Cartoons: White House anomalies

So far we've seen a number of events and actions coming from and related to the White House that just don't make sense and/or look fishy.

Trump's trips to Mar-a-Lago and their estimated cost are still an unknown, but they look pretty pricey. The sheriff of the local police department says his department has accrued $1.5 million in overtime costs and he thinks the Feds will reimburse him.

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Bill Day, The Week

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Cartoonist Tom Toles suggests that Trump's infrastruction plan includes privatizing national monuments. Seems plausible to me.

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Tom Toles, The Week

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Meanwhile the U.S.S. Carl Vinson may have made an illegal left turn, maybe not.

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Nate Beeler, The Week

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For sure, many Trump products for sale were not manufactured in the U.S.

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Chan Lowe, The Week

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In closing, here are some basic truths about the U.S. vs. Korea matter.

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Drew Sheneman, The Week

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-- Marge

Cartoons: Say good-bye to Big Bird

If the federal budget as currently proposed passes, Big Bird, National Public Radio (NPR), and support for local art projects may go away: Trump's Budget Plan Cuts Funding For Arts, Humanities And Public Media. These aren't the only proposed cuts, but the ones that strike me hardest.

"Millions of Americans depend on their local public radio station for the fact-based, objective, public service journalism they need to stay informed about the world and about the news in their own communities. Public media serves the public interest with essential educational, news and cultural programming not found anywhere else, as well as vital information during local and regional emergencies. Federal funding is an essential ingredient to making this possible." -- NPR COO Loren Mayor 

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Gary Varvel, The Week 

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Speaking of strikes, Trump's hit a lot closer to home than Obama's did.

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Tom Toles, The Week

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So who's running the White House: Trump or Bannon?

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Drew Sheneman, The Week

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Am I being paranoid or is the aim of Trump's billionaire cabinet to take total and absolute control?

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Bill Day, The Week

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-- Marge

Cartoons: Gag orders from the president

This caught my attention:

The Trump administration is clamping down on public communications by agencies as it seeks to assert control over the federal bureaucracy. (The Hill)

The Huffington post says it this way: Federal Workers Told To Halt External Communication In First Week Under Trump.

The USDA says the order rescinded, according to Reuters in the article titled USDA disavows gag-order emailed to scientific research unit. Here's a quote from the article:

[The memo] centralizes the agency’s media inquiries and social media presence through the Office of the Secretary. As part of that, the memo asks USDA agencies to “review their websites, blog posts and other social media and, consistent with direction you will receive from the Office of Communication, remove references to policy priorities and initiatives of the previous Administration.”

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Bill Day, The Week

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Cartoonist John Darkow draws a parallel between Trump's media practices and Orwell's novel 1984. If you'll recall it featured doublespeak and Newspeak. Note that the entry "is part of a series on misinformation and disinformation."

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John Darkow, The Week

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--Marge

Cartoons: mixed messages

Today's mix of cartoons includes a comment on Jon Stewart's departure from TV, one on mindless violence in theaters, and a perspective on the recent Republican debates.

Follow this link for a video of Jon Stewart’s final sign off for The Daily Show. He was one of the best for holding Fox News at bay. I'll miss that.

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Steve Sack, The Week

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CBS in Washington, DC, asks readers in a poll: Amid Recent Attacks, Do Movie Theaters Need More Security? Not many have answered yet so there's still time to have your say.

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Steve Kelley, The Week

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USA Today reports, "Thursday's Republican primary debate nabbed a huge 24 million viewers Thursday, ranking as the most-watched primary debate ever." I'm guessing Donald Trump was the reason.

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Bill Day, The Week

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-- Marge

Cartoons: sellouts and those clueless

Sometimes we sellout to gain money or security or even love; sometimes we don't know we're selling out 'til it's over. Here are some examples.

Picasso didn't sellout, but the art world has. The latest price is $179 million dollars.

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Steve Breen, The Week

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It's beginning to look like the Democratic Party is putting all of it's eggs in one basket--Hillary. Is this a sellout or are they just clueless?

