“Two Weeks Notice,” “Most Deserving” (comics)

Most deserving by Ann Telnaes

Trump thinks he should be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize Read on Substack

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Two Weeks Notice by Clay Jones

This could all be moot if Trump starts bombing Iran before the weekend or even the day is over. Today, several B-2 stealth bombers, the only kind of jet that can carry the 30,000-pound bunker-busting bombs thought capable of penetrating Iran’s underground Fordow nuclear facility, flew west to Guam. Most likely, Trump is trying to show off like he has a big penis.

When asked a few days ago about joining the fight Israel started with Iran, Trump said he’ll have the answer in two weeks. The right answer would have been no.

Part of the message of Trump’s 2024 presidential campaign was no more “forever wars.” Unless he thinks a war with Iran will be short and sweet, he would break that promise if he drags us into Israel’s fight. The war in Iraq would be a MAGA-Lardo Trump golf tournament for Donald compared to a war inside Iran.

If the rule is, “no land wars in Asia,” then someone get Trump a map and show him what continent Iran is in.

When you criticize Israel for starting this war, or voice any opposition to it, then MAGAts start screaming that you love Iran and you want them to have nuclear weapons. That’s the talk of a simpleton. Remember in 2003 when you opposed invading Iraq, and W. Bush’s followers would howl, “You’re either with us or against!” That was simple thinking, too (where are all those people now?). But Republicans have never added a lot of depth to their thought process. Unfortunately, it works. More Americans respond to it. MAGAts prefer to communicate in three syllables, like “No more wars” and “Bomb Iran.” Now, explain what a syllable is to a MAGAt.

I don’t want Iran to have nuclear weapons, which is why I supported the nuclear treaty we had with Iran under President Barack Obama. The same one Donald Trump later destroyed and is asking for now. If Donald Trump could get the exact same deal with Iran that he destroyed while lying that it wasn’t working, he’d call himself a genius for it. I expect him to get something much less and heap hero worship on himself. He’s already talking about how he deserves a Nobel Prize, which Obama has.

Iran might actually be in a better position with Trump in office because Donald Trump is the world’s worst negotiator. If you just make him feel like he won, you can get everything you want. Not only could they have their bomb, but also get club memberships at MAGA-Lardo.

Who remembers what’s in the treaty Trump negotiated with North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un?

And we should negotiate with Iran to stop its nuclear program, because the one Obama got them to sign was working. Why did Donald Trump cancel an agreement to end Iran’s nuclear program that was working? Probably because Obama’s name was on it. When Trump canceled the agreement, he made the world more dangerous. He gave Iran the green light to reignite its nuclear program.

Despite Trump’s treaty with North Korea, they’re closer today to being able to deliver a nuclear weapon to the continental United States.

But why should we join Israel’s war? They started it. Sure, Iran has been funding terrorist attacks against Israel for years, and we’ve funded Israel’s defense against that. But this is a war. Why should we join a fight we didn’t start? This isn’t our fight, especially when Israel is starting it just for us to finish.

When I was a stupid kid back in the 1980s, I was out with my buddy Ronny and Mark. Mark started a fight with another kid who also had his buddies with him. None of us joined in, and we all watched Mark and the other guy roll around, punching each other. Mark lost. Later, our other friends were angry at Ronny and me for not jumping into the fight. But it wasn’t our fight. If those other kids had jumped in, then yeah…we would have, too. But they knew it wasn’t their fight either. For what it’s worth, I did pull the guy off Mark when it was clear the fight was over and won. After the fight was over, we all stood around for 20 minutes talking about the fight. The moral is, don’t start a fight you can’t win, and don’t join a fight that’s not yours. We were sorry that Mark got his ass handed to him, but he shouldn’t have started the fight.

Trump’s decision to take two weeks to make a decision means it’s not important to him. This has to frustrate Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu because he knows when Trump says two weeks, it’s never delivered in two weeks…if ever.

Trump should have run on the message, “I’ll take two weeks to make decisions.” Ronald Reagan didn’t tell Gorbachev, “Tear down this wall…in two weeks.”

When Trump promised a new tax plan in 2017 of tax cuts for billionaire assholes, he promised he’d deliver it in two weeks. They delivered it two months later, and it was his only legislative accomplishment from his first term.

We’re still waiting to see Trump’s healthcare plan he promised years ago to deliver in two weeks.

Trump promised an infrastructure bill in two weeks during his first term. What happened? President Joe Biden signed an infrastructure bill.

