I love trains. I don’t have a love affair with them the way President Joe Biden does, who commuted on Amtrak daily when he was a Senator from Delaware, but I really like trains.
It’s easier to travel on a train than on a plane, and so much better than a bus. Airports are huge hassles while to get on a train, you just show the ticket guy your ticket. Actually, you get on the train first and then you show him your ticket. It’s so easy when I have a trip to Washington, DC as I don’t have to screw with traffic or parking. It’s the same with going to New York City. And the greatest thing about going to those cities on a train is that after you arrive, you get on another train to your destination. If you work it right, you leave your house, get on a train, and you’re dropped off a few blocks from your hotel (unless your hotel is in Georgetown). It’s easy.
Amtrak has moments where it’s a pain, like the time the air conditioning went out during summer on a trip home from North Carolina while I was trying to meet my CNN deadline in the cafe car, but it’s still a great way to travel. The trains I really love are subways. I still have NYC and DC train cards with a few bucks on them. I want to live in a city with a huge train system, but I can’t afford it.
Subways get a bad rap. A lot of people have told me they’ll never get on the New York subway because it’s not safe. I’ve had people in New York City tell me to never take the subway. I was at an Irish bar in midtown Manhattan and two brothers I was in a conversation with told me that whatever I do, to “never take the subway.” They were way too late with their advice. I’ve taken the New York subway all over Manhattan, through the Bronx, and into Brooklyn. I haven’t gone through Queens yet, but I will when I go see the Mets. But I’ve taken the subway through the Bronx at night and wasn’t afraid (there’s a train system on Staten Island but it’s not connected to the other four boroughs). And yeah, you see freaks talking very loudly to themselves and there are smelly people, but you also see women alone with their babies. I’ve seen groups of kids without adults on the Washington Metro. The Metro is pretty safe, and despite the recent increase in violence, the New York subway system is usually safe. My biggest hassle with subways is that they can be confusing.
Washington’s train system can be confusing but it’s a lot easier to figure out. The Metro has six lines, 91 stations, and 117 miles of routes. New York City’s subway has 36 lines, 472 stations, and 850 miles of track. You can get lost. I had a conversation with a different guy in that same Irish bar who was NYC born and raised, and he told me he got confused with the train system. But, there are now apps for that kind of stuff. I would look on my phone while in my hotel room to see when the next train was arriving at the station around the corner.
I used to get confused with the Metro until I traveled on the Subway. I don’t have any more problems understanding Washington’s Metro.
To me, it doesn’t make sense not to take the trains if you’re in a city that has them. Do I feel safe in the stations? I’ve drawn cartoons in NYC’s underground stations.
You may need to make adjustments as circumstances change, like during the COVID pandemic, but I refuse to allow lunatics to dictate how I live my life. I refuse to live in fear. I still rode in cars after being in car accidents, I still flew in planes after 9/11, and I’ll still ride in trains despite the shooting yesterday in Brooklyn.
A friend I grew up with will never go to Washington or New York City because he refuses to go anywhere without his guns. To me, that kind of fear is worse than living with the very small chance you’re going to be attacked on a train.
Giving everyone a gun is the NRA solution to gun violence. Didn’t a mass shooting on a military base disprove that solution? And in the few instances when a “good guy with a gun” showed up to a mass shooting, the good guy doesn’t actually save any lives. The “good guy with a gun” in Sutherland, Texas in 2017 showed up AFTER the shooter had already killed 26 people when the good guy started chasing him. The shooter was done shooting. And the good guy went on a car chase after the shooter instead of tending to the wounded bleeding to death. Arriving at the scene of a mass shooting is the sick fantasy of every gun fetishist. I think the main reason for them to carry a gun isn’t for their own personal safety, but more for the day when they get to shoot somebody.
Also, how can police tell the difference between the good guy with a gun and the bad guy?
There’s a better solution than the yee-haw cure and that is….let’s get rid of guns. It’ll be hard to shoot someone with a gun if there are no guns.
We don’t have to get rid of all guns but let’s get rid of the guns that make it easier to shoot a high number of people in a short period of time. The Second Amendment gives you the right to bear arms, but it doesn’t state you have the right to own machine guns, which is basically what these assault rifles are. If nothing else, let’s put more control, requirements, and regulations into owning these weapons that are made strictly for the purpose of killing human beings.
“Gun control” is like the word “liberal” for conservatives. No pun intended, but it’s a trigger word meaning bad, much in the same way conservatives now use “groomer,” “woke,” “cancel culture,” “book,” and “personal hygiene.”
While there are people in this nation afraid of getting on a train or traveling to a large city, there are people in other nations afraid to come to our nation because of our sick fetish for guns.
