Music note: I listened to something but I don’t remember since this was drawn five days ago. Ha.
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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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Joe Manchin is going to destroy the Build Back Better Bill. After negotiating with President Joe Biden all week on the Build Back Better legislation, Manchin has now said no. White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said his comments “are at odds with his discussions this week with the President, with White House staff, and with his own public utterances.”
Manchin says he can’t support the bill because of inflation, rising debt and a mismatch between the package’s 10-year funding and its shorter-term programs. The bill doesn’t have anything to do with inflation or the rising debt. It’s to be paid over ten years, by taking away “some” of the tax cuts Trump gave to billionaires, with many of the programs lasting beyond a decade. Manchin, just like his nimrod Democratic colleague in the Senate, Kyrsten Sinema, is saying no just because they like to say “no.” It gives them power and attention. They also get to play footsie with Republicans across the aisle which is just icky.
Joe Manchin played footsie with the Fox News fuckers on Sunday morning, where they like to aid and defend white nationalist terrorists, to announce his no vote. Manchin said, ““If I can’t go home and explain to the people of West Virginia, I can’t vote for it. And I cannot vote to continue with this piece of legislation. I just can’t. I’ve tried everything humanly possible. I can’t get there. This is a no on this piece of legislation. I have tried everything I know to do.”
Tell you what, Joe Manchin. You go home and explain to your constituents, those 181,000 poor families, that they won’t be receiving their $446 montly checks anymore, that reach over 305,000 children, because you’re worried about putting too much burden on billionaires.
You go back to West Virginia, Joe Manchin, and tell those 50,000 children that slip into poverty because of your no vote that it’s justified because it got you on Fox News on a Sunday morning.
One in five children in West Virginia lives in poverty. Maybe Joe Manchin can go back to West Virginia and tell them he’s cutting them off because of inflation. Maybe Joe Manchin can explain to those kids how decreasing their families income is the right way to fight inflation. You explain how to pay for goods that are rising in price with less money in your pocket.
Maybe Joe Manchin can explain to those children how he’s worried that helping them out of poverty is too much for the national debt, but tacking on $2 trillion by tax cuts to billionaire assholes is good for the debt. Joe Manchin can explain to these poverty children why they can’t receive any aid but Donald Trump’s five trust-fund babies can.
Joe Manchin needs to explain why he’s pro trust-fund babies and anti poverty babies. I bet West Virginia has more poverty babies than trust-fund babies.
Manchin voted against Trump’s tax cuts for the rich but he’s now defending them. By voting to keep children in poverty, Manchin may as well be helping Trump put babies back into cages.
Music note: I listened to Temple of the Dog, and Them Crooked Vultures.
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 18 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.
Let’s start 2020 with a cartoon about racism in Trump’s America.
In defending why about 30 of her students from her basic training class from the West Virginia Division of Rehabilitation were giving the “Sieg heil” salute in their class photo, instructor Karrie Byrd said, “Look there is nothing wrong with it, we have people of all colors and backgrounds in the picture and every one of them are participating. That’s why they do that. Because I’m a hard-ass like Hitler.”
Do you find that reasoning acceptable? Beyond giving a salute to Hitler, antiSemitism, and racism, finding that excuse reasonable should be a reason why that a person doesn’t work for the state.
Now, those cadets in the state corrections division have been fired by the governor based upon recommendations by the department.
The salute was used often in class and some students weren’t comfortable with it but were peer pressured into giving it for the photo. According to a report, Byrd was the one who encouraged them to make the gesture and even reciprocated it. According to officials, “Ten of the cadets reported they did not make the gesture until Byrd told them to. These cadets stated that they only did it at that time due to fear of not graduating for disobeying the direction of an instructor. Seven of those cadets, in order to comply with Byrd’s direction but not make the gesture, held up a closed fist.”
I’m sure those cadets will appeal their firing.
Two other instructors reprimanded the class when they saw them doing it, which was rebuked by one student saying, “Look at me I am black, and I am doing it.” So at the very least, all the white students doing it can use the black-friend defense.
This also makes me ask; What the hell is wrong with these people? I have friends and readers in West Virginia so I know this isn’t the attitude of the entire state. But then again, most of my friends are liberal like myself as I refuse to hang with troglodytes.
In case you’re a Republican, giving the salute to Hitler is racist. Even if you say it’s not racist and it’s for something else, it’s still racist. Case in point: The instructor said it was given because she’s a “hardass like Hitler.” Please focus on the part where she used a reference to Hitler in her defense.
