The Rise of the Comicstrip-Tease
As a part-time cartoonist, I religiously read all the offerings in the Chronicle's comics page. While some of the panels are inane or borderline insane, others are clever, cogent and germane. And in several of the strips, there seems to be a growing drift towards the raunchy. 

A case in point: A few weeks ago, one of the panels in Greg Evans' "Luann" comic showed a character sitting on a toilet (from the waist up). 

On September 18, Stephan Pastis' "Pearls Before Swine" strip featured Rat (one of the strip's main characters) offering "an erector set" to a cartoon version of Pastis. A character identified as a rep from the Comics Censorship department appears with a warning: "I don't know where this is going but consider this comic strip over." In the last panel, Rat reflects: "Sounds like the guy just doesn't get erector sets." To which Cartoon Pastis replies: "Must be hard." 

We've come a long way since the Great Doonesbury Scandal involving a large, wordless multi-panel Sunday offering that slowly closed in on an apartment and peeked through an window to show two characters relaxing in bed after their first night of amour. 

And now we have Greg Evans' comic strip Luann capturing a couple of young adults engaging in "the act." The word balloons on the September 23 strip say it all: Tiffany to Bets: "You're home late. Must've had fun at Gunther's." Bets: "More than! That boy really knows how to make…." Bets' reply is drowned out by the voice of a roommate named Stef who can be heard behind a closed bedroom door uttering a history-making cry in the lusty legacy of cartoon art: "Oh! Oooo! Mm! Mmm! Mm! Oh! Ha Ha Ha Ha, Eek." 

US Deporting Drug Gangs to Fight for Ukraine?
Of course this could all be disinformation, but an interesting news item (courtesy of the Russian Foreign Intelligence Service) claims the CIA and FBI have teamed up to help Ukraine battle Russian invaders by "filling the ranks of the demoralized Ukrainian Armed Forces with a multinational rabble with a penchant for armed violence." 

To be specific, we're talking about members of "Mexican and Colombian drug cartels serving sentences in American prisons." 

Under this hush-hush plan, incarcerated narco-felons would be granted a "get out of jail card" in exchange for agreeing to join "the ranks of the Ukrainian army." The first bands of several hundred inmates were to be flown out of the US over the summer on a "business trip" with the understanding that they would receive "a complete amnesty in the expectation that they will never turn back." 

Fashion Plates
Personalized license plates spotted about town:
OS3YA
YAYA 4A
SIDHER7
JBUCK86
I [heart] MYBUT
AMMMS (Amens?)
RUMI 8 (Ruminate?)
DSL ESL (Diesel Easel?)
UCHRAL7 (UC Choral 7?) 

Bumpersnickers
Goblins Have More Fun
Don't Puke in My Truck
Please Be Patient. I'm 9 Years Old
Don't Grow Up. Just Get Bigger Toys
This Vehicle Is Being Driven by 700 Rats
Don't Honk. Emotionally Unstable Adult On Board
Attention: I'm About To Do Something Really Stupid 

Bernie: "I Will Introduce a Resolution to Block
This $20 Billion Arms Sale to Israel"
On September 19, US Senator Bernie Sanders boldly delivered a speech that raised a challenge to Joe Biden's policy regarding US support for Israel's devastating war on Gaza. Sanders did not hold back on his criticism of Biden's response to Prime Minister Netanyahu's merciless assault on the civilian population of the Gaza Strip and the West Bank. Sanders made it clear that: "Much of the carnage in Gaza has been carried out with US-provided military equipment. That's why I will introduce a resolution to block this $20 billion arms sale to Israel. We must end our complicity in the immoral and illegal war against Palestinians." Here is a video of Bernie's complete statement. 

 

 

Delegates Walk Out on Netanyahu's UN Speech
On September 27, scores of diplomats rose from their seats and walked out of the United Nations General Assembly to protest a speech by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Here's a video of the remarkable rebuke (which received little publicity in the US media).

 

 

 

Barbados PM Scolds Netanyahu's Use of Bible in UN Speech

During a speech before the UN General Assembly, Barbados Prime Minister Mia Mottley delivered what has been called "an extraordinary attack on Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu for his selective use of the Bible to justify atrocities against Palestinians and Lebanese." PM Mottley's criticism prompted several rounds of generous applause. Here is what the prime minister had to say: 

 

 

 

Malaysia Foreign Minister’s Shames US for Abusing UN Veto Power

On September 27, Malaysia Foreign Minister Mohamad Hasan delivered a speech at the UN General Assembly, in which he criticised the US for misusing its veto power in the Security Council to protect Israel. Hasan demanded an urgent reform to assure that the veto power could no longer be used by a selecte few UN members. 

 

 

Reich Vs. Musk
Professor and progressive provocateur Robert Reich recently dared to criticize The Lord of Tesla in an opinion piece for Britain's The Guardian. In his op-ed, Reich warned that Elon Musk was planning to use his immense wealth "to reinstall Donald Trump in the White House." It didn't take long for Elon Musk to return the fever. Musk issued an X-rated (formerly "Tweet-rated") response that called the former Labor Secretary a "miniature wanker" who should go by the name "Robert Reichtard" (as in "retard"). Undeterred, Reich continues to warn of Musk's intent to use X, his social media platform, "to push out a flood of pro-Trump lies and disinformation." 

"I/m not afraid of Musk and his bullying," Reich writes. "In fact, his infantile response simply provides more evidence of why we cannot allow his effort to elect Trump to succeed." 

10 Worst Things About Trump's Presidency (Don't Get Me Started)
"Donald Trump left office with the lowest approval rating of any president ever. But some people now seem to be suffering from amnesia," says Robert Reich. And Reich has just the right online remedy for Trump's Rightist Malady. 

Warning: Set aide about 18 minutes to get full benefit of Reich's epic takedown of D. J. Trump. 

 

Trump Pumps Grunts to Punch the Press
A media-genic moment went under-reported by the Mainstream Media when Donald Trump appeared at a campaign rally in Pittsburg in early September. Prompted by Trump's continued calls demonizing the press as "The Enemy of the People," one member of the audience felt compelled to jump a security fence and charge the reporters gathered behind it. 

During Trump's stump speech, the amped-up spectator responded to Trump's rhetoric by charging the press gallery to physically attack the reporters in the press pool. The attacker was quickly subdued by security guards who tased and tackled the offender. 

Trump's response was note-worthy—"shocking" might be a better word—but it didn't make it onto the studio screens of the nation's evening newscasts. Fortunately, Trump's response to the ruckus was captured on video. In an article that appeared in The Progressive Populist, Chicago trial lawyer Sabrina Haake expressed her shock at hearing Trump praising the attacker. "During the melee," Haake reported, Trump openly cheered the violence, crooning into his hot mic: "Beautiful, that's beautiful, that's alright, that's okay. No, he's on our side. We get a little itchy, David, don't we? No, no, he's on our side." Trump's message to the crowd—and to America's voters? Trump's proclamation was clear: "It's normal to physically assault reporters because reporters say mean things about me." 

"So far," Haake reported, "no major media outlet has picked up the story of the assault or Trump's delight in it." 

 

 

Paint It Orange (Donald Trump / Rolling Stones "Paint It Black" Song Parody)

Parrick Fitzgerald