Mass Shootings

Looking Up

I called a goon a “goon” yesterday and it upset him.

I enjoy reading the comments my cartoons get at GoComics but I don’t always interact with the readers there. But sometimes I’ll see a comment that I feel needs addressing. Yesterday, one of the right-wingers suggested a topic that fit his narrative, like that’s what I’m here for. I don’t see these guys telling the Boks, Varvels, and Lesters to draw on gun control, equal rights, Black Lives Matter, or women’s rights. Maybe someone should suggest a cartoon about climate change to Ben Garrison.

But this reader suggested a draw a cartoon that would feed his narrative, something he obviously saw while watching Tucker. I replied that it’s funny he found that to be an important issue while totally ignoring the mass shooting on Monday night that occurred at Michigan State University which resulted in three deaths from the killer. I also told him that I don’t take suggestions from goons.

He was upset at being called a goon and that he was flagging my reply, and what happened at Michigan State was “just another mass shooting.” I let him know that referring to what happened at Michigan State as “just another mass shooting” is why he gets called a “goon.”

Goons don’t care about mass shootings. They’d rather we ignore them.

Since the shooting on Monday night, Lauren Boebert has tweeted about a toxic chemical spill (while not proposing heavier regulations or punishment for corporations who create these spills), attacks on Pete Buttigieg, that it is OK to flash your penis at teenage girls in bowling alleys, Joe Biden, and spy balloons, but nothing about the shooting.

Since the shooting on Monday night, Marjorie Taylor Greene has tweeted about the chemical spill (while not proposing heavier regulations or punishment for corporations who create these spills), Hunter Biden, her white coat, the likelihood of being hit in the face with a banjo in her district, Jesus, but nothing about the shooting.

Since the shooting on Monday night, Ted Cruz has tweeted about Buttigieg, the chemical spill (while not proposing heavier regulations or punishment for corporations who create these spills), the border, his love for shoegaze, and big tech censoring free speech, yet no tweets about the shooting.

Since the shooting on Monday night, Jim “Gym” Jordan has tweeted about the chemical spill (while not proposing heavier regulations or punishment for corporations who create these spills), the border, big tech censorship, how much he hates it when he gets a run in his pantyhose, and a ton of tweets about balloons, but none about the shooting.

Since the shooting on Monday night, Matt Gaetz has tweeted about the chemical spill (while not proposing heavier regulations or punishment for corporations who create these spills), Elon Musk, hating that we are sending aid to Ukraine, the difficulty in finding extra-small condoms, big tech censorship, but nothing about the shooting.

I believe I research my subjects more than most cartoonists do, and for this blog…but I did make up one tweet for each of those MAGAts mentioned. See if you can find them.

The film “Don’t Look Up” is a metaphor for how right-wingers, conservatives, MAGAts, and your run-of-the-mill pigfuckers ignore science, facts, and impending doom if it’s something they don’t want to hear. As a meteor hurtles toward Earth that’ll destroy all life on the planet, the Republican response is simply, don’t look up. It’s a great metaphor after the coronavirus pandemic.

When it comes to science, Republicans don’t want us to “look up.” But now, they do want us to look up and see all the UFOs invading our airspace, but whatever you do…don’t look down. If you look down, you might see all the bodies from mass shootings. Republicans would rather look up than see those bodies or find solutions for mass shootings beyond “thoughts and prayers.” It’s why people like Jim “Gym” Jordan keep asking about spy balloons.

The day after the shooting inside a church in Sutherland Springs, Texas that left 25 dead in 2017, I read a post from a MAGAt cartoonist proclaiming it’s why we need stricter immigration policies, or maybe just ban all immigration. The shooter wasn’t an immigrant. He was a white guy born and bred right here in the good ole U.S. of A. He was a Texan.