Whether you’re Laura Ingraham, or at a white nationalist meeting the day after Trump’s inauguration to celebrate your victory, or attending a Trump rally, or marching with tiki torches in Charlottesville, or attending a Trump rally, it’s still a racist symbol. And now, these things are more common because Donald Trump is in the White House.
You may argue that I can’t blame Trump for this. Yes, I can. Hate crimes have gone up since Trump became president. They went up after he announced his campaign which was managed for a white by white nationalist Steve Bannon. Today, one of his senior advisors is white nationalist Stephen Baby Goebbels Miller. And when he’s being reckless, Donald Trump retweets neo-Nazis and white nationalists. So yeah, Trump has a lot of blame for this kind of business. This is what happens when we have an openly racist president.
Maybe there are openings for these students in the White House. We know there is a revolving door in that place but usually, it’s not the openly racist ones who are bailing on a sinking racist ship. Stephen Miller is still there.
But instead of taking this firing lightly, these candidates should appeal and tell the governor it’s not a salute to Hitler but to Donald Trump. The governor, Jim Justice, is a huge fan of Trump which means racism isn’t always a deal-breaker for him. He switched parties from Democratic to Republican and announced it at a racist Trump rally.
Here’s some advice: In the future, when you’re told to goose step to fit in, instead, you march to your own beat.
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I am no fan of Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell. But I don’t need to lie or connect him to something horrible he has a very loose connection with to criticize the guy. I can just use his record and the positions he advocates. If nothing else, I can just point out his total appeasement to Donald Trump. At the very least, you don’t have to take a racist position to go after him.
Foremost Group is a shipping company out of New York and it was founded by James S.C. Chao, who is the father of Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao, who is the wife of McConnell. In 2014, the Ping May, a bulk carrier ship docked in Columbia loaded with coal destined for the Netherlands also contained 40 packages totaling 90 pounds of cocaine. The drugs were found in a chain locker, a forward part of the ship that contains the anchor chain when the anchor is up. Since the authorities couldn’t pin ownership of the drugs on anyone, no arrests were made or were any charges ever filed.
Mitch McConnell’s degrees of separation to this drug bust are probably less than what he has with Kevin Bacon. Despite that fact, Don Blankenship has dubbed McConnell “Cocaine Mitch.”
Don Blankenship is a crazy racist running for the Republican nomination for the U.S. Senate from West Virginia. Blankenship is running an ad accusing McConnell of having “extensive” ties to China that he’s receiving millions of dollars from the “Chinese” shipping company, and uses the insult “Cocaine Mitch.” Since Blankenship says he’s trumpier than Trump, you can see where the stupid and childish nickname comes into play. And like Trump, it’s off base.
The shipping company is an American company and the “millions” he refers to is an inheritance his wife received when her mother died. And did I mention the racism?
Blankenship referred to Chao’s father as a “wealthy China-person.” In his ad, he says McConnell has created millions of jobs for “China people.”
He later defended his use of the term by saying, “We’re confused on our staff as to how it can be racist when there’s no mention of a race. There’s no race. Races are Negro, white Caucasian, Hispanic, Asian. There’s no mention of a race. I’ve never used a race word.” He equated it with “West Virginia person,” and to a reporter, a “MSNBC person,” as though West Virginian and MSNBC is a race. Though, a lot of racist Republicans may be just as hateful toward journalists as they are to people who don’t look like them.
Trying to explain why “China Person” is racist feels like a stupid endeavor. A person like Don Blankenship who professes his confusion as to how it can be racist probably would never understand.
But just as Roy Moore should have been disqualified before it was discovered he liked to pick up teenage girls at the mall when he was in his 30s, Blankenship should be discarded before you get to the racism.
In addition to the racism and stupidity, Blankenship is a convicted criminal, and he’s currently on probation. In 2010, an explosion at a West Virginia coal mine owned by Massey Energy where Blankenship was chief executive killed 29 workers. A state investigation found that Massey Energy’s negligence was the main reason for “the faulty ventilation system, the inadequate application of rock dust and the equipment failures” that caused the blast.
A federal grand jury found him guilty of conspiracy to violate mandatory federal mine safety and health standards, conspiracy to impede federal mine safety officials, security fraud, and making false statements to the Securities and Exchange Commission. Facing thirty years in prison, Blankenship only served one.
