Your Weekly Cartoons, Annotated--but not on Signal...

Another week of incompetent liars.

The news that the entire U.S. national security leadership was texting on an app slightly technologically above TikTok or Instagram left me dumbfounded.

Sometimes, news stories are so consequential that the scale and scope of it all disorients my idea process. I remember feeling like that after 9/11. My dear late friend Rex Babin, then the editorial cartoonist for The Sacramento Bee, and I used to talk about this phenomenon often. We’d always say, well, the Day Two Bounce will be easier, and it always is. In the case of 9/11, the bounce lasted for several months. There were all manner of tendrils coming from 9/11: John Ashcroft, Dick Cheney, the military activities, the homeland security issues, and so on.

With this shitshow, I just stared at the ceiling for hours, trying to make sense of something so catastrophically insane, and getting nowhere. Plus I was tired.

People ask me what the number one factor in getting a solid cartoon idea is, and I always say “Seven hours of sleep”.

Anyway, I finally got something going, and I also was noodling a column for the Chronicle at the same time.

I did this in under an hour. I can see where I cut a corner or two artistically, but, as I said to you guys, no one says, hey, you didn’t crosshatch that enough.

This ran with my Chronicle column, too, so I killed two deadlines with one stone, thanks to my ever-patient editor, American Journalism Hero and Managing Editor for Opinion Pete Wevurski. He didn’t say anything about the crosshatching, either. I always make my best artistic effort for everyone, and my drawing intricacy picked up over the week.

Howver, this was the only thing I did on Signalgate.

“-gate”. It’s “-gate”worthy, people, I’m telling you! That’s big.

Anyway, let’s hit the Smerconish cartoon.

On Monday, I read that some supplicatory moron in the House GOP caucus introduced a bill to put the 47th president of Mt. Rushmore, which is Trump’s oft-stated goal, besides being compared to George Washington (not Lincoln—he freed the slaves).

I have been moaning for months about how I can’t find either of my light tables since I left The Bee. I have made many light recon missions into my garage to find them, but no luck. I may have to break down and buy a third, so I can use it to trace things like Mt. Rushmore. Sometimes I’ll take a copy and trace it off my back window. I did that with a Yosemite cartoon a few weeks ago.

Tracing photos is a tricky subject in cartooning. I think if you use it to do capital domes, the White House, or other iconic but complicated architecture, it’s OK. If you are tracing a photo of someone, it’s a little more complicated. So I had to freehand this drawing entirely. I guess it was good enough for an editorial cartoon, anyway, even as I think Washington looks a little like Bob Newhart.

I’m not a formally-trained artist, so I kind of go with what I’ve got. This was more about Trump, and when you looked at it, you probably weren’t scrutinizing it too much. I figure most people spend eight of ten seconds looking at a cartoon, unless it has a lot of moving parts. Now that everyone seems to be looking at cartoons on their phones, you don’t want to get too obscurantist.

Today’s Vocab Word: Obscurantist.

Here’s the next cartoon:

Kinda fun. Trump complained in a social media post that he hated the Colorado State Capitol presidential portrait, which, in Trump’s light defense, is a pretty weak likeness. The question here is, buddy, don’t you have better things to do? Sometimes I wonder if his Team of Rivals is really running everything, letting him obsess on stuff like the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts and what kind of French Fries are served at Mar-A-Lago (Ore-Ida Crinkle Cuts, is my guess—the kind that go with kid’s chicken fingers).

What’s distorted here is his combover, which is pretty damn dramatic, I think. There is skullcap glare, my fellow Americans.

Also: I sent this pate art to Rick McKee, cartoonist extraordinaire, which I will continue to do for the rest of his life. Sorry, man.

Next:

This was my favorite art cartoon of the week. I love drawing the Kennedy Boys, and Secretary Brain F. Worm, Jr. is always their antithesis now. Such a tragedy that he apparently didn’t listen to damn thing his father or uncles said. I also did this fairly quickly, as well, and tried to get it out in time for Politico’s Cartoon Carousel. This is the only major round-up for the week’s editorial cartoons, and I am always delighted to be in the bathroom at 5:52 AM Friday seeing what Matt Wuerker posted.

It didn’t get in, though.

Probably RFK’s nipples kept it out. I’ll ask Matt. He hates nipples. Ask him!

The New York Times, The Washington Post, Newsweek, and lots of other major newspapers had these round-ups, but they’re all gone now except for Politico.

Next:

This is my Chronicle Sunday cartoon. I liked this a lot, because the very premise is so crazy. These billionaire guys apparently aren’t satisfied with helping San Francisco anymore, so they want to build their own gated community (“California Forever”) in the Bay Area. I refer to it as “California Whatever” behind their backs.

I’ve done a lot of cartoons about California Forever, and the opposition over there seems to dig it. They post them all, and that’s the cool thing about local cartooning: you can have a real impact and you can also provide moral support for good people and groups. For example, in Oakland, I was delighted to kick John Fisher in the As for trying to sell the team, which will reside in my city for three years. BTW, all my friends are delighted while also hating John Fisher. Baseball Fan Cognitive DissonanceDysphoria, I guess. I get it. I probably will go see the Twins on June 4th.

Sigh. Win Twins!

I’m a total hypocrite.

Next?

President Who Doesn’t Understand California Water Issues has declared war on the Delta Smelt, which is a little indicator species here in our estuary. UC Davis had a 17 person program to protect the smelt, and, as usual, Trump lied about water being diverted just because of a tiny fish, he asserted. The whole thing with flows is actually about chinook salmon, the survival of which 100,000 California fishing jobs depend on.

But hey.

Trump stupidly flooded the Delta a few weeks ago, saying the military had executed an order to do so. So he wasted several million gallons of water, flooding out his GOP farmers in the process.

Make America Smelty Again.

DOGE decided to slash the smelt program, but a federal judge said they couldn’t do it, so the smelt have advocates, again.

Anyway, that’s it for the moment. Have a great evening. I’m going to meet my buddy Bruce, my son, and Bruce’s pal to watch Duke-Alabama.

I’m still holding out hope for Minnesota.

As usual.

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Hey, YBs! I gotta go get in the shower. Make some fun for yourself tonight, on me. Thanks for all the upgraded subscriptions! You’ve changed my life, and a special shout-out to junior high and high school friend Judy Carmein (formerly Judy Meinen) for helping a 7th grade friend! OK, YOU TOO, LARRY SAWYER, KATE BROWN and JIM KELLY! —J.