La Cucaracha by Lalo Alcaraz for November 20, 2014

Sorry, but this is just not funny, today…I mean, comics are supposed to be funny, no?!

I’d like to see the stats on obesity, heart disease, diabetes, etc., by state. I’m willing to bet the red states have the highest percentages of these diseases. And they’re the regions that mostly eschew universal healthcare. Sorta self-defeating, y’think?

Or maybe he’s responding to public events, many of which have to do with health issues these days. Why does it disturb you so much?

I know some actual people who have been affected by Obamacare. There’s my cousin. She had a rough time getting a job because she’s diabetic and potential employers didn’t want to deal with the insurance issues involved. She freelanced with no insurance for years. Now she has her own insurance and a new job. Then there’s my granddaughter, who can stay on her parent’s plan until she’s 26. Until Obamacare, she didn’t have insurance. Personally, Obamacare is closing the donut hole on my Medicare, which means it will pay for a lot of medication that would have been my problem before Obamacare. And, there’s my brother who was staying on a job he only needed for the insurance because his wife has chronic respiratory problems and if she had gotten really bad it would have wiped out their savings. Now he has Obamacare and he’s retired. Another person who has benefited is the lady who took the job he no longer needed. I don’t personally know of anyone who has had a problem with Obamacare, and those who are featured on TV so far have turned out to either being lying or too stupid to actually check out how it works. So, if you folks who are screaming about how bad Obamacare is have some actual cases of people who have been harmed and offset all of these benefits, put up or shut up.

Yeah that’s right Night-G it’s all about race, never mind that the President is ubber liberal and most of his policies go against conservative values. Always play the race card, seems the only one in your deck.

Lalo, I’m disappointed by the careless usage error in the last panel. The last part should read “and y’all be fine.” o.O

Hmmm, Agrestic AGAIN responds to me with a personal affront.

Where’s the affront? I’m seriously asking why the disease theme disturbs you, and instead of answering a straight question, you take affront. Or are you taking affront at my hypothesizing before the question?

In terms of the strip, I’m reading that “delicious diabetes” thing as Cuco satirically channelling Republicans’ message to their base.

Satire does not need to be vicious

But some of the best satire is vicious, at least in the eyes of those who disagree with it.

there is a difference between pointed barbs and downright bad taste

And that, as always, is in the eye (or tongue) of the beholder. You behold it one way, others completely disagree with you and behold it another. But rather than acknowledge this, you are stating your opinions as if they were settled fact.

Umm, probably when he sent the black helicopters to pick up all the guns? When he appointed a telecom lobbyist to run the FCC? When he let all the Wall Street criminals off to continue fleecing the public and collect their bonuses? When a bunch of his first Cabinet was Wall Street?That “ubber liberal”?

Ah, Agrestic zooms in on me again

Ah, indie zooms in on me again.

With such a large proportion of questions that question us commentors, and very few that address the strip

If you were being honest, you’d acknowledge that the questions I ask actually do have to do with the strip. For instance, why you’re so disturbed by the strip’s coming back to disease a lot these days. This is known as seeking further illumination on a matter.

That kind of slavish devotion could have an underlying motive behind it

Yes, you’ve made that sort of ad hominem allegation before, and in a court of law, the objection will have been, “asked and answered.” And yet you yourself consistently have no actual answers to the points I or anyone else makes on here, or the questions we ask. These two things go hand-in-hand.

If we were to go with the ad hominem tip for you, I suppose we could wonder whether you’re paid by the Kochs, or are in love with a leader of one of those border militias. Right? That’d be just as fair, no?

I, on the other hand, am solely responsible to myself

So are you saying you have no sense of community responsibility? The reason you’re here is to complain about the strip. Part of the reason I’m here is to dismantle your complaints. It’s all one big ecosystem!

Heh.

He appears to be commenting on the fact that, despite horrendous rates of juvenile diabetes, the Governors of Mississippi, Alabama and Louisiana refuse to provide even a whisper of healthcare.

Personally, I don’t care what happens to them.

It’s like they say in everybody’s favorite holiday movie:

“Every time a kid in Mississippi loses a foot to diabetes, an angel gets it’s wings.”

Y’awl.

feel it does not belong in a family newspaper comics page (but I have no other place to lodge these complaints)

You do realize that where the comic is placed is up to a newspaper’s editors and not Lalo or even GoComics, right? If your goal is to get the strip moved, this is about the most futile place to lodge your complaints. Yes, even more futile than with the editors of your local paper.

Agrestic dislikes me

I never said I dislike you. I said that the bulk of what you say is wrong. There’s a difference. Though based on the language you use toward me, I’d say there’s a good chance you actively dislike me. Fair enough. But the tone of your attacks on Alcaraz and on me do tend to undermine whatever else you say on here.

But if commenting is futile

I didn’t say commenting was futile. Commenting here is great for what it is—commenting here. What I did say is that posting here isn’t going to achieve your goal of getting this strip moved in your local paper.

They did not want to upset the three hundred Latinos who wrote in.

Citations, please? How did you come to that number, and the fact that it was that number specifically of Latinos? It may very well be the case, but it would be nice to know where you got that fact.

In any case, by your account whoever engaged in a letter-writing campaign did so at their local paper and not here. Because writing here wouldn’t have done them any good.