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War, Peace and the Spirit of Christmas

‘Tis the season to be jolly – but it hasn’t always been so jolly. There is a dramatic history of battles at Christmas time.

Not just the skirmishes that pop up at our family’s Christmas dinner table when a crazy MAGA uncle drops a bomb about the “Biden Crime Family” as he passes the potatoes. And not the phony “War on Christmas” that conservatives have been claiming for years that liberals are waging on Christianity. There’s been genuine, yuletide warfare. Like the terrible wars we have now between Russia and Ukraine and Israel and Hamas.

A quick Google search shows that wars seem to heat up or cool down at Christmas.

George Washington famously celebrated Christmas in 1776 by sneaking across the Delaware river to defeat the “Hessians,” the soldiers from Germany that Britain hired to help them lose the Revolutionary War.

On Christmas Day in 1831 about 60,000 slaves in Jamaica bravely went on a non-violent strike against their British oppressors, demanding freedom and wages. It ended badly for the slaves – 500 were killed or executed in the ensuing violence. But the brutal way the Brits treated the rebels is said to have influenced Britain’s decision to abolish slavery within its global empire.

Christmas time was also a popular time for acts of war in the 20th century.

The bloodiest battle ever fought during Christmas began Dec. 23, 1916, in Riga, Latvia, when Russian and German troops collided.

A horrible example of how awful trench warfare was, 60,000 Russians and 6,000 Germans died in a battle that achieved nothing for either side and ultimately helped bring on the Russian Revolution.

And who with a Netflix account can ever forget Christmas 1944, when Hitler launched his famous last gasp – the surprise counter-attack in Belgium that became known as “The Battle of the Bulge”?

Christmas isn’t always a good time for war, though. Every once in a while it’s a good time for peace.

For example, the War of 1812 ended in a truce as the USA and Great Britain signed “The Treaty of Ghent” on Christmas Eve in 1814.

On Christmas Eve in 1914, when World War I was still young, German and Allied soldiers on the Western Front held a spontaneous armistice that we’ll probably never see again.

In what became famous as “The Christmas Truce,” they walked to the middle of “No Man’s Land,” shook hands, sang carols and even exchanged gifts before going back to slaughtering each other a few days later.

Even Richard Nixon and Fidel Castro used Christmas as an excuse for doing something nice.

In 1972 Nixon called a 36-hour halt to a major bombing campaign over North Vietnam. And in 1998 Cuba’s most famous atheist, Fidel Castro, “celebrated” the birth of Baby Jesus by ending the ban on the holiday he had instituted 30 years earlier.

China has also changed its communist mind about Christmas, which was once banned by Mao and Co.. Under modern China’s later, somewhat less-dictatorial leaders, Christmas has made a comeback as a useful gift-giving holiday and economic booster.

Elsewhere, Christmas celebrations are still against the law in joyless places like North Korea, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan. Celebrations of Christmas were illegal in Saudi Arabia until recent years when the murderous Saudi Prince Muhammad Bin Salman loosened the Christmas reigns.

After the English Civil War, the British Parliament passed a ban on Christmas. A 1647 law, championed by conservative Puritans, forced stores to remain open on Christmas and punished people for attending Christmas services and celebrations. The next time a MAGA relative brings up the “War on Christmas,” be sure to remind him of Oliver Cromwell and his Christmas-banning, right-wing, conservative buddies. Conservatives have short memories at the dinner table.

There’s nothing like spending an afternoon on Google to put me into the wartime Christmas spirit. Now I’m mad.

Daryl Cagle is the publisher of Cagle.com and owner of CagleCartoons.com, a syndicate that distributes editorial cartoons and columns to over 500 subscribing newspapers.

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Great New Global Warming Cartoons!

We have a cool – yet hot – new Caglecast about Global Warming with three brilliant, award winning cartoonists discussing their cartoons about our growing climate apocalypse. See the podcast here:

Pat Bagley has been the brilliant, cartoonist for the Salt Lake Tribune in Utah since 1979. Pat has won a ton of awards including the Herblock Award and he’s also a shining star in our profession.

