Lately, I’ve been drawing Mitt Romney like it was 2012 and there were binders full of women around here. Someone put me in a dog crate, strap it to the roof of a car, and drive me to Michigan. No, don’t do that. Maybe we can put George Santos in a dog crate and drive him to Michigan?
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.
Tip Jar: if you want to support the cartoonist, please send a donation through PayPal to clayjonz@gmail.com. You can also snail it to P.O. Box 3721, Fredericksburg, VA 22402.
Memphis, and law enforcement in other cities, are bracing for unrest after the bodycam footage of the arrest and beating of Tyre Nichols is released in the coming days, or perhaps hours.
Tyre Nichols was a 29-year-old black man who was pulled over for what police claim was reckless driving. According to their report, there was a confrontation after the stop, then he fled on foot, and then there was another confrontation that required an ambulance to be called for Tyre, who then died three days later.
The Memphis Police Department and city government are expecting protests but are hoping their handling of the situation will prevent violence.
This is a black lives matter incident, but the five police officers involved are all black. All five officers have been fired instead of being placed on paid leave. All five are under investigation as are other officers. Perhaps the only failing here is that the cops haven’t been arrested yet. A non-cop would have been charged for beating someone to death by now.
Can we trust police to investigate their own? Too often, we see district attorneys put together grand juries to investigate police only to never bring charges. Fortunately, the Justice Department will conduct a civil rights investigation because surely, Tyre Nichols’ civil rights were denied. There will also be a state investigation.
Memphis Police Chief Cerelyn “C.J.” Davis said, “Those five officers and others failed our community. This is not just a professional failing, this is a failing of basic humanity toward another individual.”
She also addressed the coming reaction to the release of the video saying, “I expect our citizens to exercise their First Amendment right to protest, to demand action and results. But we need to ensure our community is safe in this process. None of this is a calling card for inciting violence or destruction on our community or against our citizens.”
She has described the video as “heinous, reckless and inhumane” and said, “When the video is released in the coming days, you will see this for yourselves.”
What is it about cop culture, whether the officers are black or white, that makes them beat a black man to death?
Creative note: One of my proofers didn’t think this cartoon worked because Tyre Nichols was stopped for reckless driving, not walking. She also had an issue that it didn’t occur on Beale Street. And then I questioned that myself before deciding “walking” and “Beale” are metaphors which cartoonists deal with every day. But, I could still be wrong and I’ll find out as more readers see this cartoon.
Music note: I hate the song “Walking in Memphis.” I lived near Memphis when the song came out and heard it constantly. The song was released in 1991 while the NFL was expanding its league…and Memphis was one of the hopeful cities. Memphis got a preseason game as part of the experience. The two teams were The Los Angeles Rams and the Houston Oilers. Memphis did not get an expansion team but coincidentally, they did get the Oilers for a season while they waited for their digs to be built in Nashville, which was NOT one of the cities competing for an expansion franchise at that time but got the Oilers which became the Tennessee Titans. Another one of the failed expansion cities was St. Louis which got the Rams, for about three decades at least. But during this expansion game in Memphis, snippets of Memphis music was played between downs. Naturally, there was a lot of Elvis (the team was going to be the Memphis Hound Dogs) but there was also “Walking in Memphis.” I also heard it both times I was in the Memphis airport last November. I never need to hear that song again so no. I did not listen to “Walking in Memphis” while drawing today. I listened to Weezer. However, I did look up the lyrics just to be sure…and yeah, I already knew them. I wonder if Memphians hate that song as much as I do.
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.
Tip Jar: if you want to support the cartoonist, please send a donation through PayPal to clayjonz@gmail.com. You can also snail it to P.O. Box 3721, Fredericksburg, VA 22402.
The people who attacked the Capitol on January 6, 2021, are terrorists. Anyone who says otherwise is a liar. Let’s start with Tucker Carlson.
Tucker Carlson said the violence on January 6 will be a “footnote” in American history. He’s blamed the FBI for instigating the attack. He claims the Capitol Police allowed the terrorist into the building. He’s downplayed the role of white supremacists in the attack because he is one himself. He claims Ashli Babbit, the terrorist who was shot while forcing her way further into the Capitol, “posed no conceivable threat to anyone.” He claimed that “not a single person in the crowd that day was found to be carrying a firearm” despite court records showing that to be a lie. And he says the attack was NOT an insurrection.
Tucker had different thoughts after a peaceful protest in Atlanta BRIEFLY turned violent.
Marchers gathered to protest the killing of an activist by cops on Wednesday during a raid to clear the construction site of a police training facility that activists have nicknamed “Cop City”. Cops shot and killed activist Manuel Teran, a 26-year-old who they claim shot and wounded a state trooper. The protesters don’t believe the cops.
Would cops lie? During the protests throughout the nation after the murder of George Floyd by cops, entire police departments lied.
