“Karma has everyone’s address and a motherf**cking stamp!” - Lady Gaga

I’d bet the farm (or ranch) that the majority of America’s cattle ranchers have voted for Trump in multiple elections, but now they’ve been herded to the back of the line of screwed supporters.

This past week the White house decided to relax tariffs on 660 million pounds of foreign beef imports thus screwing American livestock producers. The plan is for this imported (from who knows where) beef to be sold at 25% less than market price.

While I understand that this move is an attempt to bring consumer prices down in Trump’s shitty economy the other side of this cow pie is to abandon “America First” thus driving his supporters to the financial slaughterhouse.

In response to the blowback from ranchers and other republicans President Trump has a new plan. He has now stated that he will ease regulations and allow these ranchers and farmers to process their own food. How wonderful! Let’s take one of the everyday American things like the hamburger and roll the dice by reducing safety measures here at home.

For my money, “The Burger King” is now the 2nd creepiest character in the world of Whoppers. Bon Appetit!

Sketches & sketchy stuff…

This was one of those extremely rare cartoons where I had the idea and image in my head before I even picked up a pencil. I knew that I simply wanted to draw a cattle rancher that had been branded with the word LOSER or SUCKER. Either label would work so that decision was a coin flip.

I did have a brief moment when I considered if I should have his pants down to show the brand on his butt, but I decided to place it on his pants because that would make the cartoon more acceptable to editors around the country and gave it a better chance of being seen.

Some of the other visual thoughts centered around making his keister large enough so that the brand was readable and obvious. I also played around with the idea of his shirt being plaid or having a pattern. I decided a solid color was better so the type “America’s Cattle Ranchers” wasn’t fighting against a busy background.

This cartoon is a good example of my process of contrasting large shapes against smaller skinny shapes. This visual contrast of size makes the image more interesting to look at and certainly more fun to draw.

Final drawing…

If you chose to help me out by becoming a paid subscriber you can have the signed original drawing of this cartoon (or any other you choose) along with a signed color print.

“People who fly into a rage always make a bad landing.” - Will Rogers

Sadly, the most common thought that’s stumbled through my head these past 20 months is, “I never imagined that in my lifetime that I’d witness… (and this weeks finish line to that thought is) …the United States feuding with Canada.”

In my 68 trips around the sun these are easily the most negatively bizarre days that I’ve ever witnessed.

Our President is in a political pissing match with our neighbors up north and it’s embarrassing. Trade negotiations between the United States and Canada collapsed and so our “stable genius” decided to ramp up and retaliate with his favorite Negotiation Nerf Gun… tariffs. Canada refused to back down and responded in kind with their own tariffs and now everyone in both countries will suffer.

This is insane. I’ve always viewed the relationship between the U.S. and Canada as the best example on the planet of how countries should get along. Now that relationship is eroding on a daily basis and I don’t think any of us are seeing much hope on the horizon, and why would we? President Hissy-Fit began this 2nd term insulting Canada with his 51st state nonsense and today is wielding his Sharpie as a salve and renaming Lake Ontario to sooth his bwuised wittle feewings. It’s pathetic.

Sketches & sketchy stuff…

The message that I wanted to convey with this cartoon is that Canada wasn’t backing down from Trump’s bullying. As I was reading various articles there was a quote from Trump that said, “We don’t need Canada, they need us” and I played around with some sketches that could include that. I also began jotting down some other phrases to see if something sparked an idea. One of those was Royal Canadian Pouty instead of Royal Canadian Mountie. I grew up with Dudley Do-Right so I liked the connection, but nothing really sparked into an acceptable idea.

What did generate the idea was the term Canadian Goose. By changing Goose to Goosed and planting the Canadian flag in his ass I could achieve the results I wanted. I did struggle in drawing him in the position of laying on his stomach and it is a little awkward, but I think it works fairly well. I also thought about a secondary flag with the words “No Deal, Donnie”, but I decided that I had already communicated that message with the single flag. The last thing I dealt with was the size of the flag itself. In the end (pun intended) I decided to make it a little smaller so it had a better size contrast with our horizontal embarrassment.

Final drawing…

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“Maybe there’s a way to keep us in this moment. Not the sad part. But the coming together part.” - David Levithan

10 days ago a state of emergency was declared in Hamilton County where I live due to the largest flooding in the area since 1913. Excessive amounts of rain in a short period caused the White River to swell and overflow into communities across the area. Over 30 roads were closed as well as some schools and there were several water rescues performed by first responders. Thousands of my fellow Hoosiers in this county and others around the state have been hit hard by this act of nature and 7 lives have been tragically lost.

As of today the water levels have subsided, but the loss and devastation continue. Friends, neighbors, and entire communities have come together and begun the overwhelming task of cleaning up the devastation.

I’m seeing reports that the damage estimates could run between $550 million to over $5 billion. Our Governor Mike Braun reached out to President Trump for federal assistance through FEMA. The response was Trump declaring an emergency for Indiana which will provide funds up to wait for it… $5 million. Meanwhile, that other water disaster on Trump’s watch known as the Reflecting Pool has flushed away over $16 million from federal funds. In hindsight this is exactly what the majority of my fellow Hoosiers voted for. Trump has clearly stated that he wants to eliminate FEMA altogether and make individual states take on the entire responsibility of dealing with natural disasters. This administration has already terminated staff and funding and so here we are.

On the bright side, we have each other. The most impressive flood right now is that of my fellow Hoosiers stepping up to help each other in this time of need.

I’m not going to share my sketches on this on. It’s simply a pennant and the only real thinking on this one was coming up with what to say in an attempt to show gratitude to the people helping out.

