Yearly Archives: 2015

Public Servants on Strike

This entry was posted in comics and tagged immigration refugees same-sex marriage Syria on by

Public Servants on StrikeKim Davis’ publicity stunt of denying marriage licenses to same-sex couples reached its inevitable conclusion last week. She’s in jail and will probably stay there until she signs a lucrative book deal. If everyone was allowed to deny public accommodations to anyone because of their “strongly-held” beliefs, everything would grind to a halt and the world would be an even uglier place.

The final panel’s a reference to the Syrian refugee crisis that’s been unfolding for years, but could apply equally to the rising amounts of nationalism and general anti-immigrant fervor being fomented by the GOP’s current crop of know-nothings.

Read the comic at The New York Times.

Panic in the Real Economy

This entry was posted in comics and tagged debt income inequality Wall Street on by

Panic in the Real EconomyLast week’s stock market turmoil here and in China threw the financial infotainment shows into a tizzy. If only they covered the financial drama unfolding in regular homes across the country with the same level of enthusiasm.

Gas and oil prices are really low right now. In a sane world, this would be a good time to raise the gas tax and plug the long-neglected gaps in infrastructure funding. But things are not sane, and low gas prices are only seen as an opportunity to go back to the SUV excesses of the 90’s.

Read the comic at the New York Times.

The G.O.P.’s Anti-Immigrant Stupor

This entry was posted in comics and tagged 2016 Election Ben Carson Bobby Jindal Donald Trump immigration Jeb Bush Lindsey Graham Rand Paul Republicans Ted Cruz on by

Anti-Immigrant StuporWith Trump leading Republican polls with a full-blown racist nationalist platform of slurs and insults, the rest of the field is following his lead and it’s ugly. Stripped of the dog whistles and coded language employed by Republicans for decades, the hatefulness of that party toward immigrants is now obvious to anyone, especially those who will be voting in the general election.

Read the comic at The New York Times.

The Sugar Water Workout

This entry was posted in comics and tagged diet exercise nutrition on by

The Sugar Water WorkoutA story in last week’s NYTimes revealed how Coca-Cola funds scientists who tout exercise while downplaying the role calorie consumption has on health. The amount of exercise you’d have to do to burn the empty calories in sugary sodas is a lot more than simply cutting sugar water out of your diet.

Soda’s not evil, and it’s a fun treat and caffeine delivery system for hot summer days. But claiming it’s part of a well-balanced diet and exercise regimen is laughable enough to make me snort my aspartame carbonated beverage of choice through my nose.

Read the comic at The New York Times.

Cut from the E.P.A.’s Clean Power Plan

This entry was posted in comics and tagged 2016 Election climate change EPA guns on by

Cut from the Clean Power PlanLast week President Obama and the E.P.A. revealed the final rules of their Clean Power Plan that finally attempts to set limits on our suicidal consumption of carbon and other greenhouse gases. They mostly require individual states to reach emission reduction targets by 2030.

These rules will be challenged for years by people who have the luxury to either buy themselves out of harm’s way or die before the disasters really start piling up. But if you or people you love will be alive at the end of this century, there’s no excuse for delaying actions that could prevent the disaster that awaits them.

Read the comic at the New York Times.

G.O.P. Stunts for the Spotlight

This entry was posted in comics and tagged 2016 Election Ben Carson Bobby Jindal John Kasich Rick Perry Rick Santroum Ted Cruz Trump on by

Stunts for the SpotlightThe election is still very far away, and Donald Trump is sucking up all the media oxygen from every other candidate. He’s also leading the Republican field in the polls, which is hilarious. Claims that Trump is more extreme than his peers are untrue. He’s just not using the dog whistles and Luntz-speak to apply a veneer of respectability to his terrible impulses and “ideas.”

As a Star Trek nerd, I was deeply offended that Ted Cruz thinks Captain Kirk would be a Republican. Not only is this untrue, but Star Trek depicts a futuristic socialist interstellar government that has advanced beyond capitalism. Thankfully, Shatner shut him down:

Read the comic at The New York Times.

I encourage you to check out The Nib’s Kickstarter. They’re making a big-ass book, including some of the cartoons I’ve done for them. I’ve offered up some original art from my Big Fat Whale days (I’m all digital now, so theses are rare.) as a donor gift. Check it out!

The Side Effects of Diplomacy

This entry was posted in comics and tagged Iran Jeb Bush John Boehner John McCain Lindsey Graham Mike Huckabee Netanyahu P5=1 Scott Walker on by

The Side Effects of DiplomacyThere’s finally a nuclear agreement with Iran, and of course it’s not going over so well with the warmonger set. The only alternative to this deal is another war. Anyone who says otherwise is either lying or incredibly dumb.

To claim a better deal was possible is to ignore that China and Russia exist and wouldn’t let sanctions last indefinitely. Unfortunately, saber-rattling makes for better GOP stump speeches than the practicalities of international relations.

Read the comic at the New York Times.