Russian Meddling

Regime Change

During a speech he was giving in Warsaw, Poland last week, President Joe Biden improvised and said, “For God’s sake, this man cannot remain in power.”

President Biden was talking about Russian president Vladimir Putin. After he said it, everyone lost their shit because it’s never official U.S. policy to remove foreign leaders…except when it is. The United States has removed a lot of world leaders. Sometimes, the U.S. removes the leader of a nation with an invasion, as we did in Iraq and Afghanistan. Other times, it’s more covert and an operation of the CIA, which has engineered the removals of leaders in Africa, South America, and the Middle East. These things tend to come back and bite the United States in the ass. Remember the 1979 Iranian hostage crisis?

Secretary of State Antony Blinkin immediately released a statement saying, “uh-uh, we don’t do that.” The White House scrambled with an official saying, “The president’s point was that Putin cannot be allowed to exercise power over his neighbors or the region. He was not discussing Putin’s power in Russia or regime change.”

In the past, President Biden has called Putin “soulless,” a “butcher,” a “pure thug,” a “murderous dictator,” and most recently, a “war criminal.” But it’s bad policy to publicly call for regime change unless you’re Donald Trump dropping bombs on Iranian generals or George W. Bush dropping bombs on Saddam Hussein’s palaces. During Bush the First’s Desert Storm, they never officially called for the removal or death of Saddam Hussein, but the weren’t trying to renovate his bathrooms either by dropping smart bombs on his palaces.

Now, Vladimir Putin will portray himself as the victim of U.S. aggression attempting to oust him from power…while he attempts to oust the president of Ukraine from power.

President Biden said yesterday that he was not calling for regime change in Russia and his words were nothing more than “personal feelings” stemming from “moral outrage.” He said, “Nobody believes I was talking about taking down Putin.”

While a president shouldn’t call for the ouster of foreign leaders, I understand the desire that evil people don’t control entire nations. Biden shouldn’t have made that statement, but I’m not rushing to condemn it because the man he’s talking about removing tried to remove democracy from our nation.

Vladimir Putin interfered in the 2016 presidential election in an operation called “Project Lakhta” to defeat Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton and install Donald Trump into the White House. Under the Russian president’s orders, a troll farm was created in St. Petersburg, Russia called the Internet Research Agency. They created thousands of social media accounts pretending to be Americans in radical groups, from hyper leftists to white nationalists racists. They promoted events for Trump and spread misinformation about Hillary Clinton. Hackers from Russia’s military infiltrated the Democratic National Committee, the Clinton Campaign, and other Democratic groups. The stolen files and emails were then given to Wikileaks, DCLeaks, Guccifer 2.0, and the Trump Campaign, which Donald Trump would read aloud at his hate rallies. The Russians even tried to directly give the Trump campaign dirt on Hillary Clinton, with Don Jr. hosting the Russians in Trump Tower on 5th Avenue.

The Russian misinformation campaign is credited for Trump winning Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, and Michigan by using Facebook ads to target voters leaning toward Jill Stein, which would take votes away from Hillary Clinton, thus giving Trump the state. Trump spent the next four years boasting about winning these states despite losing the popular vote to Clinton. Four years later, President Biden slipped all three of those states away from Trump with much larger margins than Trump had won them in 2016.

Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation couldn’t prove direct cooperation between Trump and Russia despite numerous contacts between the Trump campaign and Russian officials, but concluded that Russian interference was “sweeping,” “systematic” and “violated U.S. criminal law.” Mueller indicted 26 Russian citizens and three Russian organizations. It also led to indictments and convictions of several Trump goons, several of whom were later pardoned by Trump.

The Republican-led Senate Intelligence Committee issued a report that said the Russian government had engaged in an “extensive campaign” to sabotage the election in favor of Trump, which included assistance from some of Trump’s own advisers.

The GOP welcomed this interference and then-Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell refused a request by President Obama to join him to denounce the attacks. Donald Trump even publicly requested that Russia help his campaign. From after the election to today, Donald Trump has continued to deny any Russian interference occurred or helped him win the White House. He even stood next to Vladimir Putin and took the Russian’s side over American intelligence saying, “My people came to me, (Director of National Intelligence) Dan Coats came to me and some others saying they think it’s Russia. I have President Putin, he just said it’s not Russia. I will say this, I don’t see any reason why it would be.”

We are still cleaning up from the puppet Putin put in charge of our nation. President Biden is repairing NATO and other relationships with all our allies from the destruction of Putin’s orange-flavored shitweasel. For the next 30-40 years, we will have judges in federal courts who were installed by Vladimir Putin’s election interference. Three members of the Supreme Court would not be there today, and for the rest of their lives, if not for the efforts of Vladimir Putin.

