Doonesbury by Garry Trudeau for April 02, 2010

Before anybody goes off on right-wingers calling Obama a Nazi, only some fringe elements are crazy enough to call him that. Sheesh! This cartoon is parodying the tea party movement so don’t anyone get your shorts in a wad. I agree with part of what the tea party movement is doing. I don’t go along with calling Obama a Nazi. Chicago thug, sure, but not a Nazi.

Chicago thug? Satire, right?

On the Hitler scorecard, Obama gets a minus-one for refraining to put military hardware in Poland. That’s very unlike Hitler.

Guess who gets a plus-one for having a well-publicized undisclosed location?

But seriously folks…

Anyone who doesn’t understand the Tea Partiers - Trudeau included - should read this survey:

http://winstongroup.net/2010/04/01/behind-the-headlines-whats-driving-the-tea-party-movement/

It also helps to get out and actually meet some Tea Partiers.

“Parodying” the teabaggers?

Sorry, I deal with all too many of them. Almost to a man, they don’t have any positions beyond “WE HATE TAXES” and “OBAMA SUCKS.” They’re not FOR a single bleeep thing.

However much they scream about their pocketbooks now, they were quiet as a tomb when Bush and his GOP cronies racked up three times as much government debt in eight years than the US had managed the previous 200. I’m sick and tired of them screaming “SOCIALIST!” at Obama when Bush gave out corporate welfare by the ton to the banks, the mortgage companies and the car manufacturers, and I’m sick and tired of them screaming “FASCIST!” at Obama when Bush stripped away more of our freedoms than anyone dared to do even in WWII.

They don’t have any solutions - just lies and shibboleths and distortions - and I see no reason for Trudeau or anyone else to respect their spew.

Who are the Winston Group? http://winstongroup.net/people/

More pod people, what else?

Teabonics, baby. That’s what’s missing: misspelled signs.

One good thing that’s come out of all the attention the TEA Party Baggers have given the Comics good foder material to work with this week! One of my favorite Garry Trudeau strips came out of the Reagan years was about “Reagan’s Brain”. The laughter helped me get thru those trying times - but with all the Hoopla of the TEA Baggers - the Reagan years seem quite tame!

Bush is the one that got where we are. Screwed royalllllly.

One more day and it’s the end of the t-bagger story! Next week, GBT will focus on the passing of the bill or the Biden Frakking big deal.

… parodying the tea party movement ?you can parody a parody?they are a media created movement that is now flirting with true terrorist movements..the Michigan/Ohio religious militia anti-Obama wackos being a fringe element that actually took action based on what Hannity,Rush and Glen Beck say or said.

These media heads use their free speech to flame the fires of hate..no matter that Obama is America’s elected president.No matter that the majority of voters elected officals that voted for the health care bill.No matter that most people want universal health care.No matter that for most people taxes are down.No matter because the tea baggers want to raise up like the K.K.K. and overthrow the gov’t.MY American gov’t!The country that I love.

Go ahead Rush,preach what your big business overlords tell you to preach.Then call yourself an independent thinker. Destroy America just for your ego.

You are just another Pontius Pilate spouting ,’What is truth?’ back to Jesus.Truth to you is what ever you say it is.

And on this Good Friday,that is a crying shame!

Corporate welfare?

I come from the insurance capital of the world

Citibank paid back TARP $20 bil and has $20 bil in stock owned by Uncle Sam, who bought the stock at $314. The current price is $4.25, a tidy $7.7 bil profit for the government. Not a bad investment George.

The Hartord Insurance will end up paying 34.6 % on its TARP loan. Who is Bush’s investment manager?

So thousands of jobs saved in my city, billions were loaned to create other jobs, and the government’s coffers were increased by billions. Could this be what the founding fathers meant by “Common Welfare”?

Has anyone heard of any good coming from Stimulus 1 and 11? Get back to me when you do.

Well, I don’t mind the weak attempts at tea party humor, but at least we now know where Garry was last week during the “Fudpucker” reprise. This story line coordinates perfectly with Democratic talking points that were designed to increase the credibility of the Healthcare legislation by decreasing the credibility of those opposed to it. Tied in with the invented tea party racism and violence charges, I have to give the Dems high marks for another coordinated slick propaganda campaign. Did you enjoy your ride on Air Force One, Garry?

