Clay Jones

Bribed In 60 Minutes by Clay Jones

News outlets are supposed to expose corruption, not engage in it Read on Substack

The headline at Fox News blasted, “Paramount, CBS forced to pay eight figures, change editorial policy in settlement with President Trump.” Forced? Would Fox News use the word “forced” when they settled a lawsuit with Dominion for over $787 million? You may feel forced, but a settlement is a choice. It’s a choice not to go any further into a trial and shut that shit down, for whatever reasons. And yes, CBS has changed its editorial policy, which is that anytime Trump comes for a bribe, you pay it.

Usually, when someone settles a lawsuit, they’re trying to get off cheaper as they fear the result of the trial will cost them more. In Fox News’ case with Dominion, they were afraid the verdict in a trial would bankrupt them. They were guilty of spreading misinformation that they knew were lies. It’s why Tucker’s no longer on their payroll.

When CNN and the Washington Post settled with teenage Trumper Nicholas Sandmann, one of those smirky, obnoxious, entitled white privileged Catholic Covington kids who was in the center of a viral video controversy with an elderly Native American, they didn’t settle because they were guilty. They settled for what legal experts estimate to be a small portion of the $275 million they were sued for, in order to save on lawyer fees. They weren’t afraid of losing the trial because it had already been dismissed once, but felt they’d pay more to their lawyers than to the little asshole whose feelings got hurt. I hope the ugly little entitled priviliged fuck isn’t feeling too litigious today.

When Disney settled a lawsuit with Trump earlier last December, who sued because ABC news anchor George Stephanopoulos said Trump was “liable for rape,” it wasn’t because they were guilty of anything other than hurting TACO’s feelings because Stephanopoulos was technically correct. Disney, ABC’s parent company, settled because the judge was scary and said in her denial to dismiss that “a reasonable jury could interpret Stephanopoulos’s statements as defamatory,” despite the fact that Donald Trump is a rapist who also liked to pal around with rapists while also endorsing pedophiles for the United States Senate. Also, Trump put Alexander Acosta in his first cabinet. He was the prosecutor who saved Epstein from a criminal trial.

When Meta settled a lawsuit with Trump in January, it was to bribe Trump. Trump sued Meta for banning him from its platforms, Facebook and Instagram, in 2020 after his election denial and white nationalist terrorist insurrection attempt. Trump told Mark Zuckerberg that he would have to settle the lawsuit before he could be “brought into the tent.” I don’t think he’s talking the kind of tent migrants will be forced to sleep in at Alligator Alcatraz, but the MAGA tent. The settlement was for $25 million, and it was a bribe.

Even Elon settled a lawsuit with Trump, and was also to bribe Trump. As if the $275 million Elon paid to elect him wasn’t enough. Like with Meta, Trump sued Twitter for banning him, citing that his First Amendment rights were violated. A federal court in California tossed the case, saying only the government can deny First Amendment rights, not corporations. But Trump’s team took it to an appeals court, which was skeptical. Elon settled with Trump for $10 million. Why would you settle when you already won? Because it’s a bribe.

Also, do you like the irony of Trump claiming his First Amendment rights were violated, and now he’s trying to deport people for protesting? (snip-MORE)

Boca Refugee by Clay Jones

A cartoon for the Boca Raton Tribune Read on Substack

This cartoon was drawn for The Boca Raton Tribune, whose mayor went on Fox News and offered New Yorkers an escape from “socialist” New York City if Zohran Mamdani wins the mayoral race in November.

The mayor, Scott Singer, has aspirations for higher office, and to do that as a Republican, you have to be a vile piece of shit. This is the kind of stuff MAGAts find amusing, like throwing migrants to alligators.

Being the mayor of a city in Florida, Singer should focus on being the mayor of his city in Florida. That’s the job he was elected to do, and not worry about who’s the mayor of New York City. Right now, Republicans are using Mamdani as red meat for their base, without even understanding what they’re talking about.

