As many of you mentioned in the comments, my previous cartoon was based on the globe scene from “The Great Dictator”. Putting aside that Trump couldn’t possibly be that athletic, I chose to base my multi-panel cartoon on that scene because I was looking for a concept which illustrated Trump’s need to project that he’s the big guy, the leader of the free world who summons all the other little countries. All the theater and pageantry the White House put on the last several days had everything to do with Trump’s narcissism and desire to win the Nobel Peace Prize.
If you haven’t seen the Charlie Chaplin film and that brilliant scene, I encourage you to do so. Chaplin was prescient in his urgent warning to the world about Hitler and the Nazi ideology. I wish we could see what he would have created for our situation today.
D.C. Attorney Jeanine Pirro’s office instructs federal prosecutors not to press felony charges against people openly carrying shotguns and rifles in the Capital.
Sorry for the lack of posting and no cartoon meme post tomorrow morning. I have been very sick all day with vomiting and diarrhea. From the morphines and muscle relaxers I was impacted, which was a harder constipation. I had taken fiber and it did not help, so I took 2 laxatives. They did not work so the next day I took 2 more. I have been diagnosed with a sensitive stomach meaning it can’t take pressure so it was refusing to let me eat / swallow anything and the bile and acids needed to be vomited up. By noon the dam broke and I have spent most of the day near or on the toilet or in bed. At 1 pm Ron made me some chicken noodle soup. It helped calm my stomach but did not help the other end. I am trying to eat something now due to my blood sugar but I can only do a chicken strip and a few french fries. Tomorrow we go out for our big shopping day, glad it was not today which we had planned. By the way I was stationed in West Berlin in the 1980s. Hugs.
August 21, 1831 Nat Turner, a 30-year-old man legally owned by a child, and six other slaves began a violent insurrection in Southampton County, Virginia.They began by killing the child’s stepfather, Joseph Travis, and his family. Within the next 24 hours, Turner and, ultimately, about 40 followers killed the families who owned adjacent slaveholding properties, nearly 60 whites, while freeing and inciting other slaves to join them.Militia and federal troops were called out, and the uprising was suppressed with 55 African Americans including Turner executed by hanging in Jerusalem, Virginia, and hundreds more killed by white mobs and vigilantes in revenge. More about Nat Turner Nat Turner’s confession
August 21, 1968 The Czechoslovakian people spontaneously and nonviolently resisted invasion of their country of 14 million by hundreds of thousands of troops and 5000+ tanks from the Soviet Union and four other Warsaw Pact countries.The troops were enforcing the overthrow and arrest of Alexander Dubcek and his government. They had been implementing significant democratic reforms known collectively as “socialism with a human face,” or the Prague Spring. Cover of the magazine Kvety, with a photograph of the statue of St. Wenceslas in Wenceslas Square in the center of Prague. Graffiti on the statue reads “Soldiers go home” in Russian and “Dubcek – Svoboda” in Czech. Hundreds attempted to obstruct invading tanks. Both Czechs and Slovaks argued with the soldiers and refused all cooperation with the occupying armies while showing broad support for the deposed government and its reform program. Moscow relented and returned Dubcek to office, at least temporarily. Prague Spring in retrospect Czech perspective
August 21, 1971 Two grenades killed and wounded members of the leadership of the Philippines’ Liberal Party during a rally in Manila’s Plaza Miranda. Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos accused a leader of the party, Benigno Aquino, of the bombing and arrested him, labeling him a communist. Liberal Party Secretary-General Aquino, an effective young leader and Marcos opponent, was imprisoned, mostly in solitary confinement, for seven years until allowed exile to the U.S., ostensibly for medical treatment.
August 21, 1976 Approximately 20,000 people, mainly women, from both Protestant and Catholic areas of Belfast, Northern Ireland, attended a Peace People’s rally at Ormeau Park.
