TOON: The Unholy Mother of All Catch-22s

[gregcrawford]

"Mother Of All Catch 22s." Editorial cartoon by Gregory Crawford. © 2016 World News Trust.
Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
Based on a work at http://worldnewstrust.com/toon-mother-of-all-cache-22s-gregory-crawford
Crawford's WNT profile page: http://worldnewstrust.com/Gregory-Crawford/
Crawford's WNT blog page: http://worldnewstrust.com/all-items/?layout=author&authorid=380
Crawford's website: http://crawford.airlight.us/
Gregory Crawford's Weekly Rant! -- Women & Men:

[LiberalArkie]

1. K&R

[gregcrawford]

24. Thank you!

[DirkGently]

2. Flint is the template Republicans want for America.

Not a pretty picture.

[yuiyoshida]

4. On target with this statement

Boom! Head shot!

[gregcrawford]

33. I haven't seen too much discussion of this point...

... but it seems to me that the Republicans' successes in state and municipal elections are at least partly the fault of the DNC's stiff-necked refusal to challenge the GOP at this level, which was a YUUUUGE mistake, and one that will take years to undo.

Thanks a pant-load, Third Way Debbie.

The Republicans rampage through a state, backed by Koch money and influence, with a slash-and-burn, scorched earth mentality, screeching about "austerity," which is just thinly veiled code for "exterminate ALL social welfare and regulatory programs." Then they stand in the middle of their mindless destruction and ask, "Now what? Hmmm... maybe we should have thought this through a little better."

Sooner or later, even the dimmest Teabagger is going to realize that they've been played, BIG time, by some of the most evil people humanity has ever produced. And, yeah, I'm looking at YOU, Chuck and Davey, and your malignant minions. Sadly, I fear that the 'baggers' thought processes are too slow for us to wait that long. My other fear is that too many Liberals and Progressives simply don't have the sand for the fight, and I say "fight" in the literal sense of the word. There will be blood.

Well... that's MY cheerful thought for the day.

[daleanime]

5. +1

[avaistheone1]

20. Afraid so...

Appalling and frightening as hell.

[hifiguy]

21. Blammo.

Drop the mic.

End of story.

[gregcrawford]

25. And yet...

... the room-temperature IQs that infest the Republican "base" like so many bed bugs keep voting for these assholes. Trying to explain to the average Republican why that's not in their best interest is like trying to reason with a cinder block. They are so desperate for some drama in their dreary double-wide lives that they'll latch onto the "War on Christmas," or any other idiotic fabrication Fox News feeds them just so they can associate themselves with what they dimly perceive as important!

The pervasive anti-intellectualism that pollutes our society - the staggering number of people who really and truly believe the Earth is flat is a glaring example - will make educating this segment of society a Sisyphean task, indeed. My wife is a special ed. teacher, and she deals with such people on a daily basis.

Not a pretty picture A-tall!

[ErisDiscordia]

27. In Michigan, they have money and no conscience

too much money...comes of not having a progressive income tax. Or public health and infrastructure.

[CrispyQ]

3. Shock Doctrine: Coming To Your City Soon

[DirkGently]

22. Yep. Ask New Orleans. n/t

[daleanime]

6. ......

[Gothmog]

7. Great cartoon

[gregcrawford]

31. Thanks Gothmog!

[Ernest Partridge]

8. Correction!

"Flint City Officials" are not the villains -- they were all sidelined by Gov. Snyder's "Emergency Manager.

[gregcrawford]

11. The most recent news accounts I read...

... all referred to "Flint city officials." When the state Attorney General told them they shouldn't penalize water and sewer customers, city officials complained that if they didn't bill for the undrinkable water, the city might go bankrupt. Perhaps they considered the emergency manager synonymous with city officials, but they did not make that distinction.

[ErisDiscordia]

9. Ah, no. It's not Flint City Officials...it's the GOP Governor and Legislature.

The local fascists are in charge. And if you don't do what they order, they throw you out. There is no democracy in Michigan anymore.