Sometimes, I think I should move to Florida just for the issues, and syndicate cartoons about them to Florida newspapers. But then, I’d be living in Florida. (snip-MORE)

Frickin’ With Medicaid by Clay Jones

The Big Beautiful Bill is evil Read on Substack

Trump’s $4 trillion (at least) “big beautiful bill” is giving seniors a tax credit of $6,000, which is great because they’re gonna need it.

The bill makes deep cuts to Medicaid, the government health insurer for the poor, which covers more than 60 percent of the nation’s nursing home residents.

The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO) estimated that the BBB will cut federal spending on Medicaid and Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) benefits by $1.02 trillion, due in part to eliminating at least 10.5 million people from the programs by 2034.

This will lead to benefit losses, increased paperwork requirements, and rural hospital closures that will hurt Americans, especially those with disabilities. It will also make nursing homes scramble to find resources for services they’re currently providing, or simply eliminate services.

Republicans like to say, or lie, that people who receive Medicaid aren’t going to notice any changes. But you can’t find one of the shitweasels who can explain how you don’t lose any services after cutting out over a trillion dollars. Find me one Republican, just one, who can explain that shit.

This will hit rural communities harder. Do you know which party rural communities mostly vote for? The one that just cut their Medicaid. Republican voters are stupid. Red states need the most federal support. Red states need the most welfare, which they also cut. (snip-MORE)

Reasons to Leave Christianity* in 2025

I have long liked this young YouTuber. I started following him when he was more into debunking stuff while also producing atheist content. I felt he understood what a lot of people were going through in that he was trying hard to hide being an atheist from his parents and family which gave him an idea what many in the LGBTQ+ community were going through with their families. He himself noted that similarity. One of the things I like about him is his calm quiet fact filled delivery. If others have not noticed I don’t like aggressive angry yelling videos, they are too close to what I grew up with and suffered in my childhood. Drew is not a fervent anti-Christian like so many atheists are. Instead he simply is against the bad stuff some people do in the name of religion / Christianity. I like that. At the end of this video he again says if you are getting something good from your faith, don’t leave it, just change it to make it better. I agree. He explains how Christianity was abused by corporations and wealthy people to get people to do things against their own interest they otherwise wouldn’t do. In the name of god work more at a lower cost to make money for your employer type stuff. Hugs

Republican Crimes Against The U.S.

King Stinks-A-Lot by Clay Jones

No room for tyrants Read on Substack

Tomorrow, we’re celebrating the anniversary of our independence from a monarchy. Yet, the guy in the White House envisions himself as a monarch.

He wants to ban protests, which is a First Amendment right. He didn’t send the military to California to stop riots. He sent them to stop the protests. Ice has arrested legal residents, without charges, but citing their protests. The regime is bullying colleges to stop protests against the war in Gaza. This is not freedom. This is not independence.

Trump asked the courts for immunity from criminal charges. Every court said no until it got to the Supreme Court. One man has been ruled to be above the rest of us, and he has immunity.

The Supreme Court allowed Trump to stay on the ballots despite his waging war against this nation.

Trump waged war against this nation to remain in office. He led a white nationalist coup attempt against our country. He attacked Congress to prevent it from doing its constitutional duty of certifying the 2020 election.

Now, Congress is in Trump’s pocket and failing to work as one of the three branches.

The Supreme Court has now ruled that lower courts shouldn’t make rulings against Trump that apply nationally.

The Supreme Court failed to address Birthright Citizenship, allowing Trump to violate a Constitutional amendment. Until SCOTUS acts on this, Trump will go unchallenged.

He is building concentration camps.

He’s ordering the Department of Defense to go after his enemies.

He’s violating the Emoluments Clause, using the White House to enrich himself.

He’s talking about running for a third term, but this would just be another violation of the Constitution. If he’s talking about running for a third term, then he will be running for a third term.

Trump will not allow another election to be fair.

He’s attacking the media, and soon, the only media that will be allowed to continue to exist will be Trump media.

I left a lot out, so go ahead and fill in the blanks in the comments.

(snip-MORE)

In 1776 we rejected a monarchy by Ann Telnaes

You can thank the oath breaking Republicans for where we are Read on Substack

“He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.”

Dems fear a gop legal blitz

https://www.tumblr.com/justinspoliticalcorner/787919965822058496/dems-fear-a-gop-legal-blitz-around-the-midterms

NJ, VT Get With The Program Again, & More, in Peace & Justice History for 7/2

https://www.peacebuttons.info/E-News/peacehistoryjuly.htm#july2

Updated: You Know The Numbers; Get On The Phones With Your US Reps

Yes, this passed in the Senate, thanks to the VP’s tiebreaking vote. However, it’s still got rows to hoe in the US House; Spkr. Johnson wants to vote tomorrow. The thing to remember about our US Reps is, they’re up for election each 2 years. So, while firmly directing them in dealing with this dreadful bill, also firmly yet lovingly remind them that the OBBB will be hanging around their necks every step of the way of their campaigns like a bubblegum machine golden giant dollar sign necklace, if they vote in favor.

(Actually, if you didn’t when you contacted your Senators last week, you can still remind them of the same thing, unless they voted against, in which case, Thank Them. It took bravery to vote against, and they need to know we have their backs. And thank you very much. Now call.)

We Really Hate The Billions for Billionaires Bill

Moving The Window

I cannot add up the number of times I’ve been told by good, liberal Dems that these issues won’t float. And that was back in the 1980s and 90s, not to mention the 2000s. Anyway, take a look!

Mamdani And The Left Are Moving The Window – Good by Oliver Willis

Shift Your View Read on Substack

What if everything you believed since you have been politically awake is wrong? It isn’t that you have bad intentions or you’re fundamentally stupid, but what if instead you believed for so long that the existing menu of political options was one group of beliefs but in reality, that was a really limited menu that excluded some really tasty items you never considered before?

When a rising progressive figure like Zohran Mamdani makes bold statements about what he wants to achieve, it can make regular old mainstream Democrats/liberals like myself wince. Government supermarkets? We shouldn’t have billionaires? Immediately that kicks in concerns about how Democrats are perceived. It isn’t just Mamdani. Ideas like defunding the police, universal basic income, free health care, etc.? Sure, we say, they may sound good on paper – but they also sound like left wing fantasyland, they’re just not “practical.”

And maybe they are impractical, unworkable, and election losers. But – what if not? We should at least have the conversation, I think.

Because for decades now American political discourse has been operating within the parameters set by the right wing, not the left. Since 1980 we have had 20 years of Democratic presidents and while I think they did a decent job of domestic politics between the three of them (Clinton, Obama, and Biden), much of what they did was within the narrow paradigm of what was acceptable behavior.

Clinton frequently talked about cutting the size of the government, Obama spoke about lowering the deficit, and Biden also used the language of “fiscal responsibility” as the right envisions it. All three men accepted the existence of billionaires and even pushed policies that would theoretically create even more of them. None of them would argue that the police needed to be defunded, and in fact they all oversaw federal spending that sent billions to police departments.

I was among the millions who supported these three presidents, along with other Democrats who ran for office with a similar world view both at the presidential and congressional level to varying degrees of success.

But these people have all been operating within the right’s paradigms. Collectively we never openly debated how we could have it all wrong. Maybe the prison system should be abolished? Maybe billionaires should be taxed out of existence?

Even if we don’t ultimately reach those conclusions, these are debates worth having.

Because while we have been limiting ourselves, the right hasn’t. Since Barry Goldwater in 1964, the right has been shifting the Overton Window – what is considered acceptable public discourse – steadily to the right. We have gone from Republicans like Nixon creating agencies like the EPA to Ronald Reagan and George W. Bush cutting funding for vital agencies to Donald Trump trying to completely destroy agencies like the Department of Education.

Things that Trump treats as uncontroversially right-wing today would have been laughed out of the room as the ravings of lunatics in 1958. The right has mounted serial challenges to what was the liberal orthodoxy (not on every issue but most issues) in the 1960s and they have molded public perception of what acceptable dialogue is.

We are worse off for this. One can praise what Democratic leaders have accomplished in a progressive manner (health care, infrastructure, overall policy) and still admit that the thinking has been severely limited and inhibiting.

Voters are making this clear to the party. They keep showing in multiple federal and state elections that they are unhappy with the status quo and in some instances, like with Trump, they are far too eager to flirt with fascism versus maintaining the system as-is.

Think about the world that millennials and Gen-Z have lived in for their entire lives. Not only has it been shaped by Reaganism and Trumpism, but it has also been peppered with Democratic leaders like Obama, Clinton, and Biden who didn’t fundamentally challenge the bedrock of what the right laid but instead focused on (well needed) nibbling at the edges.

It has been a very long time, probably not since the Great Depression, where Democrats articulated the notion that something beyond the acceptable was possible. When Franklin D. Roosevelt first took office, the consensus was that bad stuff just had to happen and that the government had to lie back, helpless. Herbert Hoover couldn’t truly conceive of a universe where the government swooped in and actively combated the forces making things worse for ordinary Americans. Roosevelt shifted the window and set up the infrastructure of the safety net that still exists today (for now). (snip-MORE, + Kal El photo. Click through!)

Clay Jones & Open Windows

Do Trump supporters have regrets? by Ann Telnaes

Not as many as there should be Read on Substack

(photo: J.L. Mertins/ Library of Congress)

Trump has always played to Americans’ fears and prejudices.

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Totally Obliterated by Clay Jones

Stinky Pete rises again Read on Substack

I’ve had this idea for a few days, but I wasn’t sure about it. Then Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth unfairly exploded on a reporter for merely doing her job, so I decided he deserves this. Fuck Pete Hegseth (but not literally).

Stinky Pete attacked a reporter, from Fox News of all places, for doing her job. Her crime was asking Pete a question.

Jennifer Griffin of Fox News asked about whether there was any certainty that highly enriched uranium was stored at the mountain bunker bombed by the US, given that satellite photos showed more than a dozen trucks were seen there two days in advance.

Pete replied, “Of course, we’re watching every single aspect,” Hegseth said. “But, Jennifer, you’ve been about the worst, the one who misrepresents the most intentionally what the president says.”

How did Griffin misrepresent anything that Trump has said with that question? The question was based on the fact that satellite photos showed trucks at the site days before the bombing,” and while Trump was publicly mulling over whether or not to bomb it. In fact, it’s a very important question and there’s nothing wrong with it, even to the point that it shouldn’t piss anyone off, even a goose-stepping drunky fascist who can’t keep his dick in his pants. But, I guess the question does challenge the talking points and propaganda the regime has put out. This question was apparently worse than the time Sean Spicer was asked about crowd sizes. How dare you!!!!

After the bombing, Trump said Iran’s nuclear program was “totally obliterated.” As it turns out, not so much unless “totally” doesn’t mean totally anymore. Maybe they could say it was slightly obliterated. This is like the time when the military killed ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, and Trump said he “died like a dog,” while telling other huge lies about the operation.

An early intelligence assessment leaked to media outlets on Tuesday suggested that the strikes only set Iran’s enrichment program back by a few months and did not destroy its core components.

Any challenge to the narrative that the sites weren’t “totally oblitereated” pisses TACO off nearly as much as being called TACO.

The preliminary analysis was produced by the Defense Intelligence Agency, the Pentagon’s intelligence arm, and reportedly found that the bombing of Iran’s nuclear sites sealed off the entrances to two facilities but did not collapse their underground buildings. Basically, Trump bombed the fuck out of their doors.

