United States – mackaycartoons

Tuesday October 4, 2016

October 3, 2016 by Graeme MacKay

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Tuesday October 4, 2016

Trump tax records suggest no federal taxes for years, New York Times reports

Donald Trump’s business losses in 1995 were so large that they could have allowed him to avoid paying federal income taxes for as many as 18 years, according to records obtained by the New York Times.

In a story published online late Saturday, the Times said it anonymously received the first pages of Trump’s 1995 state income tax filings in New York, New Jersey and Connecticut. The filings show a net loss of $915,729,293 in federal taxable income for the year.

Trump’s campaign released a statement on Saturday lashing out at the Times for publishing the records and accused the newspaper of working to benefit the Republican nominee’s presidential rival, Democrat Hillary Clinton.

“Mr. Trump is a highly skilled businessman who has a fiduciary responsibility to his business, his family and his employees to pay no more tax than legally required,” the statement said.

October 16, 2015

“That being said, Mr. Trump has paid hundreds of millions of dollars in property taxes, sales and excise taxes, real estate taxes, city taxes, state taxes, employee taxes and federal taxes, along with very substantial charitable contributions,” it said.

Trump initially said that he would make his tax returns public during the course of his campaign but later switched course, citing what he said were years of ongoing IRS audits and the advice of his attorneys to keep them private as those audits proceed.

Tax experts say there’s no prohibition on Trump releasing his returns.

Since 1976, every major party presidential nominee has released tax returns. Clinton has publicly released nearly 40 years’ worth, and Trump’s running mate, Indiana Gov. Mike Pence, has released 10 years of his tax returns. (Source: CBC News)

Thursday September 22, 2016

September 21, 2016 by Graeme MacKay

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Thursday September 22, 2016

Donald Trump Jr. Compares Syrian Refugees to Skittles That ‘Would Kill You’

Donald Trump Jr. is facing intense backlash on social media after he posted a message on Twitter Monday night that compared Syrian refugees to a bowl of Skittles sprinkled with a few that “would kill you.”

November 20, 2015

“This image says it all. Let’s end the politically correct agenda that doesn’t put America first,” the post said.

Mr. Trump, a top adviser in his father’s presidential campaign, appeared to suggest that the nation was faced with a blind selection process in which a few potentially poisoned pieces would be lurking among the thousands of Syrians fleeing a brutal five-year-old civil war.

November 18, 2015

The post, shared widely on Twitter, drew swift condemnation and comparisons to white supremacist memes.

Social media users shared images of displaced residents in the region. President Obama’s chief speechwriter, Jon Favreau, invoked Omran Daqneesh, the bloodstained, dust-coated boy who was shown sitting in an ambulance after an airstrike and who became a symbol of the suffering in Aleppo, Syria.

July 22, 2016

The post also spurred a strong response from Wrigley, the owner of Skittles:

“Skittles are candy. Refugees are people. We don’t feel it’s an appropriate analogy. We will respectfully refrain from further commentary as anything we say could be misinterpreted as marketing,” the company said in a statement that was emailed on Tuesday by a spokeswoman and that initially appeared in The Hollywood Reporter. (Source: New York Times)

Tuesday August 16, 2016

September 12, 2016 by Graeme MacKay

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Tuesday August 16, 2016

Trump suggests Hillary’s been sick for a while as he prepares to release ‘very, very specific’ numbers from his latest physical – on Dr. Oz’s show

Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump suggested that Hillary Clinton has been sick for a while, pointing to her coughing fit last week as evidence that ‘something’s going on.’

‘I really just don’t just know. I hope she gets well soon. I don’t know what’s going on,’ Trump said when asked about it on ‘Fox and Friends’ Monday morning.

He wished Clinton well after her weekend health scare – and revealed he is preparing to release detailed results of his own physical on Thursday.

The big reveal will come on Dr. Mehmet Oz’s TV show, according to a report from the Fox News Channel.

Trump’s campaign said last week that he would share his ‘health regimen’ with the Tv doc, but the planned appearance has gained new significance in the wake of Hillary’s collapse on Sunday.

Trump was uncharacteristically silent – including on Twitter – on Sunday, even as Clinton was spirited away from a Sept. 11th ceremony in New York, where was captured on video stumbling on the way to her van before her campaign finally revealed she had been diagnosed with pneumonia.

Then he brought up Clinton’s prolonged coughing allergy last week, which Clinton jokingly chalked up to a Trump allergy.

‘The coughing fit was a week ago, so I assume that was pnemonia also. I would think it would have been. So something’s going on.’

Trump also attended the ceremony in New York, but without incident.

‘I just hope she gets well and gets back on the trail and we’ll be seeing her at the debate,’ he added.

Trump indicated he’ll be putting out detailed results about his own health.

‘I think it’s an issue. In fact, this last week I took a physical,’ he said. ‘I’ll be releasing – when the numbers come in, hopefully they’re gonna be good, I think they’re gonna be good. But when the numbers come in, I’ll be really very, very specific numbers, Trump said.

To date Trump, 70, has only released a short letter from a doctor, who the Clinton campaign has noted is not an internist but a gastroenterologist. The letter stated he would be the ‘healthiest individual ever elected to the presidency.’

