“Unemployment is still soaring. There is no real estate market. The stock market is puttering along at 50 percent of last year’s value. Two million Americans faced foreclosure last year. Eight million more are on the chopping block. The bailouts haven’t done anything to help Americans who have been laid off, subjected to furloughs and pay freezes, seen their retirement benefits fall along with the stock market and been gouged by voracious health insurance costs.

Check out this statistic: according to the Fed, the total net worth of American households fell by $11 trillion last year. That’s almost exactly the amount–$12 trillion–that Bush and Obama spent on bailouts. Think about what that money–$160,000–would have done for the average family of four.”
—Me

The defection of Pennsylvania’s Arlen Specter and the imminent certification of Al Franken as the winner of Minnesota’s election recount has handed Democrats what they always said they lacked in order to pass a progressive agenda: a filibuster-proof majority in the U.S. Senate. Now they face the awful problem of coming up with new excuses for not doing anything.

How will Obama, Nancy Pelosi, Harry Reid and other fake liberals weasel out of making good on their promises for real action on healthcare, the economy and the war? It won’t be easy. They control both houses of Congress and the White House. Obama is about to fill a new vacancy on the Supreme Court. The Times of London writes that “Mr. Obama, by some assessments, has more political leverage than any president since Franklin Roosevelt in 1937″—at the peak of the New Deal, just before he overreached by trying to pack the Supreme Court.

The Republican Party, on the other hand, is suffering a crisis of faith—too much God-cheering and not enough adherence to core values like small government, fiscal conservatism, isolationism and protectionist trade policy. A mere 21 percent of Americans still call themselves Republicans, the lowest number since 1983. Similarly, reports the latest ABC News/Washington Post poll, “just 21 percent say they’re confident in the Republicans in Congress ‘to make the right decisions for the country’s future,’ compared with 60 percent who express that confidence in Obama.”

Democrats have never been as powerful. Republicans are weak. Obama won with a decisive, sweeping rejection of the Republican status quo. Harry and Louise, call your agents—socialized medicine is on the way! Not.

Be careful what you wish for—what you say you wish for, anyway. “The left is going to push Obama—now that he’s got a veto-proof majority—to drive an agenda that a smart president would realize is a long-term political disaster,” GOP pollster Rick Wilson tells ABC. “Long-term political disaster” is mainstream media code for “stuff that corporations hate.”

Well, yes. What passes for the left in this country (center-right everywhere else, because they read) now has some not-unreasonable questions for Barack Obama. Such as:

Pretty please, can we now live in a country where people don’t have to spend $800 a month to health insurance companies that deny their customers’ claims?

Why are we still in Iraq?

How about some help for the victims of Katrina, many of whom never collected one red cent after losing everything?

Why are we paying billions to banks and still letting them gouge us with 25 interest credit card rates? Speaking of which:

How about doing something that might actually help people who live in the economy, rather than just capital markets?

These queries seem all the more relevant coming, as they do, from the liberal base of the Democratic party—the people who got Obama elected.

The trouble for our cute, charming prez is that he has no intention whatsoever of introducing a true national healthcare plan: one that covers everybody for free. He wants to expand the war in Afghanistan and drag out the one against Iraq. He will not punish Bush or his torturers, rescue homeowners in foreclosure, or nail scumbag banks to the wall. These changes would cost trillions of dollars to multinational insurance companies, defense contractors and other huge financial concerns who donate generously to candidates of both political parties and have a history of using their clout to manipulate elections in favor of their favorite candidates. A classic example is oil companies, who push down gas prices before elections in order to help Republicans.

The most that Democratic voters can expect from Democratic politicians is incremental, symbolic change that doesn’t cost their corporate sponsors any serious coin. The New York Times marked Obama’s 100th day in office with an editorial that approvingly encapsulated his accomplishments to date: “He is trying to rebuild this country’s shattered reputation with his pledge to shut down the prison camp in Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, his offer to talk with Iran and Syria, and, yes, that handshake with Venezuela’s blow-hard president, Hugo Chávez…The government is promoting women’s reproductive rights. It is restoring regulations to keep water clean and food safe. The White House has promised to tackle immigration reform this year.”

Trying. Promoting. Has promised.

Guantánamo isn’t being closed; it’s being moved. Gitmo’s detainees will be transferred to a new harsher gulag under construction in Afghanistan. Thawed relations with Iran and Syria would create new business opportunities for big oil. Defending the right to an abortion is popular and doesn’t cost Bank of America a dime. Immigration reform is code for legalizing illegal immigrants, not closing the border. Safety regulations reassure consumers and pump up the economy. Closing the border would raise wages. Corporations won’t allow that.

