Theresa May

Trumped Up Brexit

Voters in the United Kingdom can be just as poorly informed as their counterparts in the United States. They can also be just as easily manipulated by Russian troll farms.

While the European Union isn’t perfect and there are serious issues for each nation involved to resolve, it’s stupid for the United Kingdom to leave it and form an isolationist position. That’s exactly why Vladimir Putin directed the Kremlin to engage in election meddling in the UK’s EU vote. Russia does not have the UK’s best interest at heart.

Likewise, Russia wants what’s worse for the United States which is why they meddled in our election to help elect Donald Trump. I have often said that a voting primer is to vote against Vladimir Putin’s best interest. You would have to be an idiot to vote for Putin’s candidate.

Idiots in the United States gave us Donald Trump. Now, Boris Johnson is about to become Prime Minister because of a bunch of British idiots…and Welsh, Scottish, and Irish (though fewer Scots and Irish supported Brexit than people in England and Wales).

Theresa May had been struggling for a deal with the European Union on the UK’s exit. Boris Johnson is promising an exit even without a deal. Trump, who claims he’s a great negotiator, has operated the same way. The formula is to throw the baby out with the baby water and hope the other side returns the baby.

Trump left the Paris Climate Accord, the Trans-Pacific Partnership, NAFTA, and the Iran Nuclear Treaty without any replacements. He tried to end Obamacare without a replacement. He’s also threatened to leave NATO. Meanwhile in the Kremlin, Putin is smiling.

Boris Johnson and Donald Trump have much in common. While Boris isn’t as stupid as Trump (it takes a lot more political savvy to weave your way through British politics than it does to dupe 62 million American voters with “build a wall and Mexico will pay for it”), he is an isolationist populist who puts his own self interest before his nation’s. Both use racist dog whistles. Both are Russian puppets. Both are isolationist and nation first guys. They both troll the least informed for support. Both have ridiculous yellow hair (though Boris’ looks real). They were both born in New York City. And, they both are willing to initiate maneuvers without any regard for the dangerous consequences. If England wasn’t an island, Boris would be chanting for a wall. If you’re a Trump or one of his supporters, yes. England is an island.

Both of these guys serve Russian interests. Boris was even named after a Russian.

Trump once referred third-world nations as “shithole” countries. Boris once compared infighting in his Conservative Party to “Papua New Guinea-style orgies of cannibalism and chief-killing.” Trump is known as a liar and loves to make shit up. Boris was once fired as a journalist for making up a quote.

Donald Trump undermined Theresa May by saying Boris would make a great Prime Minister. He also thinks he’s doing a great job as president.

Most Brits view Trump as a laughingstock. Only one in four of them believe Boris should be Prime Minister which means they’re about to get their own laughingstock. Personally, I have to find time away from laughing at our laughingstock to laugh at Britain’s. Likewise, Brits may have less focus to create Trump Babies because they’ll be making a Boris Baby.

But, the lesson for my British friends is this: Vote stupid, stupid things happen. Need an example? Baby, I can give you one.

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.

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Watch Me Draw.

G7 Pardon

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Before he stepped on Obama’s airplane to head to the G7 summit in Canada, Trump took questions from a few reporters and said that Russian President Vladimir Putin really wanted Hillary Clinton to win the election, and he, Trump, was his worst nightmare.

I don’t know about you but my nightmares consist of stuff, like spiders, finding myself naked in high school, falling off a cliff, Nickelback dressed as clowns, a hotdog with ketchup, you know….real terrifying stuff. Nightmares are not dreams of getting everything you want.

For Putin, that’s an American president who undermines democratic institutions like a free press while destabilizing NATO and our alliances in addition to spilling classified information to Russian spies in the Oval Office. Now, Trump is at the G7 campaigning for Russia to be invited back, which kicked Putin out for annexing Crimea.

What in the world could Hillary Clinton have given Putin to make him happier? Neck massages? Scratch that, because Trump may have already done that.

Trump was very eager to fight with leaders of our allies, like Canada’s Justin Trudeau and France’s Emmanuel Macron…on Twitter and through the press. Now that he’s actually face to face, he arrived late, and he’s leaving early. That’s because Donald Trump is a coward.

