China

Tick-Tock, TikTok

TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew testified for hours yesterday before the House Energy and Science Committee and was hammered from the left and the right. Washington observers came away with the impression that it was a huge disaster for TikTok. But content creators on TikTok were less impressed by the Washington establishment.

Full disclaimer: I’m a TikTok user and I love it. It’s a great tool to expand my audience and it’s fun to make 30-second timelapse videos of my cartoons to music. But I can see the concerns about it. Even when I was a smoker I was not a fan of tobacco companies.

During yesterday’s hearing, the representatives kept trying to pin Chew down on TikTok being a tool for China to spy on users in the United States. The best they could get was “no,” and the best they could do was, “Nyuh-huh.”

Daniel Castro, the vice president of a science and tech policy think tank tweeted, “Congressional hearings would be much better if Committee rules prohibited loaded questions. Not all questions can be answered with yes/no answers.”
It’s like it’s the first time this crowd has ever watched a congressional hearing. And this committee didn’t feature the likes of Ted Cruz, Rand Paul, or Jim Gym Jordan.

Elizabeth Nolan Brown, the senior editor at Reason, tweeted, “TikTok’s CEO keeps essentially saying he’s not an agent of the Chinese Communist Party and the lawmakers are like… BUT AREN’T YOU ACTUALLY? like he’s going to trip up Scooby Doo villain style if they keep saying it.”
Will you admit to being a spy if I give you a Scooby Snack?

TikTok is a private company in China, but China is an authoritarian state. Is anything totally private in China? The government owns one percent of ByteDance, the company that owns TikTok, and has placed a government official on the board. Financial Times describes the one percent share as a “golden share” investment, which is a nominal share that can outvote all other shares in certain circumstances.

Surely we need to protect our nation from China’s spying, but there’s a fine line between security and xenophobia. What information is China going to get from American users that are not already being data mined by Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, and maybe even LinkedIn (the most inept and useless app since MySpace)? Several representatives from yesterday’s hearing gloated over their performance and questioning of Chew…on Twitter. Couldn’t at least one of them detect the irony in that?

Eva, director of cybersecurity at Electronic Frontier Foundation tweeted, “If you think the US needs a TikTok ban and not a comprehensive privacy law regulating data brokers, you don’t care about privacy, you just hate that a Chinese company has built a dominant social media platform.”

The TikTok kids are right in that this was a bunch of old people screaming about something they don’t understand. The entire hearing was basically, “Get off my lawn.”

Olivia Julianna, director of Politics and government affairs at Gen-Z for Change was upset TikTok’s CEO wasn’t given much of a chance to talk, tweeting, “Watching the hearing on TikTok right now, and the amount of leading questions and interruption to the CEO trying to answer questions is so extremely unprofessional and irritating. This is a hearing— let us ACTUALLY HEAR him.”

Several TikTokers TikToked about Chew not being allowed to speak, like this one…and this one too.

And are Republicans truly upset over Chinese spies when they were fine with Russia meddling with our election? You can’t say you care about security when you defend white nationalist terrorists who attacked our Capitol building. A lot of Republicans may still be chafed that TikTok users played a huge part in Donald Trump believing he was going to have a huge rally in Tulsa in 2020, only to discover a very tiny crowd of MAGAts.

I’m all for the government banning TikTok’s app on government-owned devices. Corporations can do the same thing. In fact, it’s probably smart to ban most apps on government and corporate-owned devices. Angry Birds knows where you live.

Both parties are coming down hard on TikTok. Both Trump and Biden have threatened to ban it in the United States. But I personally believe the Republican outrage is all Sarah Cooper’s fault.

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.

Watch me draw:

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Here’s your cartoon for this week’s CNN Opinion newsletter. Please sign up to get these in your inbox every Sunday

When China sends a spy balloon to fly over the United States (and other nations), it lies. When Russia knocks down a U.S. drone in international air space over the Black Sea, it lies.

I hadn’t gotten to draw the spy balloon in a few weeks.

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.

