News

Flat Earth Core

Some scientists are saying the Earth’s core may have stopped spinning, or slowed down, and may even start to go in reverse. In case you’re a Republican, reverse means backward. Republicans know backward.

I’m going to lay some science down on you (yes, this is cut and paste. I don’t know this shit).

The Earth is formed of the crust, the mantle, and the inner and outer cores. The solid inner core is situated about 3,200 miles below the Earth’s crust and is separated from the semi-solid mantle by the liquid outer core, which allows the inner core to rotate at a different speed from the rotation of the Earth itself.

With a radius of almost 2,200 miles, Earth’s core is about the size of the planet Mars (which is about half the size of Earth). The Earth’s core consists mostly of iron and nickel and contains about one-third of Earth’s mass.

Yi Yang, an associate research scientist at Peking University, and Xiaodong Song, Peking University chair professor, studied seismic waves from earthquakes that have passed through the Earth’s inner core along similar paths since the 1960s to infer how fast the inner core is spinning. Wait a minute. Isn’t China where Donald Trump claims global warming was invented?

I watched “The Phantom Menace” again over the weekend (I don’t know why) and Qui-Gon, Obi-Wan, and Jar-Jar took a shortcut in a bongo from Gungan City to Theed, the capital of Naboo, through the planet’s core. I have an issue with this. Sure, it’s science fiction, but I don’t think you can bongo your way from one ocean to another through the core of the planet. The core would be a solid mass, not liquid. At the very least, wouldn’t it be red hot magma as Dr. Evil claimed in those Austin Powers movies?

Anyway, seismic records, which previously changed over time, haven’t shown much change since 2009, when the Black Eye Peas released “My Humps.” I knew that song was bad news. This leads Dr. Yang to believe the core has either stopped or slowed down and makes him ask, “Whatcha gon’ do with all that junk? All that junk? All that junk inside your trunk?”

Back in the 1980s when Bananarama was running wild, the core was spinning just fine. Some scientists believe this is a cycle and the current spinning started in the 1970s back when Terry Jacks was singing “Seasons in the Sun.” But others believe this cycle started even earlier, like when Ray Charles did the “Mess Around.”

The most amazing thing about all of this is that Fox News also reported this story to their viewership of flat earthers. You know, the goons who believe climate change is a socialist plot, face masks don’t work, covid is a hoax, chemtrails, birds aren’t real, vaccines cause death and autism, Donald Trump won the 2020 presidential election, and Fergie’s humps are not nearly as nice as the humps of Kimberly Guilfoyle.

And if the Earth’s core does indeed start to spin backward, then we’re all going to believe that stuff too, which will be great for me because I’m kinda tired of having to research and be accountable for my beliefs. Being an irresponsible right-wing cartoonist would take so much pressure off. And trust me, even the slightest research will educate you that Fergie is much nicer than Kimberly Guilfoyle if even hearing “Let’s get it Started” makes you want to hit yourself upon the head with a tack hammer.

But seriously, I’m going to have so much egg on my face if everything in this cartoon turns out to be true.

Creative note: My CNN editor suggested I do something on this subject but we didn’t go with any of the ideas I sent him on it. I wrote a version of this last Friday but rewrote it this morning (so he never saw this one).

Music note: I listened to a 90s alternative mix.

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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State News Fake News

I quoted an everyday ordinary man-on-the-Moscow-streets in yesterday’s blog who refuses to believe Russia has committed war crimes in Bucha, and probably anywhere else. He said, “If this is not fake, my brain refuses to accept it.” Since he lives in Russia, the news he has access to probably won’t ever tell him it’s not fake. This is a person, like a Hannity viewer, who’d rather be obliviously happy and ignorant.

Russia has blocked hundreds of news and social media sites on the internet. Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram are blocked. Russia blocked Ukrainian news sites before the war and then crafted new legislation making it a crime to report any news the government deems fake, which is like having Kellyann Conway determine facts from “alternative” facts.

The government is also airing propaganda and lies on their state media news stations and online. Russian news consumers are being told the massacre in Bucha is staged, which is something Alex Jones would say about a school shooting. Russian state media is claiming the dead bodies are just actors, which is something Marjorie Taylor Greene would say about kids in a school shooting. Being able to find a location of an upcoming crisis to act in is a pretty amazing skill.