I also looked at the official NRA Twitter account. Did you know the NRA describes itself as a “civil rights” organization? I know! Get the fuck out of here. Since the shooting on Monday night, the NRA has tweeted about new guns for 2023, President Biden “coming for your guns,” more gun reviews, how not to blow your dick off while fucking an uzi, and the University of Tennessee’s rifle program, but nothing the shooting.

Don’t look up. Don’t look down. Just don’t look.

Music note: I listened to a few tunes by Lenny Kravitz but spent most of my time drawing and coloring this while watching CNN and Nikki Haley’s presidential announcement.

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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Bullies for Baldwin

A 72-year-old man is the suspect in a mass shooting yesterday that killed ten and injured ten more in a dance studio in Monterey Park, California. The shooting occurred while the city’s large Asian American community was celebrating Lunar New Year weekend. The suspected shooter killed himself in a van after a standoff with police. The first reaction from the right was “Yay, the shooter’s not a white guy.”

Look at what Donald Trump Jr tweeted. “You think you’d hear a lot more about the mass shooting of 10 people in California… But don’t worry you won’t hear anything about it because it wasn’t done by a white conservative man with an assault rifle. Doesn’t work for the narrative so it basically never happened!”

Trumpy Jr didn’t even pause to phone in thoughts and prayers. He immediately politicized it to attack the media. And the reason he feels the need to post that tweet is because most mass shootings usually are committed by white conservative men. What did he tweet after Tops in Buffalo? Also, CNN has been covering the shooting a LOT.

None of the regular House goons, Jim “Gym” Jordan, Lauren Boebert, Matt Gaetz, or Marjorie Taylor Greene have tweeted about the shooting in Monterey. Although Gaetz did retweet a photo of him and Boebert posing with assault rifles. They were mostly preoccupied with tweeting condemnations at Antifa for the riots and protests yesterday in Atlanta, which is truly contrary to how they support the white nationalist MAGA terrorists who attacked our nation on January 6, 2021.

The only gun death these goons appear to care about is that of Halyna Hutchins, a cinematographer on the set of the film “Rust,” who was shot by actor Alec Baldwin after he was handed a prop gun that he was told was “cold,” meaning it was empty. But I bet none of them know her name.

Baldwin has been charged with two counts of manslaughter in Santa Fe, New Mexico which Republicans are euphoric over. Many have tweeted their excitement over Baldwin going to prison before a trial has even begun. Of course, Republicans don’t know how the justice system works. They believe Donald Trump is entitled to steal government property to keep as “cool keepsakes” … or sell to Russia.

The armorer on “Rust,” Hannah Gutierrez-Reed, is also facing charges of involuntary manslaughter. She might be the one who’s in real trouble.

The district attorney for Santa Fe County, Mary Carmack-Altwies, said she plans to argue in court that Baldwin did not take “due caution or circumspection” with the weapon he was handed. She’s going to lose this case.

I’m not an Alec Baldwin fanboy and I’m not defending him because he’s a liberal or impersonated Donald Trump so brilliantly on Saturday Night Live. I think he was great in “30 Rock,” but if he was responsible for this death, I’d want him prosecuted.

And the only reason Republicans are excited to see Baldwin prosecuted is that he’s a Hollywood liberal actor who impersonated Donald Trump so well. They don’t want him punished for the death of the cinematographer…they want him sent to prison for making Donald Trump look ridiculous.

It’s not the actor’s responsibility to make sure what someone hands them is safe. It’s the job of the armorer on the set. As Kirk Acevedo, an actor who has worked with guns on shows like “Band of Brothers” and in the film “The Thin Red Line,” said about responsibility, “It can’t be me. If you have never fired a weapon before, how would you know how to do all of that? For some people, it’s hard to even pull back the slide.”

How can an actor be responsible for the safety of a gun being used on a film set when that actor doesn’t know anything about guns? How can he be responsible when he’s unqualified?

This case may not even make it to trial. There is responsibility for the death of Hutchins, but it’s not on Baldwin.

