The Sorensen Monologues

Collusion Confusion

Pretty straightforward one this week. This child sex ring thing keeps coming up in Alex Jones’s conspiracy theories, with him accusing Mueller of being a pedophile recently.

In other news, I wrote and created artwork for a Nib animation that was published the other day — you can see it here (mine starts at the 0:57 mark). FOLLOW THE CRUMBS, MUFFINHEADS!

Let it Beef

Americans are gluttons for news stories about smackdowns, insults, and personal rivalries. Someone says something outrageous on Twitter? We’re all over it. As for slightly more abstract issues like gerrymandering, we just don’t get as worked up. Some of us do, to be sure. But if gerrymandering could be translated into a simple verbal insult, it might resonate with more people. In this cartoon, I’m of course referring to the recent Supreme Court decision that allowed Texas’s discriminatory redrawing of Congressional maps.

Did you know that sea cows once existed? Now extinct, the Steller’s Sea Cow roamed the Bering Sea before humans hunted it into oblivion. Unfortunately, the sea cow did not resemble an actual cow.

Pros and Cons of the New Supreme Court

While I applaud the efforts to block Kavanaugh from joining the Court, I can’t help but feel that particular pooch was screwed a long time ago. To mix metaphors horribly: the ship of judicial extremism has sailed, the horse of market fundamentalism has left the barn. There isn’t even a barn anymore — it’s now a big box store.

I keep thinking of this dude I met when I was in Wisconsin in September of 2016. He was determined to vote for Jill Stein to “send a message.” I pleaded with him for half an hour, citing the Supreme Court over and over, but in the end he seemed unconvinced. Roe was a stake, and nobody seemed to care.

If you want to feel alarmed, read this Daily Kos diary about Kavanaugh and the environment, and this NYT column about the Court’s evisceration of voting rights. This ThinkProgress post about voting rights is also good.

If Life Imitated Politics

The Supreme Court announcement happened a little too late for my deadline this week, but I’m not sure I have too much to say right now.

Mr. Slowpoke and I have often marveled how U.S. politics can be so awash in unreality while other aspects of life still proceed mostly according to the laws of empiricism. Certainly there are scams and lies in everyday life too, but the idea of truth still exists in many places where society needs it to function. Airplane mechanics: still reality-based (for now)! If other fields took the same approach to facts as the White House, we’d quickly devolve into total chaos. Alas, this may be the case soon enough as all regulation of business ceases.

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Cartoon: Fun with Ethno-nationalist Dog Whistles

Like many progressive-minded Americans, I wish we could do a lot of things here the way they are done in Europe. So I’ve found it ironic and darkly humorous that various factions of the alt-right are touting the greatness of “European culture.” Unfortunately, it’s the fascism they’re drawn to.