Unfortunately for Obama’s Democrats, small-bore initiatives only go so far, especially with the economy in meltdown. When people are desperate and angry they don’t care as much about flag-burning or creationism or a handshake with Hugo Chávez. They want action—real action.

How will the Democrats avoid genuine change now that they enjoy the ability to enact it? Will they blame obstructionist Republicans? Will Democrats cross the aisle to vote with the Republicans? A new war, perhaps?

If nothing else, whatever dog-ate-my-homework excuse they come up with for sitting on their butts is bound to be amusing. If nothing else.

—Me

“Obama could fail. The United States could collapse. Our economy could evaporate. Which would be OK, too. Because if everything goes to hell, we will enjoy a rare opportunity to transform our society and economic system from one that works for a few to one that benefits everyone.”
—Me

“Give the man a chance? Not me. I’ve sized up him, his advisors and their plans, and already found them sorely wanting. It won’t take long, as Obama’s failures prove the foolishness of Americans’ blind trust in him. Obama isn’t our FDR. He’s our Mikhail Gorbachev: likeable, intelligent, well-meaning, and ultimately doomed by his insistence on being reasonable during unreasonable times.”
—Me

“With the economic distress we’re likely to see in the coming year or two or three, revolution will become increasingly likely unless money starts coursing through the nation’s economic veins, and soon. Will it be a soft revolution of government-mandated wealth distribution through radical changes in the tax structure and the construction of a European-style safety net, as master reformer FDR presided over when he saved capitalism from itself? Or will the coming revolution be something harder and bloodier, like the socioeconomic collapse that destroyed Russia after the fall of the Soviet Union? To a great extent, what happens next will depend on how Barack Obama proceeds in his first weeks as president.”
—Me, three weeks before Obama took the Oath of Office

Here’s what I suggested be done to address the September 2008 economic meltdown. In September 2008.

I think I called this one.

1. Declare a Bank Holiday. As FDR did in 1933, Bush should shut down the financial system–banks, stock and currency exchanges–for a week or so to avoid panic selling, cool down market volatility, and give Congress time to craft carefully considered legislation rather than the spend-a-thon slapped together over the last Black Weekend. It bodes ill that liberals and conservatives alike have so little faith in the plan. Take some time; get it right.

2. Reinstate the Glass-Steagall Act. The current mortgage meltdown couldn’t have happened without Senator Phil Gramm, now a key economic advisor to John McCain. In 1999 Gramm led the repeal of the Depression-era legislation that had separated commercial from investment banks, allowing Citigroup and other companies to sell mortgage-backed securities that blurred the line between Main Street and Wall Street. Let the financiers handle derivatives, structured investment vehicles, and other arcane financial instruments. Banking should return to its dull, staid roots as a business that pays interest on deposits and collects interest on loans without imperiling those deposits.

3. Bail out homeowners, not lenders. Stop doling out hundreds of billions, even trillions, of dollars, to a few banks and issue the cash to the disaggregated tens of millions of Americans who will spend the money and stimulate the economy instead. Which brings us to…

4. Abolish predatory interest rates. Millions of people in danger of losing their homes would not be in trouble if their banks weren’t charging usurious interest rates. Every primary homeowner should be automatically refinanced to a floating 30-year mortgage, with the interest rate set at 1/4 percent point above the fed funds borrowing rate. Similarly, all consumer credit card debt should be refinanced to prime plus 1/4. The same goes for student loans. Secondary and vacation homes don’t qualify. Unemployed homeowners can apply for hardship deferrals, allowing them to skip mortgage payments until they find a job. Payday loans ought to fall under similar guidelines. In Utah, the average interest rate on payday loans is 521 percent! Of course, reforms will cut deeply into lenders’ earnings. Many banks would be at risk of going under, which is why…

5. Banks that fail should be nationalized. As should investment banks and any other institution that needs federal taxpayer money to avoid failure. If we the people fund ‘em, we the people own ‘em. If and when the economy recovers, the Treasury collects the spoils and cuts our taxes.

6. Withdraw from Iraq and Afghanistan, and slash defense spending. Christopher Whalen, managing director of Institutional Risk Analytics, tells USA Today the government may have to cover $1.4 trillion in bad mortgage debt. That’s a lot of money, but I have good news: we can get it. In 2007, the Congressional Budget Office estimated that the occupations of Afghanistan and Iraq would cost at least $2.4 trillion through the next decade–even more if Obama or McCain keep their pledges to send more troops to Afghanistan next year. Cutting our losses and cutting the $515 billion a year Defense Department appropriations budget would help finance the clean-up of the mortgage meltdown.