What’s telling about Republicans is all the noise they’re making about Alec Baldwin while not caring about Halyna Hutchins or the ten people who were killed in a mass shooting yesterday. They also don’t care about the victims in the other 34 mass shootings over the past three weeks.

For Republicans, it’s always “too soon” to talk about gun control after a mass shooting, but it’s never too soon to politicize it when the shooter’s non-white or a Hollywood liberal.

This week’s cartoon for the CNN Opinion newsletter was on Alec Baldwin and gun control (I haven’t published it on the blog yet). And what were the odds it would be published the same day another mass shooting occurred? In a nation with 35 mass shootings over three weeks, the odds are pretty good.

Now, if only Republicans could care about deaths from guns other than for political points.

Music note: I listened to Pink Floyd and the Alan Parsons Project.

Facebook Suspension Update: My suspension is over and I want to thank everyone who shared my cartoons, blogs, and videos on the platform during my absence. Since I only had about ten days between 30-day suspensions, some of my readers are talking about having a pool on how long until my next suspension.

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:

Clubbing With Boebert

A gunman entered a Colorado Springs LGBTQ+ nightclub during a midnight drag show Saturday and murdered five people and injured over a dozen others. The suspect was arrested on suspicion of five counts of first-degree murder and five counts of bias-motivated or hate crimes. He was injured when police made the arrest because he was taken down by a retired Army Major and Bronze Star recipient and a drag performer, and they beat his ass with his own gun, an AR-15-type assault rifle. This makes drag queens better at stopping mass shootings than Uvalde and Texas police.

Colorado representative Lauren Boebert tweeted, “The news out of Colorado Springs is absolutely awful. This morning the victims & their families are in my prayers. This lawless violence needs to end and end quickly.” She didn’t mention it happened at an LGBTQ+ club or during a drag show. Why is that? Because over the past several years, Boebert has been sharing her homophobia with the public and attacking LGBTQ+ people.

She has been criticized by watchdog groups for perpetuating false narratives about LGBTQ people and spreading inflammatory rhetoric online to her millions of followers.
She’s sponsored anti-LGBTQ+ legislation.
She’s claimed trans people don’t exist.
She’s accused drag queens of being groomers.
When an anti-hate group ranked her Twitter account third in spreading lies about LGBTQ+ people being groomers, she vowed to step up her hate tweets to get a number-one ranking.
She’s tweeted that children should be taken to “church, not drag shows.”
She believes there should be a law making it illegal to decide your sexual preference before you’re 21, which means she’s a hypocrite or didn’t realize she was straight until she was 21.

If we ever do end this violence, as she demanded, it won’t end because of any help from her. She’s also a gun nut, consistently voting against measures to limit gun violence and mass shootings. One of her campaign commercials featured her smugly walking around the Capitol with a gun strapped to her hip. Until their landlord refused to renew their lease, Boebert and her husband, who likes to expose himself to teenage girls in bowling alleys, operated a gun-themed restaurant named Shooter’s Grill.

Boebert is a vile human being and one of the most disgusting in Congress with the likes of Matt Gaetz, Marjorie Taylor Greene, Louie Gohmert, Jim Jordan, and until he was defeated in a primary, Madison Cawthorn (who likes to dress in drag). She barely won reelection this month which is a damn shame.

Lauren Boebert is a stupid hateful homophobic Islamophobic racist so when she pretends to be sad over a shooting that targeted the same people she targets with hate tweets, she needs to be held accountable. Some people are calling her out and won’t let her get away with it.

Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez tweeted at her, “You have played a major role in elevating anti-LGBT+ hate rhetoric and anti-trans lies while spending your time in Congress blocking even the most common sense gun safety laws.” AOC told her, “You don’t get to ‘thoughts and prayers’ your way out of this. Look inward and change.”

Boebert will not change. She’s a rancid human being appealing to a rancid base of MAGAts. Hate, intolerance, and stupidity are her bread and butter.

