why they’re coming down.
But rational debate doesn’t seem to be on the table.
Steve Kelley (Creators) is not the only rightwinger promoting the “I know you are but what am I?” school of political discourse.
People who remember gas prices from three years ago have somehow forgotten hamberders and covfefe and the difficulty Trump had even reading from a teleprompter, not to mention George Washington’s seizure of British airports during the Revolution.
A guy who stammers is easy to mock, however, even when your Chosen One is just three years younger and needs both hands to drink from a glass.
Personal mockery is not commentary. It’s one thing to sweeten a political point with a bit of pie-in-the-face humor, but, at some point, the question becomes “Where’s the beef?”
Though voters don’t seem to care about substance, which is why Dr. Oz and Herschel Walker may be joining MTG, Boebert and Gozar in the halls of Congress.
“A Republic, if you can keep it,” indeed.
Meanwhile, Robert Ariail (AMS) makes the only point about Boris Johnson’s resignation that American cartoonists should making.
We are an insular nation and nobody here has paid much attention to Brexit or any at all to Partygate or the other scandals of Johnson’s administration. What they seem to know about him is that, like our own Fearless Ex-Leader, he has silly hair.
It’s not enough, though, as Ariail notes here, we do know enough to wonder why the Tories were able to cast him out while our Republicans can’t quit their own oddly coiffed, truth-challenged toxic nincompoop.
Which is not to say that you have to be a Brit to comment on his departure. Not only do South Africans keep an eye on the Mother Country, but a close enough eye that Zapiro is commenting on Johnson’s insistence on staying sort-of in power until a new government has been formed, despite the uniformity with which he was jettisoned.
But Morten Morland is cartooning from the scene of things, and is better positioned to make specific comments on the situation.
Cartoonists who can’t name at least three of the figures in this cartoon should probably back off and address things they do understand, instead.
Our ability to export our entertainment as well as our politics, however, makes it possible for an Australian like Cathy Wilcox to at least pick up on some of the more obvious elements of our current abortion debate, particularly those that are truly universal.
My affection for this one being based on my dad’s response when people would comment on the six kids in our family: “Yes, well, we found out what was causing it.”
However, it’s our own responsibility to solve our crises, which brings us to this
Juxtaposition of the Day
Necessary picks up on a popular debating point, which is that, while it takes two to tango, only the girl gets pregnant.
We should not ignore the possibility of paternity suits, in terms of the actual financial burden, though it does create the side effect of constant contact with the father, which might only be chasing him down for payment but could also include joint custody.
An Ohio legislator has introduced a bill that would allow for a one-time payment to offset costs, which would avoid that continuing contact element, and it might just pass, since apparently the puritans who wish to punish people for having sex are also backing it. But that doesn’t involve sharing the loss of opportunities a single, teenage mother faces, while Necessary’s draconian solution is hardly practical.
Not only should we be cautious of mandating surgery on anyone, but vasectomies are not always reversible and it’s not a wise choice for someone expecting one day to have children. Granted, Necessary was offering the solution in jest, but you never know who’s going to fail to get the joke.
Meanwhile, Varvel shows the difficulty of a conversation on the topic by dividing people into “pro-abortion” and “anti-abortion.” Nobody is “pro-abortion,” and, whether that absurd label comes from deliberate hostility or sincere religious blindness, it short-circuits debate.
There is an answer to his question, however, since polls strongly indicate little support for the harsh laws being passed in GOP-held states. Obviously, these no-exception rules are being passed at the insistence of a very small, very loud minority of voters.
The sponsors of this extremist legislation are kept in power by potential voters who don’t show up, either because — poor souls — they don’t think they matter or because — as in 2016 — they’re waiting for a perfect candidate who doesn’t exist and never has.
Which brings us to a more well-balanced
Juxtaposition of the Day #2
This is a much more interesting Juxtaposition, with Sutton attacking pragmatic incrementalism and Bolling going after the blindness that got us here.
Biden’s appeal in 2020 was that of a caretaker presidency where we could regroup after the destructive chaos of the past four years. He offered not only calm but the likelihood that his age would make him a one-term president who could be followed by someone more dynamic.
But that assumed an orderly transition and a GOP that abandoned extremism to form a loyal opposition with which to contend in 2024, and that, obviously, hasn’t happened.
It would be good for Democrats to put simple bills on choice, and guns, and drug prices on the floor and force GOP legislators to show their hands before the mid-terms. I have no idea why they haven’t.
Meanwhile, Bolling is right: What we have done has been a disaster. We need not only to stop, but to reverse, and, not merely by increments.
That’s a debate worth having.
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