Can We Call It Fascism Yet?

Posted on August 3, 2026 by Ampersand

Another strip drawn by the amazing Mike Lawrence.

From an official press release on whitehouse.gov, July 16 2026:

Homeland Security Advisor Stephen Miller made clear there must be no retreat: “One of the hallmarks of left-wing violence and terrorism is its completely pre-textual and disingenuous appeal to civil liberties in an effort to shield its own violence… When the leftist — who does not believe in freedom, who does not believe in civil rights, who does not believe in any ordinary notion of justice — protests that we are violating his rights, understand the [sic] he is lying to try to persuade people who are not closely following the political scene that some injustice has perpetrated [sic] against him. We must stay the course and be completely unflinching in the pursuit of justice against these enemies of civilization.”

The rhetoric is unambiguously fascist. A typical fascist move is to describe their own community – however they conceive it – as the authentic national identity, and to then define out-groups or political opponents as existential threats to that nation. From there, it’s a short step to seeing state suppression of those groups as necessary for the nation to survive, and even to call that self-defense.

The extreme fascist rhetoric we’ve seen this month is, I suspect, the administration testing the waters to see if they have enough support to blatantly overturn the results of the midterm elections, which most people expect to go badly for Republicans. Heather Cox Richardson commented:

[Trump ally Stephen] Bannon argued in Tuesday’s War Room podcast that the idea of “communists” threatening to take over the United States through corrupt elections is “a predicate for immediate action.” That immediate action, he said, would be for Trump to declare “a national security emergency executive order…that took all of SAVE America plus plus plus plus.” And then, we can be sure, the Republicans will win the 2026 elections and, as Trump keeps saying, all the elections for the next 100 years.

I still think (or hope) this won’t happen – not because the Trump administration is above it, but because I think they’re shackled by Trump’s unpopularity. As Jim Stewartson points out, one key difference between Hitler and Trump is that Hitler was popular.

Incidentally, this strip was written and drawn well before that Trump Administration press release. Panel three’s original dialog referred to Trump’s plans for an “Election Integrity Army” for the 2026 election. But – as so often seems to happen with this administration – if you just wait a little while they’ll say something even worse.

TRANSCRIPT OF CARTOON

Panel 1

The year is 2024. A WOMAN and a MAN sit at a table in a coffee shop, looking at their phones.

WOMAN: The Supreme Court says no official act by the president can be a crime! Can we call it fascism yet?

MAN: Of course not. Don’t be hysterical.

Panel 2

The year is 2025. The WOMAN and MAN stand outside in snowy weather; the woman is pointing to something on her phone.

WOMAN: ICE invaded Minneapolis! Masked government agents are kidnapping people! Can we call it fascism now?

MAN: No! It’s bad, but let’s not exaggerate.

Panel 3

The year is 2026. The WOMAN and MAN sit on a park bench. She reads from her phone.

WOMAN: The White House says it’ll eradicate “Antifa militants” and ignore civil liberties. Can we call it fascism yet?

MAN: Enough with the doomerism!

Panel 4

The year is 2030. Armed, armored government troops stand nearby. The WOMAN begins to speak, but the frightened MAN stops her.

WOMAN: Can we—

MAN: Shhh! Do you want to get us arrested?

CHICKEN FAT WATCH

“Chicken fat” is an ancient cartooning term for fun but unimportant details in the art.

PANEL 1: The coffee shop is called “Bump & GRIND (not a strip club).” The menu offers “brewtentious latte, true brew, vessel w/ pestle, dragon flagon, palace chalice, hot tea” and in a section marked “Pies,” offers “whim pie, pup pie, gup pie, hip pie, and yup pie.” Groucho Marx’s decapitated head is in the pastry case. The extremely embarrassed-looking barista is reading a book called 5000 Shades of Gray. The coffee mugs have a logo consisting of the words “BAD LOGO” arranged around a pile of poop. A tentacle is reaching up from under the table to grab the pie.

PANEL 2: There’s a “Calvin and Hobbes” snowman in the background. The logo on his jacket says “pradagonia.” A bird in the tree is bundled up with a scarf and knit hat.

PANEL 3: Fozzie Bear peers out of a hollow in the tree. A groundhog emerges from a hole in the ground. The MAN’s boba tea appears to be filled with eyeballs. The man’s t-shirt says “REBEL ™”.

PANEL 4: Graffiti reads “Romanes Eunt Domus” and “We ♥ Leader.” There appears to be a shark swimming in the filthy water beside the sidewalk.

Can We Call It Fascism Yet? | Barry Deutsch on Patreon

Posted in Cartooning & comics, Conservative zaniness, right-wingers, etc. | 32 Comments

You’re Not Fat, You’re Beautiful

Posted on August 2, 2026 by Ampersand

This cartoon is by me and Becky Hawkins.

Becky and I were working together at a coffee shop, and Becky was talking about the movie The Devil Wears Prada. Or, more specifically, Becky was describing a podcast she’d listened to in which the podcasters were talking about that movie.

During the movie, people keep saying Anne Hathaway’s character is fat, and the hosts of the podcast kept saying, “She’s not fat, she’s beautiful!” Becky told me she wished she had the power to deliver a mild electric shock to the speaker every time that was said.

I said, “Excuse me,” and three minutes later I shoved this script under Becky’s nose. Sometimes they come really easy!

Becky adds:

Did I need to go for an authentic Pittsburgh skyline? No.

Is that why this cartoon is getting posted on the last possible day? Maybe.

I drew this while listening to What to Carry, What to Burn, a podcast of wilderness survival stories by Blair Braverman. If that doesn’t strike your fancy, Blair also wrote Small Game, a biting/gripping/sweet novel about a survivalist reality show where everything goes wrong.

Transcript of Cartoon

Panel 1

A fat woman is shopping in a clothing store, flipping through dresses on a rack and looking annoyed. A thin woman beside her, trying to be reassuring, touches her shoulder. A little lightning-bolt like zap emanates from the thin woman.

