Toon & text by John Auchter
My wife and I were channel surfing recently and came upon the Blues Brothers movie. It was at the scene where Jake and Elwood are stuck in traffic because of a demonstration. A cop walks by:
Jake: Hey, what’s going on?
Policeman: Those bums won their court case, so they’re marching today.
Jake: What bums?
Policeman: The %$#@! Nazi party.
Elwood: Illinois Nazis.
Jake: I hate Illinois Nazis!
My wife said, “Remember when that was funny? When Nazis were universally reviled and there was no ‘other side’?” Ah, the good ol’ days, back when the bad guys in comedies were obvious: The Illinois Nazis, the sadistic leader of the rival frat house, the rich tycoon brothers with no sense of morality. Sure, the heroes were flawed (and almost always terribly misogynistic), but at least it was unambiguous who you were supposed to hate.
Thus was my inspiration for this week’s cartoon. After reading story after story about the tax bill the US House passed (and then actually reading parts of the bill itself), it just seems obvious who the bad guys are. It’s not the poor and middle class scraping to get by and provide their children with a decent education. It’s not the grad students seeking to earn advanced degrees by teaching and researching in fields that will return value manyfold to the American economy. It’s not anybody that the trickle-down economics are supposed to trickle down to.
I’m not going to tell you who it is. If you can’t figure it out for yourselves, go watch the 1983 film Trading Places and then get back with me.
John Auchter draws cartoons. Lots and lots of them. You can find them at his incredibly popular website auchtoon.com. You can also find his stuff on Michigan Public Radio’s website under Opinion.
And their plan of having the underlings fighting about immigrants, guns, abortion, climate change, health insurance and gays while they rob us blind is working perfectly.
Your right on John. If you cut taxes for the rich and corporations its got to come from somewhere else and that would be the middle class. They won’t make the cuts in spending, like corporate welfare or the ag. industry, that would be hurting the republican base. Better yet lets just add to the deficit and let the future generation pay for it.
Saw the Blues Brothers again yesterday. Thought the same. Wondered how they got this veneer of respectability for their agenda.
Trickle down has never and will never work. The rich get richer is the theme of this tax cut.
Ah the Nazi reference BS….. The language of brain dead, liberal, little b#*ches everywhere.
I laugh my arse off at you John Auchter. You are beyond pathetic and generally worthless.
Why are you so hateful?
I generally don’t respond here in the comments because I figure I’ve already had my turn with the cartoon and the article. If you disagree, that’s fine — it’s your turn. If you seem to have missed my point, well, you felt passionately enough to express yourself, so that’s fine, too. Even if you shanghai the thread and take it off to topics not remotely related to what I had started, again, I respect your passion.
But this personal attack business — that’s some pretty weak sauce. It’s plainly mean-spirited and contributes nothing. Please consider: I stand behind my words with my full name. Can you say the same? And would you want to?
It’s a sign of emotional and mental instability. It’s probably not their fault, but sometimes it’s hard to remember that.
Like Working Dad says most liberals are pathetic and somewhat useless. They are useful in that they are useful idiots.
The liberal democrats over the past 30 years or so have been screaming that we need to tax the 1 pecenters of the population that are rich at a higher tax rate. Then when obamma was in office he changed it from the 1 percenters to the 2 percenters need to more heavily taxed.
Then liberals over the years like slick willey, hilliary, al gore, m. bloomberg, obamma(yes, obamma is now a 2 percente), nancy pelosi, diane fienstein along with a lot of liberals who are in the 2 percenter class.
They tell the mindless useful idiots that taxes need to raised on the 2 percenters, what does the useful idiots do? They clap and cheer on the democratic liberal 2 percenters.
The useful idiots fail and cannot comprehend that the 2 percenters are telling them a lie. They are going to say one thing and tax the middle class even more.
And you think the republican tax plan is not going to increase the middle class taxes? I have some property to sell on the moon, you interested?
Teddy lubba you are still a useful idiot.
If the liberal democrats in CONgress makes the promises that I listed in my comment.
The 2 percenters say/imply that they want to raise taxes on the 2 percenters, then the liberals in CONgress do not raise the tax rates on themselves but, the do raise the taxes on the middle class and the liberal useful idiots go along with it and do not make a fuss about it.