Chinese-owned TikTok has blocked 95 percent of posts by Russian users, citing the “fake news” law, but I guess for shits-and-giggles, it’s also blocked posts from  French President Emmanuel Macron and the United Nations. Fortunately, TikTok has not blocked my account yet so my 158 followers will not be deprived of my 30-second drawing videos set to music. You’re welcome, America.

If Russians want to discover the horrors their president is having inflicted upon the citizens of Ukraine, they have to resort to VPNs and the dark web. A VPN is a virtual private network that connects through a secondary remote server that has fewer security controls and restrictions. Usually, these are in other countries like Lithuania. A lot of people, like me 30 minutes ago, aren’t aware of VPNs, or tech-savvy enough to download and install one, or willing/able to pay for them. I know there are a lot of readers in the U.S. who refuse to pay for news and complain loudly about firewalls at The New York Times and the Washington Post. I can believe there are a lot of Russians who’ll refuse to pay extra to discover their president is murdering civilians in Bucha. I pay for four news outlets and for at least half of last week, they were all obsessed with the slappy Oscars.

The dark web is where Americans usually go to plan terrorist attacks and spread conspiracy theories about deep-state Democrats using pizza parlors to sex traffic babies. You see a lot of Pepe the Frog on the dark web but it’s a place where Russians will try to learn real news, but will probably only get into a debate over whether Chris Rock did or didn’t know Jada has alopecia.

Russians are good people. There are millions of them opposed to this war. But they’re not getting information about it because Vladimir Putin doesn’t want them to hear the truth…or to see the images of the horror he’s created.

They don’t see the wreckage of bombed hospitals and schools, or the charred skeletons left behind in Kharkiv, Chernihiv, Kherson, Zhytomyr, and Bucha. In Russia, you can only hear what Putin wants you to hear about the war…except you can’t say “war.” Since early March, it’s been illegal to call the war a “war,” or describe it as an “attack” or “invasion,” and doing so can get you 15 years in a Russian prison.

What Russians are being told by their state news is that Russia is defending them from Ukrainian Nazis.

We don’t have state TV in the west. The BBC and NPR are government-funded, but government has zero control over the content. In Russia, State media is controlled and edited by the state. Fox News, Newsmax, and One America News Network are not controlled by a right-wing government, but they have chosen to use our guaranteed freedom of the press to act like they are. We don’t have state TV. We have Trump TV.

While Russians don’t have a choice in being ignorant about the war or buried in bullshit propaganda, many in the west have chosen to be ignorant about the war and disseminate propaganda. If you’re on Truth Social, or when they finally let you in, search hashtags for “Putin,” “War,” “Russia,” “Ukraine,” or “Bucha.” Warning: You will probably need a shower afterward.

I actually talked to someone in Russia last week who told me she didn’t know what was happening in Ukraine but knew what she was being told is a lie. She asked me not to tell her because she was actually afraid of what she’d learn. Russians know they’re being lied to and it’s horrible to find out you’re governed by liars and war criminals. Sure, we have our own experience with that, but we don’t have to support the liars and war criminals.

I hope there are people in Russia who can see my cartoons. I also hope my cartoons do a better job of exposing them to reality and the truth than they’ve done convincing MAGAts on Truth Social and other platforms.

Music note: I listened to about half of Taylor Swift’s “Folklore” album while crosshatching and coloring today’s 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.

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Fake News Genius

A lot of Russian propaganda outlets are being shut down in the west by western governments and private corporations. Russia state-owned outlets that have been operating freely in Europe and the United States, RT and Sputnik, have taken a huge hit and are being blocked.

While the west is blocking Russia’s fake news outlets, much of it as part of sanctions, Russia has created a new “fake news” law while also blocking western news in Russia.

Russia is already cracking down on protests against its illegal invasion of Ukraine and Putin’s war crimes and is now blocking independent news outlets that would inform its citizenry of events in the war the state doesn’t want them to know.

Last Thursday, the Duma (Russia’s legislative body) made it a crime to publish “fake news” or misinformation about Russia’s war in Ukraine. It will be Russian government authorities who determine what’s fake. Vladimir Putin signed it into law on Friday. Immediately, Russian and international news organizations either withdrew their reporters from the country, changed how they did their work or shut down completely.

Bloomberg announced it was suspending its work in the country. Editor-in-chief John Micklethwait said the law “seems designed to turn any independent reporter into a criminal purely by association” and “makes it impossible to continue any semblance of normal journalism inside the country.”

The public service broadcasters of Canada, Germany, and Italy each suspended their operations inside Russia.

