Cartoons: McKinley (again), Republicans, and Trump

Today we have some reactions to renaming Mount McKinley Denali; an on-target observation about Republicans; and the (currently) obligatory jab at D. Trump, who says he's a Republican.

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Chan Lowe, The Week

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Drew Sheneman, The Week

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Mike Luckovich, The Week

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RJ Matson, The Week

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-- Marge

Cartoons: the elephant in the room

Today's mix includes cartoonists' comments on the recent FCC (Federal Communications Commission) ruling on net neutrality, the Republican Party, jobs for potential terrorists, and pizza delivery via drone.

It's beginning to look like even some Republicans are unhappy with their party.

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Mike Luckovich, The Week

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Apparently, Americans are ready and waiting for delivery by drone.

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Chan Lowe, The Week

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Michael Tomasky at the Daily Beast admits: "Yes, I’ll Say It: Marie Harf Had a Point." Few in the news media appear to agree.

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Michael Ramirez, The Week

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In this cartoon the FCC is portrayed as antiquated. Lawrence Lessig says it's the internet in America that's behind the times:

Defenders of the status quo are now frantically filling the tubes with FUD about the FCC's decision. But as you work through this FUD, keep one basic fact clear. Relative to practically every other comparable nation, America's broadband sucks. Seriously, sucks. Even France beats us in cost and quality. And as the genius Yochai Benkler established in the monumental report by the Berkman Center commissioned by the FCC after Obama was elected, the single most important reason our broadband sucks is the sell-out regulatory strategy of the prior decade at least. Nations that imposed neutrality-like rules beat us, in cost and quality. They have more competition, faster growth, and better access. So for anyone remotely connected to reality-based policy making, it has been clear forever that America made a wrong turn in its regulatory strategy, and that we needed an about face.

BTW, FUD stands for Fear, Uncertainty and Doubt.

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Nate Beeler, The Week

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IMHO, with respect to net neutrality and many other federal issues, the elephant in the room is American worship of the almighty dollar.

-- Marge

Thomas Nast vs. Boss Tweed

In a previous post about editorial cartoonists, "Cartoons that can change history," I mentioned Thomas Nast.  Today I'm going more into detail on his work.  He was a cartoonist, an illustrator of children's books, and a contemporary of Lincoln.  And, between his publication, Harper's Weekly, and the New York Times, Boss Tweed was indeed brought down.  For biographical info on Nast, you can type his full name into the search input at Google and get a short history, pulled in from Wikipedia, some images and other searches related to Nast, and about 1,470,000 results.  The same is true for typing in Boss Tweed, except only 1,300,000 results.  A cartoon portfolio of Nast's work can be found at Ohio State University's site.

Nast's was published from 1859 to 1886.  He supported Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation and in the 1863 cartoon below linked emancipation with patriotism.

The cartoon below, also from OSU's site "was widely reproduced by the Republican Party for use in President Lincoln’s campaign."

His campaign against Tammany Hall and Boss Tweed deeply undermined the organization, which was considered a Democratic machine at the time.  Below is his depiction of a gouty fallen ex-gladiator.

Harper's Weekly went out of print in 1916.  And, since Nast's time, the Democratic and Republican parties have essentially switched roles.  PBS has a timeline of the political parties active during Lincoln's time.  Lincoln's opponent during the election of 1864 was George McClellan, a democrat.

It's interesting to note that all of the original images were woodcuts.  Maybe sometime soon a post on printing techniques...

-- Marge