Cartoons: Ebola, suing Obama, Russian hackers and agribiz

Well, at least it's not wars and rumors of war this week.  Instead we have the Republicans approving Boehner's lawsuit against Obama, threat of bodily harm by the Ebola virus, and Russian hackers stealing more than a billion usernames and passwords.  Also there's a comment on whether junk food is cheaper than healthy food.

Just the day before beginning summer recess, Republicans voted to sue Obama.  I think the following cartoon adequately describes the U.S. Congress' actions since Obama entered office.

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Adam Zyglis, The Week

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A majority of Americans disapprove of the GOP's lawsuit, according to the Huffington Post.

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David Fitzsimmons, The Week

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Meanwhile, Ebola spreads.

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Drew Sheneman, The Week

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Promising experimental drugs and vaccines are being developed for reputedly incurable Ebola, but there are obstacles, some man-made.

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Chip Bok, The Week

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It would be easy to say that the theft of 1.2 billion user login credentials by Russian hackers is a response to current sanctions, but the records were amassed earlier.  It's possible that release of the information about the hack was timed for maximum affect.

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Mike Luckovich, The Week

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Finally, Is Junk Food Really Cheaper?

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Pat Bagley, The Week

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-- Marge

Cartoons: snapshot of America on this 4th

While, as Steve Breen asserts in the cartoon below, many of us still value life, liberty, freedom, and the pursuit of happiness, some in America don't value these rights so much.  This is especially true when the self-evident rights of others are concerned.  Here are some dos and don'ts for today's America.

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Steve Breen, US News

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If you pray, pray for a tolerant employer.

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Jack Ohman, US News

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Forget what you love to do, learn what will bring home the bacon.

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Michael Ramirez, US News

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When faced with an anti-Obama Congress, use executive actions to get things done.

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Dana Summers, US News

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Watch out for underhanded play in the marketplace.

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Drew Sheneman, US News

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-- Marge

Cartoons: Carry a big Sharpie

Among the perpetual reports of unwelcome news: Iraq is back again. For extensive coverage, check out NBC's "Iraq Turmoil" page. As you have probably heard, ISIS is the new enemy. Daveed Gartenstein-Ross' article "Why Iraq's jihadists just keep on coming back meaner" is a good read on the topic.

Today's political cartoons aren't particularly funny (my apologies), but they do offer some good insights.

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Dana Summers, US News

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John Cole, The Week

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Walt Handelsman, The Week

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-- Marge

Cartoons: the genie out of the bottle

Gary Varvel, The Week

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The news this week may appear to be about Eric Cantor, House Majority Leader, losing the Virginia primary to a Tea Party candidate, but it's really about what voters will tolerate.  In the Washington Post's Opinion Section E.J. Dionne says:

We’ll never know whether Cantor would have done better if he had held steady on the subject [of immigration reform]. What we do know is that sending out campaign literature bragging about a news story that declared him “the No. 1 guy standing between the American people and immigration reform” did nothing to placate or persuade those who were out to defeat him.

Dionne's article is an excellent look at Republicans, the Tea Party, and the effectiveness of Republican attack ads, presumably backed by Big Money Republicans.

I don't know about you, but to me the Tea Party has become scary. They seemed innocent enough when they started out and their goals looked good, then they shut down the U.S. government and gloated about it.

At least the cartoonists can still evoke a laugh.

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Adam Zyglis, The Week

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Steve Sack, The Week

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Michael Ramirez, US News

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R J Matson, The Week

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Interesting that in this last cartoon Google takes on the role of Supreme Manipulator.

-- Marge

Cartoons: Crimea and winter

There's a lot of news about Putin annexing Crimea, and sanctions against it, and who-did-what-and-why.  Even Sergei Khrushchev, son of Nikita Khrushchev, is weighing in--he's writing a series of articles titled "Crimea: Whose land is this?" Note that it's published by Aljazeera (link resolves to the American edition) and that he clearly has a chip on his shoulder for the U.S.:

In Washington DC, the best minds of the Obama administration were feverishly thinking how else to make it more difficult for the recalcitrant citizens of Crimea. They will definitely think of something since they have a lot of experience in doing so. After all, Iraqis, Iranians, Syrians, Libyans and the Lebanese have long stopped celebrating.

Here's what some of the political cartoonists are saying.

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Jimmy Margulies, USA Today

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Walt Handelsman, US News

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Steve Sack, The Week

Meanwhile, on the winter front--

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Bob Englehart, The Week

-- Marge

Cartoons: Obamacare

I know, I know, it's all you hear about lately.  But the cartoonists are having a field day -- here are 6 of 141 political cartoons on Obamacare, found at the US News website.