The BBC announced it was suspending its work in Russia but that “BBC News in Russian will still be produced from outside the country.” The director-general of the BBC said, “The safety of our staff is paramount and we are not prepared to expose them to the risk of criminal prosecution simply for doing their jobs.”

Radio Free Europe is also suspending its operations inside Russia while also initiating bankruptcy proceedings against its Russian unit because of millions of dollars in unpaid “fines” against the broadcaster for refusing to obey a Russian law that would “cripple its editorial content.”

ABC News and CBS News are both ceasing their broadcast from inside Russia. The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times both declined to say how they will proceed in the fascist state. The Washington Post, however, plans to keep reporting from inside Russia and is taking the unusual step of removing bylines and datelines from its stories in order to protect its journalists.

Independent Russian outlets are faring worse.  Novaya Gazeta, an independent Russian newspaper that survived the murder of six of its journalists, and whose editor recently won a Nobel Peace Prize, said it will no longer report on Russia’s military actions but will continue to report on sanctions and persecutions of dissidents.

More than 150 Russian journalists have fled the nation in recent days. The Kremlin has blocked Facebook, Twitter, and a host of international news sites. This blog will probably be blocked in Russia as well. In fact, this site hasn’t received a click from Russia in over a month.

Here in the United States, In addition to Donald Trump villainizing journalists, the greatest threat to journalists are the corporations that employ journalists. The caretakers of a free press have become the morticians.

Conservatives have chosen to back Ukraine against Russia, but they’ve also been opponents of a free press here in the United States. While calling Putin a fascist, they ignore that getting rid of a free press is how you get fascism.

Even the term “fake news” is dangerous to a free press as we’re getting to the point that people can’t tell the difference between news and propaganda. News that you don’t like is not “fake news.” There are no alternative facts. There are just facts. There is no “fake news” as any news that’s fake is NOT news. People are getting their “information” from memes and don’t think twice or research a claim before resharing. People share memes, not because they’re true, but because they want the meme’s claims to be true.

And then you have News Max, One American News Network, Fox News, and all the Tuckers, Hannitys, Gutfelds, Ingrahams, and shit there are too many to list.

Newspapers are now a dying industry being gobbled up by corporations that gut the papers in their chains, liquidate all its assets, lay off most of its staff, sell the paper again where the new owner repeats the actions of the last owner. All Gatehouse/Gannett newspapers run the exact same editorial page along with other content. It’s now common for a daily newspaper’s A section to only contain six pages. Lee Enterprises, Gatehouse/Gannett, McClatchy (in bankruptcy proceedings where I’m listed as someone they owe money to but who will never receive it), and Berkshire Hathaway all care more about the stock market than they care about journalism. They don’t care about local journalism or serving a community. And they don’t care about the people who gather the news. Since I was laid off from The Free Lance-Star in 2012, the paper has had four owners. FOUR!

In Russia, the government is the greatest danger to a free press. Here, we destroy it on our own.

I can go on and on about how I’ve been affected personally and in business, but I’m gonna save that for another day. But I’ll just say, it’s extremely frustrating when editors and news outlets just decide they’re not going to pay you anymore.

I feel like I got thrown off a building when COVID started and I’m still falling.

Music Note: I was in a very garage rock mood while coloring today and I listened to the Hives and the Vines.

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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Fox’s Flaming Fir

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Fox News Sunday host Chris Wallace surprised viewers and many of his colleagues yesterday by announcing that this would be his last show and he was leaving the network, effective immediately. Shortly after, CNN announced the hiring of Wallace to be an anchor on their upcoming streaming service, CNN Plus.

Wallace turned down a contract extension with a pay raise to jump ship to an actual news network.

Fox News is losing actual news journalists. Brett Bair is probably the only prominent one who remains at the network. Shepard Smith left for CNBC in 2019. Kristin Fisher is another who recently left. Now, goodbye, Chris Wallace, who may have been the network’s best journalist.

Fox News has used Wallace as proof they’re an actual news source while firing Chris Stirewalt two months after he called Arizona for President Biden (which made a huge part of their base leave temporarily for News Max).

Fox News is actually making their network even more conservative. The network has replaced its 7:00 PM news slot with a conservative commentary show. They moved back their 11:00 PM news show an hour to give the slot to pro-Trump goon Greg Gutfield, who conservatives think is funny. Greg Gutfield’s show is like giving another talk show to Chevy Chase, but with less humor.

