Scott Stantis is a rightwing Republican cartoonist.

[geek tragedy]

http://newsblogs.chicagotribune.com/taking-a-stantis/obama-cartoons/

Here is his take on the Republican shutdown of the government.

http://newsblogs.chicagotribune.com/.a/6a00d8341c60fd53ef019affe55f96970c-800wi

He is a filthy rightwing hack. He does crap like teleprompter jokes.

His stuff does not belong on a progressive, Democratic website. If you find yourself agreeing with him on the President or any other prominent Democrats, please have the decency to confine your praise to the site where you are free to post rightwing talking points.

I promise I will alert on, and I will vote to hide, any post celebrating or promoting his work at DU.

[savalez]

1. what happened?

Did someone here actually promote him?

[geek tragedy]

2. there's a big pity party being thrown for him over it, 55 recs and counting last I saw nt

it was a fucking teleprompter cartoon. by Scott Stantis,

And people are all like, nah that's not rightwing

jeebus

[sharp_stick]

9. Didn't see it

perhaps it's one of the douchnozzles on my ignore list. I never used to use that feature but now it's a major reason why I've been able to maintain my sanity.

[Cha]

12. LOL.. I didn't see it either for exactly that reason.. since I found out later who posted it.

[leftyladyfrommo]

86. I read him every morning. He is extremely right wing.

I always just shake my head.

[FSogol]

3. Stantis hardly qualifies as a cartoonist. He just illustrates RW talking points.

That he has defenders here is sickening.

Clean house, admins.

[geek tragedy]

4. there's this awesome new website where DUers can go to get their hate

on of the president using rightwing propaganda all they want.

no need to do it here.

[FSogol]

7. Exactly. Clean house, admins. Why should DU turn into CC?

[JI7]

8. i think they got mixed up with the sites

probably going back and forth and forgetting which one they are posting on .

[greatauntoftriplets]

5. Stantis is awful.

The Tribune can have right wingers like Stantis and John Kass -- the latter of whom is no Mike Royko.

[Autumn]

6. I sure as fuck didn't know that.

As for the cartoon, when I saw it I thought it was cute and portrayed Obama as a smart man. Bill Clinton could give a speech with no flaws when his teleprompter went out.

[msanthrope]

11. President Clinton is eidetic. I get that. The rest of the population is not. nt

[JI7]

10. and i bet some would say this one was about eating fruit and being healthy

the excuses i'm seeing over that shit.

[Jamaal510]

28. +1

[De Leonist]

56. I'd welcome a president who grew his/her own produce

Seriously if the next person in the Oval Office used the Front Lawn of the White House to grow their own fruits and vegetables that would be awesome.

[arthritisR_US]

76. I don't see heathy living. That to me is just fecking racist crap.

Perhaps I'm daft but you have your first African American President and watermelons are .... never mind

[JI7]

77. yes, that's the point im making

those who would claim it's about fruit and eating healthy would be full of shit or just totally ignorant and uninformed about basics of history, campaigns etc.

[arthritisR_US]

79. Oh good, I still hate the damn thing but glad to know that others

see the shit I do. Thanks

[Gidney N Cloyd]

13. As bad as his editorial toons are, Prickly City is worse.

Prickly City runs in the comics pages.It's clearly intended as indoctrination. Luckily, I suspect younger people no longer read comic strips in the paper.

[spooky3]

34. And I could tolerate that if it were funny or clever. It never is.

[toddwv]

14. You can tell he does quality work.... "Obama Unemlpoyment"

Fits right in with the t-pers.

[geek tragedy]

23. his teleprompter cartoons are sooooo progressive.

http://newsblogs.chicagotribune.com/.a/6a00d8341c60fd53ef01539171c727970b-pi

(NOTE TO JURORS READING THIS PER A FRIVOLOUS ALERT, I AM CRITICIZING THIS CARTOON AND ITS AUTHOR)

[NavyDem]

15. Survived the Jury

I was juror #2.

