Merry Christmas (for the Wealthy): Part 1
This week, Republicans (joined by a few conservative Democrats), are blocking the extension of unemployment payments to those who have lost their jobs for over six months, due to Bush’s Depression (or, Great Depression II). The reason being, it will cost 12 billion dollars. And their stated belief that the unemployed are simply lazy for not finding jobs (which, ahem, don’t [...]
Buying Congress
Thanks to “Citizens United”, a secretly funded group whose petition before our conservative activist Supreme Court, resulted a century’s worth of election reforms being thrown away, corporations have free reign to anonymously use all the money they wish to, to influence elections. Corporations do not spend money unless they believe it will profit them. They are [...]
The Monopoly News
In the 1880s, Jay Gould — Monopolist, infamous Wall Street Stock manipulator, and solid Republican (with the caveat that he wasn’t a mere Republican voter, but, that he bought-and-paid for Republican legislators, placed them into office via his money, to control government legislation for his personal benefit) — also owned major New York City newspapers, for the purpose [...]
Teddy Roosevelt vs. Corporate Campaign Contributions
With a week-and-a-half to go before the 2010 mid-term elections, record amounts of money are being spent on television adverting, 90%+ of it from anonymous corporate sources, their specific motives and agendas kept hidden from the American public. This, thanks to the recent ruling of our conservative activist Supreme Court, which threw away election reforms dating back to those [...]
“Willie and His Papa”, by Fred Opper, 1900
During the Presidential Election of 1900, cartoonist Frederick Burr Opper ran Hearst-owned newspaper, the New York Evening Journal, the one panel comic strip Willie and His Papa, satirizing the influence of money from the Trusts (i.e., corporate monopolies) on the Republican side of the election. After the recent decision of our current conservative activist Supreme Court to throw [...]
Columbia for Sale
A special thanks to historian Richard Samuel West, who permitted me to scan the below cartoon from page 157 of his book, The San Francisco Wasp: An Illustrated History, the best book written about the West Coast’s equivalent to Puck magazine. To obtain a copy of Rich’s book, click here. Titled Sold to the Highest Bidder, with art by George Frederick Keller, this cartoon [...]
The Case of Sacco & Vanzetti, 1927, as depicted by cartoonist Fred Ellis
Click on any picture, to enlarge it. This being Labor Day, I’ve bumped our Back-to-School entry to tomorrow, to today present, in its entirety, the 1927 published pamphlet, The case of Sacco and Vanzetti in Cartoons from The Daily Worker. Above, are the publication’s front cover and introduction. The case of Sacco and Vanzetti collects [...]
“The Public be Damned!”, Part 3
On October 18th, 1882, the same day as Charles Taylor’s & the (New York) Daily Graphic’s second shot at William H. Vanderbilt for his “The Public be Damned!” comment, Puck magazine took aim on its front cover via the below cartoon by Frederick Burr Opper. Unlike their competitors, Puck didn’t hold back, actually printing the word “damned” [...]
Episode 10.5: C.J. Taylor’s 1881-82 William Vanderbilt Comic Strips: “The Public Be Damned!”, Part 2
From the October 18th, 1882 issue of the (New York) Daily Graphic, artist Charles Jay Taylor takes a second poke at William Vanderbilt, for his “The public be damned” comment. (To see the first poke, click here.) Taylor shows Vanderbilt standing atop a pyramid of human beings, whose efforts support him. His trains are approaching from all directions, entering [...]
Episode 10: C.J. Taylor’s 1881-82 William Vanderbilt Comic Strips: “The Public Be Damned!”, Part 1
The past two weekends, we saw comics about The Disaster in the Fourth Avenue Tunnel, wherein William Vanderbilt is confronted with the collision of two passenger trains on his railroad lines, with resultant death and injuries. His reluctance to spend money on safety measures — as doing so would cut into profits — were blamed as the cause (an [...]
