Doonesbury by Garry Trudeau for July 02, 2012

Now we know what GT was working on last week.

I hear there’s lot’s of voters / $$ cash in China…

Jeffrey Immelt, GE, jobs outsourced to China…any of that ring a bell with libs?

Some people might be happier visiting a site that offers Kings Features comics and reading Mallard Fillmore. Today’s editorial-posing-as-humor is about immigration. (Garry Trudeau’s strip may be a left-of-center editorial, but, unlike Mallard Fillmore, it’s often funny,}

I think there’ll be a disturbance without Roland’s help.

FOX, We don’t create the news, we just distort, ahem, I mean report the news.

What’s next? Finding someone to tell us why ACA is bad and Romneycare is good?

Hello Neighbors,After WW2, it was commonly noted prior to the onset of the war, we had sold tons of scrap metal to Japan and it was returned to us in the form of bullets and bombs. China has been using the profits from selling goods and services to the USA to increase the size and quality of their military, particularly their navy. They can afford to invest in other countries as never before in direct competition with us. They can also afford bribes to buy US technology. Buying American made in America in not only wise economically, it is necessary for our self preservation as a nation. Immigration won’t take us to the brink of WW3, but competing with China from a position of percieved weakness could. Respectfully,C.

Romney can’t speak out against the president’s immigration plan because all of his right-wing industrialist friends love the cheap labor the illegal immigrants provide.

You know, when those who disagree with Trudeau’s view of things write comments that point out the fallacy of those views in a polite and respectful way, I read those comments and sometimes am compelled to agree with them. But what exactly is the point of coming to this forum to insult and throw pejorative epithets at Trudeau and those who like him? In the milder cases, I suppose it might be called heckling, but heckling ought at least to have some with or good humor to it. This is more like someone who goes daily into a Jewish Community Center just to shout a few choice anti-Semitic remarks. Not that I am any better pleased by those who do the same thing in reverse, lumping all conservatives together, assuming the worst about them, and then calling them all names. At least the people who that here have reason to suppose they are mostly among friends. Still, that’s not really an excuse. Folks, we should all be civil, especially to those we disagree with, not because we like them or agree with them, but because they are our fellow citizens, they are not going away, and we have to live with them. Insulting and calling one another names my please satisfy our vanity and petty little egos in some way, but it serves no purpose. It doesn’t change anybody’s mind, and only makes us hate and fear one another all the more. The only people who have a good reason to be pleased by our polarization, are those who genuinely want to see America fall. “A house divided against itself cannot stand.” Mark 3:25; famously quoted by Abraham Lincoln. “Let us trust God, and our better judgment to set us right hereafter. United we stand, divided we fall. Let us not split into factions which must destroy that union upon which our existence hangs.” — Patrick Henry, in his last public speech, 1799.

Change the tax code.

The truth will set you free.

You know, I wondered if GT had a real daughter getting married last week and took a break for that. Guess he was just getting a new arc together.

And @doughfootLMFAO… China already owns what, like 10% of our debt? Sorry, they already own a pretty large chunk of the US. Doesn’t matter who takes office, that ain’t changing anytime soon.

And the whole issue with the illegals? Seriously? You can’t pay people in the US to actually take those jobs anyway. Most of what the illegals do no one would even touch, so who are they really stealing jobs from?

Sarge, sarge, sarge…

We might ‘have the power,’ but we don’t have the money.

The ‘simple economics’ is that all the friggin’ jobs have been shipped off to China by companies seeking to maximize their profits (i.e., Bain Capital); then you have ‘austerity’ measures here where people are getting minimal raises (or none at all, or having their salaries cut back) & don’t have the money to ‘buy American,’ even if there were home-made alternatives available.

Hey, here’s a ‘simple solution’: pay US workers what Chinese workers make & the jobs will come flooding back home faster than you can say ‘throwing out lame slogans instead of looking honestly at the problem.’

