ISIS

Big Tech Censorship

cjones01232021

When conservatives complain about “big tech censorship,” which is their latest buzz phrase, they don’t really care. They care about censorship about as much as they really care about “election integrity.” They don’t.

My former step-sister in Illinois posted a video of someone I don’t know moaning about “big tech censorship” of conservatives and how it was so unfair. The video was from the TikTok platform. I found that very ironic since Donald Trump actually tried to ban TikTok in this country.

Donald Trump tried to ban TikTok because it was used to snatch up tickets to his Tulsa rally, thus embarrassing him when nobody showed up (except Herman Cain) after his campaign boasted about the millions who would be there (seriously, they set up giant screens outside so all the people who couldn’t get inside the venue could still hear Trump’s rambling rhetoric…and nobody was out there). It was so bad, he fired his campaign manager. But I don’t recall a huge conservative backlash of Trump stripping away people’s freedom of speech. I don’t recall any conservative using the word “censorship.”

Donald Trump blocked people on Twitter who were mean to him. Since his account was considered a “public service,” you know, because he was president (sic), courts ruled he couldn’t block anyone. Trump’s tweets were considered official record. Every American had the right to see his tweets and understand just what an unhinged lunatic and national security threat we had occupying the Oval Office. But again, his supporters didn’t jump on him for blocking people. Conservatives never took issue with Trump’s Twitter activity, even when he retweeted Nazis. He retweeted a LOT of Nazis. And now, Republicans are really upset over a Twitter account being removed that retweeted Nazis. Fucking Nazis, people!

Now that Twitter and Facebook have removed Donald Trump from their platforms, and thousands of Trump supporters, they’re being accused of censorship and discriminating against conservative speech. Republicans are up in arms. South Dakota, or North Dakota, one of the Dakotas is trying to make it legal to sue “big tech” if they censor you. I think to take advantage of this, every Trump supporter in the United States should move to whichever Dakota it is that’s doing that. One of my conservative cartooning colleagues went on Twitter and tweeted multiple times challenging Twitter to remove his account. At this time, Twitter still hasn’t removed his account. Do you know why? Because they don’t care. Also, he should move to one of the Dakotas.

Here’s the thing, MAGAts…and please pay attention: Social media is NOT discriminating against you. Big tech is NOT out to get you. Here’s a helpful hint: If you’re complaining on Twitter or Facebook about their censorship and they haven’t removed your posts complaining about their censorship, then you’re probably not being censored.

Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube are not trying to silence conservative voices. What these platforms are doing, including Amazon removing Parler from its servers, is removing terrorists and people who support terrorists. They’re removing the ability for terrorist fucks to coordinate, plan, and incite other terrorist fucks. Now, it just so happens that all these terrorists are conservatives and Trump supporters.

If you don’t want your social media account removed, stop being a terrorist fuck. It’s pretty simple.

No private company owes you a platform to spread lies, conspiracy theories, or to coordinate terrorist attacks. They don’t owe you a platform to recruit new members for your hate group.

Do you remember when ISIS, al-Qaida, and other terrorist organizations were removed from social media platforms and the servers that hosted them? I do. These guys were really good at using social media and the internet to organize and recruit. Eventually, “big tech” started removing them after there were calls for them to do so. Do you remember who yelled for Twitter to remove ISIS supporters? A lot of people making those demands were…wait for it…Republicans.

ISIS was so good at using social media to recruit, they were recruiting Americans. They were also recruiting people from the United Kingdom and Europe (I separate the two because I know people in the UK who HATE being included with Europe. It’s kinda like us with Florida and Alabama). Do you know who else has been good at using the internet to recruit terrorists? Trump supporters.

The Southern Poverty Law Center says hate groups increased their membership by 55% during the Trump era. Actually, they reported that in 2018, so it’s probably a lot higher now. And Donald Trump encouraged the hate groups. After the tiki-torch Nazis marched in Charlottesville and killed Heather Heyer, Donald Trump said there were good people among those chanting “Jews will not replace us” and “blood and soil.” During a debate with Joe Biden, when asked to denounce the hate group Proud Boys, instead of denouncing them, he told them to “stand by.” Stand by for what? We found out.

Donald Trump called for his hate groups to go to Washington, D.C. on January 6. He told them it would “wild.” He and his supporters claim he didn’t want them to be violent, so that means he only wanted a bloodless coup. Donald Trump told his angry crowd of white nationalists to “march” on the Capitol. For months, he told them a big lie about the election being stolen. A lie he’s still telling. He told them to fight and they couldn’t be weak. He said if they didn’t fight, they’d lose their country. They attacked the Capitol. They vandalized the place. They stole items. They killed a cop. The beat up other cops. They brought nooses and chanted, “Hang Mike Pence.” They screamed to find Nancy Pelosi and vandalized her office. They brought pipe bombs and Molotov cocktails. They shit in the hallways.