During a protest in Buffalo, cops shoved a 75-year-old man to the ground, sustaining a brain injury. The cops kept walking by with none of them helping the elderly man. The Buffalo Police Department issued a statement that the man had tripped. The only problem with that explanation is that 70 million people viewed the footage of the police shoving the man to the ground. Naturally, a grand jury refused to charge any police officers.
After CNN correspondent Omar Jimenez was arrested while covering protests in Minneapolis, the police department issued a statement saying, “In the course of clearing the streets and restoring order at Lake Street and Snelling Avenue, four people were arrested by State Patrol troopers, including three members of a CNN crew. The three were released once they were confirmed to be members of the media.” I guess the cops don’t want CNN because the arrest was live on the air and viewers saw Jimenez holding his CNN badge while reporting, identifying himself as a reporter, and telling the officers the crew would move wherever officers needed them to. Jimenez was handcuffed live on TV.
It’s not just that a cop or a few cops lied. The official statements from the police departments lied. They lied boldly. They lied hoping the public would believe their statements and not their own eyes. This gives the impression that lying is a part of cop culture.
The violence in Atlanta was brief. A police car was set on fire and protesters smashed windows of buildings. Six people, all white, were arrested.
Tucker said, “Antifa is the armed instrument of the permanent Democratic establishment in Washington. Their job is to mobilize when politically necessary. Political militia are a common feature in third-world politics. In our country, only one party has them.”
If Antifa (if this is Antifa) is the armed instrument of the Democratic establishment as Tucker claims, then what are the Proud Boys? What are the Oathkeepers? What are the Three Percenters? What’s Qanon? Each of these groups was represented during the terrorist attack on the Capitol.
The Democratic Party does NOT sanction or condone Antifa. Donald Trump told his terrorists to come to Washington on January 6 and promised that “it would be wild.” He tweeted to the terrorists that they are “very special” and that he “loved” them.
Marjorie Taylor Greene, who now sits on the Homeland Security Committee, which is to protect our nation from terrorists, said “we would have won” if she was in charge of the terrorist attack on January 6. She described the incident in Atlanta as an “insurrection” committed by Antifa and Black Lives Matter. That doesn’t even make sense. She then went on Tucker’s show and announced that she’s introducing legislation (destined to fail) that would classify Antifa as a terrorist organization. Don’t forget, MTG is a proud member of Qanon, a terrorist organization that sent a goon to shoot up a pizza parlor (and not because they put pineapple on pizza), and has pushed their conspiracy theories.
Kevin McCarthy, who put a terrorist on the Homeland Security Committee, initially blamed Donald Trump for the attack on January 6, but couldn’t backtrack and crawl up his own ass fast enough after seeing that didn’t sell with his party. He quickly made a run to Mar-a-Lago to kiss Trump’s ass and get a photo-op with him. After the Atlanta incident, he tweeted, “We stand with cops.” Oh, you do, do you?
Over 100 Capitol Police officers were injured by Trump’s white nationalist terrorists on January 6, with five of them dying afterward. Congress awarded every officer who responded to the insurrection with the Congressional Gold medal with 21 House Republicans voting NO. Marjorie Taylor Greene was one of those no votes, but she wants to cry for cops in Atlanta.
During the award ceremony, the mother of fallen officer Brian Sicknick refused to shake the hands of Kevin McCarthy and Mitch McConnell saying, “They’re just two-faced. I’m just tired of them standing there and saying how wonderful the Capitol police is, and they turn around and … go down to Mar-a-Lago and kiss Trump’s ring.” I wouldn’t have said that. I would have said “ass.”
Sicknick’s brother said, “They have no idea what integrity is. They can’t stand up for what’s right and wrong.” McConnell criticized and blamed Trump for the insurrection but refused to vote to convict after the Senate impeachment trial. This is called cowardice.
But now the goons want to tell us they “stand with cops” after supporting the terrorists who attacked cops. They want to cry about a burning police car and a few smashed windows and howl about Antifa after they supported white nationalist groups like Proud Boys, Oath Keepers, Three Percenters, and Qanon after they attacked our nation.
What’s next? Are they going to claim they’re patriots while supporting Putin? Oh, yeah. Oops.
Republicans, especially MAGA, are domestic terror threats against this nation. Putting a supporter of white nationalist terrorists on the Homeland Security Committee is almost as laughable as it is terrifying. And that person wants to classify a left-wing group as a terrorist organization.
Republicans have lost every right to pretend they’re outraged by political violence.
Six people were arrested in Atlanta. Nearly 1,000 people have been charged in the January 6 insurrection. The only thing arrested MAGA terrorists have in common with those arrested in Atlanta is that they’re all white.
Music note: I continued listening to The Wall.
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.