Vladimir Putin attacked our nation in 2016 with an orange shit bomb. He attacked it again in 2018 and in 2020. He’s attacked our democratic allies’ elections. And, he’s going to do it again in 2024. If Putin succeeds with regime change in the next presidential election by installing Trump once again, I believe that’ll be the end of our democracy and the beginning of a fascist state controlled by cult worship.

So, yeah…we shouldn’t be happy with President Biden for saying out loud he wants a regime change in Russia. But the people who really don’t want regime change in Russia are Republicans who accepted Putin’s help with regime change in America.

Music Note: I started rocking out after I lettered and roughed this, and I listened to The Killers, Kings of Leon, a bunch of singles from other artists, and even got some Journey in.

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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.

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Follow The Drip

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Yesterday, Rudy Giuliani was nominated for a Razzie Award for his appearance in the second Borat film. It was for the scene where he takes what he believes is an underage girl from Kazakhstan into a hotel room for drinks, lies down on a bed, and sticks his hand down his pants.

One of Rudy’s competitors for the award is Bruce Willis for three films he was somehow able to make during a pandemic that I’ve never heard of. But I heard of Rudy’s performance. What’s worse is I saw it. Ew.

Rudy should win a Razzie, but not for any performance in a movie…and not even for worst hair style. He should win a Razzie for worst American (though he has lots of Republican competition for that one), or maybe best collusion with a foreign government attempting to interfere in a U.S. election.

Just like all those seditious white nationalist terrorists who attacked the U.S. Capitol in a bloody coup attempt for Donald Trump, Rudy Giuliani has betrayed democracy and the United States. The man who supposedly became “America’s mayor” for his response to a terrorist attack has become the mayor who enabled a terrorist attack.

A new declassified intelligence report has revealed that to interfere in the 2020 U.S. presidential election to help Donald Trump, Russian President Vladimir Putin authorized outside proxies to feed disinformation to Fox News, One America News Network, and…wait for it…Rudy Giuliani. When you look at all three of these suspects, you know convincing them to repeat lies probably wasn’t a very difficult task. Did Russia tell them to freak out over Mr. Potato Head?

The report by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence says Russians pushed “influence narratives—including misleading or unsubstantiated allegations against President Biden—to US media organizations, US officials, and prominent US individuals, including some close to former President Trump and his administration.”

What did Rudy do during the campaign? He pushed a lot of bogus bullshit about Hunter Biden being engaged in corruption with Ukraine, a nation that’s an enemy of Russia. Of course, Fox News and OANN repeated all his claims. And whatever became of that laptop he claimed belonged to Hunter?

The report states the Russians built upon their interference in the 2016 election to help Trump and hurt Hillary Clinton, but this time it was less technical and relied more on getting information into the national conversation and letting it go from there. They just wound Rudy up and let him prattle down the street.

The Russians realized they didn’t have to spend millions of rubles, or even thousands, on social media propaganda campaigns when they had the likes the Rudy Colludy, Tucker Carlson, and Sean Hannity. On top of all that, they also had Donald Trump. He also had the entire Republican Party. I bet Putin loves the over 400 bills in 43 states right now designed to disenfranchise voters.

And even if Russia lost their bet on Trump, which they did, they still had the bonus of poisoning our nation with lies and division. All the Republican efforts to change voting laws are based on lies of a stolen election. By the way, the last time there was enough fraud to change an election and there was a do-over, it was all for a Republican (North Carolina in 2018, fuckers).

The report also says Iran meddled, but in a very sloppy way when they sent emails purportedly from the violent right-wing hate group the Proud Boys to Democratic voters threatening them if they didn’t vote for Trump. Iran messed up pretending to be Proud Boys because illiterate people can’t write emails.

There is also mention of some small influence campaigns from Hezbollah against Trump, Cuba to Cuban Americans in Florida that was anti-Republican, and Venezuela’s President Nicolas Maduro wanted to get involved after Trump supported a coup against him, but didn’t have the means. As for China, who Trump’s Attorney General William Barr and John Ratcliffe, Trump’s last director of National Intelligence, said was the greatest threat to our election, and not Russia…they didn’t do anything.

China considered an influence campaign but then chose not to get involved. If China really wanted Biden to win, then it was probably smart not to meddle and have it backfire because the man he was running against was the worst president (sic) in American history. You really shouldn’t need any foreign help to defeat a man who tanked the economy and did nothing but spread lies while a virus killed hundreds of thousands of Americans.

The report states, “The Chinese government likely sought stability in its relationship with the United States and did not prefer either Biden or Trump enough to risk the potential blowback of more direct interference.”

One difference between Democrats and Republicans is that Democrats don’t want any help from foreign governments to win elections. They don’t want that stench. Republicans invite it…literally. “Russia, if you’re listening.” Donald Trump was impeached asking Ukraine to meddle. He stood in the White House driveway and asked China for help.

There weren’t any efforts to change ballots. Instead, Russia used useful idiots like Rudy Giuliani.