Who does that? Terrorists do that. Terrorists bring pipe bombs and shit on the floor. “Make American great again” apparently means stop using toilets and shit on floors. How about, “Make Republicans house broken again?”

A lot of conservatives are saying they didn’t want the violence, just the insurrection. They wanted the coup. They wanted to install a fascist dictator who had lost an election. But they didn’t mean to hurt anybody. While screaming about defending the Constitution, they tried to stop Congress from doing a Constitutional duty. These were terrorists. If they weren’t, then why did Trump supporters initially try to blame Antifa?

And after storming the Capitol, ransacking the place, committing murder, and that disgusting stuff you did in the hallways, you have the gall to scream about being censored.

Nobody is censoring you. Stop yelling this is like the George Orwell novel “1984.” I don’t remember you idiots mentioning “1984” or using the term “Orwellian” when Donald Trump called for abolishing the First Amendment, that protects free speech, when he said the government to be able to go after social media platforms and publications for writing stuff he didn’t like. People who haven’t read “1984” should stop comparing things to it. Go read “1984,” and after that, read “Animal Farm,” and the First Amendment. The good news is, they’re all very easy reads.

Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube are all private platforms. The government doesn’t own them. They do not owe you a damn thing. A private company shutting you down is not censorship. You can still speak…just not there. And I seem to remember Trump supporters being all about freedom for private businesses when it comes to birth control insurance and gay wedding cakes.

Trump supporters are outraged that Donald Trump is now silenced by Twitter, despite his still having the bully pulpit. Why, what ever did presidents do previously to speak to Americans? FDR conducted fireside chats. Some presidents, I have been told, have used this new device thing called “television.” Did I pronounce that correctly? All the kids are talking about it. Look into it.

If the biggest takeaway you have from the terrorist attack on the Capitol is that “big tech” is being mean to terrorists, go screw yourself. Stop defending terrorists…like Donald Trump.

If your accounts on social media are being deleted by “big tech,” it’s probably not because you’re a conservative. It’s probably because you’re supporting terrorists. Maybe, it’s because you are a terrorist.

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AL MAGA Daddy

cjones10302019

The killing of an international terrorist on the FBI’s most-wanted list would be a win for any president and an opportunity to be presidential. In moments of successes like this, as it was for President Obama with the death of Osama bin Laden or even a failure like the one Jimmy Carter suffered from a failed mission to rescue hostages from Tehran, presidents become presidential. With the killing of Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, Trump had a desperately needed win and he proceeded to mess it up even before the announcement.

Before the raid by American special ops, Trump messed up by not informing key members of Congress, citing that he can’t trust them not to leak. But, he informed Russia. In fact, he thanked Russia even though they didn’t have anything to do with the raid. Before he made the announcement, he tweeted a hint which gave the entire world a huge clue as to what had happened. From “Something very big has just happened!” you’d think had just killed a major terrorist or was bragging about using his pull-ups successfully all by himself for the first time.

Donald Trump could have just delivered the information but he turned it into editorializing, which amounted to preening. He claimed Baghdadi was “screaming, crying, and whimpering, “and he was scared out of his mind,” and he “died like a dog,” and “died like a coward.” While no one is going to mourn the death of this brutal terrorist, Trump threw away American honor and dignity with his childish taunts and insults, even if his claims are true. As Michael Leiter, who led the US National Counterterrorism Center from 2007 to 2011, told VOX, “Highlighting and repeating that language is not especially dignified for the United States. We should always take a higher moral ground, and talking about an individual’s death is not particularly productive. What the president should’ve spent more time on was highlighting ISIS’s atrocities, like the killing of the Jordanian pilot. That’s appropriate: It shows that ISIS wasn’t at war with the West, it was at war with all peoples who are civilized, including Muslims who don’t adhere to their extremely strict view of Sunni Islam.”

Trump claimed he couldn’t trust Democrats in Congress not to leak and inform ISIS an attack was coming, yet he may have revealed classified information during his braggadocious press conference. The biggest danger is that Trump may have tipped off future targets describing the information our nation had about Baghdadi’s compound, which teaches them how to avoid death and capture from future raids.

The mission was named after Kayla Mueller, a victim of the terrorist. Her mother praised Trump and said if “Obama had been as decisive as Trump,” her daughter might still be alive. But, as it turns out, the mission was delayed and complicated by Trump pulling our troops out of Syria. This mission was conducted from Iraq. The mission was made possible by intelligence provided by Kurdish allies, whom Donald Trump has abandoned and given Turkey the green light to slaughter.

Trump used the opportunity to praise his travel ban, despite there not being any ISIS attacks in the United States by anyone traveling from any of the nations on his travel-ban list.

Trump also claimed that nobody heard of Osama bin Laden before 9/11, yet he warned the country it needed to “take him out” in one of his crappy books he didn’t write, a year and a half before planes flew into the World Trade Center. He insinuated 9/11 may not have ever happened if the U.S. had listened to his advice, and complained that he doesn’t receive credit.