Watch me draw:

TikTok Spooking

Sorry, kids, but I’m running late today so just enjoy this cartoon. No time to blog. CNN needs me.

Music note: I listened to Queen again.

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.

Watch me draw:

Hunka Hunka Spy Balloons

The Pentagon says it shot down another flying object yesterday over frozen waters off the coast of Alaska. This time, they say it was smaller than the Chinese spy balloon they shot down over the Atlantic Ocean last Saturday, which they described as being as large as three buses. They say the one over Alaska was about the size of a car. They’re also not sure if it’s a balloon or from where it came. They literally shot down an unidentified flying object, a UFO.

Republicans were quick to criticize this even though they don’t have information and as usual, it’s a subject they’re ignorant on.

The difference between the object shot down yesterday and the balloon shot down Saturday is that the balloon was flying at around 65,000 feet which isn’t dangerous to anyone. The car-sized object was flying at around 40,000 feet which puts air traffic in extreme danger.

What Republicans should do is start criticizing President Biden for shooting this object down before we know what it is. What if it was a craft from outer space carrying diplomats to make peace and for some fucked up reason were confused and thought Sarah Palin was a being of higher intelligence, thus explaining why they were flying over Alaska? And then along comes Joe and shoots them down when they’re bringing the cure for cancer and free tacos for the entire planet.

Now, thanks to Joe Biden, we’ll never get the cure for cancer or those free space tacos. Even worse, he probably pissed off the beings from Karplaxghanistan, and now they’re pissed. What if one of those aliens was the son of the king of Karplaxghanistan and now he seeks revenge against us?

Now, they’re going to come down here with their higher technology, eat most of us, and put the rest to work in their sugar mines. Fuck.

Thanks, a lot, Brandon. Thanks. A. Lot.

Creative note: I do these space cartoons from time to time and I recently did one where I went crazy with the Easter eggs. The details inside the main spaceship are the same, but everything outside the cockpit is different. And no, I don’t want to tell you what’s out there. Get to you, you.

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.

Watch me draw:

Balloon Crowd

MAGAts spent the week criticizing President Joe Biden for “allowing” the Chinese spy balloon to float across the country before shooting it down Saturday off the coast of South Carolina. They continue to ignore that shooting it down over human beings could have been a very bad thing. They continue to ignore gravity.

But most of all, they keep talking about how Donald Trump wouldn’t have allowed China to float a balloon across our nation.

House Speaker Kevin McCarthy tweeted, “First Biden refused to defend our borders. Now he won’t defend our skies.” This guy receives classified information. He knows the deal. He’s just politicizing without context. So, Kevin…what should the president have done? First, Kevin revealed his ignorance of the debt ceiling, and now this. Kevin McCarthy is the worst Speaker in the history of the House.

Marjorie Taylor Greene tweeted, “President Trump says ‘SHOOT DOWN THE BALLOON!'”

MTG also tweeted, “The Chinese respected President Trump because they feared him. They know he will protect America at all costs. The CCP doesn’t fear Joe Biden. Xi is laughing at him.”

Stephen Baby Goebbels Miller, who was Special Nazi Advisor to Trump during his administration, tweeted, “A Chinese spy balloon casually invading our air space for all to see, conducting day after day of espionage in broad daylight undisturbed, is a stark visual demonstration of Joe Biden’s crippling weakness and our excruciating national humiliation.” This guy knows national humiliation. Remember him going on TV after spraying Hair-In-A-Can on his head? He looked like a goosestepping Chia pet.

Matt Quagmire Gaetz tweeted, “I wonder how much the CCP-funded Biden Center at UPenn studied Balloon Theory.” The only thing Matt Gaetz has studied about foreign policy with China is having chow mein noodles at Panda Express.

Lauren Boebert tweeted, “That balloon would never have made it over US soil if Trump was President.”

Boebert also tweeted, “In case you ever had any doubt, China owns Joe Biden.” Boebert and MTG both have lady boners for Trump.

