Uvalde

Alright Alright Alright

Actor and Uvalde native Matthew McConaughey gave a passionate speech from the White House press room yesterday asking, “How can we make the loss of these lives matter?”.

McConaughey invoked the lives of the 19 children and two teachers murdered by a mass shooter two weeks ago in the town where he was born and where his mother was a school teacher. He described visiting Uvalde, “You could feel the pain, the denial, the disillusion, anger, blame, sadness, loss of lives, dreams halted.”

The Oscar-winning actor was in Washington to talk to President Biden and other lawmakers about stricter gun laws. Something the GOP clearly doesn’t even want to talk about. Last week, one Republican announced he would not run for reelection because of the backlash from his own party over his support for gun control. How dare he.

McConaughey said, “We can’t truly be leaders if we are only living for reelection.” He will now face backlash from Republicans and the NRA.

McConaughey and his wife, Camila Alves McConaughey, displayed a pair of green Converse high tops that were worn by ten-year-old Maite Rodriguez, one of the victims of the Uvalde massacre. She had drawn a heart on the right shoe over her toes. McConaughey said, “These are the same green Converse on her feet that turned out to be the only clear evidence that could identify her after the shooting.”

I’ve never been a fan of Matthew McConaughey. He’s a very likable guy but I always felt like he wasn’t acting. To me, he has always seemed to play the same character, himself. I think he did that yesterday. Yes, it was powerful and it was a presentation, but he wasn’t acting. What he said came straight from the heart.

Shortly after his speech, I saw memes made by goons trying to discredit him. They can’t take down his message so the only thing they had to destroy was him. There were the usual complaints of a movie star telling us how to live. There were memes taken from McConaughey’s movies where he’s pictured with a gun as if that makes him a hypocrite. It doesn’t.

Actors can give us their viewpoints. What makes you think our elected officials are more qualified? Have you seen the caliber of our elected officials? Have you heard the shit that comes out of the mouths of the likes of Lauren Boebert, Matt Gaetz, Ted Cruz, or Marjorie Taylor Greene? I mean, if freedom means we can have any gun we want then it also means an actor can express his opinion publicly. Unlike Senator Tommy Tuberville, I bet Matthew McConaughey knows the three branches of government are NOT the House, Senate, and presidency. Maybe next time McConaughey comes to town, he can tell us how to lose a senator in ten days.

And McConaughey isn’t a hypocrite for playing a guy with a gun in a movie and being in favor of gun control. Anthony Hopkins probably isn’t in favor of cannibalism either. It’s called acting. Actors play characters. But the people calling McConaughey a hypocrite didn’t listen to his speech or they’re liars. He’s not for eradicating all guns. He’s a gun owner. Life is too complex for conservatives to understand. A gun owner can be in favor of gun control. You can own a car and believe drivers should be licensed and that cars should have tags, seatbelts, windshields, etc.

I don’t think I’ll ever be a huge fan of Matthew McConaughey as an actor or of his movies, although The Gentleman is kinda epic (I may have to rethink my position). But I like the man and I like where his heart is. He has principles and he’s using his star power to make a difference. Yesterday, his press conference was carried live by CNN, MSNBC, and…this one really surprised me, Fox News.

Quite frankly, I think that’s alright alright alright.

Creative note: I thought of this idea around 9 p.m. and spent the rest of the night thinking about how to draw it. I thought the shoes would be difficult. I drew the cartoon at 4 a.m. and it was easier than I expected. I kinda got into it which an artist always wants.

Music note: Other than “NRA,” there wasn’t any lettering for me to do so I went ahead and listened to a few tunes off my iPhone. Music distracts me while I’m lettering. I listened to Abba and Adele. I didn’t get out of the A’s.

Signed prints: The signed prints are just $40.00 each. Every cartoon on this site is available. You can pay through PayPal. If you don’t like PayPal, you can snail mail it to Clay Jones, P.O. Box 3721, Fredericksburg, VA 22402. I can mail the prints directly to you or if you’re purchasing as a gift, directly to the person you’re gifting.

Notes on my book, Tales From The Trumpster Fire: There are 19 copies of my book in stock, which go for $45.00 each, signed. Also, I have copies of my first book from 1997, Knee-Deep in Mississippi available for $20.00.

