I’m extremely happy that Brittney Griner is coming home after spending the past eight months in a Russian prison for bringing vape cartridges containing less than a gram of cannabis oil into the fascist country. Vladimir Putin made Brittney Griner, who was in the country to play basketball for a Russian team, his political prisoner.
Now, will come the howls of conservatives upset about this because Griner is a black lesbian who’s criticized laws and racism in the United States. These free-speech absolutists believe Griner got what she deserved for speaking her mind and should have rotted away in a Russian prison after an unfair trial in a court run by Russian kangaroos. Talk about cancel culture.
There will also be outrage over the Biden administration being unable to secure the release of Paul Whelan, who’s in a Russian prison on charges of espionage. But as one national security official explained, “This is not a situation where we had a choice of which American to bring home. It was a choice of bringing home one American, Brittney Griner, or bringing home none.”
Who Russia got for Brittney is Viktor Bout, a Russian arms smuggler nicknamed the “Merchant of Death” who was serving a 25-year sentence in federal prison for conspiring to sell arms to a foreign terrorist group and conspiring to kill U.S. citizens. Bout had served ten years of his sentence.
It is an uneven swap, trading a basketball player for a convicted terrorist, but we needed to secure the release of at least one of these two Americans. Russia’s original demand included a Russian murderer in German custody, which is confusing since Germany is NOT the United States.
Whelan’s release will be trickier because the crime he was convicted of is much more serious than Griner’s. Whelan was found with a USB drive containing the names of employees at a Russian classified security agency. Whelan claims he didn’t know what was on the drive and the CIA says they would never recruit an officer with Whelan’s military record, nor leave an officer exposed without a diplomatic passport. The CIA believes Whelan was arrested as a reaction to the American arrest of Maria Butina, who was arrested for operating as an unregistered foreign agent infiltrating the National Rifle Association and the Trump Campaign (which is an ideal place for a Russian spy to hide). Butina was tried, convicted, served her sentence, released, and deported back to Russia.
We should rejoice at the return of Brittney Griner. She is an American and she’s coming home. I can’t wait to see her get back into the game of basketball. Hopefully, Bout never returns to his.
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.
While I don’t believe the raid on Mar-a-Lago was an intentional distraction, it can serve as one. Maybe that shitty thing will distract voters from all the other shitty things Republicans do.
Maybe the revelation that Donald Trump is a traitor to this nation and only cares about himself…OK, a reminder that Donald Trump is a traitor and doesn’t care about anyone except himself will distract voters from the fact that not one Republican voted for it.
The Inflation Reduction Act won’t just decrease today’s inflation, but it will provide benefits over the next decade and beyond. In addition to reducing inflation, it will decrease healthcare costs and fight climate change. It will reduce the growth of the deficit and includes a 15 percent minimum cash tax on corporations. Called the “Amazon Tax,” it is expected to raise $222 billion over 10 years and $35 billion in 2023. Republicans hate this.
Amazon, which had a seven-percent tax rate on a profit of $22 billion over the past two years, should see its tax rate increase to 15 percent, just like Tesla, which paid around nine percent over the past two years on a profit of over $7 billion.
The bill also moves to cap and lower seniors’ drug costs while sparing about 13 million low-and middle-income Americans from increases in their insurance premiumsthat would have risen in 2023. Republicans voted against that.
The Republican talking point against this bill is that it will add 87,000 Internal Revenue Service agents with guns to come after you. Since Republicans are saying this, it’s a lie.
The bill includes funding for the IRS which will “allow” them to add 87,000 employees, not 87,000 auditors…or the term the GOP is using, “agents.” These employees will be added over the next decade with many replacing retiring employees. In case you’re a Republican MAGA goon, a decade is ten years. The focus will be going after the mega-rich who cheat on taxes. Naturally, Republicans hate that and are telling middle-class voters they’re the ones the IRS and Democrats are going after. House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy said it would allow the government to hire tens of thousands of new IRS agents to “snoop around in your bank account, your Venmo, your small business, and then the government will shake you down for every last cent.”
Someone tell Kevin McCarthy that PayPal, which owns Venmo, already files all your incoming money with the government and sends you a 1099. So, you better file the payments you received through PayPal.
Republicans are also calling it a “tax increase on families” despite the fact it doesn’t raise individual rates. Republicans lie. But you have to lie when all your ideas and policy positions are shit, like blocking a $35 insulin cap.
