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LA LA LA LA LA LA LA LA LA LA LA

We have a Cagle Cartoons convention of sorts, every year in France, and I’m leaving for our get-together tomorrow, just as the impeachment news is coming hot and heavy every day. This happened during the last election when the Access Hollywood tape came out when I was stuck, with a bunch of CagleCartoonists, away from our drawing boards as big news came calling.  ARRGH!

So, before I leave, here are two impeachment ruckus cartoons. The first is about the Republicans who seem to have little to say about Trump’s Ukraine phone call and the Whistleblower report.

…and when the Republicans are talking, it doesn’t seem that they have been paying much attention.

I thought it would be fun to draw a couple of “reaction” cartoons. They don’t really make an argument, but they point out an interesting reaction. I imagine that Vladimir Putin is having a wonderful time watching the news these days. Here he is …

I regret that I had to put a label on his pants. Labels are for sissy editorial cartoonists who don’t trust their own caricatures to be recognizable – and today I’m a sissy. I had a hard time drawing Putin with a big, happy mouth – that just isn’t something that he does. He’s a dour character, and a big happy mouth makes Putin not look like Putin. I actually struggled with this. The solution? I did my best, and put a label on his pants. Sorry. That said, I think putting the label on his butt is a little funny.

Sorry, but the blog won’t be updating much the next couple of weeks while I’m away.  Hold your breath and I’ll be back soon!

 

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Rush to Impeachment!

Lemmings are a standard cliché for cartoonists. I agree with Nancy Pelosi that Trump wants the Democrats to impeach him. Impeachment backfired on the Republicans when they impeached Bill Clinton and I suspect the same thing would happen here, making Trump’s solid base even more solid.

Trumps insistence that he won’t talk to the Democrats until they give up on the investigations sounds a lot like the child psychology used with a two year old.

Here are some of my favorite, recent impeachment cartoons! The first one is by my buddy Ed Wexler.

 

These are by my conservative buddy, Rick McKee …

 

This is by my pal, Nate Beeler …

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Trump Toilet

Trump isn’t showing much respect to Congress these days. The president will not comply with any subpoenas from the House committees that are investigating him and the courts can’t do much about it because Trump’s term will be over by the time the courts come to any decisions. My cartoon shows Trump’s attitude about Congress.

This isn’t the first time I’ve drawn Trump on the toilet –here’s an oldie from a couple of years ago when it looked like Trump was spinning out and sinking with some forgettable issue of the moment.

Somehow I think Trump will have more visits to the cartoon toilet before long.

 

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Ilhan Omar

Minnesota congresswoman Ilhan Omar has become a gift to Republicans and a favorite on Fox News. She seems to be unaware of anti-Semitic tropes and stumbles into repeated, ugly slurs against Jews. Many Democrats defend her and an awkward attempt to condemn her statements was so watered down in the House that it was laughable.

Editorial cartoonists have a special responsibility regarding anti-Semitic clichés given the history of Nazi cartoons leading up to the Holocaust. At Cagle.com we have received many ugly cartoon tropes from worldwide cartoonists over the years, particularly from Arabic language cartoonists and Latin American cartoonists.  When I talk to the cartoonists about it, they tell me that they were unaware, that it wasn’t their intent; they are generally happy to take the cartoons down and they tell me they appreciate being told about why their cartoons were offensive to an American audience. The most common images depict a Star of David representing Judaism, rather than the Israeli Flag representing Israel, and use images that equate Jews with Nazis, that show Jews crucifying Palestinians as they “crucified Christ,” Jews as rats, as spiders, Jews killing babies, or like vampires drinking baby blood – the whole Nazi panoply of Der Stürmer clichés in cartoons gets repeated frequently around the world, and these cartoonists aren’t used to hearing any push-back from their local readers. Nancy Pelosi seems to see it in the same way with Omar, who Pelosi thinks simply wasn’t aware and hasn’t been educated about the bigotry.

Whatever the reasons are behind Omar’s ugly comments, she is a gift to Republicans, Trump and Fox News. My cartoon from last week shows Democrats wrapped up in Omar’s hijab, to the delight of Republicans.

 

 

Here are some more Omar favorites from last week. This one is from Steve Sack of the Minneapolis Star-Tribune …

This is from RJ Matson …

 

This is from Nate Beeler of the Columbus Dispatch …

 

This one is from Rick McKee of the Augusta Chronicle …

 

This is from Taylor Jones …

 

And this one is from Dave Granlund …

 

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Wall Emergency!

President Trump has declared a wall emergency so he can build a border wall after a bruising battle with congress, which rejected his wall plans. We have lots of Declaration of Emergency cartoons! Here’s mine from yesterday.

This is my favorite emergency cartoon, from Dave Whamond …

These three are by my buddy, Steve Sack …

This is from my buddy, Rick McKee …

And my buddy, Dave Granlund …

… and my buddy, Jimmy Margulies …

 

 

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Tit for Tat

The tit for tat between President Trump and Speaker Pelosi looks like a lot of middle school nonsense, and inspired my cartoon yesterday. I decided to give them a lot of spittle, because the whole thing is a bit slimy.

This is a “pox on both their houses” cartoon, which tend to make everyone mad. Cartoons, like this one, that bash both sides equally, tend to get more reprints from “even handed” editors.

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Split Congress and Sinking Oil Prices

Here’s one I drew a week ago that I forgot to post here! The Democrats have the House and the Republicans have the Senate – I look forward to seeing divided government at work again!

I’m impressed by how quickly oil prices are plummeting, and pulling down that stock market. The cartoon below was an oldie that I drew the last time this happened. There isn’t much news that is truly new news. The same old news seems to happen over and over, so sometimes I dust off an appropriate oldie.

This one needed to be in a vertical format, something that makes editorial cartoons sink. Editors like to leave a standard sized wide box as the editorial cartoon hole to fill each day, so deviating from the standard 1.5 wide by 1 tall box means a cartoon doesn’t get much ink.

But, sometimes I need to break out of the box. I hate being stuck in a box!

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I Voted

I voted today. Everything on the ballot was unpleasant. There was nothing there that I wanted – only things I dislike less than other things. Which led to this cartoon.

Yes, I know, all of my Uncle Sams look more or less like congressman Steny Hoyer.

As I was finishing this one up, I saw Rick McKee’s election day cartoon, which is basically the same gag.

Rick’s cartoon will get reprinted more than mine, because he doesn’t have any vomit. Editors don’t like vomit. I think Rick wins on this gag.

Taylor Jones drew this one a couple of years ago – it goes well with Rick’s cartoon.

I took a look in the database and I found this nice oldie by Joe Heller

Nate Beeler drew this one back in 2012.

Here’s another nice one from Nate, in 2014.

And another one from Nate, in 2015!

I think Nate wins, 3 to 1.

 

 

 

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Kavanaugh Kaveman

I was riveted to my TV all day yesterday. I thought Christine Blasie Ford and Kavanaugh were both believable. It is interesting that so many people talk about how this is a “he said, she said” thing, with no proof, using arguments that relate to trials and criminal proceedings. Of-course, this is a job interview, and courtroom arguments about proof and procedure are not a part of job interviews. Clearly Kavanaugh won’t be a choice that will reflect well on the institution of the Supreme Court, that’s enough reason to choose another eager candidate. Whether it is fair to Kavanaugh or not, that’s what my cartoon is about; I’m illustrating the notion that Kavanaugh doesn’t reflect well on the Supreme Court.

Kavanaugh isn’t my first caveman. In fact, cavemen are a popular cliché for editorial cartoonists and I’ve drawn my share. Here’s an old Putin caveman from when Russia invaded Crimea.

This old caveman cartoon was from when George W. Bush appointed John Bolton to be the United Nations ambassador. Funny how characters like Bolton never go away. Somehow I think I’ll be drawing lots more cavemen – there are plenty of them in Washington.

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TRUE Stupid Stuff 2!

Here’s another new batch of my old TRUE cartoons from the 1990’s – at least the ones that look like they could still be true. This is from a batch about government.

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Guns and Puppies

There will be a big march on Washington for gun control, led by students who are energized by the threats they face with the continuing plague of school shootings. Politicians appears to be deaf to the outrage.

If gunmen shot puppies instead of people the politicians might jump to take action. An incident where a flight attendant forced a passenger to put his puppy in an overhead bin, where the puppy asphyxiated and died, has energized politicians with outrage and calls to action. Clearly, puppies are the priority in Congress.

Here’s how my cartoon looked in USA Today, yesterday.

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Women’s March Overshadowed by Shut-down

This weekend’s women’s march would have been much bigger news if the government shut-down hadn’t dominated the news.

I think that’s disappointing. The march deserved more attention. Any participants in future women’s marches are welcome to use my cartoons on their signs – just e-mail me, ask and I’ll e-mail you the high resolution image file. I’ll ask you to send me a photo of yourself with your sign to post on my blog. Here’s Cagle.com fan Shelly Carpenter who did just that at the women’s march in Seattle this weekend.