Uh, his book, The America We Deserve (gag), does mention bin Laden, but it doesn’t say anything about “taking him out.” And maybe Trump voters never heard of bin Laden before 9/11, but America was aware of him. He was in international news. He had committed major attacks against two U.S. embassies in Africa and on the U.S.S. Cole. There had been attempts to take him out in 1998, before Trump’s book was published. I’m mostly shocked that he didn’t plug that Trump Tower became the tallest building in New York City after 9/11, which he has done before.

Trump also attacked the intelligence community, saying, “I’ve dealt with some people that aren’t very intelligent, having to do with intel.” Never mind the fact that we learned of Baghdadi’s whereabouts from…wait for it…intelligence.

Trump also compared Baghdadi’s death to bin Laden’s, stating “his killing” was a bigger deal than Obama’s.

Obama took nine minutes to announce the killing of bin Laden. Trump took nearly an hour because he needed all that time to take credit. So naturally, in the past, Trump said Obama didn’t deserve any credit for the killing of bin Laden. He had tweeted, “Stop congratulating Obama for killing Bin Laden. The Navy Seals killed Bin Laden.” He actually tweeted about it multiple times over several months.

He said to CNN’s Wolf Blitzer, “What’s he going to say, don’t get him? And he gets all this credit? It’s a lot of crap.” You can expect the same people who spent months, years even, trying to take credit away from Obama for bin Laden to heap it on Trump. Quite frankly, “it’s a lot of crap.”

Trump also posted an obviously-staged photo from the situation room. While the photo of Obama’s situation room looked authentic, with all the participants looking toward the monitor, the photo of Trump’s has everyone looking at the camera as though they’re posed at the table. I’m surprised a product placement wasn’t inserted for Trump Doral. As Raf Sanchez, middle-east correspondent for The Telegraph tweeted, “The Trump situation room photo looks quite a bit more self-conscious than the Obama one.”

Fortunately, a lot of people can see right through Trump. While thinking the world will be praising him, he actually faced a crowd, for what’s probably the last time, that wasn’t a MAGA hate rally. At the World Series Sunday night, Trump got booed and was greeted with chants of “lock him up.”

Boos are appropriate for the boo-hooer.

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You can help me continue to create cartoons, blogs, and videos by making a contribution. All support, large and small, is greatly appreciated. You can also support me by purchasing a signed print (8 1/2×11) for $40, or a signed poster (18×24) for $100 by clicking the PayPal button (just include a note if you’re purchasing a print). If you want to support but don’t want to use PayPal, you can send a contribution through the mail (address is on the contact page. Again, include a note for a print). I don’t plan on going anywhere and your support will help guarantee that. Whether you support, can’t. or just choose not to, please know that I am truly thankful that you visit my site and read my work.

You can purchase a signed print of this cartoon.

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Support the cartoonist.

You can help me continue to create cartoons, blogs, and videos by making a contribution. All support, large and small, is greatly appreciated. You can also support me by purchasing a signed print (8 1/2×11) for $40, or a signed poster (18×24) for $100 by clicking the PayPal button (just include a note if you’re purchasing a print). If you want to support but don’t want to use PayPal, you can send a contribution through the mail (address is on the contact page. Again, include a note for a print). I don’t plan on going anywhere and your support will help guarantee that. Whether you support, can’t. or just choose not to, please know that I am truly thankful that you visit my site and read my work.

You can purchase a signed print of this cartoon.

Watch me draw.

Support the cartoonist.

You can help me continue to create cartoons, blogs, and videos by making a contribution. All support, large and small, is greatly appreciated. You can also support me by purchasing a signed print (8 1/2×11) for $40, or a signed poster (18×24) for $100 by clicking the PayPal button (just include a note if you’re purchasing a print). If you want to support but don’t want to use PayPal, you can send a contribution through the mail (address is on the contact page. Again, include a note for a print). I don’t plan on going anywhere and your support will help guarantee that. Whether you support, can’t. or just choose not to, please know that I am truly thankful that you visit my site and read my work.

You can purchase a signed print of this cartoon.

Watch me draw.

Trump’s Turkey Letter

cjones10192019

Warren Harding was not a good president. Even during his term, he was regarded as a failed president and that perception remains with today’s historians who rank him among the worst. His administration was visionless, ineffectual and corrupt. He slashed immigration quotas, appointed his cronies, one of whom accepted bribes from oil companies in what became known as the Teapot Dome scandal, and brought an end to the reform-minded eras of his predecessors. He had a lover on the side to whom he wrote letters to in which he referred to his penis as Jerry. The Republican Party, concerned that the affair wouldn’t just expose Harding as a cheater but that his lover supported Germany in World War I, paid her an amount that would be nearly $300,000 today in hush money. The RNC even paid for her and her husband to go on a lengthy trip to Japan, and Harding himself offered her $5,000 a year as long as he was in public service. Corruption, mistresses, hush money, ending reforms, scaling back immigration, weird penis story, etc. Does any of this sound familiar?

