Monthly Archives: April 2015

Trans-Pacific Speculation

This entry was posted in comics and tagged free trade Obama trans-pacific partnership on April 28, 2015 by Brian McFadden

The portions of the Trans-Pacific Partnership that have been leaked show that it’s a giveaway to corporate interests. Only legislators and lobbyists have seen the whole thing, and most of them want to “fast-track” it to prevent amendments and keep the pesky public from commenting on its terribleness.

If the minutiae of trade deals seems too arcane, Robert Reich has a very quick and helpful video about why the TPP is a bad deal for everyone who isn’t a multinational corporate person.

Read the comic at the NYTimes, or The Nib.

The Wide World of Parenting Styles

This entry was posted in comics and tagged parenting on April 21, 2015 by Brian McFadden

Kids can’t play outside unsupervised anymore without a nosy neighbor calling Child Protective Services. I grew up in the eighties when “stranger danger” was prevalent in the media, but I was still allowed to wander around all alone and somehow I’m still alive.

So get over yourselves, overprotective parents. No one wants to kidnap your shitty kid.

Read the comic at the Nib.

The Personal Shopping Assistant

This entry was posted in comics and tagged Brownback income inequality Kansas Koch brothers welfare on April 21, 2015 by Brian McFadden

Kansas Governor Sam Brownback recently signed sweeping welfare “reforms” into law. They’re ostensibly supposed to curb welfare fraud, but in reality they create even more hurdles for the poor, much like how voter ID laws exist to keep the poor and minorities away from the polls rather than prevent voter fraud.

We’re all beneficiaries of government assistance in one way or another, be it tax cuts, tax credits, and if you’re a large bank, free billions from the Fed, but it’s only the poorest who get shamed for getting what amounts to a pittance. At least Brownback has spared the poor from going on cruises and getting diarrhea.

Other states are pulling the same shenanigans, and it’s all thanks to Bill Clinton’s welfare reform.

Read the comic at the New York Times.

Overdue Police Reforms

This entry was posted in comics and tagged criminal justice police police brutality on April 13, 2015 by Brian McFadden

I drew this after video of Officer Slager gunning down Walter Scott in North Charleston, SC came out, but before video of Reserve Deputy (Kind of like a police cosplayer, but given an all-too-real firearm.) Robert Bates shooting Eric Harris in Tulsa County, OK was made public over the weekend.

Surveillance of the police is a start, but it’s tragic that even more graphic snuff films are needed to convince people that our criminal justice system is messed up.

Read the comic at The New York Times.

Business Supplies for Bigots

This entry was posted in comics and tagged homophobia Indiana pizza same-sex marriage on April 7, 2015 by Brian McFadden

Indiana’s disastrous “Religious Freedom” bill gave companies even more rights to discriminate than the Supreme Court’s Hobby Lobby decision. I had no idea florists and bakers were so prone to bigotry.

I’ve gotten some randos in my Twitter mentions saying “B-B-BUT, you’re the bigot!” Calling someone a bigot, or even saying mean things about them is speech. Refusing them a service (or accommodation) is discrimination. I’m not refusing their dumb asses from reading my cartoons, but I am kicking them out of my mentions. That shit is exhausting.

Read the comic at The Nib.

Water Warnings 1

This entry was posted in comics and tagged California climate change drought Florida on April 7, 2015 by Brian McFadden

While we’re finally saying goodbye to record snowpack in New England, there’s virtually none in California this spring. And for a state that’s in the middle of a years-long drought, that’s bad news for the water supply.

Unless you’re in agribusiness. They’re exempt from Gov. Jerry Brown’s mandatory water restrictions, while residents are asked to take quickie showers and to “let it mellow” in their toilet bowls. The world’s gotta eat, and for some reason a lot of that food is grown in the California desert.

Making matters worse is that a large portion of increasingly scarce California water is used to grow crops for animals to eat, so we can eat them. I’m not a vegetarian, but sustainable agriculture practices seem like a good idea, at least for those of us who are still allowed to say “climate change.”