Tip Jar: if you want to support the cartoonist, please send a donation through PayPal to clayjonz@gmail.com. You can also snail it to P.O. Box 3721, Fredericksburg, VA 22402.

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Uvalde Coverup

Is there a coverup going on about the police response to the Uvalde school massacre?

While the 18-year-old shooter was inside a classroom with elementary students, some who had covered themselves in their classmates’ blood to hide and others who may have been bleeding to death, 19 cops refused to enter the classroom for 90 minutes.

There were cops outside arresting parents who were trying to enter the school to save their children. There were cops inside the hallway. During this time, children were calling the police from inside the classroom. Texas law enforcement has said “oops. Our bad,” but they haven’t provided good reasons as to why they messed this up so bad. There was one honest answer from a law enforcement spokesperson that the cops were afraid the shooter might stop shooting elementary students to shoot at cops.

The Texas Department of Public Safety is no longer investigating the police response as it’s the investigation has been handed over to the Uvalde County District Attorney, who does not plan to share the findings with the public.

The narrative from Texas authorities has shifted numerous times in order to avoid casting blame on law enforcement. In order to shift blame from cops, you have to blame someone else, like teachers and doors.

Texas DPS Director Steven McCraw blamed a teacher for the shooter’s entry into the school, claiming the shooter entered Robb Elementary through a back door a teacher had left propped open. The story changed four days later when the teacher’s lawyer spoke to the San Antonio Express-News.

The teacher did open the door to get her lunch out of her car, saw the gunman coming who had started firing at the school, then she slammed the door shut, which didn’t automatically lock. The DPS now says there’s a video confirming the teacher kicked a rock out that was propping the door open, and she slammed it shut.

Conservatives LOVE LOVE LOVE hating on teachers. They accuse them of teaching Critical Race Theory, which they are not teaching (but schools should be teaching). They claim teachers have a gay agenda in order to attack teachers while being homophobic. Now, they’re blaming teachers for a school shooting.

It’s ridiculous to blame teachers for a mass shooting, especially when two of them are murder victims along with 19 of their students. Cops and Republicans are trying to cover their asses.

What we should blame are guns. We should also blame cops who refused to respond. And, we should blame Republicans who refuse to even debate gun legislation. You can’t have a serious discussion on gun legislation with people who show off their gun collection during the discussion.

We should totally blame Republicans because Republicans are leaving the doors open for school shooters.

Music note: I listened to several artists while drawing this, including M.I.A, and now I’m going to have “some some some a some I murder, some a some I let go” in my head all day.

Signed prints: The signed prints are just $40.00 each. Every cartoon on this site is available. You can pay through PayPal. If you don’t like PayPal, you can snail mail it to Clay Jones, P.O. Box 3721, Fredericksburg, VA 22402. I can mail the prints directly to you or if you’re purchasing as a gift, directly to the person you’re gifting.

Notes on my book, Tales From The Trumpster Fire: There are 19 copies of my book in stock, which go for $45.00 each, signed. Also, I have copies of my first book from 1997, Knee-Deep in Mississippi available for $20.00.

Tip Jar: if you want to support the cartoonist, please send a donation through PayPal to clayjonz@gmail.com. You can also snail it to P.O. Box 3721, Fredericksburg, VA 22402.

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Boors Ban Doors

Ted Cruz went to Harvard and Princeton. He was a debate champion. With that in mind, I’m not ready to classify him as a moron despite the fact he says moronic things. While I’m not sure he’s a moron, stupid, or an idiot, I know for sure he’s a lot of other things.

Ted Cruz is condescending. He’s a coward. He’s sniveling. He’ll say anything to appease the base. He’s disloyal. He’s sanctimonious. He’s icky and creepy. He’s a sonofabitch. He’s a horrible and vile excuse for a human being. He’s the shit slime washes off to get clean. Ted Cruz sucks.

One reason Ted Cruz may say a lot of stupid things is because he’s not in a position to say anything intelligent. There are no intelligent reasons for not creating tougher gun laws. The only arguments against are stupid.

While most Republicans and assorted MAGAts are blaming mental health, video games, Critical Race Theory, Wokeness, cancel culture, socialism, and whatever the hell else they can concoct, Ted Cruz has decided instead of banning guns, we should ban doors.