August 21, 1983 Exiled popular Philippine political leader Benigno Aquino was assassinated by soldiers of the Aviation Security Command as he crossed the tarmac at Manila International Airport. Benigno Aquino He had spent three years of asylum in the U.S. Upon his return, he intended to lead the political opposition to President Ferdinand Marcos and the martial law he had imposed. During the plane trip across the Pacific, he had commented to reporters, “I suppose there’s a physical danger because you know assassination’s part of public service . . . My feeling is we all have to die sometime and if it’s my fate to die by an assassin’s bullet, so be it.” Hundreds of thousands demonstrated against Marcos.
Ferdinand Marcos The Aquino funeral drew millions and gave impetus to the broad-based People’s Power movement which eventually forced Marcos from power. Read more about Aquino
August 21, 1991 A coup against Soviet Union President Mikhail S. Gorbachev by hard-line Communist Party members (State Emergency Committee), collapsed in the face of popular opposition. Russian Federation President Boris N. Yeltsin, having quit the Party the previous year, had called for a general strike. Mikhail S. Gorbachev | Boris N.Yelsin
August 21, 1998 Samuel Bowers, the 73-year-old former Imperial Wizard of the White Knights of the Ku Klux Klan, was convicted in Hattiesburg, Mississippi, of ordering a firebombing that killed civil rights activist Vernon Dahmer 32 years before. Bowers had also been instrumental in the killing of three other civil rights workers in Philadelphia, Mississippi for which he was never charged. On Vernon Dahmer’s tombstone are the words, “If you don’t vote, you don’t count.” Samuel Bowers 32 years to justice Dahmer’s home after the bombing
(It’s a newsletter I receive, and I don’t have a link for what I’ve copied and am pasting, but there are links within the piece. Enjoy.)
AUGUST 17 — AUGUST 23
Angela Davis debuts on the FBI’s Ten Most Wanted List. In 1969, the legendary author and activist Angela Davis was a newly minted assistant philosophy processor at UCLA. But she was also an avowed Communist, and as a result, then-Governor Ronald Regan tried to have her fired before she’d begun any actual teaching. No luck: Davis’s dismissal didn’t hold up in court, and her first class had to be moved to a bigger classroom to accommodate the 2,000 students who had signed up for it—but she would finally be fired again nine months later, for “inflammatory rhetoric” in public speeches. Davis was an outspoken supporter of the Black Panthers and was fervently against the Vietnam War, but arguably her most scandalous activist activities at the time were in defense of the Soledad Brothers, three Black inmates imprisoned in Soledad, CA, who were accused of killing a white guard. In 1970, guns registered to Davis were used in an attack on the nearby Marin County Civic Center; the perpetrators hoped to take hostages to bargain for the inmates’ release, but instead left four casualties. Davis, despite not being at the scene, was charged with murder, kidnapping, and criminal conspiracy charges. She couldn’t be found, and so on August 18, 1970, by order of J. Edgar Hoover, Davis became the third woman ever to be included on the FBI’s Most Wanted List. Eight weeks later, Davis was finally arrested in a New York motel; the trial that followed catapulted her to international fame—and turned her into a revolutionary icon—as her supporters, who viewed her as a political prisoner, chanted “Free Angela!” across the globe.In 1972, after 16 months in prison, she was acquitted of all charges by an all-white jury. “It took a worldwide movement of people to acquit Miss Davis,” noted one of her attorneys, Howard Moore Jr., but it shouldn’t have. “Justice should be the routine of the system,” he added.
THIS IS WHY THEY BAN IT: “Progressive art can assist people to learn not only about the objective forces at work in the society in which they live, but also about the intensely social character of their interior lives. Ultimately, it can propel people toward social emancipation. ” –Angela Davis
Putin doesn’t see Ukraine as a sociergn nation but as a puppet state of Russia’s that he can control. He doesn’t see them as having the right to determine their own future. Here is a quote from the article.
Putin signalled no movement in Russia’s long-held demands, which also include a veto on Kyiv’s desired membership in the NATO alliance.