Of course Russia wanted Donald Trump to win the election. During the Helsinki Summit, Trump threw our national intelligence agencies under the bus to take Putin’s word he didn’t interfere in the 2016 election. Putin gave Trump a soccer ball in exchange for his balls. Trump had his translator’s notes destroyed from his one-on-one meeting with Putin.

Why would Russia prefer Trump over Biden? When told by Bill O’Reilly that Russia murdered journalists and Vladimir Putin was a killer, Trump said, “So what? You think we’re so nice?” When asked about Putin this week by George Stephanopoulos, President Biden clearly laid out that Vladimir Putin is a killer. Biden explicitly accused Putin of being a “killer.” Whom would you rather have negotiations with, the guy who calls you a “killer” or the one who kills at kissing your ass?

After the election, Rudy pushed lies over the election being stolen by George Soros, the Clintons, and by voting machines engineered by the deceased Hugo Chavez. Maybe next time, Russia should find a useful idiot who’s less of an idiot. Maybe a less drippy idiot. Maybe a less farty idiot.

If you want to find the collusion and corruption with Russia, follow the lies. Follow the drippy hair dye. Follow the farts. Follow the sleaze. It all leads back to Rudy. Can Rudy take his Razzie with him to prison?

Signed prints: The signed prints are just $40.00 each. Every cartoon on this site is available. You can pay through PayPal. If you don’t like PayPal, you can snail mail it to Clay Jones, P.O. Box 9103, Fredericksburg, VA 22403. I can mail the prints directly to you or if you’re purchasing as a gift, directly to the person you’re gifting.

Notes on my book, Tales From The Trumpster Fire: I have SEVEN copies of my book in stock, which I’m selling for $45.00 each, signed. Also, I have copies of my first book from 1997, Knee-Deep in Mississippi available for $20.00.

Tip Jar: if you want to support the cartoonist, please send a donation through PayPal to clayjonz@gmail.com. You can also snail it to P.O. Box 9103, Fredericksburg, VA 22403.

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Ratty Intel

cjones09072020

John Ratcliffe is the Director of National Intelligence. Why? It’s not because of his experience in national security matters. It’s not because of any experience he has in being intelligent. It’s because he’s a sycophant to Donald Trump.

When he was being considered for the job, then-Congressman Ratcliffe lied about his experience in prosecuting terrorism and immigration cases. He also spread lies that Russian interference in the 2016 election was designed, not to help Donald Trump, but instead to help Hillary Clinton. Seriously.

He’s accused the FBI of being biased against Donald Trump. After the Mueller Report came out, Ratcliffe claimed it wasn’t written by Robert Mueller but…you’re going to love this…Hillary Clinton’s “de facto legal team.” Yeah, this guy is de-facts alright.

Now, Ratcliffe has decided to “scale back” intelligence briefings to Congress. Why? He claims it’s because of leaks and now there will only be written briefings. Uh, how will leaks stop if they’re only written? Hell, if anything, you’ve done the leakers’ work for them by typing it out already. Trust me. Typesetting is a pain.

We’re not actually aware of any leaks from Congress about U.S. intelligence. Ratcliffe wouldn’t describe any. If there are leaks, they’re just as likely to come out of the White House or Ratcliffe’s own office, you know, since he doesn’t have any experience with intelligence and I’m sure the people around him are more sycophants than career intelligence professionals.

During the 2016 election, President Obama chose not to go public with Russia’s meddling in our election which he knew was in favor of Donald Trump. He requested the Senate to join him in issuing a statement condemning Russia’s actions and that it wouldn’t be tolerated, but Mitch McConnell refused to participate. Why? Because Moscow Mitch knew Russia meddling was designed to help Donald Trump. After the election, McConnell and other Republicans criticized President Obama for not going public with the information.

President Obama did not want to make a statement and appear to be assisting the Clinton campaign. Now, Donald Trump just doesn’t care how anything appears.

He’s obligated to Vladimir Putin. He’s afraid to say anything negative about him. When it was pointed out that Putin killed his critics, Trump’s defense of Putin was to insult the United States. He’s taken Putin’s word over our Intelligence agencies. He’s ignoring reports Putin put bounties on the heads of American troops. He’s not just ignoring Russia’s current meddling, he’s trying to cover it up.

There was a report this week that Russia is behind a new campaign of raising questions about Joe Biden’s mental stability. It’s the same campaign Donald Trump has about Biden’s mental stability. 

When Attorney General William Barr was interviewed by Wolf Blitzer this week, Barr claimed China was a larger threat to our election than Russia which is bullshit.

Like most Trump appointees, Ratcliffe is more interested in blind obedience to Trump than in doing his job. Speaker Nancy Pelosi may force him to do his job with a subpoena. Trump and Ratcliffe don’t want Congress to know about Russian meddling in this election. And they don’t want to do anything to protect our election.

Ratcliffe has the job of protecting the United States and he’s refusing to do it. Donald Trump also has a job of protecting the United States and he’s refusing to do it.

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Fartsy Foreign Meddling

cjones02282020

I have this belief that if Donald Trump wins reelection, he’ll pull the United States out of NATO, he’ll invite Vladimir Putin to the White House, and he’ll withdraw all American forces off the Korean peninsula.

I don’t have this belief because I’m suffering from imaginary Trump Derangement Syndrome. I believe this because there are reports he’s voiced out loud about doing all three. In regards to Korea, he now has another reason. A film from South Korea won an Oscar for best picture. For some reason, that really pisses Donald Trump off.

At a racist fucknut rally yesterday, Donald Trump stood up to defend the American film industry from foreign attacks. I don’t really get it. He railed against the film “Parasite,” a South Korean production that you would have to watch with subtitles unless you speak Korean. “Parasite” is the first foreign-language film to win Best Picture.

Trump said to the adoring racist masses, “And the winner is a movie from South Korea, what the hell was that all about? We got enough problems with South Korea with trade. On top of it, they give them the best movie of the year? Was it good? I don’t know.” He then asked, “Can we get ‘Gone With the Wind’ back, please?” and also name-checked “Sunset Boulevard.” What’s next? Complain that James Woods has never won an Oscar? I haven’t actually looked that up but I am that confident he hasn’t won one.

Donald Trump doesn’t understand how anything works. “Gone With the Wind” won an Oscar for Best Picture in 1940, thus it’s not eligible to win one in 2020. “Sunset Boulevard” came out in 1950. But if Trump’s going to campaign for any movie, perhaps he should look into “Dumb and Dumber.”

Neon, the U.S. film production and distribution company backing “Parasite,” replied with, “Understandable. He can’t read,” referencing the film’s subtitles. The Democratic National Committee took the same tack with, “‘Parasite’ is a foreign movie about how oblivious the ultrarich are about the struggles of the working class, and it requires two hours of reading subtitles. Of course, Trump hates it.” And he hates it without even having seen it. But then again, he has an opinion about everything he doesn’t know anything about. I bet he has a lot of them on the G spot.

I’m not sure why he’s going after a foreign film winning an Oscar since he’s not a big fan of recent U.S. films either. But at least he’s trying to protect something American. When it comes to Russian meddling in our elections, past and present, he doesn’t care. A foreign power attacking our democratic process, he goes four years without mentioning. South Koreans winning an Oscar, that he mentions.

After acting-Director of National Intelligence Joseph Maguire briefed Congress on Russia interfering in the 2020 election to help Trump, Donald Trump got upset and viewed Maguire as disloyal. Trump is afraid Democrats will use the information against him in the election. For Trump, using the fact he’s accepting foreign help is worse than him using foreign help, and the Director of National Intelligence is supposed to be more loyal to him than to America.

Donald Trump, who has told his minions that he wants to remove people from government who are not loyal to him, is now removing Maguire and replacing him with a loyal Trump goon. Maguire is a career official who is respected by the intelligence rank and file. Trump is replacing him with Richard Grennell, who is the current ambassador to Germany (was disappointed to find out the Nazis are gone) and has zero experience with intelligence. In fact, he’s more fond of carrying water for Trump’s conspiracy theories. There’s also talk of eventually making Congressman Doug Collins the permanent Director, who is also a bigger proponent of Trump conspiracy theories than facts.

In fact, during the briefing to Congress delivered by Shelby Pierson, the American intelligence community’s top election security official, Republicans accused the briefers of trying to sabotage Trump. Then, Devin Nunes went running to Donald Trump to tell him about it and warn him that Adam Schiff, lead impeachment manager and Chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, was in the room. Reportedly, Trump went off the rails at Maguire before firing him. Now there are reports that Pierson may be leaving also. Maybe Nunes is also the one to tell Trump about “Parasite.”

Donald Trump is worried this information will be used against him, which would be legal. But we don’t need this briefing to know Russia is helping Donald Trump win reelection. We already knew this. Trump’s supporters may always use the defense of “Russia, Russia, Russia” while rolling their eyes, but the rest of the nation takes our security seriously. The rest of us are more loyal to our country than to an orange cult leader. Also, Vladimir Putin already told us he wanted Trump to win in 2016, so duh.

Donald Trump doesn’t like “Parasite,” because it’s about a family posing as something they’re not to get into a house where they don’t belong. But the most ironic thing is, he is a parasite. Personally, I don’t mind reading for two hours so I’m going to watch “Parasite.”

A family posing as something they’re not to get into a house where they don’t belong? I really need to know how it ends.

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.

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Slingers

cjones08012019

The Senate Intelligence Committee issued a new report yesterday that Russia probably targeted the election systems in all 50 states in 2016, the federal government didn’t adequately warn the states, and the threat persists heading into the 2020 presidential, Senate, and Congressional campaigns.