On Fri May 30, 2014, 10:33 PM an alert was sent on the following post:

Scott Stantis is a rightwing Republican cartoonist.
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10025028139

REASON FOR ALERT

This post is disruptive, hurtful, rude, insensitive, over-the-top, or otherwise inappropriate.

ALERTER'S COMMENTS

This is a call out of long time DUer WillyT. The OP admits this in reply #2. Willy may get on some peoples nerves once in a while, but he is most certainly not a right winger. Willy's post was hidden, but that's not good enough for geek, he has to post this crap.
Also, he promises to alert on any of these toons in the future, but he just linked to two pages of them. Why does he think it's okay for him, but not anyone else?

You served on a randomly-selected Jury of DU members which reviewed this post. The review was completed at Fri May 30, 2014, 10:47 PM, and the Jury voted 2-5 to LEAVE IT.

Juror #1 voted to LEAVE IT ALONE
Explanation: I absolutely hate that WillyT got the hide, but these are right wing cartoons.
Juror #2 voted to LEAVE IT ALONE
Explanation: Alerter, you are seriously reaching. Scott Stantis is a fucking right wing hack. The post itself is calling out the defense of posting that vile shit here. Go post it on Discussionist, where it belongs.
Juror #3 voted to HIDE IT
Explanation: No explanation given
Juror #4 voted to LEAVE IT ALONE
Explanation: I agree with the alerter's complaints but I don't think the post needs to be hidden.
Juror #5 voted to LEAVE IT ALONE
Explanation: No explanation given
Juror #6 voted to LEAVE IT ALONE
Explanation: No explanation given
Juror #7 voted to HIDE IT
Explanation: No explanation given

Thank you very much for participating in our Jury system, and we hope you will be able to participate again in the future.

[geek tragedy]

20. very telling that some supposed progressives can't handle criticism of rightwingers here

thanks for the heads up

[NavyDem]

24. No problem

I've been here long enough to know of the "teleprompter jokes" that were being spread earlier in the President's term, and during the election cycle.

[Cha]

33. thanks for that, NavyDem.. I knew they couldn't take their hero, of posting a rw cartoon, being

blasted for it.

[NavyDem]

36. I didn't see the original hidden post.

I have that member on ignore. I've read a little of Discussionist, and expect to see that kind of garbage over there (along with all the previously banned DUers). Sometimes I have to do a double take to figure out which of the two sites I'm looking at, as the rhetoric in some posts is nearly identical between them.

[Cha]

44. Coincidence.. I have that member on ignore, too. I don't go to Discussionist because of

this very reason.

[NuclearDem]

16. Just so we're clear on where we stand with what gets hidden or not

Stupid teleprompter cartoon from a right winger, hide.

Racist "Asian privilege" article from a right winger, not hidden.

[geek tragedy]

17. I would have voted to hide the asian privilege article and as an admin would shitcan the person

who posted it, as well as anyone who recommended it.

teleprompter jokes have a latent racist angle to them--black man couldn't possibly be smart enough to form his own thoughts, must just be an actor reading the words his white betters feed him--that's the code

[Doctor_J]

19. Yeah, I am not sure if we want to alert every right wing post

There are posts defending fracking, TPP, etc. Probably none of those will be hidden.

DU's kind of weird lately.

[MohRokTah]

40. Hey, I can see a point with fracking.

I'd have no problem with fracking on Mars. They can frack all they want on Mars, no friggin problems at all! Mars is the ideal site to start fracking the hell out of everywhee. Frack on Mars all the fuck they want!

Fracking on earth, they can go shitcan themselves.

Never saw the point in killing the US middle class in order to pad the profits of corporate donors, so you get no arguments from me on the TPP.

[Fred Sanders]

18. That is some humourless and stupid cartoon shit at the Tribune....RW idiots eat it up, but

it is not meant to be funny, it is meant to incite hate .

