Well, the first presidential debate didn’t go exactly as Donald Trump planned, even though he (and plenty of “voters” from Russia) claimed otherwise. No matter what you think about Hillary Clinton’s policies, she played Trump perfectly at the Hofstra University debate.
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Gloater-in-Chief
The Donald Trump speech style seems to be one perpetual political rant with frequent business venture plugs thrown in for good measure. Remember the Trump Steaks press conference? We were recently treated to the promise of a Grand Trump Announcement about his Birther status. The announcement quickly turned into an off-the-cuff advertisement for the brand-new Trump International Hotel in Washington, DC. (And endorsements by a number of Medal of Honor winners thrown in for good measure.)
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Deplorables
It’s been a tough week for Hillary, between her “basket of deplorables” comment and her keeling over from pneumonia on September 11th. (I still, for the life of me, don’t understand why she said “I’m feeling great” about an hour after the keeling-over incident. A normal human may have said something like, “I have pneumonia, not feeling so good but I’m getting better!”)
Read MoreTurning A Corner
Poor Little Suzie Newsykins, she’s trying so hard to keep up and make sense of her summer spent soaking up the presidential campaign. Little Suzie learns everything she knows from grownups, unfortunately. How the summer has flown by, why, it seems like just yesterday that Donald Trump was calling a judge of Mexican heritage unfit because of his Mexican heritage. (That was in June.)
What Do You Have To Lose?
After Donald Trump’s whirlwind diplomatic mission to Mexico, he is apparently still the same guy. Every time he is about to do something slightly grown-up and presidential, the pundits chatter with anticipation. Time and time again, he’s still Trump.
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America’s Worst Idea
As we mark the 100-year anniversary of the National Park Service, there is a lot of talk of our parks being “America’s best idea.” If the parks and our public lands are our best idea, what are our worst ideas? Sadly, there are plenty of worst ideas to go around.
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Make America Russian Again
Donald Trump’s love of Russia, various strongmen and secrecy seems to be one of his (many) defining characteristics. With the revelation this week that Trump’s right-hand man, Paul Manafort, was listed on a secret ledger showing he received $12.7 million for his work supporting former Ukranian president, Viktor Yanukovych, the intrigue deepened. Never fear, though, The Donald brought in a top executive from Breitbart News to shape things up so things will surely calm down now, right?
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Who’s On Whose Side?
If this cartoon seems complicated, that’s because it is. With nearly all attention focused on the latest headline-grabbing statement by Donald Trump or a suction-cupped Trump Tower climber (fun stuff, I admit), it’s important to remember that there are real issues, real suffering and extreme complexity in the world. A simplistic, seat-of-the-pants style will not translate well to foreign policy, particularly when it comes to Syria.
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Trump’s Ultimate Sacrifice
In order to keep up with the flurry of Trump stories, satire now needs to happen in real time. It’s been a busy week for Donald Trump, who started his week by fighting with Khizr and Ghazala Khan. Going after parents who lost their son in the Iraq War wasn’t enough, though, Trump Co. news ranged from an itchy nuclear finger to blaming the victim to tangling with a crying baby.
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The Kremlin Convention
What sounded like a wild conspiracy theory about, oh, three seconds ago, now sounds like a plausible explanation. Every time you think this presidential race can’t get any weirder, it does. It now sounds increasingly likely that the Russians hacked the DNC’s email, then helped release what they found to the world on the eve of the Democratic convention.
Read MoreMAKE AMERICA CRAZY AGAIN
It’s hard to keep up with the parade of craziness coming out of the Republican convention in Cleveland. Leading up to the convention, Donald Trump implied President Obama is in league with cop-killers and terrorists, soon after, Rudy Giuliani ginned up the boogie-man factor by shouting, “you know who you are and we’re coming to get you!” (That doesn’t count various calls for Hillary Clinton’s imprisonment and execution by firing squad.) And it’s only Wednesday!
Read MoreThe Amazing Non-binary Brain
Even before the recent racially-charged violence in Louisiana, Minnesota and Dallas, there was an undercurrent of “either-or” thinking in the United States. Whether we’re talking about partisanship, foreign policy or race, the George W. Bush-style thinking of “you’re either with us or you’re with the terrorists” seems to be on the rise. Binary brains are all the rage.
Read MoreJourney to Planet JupitEarth
Now that the Juno spacecraft is orbiting Jupiter, we’ll soon find out what is under all of those colorful, striped clouds. What if it’s a wonderful planet that is a parallel Earth? Okay, I’m a sucker for imagining cosmic what-ifs.
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