Americans have common goals that they should achieve and common enemies that they need to fight, and in my opinion, it’s a tragedy when people come to blows fighting over politics. This entire week, I noticed that the average IQ reduces to single digits when people talk politics - GT included.

”..they don’t have any positions beyond “WE HATE TAXES” and “OBAMA SUCKS.” They’re not FOR a single bleeep thing. ”

They don’t hate taxes. They do hate that they have to pay more and more taxes for more and bigger government spending spree’s. Not long ago, someone calculated that the average taxpayer has to work until March just to pay their taxes. Now when is it… June? Is there a limit to it, or would you be happy with Christmas Eve?

Your comments about not being “for” anything are similar to comments made in Germany in the 30’s about the Reichstag democrats (before they were declared illegal). How dare those fools always say no to all our wonderful changes! But wouldn’t it have been better if more had? Or in Cambodia in the 70’s? Russia in the 20’s?

“However much they scream about their pocketbooks now, they were quiet as a tomb when Bush and his GOP cronies racked up three times as much government debt in eight years than the US had managed the previous 200. ”

Then you were not listening. This was the number 1 topic on talk radio during the Bush years, and Bush’s reluctance to veto congressional pork bills was the reason he had no popular support from the right at the end. Are you saying that you agreed with Rush and Sean Hannity? And if it was evil when Bush did it, as we agree, then you must also agree that Obama is much more evil because he’s doing much more spending?

“I’m sick and tired of them screaming “FASCIST!” at Obama when Bush stripped away more of our freedoms than anyone dared to do even in WWII.”

Have you noticed that Obama has not reversed any of the “freedom stripping” Patriot Act initiatives? Either Obama is just as much a “freedom stripper” as Bush, or maybe - just maybe - Obama also agrees that they were and are nessisary. Pick one and get back to me.

“They don’t have any solutions - just lies and shibboleths and distortions”.

That’s true, but we’re counting on 2012 to change that.

jlindley wrote: ” Before anybody goes off on right-wingers calling Obama a Nazi, only some fringe elements are crazy enough to call him that. ”

Then why is it I have run into at least a dozen of these “fringe elements” in the past week alone. Of course, that doesn’t count the 1000 or so I have read online.

What exactly do you consider “fringe”? 30%?

BobMcK, is it really painful to be so ignorant?

hey, joe… if that is chief thunderthud, then where the heck is princess summerfallwinterspring?

are you one of the millions of babyboomers that at one time or another in their young lives desired to be in the peanut gallery?

none of this makes sense to those who never saw buffalo bob and howdy , but at least it is a bit different (and harkens back memories of another, better time and place) from all the other screaming and namecalling going on here

Thanks nighthawks - I couldn’t place Joe’s reference until you mentioned Howdy (Doody) & Buffalo Bob. I was born in the early 50’s & barely remember the program… darn now I’ve got that tune in my head (oh my - It’s Howdy Doody Time!).

I think I was wrong yesterday thinking the dude with the pony tail was Glenn wearing one of those “powder wigs”. This guy pretending to be a patriot pretending to be “Injun” looks like Glenn with GOATee Chin Hairs! That’s where the “Nut-tiness” comes from to feed the crowds (in the Peanut Gallery).

Zonker’s innocent man-child makes a lucid observation: the Tea Party has no point.

@attyush:

This week’s comments reflect not so much low IQs as lack of analysis, which also happens to be the main failing of the Teapartiers.

Lewreader for instance lets stand a typo ($314 for $3.14) and doesn’t mention how Citibank, by unloading its bad debt onto TARP, strengthened its balance sheets so it could invest OUR money risk-free in treasurys and stocks.

More generally, several postings today repeat the Teapartiers’ mindless charge that Obama’s health care reform is going to explode the budget–a prime example of the Teapartiers’ chronic incapacity for analysis. For them apparently analysis is a mark of elitism.

Obama’s mistake was to spotlight budget items like war costs and Medicare obligations that Bush had hidden. Teapartiers are like “the average voter” (see AKH’s link above) in that they’re too overwhelmed by our growing debt even to examine it. Hearing that medical costs are out of control, their childish response is to shoot the messenger.

