Comics

Greater Threat Than ISIS

Ever since Obama said Climate Change is a greater threat than ISIS, conservatives have been giving him a lot of grief. The thing is, he’s right.

Stating the threat of Climate Change doesn’t discount the real danger ISIS poses. The dangers of Climate Change will last centuries. It can devastate cities and populations. I know we don’t like to think long term, especially at the cost of profit, but this is something that can’t be ignored. The problem is we have to think intelligently and as a culture, we’re not really that smart. Half of us can’t grasp the difference between climate and weather. Climate Change is also a lot more difficult to combat than terrorism. You can’t drop bombs on it or put a reward on its head.

This doesn’t mean we should ignore terrorism. Terrorism is another problem we have to deal with, but groups of Jihadists are not going to last as long as our climate. ISIS doesn’t even pose the most risks to us in the form of terrorism. You’re more likely to die from someone born in the United States who is not a Muslim and doesn’t give a crap about Palestine or Allah. But yet, half of us only want to focus on Islam. It’s easier to hate bad guys who don’t look like us. They’re also organized and even have a flag. That gives us a target. Domestic terrorists are not as organized. They tend to work alone and if they wave a flag, it’s the Gadsden or Confederate flag which just confuses everybody.

We need to focus on what’s more dangerous. That includes the climate. It also includes domestic terrorists and our proliferation of guns. Let’s put politics aside and forget the color, religion, and race of the terrorists. Let’s talk about it. Let’s propose solutions. Half of us won’t even acknowledge there is a crisis and fight any effort to make it more difficult for bad guys to buy guns.

I agree with conservatives that the president’s comments that ISIS was a JV team was pretty stupid and a sign he underestimated them. But he’s right about Climate Change. You can continue to mock him for it, but you’re laughing at him for being smarter than you. That makes you pretty stupid.

I had fun drawing this cartoon since I’m from Louisiana. I took a few creative liberties, the first being that Katrina happened before Obama’s presidency and the water has since lowered. The other liberty is the ability to see the Superdome from Bourbon Street. Yeah, it’s less than two miles from the French Quarter but you can’t really see it from the street. I especially had fun drawing the balconies and the assorted colors of some of the houses and buildings in the Big Easy. Now I just made myself homesick.

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Shooting Colorado

If I had much better business sense I wouldn’t draw this cartoon at this time. Being that it’s the Saturday after Thanksgiving this will be one of the first editorial cartoons on the issue. I should draw the Rocky Mountains crying and that cartoon would be reprinted in USA Today. Really.

Maybe I’m jumping, no pun intended, the gun. We don’t know the shooter’s motives. Yes he went into a Planned Parenthood clinic and started shooting. But there are other establishments in the vicinity. Perhaps he had a vendetta against Super Cuts. If I am wrong I will call myself out on this blog.

A gunman went into a Colorado Springs Planned Parenthood clinic Friday and had a six hour standoff with police. One police officer and two civilians were killed. Four other police officers and five civilians were injured. The suspect eventually surrendered and is now in custody.

Every time a policeman is shot the talking heads at Fox News says the Black Lives Matter movement is complicit. Whenever there’s violence at an abortion clinic then it’s just a lone lunatic.

The “pro life” crowd is full of lunatics. They don’t seem to have morals or ethics when it comes to furthering their agenda. Lying is acceptable, as Carly Fiorina and others have proven. Spreading lies that PP is harvesting dead children, calling them murderers, and saying they’re engaging in a holocaust is not engaging into a civil debate. Neither is standing outside a clinic screaming at people who are making the most difficult decision of their lives. Operation Rescue’s leadership includes a member who’s a convicted felon who attempted to bomb an abortion clinic. The same group posted a doctor’s home and church address on their website before he was murdered.

Four abortion clinics have been targets for arson this year alone.

An antiabortion group conducted a sting operation and secretly filmed Planned Parenthood clinics. The videos were presented as evidence PP was breaking laws and selling aborted fetuses body parts and making profits from the sales. The videos have all be proven to be doctored. Seven states have investigated PP and every single one has found them innocent of all the accusations. Still, Republican candidates are spreading the lies and Congress wants hearings on PP, not the group that made the videos.

The pro life crowd is pretty quiet over the shooting. If the shooter was a black guy or a Muslim they would have made a LOT of noise by now for more guns, profiling and limits on immigration. It’s really too bad for them the shooter is a white guy.