Tip Jar: if you want to support the cartoonist, please send a donation through PayPal to clayjonz@gmail.com. You can also snail it to P.O. Box 3721, Fredericksburg, VA 22402.
Police in Beech Grove, Indiana were called when a toddler was seen in the hallway of an apartment building with a gun. The cops were called by a neighbor who reported that the toddler came to her door and pointed the gun at her son, who quickly shut the door and told his mom, “Baby with a gun.”
The caller looked through the peephole and saw the kid with the weapon, saying, “He was just kind of holding it behind his back, and I thought…like that’s a real gun. I sell guns for a living, so I know what a gun looks like.”
The purported father of Baby Bang-Bang, Shane Osborn, told police there wasn’t a gun in the house. He also said he was feeling ill and taking a nap when the toddler went outside the apartment and that he wasn’t aware of what was going on. Reportedly, the toddler was left with its so-called father because its primary babysitter wasn’t feeling well either.
Even before we get to the gun, it’s extremely negligent to allow the toddler to go outside alone. It’s negligent to take a nap or be in any situation where you don’t know the location of the kid. I have a pet peeve about men who act like it’s a burden to watch their own kids. This guy is trying to claim it’s not his fault because he was sleeping and that he didn’t know there was a gun in the house. This pisses me off, like fathers who say they’re babysitting when left alone with their own kids. You don’t babysit your own kids. You parent your kids. It’s your job to take care of your children just as much as it’s the mother’s.
Back to the gun: The guy said there wasn’t a gun in the house but allowed the cops to search. They didn’t find a gun. but before the cops left, a neighbor showed them surveillance footage of the baby running around with the gun. They went back inside and one of the cops asked the child “where he put his ‘pew pew.” The kid pointed to a roll-top desk where they found the gun…which was fully loaded with 15 bullets in the magazine. Fortunately, there wasn’t a bullet in the chamber.
The “father” said the gun must belong to his cousin, who drops the gun off every now and then when he feels like he might want to shoot himself. My Beagle-Panty story is more believable than that (and that really happened).
Shane Osborn was arrested for neglect, which was aired on the Reelz TV show, “On Patrol: Live.” I didn’t know that was a thing.
Last week in Newport News, Virginia, a six-year-old elementary student took a handgun to school and intentionally shot his teacher. The teacher survived but is in critical condition. The gun was purchased legally by the kid’s mom, but she was negligent in its storage.
I haven’t heard if mom is facing any legal charges yet. This is Virginia where we have very blue cities but enough yee-haw fuckers and gun humpers to keep this state purple.
School officials actually received a tip that the kid had brought a gun to school, searched the kid’s backpack, and didn’t find the gun despite the fact it was in the backpack. Maybe they were Republicans and didn’t want to take the gun away from the six-year-old.
Democrats in Virginia’s General Assembly have crafted a bill that if passed (it won’t because we have a yee-haw governor) that would require anyone who owns a gun in a home where a minor is present to store the gun unloaded and in a locked container or cabinet, and to store all ammunition in a separate locked container.
Naturally, the gun nuts protest. Philip VanGunHumper Van Cleave, the president of the Virginia Citizens Defense League and Gun Fuckers, said, “wah.” He’s worried that a law requiring you to store your gun separately, and in a locked container if you have children won’t protect you “if the back door is kicked in” by bears or pirates.
Gun nuts love their guns more than love their kids. If that’s not true, then we would have stopped school shootings after Sandy Hook, but this nation decided it could live with children murdered in gun violencemore easily than it can live without our gun fetish. Republicans chose guns over kids.
What these gun parents should have said is that they gave the kids guns, the toddler, the six-year-year-old, so they can protect themselves from Antifa and Black Lives Matter. It worked before.
Kyle Rittenhouse wasn’t old enough to own the gun on his person when he drove from Illinois to Wisconsin to protect himself from Antifa and Black Lives Matter in Kenosha. This little fuck drove across state lines in order to protect himself, and shot three people, killing two.
Kyle had to cry and blubber on the stand but his defense worked, and he got off. Today, he’s a frequent guest at Mar-a-Lago and making a living doing photo-ops at yee-haw rallies and fucknut conventions. Meanwhile, two of the people he drove 90 miles to protect himself from are dead.
The gun hero thing is the same with the mustard-stain couple who ran outside barefoot with assault weapons after seeing black people walking on the sidewalk in front of their house in their gated St. Louis neighborhood. They got a speaking slot at Trump’s 2020 Republican National Convention out of that incident and are celebrated as conservative heroes for pointing guns at black people.
Here’s a fact that will make your right-wing uncle say, “but, but, but…” Guns are the number one cause of death for children ages 1-19 in the United States. Only in the USA though. In Canada, more kids are killed every year by moose stompings than by guns. We have a problem in this country…actually two.