And then Boebert tweeted, “US officials have admitted that they were monitoring the Chinese spy balloon since it flew over the Aleutian Islands. So, we didn’t shoot the balloon down over water and instead let it enter our continental airspace?” Yeah. Why didn’t we shoot this balloon down when it was over that ocean between Alaska and Montana? Sheesh!!!

Jim Gym Jordan tweeted, “President Trump was tough on China. Biden lets them fly spy balloons over our country.”

The problem with all these claims about Biden letting this balloon invade our airspace is refuted by the report that he gave the order to shoot it down Wednesday and to do it after it was safe to do so. Can you imagine if the balloon was shot down over a civilian population and deaths occurred from it? Republicans would have said something about that.

Ted Cruz actually praised Biden for shooting it down but also chastised him for waiting so long, again… ignoring that gravity thing. Mexicans are still mad at their government for allowing Ted Cruz to fly over their airspace when he was fleeing a winter storm in Texas for sunny Cancun.

And the claim that Trump wouldn’t have allowed the balloon to enter U.S. airspace is ruined by the statement from the Pentagon that during his presidency (sic), three Chinese spy balloons entered U.S. airspace. The only way to save face with this is to deny it.

Trump denies it. He said it was “disinformation.”

Former National Security Adviser to Trump, John Bolton told Fox News Digital that he could “say with 100 percent certainty” that no such balloon flights took place during his tenure. Bolton was only in the administration for about a year and a half.

Former Trump Defense Secretary, Mark Esper, said, “I don’t ever recall somebody coming into my office or reading anything that the Chinese had a surveillance balloon above the United States.” Esper is another who only spent about a year and a half in his position.

John Ratcliffe, Trump’s final Director of National Intelligence said, “It’s not true. I can refute it.” He held his position for about seven months.

Another problem with their denials is that one of the denials is coming from Trump and the others are coming from people who worked for Trump. They’re all liars.

If you believe any of these goons are telling the truth about there not being any Chinese spy balloons flying over our country during the Trump administration, then I have a great wall in China I’d like to sell you. Cheap.

Creative note: This was drawn in the Indianapolis airport. I want to go home.

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.

Watch me draw:

Hot Air Espionage

I drew a cartoon for CNN on the Chinese spy balloon which will run tomorrow (Sunday). I usually wait until after the CNN cartoon is published before I hit the same subject, but this spy balloon business is too much fun.

After I finished drawing CNN’s cartoon yesterday afternoon, I thought of another idea I liked that I intended to draw today, but after traveling by bus from Indianapolis to Kokomo, Indiana (please…I can’t take any more Beach Boys references), I got this idea right as I sat down at Starbucks.

I spent all day Thursday traveling. During one of my many many many layovers, I received a comment from my friend, fellow cartoonist, and pride of Green Bay, Joe Heller, who asked if I had seen any Chinese balloons while traveling. I was like, “What the Hell are you talking about?”. I had been in the air all day and hadn’t been able to keep up with the news, which of course is when China decides to send a balloon to spy on our country. Watching TV in my hotel room with very bad WiFi Thursday night, I saw what all the fuss was about…and it’s all the news was about on Friday too.

So what’s the deal with this balloon? Why would China be so brazen to float a spy balloon over the United States? They had to know we’d see it. We look up in this country. China said it’s an oops, but we know they’re lying. And then they sent another to float over Latin America. Why are they spying on Belize?

Laurent Boebert tweeted that Donald Trump wouldn’t have let this spy balloon invade our airspace. She then tweeted, “Joe Biden has just given the “okay” for Chinese spy balloons to fly all over our nation.” It’s tweets like this why #LaurenBoebertIsSoDumb has been trending for over a year. You would think from her tweets that we wouldn’t be able to look up without seeing a Chinese spy balloon.

Here’s the thing, kids: Gravity exists even if you don’t believe in it. If you shoot a balloon down, it falls to the ground. There are things on the ground, like people. Wanting to shoot it down over land is a seriously stupid idea and thank God nobody would ever put someone like Lauren Boebert in a position of responsibility… which says a lot about her voters who sent her to Congress and Kevin McCarthy who put this moron on the House Oversight Committee.

