Thanks for your support

So Liz Cheney got beat in her primary by some woman named Harriet Hageman and Hageman thanked Donald Trump for his support, which inspired the cartoon you’re looking at.

I really couldn’t tell you how Donald Trump got put in charge of the Republican Party and turned most Republicans into spineless jellyfish who kiss his ass at every opportunity (assuming jellyfish have lips and I don’t think they do) and I’m not sure Donald Trump could either.

When he first ran for president, nobody (and I’m pretty sure this includes Donald Trump) thought he would win and running was a just a way to promote a reality show and right about here you have to give some of the blame to the Democrats for running Hillary Clinton against him because it turned out a whole bunch of people don’t like Hillary and didn’t want to vote for her and her Gift for Gab and Common Touch was never more apparent than when she said half of Trump supporters could be put in a:

“Basket of deplorables.”

Which sounds like something an inarticulate and sexually frustrated Sunday School teacher would say when she had one too many dry sherries and lost her temper. (Hey, just because I usually criticize Republicans doesn’t mean I’m blind to a Democrat’s faults.)

BTW: My computer doesn’t think “deplorables” is a word and maybe it’s confused because it’s an adjective being used as a noun and while we’ve certainly had our differences in the past, in this case I have to agree with my computer.

According to the Associated Press, while in the White House Donald Trump had a long history of disregarding rules for government record keeping and handling classified information.

For instance:

Trump routinely tore up documents that later had to be taped back together which – now that I write that out – seems like a pretty good metaphor for what he did to the United States Constitution and will soon be appearing in a political cartoon near you.

According to the AP, items that traditionally went to the National Archives were mixed in with his personal stuff and classified information was tweeted, shared with reporters and adversaries (I would have thought those were the same thing) and also found in a White House complex bathroom, which raises the question of just when the White House ran out of toilet paper.

(OK, my bad…for better or worse that’s just how my mind works.)

Former national security advisor, John Bolton, (seen here just before ordering a drone missile strike on Bugs Bunny) said before he arrived, he heard “there was a concern in the air about how he handled information. And as my time went on, I could certainly see why.”

Now here’s another quote from the AP article:

The decision to keep classified documents at Mar-a-Lago — a property frequented by paying members, their guests and anyone attending the weddings, political fundraisers, charity dinners and other events held on site — was part of a long pattern of disregard for national security secrets. Former aides described a “cavalier” attitude toward classified information that played out in public view.

According to the same article:

• Trump revealed highly classified information, allegedly from Israeli sources, about Islamic State militants to Russian officials.

• He tweeted a high-resolution satellite image of an apparent explosion at an Iranian space center, even though intelligence officials had warned it was highly sensitive.

• And…

Former White House Press Secretary Stephanie Grisham (and once again, let me point out the very worst things we know about Donald Trump come from the people who worked for him) said Trump was “careless” with sensitive and classified information and “seemed never to bother with why that was bad.”

Grisham (seen here staring daggers at somebody) told a story about a U.S. military dog named Conan that was called a hero in the raid that killed an Islamic State leader and they brought the dog to the White House and they were told not to photograph the dog because that could endanger its handlers, but when the dog arrived Trump wanted to show it off to the press.

“Because he wanted the publicity, out went Conan. It’s an example of him not caring if he put lives in danger…It was like it’s his own shiny toy he’s showing off to his friends to impress them.”

Bolton also said Trump refused to accept he’d lost the election and didn’t pack up his stuff until the last minute and thinks Trump didn’t take the documents for nefarious reasons, but probably thought of them as “cool” souvenirs.

Also according to the story:

Trump refused to turn over the documents despite repeated requests, so if that’s true, as usual the version of events Trump and His Republican Hand Puppets are trying to sell to the public is pretty much bullshit.

And speaking of Republican Hand Puppets…

As I have said on numerous occasions and will clearly say again; the last thing I need is a good-looking, competent politician with a long name.

My life is definitely easier if public office holders have uni-brows and huge noses and/or a dead squirrel for a hairdo (not that I’m thinking of anyone specific) and say and/or do really dumb stuff, and while we’re at it, could you keep the names to five letters or less because you never know when I’m going to have write it out and use it as a label.

All of which helps explain the above cartoon.

For political cartoonists, Sarah Palin returning to public life (she’s running for the House) is an answered prayer and you might think she’s too good looking to meet my criteria, but she did the political cartoonist community a huge favor by wearing those glasses and having a distinctive hairdo and a five-letter name and appearing to be dumb as a bag of hammers.

Welcome back, Sarah.

BTW:

My first Kansas City Star editor – the late, great Jim Scott – once asked me why each and every time I drew a political cartoonist he appeared to be benign and innocent and it must be some psychological glitch (one among many) because I don’t do it consciously, but I appear to have done it again in the cartoon about Sarah Palin. But when I noticed what I’d done, it made me laugh and think of Jim, so I’m kinda happy I did it.

For some reason which I don’t fully understand an excessive number of my friends are Republicans and we mainly get along by not talking politics and while we have our philosophical differences they’re not severe enough to stop us being friends.

If your friends have to believe each and every thing you do, that would be really limiting because then I could only be friends with radical Bolsheviks who also believe the Beatles are still the greatest band ever, men over 50 should not be allowed to take their shirts off in public and if a pitcher wants to issue an intentional walk he should be forced to throw all four pitches.

(A sentence that makes me wonder if there’s such a thing as a moderate Bolshevik.)

And now that I think about it, when I draw about “Republicans” I’m usually talking about “Republican Extremists” and as National Treasure Jon Stewart once pointed out; the real problem isn’t Conservatives or Liberals, Republicans or Democrats or Jews or Arabs, Mets or Yankees – the real problem is extremism.

I don’t think it’s unfair to say that many Trump supporters are extremists (trying to take over the Capitol and overturn an election is a pretty good indication that you may have gone one toke over the line) and now we have a bunch of Republican politicians trying to suck up to those extremist Trump supporters so they’re attacking the FBI for carrying out a lawful search warrant which is an interesting position (if by “interesting” you actually mean “fucking moronic”) for what used to be the “Law And Order” party.

OK, that’s it for today and if you read all the way through this and didn’t stop at whatever point pissed you off (like maybe my description of Hillary Clinton) thanks for your support.