Harding did not belong in the presidency, but at least he wasn’t oblivious to that fact as he once conceded, “I am not fit for this office and should never have been here.”

Donald Trump is not fit for his office and he shouldn’t be there. But, unlike Harding, he doesn’t know it. In fact, he tells us he’s a “stable genius,” has “unmatched wisdom,” and boasts of imaginary accomplishments that “only he” could have accomplished.

Donald Trump is stupid. He’s also a man-child. When Hillary Clinton called him “Putin’s Puppet,” his retort was, “You’re the puppet.” Yesterday, after a failed meeting with Congressional leaders over Syria, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said he had a “meltdown.” His retort this time? She had the “meltdown.” She said she “prays for his health,” and he tweeted, “Nancy Pelosi needs help fast! There is either something wrong with her ‘upstairs,’ or she just plain doesn’t like our great Country. She had a total meltdown in the White House today. It was very sad to watch. Pray for her, she is a very sick person!” If Pelosi had called him a “poopy head,” he would have replied she’s a “poopy head.” I hope he’s never in a rap battle (actually, I think I would like to see that).

Trump later tweeted out a photo of the meeting he thought would make him look good to his base. In it, Pelosi is standing at a table, fully occupied by men, directly across from Trump, seemingly confronting him. Instead of it humiliating her, she made it her header photo on Twitter. It’s like the time I bought a water pistol to scold my dog with, and he ended up barking for more sprays from the water pistol (maybe we should try the water pistol technique on Trump).

In another act of obliviousness, Trump proudly distributed a letter he wrote to Turkish president Recip Erdogan, which reads like it was written by a third-grader on Adderall.

Upon seeing the letter on Facebook, I thought, that’s good satire. It sounds just like something he would write, or in his case, dictate. Though, they may have gone over the top with the stupidity…oh wait….that shit’s real? Even the press had to check with the White House to see if it was genuine. To everyone’s astonishment, the White House confirmed its authenticity. Have you ever turned on TV news to see every anchor with their mouths hanging open? This is an actual letter from one world leader to another and not some drama-filled vague Facebook post from one teen to another about checking out her boyfriend (I have nieces. I’ve seen these)?

In it, Trump says, “Let’s make a deal” and he further warns that he’ll destroy Turkey’s economy if a deal isn’t made over the Kurds whom he abandoned like a first or second wife. He tells Erdogan he doesn’t want to be “responsible for the slaughter of thousands of people” and that history will look “favorably” on him if he gets it done the “right and humane” way. Or, that it’ll look upon him “forever as the devil if good things don’t happen,” like how it’ll look on Republicans still supporting Trump after they see this rambling trainwreck of a letter. He further warns Erdogan, “don’t be a tough guy,” and “don’t be a fool!” then strangest of all, sums it up with, “I’ll call you.”

Donald Trump doesn’t just need to be impeached. He needs to be checked into a facility where he can receive help. I don’t mean that to insult or attack him. There’s something wrong with him.

Trump also tweeted his high approval rating within the GOP base, seemingly aware Republicans may be flaking, as two-thirds of House Republicans voted in favor of a resolution condemning his decision to pull United States troops out of Syria. There are reports several Republicans are privately expressing they’re tired of dealing with Trump. There are fears in the White House that a Senate trial could actually be a disaster for him, as each day reveals new details of his corruption while he continues to exhibit a mental disorder.

Impeaching Trump as punishment is all well and good, but that’s the least of it. He needs to be removed because if not, he will continue to endanger this nation. The man is a Russian asset and a national security risk (he even revealed we have nukes in Turkey, which goes against a longstanding government policy of not saying where they are. Next, he’ll tweet the codes).

Donald Trump doesn’t know how to be president, let alone a rational, stable adult. Republicans who continue to support him don’t know how to be Americans.

Donald Trump is not fit for this office and he doesn’t belong here.

Support the cartoonist.

You can help me continue to create cartoons, blogs, and videos by making a contribution. All support, large and small, is greatly appreciated. You can also support me by purchasing a signed print (8 1/2×11) for $40, or a signed poster (18×24) for $100 by clicking the PayPal button (just include a note if you’re purchasing a print). If you want to support but don’t want to use PayPal, you can send a contribution through the mail (address is on the contact page. Again, include a note for a print). I don’t plan on going anywhere and your support will help guarantee that. Whether you support, can’t. or just choose not to, please know that I am truly thankful that you visit my site and read my work.

You can purchase a signed print of this cartoon.

Watch me draw.

Kurds Get Trumped

cjones10112019

Donald Trump is not just a risk to our national security. He’s a risk for the world’s security.

Trump has a good argument about America being in “forever wars,” like Afghanistan. He’s not the first to make the argument as it’s one that’s been carried by Republicans and Democrats alike. But pulling our troops out of Kurdish-held northern Syria isn’t removing us from a “forever war,” as most of the fighting on our behalf has been done by Syrian Kurds. They’ve fought with our equipment and training to defeat ISIS.