FAT WOMAN: Why don’t they make nice clothes for fat women?

THIN WOMAN: You’re not fat! You’re beautif—

THIN WOMAN: AAAAGH!

Panel 2

A city skyline. Lightning-bolt like “zaps” are emanating from two different places in the city.

VOICE 1: You’re not fat, you’re bea— Ow!

VOICE 2: You’re not fat, you’re— GHAAAAH!

Panel 3

A hand holds up a phone showing a nervous looking TV news anchor.

NEWS ANCHOR: Scientists are baffled by a sudden plague of minor but extremely painful shocks whenever anyone says… uh… never mind.

Panel 4

Two women sit at a cafe table. One looks at her phone, talking to the fat woman from panel 1, who smiles contentedly.

FRIEND: You had one magic wish you could have used on anything, and this was your choice?

FAT WOMAN: No regrets.

You’re Not Fat, You’re Beautiful | Barry Deutsch on Patreon

Posted in Cartooning & comics, Fat, fat and more fat | 2 Comments

A Brief History of Brief Wars

Posted on August 1, 2026 by Ampersand

Wow, did this cartoon take forever to make!

So why did it take so long?

First of all, history-based cartoons always take more time to research. But the research was really fruitful, because I found quotes that let me arrange the war predictions as a series of ever-shrinking time frames — weeks, days, an hour — which is the sort of thing that delights me.

(Scroll to the bottom of this post to read the quotes I paraphrased in this cartoon.)

Second, SO MANY CARICATURES! A few years ago, I would have tried to recruit Kevin Moore or Becky to draw it for me, because I would have been intimidated by the caricatures. But I’ve gotten a lot more confident with caricature — or at least, more confident that readers are willing to accept less-than-stellar ones. And it’s fun!

The most difficult caricature in this cartoon was one most readers won’t notice: The tiny Alan Alda on the MASH lunchbox in panel two, which I redid four times before drawing something I could live with. This supports my theory that exceptionally good-looking people are the hardest to caricature.

Third, Rachel Swirsky and I are currently working on a script for a new Wings of Fire graphic novel, which cuts into the time I can spend drawing cartoons. (Bright side: New Wings of Fire graphic novel!)

And fourth, the aforementioned vacation. As I write this, I’m visiting my family. Which is lovely, of course (and I’m not just saying that because my Mom will read this). But that meant taking a day and a half off for traveling.

Fifth and finally, there’s lots of chicken fat in this one! Which always slows me down. But it’s totally worth the time.

TRANSCRIPT OF CARTOON

This cartoon has six panels. Each panel shows a powerful leader early in a war.

Panel 1

A smiling King George III sits at a fancy writing desk, feather quill in hand.

CAPTION: King George III. November 1776.

KING GEORGE: We’ve taken the city of New York! The rebel army will surely quit soon!

CAPTION: All dialogue paraphrased from real statements.

Panel 2

General MacArthur, seen from behind, stands admiring himself in a mirror, grinning around his famous corncob pipe.

CAPTION: General MacArthur. November 1950.

MACARTHUR: Our troops in Korea will be home by Christmas!

Panel 3

Vice President Dick Cheney, grinning broadly, sits in an office.

CAPTION: Vice President Cheney. March 2003.

CHENEY: Iraq will take weeks, not months.

Panel 4

On a Fox News TV broadcast, President Obama smiles while holding up a forefinger.

CAPTION: President Obama. March 2011.

OBAMA: Libya will take days, not weeks.

Panel 5

President Trump sits in bed, wearing pajamas and tapping on his phone.

CAPTION: President Trump. March 2026.

TRUMP: We won! In the first hour it was over!

Panel 6

AI President Lincoln, a cartoon Abraham Lincoln head on a round video screen, held suspended in the air with tubes, is speaking in front of a podium.

CAPTION: AI President Lincoln. May 2045.

AI PRESIDENT LINCOLN: The war on Canada will be over fifteen minutes before it begins!

Chicken fat watch

In the King George panel, a bottle is labeled “Royal Brain Tonic. Contains arsenic and mercury.” A strange tentacle is reaching up to the window. The note George is writing says “I have no idea what,” an allusion to my brain drawing a blank when it was time to fill that in. A crown is hanging on a coat rack. The dog is wearing a peruke (aka a curly white wig). There’s a framed portrait of Lucy from “Peanuts,” wearing a crown.

In the MacArthur panel, MacArthur is admiring himself in the mirror (MacArthur was famously an egotist). A “MASH” lunchbox has a picture of Hawkeye holding a cocktail. The bird on MacArthur’s hat is holding some marijuana and a missile. There’s a baseball above its head, and the ribbon it’s holding says “Most Overdone Hat.”

In the Cheney panel, there’s a trophy labeled Best Sneer 2003. A framed note says: Dear Dicky, please don’t shoot me in my face and then make me apologize. Love, Harry.

In the Obama panel, the Fox News logo actually says “New Foxes.” The chyron says “Obama declared king of snobs,” and the second line says “fam tortures cartoonist with incessant sports TV.” On the wall in the background is a basketball hoop, and a framed Nobel Peace Prize, labeled “Presented to Barack Obama in recognition of his achievements in not being George Bush.” A mouse in the foreground is reading “The Cider Mouse Rules.”

In the Trump panel, a huge container on the nightstand is labeled “Tub o’ Orange: executive face goop.” Trump’s pajamas are covered with his “T” logo, which is also on his pillow. There’s a framed picture of Greenland inside a heart. There’s a framed print of Trump’s sketch of a woman’s nude torso (which he infamously sent to Jeffrey Epstein). A note lying on the bed says “Dear Don, you are the GREATEST smartest strongest leader EVER! Yrs, Don.” There’s a hole in the wall near the floor, and we can see an eye peering out.

In the AI Lincoln panel, protesters hold signs saying “Don’t blame me, I voted for AI Nixon” and “Unfair, Unreal, Unplug.” The podium has a seal with the X (formerly Twitter) logo and the words Formerly Known As The United States of America. The AI Lincoln on the screen is not wearing a hat, but a stovepipe hat is perched atop the screen.