The first problem is our gun fetish supported by the National Rifle Association and Republicans. The second problem is, how do we make the NRA and Republicans available for moose stompings?
Music note: I listened to Led Zeppelin.
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.
Tip Jar: if you want to support the cartoonist, please send a donation through PayPal to clayjonz@gmail.com. You can also snail it to P.O. Box 3721, Fredericksburg, VA 22402.
White racists love having black friends. Having a black friend is their “proof” they’re not racists. They love being able to say something racist and having a black friend support them with a “that’s not racist.” A lot of black public figures have figured this out and have learned to profit from it. Candace Owens is a great example. She was a liberal until she figured out there was more money in being a public black friend. She also understands that white conservartives are too stupid to see through the ruse.
Having a black friend doesn’t prove you’re not a racist, but only conservatives are too dumb to realize that. How many slave owners had sex with their slaves? How many black women did Strom Thurmond father children with again? Oh, yeah. The people they slept with weren’t their friends.
There are some black conservatives who are not playing the white racist base for all it’s worth because they’re too stupid to do that. Some black conservatives are truly evil and vile.
Ya’ see, kids…concussions may be to blame for Herschel talking like a third-grade dropout. But I don’t believe it’s concussions that makes him lie repeatedly. I don’t think it’s concussions that made him a deadbeat dad. I don’t believe it’s concussions that make him “pro-life” while paying and coercing a woman to get an abortion. I don’t believe it’s concussions that makes him a hypocrite. I don’t believe it’s concussions that make him claim he’s a cop when he’s not. And, I don’t believe it’s concussions that makes him a wife beater.
It may be a mental illness that makes Kanye West a Trump supporters. It may be the fault of mental illness that makes anyone a Trump supporter. Trump himself is probably mentally ill. But it’s not the fault of mental illness that makes Kanye antisemitic.
Twitter and Instagram locked Kanye’s account after he tweeted that Sean “Puffy” Combs was controlled by Jews and vowed to go “death con 3” on “JEWISH PEOPLE.”
Then, Kanye did an interview with Tucker Carlson that was so hateful, bigoted, and antisemitic, that Tucker edited out huge chunks of the interview. How fucking hateful do you have to be for Tucker to edit your shit? It’s like that time antisemitic propagandist Ben Garrison was invited for a playdate with Trump at the White House, then disinvited after the Trump people saw his “cartoons.”
In one of the edited out clips, West said “known eugenics” Margaret Sanger founded Planned Parenthood alongside the Ku Klux Klan “to control the Jew population,” elaborating, “when I say Jew, I mean the 12 lost tribes of Judah, the blood of Christ, who the people known as the race Black really are. This is who our people are. The blood of Christ. This, as a Christian, is my belief.”
In another clip, West used Jews as a strained metaphor when talking about Black people judging each other, saying: “Think about us judging each other on how white we could talk would be like, you know, a Jewish person judging another Jewish person on how good they danced or something.” West then paused and said “I mean, that’s probably like a bad example and people are going to get mad at that shit. I probably want to edit that out.” And Tucker edited it out, or at least his people did.
Real journalists don’t protect the people they’re interviewing. When you do an interview, nothing is off the record. Here, Tucker protected Kanye from himself.
And then, West West complained about his children attending a school that celebrates Kwanzaa instead of Hanukkah. “I prefer my kids knew Hanukkah than Kwanzaa. At least it will come with some financial engineering.”
Candace Owens defended Kanye’s tweet, saying, “If you are an honest person, you did not think this tweet was antisemitic. It’s like you cannot even say the word ‘Jewish’ without people getting upset.”
Golly gee wilikers. It’s like you cannot even say “I’m gonna go ‘death con 3 on JEWISH PEOPLE” without people getting upset.
Maybe Candace and Kanye need Jewish friends to back up their up their antisemitic comments as not being antisemitic. They should probably rule out Ben Shapiro though.
Shapiro tweeted, “Back from the Jewish holiday now. As usual, two things can be true at once: Kanye’s moves toward pro-life, faith, and family conservatism are encouraging; his ‘death con 3’ posts and Black Hebrew Israelite language are clearly anti-Semitic and disturbing.”
Kanye then called Donald Trump for antisemitc encouragement. Trump recently “truthed” that American Jews didn’t appreciate him enough, that he’s done more for Jews than any other president, and that he could be elected Prime Minister of Israel if he wanted.
Kanye and Trump plan to have dinner soon where they can discuss their shared views and Jewish People and whether it’s better to create your own hate social media site, like Trump did with Truth Social, or buy one like Kanye plans to do with Parler.
