Orlando

Trump The Alarms

cjones06082017

It was over 90 days ago that Trump signed an executive order banning travel from seven Muslim nations, which was supposed to last for 90 days. How much of an emergency was this ban since that time period has expired? How vital was it since during that time there have been zero terrorists attacks in the United States, not counting the terrorist attacks committed by white guys.

Monday morning, a man the media has identified as a “disgruntled former employee” walked into his former workplace and shot five of his former co-workers. It was big news in the a.m. but by noon the story had vanished as the press was busy talking about Donald Trump’s tweets, Kellyanne Conway’s husband ripping Trump’s tweets, the story about Trump editing out the “defense clause” from his speech to NATO, breaking news that the Russians were attempting to hack into companies that sell voter registration-related software, and that the Trump administration is trying to tell us to ignore Trump’s tweets.

Why was the Orlando story pushed into the background so quickly? Oh yeah. It’s because the shooter was white. Trump didn’t tweet about it. He didn’t attack the mayor of Orlando. When five people are killed by a white guy we can all remain calm because obviously, it’s much worse to die at the hands of a brown person than a white person.

Or maybe it’s worse to be killed by a guy who prays to Allah than by a guy who got a poor evaluation from the HR department. Not every day can be casual Friday people, and stop reheating fish in the company’s microwave.

Trump didn’t attack the mayor of Orlando. In fact, Trump hasn’t tweeted about Orlando at all. He did tweet at Sadiq Khan, the mayor of London and the first Muslim mayor of a major western city. Trump distorted Khan’s statement to the public that they shouldn’t be alarmed over an increased police presence. Trump decided to tweet that the mayor didn’t want people to be alarmed over terrorism.

Orlando hasn’t reached Trump’s radar yet, perhaps because he was too busy tweeting. Tuesday morning, he retweeted a Fox News story of a hostage siege in Australia Isis has claimed credit for that killed one person and injured three police officers. He continued to tweet his desire for a travel ban. He tweeted attacks on the media, once again calling them “fake news.” And yesterday, he went after the mayor of London again tweeting “Pathetic excuse by London Mayor Sadiq Khan who had to think fast on his ‘no reason to be alarmed’ statement. MSM is working hard to sell it!” No, Donny. You’re working hard to sell it.

On Sunday, Trump tweeted “Do you notice we are not having a gun debate right now? That’s because they used knives and a truck!” Psst…..Donald, the Orlando shooter used a gun, not a truck.

Despite the Orlando shooting happening on U.S. soil and resulting in the death of five Americans, it’s not as interesting to Trump as Islamic terrorists killing seven people in England, or one person in Australia.

Our president’s inability to comprehend is alarming. His continued insults on our allies are alarming. His penchant for lying and distorting statements and facts is alarming. His continued use of Islamophobic-tinted glasses is alarming.

The fact that Donald Trump is actually president is terrifying.

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The McCain Blame

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

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

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

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

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

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!!!

Is That An Alligator In Your Pocket?

I know. Go ahead and give it to me. This is very insensitive and has poor timing. I’m not good with sensitive or sacred cows…or in this case, reptiles. At least I didn’t go with my first heartless idea which consisted of an alligator eating Mickey Mouse. Pissing off the NRA, Trump, and Republicans I’m good with. Disney on the other hand….ugh.

If there was a huge money-making alligator industry and rednecks used them to overcompensate for their tiny penises, there would be a trade organization buying off congressmen to make sure anyone could buy an alligator at any time.

Right now the Democrats in the U.S. Senate are conducting a filibuster to force the Republicans to schedule a vote on gun control. This has totally stopped all Senate business….which means it’s pretty much like any day in the Senate.

Republicans HATE to talk about gun control. The only issue they hate talking about more is Donald Trump. If you really wanna flummox a GOP office holder, ask him about Trump’s revolving position on guns.

Creative note: I’ve had a theme with alligators the past few days. Last week I drew Donald Trump with alligator arms (played that off a Geico commercial). Today I drew a commissioned cartoon with crocodiles for a brand new client that’s based outside the United States (Claytoonz is going international. You’ll see it Friday). Now today I drew this. I can’t help it. I like reptiles.

I really like reptiles. I once worked in the reptile house of a small zoo in northeast Louisiana in the late 1980’s. My favorite story from that brief adventure comes from the day we cleaned the alligator pool. I didn’t do any actual cleaning but it was my job to keep the gators and Alligator Snapping Turtles away from the cleaners. I was armed only with a stick. There were five gators in the tank. They were all under six feet long except for this one mother. Before we could drain the pool we had to get one gator out which we did with a lasso. That took several hours. Some genius designed the pool where the drain was in the deep end and had to be manually unplugged. Nobody likes diving with alligators.

The alligators cooperated for the most part. The turtles, not so much. In fact, the turtles concerned me a lot more than the gators.

A large chunk of my childhood was spent in Louisiana. When I was a kid my older sister and I swam in a bayou with them. As a teenager my buddies and I swam in the same water. We never had an issue. When I was around ten or eleven we actually had two pet baby alligators, which was and still is illegal. I didn’t know that at the time and thankfully, the statute of limitations has long passed. We only had them for about a week. They weren’t as cuddly as we thought they might be. I got bit a lot. They never bit my sister once.