RECEIPTS

Panel One: In a letter to Lord North, dated November 4, 1776, King George III wrote:

Nothing can have been better planned, nor with more alacrity executed, than the taking of the city of New York, and I trust the rebell [sic] army will soon be dispersed.

Panel Two: On November 28, 1950, General MacArthur wrote:

“You tell the boys that when they get to the Yalu River they are going home. I want to make good on my statement that they are going to eat Christmas dinner at home.”

Panel Three: On March 16, 2003, appearing on “Face the Nation,” Cheney was asked if he thought the war would be “a long war or a short war?” Cheney said it would go “relatively quickly.” Pressed for more specifics, Cheney said “Weeks rather than months.”

Panel Four: From ABC News, March 18, 2011:

President Obama told a bipartisan group of members of Congress today that he expects the U.S. would be actively involved in any military action against Libya for “days, not weeks,” after which he said the U.S. would take more of a supporting role, sources tell ABC News.

Panel Five: In a speech in Kentucky on March 11, 2026, Trump said:

Let me tell you, we’ve won. You know, you never like to say too early you won. We won. We won the — in the first hour, it was over. We won.

No receipts for panel six. :-p

A Brief History of Brief Wars | Barry Deutsch on Patreon

Posted in Cartooning & comics, Iran, Iraq, Korea | 7 Comments

Two Toms Talking Theology

Posted on July 10, 2026 by Ampersand

This comic was drawn by R.E. Ryan, who did a great job rendering my silly version of Colonial America.

In 2023, Senator Josh Hawley posted this quote, attributing it to Founding Father Patrick Henry:

It cannot be emphasized too strongly or too often that this great nation was founded, not by religionists, but by Christians; not on religions, but on the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

Patrick Henry didn’t actually say that – the quote comes from a 1950s white nationalist magazine.

Representative Lauren Boebert went even further, saying that the Founding Fathers intended the church “to direct the government.”

The church is supposed to direct the government. The government is not supposed to direct the church. That is not how our Founding Fathers intended it, and I’m tired of this separation of church and state junk. That’s not in the Constitution.

(Compare that with Madison’s belief that “religion and government will both exist in greater purity, the less they are mixed together. “)

Unfortunately, a lot of influential conservatives have expressed similar beliefs. Christian nationalism is increasingly powerful on the right.

As Senator Hawley (or, more likely, his staff) was quick to point out, some Founding Fathers did connect the founding of the USA to Christianity. But that certainly wasn’t something all the Founding Fathers believed, let alone agreed to when they wrote the nation’s founding documents.

Some receipts:

Thomas Jefferson really did physically slice out miracles and the like from his copy of the Bible. Jefferson believed that cutting out “nonsense” and leaving only what he judged to be “evidently” authentic sayings of Jesus would produce a “sublime and benevolent code of morals.” He added that the genuine material in the Bible was “as easily distinguishable as diamonds in a dunghill.”

In Age of Reason, Paine famously wrote:

I do not believe in the creed professed by the Jewish church, by the Roman church, by the Greek church, by the Turkish church, by the Protestant church, nor by any church that I know of. My own mind is my own church.

All national institutions of churches, whether Jewish, Christian or Turkish, appear to me no other than human inventions, set up to terrify and enslave mankind, and monopolize power and profit.

Regarding the kicker:

Paine wasn’t the strongest antislavery voice among the Founding Fathers – that would probably be John Jay – but he was one of the strongest, and he never owned slaves.

Jefferson, judged only by what he wrote as a young man, would also be a strong antislavery voice.

The whole commerce between master and slave is a perpetual exercise of the most boisterous passions, the most unremitting despotism on the one part, and degrading submissions on the other… Indeed I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just: that his justice cannot sleep for ever.

(Note the God reference. Jefferson seems to have been more a deist than either a Christian or an atheist. But also, he was too good a writer to let such technical considerations get in the way of a good phrase.)

But no one should be judged only on what they say. On slavery, Jefferson was America’s greatest hypocrite, owning hundreds of slaves in his life. As he aged, he became more consistent, but not in a good way: his writing and rhetoric became increasingly defensive of slavery.

TRANSCRIPT OF CARTOON

This cartoon has four panels, plus a “kicker” panel underneath.

PANEL 1

In colonial times, Thomas Jefferson is walking after Thomas Paine, holding up an open bible.

JEFFERSON: Hey Thomas Paine — check this out!

PAINE: Hey yourself, Thomas Jefferson. It’s the Bible, but… you’ve cut it up?

PANEL 2

A close-up on Jefferson. We can now see that his copy of the Bible has been cut up; Jefferson is holding scissors in his other hand.

JEFFERSON: Precisely! I cut out the bullshit: miracles, the virgin birth, Jesus being God. What’s left is the good stuff—love your neighbor, give to charity.

PANEL 3

Jefferson tucks his bible under his arm. Paine looks very conceited.

JEFFERSON: I call it “separating diamonds from dunghills.”

PAINE: Nice! You’ve obviously been reading MY work. “Religion was invented to enslave people.”

PANEL 4

We switch to the current day; we are looking at a hand holding a smartphone. On the phone’s screen is a YouTube-style app, playing a video of someone sitting in his car yelling at his camera.

MAN: FACT! The Founding Fathers meant the USA to be a CHRISTIAN nation devoted to our lord JESUS CHRIST!

KICKER PANEL

Paine folds his arms and looks at Jefferson sternly. Jefferson looks abashed and turns away.

PAINE: So Jefferson — have you freed your slaves yet?

JEFFERSON: Oh dear, I’m suddenly needed in Monticello.

CHICKEN FAT WATCH

“Chicken fat” is an obscure term once used by cartoonists for irrelevant but fun details in the art.

PANEL 2: A bird on the fence is wearing a white wig with elaborate curls, aka a Founding Father wig. Graffiti on the fence shows a heart with “GB + US 4VR” written inside but the heart is crossed out.