Seriously.

OK. I change my mind. He’s a moron. Only a moron would say something that stupid. And Ted didn’t say this off the cuff. He wasn’t riffing. He made this proposal during his speech at the NRA’s latest gun orgy in Houston, where it probably went over very well. I bet that convention hall had more than one door in it.

Also, if we ban doors, then Ted can make sure trans people are using the correct public bathrooms. Plus, banning The Doors will prevent Jim Morrison from ever exposing his thingy at a concert ever again. Why do think they called him the Lizard King? Dammit…Ted Cruz wanted that nickname. Heidi said “no.”

Ted’s brilliant idea is to ban all doors in schools except one and station an armed guard there constantly. But, aren’t Republicans in favor of decreasing funding for schools? What happens if a shooter shows up and shoots the armed guard? What happens if there’s a fire and there’s only one door for the children to escape? Will Ted say, “at least they weren’t killed by a gun, so don’t blame guns”?

Maybe we should make the one door like a doggy door so only the kids can crawl in. What about the teachers? We’ll just fire them. They’re overpaid and all they want to do is teach our kids Critical Race Theory and gay math. The kids will be fine without them and we can just have the parents decide the curriculum. What if a dwarf mass shooter shows up and can fit inside the doggy door? Let’s make guns with fat triggers or something so they’ll be dwarf-proof. What if dingos crawl through the door and eat the babies? I got it! let’s just give all the kids guns. We’ll start making guns with tiny triggers. Crap. I forgot about the dwarfs.

Maybe we should ban schools and force everyone to be home-schooled. I actually saw this argument in a conservative cartoon. But don’t most homes have two doors?

What’s dumber than Ted Cruz’s idea to ban doors is that we haven’t enacted tougher gun laws since Sandy Hook. People like Ted Cruz would rather find any solution, no matter how stupid, than face the fact guns are the problem.

This is a gun problem. It’s not mental health, video games, wokeness, socialism, cancel culture, Critical Race Theory, or Mickey Mouse. The reason we have so many mass shootings while other nations don’t is because of guns…and a lot of stupid senators.

Ted also wants to “harden” elementary schools. Personally, I think we should keep pedophiles away from elemenatary schools.

Music Note: After all the lettering, I turned on the music to listen to while drawing grass. It took a while and I listened to Cowboy Junkies, the Cranberries, The Hives, Coheed and Cambria, Hole, and some other stuff I can’t remember now.

Signed prints: The signed prints are just $40.00 each. Every cartoon on this site is available. You can pay through PayPal. If you don’t like PayPal, you can snail mail it to Clay Jones, P.O. Box 3721, Fredericksburg, VA 22402. I can mail the prints directly to you or if you’re purchasing as a gift, directly to the person you’re gifting.

Notes on my book, Tales From The Trumpster Fire: There are 19 copies of my book in stock, which go for $45.00 each, signed. Also, I have copies of my first book from 1997, Knee-Deep in Mississippi available for $20.00.

Tip Jar: if you want to support the cartoonist, please send a donation through PayPal to clayjonz@gmail.com. You can also snail it to P.O. Box 3721, Fredericksburg, VA 22402.

Watch me draw:

Memorial Day 2022

I broke one of my rules for this cartoon. I’m not big on holiday cartoons to begin with and since I’m a freelancer, I don’t have to draw them now. Back when I worked at The Free Lance-Star, my editor demanded a cartoon for every Memorial and Veterans Day along with most other holidays. I do believe we should thank those who fought for our country, but I think most cartoons that memorialize are boring. I have a rule against drawing boring cartoons, but that’s not the rule I broke here.

My rule about holiday cartoons is to do them a few days ahead of the holiday. That way my clients have time to schedule it for their pages. It seems to me if you draw political cartoons for a living, you should know this. It drives me nuts when I see a cartoonist draw a holiday cartoon the day before a holiday (unless he works for a publication), the day of, or the day after…or days after. When I see a cartoonist draw a cartoon the day of the holiday, it leads me to believe that cartoonist is only working for Facebook likes. It’s amateurish.

