In the debate over whether Dear Leader is a knave or a fool, Peter Brookes chooses the latter, aping Rembrandt’s painting, though I use the term “aping” advisedly.I like the pun on Homer, but it would be a cheap gag if it weren’t accompanied by the self-satisfied smirk on the face of the other dunce […]
I don’t envy political cartoonists, working in an atmosphere of “Baffle’em with B*llsh*t,” as Matt Davies (AMS) indicates. It should be obvious that Trump has backed out of the kitchen-table promises that brought so many voters to his side, but he’s following Bannon’s advice to flood the zone in order to keep critics from focusing […]
Gary Varvel (Creators) reports that paratroopers are landing in North Carolina, apparently in search of undocumented migrants. As you may know, Columbia University is basically a concrete campus in the middle of Manhattan, so, obviously, this is some other Columbia.Now, somebody is going to point out that there are many places named “Columbia,” but you […]
Rick McKee provides a context for the quote, “Where ignorance is bliss, ‘Tis folly to be wise,” by Thomas Gray, who wrote a few better poems but not many better quotes.It’s gobsmacking for one portion of the population to hear the utter nonsense, toxic lies and frightening promises of the past week, and then see […]
This is going to be a very random day, and I’m starting by acknowledging Paul Berge’s commentary on a TV station that fired its meteorologist over an anti-Musk posting she had on her personal Instagram page. Firing her was an overreaction, but we’re likely to see a lot of similar overreactions over the next four […]
Charlie Sykes illustrated an excellent rant with an 1889 Samuel Ehrhardt cartoon that bears the caption “History Repeats Itself — The Robber Barons of the Middle Ages, and the Robber Barons of Today.”Mark Twain said “History doesn’t repeat itself, but it often rhymes,” which is clever but inaccurate: History is indeed repeating itself, as Trump […]
Jen Sorensen notes the people who may not have expected that what they were promised was going to happen. Some of them voted for Trump, some of them didn’t vote at all, some even voted for Harris but considered it a formality, little expecting, even if “their side” lost, the changes that are suddenly arriving. […]
Our nation’s cartoonists are divided between those who see the ascension of Trump as a disaster and those who consider it a shining moment, but I’ve found little support for the fellow among foreign cartoonists. Morten Morland (UK) captured the swearing in with Trump about to press the plunger carried by Melania, in her Natasha […]
Walt Handelsman sums it up: The demolition crew is here to begin taking apart America.It may be metaphorical, but it’s not theoretical: Trump has already begun spinning and, to use an old phrase from Jonathan Swift’s era, “to say the thing that is not.” To accuse him of lying requires reading his mind. But his […]
Gary Markstein comments on the decision to move tomorrow’s inauguration inside. Or possibly on the entire process of making Donald Trump president. Both interpretations work, though the former is less partisan and potentially more constructive.There’s plenty of speculation and commentary about the decision, including people pointing out that the Kansas City stadium was packed for […]
I could launch a separate blog titled “Cartoon Maps,” given the number of cartoonists who have reimagined the Western Hemisphere according to Trump. Some were pretty good, some were not. But Bob Englehart went for simplicity rather than cleverness, and wins for going to the heart of the matter and pointing out the arrogant jingoism […]
Pat Bagley expresses the situation well: As firefighters struggle to control the wildfires in Southern California, the press also struggles with disinformation about those wildfires.The press wouldn’t be stuck with a mere squirtbottle if the only problem they faced were the normal flow of rumors and misconceptions that plague every major news event. But in […]
Garth German makes a good point, though I suspect he’s too late and we can’t reverse the process now.Here’s a relevant quote from Herman Wouk in the Caine Mutiny: The Navy is a master plan designed by geniuses for execution by idiots. If you are not an idiot, but find yourself in the Navy, you can […]
Bliss (Tribune) comes to my rescue. It’s been extremely cold here, but it’s also been extremely necessary to get out with the dog and away from the idiots, which sounds like an arrogant judgment, but it’s actually the most polite and charitable.After all, we’re not just seeing our incoming president insult and threaten our major […]
This is one of those “Where do we begin?” moments. The torrent of horrifying, dishonest, ridiculous nonsense that has poured out over the past 48 hours or so seems overwhelming, and I ended up with so many links to so much argumentation that I had to sort through them to come up with a reasonable […]