Hey!  The State Farm jingle is apparently lodged in my brain permanently! Unfortunately that (still) kind of breaks the rhythm.

And that’s about all the enjoyment I got out of reading this.

I do not understand the problem. I can see no offense to Islam in this cartoon.

You know, if you pictured the nation right above Mexico, you could say the same thing.  After all, didn’t Tom Tancredo point out that Miami is a third world country?  And don’t even get me started on LA.

Zifnab, I was just about to say the same thing…

“And don’t even get me started on LA.”

...what did Louisiana ever do to you?...

It inflicted Bobby Jindal on me

Pobre de Mejico. Tan lejos de Dios. Tan cerca de los Estados Unidos.

And they put the pyramids in the wrong place.

Pretty much everything on that list besides the flu is actually the same problem: an economy dominated by producing illegal drugs for the USA.

I guess Mexico ain’t so bad after all.

Also, “Guns” is the American Problem. Gun Runners go south, not north.

Beat me to it karpad.  I was like “Guns??!? WTF??!?  Chris Muir you fucking moron, Mexico is getting the guns from US!” but you put it far more tactfully.

NAFTA was supposed to help Mexicans, but it made the lot of the poor farmer worse than ever.

Don’t do drugs—no demand, no supply, no drug cartels.

The more I see the recent trends in editorial cartooning, the less I think that the Onion’s resident editorial cartoonist is a parody.

Oh wait, I just realized it wasn’t Chris Muir.  Whatever.  Chris Muir is still a fucking moron.

Pretty much everything on that list besides the flu is actually the same problem: an economy dominated by producing illegal drugs for the USA.

And the flu was caused by factory farms producing cheap pork for the USA. So really, it’s the whole fucking list.

You know who doesn’t mind living next to Mexico?  HAPPY WHALES!

Still not as bad as Chris Muir.

All I can say ewwww ewww icky ewww. I know it’s not very articulate but I think I made my point anyway. Oh wait I do have more to say. According to http://tinyurl.com/dbly6v Forbes list of the most violent cities all those issues are in every one of those AMERICAN cities except swine flu which is now in American cities. That might be the only one that flows towards the US. Oh wait except the US has had a vested interest in keeping a high poverty rate in Mexico which forces people to live in unsanitary conditions which allows viruses to mutate and spread quickly. So we’re the bad neighbor Muir.

Yeah, besides the obvious reasons, I really don’t get this cartoon. I like margaritas, butterflies, palm trees, and cool historical stuff! And then throw in some happy whales…

“Pretty much everything on that list besides the flu is actually the same problem: an economy dominated by producing illegal drugs for the USA.”

...you forgot the huge disparity between rich and poor, with little actual middle class. 

In other words, Mexico is now what the Wall Streeters and their Republican puppets want America to become…

Please add to the bullet list: Picks all our fresh food.

I propose a new caption:

“Unemployment, poverty, gangs, guns, swine flu and coups…all coming soon to* a polity near you!!  (Courtesy of the GOP and their sponsors.)”

Yeh, I know it’s not funny.  The thing is, it’s not funny.

*(if not already arrived at)

DonnaDiva—haven’t you heard? The conservatives have “research” showing that only 17% of the guns are from the U.S. It’s bullshit research, of course, and the oft-cited 90% figure is closer to the truth, but the research that supports their point of view is always better, doncha know.

the “joke” behind that cartoon is the same kind of “joke” about rape/sexual harrassment, etc. that certain men seem to get off on while women get told that since they don’t find that funny they need to “lighten up”.

I’m 99.9% sure that this cartoonist is white.
And has never ever taken a history course in his/her life. (It is a her.. .hmmm….)

She DOES do cartoons for the New Yorker and I’m pretty sure those aren’t supposed to be funny. Ever.

I thought the joke was that Mexico could have had a thriving economy, an abundant work force, and some of the most attractive tourist destinations on earth.  It could be one big Southern California.  Instead, it’s become an increasingly violent cesspool of crime and poverty.

So we reaped what we sewed.  And we sewed shit.

It could be one big Southern California.  Instead, it’s become an increasingly violent cesspool of crime and poverty.

Sadly, as a Southern California resident, I have to tell you that we’re rapidly circling the same drain.  Because when you’re facing a potential pandemic, the best possible solution is to cut illegal immigrants off from medical care.  I’d like to know which genius made that decision so I can <strike>punch</strike> thank them.