The network has removed liberal Juan Williams from its show, “The Five,” and Democratic analyst Donna Brazile recently left for ABC News. Even conservative pundits, Stephen Hayes and Jonah Goldberg quit last month in protest of Tucker’s lying documentary.

According to inside sources at Fox (people who work there but hate it), Wallace was frustrated working at a supposed “news” network where the agenda was being crafted by conspiracy theorists. Even worse, much of the Fox News programming has been set by Donald Trump over the past five years. If Trump says it, much of the network repeats it as fact.

Fun fact: Donald Trump doesn’t say facts.

The insiders also report that Wallace, along with Brett Bair, had complained to network executives over Tucker Carlson’s constant lie the election was stolen. The sources also state Wallace was upset and had complained about a so-called “documentary” by Tucker, titled “Patriot Purge,” which includes the false claim that the riot was a “false flag” operation created to demonize the political right.

And then there has been the network’s coverage over its own Christmas tree. The tree outside the headquarters of Fox News on 6th Avenue was set on fire, allegedly by a homeless man who may be mentally ill. Fox News’ reaction to this is that it’s a “war on Christmas” and a “hate crime” against Fox News. If you listen to Christians, Christmas is under attack and persecuted in this country. Starbucks Happy Holiday cups are probably a hate crime for not saying, “Merry Christmas.”

Fox’s commentators have referred to the tree as, “America’s Tree,” though the tradition of Fox News putting up the tree was started in 2019. Jeanine Pirro said the burning of the tree is “pure evil.” She stated on air, “It’s about good versus evil! Period!”

Ainsley Earhardt, co-host of Fox & Friends comforted his concerned viewers by promising the network will “build it back better.” Ya’ mean by going to the store and buying a new fake tree? Ainsley raised the stakes now and for his sake, this tree better be better, godammit. Maybe Ainsley can volunteer to provide all-night security just to make sure the new tree is hobo-proof. Maybe Fox News can give him a whistle.

Fox & Friends Steve Doocy said, “Apparently lighting a Christmas tree on fire is not a hate crime.” Co-host Brian Kilmeade replied, “But it is! “Who says it’s not a hate crime against us – against Fox News?” So, Fox News is a religion now? Well, I guess is it a division of the Trump Cult.

Conservatives don’t believe the murder of Ahmaud Arbery while jogging was a hate crime, but setting this fake fucking tree on fire is. What’s the next Fox News hate crime, burning a MyPillow?

Another fun fact: Like much of Fox News, that tree had no soul.

Kilmeade then went on a rant about crime. He said, “There is so much crime in places that were always safe, including 48th and Sixth here. This is emblematic of these cities out of control, defame and defund the police, and this bail reform that has these men and women, these assailants, these suspects out before they can even finish the paperwork.”

He went on, “no person is safe and no city is safe.” No Christmas tree is safe from homeless vagrants. Before you can even finish the paperwork on arrested suspects, they make bail and set out to burn down another fake Christmas tree. This is the worst thing to happen to conservatism since that time Donald Trump was forced to go out in the rain to commemorate veterans. Tucker hasn’t taken a personal blow like this since he was kicked out of that Swiss boarding school for pampered special boys. We haven’t seen attack on white Christians like this since all those black people walked in front of those gun-toting mustard-loving conservatives’ home in St. Louis, or since CNN slandered the Covington Kid by pointing out he’s a huge dick, or since that time someone somewhere tricked Kyle Rittenhouse into drinking underage in a white nationalist bar. And if you listen to the Fox fuckers, you’d believe it was the worst thing to happen to New York City since 9/11.

And you know the jerks across the street at MSNBC were craning their necks out the window to gawk and laugh at this ungodly attack on the wholesome Christian purity of Fox News. Those MSNBC savages? Was Rachel giggling?

I’m mostly surprised they haven’t blamed this assault on their fake tree on President Biden, or Vice-President Kamala Harris, or Alexandria Ocasio Cortez, or Ilhan Omar, of the rest of the squad, or Antifa, or Black Lives Matter, or Dr. Fauci, or Starbucks holiday cups, or my cartoon yesterday on Mike Nesmith (you should see my inbox), or vaccines, or people who celebrate Kwanza, or…

No wonder Chris Wallace is leaving.

Music note: While drawing today’s cartoon, I listened to Taylor Swift’s Folklore album.

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 18 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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Liberal Hack Journalists

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Last week, temporary Arizona Senator Martha McSally screamed at CNN congressional correspondent Raju Manu, calling him a “liberal hack.”

Later, McSally went on Fox News to talk about her harrowing experience of being asked a dangerous question by a liberal hack reporter. The Fox News hosts she chose to talk to about hacks in the media were Laura Ingraham and Sean Hannity. Nobody detected the irony and hypocrisy.

While screaming over it, Hannity said about CNN, “They’re not a news channel. They’re state-run, radical, leftist, socialist TV.” Again, no irony detected. A person has to be smart to catch that.

McSally said to Sean, “I actually thought they understood that they were liberal, that they were a part of kind of helping with the Democrat agenda.” Hello? Irony? Is this thing on?

Now, McSally, the unelected Senator, is campaigning on it. She has an ad on her site asking for at least five bucks. Even the Trump campaign is using it.

In decrying the way she was assaulted by Manu Raju, she said to Hannity, “I was a fighter pilot. This was a choice I made. I did not crumble under their pressure. I have flown A-10s in combat.”

It’s a good thing too that she has that experience in combat so she won’t crumble under the pressure of being asked….”should the Senate consider new evidence as part of the impeachment trial?” Oh my God! How is she still standing? The strength of this woman to continue to carry on despite the brutal beatdown of being asked a question about her job! What will they ask next? The time? How’s the weather? Do you bleach above your upper lip?

Hold your children close tonight and keep Republicans like Martha McSally in your thoughts and prayers because if I know the liberal hack media like I think I do, they’ll ask questions again. Oh, the humanity!!!

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.

New Book: Tales From The Trumpster Fire

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Did You NAZI The News?

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Donald Trump demands complete and total loyalty. He believes any attacks on him are attacks on America because he’s America. He doesn’t want independent thought in the Republican Party, deeming those who criticize him as “Never Trumpers” and “human scum.” It’s as if not being a member of his cult takes away the critic’s credibility. The truth is, there are still people who respect the office and hate to see a racist, narcissistic, sexist, sophomoric, dumbass destroy it and all our cherished institutions.

In demanding loyalty, Donald Trump believes the press should only report favorably about him. Recently, he’s taken issue with Fox News. After the network reported a fact, Trump tweeted, “There’s something going on at Fox News.” He totally lost his shit when Fox published a poll showing a majority of American voters think he should be impeached. Trump lashed out in another tweet, saying, “Whoever their pollster is, they suck.” He complained that Fox is much different than it used to be in the “good old days.” I’m assuming the “good old days” when it was run by sexual harassers and assaulters. At least he still has Hannity, Tucker, Jeanine, and the morning gaggle of buttpoodles, Fox & Friends.

Trump really hates legitimate news outlets. He banned CNN’s Jim Acosta from the White House until a court ruled he can’t ban reporters. He’s labeled that network as “fake news,” along with several others. He’s screamed at and bullied reporters, especially if they’re black and female. He refers to The Washington Post as the “Amazon Washington Post,” and has sought to punish Amazon by having federal agencies not grant government contracts to the company. He calls his hometown paper The “failing” New York Times. He’s accused journalists and publications of “treason,” and he’s talked about taking away the First Amendment which protects a free press.

Now, Trump has ordered the White House to cancel its subscriptions to the Times and the Post because of their factual reporting. He ordered other government agencies to follow suit and terminate their subscriptions as well.

Jonathan Karl, president of the White House Correspondents’ Association said, “Pretending to ignore the work of a free press won’t make the news go away or stop reporters from informing the public and holding those in power accountable.”

John Kennedy got fed up with the coverage by The New York Herald Tribune and ordered that it not be delivered to the White House. A Republican congressman said, “It might be well to remind President Kennedy that on Jan. 20, 1961, he was inaugurated as president, not coronated as king.” It was revealed years later that while the subscription was canceled, Kennedy had “bootleg” copies brought to the White House until he eventually restored the subscription.

Retired four-star general Barry McCaffrey compared Trump to Mussolini and said, “The White House Trump statement telling the entire Federal Government to terminate subscriptions to the NYT and Wash Post is a watershed moment in national history. No room for HUMOROUS media coverage. This is deadly serious. This is Mussolini.”

I’m fine with Trump not reading real news. In case you’re a Republican, there is no such thing as “fake news.” If it’s fake, then it’s not news. Donald Trump, upon insisting on only reading lies and conspiracy theories, is a fake president.

But it’s in his best interest to read the Times and the Post, as they’re the two best newspapers in the country. If he doesn’t read them, how will he know how the impeachment process is really going? How will he know when he’s been impeached?

Trump’s move is further proof that we need a strong, independent, free press exposing the truth now more than ever. It was a newspaper, The Washington Post, that took down President Richard Nixon.

The Washington Post’s motto is, “Democracy Dies in Darkness.” But one can argue, it’s been dark at the White House for a while now. It takes a stupid president to choose to remain ignorant.

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.

The Press, Deplorables, And Hurricanes

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When the president of the United States trolls his angry crowds by telling them that the press, the people who hold government officials accountable and who often put their lives in danger to report the news, are the “enemies of the American people,” someone must stick up for them.

While there were a few unfortunate incidents on live television, the press has done an outstanding job covering the hurricanes. I saw a few posts on social media where horrible people were attempting to downplay the job the press has done, like accusing them of using green screens, or saying the environment the reporters were in was “just a slight breeze.” Does it look like CNN’s Sara Sidner is standing in a slight breeze? It wasn’t fake debris that struck this reporter.

People who hate the press and deride it as “fake news” usually exhibit their qualifications to grade the media by sharing links to Breitbart, Daily Caller, and InfoWars. I bet these same people, especially if they were in Florida, relied on the press’s tracking of the storm.

News coverage actually saves lives during this sort of disasters. In addition to tracking the storm, they report where the shelters are and their capacity, evacuations and the routes, which road are closed and open, in addition to other vital information. They have helped people find missing family members. In some cases, they’ve jumped into the story to save a life.

When people watch reporters stand outside during a category five hurricane, they often ask “isn’t this stupid?” That’s a very fair question. Yes. Yes, it is stupid. As CNN’s Chris Cuomo stated, “There is a strong argument to be made that standing in a storm is not a smart thing to do.”

Reporters are telling viewers to evacuate, don’t play in the water, run from the hurricane, it’s dangerous out there, all while they’re standing in the middle of it dodging flying debris.

The defense of this is; reporters are doing this so you don’t have to. If nothing else, you can believe what they’re saying. One can obviously tell how dangerous the storm is by the way a flying hubcap nailed that reporter in the gonads. Stay inside! Do people actually need visual proof of just how bad a hurricane actually is? Have you met Republicans?

Reporters also jump into war zones. A lot of times they don’t come back. A report compiled by the International News Safety Institute says 115 journalists died in 2016. Our president will tell you they’re the bad guys. I don’t have a number of how many journalists died from his favorite publication last year, The National Enquirer, but I’m betting it was pretty low. Though to be fair, those guys are in constant danger of getting bitch-slapped by Leonardo DiCaprio….or even more humiliating, hit in the gonads by Justin Bieber.

Earlier this week, a Facebook troll had the gall to accuse me of being a defender of the press and the people who report the news. How dare he. Remind me later to get upset.

I trust the media. When they report something that’s inaccurate, they correct it. When the current head of our government tells us a lie, he makes up for it by telling us an even bigger lie. The press and government both have low approval ratings, but I trust one way more than the other.

While journalists will risk their lives to give you the information you should know, Donald Trump and his deplorables will castigate them for it.

Creators note: It’s kind of a cliche to draw people watching TV. But, it’s hard to avoid that imagery when the subject is people on TV. However, I think I’ve used this concept enough for the year, so I’m going to try to make this my last one for a while. My problem might be that I’m always watching TV. My TV is on the news constantly. I know basically every commercial by heart. I constantly have the “My Pillow” jingle in my head. Please kill me.

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.

For Gwen Ifill

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Everyone who uses social media is in a bubble. You’re in a bubble, I’m in a bubble, your mom is in a bubble, and we all know your crazy uncle is in a bubble. The thing about bubbles is that your news feed gives you information that you want to read, whether you are a conservative or a liberal.

Personally I like to stick my head out of my bubble which is why I’m friends with very conservative people on Facebook (and quite a few in the real physical world). I get to read the information they’re sharing….or is often the case, misinformation.

A lot of people, myself included, get their news from social media. I do too while my TV is also on CNN all day and I personally subscribe to The Washington Post, The New York Times, and The Seattle Times. Getting your news from social media could have been a good thing but it’s turning into a wasteland of fake news, or what I like to refer as “bullshit news.”

The headlines in my cartoon are examples of actual bullshit news. Conservatives reading this may still believe these headlines. They love the crap news and it’s really hard to shake them when they believe it. If you thought memes with fake quotes and news was bad, it gets even worse with actual fake news sites, and I’m not talking about the satire sites like The Onion. There are sites that pose as ABC, The Wall Street Journal, CNN, and such. It’s not always Breitbart, Infowars, and The Daily Caller. It’s very irresponsible. What really gets under my skin are the people who don’t trust the “mainstream” media yet they rely on the bullshit news. Nobody vets on Facebook.

It’s not just conservatives either. If you’re a liberal you probably saw several memes about how Donald Trump once said if he ever ran for president that he would do it as a Republican because their voters are stupid. Guess what. That’s fake. If you’re a leftie reading this you might be saying to your computer screen “Nuh uh!” but I’m telling you, “uh huh.” Another popular example is one I’ve seen shared by both sides about Obama banning the pledge of allegiance. Someone actually blocked me after I pointed out that story wasn’t true. That person was a liberal. Go figure. Don’t get me started on the stories about all the people Hillary Clinton supposedly killed.

We are in an age where many believe they’re not just entitled to their own opinion, but to their own facts. This is where I call bullshit. Journalism is very important to me. It’s important to democracy. While the media is hated more than Congress, Nickelback, grown men who say “anyhoo,” and people who walk too slowly in front of you at the grocery store, I have a high regard for it. Conservatives roll their eyes at me when I express my belief that The Washington Post and CNN are doing a good job. OK, CNN does play the ratings game a bit too much but I don’t buy the liberal-bias argument.

If you’re a purveyor of the bullshit news then you probably didn’t know who Gwen Ifill was if the news of her death from cancer on Monday fell into your news feed. She never reported that the Obama spent trillions of dollars of taxpayer money on a private vacation. Ifill reported real news. Information that was actually true. I’m saddened by her passing for the same reasons I was sad when Tim Russert died. We’re losing very ethical and principled people in our industry and for many people they’re being replaced by the Steve Bannons of the world. That does more than make me sad. It makes me sick.

Ifill was a highly respected journalist for PBS. She got her start working for newspapers in Boston, Baltimore, and Washington. She moderated the 2004 and 2008 vice-presidential debates. You may remember her being parodied by Queen Latifah on Saturday Night Live when they spoofed the Biden/Palin debate.

Gwen Ifill was only 61, two years older than my mother when she died. That is way too young.

I think it would be great if future journalists would aspire to be more like Ifill than the Steve Bannons or Sean Hannitys of the industry. It’d be really awesome if all those fake newsers on social media would attempt to be more like her, though they probably wouldn’t know where to start.

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!!!

Trump Train

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After Trump insinuated that Obama was sympathetic toward terrorists (wink wink, nudge nudge), The Washington Post published a story on his comments. Trump reacted by banning the Post from covering his events. He claimed they were taking his words out of context and that he never would insinuate that Obama would be behind such a horrible attack. Then he doubled down on his comments and tweeted out a Breitbart story about how Obama is an ISIS sympathizer. He’s also given press credentials to Infowars which is a conspiracy site.

It’s kinda telling that Trump hates The Washington Post but loves Breitbart. Trump hates journalists but Breitbart is OK because they’re not real journalists. They’re like news chlamydia. There’s a cure for it, but if you caught it once then you’re probably gonna go back and catch it again. Trump has a thing about bashing reporters. He claims the New York Times is a failing newspaper while touting the fine reporting of The National Enquirer. He blasts The Washington Post. He was a huge fan of the show Morning Joe which tells you a lot about that show (though I don’t think he likes them anymore). He even feuded with Fox News and Megyn Kelly. Then he makes up, feuds again, makes up, feuds again, etc.

Trump has banned nine media outlets from his events. NINE! In addition to The Post they include, National Review, Politico, The Des Moines Register, The Huffington Post, Buzzfeed, The Daily Beast, Univision, and Gawker for running an investigation on his hair. He’s banned specific reporters from Mother Jones, Fusion, and The New York Times. He’s taken credit for the Union Leader in New Hampshire being dropped from a debate.

Trump is now talking about having his own network, much like Sarah Palin attempted a while back (which fizzled and burned out). If Trump actually wants a media empire then he better quit the race and start now. After he loses to Hillary Clinton in November his brand won’t be as marketable. He’ll be a loser like he accuses Romney of being, though Trump won’t carry as many states as Romney did in 2012.

