Who Knew?

A while back President Trump withheld funds to pay for food stamps and more recently diverted $3.6 billion in funds used to place the homeless in permanent housing and now plans on spending that money on programs with work requirements and mandatory treatment for addiction and mental illness.

The Department of Housing and Urban Development said this would encourage “self-sufficiency” which is what you say when you put old people on an ice floe and shove them out to sea.

HUD (and as I recall he was also a dick in the movie) will no longer automatically renew existing homeless programs and now the funds will go to different programs which critics say might result in 170,000—give or take 10 thousand—people losing the housing they currently live in and they will now have to find new housing and many of these people thrown out on the street are seniors, disabled or both.

Under the old system—called “Housing First”—they found places for people to live and then dealt with their other problems, but now people might be required to deal with their addictions and mental illnesses before shelters will take them and more people will be forced into mental institutions against their will.

Meanwhile the Trump Administration is going to give some of that $3.6 billion to law enforcement to clear out homeless camps and they’re doing all this just before Christmas, so:

“Happy Holidays, All You Poor People!”

If you’re thinking the new policies to deal with homeless people are actually going to create more homeless people, congratulations, you’re starting to understand the problem. Here’s an NPR article if you want to read more about it:

https://www.npr.org/2025/11/14/nx-s1-5553561/homelessness-housing-funding-trump-administration-hud

So that’s one news event that inspired the above cartoon, here’s the other:

Trump had a physical in October which included an MRI (Magnetic Resonance Imaging—a combination washing machine/cement mixer/X-Ray machine) and when he was asked what part of his body they scanned, Trump didn’t know, but said the MRI results were “perfect” and then said it wasn’t his brain, which seems obvious.

Up until then the White House had refused to reveal what part of Trump had an MRI, but because Trump’s response made him sound like a half-witted ignoramus, the next day the White House said his heart and cardiovascular system were scanned and the most surprising thing about that statement is I spelled “cardiovascular” right without that busybody spellcheck getting involved.

The cartoon you just looked at is my reaction to the news that Trump has a heart.

(I think they should double-check.)

Here’s what we know so far:

The Trump Administration has claimed the US is in armed conflict with drug cartels so it’s OK for them to blow up boats suspected of drug running and if you can tell this boat is carrying drugs your eyes and imagination are better than mine…

But according to the Law of Armed Conflict it’s not OK to kill non-combatants or people no longer fighting and after attacking a boat suspected of drug running, they conducted a second missile strike on two guys, floating in the water, clinging to the boat’s wreckage.

A story came out that Secretary of War Pete Hegseth gave an order to “kill them all” which would be a war crime.

The Trump Administration appears to be trying out different excuses for what happened and the guy in charge of the operation—Admiral Frank Bradley—appeared before Congress and said there was no “kill them all” order, possibly because Frank would rather not go to prison.

In the meantime…

The Democrats in the hearing saw video of the attack and called it “troubling.” Rep. Adam Smith (D)—the “D” is for Democrat—said it showed two shirtless men clinging to the bow of their capsized boat, but Sen. Tom Cotton (R)—the “R” is for Reprehensible Asshole—said what he saw was two men “trying to flip a boat loaded with drugs bound for United States back over so they could stay in the fight.”

Cotton (seen here auditioning for Revenge of the Nerds: Congressional Edition) has three problems with his fantasy:

1. They don’t know if there were drugs on the boat and if there were drugs on the boat, they destroyed the evidence.

2. And if there were drugs on the boat, they don’t know the drugs were headed for the United States and Admiral Bradley says the boat was actually headed for Suriname, a country 2,700-to-4,400 miles from the U.S., depending on which part of the U.S. you’re not going to.

3. There was no “fight” to get back into.

According to Google’s AI killer robot that answers questions: the U.S. has sunk 23 suspected drug boats, killed at least 87 people and “there is no indication that any of the targeted vessels returned fire.” So it’s like someone with a sniper rifle shooting you from the next county and then saying it was OK to shoot you because were in a “fight” even though you were unaware there was a “fight” and weren’t shooting back.

In his continuing efforts to shirk responsibility Hegseth said he saw the first strike, but couldn’t see if there were any survivors and had other shit to do (there must have been a Happy Hour about to start at a nearby bar and he needed to walk there in his underwear while carrying a flag) so he left the room and has no knowledge of a second strike, but said Admiral Bradley made the correct decision (see how it’s suddenly Bradley’s decision?) and added:

“We have his back.”

