Cartoons: bashing away

Judging from the cartoons currently being shown on The Week's cartoon page, the cartooning world has given way to bashing your political opponent--and anyone else within range. So my selection today is about any topic not directly related to waging political war. This is what I found.

Bill Clinton was misquoted as describing "Obamacare as 'crazy',” according to New York Magazine in 7 Reasons To Stop Freaking Out About Obamacare.

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Nate Beeler, The Week

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While Capitalism in the U.S. isn't working particularly well, what with income inequality and favors for the wealthy, Socialism in Venezuela is crashing. It seems everyone is in the same stew and the pot is empty--In a hungry Venezuela, buying too much food can get you arrested.

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Michael Ramirez, The Week

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Rick McKee comments for those of us caught in the political middle.

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Rick McKee, The Week

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-- Marge

Cartoons: litigation time

Today I'm taking a glance at JASTA, the recent legislation that allows 9/11 victims to sue foreign states for injury, death, or damages; and at Wells Fargo, the dastardly swindler of unsuspecting customers.

Since the Justice Against Sponsors of Terrorism Act, aka the 9/11 law, passed, why not use it to sue Congress for inaction on gun legislation? The litigants would have to prove Congress is a foreign state--not that hard. Just sayin'.

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Clay Jones, The Week

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Seems to me Wells Fargo is not that different from any other U.S. bank. They just got caught.

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Steve Sack, The Week

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--Marge

Cartoons: laughing on the outside

Today's cartoons find a little humor in some dark news, except the last one--no humor there, just truth.  Seems to me, Randall Enos' cartoon about Snowden is editorial cartooning at its best.

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Steve Sack, TheWeek

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Dan Wasserman, The Week

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Randall Enos, 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

Cartoons: Fair and balanced?

Today I'm looking at Fox News, the U.S.'s Republican-dominated Congress, and the view that many voters have of this presidential election.

The dust appears to be settling at Fox News according to this article in The Week Magazine:

Roger Ailes is gone. So is Greta Van Susteren. Megyn Kelly is rumored to possibly be on the move. Gretchen Carlson settled her sexual harassment charges against Ailes for a cool $20 million. And then there's Gabriel Sherman's bombshell report for New York magazine about Ailes' 20-year reign at Fox News. All of this has spawned obsessive speculation about the future of America's No. 1 cable news channel.

But I doubt that "fair and balanced," which used to be the objective of responsible journalism, will ever describe this news channel--its brand of "conservative messaging" is/was too popular.

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Scott Stantis, The Week

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The U.S. Congress left the concept of fair and balanced behind some time ago. Now it's mostly Republican. See the Wikipedia entry for the 114th United States Congress for some good graphics showing the numbers of Republicans vs. Democrats. With Trump running as a Republican, Congress may find itself in a bind.

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RJ Matson, The Week

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Meanwhile many voters feel betrayed.

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Bob Englehart, The Week

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-- Marge

Cartoon: no heart

Just one cartoon today, because I don't have the heart to carry forward the Donald-Hillary war 'reports'. The one cartoon is about utilities charging California ratepayers for gas leaks.

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Monte Wolverton, The Week

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-- Marge

Cartoons: what are they good for?

Seems to me you can look at editorial cartoons several ways: they give a humorous take on current evens; they reveal corruption; they attempt to assuage/salt wounds felt due to recent events; they double-down on our outrage at current events; [add you own reason for liking cartoons here].

If you're unhappy with the current state of the U.S. Congress, this one's for you.

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David Fitzsimmons, The Week

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Can Fox News be represented as a hen house? Maybe. I'm reminded of The Musicman's

Pick a little, talk a little, pick a little, talk a little,
Cheep cheep cheep, talk a lot, pick a little more (LyricsMode)

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Tom Toles, The Week

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Big Pharma is always a good target, especially since it's so greedy.

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Milt Priggee, The Week

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And Smokey the Bear brings us the message of the day.

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Dan Wasserman, The Week

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--Marge

Cartoons: US riots you rarely hear about and other news

After wading through uncounted, but numerous, digs at Trump and Hillary, I was about to bag posting today when I came across the cartoon below. It refers to a riot in Milwaukee. A little research yielded a truly interesting piece by Milwaukee resident and medieval historian, Andrew Larsen. Take a look: The Milwaukee Riots. He starts with the observation that "Riots seem shocking to modern Americans, but college students riot with almost predictable regularity in this country."

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Michael Ramirez, The Week

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What would a mention of the news be nowadays without reference to the Trump-Hillary polls? While typing this a devilish idea occurred to me: what if they were a couple? Then a second one sprang up: what if we smooshed the parties together and declared Hillary president, Donald vice president and were done with the whole sordid business? Then we could move on...or maybe not. At any rate here are the latest polls courtesy of RealClearPolitics.

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Bob Gorrell, The Week

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Now, for an upbeat note, here's Walt Handelsman's take on the emergency response to flooding in Louisiana. Obama has taken flack for seeming uninterested, so here's what his Live Updates page reports.

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Walt Handelsman, The Week

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-- Marge

Cartoons: traveling penalty

Donald or Hillary, Hillary or Donald, Donald or Hillary, Hillary or Donald, it just goes on and on.

Instead of siding with one or the other, I offer a cartoon that's probably true for both.

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Mike Luckovich, The Week

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In this cartoon the mosquitoes show the most wisdom.

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Walt Handelsman, The Week

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If you were traveling on Delta Airlines this week, you have my sympathies.  Reuters predicts that more airline outages will be seen...and lived through.

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Pat Bagley, The Week

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-- Marge

Cartoons: Zika, academic testing, and Trump (again)

The 2016 Summer Olympics start today with the lighting of the cauldron by someone not Pelé. Here's cartoonist Nate Beeler's take on the event.

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Nate Beeler, The Week

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And school starts soon. Cartoonist Marshall Ramsey calls it "testing." Former venture capitalist and education philanthropist Ted Dintersmith and Education Fellow at the Technology & Entrepreneurship Center at Harvard (whew!) Tony Wagner co-wrote an article about academic testing and what it does not accomplish: Opinion: America desperately needs to redefine ‘college and career ready'. Is it old-fashioned or misguided to wonder what happened to learning for the sake of learning?

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Marshall Ramsey, The Week

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Then there's Trump...again. This time he's insulted the parents of Capt. Humayun Khan, who was killed in Iraq. Trump claims to have sacrificed as much as the Khan family did; the twitter-verse weighed-in.

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David Horsey, The Week

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Meanwhile, Paul Ryan, Republican Speaker of the House, responds.

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Mike Luckovich, The Week

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-- Marge

Cartoons: Bernie-love lives on, despite the DNC

Apparently Julian Assange of Wikileaks doesn't want Hillary to win either (see link below). More disturbing is the suspicion that Russia is trying to influence the 2016 election. The New York Times reports "Spy Agency Consensus Grows That Russia Hacked D.N.C." To say nothing of the hit on my misplaced trust in the democratic process.

The cartoons below tell the story of the convention, mostly from a pro-Bernie viewpoint. Hat's off to cartoonists David Horsey and Drew Sheneman, both beautifully on-topic.

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David Horsey, The Week

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Drew Sheneman, The Week

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David Horsey, The Week

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Steve Sack, The Week

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John Deering, The Week

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Drew Sheneman, The Week

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-- Marge

Cartoons: It's Trump's Republican Party Now

At the beginning of the GOP convention it may have been this:

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Chan Lowe, The Week

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Now it's this: (Nice play on Grant Wood's "American Gothic," RJ.)

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RJ Matson, The Week

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Somewhere along the way dissenting Republicans got booted:

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Dana Summers, The Week

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A-n-d It’s Donald Trump’s Republican Party Now. Don't you just love the butt heart?

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Michael Ramirez, The Week

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-- Marge

Cartoons: is there a mystery candidate?

Batten down the hatches, the GOP convention starts Monday in Cleveland. It should be quite a show.

In 2012 the Onion published a video, GOP Introduces New "Mystery Candidate" With Paper Bag Over Head. The text of the article reads "Republicans will reveal the identity of the Mystery Candidate only after he, or she, wins the election." Cartoonist Bob Gorrell remembers.

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Bob Gorrell, The Week

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Trump will go into the convention with his new running mate Indiana Gov. Mike Pence. (Be aware, Hillary's campaign ads are posted smack dab in the middle of the article.)

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Gary Varvel, The Week

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So, is the GOP deceased?

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Tom Toles, The Week

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-- Marge

Cartoons: who you gonna turn to?

It's beginning to look like all systems everywhere are rigged. Is that paranoia? If so, I got it.

If Trump lived on Jupiter, this is what he'd say.

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David Fitzsimmons, The Week

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Even if the Republicans lose the presidential election, there's still their jerry-rigged, uhm gerrymandered, systems that falsely represent the voters. BTW, the symbol on the table in front of Trump is an altered one for the KKK according to Forbidden Symbols.

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Bob Englehart, The Week

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So, who's winning in the presidential race? Does it really matter?

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Chan Lowe, The Week

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-- Marge

Cartoons: putting Benghazi to rest

We have two topics today--the House Benghazi Report of 2016 and Brexit.

In the case of the report: House Benghazi Report Finds No New Evidence of Wrongdoing by Hillary Clinton. According to this reference, expenses to produce the report over a period greater than 2 years are estimated to be more than $7 million. Here's how some cartoonists view it.

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Pat Bagley, The Week

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John Darkow, The Week

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Drew Sheneman, The Week

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At least 62% of Scots want to remain in the European Union; The Guardian asks, Can Scotland remain in the EU after Brexit?  The Telegraph reports on where the EU referendum won and lost, saying Northern Ireland, Scotland and London only areas not to vote for Brexit. Here's some humor to go along with the news.

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David Horsey, The Week

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Marian Kamensky, The Week

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--Marge