Alas, a Blog | Feminist, anti-racist, pro-fat, plus whatever else we feel like talking about.

Cartoon: Debate THIS, Libtards! (Or, The Difference Between Effective and Marginal Tax Rates)

Posted on January 6, 2019 by Ampersand

If you enjoy my cartoons, please help me make more by supporting my Patreon! A $1 pledge really matters to me.

So earlier this week, new Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez was interviewed on 60 Minutes. In the course of the interview, Cortez laboriously and correctly described marginal tax rates:

Once you get to the tippie-tops, on your $10 millionth dollar, sometimes you see tax rates as high as 60% or 70%. That doesn’t mean all $10 million dollars are taxed at an extremely high rate. But it means that as you climb up this ladder, you should be contributing more.

Many Republicans seized on this as “the Democrats want to take away 70% of everything you earn!” This included comments from highly placed Republicans, like Steve Scalise, who tweeted:

Republicans: Let Americans keep more of their own hard-earned money
Democrats: Take away 70% of your income and give it to leftist fantasy programs

Congressman Scalise is the House Republican Whip – the third-ranking Republican in the House of Representatives.

Does Scalise really not know the difference between effective and marginal tax rates? Or is telling the truth just completely alien to his value system?

And why does being either dishonest, or an ignoramus, seem to be a formula for rising high in the modern GOP?

The “kicker” panel at the bottom more and more reflects how I’m feeling, alas.

Ocasio-Cortez’s suggested 70%, by the way, is both moderate and reasonable policy.

Usually I avoid doing cartoons based in the current news cycle; I prefer to do cartoons that will last. But this one is both; it’s got a story in the current news cycle, but the underlying issues will remain relevant for years to come.

I’m pleased with how this comic came out. It’s very basic, visually, but often the very basic comic strips are the ones that look best. Looking at it now, the only thing that makes me wince is that I drew the guy’s left arm in the same pose in panels 1 and 4; I usually try to avoid that, since having them move around from panel to panel makes them look more lively.

Although it’s not important to the strip, the woman in the strip is visually based on Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, and that was fun; I don’t often do caricatures in my strips.

TRANSCRIPT OF CARTOON

This cartoon has four panels, plus an extra fifth “kicker” panel, with much smaller artwork, below the bottom of the strip.

Panel 1

Two people, a man and a woman, are standing inside some sort of building, talking. He has neatly combed and blow-dried blonde hair, and is wearing a polo shirt. She has dark hair combed back into a bun, and is wearing a simple pale dress with a dark belt. He is grinning in a somewhat mocking way; she is responding seriously, arms spread a bit.

POLO: I hear liberals want to raise income taxes to 70 percent! How stupid can you guys be?

BUN: I know it sounds strange, but top tax rats of 70 percent or higher were normal until the 1980s.

Panel 2

A close-up of Bun, with a bit of the back of Polo’s head in the foreground. Bun is smiling and holding one palm up in an “explaining” gesture.

BUN: The 70 percent rate we’re talking about would only apply to the ultra-rich. And even the ultra-rich would pay much less than that on their first 10 million dollars of income!

Panel 3

Another closeup on Bun, who is still talking with her hands, and now has a serious expression.

BUN: When top tax rates were at 70 percent – or even 90 percent – the rich didn’t stop working or flee the country. Anyhow, shouldn’t billionaires start paying their fair share?

Panel 4

A shot of Polo and Bun. Polo is laughing. A third man, wearing a necktie, has come in and is talking to Polo while pointing at his watch. Bun is startled by what Necktie says.

POLO: Ordinary workers can’t live on 30 percent of their income! You’re stupid!

NECKTIE: Congressman, sorry to interrupt, but you’re due on Fox News in ten minutes.

Kicker panel below the bottom of the strip

Bun speaks to Polo.

BUN: I should go, too. I’m getting “do not engage” tattooed inside my eyelids.

