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Missing the Story

A few relevant links:

Jessica Valenti on the proposed SC abortion bill

DeSantis takeover of high school athletics board and other official boards

New Idaho bill would criminalize administering mRNA vaccines

Nieman Reports on the open letter to the NYT on trans issues

The sheer volume of hand-wringing about trans kids would suggest this is a national emergency on par with climate change. It seems the mainstream pundit class has fallen for the GOP strategy of making transgender care a political wedge issue while largely ignoring the growing extremism of red state governments.

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Alison Bechdel interview

Last year, The Progressive magazine asked me to interview one of my favorite cartoonists, Alison Bechdel. The interview is finally available online. We had a great chat about her latest book (Are You My Mother?) and the cartooning life, so check it out!

More Maladies of the Information Age

I figured I’d take a break from The Horrors this week, something I could certainly use, and you probably could too. In calmer years past I drew more cultural strips, which are political in their own right, even if political cartoon traditionalists don’t see it that way. I may start doing a few more of these in the months ahead.

I have personally encountered all of the problems illustrated in this cartoon, the most recent one being Game of Thrones spoiler panic. The hubbo and I broke our longstanding rule of not paying for cable TV and signed up for HBO Now with a Roku (CHEAP!) so we could watch the final season of Game of Thrones without people on Twitter ruining it for us. But I haven’t had a chance to watch the latest episode yet, and I feel like I can’t check social media until I do.

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Plastic Straw Man

I realize that straws are merely the tip of the plastic-berg, and that banning them is a small gesture in the grand scheme of things. However, if you’ve been reading The Guardian’s series on the United States of Plastic, you probably aren’t going to be a straw-hugger. (Straw huggers! I wish I’d worked that into the strip.) I am also aware of the fact that some people with disabilities need straws to drink, and I fully support efforts to consider their needs as we take steps to reduce single-use plastics.

Straws are just the latest example of the right seizing on a grave environmental issue to demonize “the liberals” through wild hyperbole. When scientists point out that industrial cattle farming is contributing to climate change, that becomes “the libs want to take away your hamburgers.” In fact, governments, businesses, and individuals are trying to follow the recommendations of science that we drastically reduce plastic and meat use — and relabeling this attempt at responsibility as “liberal” just creates a conspiracy theory out of the only possible ways to respond to these crises. Saying that anyone “wants” to take away your straws is a false, alternate explanation of what is going on. I wish we could go on using straws without consequence!

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Yoga Pants, Destroyers of Western Civilization

Yoga pants may seem like a trivial subject matter, but I’d argue this cultural stuff is way more important than most people realize. It’s about so much more than the pants, which of course I wore as I drew this cartoon. These ideas form our symbolic vocabulary and frame our entire way of seeing the world.

NYT columnist David Brooks is the latest in a long line of yoga pants bashers, from incels who think women wear them to torment men (one of whom committed a mass shooting at a yoga studio, you’ll recall), to a Montana politician who wanted to make them illegal, to random guys in New Zealand. Brooks adds a new angle in a recent column written from the perspective of an online extremist:

Did you really think you could raise me on gourmet coffee and yoga pants and I wouldn’t find a way to rebel against your relativism and materialism? Didn’t you observe the eternal pattern — that if you try to flatten a man to the bourgeois he will rebel by becoming a fanatic?

Ostensibly Brooks is opposing both the alt-right and the “alt-left” (whatever that is — people on Twitter upset about racism, I guess?) in this strange piece, but it reads like his usual shtick of painting liberals as decadent, effeminate aristocrats. Never mind the opulent tastes of the right-wing donor class, or the bourgeois materialism of the Republican suburbs, or the moral travesty of polluters hastening the death of the planet. It is the gourmet coffee and yoga pants leading us to our doom. Which makes me wonder: Does David Brooks only drink Folgers Crystals out of solidarity with the working class? I’m guessing not.

Back to the yoga pants for a sec. It’s ironic that a form of exercise that increases strength and flexibility could be spun as some kind of cultural weakness, but women are used to having our interests diminished as “chick flicks” or “chick lit.” Anything that could be perceived as emasculating is mocked as silly and inferior. The alt-right has its origins in reactionary opposition to women’s empowerment, and equates the liberalization of America with feminization. David Brooks is actually very much in line with this school of thought, though with a more polite pseudo-intellectual veneer.

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Intimi-nation

Over the weekend I encountered a smattering of stories about the intimidation tactics being used by the growing extremist movement within GOP. This is nothing new, of course, as we’ve seen all manner of threats against politicians, election officials, schools, etc. in recent years. The latest stories have been about the bullying of House Republicans as they vote for a new Speaker, much of it coming from supporters of Jim Jordan (CNN posted the audio of one threatening call to a lawmaker’s wife). Mitt Romney recently revealed that another Republican senator voted against convicting Trump during his January 6 impeachment because he feared for his family’s safety. Trump himself been attacking judges and prosecutors handling his various cases, leading to predictable death threats. The blog Lawyers, Guns and Money has a quick rundown of various incidents.

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The next cryptocurrencies

As I was penciling this, Paul Krugman’s latest column on the Bitcoin bubble went up. Krugman makes some of the same points I make in the cartoon.

For more on the incredible energy use that goes into mining Bitcoin, this Arstechnica piece is a good place to start. This site has some eyebrow-raising stats, such as the fact that the number of U.S. households that could be powered by Bitcoin is 4,252,394. To quote from this Motherboard article making the Denmark comparison:

Even in the optimistic scenario, just mining one bitcoin in 2020 would require a shocking 5,500 kWh, or about half the annual electricity consumption of an American household. And even if we assume that by that time only half of that electricity is generated by fossil fuels, still over 4,000 kg of carbon dioxide would be emitted per bitcoin mined. It makes you wonder whether bitcoin could still be called a virtual currency, when the physical effects could become so tangible.

