Ibid.

cartoons about power — sources cited

about · rss · bluesky · mastodon

Cartoon of a grim federal service hall: a padlocked, cobwebbed ticket window under a sign reading FREE PASSES, with DHS Secretary Kristi Noem beside it in body armour reading from a laminated card and saying 'That window was never open.' To the right, a huge open counter marked REMOVALS is doing brisk business — a middle-aged man in a work shirt holds out a document wallet at the deal tray, a line of families recedes into the hall, and a young sailor in coveralls, name tag AVILES, stands small behind a sagging queue rope with his cap in his hand.

Two hundred days at sea. No ports of entry.

Free Passes · August 24, 2026

Editorial cartoon: in a cramped CENTCOM press office a shrugging civilian staffer, phone wedged under his jaw and a brass nameplate reading ALLEE on his desk, drops a freshly printed statement into a steel card drawer stencilled DISREGARD that is already packed with tabbed cards; behind him an officer sets down a receiver beneath a framed portrait plated HEGSETH, beside a spike of unanswered press queries.

CENTCOM does not have a "blacklist."

People to Disregard · August 24, 2026

A cartoon exam room. Donald Trump, in a white clinic coat over his navy suit and long red tie, lowers a tongue depressor stickered '+50%' into the wide-open mouth of a seed-capped farmer on the table, saying 'Say fifty-first.' In the doorway Mark Carney waits, holding up his own tongue depressor with a maple-leaf tag reading 'SEPT 8'. Hockey sticks bristle from an umbrella stand in the foreground.

Protecting American supply chains.

Bedside Manner · August 24, 2026

Woodcut-style cartoon: at night in a panelled White House office, Trump holds up a signed, gold-sealed emergency proclamation toward the viewer — the clause where the reason should go is a long blank ruled line — while a clerk wheels in a hand-truck of file boxes stencilled GROUNDS.

The signature was the hard part.

Whereas To Follow · August 23, 2026

Cartoon of a consulate back office: Secretary of State Marco Rubio, sleeves rolled, dangles an already-printed immigrant visa over a desktop shredder beside a desk drawer stencilled APPROVED, while an aide on the phone relays a court ruling.

"...will not extract wealth from the American people."

Still in the Building · August 22, 2026

Editorial cartoon: in a dim hotel lobby at four minutes to midnight, a night clerk labelled Greer slides a long folded bill across the marble to a man labelled Carney, who stands in an overcoat with a roller bag and a box of binders. A crooked portrait of Trump hangs behind the key pigeonholes.

The guest disputes the charge September 8th.

Late Checkout · August 22, 2026

A soldier in a chow hall holds up a Stars and Stripes front page whose masthead stars are polished pinned general's rank stars and whose stripes and every column below are solid black bars, while Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth restocks the newspaper rack, pressing black tape across the stacked front pages as a public affairs officer holds the roll steady.

Cleared for release.

Stars Retained · August 21, 2026

Night-time editorial cartoon at a floodlit White House construction gate: Chief Justice John Roberts, in judicial robe under a hi-vis vest and hard hat, waves a line of concrete mixers into the East Wing excavation with a SLOW paddle while Trump leans grinning from the lead cab; far behind the fence a small labelled Judge Leon holds a rain-soaked stop-work order nobody looks at.

For now.

Flagman · August 21, 2026

Editorial cartoon: outside a Treasury auction door, sovereign investors in overcoats walk a picket line under a 'BUYERS' STRIKE' placard; Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, in shirtsleeves, offers them one small paper cup marked $4bn while a tote board on the facade reads $40 TRILLION; above, on the balcony, Donald Trump has his back to all of it, bellowing through a bullhorn at an empty street.

The blockade is working.

Secondary Sanctions · August 21, 2026

Night-time editorial cartoon: on a black hilltop, three Israeli officials stand on a plywood stage behind an uncut red ribbon with the scissors still lying unused; the labelled minister has instead thrown a huge industrial lever, and the thing it has switched on is a floodlight mast whose hard white beam crosses the valley and pins one small Palestinian house, its window half bricked up with fresh breeze blocks. A stone marker on the stage reads KADIM.

0300 hours. Press not admitted.

Opening Hours · August 21, 2026

Cartoon of an Israeli tender counter: a clerk resembling Bezalel Smotrich brings a date-stamp down on a sheet headed UNACCEPTABLE held up by five near-identical grey diplomats, beside an open counter box marked E1 BIDS, while contractors with rolled blueprints queue behind them.