In 2017, Trump said he would prove that Obama wiretapped Trump Tower in two weeks. We’re still waiting, much like the wait for Trump to prove that Obama was born in Kenya.

One Israeli official said that Trump “wouldn’t give himself a deadline that he would have to keep to if he hadn’t already made the decision.” Yeah, that guy hasn’t been paying attention for the past decade, because Trump doesn’t keep promises. What Donald Trump does is talk out of his ass.

Trump uses the two-week thing in hopes that people will forget. Maybe other shit will happen during those two weeks and people don’t remember the two-week promise. Or, Trump can create a new crisis, like when he said he’ll decide what to do about the Russian/Ukraine war in two weeks, which was months ago.

Or, Trump can be hoping the problem resolves itself within two weeks. Most likely, Israel will stop bombing Iran, and everyone will stop paying attention. Netanyahu overplayed his hand, starting a war and expecting Trump to save his ass. Isn’t Israel already in two other conflicts, one with Hamas and the other with Hezbollah?

Bibi needs to learn that Trump Always Chickens Out.

Creative note: I shouldn’t have had to spend three hours banging my head against a wall before this idea came to me because I watched half of Don’t Look Up last night.

Music note: I listened to more Tom Petty while drawing because I hadn’t finished listening to all of it during the last cartoon.

Drawn in 30 seconds: (snip-Go See!)

A Letter From God 😉

I Made A Rainbow To Troll Trump For Pride Month by God

Happy Pride! Read on Substack

Dear Humans,

First I sent a thunderstorm to ruin his stupid birthday parade. Now behold! I painted the skies with a rainbow to troll his helicopter for Pride Month!

1. God Hates You, Donold

The White House posted what they thought was a photo showing God’s endorsement: Marine One lifting off with a rainbow in the background.

But as always, the faux-king liars misinterpreted My meaning!

God LOVES LGBTQ+ people!

And I despise that infinite bigot Donold.

Luckily, Gavin Newsom’s press office understood and quote-tweeted it with:
“Happy Pride 😌”

2. Their ‘Big Beautiful Bill’ Just Collapsed

Trump’s prized “One Big Beautiful Bill” crumbled in the House.

It was supposed to be his grand legislative comeback. Instead, it got nuked by the parliamentarian.

Now the GOP is in full-blown civil war. Fighting over AI, Medicaid cuts, deficit math, and whose bootlicking is most loyal.

On top of all that, Tangerine Palpatine is raging at Fox News because his poll numbers are in the toilet.

Verily, thou mayest eat shit, Donold.

3. God Bless the ACLU

God bless the ACLU, who just won a unanimous court ruling striking down Louisiana’s ludicrous Ten Commandments law.

Public schools are not Sunday schools. And this court had the guts to say it.

Let it be known: while the cult worships golden idols of Donold and demands state-mandated religion, real Americans are still defending the Constitution.

Before you go, I need to say something important.
This part isn’t a joke. It’s about survival. (snip-MORE)

“Endangered Earth Dove”

Purple Quail-Dove

Bill White: In Trump’s world facts are inconvenient, irrelevant

Bill White: In Trump’s world facts are inconvenient, irrelevant

My wife and I recently returned from a Danube River cruise — no, it’s not blue, the waltz notwithstanding — and we had a wonderful time.

One of the many pleasures of these relatively small river cruises is all the interesting people you get to meet from around the world. This time around, we spent most of our time with Canadians and Australians, who seemed to enjoy our company once they determined we shared their low opinion of our president.

When one of the Canadians we dined with several times learned that we had signed on for a “Sound of Music” tour of Salzburg, Austria — featuring fountains, mountains, cityscapes, trees, a church and other locations from the movie — he told a nice story about an Austrian who emotionally described to him his love for their traditional folk song, “Edelweiss.”

I had read that the song actually was written just for the movie and had no significance for Austrians, which our guide confirmed the next day. So when our new friend repeated his story at dinner that evening, I politely corrected him, explaining that although some Austrians may have embraced the song — the Edelweiss is their national flower — it was a Rodgers and Hammerstein creation.

I won’t say our friend was crestfallen, but he did seem disappointed. I should add that I have a long tradition of spoiling people’s favorite stories, in part through the urban legend columns I used to write semiregularly.

So here’s the question. Is the truth really that important, if it spoils a good narrative?

