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Emperor

Wednesday June 15, 2022

June 15, 2022 by Graeme MacKay

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Wednesday June 15, 2022

Rudy Giuliani, drunk on conspiracy theories

President Donald Trump, his former aides testified, faced a fateful choice on election night 2020: Heed the best advice of his top political and legal advisers? Or go with the erratic drunk guy?

January 6, 2022

Trump chose Option No. 2.

“President Trump rejected the advice of his campaign experts on election night,” Vice Chairwoman Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) alleged at the start of Monday’s hearing of the House committee probing the Jan. 6, 2021, attack, “and instead followed the course recommended by an apparently inebriated Rudy Giuliani to just claim he won and insist that the vote counting stop, to falsely claim everything was fraudulent.”

A video of Jason Miller, a senior Trump campaign adviser, flashed on the screen above the dais in the Cannon Caucus Room. “The mayor was definitely intoxicated,” Miller testified, but “I do not know his level of intoxication when he spoke with the president.”

What, he wasn’t carrying a Breathalyzer?

July 20, 2021

Whatever his blood alcohol level, Giuliani’s nonsense quotient was over the limit. He was saying, “We won it, they’re stealing it from us,” Miller recounted. And “anyone who didn’t agree with that position was being weak.”

So Trump did as Giuliani instructed: He cried fraud and declared victory.

Giuliani, once America’s Mayor and Time’s Person of the Year, long ago became a national punchline, with his melting hair dye and his post-election news conference at Philadelphia’s Four Seasons Total Landscaping. But thanks to the select committee, we now know that people inside the Trump administration and campaign also thought him preposterous — with one key exception: Trump.

The committee relived some of Giuliani’s most ludicrous claims, sometimes accompanied by footage of his wild-eyed TV appearances. Votes “in garbage cans” and in “shopping baskets” being wheeled in for counting under orders from Frankfurt, Germany. Eight thousand dead people voting in Pennsylvania. A suitcase full of ballots pulled from under a table in Georgia. Votes manipulated via Italy, the Philippines and a deceased communist dictator in Venezuela.

February 26, 2021

In depositions screened by the committee, a veritable parade of Trump advisers testified that they told the president what they thought of such ideas: “Bull—t.” “Completely bogus.” “Silly.” “Completely nuts.” “Crazy.” “Incorrect.” “Debunked.” “Idiotic.”

White House lawyer Eric Herschmann, in his videotaped deposition, wondered aloud whether Giuliani, “at this stage of his life,” had “the same ability to manage things at this level or not.”

Trump campaign lawyer Matt Morgan, in his deposition, spoke about his conversations with outside counsel: “The general consensus was that law firms were not comfortable making the arguments that Rudy Giuliani was making.”

But Trump still sided with Giuliani’s lunacies — which “demoralized” the attorney general, Bill Barr. “I thought, ‘Boy, if he really believes this stuff, he has … become detached from reality.’”

January 8, 2021

Barr worked for Trump for two years before this occurred to him?

Even Trump son-in-law Jared Kushner, no profile in courage, testified that he disagreed with Crazy Rudy. Asked in his deposition whether he ever shared with Trump his “perspective” on Giuliani, Kushner paused 10 seconds as he searched for a reply: “Um … I, I guess … [Sigh] … Yes.” Finally, Kushner said he told Trump it was “basically, not the approach I would take if I was you.”

The committee played the deposition of Bill Stepien, Trump’s campaign manager, in which he testified that he disassociated himself from Trump’s bogus election-fraud claims. “There were two groups,” he said, “my team and Rudy’s team.” Stepien’s was, he said, “Team Normal.”

But Trump disbanded Team Normal the second week after the election. Instead, he arranged for “Mayor Giuliani to be moved in as the person in charge of the legal side of the campaign, and, for all intents and purposes, the campaign.”

May 14, 2021

A Republican-appointed U.S. attorney from Georgia explained how he chased down the Giuliani allegation that a “black suitcase” stuffed with ballots was the “smoking gun”: It was “actually an official ballot box,” handled correctly.

A former Republican official from Pennsylvania testified about investigating Giuliani’s claim to the state legislature that 8,000 dead people voted. “Not only was there not evidence of 8,000 dead voters voting in Pennsylvania, there wasn’t evidence of eight.”

A supposed 68 percent error rate of Michigan voting machines? Trump Justice Department official Richard Donoghue’s deposition said the actual error rate was 0.0063 percent.

But the debunking of each zany conspiracy theory (“whack-a-mole” was Barr’s description) would only cause Trump to “move to another allegation,” Donoghue testified.

January 31, 2008

And so the “big lie” was born — of no evidence but limitless repetition. Even now, Giuliani is, well, drunk on the idea.

“If you gave me the paper ballots, I could probably turn around each one of these states,” he said to the Jan. 6 committee in his own deposition. “I’d pull out enough that were fraudulent that it would shake the hell out of the country.”

Thanks, Rudy. But Team Abnormal has already done damage enough. (The Washington Post) 

 

Posted in: USA Tagged: 2022-19, circus, Donald Trump, election, Elephant, Emperor, GOP, insurrection, January 6, jester, Rudolph Giuliani, USA

Wednesday April 29, 2020

May 7, 2020 by Graeme MacKay

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Unpublished Wednesday April 29, 2020

US a Washed-up Empire

April 23, 2020

There was a time when the slick American propaganda held the world in thrall as if it were true. Many nations once gullibly looked to the US for leadership. Not any more.

The COVID-19 pandemic has exposed presumed US global power as a hollowed-out caricature. America’s response to the disease is abysmal. It is the world’s leader in the numbers of deaths and infections, unable to cope because of the woeful lack of an organized, functioning public health system. How damning is that?

April 18 2020

Another factor in why the US has been hit so badly by the pandemic is due to the parlous conditions for tens of millions of its workers who live on the brink of poverty with little social safety net. That speaks to the real undemocratic nature of American society as opposed to all the arrogant delusions of “exceptionalism”.

This appalling disaster is against a backdrop of Washington spending trillions of dollars on nuclear weapons and maintaining hundreds of thousands of troops in military bases all around the world backed up by legions of warships and warplanes.

April 7, 2020

US presidential historian Douglas Brinkley is quoted by Politico as saying: “The United States was once known for its can-do culture. We built the Panama Canal and we put a man on the moon. And now we can’t get a swab or a face mask or a gown and we have no real chain of command.”

March 26, 2020

Brinkley added: “We are not leading in the pandemic response, we are trailing other countries by a long shot. This is a crippling blow to America’s prestige around the world.”

China, South Korea, Germany, Russia and other nations, even US-sanctioned Iran and Cuba, have been much more effective in managing the COVID-19 crisis than the US. Why? Well, simply because they are not broke like the US is from its monstrous militarism and imperial overstretch. (Merely printing money is no solution.)

The calamity of the disease unfolding in the US is proof that its presumed global empire is all washed-up. Fitting the end of era mood, the country is being “led” by a president who thinks that injecting household bleach into the human body could be a cure for the virus. Trump increasingly sounds like mad Roman emperors Nero or Caligula.

American economist Joseph Stiglitz says the real state of US society is akin to a “third world country”. (Continued: Sputniknews.com) 


This cartoon is featured in the online version of the Washington Post on July 6, 2020 in a gallery of art work created during the 2020 Pandemic. Image is in a slideshow presented near the bottom of the page.

Posted in: USA Tagged: 2020-15, Coronavirus, covid-19, crisis, Donald Trump, Emperor, fiddler, Nero, pandemic, Rome, trope, USA

Tuesday January 22, 2019

January 29, 2019 by Graeme MacKay

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Tuesday January 22, 2019

Indigenous veteran mocked by students in video says he tried to ease tensions at National Mall

Students at a Kentucky Catholic school who were involved in a video showing them mocking Indigenous people outside the Lincoln Memorial after a Washington rally could potentially face expulsion, according to the diocese.

June 6, 2018

In a joint statement, the Roman Catholic Diocese of Covington and Covington Catholic High School apologized and said they are investigating and will take “appropriate action, up to and including expulsion.”

The Indigenous Peoples March in Washington on Friday coincided with the March for Life, which drew thousands of anti-abortion protesters, including a group from Covington Catholic High School in Park Hills, Kentucky.

Videos circulating online show a youth staring at and standing extremely close to Nathan Phillips, a 64-year-old Indigenous veteran singing and playing a drum. Other students, some wearing Covington clothing and many wearing “Make America Great Again” hats and sweat shirts, surrounded them, chanting, laughing and jeering.

November 3, 2017

“We extend our deepest apologies to Mr. Phillips,” the diocese statement read. “This behaviour is opposed to the Church’s teachings on the dignity and respect of the human person.”

According to the “Indian Country Today” website, Phillips is an Omaha elder and Vietnam veteran who holds an annual ceremony honouring Indigenous veterans at Arlington National Cemetery.

Marcus Frejo, a member of the Pawnee and Seminole tribes who is also known as Chief Quese Imc, said he had been a part of the march and was among a small group of people remaining after the rally when the boisterous students began chanting slogans such as “make America great” and then began doing the haka, a traditional Maori dance. In a phone interview, Frejo told The Associated Press he felt they were mocking the dance.

