To repeat, yes there have been US drone deaths. Anwar al-Aulaqi and his 16-year old son were US citizens and they were killed by drones. The father, at least, on the orders of the Barack Obama.
This is not a hypothetical situation, it is not a paranoid fantasy, it is truth. Obama has expanded executive powers to the point that he can (and has) ordered the assassination of American citizens without due process. You would think that all Americans, the Left and the Right, would be up in arms about this, would treat Rand Paul’s filibuster as something more than a kitschy throwback to the days when filibustering meant actually standing up and talking at length.
But no. Both sides have mocked Rand Paul, the Left because he’s standing against a popular president, against their guy. And the Right because he’s gone against the old guard, because he didn’t tell John Boehner he was going to filibuster before the fact. And the Far-Right doesn’t care that Obama actually has ordered the killing of an American citizen; they’re still obsessed with his birth certificate, his non-existent Muslim beliefs, his non-existent plan to repeal the Second Amendment, and whatever conspiracy theory involving George Soros, the UN and FEMA concentration camps is popular this week.
That last bit is what truly astounds me. Obama actually has crossed a real line, he has given himself unbelievable, unprecedented power in this respect, and yet not even the ‘He’s a socialist Muslim gay Kenyan who wants to turn America in a Satanic blood orgy’ people seem to care. It makes me think of what Slacktivist calls ‘Satanic baby-killers’ and the people who are obsessed with this non-existent threat and obsessed with being ever vigilant, ever on the alert for this non-existent threat. Because it’s easier to get worked up over the most extreme fantasies than it is reality, because it’s easier to get one’s followers and supporters to get worked up over the most extreme fantasies than it is reality.
haggady:
secotm:
What is this cartoon saying? Is that child supposed to be Rand Paul? Yes, Henry, drones are in the news right now. What are you trying to say?
The normalization of violence and coercion at the top of society trickles down…our culture of endless war infects and corrupts even the most mundane, everyday social spheres, until even young children are raised in a culture of authoritarianism where the threat of violence is constant and omnipresent.
this Good Cartoon is a chilling piece of speculative fiction that is not too far removed from reality
more likely this is just some shitty Lockhorns style humor “haha kids are such a nuisance that parents can’t wait to escape them and have a quiet dinner out”
That actually makes sense, but it gives Payne too much credit.
What is this cartoon saying? Is that child supposed to be Rand Paul? Yes, Henry, drones are in the news right now. What are you trying to say?
I get the feeling he “knows” criticism of Israel is really just anti-Semitism in the same way Alex Jones “knows” Obama is personally sending a drone to kill him right now.
You could easily turn this cartoon around, show a drone hitting Pakistan or some other country designed like a hornet’s nest and show a bunch of terrorists flying out.
Oh dear God, TERRY WISE MADE A GOOD CARTOON! WHAT IS HAPPENING?
Every other cartoonist has shown Hillary Clinton has holding her own in the hearings, if not coming out the winner. But Rose has never been one to take reality into consideration when making a cartoon.
And is that a drone in panel one?
OK. Show of hands. Who wants to maybe stop and consider if a particular armed conflict or act of aggression is even warranted before we do anything?
Why does Danziger seem to think war is necessary/inevitable, and the question instead is how to carry it out?
Buh? Another example of “Let’s combine two news items and pretend it’s saying something.” Drones are used to attack someone. Who or what is the Unemployment Drone attacking? The Middle Class? Obama’s Reelection Chances (is that what the 2012 flag is for?)? American Exceptionalism? Purple?
It’s just lazy.
