Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Putting aside our relentless self-interest because the moral imperative is crystal clear.

Do we throw up our hands or do we roll up our sleeves? (hint, door #2)

Hey hey, RFK, how many kids did you kill today?

He seems like a smart guy, but JFC, what a dick!

This must be what justice looks like, not vengeful, just peaceful exuberance.

Do not shrug your shoulders and accept the normalization of untruths.

In after Baud. Damn.

Baby steps, because the Republican Party is full of angry babies.

I like political parties that aren’t owned by foreign adversaries.

It is not hopeless, and we are not helpless.

You can’t attract Republican voters. You can only out organize them.

The arc of the moral universe does not bend itself. it is up to us to bend it.

Disagreements are healthy; personal attacks are not.

You’re just a puppy masquerading as an old coot.

A thin legal pretext to veneer over their personal religious and political desires.

If you can’t control your emotions, someone else will.

Republicans: slavery is when you own me. freedom is when I own you.

Speaker Mike Johnson is a vile traitor to the House and the Constitution.

Fight them, without becoming them!

So many bastards, so little time.

Wake up. Grow up. Get in the fight.

The real work of an opposition party is to oppose.

Nothing says ‘pro-life’ like letting children go hungry.

“The difference between stupidity and genius is that genius has its limits.”

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Reader Interactions

129Comments

  1. 1.

    germy

    I don’t understand the Deering cartoon, the one with them under a bridge.

    What am I missing?

  4. 4.

    zeecube

    A beautiful morning in S.E. Louisiana, even if a little soggy from last night’s storm. Today’s agenda is wallpaper.

  5. 5.

    NotMax

    AFAIK no one here has yet brought up this nugget of moronium.

    But in a 2020 interview […], Trump claimed “nobody had heard of it” before his rally and that “I made Juneteenth very famous.” Source

  6. 6.

    Cheryl Rofer

    Nice, AL!

    I’m gonna do a small promotion for Nuclear Diner. Every Sunday my colleague Molly collects political cartoons for a “Sunday Funnies” feature. Not always about foreign policy, but worth checking out in your travels around the web.

  7. 7.

    David ? ☘The Establishment☘? Koch

    Joe and Jill’s Excellent Adventure: G-7, The Crown, NATO, European Union, facing down Putin.

    Victory after victory – Putin may be a world class poker player, but Uncle Joe owns the casino.

  10. 10.

    Cameron

    @zeecube: Isn’t a big storm coming your way?  Of course, I saw that on Accuweather, which means it’s probably not happening.

  11. 11.

    debbie

    That last one is the best! Putin’s Useful Puppet must feel very left out and lonely.

  13. 13.

    MattF

    @NotMax: Solipsism: the belief that you are the only conscious entity in the universe. Bertrand Russell told the story of a solipsist whose only problem was that no one agreed with her.

  14. 14.

    debbie

    @germy:

    It doesn’t look to me like the water is up to his knees. Joe’s sitting there with his arms crossed over his chest. He doesn’t seem too concerned about being in the river. Maybe the river is crazy, rushing world events?

  16. 16.

    NotMax

    On a more placid plane, couple of lesser items to share on a lazy Saturday morn.

    1) Weekend repast respite: compare and contrast.

    2) Noticed that 1989’s never quite reached top drawer status feature The Package is on Prime. Holds up fairly well so far as intrinsic watchability is concerned. Biggest weakness is it wants so hard to be the The French Connection in khaki that the template constricts both plot and character development from going where they would more naturally flow.

    Anyhoo, mention it for a duo of other reasons. First, occurred to me on viewing the other day that it can be considered by now a period piece, in that there are any number of scenes and situations in its pre-cell phone milieu which could be handled oh so much more rapidly or adroitly in today’s electronic ecosystem.

    Second, because the actor portraying the U.S. president bears more than a passing resemblance (albeit bespectacled) to Biden today.

  17. 17.

    zhena gogolia

    @debbie:

    I think if we have this many competing interpretations, it’s a bad political cartoon.

    I don’t get it at all.

  18. 18.

    zeecube

    @Cameron: @Cameron: The storm hit around 4 pm yesterday and did not let up until about 2 a.m. Forecast when I retired for the night was more rain so it was a pleasant surprise to wake up to sunshine and blue skies.