This is where it gets tricky. The Kurds are holding about 11,000 ISIS fighters. Trump says Turkey must now take responsibility for those prisoners. They also operate camps for families displaced by the war, holding tends of thousands of people. Many of them are non-Syrian wives and children of ISIS fighters.

Turkey does not like the Kurds. They have been fighting separatist Kurds inside their borders for years and consider all Kurdish fighters, including our allies, the Syrian Kurds, to be terrorists. Turkey is planning to invade Northern Syria after the U.S. removes its protection of the Kurds.

Syria’s dictator, who the Kurds have also been fighting, along with ISIS while they’ve been fighting ISIS (told you it’s confusing), controls the southern half of Syria. President Bashar al-Assad is backed by Putin and he wants to retake northern Syria. He’s looking to make a deal with the Kurds. Russia also has troops in Syria.

On Monday, a bipartisan group of lawmakers issued a joint statement saying, “If Turkey attacks these Kurdish soldiers, there is a grave risk that the ISIS fighters they guard will escape and return to the battlefield.” Susan Rice, the former national security adviser for President Obama, told Stephen Colbert, “This is batshit crazy.” Trump’s former UN ambassador Nikki Haley said we’re leaving the Syrian Kurds “to die.” Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell came out of his shell and said this will benefit the Syrian regime, Iran, and Russia.” Even Lindsey Graham, who usually resides in Donald Trump’s butt, said this is “complete chaos” and a “disaster.” The butt, however, according to Lindsey, is nice this time of year.

This is America bailing on an ally after they helped us defeat ISIS. Already, there are reports of Turkish artillery shelling and airstrikes on Syrian Kurdish positions. Trump made the decision after a phone call with Turkish President Recep Erdogan, probably after Erdogan promised dirt on Hunter Biden.

The White House said Turkey would “now be responsible for all ISIS fighters in the area captured over the past two years.” Turkey replied, “Yeah, uh-huh. Right.”

The United States has a long history of abandoning the Kurds. President Richard Nixon helped foment a Kurdish uprising in Iraq to fight Iran. But after Iran and Iraq mended fences in 1975, we turned out back on the insurrection and left them to be slaughtered and driven into exile. In 1991, George H.W. Bush called on Iraqis to rise up against dictator Saddam Hussien. After we were done with Desert Storm, we abandoned the Kurds again and Saddam crushed them. Last August, the Trump administration convinced the Kurds to pull back from the Turkish border and dismantle their fortifications. Now, with those fortifications dismantled, Donald Trump has given Turkey the green light to invade northern Syria.

Trump’s former top diplomat in the war against ISIS, Brett McGurk tweeted, “The value of an American handshake is depreciating.” Plus with Trump, you don’t know where that hand’s been.

Hearing the criticism and concern over Turkey’s intentions, Trump tweeted yesterday, “If Turkey does anything that I, in my great and unmatched wisdom, consider to be off limits, I will totally destroy and obliterate the Economy of Turkey (I’ve done before!).” Well, shoot. I guess we were all concerned about nothing because we still have Trump’s “great and unmatched wisdom” to take care of things. If nothing else, he’ll destroy Turkey’s economy like he did before which nobody remembers happening.

The conflict of interest in this crisis should also be noted. There are Trump Towers in Istanbul (in case you’re a Republican, Istanbul is in Turkey). Trump’s proud of these towers and said in 2015, “It’s called Trump Towers. Two towers instead of one. Not the usual one. It’s two.” Unfortunately for the Kurds, they don’t even have one Trump Tower.

We are bailing on our allies and proving to the world we can’t be trusted. Our next president, unless it’s Mike Pence, will have to rebuild that trust. Someone said, “Don’t forget, that’s their territory. We have to help them. They fought with us. They died. We lost tens of thousands of Kurds, died fighting ISIS. They died for us and with us. And for themselves. They died for themselves. They’re great people. And we have not forgotten. We don’t forget.” In case you can’t tell from that sentence structure, Donald Trump said that. He said it last year and, I think he forgot.

All these world leaders who throw Trump parades, flattery, visits to secret cities, sword dances, and promise investigations based on conspiracy theories on his political opponents need to keep in mind, Trump is not loyal. But for us, when Trump bails on an ally, it’s not just his reputation he’s harming. He’s making America look bad. Sure, world leaders in the future will realize our next president fully understands two towers is more than one tower, but they’ll remember we’re the idiots who put an orange idiot in the White House.

We need to show the world that we can do one thing right and that is impeaching Donald Trump because he’s bringing America’s credibility down to his level. And in case you’re a Republican, his level is a sewer.

Support the cartoonist.