Parler is a vile horrible site for conservatives. It has been pushed off Google and Amazon platforms and servers over its hate and tendency to spread conspiracy theories. But it’s credible enough to attract public conservative figures like Kirstie Alley, Scott Baio, Rand Paul, South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem, Jim Jordan, Devin Nunes, Nikki Haley, Mike Lee, and Ivanka Trump, Eric Trump, Tiffany Trump, Lara Trump, and Rudy Giuliani. Fake news sites like The Daily Wire has a Parler presence. Now, Kanye wants to purchase the platform. He plans to make it the right-wing Twitter which Trump has attempted to do with Truth Social and Elon Musk plans to do with the real Twitter.
Kanye and Herschel are MAGAts black friends. But I wouldn’t want to be friends with Kanye, Herschel, or MAGAts. You know what they say. With friends like these, who needs friends?
Update: My friend Karen just told me that Candace Owens’ husband, George Farmer, owns Parler and has agreed to sell it to Kanye. That explains why she doesn’t think going “death con 3” on “JEWISH PEOPLE” is hateful or antisemitic.
Creative note and stuff: I checked out of my hotel at 11 a.m. Monday morning in West Monroe, Louisiana. But my flight was for 5:30 p.m. Since I didn’t have anywhere to go and didn’t want to Uber more than I had to, I hung out in the airport for six hours. I landed in Washington around 11 p.m. and took the metro to a station closer to the Amtrak station and took an Uber from there. I should have either metroed to Springfield and ordered an Uber home from there.
See, what happened was: I got to the Amtrak station and realized it wasn’t open 24 hours. My plan was to hang out there until my train left at 7:38 a.m. I had already bought a ticket which was only $11. But, standing out in the chilly weather with a phone on about 20 percent charge convinced me to say “fuck it,” and order another Uber and go home. It was around $85 and worth it. I got home around 1 a.m. All I had eaten Monday was some leftover Johnny’s Pizza from Sunday, and chips they give you on airplanes. So I scarfed down a can of Chef Boyardee and played on the internet until 4 a.m. because I was too wound up to sleep, even though I was sleepy. And it was during this time this idea came to me.
It was good to draw back at my own desk after nearly two weeks of traveling. Oh, yeah. I gotta go out of town again Saturday, but that’s just for a day.
Oh yeah: Facebook pulled this cartoon for “violating” its terms of service. I appealed and lost. My account is now blocked for three days which will also limit views of my work for a while after I return. I thought at least one social media account would strike down this cartoon. Now I wonder if any others will follow suit. Maybe I should have posted this on Parler. I did post it on Truth Social. Let’s see what happens there.
Music Note: I listened to The Cars.
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.
Tip Jar: if you want to support the cartoonist, please send a donation through PayPal to clayjonz@gmail.com. You can also snail it to P.O. Box 3721, Fredericksburg, VA 22402.
Columbus, Ohio cops shot and killed twenty-year-old Donovan Lewis, an unarmed Black man, this week during a nighttime raid while he was in bed.
The police burst into Lewis’ apartment with dogs to serve Lewis with arrest warrants on charges of domestic violence, assault, and improper handling of a firearm.
In body-camera footage of Tuesday’s shooting released by authorities, a Columbus cop pushes open a bedroom door and immediately fires at Lewis as he sits up in bed. They then order him to crawl out of bed and then handcuff him to it. He died on his way to the hospital.
Between shooting and handcuffing Lewis, the cops told him to “stop resisting arrest.”
Was Lewis holding a gun when the cop shot him? No, he was not and the cop didn’t take enough time to notice as he shot as soon as the door opened.
The lawyers representing the cop who shot Lewis said that police officers “are forced to make split-second decisions” when faced with “volatile encounters in dangerous situations.” The only one making it a volatile encounter and a dangerous situation was the cop. This cop’s “split-second decision” was the wrong one.
The police chief said Lewis may have had a vape pen or electronic cigarette in his hand, though it’s not seen in the video. Still, vape pens and electronic cigarettes are not guns. They don’t look anything like guns. Now we can add vape pens with cell phones and tasers for items cops mistake for guns.
Nighttime raids are costing tragic losses of lives. Minneapolis cops killed Amir Locke while he was sleeping on a couch during a no-knock raid several months ago. In March 2020, Louisville cops shot and killed Breonna Taylor during one of their nighttime raids, and she wasn’t even the person they were looking for. What are the police going to do next, shoot unarmed black people while they’re on the toilet?
According to a 2019 study by Northwestern University, Black Americans are 2.5 times more likely to be killed by police than White Americans. The rates are higher in Columbus where Black people are 4.5 times more likely to be killed by police than White people.
Andre Hill, a 47-year-old unarmed Black man, was shot four times by a Columbus cop while leaving a friend’s house in 2020. Last year, Ma’Khia Bryant, a Black 16-year-old, was shot by a Columbus cop outside her home. The city had to pay out $10 million for the killing of Hill but an investigation let Bryant’s shooter go.
The Black Lives Matter movement is just as important today as when it rose after the murder of George Floyd. Black lives still matter and it still needs to be said.