If Donald Trump was president (sic), the first thing he’d ask about shooting down a spy balloon would be, “How will this affect me financially?” He might also ask, “Will this hurt the over dozen patents China gave Ivanka?” He’d probably also ask, “Balloons? Why didn’t I get a balloon? Isn’t every day all about me? And where’s my cake?” He’d definitely ask, “Before we shoot it down, it’s not from Russia, is it?” I’m sure after it was shot down he’d boast that he shot it down while Obama never shot down a Chinese spy balloon. And if China sent a balloon while Trump was president, he’d probably say it was a gift for the cake he gave Xi Jinping at Mar-a-Lago.

Ya see, Lauren Boebert, Russia wouldn’t DARE fly a spy balloon over American air space if Donald Trump was president. They wouldn’t have to. They’d just have to visit the Oval Office where Trump wouldn’t allow the press to watch, and where Trump will gladly give them classified information, even if it came from an ally.

So I don’t want to hear this shit about President Biden being weak and Trump being a strong president (sic) who was oh-so patriotic. Donald Trump was a goon for Russia. He was a useful idiot. Donald Trump said he trusted Putin more than American intelligence, which he recently reiterated. Donald Trump said Putin was a stronger leader than President Obama. Donald Trump repeated Putin’s talking points. Donald Trump said Putin was a genius for invading Ukraine. Donald Trump sent white nationalist terrorists to attack the Capitol in order to install him as an unelected dictator. Donald Trump is a domestic threat to this nation.

I think one thing the spy balloon tells us is that China’s technology isn’t as advanced as we thought it was. While we’re upset about the balloon invading our airspace, our satellites do this daily to China and other nations.

I don’t believe our government is going to allow this balloon to escape. They’ll either shoot it down after it passes over the east coast and is above open water. Or better yet, they’ll capture it.

The Chinese spy balloon won’t be a threat to this nation for long. Unfortunately, we’ll still have the hot air of the Russian spy balloon for a long time.

Creative note: As I stated above, this cartoon was drawn in a Kokomo Starbucks.

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.

Watch me draw:

Wrong Protest

The protests in China are mostly against strict lockdowns due to Covid. These lockdowns are not the same as the “lockdowns” we had in the United States. The lockdowns in China led to people being burned alive inside a building because they were literally locked in.

Sure, we had “lockdowns” in schools, churches, and businesses being closed, but nobody was literally locked in. There were limitations placed on businesses, but most were not ordered not to do business or engage in commerce. In the U.S., 43 percent of businesses closed temporarily.

Complaining and protesting that you can’t do business is legitimate. You have a gripe. It sucked. None of us liked it and it’s not something we wanted to keep. Democrats did not want to keep the economy shut down and if you remember correctly, outside of being gaslighted, all the shutdowns started while Donald Trump was president (sic).

Most of us support the protests in China. Most of us support freedom. Republicans say they do, but they don’t. Republicans support Trump, Putin, and fascism. Several Republicans are tweeting out support for the protesters in China not because they’re protesting for freedom, but because Republicans think it’s a stick in the eye to the people in the USA who believe in science. At the same time, they’re silent over their presidential frontrunner “truthing” that we need to ditch the Constitution and install him as president.

Republicans protest and gripe about the economy being shut down, but they also protest against face masks and vaccines. Remember, at the start of Covid, they said, You can wear a face mask but don’t make wear them”. Now, they scream at people for wearing face masks even though it doesn’t affect them at all. My profile photos on Instagram and Truth Social are of me wearing a face mask, and goons are constantly commenting insults about that. I even got a “Let’s go Brandon” on a city bus. And their protests against the vaccines are based on conspiracy theories.

They’re not protesting vaccines or face masks in China. If you look at photos of the protests, you’ll notice that the majority of protesters are wearing face masks. Unlike Republicans, they don’t deny that Covid exists or is still a danger.