PANEL 3: A beer cart is in the background, with a sign saying “BEER: It’s what’s for breakfast.” A drunk child sits against the cart, drinking from an enormous mug. On the cart’s other side, a cat is lapping at some spilled beer, while a drunk rat has passed out. A smaller sign on the cart says “HEAD CHEESE – Made from REAL calf head!”

PANEL 4: The website is called “ScrewLoose.” The video channel is named “MrBased.” The thumbnails for other videos say: “ANGER: I will NOT let them CANCEL me,” “FEAR: How WOKE is COMING for your KIDS,” and “BUY VITAMINS: THEY don’t want you to KNOW about these PILLS!”

Two Toms Talking Theology | Barry Deutsch on Patreon

Posted in Atheism, Cartooning & comics, Religion | 1 Comment

Wishing Immigrants Away

Posted on July 8, 2026 by Ampersand

I’m always amazipalled (portmanteau between “amazed” and “appalled” that I don’t expect to catch on) at how willing MAGA is to demolish the US’s future prospects and economy. Their own children and grandchildren will be poorer for it, and they simply don’t care.

A clear example of this is the extreme cuts to science funding under Republican rule. In 2025 alone, the administration terminated or froze almost four thousand NIH and NSF grants. This is an attempt to destroy a major source of economic growth:

Experts broadly agree that taxpayer investments in science can yield substantial economic returns by supporting new technologies and encouraging private investment. For example, a Brookings Institution analysis cited one recent paper showing that federal research and development investments have “been responsible for at least one-fifth of overall postwar growth of total factor productivity in the United States.” Similarly, a 2019 study found that every dollar spent on NIH grants leads to $2.34 in drug sales alone, before accounting for broader social benefits. Collecting the evidence, the Congressional Budget Office recently concluded that every dollar of federal nondefense research and development investment creates as much as $12.50 in economic growth over the following 30 years by encouraging capital expenditures and job creation.

Another major engine of US economic grown that Republicans are determined to destroy is immigration.

I can already hear my conservative readers objecting that the GOP has nothing against legal immigration. But that’s simply not true. The RAISE Act in 2017, endorsed by major Republicans like Trump, Tom Cotton, and David Perdue, would have cut legal immigration in half. Although the RAISE Act didn’t pass, their crusade against immigration – legal immigration included – continues to this day.

Attacking immigration is a direct attack on all Americans’ economic future. Immigrants are vital to the economy for many reasons: That many immigrants are entrepreneurs and innovators, that immigrants are on average younger than the US’s aging population, through paying taxes, and simply because it’s good for the economy to have more willing workers.

The attacks on immigration will make average Americans poorer over the long term – poorer culturally, and poorer in wealth.

But all of this is simply less important to most GOP voters – even those who claim not to have a racist bone in their bodies – than getting rid of brown people.

I considered making the magic wishing ball in this strip a little winged fairy or a talking fish – something with a face and expressions. But somehow, a floating shiny ball just seemed funnier to me. Plus, drawing a shiny ball is oddly fun.

The magic ball has appeared in one of my strips before, back in 2019. I was planning to color it gold this time, but I accidently switched the color to hot pink and liked it so much I kept it.

TRANSCRIPT OF CARTOON

This cartoon has six panels. They all show the same scene – an ordinary-looking white guy in a living room, talking to a shiny floating pink ball.

Panel 1

MAN: Magic wishing ball! Of course I’ve got nothing against brown people, but I’m desperate to fix unemployment and the deficit — so I wish all the immigrants gone!

Panel 2

The man is eagerly looking at his phone.

MAGIC BALL (thought): I’ll teach this rube a cruel ironic lesson!

MAGIC BALL: Wish granted!

MAN: Oh boy! I’ve gotta see this!

Panel 3

The man has a betrayed expression as he reads his phone.

MAN: Hey! Unemployment and the deficit are both much higher!

Panel 4

MAGIC BALL (thought): Buh bu bum! My trap is sprung!

MAGIC BALL: That’s right! Taking away millions of workers shrunk the economy. There was a major recession! The economy crashed!

Panel 5

MAGIC BALL You also made the country whiter — but those white people will be poorer for generations because of your bigo—

MAN: The country’s whiter?

MAGIC BALL: Yes, but—

Panel 6

The man jumps happily, clicking his heels together.

MAN (shouting): Success!!

MAGIC BALL (thought): Fuck.

CHICKEN FAT WATCH

“Chicken fat” is an ancient cartoonist term for unimportant details in the art.

PANEL 1: Woodstock from Peanuts is standing on the window. The empty cardboard box the Magic Wishing Ball came in has the slogans: “Fun!” “Amaze your friends!” “Irony!” and “Fake true love!”

PANEL 2: The cat on the sofa has two heads. In a table in the background, a mouse stands a bowl of nuts, holding up a knife and fork.

PANEL 3: Beaker from The Muppets is peering in the window.

PANEL 5: The character in the framed picture on the wall (last seen in panel 2) is climbing out of the frame. One of the flowers in the carpet pattern is smiling and smoking a joint.

PANEL 6: A bird flying outside the window has Groucho Marx’s face. A tiny Harpo Marx is peering out from behind the throw pillow. The corpse of Micky Mouse is lying under the sofa (we can only see his hand). The figure from the framed picture on the wall is now standing on the sidetable. (He has a letter on his shirt in every panel he appears: The letters spell out W O R D.) The three books in the lower shelf of the side table are entitled “Who Cares?” “Irrelevant” and “Unimportant.” And Itchy (from “Itchy and Scratchy”) is also on that shelf.

Wishing Immigrants Away | Barry Deutsch on Patreon

Posted in Cartooning & comics, Economics and the like, Immigration, Migrant Rights, etc, Race, racism and related issues, Racism | 20 Comments

What Will Future Archeologists Say?

Posted on July 6, 2026 by Ampersand

Thanks to R. E. Ryan for his wonderful sci-fi art on this one!