Here’s a pretty flattering pic of my speech at the opening night of Stop the Machine in DC, part of the Occupy movement:

Disgruntled residents of the town with some of the highest property values in the United States are taking to the streets this Saturday. That’s right: Occupy the Hamptons is about to begin.

Or, more accurately, to the Wharf. In Sag Harbor. 4 pm Saturday. Bring clever signs and a sunny disposition.

This is being touted as a solidarity action with Occupy Wall Street. Indeed, many of the biggest Wall Street criminals sunk some of their ill-gotten loot into vacation homes on the East End of Long Island: Jim Chanos, Ron Perelman, Carl Icahn, Phil Facone, the infamous Koch Brothers. May I live long enough to see them and their ilk behind bars.

Beyond the link to big stolen money, the Hamptons have plenty of their own unique local issues and concerns to start a revolution over.

It might sound absurd to those who have cruised the streets lined with high-end luxury stores and layed on the beautiful beaches to think that Hamptonians have anything to be pissed off about. Scratch the surface of the summer playground for Manhattan’s boldface names, however, and you’ll find a lot of reasons for locals to want to overthrow the system.

The local political system is riddled with corruption. The Hamptons are, first and foremost, a beach resort—yet beachgoers are drowning because the town and villages say they can’t afford to pay some kid $10 an hour to work as a lifeguard. In a place with $20 million homes, there are no dedicated bike trails and few sidewalks. The East Hampton dump recently eliminated its housing goods exchange–which allowed the well-off to share furniture and other items with the less fortunate–was recently eliminated by budget cuts. Speaking of the dump, it’s closed on Wednesdays now. Did I mention that East Hampton claims it can’t afford to pick up residents’ trash?

Last fall, corrupt Republican pols even eliminated the pick-up of leaves. What are people supposed to do with their leaves? Shove ’em.

Meanwhile, Immigration and Customs Enforcement raids are raising havoc.

Poverty is no stranger to the “rich” Hamptons: 12.2% of the population and 10.3% of families are below the poverty line. Out of the total population, 20.5% of those under the age of 18 and 4.2% of those 65 and older are living below the poverty line.

This isn’t Detroit or West Virginia. How can a region with a huge tax base be so poorly served?

One big reason is its status as a summer playground. Many of the high-end corporate-owned stores that dominate the village main drags (Hermes, for example, sells scarves that begin at $900 each) are only open three or four months out of the year. They’re there to make money from vacationers, with no commitment whatsoever to the community. They shut down over the winter, turning the strips into ghost towns, which deprives local-owned businesses from the chance to attract business. Even during the summer, many don’t bother to hire locals.

The result is that there is basically no work in the Hamptons. The Hamptons didn’t turn into a Third World economy by accident–it’s the result of intentional economic exploitation by corporations, in cooperation with corrupt and short-sighted local politicians and bureaucrats. The Hamptons needs commercial rent control. It should ban leases that aren’t year-round. All hiring should be of local residents. Taxes should be eliminated for the poor and middle-class and shifted to the rich assholes who let their nasty dogs shit all over the beaches during the summer.

Occupy the Hamptons!!!

Earlier this year I received a phone call that led to one of the more interesting cartooning assignments of my career. The set designer for the upcoming George Clooney-directed film “The Ides of March” was looking for background ephemera—newspaper clippings, photos, political cartoons—that might be taped, say, to the back of a seat in a campaign bus.

The movie takes place in Cincinnati, during a pivotal Ohio presidential primary. Philip Seymour Hoffman plays Paul Zara, a veteran political advisor to a John Edwards-like liberal Democrat played by George Clooney.

After a number of conversations, we decided that I would draw six political cartoons for the movie. They would be printed on newsprint and placed on the set as described above.

I read the script and tried to imagine what criticisms a political cartoonist might have about the two rival candidates (Morris vs. Pullman) in the race as well as other facets of the Ohio primary that might be of interest. Of course, these candidates were imaginary. It was weird, and very fun.

I was a little worried my cartoons would wind up, like many fine performances by actors, on the cutting-room floor. So I didn’t tell anyone about it. But I was lucky. Two of them are right there, in the second scene (and later on in the film as well). You can even read them if you see them in a theater with a sharply focused screen.

The best thing about drawing cartoons about imaginary politicians is that no one gets angry at you.

Here are all of the cartoons in full color, the way God intended them to be seen. Hope you enjoy them as much as I did creating them.