My family and I were not affected beyond dealing with the inconvenience of road closures, but I will share some images of the destruction literally just a few miles from our home. One photo is of a bridge that collapsed just down the road which rerouted the waters from the river to fill a nearby quarry with billions of gallons. This situation caused concerns that a major sewage pipeline in the area was compromised and its contents would likely end up in the White River. Fortunately officials contracted local responders, engineers and the National Guard to work around the clock to construct dams to remedy the situation… at least temporarily. Another image is of the White River completely swelled and threatening to destroy the historic Potters Bridge in Noblesville. Fortunately the waters receded and the structure built in 1871 survived. I’ll share a more normal image of it so you can see how high the water rose in comparison.

“When ignorance gets started it knows no bounds.”- Will Rogers

I took time off substack last week so that I could enjoy my 16-month-old granddaughter that was visiting from Minnesota. However, I didn’t totally ignore another diaper wearing toddler and managed to create this panel in response to his pathetic comments last week.

The U.S.S. Abraham Lincoln has been deployed in the Middle East for more than 200 days and several reports have been posted over the past few weeks about the poor conditions aboard that aircraft carrier. It has come to light that family members and spouses of those on the Lincoln are concerned about their loved ones mental health and the dwindling supplies they are dealing with. The response from the President was to dismiss the families concerns as unfounded and claim that the ship has not been deployed for “nearly long enough.”

As I stated, this cartoon was created last week and currently it has been reported that the USS Abraham Lincoln is on it’s way back to the states after 272 days at sea. That’s extremely positive news for all concerned, but it still doesn’t excuse the pathetic and disrespectful comments from Commander Turdtrousers.

Sketches & sketchy stuff…

The idea behind this cartoon was to express the abysmal lack of respect that our President has for the military. I don’t think he gives a damn about anything beyond his own nose and he treats the military and our service members as pawns to do his bidding. In his mind this presents an image of his self-perceived toughness and masculinity. He has zero empathy for our military personnel as human beings and what they’re dealing with.

I played around with a few thoughts on how best to communicate this and I kept circling around the idea that Trump was treating the Lincoln and those aboard like garbage and so that’s where I landed. I simply placed an aircraft carrier floating in a garbage can. Once that was decided I needed only a few words that would add to the image. I decided to play off of another of Trump’s ridiculous commands and name the body of liquid sludge the Gulf of Presidential Empathy. It seemed appropriate.

As far as creative designs go there were just a few, but they’re important and concerned color selection more than anything else. The water…I didn’t want it to be blue. It need to be filthy so I had to choose between a brown or a yellow-green. I decided to go with the latter because it has a mental association with sickness or poison. I also chose yellow-green because of the other color decision. The ship and the can would both lean toward very neutral grays. The carrier ended up more colder blue-gray and the can was more of a warmer brown-gray. This helped to dictate my selection of the yellow-green liquid because it was a more colorful hue and created more of a visual contrast against the grays.

Final drawing…

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Thanks for understanding

“The difference between a hero and a coward is one step sideways.” - Gene Hackman

As we all learned this past week President Trump took a YUUUUGE step sideways leaving his staff and the White House Press Corp in the crosshairs of a suspected Iranian attack on Air Force One.

Last month the President was scheduled to fly home from Turkey on his “old” Presidential plane and after boarding he was secretly transferred into a catering truck which transported him to a different Military aircraft for the flight back to Washington. I’ve seen this covert scenario being reported on the right as a “Bond-like” maneuver, but in reality it was a chicken-shit move. I understand the idea of protecting the President, but I simply can’t wrap my head around the idea of potentially sacrificing the lives of those left on the targeted plane. Seriously!? That’s the best option that the Secret Service and Trump could come up with? Yes, I understand the argument that it’s not the Secret Service’s job to protect everyone, but it’s also not my job to jump fully clothed into a swimming pool when a toddler falls into the deep end… which Ive done. You do it because it’s the right thing to do and you save people if you can. At the very least they could have simply gotten everyone off of that plane once Trump was safely tucked away and on his way home. Nope, they just let it take off with everyone on board and bullseye right next to the Presidential Seal on the side of the plane.

What’s even more ridiculous is the glaring contrast between Trump in this event and Trump at the one that took place in Butler, PA on July 13, 2024. You remember that one. The one where the Secret Service allowed Trump and his now infamous “Miracle Ear” to stand up in the middle of an active shooting, thrust his fist in the air and yell FIGHT! FIGHT! FIGHT! If you still buy that nonsense you can have my DOGE check.

Sketches & sketchy stuff…

Well, I drew a truck. No big deal, right? Actually it is. When drawing an ordinary mundane object like a truck or an ironing board or a lamp or anything else you can think of, it is a big deal. At least to me. I understand that its a simple everyday thing, but I’m drawing it to communicate an idea, grab the viewers attention and so I want it to be better than ordinary. I want it to be unique and interesting… if that’s possible.

To that end I played around with a number of sketches. I played around with the size of the cab vs the container. I played around with bending lines. I played around with the tie and the placement of the type. These were all decisions to make it just a tiny bit better… because it’s simply a truck. Probably the best thing I did was to lift it off the ground a little and give it visually perceived motion The wacky wheels, the movement lines and the trailing tie all made that happen. Also, the final touch and my favorite part was the Baby On Board sign… (Chef’s Kiss)

Final drawing…

If you chose to help me out by becoming a paid subscriber you can have the signed original drawing of this cartoon (or any other you choose) along with a signed color print.

