Tom Toles for September 23, 2016

ain’t that the truth……

The cotton industry was such a good business model, but the externalities are really coming back to bite.

Hara-kiri{… a limerick and a footnote …}We’ve grown so very wearyof this tragedy very Shakespeareywhere a pompadoured loutleads us aboutas our nation commits hara-kiri*.…

by letting Trump prevail,we’re telling a bad-ending tale.=======

Trump has stirred up racism to such a degree that the gullibles will vote for him and the fearful will vote for him and the anti-Clintons will vote for him and the anti-Trump will vote for Clinton and it will be such a single-issue-voter mess that it will all be thrown into the House of Representatives and Trump will be elected by the GOP/Tea Party who will be delighted when a plan comes together,

As we move ever closer to third-world status

I’d like to think we’re not stupid enough to elect Trump, but at this point, who knows?

Shouldn’t that be a black skull?!?

Actually, violence in America has been on a steady decline — as it has been worldwide — since the end of WW2. Read Steven Pinker’s 2011 book The Better Angels of Our Nature for all the statistics. The reason it seems otherwise is that journalism is moribund and the easiest stories to cover, plus being the ones that suck in the most consumer eyeballs, are the awful ones. It’s like driving past a car collision — 99.99% of the cars on the road are in perfectly fine shape, but you can’t tear your eyes away from the pair that aren’t.

Just finished re-reading (for the umpteenth time) “Dr. Seuss Goes To War”, the collection of his WW II editorial cartoons. Can you imagine how much fun Dr. Seuss would have with Trump? (Or how much fun Mark Twain would have with Trump, or how much contempt Abraham Lincoln or Jesus Christ would have for Trump…….)

This violence and the cycle of revenge is the same issue in Chicago as it is in the Middle East. An eye for an eye for an eye for an eye, no one can remember how it started, but we are pretty sure it is the other guy. Maybe if try to understand why people are “gang members” or “radicalized” we can look to help stop the root cause, instead of another cycle of shooting someone who killed your uncle because you killed his dad because …

Polls seem to be an accurate measure of the opinions of those who have land lines, and are lonesome for anyone to talk to, eager to give their opinions, or simply don’t have Caller ID.

Actually, other countries reap what we sow on a major scale, we just prefer shooting each other with all those guns the NRA feels there aren’t enough of on our streets. That’s politics La Pierre style.

“Debate”: They’ll call it a{… a limerick …}The “debate" will be a DOOZY,of truthful facts misusey,and candidates accusey{of each other abusey}, -- its viewers remaining confusey.=====