An amendment in the Senate to add a $35 insulin cap only received only seven votes from Republicans, meaning it failed to reach the 60-vote threshold it needed to pass. Just how shitty are Republicans to vote against this?
Insulin can cost as much as $99 in the United States. The next nation where insulin is most expensive is Chile, where it can as much as $21. Insulin is life-saving medicine for many diabetics who don’t have a choice and must buy it, no matter the price. There are diabetics in this country who choose insulin over food. This means without caps from the government, the corporations selling it can just blah-blah-blah with the excuses for the high prices while raking in billions. Republican opposition to this was blamed on the cost being shifted to insurance premiums or that they were voting against socialism. How dare government go all socialist and cut costs for insulin.
Pharmaceutical companies are just as greedy and care for their consumers about as much as oil companies do.
I forgot to include in my cartoon the GOP vote against healthcare for veterans who are suffering from exposure to burn pits. The GOP initially voted for it, then against it just so Biden couldn’t get a win. Republicans turned around and voted for it again after they couldn’t tolerate the noise level from public outrage. See? Republicans don’t care about you at all. This is just an example that their positions are not based on any values or principles.
This brings us to abortion which most Americans support. Republicans spent decades trying to overturn Roe vs. Wade and they made a lot of celebratory noise when they finally got it. Now, they’re a little quieter about it after Kansas voters rejected a state ban on abortion. Republicans don’t want voters to be reminded that most of them will force ten-year-olds to birth their rapists’ babies.
Republicans are horrible and vile creatures. Since we can’t ban Republicans, maybe we can put a cap on them. I’m thinking of a cap of 35 Republicans per chamber in Congress and every state legislature. Of course, that wouldn’t be constitutional, so hey…Republicans should love it.
This November, do not let Republicans change the subject. Yes, Donald Trump is a vile human being and a criminal who should be going to prison. But the rest of the Republican party is just as vile. Vote them out. Don’t let them take Congress.
Why give control of Congress to the people who vote against healthcare for veterans, healthcare for you, insulin caps, inflation reduction, free elections, democracy, and abortion rights while covering up for a traitor?
Music Note: I listened to some Foo Fighters B-sides. These are songs that were never on an official Foo Fighter album. They’re demos, covers, outtakes, and songs for movie soundtracks. There’s a lot of good stuff in there. The Foo Fighters have recorded a lot of covers but they’ve never put one on an album.
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.
Didn’t we all pretty much expect it to come down to treason? I mean, unless you’re in the orange cult, you saw this coming from 600 miles away. You may be surprised that it actually happened, but you still saw it coming.
My one hope is that this doesn’t wind up like the Mueller investigation. We all know Trump had help from Russia to win the 2016 election. This is a fact. It’s a fact that Donald Trump asked Russia for their help. It’s a fact his campaign welcomed Russia’s help. It’s a fact Trump read Wikileaks at his hate rallies. It’s a fact his campaign had contacts with people, at the very least, in contact with Russia. It’s a fucking fact that Trump’s campaign met with Russians in Trump Tower for dirt on Hillary Clinton. It’s a fact that during the transition, Jared Kushner and Michael Flynn were having secret talks with Russians. The only thing Mueller couldn’t establish was a connection directly between Trump and Russia.
And when Donald Trump extorted the president of another nation by withholding military aid approved by Congress in exchange for political dirt on Joe Biden, Republicans in the Senate refused to convict him.
When he attempted a coup and sent a white nationalist mob to attack the Capitol, Republicans again refused to convict him.
Just by those three crimes he got away with, there should be a nice jail cell warming up with his name on it.
We learned from the unsealing of the search warrant giving the FBI permission to search Mar-a-Lago that they’re investigating Trump for violating the Espionage Act, mishandling of documents, and obstruction of justice (which he’s done before).
But it’s Title 18 of the United States Code, Section 793, better known as the Espionage Act, which outlaws the unauthorized retention of national security information that could harm the United States or aid a foreign adversary that’s the beef in all this. Even if Donald Trump did declassify all the documents he took to his beach house when he fled Washington with his tail between his legs, it can still be a crime.
But saying something is declassified doesn’t make it declassified. The Justice Department made that clear, even during the Trump presidency. And former presidents can’t declassify documents.
And even if Donald Trump only wanted to keep these documents as keepsakes, without any ill intention of selling, giving, or trading them to foreign nations, the mishandling of them can still be cited as harmful to our nation and be in violation of the Espionage Act.
