Roberts Guts the Voting Rights Act

This cartoon is, of course, addressing the recent Supreme Court ruling that eviscerated the Voting Rights Act. The recent ruling allows gerrymandering that will severely curtail the voting power of entire communities. States are already scrambling to redistrict before the midterms. 

John Roberts, who has a long history of hostility to the VRA, made the statement that “The way to stop discrimination on the basis of race is to stop discriminating based on race” in 2007 during a case about school integration plans. In 2023, when the Roberts court basically ended affirmative action, Justice Kentaji Jackson Brown wrote in her dissent, “With let-them-eat-cake obliviousness, the majority pulls the rip cord and announces ‘colorblindness for all’ by legal fiat. But deeming race irrelevant in law does not make it so in life.” 

The Post-Human Economy

I have always found business reporting to be somewhat interesting in that it provides a peek at what’s happening on the ground beyond the usual political headlines. But lately when I glance at financial news, it seems increasingly untethered to reality and focused on economic activity that offers little to no benefit to society. Stocks jump on the ramblings of a madman who contradicts himself constantly. Everything is AI speculation all the time, alongside crypto and prediction markets. Companies are rewarded for environmental and human rights atrocities (this is nothing new, of course).

Rather than having an economy that serves people, we are witnessing an out-of-control system that incentivizes getting humans out of the way.

Quiz Time: Name That Bellicose Babbler

Since reality was already impossible to exaggerate, I decided to look at other examples of threats uttered by historical figures and famous movie characters. History is littered with over-the-top (and sometimes very odd) quotes from both real and fictitious people trying to verbally intimidate their enemies. Once you start looking at the quotes en masse, they start to seem rather silly. This is not to make light of the situation in the Middle East, which is horrifying. But it’s also possible to place the rhetoric coming out of the White House in the larger context of dumbasses and supervillains. Is this really what we want to be as a nation? A cringe-inducing blend of cheesy Hollywood warlords and humorless dictators of failed states? (Don’t answer that!)

The Charlatan’s Guide to Longevity

Millions of people now trust the profit-driven braindroppings of random podcast bros more than the advice of medical professionals or decades of peer-reviewed research. I almost can’t imagine being this gullible. Everyone wants to believe there’s some “secret” out there that some meathead just discovered. Meanwhile, these scammers are getting rich off of supplement sales, allowing them, ironically enough, to afford healthcare that’s out of reach for an enormous percentage of Americans. This dynamic is not unlike the excellent medical coverage enjoyed by members of the grotesquely anti-science Trump administration.

Insult Bloat

Last week, Pete Hegseth declared that the war on Iran would be different from previous US military invasions. The Defense Department spokesmodel announced: “The dumb, politically correct wars of the past were the opposite of what we’re doing here. They had vague objectives with restrictive, minimalist rules of engagement. No more.”

Now, anyone who remembers the Iraq War knows it was a bloodbath featuring “shock and awe” tactics followed by numerous atrocities against civilians and ghastly revelations of torture. There was widespread public outrage over a few of these incidents, particularly the torture. But the notion that the US had its hands tied by adherence to ethical standards is simply laughable. Which brings us to the larger point of this cartoon: We’ve reached the point where not committing war crimes is being ridiculed as “politically correct.” 

Longtime readers know I despise this phrase, and how its usage (as well as “woke”) has been deployed as a form of linguistic warfare that has successfully redefined morality, human rights, and democracy itself as “liberal” — and therefore weak, effeminate, and inferior.

“Another One Bites the Dust”

It seems like every week or two I’m shocked to discover another brilliant, creative mind has been hijacked by nonsense.This one was inspired by a musician who I recently learned has become something of a right-wing nut, but it could be about a number of people. I’m not naming names; I will leave that to commenters! Annoyingly, whenever this happens, the formerly sane public figure tends to become even more outspoken, which leads to a social media backlash, which leads to the public figure becoming even angrier and more defensive in a doom spiral of lunacy.

The “SAVE Our Dictatorship” Act

The SAVE Act (also referred to as the SAVE America Act) is an incredibly important issue that isn’t being talked about nearly enough. The Brennan Center has been on the case, and you can learn more on their website. The National Women’s Law Center notes the particular impacts on women and trans people who have changed their names. A passport will suffice to prove citizenship, but only about half of Americans have one. As the NWLC notes:

To be crystal clear: this bill could disenfranchise 21.3 million eligible voters who don’t have the required documents ready, and it would particularly impact married women and trans people—all in order to fix a problem that doesn’t exist. Hordes of noncitizens voting in federal elections is a myth. There is zero credible evidence that this happens in any significant numbers. Furthermore, it’s already illegal—any noncitizen caught voting would be breaking the law. 

Hollowed Out Shells

The Chair of the CDC’s vaccine advisory committee recently questioned the necessity of polio vaccines. And in another case of formerly great institutions being gutted, the now oligarch-friendly CBS News has installed an empty suit as its anchor (One must admire the Daily Beast headline: “MAGA-Coded Anchor Scores Lowest Ratings of the Century for CBS News.”)

As so many familiar parts of life become shells of their former selves, it’s worth remembering what’s still decent, human, and real. The neighborliness being shown by the people of Minneapolis seems like America at its best.

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Frozen Dystopia

More Perfect Union has a short video that provides a decent overview of the real motivations behind the Trump administration’s interest in Greenland: rare earth minerals coveted by the tech industry, a longtime fixation on the territory by Trump ally Ron Lauder (heir to the Estee Lauder fortune), oil, and the radical libertarian fantasy of creating a “network state” city there. This last item has not received much national media attention, possibly because it seems so kooky on the surface, but some very powerful interests are serious about this. This TechCrunch article lays out a CEO’s vision of building a prototype of Elon Musk’s Mars outpost here on Earth.

Mr. and Mrs. P’s Holiday Stroll

For many years during the holidays, I had a running theme in which Mr. and Mrs. Perkins were featured doing their gift shopping. This comic is actually a reflection of my own wishes for the season: more than anything, I just want peace, an end to the constant chaos, and a return to basic norms of human decency. It occurred to me that even the phrase “peace on earth and goodwill toward men” now feels strangely controversial. Indeed, the values of the holiday season seem very much in conflict with the brutal social Darwinism that seems to be everywhere now. (Although I will say, on a personal level, I have encountered people being very kind and helpful.)

MurderKorp

As regulations protecting the health and safety of Americans are stripped away, I find myself thinking a lot about the amorality of the marketplace. If the logic of unfettered capitalism is to maximize profits no matter what, and laws enacted in the public interest either no longer exist or are no longer enforced, then we quickly find ourselves in a state of anything-goes anarchy (or anarcho-capitalism, as the sophomoric philosophy is known). Without a responsible government creating ethical boundaries, you get a machine out of control. 

Yes, this is an absurd exaggeration. But there are plenty of corporations whose horrific misdeeds become sanitized when reduced to numbers announced by cheerleaders on a CNBC broadcast. I find this normalization weird and troubling.

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