Arms escalation, cartoon of 28/01/2022 in CTXT
The Doomsday Clock, also called the Apocalypse Clock, has moved its hands by 10 seconds.
This symbolic clock, created by The Bulletin's Board of Science and Security Atomic Scientists, has reset its minute hand twenty-five times since 1947.
It is a design that warns the public how close we are to destroying our world with dangerous technologies of our own making. It is a metaphor, a reminder of the dangers we must face if we are to survive on the planet.
When the Doomsday Clock was created in 1947, the greatest danger to humanity came from nuclear weapons, in particular the possibility that the United States and the Soviet Union were heading for a nuclear arms race.
Co-editor Hyman Goldsmith asked artist Martyl Langsdorf to create a design for the cover of the June 1947 issue of the Bulletin, the first issue published as a magazine rather than a newsletter. Martyl - as she was known professionally - was married to a physicist, Alexander Langsdorf, who worked on the Manhattan Project while studying at the University of Chicago.
At first, the artist thought of using the uranium symbol. But listening to the scientists who had worked on the bomb, as they passionately debated the consequences of the new technology and their responsibility to inform the public, she understood the sense of urgency. So he drew a clock to suggest that we did not have much time left to control atomic weapons.
Graphic designer Michael Bierut redesigned the iconic image in 2007. Also that year, the Bulletin took into account for the first time in its deliberations the potential catastrophes caused by climate change. Source.
Whenever news of nuclear threats like this appears, we are invited to go and play Nukemap to see if there would be anything left of our neighbourhood if we were to be hit by a big nukemap.
A quick look at some of the week's news
These are just a few of the news items that were candidates for a cartoon and that I took notes on this week.
Here we are, witnessing what they call "arms escalation", which is nothing more than arming Ukraine more and more. To hell with the No to war and all that. Leopard tanks are going to be sent from Spain, but it looks more like a shipment of scrap metal that won't be more or less operational until at least the spring.
One of Russia's most popular TV presenters, Vladimir Solovyov, has already called for"burning Madrid" for sending Spain's announcement to send tanks to Ukraine. The colleague, who described several countries as forming the third Reich, put it like this:
"We must burn Berlin, Paris, Madrid, London, Washington. The capitals of those Nazi countries that have decided to go to war with Russia. Do you have any doubt that this is a war against Russia?"
I hope no one is surprised to hear such things. So much has been written about wars, that anything you can say will be nothing more than utter irrelevance. That's the thing about getting into one, in the end it's nothing more than an activity focused on annihilating the other and razing their territory to the ground without stopping to dwell on humanitarian rolls.
Defending countries under attack goes by neighbourhoods, we know for a fact that Israel can shoot or bomb hundreds of Palestinians every now and then or kill a few Iranians that not even a single person will ask to send them weapons so that they can defend themselves.
Warmongers, cartoon of 22/01/2022 in CTXT
And while we're on the subject of Madrid, for a change, the nonsense of the Madrid region's infamous video to promote it at Fitur was also on the agenda. Some political figures(1 and 2) came into play in a rather weak parody. The eternal limits of humour and chauvinisms in collision, you know. The usual.
A 76-year-old pensioner from Miranda de Ebro, Burgos, already known as"Unabomber", was arrested as the alleged author of the letter bombs sent to Pedro Sánchez and the Ukrainian embassy, among other organisations. The New York Times piece (written by intoxicating US sources) which said that"Russian agents suspected of leading far-right group to send bombs by mail to Spain" will remain in the shrimp archive
Another piece of fake news that gave a lot of play for jokes this week was that the Earth's core had stopped. Well, no, circulate. You can keep on swallowing with funny headlines that are as false as they are facile and sensationalist, or stop for a moment and try to understand how the spheroid we live on really works.
Don't think there isn't more fake shit. We also read this week that the PP, nor anyone else, knows where Pablo Casado is. Another bait and switch because Pablete (whom nobody misses) will be at his home address, an address that I'm sure half the world knows. The thing is that they sent him the notification of a complaint from the Generalitat to the headquarters of the Partido Popular and those who work in Genova 13 replied that "he no longer has an office" in the building and that "they don't know where he can be found". This nonsense has been twisted until it has become news.
What they did know in the PP was where the demonstration against Pedro Sánchez was. They went there dressed in the traditional fachaleco with their far-right colleagues to call him dictator, carrying flags, some of them with chicken.
The ration of bad news was not to be missed. In this week's package is the move of the footballer Dani Alves, accused of rape. At the moment, from the evidence, it looks like it's looking pretty ugly.
Yasin Kanza, a Moroccan guy armed with a machete, murdered Diego Valencia, sacristan of the Church of San Isidro, and wounded four other people in an attack on two churches in Algeciras (Cádiz). The Islamic community of Spain and the Islamic Board of Cordoba issued communiqués condemning the crime.
But it's not all fucking scabrous. The Labour Inspectorate has slapped Glovo with a new fine of more than 56 million euros. In addition to hiring bogus self-employed workers. Glovo employed undocumented immigrants. I don't know what the relevant body is waiting for to treat the owners of this company as what they are, criminals, and to dissolve their organisation.
Without leaving the wonderful world of business, the CEOE (the employers' organisation of evil) have decided to clench their fists and not sit down with the Ministry of Labour to talk about a rise in the SMI. On the other hand, Juan Roig's worshippers are still very angry after Ione Belarra called him a "ruthless capitalist", but I'll leave that for another post because I did scribble about it.