[baldguy]

21. The Snowdenistas seem to love him.

[geek tragedy]

22. he's a real fan of liberty, for powerful, white men

http://newsblogs.chicagotribune.com/.a/6a00d8341c60fd53ef0163010b6d29970d-800wi

(NOTE TO JURORS READING THIS PER A FRIVOLOUS ALERT, I AM CRITICIZING THIS CARTOON AND ITS AUTHOR)

Seriously, why not post Sarah Palin doing teleprompter jokes if this guy is okay?

[SidDithers]

25. DU rec...

Toons from that right-wing shitbag Stantis shouldn't be promoted at DU.

Sid

[geek tragedy]

26. but but but , freedom. nt

[SidDithers]

32. That pity-party thread is vomit inducing...nt

Sid

[geek tragedy]

35. seriously, it's one thing to say cut the guy a break, it's another to act like

a teleprompter cartoon from a republican hack is sacred ground that only evildoers would dare vote to hide.

must be a slow night at discussionist

[SidDithers]

43. And now he thinks he's MLK...

Sid

[madfloridian]

51. My gosh, Sid, he's joking. Poor guy is being hounded.

It's out of control now.

[geek tragedy]

58. willy isn't actually the problem. it's the zealots who trashed the intelligence and integrity

of anyone who dared take exception to that post that are the problem.

"dumber than a box of rocks"

"palace guard"

"sock puppets"

etc etc

willy took his lumps on this, just like I take my lumps when I get a hide I deserve

he's good people, the ones who made those vile smears about those of us who turned out to know what we're talking about, notsomuch as far as I can see

[madfloridian]

61. It's time then that you were not so general in going after people.

Yes, there are many of us here who are good people, good democrats, who support the president while still disagreeing with some policies. Heck I supported Clinton, but I really disagreed with him on the trade deals and telecommunication bills.

[geek tragedy]

64. heck, I think almost all of us disagree with him on some policies.

I certainly am puzzled by his trade stance on the TPP, for example.

but, something has gone wrong when people object to something like that cartoon and get smeared and attacked as a result,

this is supposed to be a partisan Democratic website, and maybe those who are acting like partisans actually know stuff

in this case, we were clearly correct and those defending that cartoon were clearly incorrect

but, we're the dumb authoritarian loyalist goons for objecting to it

[madfloridian]

65. Lest you forget, WillyT was suspended even though he misunderstood, as I did.

So we fought back when things did not let up after that.

There has to be some letting up of the tensions or as election time nears it will be pure hell here.

It does not have to be that way.

I think that keeping on about the right wing nature of the cartoon...which WAS misunderstood by many....is counterproductive.

[geek tragedy]

66. what would help would be some acknoledgement from those throwing punches

on behalf of willy that, oh wait, maybe we were out of line, maybe the people who defend the president against rightwing attacks aren't just loyalist idiots, maybe we'll consider that possibility going forward

but, that will not happen, sorry to say, until election season rolls around and DU rules state that they need to STFU.

[madfloridian]

68. Now you are using that broad brush again. Why do you want any Democrat to STFU?

I have no control over people who name-call on either side. I don't do it myself, and that's all the control I have.

If the day comes here that I have to STFU, then I won't be here to see it.

There has to be some meeting of the minds or all of us will pay later on.

[geek tragedy]

71. those who are 100% negative towards the President and his supporters will be required

to stop their antic during election season, thems the rules.

there's no rule that you have to want democrats to win elections most of the time, but during election season those are the rules

they can talk about other stuff, but their constant hate against the president and his supporters will need to end

[zeemike]

27. And we thought Meta was dead.

It just moved to GD.

[Roy Rolling]

29. Putting aside the issue of his politics....

...I didn't think the cartoons were funny. Even if one is a sympathizer, his cartoons lacked humor.

I just don't get it.

[geek tragedy]

30. it's just rightwing reptilian talking points

but some people think it's great

maybe it's because they don't like the president.

[ballabosh]

31. Did anyone not know this? nt

[geek tragedy]

37. lots of political junkies are claiming they NEVER were aware that the teleprompter thing was a

rightwing meme

[Cali_Democrat]

39. feigned ignorance

Notice how most of the people playing dumb are some the the biggest Obama haters.

