Iran Deal

Rogue Nation

cjones05132018

In breaking the treaty preventing Iran from acquiring a nuclear weapon, Donald Trump said he’s a man who keeps his promises, thus making the United States a nation that does not.

Except, Donald Trump is not a man who keeps his promises. Ask his first wife, or his second, or his third. I’d tell you to ask his idiot sycophants who were promised Mexico would pay for the wall, except they’re idiots.

We know the government of Iran is made of religious zealots who lie. That was a factor the six nations who are a part of this deal accounted for when it was made. As we now negotiate a treaty to end North Korea’s nuclear program, they will keep in mind that Donald Trump lies.

Pulling us out of the deal will reinstate sanctions on Iran and inflict them upon those who do business with that nation. Iran and the other members of the deal, Russia, China, and our allies England, France, and Germany, plan to abide by it despite our absence. This may force us to place sanctions on our allies. Other nations will now make it a part of their foreign policy not to trust the United States, all because Donald Trump wants to erase Obama’s legacy.

The deal is not perfect. It doesn’t prevent Iran from exporting terror, disable their missile program, or stop them from jailing dissidents. But it prevents them from acquiring a nuclear weapon. Our intelligence and even the Israeli intelligence say Iran has not violated the agreement. But now, the United States is in violation of it.

This deal also affects the moderates in Iran. Much like our rabid Republicans who attacked Obama for this deal, the zealots in Iran are now pointing at Trump’s actions as proof that the U.S. is a hostile nation that can’t be trusted, and that they should stop trusting their more moderate leaders.

Trump cited the fact that Iran often chants “death to America” as a reason to pull out of the deal. Has the “dotard” heard what North Korea chants?

The only three nations cheering Trump’s stupid decision are Israel, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates. These nations have long wished for regime change in Iran, but they don’t want to do it themselves. They would love to see the United States take military action against Iran, which would be a bigger mess and quagmire than Iraq. For Saudi Arabia and the UAE, a war would raise oil prices which would greatly benefit them.

Trump doesn’t care about the best interest of the United States either. He pulled us out of the Paris Climate Accord and the Trans-Pacific Partnership. He’s moving our Israeli embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. None of these moves make the U.S. stronger but it’s red meat for his base of stupid people.

If Trump had negotiated this same exact deal with Iran his sycophants and Republicans would be trying to nominate him for a Nobel Prize. Why? Because it prevents Iran from getting nukes. Right now, the sycophants forging applications to nominate him for the prize based only on his agreement to meet with Kim Jong Un.

Now, the United States is the rogue nation. Why? Because our president is a stupid and petty little man. Iran and North Korea are dangers to the world, and so is Donald Trump.

Here’s the video.

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Trumping Obama’s Legacy

cjones10162017

Other than proposing to build a ridiculously expensive and stupid wall on the border with Mexico, Donald Trump hasn’t presented any original ideas of his own. His legacy will be undoing Obama’s legacy.

Trump has yet to realize the presidency is bigger than him, that he’s a public servant, president for all the people and not just his incredibly shrinking base, or that the job entails more than ego gratification.

Just as Woogie couldn’t get over Mary in There’s Something About Mary, Trump can’t get over Obama. President Obama is smarter than Trump. He’s cooler, smoother, and much more articulate. Obama had high approval ratings when he left office where Trump’s are proving historically low. Obama was well liked while Trump is less popular than gonorrhea. Which prospect sounds more enticing, eight years of Trump or wicked, burning venereal disease? Gonorrhea please, and thank you.

Trump can’t get over Obama. The guy even attacked him in front of Boy Scouts.

Trump has held a grudge against Obama before he had a reason to hate him. Trump was the biggest advocate of birtherism in this nation. Nobody campaigned harder on the racist lie that Obama was illegitimate. Obama ribbed Trump so hard at the White House Correspondents Dinner, that today Trump won’t even attend the dinner as president.

When Trump talks about enacting a new health plan, he talks more about how terrible Obamacare is than how great his own plan is. He tells us he’s just going to let Obamacare die…and then he stabs it. He’s shortening the enrollment date and cutting the advertising budget by 90%. If more people sign up for Obamacare, it’s not going to die. For Obamacare to die, it’s going to need a great big orange push. The biggest gripe he has with Obamacare is that it has Obama’s name.

