Political Memes, Comics, and other Shenanigans, Part 36

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"Boo Manchin"

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President Biden’s Build Back Better package, chock-full of juicy social goodness, started at $3.5 trillion over a decade. Thanks to Senators Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema, who are both trying to protect billionaires from increased taxes, the plan has been cut down to less than $2 trillion. The two turncoats were at the White House last night and will return today to try to whittle it down even more. They’re bringing more tricks than treats.

According to reports, Manchin wants to cut it down to $1.5 trillion over ten years and add cuts to plans for Medicare expansion, Medicaid expansion and paid leave. Sinema is probably on board with all this. At this rate, you may not see or feel anything from Build Back Better. They may have to rename it “Build Back Somewhat.” Will climate subsidies and universal pre-K, and child tax credit survive the Manchin/Sinema slashing? Will we see anything progressive left in this package or will it all be candy corn?

Nobody likes candy corn, except Laura, one of my proofers. She told me I should take out candy corn and replace it with raisins. I do agree that getting raisins from trick-or-treating sucks. But according to online polls, there is no greater Halloween suck than candy corn. Sure, you have your wax lips and cola bottles, Mounds, 3 Musketeers, Milky Ways, wrapped butterscotch, black licorice, red vines, circus peanuts, and necco wafers, but candy corn is the all-time winner for most-hated Halloween candy. 

Even though raisins are called “nature’s candy,” they’re not candy. And getting tiny boxes of them is almost as bad as getting toothbrushes from the old ladies in your neighborhood. If old ladies don’t give out butterscotch candies, they give out toothbrushes. 

The best Halloween candy by far are Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups. I bought some this year but…I bought them too early. 

Now, for the Amtrak story: I promised on my YouTube channel that I’d tell the story in my blog. There isn’t enough time for an Amtrak story in my videos. So, this is me keeping my promise, mostly to viewer Akenta, who brought it back up and is a very loyal reader. She counts all the people when I draw crowds. You don’t do that, do you? I didn’t think so. 

I went to Washington, DC last week. I took the train. It’s after you get on the train that they scan your ticket. My ticket was in my phone. Somewhere between Fredericksburg and Quantico, an Amtrak dude came by, scanned the image of the code on my phone, and his scanner thingy went “beep.” I saw him do it. I heard the beep. We both moved on with our lives. This was last Saturday.

I came back on the train on Monday. I bought a round-trip so it was the same code on my phone. Again, an Amtrak scanner dude came by, tried to scan my phone, and it wouldn’t beep. He told me there was a problem as my reservation did not exist anymore. He gave me a phone number and told me I had to straighten it out with Amtrak or I’d be kicked off the train at the next stop, which was Woodbridge…where my ex-girlfriend lives. Man, don’t dump me in Woodbridge. To be fair, the guy didn’t use the word “kick.” But it was definitely implied I would be removed with much force, anger, and aggression. The other passengers would later have something to talk about. “Ever see a political cartoonist get forcibly removed from a train? I have. There was a lot of cursing.”

Despite there being Amtrak people being on the Amtrak train I was on, I had to call Amtrak people at another location. Somehow, this was my responsibility for their mistake. As I was on hold, the scanner dude came back to tell me he figured out the problem. He then scanned my phone and it worked. He explained my ticket was NOT scanned on the first leg of my trip, which made Amtrak cancel the entire trip. I told the guy I saw the first person scan it and heard the beep, this Amtrak dude kept telling me I had not and it never happened. I wanted to throw him off the train like he was Danny DeVito’s momma (did you see that movie? Do you get the reference? There was a train and Danny DeVito recruited Billy Crystal to help him throw his momma off it while it was moving. Near the end, the plan was for Billy Crystal to throw Momma from the train and on the way back to his seat, get Danny a Chunky, which is also much better than candy corn). 

Then, this Amtrak fucker gave me a huge lecture about how when my ticket is scanned, I need to make sure the Amtrak employee doing it did it right. Then he repeated the lecture over and over. When he was done, I asked him if he could show me that he scanned my ticket correctly. He told me I could trust him because he’s an Amtrak employee and I didn’t have to check on him. I think that’s Amtrak logic. Choo-choo!

It’s not a passenger’s job to make sure Amtrak employees are doing their jobs. Am I required to make sure the conductor is conducting it in the right direction? Is it up to me to make sure the train went to Washington and not Alburquerque like some wayward rabbit? I feel enough pressure to see something say something. Also, I should not have had the responsiblity or hassle to call Amtrak to straighten out a situation they messed up, and get it corrected minutes before the next stop or get kicked off the train. The option menu would take longer than that. “Press ‘7’ if you’re trying to avoid being thrown off a moving train…”

Yes, I wrote a complaint detailing the entire situation to Amtrak. You should be proud because I only used “fuck” twice in it.

