Shutdown Poo

Jane Goodall never had to deal with primates like this

I’m writing this blog at Wegmans. It’s the start of a new month, which means I have checks to deposit. My bank is by Wegmans, and I come here after I make my deposit, where I get to have sushi.

Welcome to Donald Trump’s THIRD government shutdown. This is another reason Donald Trump is the worst president in US history. Trump’s second shutdown, which was over Trump’s racist border wall that he promised Mexico would pay for, was the longest ever, and cost the government over $5 billion. Millions of Americans were furloughed over Trump’s 35-day shutdown, and Trump didn’t get his border wall. Did I mention Trump is the worst president ever?

The current shutdown is over disagreements about federal aid, health insurance subsidies, and other evil cuts to the budget by Republicans. Two days into this shutdown, and over 900,000 federal employees have been furloughed, while another 700,000 are working without pay. Trump is promising firings and making permanent cuts to Democrats’ “favorite projects” if they don’t cave. As we learned from Trump’s second shutdown, he can’t negotiate.

Shortly before Trump’s second shutdown, he said he would take the blame. Of course, when the shutdown eventually occurred, he tried to blame Democrats, yet the public rightfully blamed him. He and Republicans believe the Democrats will eat this one, and while the Dems are lousy at messaging, the public is blaming Trump and Republicans so far, and rightfully so.

Shortly before the shutdown, Trump canceled a meeting with Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries.

Two days ago, Trump said he was in favor of utilizing mass layoffs, specifically stating, “We’d be laying off a lot of people that are going to be very affected. They’re going to be Democrats.” Trump also plans to use the shutdown to eliminate projects he doesn’t approve of, saying, “We can get rid of a lot of things that we didn’t want.”

Trump is already using government resources to politicize the shutdown and blame Democrats.

This is the image of the White House’s website earlier today. It lists associations and groups they claim are blaming the Democrats for the shutdown, but if you click the names, there’s very little partisanship being expressed. The White House gets caught in its lie on the very same page where it lied.

These are the websites for Housing and Urban Development and the Agriculture Department, both blaming Democrats.

Is that a bunch of bullshit, or what?

At this time, the public is blaming Trump and Republicans. A Washington Post poll conducted yesterday, the first day of the shutdown, found that 47 percent of U.S. adults blame Trump and Republicans in Congress, while 30 percent blame Democrats, and 23 percent said they’re not sure.

I think it’s clear it’s the Republicans’ fault, and they must know it too, since they’re knowingly lying about it. Speaker Mike Johnson is flinging poo by claiming Democrats shut down the government to give health care to “illegal” immigrants. Republicans are fucking liars.

I may do another cartoon on this subject tomorrow.

Jane Goodall, the iconic British primatologist and conservationist who died yesterday at 91, once compared Trump to chimpanzees. In an interview in 2022 with MSNBC’s Ari Melber, she said, “Trump displays the same sort of behavior as a male chimpanzee will show when he’s competing for dominance with another. They’re upright, they swagger, they project themselves as really more large and aggressive than they may actually be in order to intimidate their rivals.”

In another interview in 2016, with The Atlantic, she said, “In many ways, the performances of Donald Trump remind me of male chimpanzees and their dominance rituals. In order to impress rivals, males seeking to rise in the dominance hierarchy perform spectacular displays: stamping, slapping the ground, dragging branches, throwing rocks. The more vigorous and imaginative the display, the faster the individual is likely to rise in the hierarchy and the longer he is likely to maintain that position.”

Well, all that works with Republicans.

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Creative note: I told my proofers this morning, “I could have been a normal cartoonist today and had just drawn a crying monkey. I’ve seen at least two crying chimpanzee cartoons this morning, and several others that come close. Did you know that a chimpanzee will bite off a male’s genitals in a fight? And not just the wee-wees of other chimps, but of human males too. And you thought it was bad with the poo-flinging. Chimpanzees scare me.

Music note: I listened to the Pixies’ Surfer Rosa while coloring.

Drawn in 30 seconds:

Timelapse:

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