...you forgot the huge disparity between rich and poor, with little actual middle class. 

In other words, Mexico is now what the Wall Streeters and their Republican puppets want America to become…

Yup.  With the vast majority of the nation’s wealth in the hands of 40 families.  Repeal the “Death Tax”!

Mnemosyne—that was one awesome thing that Rudy Giuliani did as mayor: He told Newt Gingrich and his little “contract with America” brigade to go screw themselves—that in a city of four million people, he wasn’t going to have immigrants afraid to take their kids to the hospital for vaccinations for fear of being turned over to immigration: because that way lead to a public health crisis.

It appears that 15 years later, we’re that much stupider.

I’ve been looking for about five minutes now, and I still can’t find a joke in there.

I think the ‘joke’ is supposed to be the contrast between the happy picture, like a tourist ad, featuring whales and sun and margaritas, and the grimness of the (racist) list.

But strangely, what jumps out at me is…
there is no USA! USA is GONE! Mexico is a beautiful island, not anyone’s neighbor (Central America and nearby islands are gone, too)
If they were an island, they’d be happier. And we’d be non-existent, apparently.

Cartoonist fail.

To be fair, most political cartoons are unfunny, self-righteous and ignorant—which is to say utterly worthless for comedic purposes.  They pretty much aspire to be Doonesbury (which itself once aspired to be Bloom County).

All of this brown-menace shit is starting to piss me off.  To top it off, you’ve got Pat Buchanan once again reciting his reasons why Mexicans are nothing more than plague-spreading animals.  I’ve all ready heard jokes that dig at me and my husband (who’s of Chinese ancestry).

“Thought is was gonna be your old man’s people that did us in!  Nah!  It’s dem Mexicans that put my roof!”

A lot the workers that came here for construction jobs after Katrina decided to live here because there’s still jobs.  Also, the local law enforcement is too concerned with real crimes like growing pot and cooking meth to bother with illegals.  Now, though, I fear for the safety of my many neighbors of questionable immigration status.

They pretty much aspire to be Doonesbury (which itself once aspired to be Bloom County).

I, the biggest Bloom County fan in history, have to LMAO at this one.

Mexico is better than you think. You can take a dump in a regular toilet and mostly drink the water. You can shop in stores and mostly not fear for your life.

Sure there’s poverty, but remittances from the US are working. Five dudes live crammed in a Harrisburg apartment and work like dogs to wire-transfer a couple hundred dollarars to abulita to get her a washing machine. Once she has the machine and doesn’t have to beat clothes on rocks down by the creek, she can teach her grandchildren to write so that they can work at legal resident Primo Ramon’s oil change place.

Mexico is not as bad as you might think. and the Mexican swine flu will kill only a few hundred of us, no worse than a commonplace bad flu year, and less bad than West Nile which has faded into the acceptable background of death in SE Texas.

Our war on under-the-counter drugs is certainly a cause of much of the misery, but Mexico’s rulers have squandered the country’s resources (land, minerals, oil, tourism, and, most of all, its people) for as long as Mexico existed.  (We hsven’t always done so great on those scores either, but we’re certainly better.)

Just as it is here: the drug war didn’t make the ghettoes, it just made the ghettoes more violent.  Now that much of Mexico has pretty much gotten where we are, it’s more or less impossible to make a gun ban work.  Guns are too easy to get, there are too many already in circulation, and they’re not going easily.  What can be worked on is harm reduction.  I see guns and drugs in similar circles: some people don’t want them, some won’t live without them, and anyone with a brain can see how much trouble it will be to “free” others of their “addictions”.  Both can be used or misused, people like them, and that’s where I’d start from in any attempt to reduce the harm caused by each.  Legalize them, and sanity just might prevail as much as it can in this world of too many drugs and guns.  But try to outlaw one or the other and it’s a futile effort to control people.  Mexico can’t, we can’t, but we’re each too stubborn or afraid or proud to see the truth.

but Mexico’s rulers have squandered the country’s resources (land, minerals, oil, tourism, and, most of all, its people) for as long as Mexico existed.  (We hsven’t always done so great on those scores either, but we’re certainly better.)

Just as it is here: the drug war didn’t make the ghettoes, it just made the ghettoes more violent. ...
3letterjon on 04/28 at 12:17 AM

Ach! The condescending tone, it grates!