@Sarge:Go to a Tea Party rally to ‘learn the truth’? The truth is anyone who tells you everyone else is lying & only we’re telling the truth… is lying.& as for Mallard Filmore:- There’s only reason that strip is published anywhere: papers want to ‘balance’ or run an alternative to Doonesbury, which makes the strip an ‘affirmative action’ beneficiary – something I though the righties think should be outlawed.- Doonesbury has actual characters with actual personalities, not liberal strawmen offering right-wing caricatures of liberal positions; -Doonesbury is funny even when it’s not being political; Mallard Filmore is never funny.

I remember the good old days not so long ago where everyone respected everyone’s opinion – be it right or left, and could have a gentle conversation about our differences. Sometimes these conversations might even alter or change your opinion. Why? Because most minds were still open to an extent, and the person “on the other side” was still a person that you respected and LIKED. NO ONE was considered a “communist” or “traitor” for daring to disagree with the lock-step-or-nothing mentality spewing from the extreme radio and TV outlets. These extreme outlets are destroying this land I used to love. Why? They are shows with extreme views that MAKES MONEY. Pure and simple. Investor’s want their money and to hell with how they make it. A house divided? Absolutely. The end of the USA? Absolutely.

There are alot of misconceptions in this comment thread.- Net illegal immigration from Mexico is currently almost 0%- Obama has deported more illegals in 4 years than Bush in 8 years – deportations at a near record high.- The U.S. military budget is almost as high as all of the rest of the world – combined.- The Chinese ‘threat’ to the U.S. is not conventional military. It’s their consistent efforts to control access to raw materials, their investments in research and development, their investments in infrastructure, education, space and cyberspace.- The Chinese (and Indians, Brazilians and Russians) have been patiently pursuing these policies for the last 10 years, while the U.S. spent $1.2 trillion+ in Mideast wars.- That being said, the Chinese economy is slowing down, mostly as a result of having reached the ‘plateau’ that comes when moving from a ‘developing’ country to a ‘developed’ country. This will be a very big problem for them.- Wages have been steadily rising in China, which means the ‘cheap labor’ – and therefore corporate outsourcing – is moving to places like Vietnam, Bangladesh, and Guatemala.- The world is ‘globalized’ by free-trade pacts. Capital moves freely regardless of political borders. Corporations will outsource jobs no matter what – they are obliged to. Those who have lost jobs due to globalization and out-sourcing need to re-train. Innovate.

For the same reason Libs listen to Rush Limbaugh and Fox News… It gives them something to whine, complain and cry about.

Who gave amnesty to illegal aliens in the 1980’s Why the would be Former Presidents Reagan and Bushsr…

And now the right wants to have a fit over a democrat President following those fine examples of how to deal with illegal aliens..

I think the phrase here is ‘pot calling a kettle black’..

At least that is the first thing to spring to my mind..

As for today comic strip.. Yep china, Taiwan and Pakistan should be real happy with Mr. Romney after all the jobs he provided for them while at Bain Capital.

Let’s make this a true horror story…for Duke, by having the Envoy be…(Drum roll please) Honey!

Jeffrey Immelt is a Republican. He supported Obama for a short time. Like many others of his type he has since changed back to the GOP. Not sure why, since Obama has been very good to Wall Street.

What is sad is the right wingers support of China(Nixon started it this time). The big money has been using liberal groups and government agencies as an excuse to build plants overseas. APCD and The Sierra Club. It takes years to get the permission to build a factory(the NIMBYs have stalled that process) These corporations build where they don’t have to worry about pollution laws and they might as well go where wages are cheap.

Our government should pre-approve certain “zones” as industrial friendly areas, or else we will be importing finished product(like gasoline), and then we can all be on the dole or else just sell each other insurance.We have the raw materials and the market(ourselves) We need to use them as we did and stay strong. Buying animal feed from China was crazy. It was cheap and tested ok(because of the melamine). They should have known that a country that imports that type of feed from us shouldn’t be able to sell at a profit back to us.Opening all borders and allowing tax free trade will only bring the US middle class to the 3rd world level.

