I like that you have a name for your pet rat. I just look at his nonappearances as he's on vacation visiting rat friends and family and will be back when appropriate.
I'm not reading a lot into these elections because like you said 2 were in heavily Republican districts and I don't even know if the lower percentage really makes a difference since they are special elections.
Breathlessly awaiting the tariff proclamations from the great man himself. (insert rolling eyes emoji here)
Pizza Rat's name has always been Pizza Rat. Peezy is just a nickname given by readers who've repeatedly used it without my influence at all. So, I didn't name him. The readers did.
I didn't think it was possible for me to despise anyone as much as I despise Felon Trump, but Elon proved me wrong. I'd like to put them both on one of Elon's rockets that keep blowing up as soon as they leave Earth! And ... YAY!!!! Pizza Rat is back! Thank you! He always makes me smile.
Glad to see Pizza rat back. And I did notice the worm. If only it would eat into more of RFK‘s brain and muskrat’s as well. Maybe it will incapacitate RFK so much, so we don’t have to worry about our health system.
Foolish me. I thought it was unethical (probably illegal) for a federal government employee to campaign in this way. But, then, nothing was done when Elmo spoke to the far-right political party in Germany. Look who enforces the laws and we know why it is allowed to take place.
Randy Fine makes MTG look like a finishing school graduate. A high school classmate lives in his former state district. It's the same place Mom's for Liberty started their first chapter. Subsequent chapters were formed with anonymous $100k donations. Ugh
The two Dems in Florida demonstrated how unpopular the administrations policies are. They both outperformed expectations in districts where Drumpf won by thirty percent, they lost by about 10-15%. They caused the withdrawal of the Stefanik nomination. And, I think they demonstrated to Dems in purplish districts and even in solid red ones that it's possible to overcome deficiencies through attacks on Trumpism (and Muskism.) The GCoupP was forced to spend a lot on those races (& did outspend the Dems, whose national headquarters had doubts like yours, Clay, and so invested far less in these races than they might have.) Losing by 57-42, as did Gay Valimont in a district that went for Agent Orange by nearly 65 to 35, indicates how unpopular the administration has become - in just 12 weeks.
I did a post-doc in Wisconsin many years ago. And found Dane County congenial to my politics. The rest of the state - not so much. But Wisconsinites don't like to be treated as commodities that can be bought and sold. They can see Elon's bullshit as well as anyone. Me? I would have signed the petition and spent the money on the other candidate's election. An act of bad faith? I don't think so. A slap in the face of Musk, a much nastier rat than Pizza Rat. I read somewhere a quote from Musk père saying "Elon isn't a racist," giving as evidence that as a boy he treated the servants well. I guess that in growing up in that milieu he regards employees as servants whom he can treat arbitrarily. His opposition to unions - to organized labor - is both ignorant and stupid, a dangerous combination.
Gay Valimont is a woman and she won Escambia County, which has the largest military & veteran population in our state. It's the rest of the panhandle, which is often called eastern Alabama, that voted for the rethuglican. Gay was out campaigning, holding town halls and met with many of the military folks from the naval base from all parties because they are upset at losing their federal jobs, and the cutbacks to their access to their VA hospital (which is over capacity and made worse by the cancelling of telehealth counseling and consultations).
She has an interesting (and tragic) back story - lost her husband to ALS and her young son to an inoperable brain tumor, within months of each other. Ended up saddled with over $100,000 in medical debt that even their "excellent insurance plan" didn't cover. So she was speaking to those folks, too.
We knew it would be a hard slog, but it gives me hope that fighting for veterans and our military people and standing up to cap the cost of medications, improve the ACA so people have more access to health care, rather than our current "sick care," resulted in so many people crossing party lines to vote for her that she won Escambia County, which is ruby red. She addressed their issues and problems and wasn't afraid to meet with anybody, no matter which political party they belonged to.
I was really hoping, after all the years of that idiot Gaetz, FL-1 would wake up and try a different path. Both Gay and Josh were on XM Progress for interviews, so they were trying to reach as many people as they could. Wait until all those people in the panhandle lose their Medicaid... they're about to suffer from the old FAFO syndrome. ☹️
Our biggest problem is the FL Dem organization just can't seem to get its act together, they never support anybody running in the red counties. Gay raised $7 million and Josh Weil in FL-6 raised $10 million, their opponents raised less than $3 million each. We need an every district matters, every county matters strategy onpar with Obama's 50 state strategy.
Indivisible and National Ground Game did door knocking and phone banking, sent people down from Georgia who had worked with Stacey Abrams, to show volunteers how to GOTV. Considering that trump won those 2 districts by more than 30% and both Gay and Josh cut that in half, those volunteers did a pretty good job. Who knows what would have happened if our own state Dems had gotten behind the GOTV efforts?