If you want to support the protesters in China, great. But at least understand what it’s about. It’s not about your political bullshit or conspiracy theories. In China, they’re protesting against oppression. If you’re a white Republican, nobody has oppressed you. You’re just a big pampered privileged baby.

Note: My 30-day Facebook suspension is over and I can now post my cartoons there again. Thanks to everyone who posted my cartoons in my absence. I saw all of them that tagged me. Thank you.

Music note: I listened to Foo Fighters.

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.

Watch me draw:

Keep On Truckin’

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When it comes to lies and spreading hate and division, goon TV keeps on truckin’.

If you’ve been watching Fox and the other channels your crazy uncle loves, you would have thought the brutal authoritarian regime bringing crackdowns upon its oppressed minority wasn’t China, but Canada.

Right-wing TV is upset that the Canadian “Freedom” Truckers are being denied their white privilege and entitlements to break the law. As we learned from the insurrection at the United States Capitol and the lawless rulebreaking Trump regime, conservatives care less about laws and more about who’s breaking them.

If you’re a white conservative, it’s OK if you protest. It’s OK if you attempt to overturn the government. It’s Ok to break into the Capitol and poop and pee-pee in the hallways. It’s Ok to bring nooses and try to hang the vice president. It’s OK to steal stuff. It’s Ok to attack cops. It’s OK to block roads. It’s OK to stop commerce. It’s OK to kill jobs. It’s OK to disrupt the supply chain of goods entering and leaving this country.

The same people upset over the Canadian government clearing the “Freedom” Truckers after being allowed to block roads around that nation’s parliament, and blockades of the border for weeks, were more than happy to see Donald Trump and William Barr clear a park of peaceful protesters so he could have his photo taken while holding a Bible upside down.

For conservatives, it’s wrong to protest for racial equality but good to protest fake attacks on their white freedom.

Remember when conservatives were the “law and order” party? Yeah, scratch that. Remember when they cared about cops? Scratch that too. Weren’t they complaining about the supply-chain crisis and blaming President Biden? Oops. Haven’t they also been complaining about the employment rate? Uh oh. Remember how they always claimed to be for a strong economy? Yeah, not so much.

These “Freedom” fu…er…truckers have been breaking the law. Several would-be terrorists were caught with weapons in a plot to murder the Royal Canadian Mounted Police. They’ve been disrupting the supply chain. Workers at auto plants have been told to go home because the goods they make were not able to be transported across our border with Canada. The truckers’ actions have hurt the economy in both nations.

Let’s not forget these “protests” were organized by white nationalists. Let’s not forget that these “Freedom” Truckers are not just the minority of Canadians, but they represent a minority of Canadian truckers. The trucking industry has condemned these protests. Of the 120,000 truckers Canadian truckers who serve cross-border routes, an estimated 85 percent are vaccinated. Let’s destroy the economy because 15 percent of Canadian truckers have full diapers.

This entire thing is supposedly about vaccine mandates. Canada and the U.S. both exempted truckers from being vaccinated to cross the border in order not to disrupt the supply chain. Those exemptions were lifted in January, and then all this bullshit started.

The truckers’ freedoms were never taken away. If you’re entering another nation, then you are expected to obey the laws in that nation. If you go to Mexico, you are expected to obey the laws of that nation. If you’re a citizen of the United States and Canada says you must be vaccinated against COVID to enter, Canada is not violating your rights. The same goes if you’re a Canadian and want to enter the U.S. You may as well protest against another country’s seatbelt and speed limit laws.

It really doesn’t make a lot of sense, which explains why the Fox fuckers are so in love with these butt-hurt truckers.

Music Note: I listened to The Black Keys and White Stripes while drawing today’s cartoon. I didn’t aim to listen to two-person bands. It’s just that after listening to the Keys, my automatic player went directly to the White Stripes, and I just let it keep going.

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.