Bids close the 19th. Election's the 27th.

Tender Process · August 20, 2026

Editorial cartoon: in the gravel service yard behind a huge Treasury building, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent kneels in rolled shirtsleeves misting a limp, wilting banknote marked with a yen sign that is tied to a bamboo garden stake, using a watering can marked with a dollar sign. Beside him a plain steel side door lettered CREDITOR is opening, a cuffed hand already on the handle. Caption below: Debt service.

Debt service.

Groundskeeping · August 20, 2026

Charcoal editorial cartoon: a weary Census Bureau enumerator with a blacked-out ID badge stands on the Treasury Building's doorstep, jamming a run of zeros into a tiny box on his household form while a perforated printout spills from the dark doorway past his shoes; behind him on the sidewalk Donald Trump holds a thin sheaf of seven pages up to a camera crew. His balloon reads '24,000 done. They sent me here next.'

Seven pages to follow.

Enumeration · August 20, 2026

Woodcut-style cartoon of Ukraine's parliament chamber: a huge electronic board glows 312 - 2 while rows of lawmakers applaud a stiff man in a badly fitting suit named on a desk plate, Zelenskyy speaks from the rostrum in an olive sweatshirt, and through tall blast-taped windows a nine-storey residential block burns over the rooftops.

Nationwide turnout: 314.

The Electorate · August 20, 2026

A crowded White House cabinet meeting: Trump gestures from the head of the table saying everyone must cut five percent, secretaries lean in waving thin folders, and one chair on the far side sits empty with an untouched place setting behind a brass nameplate reading INTEREST, $1.1 TRILLION, which nobody looks at.

Paid in full, in absentia.

Regrets Only · August 19, 2026

A marble concert-hall facade caged in scaffolding and a blue tarp: two rows of gilt capital letters are already bolted into the stone above a hairline crack, a third row is still sealed in a long crate swinging from a hoist chain, and a hand-painted plywood fundraising thermometer marked $100M is filled barely a fifth of the way. A rigger idles on a plank saying the marble is cracking under line two.

Donors at that level get the plaza too.

Stretch Goal · August 19, 2026

An editorial cartoon set in a cramped military screening room: a blank rectangle of projector light glares on the wall while an IDF officer slams a rubber stamp onto an open case file and a second officer lowers a trade paper to ask a question, beside a tray of two closed folders labelled NO GROUNDS.

Two and a half years in development.

Awards Season · August 19, 2026

Editorial cartoon: in a windswept prairie cemetery, Trump and a hard-hatted TC Energy man haul on straps to winch a huge rust-caked oil pipe out of an open grave beneath a headstone reading KEYSTONE XL 2008 - 2021, while Mark Carney stands graveside holding a crate of wine bottles and a bundle of hockey sticks.

Subject to the finalization of documents.

Grave Goods · August 18, 2026

Editorial cartoon: FCC chair Brendan Carr rides a slow theme-park boat marked CARR through an 'it's a small world' ride, eight fat folders marked EARLY RENEWAL jammed in the bow and a clipboard on his knees, pointing at a tier of animatronic children in folk costume and saying 'Too much inclusion in row three.' A second boat marked IGER drifts helplessly behind him.

This is the easy way.

The Easy Way · August 18, 2026

Editorial cartoon: in a bare Jerusalem meeting room, Benjamin Netanyahu leans over an easel chart headed BOARD OF PEACE listing fifteen ruled plan points, drawing one huge dripping red bracket around every one of them and writing a single red word, UNLESS, underneath, while a beaming Jared Kushner says nothing was changed.

Clearing up the misunderstandings took four hours.

Unless · August 18, 2026

In a cold military stockroom a small, exhausted Zelenskyy holds a wire supermarket basket with two missile-interceptor crates taken from a bottom shelf marked REDUCED, while a bored uniformed clerk crouches and presses an orange expiry sticker onto another crate, saying 'These expire in November.' At right, Trump stands in front of a padlocked steel cage of clean, unstickered crates, a key on a lanyard and a clipboard under his arm.

Anything in date is spoken for.

Short-Dated · August 18, 2026

An Omani mediator calmly holds two telephone handsets at a desk between U.S. and Iranian flags. A television shows Donald Trump issuing a bombing threat. Behind the mediator, a factory safety board marked “DAYS SINCE” displays a large zero.