Music note: I listened to the Yeah, Yeah, Yeahs. You should too.
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.
Tip Jar: if you want to support the cartoonist, please send a donation through PayPal to clayjonz@gmail.com. You can also snail it to P.O. Box 3721, Fredericksburg, VA 22402.
If you’re a regular reader of this blog, then you know I don’t love what we call in my industry, “obituary” cartoons. I don’t like drawing a cartoon commemorating someone’s death only because that person was famous. I would rather memorialize someone who contributed something to society, whether positive or negative. What made it important for me to draw a cartoon on Nichelle Nichols and Bill Russell is that they were both pioneers in advancement for black people and they both died a day apart. It felt it was appropriate to put them together.
Nichelle Nichols died Saturday and Bill Russell died Sunday. Neither set out to be civil rights icons, but that’s how it worked out.
Nichols’ portrayal of Lieutenant Nyota Uhura on Star Trek was groundbreaking for black actresses and black women in the United States. As Dr. Martin Luther King Jr, a trekkie, told her, “for the first time on television, we will be seen as we should be seen every day.”
Nichols had given Gene Rodenberry, the creator of Star Trek, her written resignation after just one season. She was planning to go to Broadway as she preferred the stage over the screen. She ran into Dr. King at an NAACP banquet who told her upon hearing that she was leaving, “you cannot, you cannot…for the first time on television, we will be seen as we should be seen every day, as intelligent, quality, beautiful, people who can sing dance, and can go to space, who are professors, lawyers. If you leave, that door can be closed because your role is not a black role, and is not a female role; he can fill it with anybody even an alien.”
She stayed. Rodenberry had actually torn up her resignation even before she told him she had changed her mind. He wasn’t having it and knew the importance of having an incredibly talented black woman in that role. Her beauty was just a bonus.
After a scene was aired where she kissed William Shatner, the studio received a letter from a white Southern bigot who wrote he was against “mixing of the races,” but wouldn’t blame Captain Kirk for kissing a woman of Uhura’s beauty. Captain Kirk was a racial pioneer too. As Eddie Murphy so eloquently put it, “Captain Kirk once fucked a green bitch.”
Dr. King compared Nichols’ role as Uhura to the ongoing marches in the Civil Rights movement. He told Nichols she was playing a vital role model for black children and young women across the country, as well as for other children who would see black people appearing as equals. She didn’t take it lightly.
While filming “Star Trek IV: The Undiscovered Country” in 1991, Nichols refused to say two lines in the script that made her uncomfortable. One was in a scene where Klingons were arriving on the Enterprise and she was to say, “Guess who’s coming to dinner?” The other was, “yes, but would you like your daughter to marry one [a Klingon].”
Bill Russell stood his ground too. He felt he was a player for the Celtics, and not for the city of Boston.
Russell, an 11-time NBA champion, is considered a pioneer in men’s basketball. He was one of the first Black superstars in the league. One of, if not the, first to be paid equally with White players. He was the first black coach in the NBA. He was a 12-time all-star and won Most Valuable Player five times. He captained the U.S. basketball team and won gold in the 1956 Olympic summer games.
In college, where he won two national championships, his team was often forced out of hotels and restaurants due to segregation. In the pros, he received racist taunts from fans, including Boston Celtic fans. He was active in the Black Power movement and supported Muhammad Ali’s decision to refuse to be drafted.
He once said, “I dislike most white people because they are people … I like most blacks because I am black.” A lot of white people, including teammates, wondered how a guy whose home was broken into by whites who left racist graffiti on his wall and feces in his bed could say something like that.
While Russell praised the Celtics for being racially progressive, he felt Boston was not. He alienated Celtic fans by saying, “You owe the public the same it owes you, nothing! I refuse to smile and be nice to the kiddies.” But perhaps Boston alienated him first.
Russell refused to attend the ceremony when his jersey No. 6 was retired in 1972. He also refused to attend his induction into the Hall of Fame in 1975. When 30,000 Celtic fans greeted their team returning from winning another championship in 1969, Russell wasn’t there. He had retired and was done with Boston and wouldn’t return to the city for years. He didn’t even tell his coach he was done. He was done.
When Russell originally retired, he demanded that his jersey be retired in an empty Boston Garden. The Celtics re-retired his jersey at the new Fleet Center in 1999. This time Russell was in attendance, as well as Wilt Chamberlain (his greatest rival), Larry Byrd, and Kareem Abdul Jabbar. The extended applause brought tears to his eyes.
President Obama presented Russell with the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2011. Obama also met Nichelle Nichols in the Oval Office in 2012 where he confirmed for her that he too had a crush on Lieutenant Uhura.
I don’t believe either Russell or Nichols set out to become Civil Rights pioneers, but that’s what they became.
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.