  22. 22.

    germy

    Matt Bors has given up political cartooning.

    It’s a shame.  I didn’t always agree with him, but he was good.  He’s the one who came up with the “And yet you participate in society” gotcha guy.

  24. 24.

    MomSense

    Yesterday we resumed our meet for pizza before kid goes out with friends and I go home after work.  It was sooo nice to do that again.  Thank you POTUS Joe.  It’s a little thing but a BFD after what we all went through.
    I’m having the rest of my grilled eggplant, ricotta and basil pizza for breakfast.

  25. 25.

    Ken

    Obviously the river represents cryptocurrency, and the bridge the gold standard (it’s even labelled “GENEVA”, a call-out to the gnomes of Zurich), and then Putin and Biden…. hmm, no, that doesn’t work either.

    This was all much easier when cartoonists just drew a giant rat and labelled it “TAFT ADMINISTRATION”.

  27. 27.

    MattF

    OT. If you were wondering how those poor, innocent Italian satellites were forced into changing Presidential votes, here’s an explainer.

  28. 28.

    germy

    I’ve always liked Tom Toles.  He has his own style, and you immediately recognize his characters.

    Luckovich can be funny sometimes.  He reminds me of Mort Drucker.  But every time someone dies, Luckovich does the corny “gate of heaven” tribute.

  31. 31.

    SFAW

    @MomSense:

    I’m having the rest of my grilled eggplant, ricotta and basil pizza for breakfast.

    Save some for me, I’ll be right over. Shouldn’t take me more than 2 or 3 hours, depending on traffic and the NH/York tolls

  32. 32.

    prostratedragon

    @OzarkHillbilly: ​ Where I am there are these commercials for an insurance company where the spokesman is a crisp-looking man behind a desk, no matter what the scene of the commercial is. In one case, he and his desk were floating in a swimming pool. That’s what that cartoon reminded me of.

    In general, is it such a wrong thing that all day Wednesday I had “Face to Face” running through my mind?

  36. 36.

    germy

    @debbie:

    His characters are instantly recognizable.  No guessing necessary.

    Have you seen his version of Giuliani?  It’s perfect.

  37. 37.

    NotMax

    @germy

    “The original gated community.”

    You’d think by now Heaven would have installed a turnstile.

    :)

  38. 38.

    germy

    Billy Fuccillo has died.

    He’s the car dealer with the “It’s Huge!” slogan.

    People in Florida and NY will remember his commercials.

  39. 39.

    Baud

    Happy Juneteenth. Looking forward to next week’s holiday.

    If the Dems want to earn my vote that is.

  45. 45.

    germy

    @Ken:  And I see the 22nd is National Take Your Cat to Work Day,

    It’s good for the cat to see where the money is coming from for cat food, litter and vet visits.

  46. 46.

    Benw

    Happy Juneteenth!

    Going with the family to a Juneteenth celebration/march and then to the botanical gardens.

  47. 47.

    Baud

    @Ken:

    Oooo, the 24th is National Work From Home Day!  How excitingly different!

    The 23rd National Work from Home Day must have been quite the party.

  50. 50.

    Frankensteinbeck

    @OzarkHillbilly:

    I don’t think there is a reason.  Putin is a troll and Biden is a president.  That’s all.  So the real answer is ‘because it’s not a good cartoon.’

    As a wise and very large man one said, they can’t all be gems.

  58. 58.

    Mo MacArbie

    I had no trouble interpreting the cartoon. It’s fine. Maybe it’s because I never use the pie filter.

  60. 60.

    Kay

    Kombiz Lavasany
    @kombiz
    ·40m
    Looks like the Klan is joining the critical race theory debate

    I thought the fake “critical race theory” debate had real potential to become a disaster for the promoters so I’m watching happily as it happens.
    They’re now distributing Klan flyers at school board meetings.

  63. 63.

    MagdaInBlack

    @Kay: Well, we aren’t hiding it anymore, are we? Here’s our website so you can learn more. Good lord. ( KJV, as noted in the flyer)

  64. 64.

    Elizabelle

    I think the third cartoon is fine.  It’s obviously Putin.  He is the troll under the bridge.  Biden has to be in the water, because that is what usually flows under bridges.  And Biden brings the whole of his office and power with him.

    Ah well.

  65. 65.

    Elizabelle

    @Kay:   The last line on those flyers (and LOL, Loyal White Knights):

    PRAY FOR WHITE AMERICANS.

    Trust me, ‘holes.  We do.  We do.

    Anyway, when I see flyers like that, I do wonder if they’re a parody, or real.

  67. 67.

    Ceci n est pas mon nym

    Here’s an important issue: Beer. And speaking of foreign affairs, Belgian beer.

    I had no beer for 14+ months in lockdown. Had my second post-lockdown beer last night and it was strange. It’s one of those places that has a million things on draft, so I thought I’d like a nice ale, the direction I kind of lean in summer. And I ordered a Belgian, as I’ve enjoyed Belgian beers in the past (though usually the wheat beers).

    I dismissed the menu words about “fruity flavor” as just menu talk, like “overtones of oak and chocolate”. Big mistake. My beer, called a Belgian red ale, actually tasted like fruit juice mixed with beer. It was bizarre, though I bravely managed to finish it. This was way beyond the little bits of flavoring  you get in some beers, of chocolate or pumpkin or coffee or other weird stuff.

    Anyone have any experience with this stuff? WTF did I just drink?

    Also, this was a take out order. They told me they could “can” any beer on tap. Little did I know they actually meant they could package it into its own sealed, pop-top can. I’ve never seen that before.

  69. 69.

    Danielx

    Odd occurrence this past week – got a call on landline (yes, still have one) from a woman with a Chinese accent asking if I wanted to sell my house. I said no, but it seemed bizarre.

  71. 71.

    Central Planning

    @MattF: instead of investigating the allegations, it would be nice if someone (FBI?) investigated the source of the allegation, or found the source.

    I feel like I could say ACORN switched votes by paying off poll workers to do the switching. The RWNJs would get wrapped around the axle looking at the votes instead of checking that the allegation was credible.

    The Blazing Saddles line about “…the common clay of the new west. You know. Morons.” Keeps running through my head.

  72. 72.

    Ceci n est pas mon nym

    @Danielx: Many years ago, a Hasidic community decided they wanted to create their own town in Monroe, NY. A friend of ours in Monroe described how you’d hear a knock on the door, open it, and find the Hasidim at the door holding wads of cash and asking if you wanted to sell your house right now, on the spot for cash.

    Apparently that worked well enough that they created the village of Kiryas Joel.

  77. 77.

    Ceci n est pas mon nym

    @Danielx: There was pumpkin-flavored beer in my fridge for months after one Thanksgiving, via one of the kids. I finally sampled it and it wasn’t bad.

  78. 78.

    Steeplejack

    @Ceci n est pas mon nym:

    They told me they could “can” any beer on tap.

    Yeah, that’s a thing—a “crowler” (can + growler [“a container for beer bought by the measure”]). My local, Dogfish Head Alehouse, does those. During the pandemic I would occasionally get a burger and onion rings for takeout with a crowler of their 60 Minute IPA. Equal to a couple of pints of draft. Did that last week, and I think I am about ready to venture back to dine in at the bar one weekday.

    I usually steer clear of beers with oeno-adjacent verbiage, so I can’t help you there.

  81. 81.

    Danielx

    @Ceci n est pas mon nym:

    I have gotten flyers from real estate agents asking if I was interested in selling, but a phone call seemed pushy to me. I’d be rude if someone called this morning while I’m enjoying the breeze on the back porch – no I like my house and I don’t want to move so go away.

  82. 82.

    MattF

    @Danielx: It’s a competitive business. I got a phone call from a realtor on the day I moved into my just-purchased condo apartment.

  83. 83.

    MontyTheClipArtMongoose

     

    @Ken: coinbase! how low can you go? fiat money! what a brother know.

  87. 87.

    Dorothy A. Winsor

    The real estate market is hot right now. I’m guessing real estate agents are looking for clients, and potential buys are scouring neighborhoods where they want to live and houses are scarce.

  97. 97.

    mrmoshpotato

    @trollhattan:

    I’m waiting for the twofer offer: buy our house and extend our car warrenties. One-stop schlepping! 