Which seems extremely handy because I’m pretty sure if Pete and the White House need a scapegoat, they plan on stabbing Bradley in it.

Hegseth tried to excuse the war crime on the “fog of war” which I changed to the “bog of war” because people are now calling for him to resign.

The Fog of War

I got lucky in the draft lottery and missed Vietnam, but had friends who went and every one of them that made it back said if I could avoid that shitshow, I should.

But I was still interested in what the people who served went through and the “fog of war” is a real thing and while estimates vary—depending on what you’re try to cover up or expose—a 1982 Army report said 10-15% of all 20^th Century casualties were due to “friendly fire.” Another source said in Vietnam it was more likely 39%.

So does that mean Pete Hegseth knows what he’s talking about?

Google “has Pete Hegseth ever seen combat?” and the answer is “yes”; as a member of the Army National Guard he served in combat zones, which isn’t quite what I meant, so next I Googled “has Pete Hegseth ever fired a weapon in combat?” and here’s the answer:

“While Pete Hegseth served in combat zones like Iraq and Afghanistan as an infantry officer and participated in deployments, reports and commentary suggest his roles were often more behind-the-lines or support-oriented, not typically involving direct, sustained front-line firefights where he was constantly firing a weapon, though he was an infantry officer in active service during combat deployments.”

Call me picky, but “serving in combat zones” isn’t the same as being in combat and the internet offers plenty of articles from people who saw actual combat—shooting at people who were shooting back—ridiculing Hegseth’s “combat experience” and here’s one of the best from a guy who served in Vietnam and it was written before Hegseth’s latest fuck up and he still calls Hegseth a “poser”:

https://medium.com/the-political-prism/what-pete-hegseth-doesnt-get-about-combat-f879777ecbee

And here’s another article from a guy who served in the Army and then became a lawyer and says Hegseth and the Trump Administration have gone beyond War Crimes and are actually committing murders. He also urges regular troops not to follow unlawful orders because if they do, they can be prosecuted:

https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2025/12/dear-troops-jail-for-pete-hegseth.html

Both are interesting reading and make points that hadn’t occurred to me and well worth your time.

And speaking of interesting reading…

The $300 Million Ballroom

Let’s go back where we started and while there’s a shortage of money to feed the hungry and house the homeless, according to the New York Times, Donald Trump has been expanding plans for his $300 million ballroom; originally it was supposed to seat 500 people, then 650, then 999, then 1,350 people and apparently building something big enough to hold several thousand people has been mentioned.

And if you’re thinking, “But he’s paying for it with private donations” I’m thinking, “He could have raised $300 million to feed the hungry or house the homeless, but he’d rather have a gold-plated monument to his ego.”

And while we’re on the subject of the White House and Donald Trump’s attitude toward rules, laws and war crimes:

According to the NYT story, Trump told the ballroom contractors they didn’t need to follow permitting, zoning or code requirements because the ballroom was being built on White House grounds which was news to the contractors, so they wisely decided to follow industry standards despite Trump’s insistence they could do any goddamn thing they wanted to which is just the kind of Fuck-the-Rules Attitude that results in missile strikes on unarmed men floating in the sea while clinging to wreckage.

The story quotes Trump telling people someone told him: “You’re the president of the United States, you can do anything you want.” And being unfamiliar with the Constitution and quite possibly unaware of its existence, Trump believed that.

This is a picture of the ballroom model that sits in the Oval Office and apparently Trump wants a building devoted to partying that’s bigger than the building devoted to working and while we’re at it, it’s pretty clear Donald Trump knows jack shit about symmetry:

Today’s Lesson

We knew what a horse’s ass this guy was and still reelected him and now he’s destroying parts of the White House to feed his ego and committing War Crimes because he can’t be bothered to read the Law of Armed Conflict and is under the impression he can do anything he feels like doing and will then get a standing ovation from a bunch of knuckleheads wearing MAGA hats.

And so far, he’s not wrong.

(Wow, that was a really shitty lesson, but unfortunately I’m not wrong either.)

http://kingfeatures.com/comics/editorial-cartoons-a-z/