Comic Strip of the Day

CSotD: Hitting’em where they are

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Mike Peterson Published: May 30, 2018 1 minute 1 comment

I really like Steve Sack's commentary on the rollback of banking regulations.

If you remember back when post-Depression banking regulations were first eased under Carter and Reagan, there was a lot of talk about how it was okay because they wouldn't make the same mistakes that had been made in the 1920s. 

And we promptly fell into the S&L crisis and then, several years later, the 2008 market crash.

But now we can ease up on the new regulations, because, as Dave Granlund notes, it could never happen again.

The kindest explanation is that the people who promote deregulation have never had a junkie in the family or an abusive spouse or even a kid who brings home a bad report card.

Because the only explanations beyond that are utter stupidity or blatant dishonesty.

Though, if we flip from the editorial page over to the funnies, it does provide an answer to the question in today's Buckets.

We wear ties so that people won't call us on the transparently, obviously phony bullshit we peddle.

Because people in ties are successful and have no reason to ever lie.

Or maybe they do, but the things they lie about are complicated and often have long horizons: A bit of self-serving legislation here doesn't turn into a problem for months, maybe years, and the public's attention span is about two weeks.

Gary Varvel makes a point about gas prices and tax cuts that I don't agree with but which is a good example of how the public ignores the Big Picture.

I agree with that the tax cut can ease the panic at the pumps, certainly. But, when those cuts were proposed, I don't remember anyone saying, "I hope I get to turn mine over to Exxon!"

Gas prices traditionally go up around Memorial Day as production shifts for the tourism season, but gas averaged $2.26 a gallon on Memorial Day 2016, which is to say, the last in the old administration, and this year it's up to $2.97. Gas tanks vary greatly in size, but if your fill-up comes to 14 gallons of gas, it's gonna cost you nearly ten bucks more now than it did then.

Do that once a week and, if you make around $50,000, there goes two-thirds of your tax cut. It's likely more than that, if you're an old guy like the one in this cartoon, though if you're a rich old guy, you won't care.

And if nothing else goes up in price, you're still ahead of the game, as long as you don't do what everybody does, which is to "spend" those savings about a dozen times without keeping track.

But a Guy in a Tie said gas prices are way down and that, combined with the tax cut, they actually increase your spendable income. So it must be true.

As said, I don't agree with the message, but I agree that the cartoon reflects a substantial part of public opinion. 

Which brings us to our …

Juxtaposition of the Day

(Bob Gorrell)

(Pat Bagley)

(John Deering)

And I could list a dozen more, though most of them would either repeat Gorrell's Klan hood typography or would tie Roseanne's fall from grace into Starbuck's afternoon of racial sensitivity training.

One of the themes I've seen on social media has been questioning why everyone is up in arms over this minutia when there are so many more important issues to address.

It's certainly true that there are a mind-numbing avalanche of Roseanne cartoons up there, and, yes, there are issues that matter a great deal more.

But people can grasp this one.

You can draw the most insightful cartoon in the world about Fed rates and feel good about yourself, but the only people who get it will be the people who already knew it. There's a reason Fed rates get about a 20 second voice-over at the end of the newscast while some baby squirrel gets a five-minute segment, and, yes, it's "ratings" but it's about people giving a damn.

Wee Willie Keeler built a Hall of Fame career by hitting'em where they ain't, but cartoonists and politicians have to hit'em there they are, and nobody is anxiously waiting to hear what you've got to say about Fed rates.

People know Roseanne and, because they only have that two-week attention span, they have completely forgotten the time she screamed the National Anthem, grabbed her crotch and spat on the ground.

Though, granted, she didn't drop to one knee while doing it.

She became a symbol of blue collar America, as long as you ignored all the reboots Deering cites, and that she never had the subtlety Bagley suggests would have served her better.

In any case, you won't convert the Deplorables, but you can't. We're hearing from the usual cloth-eared numskulls who honestly don't realize that there is a negative history in referring to African-Americans as apes or monkeys.

I confronted one, because I couldn't believe he was honestly that ignorant, and said that it would be like throwing an insulting "pawnbroker" reference at … what group? 

And he didn't know.

I don't know how you can be that deeply dug into your own little corner, but there they are and thank god they're only a loud, unpleasant fraction.

Most folks are pretty decent, and I think it's worth putting forward small daily issues like this: Decent folks can see why Roseanne had to go, and even understand that ABC lay down with the dogs and got up with the fleas and was foolish to expect any other outcome.

And they're also humane enough to respond to this personal issue, brilliantly captured by Lalo Alcaraz.

It's simpler than Fed rates or banking regulations, and it's touched enough people that everyone in government has had to lie about it.

That seems to be the measuring stick, God help us.

Everything Old Is New Again