But even if Donald Trump declassified all this stuff, why did he want it? This is something he has not explained. I don’t think he’s even tweeted, er…”truthed” a lie out about it yet, like the comparison to Obama taking “30 million documents to Chicago.”
President Obama did not take 30 million documents to Chicago. The National Archives did. President Obama has no say in how those documents are stored or handled. This is a fact. And for those goons who whatabout with the Clintons leaving the White House with government property, they didn’t take classified documents. They weren’t raided by the FBI in violation of the Espionage Act. The Clintons had confusion over what were gifts to them and what were gifts to the presidency. Everything was returned or paid for. Now, let’s hope Donald Trump pays for what he took. Taking documents containing nuclear secrets isn’t the same as taking an armoire.
When the Clintons were asked to return stuff, they returned them. There were no negotiations. They didn’t just return some and keep the rest and force DOJ’s hand to get a warrant.
But again, why did Trump have this stuff? The government retrieved 15 boxes from Trump last year, but he still had other shit. According to the FBI, they seized 11 sets of documents in all, including some marked as “classified/TS/SCI,” shorthand for “top secret/sensitive compartmented information,” according to the report. Agents collected four sets of top secret documents, three sets of secret documents, and three sets of confidential documents. Included in the manifest were also files pertaining to the pardon of Roger J. Stone Jr., a longtime associate of Mr. Trump’s, and material about President Emmanuel Macron of France.
What was he doing with material on Macron? Was he planning to sell or give dirt on him to his political enemy, Marine Le Pen?
Trump is crying that he was cooperating with the Department of Justice and National Archives to return the stuff the FBI eventually seized. OK, but why wasn’t it already returned? Why did he still have it? Why were there even negotiations for shit he didn’t own?
Donald Trump hasn’t been charged with any crimes yet and everything mentioned in the warrant was reasons to search, not indictments. The Department of Justice may turn around later and say everything has been explained and no charges will be forthcoming. Sorry for the inconvenience. And even if they do indict Trump, there’s always the possibility a jury won’t convict him. But then again, there’s always the chance they will.
Trump’s defenders like to point out he’s a collector which is a nice way of saying he’s a hoarder. His office in Trump Tower was always cluttered to the point visitors had a difficult time walking through it without knocking shit over. He kept a pair of Shaquille O’Neal’s shoes in his office. But boxes of top-secret classified documents is something really weird to collect. This isn’t a football signed by Tim Tebow.
This isn’t stuff that landed in his office. This is stuff he intentionally took. Who accidentally takes nuclear secrets to the beach?
And quite frankly, I wouldn’t put it past Donald Trump to try to sell classified information to our enemies and put our nation in danger. Looking at all his past behavior where it was never about service to the country for Trump and just about service to himself, why wouldn’t I put it past him? He’s already proven to be a national security risk. A man died this week attacking an FBI office over Donald Trump screaming about them taking stuff he doesn’t own.
Who thought Trump’s legacy could get worse than two impeachments and sedition?
Music note: I listened to Gorillaz, MIA, and Michael Franti and Spearhead.
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.
One revelation from last week’s impeachment hearings is that the ambassador to the European Union, Gordon Sondland, was talking to Donald Trump on a cell phone from a restaurant in Kyiv, Ukraine. This is potentially dangerous.
Donald Trump has never taken security seriously. He overruled the FBI in giving his idiot son-in-law, Jared Kushner, a security clearance. He did the same with his daughter, Ivanka. Those with security clearances have to go through extreme background checks that often take months. It’s very stressful and invasive. Not only can’t you lie, you also can’t make mistakes. So you can imagine there being some bitterness when Donald Trump, who couldn’t get a security clearance if his life depended on it, is handing them out like Pez to people who have lied on their applications. The only qualification his stupid kids needed for their security clearances was being related to Donald Trump.
Trump also gave away classified information to Russians in the Oval Office. What made this worse is that the intel came from an ally. It wasn’t ours to give. On top of that, he allowed the Russians to bring recording equipment into the White House while he kicked out the American press.
In the past, he’s tweeted out classified information. He revealed there are nuclear weapons in Turkey which were something our government had never admitted.
While visiting the border, an agent declined to divulge classified information about their work after Trump prodded him to.
It’s been reported that Trump is careless with his own cell phone, ignoring procedures and protocols over its use. Washington is full of spies. Even our friends spy on us. It makes you wonder how much intel they’ve gathered from Trump’s nightly phone chats with Sean Hannity.