You can help me continue to create cartoons, blogs, and videos by making a contribution. All support, large and small, is greatly appreciated. You can also support me by purchasing a signed print (8 1/2×11) for $40, or a signed poster (18×24) for $100 by clicking the PayPal button (just include a note if you’re purchasing a print). If you want to support but don’t want to use PayPal, you can send a contribution through the mail (address is on the contact page. Again, include a note for a print). I don’t plan on going anywhere and your support will help guarantee that. Whether you support, can’t. or just choose not to, please know that I am truly thankful that you visit my site and read my work.

You can purchase a signed print of this cartoon.

Watch me draw.

Prez For The Caliphate

cjones11042017

Every president from FDR to Obama, (and yes, Sarah Huckabee Sanders, even Kennedy AND JFK) responded to attacks on our country by uniting the nation. Roosevelt didn’t blame Republicans when Japan attacked Pearl Harbor. George W. Bush didn’t throw petty insults and lies at Nancy Pelosi when al Qaida hit the World Trade Center. When a terrorist killed 49 people at the Pulse nightclub, Obama didn’t use the occasion to remind us Ted Cruz is a hideous human being from Canada.

Donald Trump is a president who doesn’t know how to be president. That’s because he’s not supposed to be president. He especially doesn’t know how to react to traumatic events in his life, from a terrorist shooting over 50 people in Las Vegas to Kristen Stewart cheating on Robert Pattinson. The man totally wigs out and loses his shit and his only response is to be as petty as he can possibly be.

ISIS does not expect to destroy our nation by killing eight people on bicycles in New York City by running over them with a rental truck from Home Depot (who still probably had a better week with national exposure than Papa John’s). Their goal is for us to use that to destroy ourselves. Terrorists failed at making us destroy ourselves over 9/11 and they have failed at every attempt since. Now, they have a president who will play into their hands. They have a true puppet in Donald Trump. Putin will have to share him.

After losing the cities of Mosul and Raqqa, ISIS rejoices at an American president who uses one of their attacks to attack his political opponents. It’s probably even better the president lies when he does it.

The president’s responses to attacks have been political, divisive, and outright stupid. As a candidate, his response to the Pulse nightclub shootings was to congratulate himself for predicting it. For San Bernardino, he called for a ban on Muslims entering the nation (as he did for Pulse). We can’t forget his response to the death of a young woman by racists in Charlottesville, when he said “good people” were marching with Nazis.

After Las Vegas, the White House told us not to politicize it, and they haven’t talked about any legislation to prevent similar attacks in the future. Less than eighteen hours after the attack in New York City, Trump is calling for an end to the “Diversary” Visa Lottery  program for immigrants.

This is a system that offers citizens of countries with low immigration rates a chance to come to the United States. The NYC killer entered the nation seven years ago from Uzbekistan as a beneficiary of the program.

The Visa program issues up to 50,000 green cards a year, which is a tiny fraction of the more than one million who receive them. Applicants don’t require a sponsor, must pass a background check, have a high school diploma, and have two years of recent work experience. Citizens of Mexico, Canada, Brazil, China and other nations that have sent at least 50,000 people to the United States in the past five years are not eligible. The intention is to mix up our melting pot, which you don’t do by letting Nickelback stay here.

Trump ignored the facts Wednesday when he tweeted, “we need to get rid of the lottery program as soon as possible.” He also attacked New York Senator and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer with, “The terrorist came into our country through what is called the ‘Diversity Visa Lottery Program,’ a Chuck Schumer beauty. I want merit based.”

Schumer helped create the program in 1990, and it passed with bipartisan support and was signed into law by President George H.W. Bush. In recent years, he’s worked on legislation that would reduce the number of immigrants, thus ending the Lottery program.

Trump isn’t interested in the details. He needs something stupid for Huckabee Sanders to defend. Kellyanne Conway will surely double-down on the stupidity later today on CNN, and Sebastian Gorka will most likely follow the talking points on Fox News while also doing his creepy vampire routine. Bleah. Bleah. Bleah.

As others have pointed out, the president is very slow in criticizing white people who kill people. Sometimes, he compliments them, as if Putin sent them over. When the perpetrator is brown, he unleashes his Twitter Kraken.

I really miss having an adult as president and I’m tired of being stuck with an illiterate racist child who emboldens terrorists.

I want to thank everyone who has donated in the past. Your support helps me continue creating cartoons and columns with a little less stress in my life. Between competing syndicates with much larger resources, timid editors, and Trump supporters who attempt to intimidate the editors who do publish anything that criticizes their idol, it’s a challenge to make a career out of this. So your support (if you can) is appreciated. Want to help me continue to create cartoons and keep doing what I’m doing (pissing off conservatives)? Look to the right of this page and make a donation through PayPal. Every $40 donation will receive a signed print. All donations will receive my eternal gratitude.

Send In The Clown

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Many believe the greatest threat to the United States is ISIS. Others say Climate Change. Recently you’ve probably read more about people freaking out about clowns. Scary clowns. Creepy clowns.

