Boss Adams

Mayor Eric Adams continues NYC Democrats' legacy of corruption

New York City Mayor Eric Adams has been indicted on five federal corruption charges, including bribery, wire fraud, conspiracy and soliciting campaign contributions from foreign nationals.

That foreign nation is Turkey. Bring on the turkey pardon cartoons.

The indictment claims Mayor Adams corruption stretches back to 2014 when he was Brooklyn Borough President. The indictment reads, “For nearly a decade, Adams sought and accepted improper valuable benefits, such as luxury international travel, including from wealthy foreign businesspeople and at least one Turkish government official seeking to gain influence over him.”

The indictment also claims Adams received luxury travel and other benefits from a Turkish official and later in exchange pressured the NYC Fire Department to open a Turkish consular building without a fire inspection. It seems that’s exactly what the FDNY did.

The Feds served a warrant to search Gracie Mansion at 6 a.m. today and I wonder if they found any gold bars, which is how Egypt paid New Jersey Democratic Senator Bob Menendez. Gracie Mansion is the official residence of New York City’s mayor.

Adams is a former NYPD captain and is up for reelection next year. He promised to be tough on crime when he campaigned for the mayorship, but it’s hard to be tough on crime when you’re a criminal yourself. Who else does that remind you of?

There are now calls for Adamas to resign and note that many are coming from Democrats, such as New York Representative Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez. Also note, Republicans don’t ask their indicted members to move along and instead, nominate them for President.

Also note, that despite Donald Trump claiming the Department of Justice is “weaponized” against him and other Republicans, Adams, Menendez, and Hunter Biden are all Democrats. Someone will do that cartoon. In fact, I almost did it today but I thought I should focus on Adams and not Trump…at least not at this time.

What I did was steal a character created by Thomas Nast, whom many consider the father of American political cartooning.

Thomas Nast was a cartoonist in New York City who gained fame in the 1860s-1870s. He was a German immigrant and a Republican. Remember, this was when Republicans were called the “radical” party. The reason it was “radical” is because it was liberal…which started to change in the 1950s and 60s.

Nast was also heavily partisan and journalism didn’t conduct itself with the same code of ethics as it does today…sometimes. Nast was an advocate for the Republican Party and he didn’t pretend to be independent of it. He sided with Lincoln and the Union in the Civil War which was the right stance to take, but he didn’t care about ethics when crossing the line from independent journalist to advocate. He considered himself a part of the cause.

Today, a cartoonist should not be a part of any political cause. For example, they should not be creating posters for Kamala Harris’ political campaign although, many are.

Nast is most famous for taking down William Magear Tweed, better known as Boss Tweed, a corrupt politician in New York City who was the boss of the political machine for NYC’s Democratic Party, Tammany Hall. Fun fact: Boss Tweed lived in Manhattan on 5th Avenue.

Tweed siphoned millions from the city and held onto power through patronage, like giving jobs to his lackies. For example, Tweed created 12 manure inspectors. How much manure did NYC have in the 1860s to be inspected? A lot of New Yorkers will say that manure is still in city hall today.

Tweed was getting away with all this until Nast took him on in a series of cartoons in Harper’s Weekly, a new political weekly magazine. Today’s editors would have held him back, worried that Tweed supporters in red hats would bomb the newspaper’s office or even worse, write angry letters and cancel subscriptions.

They would have held back their cartoonist fearing readers would believe they’re taking a side.

But this was over 150 years ago and what changed with journalism ethics are the spines of editors, especially when it comes to cartoonists.

After the then-fledgling and Republican newspaper, The New York Times, took on Tweed, Nast’s increased his workflow of anti-Tweed cartoons and produced over 140 on him. Today, Tweed’s supporters would claim Nast suffered from TDS, Tweed Derangement Syndrome.

Tweed reportedly said, “Let’s stop those damned pictures. I don’t care so much what the papers write about me—my constituents can’t read, but damn it, they can see pictures.”

Today, Trump’s constituents don’t read much either and also ignore pictures, videos, words, evidence, etc, that reveals the corruption of their guy.

Nast was threatened for his work while I mostly get called “libtard” and the occasional intimidation attempt by MAGAt shitweasels posting my picture online (if you see this guy, you know what to do) and doxxing of my address. Tweed’s henchmen also tried to bribe Nast, yet no one has tried to bribe me…yet.

Eventually, thanks to the Times publication of turned over records from a Tweed source, investigators indicted Tweed for stealing over $45 million from the city which would amount to over $1 billion today. Tweed flew to Spain but if it was today, he would get court delay after court delay after court delay and possible have it thrown out by a corrupt judge he appointed like Aileen Cannon.

When Tweed was caught in Spain, it was because someone recognized him from Nast’s cartoons. It probably wasn’t the bag of money for a head cartoon.

If people like Donald Trump, Eric Adams, and other corrupt fuckos learned anything from Boss Tweed, it’s how not to make the same mistakes and even if they do get caught, how to wiggle out of it. Boss Tweed should have ran for president, made himself out to be the victim, claim he was “chosen,” and sell shitty shoes with his name on them.

Nast became a celebrity from his Boss Tweed cartoons. He also created the elephant and donkey for today’s two major political parties. His drawings of Santa Claus established the image we see today. Nast was also extremely racist which is a trait that remains with the Republican Party today.

A lot of people won’t get this cartoon but I don’t care because they should know about Thomas Nast and Boss Tweed.

Drawn in 30 Seconds:

Timelapse with voiceover:

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