Trump is ending DACA, a program that allows people to stay in this nation that were brought here, by no choice of their own, by their parents. These young people are effectively Americans. This is home to them, and they’re making this country a better place. Many are skilled and highly educated. Trump doesn’t care if he ruins lives and makes this nation weaker. Allowing them to stay was an Obama initiative, and he can’t have that.

Trump has pulled us out of the Paris Climate Agreement, and he’s reversing Obama’s climate policy. He doesn’t need to understand anything about it other than Obama got us into it.

He’s banning transgenders from serving in the military. Why? You guessed it. Obama allowed them to serve. Trump didn’t even discuss the issue with the military. He surprised them with a tweet. He talks about making our military more effective yet, he wants to kick people out we’ve spent millions of dollars training.

Now he’s trying to kill the treaty we have with Iran that prevents them from having a nuclear weapon. The Obama administration spent two years on this deal. It involves every member of the United Nations Security Council, us, Great Britain, France, China, and Russia, as well as Germany and the European Union.

The treaty with Iran prevents them from developing nuclear weapons. Republicans love to say it helps them acquire nuclear weapons. That’s an argument they haven’t explained. Iran has been in compliance with the agreement. For some reason, Republicans believe destroying a treaty that Iran is abiding by, that prevents them from acquiring nuclear weapons, will somehow make the world safer.

Trump argues that we gave Iran millions of dollars in the treaty. That’s a lie. We returned money to Iran that we froze in 1979. It’s Iran’s money.

Trump wants a better deal with Iran that was negotiated over two years between several nations, allies, and adversaries. I don’t see how that’s possible since the current treaty was negotiated by people a lot smarter than Trump and his cronies. If anything, Trump has proven that he is not a good deal-maker.

Yanking us out of the Iran treaty will betray our allies and tell our enemies that they can’t trust us. Why should North Korea even talk to us if we’re liars? How bad is it that our president is coming off as more extreme and radical than the Iranian regime?

But, forget all that. Screw the safety of the world. Forget even reading the agreement before you get rid of it. The most important thing is Trump’s ego. He’s serving a constituency of one, himself.

Obama’s legacy, lives of Dreamers, the climate, world safety, etc. Trump would rather piss on it all than having anything positive left behind by Obama. Or in his case, he’ll hire Russian hookers to do it.

Creative note: I’m not totally insane. I realize most of my clients won’t run this cartoon (if they even get it). But, I provide seven cartoons a week to them, and they can pick and choose what they want. So, occasionally they’re going to get something a little dangerous from me.

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Iranian Hostages

cjones01182016

Who the Hell complains about American hostages and prisoners being released by an enemy nation? Republicans. Specifically Republicans running for president.

They’re upset they were taken in the first place, which we all are. But they say their capture is a result of the disrespect the world has for President Obama, as if it wouldn’t have happened with a Republican president. Americans, members of the military or civilians, have never been taken by a foreign power during any other presidential administration. Oh wait…yes they have. OK, not during a Republican administration….oh yeah…they have. During George W. Bush’s first year in office China captured several military personnel. When they were released Bush apologized to China and let China keep all the technology inside their plane.

They’re also upset with the way Iran promoted the capture by showing video of the sailors on the knees, hands behind their heads, while guns were pointed at them. I agree that’s sickening and it shouldn’t be promoted. But we do it too. After we killed Saddam Hussein’s two sons we flashed photos of their corpses across the media landscape.

In addition to the soldiers being released, Iran released five other prisoners on Saturday. Four of them were part of a “swap.” U.S. clemency was offered to seven Iranians charged or imprisoned for sanctions violations and the dismissal of outstanding charges against 14 Iranians outside the United States. They were not shipped to Iran and can pretty much go wherever they want. None of the seven were charged with terrorism.

Republicans are still upset. They say we shouldn’t have made the deal because….they don’t know why but it’s just wrong. They wanted a fight. I guess it would have been OK if a Republican was president and made the deal by illegally giving Iran missiles, which is how President Reagan got hostages released.

The GOP has complained that the release of the five prisoners in Iran should have been a part of the nuclear deal. Their release is not a part of it, but it has coincided with the start of the deal. Yet, they’re still complaining.

It’s funny the people who claim to love America, love the military, claim to be patriots, do the most harm to America and the military. Screaming about the release of the hostages before they’re actually released is a disqualifier for the office of president. Negotiations are sensitive. If you have to risk the lives of Americans and can’t wait another four hours to make political hay, you should not be president.