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Tom Stiglich, USNews

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Drew Sheneman, USNews

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Drew Sheneman on Obamacare, USNews

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Michael Ramirez, USNews

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Drew Sheneman on Obamacare and small business, USNews

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Walt Handelsman on fixing Obamacare, USNews

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I just tried HealthCare.gov, the site for signing for Obamacare, and it worked just fine (loading the front page, that is). 

-- Marge

Cartoons: comments on recent news

There's an interesting piece of news today, Folks.  Jeff Bezos, founder and CEO of Amazon.com, just bought the Washington Post.  His purchase and recent buy-outs of other newspapers are discussed in this article published by Forbes.  Here's a related cartoon, found at The Week and by Adam Zyglis; it's titled "Print Media's Future."
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Adam Zyglis, theWeek.com

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Below is my reaction to all the chatter about A-Rod's suspension, summed up by John Cole in "Pumped-up Passion."
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John Cole, theWeek.com

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And I couldn't pass up a couple of jabs at John Boehner, Republican Speaker of the House.  First there's this by Mike Thompson, titled "House of Indulgence."
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Mike Thompson, theWeek.com

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And here's another by Mike about repealing Obamacare:
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Mike Thompson, USNews.com

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And last I offer this visual reminder to Congress in the form of a cartoon created by Joe Heller and published at Cagle:
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Joe Heller, Cagle.com

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Wait! This just in -- from Nate Beeler and titled "Political Predators"...
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Nate Beeler, theWeek.com

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That's it for today, Folks.

-- Marge

Cartoons: the Pope has left the room

Don't know about you, but I was surprised to hear that Pope Benedict XVI resigned.  For a possibly biased report on why, take a look at Michael D'Antonio's article "Immunity for Rome's Rottweiler: Why The Pope Resigned" at Huffington Post.  An interesting news tidbit is this article -- "German cartoon predicted Pope’s resignation" from The [London] Times (aka Times Newspapers Limited).

Editorial cartoonists the world over had a take on this topic.  See some of the mostly American output below.

This first one is by Nick Anderson and was found at Time Magazine's Cartoons of the Week:

From U.S News & World Report gallery on the Catholic Contraception Controversy there's this one by Chan Lowe:

Three are from the San Jose Mercury News' cartoon slideshow titled "Pope Benedict resigns."  The first is one by Cameron Cardow:

Next is one by Rick McKee:

And lastly, here's one done by David Fitzsimmons:

Pax vobiscum.

-- Marge

Political cartoons with perspective

Overwhelmed by all the controversy about gun control, immigration reform, the Boys Scouts of America, Sarah Palin, etc., etc, etc., I've selected the following cartoons on the basis of the viewpoints they present.  Their subjects are still based on recent news.

From About.com here's a cartoon by David Fitzsimmons:

Published at TheWeek is this cartoon by Eric Allie.  (Don't get me wrong -- I think it's great that we've finally got something that addresses health care.  But it's a first step and needs refining.)

There are many cartoons about gun control being published right now; this one at U.S. News & World Report and by Walt Handelsman may capture the basic problem.

From Time Magazine is this cartoon by Mike Luckovich, because it made me laugh.

And that's it for today, folks.

-- Marge

Taking a poke (or two) at the 2012 election

I know, I know, enough with the election stuff already. Maybe some pokes at the election issues will neutralize the vitriol a little.  Of course anything I say will be biased, because it's about a biased situation -- kinda like trying to defend your honor after being accused of lying:  "But, but it's the truth, I swear it..." Then again, I have my favored outcome, too.

When looking for cartoons about the 2012 election, I found collections at two long-established American publications and a publication founded in 1995.  Since I've found a number of cartoonists are featured on GoComics, here's some info about it:

GoComics is a website launched in 2005 by the digital entertainment provider Uclick. It was originally created as a distribution portal for comic strips on mobile phones, but in 2006, the site was redesigned and expanded to include online strips and cartoons. GoComics publishes editorial cartoons, mobile content and daily comics; thus its subtitle toon in daily.

A collection of 29 cartoons by a variety of cartoonists was found at the Washington Post in a slideshow under the heading or "The best cartoons on election 2012." One of the cartoons I like (but am unable to present here) is by Chan Lowe, so here's another of his from GoComics:

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From a now unavailable collection of political cartoons at the New Yorker here's one by Frank Modell that pretty much describes the political thinking this year.

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This one's by John Cole, editorial cartoonist for the Times-Tribune:

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That's a wrap for today, Folks.

-- Marge