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Wednesday September 28, 2022

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Wednesday September 28, 2022

Kremlin paves way to annexing 4 regions of Ukraine as it announces referendum results

The Kremlin paved the way Tuesday to annex part of Ukraine and escalate the war by announcing that residents of a large swath overwhelmingly supported joining with Russia in stage-managed referendums that the U.S. and its Western allies have dismissed as illegitimate.

May 3, 2022

Pro-Moscow officials said all four occupied regions of Ukraine voted to join Russia. According to Russia-installed election officials, 93 per cent of the ballots cast in the Zaporizhzhia region supported annexation, as did 87 per cent in the Kherson region, 98 per cent in the Luhansk region and 99 per cent in Donetsk.

In a remark that appeared to rule out negotiations, Ukrainian President Volodymr Zelenskyy told the UN Security Council by video from Kyiv that Russia’s attempts to annex Ukrainian territory will mean “there is nothing to talk about with this president of Russia.”

The preordained outcome sets the stage for a dangerous new phase in Russia’s seven-month war, with the Kremlin threatening to throw more troops into the battle and potentially use nuclear weapons.

The referendums in the Luhansk and Kherson regions and parts of Donetsk and Zaporizhzhia began Sept. 23, often with armed officials going door to door collecting votes. The ballots asked residents whether they wanted the areas to be incorporated into Russia.

March 4, 2022

Moscow-backed officials in the four occupied regions in southern and Eastern Ukraine said polls closed Tuesday afternoon after five days of voting.

Russian President Vladimir Putin is expected to address Russia’s parliament about the referendums on Friday, and Valentina Matviyenko, who chairs the parliament’s upper house, said lawmakers could consider annexation legislation on Oct. 4.

Meanwhile, Russia ramped up warnings that it could deploy nuclear weapons to defend its territory, including newly acquired lands, and mobilizing more than a quarter-million more troops to deploy to a front line of more than 1,000 kilometres. 

After the balloting, “the situation will radically change from the legal viewpoint, from the point of view of international law, with all the corresponding consequences for protection of those areas and ensuring their security,” Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said Tuesday.

Many Western leaders have called the referendum a sham, and the UN Security Council was scheduled to meet later Tuesday in New York to discuss a resolution that says the voting results will never be accepted and that the four regions remain part of Ukraine. Russia is certain to veto the resolution. (CBC) 

 

Thursday September 22, 2022

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Thursday September 22, 2022

Putin flirts again with grim prospect of nuclear war – this time he might mean it

“This is not a bluff.”

February 25, 2022

The message from Vladimir Putin’s ominous morning speech, which marked the biggest escalation of the Ukraine war since the invasion on 24 February, was clear: Russia is willing to use nuclear weapons if Ukraine continues its offensive operations.

While the longtime Russian leader has previously flirted with the grim prospect of using nuclear weapons, experts say his latest statements went further, raising fears around the world of an unprecedented nuclear disaster.

Addressing the nation on Wednesday, Putin confirmed he was planning to annex four partly occupied regions of southern and eastern Ukraine after this weekend’s Kremlin-orchestrated “referendums”.

He added that he was prepared to use “all means” to defend the “territorial integrity” of the Russian-occupied lands and their people.

February 18, 2005

“Putin’s statements go beyond the Russian nuclear doctrine, which only suggests Russian first use in a conventional war when the very existence of the state is threatened,” said Andrey Baklitskiy, a senior researcher in the Weapons of Mass Destruction and other Strategic Weapons Programme at the United Nations Institute for Disarmament Research.

Ukraine, which has been making rapid military gains over the past few weeks, has stressed that it will continue its efforts to liberate occupied lands, with Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, stating on Wednesday that referendums will “act step by step to liberate our country”.

This means Putin’s resolve will probably be tested in the coming weeks.

Mark Galeotti, an expert on Russian politics, also said Putin’s nuclear threats were unprecedented but questioned whether the Russian leader was willing to go through with his threats, which would de facto mean nuclear war.

June 25, 2019

“It’s glib to assume anyone claiming they are not bluffing is bluffing, but the credibility of a threat to risk thermonuclear Armageddon if Ukrainian forces continue to move in territories still Ukrainian by law is questionable.”

Instead, Galeotti argued, the apocalyptic threats could have been intended to force the west and Ukraine into accepting Russia’s territorial gains in the war.

Zelenskiy, in an interview with the German newspaper Bild on Wednesday, likewise said he did not believe Putin would use nuclear weapons. “I don’t think the world will allow him to use those weapons,” he said.

The Ukrainian leader, however, did not rule out the possibility of a Russian nuclear strike, saying “we can’t look into Putin’s head”.

For millions of Russians, the most worrying takeaway from Putin’s speech will be that they and their loved ones could soon be fighting and dying for their president’s illusory aims. (The Guardian) 

From sketch to finish, see the current way Graeme completes an editorial cartoon using an iPencil, the Procreate app, and a couple of cheats on an iPad Pro …

Friday December 1, 2017

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Friday December 1, 2017

Trump’s behavior raises questions of competency

Donald Trump potentially has millions of lives in his hands as the threat of a devastating war with North Korea swiftly escalates.

