Close to Home by John McPherson for December 10, 2024
Category: Cartoons / Political Cartoons
Memes again. Some of these even shocked me.














































Aaaahh!
I only got up about 2 hours ago; I was up late again, and stayed abed like a lazy person. I just read this in email, and it really hit the spot for me! Enjoy.


“Life is the first gift, love is the second, and understanding, the third.”
Marge Piercy
More memes, lots more memes.


So does Trump’s bible leave out a few pages?
Leviticus 19:4 ESV / Do not turn to idols or make for yourselves any gods of cast metal: I am the Lord your God.

Note that these ‘religious leaders’ are literally praying over the golden Trump idol. Proof god doesn’t exist, or they all would have been struck by lightening, maybe drowned in a flood or something.


Make Iron Lungs Great Again!






Yeah, I have no doubt it was a clear choice for these greedy sick fucks and it’s only the beginning. For the peasants not so much.


















There’s a reason the Republicans have been chipping away at child labor laws.







































This is accurate, and I haven’t swept the floor today, either.
Dark Side of the Horse by Samson for November 29, 2024
Happy T-Day Eve to All Who Come to Playtime!
Thanksgiving by Nancy Beiman
(I love this toon on GoComics. The artist/author writes on Substack, and this one is especially nice. -A)
It should be every day. Read on Substack
American Thanksgiving is on Thursday, November 28. Grandma Heckel is visiting the FurBabies. This is only fair since she hosted the dinner last year and had the Buffet family visit for Canadian Thanksgiving this year. Grandma likes turkey.
Kate wasn’t allowed to make the pies last year. She was just an influencer.

FurBabies, November 19, 2023
Grandma did like it.
The Dog Family had a Friendsgiving with Mrs. Oldman and Buster.

FurBabies, November 21, 2023
Since Grandma is visiting, Mrs. Oldman is celebrating the holiday elswhere this year, possibly in Mexico. (I like to think that all of the off camera characters are living ordinary lives when I don’t have the ‘camera’ on them; we get glimpses when they do something funny.)
FurBabies is seen from the point of view of the Dog Family and Kate. The parents and Grandma never appear in the strip, so I had to find a situation that would allow us to guess their reactions to an unanticipated event. Luckily I found a great ‘human interest’ story about a dog and an Item that was perfect for the occasion.
Plans for the formal dinner began on Monday, November 25. Grandma likes dressing up. We see Shawm and Stella ‘suit up’ for a rehearsal, then cut to a night scene. Grandma Heckel is staying in Kate’s bedroom, which she shares with Sirius and Floof. Everyone has to find a new place to sleep. Sirius is not happy with his options. Sirius finds the Item on November 27, so I won’t reveal it here. I was happy with the results. We also see where Shawm and Stella sleep every night.

The situation resolves on November 30, which then conveniently transitions into the Holiday strips. There’s a bit of repetition with variation when Kate once again tries to send a text to Santa. Things do not work out as planned.
Real life is like that, except it isn’t usually funny. (snip)
Shoot got so busy I forgot to post this one yesterday.










President Bartlett kicks the bible thumpers butt!





I Did A Thing, Again
Sometimes Josh’s toon-writing is irresistable; I’m so tickled I have to try to draw it. My work, well; but the writing makes it good. Which reminds me, if anyone likes to draw, give one of Josh’s toons a try! It’s fun!
Cartoon Nine Three Oh by Josh Lieb
Overlooked Read on Substack
SCHRODINGER’S DOG. One dog complains to another: “Sure, I’m alive. I’m disgustingly alive. Not that anyone cares, one way or the other.”
It’s hard to live in the cat’s shadow.
No one drew a cartoon this week — until today! Here’s Ali Redford with a wonderful nine two eight:

I think this is Ali’s best yet, though she disagrees. There’s a delightful array of alien disbelief going on around the room — from smirks to snickers to outright banging on the table. Plus the aliens look a lot like sea monkeys. Not real sea monkeys, the ones from the comic book ads. Thank you, Ali! I love it.
Come back next week. Me too (I’ll try). Draw my cartoons. Draw. (snip)
Pendejo Express
by Clay Jones
Be careful with what you ask for. You just might get it. Read on Substack

Stephen Colbert made a joke about people telling comedians after the Trump victory (gag), “At least you’ll have so much material to work with.” Cartoonists were sick of that comment back in 2016. One of my colleagues and friend, Ward Sutton, drew a cartoon about it. It’s something we hear all the time and I don’t think people truly understand it’s the last thing we want to hear. In fact, it was repeated to me last night at a party for writers.
We don’t want to hear it. It’s empty solace and goddammit, we hear it too often. I’m going to hear it again before the day’s over. I would rather my nation survive and not turn into a fascist state controlled by racist goose-stepping troglodytes than have great material from it. And by the way, the material’s not that great. Another fact is that Trump cartoons are bad for business. Editors are scared shitless of them.
What I’m getting to with this in regards to today’s cartoon is that after posting on social media about the comment, a few people told me they will need to laugh to avoid crying and that’s what my cartoons will give them. Yeah, except I think each of my cartoons since last Tuesday has been sad. Proofreader Laura told me that at least twice, and I didn’t argue with her (she’s really smart and perceptive). Others have told me the same thing. Someone told me they couldn’t even click like on one of my cartoons because it was so sad, and I’m not even drawing dead puppies.
My last few cartoons have been kinda sad, like this one, or this one, or this one. And now many will find today’s cartoon sad. The Latino vote certainly depresses me.
Why would any Latino other than George Zimmerman vote for a racist who’s been shit-talking you for the past decade? Hmm? I will never understand the appeal of Donald Trump.
While Harris won the Latino vote with 53 percent, about 45 percent of Latinos voted for Donald Trump. Why? Tommy Vallejos wrote a column for The Tennessean in Nashville to explain it to all of us liberal dummies.
Vallejo’s first argument is that voting for Trump doesn’t make him or other Latinos racist. I’m not going to call Latinos racists for voting for Trump. I’m going to state the fact that voting for Trump means Latinos voted for a racist. They voted for racism. Donald Trump is a racist and nobody can make a strong case that he isn’t.
Voting for Donald Trump, at the very least, means racism is not a dealbreaker for you, no matter what race you are. And while you may wonder why a Latino would want to shit on other Latinos, I would like to have about 60 percent of America’s white population deported. Let’s send them all to Liberia.
Vallejo’s major reason for being a Trumper is the economy, so he claims. But if Vallejo is an intelligent person, he knows that’s a lie.
He writes that most Latinos who voted for Trump were concerned about jobs and the economy, forgetting that the unemployment rate was 6.4 percent when Trump left office. Trump inherited President Barack Obama’s economy and fucked it up. He left office with fewer American jobs than there were when he entered. He’s the first president to love more jobs than he created since Herbert Hoover.
There is no evidence that Donald Trump can rebuild an economy. There’s only evidence he can destroy it.
Trumpers will claim that’s not Trump’s fault. It was Covid’s fault. If you’re going to make that argument then you can’t blame President Joe Biden for inflation. In case you weren’t paying attention, inflation hit the entire planet. High gas prices hit every nation. Vallejo, who forgets Trump’s final numbers, blames Biden for inflation. He’s making an extremely dishonest argument in voting for Trump.
And if you voted for Trump because of the economy, here are a few other facts can chew on with your lying mouth: Under Trump, the trade deficit went up over 36 percent. Trump’s promising even more tariffs so enjoy your 20 percent tax increase on imported goods, fuckers.
People lacking health insurance rose by three million, and that’s even with Trump failing to repeal Obamacare. What are they going to do now? How many Americans will lose healthcare coverage in Trump’s second term?