Watch me draw:

Medal in Treason

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Eileen Gu may be the best freestyle skier in the world. She was born in San Francisco to a Chinese mother and an American father. She’s been competing internationally since 2018, starting when she was still in high school. She dominates in big air, halfpipe, and slopestyle events. She’s favored to take several gold medals in this year’s Olympics…but not for the USA. What?

Although Ms. Gu is a born and raised American, she’s competing for China in this year’s winter Olympics. In fact, she already has one gold medal at this time. She competed for the United States during the 2018-2019 World Cup Season, then announced she’ll be competing for China henceforth.

She made this decision when she was 15, but I’m sure she didn’t make it on her own. She explained on Instagram, “The opportunity to help inspire millions of young people where my mom was born, during the 2022 Beijing Olympic Winter Games is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to help to promote the sport I love. Through skiing, I hope to unite people, promote common understanding, create communication, and forge friendships between nations.”

So she’s going to promote common understanding, friendships, and communication under the flag of an autocratic regime that presides over a surveillance state and has subjected Uyghurs in Xinjiang to what the U.S. and other nations have described as genocide. You can argue if she was competing for the U.S, then she’d be doing it for a nation with a long tragic history of racism. Hell, we have politicians trying to ban the teaching of our racist history. But, Eileen Gu was born in this nation. She should be on the same side of the U.S.A, and not competing against her home country. The same goes for Republicans

A lot of Republicans, and the goons on Fox News, are rooting for Russia over Ukraine. They are rooting for an autocratic state led by a tyrant over a democracy. Fox’s Tucker Carlson has been a cheerleader for Vladimir Putin and Russia. One of Putin’s demands is assurance that Ukraine is never allowed to join NATO. Senator Josh Hawley, the guy who famously gave that fistbump to white nationalist terrorists on January 6, sent a letter to Secretary of State Antony Blinken saying we should give in to Putin on that demand. Trump supporters are used to giving in to the demands of tyrants.

I don’t care if the only thing Putin is demanding from the west is a box of Triscuits. You don’t give in to the demand of tyrants. It didn’t work out that well for Neville Chamberlain or Czechoslovakia.

Tucker Carlson echos Putin’s talking points to the point that Russian news shows are running clips of his show. Tucker believes Putin is only securing his border, as we should with Mexico, while not mentioning that Putin has already invaded and seized parts of Ukraine. That would be like us securing our border with Mexico by invading and annexing the Mexican state of Chihuahua.

Carlson wonders why it’s disloyal to side with Russia over Ukraine. Carlson is wondering what’s so bad about siding with a nation where critics are thrown out of windows or poisoned…or poisoned while being thrown out of windows. What’s so bad about a nation where people are thrown into prison for failing to die from state poisoning? What’s so bad about a nation that imprisoned Pussy Riot for criticizing Putin? What’s so bad about a nation where it’s illegal to be an opposition candidate against Putin? What’s so bad about a nation that violates international agreements time and time again? What’s so bad about siding with the nation that has attacked U.S. elections and those of other western democratic nations?

There’s a crop of Trumplican congressional candidates taking their cues from Trump and Tucker. Will a Republican-controlled Congress be a Putin Congress?

Eileen Gu is not the first American to compete for another nation in the Olympics. Becky Hammon played basketball for Russia during the 2008 games, and she got a lot of flak for it. But Becky didn’t make Team U.S.A. And typically, those Americans who do play for other nations are only doing so because they weren’t good enough for Team U.S.A.

Eileen Gu says she’s American when she’s in America and Chinese when she’s in China. I think these disloyal Republicans are Russian bots when they’re in Russia and America. Becky Hammon played for Russia when her home country’s team didn’t want her. All the Trumps and Tuckers should join her because none of them is good enough for Team U.S.A. either.

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.

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Tough On Putin

CjonesRGB12142021President Joe Biden is promising to send more arms to Ukraine if Russia invades. That may sound tough, but it’s actually kinda weak. Why not send those arms now, before a Russian invasion? The Biden admninistration has prepared a $200 million military aid package for Ukraine, but they’re holding off on sending that package in favor of diplomacy. I don’t see why they can’t do both. 

