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In response to the allegation that his regime has deployed chemical weapons to combat the Free Syrian Army, President Assad responded with “Chemical whos-in-whats-its? No, never heard of them.” He then promptly released the hounds on the remaining reporters.
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Well, when I started this drawing it was relevant. I thought I’d still post it since I haven’t been on here as regularly as I used to be. As stated in my last post, things have been extremely hectic. I’m finally getting settled into my new home in Baltimore and it’s opening up more time for me to start posting here again. As much as I would’ve loved to post regularly for the past few months, sometimes life just doesn’t allow it. I make little-to-no money for the things that you see on this blog, so sometimes it has to take a backseat because my bills won’t wait for me to draw a picture of John Boehner in a diaper (by the way, I would never draw that. Don’t worry). So with that said, I apologize for the long gap and I will be back to posting art and commentary. Thanks for your patience!
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With the Obama Administration’s nomination of John Brennan as CIA Director and Chuck Hagel as Secretary of Defense, drone warfare is being treated with the same caution as a kite-flying contest at a Cub Scout summer jamboree. While drone warfare may be hailed as a new, cost-effective way to wage war, it has many implications that often go unreported. One being the effect drones have on driving up militant group enlistment, another being the heavy psychological toll that they inflict on the inhabitants of drone patrolled regions.
But perhaps the most heated topic when it comes to drones is the civilian casualties that it produces. When politicians and media outlets claim that the drone program has low to no civilian casualties, it should be taken with a grain of salt. As a report conducted by Stanford and NYU states, the CIA declares all adult males killed by drone strikes as militants. The report also goes on to state that out of roughly 3,325 people killed in Pakistan by drones, between 474 - 881 were civilians.
The Stanford/NYU report titled “Living Under Drones” can be found at http://livingunderdrones.org/
I wanted to touch on the drone warfare issue one more time while it’s back in the spotlight, thanks to Rand Paul’s filibuster. If you are unaware, Paul filibustered the nomination of John Brennan as CIA Director to obtain an answer from the Obama Administration about whether they had the right to use drone strikes against U.S. Citizens.
Siding with Rand Paul on any issue can open up a long and dark conspiracy cavern on infowars.com if you aren’t careful, but he was not totally off his meds by asking this question. No matter how unlikely or inconceivable it may seem, historical occurrence’s such as the Kent State massacre can act as an example that even the U.S. Government can muster enough gumption to kill some citizens.
With that said, Rand Paul’s question is not my biggest concern when it comes to drone warfare. Even foreign civilian casualties, which I’ve touched on before (see above) is not my biggest issue. My true fear when it comes to drone’s is that it marks another step forward in the United State’s population being completely disassociated with it’s countries operations.
Our news media is noticeably absent went it comes to covering our war efforts, with Mother Jones’ fixture “We’re Still at War” being the only day-to-day coverage that I can think of. In fact, up until 2009, there was an 18 year ban on news coverage of dead soldiers returning from war zones.
Even more to that point, if the average American is aware of our war efforts, they probably only know of our recent adventures in the Middle East, being left unaware of our ever expanding war efforts into Africa. And yes, the African front has proved to be prime real estate for drone strikes.
Advocates for drone warfare often sight that it will make war cheaper and safer, but is that actually a positive? War inherently is not safe, cheap, or even good. When a nation goes to war, it should be an all in effort and experience, where even those who are not serving at least have some knowledge of what is happening. Drone warfare marks a change of sweeping war under the rug, not requiring the citizenry to be kept aware as the operations of the Government become ever more exclusive.
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Things I learned this year:
Things I want to learn next year:
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Hope everyone is having a Merry Bi-Partisan Christmas. May you have the strength to survive the inevitable political dialogue that will break out at Christmas dinner. Have the eggnog and rum handy for when your uncle wants to blame Obamacare for killing his business that’s been bleeding money since 2006.
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My friend asked me to do some various art prints for groomsmen gifts. They were assorted pop culture subjects, one of them being Iron Man. I had a lot of fun working on this one and hope to do more superhero art in the future.
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Poor Petraeus, he survived Iraq and Afghanistan only to be toppled by an IED placed in a mediocre writers panties. I guess even the bravest of warriors can find Operation Datass one too far. Since I’m commenting on this fairly deep into the scandal, I’m sure you are all aware by now of David Petraeus’ affair with his biographer, Paula Broadwell. With one email check, Petraeus went from CIA Director to the Pentagon’s war-hardened Kardashian sister. The man threw his career away to get cozy with a frozen Stretch Armstrong.
Now, I could connect the dots from Broadwell to Jill Kelley to General Allen to Petraeus to the shirtless FBI Agent. And then I could lament about the apparent secret information leaks made between Petraeus and Broadwell, but outlets such as Mother Jones or The Atlantic have done a far better job on that front than I could ever do. Instead, I want to confess how much I love political sex scandals.
It’s probably just bred into me as a native New Yorker, a state that seems to be the Jurassic Park of politicians not wanting to touch their wives. Of course everyone remembers Eliot Spitzer and Anthony Weiner, and then there was my own Rep. Eric Massa’s “tickling” incident. How do you even formulate that excuse with a straight face? “No honey, I didn’t grope him. I just thought Jimmy looked a little sad so I invited him to an innocent shower tickling party.”
Sex scandals are the highest forms of entertainment that politics can offer. As a country we scoff and pretend to be above such things, but every so often when one gets leaked we all hover around the campfire to watch the tale unfold. As bad as it sounds, sex scandals offer a nice reprieve from never-ending terrible news. Headline’s proclaiming “18 Dead in Bombing” or “Sea Levels Rise Faster” can be broken up with a nice “Old Scarecrow Eats too Much Horny Goat Weed.”
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Consider this my “break from politics post.” Over the last few months I worked at a political strategy firm and then would come home and write/make art about politics. Needless to say I was burning out. So, I decided to draw James Bond after seeing “Skyfall.” It was a nice break from drawing Obama or Romney.
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President Obama’s ship of gold has departed for the horizon, leaving him behind. Of course I am speaking of Donald Trump’s $5 million offer to the President which he has officially withdrawn yesterday. If you are one of the 3 people who has not heard about this story – in an effort to manufacture a supermarket tabloid worthy October surprise, Donald Trump offered to give $5 million to a charity of the President’s choosing in exchange for his school and passport records. This is yet another effort in which Donald Trump wishes to remind us that he is very bad at spending his father’s money. What we don’t know is this scheme beat out Trump’s original October surprise in which President Obama, Dee Snyder and Meatloaf must pitch a new line of bath salts to the marketing director of Macy’s.
The $5 million offer naturally spurred an outcry from the Twitterverse, and pleadings that we just ignore Trump and his stupidity from journalists and comedians who froth at the mouth for news with dignity, like sex affairs and Joe Biden gaffes. And while I agree that Donald Trump is a fool, it would be a danger to pretend that he isn’t real. Politically, Trump is a stooge. He often acts as a sideshow character who is let out of the broom closet when the time is right to distract us by eating pizza with a fork or mesmerize us as we try to figure out if he’s actually slouching or standing upright. He’s like the Great Gazoo of American politics.
And then there’s the side of Trump that we must not ignore, the business side. If Donald Trump were to enact a business venture in your town, there is a good chance that the laws will change and you will be homeless. Take Aberdeenshire, Scotland where Trump and his team are actively trying to evict the citizens to build a golf course. Most recently, Trump purchased the Old Post Office in Washington, DC with plans of turning it into a luxury hotel and spa. If we were to ignore Trump, how long will it be until downtown Washington, DC has a bankrupted, gold encrusted turd where a national landmark once stood?
So this and last month have been sparse on posts, I apologize. I work at a political strategy firm and naturally working long nights during the election cycle comes with the territory. I’m bummed that I am not able to keep up on the blog right now but come next month and election day ends, I will be back to blogging art and opinion regularly. To fill some time, here is a comparison post. It gives a bit of insight into my process and where I draw inspiration from.