“People never lie so much as after a hunt, during a war or before an election.” - Otto von Bismarck

Donald and his dumblings are reaching back in time to serve up the “Red Scare” as “Red Meat” to anyone stupid enough to pay attention. The reality is that the midterm elections are less than 90 days away and the GOP is scared shitless and desperate to find a way to redirect the voters from frustration to fear. To that end they are labeling young progressive Democrat candidates as communists and painting them as a threat to the future of this nation.

I personally have no real fear of Democrats taking this country in the direction of a typical communist regime. I can’t imagine that any of them would have the urge to force their likeness or name on public buildings or currency. I can’t fathom them holding military parades on their birthdays or diminishing the press as stupid or fake. I can’t see them establishing a masked and militarized police force with the intent to weed out undesirables looking for a better life . Maybe I’m just naive and looking at things through rose-colored glasses, but I just can’t imagine elected Democrats in the United States being okay with the kind of narcissistic dictatorship one finds only in a communist country.

sketches & sketchy stuff…

I grew up with Saturday morning cartoons and a number of them featured mice as characters. Most of these animated features had limitations on human characters appearing, but on occasion they would bend that rule and show a housewife or house keeper standing on a chair (from the knees down) in fear of one of these tiny mice. It was always a funny image and I decided to utilize it in this cartoon. The image of an enormous GOP elephant balanced on a stool in fear of a small voting booth was the perfect vehicle to communicate the message of the cartoon.

I did a few sketches trying to decide which way the elephant should face and this may sound silly, but I made the decision based on giving room to my signature in the upper left corner. I also decided that he should be wearing a large RED shirt to help push the “Red Scare” message and added the GOP logo on it just to make sure. It worked out well since the Republicans are identified as the Red Party. The other consideration was the voting booth. I wanted it to be as small as possible, but still large enough to have the MIDTERMS type be readable.

Final drawing…

If you chose to help me out by becoming a paid subscriber you can have the signed original drawing of this cartoon (or any other you choose) along with a signed color print.

“ Every recruit, every current student-athlete will hear this message repeatedly, we are here to win championships. If you don’t want to win championships, go to Indiana.” - Tommy McClelland, newly hired Purdue University Athletic Director

This past Thursday Purdue University introduced their brand new Athletic Director to the masses and he immediately became a national punchline by making the above statement about in-state rival Indiana University.

For anyone that has been in a coma for the last year Indiana University won the College Football Championship this past season with a record of 16-0. Purdue finished the season at 2-10 and has lost it’s last 2 meetings with Indiana by a combined total of 122-3.

If that isn’t enough to make McClellands comment embarrassing let’s examine the National Championship history of each school.

Indiana has 25 NCAA Championships. 5 in men’s basketball, 8 in men’s soccer, 6 in men’s swimming and diving, 3 in men’s cross country, and 1 in men’s track and field, wrestling and football.

Purdue has 3 NCAA Championships. 1 in men’s golf, 1 in women’s golf and 1 in women’s basketball.

To be fair, McClelland immediately made the rounds the next day and took full responsibility for his ridiculous statement and I applaud that. It’s called being a grown-up. The new AD appeared on “The Pat McAfee Show” and stated, “I knew it the second it left my mouth.” I’m sure that all of us (and especially myself) have been there more than we’d like to admit, but thankfully most of us haven’t done it into a microphone with the press looking on and the cameras rolling.

Sketches & sketchy stuff…

The idea for this cartoon was simple. I only needed to draw Tommy McClelland at the podium just as he appeared last Thursday and come up with a clever statement that would end with the punchline of “Go To Indiana.”

As I was drawing the first sketches I realized that I could push the idea of the AD’s statement being even more crazy by drawing him a straight jacket. This certainly helped communicate the message and also made the imagery more interesting.

Now Tommy McClelland isn’t an immediately recognizable figure and doesn’t have any unique features to push, but I think I captured him well enough and didn’t make too many adjustments to the caricature.

On the last sketch I did add a few “dizzy” bubbles floating around his head, but when I went to the final art I left them out. It would have worked either way, but I chose to let the panel stand without them.

“There are lessons to be learned from a stupid man.” - Horace

The war that “Peace President” Trump has repeatedly won over and over is significantly depleting the United States’ stockpile of munitions.

Last February (before the start of the war with Iran) the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Dan Caine expressed his concern that the U.S. stockpile of munitions had been significantly depleted. At the time President Trump pushed back on that nugget of knowledge along with his White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt who said , “The U.S. military has more than enough munitions, ammo, and weapons stockpiles to achieve the goals of Operation Epic Fury laid out by President Trump - and beyond.”

Six-plus months later the word “beyond” seems limited to the 4 or 5 weeks they stupidly thought this conflict would take to wrap up.

At present it’s being reported (AGAIN) that stockplies of missiles are dwindling and that Trump and Secretary of War/Defense Hegseth are exchanging not-so-friendly fire over it. Trump is obviously pissed that this kind of information is getting out (from the most transparent administration ever) and because it makes him look weak when negotiating with the country he’s obliterated so many times. To counter this “leaked” information Trump went to his Truth Social security blanket and posted the following. “The U.S. has massive amounts of ‘munitions’, especially of certain types. Additionally, large amounts are being manufactured and shipped to the U.S. as needed. Defense companies are building the largest number of plants and factories in our country’s history.”

In the meantime we might just have to hold off on bombing Iranian girls’ schools until we restock and hope that Trump and Hegseth have saved enough F-Bombs to repel any aggressors that might attack us.

Sketches & sketchy stuff…

When I first started thinking about this cartoon I wanted to mock Trump’s claim that the U.S. had “massive amounts of ‘munitions’, especially of certain types” my focus was on the latter part of the statement. I assume that he’s referring to our nuclear stockpile, but I wanted to poke fun at what he might be referring to.