Clinton will be 69 when she takes office if elected. (Source: Daily Mail)

Thursday July 28, 2016

July 27, 2016 by Graeme MacKay

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Thursday July 28, 2016

Barack Obama to make case for Hillary Clinton, his legacy

President Barack Obama’s three Democratic convention speeches have, in succession, launched his national career, thrust him into the Oval Office and secured him a second term. On Wednesday, he’ll work during his fourth marquee convention address to ensure those earlier efforts weren’t for naught.

Wednesday Night live sketch of DNC2016

In his prime-time pitch for Hillary Clinton, and during a heavy campaign schedule this fall, Obama plans to argue not only for the Democratic nominee, but for the progressive policies that he’s spent the last eight years enacting — an agenda that will depend largely on his successor to maintain.

His message, according to those helping him prepare for the speech: Don’t flush everything away with Donald Trump.

Obama plans to draw on his long and complicated relationship with Clinton, which began as a rivalry but has evolved into what the pair hopes can become the first elected Democrat-to-Democrat presidential transition in modern history.

In pre-convention interviews, Obama has been frank about his relationship with Clinton, admitting they aren’t “bosom buddies.”

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, Editorial Cartoonist, The Hamilton Spectator - Tuesday January 29, 2008 Bill Clinton the Albatross The message from South Carolina Democrats last Saturday could not have been clearer: Bill Clinton is on the verge of ruiningÊhis wife's campaign. Or even if she survives the primary, she has already been weakened for November and the general election, especially if theÊRepublicans nominate John McCain. If you think that verdict is too harsh, Clinton got just over 25 percent of the vote. Yes, Barack Obama had the advantage of aÊhuge African-American vote, but her showing was still dismal. The former two-term president was all over the Palmetto State, blistering Obama and the press for their treatment of his wife. With the Clintons, when they are wrong, it is always someone else's fault, never theirs. Bill Clinton is making George H.W. Bush and other former presidents look good. The elder Bush campaigned for his son, butÊpositively and not ripping Al Gore or John Kerry. Other former presidents of both parties have been restrained and largelyÊremained on the sidelines. But not Bill Clinton. A group of 23 knowledgeable Democrats gathered last Saturday. The group was divided in support for Clinton, Obama, andÊJohn Edwards. Only one person was not highly critical of Bill Clinton's performance; some were rather vociferous about it. (Source: US News and World Report)Êhttp://www.usnews.com/opinion/blogs/mashek/2008/01/28/bill-clinton-the-albatross USA, Barack Obama, Bill Clinton, Hillary Clinton, dragon, monster, Democratic, Democrat, election

January 29, 2008 – Obama vs. a two-headed monster

“We don’t go vacationing together,” Obama said during a CBS interview Sunday. “I think that I’ve got a pretty clear-eyed sense of both her strengths and her weaknesses. And what I would say would be that this is somebody who knows as much about domestic and foreign policy as anybody.”

“She’s not always flashy. And there are better speech-makers,” he said. “But she knows her stuff.”

Bill Clinton at the 2016 DNC

Many top Republicans skipped their party’s convention last week, fearing links to Trump. But Democratic convention organizers had a wealth of willing speakers, programming prime-time speeches from high-profile and well-liked Democrats like Obama, Vice President Joe Biden (who also speaks Wednesday), first lady Michelle Obama, Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders and Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren.

President George W. Bush skipped his party’s 2008 meeting and wasn’t a major presence on the campaign trail for Sen. John McCain. Obama, conversely, is expected to spend most of October on the campaign trail for Clinton, working to encourage the coalition of voters — formed of young people and minorities — to vote this time around.

An ABC News/Washington Post poll this month showed Obama’s approval at 56% — the highest point since early in his first term. (Source: CNN)

Tuesday July 26, 2016

July 25, 2016 by Graeme MacKay

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Tuesday July 26, 2016

Clinton should offer a stark contrast from the GOP’s dystopian vision

“THE LAST thing we need,” Hillary Clinton said the day after the Republican convention ended last week, “is somebody running for president who talks trash about America.” With that, the presumptive Democratic nominee signaled that her party will offer a very different picture of America at its convention in Philadelphia this week — and rightly so.

DNC2016 Mon. night live sketch

The Democratic convention is likely to look and sound different in many ways from the one that just closed in Cleveland. The sea of white faces that television viewers saw on the GOP convention floor — there were fewer than 20 African Americans the 2,472 delegates — will be replaced by a crowd that looks more like the diverse America of 2016.

We hope we won’t hear chants calling for the imprisonment of the Democrats’ political opponents, or speeches suggesting that Donald Trump is somehow responsible for the acts of murderers, or has a pact with the Devil.

The contrast that’s most needed, however, is in how Ms. Clinton and her supporting cast assess the state of the nation as this momentous election approaches. Mr. Trump and the Republicans drew a dark portrait of an American dystopia, a blasted land paralyzed by violent crime, terrorism, killings of police, out-of-control illegal immigration and a “rigged” political system. It is, as we have said, a story that draws on painful disruption in parts of our society. But in whole and in detail, it is a lie. Part of what Democrats must do in Philadelphia, for the good of the nation and for the good of their party, is present a more balanced view.

Given the anti-establishment mood in much of the electorate, and polls showing deep discontent with the direction of the country, Ms. Clinton might have been briefly tempted to let Mr. Trump’s bleak rhetoric stand — to present herself as the candidate more able to manage a dangerous and turbulent time. Certainly, it is important to acknowledge and address legitimate anxieties raised by such events as the terrorist attack in Orlando and the recent shootings by and of police. (Continued: Washington Post)