But I broke that rule today by drawing this cartoon and sending it to my clients the day before Memorial Day. Most of my clients won’t use it. But then again, other than the alt-weeklies who subscribe to my work (they’re bold), most of my clients never run my cartoons on gun issues. For example, one of my clients is a national publication that runs a dozen cartoons a day on its website. Even though I won a journalism award last week from a human rights outlet (yes, I’m going to milk that for all it’s worth) on issues like school shootings, this publication did not run one of my cartoons on the Uvalde school shooting, but they did run a cartoon with a crying Uncle Sam and at least four cartoons with hugs and grief. Editors LOVE weak cartoons, but even then, why run more than one of those gushy cartoons? As David Byrne sang in “Psycho Killer,” when you say something once, why say it again?

I’m not working for social media with this cartoon as I’m using it to fight for change. I’m using social media to shame these gun fetishists. They get all hot and squishy inside when they profess their love for veterans who died for freedom, but they make excuses and throw blame at political opponents when assault rifles are used to murder children. They believe their freedom to own an assault rifle is more important than the lives of children. They prove that every fucking time this happens. And each time it happens, they avoid the truth. Republicans are about as pro-life as Hannibal Lecter.

Since the Uvalde shooting, the gun whackos have blamed mental health, liberals, wokeness, trans people, critical race theory, socialism, video games, Democrats, doors, and everything else they can think of except guns. They have zero proof of any of that. They can’t cite any studies to support their deflections and excuses. But we don’t need any graphs or statistics to know those 21 people in that Uvalde elementary were killed by an assault rifle. And then we have the Buffalo shooting where the gun humpers blame everything except racism despite the killer’s racist manifesto and the n-word on the barrel of his assault rifle.

So maybe I did send my clients a cartoon most won’t use, but it’s worth it to take another shot at shaming the people who need to be shamed.

Happy Memorial Day, fuckers. Enjoy your barbeques.

Music Note: After all the lettering, I turned on the music to listen to while drawing grass. It took a while and I listened to Cowboy Junkies, the Cranberries, The Hives, Coheed and Cambria, Hole, and some other stuff I can’t remember now.

Signed prints: The signed prints are just $40.00 each. Every cartoon on this site is available. You can pay through PayPal. If you don’t like PayPal, you can snail mail it to Clay Jones, P.O. Box 3721, Fredericksburg, VA 22402. I can mail the prints directly to you or if you’re purchasing as a gift, directly to the person you’re gifting.

Notes on my book, Tales From The Trumpster Fire: There are 19 copies of my book in stock, which go for $45.00 each, signed. Also, I have copies of my first book from 1997, Knee-Deep in Mississippi available for $20.00.

Tip Jar: if you want to support the cartoonist, please send a donation through PayPal to clayjonz@gmail.com. You can also snail it to P.O. Box 3721, Fredericksburg, VA 22402.

Watch me draw:

Donuts and Do Nothing Nuts

A friend of mine who writes about cartoons and the issues they cover said everyone should basically hold their comments until we have certainty over what happened during the 90 minutes Texas police gave the Uvalde gunman free range to shoot elementary students. My friend wrote, “facts change.” Facts don’t change. What changes is what we know. What we know is that the Texas police who responded can’t get their story straight. What we are certain of is that the cops allowed a mass shooter 90 minutes to kill children.

The cops first said the gunman was confronted and shot at. Then they said he roamed around outside uninhibited for 12 minutes.

Governor Greg Abbott praised the “quick response” of “valiant local officials” who he said had engaged the gunman before he entered the school. He said cops “showed amazing courage by running toward gunfire,” which they did not do…at least for over an hour. Abbott showed “amazing courage” by pulling out of speaking at this weekend’s NRA gun party in Houston…three days after the shooting.

Eventually, it was a tactical unit of Border Patrol that went in and took out the killer who had murdered two teachers and 19 children. The police want us to know they’re traumatized by this. Texas Ranger Victor Escalon said, “we’re all hurting inside.” Sad face emoji.

According to the “official” timeline, at 11:28 AM Tuesday, the killer crashed the vehicle he stole from his grandmother after shooting her. The first emergency call came two minutes later as witnesses reported a man carrying a gun. The killer then shot at members of the public, roamed the school premises, and entered freely through an unlocked door at 11:40. Cops arrived four minutes after receiving the call…and sat around for 90 minutes.