I do feel really bad for the parents who lost a child this week in Orlando to an alligator attack. That city had one tragic week. Losing a child under any circumstance is a horrible thing to live with. I know. It’s something I’ve been very close to. I’m sure Disney will never make this family wait in line for Pirates Of The Caribbean ever again.

A lot of people are asking questions about the parents, just like when that Cincinnati gorilla thing happened. Thing is, things happen. This is a freak occurrence that’s a true tragedy. I don’t think there are any safety measures that can prevent something like this happening once in a million years, especially after you build tourist resorts on a swamp.

Before posting this I searched for hashtags and one of them is “Disney Gator” which sounds a lot happier than it really is.

Trump’s Tantrum On Terror

Usually after a national tragedy, the country comes together. People with different philosophical and political beliefs can push them aside, at least for a few days, to unite and stand together. Then there’s Donald Trump.

Immediately after the attack in Orlando Trump tweeted how people were “congratulating” him on being right. Terrorist attack on our nation, 49 dead, over 50 injured, and Donald Trump uses it to point out how great he is.

The terrorist was born in the United States. That news was reported and confirmed Sunday. A day later Trump conducts a speech where he calls for a ban on Muslims immigrating to the United States because the Orlando attacker was “Afghan born.” What the Hell does that mean? Was he swaddled as a baby in an Afghan carpet? Maybe delivered by an Afghan Hound?

The shooter was born in the United States. Everyone and their brother, even those with stupid brothers, knew of this. Trump is so obnoxious that he can’t even let information sink in that challenges his narrative.

Speaking of narrative, he’s sticking with the GOP talking point that we have to call these attacks “radical Islam.” They can’t just say “radical.” They have to put the Islam into it. When an abortion clinic or church is attacked, they don’t refer to the killer as a “radical Christian.” Do you know why? Because Christianity doesn’t have anything to do with their warped viewpoint that makes them kill. Islam doesn’t either. Republicans, especially Donald Trump, prefer to scapegoat an entire religion.

Trump wants the president to decide who can and can’t enter the country. I think Hitler sought, and achieved, the same power.

Then Trump said Hillary Clinton wants to abolish the 2nd Amendment. They’ve been saying the same thing about Obama for years. How bad is your platform when you have to make stuff up? Pretty weak when you can’t stick to facts.

The worst part of Trump’s tantrum? He insinuated that Obama supports the terrorists. He was the birther campaign’s champion. He was proven wrong. He’s already proven wrong with his latest accusation. His campaign is making excuses for his comment ““He doesn’t get it or, or he gets it better than anybody understands. “It’s one or the other. And either one is unacceptable.” He later said Obama is either not tough and smart or has “something else in mind.”

The bad thing is, a lot of Obama haters have been saying the same crap for years. Obama is a Muslim. He hates America. He’s apologizing for America. He supports Muslims over Israel. There’s never any proof to any of that but yet they keep it up. Now their presumptive nominee is doing the same. They have the crazy, paranoid, conspiracy theory loving candidate. No wonder his favorite publication is the National Enquirer. It should be Breitbart.

Republicans won’t talk about Trump today. I can’t blame them. But instead of hiding in shame I would like to think I would have the principles to denounce a member of my party who accuses the president of supporting terrorism.

Hillary Clinton attacked Trump today. So did the president and he tore Trump apart, especially over his proposal to ban Muslims and his questioning the lack of using the term “radical Islam.”

We might have to introduce a new term into the political dialogue to be used for the rest of this campaign. “Traitorous Trump.” The man will put politics and himself above his nation.

The man, and anyone who supports him, is supporting treason.

Moment Of Silence

I don’t really believe there’s a man in the sky who controls everything and all is predetermined. I don’t have faith. But when someone says “God bless you” or says they’ll pray for me, I appreciate the sentiment. I don’t really expect them to work.

Prayers don’t work but it’s nice if you believe they do. If God has his mind made up then what’s a prayer going to do? Change his mind? He’ll decide against that typhoon wiping out Fiji? I know there are people out there who will swear they prayed for something and it totally worked, like they prayed and now their herpes only shows up once a month. It’s a miracle!

Praying is often used to give the impression that you’re doing something, when you’re actually not doing anything. It’s a favorite of our do-nothing Congress. Congress hasn’t done a damn thing about anything over the past six years, and they’ve especially ignored the issue of gun control.

Congress won’t even fund studying gun control, or the impact of guns on society. I’m surprised they watch the news to know when there’s another mass shooting, thus informing them it’s time to pray again. They’re content taking money from the NRA to ignore the sales of AR-15s. They forget we’re paying them too. Quite frankly, anyone attempting to purchase an AR-15 or AK-47 should be deemed too unstable to purchase a gun.

They’re really good at scapegoating and dehumanizing homosexuals and then praying for them after a gay nightclub is shot up.

Hey, Congress. Thanks for nothing.

Are you curious on my take of Trump’s statements on the shootings? Come back tomorrow. I have something to say about it.

Orlando Tragedy

Am I politicizing this?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

claytoonz

Nationally Syndicated Editorial Cartoonist