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Monocle flies off, dickey rolls up with flapping sound
Prepare for the shock of a lifetime as it is revealed the South is a hotbed of racism and stupidity.
Tone-deaf and taxes
I admit I don't know much about economic policy, which I guess is an easy way for opponents of what I think on it to dismiss me easily. But I understand math, and moreso I understand basic logic. So even with my limited economic knowledge, I have for at least ten years now failed to understand why economic conservatives spout all this statistical nonsense about "the rich paying more then their fair share of taxes" and then prepare proof by pretending that payroll taxes don't exist. Payroll taxes, of course, being the second-largest source of government income after individual income tax.
It's more and more frustrating to watch the only point of view in the tax debate being that there are too many taxes, especially on those who actually have the money to pay them with. As I just said, I'm wildly simplistic on economic stuff, which is why I don't really talk about it. But basic knowledge of history is why I get so irritated about how for the last two years we've been told there is a "financial crisis." There is no "financial crisis." There is a "people don't want to pay taxes" crisis.
George Bush started a massive trillion-dollar war. Not only did he not raises taxes to pay for it, he cut them. Obama tried to pass a stimulus bill, and could only do so when half the bill was tax cuts, and the already-weak bill was even weaker. The state of California is about to fire thousands of teachers and government workers and cut huge amounts of aid services because the voters not only don't ever want to raise taxes, but voted for a state law that essentially makes it impossible to ever do so.
This is usually the part of the conversation where someone thinks they are incredibly clever and sure showing me by suggesting in any various levels of sarcasm how I, personally, should satisfy the government need for additional income by personally providing it myself. Occasional abbreviated indication of laughing out loud or rolling on the floor of some type follows. I wish it was more impactful on these people that when they say this I picture them as having just defecated in their own pants, not as a function of a medical condition but because they are literally so stupid that they cannot talk and forget not to shit when not sitting over a toilet at the same time. It's almost funny in its depressing stupidity, becuase it shows the outright hypocrisy of greed- these same people almost ineveitably suggest that instead of raising taxes, we should eliminate government programs, or destroy unions that allow people to have higher salaries- essentially arguing that instead of them personally having to pay more, a large number of other people should make and receive less. This is their definition of "fair."
But sadly, this is a depressingly effective argument, and nearly impregnable against the equally-ineffective concept of increasing tax rates. Which is why we are going nowhere. And I freely admit I have absolutely no idea how to realistically solve this problem. Unrealistically, the answer is already there- we need to increase taxes on a progressive level to rates as they were ten or twenty years ago. But it won't happen. Ever. But that's not really because of my admitted lack of economic expertise; it's because I'm well aware that collectively, we're a nation of fucking idiots.
BLUE RATS!
BLUE RATS BLUE RATS BLUE RATS BLUE RATS BLUE RATS BLUE RATS BLUE RATS BLUE RATS BLUE RATS BLUE RATS BLUE RATS BLUE RATS!
Also something about blue dye healing spinal cord injuries blah blah healing the crippled blah blah tissue repair blah blah blah yadda yadda boon to science whatever I WANT MY BLUE RAT RIGHT NOW.
And we have come full circle
I used to joke with friends that it seems like the only thing more offensive to white people than racism is being accused of it. Apparently there are very stupid people out there who truly believe this.
"Securing the Gates"
I felt safe doing a cartoon about Henry Gates' arrest a week after it happened because... come on. Did you honestly think right-wingers and the media weren't going to take the opportunity to make a week-long tantrum about white people being fed up with black people being angry about racism?
A significant number of people are furious about the existence of a black president to the level of pretending that the seven or eight pieces of evidence showing he's an American don't exist. But the idea that a cop might overreact to an "uppity" black man pissed that he's being asked to prove he lives in his own home? Oh, well that's just going too far.
Buy some crap and join the mailing list.