I’m sorry. That’s not true. They did not sit around for 90 minutes. No, they spent that 90 minutes arresting and handcuffing parents outside who were demanding that the cops go into the elementary school and save their children. Seriously. The police has a SWAT team but they were too busy swatting parents.

While a gunman with an AR-15 was killing children, the cops chose to arrest their parents. Let that sink in.

Police initially said the officers were “inside making entry” and took cover after coming under heavy fire. This was revised on Thursday (two days later) by Mr. Texas Ranger Escalon. “They didn’t make entry immediately because of the gunfire they were receiving,” he said. That Chuck Norris Walker Texas Ranger show is full of shit.

Police also said the killer barricaded himself inside a classroom with teachers and students. They do not say what he used to barricade the doors, but they were NOT barricaded from entering the school. What objects are inside fourth-grade classrooms that can be used to create impenetrable barricades cops can’t break through? Whatever it is, I’m sure the NRA will use it to surround their Houston gun orgy this weekend, because no guns are getting in there.

Javier Cazares, whose daughter Jacklyn was killed in the attack, said “A lot of us were arguing with the police, ‘You all need to go in there. You all need to do your jobs’. Their response was, ‘We can’t do our jobs because you guys are interfering.'” Also, the parents weren’t shooting at them or had barricaded themselves behind a door with foot-tall wastebaskets.

Angeli Rose Gomez was arrested and handcuffed after jumping over the school fence to rescue her two children after police refused to. She said she saw one father thrown to the ground by an officer, another pepper-sprayed, and a third who was tasered. That is pretty much what you have to do to prevent good parents from saving their children from a mass shooter.

At this moment (while I write this), police are again revising their explanations and giving another press conference. These people are worse at giving honest answers than Ted Cruz disembarking a flight from Cancun.

And these cops’ response to a school shooting is almost as slow as the GOP’s. Maybe they too were waiting for instructions from the NRA.

Creative note: I changed this entire cartoon around after I started coloring. It originally had another point that consisted of two speech balloons from the children, and the labels on the cars were “cops.” But I then thought of what you’re seeing here and I felt it wasn’t just better, but a lot stronger. Despite starting around 7:30 AM, I was running late. And just as I started changing this cartoon around, a huge thunderstorm hit and created a brand new leak…right above my drawing table. So after lots of towels and lots of cursing, I was able to finally finish this cartoon and send it to my clients around 1 PM on a Friday. I was going to listen to some music while drawing but that didn’t happen. Did I mention there was lots of cursing?

Signed prints: The signed prints are just $40.00 each. Every cartoon on this site is available. You can pay through PayPal. If you don’t like PayPal, you can snail mail it to Clay Jones, P.O. Box 3721, Fredericksburg, VA 22402. I can mail the prints directly to you or if you’re purchasing as a gift, directly to the person you’re gifting.

Notes on my book, Tales From The Trumpster Fire: There are 19 copies of my book in stock, which go for $45.00 each, signed. Also, I have copies of my first book from 1997, Knee-Deep in Mississippi available for $20.00.

Tip Jar: if you want to support the cartoonist, please send a donation through PayPal to clayjonz@gmail.com. You can also snail it to P.O. Box 3721, Fredericksburg, VA 22402.

Watch me draw:

Speedy Thoughts and Prayers

While drawing this cartoon, I was afraid Texas Senator Ted Cruz and Texas Governor Greg Abbott would pull out of speaking at this weekend’s NRA convention in Houston, because it would be the right thing to do after a mass shooting with an assault rifle killed 19 children in their state. But fortunately, at least for my cartoon, Ted Cruz and Greg Abbott NEVER do the right thing.

After 9/11, one of the major networks pulled an airing of the 90’s disaster movie, Independence Day. They figured after the entire nation witnessed planes flying into towers that their viewers weren’t in the mood to watch aliens blow up the White House, the Capitol building, the Statue of Liberty, and the entire cities of Washington, New York, and Los Angeles. Sometimes after a mass shooting, networks will pull or reschedule a gun-packed action movie. They often feel it’s insensitive and in poor taste to watch Sylvester Stallone shoot 97 people in the head which is the usual body count in any Rambo movie. It’s usually in poor taste to watch any Rambo movie at any time.