Let the republicans do the wrong thing by raising taxes on the middle class and the useful idiots go ballistic. Completely forgetting the republicans are acting like democrats.
NO MATTER which political party is in power( they have the most members in CONgress) both parties are going to gouge the taxpayer one way or another.
Ok lame brain, did I mention anything about the Dems. I wrote that anytime taxes are cut for the rich or corporate that it has to be made up somewhere and that’s the middle class. Learn to read and comprehend. I know that as the trumpster that you are, you really believe his bull about cutting taxes for the middle class. How many lies does it take before you catch on?
The bull came from and still comes from those 2 percenters of the democratic party that says they are going to raise the taxes of the 2 percenters, which they are a part of, and cut taxes on the middle class.
They never raise the taxes on the 2 percenters, but they somehow manage a way to raise the taxes on the middle class.
How many lies does it take before you catch on?
The democrats do not care for you useful idiots. They know that they can say a lot of lovely, beautiful words that sound like music to your ears.
You do not have the ability to comprehend that the liberal rich 2 percenters of the democratic party are playing you and lot of others who listen to their siren song and think that it is the most amazing thing that you have every heard.
I cannot write a letter to a republican rep in CONgress because we have some well to do democrats, that not quite 2 percenters but they are getting there, in office. Only in CONgress it seems that a person go into office with very little in the way of assets, then after a few years retire with a personal wealth in the 7 figures or more. This happens with both political parties.
Bernie sanders is one, when he was elected to office years ago, he did not own his own house, I do believe. Now he owns 3 fairly expensive houses in 3 different locations. No, he does not rent out 2 of them. He stays at one of them at a time, depending on the time of the year it is.
Jim III the republicans are trying to push through a tax bill right now that does not help you. Instead of calling them out, you are rambling on and on about Democrats and “2 percenters”. This is why you are a useful idiot to the republican party. They thank you for your services in keeping everyone distracted trying to figure out what the heck is wrong with you.
Jim III, if you ever owned a business you would know that most of your tax write offs are from the forms for your business. By the time you get to the 1099 your income as been reduced so much that the tax rate is a joke. Where the elite get their break is from the crap they call write offs to do business. Tax laws have been changed in their favor for years. They don’t pay close to what they should in tax because of tax laws reducing their true income. Who is the party for business, Republicans. Granted, the Democrats are no angels, but the Republicans are the devils. The ones who get shafted are those who work for a paycheck and are unable to write off anything until the 1099, and now the new Republican tax law wants to eliminate more of those deductions.
I own a business, I know about most of the tax write offs you speak of. I do not like the fact that I have top hire a CPA to do my taxes. Even CPA’s have to attend/classes seminars in a vain effort to try to keep up with all the changes to the tax laws that happen each year.
It used to be that I could have my end of year business income reports into my accountant around January 15th. We would sit down and take an almost 2 hours to fill out the various tax forms.
When slick willey was in office the dates to be able to start filing kept on getting later in the month. It stayed somewhat stable under bush 2. Then obamma came into office.
It is now closer to nearly February before all the changes are in so that I can get my taxes filed to see how much I have to pay into the system. While obamma was in office it became more of a nightmare. The only thing that is good so far is that the filing is now done electronically.
Even using a computer to fill the forms in I still have to spend nearly an hour of time go over the forms with my CPA.
We fill out the forms, then someone else in the office double checks to make sure that we did it correctly.
Your level in intelligence suggests that you think that all 2 percenters are republican. Bill Gates is worth somewhere over 12 billion dollars/ He is liberal. Liberal 2 percenters have also had a say in how the tax code has been written over the years. The democrats in CONgress have also had their hand in the tax cookie jar writing laws to get tax deductions for the liberal 2 percenters.
At one time there were more democratic 2 percenters in CONgress than there were republican 2 percenters. There has been no reports lately of how many there are now of either party in congress.
Right now, if it happens, the republicans may eliminate the tax law that allows the national football league to claim that they are tax exempt. Thereby forcing the LIBERAL nfl owners to pay for their own stadiums, not us taxpayers. I do not know which political party wrote that piece of legislation that granted the NFL tax exempt status, but the democrats did nothing to eliminate that law. The republicans in CONgress have started the process to eliminate that status for the NFL.