AOC isn’t alone in calling Boebert out. Mondaire Jones, one of the few openly gay members of Congress, tweeted at Boebert, saying, “Your record is absolutely awful. You use hateful rhetoric towards the LGBTQ+ community and helped block even modest efforts to end gun violence.”

Representative Jamal Bowman tweeted, “Your rhetoric and lack of legislative courage and humanity radicalized people to do the evil and unthinkable.” Truly. You don’t see gay people attacking square dances and Cracker Barrels with AR-15s and hammers.

Colorado state Rep. Brianna Titone, the first transgender person elected to the state legislature, replied to Boebert Sunday morning, writing, “There’s blood on your hands. Thanks for the ‘thoughts and prayers’ but that does nothing to offset the damage that you directly did to incite these kinds of attacks on the LGBTQ+ community. You spreading tropes and insults contributed to the hatred for us. Just resign.”

I second that. Just resign, Boebert. It’s not like you have ever sponsored a bill that got through a single committee, less enough, passed into law. Taxpayers are paying you a six-figure salary for literally nothing unless you count hate and support of insurrections something.

I wanted to see how a few other goons were reacting to the shooting, so I checked in on my favorite MAGAt cartoonist who I use as a barometer for the current hateful snowflakey white victimization talking point (read the comments). And he does have some outrage that has to do with the LGBTQ+ community. No, he’s not upset over the shooting at a drag show. He’s upset that the U.S. soccer team has incorporated the rainbow flag as part of its crest on their uniforms during the World Cup tournament (and claiming the logo has replaced the U.S. flag, which it hasn’t). But the drag show, he hasn’t mentioned that.

Correction: I originally wrote that Richard Fierro was a retired Marine, but he was actually a major in the Army. Oops. Thanks for sending the correction, Bob. The person who helped the Army vet take down the shooter was not a drag performer but a trans woman (as I was just told by an editor of one of my client newspapers. He also informed me vet beat the shooter with his own pistol, not his rifle. The original details I wrote were what I got this morning. Sorry.

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:

Champagne Bang-Bang

Every time a mass shooting or potential mass shooting is stopped by what Republicans and the National Rifle Association like to describe as a “good guy with a gun,” gun humpers latch onto the theory that it is the only way to stop a “bad guy with a gun.” But is it though?

In 2017 in Sutherland Springs, Texas, a good guy with a gun stopped a mass shooter. But did he really? The good guy with a gun waited outside the church where the bad guy with the gun had just finished killing 27 people and injuring 22 others. The good guy didn’t go in during the shooting, which now seems to be common practice in Texas for good guys with guns.

Waiting outside, the good guy opened fire on the bad guy after he came out of the church. He shot the bad guy, who then took off in his vehicle. The good guy and a second good guy pursued the bad guy who eventually crashed his car and died.

But did the good guy save any lives? After the bad guy left the scene, the good guy chased him instead of going inside the church to check on the wounded. Perhaps he really could have saved a life if he had stopped a victim’s bleeding. Who knows? But it’s hard to argue the good guy with a gun saved any lives or that this incident proves the theory works. Despite there being a good guy with a gun, 27 people died.

Sunday at a mall in Indiana, a shooter killed three people and injured three others before a 22-year-old good guy with a gun took him out. The good guy was legally licensed to carry a concealed weapon. The killer got off 20 shots before the good guy took him down. This good guy probably saved lives. But is this the system we want for gun safety, more people with guns? Republicans and the NRA say yes.

Gun nuts have already made it clear that dozens of dead children are a price they’re willing to pay for their right to own assault rifles. And with this latest incident, they’re surely going to celebrate that only three people died. But wouldn’t it be better if no one died? Can we live with mass shootings if only three people die at each? If so, we have some very low standards and appreciation for life.

We wouldn’t need protection from bad guys with guns from good guys with guns if perhaps no bad guys had guns.

CNN’s Alysin Camerota asked, “are we all supposed to rely on an armed 22-year-old in the food court?”

Kris Brown, president of the gun control group Brady: United Against Gun Violence, dispelled the NRA’s myth of the only way to stop a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun by saying, “If more guns made us safer, America would be the safest country in the WORLD. We need sensible gun laws, not vigilante safety nets.”

Our only option against a mass shooter shouldn’t be hoping there’s a vigilante hanging about nearby. Wouldn’t a better option be ending mass shootings? It can be done. It has been done, just not here.

When NRA fucks say banning guns won’t end gun violence, they don’t really know because we haven’t tried. Let’s give it a try. We’re Americans. We’re supposed to be good at magnificent achievements because we’re the greatest country in the world. Right? So, if we’re so awesome, then banning assault rifles and ending mass shootings should be a piece of cake. Hey, we’re Americans. We’re fat. We like cake. Let’s do it.

The only thing to stop bad guys with guns is for good people to end the carefree and irresponsible distribution of assault rifles.

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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Primetime Distraction

I drew on this issue for the CNN Opinion newsletter but I also wanted to do one for my clients. And I think I drew a mean one here. Proofreader Laura told me this is so grim that it’s not really a cartoon. She tells me stuff like that from time to time. One of my readers tweeted that Fox News is promoting another immigrant caravan crisis as a distraction. That sounds like a joke, but it’s not. Is this caravan also funded by “globalists?”

This Thursday, the January 6 Committee will have a live hearing during primetime at 8 PM. All the news networks will be carrying it except Fox News. They’re going to stick with their usual goon gaslight lineup of Tucker Carlson, Sean Hannity, and Laura Ingraham, who I’m sure will each trash the hearing they’re not allowing their viewers to witness themselves.

Fox News can NOT air the hearings live and let their white nationalist audience form their own opinions. Fox News has to tell its viewers what they think about it, and that’s exactly what their racist viewers want.

Two of the individuals on Fox News’ primetime lineup are subjects of the committee’s investigation as a lot of the texts Trump’s chief-of-staff Mark Meadows received on January 6 during the riot were from Hannity and Ingraham. They were pleading with Meadows to get Trump to call off the riot even while they were on the air telling their viewers it was all a false flag and blaming Antifa.

CNN and MSNBC will provide live coverage which I’m sure will be awesome. Tune your channel to one of those networks.

The committee should be having a primetime hearing as it’s important the nation understand just how serious and dangerous the Trump attempt to overturn an election was and is. I saw a poll yesterday that only 40 percent of Americans believe Trump may be partly responsible for the attack. Americans need to understand that while he had help, it never would have happened without his support.

The Trump White House helped conduct multiple lawsuits and claims of election fraud and the lie that the election was stolen. They worked to replace state electors so that states Biden won would be counted for Donald Trump.

Trump and his goons tried to overturn an election they lost. They tried to install the losing candidate as an unelected president. This is fascism. Today, Republicans across the nation are changing election laws based on Trump’s lie that there was fraud in the 2020 election, and to enable future elections to be stolen by Republicans. In Florida, the Republican governor is personally re-writing congressional districts. This is fascism.

Instead of allowing voters to select their representatives, Republicans are selecting their voters.

The committee needs to create a program much in line with primetime so Americans can get it. James Goldston, a former producer and president of ABC News is helping with the presentation. This isn’t political. This is to save the country.

Axios reported that Goldston aims to help with presentations during the hearings that are “raw enough so that skeptical journalists will find the material fresh,” using a mixture of live witness testimony and pre-taped interviews.

The Hill reported that the committee’s goal is to create a captivating case for a large audience, particularly viewers who have made up their minds about the events of Jan. 6 or who are ready to move on from the attack.

There is suspense as the committee members have promised fresh material will be presented and they have not told us who will be called. Keep in mind, that they recorded every closed-door testimony. Will we see Javanka? Will Mike Pence show up? We all better stock up on popcorn.

I can’t wait to see this and I hope the nation can appreciate and understand the seriousness of the proceedings. I know voters have short memories but they should never forget the day Republicans tried to destroy our democracy or that today, they’re trying to cover it up.

