This Week's Sneak Peek

In lieu of the usual swatch out of the coming cartoon, here's a rerun of the cartoon I drew eight years ago this week.

1920 Still Too Close to Call

If you're feeling deprived over having both presidential primary campaigns decided so early on, Smokefilledback Saturday comes to the rescue by bringing you up to date on the campaigns of 1920.

"Nearing the End of the Primaries" by Clifford Berryman in Washington Evening Star, May 3, 1920

With only a baker's half dozen contests left on the calendar, neither the Republicans nor Democrats had a clear leader for their nominations. On the Republican side, Sen. Hiram Johnson had racked up the most primary and caucus victories, including a resounding win in his home state of California on May 4. General Leonard Wood, carrying the banner of Teddy Roosevelt, was not far behind.

"Counting Their Chickens" by Charles H. "Bill" Sykes in Philadelphia Evening Ledger, May 12, 1920

...Which, as Bill Sykes's cartoon of Gen. Wood and Sen. Johnson illustrates, wouldn't mean a damn thing once the "Old Guard" weighed in.

"Proposing Trial Marriage" by John McCutcheon in Chicago Tribune, May 6, 1920

Other contenders such as Sen. Warren Harding of Ohio (walking away in the above cartoon) and Gov. Frank Lowden of Illinois (kneeling in the foreground), had come in first in their home states but nowhere else. There were a few delegates pledged to Iowan Herbert Hoover (far right) heading to both parties' national conventions despite his having publicly declared himself a Republican in March.

"Who's Looney Now?" by Jay N. "Ding" Darling in New York Tribune, May 2, 1920

The Democrats hadn't settled on a presidential nominee, either — but since most states were sending unpledged delegations to the Democratic National Convention, that was hardly surprising. The Democratic candidate whose two (count 'em, two) primary victories put him in the delegate lead was Attorney General A. Mitchell Palmer.

"A. Mitchell Palmer Out for a Stroll" by John T. McCutcheon in Chicago Tribune, May 4, 1920

Even given McCutcheon's Republicanism, his ridicule of the Democratic Attorney General in this cartoon might seem peculiar; the Chicago Tribune cartoonist was as strident as any other in the country in attacking the Red Menace. But on April 29, Palmer publicly announced that Bolsheviks were planning a major uprising on May Day. Law enforcement around the country braced for riots and insurrection, but the day passed without incident and Palmer was made a laughingstock.

"They're Always Nice an' Cordial" by Clifford Berryman in Washington Evening Star, May 29, 1920

Sending unpledged/uninstructed delegations to either party's nominating convention was not at all unusual. The conventions were not the protracted coronation ceremonies we see today, but were where all the wheeling and dealing were made to produce a nominee. The majority of Democratic delegations in 1920 would be unpledged to any candidate. New York's and Massachusetts's Republican delegations were unpledged, and Pennsylvania's were pledged to a favorite son candidate who had withdrawn from the race.

"His Hat in the Ring" by Clive Weed in Philadelphia Public Ledger, by May 15, 1920

The conventions today may do little more than ratify decisions made months earlier, but some things never change. Clive Weed's cartoon could be redrawn by any of today's altie cartoonists, just with fewer labels sticking out of the hat.

"Mothers' Day" by Clifford Berryman in Washington Sunday Star, May 9, 1920

It's Mother's Eve, so I'll wrap things up with Clifford Berryman's Mother's Day cartoon, and a historical first. Berryman offers a nice sentiment, since baseball and apple pie were ineligible to run, but that's a whole lot of sweeping he was expecting out of dear old mama.

As for the historical first: Kentucky was first to place a woman's name in nomination at a major party convention. Two of them, actually: Laura Clay and Cora Wilson Stewart were Kentucky delegates at the 1920 Democratic convention in San Francisco. Clay received one vote on the 33rd ballot, and Stewart received one vote on the 36th.

Clay was a suffragette but believed women's suffrage should be decided by individual states, not by a federal constitutional amendment. She expressed skepticism over enfranchising a large number of “inexperienced voters,” a term often used as code language for black women, although she denied that was what she meant by it.

Stewart's driving issue was eliminating adult illiteracy, to which end she founded night schools operating within the Kentucky public school system and including schools (albeit segregated) for Blacks. Her support of the eventual 1920 Democratic presidential nominee — she gave a nominating speech for him — hinged, however, on making sure that he shared her strong support not of the as yet unratified 19th Amendment to the Constitution, but of the 18th.