You would think a guy deemed responsible for the deaths of 29 coal miners wouldn’t stand a chance of being elected to anything in West Virginia. It takes a lot of gall that he even stepped foot back in the state. Yet, some polls have Blankenship surging in the days leading up to the primary election. Blankenship is facing two mainstream Republicans, and their defeat will surely guarantee the reelection of Democratic Senator Joe Manchin.
Donald Trump Jr. tweeted opposition to Blankenship and a Nazi Republican running in Illinois (they’re always Republicans) and wrote, “no more Alabama like losses due to bad candidates. No unforced errors.” I guess he’s referring to his father’s endorsement of the Alabama pedophile.
And, what has Trump Sr. to say about Blankenship? Not surprising, the man who once praised Nazis after they killed a woman is as silent as he was about an unarmed black man stopping a white shooter.
We’ll see on Tuesday if West Virginians show us what they are, just like Alabama Republicans did with Roy Moore. Hopefully, they won’t vote for any stupid persons.
Here is the video.
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Every time I see footage of Trump’s West Virginia rally from last week I think to myself, “Man, I really wanna piss those people off.”
Although Trump has a low approval rating at 33%, he still has strong ratings from his base of sycophants, like what we saw in West Virginia. The two most visible aspects that stood out to me were; they were entirely white, and they ate up every piece of bullshit Trump sold them.
Trump’s largest margin of victory came in West Virginia. His support is so strong in that state that the Democratic governor just switched to the Republican Party (let’s just forget how well Republican governors have done in Wisconsin, New Jersey, and Kansas. I’m sure it’ll work this time). His supporters at that rally believe the Russia investigation is “fake news,” the Justice Department should go after Trump’s political opponents, and that the coal jobs are coming back.
Trump does not care about the well-being of the people in West Virginia. He only cares about the people in West Virginia worshiping him. It explains why he hasn’t held a rally in a blue state or even ventured west of the Mississippi river since winning the election.
Trump’s supporters are the people who fell for the con. They cheered Trump on when he said he wouldn’t have time to play golf, take vacations, or even leave the White House, like Obama did. Now that Trump is on a three-week-golf vacation, his supporters fail to note the hypocrisy. They also fail to take note of Trump’s hypocrisy from this very morning, as he tweeted that polls giving him low ratings are “fake news polling,” yet proclaimed, “Trump base is getting stronger!”, which he probably gathered from the same polls.
If you are an authoritarian shouting “I am your voice” and “I alone can solve it,” then you probably need to surround yourself with “yes” people, even if it’s thousands at a West Virginia campaign rally three years ahead of the election.
Trump loves his authoritarian buddies and is envious of their powers. All he can share with them is a base of worshipers while abusing his office for personal wealth and power.
He’s envious of Turkey’s Erdogan and his ability to destroy the opposition, including the press. He wishes all his critics would silently disappear much like Vladimir Putin’s, who accidentally contract food poisoning and trips off the roofs of tall buildings. He admires the Philippines Duterte, who can kill “bad guys,” one of which was a mayor, without the hassle of trials, courts, and juries.
President Nicolas Maduro of Venezuela should be a prime candidate for Trump’s clubhouse, except he’s a socialist. Like Trump, Maduro practices nepotism (Maduro’s wife is deputy of the National Assembly and his son is Head of the Corps of Special Inspectors of the Presidency and Coordinator of the National Film School). Maduro has ruled by decree, which means he makes laws without the assembly, which Trump probably dreams of after his failed attempt at repealing Obamacare and Congress placing sanctions on Russia. Maduro is a big fan of conspiracy theories. He’s homophobic, calling opposition members “big faggots.” I don’t know why they have to be “big.” Lastly, he really likes to use the presidency to enrich himself.
While Trump claims he’s working for free, the Secret Service has to pay him rent to protect him. Also, you don’t really believe all government officials who travel with Trump stay at his resorts for free, do you? How many people have been in the foreign entourages that have stayed at Mar-a-Lago (How about that? Taking money from China.)? There were also the times Kellyanne Conway used the White House to pimp Ivanka products and plugs for Trump businesses have been posted on government websites. Let’s not overlook that Jared’s family is using his position to recruit investors in China.
As Venezuelans continue to riot against Maduro on a daily basis, he clings to power through his “rule by decree” and use of the military. The only thing stopping the guy from receiving an invitation to Bedminster are the accusations he’s a drug dealer, and the fact that he’s a socialist. Commies are bad.
If you want to be an authoritarian and get a free pass from the United States in 2017, you gotta be a capitalist.
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