Parkland

The Do-Nothings

cjones06082019

Former Broward County sheriff’s deputy Scot Peterson was arrested and charged yesterday with 11 charges of neglect of a child, culpable negligence and perjury. Why? Because he sat outside Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in relative safety while a 19-year-old gunman killed 17 and injured 17 others.

An investigation by the Florida Department of Law Enforcement said Peterson didn’t investigate the source of gunshots, retreated during the shooting while victims were still under attack, and directed other law enforcement officers to remain 500 feet away from the building. If he was a Republican, he would have cited bone spurs for his inaction.

While Peterson hung around outside busy not doing anything, over 70 shots were fired by the killer. How many of those shots found a human target? While the shooter is the murderer and responsible for the deaths and injuries, Peterson, who was hired to protect the school, could have probably saved a few lives.

The people who don’t do anything to protect children from mass shootings are culpable in their deaths. That includes Republicans in Congress. That includes the Republican president, who said in an interview with Piers Morgan that people need the AR-15 assault rifle for “entertainment.” As Morgan compared gun deaths in Britain, 35 a year, to the 150 mass shootings in the U.S. in 2019 (so far), Trump compared U.S. gun deaths to stabbings in England. Trump said, “In London, you have stabbings all over. I read an article where everyone is being stabbed.” I’m sure the headline read, “EVERYONE IS BEING STABBED.” The truth is, annual stabbing deaths in England are fewer than 300 a year, much less than gun deaths in the U.S. Trump argued guns in England could stop stabbings.

Trump has a point. We’re too busy in the U.S. shooting each other to bother with stabbings. Nobody goes to a school and stabs 17 people, or to a church or rock concert and stabs 50. In case you haven’t noticed yet, Donald Trump is an idiot.

The thing is, nobody “needs” an AR-15. You don’t need it for protection. You don’t need it to compensate for your small penis. You don’t even need it for entertainment. There’s a difference between “need” and “want.”

Fred Guttenberg lost his daughter Jaime in Parkland. He said Peterson deserves the misery coming his way and that he should “rot in Hell.”

Peterson didn’t do the job he swore to do, which was to protect and serve. Trump and Congress are also not doing their jobs. They’re not protecting the citizens of this nation from gun deaths. Their inaction makes them culpable for every single person killed by a gun.

For that, they should all rot in Hell. That would be very entertaining.

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.

To Protect And Something Something

cjones02262018

While an active shooter was killing his former classmates last week in Parkland, Florida, the only cop on the scene stayed outside and took cover. There are now reports that other officers arriving at the scene also remained outside choosing to hide behind their cars.

Trump has called the School Resource Deputy a coward. He and others are choosing to ignore that a gun on campus didn’t stop the slaughter as they argue for more guns on school campuses.

Trump and the good folks at the NRA, who value assault weapons over children’s lives, want to put guns in the hands of teachers. Trump says it will be different for teachers since they’ll know the students they’re protecting. The cop at the school knew those students too as he worked there since 2010.

The deputy failed to protect and defend as he swore to do. He has resigned in disgrace since this information went public. Maybe Trump should think about resigning too.

Donald Trump has refused to protect and defend this nation, which he swore to do when he took the oath of office on inauguration day.

When NRA CEO Wayne LaPierre and spokesgoon Dana Loesch spoke at CPAC Thursday, they blamed dozens of individuals, institutions, and circumstances for mass shootings without blaming guns. When Donald Trump finally acknowledged Russia hacked the 2016 election, he blamed dozens without blaming Russia.

That’s because Donald Trump is a coward, and he should resign.

Here’s the video. Please subscribe to my channel.

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 (please specify which print you want or I won’t mail one). All donations will receive my eternal gratitude

Crisis Actors

cjones02242018

Last week I talked about how one of the joys of being liberal is that you don’t have to make stuff up to justify your beliefs.

Your run-of-the-mill Republican will inflate or decrease numbers or leave out pertinent information when making their case. Your average troglodyte conservative will make up the most horrible stuff, like Alex Jones when he claimed the Newtown shooting was a hoax.

Students from Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, the scene of the latest school shooting, are organizing and taking on gun control and politicians who accept money from the NRA. Other students from around the nation are joining them. All these students are either victims, potential victims, or future victims. The reason they’re scaring the living hell out of Republicans is that they’re right.