[awoke_in_2003]

10. That slipped right past me

Glad I didn't rec it. You are correct. This was caused by republican appointed emergency "managers" (read "rat fuckers&quot

[gregcrawford]

13. According to the 1/22/16 NY Times...

... emergency managers now only oversee 3 school districts, but no municipalities. The Emergency Managers in Flint most definitely caused the water problem by switching water sources, but it was apparently with the complicity of city officials. It is the city's water and sewer department penalizing residents now, and threatening them with foreclosure and social services, and that's what the cartoon is about. The whole crisis is certainly a can of worms that defies simple categorization.

[awoke_in_2003]

15. "The whole crisis is certainly a can of worms that defies simple categorization."

Thank you for responding, and I see what you mean. It is a bloody mess all around, for sure. Big money wants to destroy all public works so they can "save" us by privatizing them. And, they buy a lot of politicians and officials on both sides to make that happen. So, K&R.

[gregcrawford]

17. Thank you for taking the time to comment!

[ErisDiscordia]

28. Not true

What does the NYT know about Michigan? I live here.

[gregcrawford]

36. Well, I don't live there...

... so the rest of us are limited to what are generally regarded as reliable news sources. It appears that Snyder and his evil minions have muddied the waters quite effectively in an effort to deflect blame, and the chain of evidence is beginning to look like a kudzu vine. All I know is that it is city officials now threatening Flint residents with all manner of dire consequences if they don't pay up. I have read that Flint residents pay the highest water and sewer rates in the country, and that Snyder has magnanimously offered to give them a 30% discount.

[gregcrawford]

16. See my response to Awoke_in_2003...

... the who-knew-what-when finger-pointing in Lansing is as cacophonous and confusing as a murder of crows in high dudgeon. News reports I have read appear to consider the Emergency Managers to be "city officials," since they do not differentiate between the two. There can be no dispute that the Emergency Managers were responsible for the switch in water sources, but there can also be no doubt that it is the city water department that is now threatening residents who do not think they should have to pay for water they cannot use, and they are supposedly no longer subject to oversight by the Emergency Managers. With all the flinging of poo, I doubt any government officials will emerge from this fiasco without at least a little bit of the proverbial substance adorning their countenance!

Updates as events warrant! Thanks for your insights.

[mwrguy]

26. This. Flint is mostly run by Democrats of color

They aren't the ones to blame.

[whereisjustice]

12. The Asia-fication of America

I see more and more parallels with Asia here in the US. From guilt over standardized testing, to Tiger Parents who are torturing their kids (and their school systems) with outrageous amounts of homework and pressure to get good grades above all other pursuits.

In Asia, we are told the kids are much smarter and better workers. It's hard to judge a culture or political system as better when they have open sewers down the middle of the street and half the population doesn't have indoor plumbing, clean water or electricity.

But that's the model we are developing in the US. Relentless pursuit of individual success at the expense of the broader well being of the nation.

And like Asia, we are putting in a massive civil police state to make sure that the inevitable unrest that comes with huge levels of inequality and corruption.

Ultimately, like Asia, it seems that the Washington elite, and specifically Hillary Clinton and most Republicans, want a massive poverty class here in the US to exploit for cheap labor.

[Spitfire of ATJ]

14. DU should be proud to have you.

[gregcrawford]

34. Thank you!

[Duval]

18. K&R!

[gregcrawford]

35. Thanks!

[Tab]

19. Well, you can still flush your toilet with it, right?

That's gotta be worth $100/month.

Except the vet bills from my dog drinking from the toilet would probably exceed that.

And I might not want my dog drinking from the toilet for personal reasons, but I wouldn't want one of them to be that he'd die from it.

[ErisDiscordia]

29. Haven't heard if it releases poisonous gases

they probably haven't tested for that...yet. Wouldn't be surprised, though.

[gregcrawford]

30. They're probably looking for ways...

... to penalize people for introducing toxic waste into the sewer system if they DO flush. Shame there isn't a stiff fine for electing toxic waste.

[Judi Lynn]

23. Really appreciate your vision. Thank you. n/t

[gregcrawford]

37. Thank you, Judi...

... I always learn something valuable from your posts.

[MrScorpio]

32. GOPers have turned my beloved Michigan into Republican Hell

Flint is their perfect vision of it.