Gun fetishists are afraid gun control will disrupt their entitled white-privileged gun-humping lifestyle. But their guns are disrupting people’s lives while they’re just trying to get to work.
The gun fetishists, the so-called “constitutionalists,” want us to live in fear. They want us to be afraid of getting on a train or going to a donut shop. But like I said before, I refuse to allow lunatics to dictate how I live my life.
Music note: I listened to Pearl Jam while drawing this cartoon. And I bet you thought it would be the Beastie Boys.
Signed prints: The signed prints are just $40.00 each. Every cartoon on this site is available. You can pay through PayPal. If you don’t like PayPal, you can snail mail it to Clay Jones, P.O. Box 3721, Fredericksburg, VA 22402. I can mail the prints directly to you or if you’re purchasing as a gift, directly to the person you’re gifting.
Notes on my book, Tales From The Trumpster Fire: There are 19 copies of my book in stock, which go for $45.00 each, signed. Also, I have copies of my first book from 1997, Knee-Deep in Mississippi available for $20.00.
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Watch me draw:
CLAYTOONZ 
thanks again, Clay!
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And yet, every American government is afraid to ban guns, be they Republican fucknuts or Democratic fuckups. You the people need to elect brave people, ones who will do what is necessary when it is necexsary. Especially when the majority of citizens want it. But no, the minority rules in American Democracy, and that is just bassackwards!
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It is indeed backasswards as you say. I like the way China and Russia approach the problem of gun control. All we need in order to be free of all the problems associated with guns in this country is to do exactly like China and Russia…If we did that, the haters of the 2nd amendment would finally be happy … and if we finally do get all the gun control that some people would like to see, we will become exactly as China and Russia are now. Tyranny begins when the government takes away the people’s guns.
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Wrong! Tyranny begins when leaders care more about themselves than others. Guns have ABSOLUTELY NOTHING to do with Tyranny.
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Rawgod — I can respect your views on this. So I can take comfort then in knowing that no tyrant would ever make use of guns. Good to know. Thanks for sharing.
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Twist! Twist! TWIST! You shoulda worked for Chubby Checker, twisting the sanity away!
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I didn’t have to work for anybody. Ha. ha.
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And that says it all.
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Yup, independently wealthy from day one. Took advantage of every opportunity offered. Every American has the same opportunities to succeed. No plausible excuse for poverty at all.
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Oh, god! Another freakin’ racist. Very few people get “the same opportunities.” You may congratulte yourself on being self-made, but you only get those oppirtunities if you are born in certain social circumstances. When you are “born to fail, according to all the authorities around you” you have to work 10 times as hard to even get a chance to succeed, whatever you think success is. You seem to measure success in monetary terms. Someday you will regret that decision, I promise you.
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I am now 83 years old and I haven’t regretted my decisions at any time. Some of the most successful industrialists and billionaires in this country started life without a pot to piss in. So don’t give me that garbage about the poor unfortunates who never had a chance. By the way, I worked my ass off to get the first million (Like everybody) but all the rest came rather easy after that … it was just a simple matter of cornering market share and making wise investments. After a while, business becomes self-accelerating and self sustaining if management has an ounce of common sense. Of course I might be lying. I might be a total pauper living under a highway bridge in some major city. LOL
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And how ma y people suffered because of your greed? You will never know.
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No employees or associates did any suffering .. no customers did any suffering .. but perhaps those who were envious suffered some kind of angst .. I could care less, being the good right wing republican that I am.
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Thank you for that last statement. It describes Republicans completely. THEY CANNOT CARE LESS! So why the hell do they, the Republicans, want to govern We, the People? How anyone else lives is not a concern, whether the poor have good lives or shit lives. As long as they, the Republicans, have what they believe is their good life, however they define that, is all that matters. So stay the hell out of government! Government is about everyone, not just the 1%.
But you are scared the 99% will try to take away what you worked so hard all your life to get (or your ancestors worked do hard to get), so they govern to protect their way of life. No one is stealing their money from them! FROM YOU!
But, John, you and people like you have a responsibility to your fellow living beings. Your good life comes at the expense of someone else’s poor life! For every one of you having a good life, as least 99 other people are NOT ABLE TO HAVE A GOOD LIFE. You have taken away from them their needs to gratify your wants. Whatever you have above your needs deprives other people of their needs. I don’t care if you gave away even 10% of your wealth to charity, you are still making 90% of other people suffer in some way. But you will never understand that. And the worst thing is, you are proud of that.
The thing is, John, nobody wants your charity, YOUR LEFTOVERS! What they want is to have good things available to them, AND THE MONEY TO BE ABLE TO BUY THOSE THINGS! But you and people like you already have that money hoarded up, where no one else can get it. You say you are 83 years old, so how many millions do you still haved stored away? Tell me, how much money do you actually need to live out the last years of your life in comfort? Whatever is the difference between what you have and what you need is the difference between other people having a decent life, or just living below, at, or near the poverty line.
