Category Archives: Politics
Poppy in Cartoons, R.I.P.
Our 41st president George H.W. Bush died over the weekend. And the media has been heaping praise on him ever since. He was a man of great virtue. And the fact that his virtues – he was a genuine war hero with modesty, honesty and compassion – fit a narrative in sharp contrast to our 45th president may have something to do with it.
Here are some Bush 41 cartoons, along with text, from my book The Recent History of the United States in Political Cartoons, A Look Bok:
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Bush sought the Republican nomination for the 1988 presidential election and found it difficult to gain attention and traction while serving as vice president to the spotlight-savvy Reagan.
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George Herbert Walker Bush had run against Reagan for the 1980 Republican nomination. Reagan’s platform was for increased military spending and tax cuts. Reagan subscribed to a theory called “supply-side economics,” illustrated by the Laffer Curve, cooked up by economist Arthur Laffer. He predicted the tax cuts would cause so much new economic activity that tax revenues would increase enough to replace the money lost though tax cuts. During the campaign Bush called it voodoo economics. When the vanquished primary candidate Bush later became Reagan’s vp, many true believers questioned his conversion.
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The wimp factor was really a creation of the press.
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Budget Director Richard Darman fretted quite a bit about balancing the budget – especially in light of President Bush’s understated campaign pledge: “Read my lips, no new taxes.” Eventually Darman convinced Bush to raise taxes, sealing his fate, if not his lips, as a one-term president.
Trump Base Battle
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The economy is booming but the Trump base is taking a hit.
GM is shutting down Chevy Cruze production at its 6 million square foot Lordstown plant. And Reason says the billion dollar cost of steel and other tariffs might have something to do with it. Steel workers are an important part of the Trump base. So are autoworkers and 1400 of them are about to lose their jobs.
Trump Base
“The U.S. saved General Motors, and this is the THANKS we get!,” tweets Trump.
Kevin Williamson at NR says it was dumb to bail out GM in the first place. American carmakers can’t compete on sedans with the likes of Honda or Audi. But they’re good at making trucks and SUVs people like. They should have focused on that sector long ago, he says. But we “paid them not to.”
Electric cars too. NPR reports the government subsidies electric cars to the tune of a $7,500 tax credit for buyers.
So now GM will focus on what it’s good at. In Mexico.
Obama Judges Trump Judges
Click Justice Roberts to enlarge the image.
U.S. District Judge Jon Tigar ruled against President Trump on an immigration matter. So Trump called him an Obama judge. And that prompted Chief Justice John Roberts to publicly rebuke the President, explaining, “there are no Obama judges or Trump or Bush or Clinton judges.”
Obama Judges
Mark Thiessen thinks jumping into a political argument is a funny way for Justice Roberts to show he’s above politics.
You may have noticed Trump doesn’t claim to be above politics. So he counterpunched that judges are a threat to national security.
Go here to see a president publicly rebuke the Supreme Court.
Cold Blooded Politics
Click the bloody hand to enlarge the image.
It looks like Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman knew about the Kashoggi murder. The CIA says he ordered it. But President Trump says, “Maybe he did and maybe he didn’t.”
Trump has MBS’s back because the Saudis buy a lot of stuff from us. He bragged that he did “$450 billion in commercial deals” on his trip to Saudi Arabia.
Cold Blooded Politics
WSJ editors think Trump is crass. But they also thinks the Saudis are important allies in a “dangerous war against Middle Eastern terror supported by the mullahs in Iran.” The editorial page calls it “Trump’s Crude Realpolitik.”
And the barbaric murder of a journalist is crude. But not as crude as 3,000 murders on 9/11. Columnist Holman Jenkins claims the 15 Saudi hijackers may have had the support of members of the royal family:
If Saudi royals crave an airing of this dirty laundry, they know what to do: Keep MBS in power. Undoubtably among the interested would be the 9/11 families who managed to win, over President Obama’s veto, sweeping bipartisan support for their lawsuit to hold the Saudi government accountable for the murder of their loved ones on 9/11.
If the Saudis think President Trump can (or wants to ) protect MBS against all that would follow, they should think again.
Update 11/28: The Washington Post’s David Ignatius says there’s a power struggle going on within the royal family. And he has an interesting story about captive family member Turki bin Abdullah and “his closest adviser, Saudi businessman Tarek Obaid.” Obaid is hiding out in Switzerland and may have barely escaped the same fate as Kashoggi. Obaid says, “There was clear abuse of power by incompetent thugs, but I don’t believe that the crown prince’s instructions were for these events to play out as they did.”
Menthol Cigarettes
Click the cigarette to enlarge the image.
Flavored e-cigarettes are the Mike’s Hard Lemonade of the smoking world. Kids like em. So the FDA is cracking down. The government plans to go after menthol cigarettes too. But not the stuff that actually kills you – tobacco. Before it kills you you will have paid lots of taxes on tobacco. And governments are addicted to that.
