Cartoon: Where's the crisis?

Wednesday May 01, 2024 · 4:50 AM PDT

2024/05/01 · 04:50

Only a few weeks ago, the world was aghast at Israel's killing of seven World Central Kitchen aid workers in three separate vehicles, and an investigation revealed the IDF's AI targeting system that led to enormous numbers of civilian casualties. It's no mystery why students are protesting. By all accounts, the tent encampment at Columbia University was peaceful, yet cops were called in to break it up and the students were suspended. (Since I finished this cartoon, people occupied a building and were arrested -- it's hard to keep up with the news cycle.)

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Cartoon: Not-so-silent spring

Jen Sorensen for Comics

Wednesday April 24, 2024 · 4:50 AM PDT

2024/04/24 · 04:50

I read a little while ago that Portland, Oregon is phasing out gas-powered leaf blowers starting in 2026, with the goal of "improving public health and quality of life for landscape workers and other residents." Now THAT'S civilized.

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Cartoon: America's most wanted librarians

Jen Sorensen for Comics

Wednesday April 17, 2024 · 4:55 AM PDT

2024/04/17 · 04:55

GOP-controlled statehouses have been cranking out reams of preposterous and frightening library legislation. One proposed bill in Louisiana, HB 777, would make it a crime for librarians to use public funds to join the American Librarian Association or attend an ALA conference, punishable with prison time and hard labor for up to two years. I think Deborah Caldwell-Stone of the ALA put it best: “This is not a culture war; it’s a threat to our democracy.”

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Cartoon: If media talked about the donor class the way it talks about college students

Jen Sorensen for Comics

Wednesday April 10, 2024 · 4:50 AM PDT

2024/04/10 · 04:50

cartoon applying stereotypes about college students to the donor/pundit class that perpetuates them

Cartoon by Jen Sorensen.

Donors sympathetic to reactionary-right ideology and their pet pundits have created a cottage industry of bashing college students with negative stereotypes.

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Campaign Action

Cartoon: The dirty food dilemma

Jen Sorensen for Comics

Wednesday April 03, 2024 · 4:55 AM PDT

2024/04/03 · 04:55

cartoon about microplastics and PFAS polluting our food

Cartoon by Jen Sorensen.

This Guardian article lists various foods that tend to be high in toxic PFAS, commonly known as "forever chemicals," which are used to make products stain- and water-resistant. To quote from the report, "Among the main sources of food contamination are tainted water, greaseproof food wrappers, some plastics, pesticides, or farms where PFAS-tainted sewage sludge is spread as fertilizer." As for microplastics, where to begin? They're everywhere, from human placentas to the oceans to Mount Everest.

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Campaign Action

Cartoon: What can we do about a Supreme Court packed with corrupt extremists?

Jen Sorensen for Comics

Wednesday March 27, 2024 · 4:50 AM PDT

2024/03/27 · 04:50

cartoon envisioning different options for fixing the broken Supreme Court

To be fair, some Dems have made an effort to expand the court. In 2023, a group of senators and representatives including Ed Markey, Elizabeth Warren, Tina Smith, Hank Johnson, Jerrold Nadler, Cori Bush, and Adam Schiff, reintroduced legislation to increase the number of justices to 13. Schiff made the case eloquently:

Schiff, a congressman from California, said: “This is not a conservative court, not in a legal sense. A conservative court would have some respect for precedent. This is instead a political and partisan court with a reactionary social agenda and the only question, Mitch McConnell having packed the court, is will we do anything about it or will we subject an entire generation of Americans to the loss of their rights?

“Dirtier air and dirtier water and dirtier elections? Is that the fate we would have for the next generation? My kids are both in their early 20s and I am not satisfied that they should have to live under a reactionary supreme court for their entire adult lives and I don’t want anyone else’s kids to have to suffer that fate.”

If you're still not convinced about expanding the court, the nonprofit Demos has an excellent explainer, a key takeaway being that concerns about violating norms need to be weighed against the fact that those norms have already been destroyed.

A reminder for regular readers: I’ve moved to Wednesday mornings here on DK!

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Cartoon: What did we learn from Covid?

Jen Sorensen for Comics

Wednesday March 20, 2024 · 4:58 AM PDT

2024/03/20 · 04:58

A note for regular readers: I’ve moved to Wednesday mornings here on DK!

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Cartoon: Electric vehicles gone wrong

Jen Sorensen for Comics

Tuesday March 12, 2024 · 5:00 AM PDT

2024/03/12 · 05:00

cartoon about oversized EVs and EVs with fake engine noises being marketed to men

I appreciate that the new Dodge Charger EV does not have a ten foot-high grille. But it comes with an obnoxious feature called "Fratzonic Chambered Exhaust" which creates fake engine-revving sounds through a system of woofers and speakers and acoustic chambers, with a volume up to 126 decibels. According to the CDC, "loud noise above 120 dB can cause immediate harm to your ears."

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Cartoon: Floored

Jen Sorensen for Comics

Tuesday March 05, 2024 · 5:00 AM PST

2024/03/05 · 05:00

I was in DC giving this speech at the National Press Foundation awards dinner.

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Cartoon: 'Cryogenic nursery'

Jen Sorensen for Comics

Tuesday February 27, 2024 · 5:00 AM PST

2024/02/27 · 05:00

cartoon about Alabama Supreme Court decision that IVF embryos are people

In a case involving the accidental destruction of frozen embryos, the the Alabama Supreme Court disturbingly referred to the embryos as "extrauterine children" kept in a "cryogenic nursery." Needless to say, this is wreaking havoc on Alabama's IVF clinics and upending the plans of many would-be parents.

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Cartoon: Using the First Amendment to end the First Amendment

Jen Sorensen for Comics

Tuesday February 20, 2024 · 5:00 AM PST

2024/02/20 · 05:00

cartoon on poor invocations of the First amendment that ultimately lead to its destruction via authoritarianism

In recent years, the First Amendment has been shoddily invoked to justify decisions that ultimately diminish its very raison d'être, quite possibly leading us to fascism.

Alarmingly, we're now seeing state-level absurdities such as Florida removing sociology as a core course in its college curriculum and replacing it with a course teaching the “historically accurate account of America’s founding.” Indiana's Attorney General Todd Rokita has launched the creepily-named "Eyes on Education" portal for the public to report "indoctrination" in classrooms. The West Virginia House just passed a bill allowing for the prosecution of librarians if an "obscene" item falls into a minor's hands.