Wednesday, June 1, 2016

Can't Get Over The Hump Day


We're pretty much taking the day off today at Hope n' Change.  Oh, we tried to find something worth talking about but we just weren't feeling it (as Paula Jones once shouted before fleeing a weenie-waggling Bill Clinton).

Truthfully, we just can't quite make the shift from the seriousness of Memorial Day to the utter lack of seriousness in what passes for news and governance these days. But the odds are good that we'll be throwing snark around again by Friday.

The comments section is open for business as usual (in case anyone doesn't know where to find the comments, just click on the title of each day's cartoon). Consider this "Open Line Wednesday!"

UPDATE: Well, as long as you've taken the trouble to visit today, here's a cartoon that will probably offend a lot of people (grin).


20 comments:

drjim said...

Hang in there, Stilt....you'll be back in form in no time!

donpaul53 said...

All I can hear is the slow tearing of the fabric of society

Wahoo said...

I can handle the universe's laughter...Hillary's insane cackling not so much.

OpenTheDoor said...

I have been catching up on some science channel programs.
After watching several about the way inventions by engineers down through the ages have benefited our well being and made things thought impossible to be made possible.
Bridges, locomotives, automobiles, flight, hydro-electric dams, electronics, the computer chip, vaccinations, modern medicine, sky scrapers, on and on.
My God, what a bunch of racist programs, all they talk about are dead white men and their genius ability at discovery and problem solving. Wonder who showed the evil white man how to do all this?
Really, shouldn't science be about more feelings, less fact?
They did it to history, Shirley science cannot be far behind.
/sarc

TrickyRicky said...

@OpenTheDoor-They've already done it to science. Witness the East Anglia Climategate emails, the NOAA fudging of data, and the call to prosecute "deniers". We have already jumped that shark.

Stilton Jarlsberg said...

@drjim- Oh, I'm definitely hanging in. I'm just taking a personal day to shake off my disgust with the political and cultural gestalt.

@donpaul53- If the fabric of society is tearing, it's because there's now too much ass in the seat.

@Wahoo- You don't need any special gear to hear Hillary's cackle at a distance, either. In fact, if she wins, I may flush my hearing aids.

@OpenTheDoor- Not all of the programs are about evil white men. I saw one in which George Washington Carver was chewing a mouthful of peanuts, then elbowed a friend in the ribs and said "look what I invented!" and opened his mouth. Truly, we stand on the shoulders of giants.

@TrickyRicky- Right you are. All science is now political science, not to mention politically correct science.

Roger Myers said...

The laughter is probably Hope'N Change readers, or perhaps echoes from Cankles the Hildebeast. Thank God that the poor 4 year old didn't fall into her enclosure!!

Anonymous said...

Doesn't offend me - that man is an ape.

And now the great hope of the LP is this moron?


Someone just shoot me. No wait, I think that is what the Trumpkins will do. Hillary, that lying felon, will wait until she is power at least.

Honestly, what the hell is wrong with the voters out there? So many ignorant buffoons. Trump, Clinton, and now #FeelTheJohnson. Gad.What a pathetic year.

Unknown said...

I will take Trump over any Democrat any election any year. After governors the next best qualified for the white House are successful business people Govt. is big business; and of course pudgy, naive, and eager to please interns. Romney had been my choice for 2008 and 2012; but loser had been permanently labeled to his forehead after blowing a nice led in 2012 with one week to go and then disappearing. McCain was so wishy washy with his famous "My friends you know me and what I stand for" answer for every personal or policy attack thrown in his face. Problem was people want a nice person with some spunk and he showed none. So now we have trump; a wealthy man with a huge ego and not afraid to show it. Anyone wanting the WH for a residence has to have a huge ego; or why give up luxury and privacy for the spotlight 24/7. Obama played down money but he and his wife are both lawyers so jobs were going to come easy and with a satisfying income. Ego there also. Trump can handle domestic issues, he has smart people he knows for advisers, and only needs to pick good foreign affairs advisers and listen to them. He is the only one not pandering to Mexico, China, Russia,ISIS, etc..

John the Econ said...

If @Stilton is suffering burnout, we may be doomed. Not surprised, just doomed.

@Anonymous, it might surprise many here that I actually agree with some of what Bernie says, especially about Wall Street. Now Bernie really doesn't understand how or why (because he's mostly fueled by blind hate) but the middle class is getting screwed by big banking and Wall Street, enabled by the Fed. The low interest rates which have fueled the stock market bubble represents the greatest wealth transfer from the middle class to the wealthy in history. This was (and is) justified in the name of "stimulus", and now the Federal Reserve cannot escape. You and the nation's retirees make nothing on their savings while the rich get access to cheap cash so that they can bid up the price of equities and collectibles.