Emphasis mine. It’s extremely ironic, then, that a currency this inefficient and destructive to the planet — it’s mostly powered by Chinese coal-burning plants, according to Digiconomist — has become the darling of Libertarian utopianists who think they’re creating a futuristic paradise.

Fair Pay Poster

Here’s the latest in my series for the National Women’s Law Center.

Printable version here. You can share on Facebook here.

CD cover art: Relache “Comix Trips”

Belatedly sharing this CD cover project for classical label Meyer Media. Relâche is collective of musicians in Philadelphia that has been performing avant-garde “Downtown meets Dada” compositions since 1979. I was honored to be asked to illustrate the cover of their latest album, “Comix Trips.” It’s a good album, too! Really quirky, fun, modern compositions that cartoon fans would appreciate.

Reader mail on right-wing “political correctness”

I appreciated this note from reader Alex, in response to my recent comic on the concept of political correctness:

I’ve been reading your comic for years and I loved your latest one on right wing political correctness—something that seems to get completely ignored!

I’ve made a list of right wing political correctness in the States I thought you’d enjoy:

You cannot critique:
Military
Police officers (particularly policeMEN), firefighters (particularly fireMEN)
America
Americanism
Patriotism/Nationalism/Fourth of July
Christians
Christian Holidays (and you must say Merry Christmas/Happy Easter)
White victims of crime/trauma
Football
Eating meat
Guns

You cannot use:
[The terms] heteronormative, internalized misogyny, implicit bias/racism, white privilege, racist (must say racial bias), sexist
Data, science, statistics that contradicts “feelings” (of white people that is)
Words to describe terrorists other than Islamic extremist .

You cannot talk about:
Drug addicts as victims rather than criminals
Reasons why someone might get an abortion
Birth control
Criminals as people
Terrorists as people
Cycles of poverty
Terrorism committed by white people
Excitement about “first woman” or “first X”

2012 Wrap-Up: Stuff I Did This Year

Hard to believe it’s time to change the copyright date on my cartoons again, but alas, here we are. I’m both humbled and happy to report that 2012 was my best year yet as a Cartooning Professional. Thanks to all those publications that made it possible by using my comics and freelance illustrations, and thanks to readers who lent their support through print orders, donations, and thoughtful comments here and elsewhere.

Some highlights of 2012:

In March, I found out I was this year’s Herblock Prize Finalist. With my prize money, I purchased an emerald-encrusted mechanical pencil with a burled walnut barrel and deluxe boar leather handgrip. OK, maybe I didn’t.

In May, I flew to Vegas for the National Cartoonists Society annual gathering. There, I mingled with a number of the nation’s comic strip artists amidst the constant presence of cocktails. I felt briefly fancy, then returned home with a suitcase full of dirty laundry and no longer felt fancy.

Road trippin'

Shortly afterward, Mr. Slowpoke and I began an epic road trip from the Northwest to Austin, TX. During the drive, while we were somewhere in the middle of Utah,  Kaiser Health News posted my comic about freelancers and health insurance (“An Open Letter to the Supreme Court About Health Insurance“), which blew up and became one of KHN’s most-read stories ever. (Clearly the SCOTUS decision upholding the Affordable Care Act was all thanks to me. You’re welcome.)

In June, I attended Netroots Nation in Providence, RI, where I was on a panel with fellow Daily Kos cartoonists Tom Tomorrow and Matt Bors. As an added bonus, Paul Krugman showed up in the audience while I was at the podium. Fortunately, I realized this after I sat down.

Making new friends at Big Nazo in Providence, RI

Also in June, I found out that I won the 2012 Association of Alternative Newsweeklies Awards for Best Cartoon. Huzzah!

In September, I covered the Democratic National Convention in Charlotte for the Austin Chronicle and C-VILLE Weekly. I can now say I saw the Foo Fighters live.

Me with the entire Obama family

A few days later, I was off to Washington, DC for the Association of American Editorial Cartoonists convention, where I gave a few presentations. I participated in the cartoon version of a “Literary Death Match,” in which I was narrowly defeated in the final round by Keith Knight, who drew better blindfolded than I did (I’m sure he cheated).

With Clay Bennett and Tom Tomorrow at AAEC. Photo by Bruce Guthrie

My travel season finally over, the fall brought an abundant harvest of freelance work, most notably a series of WPA-style posters for the National Women’s Law Center. This gave me a chance to admire the incredible handiwork that went into the old WWII posters, and to spend way too much time thinking about fonts.

Around this time, the Center for Cartoon Studies unveiled a tribute poster to Matt Groening’s “Life in Hell.” I was flattered to ask to participate. My contribution was published on Slate.

The year was rounded out with a pleasant interview with Tom Racine of “Tall Tale Radio.”

Whew, I’m exhausted just thinking about all that stuff. Here’s hoping 2013 is similarly righteous. I’ll be unleashing a completely revamped website in the new year, so stay tuned for that. Cheers!

Delayed posting + WaPo article

I had a whirlwind of a week in DC for the Herblock ceremony, and did not get around to posting the latest cartoon on Monday as usual. Fortunately(?), Donald Sterling is still making headlines by putting his foot in his mouth.

Also, be sure to check out this truly wonderful Washington Post article by Michael Cavna that was published the day of the Herblock event.