The report states they started the meddling as early as 2014 and continued into 2017. U.S. officials believe the Russians probably scanned systems in every state, such as election-related web pages, voter ID information, election system software, and election service companies. Two years ago, the Department of Homeland Security disclosed that the Russian government, including their military, had hackers target 21 states during the 2016 campaign.

During Robert Mueller’s congressional testimony this week, he described how Russia’s meddling was not a “hoax,” that the Trump campaign welcomed their interference, and that Russia was “doing it as we sit here.” Republicans on the Congressional Judiciary and Intelligence committees scoffed and downplayed Russias interference and favoritism toward Donald Trump. Republicans and Trump are more concerned about “liberal” paper straws than Russians attacking us.

The Russians are doing it now “as we sit here” and they’re doing it to help reelect Donald Trump. Trump has spent his entire presidency kowtowing to Russia and Vladimir Putin. He invited Russians into the Oval Office where he gave them classified information that was obtained by a U.S. ally. He has refused to call out or blame Putin for the interference, which is an attack on our country which he took an oath to protect. He stood next to Putin in Helsinki and took his word over that of our National Intelligence. However, he did declare that our national security has been threatened by Canadian cheese.

On the same day the report was issued, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell blocked two election security measures that would help keep our elections free and fair. McConnell argued that the bills would give Democrats a “political benefit.” He’s right in that free and fair elections, without Russian meddling, will help the Democratic Party because more Americans vote Democratic than Republican.

A House bill passed that requires the use of paper ballots and included funding for the Election Assistance Commission. It passed in the House with only one Republican vote. McConnell argued that it was partisan. Since when did protecting the United States of America, protecting our elections, and loyalty to our nation over Russia become partisan?

McConnell and Republicans have put more than party over country. They’ve put worship of a cult leader over their country, over our country.

Another bill blocked by McConnell would have made it a requirement for candidates, campaign officials, and their family members to notify the FBI of assistance offered by a foreign government. This sounds like a no-brainer but it would obviously handicap the Trump campaign as Trump has stated recently that he’d welcome foreign assistance in the next election. He didn’t even send it in code. He flat out said it.

We need leaders in the House, Senate, and White House who will protect the nation they swore to defend. We need leaders who don’t go swinging with Putin.

Creative note: I hate to explain this but if you don’t know what Sling TV is, then maybe this cartoon doesn’t work for you. It’s basically another internet service that offers premium cable channels and it can be used on smart TVs. There are commercials where people invited by a creepy couple for “slinging” confuse the term with “swinging.” Nick Offerman and Megan Mullally, married in real life, play the creepy couple shouting at neighbors, “You wanna sling tonight?” “Hey, Bruce, bring your mom.” I think they’re hilarious.

Support the cartoonist

As I noted in a previous cartoon, these are perilous times for political cartoonists. But you can help me continue to create cartoons, blogs, and videos by making a contribution. All support, large and small, is greatly appreciated. You can also support me by purchasing a signed print (8 1/2×11) for $40, or a signed poster (18×24) for $100 by clicking the PayPal button (just include a note if you’re purchasing a print). If you want to support but don’t want to use PayPal, you can send a contribution through the mail (address is on the contact page. Again, include a note for a print).I don’t plan on going anywhere and your support will help guarantee that. Whether you support, can’t. or just choose not to, please know that I am truly thankful that you visit my site and read my work.

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Boris Baby

cjones07302019

Boris Johnson is the new prime minister of the United Kingdom and not the “United Kingston” as Ivanka Trump tweeted. The Princess of Nepotism underscores just how much we have in common with our greatest ally, and that is stupid, narcissistic, racist leadership that may destroy our countries.

And the two leaders, Trump and Johnson, have a lot in common. They were both born in New York City and wear bleached dead wombats on their heads. They’re both liars, Boris lost a newspaper job for plagiarism and even lied about Brexit which helped lead to its passing. Trump lied about Brexit too, claiming he stood in Scotland the day before Brexit predicting it would pass, but the fact is, he was in Scotland the day AFTER Brexit passed, predicting it would cause the collapse of the European Union, something he and Vladimir Putin would rejoice over.

As The Guardian compares them, “Both are loudmouthed man-children, with a history of adultery and other scandals, whose professional success is a combination of immense privilege, unscrupulous opportunism, and relentless self-promotion, all happily promoted by a complicit environment.”

Both are bigots. Just last week, Trump told black women to “Go back to where you came from.” In the past, Boris has referred to Africans as “pickaninnies” with “watermelon smiles,” to writing in a column for The Daily Telegraph that Muslim women wearing burqas look like “mailboxes,” “bank robbers” and “letter bombers.” He’s referred to gay men as “tank-topped bumboys” and female Labor MPs as “hot totties.”