BTW, I actually attended a Bernie rally last month. Was rather interesting. He was a big hit with the college crowd, promising the millennials everything except free Desitin for their diaper rash. My main reason for going was pure entertainment, and to tell anyone who asked that I was for Bernie because I'd like to retire in my 50's like they do in bankrupt Greece, and then go back to college for free to get degrees in things for no better reason that they interest me and without having to be concerned about making a viable living afterwards. (College will be much more fun this time around because I won't have to be working full-time to pay for it) I'll be grateful to the clueless millennials who will willingly be paying over half their income forever to pay for my early retirement.

As for the rally itself, it wasn't any different than what you'd seen on TV a hundred times by now; Kinda like going to a concert for a band who's records you've listened to for ages; the only difference was that this time it was live.

Trump News:

Trump taunts 'sleazy' media amid questions over donations to veterans

Another battle he wins. After all, if there is anything people are more disgusted with than the current crop of candidates, it's the mainstream media.

Also, the left is trying to make hay out of Trump's charitable endevours. This will also land with a thud and disappear quickly. After all, does anybody want to compare any charity with the sleazy Clinton Foundation?

Hillary Nooze:

Clinton launching national security case against Trump in California speech

Tomorrow, Hillary will be claiming that Trump is a risk to national security. Seriously. This will probably restore @Stilton's mojo for Friday. At least I hope so.

Shonkin said...

I've been reading Day by Day comic strip web sit for a few years. The softcore erotica aside, Chris Muir makes some sense, even though he has been a Trump backer since back when there were some actual conservative Republicans in the race. He has been talking lately about a preference cascade, which bodes ill for the politically correct, the Democrats, and the RINOs.
What is a preference cascade? People frequently hold certain opinions, or at least state them in public, because they think that's how others expect them to feel, or because they are afraid of the dominant group knowing how they really feel. In other words, they are intimidated, shamed, or buffaloed into supporting the PC positions and legislators. When more people hear someone saying what they really think, and they realize that others share their opinions, they start saying what they think. Other intimidated voters hear them, realize they have allies, and start expressing their opinions. It's a cascading effect that grows and grows, until Communism in Europe collapses, or Britons vote for Brexit, or crowds march in Europe opposing the Islamic takeover, or (otherwise smart) people rally for a crypto-Democrat who tells them what they want to hear.
We are in the middle of a preference cascade that will hurt Shrillary and may sweep Trump ("Goldwater minus the brains") into office.

Colby Muenster said...

John the Econ posted,
"Clinton launching national security case against Trump in California speech."

Yeee Haw! Ain't that rich! The old hag's world class ineptitude at just about everything, ESPECIALLY foreign policy certainly makes me want her standing between me and ISIS, Hezbollah, The Taliban, Russia, North Korea, Syria, invaders from South of the border and such. I'm sure the trail of dead people she has left in her wake would agree, if they weren't... um... well you know... dead.

And I love the media trying to make hay of Trump's donations to veteran's organizations. What?! How about looking into Saudi Arabia's donations to freaking Clinton?

I think Shonkin is on to something. Trump very well may have started the cascade. I'm not a huge fan, but if this guy actually gets the frogs to wake up and realize they are being cooked, I'll tolerate his bluster all day long.

Shelly said...

The presstitutes are livid. Usually the Rs just take the abuse and say nothing except "may I have another, sir." They don't know what to make of this orange clown who calls them on their outrageous tactics right to their hypocritical faces. Those same presstitutes who have covered for the Clintons and all their egregious actions for decades and who enshrined the black guy, cannot believe their scrutiny of a Republican for the most minor of issues is being challenged. If nothing else, this is a reason to vote for Trump, no matter how much you might dislike him.

John the Econ said...

It just keeps getting better:

Clinton blasts Trump University, calls GOP rival a 'fraud'

"Hillary Clinton is hammering Donald Trump's namesake set of training programs, calling the school "more evidence that Donald Trump himself is a fraud." "He is trying to scam America the way he scammed all those people at Trump University," the likely Democratic presidential nominee said at an event Wednesday in Newark, New Jersey."

First off, if you went to "Trump University" believing that you were going to anything more substantial than a clown college, you're just as much an idiot as anyone who gives money to the Clinton Foundation believing that you're actually saving starving kids in Africa.

The idea of someone with the personal integrity of a Hillary Clinton admonishing anybody for "scamming America" is dense. Anyone who buys this is truly irony impaired.

"Trump and his employees took advantage of vulnerable Americans encouraging them to max out their credit cards, empty their retirement savings, destroy their financial futures, all while making promises they knew were false from the beginning," she said. "This is just more evidence that Donald Trump himself is a fraud. He is trying to scam America the way he scammed all those people at Trump University."

Sounds more like she'd describing the Progressive agenda for America, which has long since maxed out the nation's credit, has attacked our retirement savings, and has pretty much destroyed our financial futures, all while making promises they knew were false from the beginning. (Like "You can keep your doctor", etc...)

