La Cucaracha by Lalo Alcaraz for August 24, 2014

The female employees are going to be even less thrilled.

What if your employer is a Christian Scientist. They believe in praying over the sick person. They have been taken to court for child abuse for allowing a child to die while they prayed over him, because medical care is against their religion.We need to amend the constitution so that a Supreme Court judge can be removed for extreme stupidity.

After the 1857 Dred Scott decision, the Supreme Court is a failed and discredited institution and should be abolished. It could also be unconstitutional as its members are nominated and not elected by the people as all powers are invested in the people. And since when does “Good Behaviour” translates into lifetime appointment?

Is that all you have left in your arsenal indie, school-yard taunting? Or could you possibly agree that the SCotUS overstepped their authority by declaring that corporations can hold religious beliefs allowing CEOs to block their employees from receiving physician ordered medicines and procedures.

That’s a crock.

Lalo would make a mint if he could package his Troll feed and sell it on the open market. Hey, it works for Sharpton, Rushmouth & the others.

I think what you meant to say, jeff, is that people should read the same right-wing propaganda that you do. Before now, closely held corporations themselves were not recognized as having religious beliefs. The SCOTUS 5 have now said they do, despite the eloquent, strenuous objections of the other justices, some of which arguments find their way into today’s strip. And as far as this strip goes, the Barrio Bugle is pretty closely held. In fact, many, many corporations are closely held, and the SC ruling applies to all of them. It’s not like Hobby Lobby is the one unique example..Secondly, as I’ve posted before, Hobby Lobby’s four objectionable contraceptives don’t even operate using abortive techniques. Two are IUDs: that is, they prevent pregnancy from happening in the first place. As to the two “morning after” contraceptives, neither cause an abortion, at least according to the American Congress of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, whose statement you can find here: https://www.acog.org/About_ACOG/ACOG_Departments/Health_Care_for_Underserved_Women/Frequently_Asked_Questions_about_Hormonal_Approaches_to_Emergency_Contraception . In other words, Hobby Lobby substituted belief for scientific fact in an effort to deprive women of established options for controlling their own bodies. The facts aren’t on your side, buddy, and neither are they on Hobby Lobby’s side. Luckily for you all and unluckily for women, a reality-denying 5-member majority of the Supreme Court was on your side instead..As to “exceptions for political donors,” why not be specific? What exceptions? What donors? This is the kind of addle-brained argument that got us Hobby Lobby in the first place. As is your really inexcusably unresearched and, in fact, highly false final statement that “ACA has taken away more people’s insurance than the insurance companies ever did.” Long before ACA, insurance companies cancelled plans all the time. They’d cancel them on individuals to avoid payouts. And they’d wholesale eliminate plans and offer different ones in their place for a variety of business reasons. In fact, all those “taken away” plans that you are probably thinking of were withdrawn in order to be replaced by more robust plans, very often at cheaper prices. And folks in the single-payer market are in general additionally eligible for subsidies, which brings down their premiums even further. Besides which, nobody has yet lost their previous, inferior plans, because Obama issued a reprieve via executive order..In short, jeff, it is actually you that needs to learn to read. Or at least read more widely than The Blaze or Breitbart. If you’ve actually gotten to the end of this post, you’re off to a very small but good start.

If you’d think about it a bit, indie, you’d realize that, yes, there are employers who do absolutely hate the ACA. How about, for instance, the Koch brothers? They’ve been funding lies-laden political ads against it for months now, to the tunes of millions of dollars. (I’m not the only one saying they’re full of lies; organizations like Politifact and newspapers that are not the Barrio Bugle have also been calling these ads out for their lies.) The strip isn’t claiming that all employers hate the ACA, though looking through your lens I can see how you might see it that way. But there are absolutely employers who have gone off the rails for ideological reasons regarding Obamacare. What, you don’t think employers are capable of acting irrationally?.As far as exaggerations to make a point, this is a comic strip_. Repeat after me: "_La Cucaracha is a comic strip. It is not a documentary. It is a medium for satire." Dude, it features a human-sized talking cockroach! If anything, it’s meant to get the conversation going. If you’re actually looking to this strip to be your factual news source, well…I suppose that explains a lot.

The difference between your and my “taunting,” indie, is that I at least put some effort into trying to be slightly entertaining. I think of it as a value-added service to countering your voice of one-way, unbridled, humorless negativity.

“Lalo certainly is making money of his agenda to preach to the converted…”.Ah, I see part of the problem, indie. You think that folks here are mindless drones, and you’re the only one who’s not a sheeple. An arrogance borne out by your nom de kvetch on here. I, for one, generally agree with where Lalo’s coming from, sure. And sometimes I think he’s not made the best argument and will acknowledge that. But you know who else Lalo’s profiting off of? You. You’re here, day in, day out. You contribute to making this a lively forum. It’s great for the business Lalo’s in! And yes, as long as there are folks who enjoy his stuff and buy his stuff (just as with those other pundits you mentioned), he’ll be able to keep doing it. It’s a dynamic of that market system you love so much.

Not good, Lopez, not good at all!

What’s with the yelling these days, indie? Did Timmy fall down the well or something? As to Lalo’s use of the word “hate” (talk about picking nits!), I wouldn’t presume to know exactly what he means by it here, but I’d also still say that, yes, there are employers who absolutely hate Obamacare. The Kochs are just two of them. There’s a difference between referring to factual news items in a comic strip and calling yourself a reporter. For a non-Lalo example, see today’s Pearls before Swine. There is also a difference between satire and comedy. I’d argue that the best satire is generally really funny, but what people find funny varies wildly, and satire doesn’t always have to make you laugh. Your world is so black and white, though, that I don’t expect you’ll understand much of what I’ve just said. You’ll just stare at the screen with bloodshot, rage-filled eyes desperately trying to figure out the next non-statement to make that you think will finally tear your enemies down and banish them to the ether. At least while you’re at it, try to make it entertaining.

Why indie, darling, I do believe you’ve started to go farther off the rails than you already were. I admit I do find it flattering that you would spend the time to tally up what you think I do each day (I’m assuming it’s me, since I think I’m the only person who made any explicit predictions here today). And if it’s a hobby that makes you happy, then by all means have at. I’ll be here, enjoying watching your quantified judgements. For instance, I really like that you nearly managed to organize your list from shortest line to longest line, though you do need to switch a couple of them around to really nail the aesthetic.

“I didn’t see Agrestic complaining when Lalo has used all caps…”

Bad, Lalo! Bad! You know we don’t use caps lock indoors!

Does that make you feel a little better indie? There, now make up and go play. But no more throwing rocks at the squirrels!

Oo, this is fun! I wonder what else we can get added to Indie’s List O’ Something-or-other? Is there a separate line for yo parental unit jokes? How about inconvenient statements of fact? Nah, the tally would already be too high on that one. Oh well, I guess we’ll all just have to wait for indie’s next installment! (Hey indie, you forgot the “X” on the dangiting with faint praise line. Do I get any points for, um, pointing that out?)

Nah, death threats are just warm wishes for a nice, permanent, peaceful slumber. Very loving, see! You’ll have to ask our companions-in-posting why they’re unwilling to check in with where their hate is coming from. I’ll speculate that at some deep level, at least for some of them, there are melanin differentials involved..As for single payer health care? Yes. It needs to happen and we need to keep pushing for it to happen. It’s ridiculous to subject people’s health and very lives to the whims of profit-seeking corporations. Obamacare is an improvement on what was the status quo, but it falls far, far short of where we as a purportedly civilized country should be.

You do realize that Twister isn’t a word game, don’t you indie?