None of the fourteen Republican political candidates, as of this writing, have expressed anything about the shooting. A lot of pro life people have actually expressed support for the shooter. A “friend” of mine actually wrote “yawn” in response to the coverage of the shooting and followed it up with an argument of how many babies have been aborted. These are truly horrible people. The people who express so much concern over terrorism sure are quiet and even supportive of it sometimes.

The label “pro life” is being seriously abused.

War With Russia

I resisted joining the herd of political cartoonists drawing turkeys to symbolize the nation of Turkey. Did Turkey plan to jump in American news the week of Thanksgiving? They could have timed it better for cartoonist by giving their turkey cartoons a few more days of shelf life.

A lot of people who declare we should put troops into Iraq and Syria, and others who say we should go to Ukraine, never sign up themselves. They’re real quick with the war plans if they’re not a part of the plan. Hell, these people don’t even want to pay for it monetarily. They’re really good at taking their guns into Walmart and coffee shops though.

On top of that a lot of conservatives idolize Vladimir Putin over Obama, and gloat over how strong of a leader he is. Now they’re even gloating about France’s war with terrorism because they’ve dropped about two percent of the bombs the U.S. has dropped on ISIS. But they’re in love with Putin. He’s a homosexual hating bully, so go figure.

Dangerous Syrians

Trump’s Real Hair

Donald Trump has a problem. He’s a liar. He’s the worst kind of liar too. He’s not smart or creative enough to create his own lies, he has to hitch a ride on others’ lies. Remember his entire birther nonsense investigation? He was going to get to the truth of that. He’s going to let us know the truth. Instead he started a presidential campaign and doesn’t want to talk about it anymore.

Trump says he saw “thousands and thousands” of Muslims on 9/11 in Jersey City celebrating the buildings falling down. He even went so far to say they they had tail gate parties. That’s some pretty easy stuff to look up. If Trump had merely said that he saw a bunch of people in New Jersey being jerks then nobody would have looked into it. Trump is richer than most people, but still, most people can afford a television and nobody else in the country remembers seeing what Sir. Hair claims he saw.

I always say your run of the mill conservative has a problem with comprehension. Now I think the GOP’s top candidate has a problem with it. He used a Washington Post article that talked about an alleged story of Muslims in New Jersey celebrating 9/11. Trump doesn’t comprehend the word “alleged.” How does that hurt him in the polls? Not at all. His supporters are Republicans.

But really? Tail gate parties? You have to plan a tail gate party. You have to call your friends. Look at the schedule. Buy some brats (if you are a Muslim or Jewish, veggie brats). Assign someone else to make the salad. Make sure the grill is ready and you have charcoal. Hope your favorite football jersey is clean. You just don’t go rushing into tail gate mode because a plane flew into a building. Tail gate parties don’t take people by surprise. You’re not out there in a Jersey parking lot saying “hey, building number 2 just fell down Oh, do you want mustard on that?”

Donald Trump also retweeted that 81% of whites are killed by African Americans. Of course that’s FAR from being true. The tweet even came from a Neo-Nazi source. Go figure. Nazis are just bold enough to say what Republicans actually want to say. But hey, if you can’t trust Nazis then who can you trust?

He also said that a Black Lives Matter protester was “asking for it” after being beaten at one of his rallies.

And for what it’s worth, Trump just got David Duke’s endorsement.

The point I’m making is that Trump is a racist. Why should there be any doubt? Of course, making that point won’t deter Trump supporters. His supporters are racists. If you support Donald Trump, you’re either a racist or a delusional dumbass. I would just put my money on you being a right wing racist dumbass. Yeah, I said it.

There’s talk that the eventual Democratic nominee might win 4o states. I can’t imagine why.

Sitting At The Adults’ Table

It wasn’t hard finding a lie for each of these candidates. The hard part was deciding which lies to use.

It is funny that the more ridiculous the candidate, the higher he or she polls. Though I must say I’m going to miss Carly and Dr. Ben after they’re done crashing.

That’s what happens after too much turkey.

Goose Stepping To A Door Near You

People always play the Nazi or Hitler card when arguing politics. It goes for conservatives and liberals alike. It’s one of those “oh no he didn’t.” It gets tiresome and it usually gets you ignored pretty quick. Rightly so.