When the United States tried to give military aid to Ukraine during the Trump administration, the president (sic) used it for extortion, wanting the president of Ukraine to make up some dirt on his chief political rival. Donald Trump he was impeached for his illegal manuevers and mob tactics.

We don’t know what’s included in the military aid package Biden has crafted, but Ukraine has asked for air defense systems, anti-ship missiles, more Javelin anti-tank missiles, electronic jamming gear, radar systems, ammunition, upgraded artillery munitions and medical supplies. But if Russia rolls into Ukraine, they can pretty much take it just like they did when they formed the Soviet Union.

While Ukraine and some members of Congress are demanding this $200 million military aid package to be sent to Ukraine now, the United States has already sent over $400 million military aid to Ukraine in 2021, with another $50 million in the pipeline. 

Biden had a Zoom conference call with Russian president Vladimir Putin earlier this week when he threatened harsh sanctions if they do invade Ukraine. Many expect those santions to include the Nordstrom 2, a gas pipeline from Russia to Europe, which a lot of our European allies are in favor of, especially Germany. 

What does Putin want with Ukraine anyway? It’s probably personal while also a distraction from Russia’s internal collection of crises. Putin views Ukraine and Russians as basically the same people and that the nation should be closer to Russia than to the west. But Ukraine, led by a pro-democracy president in Volodymyr Zelensky, wants closer ties to the United States, western Europe, and NATO. 

Putin annexed Crimea in 2014 and he may see the rest of Ukraine as unfinished business. If Putin invades Ukraine, he’ll do so while telling the world Ukraine attacked Russia. Putin has been spreading misinformation for years. Remember the 2016 election? You can bet Donald Trump will be eager to help Putin spread lies. When Putin re-wrote history and said Afghanistan invaded the Soviet Union in 1979, Donald Trump repeated the lie. Putin also has the support of anti-democratic Trump supporters in this nation. Trump supporters love Vladimir Putin and fascism. 

President Biden has also announced a diplomatic boycott of the 2022 Winter Olympics to beheld in Beijing. This boycott is over China’s human rights abuses of the Uighur Muslims in Xinjiang. This boycott means we’re not sending diplomats, but U.S. athletes will still participate. U.S. corporations that sponsor the Olympics will also continue to participate. While Biden’s critics say this is weak, China is pretty pissed off with one Chinese media pundit saying he hopes Biden lives to see a boycott of the Los Angeles Olympics. I guess they really wanted to meet Antony Blinken.

There are also concerns China may invade Taiwan. China views Taiwan the same way Putin sees Ukraine, as though it belongs to them. In fact, China doesn’t recognize Taiwan at all and officially views it as a part of its nation. U.S. policy has been weak with Taiwan for decades as it refuses to recognize it as a sovereign nation and it doesn’t have a seat in the United Nations (they did but China took it). Only 13 nations recognize Taiwan as an independent country. 

Is Biden being weak? What else can he do beyond promising military intervention? The one certainty in all of this is that the United States will not send forces to fight in Ukraine and Taiwan. 

Creative note: This cartoon isn’t one of my usual laugh-yourself-into-the-ground-knee-slapping-hee-hee-pee-yourself-funny cartoons, but I still wanted to do it. It’s been in my head for a few days and I was waiting for someone else to do it. Maybe someone else did think of it but thought it was a bad idea. This is too subtle for social media which means newspapers will probably love it.

Music note: While drawing today’s cartoon, I listened to some Nirvana, Better Than Ezra, and She Bites Dogs. I signed up for a free six-month trial of Apple Music today because I am that annoyed with Amazon Music and the way they just changed everything up. Since I just paid for this month, that gives me a month to go through my Amazon Music and add it to my Apple.
Also, She Bites Dogs is Dorian Cleveland’s band, my friend who just passed away. If you’re on Apple Music, add them and my band, Corporate T-Shirt.

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 18 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.

Watch me draw: