Midterm Elections

Fashion Trends for 2022

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For Republicans, the fashion trend for 2022 will be fewer MAGA hats and more sweater vests while keeping Donald Trump at bay. The trend will be to push racist Trumpian policies while attempting to appear less racist. There will be less screaming that Mexico is sending rapists and murderers and more warnings of Critical Race Theory, neither of which is actually happening. Also fashionable for Republicans is the phrase, “Let’s go Brandon” which replaces their other popular phrases, “Hang Mike Pence,” and “Jews will not replace us.”

For Democrats, the new fashion trend should be Thunder Shirts, which by the way, don’t work on beagles. Sure, the beagle will let you put it on him without a struggle, but for him, it’s just a comfy shirt. It doesn’t prevent them from being afraid of thunder and it definitely doesn’t stop them from barking. Shock collars don’t stop beagles from barking either which makes it extra cruel to leave them on the dog because they will still shock them. Also, those devices that emit a high-frequency sound when triggered by a bark, yeah, they don’t work on beagles either. What does work on beagles is cheese. Cheese doesn’t really stop them from barking, but they really like cheese.

Now, will Thunder Shirts work on Democrats?

First, for them to work on Democrats, they have to put the Thunder Shirts on, and they’re not going to give them a try unless they’re afraid. Are they afraid? They should be. Democrats should be trembling in fear after their defeat in Virginia and the close call in New Jersey. What happened in Virginia was huge and a major disappointment. What happened in New Jersey should have the Democratic Party purchasing Thunder Shirts in bulk.

If this week’s gubernatorial elections in Virginia and New Jersey are indicators for the 2022 midterm elections, where 34 U.S. Senate seats will be up for grabs, every House seat will be contested, and 36 governor races will be held, the Democrats are in trouble. Not only was 2021 not great for Democrats, but they didn’t as well as they hoped in 2020. Sure, Democrats took the Senate and White House, but they lost seats in the House. In Georgia, more voters went for Republican House candidates than voted for Donald Trump. A lot of people who hate Donald Trump will still vote for other Republicans.

It’s not just the Democrats being unable to pass significant legislation or failing to deliver on their promises of 2020 that’s endangering them. The other factor is the trends of voters.

The trend for voters is that they have bad memories. They don’t remember the insurrection which was only ten months ago. They don’t remember the stupidity of the Trump administration. In Virginia, they don’t remember that the last Republican governor liked gift bags a little too much. Voters have a trend of forgetting where a lot of our current problems that hurting our president in the polls were created by Donald Trump. COVID, inflation, and the supply-chain crisis all began under Trump. And rising gas prices is an international problem. Do you think there’s someone at a petrol station in England right now saying, “Blimey that bugger Joe Biden for these high gas prices!”? No?

Voters are forgetting the spread of the Big Lie and how Republicans are undermining democracy. Well, they’re forgetting or they’ve become desensitized.

There is another trend for voters and it’s not new. Voters are stupid. Every Republican president, every Republican House, and every Republican Senate runs up the debt, gives huge tax cuts to the rich, and sells trickle-down, which hasn’t worked in 40 years. Voters throw them out and a few years later, they put them back in. It’s after they’re back in power that voters realize, “Oh yeah. These guys suck.”

Republicans are really good at messaging. How many times have you heard a person complain about people on food stamps vs how many times you’ve heard a person complain about corporate welfare? OK, Republicans are good at messaging and a large portion of this nation is racist.

Democrats are not great, but they’re better than Republicans. Republicans are stupid, racist, and corrupt. Democrats are mostly just stupid. But right now, Democrats need to smarten up, get their act together, pass some significant legislation, and save voters from themselves, because, unlike beagles, humans will vote against free cheese.

Democrats better hear the thunder, which always arrives before the storm. The thunder was last Tuesday. The storm is 2022.

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Focus On Hate And Fear

cjones11042018

Donald Trump is hoping his racist ad accusing Democrats of allowing a Mexican to murder two cops will distract voters from the fact that a Republican president incited a white supremacist to murder eleven American Jews.

Trump’s main concern with the synagogue murders and the mailing of pipe bombs by a lunatic in a van covered with pro-Trump stickers is that it hurt Republicans’ “momentum” going into the election. In an attempt to recover, Trump has returned to lying, fear mongering, and tearing at racial divides with demagoguery.

A web video produced for the Trump campaign features Luis Bracamontes, a Mexican man who had previously been deported but returned to the United States and was convicted in February in the slaying of two California deputies. The video blames Democrats for allowing him into the country to murder. The video shows a grinning Bracamontes saying, “I’m going to kill more cops soon,” and a caption flashes on the screen reading, “Democrats let him into our country. Democrats let him stay.”

Since this a product of the Trump campaign, it’s a lie. Bracamontes came into the country during the George W. Bush administration.

The ad recalls the racist Willie Horton ad supporters of George H.W. Bush ran in 1988 that was devastating to the Michael Dukakis campaign. The ad showed a nasty stereotype of a dangerous black criminal, the likes of which a President Dukakis would allow to rape your wife, daughter, and probably clog your toilet. It was so racist that most Republicans said, “what’s so racist about it?”

The Bush campaign attempted to distance itself from the ad. In contrast, the racist web video about scary Mexicans was produced by the Trump campaign. It makes you pine for the days of yesteryear when Republicans at least pretended they weren’t racist troglodytes like Steve King.

Iowa Representative King is a white supremacist who gets real testy and will blow his lid when confronted with questions about it. On Thursday, King kicked out a constituent and college student who dared to ask him how his views on immigrants are different from the Pittsburgh synagogue shooter (Spoiler: They’re not). He kicked the student out of the room after accusing him of being an “ambusher.”

King is so racist that the racist GOP rebuked him this week. Land O’ Lakes and Intel have both said they’ll no longer support him financially. You don’t want him using your butter when he’s buttering up to Nazis.

King visited a far-right party with ties to Nazis during a trip to Austria. In the past, he’s retweeted Nazis. He once attacked immigrants by saying, “We can’t restore our civilization with somebody else’s babies.”

Last month, King endorsed a Toronto mayoral candidate who appeared on a neo-Nazi podcast around the Charlottesville rally and later publicly recited the world’s most popular white supremacist slogan that I had just had to look up. The slogan is, “We must secure the existence of our people and a future for white children.” I counted and, yep. Fourteen words.

Steve King and Donald Trump are nationalists. They’re also white nationalists. They bolster themselves by striking fear into their base by lying about minorities. The America white nationalists desire is not the future most of us want for our children. We want a future that is better for all our children. King and Trump only care about the future of white children.

As for the short-term future, you can expect more lies, hatred, and racism over the next few days before Tuesday. Don’t stand downwind.

Be Complicit
What kind of person would want to be part of something that disparages, slanders, and disrespects Dear Leader and his sycophantic followers? Hopefully, you. 
Making a contribution supports my work and keeps the cartoons, columns, and videos coming. My income is from newspapers that subscribe to my work and small contributors. George Soros hasn’t sent me a million dollar check in weeks. Making a contribution of any amount, or buying a print for $40.00, makes you part of this specific resistance, and a member of Team Claytoonz (we’re still working on the name). You are complicit, an accomplice, and in cahoots (and whatever gangster terms we can think of) with this political satire pointing out that the stupid emperor has no clothes. Contributions can be made through PayPal, checks, and wads of cash exchanged in back alleys.
Whether you can help support, can’t, or just choose not to, please continue to enjoy and keep reading my work. Thank you!!! 

You can purchase a signed print of this cartoon.

Watch me draw.

Something, Something Tax Cuts

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Funny thing about those massive tax cuts for the rich that Republicans were so excited to campaign on; they’re not running on them. You remember those tax cuts, right? Donald Trump flew down to Mar-a-Lago afterward and told his rich, snobby friends over wine, steaks, caviar, and lobsters that they “just got richer.” We were promised they wouldn’t increase the deficit, but as predicted, they have and Mitch McConnell’s solution is to cut Medicare and Social Security. But, hey. Trump’s kids won’t have to pay estate taxes after he croaks, so it’s all good.

For some reason, these tax cuts that were going to be so awesome for everyone isn’t being mentioned by Republicans in the midterm campaigns. Instead, they’re running on fear.

Donald Trump is telling supporters that Republicans create jobs and Democrats create angry mobs, and they’re for open borders and against law and order. He’s encouraging Republicans to run on caravans and Kavanaugh.

Trump retweeted a video accusing George Soros of funding people from Central America who are walking over 2,000 miles to seek refugee status in the U.S. He’s arguing that we can’t have Democrats in Congress who won’t let gropers on the Supreme Court. He’s claiming that Republicans don’t support taking away coverage of pre-existing conditions, except his administration is fighting in court to do just that. As we have come to know, Donald Trump lies. Lying has now become the Republican Party platform.

While Trump and Republicans accuse Democrats of having nothing to run on, they’re running on lies.

In a race for New York’s 19th Congressional District, the Republican National Congressional Committee (which should be excited about tax cuts) is running an ad against Democrat Antonio Delgado. Delgado, who is black, is a former rapper and the GOP is using that to scare voters while using Kanye to recruit them. It’s OK if you haven’t found the logic in that yet, because I haven’t either. Is it the rhyming ability or the fact he’s black we’re supposed to be afraid of? Maybe it is the music part because in Texas they’re scaring people by pointing out Beto O’Rourke used to play in a punk band. Oh, my god. He knows at least three chords.

In another New York Congressional District, Republican Chris Collins is trying to take attention away from the fact that he was indicted on insider trading charges by pointing out his opponent is bilingual. His opponent is Democrat Nate McMurray whose wife is a naturalized citizen from South Korea. The Republicans are running an ad showing McMurry speaking Korean while showing pictures of Kim Jong Un. Never mind the fact that Donald Trump can only speak enough English to say he’s in love with Kim, a bilingual Democrat is in direct opposition to nationalism. Do you know who else speaks Korean? Koreans! AGH!

In Virginia, Abigail Spanberger, who is a former undercover CIA operative who fought terrorism for eight years, is being accused of teaching future terrorists. First off, U.S. Postal employees accidentally delivered her confidential personnel file to Republican operatives. Now, Republicans supporting Dave Brat are using her stint teaching Bronte and Shakespeare to make her appear as a terror teacher. The Super PAC aligned with Paul Ryan is using confidential information from a security clearance in a political campaign.

Spanberger taught for two semesters at a Saudi embassy school outside Washington. Two former students of the school were involved in failed terrorism plots, which Republicans are using to dub the school “terror high.” They ignore the fact that Spanberger obtained a security clearance after teaching at the school and went on to serve eight years in the CIA. Lord knows that high school is the only one in the nation to produce criminals.

At least Spanberger is only being accused of educating terrorists, and not being one. Ammar Campa-Najjar, a Democrat running for Congress in San Diego, is being accused by his opponent of being an actual terrorist.

The Democrat is a Christian who was raised in a Mexican-American community, but his paternal grandfather, Muhammad Youssef al-Najjar, was involved with the plan to murder Israeli athletes at the 1972 Olympic Games in Germany. My step-grandfather claimed he helped invent Hellman’s mayonnaise, but I hope that’s never held against me. I swear to God my allegiance is to mustard!

The real irony of this is that Campa-Najjar worked in the Obama White House, which required him to get a security clearance from the FBI. His opponent, Duncan Hunter, could never get a security clearance because he was indicted by the FBI.

Republicans are also using the terrorism allegation against Democrats in Ohio and New Jersey.

Republicans can’t do anything honestly. They cheated with help from the Russians, and maybe even the Saudis, to get the White House. They have to cheat to confirm their justices to the Supreme Court. They have to cheat to win elections by gerrymandering and suppressing minority voters. And, in a straight-up head-to-head campaign, they have to lie to win. They warn us about what sort of nation the Democrats will deliver while giving us one led by cheaters, liars, and sycophants. They’ve proven they’ll run and govern from the gutters.

Republicans campaign of fear is working, because I’m scared to death of their America.

Be Complicit

What kind of person would want to be part of something that disparages, slanders, and disrespects Dear Leader and his sycophantic followers? Hopefully, you. 
Making a contribution supports my work and keeps the cartoons, columns, and videos coming. My income is from newspapers that subscribe to my work and small contributors. George Soros hasn’t sent me a million dollar check in weeks. Making a contribution of any amount, or buying a print for $40.00, makes you part of this specific resistance, and a member of Team Claytoonz (we’re still working on the name). You are complicit, an accomplice, and in cahoots (and whatever gangster terms we can think of) with this political satire pointing out that the stupid emperor has no clothes. Contributions can be made through PayPal, checks, and wads of cash exchanged in back alleys.
Whether you can help support, can’t, or just choose not to, please continue to enjoy and keep reading my work. Thank you!!! 

You can purchase a signed print of this cartoon.

Watch me draw.

An Angry Mob Gets Swifty

cjones10122018

Republicans don’t have a sense of irony, which is why they and Donald Trump, a guy whose businesses were supported by Russian money laundering, has connections to the mafia and makes each day of his administration a third-rate episode of The Sopranos, is accusing Democrats and liberals of being a mob. It’s also hypocritical that they accused the Democratic Party of running on hate while they’re telling their supporters to be afraid of Muslims, Mexicans, black athletes, teenagers, and women who speak their minds.

Sure, Trump and the GOP aren’t talking about the type of mob that is the mafia. They envision more of a pitchforks, torches, and converging on the castle to destroy Frankenstein’s monster type of mob when they say “mob.” Now that Trump has used the term, “angry left-wing mob” to describe Democrats, it has become a new talking point for Conservatives. Prepare yourself to hear it echoed repeatedly, like “fake news,” “no collusion,” and “snowflake.” To make matters worse for them, America’s most popular pop star has joined the “angry left-wing mob.”

Yesterday, Taylor Swift posted on Instagram an endorsement for Tennessee’s Democratic candidates for the U.S. Senate and governor, Jim Cooper and Phil Bredesen. Republicans lost their minds.

Swift has been mostly silent on political issues so it came as a shock to conservatives, though she’s made plenty of hints in the past. After Obama was elected in 2008, she said, “I’ve never seen this country so happy about a political decision in my entire time of being alive.” She came out for gun control earlier this year, and in 2017, she was on Time Magazine’s Person of the Year cover as one of the “silence breakers” fighting back against sexual harassment. The warning signs were there, conjobs.

But, some have taken Taylor’s leftist and rational views with a broken heart, especially the 4chan crowd (a message forum that’s really racist and pro-Trump). You see, for a long time white supremacists have built a myth that Taylor Swift was one of them. She’s very white and blonde, so…duh. It must have really destroyed them to read her comment, “I believe that the systemic racism we still see in this country towards people of color is terrifying, sickening and prevalent.” One 4chan user posted a meme of Pepe the Frog crying. Not only is it a dangerous time in America for horny, young, white men, but also hazardous to racist cartoon frogs.

In the past, conservatives doctored photos of her wearing a MAGA hat and her with Hitler quotes, as though she was reciting them. One headline at the Daily Stormer (a Nazi site popular with Republicans) read, “Aryan Goddess Taylor Swift: Nazi Avatar of the White European People.” If you know anything about conservatives and memes, well, that’s where they get most of their information. For Republicans, racist, lying memes are scripture. It’s why they were and still are such easy cattle targets for Russian troll farms.

Believing Taylor was one of them based on memes of Nazi quotes and MAGA hats may sound ridiculous, but the kitty rational is outright absurd. The kitty what? Yeah, check this out: Many 4chan users believe they named Taylor Swift’s cat. Yes. Her cat. Meow.

How did they arrive at such delusions of grandeur? They had a cat-naming contest (I don’t know why and I’m afraid to look it up. I like dogs) and one of the winning names was “Meredeth,” which is a much better name for a kitten than Eva Braun. Later, they discovered that was the name Swift chose for her new kitty. So, there you have it. Taylor Swift has a Nazi Kitty, and she let the hater rubes over at the 4chan name it for her. It’s just too bad she named the cat before the contest, but this is 4chan. Details. Schmetails. Heil, Kitty.

While Republicans say Swift’s endorsement won’t have any impact (as though Kanye’s will), Vote.org has reported a huge spike in voter registration since yesterday. Normally, they get about 6,000 a day. Yesterday, they received 65,000. Sure, there could be a natural uptick because we’re within 30 days of the election and the registration deadline is fast approaching, but the website is giving most of the credit to Swift.

Swift has influence. When Apple made the decision not to pay artists during an initial three-month free trial period of their new streaming service, which would have mostly affected up-and-coming artists, Swift wrote a nice letter to Apple at 4:00 AM and they changed their policy. They didn’t want to fight with Tswifty.

She came out about being sexually assaulted after the guy who assaulted her, get this, sued her (he lost because he didn’t have a jury made of old, white, U.S. Republican senators). That inspired millions of other women to come forward.

Swift has over 83 million followers on Twitter. Donald Trump has 55 million with a huge chunk of them being bots. She has 112 million followers on Instagram. It’s safe to say she has some sway.

Yesterday, Trump said he likes Taylor Swift about 25% less now. What a coincidence, because now I like her about 25% more.

Note: I didn’t go to 4chan or the Daily Stormer for any of this research. I physically can’t as I already get nauseous when Trump comes in TV. It’s also why I won’t post links to them on my site. Ew. I did my research through other sites.

Be Complicit
What kind of person would want to be part of something that disparages, slanders, and disrespects Dear Leader and his sycophantic followers? Hopefully, you. 
Making a contribution supports my work and keeps the cartoons, columns, and videos coming. My income is from newspapers that subscribe to my work and small contributors. George Soros hasn’t sent me a million dollar check in weeks. Making a contribution of any amount, or buying a print for $40.00, makes you part of this specific resistance, and a member of Team Claytoonz (we’re still working on the name). You are complicit, an accomplice, and in cahoots (and whatever gangster terms we can think of) with this political satire pointing out that the stupid emperor has no clothes. Contributions can be made through PayPal, checks, and wads of cash exchanged in back alleys.
Whether you can help support, can’t, or just choose not to, please continue to enjoy and keep reading my work. Thank you!!! 

You can purchase a signed print of this cartoon.

Watch me draw.

Upcoming Massacre

cjones09292018

Were you confused yesterday? I was. Initial reports in the morning said Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein was on his way to the White House to submit his resignation after The New York Times reported that he discussed wearing a wire tape to record Trump and invoking the 25th Amendment to remove him from office.

Then, reports said Chief of Staff John Kelly wouldn’t accept his resignation, or he did, but Rosenstein refused to allow him to accept it, and that he’d only turn it over to Trump. That’s weird because Trump was in New York City for the United Nation’s General Assembly. Rosenstein knew that.

Later reports said that Rosenstein refused to allow himself to be fired unless it was face-to-face from Trump.

Rosenstein expected to be fired on Monday and the Justice Department was drafting a statement about who would succeed him. Rosenstein is overseeing the Special Counsel’s Russia investigation. Trump has barked for months about how the Justice Department, Attorney General Jeff Sessions, and Rosenstein have failed to defend him. In NYC, Trump said Rosenstein, who he has referred to as “Mr. Peepers,” wasn’t his guy, and he wasn’t involved in his hiring, though he had to approve it. As it stands now, Trump and Rosenstein will be meeting this Thursday.

I don’t expect Rosenstein to be fired this week. Firing him could lead to obstruction of justice charges (on top of the others that may be forthcoming). I do expect there to be firings after the midterms, which Trump and Republicans have been telegraphing, winking, nudging, and nodding about for months.

They’re afraid if there’s a Trumpian version of Nixon’s Saturday night massacre before the midterms, it will hurt them with voters. So, let’s just tell the voters we’ll do it after Election Day? Are they that stupid? Yes. The Trump White House is that stupid. They still haven’t found the “anonymous” guy who wrote The New York Times Op-Ed about what a dangerous and stupid little man Trump is. This is the same White House staffed with people who willingly committed career suicide by working for this White House.

This entire episode has given us another example of the new normal which most people have overlooked because we’re getting used to it. No, not Trump’s latest tweet where we excuse him for confusing “acquisition” for “accusation.” They’re big words. Give him a few minutes.

No. The new normal is The Deputy Attorney General having to deny he discussed wearing a wire to record Trump and invoking the 25th Amendment. That wouldn’t be a story for other administrations unless it was in the Weekly World News or the National Enquirer, and it wouldn’t even be acknowledged like they never had to deny “First Lady adopts three-headed space alien baby.”

But, this White House has to deny it because it’s logical and believable. If a story came out about Trump catching gonorrhea from a skanky badger, this White House would have to deny it. What I don’t find believable is that nobody in this administration has discussed invoking the 25th.

Did Rosenstein talk about wearing a wire? I think so but I doubt he seriously intended himself to be the covert operative. That would have made him a witness in an investigation he’s overseeing. Did he talk about the 25th? Sure, but he doesn’t have any say in that. That’s for cabinet members to deliberate, unless Rosenstein believes he can pull some strings.

I will be surprised if there’s not a massive bloodletting the day after the midterms. It’s going to be like an average Wednesday at a Gatehouse newspaper (people in my industry will get that reference). In fact, doing it the day after will be a good way for Trump to change the subject from the GOP’s massive defeat from the Blue Wave.

Of course, another distraction would be that skanky badger story.

Your support in the form of donations is appreciated. I am fully independent as I’m not employed by a newspaper or with a major syndicate (leaving one to be independent). It does take a lot of work to provide you with cartoons, columns, and videos almost every day (more than any other political cartoonist), and I don’t charge my clients much at all. If you can, please consider making a financial contribution to keep the fun flowing, or purchase a signed print for $40. Whether you can help support, can’t, or just choose not to, please continue to enjoy and keep reading my work. Thank you!!!

You can purchase a signed print of this cartoon.

Watch me draw.

Evil Says “Excellent”

cjones11062014

I was at dinner with a few friends and the entire time my mind was working thinking of my next cartoon. I knew I had a deadline.

So while my pals are talking I’m drawing on napkins while trying not to get sweet tea and lasagna on the drawings. My first idea was to draw Darth Vader in the window of the Death Star saying with this dame headline with Darth saying “yay.” I was going to draw tie fighters and stars outside the Death Star and it would have made a better drawing. My second idea was something very nasty that wouldn’t escape any newspaper censors so I went with my third idea. Mr. Burns. I thought Mr. Burns would deliver the point home better. Mr. Burns is more fun for me to draw and I’m on on a Simpsons kick anyway. I left my TV on FXX for 12 days during that entire “Every Simpsons Ever” marathon. That’s good stuff. Mr. Burns is also a figure I think everyone with a pulse will recognize as pure Big Business Republican evil. He fits the bill.

Anyway, yeah the bad guys won. It’s amazing a party can be rewarded for being sexist, racist and stupid all while having a resume from the past four years of doing nothing except trying to sabotage the economy, destroy and shut down the government and very openly describe an agenda of bringing down a president just because they’re poor losers and they don’t like him.

So here’s your cartoon on that.

As a bonus, here’s that lasagna free rough drawn in a restaurant on a napkin.

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