Instead of just shouting “No taxes!”, Teapartiers need to analyze the budget and try to come up with specific proposals to balance taxes and expenditures.

And those who post in support of the Teapartiers could start by actually weighing the amounts Obama has budgeted for health care against the costs of UNREGULATED health care over the next decade in case we did nothing–or if we kept putting bandaids on the deficit as the Republicans did under Bush.

Because they won’t look at the numbers in Obama’s open and responsible budgeting, the Teapartiers miss the real threat to our economy, which is Reagonomics: the policy of cutting taxes, and borrowing instead, to pay for our inexorably growing government.

Inexorable, because more people need more services!

Put away childish things. Try to dissect our problems before you act on them.

Nazi, Fascist, Communist, Despot, Dictator, Anarchist are all TYRANTS. Tyrants seek to enslave the minds of the people. As long as there are those who can think for themselves tyrants will, in the end, be deposed. However the ideas of Hitler, Mussolini, Marx, Engels, Lenin and Stalin will forever be with us. Obama is naught but a petty tyrant with delusions of godhood and should never have been put into office. His broken promises will leave a trail of anguish in this country and in the world. Hindsight is 20-20 but foresight requires common sense and an analytical mind. It’s unfortunate that many listen to their emotions instead of their reason.

@kit:

Thanks for your great parody of “reason” and “an analytical mind.” GT himself could not better have illustrated the Teapartier’s allergic reaction to analysis. Your words could be put in Zonker’s mouth.

You can’t have the modern tea party with calm, rational discussion. As in the town hall meetings last August, today’s strip shows how far the average attendee would get without the yelling. They can disrupt, they can get attention - but they can’t appeal outside their own echo chamber.

Concerning fringe candidates, commentators, or organizations, one point I often hear in election years is, “He has [she has, they have] some good ideas. That’s why I support [whoever].”

I’m not impressed. My response is, “So what? Hitler had some ‘good ideas.’ Stalin had some ‘good ideas.’ But they also had some pretty damned bad ideas. When you vote for a candidate, you are voting for the entire package, not just the ‘good ideas.’”

The “Tea Party” movement is simply the latest manifestation of what is (justly) derisively referred to as “Bumper Sticker Politics.” I’ve heard it all before, and I’d bet you have also. I can’t take these people seriously. The “Tea Party” movement is like a river a mile wide and six inches deep – impressive on the surface, but on examination not much really there.

I just read on the Old Scout, that there will be funding of $615,000 for the Grateful Dead museum! Where’s the t-bagger outrage for that?

kit’s defense of the tea partiers is the best illustration (in addition to GT) of how moronic, incoherent, idiotic and downright scary this movement is.

@billdi:

Good description of GT’s satire: it makes incoherence frightening. Most of us turn to political cartoons for reassurance (see State of the Union), but GT manages instead to unsettle us.

What I’m missing is why it’s so terrible for people to call Obama a Nazi, and yet it was just fine to compare Bush to Hitler. Can someone fill me in on why this sort of hypocrisy is not readily apparent to Obamanites? Also, I am a fan of neither George W. Bush, nor of Barrack Obama, because put simply, both have or are now writing checks that future generations will have to struggle to cash.

Um, could it be that it is nutty to call Obama a Nazi AND nutty to call Bush a Hitler?

(Both absurd; besides Bush couldn’t pull it off if he tried.)

@NOLA:

By the reason you give for disapproving of both Obama and Bush, you’ll never be a fan of their successors, either. ALL presidents from now on will be writing checks for future generations to cash. If any of them promises otherwise, you can be sure s/he’s lying.

Long-term-deficit spending started with Reagan, who pretended he was shrinking the government and cutting taxes when in fact he was expanding the government but just not paying for it.

The present generation is stuck with the debt that Reagan and Clinton piled on to pay for our Baby Boomers’ retirement.

No wonder the Teapartiers stop their ears when Obama tries to explain that we need to fix the budget by spreading the responsibility we’ve inherited for Reagan’s feckless borrowing.

Take for instance the rising costs of the emergency care that Baby Boomers will need over the next decade. Once everyone has to buy health insurance, that new “tax” will actually generate a savings–by reducing the portion of our Federal and state taxes that now goes to support the emergency hospitals.

We elect our presidents to write checks. What makes one president superior to another is their knack for spending our money responsibly and with foresight.