Trump has had private meetings with Putin and Kim Jong Un without any Americans in the room, except for a translator, whom he then told to burn her notes. His first National Security Adviser was a guy who had been on Russia’s payroll.
And now, it appears he was talking to an ambassador who was on a cell phone in a nation full of spies.
You can argue it’s the ambassador’s fault. He’s the one on the cell phone. But Trump should have known. He should have taken precautions.
Why would Gordon Sondland be so careless? He’s an ambassador. He’s been trained in this, right? Probably, but he may not understand the seriousness of it to the extent a career diplomat would. Sondland’s qualification to be an ambassador is that he gave Donald Trump’s inauguration committee a million dollars.
Presidents always appoint campaign donors to ambassadorships. Obama, Clinton, both Bushes, and Reagan all did it (Reagan made Shirley Temple an ambassador). Trump’s doing it now. But with Sondland, he didn’t just make him an ambassador to some tiny nation that Trump couldn’t find on a map (OK, that’s a lot of nations), he appointed him to the European Union. That’s a very important post. On top of that Trump fuckery, he put him in charge of his Ukraine dealings to coordinate with Rudy Giuliani, who hasn’t been appointed to anything. Ukraine is NOT in the European Union.
Trump tweeted a few days ago that he has absolute power to appoint ambassadors. That’s not true. He does have the power to appoint and they serve at his pleasure. But, it’s not absolute. Ambassadors, just like judges and cabinet members, have to be confirmed by the Senate. The Republicans who control the Senate rubber stamp the majority of Trump’s stupid appointments, but there is still checks and balances. Congress, along with the courts, is an equal branch of government to the presidency. That will change if Trump is not removed and is reelected.
Donald Trump is a national security risk. He has been since day one. Make no butts about it.
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Before Republican Devin Nunes was suing imaginary cows, he was chairman of the House Oversight Committee for the first two years of the Trump administration.
The committee was investigating Russia’s interference in the 2016 presidential election and Nunes pretended to recuse himself since he was on Trump’s transition team. He denied that the intelligence community had any evidence there was contact between Russia and the Trump campaign, which turned out to be a lie. He was accused of leaking classified information to the public and used the investigation to feed information to Donald Trump and his lawyers.
When Nunes learned that communications of members of Trump’s transition team had been “incidentally collected” by the intelligence community, he shared it with the White House before he informed his colleagues on the committee. He also used the investigation to attack Special Counsel Robert Mueller and the FBI, even beginning an investigation into the bureau because they had the gall to acquire a FISA warrant on a suspected Russian spy. At one point during the investigation, his committee released a memo attacking the FBI for the FISA warrants while also saying they were totally legal.
He canceled hearings where former acting Attorney General Sally Yates, former National Security Agency Director James Clapper, and former CIA Director John Brennan were scheduled to testify. Nunes eventually closed the investigation declaring there wasn’t any collusion and that Russia didn’t even try to help Trump win the election.
When Michael Flynn was busted for lying to the FBI about his secret contacts with Russia, Nunes said, “he was doing this country a favor and he should be thanked for it.”
For his mismanagement, lack of ethics, lies, and politicizing the committee and investigation to protect Donald Trump, no Republican called for his removal as chairman. Paul Ryan, Speaker of the House at that time, ignored Democrats’ calls for his removal.
Now, Nunes and the Republicans are calling for Adam Schiff to be removed as chairman of the committee because he said he had evidence of the Trump campaign colluding with Russia. Donald Trump even said Schiff should resign and be removed from Congress for lying. Seriously. Donald Trump thinks someone should be removed from office for lying. The Republicans are basing their allegations on the four pages AG William Barr released.
At a rally in Michigan, Trump even referred to Schiff as “pencil neck.” This, coming from a guy with a neck that looks like a vagina.
At the start of a hearing this week, the Republicans began by calling for Schiff to be removed. Every single Republican on the committee was on board for Schiff’s removal. Schiff didn’t take it lying down and he gave the shitweasels what for. It was a moment when every Republican on the committee appeared uncomfortable as they squirmed in their seats.
Schiff gave the retort of the year. He owned the GOP and Donald Trump. Their best comeback so far has been “pencil neck.” Schiff was magnificent. Schiff pointed out that everything Trump did during the campaign and since is “not OK.”
I’m including his remarks at length because if you missed it or haven’t read it, you need to.
“My colleagues might think it’s OK that the Russians offered dirt on the Democratic candidate for president as part of what’s described as the Russian government’s effort to help the Trump campaign. You might think that’s OK.