Kentucky's delegates to the 1920 Democratic National Convention. Laura Clay is at far left; Cora Wilson Stewart is fourth from the left. Future Vice President Alben W. Barkley is the tall man fourth from the right. Source.

Q Toon: No More Mr. & Mr. Nice Gay

I have no idea what possesses so many people to wave assault weapons around at these protests against emergency health measures.

Well, yes, I do. These protests are organized by right-wing tycoons who would never dare protest in person, but can easily hire enough gun nuts, Proud Boys, neo-nazis, Lost Cause warriors, and Trump l'oeilists to fill a TV screen for them. The Dorr brothers from Iowa behind this sudden explosion of MAGA rage are Second Half Of The Second Amendment absolutists, and their minions don't care whether they're supposed to be protesting stay-at-home orders, health care reform, tax cuts, or cancellation of Marvel's Howard the Duck, as long as they get to wave their semi-automatic phallic symbols in public.

About which, some cartoonists had a conversation recently about this photoshopped image of protesters against Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer:

One of our most rock-ribbed right-wingers objected to the meme on the grounds that the rainbow dildo on the left was an example of "liberals using gay icons and visuals (YOU'RE GAY!!) to insult their enemies completely oblivious to the fact you're not insulting these men. You're insulting gays."

His complaint prompted a barrage of "nuh-UH!" responses, but he does indeed have a point, even if it does serve as a distraction. Whoever made the original meme could have easily found another dildo in the skin-tone of his/her choice — as long as he/she were careful not to provoke our right-wing friend's anti-racist sensibilities.

Speaking of which, many (myself among them) have pointed out that Black Lives Matter protesters would likely be slaughtered in the streets if they insisted upon bringing assault rifles to their rallies, while right-wing whiteys can goose-step right into the Michigan statehouse and spew their respiratory droplets at the faces of the Thin Blue Line and still be home in time to watch Spicer & Co. on NewsMax.

Michigan protester yelling, he says, at the space between two Michigan state police.

But they're only law-abiding citizens who just want to exercise their constitutional rights, right? Nothing anyone else ought to worry about, right?

Right.  Yeah,  right.
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P.S.: This post has been edited to remove a photo that included text which has proven to be false.

Keep the Cartoon in National Cartoonists Day

Today, May 5, is National Cartoonists Day. In most years, the whole country would celebrate by gathering together at our favorite Cartoonist Restaurants for enchiladas, chips and salsa, and margaritas; but a more subdued, private observance is called for this year.

Newspapers are struggling to make ends meet, and cartoonists are among the first to get cut. Even the ever-popular comics page is not sacrosanct.

So raise your glass of Purell and enjoy this rehash of a cartoon from April 9, 1898 that I posted a few years ago.

[At the outset of the Spanish-American War, the Minneapolis Star's Charles] "Bart" Barthomomew  – standing with his back to us next to his signature gopher, or chipmunk, or whatever that animal is supposed to be – was drawing Uncle Sam (or crowing bald eagles) nearly every day.

The tall cartoonist just to Bart's right is the Minneapolis Tribune's Rowland Claude Bowman, who usually included in his cartoons that dog between his legs.

Other cartoonists in the cartoon are identified with their respective newspapers. From left to right: The Chicago Record, ?, New York Journal (standing), New York Herald (seated), Examiner San Francisco (standing), Chicago Inter Ocean (crouching), and World. Sorry, I just can't read that second fellow.

I can postulate names for the New Yorkers in this cartoon. Homer Davenport was cartoonist for the New York Journal. William A. Rogers was cartoonist for the New York Herald. The cartoonists for the (New York) World included Richard Outcault (in a self-caricature on page 71 of Stephen Hess and Sandy Northrop's American Political Cartoons, Outcault has dark shaggy hair, glasses, and an upturned moustache) and Walt McDougall.

This Week's Sneak Peek

Alexa, please spell-check my picket sign.

Доверяй, но Проверяй

A tweet from someone named @prettyjanice888 has been making the rounds. Her version insinuates that Joe Biden's memory of accuser Tara Reade might be jogged by an accompanying 1993 photograph... of Joe Biden and — Bill Clinton's second nominee for Attorney General, Zoe Baird.

Ah, well. As Sam Kinison once said, you can't believe everything you see on the internet.

Without prejudging Reade's allegations, I have no doubt that somewhere there is an actual photograph of Joe Biden and Tara Reade. It took about three minutes for the supposedly librul media to find that photo of Bill Clinton and Monica Lewinsky, after all.