Another thing they have in common is that they were both put into office by a minority of the population. Boris actually has a smaller mandate than Trump, who won roughly 46% of the popular vote, coming in behind Hillary Clinton by nearly three million votes. Boris was chosen by the membership of the Conservative party, which accounts for roughly 0.2% of the British population. Boris’ electorate is actually older and whiter than Trump’s. Both men will refuse to be leaders of their entire nations and will cater to just their base, which is racist white people.

Trump ran for president promising to build a wall on the southern border and Mexico would pay for it. Boris lied with a xenophobic strategy as well during the Brexit campaign, claiming Turkey would join the European Union and become a back door for Syrian refugees to enter the UK. Then, he promised to build a wall on the French border and make Syria pay for it (I made that part up).

Both men are prone to attack the physical appearances of others despite the way they look. Trump insulted then-presidential candidate Carly Fiorina’s face, called Rosie O’Donnell “fat” and “ugly,” and even called a winner of his Miss Universe pageant “Miss Piggy,” despite the fact he looks like a rancid muppet. Boris once said that Vladimir Putin looked like Dobby, the house elf from Harry Potter.

It’s interesting that within another similarity, you find that one difference. Neither man would be in the top office of their respective nations today without an assist from Putin, yet Johnson will criticize Putin while Trump only lavishes worship and praise on the Russian strongman.

When Putin said, “The liberal idea had outlived its purpose,” and “the liberal idea has become obsolete.” Boris said history would prove Putin wrong. Trump, being unable to comprehend that Putin was attacking western democracies and not his Democratic Party rivals and liberals in California, rejoiced in Putin’s statement and added that Putin “congratulated” him as “every other leader of every other country” had done.

OK, that’s another difference. Boris can read and comprehend.

Before the Brexit vote, the Russian government was interfering by promoting false information on social media with Twitter bots and Russian troll farms in a similar manner in which they meddled in the U.S. presidential election in favor of Donald Trump. Cambridge Analytica aided both campaigns and may have coordinated with Russia to spread their propaganda.

If there was no Russian meddling, Trump wouldn’t be in the White House and Boris wouldn’t be moving into 10 Downing Street today. Right now, Putin must be happy despite looking a lot like Dobby.

These two babies belong to Putin but its the rest of us who will have to clean up their mess.

Support the cartoonist

As I noted in a previous cartoon, these are perilous times for political cartoonists. But you can help me continue to create cartoons, blogs, and videos by making a contribution. All support, large and small, is greatly appreciated. You can also support me by purchasing a signed print (8 1/2×11) for $40, or a signed poster (18×24) for $100 by clicking the PayPal button (just include a note if you’re purchasing a print). If you want to support but don’t want to use PayPal, you can send a contribution through the mail (address is on the contact page. Again, include a note for a print).I don’t plan on going anywhere and your support will help guarantee that. Whether you support, can’t. or just choose not to, please know that I am truly thankful that you visit my site and read my work.

You can purchase a signed print of this cartoon.

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Jared Says “Nyet”

cjones04282019

Trust-fund baby and poster child for nepotism Jared Kushner said the investigation into Russia’s interference in the 2016 presidential election was worse for our country than the interference.

Jared said, “The whole thing is just a big distraction for the country. You look at what Russia did — buying some Facebook ads to try and sow dissent. And it’s a terrible thing, but I think the investigation and all the speculation that’s happened over the past two years has had a much harsher impact on our democracy than a couple of Facebook ads.”

A couple of Facebook ads? According to the Mueller Report and American Intelligence agencies, the Russias did a little more than buying a couple of Facebook ads in order to disrupt our country, hurt the Clinton campaign, and help Donald Trump. Jared should know. He was in the Trump Tower meeting with Russians. He saw first hand and up close how they were offering to help Trump win the election.

After the election, Jared went to the Russian embassy and attempted to establish a back channel to Moscow in order to communicate with Russia without our intelligence agencies detecting it. The idea was so stupid that it shocked the Russians, who passed on the idea. Up to that point, they thought Carter Page was the dumbest fuck to come out of the Trump campaign…other than Trump himself.

A Kremlin-backed entity called the Internet Research Agency, or IRA, ran the social media campaign out of St. Petersburg, Russia. The IRA purchased over 3,500 Facebook advertisements and spent some $100,000 on the political ads. According to the Mueller Report, the group also controlled multiple Facebook groups and Instagram accounts that “had hundreds of thousands of U.S. participants.” If you believe the Mueller Report exonerated Trump and have ignored the findings on Trump’s obstruction and willingness to accept help from Russians, then you were probably one of those participants. You are the cattle from the Russian troll farms.

After the election, a Facebook executive told Congress that the IRA controlled some 470 accounts that generated 80,000 posts between January 2015 and August 2017.

Mueller also reported, “Facebook estimated the IRA reached as many as 126 million persons through its Facebook accounts.” The IRA controlled Twitter accounts with “tens of thousands of followers.” Among the followers were “multiple U.S. political figures who retweeted IRA-created content.” You know, Republicans.