They’re also future voters who aren’t going to forget Marco Rubio refusing to stop taking money from the NRA, or his refusal to acknowledge an AR-15 is an instrument of war. It’s like he can’t call an assault rifle by its name. They also won’t forget going to the White House where Donald Trump’s proposal to end more gun violence is to introduce more guns into schools, and the fact he needed crib notes to appear empathetic.

Some Republicans are starting to bash these students. The most harmless horrible comment I read was about the students not being old enough for their brains to be fully formed. That sort of crap makes me wonder about the conservative critic’s brains, and if he even has any. Just because you were inarticulate as a child doesn’t mean these kids are too.

Other conservatives are saying these kids can’t be this organized without any help. Crazy David Clarke, the sheriff from Milwaukee, has claimed George Soros is funding and organizing these movements. Clarke doesn’t have any proof, but these people don’t need proof to post a comment on Twitter. Look at Donald Trump.

Attacking one of the survivors of Parkland, conservative Dinesh D’Souza tweeted, “This woman seems coached and also a bit deranged. Trump’s should ignore these media-manufactured theatrics. Genuine grief I can empathize with. But grief organized for the cameras—politically orchestrated grief—strikes me as phony & inauthentic.” D’Souza later apologized for the tweets, but I wonder why he ever thought, even briefly, such comments were a good idea.

Alex Jones has posted several videos on his InfoWars YouTube channel accusing David Hogg, a senior from Stoneman Douglas, of forgetting his lines during a TV interview. According to an article by Brianna Sacks of Buzzfeed, Its had nearly 10,000 views and another calling the shooting a “giant false flag” has nearly 200,000 views (the article is one of the sources where I got the info for this column).

The biggest conspiracy theory floating around out there being shared by your crazy uncle is that the students speaking out are “crisis actors” taking advantage of the shooting to push a liberal gun control agenda. Right-wing sites, such as The Gateway Pundit, are eating this up. Russian trolls are also pushing the narrative. You’ve probably already seen some of their work on Facebook. Russian troll farms don’t sleep.

The irony here is that the conservatives arguing the kids are coached and manipulated are being manipulated by right-wing sites and Russians.

I gave a primer the other day for voting which was, Putin’s choice for president is the worst choice for us. I’m going to give you another primer about political opinions.

If you have to make shit up to advance your agenda, you’re wrong. If you can’t rely exclusively on facts, you’re wrong. If you have to slander victims of a mass shooting, you’re a deplorable human being who should just go ahead and defect to Russia now.

I won’t miss you.

Here’s the video.

Update: Facebook removed the video for “bullying” and “harassing.” What the hell? I’m clay Jones, not Alex Jones. I have appealed.

Three O’Glock High

cjones02212018

Before some overcompensating gun nut comes in here and comments, I know I didn’t draw a Glock.

Conservatives and other assorted gun-lovin’ dumbos have argued for guns in schools for years. They also argue against gun-free zones. It’s their answer to gun control. Let’s not change any laws. The answer to too many shootings is more guns.

I’m not against armed security in schools, but arming teachers is an idea as dumb as making Donald Trump president. We really need to stop listening to ideas from people who like Putin’s choice as America’s president.

First, let’s debunk the good-guy-with-a-gun argument. A good guy with a gun shot at the bad guy with a gun in Sutherland Springs, Texas, after that bad guy with a gun killed 26 people and injured 20 more inside a church.

Let’s overlook the fact that the good guy with a gun didn’t shoot the bad guy with a gun. Let’s overlook that the good guy with a gun went all Rambo and chased the bad guy with a gun instead of checking on those shot inside the church. Let’s also overlook the fact that the bad guy with a gun was out of ammunition and leaving the scene when the good guy with a gun went after him.

Disregarding all those facts, the good-gun-with-a-gun advocates will settle for the bad guy with a gun being stopped after he kills 26 people and injuring 20 more. Of course, these are the same people who believe dead kids are an acceptable price for their gun rights.

We should be better than accepting dead churchgoers and school children. But, we have a president who was on a golf course while survivors of a school shooting were holding a memorial service. As long as our priorities remain this low, we’ll continue to have a mass-shooting problem.