“My colleagues might think it’s OK that when that was offered to the son of the president, who had a pivotal role in the campaign, that the president’s son did not call the FBI; he did not adamantly refuse that foreign help – no, instead that son said that he would ‘love’ the help with the Russians.
“You might think it’s OK that he took that meeting. You might think it’s OK that Paul Manafort, the campaign chair, someone with great experience running campaigns, also took that meeting. You might think it’s OK that the president’s son-in-law also took that meeting. You might think it’s OK that they concealed it from the public. You might think it’s OK that their only disappointment after that meeting was that the dirt they received on Hillary Clinton wasn’t better. You might think that’s OK.
“You might think it’s OK that when it was discovered, a year later, that they then lied about that meeting and said that it was about adoptions. You might think that it’s OK that it was reported that the president helped dictate that lie. You might think that’s OK. I don’t.
“You might think it’s OK that the campaign chairman of a presidential campaign would offer information about that campaign to a Russian oligarch in exchange for money or debt forgiveness. You might think that’s OK, I don’t.
“You might think it’s OK that that campaign chairman offered polling data to someone linked to Russian intelligence. I don’t think that’s OK.
“You might think it’s OK that the president himself called on Russia to hack his opponent’s emails, if they were listening. You might think it’s OK that later that day, in fact, the Russians attempted to hack a server affiliated with that campaign. I don’t think that’s OK.
“You might think it’s OK that the president’s son-in-law sought to establish a secret back channel of communication with the Russians through a Russian diplomatic facility. I don’t think that’s OK.
“You might think it’s OK that an associate of the president made direct contact with the GRU through Guccifer 2.0 and WikiLeaks, that is considered a hostile intelligence agency. You might think it’s OK that a senior campaign official was instructed to reach that associate and find out what that hostile intelligence agency had to say in terms of dirt on his opponent.
“You might think it’s OK that the national security adviser designate secretly conferred with the Russian ambassador about undermining U.S. sanctions, and you might think it’s OK that he lied about it to the FBI.
“You might say that’s all OK, that’s just what you need to do to win. But I don’t think it’s OK. I don’t think it’s OK. I think it’s immoral, I think it’s unethical, I think it’s unpatriotic and, yes, I think it’s corrupt – and evidence of collusion.”
“Now I have always said that the question of whether this amounts to proof of conspiracy was another matter. Whether the special counsel could prove beyond a reasonable doubt the proof of that crime would be up to the special counsel, and I would accept his decision, and I do. He’s a good and honorable man, and he is a good prosecutor.
“But I do not think that conduct, criminal or not, is OK. And the day we do think that’s OK is the day we will look back and say that is the day that America lost its way.”
“And I will tell you one more thing that is apropos of the hearing today: I don’t think it’s OK that during a presidential campaign Mr. Trump sought the Kremlin’s help to consummate a real estate deal in Moscow that would make him a fortune – according to the special counsel, hundreds of millions of dollars. I don’t think it’s OK to conceal it from the public. I don’t think it’s OK that he advocated a new and more favorable policy towards the Russians even as he was seeking the Russians’ help, the Kremlin’s help to make money. I don’t think it’s OK that his attorney lied to our committee. There is a different word for that than collusion, and it’s called ‘compromise.’
“And that is the subject of our hearing today.”
Each of the factual points Schiff raised is supported by evidence and none of them have been contested by Trump, the GOP, or Barr’s memo for dummies.
Republicans need to learn what is and isn’t OK. Defending America is OK. Obstruction investigations into attacks on our nation are not OK.
Republicans are not behaving like Americans. They’re not even behaving like Republicans. They’re cultists now. They behave like North Koreans worshiping their Dear Leader after generations of being gaslighted.
Instead of calling for Adam Schiff’s removal, Republicans should be behaving more like Adam Schiff.
Be Complicit
What kind of person would want to be part of something that disparages, slanders, and disrespects Dear Leader and his sycophantic followers? Hopefully, you.
Making a contribution supports my work and keeps the cartoons, columns, and videos coming. My income is from newspapers that subscribe to my work and small contributors. George Soros hasn’t sent me a million dollar check in weeks. Making a contribution of any amount, or buying a print for $40.00, makes you part of this specific resistance, and a member of Team Claytoonz (we’re still working on the name). You are complicit, an accomplice, and in cahoots (and whatever gangster terms we can think of) with this political satire pointing out that the stupid emperor has no clothes. Contributions can be made through PayPal, checks, and wads of cash exchanged in back alleys.
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