Posted in Cartooning & comics | 46 Comments

Open Thread and Link Farm, A Record 102 Edition

Posted on January 3, 2019 by Ampersand

2020 election: this child tax credit expansion could slash poverty – Vox
A $3000-per-child child allowance is being proposed by some Democrats.
Trump’s reign of corruption will now face real opposition. Here are three things to watch. – The Washington Post
US enters new phase as women change the face of Congress | US news | The Guardian
I’m fine with women in power, just not this one specific woman currently in power – The Washington Post
Cops Force Doctors to Anally Probe Drug Suspect, Bill Him $4500
Sickening. The word “rape” is never used in the story, but I don’t see why not. Thanks to Grace for the link.
Deported to Honduras, an asylum seeker who feared MS-13 was murdered. His children are fighting to stay in the United States. – Washington Post
Scott Wiener’s SB-50 could fix California’s housing crisis – Vox
The bill is designed to encourage development in rich areas, and to avoid gentrification (by not allowing new construction to replace current rental properties). Interesting.
The 10 most wonderfully weird SNL sketches from 2018, ranked – The Washington Post
It’s hard to beat the lobster sketch, but I also really liked the Barbie interns and the fallen down teacher.
Alice Walker’s Conspiracy Theories Aren’t Just Anti-Semitic – They’re Anti-Black – The Forward
And if you need context for the above link: Alice Walker’s controversial endorsement of David Icke, explained – Vox
Dan Savage has a good rant here about Tumblr’s adult content ban.
Thanks to Mandolin for this link.
Meet the Woman Who Invented Cosplay – Racked
Seth Rudetsky takes 23 minutes to go over all the things he thinks are cool in Hamilton’s ‘The Schuyler Sisters’ song.
The song itself is three minutes and seven seconds long.
The best argument against kidney sales fails | Journal of Medical Ethics
The author argues that kidney markets can be set up in a way that will avoid creditors and others pressuring poor people to sell their kidneys.
Sanatan Dinda – An Indian Visual Artist
This artist does the best body painting I can recall seeing.
A Veteran Supreme Court Justice Cited a Debunked Planned Parenthood Smear in an Opinion
Specifically, Judge Thomas apparently believes the debunked accusation that Planned Parenthood “engaged in ‘the illegal sale of fetal organs’” enough to cite it in his official Supreme Court dissent (although, to be clear, he did say “alleged”). Or, alternatively, Thomas knows that it’s complete bullshit, but is cynical and partisan enough to cite the “alleged” organ sales anyway. In either case, it indicates the major problem with the Republicans today – that completely batshit and evil conspiracy theories are bought into, sincerely or cynically, at the very highest levels. (See, also: climate change. See, also: Millions of illegal immigrants voting.)
Doomrocket’s choices for the 30 best comic book covers of 2018.
I don’t agree with every choice, but I still love looking through these sorts of features (and many of the covers are stunners). Bill Sienkiewicz has three (!) covers on the list.
The $400 Rape – Jessica Valenti – Medium
An alleged rapist pleads to a lesser charge and is let off with a $400 fine. Content warning for sexual assault, obviously.
One Woman Who Knew Her Rights Forced Border Patrol Off a Greyhound Bus | American Civil Liberties Union
On Weight Loss Surgery And The Unbearable Thinness Of Being – The Establishment
Content warning for, well, discussion of anti-fat bigotry.
Germany: The first basic income experiment in Germany will start in 2019 | Basic Income News
It’s an experiment, not a country-wide policy, comparing their usual system (which has sanctions if people fail to do things such as look for work) to a basic income scheme.
Florida Sheriff Worked With ICE to Illegally Jail and Nearly Deport US Citizen | American Civil Liberties Union
Why is Everyone Blaming Vice Admiral Holdo? – Purple Serpents In Her Hair
Holdo was right not to tell Poe the plan!
Thundercats reboot, Steven Universe & CalArts style insult explained – Polygon
This article was written before the new “She-Ra,” which is approximately 1463x better than the original, premiered, but I’ve seen the same meaningless “CalArts style” criticism of that show, too.
CBS Paid the Actress Eliza Dushku $9.5 Million to Settle Harassment Claims – The New York Times
The network introduced tapes of Dushku (Faith on “Buffy”) swearing on-set to suggest she was fired for being unprofessional, rather than because she asked the lead actor to stop making sexually suggestive jokes about her. The network didn’t recognize that the tapes also contained the lead actor acting exactly as Dushku described – a ten million dollar mistake. Good for Dushku.
J’Accuse…! Why Jeanne Calment’s 122-year old longevity record may be fake
Essentially, if this theory is right (and although we’ll never know for sure, I find the arguments persuasive), the real Jeanne Calment died at around age 60. In order to avoid paying inheritance taxes, the wealthy family claimed that Jeanne’s daughter had died, and the daughter took on Jeanne’s identity. The rich really are different!
ETA:I’ve looked into this more, and although I stupidly didn’t save the links, I’ve also seen arguments for Calment NOT being a hoax, which I also found persuasive. Controversies I honestly don’t care about either way can be so much fun to read. I’m going to continue to think it’s a hoax, but only because I think that’s a better story.
Steve Stewart-Williams on Twitter: My Top 12 Favourite Perceptual Illusions
Mankato professor taking heat for tweet that God is guilty of #MeToo violation – StarTribune.com
The tweet said “The virgin birth story is about an all-knowing, all-powerful deity impregnating a human teen. There is no definition of consent that would include that scenario. Happy Holidays.”
Are Scandals About Illegal Abuse of “Rescued” Sex Workers In India, Distracting From Legal, Systematic Abuses? | openDemocracy
“Those who are held against their will in ‘protection homes’ – lawfully under the ITPA –resort to escaping, rioting, and self-harm in an attempt to regain or at least assert their own agency.”
DeVos’ Proposed Changes to Title IX, Explained | National Women’s Law Center
Some of the changes – such as the requirement that accused students have access to the evidence against them – strike me as fair and positive changes. But many of the changes are terrible and will leave stuydent rape victims with less recourse.
How one man repopulated a rare butterfly species in his backyard – Vox
I should be in bed right now but instead I’m reading this twitter thread of funny things from Tumblr, and it’s super cracking me up, and I have to quit reading these and go to bed but I can’t.
What is TikTok? The app that used to be Musical.ly, explained. – Vox
I’ve never heard of TikTok before, but it’s apparently bigger than Twitter or Instagram, and hoooo boooy is it goofy. Fuck the youtubers making fun of people for having fun.
Massachusetts federal court rules you have the right to secretly record cops.

