White House

Tuesday January 12, 2021

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Tuesday January 12, 2021

White House moving day packed with taxpayer-funded Covid-19 cleanings and shifting sports equipment

A thorough cleaning is part of the every-four-years tradition that comes with the outgoing president and his family swapping White House living with the incoming president and family. 

December 12, 2020

The delicate and highly choreographed event of packing up and moving out, and unpacking and moving in, done by dozens of prepped and trained staff and movers, typically occurs in the six-hour window when both the exiting and entering presidents and their spouses attend Inauguration Day ceremonies on Capitol Hill. By the time the new president and first lady return to the White House, all of their stuff will have been moved in and ready to go — down to a refrigerator stocked with their favorite foods and the master bathroom equipped with their preferred shampoo. 

But, like most things Trump administration, this January 20 won’t be very traditional.

Before the Bidens move in, the White House will first undergo a Covid-19 cleansing, top to bottom, from East Wing to West Wing. According to federal contract data reviewed by CNN, the total for the amplified White House inauguration deep clean right now hovers near a half-million dollars. 

This includes $127,000 for what one government order refers to as “2021 Inaugural Cleaning,” bid out to Didlake, a Virginia-based business that employs people with disabilities for jobs including janitorial and housekeeping services. That’s separate from a $44,000 order for carpet cleaning and the $115,000 purchase agreement for “2021 Presidential Inauguration and Transition Carpet Replacement and Installation to correct the current floor condition of selected interior floors for various offices,” within the East Wing, West Wing and Executive Office Building, according to the description.

November 24, 2020

In traditional administration-swaps, the bulk of the cleaning, while thorough, is done predominantly by White House staff — housekeepers, butlers, ushers — and upkeep such as electrical fixes and small maintenance jobs completed by White House workers, of which there are typically 90 to 100 in roles that range from pastry cooks to florists to plumbers. 

However, this time around, the incoming Biden administration wanted to ensure that 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, which has been a hot spot of at least three Covid-19 breakouts, gets the sort of scrub-down a pandemic deserves, according to a White House official who spoke with CNN on the condition of anonymity. 

“The idea that they would just move in seems unlikely,” said the official, who was not aware of the specific contract numbers but was aware there were additional measures being taken after the Trumps leave the White House. (CNN) 

 

Tuesday June 2, 2020

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Tuesday June 2, 2020

God Bless, and please help, our friend America

It was Justin Trudeau’s late father who, in 1969, coined the best description ever of what it’s like living next door to the United States. “Living next to you is in some ways like sleeping with an elephant. No matter how friendly and even-tempered is the beast, if I can call it that, one is affected by every twitch and grunt,” he said in a speech.

April 29, 2020

Pierre Trudeau probably couldn’t have envisioned what is happening in America right now. Already weak and dazed thanks to poor stewardship, the elephant has become very sick over the past week. It is, in fact, convulsing. Its future is far from certain. 

It’s hard to watch. Even those of us who don’t care for many aspects of America — particularly Donald Trump’s America — feel sorrow and some trepidation.

The immediate crisis is the result of yet another unarmed black man being killed by white police. This time it started in Minneapolis. This time the black man, whose name was George Floyd, died after a cop knelt on his neck for just under nine minutes, while other officers stood by and watched. Floyd’s crime, apparently, was resisting arrest and acting belligerent, quite possibly under the influence. The cop who knelt on Floyd’s neck was charged with third-degree murder and manslaughter. And he was fired. Three other officers have been dismissed but have not yet been charged. 

May 5, 2020

The charged former officer has previously been involved in the fatal shooting of another suspect, and was the subject of 17 complaints during his two-decade police career.

The killing, caught on multiple videos, quickly went monstrously viral. And then all hell broke loose, and continues to do so, as recently as last night. Some demonstrators threw Molotov cocktails at police in Philadelphia, Pa., others set fires near the White House and faced tear gas and rubber bullets in Austin, Texas, Atlanta, Ga., and other cities. So far, deaths have been recorded in Kentucky, Detroit, Mich., and Minneapolis. Concerns have been raised about looters and vandals taking advantage of the protests.

