Recent Comments

1. about 4 years ago on Mike Lester

   @twclix

   Thank you for your thoughtful reply. We actually seem to agree more than we do not. However, I still disagree with some of your points:

   “large media organs in the US are controlled by right wing corporatists”

   They are controlled by corporatists. In my experience, corruption and the lust for power have no party affiliation.

   In particular, when I compare the “reporting” about the allegations of sexual misconduct raised against e.g. Kavanaugh vs those raised against Biden, I find a huge double standard; I also found it in their “reporting” about Trumps dealings with Ukraine vs those by Biden. The corporate media would even stoop so low as to lie about the MAGA-hat-wearing Konvington kids’. They are currently misreporting the rioting and looting of many US cities under the guise of “racial justice” protests as “fiery but peaceful”. I could go on. In short, I find nothing “right-wing” in the corporate media’s misreporting.

   “Europeans aren’t much better, I might add. (…) There’s no doubt that a large cross section of the American population is woefully unable to reason critically. (…) And the same can be said of large cross sections of Europe.”

   If I should have given off the impression that I thought our institutions were superior and the public generally less susceptible to disinformation, then allow me to correct that impression: We are not. The point I’d like to make is that we find it easier to recognize corruption elsewhere than at our own doorsteps. And at our doorsteps, we carry an unwarranted optimism bias towards our own side and cognitive capacity while happily denying the other side both honesty and the ability to reason critically.

   The solution imho is to do our own research not rather than allow anyone, easy as it might feel, to form our judgements for us; least of all a corporate media wit such an bysmal track record.

2. about 4 years ago on Mike Lester

   @Tralfaz European observer here, bemused at Leftists brigading a conservative cartoonist.

   It’s irrelevant what Trump tells the media. We, the journalists’ audience, expect them to provide us with complete, unpartisan information about current events. We then want to form our own judgements.

   If you had observed how in another country than the US the son of a high-ranking politician, after having been discharged from the military as a drug abuser, was still appointed to the board of a corporation in an industry he had zero experience in: would you not be at least suspicious? If you learned that said corporation was to benefit from loan guarantees which said high-ranking politician was negotiating, would your suspicions not solidify? And if the owner of that corporation were to be investigated for corruption and then that high-ranking politician would strong-arm the investigator’s boss to have the investigator fired: Would you not then tell yourself, “what a backwards country, how could people there not see what’s going on”?

   In the past weeks, the revelations triggered by the release of the emails on Hunter Biden’s laptop show (again) that the political class in the US practices what is common in many other countries: The political class creates gold veins for corrupt people and companies to mine. In the US, it’s not just the Bidens, but the Pelosis and the Kerries as well, to say nothing about the Clintons.

   I have noticed for a long time that the journalists employed at most of the US national media are not interested in allowing their audiences to form their own judgements. Since the demise of the neocons, The corporations who own many of US media outlets appear instead to have them spin the news in favour of the party that has not been taken over by an outsider to the political class. The double standards are so blatant that it takes willful ignorance to oberlook it.

   You may now resume brigading a conservative cartoonist.

3. about 4 years ago on Mike Lester

   European observer here. What I find embarassing is how activists think they must brigade a cartoonist’s site in order for their side to win.

   The point with Biden is that he’s either unable or unwilling to tell voters, particularly voters working in the energy sector, what his plans are:

   July 31, 2019: “We would make sure (fossil fuels, including coal and fracking) is eliminated.”

   March 15, 2020: “I’m talking about stopping fracking as soon as we possibly can. I’m talking about telling the fossil fuel industry that they are going to stop destroying this planet”

   September 19, 2020: “We’re going to get to net zero emissions by 2050. And we’ll get to net zero power admissions by 2035. (…) I’m going to make sure that we have 500,000 charging stations in our highways so we can all the electric car market, creating a million jobs.”

4. almost 6 years ago on Mike Lester

   Let’s not pretend that this is about “compensation”. “Compensation” for what? The US has not elected Hondura’s corrupt government. It has not made cartels and gangs flourish.

   This is about Open Borders and the destruction it will bring. The success of the current 10000 illegals is supposed to embolden millions, as happened in Europe. What activists are trying to achieve through this I cannot fathom. What is so desirable about the collapse of wgaes along twith the destruction of the welfare state and increasing ethnic strife?

5. almost 6 years ago on Mike Lester

   No. It is pointing out the lack not just of rationality, but also of principles in the people who kept mum when governemnt used pepper spray and tear gas to defend against illegals who were attempting to cross the border by force then. This is tribalism, not common sense.

6. almost 6 years ago on Mike Lester

   Yes, we’ve learned from several administrations, including the previous one, that it’s always advisable to check oneself. In this case however, the administration is telling the truth. Example:https://www.nbcsandiego.com/news/local/Unruly-Crowd-Attack-Organized-at-US-Mexico-Border-San-Diego-233698631.html

7. almost 6 years ago on Mike Lester

   “Whataboutism” It cannot be whataboutism if one agrees to both Obama AND Trump ordering the use of pepper spray and tear gas to prevent illegals from crossing the border by force. It IS hypocrisy to cry “inhumanity” when Trump does so, but having kept mum when Obama did.

8. almost 6 years ago on WuMo

   One wurst, many würste. Wenn man uns schon kulturell aneignet, dann bitte mit ORDNUNG.

9. almost 6 years ago on WuMo

   Nope. And it’s “Umlaut”.

10. over 6 years ago on JumpStart

    Brace for yet another wildly improbable coincidence. When did cartoons turn into badly written soap operas?