Obama


Modest Climate Change Goals

Modest Climate Change GoalThe U.N. Climate Conference is going on in Paris, and maybe everyone will agree to modest means-based reductions in carbon emissions at some point in the future. It won’t be enough. The world is run by old people who won’t have to live with the consequences of their inaction, and I can only assume they hate their grandchildren and want to leave them a supremely messed up planet.

Read the comic at The New York Times.


Collateral Damage Condolences

Collateral Damage CondolencesRemember Afghanistan? Although the “Afghanistan War” proper ended, we’re still bombing stuff over there, and finding new and innovative ways to be terrible. The most recent example is the prolonged airstrike on a Doctors Without Borders hospital in Kunduz.

As far as international PR campaigns go, bombing our way to peace makes us look either dumb or malicious, but most likely both.

Read the comic at The New York Times.


Mission Creep Techniques

Mission Creep TechniquesWe’re sending more troops to Iraq! That always ends well.

I’ve been drawing cartoons on that same subject for my entire career. Not sure how long I can continue without repeating myself, but perhaps that repetition’s a necessary counterargument to the geniuses who keep insisting military interventions in the Middle East are a good idea.

Read at the New York Times.


America’s Rapidly Rising Faiths

Rapidly Rising FaithsA Pew survey came out last week showing that the ranks of Christians are declining in America, while the unaffiliated and other faiths are growing. Of course Christianity will remain a super-majority in the U.S. for decades to come, but it offers some hope that in the distant future, the religious right might lose their grip on national politics. Maybe.

Read the comic at the New York Times.


Reality-Based Conspiracies

Reality-Based ConspiraciesThe Jade Helm 15 conspiracy theory is a doozy. If you’ve managed to escape the insanity, Jen Sorensen has a great overview.

I’m fascinated with conspiracy theories the same way I’m interested in cryptids. I know they’re garbage, but it’s still fun to see the mental gymnastics the true-believers do to bend the facts to their will. Or maybe they’re all true and my dismissiveness is just proof that I’ve been brainwashed by the lizard people.

Read the comic at the New York Times.


Trans-Pacific Speculation

Trans-Pacific SpeculationThe 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.


Death Penalty Dissonance

Death Penalty DissonanceSince lethal injection drugs are becoming scarce and no longer efficient at the whole “lethal” thing, Utah’s getting ready to bring back the firing squad, while other states are dusting off their electric chairs and gas chambers. Somehow these are all more preferable than calling off capital punishment altogether, which often results in the executions of many, many innocent people. But at least they got a trial. The same can’t be said for the summary executions the United States conducts overseas.

Read the comic at The New York Times.