Kars4Grifters

You don't need an annoying jingle to know that Donald Trump is a scam

Usually, when someone tells you about a news item you may not have heard about yet, they'll leave out some pertinent facts. When I first heard that California had banned the Kars4Kids jingle, the most annoying song in the world, they did not tell me why. I thought to myself that California couldn't do that because of the First Amendment. Right? No one has banned Nickelback yet.

As it turns out, the supposed nonprofit group, Kars4Kids, has to stop airing its jingle in California because the judge found that it violated the state’s false advertising and unfair competition laws.

A California man filed a lawsuit in Orange County arguing that the ad prominently features young children, even though some of the proceeds are directed toward programs benefiting Israel trips for older teens.

Orange County Superior Court Judge Gassia Apkarian issued the May 8 ruling against Kars4Kids and its jingle, saying, “Money cannot ‘un-donate’ a car or restore the donor’s belief that they were helping a local, needy child. The evidence also shows that children, especially needy or underprivileged children, are not the recipients of the proceeds of the donations.”

Apkarian ruled that Kars4Kids may not use the “Kars4Kids” jingle, or any variation of it, in California unless the ads include “an explicit and audible disclosure of the organization’s religious affiliation.”

Apkarian found that the ads, which have been on the airwaves for more than 20 years, violated California’s false advertising law by disseminating public statements about the disposal of property — specifically vehicle donations — that were misleading by omission.

Kars4Kids, which accepts donations of “cars, boats, or real estate,” now has 30 days, or until June 8, to stop broadcasting in California. Kars4Kids says they will appeal, I guess because they love to annoy people.

The ruling stems from an August 2021 lawsuit filed by Bruce Puterbaugh, who alleged he donated a 2001 Volvo XC earlier that year to Kars4Kids after hearing the ad “over and over” on the radio. At the time, he expected his donation, made in California, to benefit children in California. Of course, he heard that ad “over and over again.” I'm hearing it right now in my head.

Puterbaugh later testified that after his donation, he learned “from a neighbor that the funds were directed to a Jewish organization in New York,” according to the ruling.

“That’s not what I wanted…I feel taken advantage of by the ad and information that was not there,” Puterbaugh said, according to the ruling.

He testified that the advertisement contained “nothing about specific religious affiliation,” and that, although he called the organization’s phone number, he never visited its website. He argued that it was because he is “not a computer person.”

Kars4Kids said in a statement, “We believe this decision is deeply flawed, ignores the facts, and misapplies the law. It’s well known that we are a Jewish organization, and our website makes it abundantly clear.”

Not that it matters to me, but I did not know that Kars4Kids is a Jewish organization, so I don't believe it is abundantly clear or well-known. I had assumed that they were all demons sent straight from hell to torment us.

If I make a donation to a group, and I find out that they're Christian, Muslim, Jewish, atheist, Satanist, vegetarians, cat lovers, or whatever, I wouldn't really give a shit. I also would not care what state they were based in. I would just want my money to go to those who are supposed to benefit from my donation. In this case, it's very much implied that the money is going to help children, not older teens getting an international trip.

I don't know if this ban is going to stick, and it would not surprise me if Kars4Kids does not win its appeal. Was the judge’s ruling anti-Semitic? Do they really have to make it more prominent that they are a Jewish organization in their commercials? I suppose “1-877 cars for Jewish kids” is not as catchy.

But at least Kars4Kids has not been banned from operating a charity in the state like the Trump Foundation in New York, where a judge banned Donald, Jr, Eric, and Ivanka from ever being involved in a charity ever again. That's because the Trump Foundation was a fake charity. All it was missing was a catchy and annoying jingle.

And if Donald Trump thought it would have solicited more money for him to purchase himself gifts, which is how he used the Trump Foundation, we could've seen him on TV singing, “1-877 cars for Trump.”

Creative note: There were a few other issues I wanted to hit today, like Thomas Massie, Ken Paxton, and the agreement that the IRS can't audit Trump's past taxes. But I have done so many cartoons that feature Kars4Kids that I figured I should do a special cartoon on this issue.

In the first version of this cartoon, proofer Laura believed that I had the song lyrics wrong, which meant I had to find it and listen to it, thus putting the earworm in my head for at least a week. I suspected that Laura was just messing with me to force me to listen to the song, but it turned out that she was right. She is a sharp editor.

AI: There is an article at the Daily Cartoonist about a submission to the Eisner Award that included AI, and someone made a comment that computer tools “like AI” have extended my career. I had to shoot that shit down.

I don't even know how the commenter even concluded that any computer tools have extended my career because I didn’t change anything when I returned from my stroke. I am using the same program and platform that I was using before.

Washington: I finished the Washington documentary on Netflix last night, and one thing stood out to me. At the end of the Revolutionary War, Washington's soldiers wanted to create a rebellion against Congress because they had not been paid for years. They wanted Washington to lead this rebellion and become a king or dictator over the new nation. Washington told his men that overthrowing Congress and becoming a king would defeat everything that they fought the British for. Later, when he was in his second presidential term, he said that he would rather be in his grave than be an emperor of the world.

Of course, this opportunity never would have been presented to Donald Trump if he were in that situation because he never would have led men into battle. But if it were, there's no way he would have turned it down. The only reason that Donald Trump would have gone to war against the British would have been to make him king.

Today, Donald Trump is trying to destroy everything that George Washington fought for, and he is trying to stamp out our democracy.

One detail I learned from the documentary is that Pennsylvania had a particular rule about slavery. The capital at the time was in Philadelphia, and in case you are a MAGAt, Philadelphia is in Pennsylvania. Pennsylvania was a non-slave state, but a slave owner could bring their slaves to the state if they were coming from a slave state. The rule was that after six months, they had to set their slaves free. So what Washington did was rotate his slaves between Mount Vernon in Virginia and Pennsylvania every six months. Washington was not a perfect man.

Drawn in 30 seconds:

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