What does it say about our nation’s president who’s afraid of our allies but eager to get on a plane and arrive early for a date with the dictator of North Korea?

If Trump has prepared very little for meeting Kim Jong Un (who we hope is as dumb as Trump), the only thoughts he put into his trip to the G7 was how to get out of it. Reportedly, he asked aides if his presence was absolutely necessary and asked if he could cancel at the last minute.

Trump is now showing the entire world he belongs to Putin. At this rate, he may have to register as a foreign lobbyist. If Putin really wanted Clinton to win the presidency, he would have sent spies to her campaign HQ to dish dirt and had Wikileaks hack Trump. The only problem would have been Clinton’s refusal to collude with Russia because some people don’t want to commit treason.

You have to ask yourself what exactly does Putin have on Trump? That pee tape must be really nasty.

Watch me draw.

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Trump Train Trolls

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Back in the old normal, journalists never referred to a politician as a liar. They were either wrong, mistaken, misinformed, misspeaking, or incorrect. That changed with Donald Trump as the man continues to repeat lies after being told they’re lies. Trump and his sycophants don’t just lie where you can say it’s their viewpoint. They lie to the extent that they choose their own facts. Kellyanne Conway even referred to them as “alternative facts.” That puts us into the new normal where it’s not unprofessional to state that the president is a liar. That rule also applies to calling him a troll.

A troll is a person who throws something into a conversation in order to deflect or distract you from the topic. Trump does that, but he also trolls to make people upset. He totally hijacks athletes in the NFL peacefully protesting racism, and turns into something disrespecting Americans who serve in our military. The hypocritical thing about that is Trump has disrespected people in our military.

He attends a ceremony honoring members of the Navajo nation who served in World War II, and he throws out a racist jab at Senator Elizabeth Warren. Later, his defenders like Sarah Huckabee Sanders says the biggest outrage should be directed toward Warren for lying about her heritage. Never mind the fact that Trump has lied about his heritage (he claims he’s Swedish when he’s actually German), or that Warren wasn’t at the ceremony or a topic for discussion at the event. When you bring up Trump’s racism, Warren’s heritage is not relevant. It just changes the subject.

He attacks Democrats and liberals accused of sexual abuse despite the fact he’s had multiple accusers, and he’s currently endorsing a pedophile for the Senate. That’s serious trolling.

Since it’s the Christmas season, let’s not exclude how he brags about how we’re saying “Merry Christmas” again. He actually has his supporters associating him more with that phrase than Jesus Christ. And, when have people ever been afraid or discouraged from expressing it or when was has it ever been outlawed? The guy creates problems where there isn’t one. It still distresses me that white conservatives claim victimization where it doesn’t exist. Trump is their hero.

This week, Trump tweeted out videos made by Britain First, a racist and anti-Muslim group. A group whose leader was charged with assaulting a Muslim woman and her children and a supporter murdered a Member of Parliament.

Apparently, there’s not enough Klansmen and Nazis in America for Trump to support that he has to extend his racism to Europe. There should not be a debate on whether Trump is a racist. The president of the United States is a racist.

The videos Trump tweeted out were Islamophobic created with the intention of increasing hatred toward Muslims. The details Britain First claimed in the videos can’t be confirmed, with one of them being an outright lie. That video is titled, “Muslim migrant beats up Dutch boy on crutches!” It does indeed show one boy attacking another on crutches. However, the attacker wasn’t an immigrant or even a Muslim. He just had darker hair.

This upset, not just Americans, but our allies in the United Kingdom. Prime Minister Theresa May condemned Trump’s tweeting of hate. Trump replied in a tweet, “don’t focus on me, focus on the destructive Radical Islamic Terrorism that is taking place within the United Kingdom. We are doing just fine!,” which was tweeted at Theresa May. Unfortunately, but not surprising, he tweeted it at the wrong Theresa May. The guy is too busy stirring up shit to do any research, like noticing this Theresa May only had about 60 followers. I’m not a genius, but I think I’d question why the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom only had 60 followers.

