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Tips for Stopping Extremist Violence

Sometimes I can’t believe the things I have to draw cartoons about these days. When I began the weekly strip some eighteen years ago or so, I never imagined I’d be making the case against fascism in America. It felt like the dam broke this past week, that whatever was holding back an explosion of violent nutballery that’s been waiting in the wings is now gone. All I can do is try to point out the obvious, that these acts are the culmination of decades of over-the-top conspiracy theorizing and incitement on the American right. And no amount of being “nicer” or more “open-minded” is going to change things.

Voter Suppression Funnies

So, Alabama is shuttering drivers license offices in every county in which African-Americans comprise 75% or more of voters, and Kansas has an anti-immigrant zealot as its Secretary of State, who is purging some 36,000 names from a list of citizens who tried to register to vote but could not complete the process (sometimes unknowingly) because they didn’t have a birth certificate handy. This is all supposedly in the name of preventing “voter fraud” — an event so rare as to be statistically nonexistent — while perpetrating the outlandish fraud of disenfranchising tens of thousands of voters.

And much of America snoozes while all this is happening.

(PS: Just saw that the Governor of Alabama has responded to the outcry by offering to open those offices one day a month. This announcement came a day before Hillary Clinton’s visit to Alabama.)

Tips for Holiday Cheer

Okay, I suppose things got a little dark this week. I’ve been wanting to comment on the weirdness of experiencing all the usual holiday frivolity during these very abnormal times. Just the other day, there was news of greenhouse gas emissions accelerating like a “speeding freight train” on the same day Trump announced a plan to open up nine million acres of land reserved for sage grouse protection to oil exploration. And in a chilling display of authoritarianism, the Republican legislature in Wisconsin voted in the dead of night to strip away power from the newly-elected Democratic governor. While these stories made newspaper headlines, I don’t entirely get the sense that Americans, as a whole, are deeply rattled. Bells continue to jingle and car antlers continue to sprout. Not that I begrudge people their reindeer fun. Indeed, it is possible to affix a plush red Rudolph nose to the grill of one’s automobile and be concerned about the demise of democracy at the same time.

Death Worship

I keep encountering this specious argument that “religious freedom” is under attack because in-person services are being restricted while other businesses deemed essential remain open. A more accurate comparison would be indoor concerts, which have been largely shut down. Contrary to Justice Samuel Alito’s claim of victimhood in a recent Federalist Society speech in which he stated “religious liberty is fast becoming a disfavored right,” literally no one is trying to stop people from worshipping. It is simply a fact that in-person services have been a vector for spreading COVID not just in the US, but around the world, and that safer alternatives to congregating indoors exist. Moreover, this is not simply a matter of individual beliefs, but the lives of those outside one’s church. As Justice Sotomayor put it, the Court is playing “a deadly game” that “will only exacerbate the Nation’s suffering.”

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Moment of reckoning at the DNC

Almost two years ago, I wrote about my hopes for a challenger to Hillary in the Democratic primary. Like many, I’d been frustrated by what I saw as a lack of consistency and commitment to progressive values. So I’ve been open to criticism of her record, and attempts to nudge her in a better direction. Fast forward 23 months: While in Philly for the DNC, I had many conversations with people who don’t necessarily follow politics as closely as I do, or who get their information from less-than-scrupulous outlets, and I was stunned by the depth of paranoia and conspiracy theorizing about her. Of course, I was aware of this problem up to a point. But so many people are still hung up on Benghazi, her email server, even outlandish murder theories I’d never heard before. Most seemed scared of Trump, but were so wary of Clinton that they wouldn’t commit to voting for her. Granted, this is all anecdotal, but it was enough to leave me feeling alarmed.

I think it’s worth reminding ourselves that, in both positive and negative ways, Hillary is very much like Obama. Both have engaged in pandering to the right when it suited them, and both have been problematic on TPP, but both have also cared deeply about healthcare and many other progressive causes. If anything, Clinton is now running a bit to the left of Obama; Bernie succeeded in improving the platform in very meaningful ways. So people who think Obama is fine or at least acceptable, but Hillary is evil incarnate, are at least partly succumbing to a caricature that has been crafted over decades by the right. It would be nice if everyone could celebrate the truly historic nature of her candidacy, at least for a moment.

“The Late-Night TV Circus”

In the past year, we’ve seen a changing of the guard (or planned change) on The Tonight Show, NBC’s Late Night, The Late Show with David Letterman, The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson, The Colbert Report, and The Daily Show. That’s six major nighttime TV shows, exactly zero of which have chosen a woman as replacement host. (Yes, I am aware of Samantha Bee getting a show on TBS. I’m talking about the heirs to longstanding franchises here.)