Another problem with arming teachers and the good-guy-with-a-gun argument is the logistics. How are the police and other good guys with guns supposed to tell each other apart from the bad guys with guns?

A lot of teachers have reacted impressively during school shootings. They have hidden their students during shootings, and others have stood between them and the shooters. Those teachers are heroes. Now we’re supposed to expect them to know how to respond with a weapon? A better idea would be preventing those weapons from entering schools in the first place.

Who is going to pay for these guns and the training on how to use them? Lawmakers don’t want to pay teachers what they’re worth or even provide adequate funding. Most teachers have to resort to buying school supplies for their students. We have lawmakers who insist poor students go hungry.

By the way, every cop shot on duty was armed and trained with his weapon.

We need to stop looking for cures other than stricter gun controls. It’s not video games or violent movies that cause school shootings. Other countries have those same games and movies without enduring mass shootings.

I am more liberal than most people. Most people will disagree with me on gun control. I’m for the 2nd Amendment, but I don’t see where that right includes any gun a manufacturer can make. There’s nothing in that Amendment that guarantees how many rounds per minute you can shoot.

Republicans always say that when you outlaw guns, then only outlaws will have guns. Well, we haven’t tried that yet. We should ban assault weapons from leaving gun ranges. If you want to own an assault weapon, fine. But you can’t take it home. You still have pistols, shotguns, and hunting rifles. We need to tighten up the laws on those as well.

Come to think of it, we also haven’t tried outlawing Republicans.

Here’s the video. Please subscribe to my YouTube channel.

Trump’s Message From Parkland

cjones02202018

There are going to be howls from conservatives who find this cartoon tasteless but won’t see anything wrong with Donald Trump using the school shooting in Parkland, Florida to attack the FBI and deflect from his collusion with Russia.

Trump continues to say there’s “no collusion.” If there wasn’t any collusion then why does he feel the need to keep saying it? If this was the Princess Bride, we’d say “I don’t think that word means what you think it means.” Trump has brought much harm to this nation, and as Fezzik would say, he’s done it without much charm.

Republicans criticized Obama for politicizing mass shootings when he argued for gun control. Now, Republicans should criticize Trump for politicizing the Parkland school shooting, which he has done not for the public’s safety, but for his own political and personal ambitions. Trump’s politicization of it could be viewed as a desperate act by a desperate man or as a stupid act by a very stupid, petty, little man.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation is not infallible or immune from criticism. They acknowledged they failed to investigate a tip a month before the shooting by Nikolas Cruz, who had semi-automatic weapons and publicly stated a desire to kill. This should be looked into, but politicized as a distraction from Russia and Trump, no.

Trump has decided this is an excellent new deflection from the Russia investigation. After meeting hospital workers in Florida Saturday and posing for a thumbs-up picture, Trump tweeted, “Very sad that the FBI missed all of the many signals sent out by the Florida school shooter. This is not acceptable. They are spending too much time trying to prove Russian collusion with the Trump campaign – there is no collusion. Get back to the basics and make us all proud!”

This new argument is based on a belief that every FBI field office across the nation is investigating Donald Trump’s collusion with Russia. In addition to that crazy belief, Trump is blaming Obama for not doing enough to stop Russia’s meddling in our election.

Trump is incapable of acknowledging a fact, the rest of the nation was already aware of for over a year, without adding a conspiracy to it. I’m waiting for him to blame Obama for Don Jr. inviting Russians to Trump Tower. Meanwhile, Russia is still attacking our nation focused on the midterm elections this year, and Trump hasn’t enacted sanctions against Russia or even held one cabinet-level meeting on their meddling.

Trump said, “They are laughing their asses off in Moscow.” With that, I have to agree. They are laughing their asses off. They elected the least capable person any major party has ever nominated for the United States presidency. Vladimir Putin’s self-control is impressive as any other authoritarian strongman would probably be laughing uncontrollably each time he’s in Trump’s presence.

It’s outrageous that the man with access to the best intelligence sources in the world believes the FBI is incapable of investigating one case at a time. Has he never watched X Files? Out of 35,000 employees, only two of them were investigating UFOs.

