Q Toon: Offer and Honor On and Off

CIA Director Mike Pompeo abruptly and at the last minute cancelled an address at Harvard, telling the university that he did so because classified documents leaker Chelsea Manning would also be a speaker this year. Manning, along with former Trump Press Secretary Sean Spicer, Trump campaign manager Corey Lewandowski, and seven others, had been named a Visiting Fellow of Harvard's Kennedy School, which is a fancy way of saying that she would show up to spend a day meeting students and giving a speech.

The former Bradley Manning was convicted in 2013 of releasing confidential military and State Department documents and sentenced to 35 years in prison. President Obama commuted her sentence to seven years dating from the beginning of her confinement in 2010, and she was released from prison this past May.

Prefacing that his actions had nothing to do with Manning's status as transgender, Pompeo told the university, "I believe it is shameful for Harvard to place its stamp of approval upon her treasonous actions."

Douglas W. Elmendorf, Dean of the Kennedy School, quickly knuckled under to pressure from Pompeo and the right-wing snowflake squad. After protesting that the title of Visiting Fellow isn't technically an honor, Dr. Elmendorf announced that Harvard was withdrawing the implied honor anyway:

I now think that designating Chelsea Manning as a Visiting Fellow was a mistake, for which I accept responsibility. I still think that having her speak in the Forum and talk with students is consistent with our longstanding approach, which puts great emphasis on the value of hearing from a diverse collection of people. But I see more clearly now that many people view a Visiting Fellow title as an honorific, so we should weigh that consideration when offering invitations. ...Therefore, we are withdrawing the invitation to her to serve as a Visiting Fellow—and the perceived honor that it implies to some people—while maintaining the invitation for her to spend a day at the Kennedy School and speak in the Forum. 

So Manning is still invited to come to Harvard and do what Visiting Fellows do; she just won't be a Visiting Fellow if she does.

For her part, Manning has turned down Harvard's invitation to be an Itinerant Person:

Manning said Harvard's decision signaled to her that it's a "police state" and it's not possible to engage in actual political discourse in academic institutions.
"I'm not ashamed of being disinvited," she said. "I view that just as much of an honored distinction as the fellowship itself."

Q Toon: Six Degrees

The process of coming up with ideas for my cartoons usually involves juggling two or more unrelated concepts and seeking out the unexpected commonalities between them. This cartoon is what you get when the process simply doesn't come together nicely by deadline.

I just didn't have room for the added connection of Cuba Gooding Jr. appearing in drag in "Boat Trip."

Q Toon: Manning the Battlements

I'm still kind of ticked that I had this week's cartoon all drawn, scanned, and sent to my editors, and then Jason Collins announces he's gay. The story was all over the internet; it led the CBS Nightly News and CBS This Morning; and even President Obama had something to say about it.

And family obligations will be keeping me away from my drawing board for another week.

So anyway, the San Francisco Pride Board -- or somebody on it -- announced that Pfc. Bradley Manning would be one of the 40 or 50 parade marshals this year. Manning, you may recall, is the gay soldier currently in Leavenworth, on trial accused of leaking sensitive military documents regarding the Iraq War to Wikileaks.

Gay service organizations and others hit the roof over such an honor being given to an accused traitor to his country and his fellow service men and women. The Pride Board quickly caved. Board president Lisa Williams blamed the announcement on an unnamed staff member.

"It was a mistake," Williams said in the statement, "and should never have been allowed to happen."

Now it's the antiwar liberals' turn to be upset, and, it being San Francisco, they are.

The thing is, the probable reason that San Francisco Pride has so many damn Grand Marshals is to keep everybody happy.

Q Toon: Pfc. Bradley Manning

The defense in the pre-court martial hearing of accused Wikileaker Pfc. Bradley Manning argues that the U.S. Military has no one but itself to blame for having foolishly entrusted its Top Secrets to a gay soldier with gender identity issues in the first place.

From msnbc:

"The defense stated Saturday that Manning, 24, had written to one of his supervisors when he was stationed in Iraq before his arrest and said he had concluded he was suffering from gender identity disorder, which is classified as a medical disorder in the International Statistical Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems. He included a photo of himself dressed as a woman in the letter and said the issue was affecting his ability to do his job or think clearly. A defense attorney and a witness also stated that Manning had created a Facebook profile and opened at least one email account using the name 'Breanna Manning,' which the attorney described as an 'alter-ego.'"

As for myself, I reserve judgment on whether Pfc. Manning's actions amount to high treason or not, but I wish his defense would concentrate on the government's habit of stamping "Top Secret" on everything from aircraft crash reports to last month's cafeteria menu at Foggy Bottom.