→2026→08→15→Comic Strip of the Day→Editorial Cartooning→CSotD: Efficacy and Ethics
Comic Strip of the Day Editorial Cartooning

CSotD: Efficacy and Ethics

Published: August 15, 2026 2 minutes 23 comments
Kevin Kallaugher
Jeremy Banx

Political cartoons don’t have to be funny, but it’s a nice bonus when they are. This Juxtaposition offers a pair of related but distinct laughs over recent cases in which AI programs went rogue and hacked into other programs without having been told to.

KAL seems a little more specific, since the programs have been tested to see if they could do that, but weren’t supposed to do it spontaneously, a case of developers being too smart for their own good, and ours, which makes the Jurassic Park reference applicable.

By contrast, Banx specializes in simple gags and in this case makes the scientists just look foolish and out of their depth.

Both approaches work, leaving it up to the reader to decide whether such accidents themselves are at all funny.

John Darkow

KAL’s cartoon assumed that the reader had seen the Jurassic Park movies or was at least familiar with them, which seems a safe bet, given the amount of attention they attracted.

Darkow plays a more risky game with this cartoon, which assumes that readers remember when Trump, as a candidate, promised so much winning that we’d get tired of it, and puts the quote in the mouth of a mullah, turning it into a commentary about how Trump is certainly not winning in Iran.

It’s critical that a cartoon works anyway. Someone unfamiliar with Jurassic Park can still see the contrast between the confident statement and the torn fencing, and if you forgot that Trump had promised winning, you could still appreciate that the Iranian government shows no signs of backing down from the confrontation.

Garth German

German’s cartoon relies on people making a couple of connections, and so has to be more wordy than is ideal. The best cartoons are silent, letting the reader identify that which is not labeled and fill in that which is not spoken. But you might as well be hung for a sheep as a lamb, and German goes full-bore to overload the piece, and it works.

The main point is that conditions on the USS Abraham Lincoln have caught the public eye and a lot of people are outraged at the way the sailors are suffering. It’s emerging as a potential factor in the midterms because people who support our troops haven’t necessarily been opposed to the president and his party, and this could change that.

But rather than try to dampen the growing resentment, Trump joined Hegseth in denying that families had expressed concern for the crew. German puts a medal on Trump’s chest recalling that he not only hasn’t served but cheated to avoid service, so that his indifference literally adds insult to injury.

Then he tosses in the president’s indifference to cost of living issues while depicting him as having money stuffed in his jacket and clarifies the overall point with the empty bucket plainly stating that the president has no empathy for others and doesn’t give a (cussword) about you.

Less is more, but clarity is the ultimate goal, and nobody can walk away not knowing what German was trying to say.

Juxtaposition of the Day #2

Pat Bagley
Greg Kearney

Lack of empathy seems to be a trend throughout the administration, and Bagley makes a solid point about changes in Medicaid that could also be applied to SNAP changes. The reforms that have cut the number of recipients in both programs seem to stem not from catching cheaters but from making enrollment so complex that many under-educated people can’t complete the process.

Are there cheaters? Of course. There are always cheaters in anything, but Ronald Reagan took one utterly bizarre case and made it seem as if the nation was full of Welfare Queens, which played to both the racists and those who didn’t want to help anyone. Both demographics have only grown with time.

Kearney contrasts the Christian command for charity with Ag Secretary Brooke Rollins’ recent boasts about having taken food aid away from people. “For those of us that love work and celebrate work and want people to work and not be on food stamps, it’s a pretty big win,” she said, and, as Kearney charges, expressed pride in having stripped 4.3 million people of food assistance.

But her claim that the reduction is due to fraud and an improving economy doesn’t stand up to examination. Is it a lie? Is it spin? Is she simply mistaken? What difference does it make to a hungry child?

Gary Varvel – Creators

Varvel isn’t lying. He fell for a fraud that he didn’t bother to check out. You don’t have to agree with his feelings about fetuses to believe in the ethical need to examine statements before passing them on.

This particular bit of fakery has been named “False Claim of the Week” by NewsGuard, which has a full takedown on how it emerged again years after it was first disproved. It was resuscitated as part of the GOP’s attempts to discredit and prosecute Anthony Fauci, but also serves to strengthen the ongoing effort to promote anti-vax beliefs.

The old journalism adage applies both to reporters and political cartoonists: “If your mother says she loves you, check it out.” And I’m indulgent towards Varvel because I have also been guilty now and then of not seeking a second source for a claim that I wanted to believe.