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Source says Putin demands control of entire Donetsk region
Trump says Zelenskiy has ‘gotta make a deal’
Zelenskiy reported to have rejected demand
Zelenskiy to visit Trump on Monday with European back-up
Europeans say they will maintain or increase pressure on Russia
WASHINGTON/MOSCOW/KYIV, Aug 16 (Reuters) – U.S. President Donald Trump said on Saturday that Ukraine should make a deal to end the war with Russia because “Russia is a very big power, and they’re not”, after a summit where Vladimir Putin was reported to have demanded more Ukrainian land.
After the two leaders met in Alaska on Friday, Trump told Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy that Putin had offered to freeze most front lines if Kyiv ceded all of Donetsk, the industrial region that is one of Moscow’s main targets, a source familiar with the matter said.
Zelenskiy rejected the demand, the source said. Russia already controls a fifth of Ukraine, including about three-quarters of Donetsk province, which it first entered in 2014.
Trump also said he agreed with Putin that a peace deal should be sought without the prior ceasefire that Ukraine and its European allies had demanded. That was a change from his position before the summit, when he said he would not be happy unless a ceasefire was agreed on.
“It was determined by all that the best way to end the horrific war between Russia and Ukraine is to go directly to a Peace Agreement, which would end the war, and not a mere Ceasefire Agreement, which often times do not hold up,” Trump posted on Truth Social.
Zelenskiy said Russia’s unwillingness to pause the fighting would complicate efforts to forge a lasting peace. “Stopping the killing is a key element of stopping the war,” he said on X.
Nevertheless, Zelenskiy said he would meet Trump in Washington on Monday.
That will evoke memories of a meeting in the White House Oval Office in February, where Trump and Vice President JD Vance gave Zelenskiy a brutal public dressing-down. Trump said a three-way meeting with Putin and Zelenskiy could follow.
Kyiv’s European allies welcomed Trump‘s efforts but vowed to back Ukraine and tighten sanctions on Russia. European leaders might join Monday’s White House meeting as well, German Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul said.
Russia launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 and has been gradually advancing for months. The war – the deadliest in Europe for 80 years – has killed or wounded well over a million people from both sides, including thousands of mostly Ukrainian civilians, according to analysts.
RUSSIA LIKELY TO WELCOME TRUMP’S COMMENTS
Trump’s various comments on the three-hour meeting with Putin mostly aligned with the public positions of Moscow, which says a full settlement will be complex because positions are “diametrically opposed”.
Putin signalled no movement in Russia’s long-held demands, which also include a veto on Kyiv’s desired membership in the NATO alliance. He made no mention in public of meeting Zelenskiy. Kremlin aide Yuri Ushakov said a three-way summit had not been discussed.
In an interview with Fox News’ Sean Hannity, Trump signalled that he and Putin had discussed land transfers and security guarantees for Ukraine, and had “largely agreed”.
“I think we’re pretty close to a deal,” he said, adding: “Ukraine has to agree to it. Maybe they’ll say ‘no’.”
Asked what he would advise Zelenskiy to do, Trump said: “Gotta make a deal.”
“Look, Russia is a very big power, and they’re not,” he added.
Item 1 of 10 U.S. President Donald Trump looks on next to Russian President Vladimir Putin during a press conference following their meeting to negotiate an end to the war in Ukraine, at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson, in Anchorage, Alaska, U.S., August 15, 2025. REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque
[1/10]U.S. President Donald Trump looks on next to Russian President Vladimir Putin during a press conference following their meeting to negotiate an end to the war in Ukraine, at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson, in Anchorage, Alaska, U.S., August 15, 2025. REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque Purchase Licensing Rights, opens new tab
Graphic: Map of Ukraine shows the eastern oblasts and the areas under Russian control
NEED FOR SECURITY GUARANTEES FOR UKRAINE
Zelenskiy has consistently said he cannot concede territory without changes to Ukraine’s constitution, and Kyiv sees Donetsk’s “fortress cities” such as Sloviansk and Kramatorsk as a bulwark against further Russian advances.
