Comic Strip of the Day Editorial cartooning

CSotD: Not in a Log Cabin, But in a Barn

I’m disappointed that more cartoonists didn’t leap on Dear Leader’s appalling reaction to the death of Robert Mueller, though Wexler offered both this commentary and a traditional obituary piece.

A brief discussion of a country expression: “Were you brought up in a barn?”

It can be semi-affectionate, said to a kid who wore his hat to the dinner table. But when it’s said seriously, it actually refers less to the barn than to the pigsty out back, in which a pig or two wallow in their own filth and mire. And it wouldn’t be said to Ma and Pa Kettle, who for all their lack of refinement are kind people and good neighbors.

It might likely be said of this pig:

I don’t think we use the word “pig” enough, but then again it’s good to save it until it fits, and that’s what Wexler was referring to in regard to this particular insult to humanity.

There have been, after all, so many opportunities to wonder just how low Donald Trump can sink, how utterly insensitive he can be, and this Guardian article has a good listing to refresh your memory.

Part of understanding this sociopathic man is knowing that his mother, who raised his siblings in their Queens home, finally gave up on the little monster and shipped him off to military school.

Slyngstad leapt to his drawing board, though I’d append a couple of editor’s notes:

First, both men were born with silver spoons in their mouths, and, if anything, Mueller’s family was likely more patrician while Trump’s parents were nouveau riche. But class will out.

The other is my chance to return to a favorite hobbyhorse of mine, and to start by complimenting Slyngstad on only noting the phony bone spurs. Many others — too young to know how the draft worked — have called Trump a five-time draft dodger. That’s wrong.

Mueller also took four II-S deferments as an undergraduate, then completed a masters degree, which gave him at least one, likely two more. So he was a “six-time draft dodger” in their eyes, but he then not only enlisted but volunteered for combat in Vietnam and served with distinction.

Mueller was a mensch, Trump is a schmuck.

There in eight words is what I just took nearly 400 to say.

I gather Ramirez is in favor of the SAVE Act, and I guess this is one of those “you have to show ID” arguments. And I know there are games for “mature” audiences, but I don’t know that the clerks are particularly strict about checking ages. I do know that if I try to buy beer from a young grocery clerk, an older one has to come ring up the sale. Do video stores work like that?

Thirty-six states require ID to vote, but all fifty require ID to register. I spent nine hours last week looking at drivers’ licenses, and we didn’t hand anyone a ballot who didn’t show proper ID.

I’d like to see states retain electoral control, and the courts have consistently held that elections are to be run by the states, not the federal government. We’ve had three amendments that specifically forbade the states to keep minorities, women and young people from voting, and it should take a fourth for the feds to impose restrictions on voting.

However, we know what happened the only time an amendment restricted freedom, rather than extending it. It’s why we know the name of Dear Leader’s hero, “the late, great Alphonse Capone.”

And shouldn’t we be a little embarrassed to have a Canadian — even a newly-minted member of the Order of Canada — able to see through the flimsy cover so many Americans apparently cannot?

Though I don’t think anyone is trying to tell the CBC or CTV that they have to be positive in their coverage or they’ll lose their licenses.

Nor do you have to look between the lines to detect those threats. FCC Chairman Brendan Carr has specifically said that broadcasters are required to operate in the public interest, which means reporting the news as Dear Leader wants it reported.

“Broadcasters that are running hoaxes and news distortions – also known as the fake news – have a chance now to correct course before their license renewals come up,” he said on Xitter, citing reports with which the president disagreed.

Juxtaposition of the Day

Nor have any of their networks been sold to friendly owners who will install loyal news executives to make the news more palatable to the nation’s ruler, the way CBS did. Not that it’s all that palatable to anybody else, and this article includes a ghastly comment:

 “If they can’t retain an audience in the middle of a war, God help you when the war ends.”

Mind you, it’s hard to slant bad news, and apparently when the Supreme Court slapped down Trump’s tariffs, the best CBS could do was lead with the weather instead.

As for the war, having a loyalist in charge of the FCC doesn’t help steer coverage when the administration can’t decide how to spin things to begin with. Sometimes it’s to stop them from building the nuclear bomb, sometimes it’s because they’re threatening other nations, sometimes it seems to be to distract people from the Epstein Files.

Bonehead claimed he’d talked to an ex-president who agreed with him, forgetting that there are only four of them and reporters still have their phone numbers. And he doesn’t have a dog to eat his homework.

And it’s not the only time he got caught lying. This week.

Is anybody surprised that the valedictorian of his college class whose honors don’t appear on his graduation program is still having a daily tussle with facts?

