Cartoon: not everyone bought his shtick

If only we could return him...

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John Darkow, The Week

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-- Marge

Cartoon: justice for the hypocrite

Maybe this is a little devilish for an angel, but it would be satisfying.

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Joe Heller, The Week

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-- Marge

Cartoons: the most apolitical one I could find

This is it.

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Joe Heller, The Week

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-- Marge

Cartoons: another victory for Wall Street

Possibly, the most depressing legislation I've ever seen: Consumers lose chance to sue banks...

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Dan Wasserman, The Week

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-- Marge

Cartoons: let's get this straight

Have our priorities been undermined by Twitter?

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Nate Beeler, The Week

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Or is it just the con man in the White House?

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Drew Sheneman, The Week

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Nine months in captivity for many of us.

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Jack Ohman, The Week

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Drugs--where democracy and wanting a better reality intersect for some. What is a drug czar anyway?

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Tom Toles, The Week

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-- Marge

Cartoon: governing by disruption

Originally I had no cartoon for this week. Instead this article in the Washington Post said something to me: Trump governs by disruption — and overloads all the circuits.

O.K. Just one.

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Milt Priggee, The Week

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-- Marge

Cartoon: a broken ballot box

After very little research and some observation, I've come up with the following definitions for GOP base vs. GOP establishment. Trump's base, for example, is the folks who attend his rallies, commit anti-semitic, racist mayhem, and vote for him. The GOP establishment is the power-mad party that keeps him in office, because they think he will further their interests, such as lower taxes for corporations and the wealthy, repealing Obamacare, etc.

Check out Peter Stevenson's article in the Washington Post for a more reasoned look at "Who exactly is in the ‘GOP establishment?’ (April,2016)".

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Tom Toles, The Week

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Then there's the Russian influence.


-- Marge

Cartoons: junkyard dogs

Why the GOP Congress will be the most unproductive in 164 years (David Faris, The Week)

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Rick McKee, The Week

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-- Marge

Cartoon: Surprise move

When I first saw this cartoon I laughed a wicked little laugh. But generally I tend to favor the liberals.

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Michael Ramirez, The Week

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--Marge

Cartoons: Houston heroes

Just to remind you that there ARE real people left in America who are eager to help out when needed, here's a gaggle of sites showing people being rescued during the flooding in Houston: The Daily Caller; Mashable; and The Stream.

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David Fitzsimmons, The Week

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Then there are some more restrained heroes: North Korean missile flyover unnerves some Tokyoites.

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Terry Mosher, The Week

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-- Marge

Cartoons: branding

Wells Fargo wants us to identify them as rugged, wholesome examples of the American West. So much for branding. With recent revelations about the way the company does business, sneaky two-timing bandits come to mind. Steve Sack captures it well.

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Steve Sack, The Week

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When I was trying to get an idea of what North Korea's Supreme Leader Kim Jong Un is like, he was described as having the same traits as Hitler and Saddam Hussein in the Scientific American article, "The Psychology of Dictatorship," 2011. Cartoonist David Fitzsimmons calls him and Trump megalomaniacs.

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David Fitzsimmons, The Week

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I can really identify with branding nuclear war as the unthinkable.

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Steve Kelley, The Week

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-- Marge

Cartoons: reboots

This seems to be the season of déjà vu--Marvel comics, healthcare in America, and Russian connections.

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Clay Jones, The Week

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It must be confusing for the Republicans, too.

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Walt Handelsman, The Week

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If only this dream would work...

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Tom Toles, The Week

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-- Marge

Cartoons: But who will protect the citizens?

Given Wednesday's attack at the baseball field, it was just a matter of time until lawmakers requested more protection from gun violence: Rattled by shooting, lawmakers want more personal protection. Again the Second Amendment didn't work right:

“A well-regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed.”

Here are 10 arguments each, for and against gun control.

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Clay Jones, The Week

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Maybe I'm being cold-blooded. In my eyes Congress has been coldblooded for years.

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Tom Toles, The Week

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No, I don't have a gun, but someone out there does and enough anger to act out.

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Pat Bagley, The Week

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-- Marge

Cartoons: the big-time operators' tactics

You've probably guessed by now that I see Republicans' tactics as anathema to the well-being of America. Author Robin Abcarian quotes Allen Frances, who recently joined the Democratic Party, in President Trump is a 'world class narcissist,' but he's not mentally ill, says the psychiatrist who helped define narcissism:

Until recently, he said, “I would not have felt wedded to either party, but my highest political principle is fairness. Republicans do everything to rig the system against fairness. I don’t have personal love for the Democratic Party, but it’s the last salvation against the Dark Age.”

My thoughts exactly.

Here are some observations by cartoonists on the Republican approach to repealing Obamacare (AKA the Affordable Care Act).

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David Fitzsimmons, The Week

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Joe Heller, The Week

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And this little gem sums up Republicans' economic approach well.

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Chan Lowe, 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

cartoon: Good-bye, 2016

Sorry, Folks, I was finishing a project and posting cartoons on Friday slipped my aging mind. When I looked at the cartoons available online, I realized no loss--it's Trump again and little else (except bashing Obama--still). Cartoonist Drew Sheneman pretty much sums it up for me.

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Drew Sheneman, The Week

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-- Marge

Cartoons: America Trumped

Well, the Trumping of America is well underway and it looks bad.

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Mike Luckovich, The Week

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Michael Ramirez, The Week

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Tom Toles, The Week

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Adam Zyglis, The Week

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Do say a prayer in support of the Hamilton Electors (Note: Breitbart says the author Philip Bump is a liar).

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Chan Lowe, The Week

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-- Marge

Cartoon: bless me, Lord, I'm a liberal elite

Since the war on D. Trump still wages on, just one cartoon today. The term 'liberal elite' is being bandied about with abandon lately, so I checked into it and found this really interesting video of Kurt Anderson, a writer who has been watching Trump and Hillary for a long time. Kurt Andersen and E. Graydon Carter founded and edited Spy, a somewhat political, mostly satirical magazine that "specialized in intelligent, thoroughly researched, irreverent pieces targeting the American media, entertainment industries and making fun of high society." You might find look at its covers interesting, too.

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Steve Kelley, The Week

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-- Marge

Cartoons: it's all in who's looking at it

Here are some viewpoints you may or may not find laughable.

Many news sources are reporting the demise of ObamaCare, despite its success in some states. The insurance companies are one of the parties contributing to its demise. (In case the print is too small to read, here's what it says: "We're pulling out of the ObamaCare marketplace. We can't continue to sell insurance to the poor if they're going to insist on using it.")

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Drew Sheneman, The Week

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Here's a sweet headline from MarketWatch: Your baby monitor may have contributed to last week’s massive internet hack.

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Dan Wasserman, The Week

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For all the worry about funding another war in the Middle East, we've already funded one right here in America.

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Joe Heller, The Week

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-- Marge

Cartoons: in the belly of the beast

To say that we're living in the belly of the beast sounds overly dramatic, but think about it. There's an election reasonable people can do little about; a tyrant decimating his own population; and school systems so underfunded that the teachers have to supply some necessities out of their own pockets. Then there's the U.S. Congress, so ineffectual that when a cartoonist refers to them as creepy clowns, many of us nod in agreement. Sadly, those elected representatives who make an effort to get something worthwhile accomplished are undermined by those that are there for the perks and/or power.

Here are the visuals for today's comments.

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David Fitzsimmons, The Week

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Steve Breen, The Week

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Nate Beeler, The Week

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Joe Heller, The Week

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-- Marge