 

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Image placed under spoiler. Don't say I didn't warn you:

Spoiler

 

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[Cartmann99]

 

[Ozlsn]

On 10/28/2021 at 9:30 AM, GreyhoundFan said:

If Fox News were around in the 30s America would probably have been allied with Axis.

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"Donuts And Ammo"

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Gun nuts are eager to prove to everyone else what experts they are with guns and gun safety. In doing so, they often demonstrate just how ignorant they are about everything else, like how a film is made.

As soon as the tragedy on the set of the film Rust was reported, conservatives and everyone else horny for guns was all over Alec Baldwin, calling for him to be charged with murder. Not only do they not understand how filming works, but they also don’t understand how the law works.

This was a tragedy that injured writer/director Joel Suza and killed cinematographer Haylna Hutchins. This is not murder. Is it possible criminal charges are forthcoming? Yes, but for whom?

It’s the assistant director’s job to ensure a safe working environment on a film set. In this case, the assistant director, Dave Halls, handed Baldwin the gun and told him it was safe. Weapons on film sets are managed by the armorer. Hannah Gutierrez-Reed, the armorer for Rust, had just prepared the guns on a cart, which is where Hall picked up the loaded gun and gave it to Baldwin. This was not a prop gun, but a real one.

There are all sorts of messed-up details in this story, such as warnings about an unsafe set, people turning down job offers because of the dangers, crew members walking off before the tragedy, and crew members engaging in target practice with the guns being used in the movie. Live bullets being put into a gun that will later be used in the movie by amateurs is a very dangerous working environment.

Perhaps the biggest question is: Why was there live ammunition on a movie set?

I’ve heard a lot of people say we should ban real working and functional guns from film sets. I’ve heard gun fuckers say this. How about we do this…and ban guns from all places of business? The Constitution gives you the right to own a gun, but it doesn’t say anything about you toting it around like it’s an extension of yourself. There’s nothing in the Constitution that allows you to carry a semi-automatic rifle into Krispy Kreme.

Republicans are after Baldwin just because they don’t like him. Baldwin spent four years doing an excellent job of portraying Donald Trump on Saturday Night Live and Trumpers are still butt-hurt over it. But as I wrote in a previous blog, your dislike for someone doesn’t convict them of murder. Your political bias is a total and complete non-factor in this issue.

Alec Baldwin didn’t intend to shoot anyone. You can argue he should have checked the gun, even after being told it was safe…but the failure to do so still doesn’t make him a killer. While these same gun humpers argue for Alec Baldwin to be charged with murder, they’re simultaneously defending Kyle Rittenhouse who shot three people, killing two, with a semi-automatic rifle he wasn’t old enough to legally own or transport across a state line, which he did intentionally to shoot at black people. Rittenhouse shot three people, killing two of them.

These same people calling for Alec Baldwin to go to prison also call a Capitol Police officer a “murderer” for shooting Ashli Babbitt, a terrorist who broke into the United States Capitol building and was storming into the office of the Speaker of the House with a violent mob of white nationalist MAGAts when she was shot, but defend George Zimmerman for shooting Trayvon Martin, a black teenager, for walking while black in a hoodie and armed with Skittles.

I think what I’m trying to say to these people, in the most eloquent terms I can think of “fuck off, you whiny hypocritical rat bastard racist babies.” Can you get guns with nipples on them?

You don’t care about the victim. You champion racist murderers and terrorists. All you care about is vengeance against people who never actually violated you. You want to string up Dr. Anthony Fauci because his efforts to save this nation contradict Donald Trump’s lies. But you don’t have anything so you make shit up, like torturing beagles and gain-of-function in bats. You don’t like that racist parents can be criminally charged for threatening school boards over vaccine/facemask mandates and teaching critical race theory which isn’t being taught, so you go after the Attorney General for doing his job. And again, you have to make shit up. You scream that these parents are just “concerned” and expressing their views, but you leave out the parts about intimidation and death threats. Now, you’re after Alec Baldwin because you see an opportunity.

Being as vile and inhumane as possible isn’t just a part of being a Republican anymore. It’s the point. This is revenge for you, not justice.

Alec Baldwin will suffer from post-traumatic stress syndrome from this for the rest of his life. If there are criminal charges for negligence, then so be it. But he’s not going to prison or the gallows because he impersonated Donald Trump and made him look ridiculous. If we’re going to send people to prison for making Donald Trump look like a moron then let’s send Donald Trump because nobody made him look stupid more than he did it to himself.

As for making Trump supporters look like racist morons, well that’s on them too. I mean, nobody forced Ted Cruz to defend Nazis yesterday.

 

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