I originally posted this on Patreon in 2024, but apparently I spaced out on posting it on Alas and Leftycartoons at the time. (Glares in annoyance at own brain.)

In comments, Beth points to this excellent wiki article she wrote on the “future archeologist argument.”

It’s weirdly common to see someone try to prove that a trans person is “really” not the sex they say they are by saying something like “in a hundred years, anthropologists will be able to sex your skeleton.” (Here’s a video of professional anti-trans activist Riley Gaines bringing this point up.)

Even putting aside the ridiculous implication that “sex” comes down to the shape of our pelvis bones and nothing else, it’s simply not true that the sex of all skeletons can be identified.

In a 2018 article in “Sapiens,” a trade magazine for archeologists, anthropologist Alexandra E. Kralick pointed out that admitting that some skeletons are “indeterminate” – rather than insisting every skeleton can be determined to be male or female – has increased accuracy in sex identification of skeletons.

In 1972, Kenneth Weiss, now a professor emeritus of anthropology and genetics at Pennsylvania State University, noticed that there were about 12 percent more male skeletons than females reported at archaeological sites. This seemed odd, since the proportion of men to women should have been about half and half. The reason for the bias, Weiss concluded, was an “irresistible temptation in many cases to call doubtful specimens male.” For example, a particularly tall, narrow-hipped woman might be mistakenly cataloged as a man. […]

Allowing skeletons to remain unsexed, or “indeterminate,” reflects an acceptance of the variability and overlap between the sexes. It does not necessarily mean that the skeletons classified this way are, in fact, neither male nor female, but it does mean that there is no clear or easy way to tell the difference. As science and social change in the 1970s and 1980s revealed that sex is complicated, the category of “indeterminate sex” individuals in skeletal research became more common and improved scientific accuracy.

Similarly, a 2015 study in “Journal of Anthropology” showed that when anthropologists use different methods of testing on the same skeletons, it’s common for one test to say “male” while another test says the same skeleton is “female.”

Not that this generally matters. Although some people might be asking these questions sincerely, for anti-trans activists like Riley Gaines, the question is nothing but bad faith. In the video I linked above, Gaines asked an anthropologist if skeletons can be ID’d by sex after 100 years. The anthropologist said a single word – “no” – before being drowned out by jeering and laughter. Gaines could have done follow-up questions; she could have asked what he means. She could have given him more than a single word to answer. But for her, it was about the mockery and the sneering; a desire for actual knowledge never entered into it.

(My guess is that he had been allowed more than one word, he might have pointed out that sex is more complex than pelvic bone shape; that even ignoring that, not all skeletons can be definitely sexed; or many other things. But we’ll never know, because he wasn’t allowed more than one word.)

Anyway, in a way this cartoon makes me a hypocrite, since it’s obviously about making fun of transphobic gotchas rather than gathering knowledge. But 1) it’s a cartoon, not a public lecture and 2) the idea made me laugh.

TRANSCRIPT OF CARTOON

This cartoon has six panels.

PANEL 1

A man with a big mustache, wearing jeans and a button-down shirt, has a sneery grin as he points at a woman. The woman, whose back is to us, listens with her hands on her hips. Let’s call the man “MUSTACHE.”

MUSTACHE: In a thousand years, scientists will be able to tell your skeleton was male! HA!

PANEL 2

The same scene, but now the woman’s body language is surprised, and Mustache is grasping at his chest and has an expression of agony.

MUSTACHE: ACK! Heart attack!

PANEL 3

We are viewing Mustache in his open coffin; there’s a casket spray (that’s what the traditional flower arrangements that lie on top of coffins are called, and that’s something I didn’t know until I googled it two minutes ago because I was writing this transcript)  on the coffin. There’s a photo of him when he was alive on a tripod next to the coffin. His eyes are closed and he looks at peace. Ironically, his hands, folded on his chest, are in almost exactly the same position as in panel 2.

PANEL 4

We are looking at a cross-section view of a grave in a graveyard. We can see that a coffin is buried sex feet under. In the background, we can see the skyscrapers of a city.

PANEL 5

We are looking at the same scene, from the same angle, but now a hole has been dug and two sleek white floating robots are lifting the coffin out of the grave. In the background, we can see a sci-fi cityscape, with lots of tiny spaceships in the sky.

PANEL 6

We are in some sort of sci-fi medical research lab. In the background, we can see screens with various graphs and readouts on the wall, including one with a diagram of a skeleton surrounded by labels. One of the robots we saw in panel five is working at a panel of buttons. In the foreground, two scientists with sci-fi looking eyewear are thoughtfully examining a skeleton on an examination table; one of the scientists is scanning the skeleton with a handheld device.

The skeleton is Mustache’s (we can tell because his mustache has somehow survived).

SCIENTIST: The scans are conclusive – this skeleton was an asshat.

What Will Future Archeologists Say? | Barry Deutsch on Patreon

Posted in Cartooning & comics, Lesbian, Gay, Bi, Trans and Queer issues, Transsexual and Transgender related issues | 12 Comments

Fox Goggles

Posted on June 17, 2026 by Ampersand

It took me a few tries to write this strip.

It’s the most vexing question of the Trump era, for me: How can so many people support Trump?

I’ve known a bunch of Trump supporters. Many of them, in face to face interactions, are kind and relatable. They love their kids. They like some of the same TV shows I do. Some of them love musicals. They like puppies and cupcakes and many other good things.

And they support Trump.

Because every source they trust tells them that Trump, even if he has flaws, is a heroic figure who is helping the country recover from the depravations of the evil liberal order controlling DC. And the same sources tell them that leading Democrats not only hate freedom, they want to take their children away and perform surgery on them, and if they ever win an election it’s because of millions of illegal votes.

If I believed all that, I’d support Trump too.