Tell me, what does your will say. What are your plans for that money once it is worthless to you because you will have no need of it. I don’t know if you have children and grandchildren, but if you do that is likely where your leftovers are going. But is that where it needs to go? No! It needs to go back into circulation, where other less well off pelple can earn it, and make better lives for themselves. What you need to do is make it available, somehow, so other people will have the opportunity you tell me everyone already has, because you had your opportunity and took it. There are millions of ways you can put your money back into circulation, I am not going to presume to tell you how to do that, but that is what you and all the other money-hoarders need to do to repay your debts to your fellow living beings. I have an idea, but you will have to ask what it is. If you dare! If you decide to care?
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I am sure that the Foundations that have been established will find a way to accomplish some of the aspirations that you are talking about. So no worries. So from what you have said so far, I am assuming that you have never put any of your earnings aside for the future .. for your retirement, for the education and well being of your heirs …I am assuming that every spare dollar you have has somehoe been directed toward recirculation once you have no more need of it, right? If that is the case, then you are a most generous person and are to be commended. Please understand also that if it were not for the rich people in this nation, there would be no great industries to hire workers and to contribute through wages to their well being. I doubt that if any great American corporation was ever made successful by some pauper with pennies in the bank… or in a mattress somewhere … No, it was all done through capitalization using what is called “Other People’s Money” in the form of business loans, etc. No, I maintain that without those rich guys, the little guys would be ever so much worse off than some of them already are because (1) They choose not to work, (2) They would rather live off wellfare than turn a hand at a steady job, (3) They are legitimately unable to work because of physical or mental challenges …Anyone in The United States, rich or poor, who wants to make something of themselves can do so if they only have a vision and apply themselves to the dogged pursuit of that vision …There are no limits to what even the poorest can accomplish if they have the burning desire to get ahead. Your entire vision of wealth and the wealth is flawed …unless you are a true socialist and would rather rob the rich to sustain the poor … and if that is the case, it is an unsustainable scenario.
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A true Socialist does not rob the rich to give to the poor, but never allows there to be rich or poor. That is the point of Socialism. Everyone shares equally in the products for living, so there are no inequalities to begin with. I take it you think in, for instance, a restaurant business, the provider of funds is the most important person, followed by the chef, the sous-chefs, the serving staff, etc. all the way down to the dishwashers and floor sweepers. The thing is, the dishwashers and floorsweepers are no less important than anyone else in the chain. Without clean pots, meals cannot be safely cooked, nor can customers be safely served meals. If the floors are dirty, and tne dirt allowed to accumulate, customers will not even come into the place of business. Everyone contributes what they are capable of, or the restaurant will not succeed. Therefore everyone should share equally in the proceeds of the business. No one person is more important than anyone else.
I am retired, living off the government pension I spent my life paying into. I never had enough money to save for my retirement. I worked not according to social standards of making the most money I could, but making enough to provide for my needs. I have lived a happy life, with very few of the stresses I see others put themselves through. I have my medical issues, and they make my life uncomfortable, but I do not need comfort. I live in daily pain, but I can handle that pain. I have no “heirs,” as you call them, that just never happened. As far as I am concerned, I accomplished more living my life as I did than you have accomplished making millions of dollsrs and storing them away. The economy depends more on people like me, keeping money circulating, than it does on people like you, who remove money from circulation. No one NEEDS more than they can spend in their lifetime. Having nothing in the bank when I die is my idea of a successful life. That means whatever excess I had went to help others who needed it more tnan me. THAT IS SUCCESS!
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You sound to me like either a Libertarian or a Tea Party-er — When you write, “No one person is more important than anyone else.” in the restaurant business, I have to disagree because the business should pay out in earnings to each employee according to the value of their contribution to the enterprise … thus, a dishwasher does not contribute as much to the operations as say the Chef, and the Chef does not contribute as much to the operation as the owner of the business who provides the opportunities to everyone who works for him … Your thinking on these matters is unworkable for maintenance of a stable society …but I appreciate you sharing them.
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No idea what a Libertarian or a Tea Partyer is, we don’t use such terms in Canada. Truthfully I am not even a Socialist. I don’t believe in government. My thing doesn’t exist in this world, anywhere, yet. I look to the future where everyone works together to the betterment of all. For lack of a better term, I call it Responsible Anarchy.
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By the way, friend … my money does circulate and does benefit the economy because it is invested and all invested money circulates in one form or another.
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From one rich bastard to another rich bastard. Yup, got it. Meanwhile the little person at the bottom of the shitpile just gets deeper in shit–the true meaning of trickle down economics.