My warped juvenile mind went directly to the movie Joe Dirt and the character of Kicking Bird. If you remember Kicking Bird sold fireworks out of a trailer in the desert. Not just any fireworks. His inventory consisted of snakes and sparklers. Those were the only kind that he liked. I didn’t have a solid idea on how to tie the image and issue together, but I did sketch out Kicking Bird just to see if anything clicked. It didn’t. At least not enough for me to move forward .

I ended up pivoting to the image of Trump’s Truth Social post and came up with a more heinous weapon than snakes or sparklers… Trump’s F-Bombs. This tied in much better with the topic and certainly connected the issue directly to Trump’s anger towards Hegseth and over the situation. I have done a couple of panels similar to this in regards to Trump’s posts so I only did a couple of quick sketches before I created a new drawing.

Final drawing…

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“The world is not fair, and often fools, cowards, liars and the selfish hide in high places.” - Bryant H. McGill

The damage to the Reflecting Pool wasn’t caused by a box cutter. It was caused by a cheese cutter named Trump.

This past week Trump’s own District of Columbia US Attorney Jeanine Pirro dropped charges against former Olympian David Hearn and others accused of vandalism and then placed the blame for the Reflecting Pool fiasco where it belonged… in Donald Trump’s expansive lap.

The reality of the situation is that President Trump handed a $6.9 million no-bid contract to his “pool guy” to handle the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool project and then pressured him to have it completed by the 4th of July. Trump boasted about his selection to reporters back in April. “I have a guy who’s unbelievable at doing swimming pools up the road.” As we all know now, the only thing that’s unbelievable is the staggering amount of incompetence that took place. The Reflecting Pool turned green with algae and the “American Flag Blue” lining began to peel off immediately. This all resulted in Trump typically placing blame in any direction except his own. Box cutters, vandalism, folks suffering from TDS were all to blame. It’s all on tape according to the President, or as he refers to video, “Like moving cameras, right?"

Fortunately, US Attorney Jeanine Pirro had played along with Trump’s nonsense long enough and pushed against the President’s lies by stating, “The rush to complete the project led to hasty and botched work that was not remediated before the project was finished and the fencing removed.”

Trump’s response to this was predictable. He immediately attacked Pirro saying that she, “folded like an umbrella” and then doubled down on his ridiculous claims of vandalism. Meanwhile, the price tag for this disaster is up to $16 million, the war with Iran continues, the coast of living is outrageous and we’re still waiting for 3 million pages of the Epstein files to be released.

Let me know when the orange paint starts peeling.

The idea for this cartoon came about immediately. I knew exactly what I wanted to say and I knew exactly what 2 elements would be in the visual… Trump and a box cutter.

The only thing that I needed to decide was placement. Would Trump be holding the box cutter or standing on top of it? That decision came about quickly as well. Having him stand on top of it provided the cartoon a more interesting visual because of the contrast of unusual scale. People are drawn in by seeing things that are not normal and having Trump stand on a giant box cutter checked off that box. The horizontal placement of the box cutter was also a better fit with the type placement in regards to the word “TRUTH”. It was more readable than if he had been holding it with vertical reading type.

Final drawing…

If you chose to help me out by becoming a paid subscriber you can have the signed original drawing of this cartoon (or any other you choose) along with a signed color print.

“It’s tough to make predictions, especially about the future.” - Yogi Berra

This past week 2 unofficial media polls predicted the defending National Champion Indiana Hoosiers to finish 3rd in the Big Ten behind Ohio State and Oregon. Last year these same 2 polls selected the Hoosiers to finish 6th and 7th in the conference so I’d rather place my faith in something more reliable than preseason polls… like Taylor Farms lettuce.

Now I haven’t heard if Indiana Coach Curt Cignetti has made any statement about these journalistic soothsayers, but in just 2 years he’s taken the worst college football program in the country to a team with only 2 losses on it’s resume and a national title. Now I can kind of understand why some of the “experts” have picked Ohio State and Oregon over the Hoosiers. Those programs were both in the playoffs last year and they each have their starting quarterbacks returning for this season. That said, I find it difficult to dismiss Cignetti’s 2026 team so quickly. He has some great players returning and he’s picked up some great transfers through the portal. Not least of which is QB Josh Hoover from TCU. Coach Cignetti has an eye for getting just the right kind of people with the perfect mix of talent and character. Then he makes them better.

At a press conference this week the coach let everyone know that it’s time to get to work. “I’ve been on vacation long enough. I’m tired of being bossed around by my wife," he joked. “I’m ready to boss somebody else around and develop a football team. It’s all about development.”

That doesn’t sound like a man that’s going to be satisfied with last years accomplishments and settle for 3rd place in the upcoming season.

Sketches & sketchy stuff…

When I was contemplating about this cartoon my initial thought was about how much has changed in just a few years for Indiana football. My father went to IU and he took my brothers and I to dozens of games way back in the late 1960’s and early 1970’s

This program has been historically horrible and up until this past season all of Indiana Nation would have been thrilled to have a 3rd place prediction in the Big Ten. Now it feels like an insult. If you look at the initial page of sketches I thought about channeling myself and my father and communicating this feeling through the image of a son speaking to his deceased father. “Dad, they’re predicting IU to finish 3rd… and believe it or not, we’re pissed off about it.”

I ended up pivoting to the Cignetti image, because I really wanted to try and capture that iconic scowl of his in a cartoon. I also wanted to play off his “Google Me” quote. It just seemed like more fun and a better idea.

As you can see I did several versions of the coach and slowly began to widen his features and create better visual relationships. I adjusted his headset to fall below his hunched shoulders and spent some time getting his arms placed just right against his torso.