Another well-known but often neglected adage is attributed to Daniel Patrick Moynihan, and says that you are entitled to your own opinion, but not to your own facts. (Yes, I looked it up.)

Follow-Up

I wished yesterday that I could find the AI cartoon that Melbourne’s Herald-Sun had run and to which Cathy Wilcox objected. This morning, I discovered that Bado has both the cartoon and a full report from Australia Broadcasting News.

It’s a solid bit of reporting that is damning to the Herald-Sun on several levels.

Fiona Katauskas

The ABC report quotes Katauskas at length, which is appropriate since the Guardian has cut her loose.

But I’ve got her Bluesky link and will continue following her. Meanwhile, here’s her final Guardian cartoon, a take on the resignation of Karoline Leavitt proving that, indeed, a political cartoon can be both pointed and funny.

Keep the faith. And some empathy.

Mike Peterson has posted his "Comic Strip of the Day" column every day since 2010. His opinions are his own, but we welcome comments either agreeing or in opposition.

Previous Post
“Cartooning was a good fit for me”
Next Post
Hey Kids! Comics! Hot August Books

Comments 23

  1. I am pausing mid-read to comment on German’s depiction of Trump and Hegseth as ghouls, with Trump basically wearing face paint to appear more human.

    1. Trump’s midsection is too small and his hands too large. But the ghoulishness is on point.

  3. Banx cartoon says one thing loud and clear: Lab Leak!

    And unlike with the Fauci crucifixion, it’s demonstrably true. So why aren’t the prophets of the AI age in the dock?

  4. It is shocking how many health frauds say the exact opposite of careful studies with evidence based conclusions. And, yes, Varvel fell for such a whopper that he should apologize to any of his readers who are pregnant during times when a large amount of SARS.2 which causes CoVID-19 is circulating. The reasons that obstetricians encourage use of the vaccines are fact based and keep fetuses, neonates, and their mothers all safer. In the same fora he should encourage pregnant women to listen to their own medical professionals rather than rumor mongers or himself. That is his only moral choice at this point.

  6. I did not know about Newsguard. Big thank you to you for that ref.

    Also, many thanks for getting that automation designed cartoon.

    I always learn a lot reading your mind candy, but it is easy to not say that often enough, so thank you until the next time when i finally realize it has been a while and say it again. Hopefully, some refs i find also help say thank you.

  7. RE SNAP

    While most of the cuts in the One Big Beautiful Bill were intentionally set to take effect after the mid-terms, in some states the impacts are being felt now.

    https://www.npr.org/2026/08/03/nx-s1-5906797/snap-food-stamp-federal-changes-what-to-know

    https://azeconcenter.org/arizona-has-lost-600-million-in-snap-benefits-the-economic-warning-signs-are-emerging/

    TLDR: Cuts to staff $ and penalties for errors will cause states to cut back on their own.

    “Before, the federal government split the bill 50-50 with states to cover administrative expenses, such as paying and training staff at state agencies. But starting in October, the federal government will only pay 25% of those costs while states will have to shoulder the remaining 75% of operational expenses.

    Furthermore, in October 2027, the federal government will no longer cover the full cost of food benefits. States will also need to chip in if their error rate — a measure of overpayments and underpayments — is at or above 6%. Almost half of states may each owe $100 million or more”

  8. I took Darkow’s cartoon a bit differently, as mocking both Trump and Iran’s mullahs. Everyone with a brain knew when Trump bragged about getting tired of winning it was bullshit (or at least wild exaggeration), and putting the same words in the mouths of Iran’s leaders suggests it’s bullshit from them as well. That is, they claim to be winning bigly when they aren’t. But my understanding is that by pretty much every metric except the “getting the crap bombed out of them index,” Iran IS winning the war, which is likely to settle on terms very favorable to them and be a humiliating loss for the U.S. Or maybe Darkow wants us to take it at face value: the mullahs brag about getting tired of winning because they ARE winning. I’m not sure.

    You go much easier on Varvel than I would have. The Covid miscarriage talking point is just a big stupid lie that doesn’t pass a cursory sniff test. If any ordinary 12-year-old hearing that claim would think, “Wait, that doesn’t seem right,” then a cartoonist-journalist should do the same and dig a bit. After watching Varvel for a while I don’t think he has ANY interest in the truth, not even refracted through a right-wing lens. Tomorrow he’ll sell a cartoon with different lies. Whatever keeps folks mad.