So, you would think the National Rifle Association would pull or reschedule their gun orgy party for later. You would think they’d realize that gun humping in the same state where 19 elementary students were massacred would be in poor taste. But, this is America and it’s hard to predict a location and a date when there won’t be a mass shooting. Also, Republicans don’t have taste.

It took national outrage for Ted Cruz to flee Acapulco, where he escaped when Texas got hit by a winter freeze that was wiping power out across the state and killing Texans. Even Ted Cruz realized him being in Acapulco was in poor taste…or someone told him. So, Ted quickly returned to Texas to pose for photo-ops of him helping Texans put bottled water in car trunks while wearing a Texas flag face mask. Yee-haw, Ted.

But good ole Ted and Greg will be in Houston this weekend kissing NRA ass for NRA dollars. It won’t matter if someone tells Ted it’s in poor taste because he is owned by the NRA. He has to be there. And if one of the speakers pulls out, or the convention is canceled, it would be admitting that guns had something to do with the slaughter in Uvalde.

The “American Pie” singer, Don McClean, was scheduled to perform at the convention but he has since canceled stating it would be “disrespectful.” But don’t worry as there will still be music goodness by Lee Greenwood who’ll sing that song white nationalists and MAGAts love to circle-jerk to, where he sings, “I’m proud to be an American, where at least I know I’m free.” Shit. It’s in my brain! It’s in my brain!

In addition to Cruz, Abbott (who went to a fundraiser the night of the Uvalde massacre), Lee Greenwood, and circle-jerking racist MAGAts, Donald Trump’s going to be there too. Hmm, I wonder what they’ll talk about.

Will they have a moment of silence for the 21 victims of Uvalde? Will they offer responsible and real solutions to gun violence? Or, will they only offer thoughts and prayers? Of course, they won’t just offer thoughts and prayers, you cynical bastards. They’re going to offer a great big heaping pile of bullshit that’s not going to be helpful to anyone.

They’re going to blame the lack of mental healthcare even though they don’t want to increase funding for mental healthcare. They’re going to blame cancel culture. They’re going to blame liberals and Democrats. They’re going to blame transgenders. They’re going to blame the media and movies. They’re going to blame Twitter and Facebook. They’re going to blame Critical Race Theory. They’re going to blame Disney. They’re going to blame gay math books. They’re going to blame Planned Parenthood. They’re going to blame inflation and gas prices. They’re going to blame mail-in voting. They’re going to blame “globalists.” They’re going to blame immigration. They’re going to blame Joe Biden.

But they’re not going to blame the laws that allowed an 18-year-old to purchase two assault rifles. They’re not going to blame how easy it is in this nation to legally purchase an assault rifle. They’re going to rant against laws that increase background checks even though the majority of the nation supports them.

Most of all, they’re going to celebrate the 2nd Amendment which they believe states that every American can purchase as many killing machines as they can afford. They’ll celebrate the ability to purchase weapons that are created only to kill as many people as quickly as possible. They’re going to celebrate your constitutional right to purchase weapons designed to kill 19 children in a fourth-grade classroom.

And, they’re going to quote the 2nd Amendment while omitting the words “well regulated.”

They’re going to promote the idea that more guns in this country mean fewer mass shootings. They’re going to promote the idea that every teacher should be armed with a gun. They’re going to promote the “good guy with a gun” concept, that every room in this nation should be packed with people who are packing.

And they’re going to do it in a room they’ve designated as a gun-free zone.

Music note: I listened to Tito & Tarantula while coloring this.

Signed prints: The signed prints are just $40.00 each. Every cartoon on this site is available. You can pay through PayPal. If you don’t like PayPal, you can snail mail it to Clay Jones, P.O. Box 3721, Fredericksburg, VA 22402. I can mail the prints directly to you or if you’re purchasing as a gift, directly to the person you’re gifting.

Notes on my book, Tales From The Trumpster Fire: There are 19 copies of my book in stock, which go for $45.00 each, signed. Also, I have copies of my first book from 1997, Knee-Deep in Mississippi available for $20.00.

Tip Jar: if you want to support the cartoonist, please send a donation through PayPal to clayjonz@gmail.com. You can also snail it to P.O. Box 3721, Fredericksburg, VA 22402.

Watch me draw: