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Darrin Bell wins Pulitzer Prize

Darrin-Bell-headshotIf you’re a regular follower of this blog, you’re certain to have seen some of Darrin Bell’s political cartoons. They cut to the chase and often make a serious point without any attempt to be funny like many cartoonists. They’re hard-hitting journalism in cartoon form.

I’ve been a fan of his work for years, ever since I discovered his comic strip “Candorville.” I ended up writing the afterword for one of his collections, and interviewed him on my writing blog.

He agreed to do the artwork for my upcoming book HOW TO ARGUE THE CONSTITUTION WITH A CONSERVATIVE, due from Gray Rabbit Publications in August.

Here’s the cover illustration:

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Anyway, I was amazed and please to discover this week that he was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for editorial cartooning, which is well deserved.

So congratulations to my friend — and the first person I’ve ever known personally that won a freakin’ Pulitzer!

(Also: If you have a political blog, radio show, TV show, or other media outlet and you’d like to do an advance review of the new book, please contact me!)

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Cross Purposes

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Pat Bagley

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Trump’s America

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(If anyone knows the cartoonist, tell me so I can give proper credit)

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Less filling

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Clay Bennett

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Of course I’m skeptical about Barr’s report

“But Attorney General Barr has released a summary of the report and it says Trump is innocent.”

Well, no, it doesn’t. It says he will not be indicted, which is something Mueller said years ago — that he believes you cannot indict a sitting president. (I clearly disagree with that. There is absolutely nothing in the Constitution to support that idea.)

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Barr said that the report does not show “collusion.” Now, keep in mind that, as many conservative scream, there is no law against “collusion.” It’s called “conspiracy.” Saying someone is innocent of “collusion” is like saying someone is innocent of “beating someone up” since the actual law is called “assault.”

But here’s the real thing to keep in mind until the actual report is released:

Barr spent the last year calling the Mueller investigation a witch hunt. He is fiercely loyal to Trump, who was appointed because he was fiercely loyal in order to replace a previous Attorney General who tried to remain neutral and not say anything about an on-going investigation (you know, like lawyers are supposed to do).

A person who clearly sees their job as being a partisan supporter of Trump may indeed not be presenting us with an unbiased summary of the report.

So don’t buy into the Republican spin on this, where they try to diminish the report that has already led to Trump’s closest advisers either indicted or already in jail, including his campaign chairman, campaign aide, campaign adviser, chief of staff, national security adviser, and personal lawyer — not to mention dozens others here and in Russia.

That is hardly the “nothing burger” they are claiming.

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Socialist Invaders from the Future!

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Ruben Bolling

 

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News to them

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Matt Wuerker

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Manfort’s sentence is not too lenient

The fact that other people who commit less serious crimes get harsher sentences doesn’t necessarily mean Manafort’s sentence was not harsh enough.

Manafort, only one of the many criminals in Trump’s circle, was sentenced to only 47 months in jail by a conservative judge who went way below the sentencing guidelines. manafort-mug-verticalManafort still has another sentencing hearing coming up with another judge who can slap more time onto the end of that sentence, so he’s probably going to die in jail one way or another.

But let’s use this time to talk about sentences in America. I don’t think Manafort’s sentence is too lenient. I think most other sentences are too harsh.

We put too many people in jail for too long in America, and especially for nonviolent crimes. America has more people in jail than any other country, including countries that are run by dictators. It costs us a huge amount of money (that the for-profit jails love) and doesn’t prevent recidivism.

There are other options. Home monitoring, community service, long periods of supervised probation.

Somehow the rest of the world seems to understand this.

Sentences for nonviolent crimes should have less prison time. Manafort’s sentence should be the norm instead of the aberration.

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Strange bedfellows

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Mike Luckovich

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Why Cohen is telling the truth (this time)

GOP: Cohen is a convicted liar! You can’t believe a word he says!

Us: And what was the lie he told in the past that got him convicted?

GOP: Well, um, the lie that said Trump was completely innocent.

Us: Thank you.

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I’ve represented some pretty sleazy clients who realized life would be better for them if they came clean and spoke truthfully.

It didn’t mean they were no longer sleazy.

Cohen has no reason to lie and every reason to tell the truth, but that doesn’t make him a good guy.

When Cohen first testified and lied under oath, the GOP praised him and supported him. Now that he’s been convicted of doing so and has no reason to lie any more and lots of reasons to tell the truth, the GOP is attacking him as a terrible liar

Proving once more that these people stand for nothing except whatever is in their own personal interest.