Ukraine

Tuesday December 20, 2016

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator - Tuesday December 20, 2016 Will the GOP be the pro-Putin party? Beneath the surface of the controversy overÊRussiaÕs efforts to help Donald Trump become presidentis a dramatic reconfigurationÊof opinion on foreign policy. Many Republicans who had long been critical of Vladimir PutinÕs despotic rule are adjusting their positions to accord with TrumpÕsÊmore sympathetic views. Others are hanging back, fearful of picking a fight with their partyÕs incoming president or underminingÊthe legitimacy of his election. At the same time, PutinÕs fiercest Republican critics, including leading neoconservatives, find themselves allied with HillaryÊClintonÕs supporters. They are calling out the KremlinÕs interference with the election and demanding a full accounting of whatÊhappened. Sens.ÊJohn McCainÊandÊLindsey O. GrahamÊhave been among the most outspoken. While some on the left worry about starting a new Cold War, there has been a broad toughening of liberal and Democratic opinionÊtoward Russia. This shift owes in part to outrage over PutinÕs efforts to sabotage Clinton, but the roots of the mistrust of Putin canÊbe traced back several years. PutinÕs hostility toward Clinton is widely seen as a response toÊher criticism of the 2011 Russian elections, a pointÊshe underscoredÊherself last week. Mass protests broke out against what the opposition saw as PutinÕs vote rigging. At the time, he blamed ClintonÊand the American government for the uprising. (Source: Washington Post)Êhttps://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/will-the-gop-be-the-pro-putin-party/2016/12/18/a2d22058-c3de-11e6-9a51-cd56ea1c2bb7_story.html?utm_term=.b0976dcc87f0 USA, Russia, Syria, Ukraine, Alec Baldwin, satire, Vladimir Putin, Donald Trump, blood

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Tuesday December 20, 2016

Will the GOP be the pro-Putin party?

Beneath the surface of the controversy over Russia’s efforts to help Donald Trump become presidentis a dramatic reconfiguration of opinion on foreign policy.

Many Republicans who had long been critical of Vladimir Putin’s despotic rule are adjusting their positions to accord with Trump’s more sympathetic views. Others are hanging back, fearful of picking a fight with their party’s incoming president or undermining the legitimacy of his election.

At the same time, Putin’s fiercest Republican critics, including leading neoconservatives, find themselves allied with Hillary Clinton’s supporters. They are calling out the Kremlin’s interference with the election and demanding a full accounting of what happened. Sens. John McCain and Lindsey O. Graham have been among the most outspoken.

While some on the left worry about starting a new Cold War, there has been a broad toughening of liberal and Democratic opinion toward Russia. This shift owes in part to outrage over Putin’s efforts to sabotage Clinton, but the roots of the mistrust of Putin can be traced back several years.

Putin’s hostility toward Clinton is widely seen as a response to her criticism of the 2011 Russian elections, a point she underscored herself last week. Mass protests broke out against what the opposition saw as Putin’s vote rigging. At the time, he blamed Clinton and the American government for the uprising. (Source: Washington Post)

 

Tuesday, February 10, 2015

Tuesday, February 10, 2015Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Tuesday, February 10, 2015

Angela Merkel meets Obama, set for private briefing with Stephen Harper

For Sale from the MacKayCartoons BoutiqueGerman Chancellor Angela Merkel will be in Ottawa later today to give Prime Minister Stephen Harper an update on her frenzied transatlantic shuttle diplomacy on the Ukraine crisis.

The Canadian Press has learned Merkel’s supper-hour arrival in Ottawa for talks with Harper will allow the prime minister to receive a private briefing on the West’s renewed push to end the continued fighting in eastern Ukraine.

Monday November 17, 2014Ukraine’s military has been battling Russian-backed separatists since April in a conflict that the United Nations says has killed 5,300 people, a figure that has spiked in recent weeks.

Merkel was in Washington this morning for a previously scheduled meeting with U.S. President Barack Obama, amid reports of a rift between the U.S. and Europe over whether to arm Ukraine’s military.

Speaking at a joint news conference with Merkel, Obama said Russian aggression against Ukraine has reinforced the unity of the U.S. and its partners in Europe and around the world. If Russia continues on its current course, he added, its political and economic isolation will worsen.

Obama said Russia has violated nearly every commitment it made in a previous deal reached in Minsk. He said instead of withdrawing troops, Russian forces have continued to operate in eastern Ukraine and to co-ordinate attacks.

He says Russia has sent in more tanks, heavy artillery and armoured personnel. Obama says separatists have seized more territory with Russia’s support. (Source: Toronto Star)

Thursday August 14, 2014

Thursday August 14, 2014By Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Thursday August 14, 2014

Pop-Culture President Fails To Issue Statement on Death of Hollywood Legend

President Barack Obama, whose opinions on entertainment are eagerly awaited by all Americans, has shocked the entertainment industry by ignoring the death of legendary Hollywood actress, and lifelong Democrat, Lauren Bacall.

Bacall, a movie legend whose career included work with filmmakers ranging from Howard Hawks to Douglas Sirk to Lars von Trier, died Tuesday, leaving behind a legacy that included many classic films, a youthful marriage (and early widowhood) to Humphrey Bogart, and a lifetime of activism for liberal causes. Bacall joined protests against the House Un-American Activities Committee, campaigned for two-time failed presidential candidate Adlai Stevenson in the 1950s, and identified herself as “anti-Republican . . . a liberal” in a 2005 Larry King interview.