    Your Anti-Virus license is about to expire too!

  100. 100.

    SFAW

    @Ceci n est pas mon nym:

    Why on earth would anyone voluntarily drink Belgian “beer”? It’s not quite like eating bagels and lox, where the bagel is replaced by Wonder bread and the lox is replaced by fruit-flavored Spam, but it’s not far off.

    Not as bad as tire rims and anthrax, of course.

  101. 101.

    SiubhanDuinne

    Oh, no, such sad news. The Bidens’ Champ died today. Here’s Joe’s statement:

    Our hearts are heavy today as we let you all know that our beloved German Shepherd, Champ, passed away peacefully at home. He was our constant, cherished companion during the last 13 years and was adored by the entire Biden family. Even as Champ’s strength waned in his last months, when we came into a room, he would immediately pull himself up, his tail always wagging, and nuzzle us for an ear scratch or a belly rub. Wherever we were, he wanted to be, and everything was instantly better when he was next to us. He loved nothing more than curling up at our feet in front of a fire at the end of the day, joining us as a comforting presence in meetings, or sunning himself in the White House garden. In his younger days, he was happiest chasing golf balls on the front lawn of the Naval Observatory or racing to catch our grandchildren as they ran around our backyard in Delaware. In our most joyful moments and in our most grief-stricken days, he was there with us, sensitive to our every unspoken feeling and emotion. We love our sweet, good boy and will miss him always.

    RIP, Champ. You were a very good boy and we loved having you as First Dog for the last few months.

  107. 107.

    WereBear

    Awwww. Champ sounds like an awesome example of an awesome breed. They were fortunate to have him into his old age.

    May there be a truck made of bacon in Doggie Heaven for him.

  108. 108.

    Miss Bianca

    @SiubhanDuinne: Aww. I am sadder to hear of Champ’s passing than I am of some (okay, most) humans. What that says about me, I don’t know. But RIP, Champ.

  113. 113.

    J R in WV

    A shame to lose an old companion, Champ, although 13 is quite aged for a German Shepherd. We took in a cousins’s German Shepherd, Captain, who was a very good girl. She was taken in by my Grandma after cousin’s divorce and he moved to attend law school.

    But as she aged and needed more assistance than Grandma could provide, we brought her to the farm, where she was happy until she reached the point where we had to take her on that final trip to the vet.

    She was 13. A very affectionate family member! Our first dog, actually, got along with all the cats just fine.

  114. 114.

    The Pale Scot

    @germy:

    Billy Fuccillo has died.

    TFG! He is mostly responsible for my dropping cable TV wathing, football will be better this fall

  115. 115.

    Amir Khalid

    I saw this strange headline on the CNN site

    Bidens announce their ‘beloved’ German Shepherd Champ has died

    Why are there quote marks around the word beloved? Is CNN hinting at something?

  118. 118.

    MontyTheClipArtMongoose

    @Baud: #OurRevolution has already slammed this as more #idpol windowdressing to distract from the neoliberal hollowing of the American workingclass.

  119. 119.

    Brachiator

    @germy:

    I’ve always liked Tom Toles.  He has his own style, and you immediately recognize his characters.

    There was no Pulitzer this year for editorial cartoon. As newspapers die, I guess that the art of the editorial cartoon will also fade away.

  120. 120.

    germy

    @Brachiator:

    It doesn’t seem to be a career anymore.

    There was a time when a young cartoonist would join a paper and then stay there for forty years.  Those days are gone.

  121. 121.

    Chetan Murthy

    @Ceci n est pas mon nym: When I first moved to France for a job, I’d heard about all these Belgian beers, and a colleague told me “try Kriek” so I got one: a cherry beer, as it turned out.  Jesus, *undrinkable*.  But I learned that there are a million Belgian beers, and the diversity in Belgian beers overtops the diversity in the rest of the world combined.

    So seriously, if you drink around a bit, you’ll find Belgian beers you love, I’m sure.  Aside from Aventinus (German), Belgian beers are my favorite.  Been drinking Leffe Blonde for 20yr, and sure, it’s done gone and sold-out, but hey, I can buy it at my local bodega, so that’s progress, to *me*.

  122. 122.