I’m sure that in the future I will need to draw the coach again and I will refer back to this cartoon and try to make improvements. In the meantime, this will be a good blueprint to start from.

Final drawing…

If you chose to help me out by becoming a paid subscriber you can have the signed original drawing of this cartoon (or any other you choose) along with a signed color print.

“Stupidity is a talent for misconception.” - Edgar Allan Poe

Trump’s war with Iran has been screwed up since day one and at present he still hasn’t found a way to end it without looking like a failure. He owns its beginning, its escalation, every death, lie and disastrous ramification left in its wake. Donald Trump has made the world a more stressed-out and dangerous place and he has zero plans to make it all stop. Donald Trump’s love language is Donald Trump and his narcissistic wasteland of a brain can’t begin to wrap itself around the concept that he (and his team of toadies ) might have made a mistake by initiating an unnecessary war and underestimating the enemy.

Since the war began over 5 months ago Trump has claimed or suggested victory over Iran dozens of times, but anyone that hasn’t been in a coma since last March knows that it’s not even close to ending. Trump entered into this war with a line of crap and a lack of competence. He ridiculously claimed that Iran had been a 47-year-long problem and that no other President had done anything about it. To be perfectly fair I noticed that that the guy in the White House before Biden didn’t have Iran on the front burner either. Perhaps he was too busy prescribing Americans a bleach cocktail to battle Covid and didn’t need to create a distraction as much as he needs to this term.

Trump is struggling to find a way out of this mess, but one way or another this war with Iran will end and the only thing I will guarantee is this. More lives will be lost, nothing will be gained and Trump will once again falsely claim victory over Iran. His political cronies will applaud, his base will swoon and they will all demand that we drop to our knees and thank almighty God for sending this nation and world such a great man.

Sketches & sketchy stuff…

When I began thinking about this cartoon I wanted to create something to communicate the failure of Trump to get out of this war. My first thoughts and sketches were of Trump holding a large ring of key. The idea was to show him struggling to find the right key in order to exit the war. I liked the image of the large key ring, but I couldn’t find the right way to depict the struggle. Then I remembered a few times in my life where I actually broke a key by attempting to open a door and that seemed like a much simpler and relatable approach. I don’t think many of us use keys like we used to, but I’ll bet that most of you have experienced the total frustration of breaking a key in a lock.

From landing on the concept to the final drawing I made very few changes. I tried to make both sections of the key very identifiable and played around slightly with the height of the door in relationship to Trump. I thought about placing a curse laden thought bubble above Trump’s head, but I decided it better to let your imaginations fill in his reaction.

Final drawing…

If you chose to help me out by becoming a paid subscriber you can have the signed original drawing of this cartoon (or any other you choose) along with a signed color print.

“ I was watching that movie Mad Max, you know that movie where gas is so precious that people are killing each other for a few gallons. It was set in the future - I believe it was August.” - Jay Leno

On August 7th gas prices will likely increase by over 60 cents a gallon here in Indiana. Last April Governor Mike Braun suspended the 7% sales tax that my fellow Hoosiers and I spend on fuel and then he suspended the additional 36 cent per gallon excise tax. To the Governor’s credit these actions have made gas prices in Indiana the lowest in the nation, but that is ending in less than 2 weeks. State law only allows these suspensions to last in 30 day increments and there are also limits as to how many times the suspensions can be renewed. Unfortunately we are there so it’s my hope that todays cartoon will act as a PSA to my fellow Hoosier commuters and remind them to fill their tanks before the 7th.

This entire situation can be traced back to the on again off again war with Iran. Governor Braun is a red hatted moon in the Trump orbit and it’s most likely that he bought in to the President’s BS about the war being over in just a few weeks. In his mind I’m sure that he viewed the Gas Holiday as a short term political win that he could campaign on down the road. Unfortunately, the war that we’ve won multiple times according to Trump rages on. Gas prices continue to be high and the Governor’s Gas Holiday has cost the state millions of dollars in lost infrastructure revenue. As much as I and other Hoosiers enjoyed the months of lower fuel costs the reality is that the Gas holiday will result in delayed projects and even worse roads for the “Crossroads of America”.

Sketches & sketchy stuff…

As stated above I wanted to create sort of a Public Service Announcement cartoon to remind my readers around Indiana that the Gas Tax Holiday is coming to an end. When approaching this idea a number of images begin to form in my head. Gas pumps, gas cans, finish line banners, road way exit signs and so on.

I began doodling a few thoughts when suddenly the idea of a street corner prophet with his “The End Is Near” sign popped into my head. I liked the idea of using this guy because it would lend the human element to the cartoon and I could create a visual contrast by having him stand atop a giant gasoline container. The container would act as a simple connection to the topic and give me ample space to place the Gas Tax Holiday type.

I did a few sketches of both the guy and he gas can and played around with the size relationship in order to have it fit the space as best I could. The last little touch was the single drip of gas falling from the spout. It might seem silly, but that tiny little element added the principle of movement to the piece. Every single viewer will take a mental nanosecond to make that drip fall… like you just did.

Final drawing…

If you chose to help me out by becoming a paid subscriber you can have the signed original drawing of this cartoon (or any other you choose) along with a signed color print.

“The only thing worse than a liar is a liar that’s also a hypocrite!” - Tennessee Williams

In the last month or so President Trump has been attempting to create fear among voters by referring to progressive Democrats as communists that are hell bent on destroying the American way of life. “It’s the biggest threat to our country, including World War I, World War II, Pearl Harbor, September 11th”, according to the man that inspired an attack on the U.S. Capitol in order to overturn an election.