Twitter says the IRA controlled more than 3,800 accounts, and likely reached nearly 1.5 million Twitter users.

These are not the only facts Jared is ignoring. He didn’t mention Russia’s hacking and dumping of material belong to the Democratic National Committee and the Clinton Campaign. He also failed to mention his father-in-law publicly asking Russia to do this. He also didn’t mention Donald Trump Jr. saying in a reply to the Russians offering help, “I love it.”

Saying it was just a couple of Facebook ads that were used in a hostile nation’s attack against our country is like saying 9/11 was one or two planes flying into buildings, but who’s counting?

Jared got the job as Senior Adviser to the president based on his high qualifications of marrying Trump’s daughter, Ivanka, who is also on staff at the White House as an adviser based upon her qualifications of being Trump’s daughter and designing handbags.

You would think a guy serving as a senior adviser to the president would advise him on the facts, not feed his confirmation bias. Then again, Jared isn’t qualified for the job. He didn’t even qualify for his security clearance and needed Trump to overrule the FBI’s decision not to give him one.

Jared has been compromised by Russia and his financial ties to nations in the Middle East, such as Saudi Arabia. Upon receiving his security clearance, he proved he wasn’t qualified for it or had our nation’s interest at heart because he started conversating with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammad Bin Salman through WhatsApp, hoping conversations would be deleted, and undetected by U.S. intelligence. What the hell are you and MBS talking about, Jared?  Many professionals in American intelligence are shocked at Jared’s attempts to skip protocol and security in talking to foreign officials.

After Saudi Arabia killed a Washington Post journalist by hacking him to death inside one of their embassies, Jared didn’t call it murder. He would only go so far as to call it a “tragedy,” as though the journalist slipped into the bone saw.

An author of a new book on Jared, Ivanka, and their special privilege says that Jared couldn’t get a “TSA pre-check” without Trump’s help.

The Trump administration is dangerous. Donald Trump has yet to publicly call for Russia not to interfere in our elections. Am I the only one to notice that? It’s been reported that former Homeland Security Director Kirstjen Nielsen was instructed not to mention Russian meddling to Trump as it would hurt his fragile ego. Thank God FDR’s advisers didn’t feel that way about Pearl Harbor.

Reading Jared’s description of Russian interference, it sounds like he’d rather soothe Trump’s insecurities than defend the United States. This is why they’re dangerous. They’re not protecting America. In fact, they are encouraging Russia to do it again. They’ve already made it clear there will be no consequences for their actions.

Being a trust-fund baby who marries a trust-fund baby who’s the daughter of a trust-fund baby doesn’t qualify one for the position of Senior Adviser to the president of the United States. Jared also doesn’t qualify for a security clearance, and the man who granted it, the president of the United States, doesn’t qualify for one either.

Congress shouldn’t stop at Trump’s tax returns. They should go after Jared’s too. Jared does not belong in Washington. Soon, just like Trump, he’ll belong in prison.

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!!! 

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Watch the video.

Zucky’s Sticky Van

cjones11202018

When Facebook discovered Russians were using their platform to meddle in the 2016 presidential election to help Donald Trump, sow seeds of chaos in our nation, and disrupt our democratic process, what did they do?

Did they stop it? No. Did they alert the public? No. Did they do anything to protect our sacred democratic institutions? Oh, hell no. They started a public relations campaign to distract us and hired a Republican opposition research firm to engage in conspiracy theories to deflect the company’s responsibility in the crisis. The GOP firm actually mimicked the Russian strategy and conducted a smear campaign against Democratic financier George Soros by linking him to anti-Facebook protesters.

Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg is denying any knowledge of the smear campaign or of the hiring of the GOP dirty tricksters. Maybe, your best defense isn’t to copy the defense of the nation’s most historic liar. Next, Zuckerberg will be tweeting (if he tweeted) “no collusion, Russian hoax,” and “witch hunt.”

Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg is blamed for the hiring, but she’s blaming an underling, which is about as believable as Trump not ever knowing there were Russians meeting with his son, son-in-law, and campaign chairman in his campaign headquarters.

A New York Times article accuses Zuckerberg and Sandberg of ignoring warning signs that Russians were exploiting Facebook to “disrupt elections, broadcast viral propaganda and inspire deadly campaigns of hate around the globe,” and of concealing it from the public.

According to the Times article; While Mr. Zuckerberg has conducted a public apology tour in the last year, Ms. Sandberg has overseen an aggressive lobbying campaign to combat Facebook’s critics, shift public anger toward rival companies and ward off damaging regulation. Facebook employed a Republican opposition-research firm to discredit activist protesters, in part by linking them to the liberal financier George Soros. It also tapped its business relationships, lobbying a Jewish civil rights group to cast some criticism of the company as anti-Semitic.