They just hate Obama so much that they don't even mind racist right wing memes.

That's what it's come to.

[SidDithers]

41. +1...

How can someone claim to be politically aware, and not know about the right-wing teleprompter attacks?

If it's not feigned ignorance, then those folk are much more politically naive than I'd previously believed.

Sid

[geek tragedy]

42. these would be the same people who claim to know everything about how to win elections, nt

[madfloridian]

45. Well, I thought it referred to Chinese hackers. So that makes me an "Obama hater"??

This is getting more ridiculous every minute.

I saw that cartoon at twitter before I saw it here. It was posted by a liberal tweeter.

Many of us interpreted it the same way.

This is out of control.

[Cali_Democrat]

47. Now you have more background information

...about the artist and his use of the racist teleprompter meme in the past.

Let's make sure his shit stays off of DU.

[madfloridian]

48. It won't make the hatred go away, will it?

I have been here 12 years, many of us for longer.

I have never felt so under attack. It's a cartoon that was misunderstood. The poster paid for posting it. It should be over.

But it is not.

I am getting very fearful about posting here because I have never been able to grow a thick skin.

I am not sure I want to get that hardened.

There is hatred now toward many of us. It's becoming too obvious.

[Cali_Democrat]

55. Now lets make sure it doesn't happen again

I don't want to log into DU and see right wing toons using racist memes.

I will speak out against it.

[madfloridian]

57. Yes, I saw on the other post you won't shut up about it. So go ahead keep having your say.

Over and over and over and over.

[Cali_Democrat]

63. Why don't you come to the African American forum....

...and lecture us about how the teleprompter cartoon is just a misunderstanding and people should shut up about it.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=forum&id=1187

Something tells me you don't have the courage.

[madfloridian]

72. Whoa there. I saw it as about the Chinese hackers when I saw it on twitter the first time.

Do not accuse me of racism. Do not go there.

[Cali_Democrat]

74. When did I accuse you of racsim?

I never did. I've read your posts in the past and I don't consider you to be a racist. I don't consider Willy to be racist and it was probably a misunderstanding.

I'm just pointing out that the toon was created by a right winger using a racist meme and it doesn't belong here. The teleprompter meme is EXTREMELY offensive to African Americans.

[awoke_in_2003]

97. That is how I saw it, too...

I didn't know who this cartoonist was until the brouhaha. Of course, now that I know the background of this guy I can see how it not only was a jab at cyber security, but was also a jab at the president (ie- he says whatever they put on the screen).

[madfloridian]

99. In a larger version I saw on the podium "Fighting Cyber Crime" Makes it pretty clear.

[awoke_in_2003]

103. Yeah, I saw that...

I wouldn't have alerted on that

[JI7]

69. i would bet the biggest racists on discussionist are regulars on here

[Cali_Democrat]

73. No doubt about it....

I do think Willy misunderstood and I don't consider him part of that crew, but a number of DUers in that other thread are entirely too obvious.

As soon as Discussionist was created, the racism began to flyfrom a number of folks. No doubt some of those folks are DU regulars.

[JI7]

78. yes, especially in the last week when the Coates article was being discussed

and related threads.

[QuestForSense]

38. I wouldn't let my bird read the Chicago Tribune.

Stantis is a second stringer and the crap he peddles is about as funny as Louis Gohmert. Actually, it's the same crap.

[madfloridian]

46. A reminder. We "freepers" and "Obama haters" can read what you are saying about us.

There were two ways to interpret the cartoon. Name-calling is destructive.

[JI7]

49. yeah, just like the watermelon cartoon is about eating fruit and being healthy and supporting the

white house garden.

[madfloridian]

50. I did not post the watermelon cartoon, never saw it before. What's going on here?

It's like any thing that even "looks" like criticism is suspect now.

[JI7]

52. i didn't say you did, i'm saying the ignorance about the teleprompter

would be similar to claiming the watermelon pics were about eating fruit and being healthy.

and i'm not talking about YOU here as you do mostly post about one issue . i'm talking about others.