Posted in Link farms | 128 Comments

The Trans Story Journalists Love To Tell

Posted on December 17, 2018 by Ampersand

If you like these cartoons, please help me make more by supporting my Patreon! A $1 pledge really matters to me.

Some of my cartoons are what I think of as – oh damn this might sound pretentious, and I don’t mean it that way, but oh well – “eavesdropping” cartoons. Cartoons that basically don’t come from me; instead, they come from me listening to what a particular group of people is talking about and thinking “how can I translate this into cartoon form?”
When I do an “eavesdropping” cartoon, the great test is when the cartoon is shown to people from the community I eavesdropped on. Do people from the community smile and nod in a “yeah, exactly” manner? Do people from the community share it on Twitter, saying “this”? No cartoon will every be loved, or even liked, by everyone – within any community, there are always a range of reactions, because people are individuals. But if I see a bunch of individuals from a community reacting as if the cartoon is on target, I feel like the cartoon has succeeded.

Some of the “eavesdropping cartoons” I’ve done in the past have succeeded. Hopefully this one will, too. (It’s already passed the “smile and nod” test with a couple of trans folks I’ve shown it to.)

* * *

The thing I like drawing the least, on the human figure, is feet or shoes. Some cartoonists don’t like drawing hands, but I’d happily draw hands all day long – but feet! Aaargh! They’re made of weird shapes that my brain refuses to absorb.

So panel three of this cartoon was definitely one of those times artist-Barry looks at the script writer-Barry provided and goes “what the hell, man? What did I ever do to YOU?”

(Maybe I should have asked Becky to draw this one. :-p )

Panel 3 also dictated the form of the entire cartoon. In my initial script, this cartoon had a standard 2×2 grid layout, like most of my cartoons. I like grids for political cartoons; they’re simple, sure, but because they’re simple readers parse them without even noticing them, hopefully letting the point of the cartoon shine more clearly.

But the “rumble” panel just wasn’t fitting into a square; it wanted to be a long horizontal shape, and kept looking small and inconsequential as a square. So I broke away from the 2×2 grid, and – to my eyes at least – that made the finished piece look more like a comic book page than a political cartoon.

That’s the sort of thing I can decide to do, because I’m being supported by patrons, rather than having to fit every cartoon into a magazine’s preset mold.

TRANSCRIPT OF CARTOON

This cartoon has four panels. The first two panels are more or less square shaped; the third and fourth panels are wider than they are tall.

PANEL 1
Three people – A dapper man wearing a bow tie and suspenders, a woman with a bob haircut and a hoodie, and a woman with tattoos and a skirt with a donut pattern – are walking along a path on a grassy hill. Behind them we can see clouds, a tree, a house. The guy with the bow tie is cheerfully reading something aloud from his cell phone. The woman with the donut skirt, also smiling, is hitting her forehead with her palm in a “duh!” gesture. The woman with the hoodie isn’t smiling.