Though Zuckerberg and Sandberg are in denial, the Times story places them in meetings over the events, which is based on interviews with more than 50 people. At some point, the two will start crying “fake news” and go on Hannity.

The Russians have been meddling all over the globe. They’ve attacked our elections, elections in Europe and the entire Brexit mess is their fault. On top of all that, they are a big reason we have a president Donald Trump. What used to be a joke on The Simpsons is now reality. Facebook helped them do that. Since Russians were also paying for ads on their platform, Facebook profited from it.

Facebook was afraid of implicating Russia and taking down fake pages of Russians and their followers because it would anger…wait for it…Republicans. So, instead of angering those Republicans, they joined them. No, they didn’t start a campaign about Clinton’s child-sex-slave pizza joint. They started an anti-Semitic campaign against Soros, people who protest Facebook, and competing companies.

Who could have predicted that Facebook and Twitter would be the end of humanity and civilization?

Facebook and Zuckerberg are complicit. Zuckerberg claims he doesn’t know the stickers are on the side of the van, but it’s his van.

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.

Counting Isn’t Cheating

cjones11162018

Donald Trump refused to believe Russia meddled in the 2016 presidential election, often calling it a hoax. He claims the investigation is a “witch hunt.” He trusted Vladimir Putin’s denial over American intelligence, which is part of his government. He claimed millions voted illegally and created a sham commission, now dismantled, to investigate. He campaigned during the midterms on a caravan invasion that the Democrats created to vote in U.S. elections.

Trump called for a new election in the Arizona Senate race, claiming there was corruption. The race has now been called for Democrat Kyrsten Sinema and her Republican opponent, Martha McSally has conceded.

In Georgia, where the race is still too close to call and counting continues, Trump declared Republican Brian Kemp the winner, “the transition should begin”, and “it’s time to move on.”

In the Florida recount, he claims it’s impossible to get an “honest vote count,” and that a “large number of ballots showed up out of nowhere,” and that we “must go with Election Night” numbers.

Donald Trump wants voting to stop. He wants thousands, if not millions of Americans to have their votes disenfranchised, even service members whose votes are still coming in from overseas. He believes counting every vote after he perceives his side has won, amounts to cheating and election fraud.

Donald Trump is the president of the United States of America, and he doesn’t understand how democracy works. We count votes here in the United States. Every vote should be counted. For that matter, other Republicans don’t seem to understand it either.

Georgia Secretary of State Brian Kemp worked hard to remove African Americans from the voter rolls to prevent them from voting in an election in which he was competing. Florida governor Rick Scott, has also accused the recount of being corrupt, and sent law enforcement to oversee the recount.

Scott’s state government has debunked his and Trump’s accusations of voter fraud and corruption. Sure, Broward County, where they’re still counting, is inept at handling elections, but that doesn’t make them corrupt. Republicans are afraid of voters. They’re afraid of every vote being counted. Voters should be afraid of Republicans. If they can’t win fairly, they’ll cheat. Even when the odds, numbers, and demographics are in their favor, they’ll still cheat. They’re like the New England Patriots, except really racist while cheating.

Donald Trump doesn’t understand how Democracy works. Maybe, in 2020, we can show him.

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.

Let’s Get Orwellian

cjones08082018

Which is more ironic; that the guy who tried to invalidate the previous presidency with a conspiracy theory will now have his own presidency invalidated with conspiracy or, that the same guy is trying to make our nation look like something from the novel 1984, yet he’s never read a book?

This week, the National Security Adviser, Director for National Security, the Director of Homeland Security, the Director of the FBI, and Director for National Intelligence spoke from the White House podium to warn us that Russia is currently attacking our nation by meddling in the upcoming midterm elections. Kirstjen Nielsen (Homeland Security) said, “Our democracy itself is in the crosshairs.”

On the same day at one of his hate rallies, Donald Trump called it all a hoax.

The White House said it was Trump’s idea for the top security officials to make this announcement, yet he wasn’t there and he later contradicted the warning. This is Orwellian.

I read 1984 in 1984. It seemed as much of a fantasy as Star Wars at the time. Now, it serves as a warning. Another good read from George Orwell is Animal Farm. I highly recommend both. Both tomes present a great illustration of the people at the top and those who follow them.

Much has been made that Trump has increased his frequency of lies. The Washington Post pointed out that in his first year in office, 2,140 false claims. In just the last six months, he has nearly doubled that total to 4,229. In June and July, he averaged sixteen false claims a day. On July 5th at a rally in Montana, the Post found 76% of Trump’s statements were lies. At his rally in Tampa this week, he told 35 lies.

What is really Orwellian is Trump telling his people not to believe what they see and hear. Truth is lies and lies are truth. Critical thinking is discouraged. People who report facts are the enemy. Conspiracy theories are now state propaganda. Big Brother has arrived.

It’s 1984, and we’re standing in the animal farm.

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!!!

Watch me draw.