I don’t get this fad. I don’t think anyone does. I think a news organization needs to find a clown and interview him to find out what’s going on. The clown panic has reached a point that McDonald’s is keeping their mascot, Ronald McDonald, out of their publicity until this clown fear passes. I don’t think anyone’s going to miss Ronald. He spends way too much time with little kids.

If I’m confused about this then how confused can people outside the U.S. be when they hear we have a clown epidemic? Will ISIS start recruiting clowns? Will this embolden terrorists when they see it doesn’t take much to send us into a panic?

I wanted to take a break from the election for at least a minute, unless Mayor McCheese gets impeached for supporting creepy Ronald.

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Great Scott He Found ISIS!

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Mankind will never develop time-traveling technology. We know this because Donald Trump was not smothered in his sleep as a child.

Donald Trump keeps making crazy claims and political pundits keep analyzing them to understand why he would make such statements, totally forgetting that Mr. Trump is not a rational person.

Donald Trump claims Barack Obama founded ISIS and they honor him. He says Hillary Clinton is the co-founder. It takes a pathological liar to make such stupid, false, statements while giving his opponent a nickname “lying Hillary.”

ISIS formed from invading Iraq, while Obama was a state senator in Illinois. If the baby daddy for ISIS is an American, his name is George W. Bush. The sugar mama would be Dick Cheney. Invading Iraq is another area Trump lies about as he states he was against it. The pathological liar who tells us he saw videos of Muslims in New Jersey celebrating 9/11 (another lie) ignores the existence of the recording of him supporting the invasion.

This kind of B.S. might actually work with Trump’s base. This man first leveled the charge that Obama was not born in the United States, that he didn’t have a birth certificate, and later if he did then there was something on it he didn’t want anyone to see. A large portion of Republicans believe this lie. Many believe the president is a secret Muslim, and Trump is helping that by pushing Obama’s middle name “Hussein” while leveling the ISIS charge.

Blaming the president for ISIS, and insinuating he’s part of the terrorist organization, isn’t just false, it’s stupid. It’s as stupid as blaming Obama for the response for Hurricane Katrina, which a third of Louisiana Republicans do despite George W. Bush being president during that time.

There’s legitimate criticism for the way the president has handled Iraq and ISIS. Blaming him for creating it is a lie and irresponsible, especially for the presidential nominee for one of the two major political parties. The nominee should work with facts and information instead of right-wing conspiracy theories being fed to him by the tin-foil hat wearing electorate.

But hey, maybe Trump has it on good authority that Obama is the founder of ISIS. Perhaps he read it when the NFL sent him a letter.

I was a teenager during the 1980s and I really don’t look back on all the fads fondly. Leg warmers, Reaganomics, Max Headroom, Rubiks Cube, Atari, Nintendo, arcades, Hulkamania, Valley Girls (gag me with a spoon!) Cabbage Patch Kids, boom boxes, break dancing, Where’s The Beef, Madonna, Thriller, Purple Rain, Born In The USA, synthesizers and electronic drums on every pop song. I’ll never forget the nightmare of New Coke. Sons of bitches!

One bright spot of the decade was the film Back To The Future. It’s still awesome but depressing to realize the year they jumped to in the future was 2015 and Biff Tannen is actually running for president. Damn I’m old.

Useless trivia time: The album in the 1980s that shot British hard rockers Def Leppard to fame, Pyromania, consisted of electronic drums for most of the album. I just burst a bubble for you, didn’t I?

You may already know this one, but if you don’t you’ll find it, as Marty McFly would say, “heavy.” The original actor hired to play Marty was Eric Stoltz (who did a great job in the Mask and later as Lance in Pulp Fiction). Director Robert Zemeckis pursued Michael J. Fox for the role, who was already a big star at the time, but couldn’t commit due to his TV series Family Ties. So they went with Stoltz and even started filming. After four weeks they realized Stoltz was miscast as he very dramatic as McFly. Marty McFly was basically who Michael J. Fox was in high school as during that time he chased girls, played in bands, and even skateboarded. He just needed the script. Stoltz actually agreed he wasn’t right for the part.

Eric Stoltz did kick ass in Pulp Fiction as heroin selling Lance (“The day that I bring an OD-ing bitch over to your house, then I give her the shot”).

By the way, Zemeckis and Fox teamed up again years later for The Frighteners. It’s not nearly as good as Back To The Future, but it’s still good. Check it out. Michael J. Fox saw dead people way before Bruce Willis did.

Update: After spending two days doubling down on accusing Obama and Clinton of being the founders of ISIS, Donald Trump now says he was being sarcastic.

Trump gave an interview on a radio show where conservative host Hugh Hewitt gave him a chance to clarify his accusation. Hewitt suggested Trump meant to say that Obama “created a vacuum” in the Middle East that led to ISIS. Trump replied “No, I meant that he’s the founder of ISIS. “He was the most valuable player. I gave him the most valuable player award.”