BOW TIE: Another study ahs found that transitioning improves life for nearly all trans people.
DONUTS: Well, duh. Transitioning turned my life around.

PANEL 2
The three have come to a stop, as Hoodie speaks, looking a bit nervous, shrugging and scuffing the toe of one sneaker into the side of another. The other two are a bit surprised by what she’s saying.
HOODIE: Not me. Honestly, I’ve found the whole experience miserable.

PANEL 3
A long horizontal shot of a crowd of legs, in various types of clothing and shoes, all running fast in the same direction. There is a very large sound effect.
SFX: RRRRUMBLE!

PANEL 4
The largest panel in the cartoon shows Bow Tie and Donuts looking very surprised as Hoodie is suddenly surrounded by a crowd of at least 16 reporters, all holding out their cell phones towards her to record what she says. Hoodie, looking left and right, is shocked and panicked. The reporters are yelling out questions and offers.
REPORTER 1: I’m a reporter – can I interview you?
REPORTER 2: Me first!
REPORTER 3: …write a profile of you?
REPORTER 4: …write a column for the Times?
REPORTER 5: …TV segment?
REPORTER 6: …appear on our podcast?

Posted in Cartooning & comics, Transsexual and Transgender related issues | 2 Comments

Why I Write in Cafes

Posted on December 14, 2018 by Mandolin

A cup of coffee with latte art and a notebook with a pencil

I’ve been writing a lot in cafes recently. Well, mostly one cafe, but I’ve dallied with others.

It’s a nice cafe. It’s located next to a bus stop that has a route to most of the places I want to be, which makes it easy to get there and to leave. The round tables are a bit small for a large laptop and a drink, but you can’t have everything. I drink iced tea, and sometimes I order a grilled cheese sandwich with tomatoes, and the friendly staff have gotten used to my order. The number of customers waxes and wanes with the season and the light and the weather. Sometimes it’s hard to find a pair of empty tables so I can sit with my writing partner, but mostly it’s doable.

I like the art on the walls. It’s not always to my taste, but it’s cool seeing displays of the local artists. If nothing else, it keeps my critical skills for visual art a little more sharpened than they would be otherwise. Do I like that? Yes? No? Why? I wonder what kind of art I’d be producing for the walls if I had continued on the artistic trajectory I was on at eighteen.

I like most of the background noise, including the loud conversations from strangers nearby. I like voices. The music is often not my taste, but only occasionally too annoying to deal with. The worst times I’ve had are when people are having breakdowns in the cafe. A woman sobbed on one of the couches near me for an hour or so, once. I wanted so much to go hug her.

Sometimes someone overhears me and my writing partner talking about writing and wants to talk about writing with us, which is usually okay, unless I’m heavily absorbed in working–in which case I probably wasn’t talking to my writing partner in the first place to attract attention. I like meeting new people.

A long time ago, a prominent SF writer grumbled that people who write in cafes aren’t really writing — it’s more for show than work, he said, a way of playing the writer in public. I think that’s a real phenomenon– I’ve definitely both seen people do that, and probably been the person doing it (at least on days when I just could not get my brain to cooperate).

I don’t mean to belabor the argument from that old post–it’s just that I think of it sometimes when I’m getting more done at a cafe than I can elsewhere. It makes me ponder why the cafe is a useful space for me.

Some of my thoughts about why:

Having a space dedicated to fiction means that I’m less likely to end up doing administrative business.

There are a lot of components to maintaining a writing career, and it’s easy to get overwhelmed. When I get overwhelmed, I try to organize things, and I can get caught up just doing administrative work, or other kinds of tasks that seem (or are) urgent, but don’t get the creative work done. Those tasks can be easier to approach because there’s usually a done/not-done state at the end, where writing is long, continuous, and hard to predict.

Having a routine.

Like many other freelancers and self-employed folks, I find that time management can be tricky. It’s easy for days to blend into one another, and slip away before I can manage to get traction. When I was living somewhere without many writers around, that was particularly difficult. Here, where there are masses of artists of all varieties, I have a lot of people that I can meet to work with. Having a set time and place to work, and a set person I’m working with, encourages me to develop habits that make my time more efficient.

I always accomplish something, or prove I can’t.

Because I’m at the cafe with someone else, and we are there with a purpose, I always spend at least some time trying to write. Some days, nothing comes. More often, even if I feel creatively dry, I can scrape up something, whether it’s a bit of editing, a paragraph or two, or the beginning of a story (which I may never finish). On my own I can get depressed over those days when the writing doesn’t work, and it makes me avoidant for a while afterward. With a writing partner, there’s a set time to try again.