Sanders said we are focusing on the wrong detail by talking about how the videos are fake, and that the threat is very real. They need a lie to illustrate a real threat. Keep in mind these are the people who scream about “fake news.”

Trump is also hawking his tax cut plan without knowing the details. But, he knows enough that it’s going to make him and his spawn of trolls even richer. That doesn’t prevent him from lying that he won’t benefit from it personally, or that many of his rich friends are upset with him over it. Have you heard any of his rich friends complain about this proposed tax cut? Trump could prove it won’t benefit him if he’d only show us his tax returns.

Just like his blame if there’s a government shutdown, Trump will pin the failure of this “tax cut” on Democrats even though Republicans control both houses in Congress and the Presidency.

Now, there is talk that Trump still believes in birtherism, that the investigation into his meddling with Russia will be over by January, and that his voice on the Access Hollywood tape, which he has apologized for, isn’t his voice. He’s not just a troll. He’s an insane troll.

We have a racist, insane, trolling president. Many members of Parliament don’t want him to visit the UK. Who can blame them? We don’t want him here.

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.

MayHem

cjones06142017

If you’re unfamiliar with how the British parliamentary system works, you’re not far behind me. It can be a little confusing if you’ve been in the American system your entire life with Republican versus Democratic in Presidential, House, and Senate elections. The Brits do it a little different.

I’ll explain how it works. Consider it a UK primer for dummies written by a dummy.

The UK has The Conservatives (like our Republicans) and the Labour party (which is like our Democratic party). The voters don’t elect a Prime Minister outright. They vote for Parliament and the majority party sends their leader to 10 Downing Street (their White House, sort of). The unique thing about this is that the Prime Minister is still a member of Parliament. Imagine if Donald Trump was still a Congressman while he’s also president.

Like the U.S. the United Kingdom has scheduled elections, but under certain circumstances, the Prime Minister can call a “snap” election. What sort of circumstances? Usually, because they want to. The next regularly-scheduled election was for 2020 but Theresa May got a little antsy.

After the Brexit vote the Prime Minister, David Cameron resigned. He had opposed leaving the European Union and left to make way for a Prime Minister who would support it. Enter Theresa May, the new Prime Minister. Theresa wanted to increase her majority so she would have a mandate for negotiating leaving the EU. She and the Conservatives felt they would greatly increase their numbers. It didn’t work out for them.

They still have their majority but the Conservatives lost 13 seats, thus they lost their “working” majority. The Labour party picked up 30 seats. Before the election was called the Conservatives were leading in the polls by 20 points.

What hurt the Conservatives? First off, Theresa May is a terrible campaigner (imagine Hillary but less charming). The choice to leave the European Union started to sour. The terror attacks hurt, but probably not as much as Theresa’s response which was to instill fear and hate in her nation. Theresa May was sounding a bit too much like Donald Trump. Guess who’s not very popular in the UK. Donald Trump. In The UK, “Trump” is slang for fart. It’s becoming slang for a LOT of things in the U.S.

Trump wasn’t popular in the UK before the recent attacks in London. The animosity towards him increased after his response was to criticize and feud with the city’s mayor. Theresa May didn’t stick up for the mayor. Many felt she is an appeaser to Trump. We have a bunch of those here in the U.S.

Trump is so unpopular in England that he’s now considering delaying his upcoming visit. According to The Guardian, Trump told May “he did not want to visit until he had support from the British public.” So apparently Trump is NEVER going to visit England. Trump likes adoring crowds. Not crowds that will call him a “Cheeto-stained shitgibbon.” I think “shitgibbon” is the British way of saying he’s a “shit weasel.”

Theresa May may want Trump to delay his visit. While she has a majority, she does not have a “working” majority which her party needs to control Parliament. The only way they can have the working majority is to create an alliance with a fringe political party from Northern Ireland (Parliament has several parties while we just have the two). Her party is already upset with her for calling an unnecessary election and losing seats. New video footage of May holding hands with Trump, like she did in Washington, probably won’t warm her up more to the Brits, and her party can dump her for a new PM.