Back in 2018, David Walsh wrote:

If you spend any time consuming right-wing media in America, you quickly learn the following: Liberals are responsible for racism, slavery, and the Ku Klux Klan. They admire Mussolini and Hitler, and modern liberalism is little different from fascism or, even worse, communism. The mainstream media and academia cannot be trusted because of the pervasive, totalitarian nature of liberal culture.

I use VR goggles most days – it’s my favorite way to exercise. (Cheaper than a gym, more fun, and most of all convenient.) So in hindsight, it’s strange I took so long to think of VR goggles as a way of showing the right-wing information bubble in a cartoon.

Even after I thought of “Fox goggles,” it still took me a few tries to write this strip. In an earlier draft, the last panel wasn’t so dire – the character merely tripped and fell on his face (and his goggles), while the other character stayed standing. But eventually I realized I didn’t like that script, because it implied that conservative delusions mainly harm conservatives. When actually, they’re taking the entire country down with them.

Once I had that insight, the strip wrote itself.

Frank Young colored this one. I really like the fade he did in the sky colors in panel four; I don’t know why, but somehow it really adds to the feeling that these two characters are falling a great distance to their doom.

TRANSCRIPT OF CARTOON

PANEL 1

Two people are walking along a cliff’s edge and chatting. The first is wearing jeans and an orange t-shirt; the second is wearing black pants, a white polo shirt, and a VR headset that completely covers his eyes.

Tshirt looks irritated, Polo is cheery.

TSHIRT: How can you say the economy’s good? Everything’s awful! Oil prices, drug prices, yo-yo tariffs, the rampant corruption…!

POLO: I don’t see any of that!

PANEL 2

A closer shot of Polo shows that his VR goggles are covered with stickers for right-wing news outlets – NewsMax, Fox News, Truth Social, X, and others.

TSHIRT: Of course you don’t see it — you’ve got your Fox goggles on.

POLO: Hey, my goggles are the only thing that shows me the truth! Which is that—

PANEL 3

Polo trips over a stone, falling directly into Tshirt.

POLO: Whoops!

PANEL 4

Tshirt and Polo fall off the cliff and are falling an enormous distance.

POLO: We’re in a golden age!

CHICKEN FAT WATCH

“Chicken fat” is ancient cartooning slang for unimportant details in the art.

PANEL 1: A notice posted on a tree says “WANTED: Actualization, Self-Esteem, Belonging, Safety, physiological.” (This is Maslow’s hierarchy of needs.) Groucho Marx is lying on the grass in the background. A tiny bike-rider is riding down the other tree.

PANEL 3: There’s a cloud person fishing sitting on the upper-left cloud. There’s a cool snake (cool because it’s wearing sunglasses) wrapped around the tree trunk, and an evil bunny (evil because smoking a cig) at the base of the tree.

PANEL 4: The middle cloud on the left side of the panel has a big face in it. (Rotate 90 degrees clockwise if you have trouble seeing it).

THE T-SHIRT: Every instance of the T-Shirt shows a different character or thing shaped like a tube with a puff on top: Burt from Sesame Street, Beaker from The Muppet Show, Road Runner from Looney Tunes, and a carrot.

Fox Goggles | Patreon

Posted in Cartooning & comics, Conservative zaniness, right-wingers, etc., Elections and politics | 4 Comments

The Kitchen Table Cycle

Posted on June 8, 2026 by Ampersand

In the wake of the 2024 election, a poll from Blueprint found that a lot of swing voters believed that “Kamala Harris is focused more on cultural issues like transgender issues rather than helping the middle class.”

Predictably, many centrist Democrats started arguing that Democrats had to talk less about “cultural” issues. The centrist Democratic group Third Way, for instance, released a list of 47 words for Democrats to stop using – words like “cisgender,” “birthing person” and “chest feeder.” Elissa Slotkin said “There are a lot of issues out there. But you’ve got to start with what keeps people awake, and that is kitchen-table issues, economics.”

(Tim Onion mocked the Third Way argument on Bluesky: “Dems need to stop policing language… and we should start by banning these 47 words.”)

I remember hearing the same arguments after Hilary Clinton lost. I suspect they were also made after Al Gore lost.

The problem with this analysis is that Democrats already talk more about kitchen table issues than virtually anything else – certainly more than they ever talk about trans rights. As Charlie Markbreiter pointed out, “Kamala Harris has been virtually silent on trans rights.”

In November of 2024, responding to Matthew Yglesias saying, essentially, that Democrats had to stop using wokespeak, Political Science professor Mark Copelovitch wrote:

Quite literally, three months ago, the Democrats nominated TIM WALZ, the most Minnesota Regular Guy ever, to join Harris on the ticket, and they spent weeks going around the country talking about all the things Pundits say they want them to talk about. It’s like this never happened. It’s maddening.

Wallad Shahid wrote that people who say that Democrats just need to moderate their message are dodging a harder truth:

The 2024 record is straightforward: frontline Democrats campaigned largely as moderates. Border and police funding, fentanyl crackdowns, oil drilling permits, law-enforcement endorsements, bipartisan validators. The ads show badges and sheriffs. And yet the coalitions barely moved. It feels like talking into a headwind.

We reach for easy fixes because the alternative is a kind of vertigo. It is simpler to believe that swapping positions here and there unlocks the electorate than to sit with the possibility that the crisis is larger than message—that the map is unkind, that political identities have devoured localism, that the emotional weather is set somewhere offstage and rarely shifts on command.

Remember Third Way’s 47 words? As many people pointed out, a bunch of those words are virtually never used by elected Democrats. Almost the only officials using those words are Republicans making fun of how they imagine Democrats talk.

The reason many swing voters thought “Kamala Harris is focused more on cultural issues like transgender issues rather than helping the middle class” has nothing to do with what Harris said. It has to do with what Republicans say Harris said. And no amount of nagging progressives to care less about trans issues is going to change that.

Another cycle cartoon! I just find these cartoons fun to draw.

TRANSCRIPT OF CARTOON

This cartoon has three panels, arranged in a circle, with arrows pointing clockwise leading from one panel to the next. In the center of the circle is a large caption, saying “The Kitchen Table Cycle.”