Yet Bacall’s loyalty to the president’s party has not earned any recognition from the pop-culture-saturated commander-in-chief. Obama has spent much of his time in office taking selfies with cultural notables; giving his opinions on Downton Abbey, Orange Is the New Black, Mad Men, and many other popular television shows; texting with Jay-Z; and gracing the nation with his opinion of Kanye West’s interruption of Taylor Swift at the 2009 MTV Video Music Awards. Obama rarely leaves America in the dark about his media diet and pop-culture opinions.

Inconveniently, Obama’s pop connoisseurship is occasionally interrupted by details of national and global politics: Russia is on the verge of invading Ukraine; an area of Iraq the size of Belgium is under the control of a mass-murdering Sunni Islamist terror group; and the United States remains stuck in the longest period of economic stagnation since the Great Depression. But Obama has until now found ways to soldier through, most recently taking time during his Martha’s Vineyard vacation to issue a statement on the death of hirsute funnyman Robin Williams.

The cause of Obama’s Bacall snub is not known. It is possible that he is preparing to hug it out with his former secretary of state Hillary Clinton on the Vineyard tonight. The president may also share the view, held by a large minority of American men, that Martha Vickers, who played Bacall’s slutty younger sister in Hawks’s 1946 adaptation of Raymond Chandler’s The Big Sleep, was the real hot one. (Source: National Review)

FEEDBACK

Letter to the Editor, August 15, 2014

Poor taste in celebrity death cartoon

 I was disgusted by the lack of sensitivity in Graeme MacKay’s cartoon of Aug. 14, depicting the recent deaths of celebrities and asking who’s next. It was an utter lack of taste and poor decision-making on the part of the editor for publishing it. Shame on you.

 S. Skalko, Hamilton

 

 

Tuesday July 22, 2014

Tuesday July 22, 2014By Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Tuesday July 22, 2014

Ukraine Separatists Yield, Allowing Bodies to Depart and Agreeing to Hand Over Black Boxes

After days of obstruction, Russia-backed separatists in eastern Ukraine reached an agreement with Malaysia on Monday to surrender the flight recorder boxes of the Malaysia Airlines jetliner downed by a surface-to-air missile last week, and allowed the bodies of the victims to be evacuated by train.

The agreement, announced by the prime minister of Malaysia, Najib Razak, in a live television broadcast, appeared to represent a significant movement to end the standoff over the aftermath of the crash of Flight 17 from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur, which killed 298 people whose bodies lay for days in a wheat field in eastern Ukraine, an area controlled by the separatists.

The refusal of the separatists to permit unfettered access to the crash site has raised suspicions that they were responsible for the missile strike that felled the plane. It has also generated enormous international criticism of the Ukrainian separatists and of President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia.

Mr. Najib, speaking from Kuala Lumpur, said the agreement with Alexander Borodai, a commander of the separatist forces in the city of Donetsk, Ukraine, called for the bodies to be taken by train to Kharkiv, a city held by the Ukrainian government. Six Malaysian representatives were to oversee the transfer of the bodies in Kharkiv to the custody of the Netherlands. (Source: New York Times)

OTHER MEDIA

Posted at Yahoo News Canada.

FEEDBACK

Hamilton Spectator, Letter to the Editor, Wednesday July 23, 2014

Well, Graeme MacKay got the right cartoon with Vladimir Putin as the spider, and the aircraft in the terror web. By his inaction, Putin as much as says that he doesn’t care about humanity as a whole. What a disgrace. Imagine the blowback were it a Russian aircraft blown out of the sky on North American soil! And Canada’s response to Putin’s hand-sitting is pathetic at best. Where is the leadership we need? Prime Minister Stephen Harper needs to smarten up.
G. Robert Warren, Hamilton

 

 

Saturday June 7, 2014

Saturday June 7, 2014By Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Saturday June 7, 2014

Stephen Harper to attend swearing-in for Ukraine’s new president, Petro Poroshenko

Stephen Harper announced Tuesday that he will travel to Kyiv during his upcoming European trip to attend the swearing-in of Ukraine’s new president, Petro Poroshenko.

The ceremony is set for Saturday, and if Harper does indeed attend it will mark his second trip to Ukraine since mass protests toppled the government of former president Viktor Yanukovych in February.

Russia has since annexed Crimea and Ukrainian forces have battled pro-Russian forces in the country’s east. In response, Canada has levied sanctions against Russia.

“Canada has been a leader in the global response to Russian aggression in Ukraine,” said a statement about the trip released by the Prime Minister’s Office.

Canada also sent a large team of election officials to help oversee Ukraine’s national election, which Poroshenko — a billionaire chocolate magnate — won in May.

Harper’s decision to stand behind Poroshenko during the swearing-in – several other high profile politicians including U.S. Vice-President Joe Biden will be there as well – is likely intended to send a message to Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Harper has taken a harder line than most toward the Russian leader, the CBC’s Chris Hall reports.

“His boldness has increased since Russian troops first made an open grab for power in Crimea,” Harper said in a recent speech. (Source: CBC News)