Now we will see if they actually do that.
You actually think Bill Gates is a “2 percenter” worth a mere 12 million, when he is actually the wealthiest man in the world worth more than triple that, which makes him a 1 percentor. You have no idea what you are talking about. You litally just make this BS up as you go in effort to justify your stupidity and keep the country divided.
From all your rambling, I have to conclude that you are all in favor of giving more tax breaks to the 1 percent and screwing the middle class, because THAT is the discussion at THIS moment. Your ramblng about 2 percenters and liberals is just deflection because you have no defense on this current issue.
Are you even capable of reading this and comprehending what I am saying? I don’t think you are and I know you are going to prove me right by te end of the day with more rambling of off topic issues.
12 billion not 12 million.
Let’s add this also Fred, with all the money Bill Gates gives to charity we do not need to doubt his paying a fair share in taxes. I still want to see Trumps tax return that he promised once elected to release.
fred and teddy lubba, Here is parts of the tax plan that the republicans are trying to pass. I cannot say that this plan will pass. The democrats are against most of these plans.
Regarding the middle class, democrats fail to mention that under the new House Plan, the standardized deduction would almost double from$6350 to over $12,000 for single filers, and $12,000 to $24,000 for married couples filing jointly. That means the number of Americans who claim the standard deduction would likely go from 60 percent of filers to 90 percent.
Critics also fail to mention that the tax credit per child would increase from $1,000 to $1,600.
There is more in this article I have read. I might add the rest of the article later. I do not want to make too long, because most liberals have a short attention span and it seems that too much information too soon shuts down their ability to comprehend what has been written.
What do you need the Democrats for? The Republicans control the House and Senate. If they can’t pass this bill on their own, something is seriously wrong with it. Look at the CBO report on it.
Now how are we going to pay for all those cuts? By cutting social security? medicaid? Medicare? Education? EPA?
All those increases mean jack to the poor and middle class when it comes to paying medical and education costs when there is no longer any assistance for them. This plan is designed to make the poor and middle class poorer and the wealthiest more wealthy.
Do you see the pattern? Only those with a lot of money will benefit from this plan. Everyone else…screw ’em.
If the democrats were the ones presenting this plan and extolling its virtues, you and teddy lubba would be behind it 100%. If the republicans opposed it the liberals would figure out some way to try to make the republicans look bad.
No I would not be behind and it and the Democrats are not presenting it. The Republicans are and YOU are behind it.
I just came across an interesting article. I am going to post this section right here. Everyone should read this and ask themselves; does this sound like someone we know of?
The narcissistic implosion/explosion
As the media and former members continued to hound and attack Jim Jones, he seemed to feel that his life was spiraling out of control and that he was losing his influence and grip on the situation in San Francisco. During this period of time in the 1970s, Jim Jones’ behavior was described by those around him as erratic and heavily laden with fear. These are telltale signs of an impending narcissistic implosion and explosion. Most normal people when faced with failure or public attacks may not want to accept it, but they do. Most normal people when faced with failure and the loss of friends and family will engage in self-examination and attempt to change their behavior or re-focus their life. Most normal people will not blame others for 100% of their failures and would not plan revenge against those involved in pointing out the failure. By contrast, narcissists never blame themselves or their own actions for the failures in their lives. Narcissists blame other people, invisible enemies, amorphous threats, the jealousy and judgment of others for their failures. The more narcissists fail due to lack of skill or the exposure of their faults publicly, the more potentially angry, vengeful and violent they become. As mentioned in the previous essay on NPD and Jim Jones (Part III), narcissists harbor resentments towards all those who embarrass or harm them and make plans for revenge against those people. Plans that many of them carry out with intense anger and hatred for those they seek to harm. In the face of failure, it is kill or be killed to many narcissists and if you couple this homicidal anger with the deterioration of the body and mind due to aging, the later stages of NPD can be very dangerous and damaging to society.
I mean someone other than Jim Jones.
I guess I should include the source http://jonestown.sdsu.edu/?page_id=40230