Where did you read that she was outraised by the Republican? I can't find that anywhere. Everything I've read says she out-raised him. And don't forget the pacs.
I didn't say that? Will go back and check! Can we edit comments? Gay raised $7mm+, Josh (FL-6) raised $10mm. They were on Dean Obidallah's XM show for an interview and Dean mentioned that Gay had raised at least two times the amount her opponent had raised and Josh had trippled what Fine had raised. Fine had trump backing, but not DeSantis's, there's some history between them and DeSantis didn't endorse Fine, so we were hopeful for FL-6. Volusia County was nearly tied in that race, there was a spoiler 3rd candidate (of course, we're Flor-i-duh) who got something like 234 votes that would have put Josh over for the county, but not the whole CD. Just like Gay won Escambia County but couldn't get the whole district ☹️ Hope pizza rat sticks around awhile, I missed him the last few days!!! I love your work and the accompanying blogs, I send links nearly every day to my son in Canada.
Yeah, I usually do better, but I'm watching tornados (literally, on various street and news cams) moving across the river from Arkansas and into my area. No reports yet, of course, but radar showed several moving through towns in Arkansas. One that "may" have left the ground is heading towards South Memphis. If you want to see what I'm seeing then goto https://www.localmemphis.com/watch or hunt for "memphis 24 live stream" and you should get it close to the top.
Nerve wracking stuff. Looks like at least one is going to hit between Covington and Dyersburg, maybe clipping both. They got damaged a couple years ago.
I like that you have a name for your pet rat. I just look at his nonappearances as he's on vacation visiting rat friends and family and will be back when appropriate.
I'm not reading a lot into these elections because like you said 2 were in heavily Republican districts and I don't even know if the lower percentage really makes a difference since they are special elections.
Breathlessly awaiting the tariff proclamations from the great man himself. (insert rolling eyes emoji here)
Pizza Rat's name has always been Pizza Rat. Peezy is just a nickname given by readers who've repeatedly used it without my influence at all. So, I didn't name him. The readers did.
Thank you for bringing Pizza Rat back. So much nasty crap going on in my life, it was nice to have something happy! 😀❤️
My cartoons are starting to get more comments here than at GoComics...for now. Except half of those are trolls.
Thanks for all the comments, everybody.
I didn't think it was possible for me to despise anyone as much as I despise Felon Trump, but Elon proved me wrong. I'd like to put them both on one of Elon's rockets that keep blowing up as soon as they leave Earth! And ... YAY!!!! Pizza Rat is back! Thank you! He always makes me smile.
I like that idea of them in an exploding rocket. Anything that makes them disappear at this point would be good.
Glad to see Pizza rat back. And I did notice the worm. If only it would eat into more of RFK‘s brain and muskrat’s as well. Maybe it will incapacitate RFK so much, so we don’t have to worry about our health system.
I think you're looking at the tail. I should have made it sharper.
I, for one, welcome the return of Pizza Rat, who has far more humanity than El Diablo Anaranjado and the Musk Melon combined.
Foolish me. I thought it was unethical (probably illegal) for a federal government employee to campaign in this way. But, then, nothing was done when Elmo spoke to the far-right political party in Germany. Look who enforces the laws and we know why it is allowed to take place.
But he's a "special" employee.
There is someone enforcing the laws?
The smell of corruption?
Ann Telnaes is one of the cartoonists who did a cheesehead (with rats) today.
I finally saw that this morning. She's a great artist.
Perfect!
Randy Fine makes MTG look like a finishing school graduate. A high school classmate lives in his former state district. It's the same place Mom's for Liberty started their first chapter. Subsequent chapters were formed with anonymous $100k donations. Ugh
https://www.newsweek.com/florida-republican-anger-management-class-offensive-gesture-1962764
What's the difference between a Banana Republic and a Shithole country? Asking for a friend…
The two Dems in Florida demonstrated how unpopular the administrations policies are. They both outperformed expectations in districts where Drumpf won by thirty percent, they lost by about 10-15%. They caused the withdrawal of the Stefanik nomination. And, I think they demonstrated to Dems in purplish districts and even in solid red ones that it's possible to overcome deficiencies through attacks on Trumpism (and Muskism.) The GCoupP was forced to spend a lot on those races (& did outspend the Dems, whose national headquarters had doubts like yours, Clay, and so invested far less in these races than they might have.) Losing by 57-42, as did Gay Valimont in a district that went for Agent Orange by nearly 65 to 35, indicates how unpopular the administration has become - in just 12 weeks.