Many industries are important to national security, we must keep our natural resources for this hemisphere and keep certain industries working. We have no cloth mills and very few garment workers that don’t only sew on tags, for one instance

puddleglum1066, Thank you.

@corzakYou’ve been reading Friedman, haven’t you?

Hey Doughnut, take it to Dr. Phil. Conservatives are all cockroaches and deserve nothing but the utmost contempt. Civility is DEAD, get used to it.

…and so goes the elite’s conservative media lap dogs. The reporters may be liberals but those who own the news are Reich wingers.

What if we dignified these human beings by referring to them as undocumented workers rather than illegal aliens?

GT: Can you also begin characterizing Romney as the Carpetbagger he is?

I’ve been transcribing my old tapes from ’Nam. Last night, played one where you could hear some of those “gifts from China” coming in with resultant “4th of July” ka-boom! Which, remember, it was Nixon who ran the war longer than LBJ, and NIXON opened the door to “free trade” with China.

Doughfoot: Well said. It’s hard to be the bigger person and listen and be cordial to those with a different opinion than you, but we’d be better off if more of us had that ability.

darth geekboy: I agree. The jobs that illegals have are generally jobs that legal citizens do not want, and the illegal status is often exploited by paying wages well below the minimum wage (to whom will they complain?). A lot of good jobs, however, ARE being filled by legal immigrants who came to this country specifically for those positions. That, too, is generally beneficial – we’re essentially importing brain power, and some high-tech industries struggle to find enough American employees with the proper skills and education.

TeaBaggers can read? Well Blow Me Down.

Hell, we don’t have to worry about them bribing someone to get technology from us, they are selling us computer chips they make for the guidance systems in some Navy missiles. I wonder how well they will work if used against ChiComm aircraft/ships?

nels bredahl said:Doughfoot, well said. How refreshing, true, and even constructive are your comments. k thx by

why not pay a decent wage for farm labor,housekeeping,etc,and just pass the cost on to the consumer ?

I wonder if those who rail against illegal immigrants would prefer to have it made a capital crime and have all illegal aliens executed? After all, why should someone who has broken the law be allowed to live? If the object of punishment is to deter the crime, and lesser punishments are not effective, then what about capital punishment? Don’t you think if we sent 10 million people to the gas chambers it would prevent further illegal immigration? Shouldn’t we do whatever it takes? Or should the punishment fit the crime? Should there be some proportion to it? If you exceed the speed limit and get caught, we don’t put you to death. We don’t even take away your driving license. Isn’t just AMNESTY to let you drive away after getting a traffic ticket? Allowing you to continue doing what you have just proved you will do wrongfully? And what about the people riding in the car with you? Aren’t they benefiting by your excessive speed? Why do we not even FINE them? No, we assume that a milder punishment, administered only to the driver, is sufficient. I’ve even heard of people being allowed to drive their cars home when they can’t even show a driver’s license at all! When they claim they have “lost” this document. My point is that I have never heard anyone suggest, even the most “liberal”, that lawbreakers should suffer no penalty for breaking the law. Yet this is how people like myself are represented by the “deport them all” crowd. In 1779 in Virginia, Thomas Jefferson proposed that triple restitution and some years at hard labor was a sufficient punishment who stole other people’s property. The Virginia legislature in the end rejected the new criminal code largely because their could not stomach the notion that a man who stole a horse would be allowed to live. The descendants of those who voted against the law are evidently alive and well in America today.

I am sorry Ima; that last comment was not intended to be directed at you specifically. My mistake. It was just a general observation.

The very essence of “illegal worker” = hard labor + low salary +crappy working conditions + abuse economically and otherwise by employers. Now LEGAL “immigrant labor” now equals lower salaries than those engineers or degree carrying folks being replaced by corporations moving from blue, up to white collar jobs to replace.

At least he is creating jobs somewhere and not just regulating small business to death.

Please don’t feed the trolls.