Trump’s usual gaggle of surrogates on cable news backed him up and continued the lie. The surrogates now have more spinning to do as Trump tweeted this morning that he was “being sarcastic.”

 

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How’s My Driving?

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It takes a special kind of monster to kill a child. Ten children were among the 84 killed in Nice by a terrorist, apparently inspired by ISIS.

Before you can get over the shock of a terrorists attack there’s another one. Orlando, Turkey, Dallas, Nice, etc. I waited a couple days to draw this cartoon and I’m kinda surprised another attack didn’t preempt it.

Terrorists are creative. They’ve discovered ways to incite fear beyond shooting guns and conventional explosives. They fly planes into buildings, build bombs into their shoes, create explosive crock pots, and drive large trucks through crowds.

The attack in Nice is one that can happen anywhere, especially in the United States. We have more roads and automobiles than anyone. A terrorist wouldn’t have to wait for a holiday to attract a large crowd. He could just wait for a beautiful day in a large city.  It’s hard to anticipate something that’s never happened before.

While we can’t defeat terrorism overnight, we can learn from what created it, and perhaps not repeat those mistakes. Mistakes like invading and destabilizing other nations.

While ISIS recruits and encourages followers they’ve never met, some of their disciples are offering examples how to be involved. The bad guys can’t be the only ones learning. We better take note too.

Did you like this cartoon? Want to help a cartoonist make a living? Look to the right of this page and make a donation through Paypal. I need to buy pens, paper, sandwiches, and dog food. The starving cartoonist and his Beagle appreciates it. If you’ve donated in the past, THANK YOU!!!

The McCain Blame

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On Thursday Senator John McCain blamed President Obama for creating ISIS and having a hand in the attack in Orlando. I guess he forgot about that entire episode where President Bush invaded the wrong country, destabilizing it and creating a world class recruitment center and haven for terrorists. It must have slipped his mind.

After accusing the president of treason and coming off as ridiculous as Donald Trump, McCain attempted to clarify his statement. He said his intention was to blame Obama’s policies, not as if Obama was personally cutting off journalists’ heads in the desert outside Raqqa.

McCain is in a tough primary race for his senate seat in Arizona. Now may not be the best time for him to make stupid statements. To retain his seat he needs to distance himself as far as possible from Donald Trump, not mimic him. What’s McCain’s next move, a photo op with a taco bowl while accusing himself of not being a war hero?

Before McCain picked a running mate in his failed presidential attempt in 2008, nobody outside Alaska has ever heard of Sarah Palin. Since that time we’ve suffered eight years of a tidal wave of stupidity that even Donald Trump has had trouble duplicating. Thanks, Senator. It’s the stupid that keeps on giving.

Speaking of stupid, Sarah Palin also had some criticism of President Obama this week. She probably does that every week but this one was noticeable. She said the president is a “special kind of stupid” over his efforts toward gun control. Seriously. Miss Right Winger Bitter Clinger has called someone else stupid. Next, her daughter will start lecturing about abstinence.

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Orlando Tragedy

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Am I politicizing this?

The United States suffered the worst mass shooting in its history this past weekend. A shooter walked into a gay nightclub and started shooting people. At this point 50 are dead and over 50 are wounded.

The shooter claims he’s affiliated with ISIS. He has a history of homophobia and anger issues. Is it really important he’s citing ISIS and the Boston Marathon Bombers as inspiration?

It’s not about Islam or “radical” Islam. It’s about people being radical. Conservatives love to point out that Islam calls for the death of homosexuals. So does Christianity. Most Muslim governments that are theocracies ban homosexuality which is evidence that we don’t want to tie our government to Christianity or any religion. It’s bizarre that those who hate gays want us to focus on other groups who hate gays.

These conservatives aren’t asking how the shooter acquired his weapons. They’re more concerned with people referring to the AR-15 used as an “assault weapon.” Seriously, they have more sensitivity toward the weapon than to the victims.

Conservatives love to politicize people and use them to advance their agenda. They scapegoat. They create a climate of hate and fear where none previously existed. They do it out of hate hate and to distract from other issues. They scream about bathrooms being unsafe from trangenders though all the raping and pedophilia being done out there is by heterosexuals, and usually by very conservative and religious people. It’s always a great time to politicize someone until their politicizing feeds a tragedy. When the tragedy strikes they offer prayers to those they have been tarnishing, degrading, and dehumanizing.

Am I politicizing this? I could have gone with a memorial cartoon. In fact, the cartoonist who I most admire has already published a cartoon with tears for Orlando. When I’m angry, annoyed, and really pissed off, sentimentality doesn’t come easy to me. I’m not a chicken-soup-for-the-soul type of person.

Am I politicizing this? You bet your homophobic ass I am.

Did you like this cartoon? Want to help a cartoonist make a living? Look to the right of this page and make a donation through Paypal. I need to buy pens, paper, sandwiches, and dog food. The starving cartoonist and his Beagle appreciates it. If you’ve donated in the past, THANK YOU!!!