One of the idiot trolls at GoComics claimed the media was following Iran’s talking points, but no…we’re following US intelligence on this. By the way, US intelligence, or any other intelligence, doesn’t include Donald Trump. This is not the first time Trump has had issues with American intelligence. He once sided with Putin over US intelligence.

I don’t know which makes the regime angrier, the analysis or the leak. It sure pissed off White House SpokesBarbie Karoline Leavitt.

Leavitt rejected the intelligence report and accused CNN, which first revealed it, of “fake news.” She later sent a tweet. (snip-MORE, tweet’s on the page)

Who’da thunk it …

The US Brain Drain Begins

F-Bombs & Third Party Countries

SCOTUS allows deportations to “third party countries” by Ann Telnaes

The Supreme Court justices pauses a federal judge’s ruling Read on Substack

Justice Sonia Sotomayor dissented and was joined by Justices Elena Kagan and Ketanji Brown Jackson. Sotomayor wrote, “the Court finds the idea that thousands will suffer violence in far-flung locales more palatable than the remote possibility that a District Court exceeded its remedial powers when it ordered the Government to provide notice and process to which the plaintiffs are constitutionally and statutorily entitled.”

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F-Bombs Over Broadway by Clay Jones

Shush Yo Mouths Read on Substack

I gotta be honest with you. I didn’t think Trump’s F-bomb was anything unique or scandalous in the New Normal. Sure, it’s not presidential for a president to say, “They don’t know what the fuck they’re doing” to reporters while standing in the White House driveway, but none of this has been presidential.

So, I didn’t think it was cartoon worthy, but then I saw one yesterday, and another one today, and then another one, and then another one, which means there are going to be at least 12 more by the end of the day. I decided to use it myself in doing a cartoon on the New York City Democratic mayoral primary, but put a little twist on it.

Political Cartooning 101 lesson: Use the F-bomb in your cartoon as a tool, but don’t make the cartoon about the F-bomb…unless it’s too funny to resist.

Former New York Governor Andrew Cuomo was and maybe still is trying to resurrect his political career after resigning in disgrace after being accused of sexual harassment by at least 11 women, which is less than half the number of women who have accused Donald Trump, yet his political career is still going. And former senator Al Franken is now playing a fictional senator in a limited Netflix series.

Cuomo was the favorite to win the Democratic primary, but unfortunately for him, it was rank-choice voting, where voters rank candidates for office in order of their preference. This system gave the nomination to young upstart Zohran Mamdani, an Islamic democratic- socialist state assemblyman with very few legislative accomplishments. And this is what I meant when I said Cuomo was/is trying to resurrect his political career.

Of course, Cuomo’s bid to become the Democratic nominee for NYC’s mayor is over, but not his bid to become mayor…unless he changes his mind and removes himself from the ballot, as Cuomo is now running as an Independent.

Previously, victory in the Democratic primary all but guaranteed a move to Gracie Mansion, as Democrats outnumber Republicans 6-1 in the Big Apple. But now, it may be a five-way race.

Rank-choice will not be implemented in the general election, where Mamdani will have to compete once again against Cuomo, but also against current mayor and bribe-taker Eric Adams (who will have Donald Trump’s support), Guardian Angels founder and Republican nominee Curtis Sliwa (who had no opposition for the nomination), and former federal prosecutor Jim Walden, who is also running as an Independent. And I’m sure there are a few dozen other never-heard-of-before dingbats on the ballot.

While some pollsters may predict that Mamdani will win the general election, you can’t be too sure with his socialist platform, that Cuomo’s still in the race, and NYC has the largest Jewish population in the world outside Israel. If Cuomo does drop out, I’d predict Mamdani to win.

One thing you can expect during the race is chaos, and more of this… (snip-MORE, and though well-written, the story is not pretty)