Diplomacy can work if you give it a chance. Sometimes you have to talk to your enemies. Even Reagan knew that, when someone told him who he was talking to and if he could stay awake long enough. The last time we didn’t give diplomacy a chance we waged a useless war in Iraq. The people who created the mess, foreign and domestic, that Obama has spent eight years cleaning up, are promising to make the mess again.

No thanks!

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I RAN From Jounalism

cjones10142015

It would have been nice if part of the nuclear deal the United States  five other countries recently struck with Iran included the release of Washington Post reporter Jason Reziain and other Americans currently detained in Iran. However, I realize the nuclear deal is important and is a totally separate situation than anyone arrested and detained by the Iranian government.

This is not the Iranian Hostage crisis which gripped the nation from 1979 to 1981 and helped destroy the Jimmy Carter administration.

Washington Post reporter Jason Reziain was arrested by the Iranian government on charges of espionage and other crimes. One of the charges is that he identified companies that may have evaded U.S. sanctions against Iran.

In a secret trial in Iran, Reziain has been convicted of crimes that haven’t been explained by the government, nor is has his sentence been revealed. The government doesn’t have any evidence that the journalist is guilty of anything other than doing his job.

Washington Post executive editor Martin Baron said in a statement “Iran has behaved unconscionably throughout this case, but never more so than with this indefensible decision by a Revolutionary Court to convict an innocent journalist of serious crimes after a proceeding that unfolded in secret, with no evidence whatsoever of any wrongdoing,” They plan to appeal.

Iran will now try to swing a separate deal for Reziain and other Americans, hoping to get Iranians held by the United States released. The other Americans are Amir Hekmati, a former Marine sentenced to death in January 2012 for espionage, and Saeed Abedini, a pastor detained in Iran in 2012 and sentenced to eight years in prison on charges of attempting to undermine the government.

Every single person I have ever met from Iran has been extremely kind. They are some of the nicest and warmest people I have ever had the pleasure to meet. I have never met anyone from the Iranian government.

In November a few of my cartoons, along with hundreds from other professional cartoonists, will be auctioned at an event called Cartoons & Cocktails at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C. The funds will go towards supporting cartoonists detained, arrested, tortured and oppressed in countries that don’t allow a free press. Support for a free press in other nations should be important to every American journalist.

I realize that my drawing funny pictures of government officials is something that would have made me disappear a long time ago if I wasn’t fortunate enough to be doing it in a free nation.

If you’ll be in the area, I highly recommend attending the event in D.C.

Endorsed By The Dark Overlord

cjones09102015

If Dick Cheney was a dentist, he’d be that one out of five that’d recommend brushing your teeth with sugar and battery acid.

At least George W. Bush has the dignity to sit in a bathtub and paint portraits of his toes instead of giving lousy advice on foreign policy.

Whenever I hear conservatives disagree with Obama and tell us how to avoid war I really want to throw something at their head. You were the guys who told us invading Iraq was a great idea. You went to bat for that. You sold it. You carried it. You swore by it. You bled for it…not literally…you sent other people to bleed for it.

Iraq cost us thousands of lives, tens of thousands of Iraqi lives, wounded many Americans who lost limbs and will be physically and emotionally scared forever, destabilized the Mideast, gave us ISIS, scattered refugees throughout Europe, ruined our economy and put us deeper in debt. How dare you even state an opinion on the U.S. and war.

Seriously, you need to sit down, drink a huge glass of shut the Hell up and let other people make decisions on keeping our country safe because you suck at it.

Dick Cheney was wrong on EVERYTHING. He was wrong about weapons of mass destruction. He was wrong about Iraq’s connections to aL Qaida. He was wrong about the cost of the war. He was wrong about how we’d be greeted. He was wrong about disassembling Iraq’s military. Cheney was wrong so often on the Iraq War that one needs a score card for all the points where he was wrong. But that old war profiteer was probably right about how much money his buddies would make on the operation through no-bid contracts.

The man is a war profiteer. He and his friends have made millions in blood money. It’s what he does.

Now he tells us we can’t trust this Iran deal. They say with this deal Iran is on the path to nuclear weapons. What kind of path are they on without the deal? Never Mind that Iran went from zero to 5,000 centrifuges during the Bush/Cheney administration.

I think Cheney had a reality transplant.

I would put more faith in Dick Cheney growing a natural afro than in him ever being right about foreign policy.