    I loved the detail in Katauskas’s depiction of Trump’s presidential library but am deducting half a point because I had to study it to see where the tail of the word balloon pointed and who was speaking about whom. I wonder if it would be totally lost in print. A-minus.

    I hope Phil Ochs’s estate has sent you a thank you note for all the well-deserved attention you’ve drawn to his music.

    1. The US has a pretty lousy track record when it comes to winning wars, despite our massive military (over)spending.

      We only “won” WW2 because we nuked the sh*t out not one but two major metropolitan centers and killed millions of innocent civilians. We didn’t do so hot in Korea or Vietnam, and then there’s the hot mess in the Middle East that’s been going on for the better part of half a century.

      Frankly, for all our boasting it is refreshing in a bizarre way to see ourselves get knocked down a few pegs.
      You’d think the “Support our troops” types would care, but they seem to be the biggest warmongers of all…

      1. Winning as an invading country against an actual functioning nation means using total annihilation. Countries being invaded will last forever since invading countries lose interest and/or will.

        My fear is that the current administration will fear losing so much that they will escalate to the winning strategy.

      2. Do more history reading of WWII. One reason for the controversy over the bombing is that Japan was back on its heels and surrender was inevitable, the open question being the cost of the invasion in American lives. The Japanese government was already dividing over the question of continuing the war, but the hawks dominated. Truman warned them that we had a massive weapon, but they still refused to surrender. The bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki did prompt the surrender, but not because of the loss of those particular cities. Rather, it was the possibility of more such bombings. But we certainly won, and would have without the bombings.

    2. I agree. I didn’t understand what the word balloon meant until Mike pointed it out. If only Kastaukis had made it a bit more obvious that it referred to Liar Leavitt – it is very funny and well done and would have been perfect with that slight tweak.

    3. Amidst all the discussion of nuclear destruction and life loss in Japan there’s seldom any interjection about what the Allies did to Dresden. Today there is little public awareness of what we did there.

      1. You know, some guy once said that war is hell. But that was his opinion. You’re certainly free to suggest that wars should be conducted like intramural games.

      2. “Slaughterhouse Five” should be required reading. Actually, come to think of it, almost all of Vonnegut should be required reading.

  9. “For those of us that love work and celebrate work and want people to work and not be on food stamps, it’s a pretty big win,” she said

    Sounds like classic A.I. “Not this but that” coupled with the Three Bullet Points to me….

    1. The mark of the Uniblab Speechwriter

  10. “German’s cartoon relies on people making a couple of connections…”
    and on making the assumption that he had any empathy to begin with (ergo it doesn’t work for me).

  11. Re: the Bagley cartoon, I don’t understand the purpose of the seagull. Like a George Lichty panel, you can’t really tell who’s supposed to be speaking, since all the mouths are open since panels usually eschew word balloons.. The seagull’s obviously not the speaker, but also seems to be purposeless.

    And I’m not too ashamed to admit that I find this “A.I.” cartoonist’s style quite attractive. Too bad he chooses to remain anonymous.

  12. Nope, too much credit given to Varvel. The COVID vaccine miscarriages nonsense is established gospel now in the MAGAverse—it’s not a matter of being misinformed. It’s just like all the other MAGA-adjacent garbage—you can present the actual truth umpteen different ways and it won’t matter a bit because they don’t treat it like a verifiable fact, they treat it like a religious belief.

    1. If they considered it a religious belief that might give them pause. As something believed by the godless dumbocrat elites it’s fair game.

  13. You are mistaken when you say that Gary Varvel did not check out the statistic he cites. His most recent substack, published after the cartoon, makes clear that he did. He simply ignored all but one of the flaws in the statistic. To oversimplify a tiny bit, the biggest flaw was this: the statistic was based only on completed pregnancies, even though most of the women in the study were still carrying their child. you cannot get a reliable miscarriage rate until all of the pregnancies have run to completion.
    I was reminded of a conversation at an uncle’s funeral, decades ago. He died relatively young, a WWII veteran. Another of my uncles, a similar age commented that he was a bit depressed looking around the veterans section of the cemetery, and seeing that most if the men born about the same time he was had died younger than his own age then. I replied, only half flippantly, that the ones who lived longer were refusing to be buried prematurely. It is basically the same fallacy.

Comments are closed.

Search

Subscribe to our newsletter

Get a daily recap of the news posted each day.
^ Top