VIDEO:  The Blood Never Dries

By Mark Fiore  December 3, 2015

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Award-winning animator Mark Fiore weighs in on the San Bernardino shooting in his powerful animation, “The Blood Never Dries.” Watch the clip and read the animator’s thoughts on the tragedy below.

I apologize for politicizing a mass shooting tragedy before the blood has even dried, but sadly, the blood never dries.  We now have at least one mass shooting incident every day in the United States. Besides the big one in San Bernardino, four people were also shot in Savannah, Georgia today.  When I started this cartoon, it was mainly focused on theshooting at the Planned Parenthood clinic in Colorado Springs, but then San Bernardino happened.

As I write this, there have been at least three mass shootings since the attack in Colorado Springs  (where, sadly enough, one of the eyewitnesses had also been an eyewitness to a previous shooting three weeks earlier just a few miles away.)  This has got to stop.  The go-to line for the pro-gun crowd now seems to be that we should focus on mental health issues and put more guns in every conceivable part of society.

I’m all for focusing on mental health and doing all we can on that front, but there is so much more we should be doing on the gun front.  Motives may change—mental illness, workplace attacks, domestic terrorism—but there seems to be a common thread in nearly all of these attacks.  Yes, it’d be nice to get to the root cause of all of these ills, but why not at least try to prevent weapons of war from killing people in our country every day?  (You can find more links to news stories behind this cartoon here.)

VIDEO: Trump Recruitment and Retention

By Mark Fiore  December 10, 2015

Award-winning animator Mark Fiore comments on Donald Trump’s latest racist diatribe in his latest animation “Trump Recruitment and Retention.” Watch the clip and read Fiore’s thoughts on the Republican candidate below.

Try as I might to not fan the flames of the Trump publicity machine, I just could not stand by when the leading Republican candidate for president announced his intention to ban Muslims from entering the United States.  It was probably just a coincidence, but Trump made his announcement just as a new poll showed Ted Cruz pulling ahead in Iowa.

Besides calling for a ban on Muslim immigration into the United States, the Orange Attention Machine spoke fondly of Roosevelt’s authorization that led to the internment of Japanese Americans.  Just like FDR, that Trump.  Ugh.  That so many people still seem to support Trump is amazing to me, let’s hope the polls are wildly inaccurate.  Either way, this Trump thing is going a little long for my comfort level.  (Although it’s deliciously perfect for my comfort level as a cartoonist.)

But it’s not just Trump.  Many on the far right seem to not have the slightest idea that their vilification of Muslims and harsh reactions give a huge boost to ISIS’s recruitment and retention campaign.  (Hello, Gitmo and take-the-gloves-off, Abu Ghraib?)  Enjoy the cartoon, and be sure to dive into some of the links behind the cartoon.

Posted on truthdig.com  Videos also available on YouTube.com 

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