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The little person at the bottom of the shit pile needs to go get the education and the experience to raise himself up by his own boot straps. That is what I had to do and I mostly did it on my own because there are few people out there who are willing to help out unless you become one helluva good ass kisser .. which is exactly what I did to get many of the “Breaks” that came my way. The truly successful have to get used to the idea that they are going to be whores to the system.
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Why be a “whore to the system” when you can create your own system. I left your system a long time ago, and lived to talk about it. My success does not involve money, but rather how I share my life with other living beings.
I am obviously answering this comment out of turn, as I found it in my unread comments section, So now I am curious to know, why are you continuing communicating with me? We come from different points of view, and our visions go in different directions. I wll never convince you to come to my side, and vice versa. While I am willing to go on, I am not yet seeing a purpose here. I would love to ask you to enlighten me, but you would probably take that as a invitation to try to change me, which it is NOT! I need no changing from you this incarnation. But I can already see how this incarnation will affect the next one for me. I certainly cannot see how this incarnation for you will help your next incarnation, ALL DEPENDING ON HOW REINCARNATION REALLY WORKS!
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If you truly think that dying penniless is success, then all I can say is “More Power To You.”
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Yup, that is exactly what I think, so where is the power? You have more of that than you need too.
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One can always tap into the Akashic source and take all the power needed if one knows the universal secrets that govern the concept of what money really is — It is not a tangible thing … it is a power, an energy … The coin and the bills are only material representations of what money really is. Real money is the very energy that first created the cosmos and if one can connect to the cosmic reality, then the inflow of the needed energy to materialize the power of money and make it a physical reality then one never need be without any and everything desired.
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Money does not exist in reality. It is a figment of the human imagination. It only has power because we allow it to have power.The Akaishic Records, if that is what you are refering to, have no power either. They are piwer neutral.
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There is an akashic river that can transmit power to anyone who can immerse themselves into it. The record is different from the river. You should know this.
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Why should I want to know this. I have no need of power. I am content to be me, to share life with those around me. Power is not life-fulfilling in my learnings, it is life-demeaning.
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If you are going to be yourself and to share life with those around you then you have need of power .. you have need of the power to be yourself and to shre life with those around you … consider the definition of the word, “Power” and you will have to agree … The definition of “Power” is… “The ability or capacity to act or do something effectively.” Without this power you would lack the ability or the capacity to be yourself and to share life with those around you. So yes, you need power and Yes, power is important to you whether you wish to admit it or not.
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Different definition than the one I hear you using. But I prefer to call “that kind of power” spirit. I have spirit within me which allows me to be me. Power suggests having do ination over someone or something, that is its baggage in the English language. I can only be me, to the best of my abilities!
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You asked why I keep communicating with you. I hve no answer to that. I just find your views on things to be fascinating. But I will cease and desist from communicating now. Thank you. Have a nice day.
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Never asked you to stop. I was just wondering what was in it for you?
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I have moved through the astral planes myself and have both observed and bathed in the akashic river with my higher self guide ..and I can tell you, from experience, that power can be absorbed from that river which is composed of every universal truth extant and can be brought back from the astral plane and applied to the physicality of the one doing the traveling … I know this because I have done some of it … and that is why I am still so stable at this advanced age. It is something the Tibetians knew a long time ago .. Have you ever read “The Third Eye?” It was written by an American who spent time with Tibetian wise men and which addresses some of the techniques needed to ascend to the higher realms.
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A long time ago, if it is the same book. But what you have said to me so far does not connect with my learnings, or even my leanings. All life is one life, and our only responsibility is to life. From the lowliest bacteria to whatever the highest form of life might presently be–certainly not human–we are all equally important. No one is better, or worse. We are all living beings together. This is what I have learned. I hear none of that in your writing. I cannot understand!
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Look at it from the Native American perspective then .. all life is connected as relatives, one to the other and all are equal in importance in the Creator’s sight.
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I am part indigenous North American. Only, I stopped believing in a Creator over 50 years ago! We are who we are on our own. And all life is not just related, but one life separated into temporary individual beings. So what helps one he.os all,and what hurts one hurts all.
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sit licet ut fuerit
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No Latin here.
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Even so, the mighty oak consumes more of the available resources in order to survive than does the smaller dandelion plant … but between them, they contribute to the harmony or the chaos of all that surrounds them and so none are unimportant in the bigger picture.
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What I already said.
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Reblogged this on It Is What It Is and commented:
THIS!! … “Gun fetishists are afraid gun control will disrupt their entitled white-privileged gun-humping lifestyle. But their guns are disrupting people’s lives while they’re just trying to get to work.” — Seconmd ammendment, my a$$!!
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