UPPER LEFT PANEL

This panel shows a smartphone. On the smartphone screen, an angry man wearing a suit and tie is talking.

MAN: The only thing the Democratic candidate ever talks about is trans issues! Trans trans trans!

An arrow leads from this to the

LOWER RIGHT PANEL

Three Democrats sit in a treehouse; a sign on the treehouse says “Democrat Strategy Meeting (No progressives allowed). One of them is speaking.

SPEAKER: The pundits say we lost by talking too much about “identity politics.” Next time, our candidate has to be a centrist who only talks about kitchen table issues!

An arrow leads from this to the

LOWER LEFT PANEL

A politician stands behind a podium giving a speech.

CANDIDATE: As your Democratic candidate, let me just say: Kitchen table! Kitchen Table! Kitchen Table!

An arrow leads from this back to the upper left panel with the cellphone.

CHICKEN FAT WATCH

“Chicken fat” is old-fashioned cartoonist speak for little extras in the cartoon.

UPPER LEFT PANEL: The Fox News logo says “Cur Fews. Go to bed.” The chyron says “Democrats hate all puppies” and the second chyron says “New science proves: everything is still Biden’s fault.” Below the Fox News screen, there are six thumbnails leading to suggested videos. The thumbnail captions read: Owned! Crushed! Cooked! Demolished! Murderized! And then, in smaller letters, “I attempted to refute their position with persuasive arguments.”

LOWER RIGHT PANEL: The treehouse is modeled after the treehouse in my favorite comic strip of all time, “Calvin and Hobbes.” There’s a hole in the tree trunk; in the hole is a giant rat wearing a top hat and bow tie.

LOWER LEFT PANEL: The seal on the front of the podium has a picture of Sam the Eagle from the Muppets (it’s a little hard to make out because of the foreshortening, alas). The paper lying on the podium says “Tiny print no one reads.”

The Kitchen Table Cycle | Patreon

Posted in Cartooning & comics, Elections and politics, Transsexual and Transgender related issues | 36 Comments

Nice Purse!

Posted on June 5, 2026 by Ampersand

This cartoon is by me and Becky Hawkins.

I’m not like this character – serenely unaware of mean comments. But I aspire to be like him.

(Maybe I am like this character, but since I’m unaware of the comments I don’t appreciate how serenely unaware I really am? It’s a conundrum.)

I like wearing clothes that please me, and I enjoy getting compliments from strangers. (Yesterday someone called out a car window “your sweater brings me joy,” which brought me joy in turn, except that a hoodie isn’t a sweater but the light turned green and she drove away so there was no opportune moment to pedant at her.) At the same time, as I’m getting older I’m fortunate to be caring less and less what other people think.

Here’s the “sweater” in question:

(Those lovely roses were planted by my housemates Sarah and Charles, by the way).

(Quick story: The other day I walked into a room where my niece Sydney was sitting and reading. She looked at me and gasped “Barry, your beard! It’s so white!” I thought it was funny that she was so surprised, since Sydney sees me and my beard virtually every day. “It’s making me realize that you’re mortal and you’re going to die someday,” she added solemnly, and I agreed that was so. I told her “It’s neat that you’ve had this revelation without even being stoned,” and she replied “oh I’m incredibly stoned right now.”)

I’ve gotten a little off topic, haven’t I?

Sexism is bad for everybody. Women are the primary victims, but the constant pressure on men to be masculine – which, in practice, often means “avoid anything that could be taken as feminine” – causes a lot of men to limit ourselves, often without conscious awareness. And of course, the responses can be especially harsh on men and boys who, for whatever reason, aren’t performing masculinity in the expected fashion.

The character in our cartoon is lucky to be unbothered by it – but not everyone’s in the mental space to pull that off. It can be especially hard on teen boys, who – if they don’t fit in – can be taught a lot of self-loathing, which can take years to get over.

But with luck, we can get over it, and be happier for it.

TRANSCRIPT OF CARTOON

This cartoon has four panels, all featuring a red-haired man wearing a red shirt walking on a downtown sidewalk. He’s carrying a bright yellow shoulder bag which has a pink and purple floral pattern.

PANEL 1

Two men are walking in opposite directions on a sidewalk. The first, wearing a blue jacket and dark gray pants, makes a mocking comment. The second character, who I’ll call Redhead, is pleased.

BLUE JACKET MAN: Nice purse.

REDHEAD: Thanks! It’s new!

PANEL 2

A closer shot of Redhead, looking very pleased indeed. In the background, a bluebird, a squirrel, and the sun (with a face and wearing sunglasses) all smile at Redhead.

PANEL 3

In a thought balloon, we see Redhead’s daydream. He’s skipping on a catwalk, carrying his new bag, sparkling pink flowers floating in his wake, as the sun and a couple of squirrels cheer him on. Blue Jacket Man, in the daydream, has a friendly grin and is taking photos of Redhead with a professional-looking camera.

PANEL 4

Redhead’s daydream bursts and he has a startled expression.

REDHEAD (thought): Wait. Was that supposed to be an insult?

CHICKEN FAT WATCH

“Chicken fat” is obsolete cartoonist verbiage for fun but unnecessary details in the art.

PANEL 1: The first newspaper box has a newspaper which says “Background NEWS. Stick figure elected! “Best news ever,” say lazy cartoonists.” Smaller print says “Is this text too small to be read? Scientists say yes!”

The second newspaper box is mostly hidden behind Blue Jacket Man, but what we can read says “Don’t even try reading this text it’s too hidden.”

The third newspaper box has a paper called “Overly Local Bulletin.” Headlines say: “Yup, those odd noises you keep hearing are rats.” “Your son says he did homework – but he lies.” “Favorite shirt is too ratty to wear in public anymore.” and “Weather: You don’t go outside anyway.” The sign on front of the machine says “Exciting words! I’m talking about words like bang! Zoom! Zowie! Cheetah!”

