Editorial cartoons for Aug. 7, 2022: Pelosi in Taiwan, Kansas abortion vote, Alex Jones verdict

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi visited Taiwan in support of its democratic aspirations, raising diplomatic and military tensions with communist China. Editorial cartoonists either saw her as standing up to Chinese bluster or fracturing America’s “One China” policy that preserves the status quo.

Steve Breen, in the gallery’s lead image, draws Pelosi throwing a pie between the eyes of a dragon representing China. Confronted by a fire-breathing dragon, Walt Handelsman’s Pelosi says, “Yawwwn, I deal with dragons every day at home.” Michael Ramirez says the woman China really fears is democracy, symbolized by the statue of liberty fashioned by Tiananmen Square protesters before their movement was crushed. Nick Anderson stands Pelosi in front of a column of Chinese tanks in another visual reference to Tiananmen Square. Dana Summers draws Pelosi inserting herself between “one” and “China.”

In other news, the first vote on an abortion measure since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade occurred in Kansas. Voters rejected an attempt to remove the right to abortion from the state constitution. Bill Bramhall and Anderson invoked imagery from “The Wizard of Oz,” which is set in Kansas. Mike Luckovich draws red-robed women at a voting booth with the title, “Handmaids strike back.”

Cartoonists also commented on the $49 million damages verdict against conspiracy theorist Alex Jones for defaming the parents of a child killed in the Sandy Hook school massacre by falsely claiming it was a hoax; the CIA drone strike in Afghanistan that killed Ayman al-Zawahiri, a top al-Qaeda leader who helped plan the 9/11 attacks; the monkeypox outbreak; the economy; and the deaths of NBA legend Bill Russell and former Los Angeles Dodgers and MLB announcer Vin Scully.

Cartoons were drawn by Nick Anderson, Bill Bramhall, Dana Summers, Drew Sheneman, Scott Stantis, Walt Handelsman, David Horsey, Joel Pett and Joey Weatherford of Tribune Content Agency; and Steve Breen, Mike Luckovich and Michael Ramirez of Creators Syndicate.

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