January 20, 2017

Yet the President of the United States is raising new questions about his temperament, his judgment and his understanding of the resonance of his global voice and the gravity of his role with a wild sequence of insults, inflammatory tweets and bizarre comments.

On Wednesday Trump caused outrage and sparked fears of violent reprisals against Americans and US interests overseas by retweeting graphic anti-Muslim videos by an extreme far right British hate group. Earlier this week he used a racial slur in front of Native American war heroes. He’s attacked global press freedom, after cozying up to autocrats on his recent Asia tour.

August 18 2017

And now there are reports that the President has revived conspiracy theories about former President Barack Obama’s birthplace and is suggesting an “Access Hollywood” video on which he was heard boasting sexually assaulting women, and for which he apologized last year, had been doctored.

In normal times, it would be a concern that the President is conducting himself in a manner so at odds with the decorum and propriety associated for over two centuries with the office he holds.

September 20, 2017

But the sudden escalation of the North Korean crisis, following the Stalinist state’s launch of its most potent ever missile on Tuesday, takes the world across a dangerous threshold.

If diplomacy is unable to defuse the North Korea crisis, or slow its march to the moment when Kim Jong Un can credibly claim to be able to target all of the United States with a nuclear payload, Trump will face one of the most intricate dilemmas of any modern President. Will he live with the threat posed by a mercurial, wildly unpredictable adversary? Or, will he launch what could turn out to be a hugely bloody and destructive war to remove Kim’s nuclear threat?

November 3, 2017

There will be a premium on Trump’s judgment, his capacity to absorb the most serious detail and to make choices that could put many, many lives at risk, and draw the United States into escalating situations in Northeast Asia. Trump would be required to switch from the swaggering, untethered political persona he has been reluctant to drop as President into the role of sober statesman, unifying the nation and US allies — a switch he has rarely achieved so far in his 10 months in power.

On Wednesday, in St. Charles, Missouri, Trump stuck to his preferred name calling, again blasting Kim as “Little Rocket Man” and branding him a “sick puppy” after his White House earlier promised severe new sanctions against Pyongyang. But he didn’t elaborate on his vows to “handle” the situation. (Continued: CNN) 

 

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Saturday September 30, 2017

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Saturday September 30, 2017

McMaster going tobacco, smoke-free

McMaster University will become the province’s first tobacco and smoke-free campus next year.

As of Jan. 1, 2018, using tobacco and all oral smoking devices will be prohibited on McMaster campuses.

This includes the Hamilton campus, inside and on the grounds of the Ron Joyce Centre in Burlington, as well as at all McMaster-owned properties.

The university said it is working to help students, faculty and staff adapt to the new policy and educate the community before it comes into effect.

“McMaster University recognizes the unique relationship that many Indigenous cultures have with traditional and sacred medicines,” says a post on Mac’s Daily News website. “As such, exemptions to this policy will be granted, upon request, to members of the McMaster University community.”

There will be phased-in enforcement of the designation starting in January.

For the first months, anyone found in contravention of the policy will be asked to stop or referred to supports and resources. (Source: Hamilton Spectator) 

 

Wednesday September 20, 2017

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Wednesday September 20, 2017

Donald Trump says ‘rocket man’ Kim Jong-un is ‘on a suicide mission’

U.S. President Donald Trump warned on Tuesday that the United States will be forced to “totally destroy” North Korea unless Pyongyang backs down from its nuclear standoff, mocking North Korean leader Kim Jong-un as a “rocket man” on a suicide mission.

September 6, 2017

Loud murmurs filled the green-marbled UN General Assembly hall when Trump issued his sternest warning yet to North Korea, whose ballistic missile launches and nuclear tests have rattled the globe.

Unless North Korea backs down, he said, “We will have no choice than to totally destroy North Korea.”

“Rocket man is on a suicide mission for himself and his regime,” he said.

A junior North Korean diplomat remained in the delegation’s front-row seat for Trump’s speech, the North Korean UN mission said.

August 10, 2017

In his first appearance at the annual gathering of world leaders, the president used a 41-minute speech to take aim also at Iran’s nuclear ambitions and regional influence, Venezuela’s collapsing democracy and the threat of Islamist extremists. He also criticized the Cuban government.

But his strongest words were directed at North Korea. He urged United Nations member states to work together to isolate the Kim government until it ceases its “hostile” behaviour. He said North Korea’s pursuit of nuclear weapons and ballistic missiles “threatens the entire world with unthinkable cost of human life.”

In what may have been a veiled prod at China, the North’s major trading partner, Trump said: “It is an outrage that some nations would not only trade with such a regime but would arm, supply and financially support a country that imperils the world with nuclear conflict.” (Source: CBC News) 

By Steve
 
In keeping with the let’s-mock-Trump-no-matter-what-he-says theme, Mackay would have us believe that North Korea is nothing but an annoyance and that the real threat to the world is the U.S.’s massive stockpile of nuclear arms under Trump’s control. Yet two weeks ago North Korea threatened the U.S. (and by geographical proximity, Canada) with an electro-magnetic pulse attack (EMP) that would cripple and destroy the U.S. should it succeed. Mackay can have his little bit of fun twisting things around and upside down when it comes to Trump but to dismiss egomaniacal despots as annoying, is irresponsible. History has shown us otherwise, that when these pathetic little men threaten us, they mean it. Why should we take the chance?

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