April 20, 2018

One 11-minute video of the confrontation shows the Haka dance and students loudly chanting before Phillips and Frejo approached them.

Frejo said he joined Phillips to defuse the situation, singing the anthem from the American Indian Movement with both men beating out the tempo on hand drums.

Although he feared a mob mentality that could turn ugly, Frejo said he was at peace singing despite the scorn. He briefly felt something special happen as they repeatedly sang the tune.

“They went from mocking us and laughing at us to singing with us. I heard it three times,” Frejo said. “That spirit moved through us, that drum, and it slowly started to move through some of those youths.” (Source: Hamilton Spectator) 

 

Posted in: USA Tagged: 2019-02, Covington, Donald Trump, Emperor, litter, MAGA, Nick Sandmann, supporters

Wednesday March 28, 2018

March 27, 2018 by Graeme MacKay

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Wednesday March 28, 2018

Will the March for our Lives Lead to Real Change?

On May 14, 2000, marchers descended upon Washington, D.C., from all corners of the country. On a bright spring day, an estimated seven hundred and fifty thousand people listened to a series of speakers, some of whom had lost friends and family members to gun violence, engage in a collective call for tougher gun laws. The protesters’ sheer numbers and the power of their message were such that it seemed nobody would dare defy them.

February 25, 2018

That was the Million Mom March. It followed a series of horrendous mass shootings, including the massacre at Columbine High School. And it was followed by almost two decades of inaction on Congress’s part. “Today, the year 2000 is remembered not for the birth of a gun control movement,” USA Today’s Rick Hampson noted last week, “but for the start of the National Rifle Association’s two-decade domination of gun politics.”

Will the aftermath of this weekend’s March for Our Lives be any different? It’s hard to know the difference between the cynical argument and the realist one. The White House, both houses of Congress, and most state legislatures and governor’s mansions are under the control of the Republican Party, which remains firmly in hock to the gun lobby. Right after the Parkland shooting, Donald Trump promised to stand up to the N.R.A., and then caved almost immediately. The country is in a feverish state. The news agenda changes by the hour, and even huge events, such as this Saturday’s giant marches in Washington and other cities, tend to fade from the headlines quickly. (Continued: New Yorker) 

 

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Posted in: USA Tagged: 2nd, amendment; hubris, ar 15, assault, Emperor, Second, semi-automatic, Uncle Sam; guns, USA

Thursday November 2, 2017

November 2, 2017 by Graeme MacKay

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Thursday November 2, 2017

World sees Trump as a weakened president

sketch

If you think it’s only Americans who are watching the news of a criminal indictment and a guilty plea of Trump campaign officials in the Russia probe, think again. Not only is the entire world following the dramatic developments, but world leaders, in particular, are keeping a close eye on a case that weakens President Donald Trump domestically — and has the potential to bring an early end to his presidency. 

 

March 7, 2017

There’s never a good time for a president to see former aides indicted, but Monday’s events — the indictment and arrest of two campaign officials, including the former Trump presidential campaign chairman Paul Manafort, and a guilty plea by foreign policy adviser George Papadopoulos, who admitted to communicating with people he believed to be linked to the Kremlin to get “dirt” on Hillary Clinton and arrange a meeting between Putin and Trump — came just a few days before Trump is scheduled to leave on a major trip to Asia. The timing could hardly be worse.

 

December 20, 2016

The stunning events made front page news from Chile to the Czech Republic. And there is no question that China’s President Xi Jinping, now more powerful than ever, is being closely briefed on the case. So is North Korea’s leader Kim Jong Un, as well as Iran’s supreme leader and others.

 
How will this investigation, which experts agree is only in its early stages, affect Trump’s ability to conduct business on behalf of the United States and the American people? It erodes his standing and his perceived power — and hence America’s, and it makes him less able to persuade others to align with Washington. In addition, it has the potential to cast doubts on his motives as he tackles international crises.
 

December 17, 2016

When global figures see an embattled President, they will see a wounded President. Trump has deliberately tried to make himself unpredictable, even frightening, to America’s adversaries. That fear element will now be magnified. Global (and domestic) audiences will wonder how his decision-making may be affected by his political troubles. (Continued: CNN) 

 
 

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Posted in: International, USA Tagged: Donald Trump, election, Emperor, intervention, meddling, Russia, scandal, skunk, stink, USA
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Please note…

This website contains satirical commentaries of current events going back several decades. Some readers may not share this sense of humour nor the opinions expressed by the artist. To understand editorial cartoons it is important to understand their effectiveness as a counterweight to power. It is presumed readers approach satire with a broad minded foundation and healthy knowledge of objective facts of the subjects depicted.

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