Perhaps you should read Open Veins of Latin America.

Or just get a clue about how colonialism works, in general.

Hector B wrote:

NAFTA was supposed to help Mexicans, but it made the lot of the poor farmer worse than ever.

Don’t do drugs—no demand, no supply, no drug cartels.

Very, very, very true.  And if you use drugs, don’t blame all of Mexico’s problems on the evil ol’ corporations.

Of course, American drug consumption is hardly Mexico’s only problem, but it sure doesn’t help things much.  But the PRI has run Mexico like a corrupt fiefdom for the better part of a century.

To top it off, you’ve got Pat Buchanan once again reciting his reasons why Mexicans are nothing more than plague-spreading animals.

Buchanan’s horseshit is particularly galling because, with just a minute of thought, one can realize that if this were 1909 instead of 2009, his Irish ass would be the one being described as a plague-ridden animal by some ultra old-skool racist.

”...his Irish ass would be the one being described as a plague-ridden animal by some ultra old-skool racist.”

...oh, but that’s different…somehow…I’m sure…

Mr. Foxwell,

If you are suggesting that Mexico’s leaders generally acted as if they were colonial governors, I agree.

I can’t give them a complete pass for everything just because outside pressure has existed.  Outside pressure affects us, too.  You could say that all American politics is about consuming oil.  Even if it’s functionally true if you look at it a certain way, it ignores too much of life and governance and reality to be able to blame our excesses on OPEC and Canada and Mexico.  And Norway.  Don’t forget Norway.

“DonnaDiva—haven’t you heard? The conservatives have “research” showing that only 17% of the guns are from the U.S. It’s bullshit research, of course, and the oft-cited 90% figure is closer to the truth, but the research that supports their point of view is always better, doncha know.”

I wouldn’t be totally sure of that. Radley Balko is a libertarian blogger (his stuff on police abuses is essential) who I’d generally trust and he seems to believe the claims that the number is quite a bit lower.

It also just seems counterintuitive on the face that the most efficient way for illegal guns to get into Mexico is across the border with the U.S., but maybe so.

Perhaps everybody’s missing the main point of this cartoon, which is that a GIANT FUCKING BUTTERFLY IS MAKING ITS WAY UP THE YUCATAN PENINSULA AND IS ABOUT TO ATTACK CANCUN.

Drug cartels? Kidnappings? Unemployment? Poverty? Gangs?  Guns?

Aside from the kidnappings that sounds like a lot of the US.  At least Mexico only has the swine flu; we’ve got a drug resistant TB problem.  (But we don’t hear shit about that anymore.)

Perhaps everybody’s missing the main point of this cartoon, which is that a GIANT FUCKING BUTTERFLY IS MAKING ITS WAY UP THE YUCATAN PENINSULA AND IS ABOUT TO ATTACK CANCUN.

Now THAT’S a butterfly that could cause a storm by flapping its wings!

Okay, and I’ll give you three guesses where the so-called “Spanish Flu” of 1918 originated.

Hint: it was NOT Spain.

Ready ... KANSAS!

Does this idiot realize that these conditions would NOT exist in Mexico if the US didn’t create or promote them?

That the flu would not come to the US if people didn’t treat Mexico like a Tequilla Beach Playground?

Yes, I knew it was only a matter of time before conservatives started to blame immigration for this swine flu “epidemic”.  In reality, the swine flu is nothing compared to the regular flu that thousands of people get each year.  It’s just one more scare tactic to make people afraid of outsiders.

“And don’t even get me started on LA.”

...what did Louisiana ever do to you?…

I thought he meant Lower Alabama.

Re: tannenburg @5:56

The resemblance may be even closer than you think. Barstow just cribbed this cartoon from the Onion:

http://www.theonion.com/content/node/54367

I like how Mexico is now apparently an island, with a suspiciously straight-looking northern coast…

Fascinating post! And I’m sure the comments are too, but I’m too busy noticing how you just STOLE MY CARTOON, with no mention of my name, or link to me, or permission asked, or copyright mentioned. I own ALL rights to my cartoons.

Do you know anything about blogs? Hello, links? Please, continue to bash or whatever turns you on, but don’t do something so blatantly illegal.

Donna Barstow
http://thecartoons.net/
http://www.gocomics.com/features/295
http://donnabarstow.com/

Alas, fair use, they ignored you well.