I did a post-doc in Wisconsin many years ago. And found Dane County congenial to my politics. The rest of the state - not so much. But Wisconsinites don't like to be treated as commodities that can be bought and sold. They can see Elon's bullshit as well as anyone. Me? I would have signed the petition and spent the money on the other candidate's election. An act of bad faith? I don't think so. A slap in the face of Musk, a much nastier rat than Pizza Rat. I read somewhere a quote from Musk père saying "Elon isn't a racist," giving as evidence that as a boy he treated the servants well. I guess that in growing up in that milieu he regards employees as servants whom he can treat arbitrarily. His opposition to unions - to organized labor - is both ignorant and stupid, a dangerous combination.
Listening to Bobby "Blue" Bland.
Gay Valimont is a woman and she won Escambia County, which has the largest military & veteran population in our state. It's the rest of the panhandle, which is often called eastern Alabama, that voted for the rethuglican. Gay was out campaigning, holding town halls and met with many of the military folks from the naval base from all parties because they are upset at losing their federal jobs, and the cutbacks to their access to their VA hospital (which is over capacity and made worse by the cancelling of telehealth counseling and consultations).
She has an interesting (and tragic) back story - lost her husband to ALS and her young son to an inoperable brain tumor, within months of each other. Ended up saddled with over $100,000 in medical debt that even their "excellent insurance plan" didn't cover. So she was speaking to those folks, too.
We knew it would be a hard slog, but it gives me hope that fighting for veterans and our military people and standing up to cap the cost of medications, improve the ACA so people have more access to health care, rather than our current "sick care," resulted in so many people crossing party lines to vote for her that she won Escambia County, which is ruby red. She addressed their issues and problems and wasn't afraid to meet with anybody, no matter which political party they belonged to.
I was really hoping, after all the years of that idiot Gaetz, FL-1 would wake up and try a different path. Both Gay and Josh were on XM Progress for interviews, so they were trying to reach as many people as they could. Wait until all those people in the panhandle lose their Medicaid... they're about to suffer from the old FAFO syndrome. ☹️
Our biggest problem is the FL Dem organization just can't seem to get its act together, they never support anybody running in the red counties. Gay raised $7 million and Josh Weil in FL-6 raised $10 million, their opponents raised less than $3 million each. We need an every district matters, every county matters strategy onpar with Obama's 50 state strategy.
Indivisible and National Ground Game did door knocking and phone banking, sent people down from Georgia who had worked with Stacey Abrams, to show volunteers how to GOTV. Considering that trump won those 2 districts by more than 30% and both Gay and Josh cut that in half, those volunteers did a pretty good job. Who knows what would have happened if our own state Dems had gotten behind the GOTV efforts?
Where did you read that she was outraised by the Republican? I can't find that anywhere. Everything I've read says she out-raised him. And don't forget the pacs.
I didn't say that? Will go back and check! Can we edit comments? Gay raised $7mm+, Josh (FL-6) raised $10mm. They were on Dean Obidallah's XM show for an interview and Dean mentioned that Gay had raised at least two times the amount her opponent had raised and Josh had trippled what Fine had raised. Fine had trump backing, but not DeSantis's, there's some history between them and DeSantis didn't endorse Fine, so we were hopeful for FL-6. Volusia County was nearly tied in that race, there was a spoiler 3rd candidate (of course, we're Flor-i-duh) who got something like 234 votes that would have put Josh over for the county, but not the whole CD. Just like Gay won Escambia County but couldn't get the whole district ☹️ Hope pizza rat sticks around awhile, I missed him the last few days!!! I love your work and the accompanying blogs, I send links nearly every day to my son in Canada.
Thank-you for the correction. I also had her vote a bit low. I've made both corrections to my post.
Why does Musk look so natural with a cheesehead?
Yeah, I usually do better, but I'm watching tornados (literally, on various street and news cams) moving across the river from Arkansas and into my area. No reports yet, of course, but radar showed several moving through towns in Arkansas. One that "may" have left the ground is heading towards South Memphis. If you want to see what I'm seeing then goto https://www.localmemphis.com/watch or hunt for "memphis 24 live stream" and you should get it close to the top.
Nerve wracking stuff. Looks like at least one is going to hit between Covington and Dyersburg, maybe clipping both. They got damaged a couple years ago.
Btw, Clay, this 'toon is brilliant! And elon does stink mightily!
I agree with Paul Davis. musk looks absolutely natural wearing the cheesehead.
I'm currently drinking a mocha frappe at Starbucks, where I'm about to write the next blog.