Most people seem to just nod their heads and accept this without realizing how utterly weird it is. Women comprise over half the population. There are lots of female comedians. Yet the entertainment industry clearly believes that America is not ready for a woman in such a role. Don’t get me started on the “not enough ladies in the pipeline” excuse — I’m reasonably certain that if a woman had Jimmy Fallon’s standup abilities, she’d still be doing open mics at the Crab Shack instead of pulling down $12 million a year like Fallon.

As a female-type person who deals in political humor, I can’t help but take this stuff personally. To me, it feels like these are impossible biases that we’ll never overcome. It makes me wonder whether this country is capable of electing a female president. My guess, I’m sorry to say, is that we’re not.

On a lighter note, this would be my first Family Circus parody, which was fun to draw. I don’t think “Jeffy,” who now draws the strip, will mind — he bought me beers once.

TV Appearance on Fusion Network

I recently appeared on Open Source with Leon Krauze to discuss America’s extreme economic inequality. The show is on the Fusion Network, a new cable channel from ABC News and Univision.

Political cartoonists are rarely interviewed on TV, which is strange when you consider how frequently opinion columnists or obscure academic authors make appearances as talking heads. Thanks to Fusion for having me as a guest.

Not Helping, Mueller Report Edition

Ugh, the dumb takes on the redacted Mueller Report are flying from every direction. Mueller himself is partly to blame, for entrusting Republicans in Congress to conduct oversight and for speaking in elliptical bureaucratese that leaves itself open to spin and gross failures of reading comprehension. The report’s damning evidence was greeted by weak messaging from the Democratic leadership, with Steny Hoyer timidly saying impeachment was “not worthwhile” and Nancy Pelosi in Belfast stating that, while on a Congressional delegation overseas, “We do not leave the country to criticize the president of the United States.” She promised to follow up on the report, but I mean, come on. Can you imagine this ho-hum response from Republicans if Democrats sought and received help from Russia to win an election? I’m not saying the Dems have to commit to impeachment (though I believe Elizabeth Warren’s response was morally just). But at least show some proper outrage and say “THIS IS APPALLING!”

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This week’s cartoon: Handy Candidate Comparison Chart

I find that people who spew the platitude that “the candidates are the same” tend to be the ones who have the least to lose if the wrong candidate is elected. At risk of sounding melodramatic, these elections truly are a matter of life and death. If you end the Affordable Care Act and millions of Americans lose their health insurance, people will die as a result. A recent estimate puts the number at 26,000 deaths per year due to lack of insurance; that’s more than a few September 11ths. Then there’s the Global Gag Rule, which Romney would reinstate. It rarely gets mentioned, but this policy wreaks havoc on women in impoverished nations. Romney would also end contributions to the U.N. Population Fund, which combats the spread of HIV and prevents 22,000 deaths annually.

These are but a few examples. Turning Medicare into a voucher program, radicalizing the Supreme Court for a generation, and displaying an open hostility toward science probably won’t help things either. Obama isn’t perfect, but as far as I’m concerned, voting is a moral arithmetic problem with a clear answer.

Crushing Dissent

The criminalization of protest is the biggest attack on First Amendment rights of our time, and a major part of the authoritarian playbook. This Vox article breaks down the dangerous new Oklahoma law, which creates immunity for drivers who are “fleeing.” (Republican sponsors of the bill say it sets a “high bar,” but when it comes to policing and protests, such details seem highly malleable.) Florida, meanwhile, has passed a slew of draconian anti-protest measures that loosely define the concept of a “riot” and pretty much entrap anyone standing in the wrong place at the wrong time, leaving them open to felony charges.

Authoritarian Funnies, Kettling Edition

The mass arrests at the Trump inauguration protests (and at other protests around the country) are a breathtaking abuse of power that should leave every American appalled, no matter what their political leanings.

For more on the latest efforts to criminalize protest, read this op-ed column by a woman who happened to be at the wrong place at the wrong time and has spent the last year fighting felony charges. This is also chilling. Did I mention the police were doing body cavity searches that left a photojournalist feeling as though he’d been raped?

I still remember being horrified by the indiscriminate roundups at the 2004 Republican National Convention in NYC, when hundreds of people were trapped and unlawfully detained by the NYPD. A decade later, the city settled a lawsuit for $18 million.

Cloud Control

It was time to upgrade my version of Photoshop last week, and as many a visual artist can tell you, Adobe is steering its users into the “Creative Cloud.” This is a monthly subscription service, wherein the same programs that cost several hundred dollars in 2006 now cost… well, there’s no telling really, since you keep paying into infinity. Apparently paying for software you can install on your computer and use as long as you like is passé. Not long after I purchased an old-fashioned non-cloud program, the Adobe server crashed, preventing people everywhere from signing into the cloud for a day or so. You could almost hear the screams of designers around the world.

If you’re a cartoonist who doesn’t need all the latest advanced photography features, I recommend buying one of the vanishing copies of Photoshop CS6 and sitting on it.