Zelenskiy has also insisted on security guarantees to deter Russia from invading again. He said he and Trump had discussed “positive signals” on the U.S. taking part, and that Ukraine needed a lasting peace, not “just another pause” between Russian invasions.
Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney welcomed what he described as Trump’s openness to providing security guarantees to Ukraine under a peace deal. He said security guarantees were “essential to any just and lasting peace.”
Putin, who has opposed involving foreign ground forces, said he agreed with Trump that Ukraine’s security must be “ensured”.
For Putin, just sitting down with Trump represented a victory. He had been ostracised by Western leaders since the start of the war, and just a week earlier had faced a threat of new sanctions from Trump.
‘1-0 FOR PUTIN’
Trump spoke to European leaders after returning to Washington. Several stressed the need to keep pressure on Russia.
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer said an end to the war was closer than ever, thanks to Trump, but said he would impose more sanctions on Russia if the war continues.
European leaders said in a statement that Ukraine must have “ironclad” security guarantees and no limits should be placed on its armed forces or right to seek NATO membership, as Russia has sought.
Some European commentators were scathing about the summit.
“Putin got his red carpet treatment with Trump, while Trump got nothing,” Wolfgang Ischinger, former German ambassador to Washington, posted on X.
Both Russia and Ukraine carried out overnight air attacks, a daily occurrence, while fighting raged on the front.
Trump told Fox he would postpone imposing tariffs on China for buying Russian oil, but he might have to “think about it” in two or three weeks.
He ended his remarks after the summit by telling Putin: “We’ll speak to you very soon and probably see you again very soon.”
“Next time in Moscow,” a smiling Putin responded in English.
Additional reporting by Kanishka Singh, Trevor Hunnicutt, Jeff Mason, Lidia Kelly, Jasper Ward, Costas Pitas, Ismail Shakil, Bhargav Acharya, Alan Charlish, Yuliia Dysa, Pavel Polityuk, Gwladys Fouche, Dave Graham, Paul Sandle, Joshua McElwee, Andreas Rinke, Felix Light and Moscow bureau; Writing by Andy Sullivan, Kevin Liffey, Mark Trevelyan, Joseph Ax and James Oliphant; Editing by Raju Gopalakrishnan, Gareth Jones and Cynthia Osterman
This is an interview with two doctors who served in Gaza. They tell of Israeli soldiers taking the baby formula the doctors tried to take in. They talk of the starving babies they can’t feed because Israel refuses any baby formula into Gaza. They talk of the systemic targeting of women and children by drone copters. The male doctor describes a game the IDF plays with using teenaged boys 11 to 16 for target practice. One day they would target heads, the next day they targeted chest, then abdomens, then arms, then legs. The most horrifying was the days the hospital was brought teenagers again 11 to 16 who had been shot in the testicles. Yes Israeli soldiers felt it was a great idea to shoot boys in the balls and dicks to make sure they couldn’t create any more Palestinians. I have no use for the government of Israel nor any use for the people of the country who support this. The public knows what is happening, the military knows what they are doing. This is a genocide of the Palestinians so that Jewish people can have the land. Jewish people of all people should understand this is wrong. Never again did not mean just never again to the Jews, it means never again for any genocide. Yes the US government is complicit in this act and should be held to account, but while we did not do enough at least democrats were willing to try to stop it, tRump and the republicans endorse it. There are chapter markings on the progress bar to help you get to the most damning parts of the interviews. Israel is not letting new doctors go in to help. They are killing the doctors and aid workers. Hugs
August 15, 1876 Congress passed a law to remove the Lakota Sioux and their allies from the Black Hills country of South Dakota after gold was found there. Often referred to as the “starve or sell” bill, it provided that no further appropriations would be made for 1868 Treaty-guaranteed rations for the Sioux unless they gave up their sacred Black Hills, or Paha Sapa. That treaty had granted them the territory and hunting rights in exchange for peace. Lakota Sioux watch as their Black Hills are invaded. painting by Howard Terpning The larger story of the Sioux and the U.S.
