Summer Funnies (summer not)

I try to find a theme or a flow to these weekly collations but that did not happen this week. So I'm posting five here at the top that produced a giggle, followed by five that made me cringe.

And here are the not-so-much, also in no particular order.

Finishing with more horror (hope you can tolerate it but it might be best to feel motivated to some kind of action beyond blogging or tweeting)

The First Casualty Funnies

There is such a thing as “fog of war”, but it can be artificially generated. Observers may be forgiven for believing half of what they see and none of what they hear.

This (below) reminded me of the imminent mayoral election in Houston and specifically John Whitmire's grift on Harris County Republicans' caterwauling about crime.

Conflict Unavoidance Funnies

The Guardian (declined) to publish a depiction of Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu by cartoonist Steve Bell, reportedly telling him the artwork perpetuated an anti-Semitic trope.

The London Press Gazette reported:

Bell posted the blocked cartoon to Twitter/X on Monday, saying that after he filed it that morning he received a “cryptic message” from Guardian editors saying: “pound of flesh”.

In Shakespeare’s The Merchant of Venice the antagonist, Jewish moneylender Shylock, demands “a pound of flesh” as security for a loan made to his Christian rival, Antonio.

Bell said he responded to the desk saying he did not understand the allusion, “and received this even more mysterious reply: ‘Jewish bloke; pound of flesh; anti-Semitic trope’”.

Bell’s drawing includes a note referencing a cartoon by David Levine from the 1960s, picturing then-US president Lyndon Johnson with a scar on his belly shaped like the map of Vietnam.

(Joe Biden) is in a proxy war in favor of a country that jails opponents and cancels elections. His party sues to keep rival political parties off the ballot. He refuses to debate challengers. He insists on running even though most members of his own party don’t want him to. Democracy begins at home, Joe.