30 September 2017

Tomorrow starts the (relatively recent) tradition of inktober, so today felt like a good day to do one last strictly pencil drawing before the ink starts flowing all next month long. I mean, we here at mixed media daily might not adhere totally to the drawing constraints of inktober every day next month, but we'll honor it when it's convenient, like the inktober equivalent of Xmas/Easter Catholics. Speaking of religion, today's brandisher of protest signs comes straight from the deep recesses of the Orthodox Russian Church. They are apparently upset because a movie was made that depicts one of their saints (Czar Nicholas II--that's right, he's saint and a king) boning some teenage ballerina, which is a thing that actually happened, but hey, how dare you, uh, Mr. Filmmaker, depict the truth about things. So they're doing what any rational person would do when confronted with uncomfortable truths about their revered figures--they're setting shit on fire and trying to hurt people. Clearly they're sensitive, which made me feel bad for maybe a second about co-opting one of their protestors to speak truth to American power, but then I remembered that the Russian Government basically co-opted our entire political system and its attendant media in the last election, so fuck them. And this is how we get Dirty Tom, a.k.a. self-important shitheel Tom Price, who spent close to a million dollars of taxpayer money to shuttle himself about in style on private and military planes, because he figured if an idiot like Trump could become president than surely he could abuse his access to military planes with no consequences whatsoever. Well, he's no longer HHS secretary, but not because he did the things he did, but because he got caught doing them.

29 September 2017

Some days, occasionally, I'm like, "Ah, man, all I ever get on the front page are faces. I wish I could get something else for a change." And then a paper like today's comes, and the only thing i have to work with are cots, and I'm like, "Goddamnit front page, couldn't you give me one face?! What the fuck am I supposed to do with all these cots?" Well, I did something with the cots. Hugh Hefner has moved on to that great orgy in the sky, so there's quite a few thinkpieces about his legacy, and what it all means, and was he a good guy or not?  All interesting questions to ponder and debate. But we still have all these cots to think about.

28 September 2017

If the recent primary runoff in Alabama is any indication, Republicans haven't lost their sense of embattlement and are actively working to push out some of the congresspersons they just elected to enact the vast Republican agenda (i.e., give more money to rich people). I guess all of this will make the midterms more interesting, or terrifying, or some mixture of the two.

27 September 2017

There's a lot of influence peddling happening on A1 today. Republican lawmakers, incapable of doing really anything of use for the people they serve, have turned their sights on cutting taxes, because it is literally the only conviction they have. So who's going to get their taxes cut? Everybody! But who's REALLY going to get their taxes cut? I think we all know the answer to that question.

26 September 2017

Both of these things are happening here in the Golden State (yes, those are two separate thoughts). The thing that really struck me in today's installment of the LA Times' multipart piece about how Disney and Anaheim are entering the awkward stage of their relationship is how much money Disney throws to political candidates/PACs etc. I mean, of course they do, but when you see the dollar figures it really drives home how much bigger the game is than your average Joe and Jane. Speaking of normal folk who have it rough, let's hope some of those gas cans got filled in Puerto Rico.

25 September 2017

Now why would Trump spend so much time castigating football players for acts of peaceful protest? Oh, that's right, Trump is a racist piece of shit. But he's also somebody who craves adulation and approval, no matter what the cost. So, you know, screaming about African-American athletes in front of an all-white crowd is bound to get him a few cheers, and never mind the wedge it drives deeper into the social fabric. Also, by spending all his time talking only about the act of protest itself and not what the act is striving to call our attention to, he hopes to distract from the real issue (i.e., systemic violence against black and brown people), and therefore he won't have to do anything about it. And if we know one thing about Trump, it's that he didn't become president because he wants to fix anything.

24 September 2017

Well, I spent my night mostly at a concert (Blood Orange and Solange!), so I'll just drop this guy carrying the Disney castle right here for your late night enjoyment/puzzlement (the Disney/Anaheim relationship has seen better days, apparently). Tomorrow we'll deal with all the stupid shit Trump's been spouting. Maybe.

23 September 2017

Ah jeez, look at this numbskull. The pathetic mirror image of our own ruling idiot. Somebody so deeply embedded in an insular culture of privilege and cruelty that they are incapable of engaging with the world in any rational manner. How do we rid ourselves of these people? And how do we prevent them from ever getting their hands on the reigns of power again?

22 September 2017

Mexico and Puerto Rico both have a long period of rebuilding ahead of them, and in neither place are the people waiting on their respective governments to get it started. In both places rebuilding and rescue are being organized ad hoc by large groups of people who have a good instinct about doing the right thing in troubled times. Take note, U.S. Congress; this is how normal people react when there's a crisis.

21 September 2017

Even in this time of poeple banding together to rebuild and save what they can, you can unfortunately always find somebody who's spending their time tearing down things, knowing they will hurt people by doing so, but not really giving a shit about it because they'll get what they want. What group of people would seek to Voltron themselves into some sort of uber-douchebag at this point. Look no further than your GOP congresspersons, who want nothing more than to deprive you of healthcare so that they can give large tax breaks to already wealthy individuals. But don't worry. They'll tweet you thoughts and prayers when things go wrong for you and there's no help available.

20 September 2017

While there's almost no end to the list of our neighbors who are in need of a little help---Florida, Texas, Mexico, Puerto Rico, Cuba, etc.---I think we can all agree that threatening, in an address to the UN, to "totally destroy" another country, doesn't really serve anybody but your own overinflated ego.

But seriously, help out however you can, when you can.

19 September 2017

In the wake of all the severe weather happening these days, it feels like the next thing on the national docket shouldn't be opening up hundreds of thousands of acres of protected American landscapes to industrial ruin.

18 September 2017

For a minute i thought that this was the second time this year I drew Elizabeth Moss, but I might've just been thinking of a handmaid i drew earlier this year, or maybe the time I drew her during year one of this project. In any case, congrats to Ms. Moss and all the other folks who scored a win last night. The ratings for the show's broadcast were quite low, but hey, maybe that's in part because so many people in the country were too busy trying to put back together the water-logged remnants of their lives.

17 September 2017

It may be Sunday, but the front page doesn't want you to kick back and bask in Emmys best dressed lists. A1 is chock full of stories about complex economies, old production methods colliding with new political realities. Some are successful, some are less so, and some are downright confounding (the Olympics coming to LA in 2028? *crickets*). All make for pretty interesting reading.

16 September 2017

Cassini is getting quite a sendoff form the LA Times (it's a mission run out of Caltech, so it makes sense that the coverage would be generous), and it once again lands on the front page. Well, not the spacecraft this time, but a bunch of scientists overcome by emotion. Tear up all you like, nerds; you've certainly earned it. Meanwhile, back on Earth there are still many souls wandering about looking for a home.

15 September 2017

There were plenty of politicians on the front page today that I could've drawn, but it's been a long week and I felt like it'd be better to go out with an homage to the little marvel that is Cassini, the spacecraft that's been poking about in Saturn's neighborhood for two decades, providing we earthbound creatures with an insane amount of data and images from the ringed planet. True to myth, Saturn has devoured this child on Friday morning when Cassini completed its mission and fell into the Saturnian atmosphere.

14 September 2017

There are barbarians at the gates of the birthplace of the free speech movement. Watching alt-right Nazis proudly bray their vile, racist proclivities in our public spaces brings to mind  stories of Islamic State idiots destroying Roman ruins or Buddhist statues in the places they conquer. There's a cruel, selfish small-mindedness they share in common. And of course this isn't a single-front battle. If you live in the Virginia/DC area you can tune into a Russian state-sponsored, 24 hour, propagandafest on a radio station airing out of Reston, VA.  There's charlatans and fools everywhere; be careful out there.

13 September 2017

Hey, median household incomes are up! Which is great if you're above the median. And that's the tricky thing about a median number in this case. If you fall somewhere below the median, that statistical average probably doesn't mean shit to you. If you live in Immokalee, Florida, it definitely doesn't mean shit to you.

12 September 2017

We'll ignore the article about how bad the Dodgers are doing these days and go straight to the "Science: fuck yeah!" piece. The death toll was surprisingly low for Irma, and one of the factors contributing to this low body count was better forecasting, courtesy of the NOAA. Let's hope certain people who may or may not be trying to figure out a federal budget take information like this into account when crafting said budgets.

11 September 2017

A whole lot of Irma on the front page and all through the A section. Not much else.  I haven't seen this many Floridians in the pages of my hometown paper since the hanging chad controversy of 2000 (remember that? That was, um, not fun). What else happened this weekend? Oh yeah: hey, LA Times, I think you got your numbers wrong for your story about the DACA rally in MacArthur Park on Sunday. I was there, and the attendance figures were quite a bit North of "hundreds."

10 September 2017

Irma lurched off what everyone thought was its predestined course today and strafed the Southwest coast of Florida, leaving the folks there little time to properly batten down the hatches and/or evacuate. Stay safe, Floridians. Maybe next week we'll delve into more normal fucked up news, as opposed to hurricane fucked up news.

9 September 2017

Today's front page theme was, without question of exception, sanctuary: the need for it, for those weathering natural disasters in Mexico and Florida, and for the Boyle Heights mariachis being tossed about by the forces of economics and profit at all costs; sanctuary as a political stance, possibly coming soon to our fair city; the false sanctuary of Trump's populism.  It's rough out there; do what you can for your fellow human.

8 September 2017

We're going to wrap up this week of disasters with a picture of...Pope Francis? Sure, why not. He's in Bogota this week attempting to heal some pretty deep wounds now that the decades-long civil war in Colombia has ended. Best of luck to him with that. And let's just end it there on a high(ish) note; there's plenty of disaster of all stripes on tap for this weekend.

7 September 2017

That's swell that Trump believes Congress will surely put together legislation to save the DACA program that he just killed, and that they'll somehow do it in 6 months, but eliminating protections for 800,000 Americans without having any real idea about what's going to prevent them from falling through the cracks doesn't count as an act of kindness or love. If it did I guess we could also say that Irma was headed to Florida only to give it a big, soggy hug. But we wouldn't say that because it'd be a fucking stupid thing to say.

6 September 2017

Hurricane Jeff has unfortunately made landfall, and now we're just waiting for a chance to assess the damage. I could've just as easily called it "Hurricane Trump, " and that would be just as accurate, but this particular brand of Eugenics-based domestic policy has been the pet project of Sessions for a long time. Gaaah. Batten down the hatches, everybody; with this white house, there's another shitstorm every 24 hours or so.

5 September 2017

In a day when DACA was liquidated by a cruel and heartless white house (although today's morning headline in the LA Times thought it might go the other way), Texas is still reeling form Harvey, and an all-out war with North Korea seems no longer unlikely, it's a little weird that the top story was about counterfeit Yeezy sneakers. Or I guess sneaker collectors call them "replicas." Whatever. The guy up there wearing said real/replica/imaginary Yeezy sneaker on his face is Russia's UN Ambassador Vasily Nebenzya, whose solution for stopping North Korea's psychopathic pursuit of thermonuclear warheads is that the U.S. discontinue on their military partnership with South Korea, and then everything will be totally fine, because Putin's government always has America's best interests at heart.

4 September 2017

I know we're all (rightfully) focused on the fate of DACA right now, so I guess if you haven't brought yourself up to date on North Korea's latest round of world-ending shenanigans, maybe wait until morning to catch up, so you don't lie awake in bed all night worrying about global annihilation. Seriously, it's the tail end of the Labor Day weekend; keep it chill. Go listen to Aja or something.

3 September 2017

Not to take you out of your long weekend lull, but did you know that all of your Forever 21 clothes (I know that assuming the folks who follow this project are avid Forever 21 shoppers is most likely a bit of a stretch, but bear with me), were almost certainly subsidized by wage theft? I feel like a story similar to this one pops up in the news every so often, which I guess is a pretty good indication that even though we know it happens, it still happens. Alright, go back to your Labor Day barbeques/fallout shelter construction (you heard about North Korea's thermonuclear test, right?).

2 September 2017

Hey, you know what's super boring? Articles about insurance. Because nobody wants to spend any more time than they absolutely have to on something as mind-numbingly boring as insurance. Until, of course, some biblical-scale flood washes over a swath of our great country, and then that subject is super interesting. Germane. The National Flood Insurance Program is riveting reading these days, in light of recent events. Basically this program subsidizes flood insurance, which creates unrealistic expectations in homeowners about the risk flooding poses to their home. And it encourages people to build in places they shouldn't be building. i know this is all super sexy stuff to mull over on a Saturday night, so let me get to the money shot: flood-risk standards for federally funded projects that President Obama put in place were dismantled two weeks ago by Trump. Houston, you're under water: do you feel great again?

1 September 2017

Today a giant column of smoke rose from the ground just east of Burbank and eventually drifted west toward the ocean, smearing itself across a sky that was already---unusually, for California---crowded with a dense assortment of cumulus clouds. This all occurred close enough to sunset (the time, not the street) that Angelenos were able to experience this this weird phenomenon backlit with yellow and orange light. Basically, if there was ever a time to put on a Sigur Ros album and stare at the sky, today was the day.