August 15, 1947 Great Britain partitioned its empire on the Asian subcontinent into primarily Hindu, but nominally secular, India, and predominantly Muslim Pakistan (including the non-contiguous state of East Bengal, now the nation of Bangladesh). The two nations became independent of British rule after 200 years of colonial control, and more than two decades of Gandhi-led resistance. Rioting between Hindus, Sikhs and Muslims followed, especially over the state of Kashmir, majority Muslim but newly part of India.Mahatma Gandhi had been an advocate for a united India where Hindus and Muslims would live together in peace. A few months later, at the age of 78, he began a fast with the purpose of stopping the sectarian bloodshed, in which hundreds of thousands died, and many more displaced. After five days the opposing leaders pledged to stop the fighting and Gandhi broke his fast. Twelve days later he was assassinated by a Hindu opposed to his program of tolerance for all ethnicities, castes and religions. One of the principal leaders of the independence movement, Jawaharlal Nehru, who became India’s first prime minister, spoke to the Constituent Assembly of India in New Delhi:“Long years ago we made a tryst with destiny, and now the time comes when we shall redeem our pledge, not wholly or in full measure, but very substantially. At the stroke of the midnight hour, when the world sleeps, India will awake to life and freedom. A moment comes, which comes but rarely in history, when we step out from the old to the new, when an age ends, and when the soul of a nation, long suppressed, finds utterance.It is fitting that at this solemn moment we take the pledge of dedication to the service of India and her people and to the still larger cause of humanity.” Among the tributes to Gandhi upon his death were these words by Albert Einstein: “Generations to come will scarce believe that such a one as this walked the earth in flesh and blood.” Listen to a portion of Nehru’s speech and a bit of old film More on partition and independence
August 15, 1967 The Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr., speaking at a Southern Christian Leadership Conference in Atlanta, urged a massive civil disobedience drive in northern cities. Responding to the widespread rioting there, he said, “It is purposeless to tell Negroes they should not be enraged when they should be . . . Civil disobedience can utilize the militance wasted in riots . . . .”
August 13, 1961 The city of Berlin was divided as East Germany sealed off the border between the city’s eastern (Soviet Union-controlled) and western (American-, British- and French-controlled) sectors in order to halt the flight of economic and political refugees to the West. Two days later, work began on the Berlin Wall. The Wall, 155 km (96 miles) of barbed wire and concrete, completely surrounded West Berlin and had to be rebuilt three times. The wall stood until November 9, 1989. The Berlin Wall Online
August 13, 1971 slain Kent State student U.S. Attorney General John Mitchell announced there would be no federal grand jury investigation into the May 4, 1970, shootings at Kent State University. Ohio National Guard troops had fired on unarmed anti-Vietnam-War demonstrators, killing four and wounding nine. Atty General John Mitchell Defenders of the National Guard said they were responding to a shot from the crowd though that was never verified. But in 2007 a tape was released through a freedom-of-information request to the FBI revealing a Guard officer issuing the command,“Right here! Get Set! Point! Fire!” Kent State’s protest was part of massive spontaneous national outrage over Pres. Richard Nixon’s expansion of the war through his invading non-combatant Cambodia. Vice President Spiro Agnew had referred to the campus protesters as Nazi “brownshirts.” Ohio National Guard troops firing on anti-war demonstrators at Kent State University The day before, Ohio Govenor James Rhodes had referred to the student demonstrators as “the strongest, well-trained militant revolutionary group that has ever assembled in America. They’re worse than the brownshirts and the Communist element and the night riders and the vigilantes. They are the worst type of people that we harbor in America.”
August 13, 1992 President George H.W. Bush announced strong United States support for the draft Chemical Weapons Convention completed at the Conference on Disarmament in Geneva. The president stated that the U.S. was committed to the treaty, and called on all other nations to support the treaty and to pledge adherence to it. Chemical weapons treaty update (2001)
Scottie's Playtime 