Vallejo argues that under Biden, the government spent “freely and indiscriminately,” yet under Donald Trump, federal debt went from $14.4 trillion to $21.6 trillion.
Under Trump, home prices increased nearly 30 percent while rising 20 percent under Biden.
Wages rose higher under Biden than they did under Trump.
The top 25 U.S. companies invested more than $900 billion in the economy, which is 40 percent higher than during the Trump regime.
Everyone who voted for Trump because the economy was their top concern should have voted for Harris.
Vallejos also argues that we need Trump to curb illegal immigration, but guess what, Buddy. In Trump’s last year, apprehensions at the southern border had a nearly 15 percent increase than President Obama’s last year in office. Even if you honestly wanted to reduce illegal immigration, do you really support deporting millions of people and tearing apart families by using the military? Seriously, Mr. Vallejo, how much do you hate Latinos?
Vellejos also cries that under Biden and with inflation rising, stagnant wages “failed to keep pace” and blames Biden for not reducing the tax and regulatory burden on “job creators.” But Trump’s huge tax cuts for asshole billionaires were still in place, so why didn’t corporate America come running to the rescue? Oh, yeah…trickle-down economics doesn’t work. Instead of cutting their own profits, Corporations jacked up prices and as inflation has been going down, their prices have not. In fact, Corporate profits continued to rise throughout the Biden administration. Exxon’s second-quarter profits this year were over $9 billion. Did they lower the price of gas at the fuel pumps? HAHAHAHAHA. You’re funny.
Despite Donald Trump tweeting in 2020, “If you want your 401k’s and stocks…to disintegrate and disappear, vote for the Radical Left Do Nothing Democrats and Corrupt Joe Biden,” the stock market did better under Biden than Trump. Fact fact fuckity fact fact.
The S&P 500 has posted a compound annual growth rate of 14.1 percent from Biden’s November 2020 election to the beginning of this month. The market returns under Biden are the second best in modern history, only trailing behind Bill Clinton’s, gasp, another Democratic president.
Vallejo accused Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris of “fumbling” the economy which makes me think he doesn’t watch football and doesn’t know what a fumble is. Is it when the cheerleaders kick the ball?
Vallejo also wrote that Latinos voted for Trump because they are “supportive of the rule of law and desire an orderly process.” Now you gotta get the fuck out of here. Vallejo, like most MAGAts, is a liar who suffers from memory loss. Hello? January 6, fake electors, electoral fraud, 11,780 votes, stolen documents, assaulting women, corruption, violating the emoluments clause, etc. If you truly desire the “rule of law,” Mr. Vallejo, call the Trump team now and demand that he doesn’t fire Jack Smith.
Shockingly, Vallejo didn’t include that he voted for Trump so boat batteries would be lighter, the boats wouldn’t sink from their weight, and sharks wouldn’t eat you while you’re flapping around in the water.
At the end of his bullshit designed as a column for a newspaper’s opinion page, Vallejo writes, “Most importantly, we love the USA and cherish freedom and opportunity.” So you voted for the treasonous fuck who’s a subordinate of Vladimir Putin? You voted for the asshole who gave Putin classified information. You voted for our nation’s greatest national security threat who has been secretly talking to Putin since we fired him in 2020. You voted for the guy who says he wants to be a dictator, quoted Hitler, and said he wants to delete the Constitution.
Every reason Vallejo gives for voting for Trump is bullshit. That means I don’t know why in the hell Trump won 45 percent of the Latino vote. I just hope that when it burns them, they fucking get it.
And Mr. Vallejo, I changed my mind. You are a racist. It’s like anytime when someone says, “I’m not a racist, but…”
And hey, at least I have so much material to work with now.
Creative note: I drew most of this yesterday and all I had to do this morning was color it. I was all like, “Yay, I’m done by 1 p.m. and now I can go watch football…right after I write this blog. It’s now 3 p.m. Are my Saints winning?
Music note: I listened to Buddy Holly. I will never get over the hiccup thing he does at the start of Rave On.
(snip-More)