Having a writing partner.

When I’m at the cafe, I’m with someone I know well. We can commiserate over failed work attempts, and celebrate the days when words come easily. We often write in timed bursts. If I can’t get anything done in the timed burst — usually thirty or forty-five minutes — then I have a check in time where my partner and I can try to refocus each other, so there’s less possibility of never getting back to work. Writing can be lonely. With a writing partner, you have company (while often still being lonely; that can be the nature of the work).

There’s bustling noise around me.

I’m comforted by having sounds around me. I like the sounds of people particularly. In a cafe, I get to hear people around me in a pleasant buzz that I can tune out well enough to work. Since they’re mostly strangers, I’m less likely to end up distracted than I would be if I were writing with a group of friends.

Having a reason to leave the house.

As an introvert, if I don’t actively find reasons to leave the house, then I’m likely to just sit at home with the cats. (The cats appreciate this.) Writing at the cafe with a partner gives me a time and place where someone expects me. If I don’t go, it inconveniences them. (The cats don’t appreciate this.)

Forming a community connection.

Not only does the cafe get me out of my house, but it also prevents me from spending all my time with my friends at their houses. It forces me to participate, however minorly, in the public life of our city. I meet people I haven’t met before, and see people I’ll never formally meet at all. I get to see slices of the vibrancy around me.

Peer Pressure

This is similar to “having a writing partner,” but there are other ways to accomplish it, like reporting word counts on social media or a message board. I’m accountable to someone, even though it’s informal, and there are no penalties. I can think, “I should work… Lee is working.” And Lee can think (direct quote), “Must set a good example for Rachel.” A little bit of social approval goes a long way.

(This post first appeared on my Patreon. Thank you to all my patrons!)

Posted in Writing Advice | 3 Comments

Why I Write in Cafes

Posted on December 14, 2018 by Mandolin

A cup of coffee with latte art and a notebook with a pencil

I’ve been writing a lot in cafes recently. Well, mostly one cafe, but I’ve dallied with others.

Some of my thoughts about why:

Having a space dedicated to fiction means that I’m less likely to end up doing administrative business.

Having a routine.

I always accomplish something, or prove I can’t.

Having a writing partner.

There’s bustling noise around me.

Having a reason to leave the house.

Forming a community connection.

Peer Pressure

(This post first appeared on my Patreon. Thank you to all my patrons!)

Posted in Writing Advice | Comments Off

Cartoon: Where’s The Fat Shaming? (With Becky Hawkins)

Posted on December 7, 2018 by Ampersand

If you like these cartoons, please consider supporting my patreon! A $1 pledge really helps me keep going.

It’s another collaboration with the marvelous Becky Hawkins! This is the sixth political cartoon Becky and I have done together; you can see the previous five here. (Becky and I also co-create a webcomic called SuperButch, about a lesbian superhero in the 1940s).

In any public discussion of fat acceptance – whether it’s on some TV talking heads show, or in some terrible backwater of Reddit – you’re going to hear the concern, “what if fat people start accepting themselves? Won’t that sap their motivation to change?” Sometimes it’s said politely, by people who used even tones and say “of course we’re all against fat shaming but…” Sometimes it’s more above-board, like the person in this comic strip. But it always comes up.

And, honestly, I’d be over the moon if our culture got to a point where fat people aren’t feeling shamed. But as a concern in this day and age, “lack of fat shaming” is ludicrous. There is literally no part of culture a fat person can go to avoid fat shaming. It’s like campaign ads in October, or coffee shops in Portland.

TRANSCRIPT OF CARTOON

This cartoon has four panels.

PANEL 1
A woman is seating in a coffee shop, gesturing at something on her laptop screen that’s annoyed her, as she rolls her eyes. In this and the next two panels, the woman is addressing the reader.
WOMAN: I hate it when fat people complain about “fat shaming.”

PANEL 2
The same woman, a slightly closer shot, as she pounds a fist on the table in front of her.
WOMAN: Obesity is a crisis! American can’t afford coddling fat people any more!

PANEL 3
A close up of the woman, as she makes “air quotes” with her fingers.
WOMAN: We’re all so “politically correct” that fat people are getting the message that it’s okay to be fat! The problem is that fat people aren’t being shamed!

