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Thoughts on last night’s Democratic debate

It’s clear that the Democratic establishment is for Hillary, since they keep scheduling the debates on weekends when the audience will be the smallest. When you’re ahead in the polls, you want less debates — that’s just normal. Why risk anything?

Overall, the debates always help the challengers and hurt the front-runner. I think Bernie and O’Malley did well and probably improved their chances.  (Ha ha! I implied that O’Malley had a chance!)GTY_Martin_omalley_Hillary_Clinton_Bernie_Sanders1_ml_151012_16x9_992

Bernie was a bit too much like a politician in that he had his talking points he wanted to get out and he was going to work them in whenever possible. He also demanded to respond to comments made by Hillary a few times but instead of responding, he made new points. Not impressive there.

Hillary was quite good in some places and really dishonest in others, such as implying that Bernie was against Obamacare when he was one of the Senators writing the damn thing. “He wants to get rid of Obamacare!” she said. No, Hillary, Bernie wants to replace Obamacare with Medicare for All, a much better plan.

Hillary also argued that we need to be brave and fight for what is right while at the same time saying that we can’t fight for Medicare for All because it just wouldn’t pass. “Vote for me and together, we can accomplish mediocre things!”

So much politics is about personality. If Sanders were 20 years younger and looked and talked like George Clooney, he’d be way ahead in the polls.

When asked how they would bring the country together, Hillary’s answer wasn’t too convincing. “The Republicans have hated me since the 90s but they’ll work with me once I am President. Honest.”

“Democrats: We actually believe in science!” – Martin O’Malley.  Now there’s a good campaign slogan.

This is a major difference between the Democratic debate and the Republican debate: None of the Democrats think a good foreign policy is “bomb them all until they glow.”

Overall, it was a much more boring debate than the Republican ones, partially because these guys basically like each other and agree 90% of the time. No matter who gets the nominations, the others will support him or her. Plus they are sane.

 

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Editorial cartoon: Wrong

telnaes

Ann Telnaes

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Let’s send Bill O’Reilly to Ireland!

Fox News loudmouth Bill O’Reilly recently said that if Bernie Sanders gets elected, he’s moving to Ireland.angry-oreilly

I think Bernie should start using that as a campaign slogan.

This is not new, of course. People threaten to leave when they don’t get their way all the time. Remember when Rush Limbaugh said he’d move to Costa Rica if Obamacare was passed? We’re still waiting, Rush. Or — now this may be difficult to accept — were you lying?

Here’s the funniest part about the whole thing: Costa Rica, like every other industrialized nation on the planet, has for years had a national health care plan much more expansive than Obamacare.

And Ireland? Where they have universal health care, gay marriage, free education through college, high taxes on the rich, no death penalty, and many other liberal social programs?  Yeah, that’s a good idea, Bill. Perfect place for you.

Mind you, liberals also say things like “If Trump is elected, I am moving to Canada!” but the difference is this: Liberals want to move to someplace more like the kind of country they want.

Perhaps the conservatives should instead say they are moving to someplace like, I dunno, Saudi Arabia. There, the taxes are low, women have very few rights, religious law rules the land, gay marriage is illegal (as is homosexuality), and the death penalty is handed out frequently and usually through beheading in public. Ah! A conservative’s paradise!

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Editorial cartoon: Closer than appears

Matt Wuerker

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The most corrupt President ever

It’s the most corrupt White House in the history of America — literally over a hundred administration officials indicted and/or convicted. No other president comes close, not even Nixon.

I’m referring to the Reagan years, of course. Selling weapons to our enemy in Iran was just the tip of the iceberg.

What, did you think I meant Obama?

“The most corrupt President ever” is a refrain we hear from the right, but usually when you pin them down, it’s all stuff like “He ignores the Constitution by passing Executive Orders!” (but less than any President since Grover Cleveland) or “He was the cause of Benghazi!” (which was a tragedy but not a conspiracy) or some other variation of “He does things I don’t like.”evilobama7

But just look at practical, comparable data with other Presidents for things like how many members of his administration were indicted and/or convicted? Obama’s administration has been the cleanest since Jimmy Carter’s. Sure, some people have resigned for political and administrative reasons (such as from the IRS “scandal”) but that’s not the same thing as being indicted or convicted of a crime.

(Before someone finds some example of someone Obama’s never even met working in the lower levels of some bureaucracy who was found guilty of something and who could have been hired during the Bush administration: We’re talking about and comparing high-level people personally hired or appointed by the President or his direct staff whose term most likely expires when the President’s term expires.)

EDIT:  Obviously, this was written before Trump

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Editorial cartoon: Trump Kicks Puppy

Clay Bennett

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Militia in the Constitution?

These guys in Oregon insist that they are a militia and thus entitled to their guns because you have to read the 2nd Amendment very strictly.faces-of-the-american-revolution-militia-soldiers---randy-steele

OK, fine. Then let’s read Article II just as strictly: “The President shall be Commander in Chief of the Army and Navy of the United States, and of the Militia of the several States.”

There you go. Simple solution: Obama orders them to surrender. When they don’t, you arrest them and court martial them.

Problem solved!

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David Bowie cartoon tributes

Mike Peters

Darrin Bell

Matt Davies

 

Keith Knight

Berkeley Breathed

bloom

Mike Luckovich

Clay Jones

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Editorial cartoon: For the “people”!

David Horsey

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Whose Land is it, Anyway?

These “patriots” (a/k/a “Vanilla ISIS”) who have taken over a bird sanctuary in Oregon say they are doing so because they want to “give the land back to the people.”

Forget about the silliness of these guys thinking that the words “well-regulated militia” in the 2nd Amendment refers to them — let’s talk about the whole purpose behind their protest.frjlLT4

One of their leaders, while showing his love of America and its freedom of religion by wearing a “Fuck Islam” t-shirt while at the same time telling us that God told him to do this, said that the government is a tyranny, stealing land.

While Native Americans laughed, the rest of us scratched our heads and said “Huh? Isn’t this already federal land, which means by definition that it does belong to the people? Land we all get to use?”

Ha ha! Silly us!  “The people” these guys are referring to are “rich ranchers.” They are upset because we, the people, have asked them, through our laws, to pay to use our land.

Pure tyranny, right? I mean, we can all remember when armed campers took over Yellowstone in protest over admission fees.

When one thinks of tyranny, one immediately thinks of that horrible dictator Teddy Roosevelt, the tyrannical man whose visage adorns Mt. Rushmore, who decided that much of America should belong to Americans and not land developers, mining companies, and ranchers. He started the government policy of setting aside land for everyone to use as public parks, hunting grounds, or other environmental means.

Sharing land? Positively tyrannical.

When I was a kid, I was always pleased to imagine that “U.S.” didn’t just stand for “United States” but that it also stood for “us” — as in “we are all in this together.”  Clearly, these guys think it only stands for them.