Tip Jar: if you want to support the cartoonist, please send a donation through PayPal to clayjonz@gmail.com. You can also snail it to P.O. Box 3721, Fredericksburg, VA 22402.
The white Highland Park shooter killed seven people and injured 46 (at this time). The police took him alive.
On May 14 of this year, a white gunman murdered ten black people at Tops supermarket in Buffalo. The police took him alive.
In 2015, white Dylann Roof shot and killed nine black parishioners inside a church in Charleston, South Carolina. The police took him alive and treated him to lunch at Burger King.
In March of last year, a white gunman murdered six Asian women at spas in the Atlanta area. Police took him alive.
In 2015, inspired by phony videos produced by a right-wing outlet claiming Planned Parenthood clinics were selling baby body parts, a white shooter attacked an abortion clinic in Colorado Springs and murdered three people. Police took him alive.
A white gunman murdered 12 at a theater in Aurora, Colorado in 2012, killing 12. He was taken alive.
In 2011, a white shooter killed six in Tucson, Arizona, and injured Congresswoman Gabby Giffords and several others. Police took him alive.
Racist right-wing whacko rancher Cliven Bundy and his heavily-armed white militia had a standoff with police in 2014 over some stupid right-wing bullshit. Guess what. They were all taken alive.
Kyle Rittenhouse, a 17-year-old white punk-ass beyotch, killed three at a Black Lives Matter protest and the cops initially drove right past him.
George Floyd, an unarmed black man, was killed by police after trying to spend a $20 counterfeit bill.
Breonna Taylor, an unarmed black woman, was shot eight times and murdered by police while she was sleeping after they broke into her home at the wrong address, looking for a person they already had in custody.
Rayshard Brooks, an unarmed black male, was shot in the back by police after they found him sleeping in his car.
In 2014, Cleveland Police murdered Tamir Rice, an unarmed black 12-year-old boy, for playing with a toy gun.
Philando Castile, an unarmed black man, was shot and killed by police during a traffic stop while reaching into the glove compartment to comply with the cops’ request for his vehicle registration.
Botham Jean, an unarmed black man, was shot and killed by a cop in his own apartment after the cop walked in thinking she was in her apartment and he was a burglar.
And last week, Jayland Walker was shot 60 times and killed by police in Akron, Ohio. Guess what. He was an unarmed black man.
It’s believed the Akron police shot at Walker around 90 times which is more shots than the Highland Park murderer got off (75). The Akron Police tried to put more bullets into one black man than the Highland Park mass shooter tried to put into a crowd.
Cops don’t seem to believe black lives matter, but white murderers’ lives do.
Music note: I listened to Blondie, The Black Keys, M.I.A, and The Arcs.
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.
Tip Jar: if you want to support the cartoonist, please send a donation through PayPal to clayjonz@gmail.com. You can also snail it to P.O. Box 3721, Fredericksburg, VA 22402.
Eight cops in Akron, Ohio shot a 25-year-old unarmed black man last week…60 times. That is not a typo. They shot the young man SIXTY FUCKING TIMES. We may find out later the number is greater than 60.
Jayland Walker fled from the police during a routine traffic stop. He drove away, then abandoned his vehicle and ran for his life. The cops say he shot at them first, firing one shot, but he didn’t have his gun on him when they recovered his body. They found one unloaded gun in his car next to a fully-loaded magazine.
Walker didn’t have a criminal record and other than the gun, the cops didn’t find anything suspicious or illegal in his car. They say they pulled him over for an equipment and traffic violation. So, why would he have shot at the police? Since the gun was unloaded, did it just contain the one bullet he shot or did he remove the clip after the shot? If so, where is that clip, because the clip the cops found was fully loaded. Or did he fire at the cops, remove the clip, then add one more bullet to it. I haven’t heard that any other ammunition was found on him or in the vehicle. This is not making a lot of sense to me. For eight cops and an entire department that needs to get its story straight, they’re doing a shitty job of making shit up.
A video of the shooting has been released, but Akron Police have not released all of the bodycam videos. Why is that? The chief of police says he didn’t see any evidence that the cops’ lives were ever threatened.
It’s up to prosecutors to decide to charge the eight cops or not, but cops are rarely charged in incidents like this. Prosecutors may use the one shot the cops claim Walker fired as evidence their lives were in danger and a reason not to prosecute…despite the fact that if you divide the 60 shots, each cop shot an unarmed Jayland Walker 7.5 times.
Walker wore a ski mask when he ran for his life. Defenders of the police have used that as an acceptable excuse for the police’s actions. Currently trending on Twitter from racist goons are “JaylandWalkerShotFirst, #JaylandShotFirst, and “JaylandGotJustice. This is not justice.
Wearing a ski mask and running from the police should not warrant a death sentence. Even firing once at cops doesn’t justify them shooting the suspect 60 times. You know the cops didn’t hit the suspect with every shot, so if they shot him 60 times, how many shots did they fire? I’m pretty sure the cops keep an inventory of their bullets so they should have already provided an answer for that question.