PANEL 4
New scene. A fat person sits in her home, holding up a smartphone. A friend of hers, with a concerned expression, is on the couch next to her. A flat screen TV is on the wall in front of her; a smiling news anchor is speaking, and there’s a graphic of carrots onscreen next to him. There’s a magazine lying on the table next to the sofa.
The magazine, the news guy on the TV, the smart phone, and the friend all share a single word balloon, which has the word SHAME in huge letters.

Posted in Cartooning & comics, Fat, fat and more fat | Comments Off

Cartoon: The Tax Cut Cycle

Posted on December 6, 2018 by Ampersand

If you like these cartoons, please help me make more by supporting my patreon! A $1 pledge really matters to me.

I’m fascinated by cycles, and I’ve done several cartoons before attempting a circular layout. I think it’s worth doing, because it’s important to realize how many things in politics do become self-perpetuating cycles.

It’s also (to me) an interesting technical question. Comics are, by nature, rectangular (or square); magazines pages are rectangular, images for posting on the web are rectangular. So how can a circular cartoon be made to work with a rectangular image area? And what to do with the somewhat awkward center area that usually results from doing pie-slice-shaped panels? And what to do with the empty areas outside the circle? I always find it interesting to try and solve these problems.

The issue this cartoon looks at is one that I find immensely frustrating, like virtually all the progressive Democrats I know. The Republican party continually uses the deficit as an excuse to say no progressive legislation can be afforded (and indeed, to argue for making huge cuts); but as soon as they’re in charge, they blow up the deficit with enormous tax cuts and large (often military) expenses.

Like I said: Frustrating.

TRANSCRIPT OF CARTOON

This cartoon is a circle. At the center of the circle is the title of the cartoon: “The Tax Cut Cycle.” Four panels are in the circle; arrows indicate that the panels are to be read clockwise.

PANEL 1
Two men, one in a collared button-up shirt and carrying a clipboard, the other wearing glasses and a necktie, are speaking cheerfully to the reader.
CLIPBOARD: Now that the budget looks okay, the GOP has a plan to cut taxes for Americans (especially the rich ones).
GLASSES: Don’t worry! This definitely won’t increase the deficit!

An arrow leads clockwise from this panel to

PANEL 2
A newspaper (“The Weekly Daily”) shows the headline “Deficit SOARS.” A graph on the front page of the newspaper shows a trend line heading upward.

An arrow leads clockwise from this panel to

PANEL 3
Clipboard and Glasses – Glasses now looking a great deal more malevolent – are smiling and speaking to the readers. Clipboard is shrugging in a “what ya gonna do?” gesture.
GLASSES: Despite our huge tax cuts, the deficit still went way up!
CLIPBOARD: So now we have to cut social security! Gosh, what a sad outcome.

An arrow leads clockwise from this panel to

PANEL 4
Two people in business wear, a man and a woman, are talking. They look unhappy.
MAN: So now we put our priorities on hold to fix their deficit?
WOMAN: We’re Democrats – it’s what we do.

An arrow leads clockwise from this panel, back to panel 1, restarting the cycle.