Have you seen the news about 30 Governors getting letters demanding they quit in 3 days? More Waco’s with guns. Not much details on CNN - but what a way to “Celebrate Easter!”

Whenever you have a political movement that garners some press you are going to have some wackos trying to horn in to get their own fringe ideas out there in the public view. Of course that’s what get reported because it makes good TV. Most tea party people are just average everyday people who are concerned about what the future of this country holds for themselves and their children. If you ask yourself the question of what will it be like to live in this country 20 or 30 years from now what answers do you see? Do you see a better place to live for your kids or do you see crippling deficits and insane taxes to cover them. What happens if the credit rating of the US gets down graded? The same thing that happens to companies like AIG. They need to post additional collateral against their debt. Treasury bonds plummet in value. Interest rates on their debt skyrocket. It’s harder for them to borrow more money. They go bankrupt. Who’s going to bail out our government? The Chinese?

Most of you folks don’t understand how the federal government operates! The president only proposes a budget. It’s the responsibility of Congress to appropriate the funds and actually spend the money.

If you’re looking to assign blame for deficit spending, look long and hard at Congress over the years. The president doesn’t escape responsibility since he signs spending bills.

Overall, irresponsible politicians from both parties are taking this nation down the road to financial ruin. It’s particularly bad at this time with the passing of yet another entitlement that we can’t possibly fund.

Agreed, unfortunately low approval ratings for congress do not usually translate into removal of incumbants. When polled people will say they,”I am unhappy with congress but my congressman is ok. It’s all those other congressmen who are to blame.”

But the president is required by the Constitution to send a realistic budget to Congress. Obama’s budget has stirred up a furor because it’s the first to show the enormity of our out-of-control debt. Reagan and Bush II couldn’t have cared less. Obama, like Bush I and Clinton, now dares to talk about taxes and anyone who “thinks” (?) like a Teapartier waves his flag and yowls.

I trust Obama and Orzag because their numbers show that the expensive new entitlement (universal health care) is not as costly as ignoring the nation’s health would be.

The Teapartiers’ “just say NO!” offers us the most foolish option of all–not a shred of rational foresight. But then, most people have trouble dealing with uncertainty (“what the future of this country holds for themselves and their children”). That’s why they leave planning to their government.

@ MovingtoMilford,

That is because most people don’t mind pork spending if they benefit… they only object if the pork doesn’t benefit them.

Re Potrzebie: do you need a doctor’s recommendation to get a county I.D. to visit the gift shop at the Grateful Dead museum?

Folks, I would admit that I haven’t read the bill. It’s huge, and I didn’t have the patience. But here are some thoughts…

From a common sense perspective, it seems impossible that we will include 30 Million people, increase benefits, not raise taxes on common people and save money. Insurance companies would include pre-existing and our premiums will go down(Insurance companies make about 3 - 6% profit btw)

I have seen Obama called a Nazi, a Communist, a Socialist, a secret Muslim and a Zionist–sometimes on the same web site. Maybe he’s just a politician.

When did Obama become a street thug? Was that before or after he presided over Harvard Law Review? I’m confused.

http://www.mycomicspage.com/bc/2010/04/02/

Obama and Pelosi in a nutshell…

…sorry jack75287,but these religious nut jobs have a direct corelation to the tea baggers(the Tea baggers give no second thoughts about calling other people vicious names..when in Rome…)When you have John McCain stating with forked tongue that while he personally condemns voilence,but can see how people could react voilently,he is in fact condoning said voilence.When tea baggers call for Obama’s head,and call for revolution,they not only mock our founders,but ask for voilent upraisings on American soil by Americas.They say Obama is using Nazi propaganda when they are in fact,the ones that are truely using it.

Tea baggers talk about irresponsible spending in Government and then pay sarah Palin thousands of dollars to speak at a rally?!?

They talk about being irresponsible,and then talk about revolution against the United States Goevernment?!?

They say falsehoods,like Obama is going to take away their guns.That Obama isn’t American.

The tea baggers rather believe the fear mongors than do a little fact checking….

..and you say there is no relationship?!?

Please…

Nabuquduriuzhur,

Glad to see that you’re making some progress.

How are things on Mars btw? Are you still friends with William Shatner?