Is Trump a sleazeball? Little doubt. But to take this kind of abuse from a Clinton? Trump, your move.

Anonymous said...

Some serious comment from Lefty Lucy would be welcome anytime soon.

Colby Muenster said...

John the Econ,
Amen and ditto! Hillary making accusations of fraud? Her entire life is a cheap novel of endless lies, drama and snake oil sales.

chef621 said...

Putin has the Clinton emails, maybe he will turn them over to the Donald just for the heck of it.

John the Econ said...

...and I'm certain that @Stilton has already heard this, but for those of you who have not:

"The largest health insurer in Texas wants to raise its rates on individual policies by an average of nearly 60 percent, a new sign that President Barack Obama's overhaul hasn't solved the problem of price spikes.

Obama's "war on the middle class" is going perfectly:

Millions of customers will be shielded from price hikes by government subsidies, which typically cover more than 70 percent of the premiums... But many consumers aren't eligible for the income-based subsidies and get no such protection. That demographic includes business owners, self-employed people and early retirees. Under the law, most Americans are required to have health insurance or risk being fined.

If you're "rich" or have an employer paying for your "Cadillac Plan", this doesn't affect you and you don't care. If you're "poor", you're health care is mostly free and this doesn't affect you and you don't care. But if you're "middle class", not only do you get to pay for everyone else's care, you can't even afford your own. This is by design, to merge the middle & poor classes by entrapping and bleeding the middle class until we're just two classes like Plato envisioned.

Stilton Jarlsberg said...

@Roger Myers- Hillary eats children. Fact.

@Anonymous- I only got as far into the piece on Libertarian Gary Johnson where he was quoted as saying that Libertarians are okay with socialism "as long as it's voluntary."

The problem is, those with the capability to create wealth and contribute the most are almost never voluntarily in favor of socialism. His statement is idiotic on the face of it.

@David Davis- You may well be right. I still don't like Trump any better than before, but I'm gradually approaching the point where I can accept that a metaphorical hand grenade is needed in our nation's capital.

@John the Econ- Oh, I'm not suffering burnout (well, not much). I just had some other drains on my time and nothing felt compelling to write about.

Regarding Trump's attack on the media, I actually enjoyed it. Assuming he's got his facts straight on the donations to veterans' groups, he makes a great point that there's a huge disconnect when reporters are hounding him for an accounting of $6 million while Hillary can't account (and apparently isn't being asked to) for $6 billion which got lost during her tenure at the State Department.

@Shonkin- Chris Muir is a smart and talented guy (and damn, can he draw wimmins). The whole concept of a preference cascade rings true to me and I think we're seeing a dramatic example. The question is whether or not the new zeitgeist of what's considered acceptable is really where we want to go. And I've got no easy answer; the pendulum needs to swing away from political correctness and progressive dogma, and perhaps there's no way to accomplish that without initial overcorrection.

@Colby Muenster- Hearing Hillary lecture anyone else about national security makes my mind reel. I'll say this for the vile old bat - she doesn't lack chutzpah.

@Shelly- As I said above, I'm fine with Trump having an openly hostile relationship with the press. If they want to try to bring him down with facts instead of innuendo, they'll have to do something they haven't done in a long time: their jobs.

@John the Econ- Speaking of frauds and scams, which Hillary really shouldn't do, last time I looked the Clinton Global Initiative was only giving 10¢ on the donated dollar to the AIDS-ridden children of Africa, while keeping the rest for luxurious perks for the Clintons and their staffers.

@Albatross- I complete agree. Plus, she's already pissed that Busty Ross got an appearance and she hasn't had an equal time reply.

@Colby Muenster- Indeed, Hillary should open her own "university" to teach us her amazing skills at investing in cattle futures.

@chef621- Oh, how I'd love for that to be true. But I think the greater likelihood is that Putin DOES have the emails but will hold them to use as leverage if Hillary becomes president.

@John the Econ- Yes, I was painfully aware of this. As I've documented all too thoroughly here, Obamacare has pretty much been a costly nightmare for my family. So now we're looking at jumping into the baffling waters of Medicare for Mrs. Jarlsberg in the next few months, while I'll simultaneously be contending with a nearly 60% price hike for my own private health insurance. And mind you, Obamacare WANTS me on Medicaid because I don't have any significant active income; the only way I can buy insurance is to take enough money out of my retirement account (which the IRS sees as income) to get the privilege of overpaying for medical care.

And say, howzabout the Insurance Co-op in Ohio biting the dust, like so many before it? Why are there gorillas in the news and not that?!

John the Econ said...

"And say, howzabout the Insurance Co-op in Ohio biting the dust, like so many before it? Why are there gorillas in the news and not that?!"

Because a gorilla getting shot at a zoo is unusual and unique, whereas insurance companies throwing in the towel in the face of ObamaCare is now regular and passe.