It’s disgusting that he uses the deaths of 17 school shooting victims to cover his ass. As for his sycophants, it’s not just a deflection for the Trump/Russia investigation, it’s another opportunity not to talk about gun violence.

Trump has yet to even mention guns in association with the attack on the high school. Trump is a coward, and he won’t mention guns since the NRA spent over $50 million during the 2016 presidential campaign for him and other Republicans, with some of that money coming from Russia.

The school shooting was very convenient for Trump, as he could make a photo-op in Parkland, give a thumbs-up, and then spend the rest of his weekend at his Mar-a-Lago resort, which is nearby. Perhaps he should have spent some time with the survivors of the attack.

The survivors would have told Trump a lot of stuff about guns he doesn’t want to hear, and he tends to avoid those types of rooms. But, it would have presented him with examples of bravery. Knowing Trump, he wouldn’t have recognized any of it.

If nothing else, maybe Trump could learn that when a national tragedy happens, it’s not always all about him.

Here’s the video. Please subscribe at YouTube.

Skanking With The NRA

cjones02182018

As predictable as conservative political cartoonists drawing crying Uncle Sams after this week’s school shooting in Parkland, Florida, Republicans tweeted out “thoughts and prayers.”

Thoughts and prayers are very nice. I’m not against thoughts and prayers. I am against only offering thoughts and prayers. Republicans are bad about offering thoughts and prayers while aiding a lobbying organization that opposes all methods of gun control, or even gun sense.

After the Las Vegas shooting, we were told it was too soon to talk about it. But, there was talk of ending the sale of bump stocks, a device that basically turns a semi-automatic weapon into an automatic weapon. It’s been five months since the Vegas massacre, but I guess it’s still too soon because we’ve yet to see any effort in ending the sales of bump stocks.

Incredulity has been expressed at the fact a 19-year-old can’t buy a drink, can’t buy a handgun, but in Florida, he can purchase a semi-automatic AR-15, the gun of choice for mass shooters. That’s the law and there’s nothing illegal about it until he starts shooting his former classmates. Will we see Republicans, who control the House, Senate, Presidency, and even the governorship in Florida, do anything about this? Looking at the financial contributions from the NRA to Republicans, all we can expect are more thoughts and prayers while creating laws that make it as easy as possible to kill dozens of people in a manner of minutes.

While Trump’s lawyer pays off porn stars to shut up, the NRA pays of Republicans to tell us to shut up about gun control. The porn star was a lot cheaper and has higher principles.

Senator John McCain is the granddaddy of receiving money from the NRA. He’s taken $7,740,521. But, he did offer thoughts and prayers.

Senator Richard Burr of North Carolina has accepted $6, 986,620 from the NRA. He also offered thoughts and prayers.

Roy Blunt, Senator from Missouri, got $4,551,146. He too offered thoughts and prayers.

Cory Gardner, Senator from Colorado, got $3,879,064. He sent his thoughts and prayers.

Iowa Senator Joni Ernst took $3,124,273 and gave us thoughts and prayers.

Indiana’s Todd Young got $2,896,732 and gave thoughts and prayers.

Louisiana’s Bill Cassidy received $2,861,047 and also gave thoughts and prayers.

Those numbers are just from the Senate. I didn’t include contributions to the House. But you can check out the list at The New York Times. Among the highest recipients of NRA funds in the House, 95 out of 100 are Republican. The top two Democrats in the Senate are Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Patrick Leahy of Vermont, who rank 52nd and 53rd — behind every Republican but Dan Sullivan of Alaska.

The NRA spent over $50 million to elect Trump, and there are questions about some of that money coming from Russia.

In Florida, Senator Marco Rubio has received $3,303,355, and Governor Rick Scott, along with Rubio, has an A+ rating from the NRA, which means they belong to the NRA.

When asked about gun control, Rubio said it was too soon to talk about it after the Parkland shooting “because people don’t know how this happened.” Yes, we do, Marco. A kid bought a semi-automatic weapon, which is legal because politicians like you allow it, and he took it to a school and shot 17 people. That’s what happened.

Don’t expect solutions from these people. Do not expect gun sense, common sense, or any sense. Do not expect results.

But they will give you lots of thoughts and prayers.