So I'm sure a more a propos photograph than the one dug up by @prettyjanice888 will come to light.

Someday.

If we look long enough, we might also turn up photos of Donald Trump with Jill Harth, E. Jean Carroll, Summer Zervos, Alva Johnson, Jessica Leeds, Kristin Anderson, Lisa Boyne, Cathy Heller, Temple Taggart McDowell, Karena Virginia, Karen Johnson, Mindy McGillivray, Jennifer Murphy, Rachel Crooks, Natasha Stoynoff, Juliett Huddy, Jessica Drake, Ninni Laaksonen, Cassandra Searles, or, at the very least, Ivana Trump.

A Blog Post for Mom

We lost my mother to cancer this week, so I haven't had time to research one of my usual Saturday history lessons for today.

I've posted a number of my dad's "Environmental Stewardship" columns on this blog; in the day, my mom also wrote columns on the environment that were printed in the state Sierra Club's Muir View (for which she asked me to draw an occasional accompanying cartoon such as the one above), or NorthCountry Journal, or the Racine Journal Times, or Lutheran Magazine. Nature was a shared concern of both my parents; they met in the canoeing club at UW-Madison in the 1950's and continued canoeing for about 50 years. They would have celebrated their 64th anniversary next month.

A church banner Mom had made for her senior citizens' group in the 1970's.

Today, I've decided to give my blog over to her. She left behind a three-ring binder of her various writings, many of which are longer than the internet has left most attention spans. There is no date on this one, which I would guess was written sometime in the mid- to late-1980's.

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Global Legislation for Wildlife

Many species occur in several countries or migrate from one country to another, passing through several countries on the way. This complicates conservation legislation.

In 1973, the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species, CITES, was written. It has been adopted by 80 countries since then. It tackles the widespread illicit trade in 600 threatened species of plants, fish, birds and animals. But the illegal trade will continue until consumers refuse to participate.

A single orchid or Amazonian parrot can fetch $5,000; a fur coat made from South American ocelots can sell for $40,000. Rhino horns are worth their weight in gold. Japan still imports huge quantities of rare wildlife products in spite of the fact that they signed the CITES treaty. Poachers have shot thousands of African elephants for their ivory, which is carved into tourist trinkets.

The Convention on Wetlands of International Importance has been signed by 34 countries. The Convention lists 279 wetland sites of 19 million hectares. Many types of waterfowl will benefit.

There are two more CITES treaties: the World Heritage Convention, and the Convention on the Conservation of Migratory Species of Wild Animals.

Mom's painting of a stream behind the cabin she owned near Millville Hollow in the '00's.

Over 90% of all species that have ever lived have now disappeared. Some became extinct through natural processes. Human exploitation has increased the rate of extinction by 400%. Current estimates are that we lose one species a day now. If habitat loss continues at present rates, we can expect an annual rate of loss as high as 5,000 species per year by the year 2000 — 130 species per day.

What is the value of wild species? A few examples (who knows what we have already lost without discovering its value?): the rosy periwinkle contains a cure for childhood leukemia; armadillos are the only animal useful in the study of leprosy; manatees' slow-clotting blood aids research on hemophilia; shark species are studied for liver and cancer cures; a wild gene provides barley with immunity against disease; aspirin was developed from willow bark; wild Mexican yams contain diosgenin, a contraceptive; tomato plants' resistance to Fusarium wild was provided by a wild Peruvian tomato; sunflowers, cassava and corn also were improved by cross-breeding with wild species.

Usefulness to mankind is not the only value of wild species. Three quotations on the philosophy of "Green Ecology":

"I owe an allegiance to the planet that has made me possible, and to all the life on that planet, whether friendly or not. We have a responsibility to the hundred of billions of people who have not yet been born, who have a right to be, who deserve a world at least as beautiful as ours." — David Brower

"Eventually we may eliminate every 'competitor' for living space on the crowded Earth. When the last creature has been accounted for, we shall have made ourselves masters of all cvreation. We shall look around, and we shall see nothing but each other. Alone at last." — Norman Myers

"Whatever befalls the earth befalls the sons of the earth. This we know — the earth does not belong to man, man belongs to the earth." — Chief Seattle

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Lila Berge at a FLOW (For Love of Water) event. She is wearing a t-shirt featuring a portrait I drew of naturalist John Muir; the t-shirt was sold through the Sierra Club catalog in the late 1980's.