Graeme MacKay is the brilliant cartoonist for the Hamilton Spectator in Ontario, Canada and he’s won a ton of awards too.

Rod Emmerson is the brilliant cartoonist for the New Zealand Herald since 2003, before that he was an Australian cartoonist and he’s won tons of awards too, including two Australian Stanley awards for best editorial cartoonist.

Come take a look on YouTube –it really is a great one with great cartoonists, and it is fun to see the faces behind the cartoons.

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TRUMP AS A CARTOON HITLER

I don’t pretend to know if Donald Trump actually wants to throw his enemies in prison, overthrow our democracy and set up a Trumpocracy that will make America great again, again.

But with Trump’s recent crazy rightwing bluster and political threats, he has been doing a fine job of supplying his enemies with evidence of his inner authoritarian.

Political cartoonists made up their minds years ago that Trump is a cartoon Hitler – a cartoon fascist. When editorial cartoonists think evil dictator or nasty fascist, they immediately think of Hitler and that signature dumb moustache. Hitler is the easiest fascist to draw.

Trump doesn’t fit the World War II mold of fascist dictators as mass murderers, and cartoonists don’t draw Trump as Hitler’s fellow mass-murderers, Mao or Stalin. They don’t even think of Mussolini who coined the term “fascist” in 1919 to describe his thuggish political party in World War II Italy.

And unless you’ve seen Guillermo del Toro’s wonderful animated remake of “Pinocchio,” in which Mussolini appears as a short, stumpy dictator who orders his henchmen to shoot Pinocchio, you probably don’t realize what a cartoonist’s dream “Il Duce” was.

Trump is a “cartoon Hitler” because everyone knows who Hitler is at first sight. Stalin and Mao need to be labeled by editorial cartoonists because so few newspaper readers under 80 recognize them. And Trump-as-Hitler works well to make a point or disturb the reader; it requires no explanation, and doesn’t even require a good caricature – just a little, square moustache.

Political cartoonists like disturbing images that make readers think, or react, as much as they like cartoons that make readers laugh.

The Washington Post ran a recent article about Trump’s Veterans Day speech – headlined “Trump calls political enemies ‘vermin,’ echoing dictators Hitler, Mussolini” – it was hardly subtle, quoting several political experts and historians who said Trump’s rhetoric about rooting out his left-liberal opponents reminded them of history’s most notorious fascist despots.

Here are “Ten Reasons Why Trump is a Cartoon Hitler”:

Leader of a personality cult.

Strongman leader.

Theatricality and massive political rallies.

Hyper-nationalist (MAGA).

Calls to ban or deport immigrants.

Fetishization of masculinity. Vengeance. Weaponization of the DOJ.

Lost Golden Age Syndrome.

Promises to purge the disloyal from government (the “Deep State”).

Readiness to use violence in politics.

Demonization of political opponents as “vermin” or worthy of being deported (illegal immigrants) or prosecuted (“Lock her up”), or blocked from entering the country (Muslims) or “poisoning the blood.”

Despite the many real and imagined comparisons, however, you’ll rarely if ever see a Hitler cartoon on the opinion pages of your favorite newspaper.

That’s because editors hate Hitler analogies in cartoons as much as cartoonists love to draw them. They generally think Hitler cartoons are too easy to make, too obvious or unfair, or too incendiary – and they’re not always wrong.

It’s generally true that there’s only a small percentage of cartoons that cartoonists draw that editors want to publish.

Newspaper editors, as their industry continues to shrink, have grown much more timid and soft. At the same time the Internet has grown much more unkind and siloed and willing to let cartoonists be the meanies they wanted to be all along. There’s a culture that exists among editorial cartoonists; most are kind of macho and like to draw harsh cartoons.

Like any good editorial cartoonist, I like to hit people over the head with harsh images and make them think or react. But I’m just a political cartoonist and probably not the guy people would come to for answers to important or complex issues – or, for that matter, for answers about whether Trump is really Hitler without the mustache.