Posted in Cartooning & comics, Elections and politics | 3 Comments

Open Thread and Link Farm, That’s A Photo Not A Painting Edition

Posted on December 5, 2018 by Ampersand

I Was a Warehouse Wage Slave – Mother Jones
“My brief, backbreaking, rage-inducing, low-paying, dildo-packing time inside the online-shipping machine.” A very disturbing article; thanks to Grace for the link.
For-Profit Firefighting Was Terrible for America. Climate Change Is Bringing It Back.
“Welcome to our climate future: disasters will get worse, and the rich will pay to sit them out.”
Is a “Ladies’ Lingerie” Joke Harmless or Harassment? – The Atlantic
Trump’s immigration policy is scaring families off food stamps, study finds – Vox
A completely predictable outcome.
“I Don’t Want to Shoot You, Brother”
Interesting longread about a police officer who was fired for not firing his gun at an armed suspect.
Evaluating the One-in-Five Statistic: Women’s Risk of Sexual Assault While in College – The Journal of Sex Research (via SciHub).
No, BDS Is Not Anti-Semitic – Peter Beinart – The Forward
The unbelievable tale of a fake hitman, a kill list, a darknet vigilante… and a murder | WIRED UK
Porn Docs and Humiliating Women | Noah Berlatsky on Patreon
What faux-forced sex porn and anti-porn documentaries have in common.
Abrams pulls controversial graphic novel about a suicide bomber — The Beat
Psychology’s Replication Crisis Is Real, Many Labs 2 Says – The Atlantic
“With 15,305 participants in total, the new experiments had, on average, 60 times as many volunteers as the studies they were attempting to replicate. The researchers involved worked with the scientists behind the original studies to vet and check every detail of the experiments beforehand.”
The new lawsuit challenging Georgia’s entire elections system, explained – Vox
“Each of these issues fueled their own series of lawsuits (several of them successful) in the weeks before and after the election, but this latest lawsuit cites them collectively to make a larger point: Georgia’s current election system created an unconstitutional series of obstacles that are disproportionately likely to disadvantage, and in some cases completely disenfranchise, voters of color.”
It’s Time to Retire the Media’s Sad Transgender Trope – Rewire.News
“Transgender writers shouldn’t have to perform sadness or pain just to get published.”
They’re Made of Meat
Fun, very short science fiction story by Terry Bisson. (Thanks, Mandolin!)
Gender pay gap: new report says it’s much worse than you’ve heard – VoxRather than looking at an annual wage gap, they measured a 15-year wage gap, which was 49 cents for every dollar men made. The difference is due to women taking more time off (usually for caretaking), and also because women’s wages are penalized more for taking time off than men’s.
A Most American Terrorist: The Making Of Dylann Roof | GQ
A Black reporter (who is an excellent writer) investigates Roof’s life.
Who Does She Think She Is?
Laurie Penny on harassment (so, content warning). “The internet does not hate women. The internet doesn’t hate anyone, because the internet, being an inanimate network, lacks the capacity to hold any opinion whatsoever. People hate women, and the internet allows them to do it faster, harder, and with impunity.”
Researchers built a smart dress to measure how often women are groped at clubs — Quartzy
Thanks to Grace for the link. “In just under four hours, the [three] women are touched a combined 157 times.”
Dog trying to steal another dog! (Video).
Women cut their hair short for Facebook likes from other women who secretly think they look ugly, Red Pill doofus explains :: We Hunted The Mammoth
It’s so hard to think of a cartoon about this guys that 1) would be explicable for people who aren’t already aware, and 2) would be worst than the reality.
Purdue accused of ‘chilling’ retaliation for sexual assault reports
I love this cartoon by Jen Sorenson.

Posted in Link farms | 38 Comments

Cartoon: If Global Warming Is Real, Then Explain All This Snow!

Posted on December 4, 2018 by Ampersand

If you like these cartoons, please help me make more by supporting my patreon. A $1 pledge really matters to me.

I wrote this cartoon months ago… and then realized that it shouldn’t be released until after the first snowfall of the year, so put it in a (virtual) drawer for a while.
The cartoon reflects my growing skepticism about the utility of logic and evidence as methods of persuasion, especially regarding an issue like climate change. I used to be a great believer in the value of logical argumentation; I would spend hours trying to argue with people, I was on the debate team in college, etc..

But my faith in debate has, I’m sorry to say, faded. Climate change denialism is not an evidence-based position in the first place, and evidence will not cause most people who hold that position to shift it.

I still try to be civil, and with the right person I can enjoy a good debate. But emphasizing that sort of exchange as the only legitimate way to make change, as some people do, is an unrealistic position at best (and a self-indulgent, privileged position at worst).

It’s not that people never change their minds; sometimes huge portions of the public change their minds on an issue with surprising speed (as happened with same-sex marriage). But why people change their minds is a lot more complicated than the “public debate” model assumes.

* * *

This was a hard one to draw! Drawing a snowstorm is a challenge, for me, and I had to experiment a bunch. I added a lot more solid blacks in the backgrounds just to have some areas that the white snowflakes would clearly show against. I struggled to figure out how to draw waves on a beach with snow looking at the beach from the water (it’s rare that I can’t find a reference photo for something, but in this case my googling skills were not up to the task).

Still, adding the snowflakes was like a big layer of static on top of the images. I ended up adding a greater variety of colors than I’ve been using on my strips lately, to make it easier for readers to see what’s going on. (I prefer the way limited color looks – I think it’s prettier and also more distinctive-looking – but clear storytelling is a higher priority).

(While drawing this comic, I’d sometimes glance out the window and feel surprised that the ground outside wasn’t covered in snow.)

(This isn’t deep, but I really like the snowman playing with a smartphone in panel five.)

Thanks to the folks who are supporting my Patreon! I couldn’t make an oddball cartoon like this one without the support I get from y’all, and it means so much to me. Extra thanks to $10 patron N.K. Jemisin, who is also thanked on the sidebar. N.K. (who needs no introduction from me) is an amazing novelist; if you haven’t read her books, do yourself a favor.