    WaterGirl

    @Chetan Murthy:

    “drink around”

    I have never heard that phrase before… Is that kind of like sleeping around?

    edit: Was it Mary Tyler Moore who, on one of her shows, said “I haven’t been around the block, but I’ve been nearby” ?

  123. 123.

    Another Scott

    ObOpenThread.

    I just heard a rebroadcast of a This American Life episode – #506 – Secret Identity.

    Jon Ronson This is Dr. Evan Nelson, the court psychologist who diagnosed Josh Brady with delusional disorder. Dr. Nelson couldn’t talk to me about Josh Brady’s case, but he explained to me that delusional disorder is like a cousin to better known psychotic disorders like schizophrenia.

    The big difference is that people with schizophrenia have crazy delusions that nobody believes, like believing that the CIA is using telepathy to read your thoughts or believing that you’re Jesus Christ. Whereas the delusions that come with delusional disorder, they could be true.

    Dr. Evan Nelson It’s the difference between believing people are following you, which is entirely possible, and believing they’re following you because they’ve inserted some sort of an x-ray machine in your body and they can covertly track you through a satellite that’s orbiting Mars. That sort of violation of logic wouldn’t be part of a delusional disorder.

    Jon Ronson Delusional disorder is defined as a rare disorder, but a lot of clinicians like Dr. Nelson believe that it has to be under-diagnosed. There have to be people out there who don’t realize that they are living inside someone else’s delusion– like, for instance, my friend Emily, which isn’t her real name. And this isn’t her real voice either.

    Emily Well, my husband had it, so I lived with someone with delusional disorder.

    Jon Ronson When you say your husband had it, does that mean he doesn’t have it any more?

    Emily No. I mean, he probably still has it.

    Jon Ronson Emily asked to be disguised because she loves her husband and wants to protect his privacy. And so in a show about secret identities, this weird robot voice is her one.

    Emily is the reason why I ever got to hear about Herson and Theo. She sent me a link to Tom’s article. In the message she wrote, “Imagine being married to that. LOL.”

    By “that,” Emily meant a marriage filled with the chaos of a plausible delusion. I said I couldn’t imagine it. So Emily agreed to talk about it.

    Fascinating, and troubling topic.

    My mind naturally runs turns to the topic of Q and TFG and GQP and all the rest…

    Do we have an epidemic of Delusional Disorder in the USA, or is it just much easier now for them to have a loud voice in our politics via their being fed nonsense by bad actors? Or both…

    :-(

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  124. 124.

    Brachiator

    @germy:

    It doesn’t seem to be a career anymore.

    Sadly true. And I don’t think there will be any physical newspapers 25 years from now. We will read about editorial cartoonists in history books.

  125. 125.

    SFAW

    @Miss Bianca:

    Aww. I am sadder to hear of Champ’s passing than I am of some (okay, most) humans. What that says about me, I don’t know.

    I’d like to test that concept for myself. I’d like to read of the demise(s) of Traitor Turtle, Rupert and Lachlan Murdoch, Cruz, Hawley, McCarthy, Abbott … then I’ll see if I shed as many tears for them as I have for Champ.

  126. 126.

    Another Scott

    Maybe Adam hasn’t been around a lot ’cause he’s in Dublin??

    The difference in quality between the restaurant staff and the louts is really unmistakable. t.co/t6aolV1yD8

    — southpaw (@nycsouthpaw) June 19, 2021

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  127. 127.

    2liberal

    @Danielx:  Odd occurrence this past week – got a call on landline (yes, still have one) from a woman with a Chinese accent asking if I wanted to sell my house. I said no, but it seemed bizarre.

     

    The housing market is very hot. I’m getting spam texts, phone calls,  letters to sell my condo in the PHX-burbs.

  128. 128.

    Uncle Cosmo

    @2liberal: ​I’m getting spam texts, phone calls, letters to sell my condo in the PHX-burbs.

    Yeah, but at least that’s the Phonyix burbs. I’m getting a similar bombardment re my 85-year-old interior-group row house in a 85% AA community in Baltimore City.

    (ETA: On further review, probably different dynamic – house flippers looking for owners in financial straits, planning to offer them half of what the place is worth in cash on the barrel. IOW, vulture crapitalists.)

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