"Good evening, Hollywood phonies" -Chevy Chase salutation while hosting the Academy Awards in 1988

Bloated Oscar, by Robert Grossman, for Entertainment Weekly, 2001

Mitch the Obstructionist Tortoise in... Splat.

They ask me continually via email who I'm for; Bernie or Hillary. Here's my short response.

The corruption in this country is off the rails. I've seen standards of living for everyone not rich fall drastically since Reagan. Obama was a great President given the cards he was dealt, but gains didn't reach the former middle, working class and poor. My health insurance premiums have actually gone up, not down, on a par with everything else (rent, cost of food etc), everything that is except wages. Work has been harder to get in my field if you're not already working or able to "pay to play". Now Clinton may be fine, but we don't need "fine", we need action. I'm also skeptical of her past (young Republican for Goldwater, working for Walmart, her niceties with Kissinger and that fascist antiChrist Trump), not to mention that her husband embarrassed the Presidency, making him persona non grata during the 2000 Election (thus paving the way for the worst President ever in Bush). Bill Clinton also supported and signed into law more financial deregulation legislation than any other President before him, and dissolved the Depression-era Glass-Steagall law, so why should his wife be awarded the Presidency as if she's an actor who's "due" an Oscar after losing out so many times on the extraneous, luxury back scratching (patting) award? Awwww... poor Leo Decaprio and Hillary, they've suffered. The hell they have, they're worth ducats up the ying yang each, and neither are the best candidate/nominee, let's be honest. Ok, Leo will win the Best Actor self-congratulation Award, he has little competition this year, but Sanders is the better Presidential candidate to fight for and lead us into the future, and the only one seemingly to have empathy for all of us left behind by Reagan's steady trickle of piss and the giant steaming dump Dubya deposited on our collective heads.

It ain't "Bernie or Bust" stupid. Yeah, there's a difference, a big one, but not bigger then the Grand Canyon-sized chasm the Dems have with the Teapublicans.

You read the newsfeed on here and every other post is "damning evidence about Hillary" this or "Bernie's pipe dream" that. Get a life. Come November, whichever one of them is the nominee has my vote, for better or for worse. Do they have yours? I'm with Sanders until then, but this "she said, he said" see-saw shouldn't keep your eyes off the prize: defeating those backwards, fascist fear-monger$ on the other side. They have no respect for the Constitution and no empathy for you (unless you're a filthy rich, racist, gun toting church goer).

Supreme Justice?

I can't cheer a person's passing, but let's hope this is just the first death knoll of the Reagan Revolting-lution that's destroyed SO MANY lives.

Robert Grossman's Antonin Scalia illustration, which first appeared in The New Republic, Dec. 5th, 1992.

This was apparently endorsed by Bert AND Ernie.

Stating the Obvious

Less than 2 weeks ago more than 2 feet of snow fell in NYC. Today, there is nary a milligram of moisture remaining on the ground from the "Blizzard of the Century", aka Snowmageddon. It will be 116 degrees in July and the increasing impoverished percentage of humanity that cannot afford the soon-to-be premium costs of air-conditioning (or shuttle themselves to and fro in their luxury vehicles) will be burnt to a crisp before the year 2100.

Trump marks the Spot

RFreyP

You can still hear many of those bloated 70's tunes over and over and over again on the machine that is Classic Rock Radio (I'd rather not, was tired of them back then, esp. "Hotel CA"), but "Your Lyin' Eyes", "Peaceful Easy Feelin'", "New Kid in Town" and many other songs I was unmercifully bludgeoned over the head with as a kid do bring back a simpler, sweet n' hazy, sun washed, faded denim era of easy goin' days long gone bye...

Prez Ups (and downs)

It boggles the mind that two of the stupidest, most vile, hate mongering, slime ridden imbeciles on Earth are still leading the pack of one of the two major American political parties. As if said party hadn't already soiled this country enough over the last 48 years with the worst of the worst that humanity has to offer. A large part of our population are seemingly not "doin' their learnin'", or were apparently just born with skewed brainular activity that is sadly beyond repair.

RIP David Bowie... Sigh.

Losing Bowie hurts. A day later his songs rippling in my head. I'm happy I got to see him play (even though it was the Serious Moonlight tour, a far cry from Ziggy or the Thin White Duke days), and unbelievably it was less than a week ago that I posted on here for his birthday about meeting him once in Soho; how gracious he was as I told him I was a huge fan and a musician who'd played his songs. I never approach celebs, but fuck, this was Bowie! Little did I know then or last week that I'd be mourning him so soon after. Bowie was someone I wanted to know more, and respected to the nth degree from afar. I appreciated him as the consummate artist he was, the advocate for underground music I loved, and the private, enigmatic gentleman he came off as, not just as another performer. He truly was one of kind, and listening to all his albums this past day have recalled many other moments in my life, among them playing "John I'm only Dancing" and "Panic in Detroit" with my band the KGB in high school, listening to Low and Lodger over and over on cassette, the day my uncle gave me a gift certificate to Tower and I ran and bought Hunky Dory and Rise and Fall of Ziggy on vinyl... It's hard to imagine a world without Bowie in fact. Just a few weeks ago his name popped up in casting of the film I'm producing as the ultimate choice for one role. He was a true icon, I can't say that about many people we hold on a pedestal. His passing recalled for me the day Lennon died, and when Kurt died. I, as it seems so many are on here, am feeling a genuine loss for someone I, we, didn't know, but that doesn't matter. We felt that we did, and we know and love his music, his interviews and film appearances, and pretty much everything about the man and his legacy. Thankfully, in that respect Bowie will be with us forever.

If there ever was a showboat that deserved to be canceled it's this one.

The Willy Wanker himself.

Il Duce and Il Douche... Separated at Birther

A cartoon by my father Robert Grossman that appeared in The Daily News in 1989. As relevant now as it was then. More.

Two polar opposite experiences just now. First, the fed up, wealthy looking woman at the crowded Whole Foods who slams her stroller into me. I apologize profusely, even though I didn't do anything, cuz, well, there's a kid. She then says "how about I hit you over the head with this stroller". That's the point when she gets told (correctly) to f-off. Soon afterwards, I'm at my crowded neighborhood laundromat. I accidentally put my coins in the wrong dryer, so I start to empty it out into the one below and some hits the floor. A sweet Hispanic lady sitting there says to her son "JJ, help the man out, don't let his his socks hit the floor". Her lil' tyke does with a smile, picking wet socks up and helping me reload my clothes. America in a nutshell, right there.

RIP Wes Craven. Here's a caricature illustration I did in the 90's of some bit player named Fred that was in a couple of his movies.

Hillo Kitty 3, by Robert Grossman

Bruce Gender (illustration by Bob grossman www.robertgrossman.com)

So Bruce Jenner came out as transgender tonight, Good for her. Seriously. Here's an illustration my father did of the unanimously proclaimed "world's greatest athlete" (I believe for Sports Illustrated) back when Jenner might have been the least likely candidate one might think would ever switch genders. Oympian decision on Jenner's part, I hope the press and public gives her their full support.