At the Faith and Freedom Coalition conference earlier this month the Made in (communist) China Bible merchant had the nerve to proclaim Democrats as “hardcore, godless Communists”. This from a man that’s broken each commandment, but would fail miserably if asked to recite a single one.

The reason for Trump’s attacks is obvious. He’s not scared of communists, he’s scared of the midterms. Donnie and his team have been destroying this nation inside and out since inauguration day of 2025. Forget about coins, passports and buildings. The downward spiral that the United States and Americans have been dealing with is truly the only thing that his name and likeness deserve to be displayed on. He’s earned it.

This communist nonsense is just another page out of the POTUS playbook. He believes that fear equals votes and that’s been his strategy from the beginning. Immigrants from shit hole countries that steal jobs and eat pets, reporters from fake news outlets and ordinary Americans that suffer from TDS running around slashing reflecting pools in the middle of the night. It’s all about telling us who to fear and who to blame. It’s pathetic, it’s desperate and it sadly works on his ridiculously gullible base.

Sketches & sketchy stuff…

The idea for this cartoon was inspired not only by Trump’s rhetoric and scare tactics. It was also inspired by our Lt. Governor Micah Beckwith and his similar tactics. He’s been in the news recently verbally attacking Muslims and next weekend he and former ICE-hole Greg Bovino are holding an anti-immigration rally at a secret location here in Hamilton County, Indiana.

Anyway, the idea for the cartoon came about because Trump has no problem having many of his products produced by cheap communist labor, but he wants to suddenly make the rest of us fearful of his political opposition by tagging them as communists. It was really just a matter of coming up with the 2 contrasting images and placing them side by side. There are various Trump products made in China, but his “godless” comment had to be met with the $60 Trump bible. It was perfect.

I did go through a number of sketches to get just the right look on the donkey and the anonymous Chinese factory worker. The trick was to get both of them to have a similar balanced visual weight and very little emotion so that neither of them stood out as more important than the other.

Final drawing…

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“Hatred is the coward’s revenge for being intimidated.” - George Bernard Shaw

In recent weeks our Lt. Governor and Christian Nationalist pastor Micah Beckwith has made it his mission to sow the seeds of hatred when it comes to Islam. You might recall that I posted a cartoon in early June after he went online and referred to the Islamic religion as a “demonic death cult” and gave us “permission to hate again”.

His latest hurling of hateful excrement came about last week when appeared on a a conservative podcast and called for a ban on the Muslim call to prayer. “If you have a Mosque and you want to have a loudspeaker and want to be pumping these out five times a day, the state can say you’re not going to do that.” After once again receiving an enormous backlash Beckwith then went on social media to make his comments perfectly clear. “I 100% want to ban Mosques in America from blaring the Muslim call to prayer.”

Now, Indiana doesn’t have a huge Muslim population. I don’t have up-to-date numbers, but in 2020 there were approximately 41,000 Hoosiers of Islamic faith and the 2nd most powerful politician in the state has give us the green light to hate them.

The response from Indiana Islamic leaders has been interesting. According to them there are a total of 0 Mosques in the state that sound the call to prayer through external speakers. So this entire situation is nothing more than another Republican politician creating a problem where none exists and attempting rile up his base with fear. Sound familiar?

Indiana Governor Mike Braun has remained strangely silent on this topic and I would suspect that behind closed doors he’s pissed. Beckwith on the other hand has speculated on the big guy’s thoughts. “I think the Governor and I see eye to eye on this. He probably doesn’t necessarily use the same type of language I use. I’m a little bit more of a lightning rod than he is, but I think he recognizes it.” I think nimrod would be a more accurate description… for both of them.

Sketches & sketchy stuff…

I originally wanted to do a cartoon on a Mass Deportation Rally that is going to be held here on August 1st at a secret location. The guest speaker will former Ice leader Greg Bovino and Micah Beckwith will be speaking on video at the event. They are vetting ticket purchasers by asking for their social media accounts to make sure that they are the proper type of people to attend. After sending the above sketch to my editor he stated that he wouldn’t publish it because the event will not allow any press and he didn’t want to do anything to promote it. In my opinion the cartoon wasn’t promoting the event. It was mocking the event. Bottom line, it’s his paper and he’s never asked for me to kill a cartoon in 3 years so I said okay and made a quick pivot to the next issue.

I decided to tackle the latest Micah nonsense and use the image of the state capital building because of an exhibit taking place later this fall. The Association of American Editorial Cartoonists upcoming convention in Sacramento has asked for cartoons containing images of state capital buildings to put on display and I saw this as a good opportunity to create one. The building would exist on its own and I simply needed to create the dialogue coming fro the structure.

I did a number of versions and edits, but the basic idea was playing off the idea of something being silenced. Micah wants the call to prayer to be silenced and the Governor would like for Micah to be silenced. Easy peasy.

Final drawing…

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“In 49 States It’s Just Basketball, But This Is Indiana.” - State Catchphrase

Needless to say we take basketball pretty seriously here in the Hoosier state and we couldn’t have been more thrilled when Caitlin Clark landed on the roster of our WNBA team a couple of years ago. She’s a great player, a great person and her entrance into the league elevated the exposure and income of everyone involved. That’s why it is so baffling to see so many cheap shots taken towards her over the last 2 seasons. It’s obvious that many players around the league go out of their way to do her harm that’s well outside the norm of physical play.

I don’t think that Caitlin Clark should be treated special, but she doesn’t deserve the targeting that she’s going through either. She’s made the WNBA more relevant. She’s increased ticket sales across the league to the point where teams have moved into larger venues to accommodate fans. Televised games get more viewers and paychecks around the league have increased. All because of the arrival of Caitlin Clark. To that end, one would think that a teeny tiny smidgen of gratitude might be in order.