There are protests in Akron over this. Authorities have called for a “state of emergency” in the city. I think for a lot of its citizens, Akron has been in a state of emergency for a very long time.
Music note: I listened to Incubus, Coheed & Cambria, and The Hives while drawing today.
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.
Tip Jar: if you want to support the cartoonist, please send a donation through PayPal to clayjonz@gmail.com. You can also snail it to P.O. Box 3721, Fredericksburg, VA 22402.
Mark Esper has a book on his brief time as Donald Trump’s Secretary of Defense, and the book contains some wild accusations…that are totally believable.
One of the accusations is that during a meeting in 2020, Donald Trump wanted to deploy 10,000 troops to the streets of Washington, DC, where Black Lives Matter was protesting against police brutality, and have them shot in the legs. The guy who teargassed Black Lives Matter protesters in order to stage a photo-op with an upside-down Bible and later had a photo-op with Kyle Rittenhouse to celebrate his acquittal after shooting and killing Black Lives Matter protesters said Esper is lying.
Esper also claims Trump called the protesters “fucking losers.” How is any of this difficult to believe?
Trump said, “This is a complete lie, and ten witnesses can back it up,” without providing any names of the supposed ten witnesses.
According to Esper, Trump also wanted to fire missiles into Mexico at suspected drug cartels. This was probably around the time Trump was coming up with amazing ideas like building moats on the border with Mexico and stocking them with alligators, snakes, and piranhas.
Trump also wanted to reactivate retired Admiral William McRaven, a former Navy SEAL commander, and US Army General Stanley McChrystal so he could court-martial them for criticizing him. He wanted to send people to jail for saying bad things about him. This isn’t hard to believe since Trump accused over 24 people of treason for criticizing him. He once claimed Democrats committed treason for not clapping during one of his ridiculous State of the Union speeches. According to Esper, Trump claimed the retired military men were “disloyal” to him. This is banana republic fascism with a combover.
Esper wrote that “people were removed from positions simply because the White House wanted to replace them with more hard-core Trump loyalists, regardless of qualifications.” We know this is true. We watched it in real-time for four years. Trump fired people for testifying against him before Congress, like Alexander Vindman. He removed security clearances for former officials like former CIA Director John Brennan. Trump fired FBI Director James Comey for investigating him and even bragged to the Russians about it in the Oval Office, saying, “I faced great pressure because of Russia. That’s taken off.” He fired FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe hours before he was set to retire, thus trying to rob him of his pension and other benefits. McCabe later sued and won his pension and other benefits back. This was a move that costs taxpayers hundreds of thousands of dollars in legal defense. Trump is petty, vindictive, a sociopath, and stupid.
Esper also claims that Trump goon and hair-in-a-can aficionado Stephen Baby Goebbels Miller wanted him to dispatch 250,000 troops to the southern border and have the military parade the severed head of a slain ISIS leader to scare off other terrorists.
Trump denies some of the claims while calling Mark Esper “Yesper,” as in he was so eager to please Trump, that he said “yes” to everything…while also being “ineffective.” Somehow to Trump, he was an ineffective ass kisser. But wasn’t everyone in the Trump administration an ass kisser? Weren’t they all Yespers?
Trump isn’t denying wanting to shoot rockets into Mexico. He gave a “no comment” to that one. He hasn’t denied other claims, like wanting to pull all our troops out of South Korea. What will Trump do if he runs for president again, and oh my god, actually wins?
If Trump becomes president (sic) again, he will pull troops out of South Korea, place them on our southern border, fire rockets into Mexico, try to build a moat full of piranhas, disband NATO, throw people into military prisons for saying bad things about it, ram through more unqualified fundamentalist judges, dismantle free elections, outlaw a free press, and help Vladimir Putin finally defeat Ukraine then invite him to the Oval Office for a bucket from KFC and Big Macs. This isn’t hyperbole because it’s what he tried to do the first time. If he gets a second shot, nobody’s going to be able to stop him because those who can speak out won’t so they can sell a book two years later.
Trump fired Esper right after he lost the 2020 election because it was his last chance to fire him. Esper should have spoken out before, like when Trump was talking about shooting protesters and firing rockets into Mexico.
Esper’s book is titled “A Sacred Oath.” But what oath is he talking about because the one he took to be Secretary of Defense was an oath to protect our nation, and he failed to do that in order to get a big payday.
Donald Trump is a lunatic and a vile sociopath. It’s sociopathic to let him get away with it.
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.
Tip Jar: if you want to support the cartoonist, please send a donation through PayPal to clayjonz@gmail.com. You can also snail it to P.O. Box 3721, Fredericksburg, VA 22402.
claytoonz 