It has been bad before when police kill unarmed black people. Tamir Rice was playing in a park. Eric Garner had just broken up a fight. Ezell Ford was walking in his neighbourhood. Philando Castile was driving home from dinner with his girlfriend. Dominique Clayton and Breonna Taylor were sleeping in their beds. But this is the worst in a very long time. Black Americans are 2.5 times as likely as white Americans to be shot and killed by police officers.

November 9, 2016

At times like this, you look to your elected leaders as a stabilizing force. The mayor of Minneapolis and the state governor have been trying. Not Donald Trump though. Rather than try to instill calm and call for unity, Trump went off on state governors during a video conference about the widespread violence. He told them to aggressively target violent protesters. He said “You have to dominate or you’ll look like a bunch of jerks…” He ordered them to seek “retribution”. He counselled aggression, telling the governors “You don’t have to be too careful.” He said of the violence: “It’s a movement, if you don’t put it down it will get worse and worse … The only time its successful is when you’re weak and most of you are weak.”

Presumably, Trump was referring to Antifa, the violence left-wing protest group. It has certainly been active and no doubt is responsible for some of the violence, but the wave is much bigger than that. 


Barack Obama, by contrast, condemned the violence and called for the protesters to come together for peaceful protest and change. Of course, Obama is not in the White House. Trump is. God bless, and help, America. (Hamilton Spectator Editorial)

USA, White House, Abraham Lincoln, John F. Kennedy, quote, BlackLivesMatter, racism, Donald Trump, white nationalism, bigotry

Letter to the Editor, Hamilton Spectator, Friday June 5, 2020

June 2 editorial cartoon said it all

Thank you Graeme MacKay for this cartoon (Kennedy’s ghost visiting Donald Trump)! It says it all. As someone who was a teenager when Martin Luther King, President Kennedy and then his brother Bobby were assassinated, I was in shock and devastated. The closest the U.S. ever came again to being in that position was when Barack Obama became president. Now we watch and listen to the rhetoric of the most disgusting president ever. Everything presidents Lincoln, Kennedy and Obama, as well as Sen. Kennedy and Martin Luther King, stood for are ignored by today’s “leader.” The election cannot come fast enough.

Gwen Vance, Hamilton

Tuesday April 7, 2020

April 7, 2020

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Tuesday April 7, 2020

Trump and 3M reach deal to allow N95 face masks to be exported to Canada

The Trump administration has agreed a deal with the US manufacturer 3M to import more than 166m respirators from China over the next three months and allow 3M to continue exporting its US-made respirators.

Coronavirus cartoons

The agreement breaks a deadlock which resulted in Washington stopping nearly three million of the specialized masks from being exported to Ontario, stirring fears that Canada’s most populous province would run out of supplies for medical staff battling coronavirus by the end of the week.

Donald Trump, who had lambasted 3M over the weekend, had warm words for the company on Tuesday, following the agreement, and its chairman and CEO, Mike Roman, offered praise for the president.

“I want to thank President Trump and the administration for their leadership and collaboration,” Roman said in a written statement. “These imports will supplement the 35 million N95 respirators we currently produce per month in the United States.”

Under the plan, 3M will import 166.5m respirators (masks which form a seal over the mouth and nose and offer much greater protection than surgical masks) from its factories in China, over the coming three months.

Meanwhile, the 3M statement said: “The plan will also enable 3M to continue sending US produced respirators to Canada and Latin America, where 3M is the primary source of supply.”

The clash with 3M and Canada began on Thursday when Donald Trump invoked the 1950 Defense Production Act giving the government “any or all authority” to stop 3M exporting N95 respirators to Canada and Latin America.

March 26, 2020

The masks, which filter out 95% of airborne particles, are seen as a critical tool for frontline healthcare workers in the fight against Covid-19

At a press conference on Monday, Ontario’s premier, Doug Ford, said the 500,000 masks had been cleared for release, but nearly three million masks were intercepted by US officials at 3M’s South Dakota Facility.

“We know that the US isn’t allowing supplies across the US border,” Ford said. “The hard truth is, our supplies in Ontario are getting very low and the more new cases we get, the more demand there is on our resources.”

