6 April 2017

There were plenty of stories on the front page to deal with today---visa scams, Gov. Brown's transport tax plan, Trump fawning over the authoritarian strongman currently in charge of Egypt---but sometimes the events of the day bleed into the drawing. To be fair, there was a story on A1 about Trump hinting that he would respond to the Syrian chemical weapon attack. But then, an hour or two later, I was listening to live NPR coverage of the Tomahawk missile bombardment of a Syrian military airbase, with the article still in front of me on my desk. I don't find anything comforting or correct about this bully and unrepentant liar dipping his toes into the act of waging war. I also find the timing awfully convenient, considering how much hot Russian espionage garbage is piling up around this administration. So I guess what I'm saying is, let's not all be distracted by a bunch of  shiny missiles blowing up an airstrip in a war-torn country.

5 April 2017

Man, some weeks this project just feels like a rogue's gallery of Trump Administration scumbags. On that note, meet Jared Kushner, the dead-eyed mannequin/Trump son-in-law who seems to now be in charge of a variety of enormous government projects he has no knowledge of and/or prior experience doing. Also, he's touted as the "people guy" by White House officials. I love this trend where people who don't know anything about the things they were elected to run get other people who are equally clueless to be in charge of those things for them. I was getting tired of seeing seasoned professionals lend their expertise and hard-earned wisdom to the business of running our vast, complicated democracy. This new way is much better. Yep.

4 April 2017

You know, if you were ever tempted to think that maybe not much has changed fashion-wise since the early 90s, all you need do is look at a yearbook photo from that time and you'd be like, "Oh. Oh, jesus. So much has changed. I was insane for even entertaining that notion." I only bring this up because today's front page featured an early 90s yearbook photo of White House bootlick and Central Valley congressguy Devin Nunes. But let's be clear: I'm not faulting Rep. Nunes for his party in the front/more party in the back 90s haircut, or his blindingly white turtleneck (complimented by some species of cardigan, which I elected not to include here, for fear of the whole thing tipping over into parody), or anything else about this picture specifically. He was a 90s teen, and that's abundantly clear from the yearbook photo, and that's ok. But while the article about Nunes describes his constituents' unwavering support for him even though he derailed a House investigation into a sitting president possibly colluding with a hostile foreign power (I still can't believe that that is something I have to write or say occasionally), I am perfectly comfortable pinning fault on him for that derailment. He either did it intentionally, in which case he's an asshole who has no respect for the rule of law, or he didn't know what the fuck he was doing and bungled the whole thing, in which case he's an incompetent idiot.

3 April 2017

You know you're reading an LA paper when almost everything on the front page is car related, death related, and "Beauty and the Beast" related. All great topics for drawing, but maybe not all at once (sorry, cars. I deal with you enough in my day to day). Oh, and that photo of Supreme Court nominee Neil Gorsuch? You can ignore that, because Originalism is stupid.

2 April 2017

The Los Angeles Times made its own news today when it unleashed a withering assessment of Trump, not only as a president, but as a human being. I think the conclusion is, "he's sure as fuck not presidential, and we're totally on the fence about any claims he may have to be a member of the human race." All of which is a very fair assessment. Some folks might say it's a little too lenient, and you know what? Those folks have a valid point too.
All of this truth pouring out of the LA Times Editorial Board doesn't make me feel any better about the situation, of course. You know what does make me feel a little better about this monstrous clusterfuck? There are still a few adults in positions of power in our nation's capital. I'm looking at you, Rep. Schiff; make Burbank proud (and the rest of us significantly less terrified)!

1 April 2017

All those oddball font choices can only mean one thing---we have a guest paper today! Give a big, warm, flatlander's welcome to The Mountain Enterprise, a weekly paper serving the Mountain communities of the Tejon Pass, an area that connects Los Angeles to the Central Valley. We normally stick to daily papers here at mixed media daily, but news is news, yes? The story that owned the front page (and, in fact, many pages inside as well) was about a guy named Matthew Barr, who was reported to the police by an ex-girlfriend for something, and the investigation of this report led to a 14-hour standoff with police and SWAT teams and a hostage negotiator (although the way the story is written he doesn't appear to have had a hostage). It's not exactly traditional journalism, but it's a great story, full of meandering asides about Matthew's father, Kevin Barr, and the police personnel working the scene, and Matthew's bipolar disorder, and his relationship with an ex-girlfriend that set off a chain of events that led him to be holed up in a house, fending off a SWAT team with bear spray. The closest thing I can compare it to is lyrics to a Mark Kozelek song. That's not a criticism.
Mixed Media Daily will be back to regular old LA Times coverage tomorrow, so we can all get our fix of totally depressing national news.

31 March 2017

Drawing and posting offsite tonight; stay tuned tomorrow for a special guest paper! Also, keep your eye on that military escalation!