👏Saturday Bonus Cartoons

Aug 01, 2026

It was another week in which America’s political discourse continued its determined march back to the 1950s. The war with Iran lurched from pause to escalation and back again, leaving military planners scrambling thanks to a shortage of munitions.

Meanwhile, the Senate transformed what was billed as oversight of Dr. Anthony Fauci into something resembling community theater, complete with grandstanding, personal attacks and enough invocations of the Fifth Amendment to keep cable news humming for days.

As if that weren’t enough, the newest Red Scare continues unabated. Once upon a time, “communist” described someone who advocated government ownership of the means of production. Today, it appears to mean anyone who disagrees with a Republican on virtually any subject. Support environmental regulations? Communist. Believe elections should be free and fair? Communist. Think children should eat lunch? Nice try, Comrade.

Joseph McCarthy would be astonished by how little effort the modern version requires. He at least felt obligated to wave around imaginary lists of subversives. Today, a social media post and an angry cable news segment are apparently sufficient evidence of membership in the Politburo. Somewhere, the ghost of the Cold War is marveling at how America managed to revive McCarthyism without the inconvenience of an actual Soviet Union.

As always, our cartoonists spent the week trying to capture the absurdity, the hypocrisy and the occasional genuine outrage lurking beneath the headlines. If laughter is the best medicine, Washington has been writing prescriptions at an alarming rate. We hope another week’s cartoons remind you why democracy depends on people who are still willing to ask uncomfortable questions, even when the answers are no laughing matter.