[madfloridian]

53. It was about interpretation, honest different readings.

[JI7]

60. well, if one does not follow politics closely and just isn't informed about campaigns overall

maybe in that case .

[geek tragedy]

54. I would take your admonishment over namecalling more seriously if you had objected to the

feeding frenzy in that thread denouncing everyone and anyone who had alerted or voted to hide that post.

We sure can all get along, but not when toxic garbage like this:

This is a classic example of why I no longer donate to DU

I've always thought the jury system was a bad idea. The people who voted to hide the cartoon are dumber than a box of rocks.

gets flung at us.

If haters are gonna hate, we're not gonna take it like sheep.

Especially when they were proved dead fucking wrong.

[madfloridian]

59. I don't have to denounce anyone. You do a good job of that.

I have never been one to take part in attack posts like those today. But my last post was so under attack, that I decided it was either leave or fight back.

There are many good people here being hurt by all this name-calling. It's really getting bad.

[geek tragedy]

62. I don't think you deserved to be attacked, and I hope you didn't perceive my comments

as an attack on you personally, if so I apologize for being careless.

but, I do see there being a COMPLETE lack of respect for us partisan democrats from a certain segment here, and it was on full display in that thread.

i think most everyone likes willy (even if we don't agree on much), shame he and good people like you had to have his name dragged into this

[madfloridian]

70. Thank you.

[hatrack]

67. In addition to all of the above, he is guilty of the one unforgivable sin for a cartoonist

He's not funny.

Not even FUCKING close.

[TlalocW]

75. Doesn't he realize how right-wing cartoons are supposed to work?

In the first panel, you have close-ups of the conservative and the liberal disagreeing on something.
In the second panel, it's a far-away shot of them in silhouette walking while the liberal makes a ridiculous strawman argument.
In the third panel, the liberal is slightly in the background continuing the strawman argument while the conservative is looking out at the reader with one eyebrow raised thinking a pithy comment that destroys the liberal's ridiculous argument.

Oh, and the conservative is an anthropomorphic duck.

TlalocW

[11 Bravo]

85. Mallard Fucking Fillmore. Bruce Tinsley was an unfunny hack at UVA and ...

he's only gotten worse over time.

[betsuni]

80. Feigned ignorance

That excuse doesn't hold water, that a person missed the teleprompter thing. I never look at right-wing sites, ever. I don't have to. Some days the lefty blogs and the news are all about what a Republican politician said, what that right-wing radio host said, what Fox News said, what that religious fundamentalist leader said. There is no escape. The teleprompter was all over the place. The only reason I can think of to not notice is if one saw the jokes and chuckled because they thought Obama wasn't very smart, affirmative-action and all that. It's like the watermelon and fried chicken in the White House jokes -- always lots of people who yammer on about how they love fried chicken and watermelon, what could possibly be wrong with suggesting the Obamas enjoy these delicious foods. Sigh. Yeah, you know everything, no need to listen to anyone else.

[Drunken Irishman]

81. Here's another Stantis cartoon that slams Obama for his use of the teleprompter.

Let's call a spade a spade, guys. The cartoon wasn't used to show Obama in good light. Moreover, it's an old cartoon - from 2013!

[n2doc]

82. Stantis is by no means the worst RW hack out there

Sorry. He does do some worthy cartoons.

Some recent examples






As a person who looks at a broad range of editorial cartoons nearly every day, Stantis falls on the moderate-Right side of the ledger. There are far more conservative cartoonists out there, folks who consistently parrot the Rush-Hannity-Fox talking points. Stantis isn't one of those.

I find this need by some folks to preemptively censor opinion disgusting. Take each piece on its own merits.

[Gidney N Cloyd]

84. I know we all appreciate the work you do with the toon roundups. Me especially. But...

...Stantis is one of the worst rw hacks. Emphasis on hack. He's lazy and he relies on taking cheap shots. Even the three you posted here, while hard to disagree with the sentiment, are unimaginative grabs at low-hanging fruit. He makes Dick Locher, his main predecessor at the Trib, look like a conservative Mike Lukovich.