Daryl Cagle is the publisher of Cagle.com and owner of CagleCartoons.com, a syndicate that distributes editorial cartoons and columns to over 500 subscribing newspapers.

Watch our latest video podcast!

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Conservatives Gary McCoy and Rivers – Drawing Amongst Liberals

On this week’s Caglecast we’re joined by two of our most conservative cartoonists, Gary McCoy who also draws two comic strips, “The Duplex” and “The Flying McCoys”; and Rivers, who draws anonymously and joins us with a disguise and an altered voice.

The vast majority of editorial cartoonists are liberal so the few, conservative cartoonists stand out as unusual, and often stand alone voicing ideas that seldom find their way into general circulation newspapers; Gary and Rivers are among the best among the few conservative cartoonists, and they talk about living in a world of liberal editors which includes their liberal editor who is hosting the podcast, me, Daryl Cagle.

Gary and Rivers show lots of their favorite cartoons, they enjoy denigrating Dr. Anthony Fauci; they deny the efficacy of COVID vaccines; they complain about the ignorance of liberals who watch MSNBC; they let us know that we wouldn’t have this war in Ukraine now if Trump was in office; they tell us about how the insurrection wasn’t an insurrection at all, and how most of the MAGA folks on January 6th were out for a peaceful stroll.

We could have titled this “Cartoons from the Bizarro Dimension.”  …but we love Gary and Rivers. Really, we do.  Here are a few of the images that are discussed in the video.

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Sedition Favorites

Next week the Senate will take up the second impeachment of former president Trump. It is a good time to look back on my sedition favorites from the MAGA mob insurrection at the capitol.

My cartoon shows a MAGA guy bashing a policeman on the head with his Thin Blue Line flag. I thought this made for a nice wordless cartoon, but cartoons are supposed to be exaggeration and commentary, but this one actually happened; there was a guy in the mob doing just this – so I suppose this is more of an illustration than a political cartoon.

Here are some of my favorite cartoons about the Capitol insurrection, to set the mood for next week.

Bob Englehart

 

Rick McKee

 

Dave Whamond

 

Steve Sack


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Republican Sedition Rotten Tomatoes

Why is it that big news always seems to happen when I’m bogged down in year-end syndicate accounting muck? This is an important time for editorial cartoons even when I’m facing a bunch of tax filing deadlines – so here are a couple of quickies. I revamped an old cartoon with a new speech balloon for today’s revised GOP sedition sedition cartoon that is much better than the oldie that got little ink.

I don’t revise cartoons very often, but this one seemed nice, and I labeled it so the few editors who printed the oldie years ago, can avoid being embarrassed by printing a similar cartoon that some readers might remember.

I have another old favorite that I drew when Barack Obama won his presidential election. This is Republican elephants showing their anguish in the form of Picasso’s Guernica.

What is old is new again – except that it seems to get worse the next time.


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Heard Immunity

I don’t draw many crowd scenes, but the dangerous, maskless, science denying Trump crowds seem to be the story today. Here’s a detail from my new cartoon …

And here’s my new cartoon about “Heard Immunity” with a Trump rally-herd of COVID fodder.

And here’s the rough sketch. It’s crazy that people want to see the sketches.

 

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COVID Halloween

Halloween cartoons are always popular, and this year it will be a COVID Halloween. I’m a little early with my new cartoon, but I’m far from the first this year. I expect there will be many more.  See my archive.

 

Dave Whamond’s Halloween Grinch cartoon is crazy popular with editors, and has a shot at #1 on this week’s Top Ten.

 

Dave Granlund’s COVID Halloween cartoon is crazy popular too.

 

Our realistic, Dutch, CagleCartoonist, Bart van Leeuwen made a great Halloween Grim Reaper Trump.

We’ll post some more Halloween cartoons when we have a good batch.