The most recent tiresome example is the comparison of Democratic Socialists to National Socialists. The Nazis were National Socialists and if you know anything about history, there wasn’t anything Democratic about the Nazis. The word “Democrat” isn’t the word to fixate on. I’m more concerned with nationalism. Anyone making the comparison between Democrats and Nazis is just a trolling moron. You might as well say vegetarians want to gas Jews, invade Russia and steal art because Hitler was a vegetarian. Hitler also loved dogs and opposed cruelty to animals. Go figure. Hitler also initiated the Volkswagen Beetle. Driving a tiny car that looks like a shoe and nearly impossible to lose your virginity in does not make you a Nazi.

By the way, Bernie Sanders, the Democratic Socialist, is Jewish.

Now Donald Trump and other conservatives are making an argument that Muslims should be entered into a national database. He also says we should shut down some mosques. It always starts with some. What’s up with Trump? Is he secretly a member of Hydra? If he wins the election I predict he’ll rip his face skin off after being sworn in revealing he’s the Red Skull.

Are these people serious? Are they unfamiliar with what happened in the past when we wanted to put people on a list identified by their religion? Maybe they are aware and they’re big fans of it. He is leading in Republican polls. How disgusting do these candidates have to get before Republican voters say “hey…I’m not sure about that plan.”?

Earlier this week in my community a public hearing was held for a group who wants to build a new mosque. At a town hall meeting in Spotsylvania, in the Fredericksburg, VA, region, two men yelled that all Muslims were terrorists. Police had to end the meeting early because of all the hatred. Never mind the fact the group wanting a new mosque currently has a mosque and has been here for decades and hasn’t been a problem. Oh my God, they’re gonna have a new building to continue doing what they’ve been doing without anything bad ever happening! Somebody stop it!

Republicans love to scream that President Obama and Hillary Clinton never use the term “Islamic terrorists” when discussing terrorism from Muslims. A lot of progressives don’t believe an entire religion and culture should be lumped in with the bad guys. The same people who criticize them for that never call out the people that say all Muslims are terrorists. Should we start calling white people who shoot up schools as Christian terrorists?

When we look back on history we see that at times the United States was on the wrong side when it came to treating refugees and at times its own citizens. We refused to let Jews come to the U.S., with many dying in the Holocaust as a result. We put our own citizens into camps based on their Japanese race. We ostracized and black listed people accused of being Communists. We were on the wrong side of history. It’s amazing that so many are ready to be on the wrong side again.

I’m not afraid of refugees. I grew up surrounded by them. You did too. One of the best men at my wedding was a refugee. Refugees will be vetted. Refugees will not be made up of single men between the ages of 18 and 40. They will mostly be widows, orphans and families. Most of the males will have professional careers. There’s also a very long process to be granted refugee status into the U.S. Congress, which never does anything, voted on a law trying to block refugees from entering the country. How ugly have we become?

Even those five Syrian guys stopped in Honduras with fake passports aren’t dangerous. They’re not refugees either. Four are college students and the other is a professor. There are no links between any of them and criminal elements. Conservatives shouldn’t be afraid of college students…unless they’re black and they want a protest. Also, all of the Paris attackers are from Europe.

Every cartoon I’ve drawn this week has been on issues that resulted from the Paris attacks. I like to vary it up but the national conversation this week has been all about Paris, Syria, and refugees. I feel like there’s a lot to stand up for. It’s very important we don’t go down that Nazi road. I’m not going to be silent on these matters. There are too many people out there who want to take this country backward. They vote. They’re breeding.

If you don’t think it’s a problem that the government goes after Muslims then ask yourself this. Who will they come after next?

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Let’s Insult Ted Cruz

In many ways, editorial cartooning is an art in disrespect. I like that. There’s plenty of people out there begging for it.

Pundits today said presidents should never be snarky. Thankfully, they weren’t talking about political cartoonists.

Obama is overseas right now but the job goes where the president goes and he criticized the right wing rhetoric freaking out over refugees. He mentioned how in addition to being afraid of debate moderators, now Republicans are afraid of widows and orphans. You don’t really man up by whining about the president insulting you. Well that’s exactly what United States Senator Ted Cruz did. He cried like a baby, or like someone stole his copy of Mein Kampf.

School yard bully Ted Cruz responded that it’s OK for the president to insult him, but he needs to do it to his face. Yeah, it’s kinda hard to look tough and manly after screaming you’re scared of widows, orphans, liberal debate moderators, sun light, garlic, mirrors, stakes through the heart, etc. That ship has sailed.

He challenged the president to a debate and said it can be held anywhere preferably on U.S. soil, and in a mausoleum where you can keep your blood cold, as that’s where the senator is most comfortable.

Two things about Ted Cruz you should keep in mind when he talks: 1. He’s an idiot. 2. anything he or anyone says while running for president is pandering to their base. Ted Cruz’s base is one of racists. 3. He’s really creepy. OK. Three things to keep in mind.

Ted, the president isn’t going to debate you. That would be just the boost your campaign needs. It would legitimize you and despite being a United States senator, you’re not legitimate. Your views are regressive and opposite of the direction the country is going in. Also, the president didn’t call you out by name. He saw Beetlejuice.

The president is justified to criticize these freaks while he’s out of the country. America’s right wing is embarrassing us to the world so why not insult them before an international audience? President Obama was in The Philippines when he made his comments, not Turkey as Cruz stated. This guy is almost as bad with maps and geography as Ben Carson. But lucky for Cruz, his father was better with maps when he left Cuba and found the U.S. (after finding Canada) where he sought political asylum. I guess that irony ship has sailed too.

Do you feel insulted when someone calls you out for your bigotry, racism, xenophobia, Islamophobia, sexism, and just downright being a horrible, disgusting, and vulgar waste of humanity? Then maybe you should stop. Stop creating legislation banning Syrians. Stop saying we should only accept Christians. Stop suggesting we should round up all refugees. Don’t kick them out of your state like the governor of Indiana did today (they were redirected from Indiana to Connecticut, where the governor is not a troglodyte, which is kind of a win for them). Don’t threaten to shut down mosques as Donald Trump suggested. Do not use the internment of Japanese civilians in World War II as a great and positive example, as the mayor of Roanoke, VA (my state) did today. Don’t use human suffering as a campaign prop, as the prostitute-loving senator from Louisiana is doing. Don’t say the president hates America because he’s black like Ben Stein did today (giving Ferris Beuller another reason to skip that class, Racism 101). You know what? Just stop saying the president doesn’t love America. George W. Bush brought this country to its knees, not because he hates it. He did it because he’s a moron who wanted to make war profiteers even richer.

Despite everything France has been through this past week, their president has vowed to take in more refugees. There are still good people out there, despite all the racists on Facebook giving the impression otherwise.

Sometimes the truth hurts. Senator Cruz, you’re xenophobic. And yes, You do look like a bigoted Grandpa Munster.

Who’s Violent?

It’s hard to draw a cartoon on something that’s already a cartoon. A state legislature in Texas, who’s a gun advocate and has an A plus rating from the NRA, says we shouldn’t allow refugees into this country because guns are so easy to buy here. You can’t make up this kind of irony.

That’s a new one in the argument against allowing Syrian refugees into this country. It falls into line with conservatives saying we can’t afford benefits for the refugees. Conservatives are fighting against benefits to poor people, minorities and women who have been born here. It’s also a little bizarre that the pro-life crowd cares about a fetus, but not a child fleeing a civil war…but then again, they also don’t care about American children shot in their classrooms. Conservatives are cowards.

Back to the argument about terrorist sneaking in with refugees:

In fact, over 2,000 on the terrorist watch list has legally purchased a gun in the past decade. You can thank the NRA for that.

Your odds of being killed in a terrorist attack is one in 20 million. Meanwhile, everyday in the United States 33 people are killed by guns. Since 1968, more Americans have died from guns than all of our wars combined. In 2010, 2.694 young Americans were killed by guns including 1,773 victims of homicide, and 67 elementary school-aged children. You’re really worried about being killed by a refugee? You have better odds of being killed by your neighbor in a lawnmower dispute.

Conservatives like to point out that the Boston Bombing Brothers were refugees. Not true. Their family sought asylum after arriving in the U.S. on tourist visas. The brothers were children at the time. Does that mean nobody should be allowed entry into this country?

If a Muslim shoots someone in this country there are immediate fears of terrorism. If a black man kills a white man we look for gang violence. If a white guy shoots up a church we wonder where did that boy go wrong. The odds are that if you’re murdered the perpetrator will be a member of your own race.

Now don’t you feel like you need to stop worrying about Syrian refugees and return your neighbor’s lawnmower?

Selective Sympathy

If you don’t understand this cartoon, then that kinda makes my point. I’m not gonna clue you in. You’ll have to Google.

claytoonz

Nationally Syndicated Editorial Cartoonist