Partner outreach.

Days Since · August 18, 2026

Cartoon of a long concrete depot wall with two service windows: the left one open and floodlit, a forklift hauling out crates stencilled US AID, and the right one padlocked with a card reading 60-90 DAYS, where a figure of Jared Kushner waits with a glossy rendering board of new towers.

Ammunition never required a permit.

Two Windows · August 17, 2026

Editorial cartoon: at a luxury department-store returns counter, Donald Trump leans over the marble pushing a stamped court verdict at an unmoved clerk who slides it back with one finger; behind him a woman holds up a cashed cheque marked $5.8M, and at the far end of the counter Chief Justice John Roberts rubber-stamps a tall stack of orders tagged 33 ITEMS.

FINAL SALE.

Returns & Exchanges · August 17, 2026

Cartoon of a podcast studio: a smirking Israeli minister leans across the table to pin a campaign badge printed with his own face onto the hoodie of a gaunt young former captive, who is saying into his microphone that he doesn't want a rope, he wants a button. A box of identical badges sits on the table.

The rest ships after the 27th.

Merch · August 17, 2026

Woodcut-style cartoon of a packed courtroom: a paid expert witness in the box holds a soot-blackened gas detector aloft in one hand while aiming his phone at it with the other, his speech balloon reading 'What am I looking at?'. A plaintiffs' attorney watches beside a two-foot stack of printouts banded '350 PAGES', and 3M's pinstriped counsel slumps at a table of red-logoed binders behind a nameplate reading '3M'.

Billed as evidence review: $475 an hour.

Standard of Care · August 17, 2026

Editorial cartoon: on a warship deck dressed for a surrender ceremony, Donald Trump sits alone with arms crossed at a baize signing table set with an inkwell, an unsigned folder, a folded white flag and a place card reading IRAN before an empty gilt chair, while a labelled Pete Hegseth checks his watch and gulls doze on months-old bunting.

No time schedule.

Table for Two · August 17, 2026

Editorial cartoon: Todd Blanche takes the attorney general's oath with his right hand raised and his left hand flat on Donald Trump's shoulder as Trump sits at a courtroom defense table in a gold-curtained White House room; a clerk holds out a pocket Constitution nobody touches, a banker's box marked BONDI sits by the open door as a blonde figure walks out, evidence boxes marked VOTER ROLLS stand in the foreground beside a briefcase marked BLANCHE, and a wall television carries a Meet the Press interview.

Counsel of record.

Continuous Representation · August 16, 2026

Editorial cartoon: at a barbed-wire DMZ fence, Kim Jong Un leans over the wire to hand Donald Trump a paper marked NOISE COMPLAINT while a ballistic missile climbs out of its launcher in full flame behind him; Trump staples a notice reading DRILLS REDUCED to a soldiers' tent flap as a very tired South Korean president Lee Jae-myung watches. Caption: Very good relationship.

Very good relationship.

Noise Complaint · August 16, 2026

Editorial cartoon: in an Egyptian hotel conference room, Jared Kushner, Tony Blair and Hamas leader Khalil al-Hayya stand behind a long table bearing tent nameplates reading KUSHNER, BLAIR and AL-HAYYA; at the end of the table a fourth nameplate reading ISRAEL sits before an empty pushed-back chair and an untouched glass of water, under a framed portrait of Donald Trump.

Withdrawal working group postponed at a participant's request.

Working Group · August 16, 2026

Editorial cartoon: in a courtroom a towering U.S. Marshal holds up a clipboard facing the reader reading 'IBUPROFEN — DENIED' and 'HUG — DENIED', his other forearm barring a teenage boy who stands with arms already open; the judge leans far off the bench pleading, and behind them a journalist in a detention uniform sits with a swollen, unbandaged purple arm.

Day 300. Both requests processed.

The Denial Log · August 16, 2026

Editorial cartoon: in a Sand Hill Road conference room, Sergey Brin points a laser pointer at a pitch slide reading '133x RETURN' above a tiny stub of a bar next to a giant one, saying 'The tiny one's the ask.' A table of billionaires scribbles notes; Jensen Huang stands at the back with his arms folded, writing nothing, beside a 'NO ON 40' yard sign.

Returns like this don't come twice.

133x · August 15, 2026

Editorial cartoon: a grandmother at her kitchen table cups a single phone showing a short message from her grandson aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln, while Donald Trump leans over her shoulder dictating a reply, Pete Hegseth thumbs a correction into his own phone, Acting Navy Secretary Hung Cao reads from a statement sheet, Senator Ruben Gallego waves an unanswered letter, and a TV boom mic dips toward the screen.

No meal was missed.

Channel of Record · August 15, 2026

A nighttime ICE arrest run like a film shoot: a cinematographer at a monitor cart calls the frame while the officer's shock-gloved hand is pushed behind a black cutter flag, out of shot. A boom operator dangles a microphone over a police chief describing the product; a director's chair reads COMPLIANT TECH; a script supervisor holds up a stopwatch at 0:99 and a clapper slate reads TAKE 27.

Low optic.

Coverage · August 15, 2026

Editorial cartoon on an aircraft carrier flight deck: sailors on scaffolding roller grey paint across an old salt-stained banner until only the word MISSION survives, while Donald Trump speaks from a podium bolted to the deck saying 'Not nearly enough,' Pete Hegseth stands beside him clutching a clipboard, a hollow-eyed ship's captain marks a personnel roster, and a queue of hundreds of sailors switchbacks to the horizon toward one weary Labrador in a service vest.

Requested metrics: one dog per five thousand sailors.

Same Banner, Fresh Paint · August 14, 2026

Woodcut-style cartoon: a cutaway of the White House South Lawn shows immaculate, untouched grass with a small placard reading NO CHANGES, while forty feet below a colossal gilded ballroom with chandeliers and a steel blast door is craned into an excavated pit, Trump in a hard hat riding a gold escalator down with a gold shovel as the Solicitor General, standing on the lawn above, holds up an emergency application and says 'Nothing above ground, Your Honors.'

Refiled as an integrated military complex.

Below Grade · August 14, 2026

Editorial cartoon: in a floodlit dry dock, Donald Trump stands before the opened hull of the half-built carrier USS Doris Miller and points up at its reactor hatch without looking; the dismantled electromagnetic catapult rail sticks out of a scrap skip labelled EMALS while a riveted brass steam boiler swings in on crane chains. Pete Hegseth nods behind him with a clipboard; acting Navy Secretary Hung Cao holds an unopened blueprint; a shipyard welder pauses mid-cut on the plating.

Nine years of griping, now with a deadline.

Full Astern · August 14, 2026

Night-time cartoon: a dark, shuttered Palestinian house, its electricity meter wire-sealed with a red CUT OFF tag and a chalk tally reading NIGHT 5 on the wall. An orange extension cord and a green garden hose run from the sealed meter and sealed standpipe across twenty feet of dust to a floodlit settler barbecue camp, where a soldier turns skewers, a settler dances, hose water fills a drinks cooler, and a badge-labelled Mike Huckabee sits on a plastic chair saying 'I called it terror.'

Two outposts dismantled. One Israeli detained.

Night Five in Qusra · August 13, 2026

Editorial cartoon: on a warship's mess deck, a labelled Pete Hegseth in a serving apron over his pinstripe suit dips an oversized ladle into a giant steel vat stencilled RESPECT (BULK) and pours a thin trickle onto the empty trays of gaunt sailors; a taped bulkhead sign reads DO NOT DRINK above the drinking fountain, and a padlocked cage of care packages on the deck is banded MAIL HELD. He says, 'Seconds?'

Day 253. Fully provisioned.

Ship's Stores · August 13, 2026

Cartoon of a Clacton seafront sweet stall. A customer's hands hold up a three-foot stick of seaside rock snapped in half; the flat broken face shows the word FARAGE running through the candy core, while tiny candidate names printed down the stick's length are too small to read. Behind the counter a silver-haired man in a velvet-collared camel coat works the brass till, saying 'Three feet. Best value in Clacton.' A propped price card reads 34 NAMES. A drenched, top-hatted caped man with an enormous rosette waits in the queue.

Snaps anywhere. Same result.

Clacton Rock · August 13, 2026

An editorial cartoon of the White House briefing room: the front rows of press chairs have been ripped out and replaced by humming server racks cabled to the podium, one rack wearing a brass plaque reading 100,000 A MONTH. Trump Media's CEO works a laser pointer at them while Donald Trump thumbs his phone beside the podium, and the working press stands penned behind a velvet rope at the back under a foam-board sign reading FREE TIER DELAY.

Latency is not a First Amendment issue.

Co-Location · August 13, 2026

Charcoal cartoon of a highway toll plaza standing in open sea. Donald Trump, in a high-visibility vest, leans from the left booth thumbing a hand tally-counter beneath a sign reading HORMUZ, his striped barrier arm lowered over the water. Facing him from a mirror-image booth marked REZAEI, under a crooked plank sign reading WILL NOT OPEN, Mohsen Rezaei mans the other booth with his own barrier down. A single small dhow idles in the gap between the two lowered arms; far off on the horizon a small freighter smokes from its engine room.

Eight on Tuesday. Down from a hundred and thirty.

Toll Plaza · August 12, 2026

A dim government crisis room at dawn: a wall of thirty dead, unplugged monitors, and taped to the exact centre of it a single cracked mobile phone showing a Google Alert. A clerk on a stepladder presses down the last strip of tape. In the foreground, Colombia's four-day-old president signs an emergency decree without looking up, asking for the phone's serial number. An empty console beneath the screens is stencilled CHOCO.

Day four. The system worked.

National Alert System · August 12, 2026

In a dim Postal Service mail recovery center, a clerk holds up a burst kraft envelope stuffed with Trump's mail-in voting executive order, stamped REFUSED, facing the reader. A chalk wall tally behind him reads STATES: 50 and DEFENSES: 0. Trump leans in from a bright doorway jabbing a finger and saying 'Deliver it anyway,' while a gray-suited Justice Department lawyer waits in the shadows holding a thin empty briefcase and looking at his shoes.

Sender never came to claim it.

Dead Letter Office · August 12, 2026

Editorial cartoon: rows of new ICE officers raise their right hands at a mass swearing-in, every hand sheathed in a bulky wired glove with a small green indicator lamp, wires running to battery boxes on their belts. Kristi Noem reads from a card at a lectern marked NOEM while an aide lifts a spare glove from a foreground crate stencilled LESS LETHAL.

So help me God.

Oath of Office · August 12, 2026

Editorial cartoon inside a windowless airliner press cabin: a white-gloved steward holds up a laminated safety card whose diagram routes the exit through an airport catering container, while lanyarded pool reporters copy it into notebooks beside fully drawn window shades, and an open forward door shows an empty presidential armchair.

But if I go, you go. Right?

Deception Operation · August 11, 2026

A jammed pediatric clinic front desk: a harried receptionist holds her pen over a vast appointment ledger and tells a parent holding a baby that rubella isn't licensed, while a whiteboard behind her numbers three separate visits for measles, mumps and rubella, a framed order with a huge marker signature hangs crooked beside it, and Robert F. Kennedy Jr. sits waiting in the packed chairs.

Effective immediately.

Visit Three · August 11, 2026

Editorial cartoon: Donald Trump in golf clothes and studio headphones works an enormous mixing console in a windowless war room; a bank of faders labelled BLOCKADE, STRIKES and SANCTIONS is shoved to maximum, one lone fader with masking tape marked SEMI sits at halfway, a level meter needle is pinned in the red above a readout of 83.77, a wall monitor reads HORMUZ 8, and Iranian foreign minister Abbas Araghchi waits on a video call holding a long unrolled list of conditions.

We're low-keying it.

Levels · August 10, 2026

Editorial cartoon: an Iranian foreign minister leans from a ceremonial launch with oversized gold scissors to cut a red ribbon strung over white shipping-lane markings painted onto the water, an Omani official holding the far end; forty metres ahead the channel is sealed by a chained boom with a barrel-sized padlock and a sign reading CLOSED, a patrol boat idling behind it.

Sea sold separately. Conditions apply.

Grand Opening · August 9, 2026

Editorial cartoon: on a rain-slick Alaskan gravel airstrip, a government turboprop unloads crates stencilled SETTLEMENT (2), 2 LAWSUITS DROPPED and $6M+ IN GRANTS while a man in a navy trial suit with a BLANCHE lapel tag holds out a courier's clipboard and a woman in a parka, hands in her pockets, says: No.

The lawsuits stay dropped.

Freight · August 9, 2026

Woodcut-style cartoon: inside an Israeli inspection shed at a Gaza crossing, an inspector with a jeweller's loupe examines a surrendered rifle on a felt assay bench, holding up a rubber stamp reading GENUINE in one fist and FICTITIOUS in the other, a crate of rejected rifles at his feet; Netanyahu leans over his shoulder saying "No one moves until every rifle passes," while a painted CEASEFIRE board hangs beside a doorway with smoke rising outside.

Trump's fifteen points also failed inspection.

Assay Office · August 9, 2026

Editorial cartoon: in an ADNOC press office at night, a wall screen shows the UAE foreign minister mid-briefing under a chyron reading PIRACY, while the company's chief executive holds up a draft press release facing the reader that reads 'UNPROVOKED BY' above a long empty ruled line, his finger resting on the blank; a headset-wearing young staffer clutches the ministry's printout, and a whiteboard behind them carries fifteen tally strokes, three freshly circled.

One dead, twenty hurt. Attacker still pending.

The Blank · August 8, 2026

Editorial cartoon: in a bare Justice Department conference room, newly confirmed attorney general Todd Blanche stands at the wall signing a large conflict-of-interest waiver pinned there. The line for Client A, Trump, already carries an enormous black Sharpie scrawl; Blanche is signing the blank line for Client B, the U.S. A young career prosecutor watches from the doorway holding a box of case files.

Client B could not be reached.

Client B · August 8, 2026

In a dim marble Capitol engraving shop, a stonecutter buffs a huge bronze dedication plaque reading THE LINDSEY GRAHAM ACT / PASSED 86-11, propped on a plinth crudely stacked from empty missile canisters stencilled PATRIOT; a very tall silver-haired senator applauds from the left, saying 'Ship Kyiv the nameplate.', while a staffer in the right foreground holds up a card reading SENT: ONE THIRD.

House passage pending.

Nameplate · August 8, 2026

Editorial cartoon: in a bare interrogation room Dan Scavino leans across a steel table to slide a signed letter toward Federal Reserve governor Lisa Cook, who sits straight-backed with her pen capped, while Donald Trump watches in silence from behind one-way mirror glass.

For cause.

Basis Points · August 7, 2026

Floodlit night construction at the demolished White House East Wing: concrete mixer trucks queue in, crews rake a fresh roof pour, a chalked plywood board reads 13 DAYS LEFT, a thick court opinion labelled 136 PAGES is zip-tied to the security fence, and a shouting foreman stands beside Trump in a spotless white hard hat.

Stayed pending appeal.

Self-Help · August 7, 2026

Editorial cartoon: at a Department of the Interior teller window stencilled OFFSHORE WIND CANCELLATIONS, Doug Burgum pushes a $1.2 BILLION cheque out to RWE chief Markus Krebber, who strides off with it; a queue of executives waits behind a rope, and at the front of the queue nearest the reader a sweating young man hurriedly pencils his first wind turbine onto a blank sheet.

Record quarter for offshore wind applications.

Cancellations · August 7, 2026

Editorial cartoon: a hospital maternity ward run as a military checkpoint. Donald Trump signs a stack of executive orders at a folding table wedged between incubators, while a federal agent in a tactical vest leans over a bassinet with a clipboard, taking details from a swaddled newborn whose intake card reads INVADING FORCE.

Narrowly tailored.

Front Line · August 6, 2026

Cartoon of a Justice Department basement: two grinning senators pose with a padlock and red ribbon on a huge dry valve labeled ANTI-WEAPONIZATION, while two feet away a rusty pipe tagged JUDGMENT FUND gushes cash into a bucket held by Todd Blanche, seated on a crate writing a check and saying 'Take your time.'

Cornyn and Tillis called it ironclad.

Sealed · August 5, 2026

Editorial cartoon: at dawn outside a scorched Wildberries warehouse, a lanyarded supervisor holds out a grey bin stencilled AMNESTY BIN, heaped with confiscated camera phones, while a queue of workers files past holding their handsets out; orange fire-glow shows through the buckled roller door behind them.

Cause of the fire: photography.

Amnesty Bin · August 4, 2026

Under a gilt BOARD OF PEACE seal and a crooked framed portrait of Donald Trump, a soft-jawed envoy holds a pen over a draft statement on an easel reading '___ KILLED 26 CIVILIANS AND THE MEDICINE STORE', the subject of the sentence left as an empty ruled blank; a young aide with a lanyard points at the gap and asks who 'strikes' is.

Phase two: the grammar.

Passive Voice · August 4, 2026

Editorial cartoon: Rep. Chuck Edwards stands behind a House Ethics Committee evidence table, one palm turned up, saying 'I never touched them.' On the baize in front of him sit numbered exhibits — a tray of jewelry, two designer purses, a shotgun, a pair of heels, an open laptop, and a full-size stand mixer with a tag reading EXHIBIT 12. Behind, two blank committee silhouettes sit beside binders labelled 1,500 PAGES.

The committee agrees.

Exhibit 12 · August 3, 2026

Editorial cartoon: in a food bank sorting warehouse, a grey-haired veteran in a VOLUNTEER apron reaches back to stamp his own '80 HOURS' sheet on the sign-in table while his body has already turned into the client queue with an empty carton under his arm; a huge wall television shows Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins smiling, captioned ROLLINS, saying 'They didn't need it.'

Eleven percent leaner.

Eighty Hours · August 3, 2026

Editorial cartoon: in a dim Israeli war room, a wall-sized planning board is empty on the left and crowded on the right; a thick red vertical line labelled OCTOBER VOTE has been smeared and redrawn further right, and every withdrawal phase bar begins beyond it. An enormous Netanyahu reaches across with a fat red grease pencil, shoving the line rightward, while a small spokesman with an earpiece points a laser at Phase 1 and says the disarming comes first.

Nothing less.

The Timetable · August 3, 2026

On a concrete breakwater in Ceuta at hard noon, Pedro Sanchez speaks from a portable lectern; three anonymous grey-suited EU ministers stand beside a flipchart headed VOLUNTARY SOLIDARITY bearing a single column of zeros. Far behind them, small and blurred, local residents hand bottled water to people in foil blankets. In the foreground, directly beneath the zeros, a deflated black inner tube lies in a pool of water among scattered flip-flops.

Ninety percent resolved itself by Saturday.

The Pledge Board · August 2, 2026

Editorial cartoon: at a Capital One drive-thru at dusk, Eric Trump leans from a golf cart to jam a fat legal complaint labelled 300 ACCOUNTS into the pneumatic tube. He asks, "Why?" The bank's steel drawer slides back holding one small index card: BY LAW, CANNOT SAY.

Discovery.

Drive-Thru · August 2, 2026

Editorial cartoon: at a treaty-signing table, Donald Trump beams and holds a fat blunt crayon aloft over an oversized coloring-book page showing a dotted, entirely uncolored outline of two clasped hands. He is flanked by two faceless suited delegates, one behind a nameplate reading MIDEAST ALLIES. At the far end of the table a chair sits empty and pushed in behind a place card reading IRAN.

Strikes resume outside the lines.

Outlines · August 1, 2026

A colored-pencil style editorial cartoon shows a courtroom where a caricatured Donald Trump leans across a sheet-covered body on a gurney, pressing defibrillator paddles to it while a speech bubble above him reads "It's dead."; the body's exposed foot bears a toe tag labeled "$1.776BN FUND" and a placard on the sheet reads "BLANCHE". Behind the gurney, a man raises his right hand as if being sworn in, while two older men in suits sit at an elevated wooden bench, one reading papers and one holding a pen, with a U.S. flag at the left and the signature "Ibid." in the lower right corner.

Cornyn and Tillis asked for assurances.

The Assurance · August 1, 2026

On flat empty scrubland with no wall or fence anywhere, a labelled Antonio Tajani crouches and padlocks a heavy chain across a single freestanding door stencilled SCHENGEN, open ground visible past both jambs.

Rome's item for Tuesday's emergency Council.

One Month · August 1, 2026

A political cartoon shows a caricature of Donald Trump standing on a paint-splattered stepladder in front of a columned building, tucking dollar bills into his pocket while changing letters on a large marquee-style price board that reads "TRUTH API $100,000 MO" and "MULTI-YEAR $60,000"; a speech balloon from him says "Free tier reads the newspaper." To the right, a heavyset bearded man in sunglasses and an apron labeled "DON JR." holds out a card-payment terminal with cash stuffed in his apron pocket, while at lower left a crowd of men raises hands, smartphones, and money toward the sign, and the artist's signature "lbid" appears in the bottom right corner.

The trust is revocable.

Today's Specials · August 1, 2026