More live hearings will follow but none of those will be during primetime, so this Thursday’s showing should be very special.

And I believe Republicans would rather there be another mass shooting than inquiries into Donald Trump’s white nationalist terrorist insurrection.

Over 800 people have been charged with crimes connected to the January 6 insurrection, with members of Proud Boys and Oathkeepers being added to the list yesterday. Over 800 have been charged and Trump isn’t one of them. Hopefully, after these hearings, that changes.

Music note: Today’s tunes to toon by were by The Shins and the Scissor Sisters.

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:

NATO’s No-No

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

Music note: I listened to Filter, the Toadies, Stone Temple Pilots, and Tears For Fears while making this cartoon.

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:

Jack Of All Guns

Cjones06092021

I spent about ten hours on this so sorry, you’re not getting a blog.

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 9103, Fredericksburg, VA 22403. 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: I have two copies of my book in stock, which I’m selling 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 9103, Fredericksburg, VA 22403.

Watch me draw:

Maskless Ban

CNN04182021

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

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 9103, Fredericksburg, VA 22403. 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: I have FIVE copies of my book in stock, which I’m selling 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 9103, Fredericksburg, VA 22403.

Watch me draw:

Gun Control Absolutely Positively Right Now

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Another day in America, another mass shooting.

After a recent mass shooting when Democrats in the Senate said we need legislation to stop this insanity, and not JUST thoughts and prayers, Senator Ted Cruz, the most disingenuous sonofabitch who has ever hatched from an egg, was livid. How dare Democrats play “theatrics” by attacking thoughts and prayers and instead, suggesting solutions. Even saying we need more than thoughts and prayers is an assault on our Christian values.

If you had listened to Ted Cruz, you would have thought Democrats had left a flaming bag of turds on the steps of the Thoughts and Prayers Institute for Gun Violence and Other Things To Be Sad About.

Ted Cruz talked about how he believes in the power of prayer. But here’s the thing about believing in the power of prayer like Ted does: It’s not working.

Ted talked about the power of prayer several mass shootings ago. Thursday night, another mass shooting took eight lives. This one was in Indianapolis at a FedEx facility. This was at least the 45th mass shooting since March 16, 2021.

In case you’re a Republican, let me lay that out for you. It was the 45th mass shooting in the span of a month. CNN defines a mass shooting as when four or more people, excluding the gunman, are wounded or killed. If you are going to order cards for thoughts and prayers, you better place a bulk order.

After the mass shooting in Georgia, or maybe it was Colorado (it’s getting harder to keep track), two right-wing fucknut fundamentalist cartoonists did cartoons of a crying Uncle Sam on the exact same day. They didn’t address the problem except to say it was sad. One of those morons lives in Indianapolis. Since he had just drawn a crying Uncle Sam, he had to come up with something different for an empty useless gesture. For this one, he had someone hugging a FedEx delivery driver.

The most revolting thing to me about this is that cartoonist works for himself. Nobody demanded he draw something that was a totally useless cliché. No editor held him back and forced him to take a coward’s way out. His response to something in his community was just as empty as his response to when it happens somewhere else. He didn’t even both trying to make it unique or particular to his home. He let his community down just as he’s been letting his country down. And nobody made him do it. He chose to suck all on his own. Just like Ted Cruz.

I don’t expect my cartoon above, or any of the others I’ve drawn on the subject, to end gun violence. But I am adding my voice to many others to find a solution other than just praying for it. I don’t keep repeating the same empty gesture again and again. For right-wing cartoonists, they express it’s sad people die from weapons they believe everyone should be able to own. Tomorrow, they’ll draw some phony outrage about a Hunter Biden sex tape or some shit that doesn’t affect anyone except their white privilege. Maybe they’ll draw a cartoon telling black people cops will stop shooting them if they just follow basic instructions. But when faced with a real challenge, they will fail. Like me, they’re just cartoonists.

