Scarabus
Archive for August, 2012
Hollywood Stars Encourage Young People Not to Vote
Friday, August 31st, 2012Great caricatures from Steve Brodner!
Thursday, August 30th, 2012
A whole passel of great caricatures! Check ‘em out! Follow Brodner’s work through the rest of the Republican charade, and — I’m sure — the Democratic charade to follow. (Remember: Republican/Democratic or Republic/Democrat. Gotta choose. Can’t mix-’n-match!)
After enjoying the images, I was slapped with some really, really dumb ads. Let’s share the ads we find, via the comments. Here (gag!) is what I found:
- Yes, I am an old fart, and I do have joint pain.
- No, I’m not a young woman, and I’m smart enough not to believe in “Nature’s Secret Weapon.”
- I like looking at a beautiful female ass, even when I’m turned off by the bikini that’s covering/accentuating it. But I will never go on a cruise, and to misspell “DeLand” rots my socks!
- “New Policy”? WTF! Haven’t a clue what this is about, and don’t want to know.
- No, I do not want to feel 18 again. (I remember what that was like!) And I do not want to be a buxom 18 year old woman. I don’t like plastic bottles, either.
- Boost my testosterone 40+? (Guess I’m supposed to know the units involved. I don’t.) No thanks. Besides, I never liked doing push-ups — even when I could do them easily.
- Nothing to say about the gender-bending “Florida Drivers” hook. Except that, yes, I do live in Florida. (Remember the “DeLand” thing?)
- So a “model stare” from a woman whose hair looks as if it had been trimmed with dull hedge clippers is supposed to make me believe in too-good-to-be-true, free lunch come-on’s? (Private note to my daughter: Yes, I did consider the subjunctive. But I’m not fully convinced the statement was “contrary to fact.” Who knows? Could be the latest fad.)
- To lose weight and get in shape comes by way of discipline. Any pill that genuinely suppresses appetite while raising energy is dangerous (think “speed”); any placebo claiming to do so at a high price is a scam; and anything between the two is bad in one direction or the other.
- Nicotine is one of the most addictive drugs on earth, and I sympathize with anyone who’s been trapped by it. But I personally despise smoking. Besides, the risks vs. efficacy of these devices has never been thoroughly researched. I find this ad offensive.
But forget all that. What I most want to share is the link to the caricatures. Don’t kvetch. Just go!
There’s some people that if they don’t know, you just can’t tell ‘em!
Thursday, August 30th, 2012And unfortunately a lot of those people will be voting this november.
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While driving home this afternoon after getting a haircut, I heard a reporter interviewing some students on the campus of the University of Tampa, where they were registering voters. The boy was a Young Republican and the girl a Young Conservative. I changed things for this editorial cartoon, but the gist remains exactly the same as the interview I heard. In fact, the boy’s last comment here is an exact quote of what the Young Conservative girl said in the interview.
This is what we’re up against.
“One Term More,” sung to a tune from “Les Mis.”
Wednesday, August 29th, 2012
Ryan-Romney: Two peas in a pod?
Wednesday, August 29th, 2012At first Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan would seem to have little in common. After all, Ryan is a genuine ideologue, while Romney believes in absolutely nothing but self-aggrandizement. (I started to say that Romney is “ethically challenged,” but realized that might be misleading. Far from being challenged by ethical principles, he’s oblivious to them.)
They do share a common pattern of behavior, though: They subject others to misery, profit personally from the misery they have created, and then defend their actions with great self-righteousness. A reminder of what Romney’s Bain Capital does made news at the RNC Convention in Tampa. From Tuesday’s DemocracyNow:
After repeatedly touting his business experience as an asset towards reviving the U.S. economy, Mitt Romney has been put on the defensive by Bain Capital workers who are fighting back against the outsourcing of their jobs. One hundred seventy workers at a Sensata Technologies plant in Freeport, Illinois — of which Bain is the majority owner — are calling on Romney to help save their jobs from being shipped to China. The factory manufactures sensors and controls that are used in aircraft and automobiles, but has been dismantling and shipping the plant to China piece by piece — even as it requires the workers to train personally their Chinese replacements, who have been flown in by management.
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AMY GOODMAN [Host]: Talk about the supporters of Mitt Romney when you come to events where he is, what their response is to you?
TOM GAULRAPP [Sensata employee]: Well, you know, we’re there trying to save our jobs, and we were called communists. For trying to save our jobs from going to China from the United States, we were called communists. They—if there hadn’t been a large police group in there, I’m sure we would have been more threatened. They started this “U.S.A.” chant. It’s like, yes, we’re all for the U.S.A., too. That’s what we’re trying to do here. We’re trying to keep well-paying manufacturing jobs from being moved out of this country to China. And they make it sound like we’re not patriotic. And it boggles the mind as to what they’re thinking.
Yep. Romney sends U.S. jobs to China. U.S. workers protest, asking him to save their jobs. Romney’s crowd responds by chanting “U-S-A” – not to support the US workers, but to heckle them. What were they thinking? Or, more aptly, Why were they not thinking?
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Ryan? Here’s a sample, from PR Watch:
For over 120 years, one of Janesville’s great prides was the Parker Pen Company. Founded by George Parker in 1888, Parker Pen became the largest manufacturer of high-quality pens in the world and supplied pens to Congress and the White House for bill signings. [Douglas MacArthur used a Parker pen to sign the papers for the Japanese surrender.]
In 2009, the Janesville plant succumbed to wage pressure from the global trade agreements Ryan was so fond of. 150 workers lost their jobs when manufacturing and distribution operations were moved to Mexicali, Mexico.
In 2010, Ryan and his wife purchased the 5,786 square foot “Parker Mansion,” and are raising their family in the remnants of a more prosperous age.
Down the road from the Mansion Hill district where Ryan lives, the formerly vibrant downtown of Janesville is a hollowed-out shell of its old self. Unemployment benefits have ended and there are too few new jobs to give job seekers hope.