Though Ruben Bolling has got to love the guy. It’s hard to fill eight panels, but it helps if you can choose from so many explanations. It’s like the old joke about the kid who said, “I worked out the arithmetic problem five times. Here are my five answers.”

It’s hard to believe this all began over the price of eggs.

Mission accomplished.

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Comments 23

  1. Please don’t malign pigs, who are intelligent animals. They wallow in mud because they can’t sweat. When kept in captivity, they do the best they can, including using an area of their pen as a “litter box” if space permits. https://sentientmedia.org/pig-intelligence/

    1. Agreed. But it is hard to find a carbon-based life form lower than him for a valid comparison.

      1. How about pond scum?

        You’re not going to drain the swamp if you are the swamp.

    2. Funny thing about Animal Farm is the pigs really were intelligent, while the other animals were portrayed as being dumb as bricks.

      The moral wasn’t so much “pigs are evil” but rather “the common folk should not be ignorant to what’s actually happening”

    3. I didn’t go into the whole thing of having known someone who had a pig in a backyard pen. Trust me, the analogy is good. In the old days, they’d notch their ears and let them run in the woods, and it was far more pleasant for all involved.

      I’d add that, if six hours of writing provokes only a defense of pigs, I may start contemplating a job at the cash register at Walgreens.

      1. I mean no offense, but it is actually quite nice to see comments about pigs rather than The Pig.

        And as far as your six hours on this? It’s time very well spent and very much appreciated, every, damned, day!

      2. Agreed! Had no idea. Thought it flowed out of you at the speed of typing. Some folks are like that. Now it’s much more appreciated…

  2. FCC green-lights Nexstar’s $6.2B merger with rival TV station owner Tegna: https://tinyurl.com/Tegna-Nexstar-Merger

    For us in the Denver area, this means that our local NBC affiliate (9News) will be taken over by Fox News. Nexstar has already said they will consolidate the organizations into the Fox newsroom.

    And we are to believe, “Move along. Nothing to see here.”

  3. The majority of Canadians, especially long-time cartoonist Michael de Adder, can see through DJT’s BS. We’re right here; we always were.

  4. Everyone naturally assumes the “bone spurs” were allegedly in his feet.

    They are actually in his brain.

  5. Cheeto talks a big game for someone whose grave is going to be the country’s biggest gender-neutral bathroom when he finally kicks it.

    And the “but you have to show ID to buy lotto tickets!” line from wingnuts has to be about the dumbest, laziest piece of gaslighting crap I’ve heard from them yet. Do they think no one actually read the act? Because I f**ing did. Whenever I hear this excuse now I want to punch someone in the face:

    1. Are there any states where there is a law against urinating on a grave? If so, we have a new opportunity for lobbyists.

  6. Fun fact: the version of “1984” the song of the video comes from was made in 1984. That was one of the reasons it got the financing. Pity about Richard Burton dropping dead a few days after filming ended.

  7. I’m glad Trump said that about Mueller. It means it’ll be just fine if I throw a party when he’s overthrown and/or dies.

    1. Just what I was thinking, Chak. I’d like to sent a “truth” that says, “Y’know, big fella, that’s exactly what millions of Americans are going to say when you pass on” … but it’s not worth joining Truth Social to do so.

    2. Another question today (I’m full of them…): has there ever been any U.S. coin minted (commemorative or otherwise) that has depicted a person who was still alive at the time of minting?

      1. I can name two. The US Sesquicentennial Half-Dollar did have on it the portraits of George Washington and then-incumbent Calvin Coolidge.

        The State Commemorative Quarter for Ohio depicted an Apollo moon walker; the photograph used as reference for it was of (New Jersey native) Buzz Aldrin.

        (Nearly all Apollo 11 moonwalk photographs showing any astronaut are showing Buzz Aldrin, as Neil Armstrong happened to be holding the camera almost the whole time. For Apollo 12 mission planners realized the value of trading the camera. For Apollo 13 they realized the value of marking the spacesuits so anyone could figure out which was the commander and which was the lunar module pilot.)

      2. Lou: In a 2025 editorial, I showed Canadian PM Carney unveiling an alt version of their beloved dollar coin. It featured Trump’s scowling mug. Around the perimeter were the words “Certified Loony.” I had an idea for the flip side, but the point had been made.

  8. Trump is the walking definition of a schmuck.

  9. What’s surprising is that anyone can find Obnoxious Orange’s words or actions surprising after proof after proof keeps telling us that he’s an unrelenting ass.

    1. Hey now! No need to be insulting asses!

      I think of The Orange One as more of a nematode. He’d have to climb a REALLY tall ladder to get to the level of fertilizer an ass leaves in its wake.

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