PANEL 2: The newspaper in the box is mostly hidden behind Redhead, but it says “Obscured NEWS. That no one can read.”

PANEL 3: One of the squirrels is waving a pen at Redhead and holding out an autograph book. The other squirrel is taking a selfie with Redhead in the background.

PANEL 4: The paper in the newspaper box says “Don’t Even Bother DAILY.” Headlines: “Why even read this? The cartoon’s over. You can go about your life now.” “New study: If you never try, you can never lose.” The sign on the front of the box says “KANGAROOS are weird aliens who will totally drown you if they can and one’s sneaking up on you now.”

Nice Purse | Patreon

Posted in Cartooning & comics, Feminism, sexism, etc, Men and masculinity, Sex & Gender, Sexism, Sexism hurts men | 8 Comments

Good News About Work And AI!

Posted on June 2, 2026 by Ampersand

From a report in Fortune:

AI is actually increasing strain for most employees, as the tools add more time to menial tasks, and actually takes away from deep-focus work. Since adopting AI into their workflows, time spent across every job responsibility shot up anywhere from 27% to 346%, according to a recent ActivTrak report that analyzed 10,584 users 180 days before and after their AI adoption.

The time spent toiling on grunt work like emails increased by 104%, while chatting and messaging climbed by 145%, and using business management tools rose 94%.

There wasn’t a single activity category where using AI actually saved users time, with the report reaffirming that: “The data is unambiguous: AI does not reduce workloads.” Instead, professionals are now multitasking at a greater rate, and spending less of their days concentrating on complex problems.

So that’s not the greatest. The headline in Harvard Business Review summed it up: “AI Doesn’t Reduce Work — It Intensifies It.”

—

I don’t draw robots often, but cartoonists like Mattias Adolfsson make it look like so much fun that I was eager to give it a try. Here’s the first batch of robot drawings I did for this cartoon:

I had a lot of fun drawing those, but I decided the robots just look too old-fashioned and broken to represent AI, so I started over.

The second draft of robots aren’t quite as wrecked looking, but they’re not exactly slick and shiny looking, either.

Thinking about it now, I could have represented all the AI characters as text on smartphones, with a different smartphone (and hand holding the phone) in every panel. That might have been a better representation of AI than robots. But hopefully the way I did it is more fun for you folks to look at.

TRANSCRIPT OF CARTOON

This cartoon has six panels, each of which shows a different scene. The first five panels all feature cheerful robots in office environments.

PANEL 1

A shiny golden robot talks to the viewer.

GOLDIE: Good news! Here are just some of the ways AI saves you time and makes your job better!

PANEL 2

A robot – which seems to be a suit and tie with a smartphone sticking up out of the collar – talks to us. He’s carrying a huge stack of papers.

PHONE: Good news! Because your new AI agent is expected to save you so much time, the company is providing you with extra work!

PANEL 3

A tiny robot that looks like a ball with hands is bouncing on a desk.

BOUNCY: Good news! The AI agent makes lots of mistakes, so you get to do proofreading and debugging! Yay!

PANEL 4

A robot with a head shaped like a Telsa Cybertruck talks to us. A bunch of other robots are in the background.

TELSA: Good news! The company has determined you’ll get more work done with more AI agents doing more bad work for you to check and correct!

PANEL 5

A coffee machine with a screen with a happy face on it talks to us.

COFFEE: Good news! More of your colleagues are letting AI do their jobs, so now you get to fix that work, too!

PANEL 6

A human with a shellshocked look is walking on a sidewalk, carrying a cardboard box full of desk stuff in classic I’ve-just-been-fired iconography. A caption is shaped like a memo on paper.

CAPTION: Good news! We’ve determined that bad work done by A.I. is more cost-effective than better work done by humans.

CHICKEN FAT WATCH

“Chicken fat” is obsolete jargon for what we now call “Easter eggs.”

PANEL 1: A poster on the wall says LESSER EVIL INCORPORATED. “If it’s not lethal, it’s a lesser evil.” A rat sits reading a book, Charlotte’s Web.

PANEL 2: A gigantic ant is climbing a skyscraper in the background.

PANEL 3: A picture of an adorable toddler is inscribed “I heart you Mommy! Always remember if u quit ur job I’ll starve.” A “to do” list says: “-Work -Work -Work -Labor -Toil -Lunch -Drudge -Slog -die.” A coffee mug, decorated with Charlie Brown’s zig-zag shirt line, has a mouse wearing glasses peering out of it.

PANEL 4: One of the robots is a toaster. The robot puppy has left poo (a steaming pile of nuts and bolts) on the ground. The cybertruck robot’s head is on fire, and if you peer closely at the passenger window you can see a screaming person trapped inside.

PANEL 5: The coffee cup has a picture of Bender from Futurama on it. There’s an electric outlet with two “faces”; one of the faces is the standard, the other one is smiling and winking at us. A poster says “NOTICE: Cups must be cleaned after death.” A cannister is labeled “82% real Sugar,” with an adorable granny mascot saying “What you don’t now won’t kill you, probably.”

PANEL 6: The box of stuff from the fired employee’s desk includes a coffee mug; the mouse from panel 3 is still in the mug. A jar on the sidewalk says “Background Juice” on the label.

And there’s graffiti! “BG” (for background) is written in a few places. Someone has written a list of jobs: “Priest Poet Lawyer Marine Squire Grocer Vicar.” (Let me know in comments if you know where that list comes from.) A game of “hangman” is in progress: “A_S_ER.” (You see the answer, right?) More things written on the wall: “Filler.” “Who reads this?” “PP + Marcie 4EV.” “E=M.C. Hammer.” “Mary + Charlie + Frank.” Finally, a poster on the wall is partly blocked by the caption, but I can tell you it says “Secret Hidden Text! Because you can’t read this text: At last, I’m free to say it: Basketball is BORING! Bite me, b-ball fans!”

Good News About AI and Work! | Patreon

Posted in Cartooning & comics, Economics and the like | Leave a comment