After all, we’re in what some people have characterized as the Post-Truth Era, ushered in most recently by Donald Trump, his congressional lapdogs and Fox News but immortalized much earlier by Adolf Hitler and his Nazi regime. Falsehoods abound, not just in the White House but all over social media.

Here’s how the European Center for Populism Studies explained the Big Lie technique.

The big lie is the name of a propaganda technique, originally coined by Adolf Hitler in “Mein Kampf,” who says “The great masses of the people … will more easily fall victim to a big lie than to a small one,” and denotes where a known falsehood is stated and repeated and treated as if it is self-evidently true, in hopes of swaying the course of an argument in a direction that takes the big lie for granted rather than critically questioning it or ignoring it.

Pssst. If that doesn’t sound familiar, wake up.

Hitler used it to blame his country’s problems on his best available scapegoat, Jewish people. Trump and company have broadened this approach to encompass multiple scapegoats — immigrants, foreigners, transgender people, people who are “woke” because they encourage social justice and care about the future health of our planet — and to big lies involving the 2020 election and so many other subjects that we’re numb to it. He lies about everything, and his supporters don’t seem to know or care.

I remember when the idea of act checking first emerged in political coverage. Instead of just quoting politicians who were fudging the truth, the fact-checkers would point out when they were lying or exaggerating, in the case of The Washington Post by assigning up to four Pinocchios for the most egregious falsehoods.

Some politicians would correct themselves in future pronouncements. Others wouldn’t bother.

Trump, the ultimate Pinocchio, is oblivious to Fact Checking. He just plows ahead — “They’re eating the dogs, they’re eating the cats!” — repeating the same misinformation over and over at rallies, news conferences, debates. Facts are irrelevant.

Perhaps most amazingly, his long-since-debunked fraud allegations regarding the 2020 election are being incorporated into Oklahoma’s public-school curriculum. Elsewhere, facts about racial injustice, climate change and our nation’s history have been altered or eliminated from public school curricula to suit the MAGA agenda. Kinglike, Trump even is punishing colleges, states and others who won’t go along with his determination to impose “1984”-style Newspeak.

I think at least some Trump followers — particularly Republican elected leaders — know he is lying. But because it suits their preferred narrative, they go along. That’s frightening enough. Even scarier, though, are the people who are too dim, lazy or Foxcentric to figure out that we’re not being overrun by bloodthirsty killer immigrants or that non-straight men and women aren’t a threat to our military, our children or anything else, not to mention that Trump really lost the 2020 election, that the rioters storming the Capitol weren’t the true victims of Jan. 6, that indiscriminate ICE goon squads aren’t the best solution to illegal immigration and that vaccinating our children continues to be a very good idea.

They don’t just accept the lies. They spread them. That’s why we must be advocates for the truth, correcting and even confronting falsehoods, at rallies, on social media, in conversations. Ignorance is not bliss. It’s fueling our country’s descent into unrecognizable autocratic chaos.

“Eidelweiss” may be trivial. But innocent people being demonized? Trust in our elections destroyed? Our constitutional guarantees shredded? Our planet’s climate threatened? Long-dead diseases given new life?History rewritten?

Speak up. The truth is worth defending.

This is a contributed opinion column. Bill White can be reached at whitebil1974@gmail.com. His Threads handle is whitebil2000. The views expressed in this piece are those of its individual author and should not be interpreted as reflecting the views of this publication. For more details on commentaries, read our guide to guest opinions at themorningcall.com/opinions.

Peace & Justice History for 6/22

https://www.peacebuttons.info/E-News/peacehistoryjune.htm#june22

Yesterday I made a Goulash supper.

I made some mistakes in the way I talked about the steps and things I put into the mix. I was very tired by the time I got ready for this video. Best wishes and hugs.

Odie on our kitchen couch.

Best Wishes and Hugs,
Scottie

USA TODAY: Vance defends using military to quell protests, refers to Sen. Alex Padilla as “José ”

Doing everything they can to upset people and cause chaos. They seem to be trying to make people so angry that they react negatively. They mock a senior senator of a state and insult the people. Really good servants of the people. Hugs

Vance defends using military to quell protests, refers to Sen. Alex Padilla as “José”
Protests in Los Angeles against the Trump administration’s aggressive immigration enforcement turned violent earlier this month.

Read in USA TODAY: https://apple.news/AJ_mYSw3NQR-k_M-MP8nXHg

Shared from Apple News

Best Wishes and Hugs,Scottie