Our reader supported site, Cagle.com, still needs you!  Journalism is threatened with the pandemic that has shuttered newspaper advertisers. Some pundits predict that a large percentage of newspapers won’t survive the pandemic economic slump, and as newspapers sink, so do editorial cartoonists who depend on newspapers, and along with them, our Cagle.com site, that our small, sinking syndicate largely supports, along with our fans.

The world needs political cartoonists more now than ever. Please consider supporting Cagle.com and visit Cagle.com/heroes.  We need you! Don’t let the cartoons die!

 

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Who Lives in a Bubble?

Here’s my new cartoon about living in a bubble.

There isn’t much depth to this cartoon. It is what it is.

I get lots of requests to show the rough sketches for my cartoons, so here’s the rough sketch!

I thought I would add a few of my recent, favorite coronavirus cartoons!  Enjoy!


Rick McKee

 


Dave Granlund

 


Steve Sack

 


Peter Kuper

 


RJ Matson


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Our reader supported site, Cagle.com, still needs you!  Journalism is threatened with the pandemic that has shuttered newspaper advertisers. Some pundits predict that a large percentage of newspapers won’t survive the pandemic economic slump, and as newspapers sink, so do editorial cartoonists who depend on newspapers, and along with them, our Cagle.com site, that our small, sinking syndicate largely supports, along with our fans.

The world needs political cartoonists more now than ever. Please consider supporting Cagle.com and visit Cagle.com/heroes.  We need you! Don’t let the cartoons die!


 

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Best of the Grim Reaper –Part 2

This is part two of a collection of my favorite coronavirus Grim Reaper cartoons. The Reaper (or “Death” for short) is a standard cliché for editorial cartoonists; he is a character that belongs to every cartoonist, like, Uncle Sam, Lady Liberty and the donkey and elephant …

We love that Reaper!  And check out The Best of the Grim Reaper, Part 1!  And Part 3!

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Adam Zyglis


Pat Bagley


Rick McKee


John Cole


Kap


Angel Boligan


Jimmy Margulies


Sean Delonas


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Don’t miss my other Coronavirus posts:
School and COVID-19
Broken Quarantine
The Most Popular Cartoons of the Week through May 23rd, 2020
Hydroxychloroquine
The Most Popular Cartoons of the Week through May 16th, 2020
The Most Popular Cartoons of the Pandemic through May 4th
The Most Popular Cartoons of the Week through May 2nd, 2020
Best of the Grim Reaper, Part 1
Best of the Grim Reaper, Part 2
Dr Fauci PART 2
Dr Fauci PART 1
Trump and Disinfectant PART 2
Trump and Disinfectant PART 1
Most popular Cartoons of the Week through 4/26/20, (all coronavirus)
Forgotten Biden – Part 2
Forgotten Biden – Part 1
Most popular Cartoons of the Week through 4/18/20, (all coronavirus)
Blame China! Part Three
Blame China! Part Two

Blame China! Part One
Most popular Cartoons of the Week, through 4/11/20 (all coronavirus)
Planet COVID-19, Part 4

Planet COVID-19, Part 3
Planet COVID-19, Part 2
Planet COVID-19, Part 1
The Most Popular Cartoons of the Week, 4/4/20 (all coronavirus)
Toilet Paper Part Two
Toilet Paper Part One
Trump and the Easter Bunny
The Most Popular Cartoons of the Week, 3/29/20 (all coronavirus)
Tsunami Coming
Pandemics Compared
See, Hear Speak No Virus
The Best Coronavirus Sports Cartoons
New Coronavirus Favorites
The Most Popular Coronavirus Cartoons (as of May 4th, 2020)
My Corona Virus Cartoons
Corona Virus Quarantine Blues in China

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Trump Valentines Candy UNCENSORED

Here’s my Trump Valentines Day Candy. I drew a tame version and asked my followers on Twitter (@dcagle) what they through – they wanted a less tame version. Somehow, I think newspapers will print the tame version.

The spicy version:

The tame version:

 

Knowing that newspapers have both versions to choose from, here’s an opportunity to see if your local editor is tame or spicy.