Sketches & sketchy stuff…

I’m out of town at the moment visiting my daughter and her family in Minnesota so I’ll keep this brief.

I came up with this cartoon because of the frustration I and a lot of my fellow Hoosiers are feeling with this situation. I began the idea process by writing down several words and phrases to see if that would spark and approach. The best one was “Biting the hand that feeds you” which I altered to “feeds them”. From there it was a matter of sketching out a few versions of Catlin and a large crazed dog. I did think about having her hold a large dog dish of cash, but I preferred the idea of her simply holding a basketball. I really liked the idea of her looking bored and unfazed by the dog chomping up to her elbow. Sometimes that’s the proper attitude to have when you’re being treated badly.

Final drawing…

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“He could probably break an anvil just by looking at it.” - My mother

Right or wrong, U.S. soccer star Folarin Balogun received a red card during World Cup play. Then Trump stepped in and made a call to his fawning FIFA friend Gianni Infantino and got the red card removed. The result was a pissed off and fired up Belgium squad that went out and handed our team an embarrassing 4-1 defeat.

Once again the President of the United States narcissistically wedged himself into a situation where he didn’t belong and made everything worse. It’s either his super power or a curse. Maybe both. Anyone with a gnat’s knowledge about sports knows that you never do anything to motivate your opponent and that’s exactly what Trump did.

To be fair, if Trump had kept his yap shut and stayed in his own lane the result might have been exactly the same, but then again it might not. The exact opposite might have taken place. The U.S. team would have naturally been motivated to up their game due to the loss of their scoring leader and that motivation might have led them to a victory. Unfortunately, we will never know what might have been. The only thing that we learned for sure is that Belgium has a damn good team and they’re also pretty good at mocking the President with his stupid dance.

Sketches & sketchy stuff…

When I started thinking about this cartoon I was motivated by a lack of response from Trump on the U.S. losing. If they had won I can assure you that he wouldn’t have been able to shut-up about it. He would have claimed full responsibility for the victory. His silence was curious so I began to imagine what he might say. How would he spin the loss?

Of course he wold have posted on Truth Social so I knew that I wanted that to be the cartoon. I had done a similar cartoon about him posting back in early June so I went back to look at it and used it as a blueprint of this one. I did a new drawing of Trump and all I needed was the post.

Enter Joey Chestnut. This eating machine lives just up the road from me in Westfield, Indiana and this past weekend he won the Nathan’s Famous International Hot Dog Eating Contest… AGAIN! This local legend has won this competition 18 times and I couldn’t wait to add him to this cartoon. The post would naturally have Trump dismissing the World Cup as he does with anything that doesn’t go his way. He would then go on to boast about the GREAT AMERICAN that won the hot dog eating contest. I have to admit, I was really tickled with myself on this one.

The only thing more fun than creating this cartoon is reading some of the comments on it. There have been a few Trump fans that actually went to Truth Social to actually see if he posted this and then scolded me because it wasn’t true. Apparently satire isn’t a concept they can grasp. What a fun job I have.

Final drawing…

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“If you’re really successful at bullshitting, it means that you’re not hanging around enough people smarter than you.” - Neil deGrasse Tyson

My apologies for being a bit late in posting about this cartoon from last week. I’d like to blame Antifa or some horrible person with a box cutter, but the responsibility falls directly on me. Anyhoo, I hope that all of you had a wonderful 4th of July weekend. My wife and I spent most of our Saturday in preparation to host a cookout for 2 other couples at our house. To describe our gathering in the words of the President, it was “packed.”

Trump’s hijacking of the United State’s 250th birthday was just another failure that he pathetically attempted to spin as a success. Even Fox News and a few of his political toadies bent the knee and the truth in order to shine a positive light on the Great American State Fair, but we all could see with our own eyes that attendance was scant.

I love this country, but I found this years 250th birthday disappointing in comparison to our 200th birthday. I was 17 years old and a senior in high school when the Bicentennial took place in 1976. I remember it as a huge series of events that celebrated our nation for more than a year. Beyond the tall ships sailing into New York and the pageantry of celebrations that took place in Washington DC and beyond, my favorite thing was a series of 912 spots broadcast on CBS beginning on July 4th, 1974. They were called the Bicentennial Minutes. Each evening we were treated to a celebrity informing all of us to what major event(s) had taken place on that same day 200 years earlier. These highlighted moments were key to understanding the happenings and people that would help shape the birth of our country. The Bicentennial Minutes were a wonderful way to educate Americans and honor America at the same time. They were extremely popular until the last one aired at the end of 1976. You can still find them on Youtube if you wish.

Sketches & sketchy stuff…

Mocking the attendance numbers at Trump’s Great American state Fair was pretty much low hanging fruit and there were a number of ways to approach it. The difficulty with the topic is that there has already been so many memes about it on social media and I always want to make sure that my approach is different.

I ended up landing on the idea of playing around with Trump’s 45-47 Presidency numbers as estimated attendance numbers. I did a number of sketches with those digits on a hat to be sold at the fair, but I just kept getting stuck in regards to the composition of the panel. I then pivoted to a different idea utilizing the numbers on a giant Great American State Fair billboard to represent the attendance figures rather than Trump’s 45 and 47 terms. To me this seemed like the better approach and all I needed to do was contrast the large sign with 2 smaller and random people to provide the commentary. I also added some patriotic bunting and a few flags to help convey a festive appearance of a fair.