[n2doc]

87. Take a look at Chuck Asay, Lisa Benson, AF Branco, Ken Catalino, Rick McKee…

Bob Gorrell, Glenn McCoy, Michael Ramirez. THOSE are hacks. IMO, Ramirez, McCoy and McKee are the worst of the bunch, but in reality they all produce nearly 100% RW BS every time they do something. Stantis is no where near their level. He's more on the level of Chip Bok, Jerry Holbert and Steve Kelly, RW, but still occasionally critical of their own side.

Now, he's no great artist, I'll give you that. Mike Luckovich isn't either. I don't hold that against them.

Don't believe me? Take a look.
http://www.gocomics.com/explore/political_slant

[geek tragedy]

89. "not the worst rw hack out there" is the world's lowest bar to clear

he is a rw hack, is unimaginative, and most certainly uses the teleprompter meme in exactly the same manner as Sarah Palin, Rush Limbaugh, and the rest of the rightwing brain-dead caucus

[Cha]

100. Really. Who cares if he's "not to worst rw hack out there"? He's nonetheless a rw

asshole.

[joshcryer]

94. Taking each piece by its merits I think overlooks intent.

If you know that a cartoonist has a particular bent it is possible to read into what they're trying to say, particularly on a vague post.

[betsuni]

83. What bugs me most about this cartoon is that

Chinese isn't a phonetic language, impossible to look at the characters and know the pronunciation if you don't know the language. The only way it could be funny is if someone who knows Chinese (John Huntsman?) were reading and didn't notice the change from English to Chinese. What if it was John Kerry reading off the teleprompter in the cartoon? Bush? Hillary Clinton? Any other politician? Nope. Only "funny" with Obama and the right-wing meme of being someone who mindlessly reads anything off a screen, even if it's impossible.

[greatauntoftriplets]

88. This Chicagoan thinks that Scott Stantis is as funny as a crutch.

He and John Kass (supposedly the new Mike Royko) are both right-wing hacks and the Tribune should be ashamed of them.

[Gidney N Cloyd]

91. Kass is the new Royko like Stantis is the new Jeff MacNelly.

Just serves to remind us that the Trib did have a fairly centrist era before they skewed back toward their Colonel McCormick roots.

[Martin Eden]

90. He's featured regularly in the Chicago Tribune

So is Ramirez, who's even worse.

And Charles Krauthammer is a regular columnist.

[madfloridian]

101. Yeh but I don't read that paper. To me the cartoon was about Chinese hacking, period.

I did not research the background of the cartoonist before I decided whether to laugh or cry or become a right wing troll.

[Blue_In_AK]

102. +1

[Tommy_Carcetti]

92. I thought he was the brother of the slain king Robert Baratheon.

[geek tragedy]

95. and the one true king of the andals nt

[joshcryer]

93. What's telling is the way the right wing infiltrates.

They use issues that leftists support and they use a weasely round about way of bashing the center or the center-left over BS. So some of his more vague cartoons could be an indictment on center policies the left dislikes, but it's in actuality a right wing criticism of the left itself!

[SidDithers]

98. +1...nt

Sid

[Scurrilous]

96. I'm sure it was all a big misunderstanding....

[Cha]

106. Yeah, he didn't really mean it in that way.. nm

[redqueen]

105. It is amazing that anyone could have forgotten or missed the teleprompter shit.

The RW has been using that for years. Years.

[geek tragedy]

107. I know, right? That Sarah Palin uses it in her speeches

should have been a clue.

[betsuni]

108. Yes, for years

Last edited Sun Jun 1, 2014, 11:09 AM - Edit history (1)

I have the worst memory, I'm practically senile, yet I WISH I could forget the years of this idiocy and it won't go away even now. No way anyone could've missed it. I don't live in the U.S. but I have eyes and a computer machine. It was all over the place. What year was it, 2011 maybe, that at the White House Correspondents Dinner they did a parody of it called "The President's Speech"?