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Michael Ramirez, The Week

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At the risk of offending my religious readers, my view of religion is that it has for centuries sold out our spirituality. There I said it.

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Mike Luckovich, The Week

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Drone warfare is still war. Has war been declared? No, but the U.S. Congress approves of the drone strikes.

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Bill Day, The Week

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-- Marge

Cartoons: the baby in the room

It's a new year with new opportunities to address old problems. What will we do?

I don't think talking about it on Facebook will help, but I could be wrong.

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David Fitzsimmons, The Week

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Putin's bluster is wearing thin with the collapse of the ruble and the new year isn't opening well for him.

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John Deering, The Week

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Meanwhile, just about everyone is blaming Obama.

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Bill Day, The Week

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Lower prices at the gas pump doesn't necessarily mean lower prices at the ticket counter.

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Chan Lowe, The Week

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One plastic bottle or little green army man overboard doesn't matter, does it?

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Jack Ohman, The Week

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-- Marge

Cartoons: mostly about ISIS

Today's selection of cartoons include some observations about ISIS (vs. ISIL), PTSD, and climate change.

To keep up with news on ISIS and related topics, you may want to pin NBC News' ISIS Terror page in your browser. On the other hand you may want to opt out of watching the news on the grounds that it's just another way for the fear mongers to sell stuff.

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Walt Handelsman, The Week

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Marshall Ramsey, The Week

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Cameron Cardow, The Week

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A fair amount has been said about the U.S.'s continuing involvement in the Middle East and Africa. There's a collection of articles at the Economist that dig a little deeper, beginning with "Caliphornia dreamin’"(look for links to the other articles at the bottom of the page). BTW, PTSD is Posttraumatic Stress Disorder. (Had to look it up myself--funny, but perpetual sounds more right.)

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Milt Priggee, The Week

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Citizens supporting global action against climate change demonstrated on the 21st; a report and slideshow are available at the New York Times website.

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Bill Day, The Week

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-- Marge

Cartoons: Paycheck fairness

On April 9th, the Huffington Post ran this article:  Senate Republicans Block Paycheck Fairness Act For Third Time. The Equal Pay Act of 1963 (Wikipedia version) was the first effort to make pay levels more fair.  So what's taking so long?

Cartoons seem almost inappropriate here, but sometimes humor helps us see more clearly.

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Pat Bagley, Cagle

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Bill Day, Cagle

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Rick McKee, Cagle

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Dave Granlund, Cagle

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Bill Day, Cagle

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-- Marge

This Friday's incongruous but funny cartoons

Before I begin, let me thank the online magazine The Week for such a fine selection of cartoons, some of which you will find below.

Newton's cradle (which illustrates conservation of momentum) and the news are combined by Steve Sack in "The domino effect:"

Gary McCoy postulates how a pope who is friendly and willing to to wade into crowds to greet people might handle security in his cartoon, "Pope of the people:"

 

Since the GOP's loss to Obama, many are pronouncing the party dead; Mike Luckovich takes the analogy one step further in "An honest reflection."

There's a fair amount of discussion lately about Americans' love of guns and the American gun culture.  Bill Day's image below, titled "Build-in," pretty much sums it up.

Returning to the combination of science (or more accurately mathematics) and cartoon, here's Tom Toles' combination of asymtote, train, and budget in "Chugging along.".  For a less geeky explanation of this word, try this reference at Wordnik.

Such are today's jewels.

-- Marge

Some recent cartoons that resonate (for me)

Editorial, aka political, cartoons offer us a glance at current issues and sometimes evoke a laugh. And sometimes they carry a message that goes deeper than the topic at hand.  Since I realize that not everyone sees things the same way, my offering today comes with the "for me" caveat.

At the US News & World Report site in a section called January Whispers I found this cartoon by Dan Wasserman:

At The Week is this gem by Bill Day:

From David Horsey's blog at the LA Times site, called Top of the Ticket, here's one:

In my online look-about today I found an organization for editorial cartoonists -- the Association of American Editorial Cartoonists (AAEC).  You can find cartoons here as well, such as Adam Zyglis on climate change:

That's it for today, folks.  Have a great weekend.

-- Marge