3M initially resisted the president’s executive order, warning in a statement the move would have “significant humanitarian implications” for countries desperate for safety equipment.

Over the weekend, Trump harshly criticised the company, warning it would have “a big price to pay”.

“We need the masks. We don’t want other people getting it,” Trump said in a Saturday briefing to reporters. “That’s why we’re instituting [the] Defense Production Act. You could call it retaliation because that’s what it is: it’s a retaliation. If people don’t give us what we need for our people, we’re going to be very tough.” (The Guardian) 

 

Pandemic Response from r/worldpoliticalhumour

 

Thursday March 26, 2020

March 26, 2020

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Thursday March 26, 2020

Coronavirus: Trump hopes US will shake off pandemic by Easter

The president told a White House news briefing reopening the US early next month would be “a beautiful timeline”.

Coronavirus cartoons

Hours later, the Senate agreed a $2 trillion (£1.7tn) economic rescue plan with the White House.

The deal will be passed later on Wednesday by the Senate.

“At last, we have a deal,” Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said, citing the massive “wartime level of investment into our nation”.

The package includes tax rebates, loans, money for hospitals and rescue packages for businesses.

The House of Representatives still needs to pass the legislation before it is sent to Mr Trump for his signature.

The US has recorded almost 55,000 cases and nearly 800 deaths from coronavirus.

Globally there have been more than 420,000 cases confirmed and approaching 19,000 deaths.

On Tuesday, he told Fox News he hoped the country could get back to normal by Easter, which is on the weekend of 12 April.

Mr Trump, a Republican, said: “We’re going to be opening relatively soon… I would love to have the country opened up and just raring to go by Easter.”

He added in a subsequent interview: “Easter is a very special day for me… and you’ll have packed churches all over our country.”

Mr Trump also warned that unless the country reopened for business it could suffer “a massive recession or depression”.

The president said: “You’re going to lose people. You’re going to have suicides by the thousands. You’re going to have all sorts of things happen. You’re going to have instability.”

Speaking at a White House briefing later, Mr Trump said he was beginning “to see the light at the end of the tunnel”, though he said “our decision will be based on hard facts and data”.

Dr Anthony Fauci, the nation’s leading expert on infectious diseases and a member of the White House’s coronavirus task force, told the same press briefing: “No-one is going to want to tone down anything when you see what is going on in a place like New York City.” (BBC) 

 

Wednesday March 14, 2018

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Wednesday March 14, 2018

Rex Tillerson just got brutally dumped from the White House

January 17, 2018

For the last several months, there have been rumors that President Trump was displeased with his Secretary of State and that he wanted to replace him with CIA Director Mike Pompeo. The White House has repeatedly denied that such a shakeup was in the offing, and Tillerson has repeatedly said that he doesn’t want to leave his job. But on Tuesday morning, Trump tweeted it out.

There is a lot going on here. Tillerson and Trump have never exactly jibed. The two have clashed over the Paris Climate Accords, North Korea, and the decision to move the United States’s embassy in Israel to Jerusalem. Most recently, Tillerson raised eyebrows by laying the blame on Russia for the poisoning of the double agent Sergei Skripal—something that Sarah Huckabee Sanders wouldn’t do.

August 12, 2017

All of that may be secondary to the fact that Trump has never quite gotten over being called a “fucking moron” by his secretary of state. Tillerson was caught unawares, with the State Department saying he “had every intention of staying. … The Secretary did not speak to the President and is unaware of the reason.”

Tillerson’s tenure was a disaster, marked by a historic gutting of his department, conflicts with the president that increasingly left him outside of major policy decisions, and a seeming hatred for the job. But perhaps Tillerson’s main problem was that he tried to act like a diplomat in an administration that hates diplomacy.

For those who are concerned about Trump’s erratic temperament, Pompeo and Haspel are alarming choices. Pompeo sees the War on Terror as a clash of civilizations and is a hawk when it comes to Iran. Haspel, meanwhile, played a “direct role” in the CIA’s extraordinary rendition program. With weeks to go before negotiations with North Korea supposedly start, Trump’s national security team just got a lot more hawkish. (Source: New Republic)