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I’m going to Miami, to cover Trump’s SECOND arrest and I’m going to draw rough sketches during my trip. I’ll cover the train ride, my hotel, the food, the people, the sights, and most importantly, the mayhem at the federal courthouse during Trump’s arrest.
I’m going to publish all the sketches AFTER I return to Virginia, but who can see these sketches as they’re being created while I’m in Miami? Only those who helped make this happen. That’s you.
This is a password-encoded page. Only those who have contributed to help fund the trip, has made a donation, bought a print over the past month, or is a regular monthly contributor has access to this page. I will also do this with most of the photos and videos but will publish a few of those on social media to tease my other readers. I’m a stinker.
I was going to do this in emails but I don’t know how many sketches I’ll produce and some people hate getting lots of emails. I’m one of them. So, this will be updated with each new entry and you are invited to keep returning.
Thank you so much for your support. You rock!
The videos.
And now for some sketches.
I saw a lot of white people with “Blacks for Trump” shirts today and yeah, yeah, yeah, there were several black guys with those shirts too. At one point today, a black Trumper told me that Donald Trump wasn’t a racist because he didn’t think he was. I used the Strom Thurmond argument against him. I asked, “Do you believe that segregationist Strom Thurmond was a racist?” He relented and said, “Of course.” So I said, “Strom Thurmond remained a racist despite fucking black women and creating black children which totally wipes out your ‘black friend’ defense of Trump. Also, your approval of Trump doesn’t prove he’s not a racist as most black Americans will tell you he is. If we use your guidelines, then Donald Trump is a racist.” We didn’t get along after that.
Also, without any doubt, and getting away from talking to crazy people, Donald Trump is a racist.
This did happen to me today, and more than once.
There were some very attractive MAGAts, but there was also a high number of them with major dental issues.
I will continue to update through Friday, so keep checking back.
Tribute from another cartoonist.
My friend and fellow cartoonist John Buss produced this cartoon today intentionally in my style to pay tribute. This is a huge honor and I’m blown away by it. I’m just worried his imitation of my Trump caricature may be better than the real thing. John is also one of the contributors who helped make this trip happen. Actually, three cartoonists made contributions. Thank you, guys, and lady.
Versailles
I’m innocent and I didn’t mean to do it.
After spending the day at the Trump arraignment, I cooled off at the bar in my hotel and Annie, a very nice bartender, told me that the best place to get a Cubano (Cuban sandwich) was at Versailles in Little Havana. So off I went, to Little Havana.
Now, the only place in Miami where I had seen MAGAts was at the courthouse but when I arrived at Versailles, there was about four of them in front of the restaurant wearing their stupid MAGAt gear and waving their stupid MAGAt signs and showing off thier stupid MAGAt faces.
I went in, got a seat pretty quickly although there was a small wait for most people. The place was pretty full but I didn’t detect anything weird other than my waiter who didn’t say one word to me until at the end when he asked if I wanted anything else. At the start, he brought me water and a menu, looked at me and I told him I wanted an espresso and a Cubano. It was nice.
What I didn’t know was that I had just missed Donald Trump who visited the restaurant where they held prayers for him. Seriously. I didn’t know that the restaurant was run by ultra-right-wing Cubans. I know a lot of Cubans are Republicans but I didn’t expect them to be Kool-Aid-drinking MAGAts. That’s sad.
It’s weird that they use Fidel Castro to oppose Democrats who they claim are communists, yet they support a fascist fuck like Donald Trump who wants to be a dictator and eliminate fair elections. Being against fascists in Cuba and supporting one in the United States is a total contradiction, people.
And by the way, a Cubano is basically just a ham sandwich but that espresso was OHMYGOD fantastic.
It happened again. As you know, my train hit a car on the way to Miami which delayed my trip by about four hours. On the way home to Virginia, my train hit a tree.
OK, I don’t think it actually hit the tree but it stopped because a tree was on the tracks. It was around dusk and I had nodded off, which was extremely difficult to do on the train. The stopping of the train is what woke me up because it always jerks when it stops. And we remained still in rural South Carolina in an area with very bad WiFi until early in the morning, like until around 4 A.M. or so. It sucked.
And the Amtrak people first told us they didn’t know what was going on and that there couldn’t be an announcement because it was “quiet hours,” yet they allowed people to continue playing music, talking loudly, and calling people while using their speaker phones. There are a lot of arrogant obnoxious inconsiderate obtuse people on trains, and most of them get on the train in Jacksonville.
What is it with Jacksonville? On the way to Miami, a lady with a “spare tire” got on the train wearing a tube top you could clearly see through. Guess which town she boarded from? Yup, fucking Jacksonville. And she was actually one of the nicer of the Jacksonville freaks.
Eventually, word spread, not about the see-through top, but that a tree was on the track and it had to be cleared. But even after it was cleared, we remained still for hours. I know this because at least seven other trains passed by.
And the people who work for Amtrak are very rude. They treat their customers like cattle. They all have a mood as if someone had pissed in their Cheerios that morning and they’re looking at you with condescension as soon as you board the train.
I mostly enjoyed using Amtraks on trips to Washington, D.C. and New York City in the past, and while I took it this time over flying mostly because of price, I also wanted to see a piece of the south this way (even though half of it was at night). I will continue to use Amtrak for those shorter trips, but two trips in a row where 22 hours turned into 30 is a bunch of bullshit.
I finally made it to Fredericksburg around 1 P.M. and called an Uber…which got hit by a train. Just kidding.
By the way, even after 42 hours with the only little sleep I’ve had being train sleep, I’m still working on CNN’s cartoon for this week, and it’s 10 P.M. Your favorite goofball cartoonist needs food and sleep.
Other notes
Since the trip is now over and I’m home where I can’t tell you how nice it is to be back at my own drawing table, I’m going to make this page public so all my readers can see it.
I want to thank everyone again who made a financial contribution to making this trip possible. I hope you believe it was worth it. I’ll do it again and try to make each time better. And I think I broke even on the trip. I didn’t make money but I don’t think I lost any either, at least not yet.
Thank you!
I don’t do endorsements but I will make a suggestion. If you think you’ll be OK with a pod-size room that’s just for you, maybe two people but definitely not a family, consider CitizenM. It is now probably my favorite hotel out of all the ones I have ever stayed in. The rooms are high tech and the lobby is their “living room” where you can eat, drink, and work. And the people are the best. You feel like they become friends and you feel sad when you leave saying goodbye to some of them. One of them even gave me a gift while I was waiting on my Uber. I am sad. haha.
Thank you again. You rock!
CLAYTOONZ 