I’m pretty sure that the giant hat idea would have worked if I had explored it a little further, but there are moments when you just go with your gut and move forward in another direction. I used to tell my art students that this isn’t math where 2 + 2 = 4. In the world of art 2 + 2 = porkchop or bulldozer or kangaroo or tape measure. The answers are endless.

Final drawing…

If you chose to help me out by becoming a paid subscriber you can have the signed original drawing of this cartoon (or any other you choose) along with a signed color print.

“Every week Republicans are exited about a new candidate because the one they liked last week turned out to be a moron.” - Andy Borowitz

Just days ago delegates from the Indiana Republican party rejected current Secretary of State Diego Morales as the party’s nominee in the upcoming November election and selected Max Engling as their new choice to run.

This comes as no surprise because Morales has been creating lots of baggage during and before his time in office. He used taxpayer money to purchase a $90,000 SUV, hired family members, awarded several no-bid contracts to donors, handed out $500,000 in raises to his staff and traveled on the taxpayers dime to places like India to advance his own personal business interests. There’s more, but basically, he’s just another shitty and corrupt politician caring more about himself than the people he was hired to represent.

What is also not surprising is that his colleagues in the Indiana GOP didn’t really give a damn about Diego’s self-serving shit show until…… enter Beau Bayh.

The delegates in the Indiana Democratic party nominated Beau Bayh as their nominee for Secretary of State back in early June and this is what caused the Indiana GOP to start sweating. Beau Bayh is the young handsome grandson of Former US Senator Birch Bayh and the son of former US Senator and Indiana Governor Evan Bayh. Even though Indiana is an extremely red state the Bayh family has created a legacy in Indiana politics and Beau Bayh appears to be the author of the next chapter.

Even before Beau Bayh was selected as the nominee several prominent Republicans including US Senator Jim Banks began rescinding their support of Morales. In fact Banks put forth one of his staffers (Max Engling) as a potential candidate to replace Morales and that is who the Republicans have nominated. I can honestly say that I know next to nothing about Mr. Engling, but he does work for Senator Banks and that’s all the information I need for him to lose my vote in November.

No matter which candidate wins in November, Indiana will most assuredly be better off when the current Secretary of State packs his bags. Time to go, Diego!

Sketches & sketchy stuff…

There has been very little good news in state or national politics so when Morales lost the nomination I definitely wanted to express some pleasure in his upcoming departure with a cartoon.

I had done one other panel on him and it also focused on the word baggage” so I was initially attempting to come up with a new approach. A number of my first sketches depicted Morales being stepped on by a Republican elephant. A few of them worked, but I kept coming back to the B word. That’s when I connected the dots between baggage and packing. Diego would have one final piece of baggage to deal with.

Like myself, Diego Morales isn’t a very big fellow so I pushed that visual by placing him next to a very large suitcase. This allowed plenty of room for a couple of words that would instruct him to take off. Get Packing. Start Packing. I’m sure there are others, but I didn’t over think it too much. The final touch was the addition of the GOP logo on the suitcase. That small little touch made it clear where the directive was coming from.

Final drawing…

If you chose to help me out by becoming a paid subscriber you can have the signed original drawing of this cartoon (or any other you choose) along with a signed color print.

“Elections belong to the people.” - Abraham Lincoln

The very first time I ever voted was by mail. I had just turned 18 in August of 1976 and I was away at college when the November election took place. I remember having to take my ballot to the Bursar’s office and filling it out as he witnessed. This was not only my first time voting, but he explained that it was a first for him as well. Apparently no other student had ever walked into his office to fill out an absentee ballot. Looking back, that’s extremely sad. The voting age had been lowered to 18 in 1971 and no other (out-of-state) students before me had done this.

As you probably know Donald Trump isn’t a fan of Mail-In Voting even though he’s taken advantage of the practice more than once. Most recently the President and GOP have led the charge to eliminate the practice of counting Mail-In Ballots that arrive after Election Day. Yesterday the Supreme Court rejected that challenge by a vote of 5-4. Trump appointed Justice Amy Barrett and Chief Justice John Roberts sided with the 3 more progressive justices to uphold the law. What this ruling means is that Mail-In Ballots that are postmarked by Election Day can still be counted up to 5 business days after the election.

I have no problem with this. I have mailed contest entries that remained valid as long as they had the required deadline on the postmark. I also know that the IRS doesn’t penalize a tax return if it’s postmarked by midnight on April 15th. Why not the same thing for elections? Besides, the great majority of elections are called within a few hours after the polls close and I certainly don’t see waiting a few days as a big issue if a certain race is too close to call.

This is simply another issue fabricated by the Toddler in Chief because he needs to falsely claim voter fraud when the numbers don’t fall in line with his wishes. To that end, he and his MAGA minions are already using this Supreme Court decision to push harder for the Save Act which is just another attempt to frighten his base and disenfranchise voters. November and the midterms can’t come soon enough.

Shockingly, this panel came to me very quickly and I went with the first idea that came to mind. I wanted to have a post office box mocking the President over the SCOTUS ruling and I immediately came up with the visual of the tongue sticking out and giving Trump the raspberries

There were some slight adjustments between the first few sketches, but the idea was pretty solid so I didn’t change much. The one thing that did bother me a little was the angular image of the tongue so I rounded it to a much smoother version and went with that.

The only other issue was the wording at the bottom. I tried a number of versions and kept trying to condense it into less and less words. It actually began as saying that the Supreme Court ruled in favor of… , but I changed it to communicate more of a rejection of Trump. That seemed to work better with the visual.

Final drawing…

If you chose to help me out by becoming a paid subscriber you can have the signed original drawing of this cartoon (or any other you choose) along with a signed color print.