Back to the Post: Editor Bob Woodward, who is no journalistic slouch, has unleashed 20 reporters to dig into Trump’s background to find stuff we don’t know yet. He’s doing the same on Hillary Clinton (though I doubt there’s anything new there after almost 30 years of being in the spotlight).

Bob Woodward was half the team that broke the Watergate story. If Trump is actually elected president I’m sure he looks forward to the story that will lead to his impeachment.

It seems the only correct way to cover a Trump event is not to report what he actually says. He doesn’t like that.

Creative note: When I got this idea I told myself to think of another idea. I really liked this idea but I’m not a big fan of drawing trains. Some cartoonists hate drawing crowds. I don’t like trains. Bicycles suck 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!!!

Facebook News

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When conservatives complain about the media being liberal, what they’re really upset about is the media reporting facts. Sure there’s bias in the media, but it’s not a massive agenda being carried out just because you’re not hearing what you want to hear, or believe.

The “mainstream” media is not liberally biased. If anything, the number one cable news network has a conservative bias, with that being Fox News. Here’s a news flash for those watching the news and whining that it’s not on their side: The media, cable news, newspapers, and websites, number one agenda is to make money. It’s all about ratings, circulation and advertising. If we’re to believe the media is actually biased then right now the media wants Donald Trump to become president. Only the political cartoonists actually want that to happen.

If you really want honest news then you would not demand more conservative or liberal news. You would demand news. Even if the media is biased one way or another, creating more biased media does not balance anything. Misinformation and lies doesn’t correct another source of misinformation and lies. I demand facts and comprehensive coverage. That’s what I use to form my petition.

This week conservatives are complaining about a report that Facebook is suppressing conservative news from trending. Trending is that thing on the right hand side of your Facebook page, which I know you have open right now. At this very moment what’s trending on my Facebook is: London mayor Sadiq Khan, climate activists protesting in Anacotes, Washington, Zika in Singapore, fishermen in Melville Island, Australia caught a cod with a snake in its mouth, the tiny Vaquita Porpoise, a missing 81-year-old man in Spotylvania County, Virginia (that one targeted me), Angry Birds the movie (maybe Facebook doesn’t know), world’s biggest plane lands in Australia and lands in a fish’s mouth (I made that last part up), Nevada Democratic Convention, and Facebook’s CEO delivers a commencement speech.

Unless that tiny dolphin is claiming Donald Trump made odd sexual remarks at her back in the 90’s, I’m not detecting a liberal bias in that list.

My main news source is Google News. I scroll there and click on articles from multiple outlets. It’s the best resource for me. I flip channels between CNN and MSNBC during the day and will occasionally watch Fox News to see how they’re spinning something. MSNBC is conservative in the morning, straight forward from midday to the evening, and at night liberally biased at night. CNN is straightforward and they balance their panels on their nightly shows. Fox News, where every female is required to be a blonde and they’re not allowed to wear sleeves,M is just always biased toward conservatives. The ONE America News makes Fox News look like the BBC.

Are you really complaining you’re not getting enough Breitbart and Daily Caller through Facebook? Do you know how to bookmark? Does your current news filter not provide enough racist comments that fit your agenda? Bookmark. Learn it. Use it. Shut up.

One fact is that a lot of people are getting their news from Facebook. Facebook doesn’t gather news. They share it. They don’t employ any political cartoonists, the bastards.

Facebook does select what’s trending and they target their readers toward their habits. Every time you click “like” on a photo (or a cartoon) or click on one of those sites that click bait you to inform you of your Jedi name or if your cat was Al Capone in a previous life, Facebook is gathering information about you. Each time you post a selfie, Facebook knows you’re a narcissist and attempts to sell you a selfie stick. Each time you post a food picture, Facebook knows you’re lonely and crying for help but directs you toward Taco Bell instead. Every time (Every. Single. Freaking time) you announce you’re a vegetarian, everybody already knows because you won’t shut up about it (and those food pics are about as alluring as that nude portrait of Trump with the tiny penis making the rounds. Oh you haven’t seen that? Do NOT go looking for it!).

Mark Zuckerberg is going to meet with conservative news leaders like Glenn Beck this week to talk about Facebook’s trending news. There’s nothing he’s going to say to the perpetual victims that will satisfy them so if I was him I’d rather just tell them to go suck a lemon.

Stupid, low informed people have a very low bar for their news source. Since Zuckerberg is attempting to appease them anyway, I suggest he tag all of them with memes.

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!!!