Ted Cruz is a politician. Ted was elected to stop shit like this. He’s paid to confront gun violence. He’s one of 50 members of the United States Senate that doesn’t want to do anything about gun violence. Seriously. They don’t want to do anything. They are owned and controlled by the National Rifle Association. And when pressed to do something, they react as if you attacked their lord and savior. It’s a great deflection when you’re full of shit.

Ted Cruz giving thoughts and prayers when a mass shooting happens is him fleeing the situation just like when he fled to Cancun when his state was hit with a freeze. Ted Cruz says drafting legislation to combat gun violence is “theater.” This guy calling it “theater” is the same fucko who once made a campaign commercial of him cooking bacon by wrapping it around the barrel of an AR-15, then heating the barrel by shooting the gun a thousand times…then he ate that flaccid bacon as if that was owning the libs. That doesn’t own the libs. What it does is make libs lose their appetites after seeing Ted Cruz put stuff in his mouth. It works like reverse porn. Also, it’s shit like this that makes people think he’s the Zodiac Killer.

I believe in thoughts and prayers. I’m agnostic, but I think praying for someone is positive. It can be like meditation. Also, thinking is good. Give problems some thought. But, that’s what you do while you’re also tackling the problem.

When I have a problem with my Surface Pro, like the stylus decides to stop working while I’m on a CNN deadline, I tackle the problem. I’m googling up solutions and trying them out. All during that time, I’m praying it’s going to work. Granted, my prayers are probably different from yours and go something like, “You better work, you no good useless piece of crap sonofabitch mother forkerforkerforkforkforker….etc.” But, praying, or cursing at the problem, isn’t the only thing I’m doing.

Have you ever told someone you’re “still thinking about it” when you’re actually not? Like being asked if you’re coming home for Thanksgiving where all your troglodyte Trump-supporting cousins will be there talking about the stolen election and Jewish space lasers, and you say, “I’m still thinking about it”? But you’re not thinking about it. There’s no way you’re going to that shit festival of morons. You’ve already made up your mind that instead of going home to eat turkey and casserole with lunatics, you’re going to get a WaWa gobbler sandwich and a six-pack of Red Stripe, then sit home and watch Dallas lose to whoever they’re playing this year. That’s what I’m gonna do.

That’s thoughts and prayers for politicians.

Is it too much to ask politicians, even the most creepy disingenuous ones like Ted Cruz, to multitask and pray while also actually doing something? I mean, doing something other than accepting a campaign contribution?

When you pray for something to get better, are you literally asking God to fix it? Are you putting it entirely on God to do what you were elected to do? And as I’ve mentioned before, when you offer thoughts and prayers, you don’t even have to do it. Nobody knows if you’re actually giving something a thought or a prayer. It’s really the most useless thing you can do for a problem. Next time you get a flat tire, just pray for it. Don’t change the tire yourself or get your hands dirty. Let God fix it. Let me know how that works out.

FedEx used to have a slogan that said, “When it absolutely, positively has to be there overnight.” FedEx doesn’t pray packages get to their destinations. They actually physically deliver them. Washington Republican mofos need to do more than pray to end gun violence. Obviously, their thoughts and prayers are NOT working. Nobody is paying me the kind of money Ted Cruz is being given by taxpayers, but I know that if you don’t do anything about a problem, it’s just going to get worse.

We need gun control, not last night or overnight. We need to ban assault weapons absolutely, positively right fucking now.

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What Kind Of Flood?

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Honestly, when “breaking news” about Texas was announced on my TV Thursday, I half expected it to be another mass shooting.

While flooding is terrible, especially for Houston which is still recovering from a flood two years ago, it was kinda refreshing that breaking news out of Texas wasn’t about a mass shooting. This is where we are, folks.

If there’s one place in this nation where a large percentage of the population treats their guns like their babies, and even values them over the lives of children, it’s Texas.

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As I noted in a previous cartoon, these are perilous times for political cartoonists. But 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.

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