Best of Political Humor - January 2020

[Barry]

[ray50sfo]

And Santa Rosa...

[Barry]

[Barry]

[ray50sfo]

[Barry]

[podfish]

re the 'democrats furious that Trump used the powers they expressly gave him':
yeah, sort of funny and way not really true. They didn't expressly give him any powers; this refers to the 2001 AUMF which authorizes the president to use force against anyone responsible for or associated with the 9/11 terrorist attacks but still, the dems should have had the cojones to push through a proposed amendment making it clear that this does not apply to Iran. And 'they' refers to congress as a whole, not the dems.

but they deserve the weak attempt at humour although pretty much the whole framing is a typical right-wing trope only loosely related to facts.

[Barry]

[SonomaPatientsCoop]

Is it just me or does anyone else not like the memes?

[ray50sfo]

[Barry]

Is it just me or does anyone else not like the memes?

Please elaborate.

[Stefanie Nagorka]

I do not appreciate the last few humor posts. What does Americans having guns have to do with Iran having nuclear bombs? The current white house refused to continue the nuclear arms agreement with Iran. This just doesn't make sense. I just got back from Australia where owning guns is taken quite seriously - most people don't have guns and there are no mass shootings. Why do we have to put up with loose gun laws and mass shootings that happen as a result ? The spirit of the 2nd Amendment to the Constitution does not appear to support uncontrolled gun violence we are experiencing in our country.
"A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed." -from the second amendment to the Constitution.

"James Madison originally proposed the Second Amendment shortly after the Constitution was officially ratified as a way to provide more power to state militias, which today are considered the National Guard. It was deemed a compromise between Federalists — those who supported the Constitution as it was ratified — and the anti-Federalists — those who supported states having more power. Having just used guns and other arms to ward off the English, the amendment was originally created to give citizens the opportunity to fight back against a tyrannical federal government."

https://www.livescience.com/26485-second-amendment.html

[Barry]

[ray50sfo]

Memes are a form of humor, which is defined by Webster as:

"that quality which appeals to a sense of the ludicrous or absurdly incongruous : a funny or amusing quality"

They definitely express ludicrous and absurdly incongruous contrasts and ideas, which you as an individual may or may not agree with.

You may or may not find them funny if they go against your perceptual bias.

Given the predominant political leanings of Wacco, I imagine many don't find the ones I posted as funny, any more than I find the majority of the humor on this board.

But we're all adults (on a good day) and my hope is that we can expand our consciousness to include ideas we find offensive without attempting to eliminate or censor them because we disagree.

[podfish]

I do not appreciate the last few humor posts.

rats, the computer ate my post. I noticed after Ray stepped in with a direct answer. Try again...

yep, this is Ray's attempt at balancing quantitatively if not qualitatively. We've occasionally tried to engage on the lack of humor rather than on the political content, to no success. They are pretty much always based on demonstrably untrue 'memes' or talking-points from the right, and their purported amusement value seems to be in 'pwning the libs' by being provocative. On occasion there's a novel take. To be fair, a lot of political cartoons aren't all that funny regardless of their political points - they often are just a high-contrast illustration of someone's point of view.

[ray50sfo]

yep, this is Ray's attempt at balancing quantitatively if not qualitatively. ...

We each have our own opinion and sources of information we find credible.

Most of the cartoons on this board are based on demonstrably untrue far left talking points, in my humble opinion.

Arguing political viewpoints out point by point is pointless; most of us have already made up our mind.

One persons humor is another persons hurt feelings...

I just hope I'm always able to laugh at my own precious personal beliefs being ridiculed, not take them so seriously, and consider - for a second - that the other person might be right...but clearly they're not...and I am...

Take the Red Pill, Neo...

[podfish]

consider - for a second - that the other person might be right...but clearly they're not...and I am...

Expand

ok, here are the themes/"memes" you seem to think are just opinion. I disagree; they're manifestly untrue but drawing them in a panel is kinda fun for those who want to believe them.

1) obama's cash vs. trump's willingness to nuke Iran. Based on the idea that the pallets of cash were somehow a concession of Obama's. In fact (real fact) they were the settlement of an arbitration claim; it was Persian money held by the U.S. for years.

2) Omar's quote: taken out of context, turned into a dismissive statement she never made. Again, not an opinion; you can see her full quote if you care. It's more fun to caricaturize her as unbothered by 9-11 but outraged that the U.S. is taking action against Muslims. Ok, it's worse than that; it shows her as gleeful.

3) CNN whitewashing a terrorist to turn him into a peace warrior. I've yet to see any MSM make any excuses or even limit the culpability of any of the opponents in the Middle East who've engaged in violence.

4) "OK for Iran to have nukes". I have never heard anyone, much less anyone who's got any position of responsibility, take any other position except that Iran should not have nuclear weapons. Again, not an opinion. It's easily refutable if wrong.

5) I already had a post about the "military powers" that were supposedly given by the Democrats.

The others, maybe are more easily defensible. The one about appeasement may derive from a difference in political views. Seeing a deep-state coup, well, maybe that's an opinion and not a paranoid fantasy? and expecting the news to find a way to blame Trump? That last, not a fantasy, but pretty much is always factual since he's to blame for a hell of a lot.

[ray50sfo]

[podfish]

.. I did kinda like the last one.

[Barry]

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[ray50sfo]

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[cyberanvil]

[Barry]

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[ray50sfo]