If Theresa May doesn’t understand that her nation doesn’t like Donald Trump, then she’s more out of touch with the United Kingdom than I am.

Creative notes: A few of my cartooning colleagues have made comments to me about my knack for drawing crowds. Most refuse to go into it as much as I do because they hate drawing crowds. That’s OK because each of them does something really detailed and technical that I can’t draw.

Most cartoonists hate lettering and drawing a whole bunch of people. I don’t really mind either, but I don’t want to do a lot of it every day. This cartoon has both so my next drawing will probably be wordless stick figures.

I did some research on this and visited a few sites to look up British insults (again. Hey, there might be something new), and protest signs. I also made a call to my friend, Rebecca Hendin, who is an American working for Buzzfeed in their London office. She’s the perfect person for me to get details from since she’s in London, she draws cartoons, and being a fellow Yank, she knows how stupid I am. She threw about 29 links at me, each of a different protest. They’ve been having a LOT of protests in England lately.

Some signs in this cartoon are from actual protesters. Others I manipulated and made my own. There were several words I chose not to use as I want this cartoon to be printed in U.S. newspapers and some of my editors might look up the definitions. Those words are “wanker,” “Brexshit,” “tosser,” “twat”, and “bawbag.” I really wanted to use “bawbag.”

The two things I’m really proud of with my English lineage is the style of humor and the cursing. Nobody curses better than those in the UK. They’re just mean, especially the Scottish. I’m kinda scared of Scotland.

By the way, this cartoon took over EIGHT hours to draw. Yes. Eight. This is what it looked like around six hours.

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Hostile Social Media

Criticism for the way social media, and the internet in general, as to how terrorists and other extremists use it isn’t anything new.

Facebook was blamed back in 2014 for failing to pass on information that could have helped prevent the murder of a British soldier by Islamist terrorists. The London attacks from Saturday has renewed the criticism, specifically from British Prime Minister Theresa May.

It is difficult for companies such as Facebook, Twitter, and Google to eliminate extremists from using their platforms. YouTube alone has over 400 hours of video uploaded every minute (they’re all Nickelback). Usually, the only way these companies can be made aware of hostile content is when users bring it to their attention. I’m sure those notifications are lumped in with each complaint a user sends that someone hurt their feelings in a debate of Pearl Jam versus Incubus (Pearl Jam is better).

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced last month that his company will add 3,000 employees to scrub harmful content from the network. The director of policy at the media giant says they want “Facebook to be a hostile environment for terrorists.” So basically they want Facebook to treat terrorists like it does the casual user.

May wants to tighten Internet regulation in order to deny terrorists a tool for planning attacks and spreading extremism. That’s where things get tricky when it comes to free speech in open societies. Do you really want Donald Trump deciding what is extreme?

Social media is very friendly to extremists. Whether those extremists are jihadists, conspiracy theorists pushing a story about Hillary Clinton murdering people and selling child-sex-slaves out of a pizza parlor, or Nazis sharing links to Breitbart (tell your uncle to stop that). Facebook is annoying enough with pictures of vacations (yay, you’re living so well!), people who are determined to show you what they’re eating every day (A friend actually posted a photo of Cheerios last week), and yeah….cat pictures. Dog pictures and their crazy antics are always acceptable. Your cat is boring.

While Facebook is great for keeping up with old friends from high school that you’ll never see in the flesh ever again, it annoys the hell out of me by giving me a notification every time a friend is conducting a live video, or when I’m added to a group I never had the intention of joining. I have thousands of “friends.” I don’t need this crap.

I do believe companies, such as Facebook, Twitter, Google, YouTube, are better at regulating their content, as sucky as they may be, than the government. The internet is a place for ideas, even bad ones. If you own a platform then you have the right to decide what stays and what is trashed. I don’t think we need new laws making those decisions for us.

Just as a business can reject your patronage, media giants have the right to deny you service on their platforms. Their judgement is better than the government. That’s good for you, me, and Mr. Whiskers Kills.

claytoonz

Nationally Syndicated Editorial Cartoonist