Goodwyn's Cartoon Week
Dem Identity Crisis, Inflation and Fixed Income, A Tissue and a Plane, Squawking at Fetterman, and a Blast from the Past
The bats (see last week’s newsletter) vacated on their own with a little help from added lighting. They managed to guano through the screen though, and onto the attic floor. The professionals are now guano come in to clean up.
Fixed Income Challenges
The return to inflation levels we saw several years ago is a welcome milestone. Don’t forget, though, inflation represents a rate of change, meaning just because it’s going down, it’s still changing; and the direction of that change is up. Fortunately for most, wage increases help offset some of the pain.
However, around 20% of the population, mostly retirees, can’t rely on pension increases or investment savings to offset inflation’s pace. Inflation almost never goes to negative numbers. Put another way, the rate of increases come down, but prices rarely do.
Dem Identity Crisis
The left is having a difficult time settling on an identity. You have the far left wing and the not so far left wing, with both making JFK look like a conservative. This anti-Trump sentiment appears to be the unifying force, and a big reason Trump won a second term. The constant Orange-Man-Bad led to:
voter fatigue,
little room for a positive vision, and
a polarization that pushed people away from the Democrats.
The biggest reason is Biden's disastrous presidency but I suspect that's because their first thought was always, "Is it the opposite of what Trump would do?" leading to some really strange fringe policy pushes.
Tissue and Plane
There aren’t many good reasons for Trump to accept a 747-8 Jumbo Jet from Qatar, but he can contort his justifications like he’s working center ring for Cirque du Soleil.
The bad reasons, though, include
Qatar’s influence peddling opportunity,
it’s counter to Trump’s own complaints about Qatar (human rights, America First, donations to the Clinton Foundation),
the really bad optics,
national security concerns,
political backlash from his supporters, and
cheapening the iconic Air Force One.
Perhaps he’s just trolling Democrats. But I’m not holding my breath that he’ll soon pop out of the White House and yell, “Psych!”
Free Thinker, Squawk
Fetterman has ruffled the feathers of the Democrats for not falling in line with the party’s past mandatory, parroting group think. Instead of honest discussions about differences of opinion, the Dems resort to calling his behavior erratic.
After four years of ignoring stumbling, bumbling Biden, perhaps they should sit out of providing medical diagnoses.
Blast from the Past
Have a great weekend!