Here’s the graph that’s partly visible in panel 2. The graphic was created by Mike Shibao for the University Corporation for Atmospheric Research.

TRANSCRIPT OF CARTOON
This cartoon has six panels.

PANEL 1
Two women stand outside a building. It is snowing heavily; the ground is covered with snow, and there’s a snowman in the foreground. One woman has red hair and is wearing a down vest, while the other has a red jacket and glasses. The Readhead is talking cheerily with one hand raised in a dismissive “get outta here” sort of gesture; Red Jacket is doing the “explaining hand” thing (upturned palm at a bit above waist height).
REDHEAD: Global warming can’t be real! Look at all this snow!
RED JACKET: I can see why you’d think that, but can I try to change your mind?

PANEL 2
The two characters have apparently gone somewhere sheltered from the snow. Red Jacket is holding up a graph, which shows red lines (increasing) and blue lines (decreasing) superimposed over a map of the USA. Redhead is leaning forward to examine the graph.
RED JACKET: …there are still record-setting cold days, but look at this graph – we’re having them much less often nowadays, and we’re having record hot days much more often.

PANEL 3
The two characters are standing on a beach, looking out at the water. It’s snowing, and the beach is covered in snow except near the shoreline. There’s foam from a little wave coming in. Red Jacket is gesturing towards the wave, while Redhead scratches her head thoughtfully.
RED JACKET: Looking at the ocean, we can see that there are still some waves coming in even when the tide is heading out.
REDHEAD: So the waves are like cold days?

PANEL 4
The two characters are now standing by a building, which has a satellite dish on the roof and the NASA logo on the side. It’s still snowing. Red Jacket is introducing Redhead to a third woman, who is wearing a white coat, glasses, and a knit hat. Redhead is listening attentively.
RED JACKET: …now let’s go visit NASA!
NASA PERSON: Hi, ladies! Let’s talk about the difference between climate and weather.

PANEL 5
The two characters are back on their won, standing outside a building and talking. It’s still snowing; in the foreground, a snowman appears to be checking their cell phone. Redhead is talking energetically and cheerfully, with her hands spread wide, as Red Jacket listens.
REDHEAD: Wow, that was incredible! You’ve proved your point – cold weather really doesn’t mean global warming isn’t real!

PANEL 6
This panel shows Redhead, in the same vest as the previous five panels but with different clothes on under it, talking to a balding man wearing a red scarf. Redhead is in exactly the same pose as in panel 1. Around the corner, unseen by Redhead, we can see Red Jacket looking surprised and annoyed. It’s still snowing.
CAPTION: Literally the next day.
REDHEAD: Global warming can’t be real! Look at all this snow!

Posted in Cartooning & comics, Environmental issues | 26 Comments

A Portfolio of Barry Deutsch’s comics

Posted on November 30, 2018 by Ampersand

I created this post so that when people ask for a link showing what I do, I can have examples gathered at one URL.

Although I’ve created many comics over the years, my four largest projects are Hereville, SuperButch, my political cartoons, and Wings of Fire. Click on any image to enlarge.

Hereville

I’m best known for writing and drawing the Hereville series of graphic novels, about a monster-fighting 11-year-old Orthodox Jewish girl.

Hereville is published by Abrams; Hereville books have been nominated for every major comics award (including an Eisner), and have won the Sydney Taylor Award and the Oregon Book Award, among others.

Here’s the cover to the first Hereville book, and a few sample Hereville pages.

SuperButch

Becky Hawkins and I co-create the webcomic SuperButch. Superbutch is about a lesbian superhero in the 1940s who protects the bar scene from corrupt cops.

SuperButch has won the Prism Award for Best Webcomic. As of this writing, Becky and I have published four paper issues of SuperButch.

Here’s some sample covers and interior pages from SuperButch. All art by Becky Hawkins.

Political Cartoons

My political cartoons have been in The Nib, In These Times, The LA Times, Ms Magazine, and countless union newsletters and college textbooks, and have won a Charles Schulz Award.

Here are some samples of my political cartoons. All are written and drawn by me.

Wings of Fire

I co-write the scripts for the graphic novel adaptations of Tui Sutherland’s best-selling Wings of Fire series. Wings of Fire is about a group of five adolescent dragons, “the dragonets of destiny,” who are destined to save the world from war – or so a prophecy claims.

Both the original novels and the graphic novels are published by Scholastic.

Here are some covers and interior art from Wings of Fire. All art by Mike Holmes.