I am old enough to remember when President Nixon went to China in 1972. Even though our family hated Nixon, that trip was a big deal because no US president had visited China before. It was confusing to a young person, that we could dislike a president so much and then watch the media praise him. But it was somewhat hopeful at a time when the world seemed so frightening.

Trump’s trip to China is not confusing, it seems blatently opportunistic. I am not an historian of presidential visits to China, but I am sure visits like this are always opportunistic. But in Trump’s case, it seems more obvious: he has clearly gotten himself into a global mess and is looking for ways out. He has lost the support all our allies, and so now is friendly —and not in a peace/diplomacy way— with Russia and China. Trump is all about the short term here; Xi Jinping is about the long term. Ironically, China seems to be the stable power and very much on the move upwards (I do not mean human rights). We are declining, and Xi knows it.

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Both countries want business deals in tech, trade and AI. US support of Taiwan is the only card we hold. We shall see what happens today, but I am not expecting much. It would be horrifying if Trump gave up Taiwan. Can he do that?

Trump’s form of diplomacy is to “make friends” with male leaders, schmooze with them; it makes him feel like he’s acheived something. This won’t work with Xi, I cannot imagine Xi playing that game the way Putin has. Both men—Putin and Xi- are probably laughing at Trump behind his back.

In fact at the very outset of the summit, amidst all the pagentry (children waving flags and cheering Trump) and warm sentiment (Trump called Xi a “great leader”), Xi warned Trump on Taiwan.

“If handled poorly, the two countries will collide or even clash, putting the entire U.S.-China relationship in an extremely dangerous situation,” Xi said while referring to Taiwan, according to a readout from Xinhua, China’s official news agency.

Trump is looking for a powerful ally in his Iran war. Chinese media reported that “the Middle East” was discussed this morning. The US readout of the meeting reported: “Both countries agreed that Iran can never have a nuclear weapon.” But the Chinese state media’s summary of the meeting did not mention Iran’s nuclear program or the Strait of Hormuz. Trump is trying to force his narratives and excuses for the war and/or China is not playing along.

Speaking of which, there was a video circulating yesterday which highlights Trump’s lack of understanding of the damage he is doing as he attempts to justify the incredibly costly war he started.

David Pierson of the NY Times reports that during a tour of the Temple of Heaven, Xi took the opportunity to “enlighten Trump about Chinese philosophy and the Communist Party’s role in preserving it. Xi told Trump that ancient Chinese rulers held sacrificial ceremonies at the 600-year-old site to pray for national prosperity, peace and favorable weather.”

“The Communist Party of China inherits and develops this people-centered philosophy of Chinese civilization,” Xi said. He has a penchant for extolling the splendor of Chinese history and culture in the presence of other world leaders as a way to legitimize the party’s rule and push back against Western pressure.”

This is the kind of leadership Trump adores and aspires to: power and complete control over people. Xi knows this and is attempting to exploit it, pandering to Trump’s ego. He said “The great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation and making America great again can go hand in hand.”

They did not discuss human rights.

It was primarily white men and no women among the contingent accompanying Trump to China. Lots of CEOs.

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I traveled to Beijing and a few other cities in China in 2019 as part of a speaking tour about cartoons and women’s rights, and I was fortunate to go to the USSR and Eastern Europe in 1976 as a college student to study politics and art. Much has changed, yet much has stayed the same. I am embarassed by our president and worried about the alliance of these three powers. With Trump as our president, I have little hope for dimplomacy that has any meaning other than money for Trump and the wealthy.

Here is a piece I wrote about my trip to China, and all of the drawings I did during that visit: Drawing In China.

And here are some drawings I did on my iPhone with my finger on the street.

Below is a drawing in the same folder, I must have drawn it on my trip.

I’ll share my drawings from my trip to the USSR on another post at some point.

Thanks for being here! I hope your Thursday is a good one. I am grateful for you all.

Because of some news today, I though I’d repost this. It was not published anywhere but online. I say that because I still believe the patriarchy controls way too much.

We won’t get justice for the women who were taken advantage of by Epstein until Trump is removed from office, or possibly when the Democrats take control of Congress.

House Democrats are holding a “shadow hearing” in Florida today, where survivors of Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell will testify publicly under oath for the first time about their abuse. Thanks to the Parnas Report for alerting me to this news, as it is not on the NY Times homepage (I recommend following Aaron Parnas).

This is the first time speaking publicly for many of them. I cannot imagine how difficult it must be. This story is not being cover by the mainstream legacy media, only The New Republic and locally in Flordia, where it is being live-streamed here.

In Manhattan, a pop-up installation called "The Donald J. Trump and Jeffrey Epstein Memorial Reading Room," has been created where people can go in and see the Epstein Files, all roughly 3.5 million of them. Because the Department of Justice failed to redact the names of some of the victims included in the documents, the general public is not allowed to consult the files.

Speaking to a reporter at the French newspaper, Le Monde, one of the creators said, “We’re a pro-democracy organization, with the goal of educating the public using these kinds of sort of pop-up museums and other in-real-life experiences to help people understand the corruption in the United States, the dangers to democracy,” David Garrett, one of the creators behind the project, told Agence France-Presse.

Garrett said he believes “there needs to be real public outcry” about how the Trump administration has handled the document release, with many accusing justice officials of covering up Trump’s ties to Epstein. “And what we attempted to do here was to create, or help to create public outcry to have real accountability,” he added. The exhibit is open to the public until May 21.

To view the room, reservations are required and can be made on the website of the organizers. I’m going next week and will film it for you, maybe do a live broadcast if they let me.

Also on the site, there are action suggestions:

Across the country, organizers and advocates are working every day to support survivors of sexual assault — and to change the laws, systems, and culture that let this violence continue. We hope you’ll support them with your time, your money, and your voice.

• me too. International is a convener, thought leader, and organizer in the global movement to end sexual and gender-based violence, grounded in Black feminist principles and survivor-led healing and action.

• SOAR (Speak Out. Act. Reclaim) Founded by Virginia Giuffre, SOAR empowers survivors to reclaim their stories and bring an end to sex trafficking.

• World Without Exploitation is the largest national coalition in the United States dedicated to ending the commercial sexual exploitation of children and adults, both online and offline.

• NYC Alliance Against Sexual Assault The Alliance leads New York City’s mission to end sexual violence through education, prevention programming, research, and policy advocacy.

It’s a gorgeous day here, I hope you are enjoying the nice spring weather like I am. Thank you for being here, see you tomorrow! Closing out with a lighter cartoon for you. Don’t ask what these creatures are, I have no idea.

He’s ready to swim in the Reflecting Pool that he plans to throw money at, money that Americans could use. For fun, I hand-held my iPhone to film the drawing emerge—it’s a really rough brush ink and watercolor sketch. It’s at the bottom of this post.

Trump is going to China to meet with Chinese President Xi Jinping, the first such visit by a president in about a decade. It’s not a friendly visit, rather it has the feeling of a show-down of two very stubborn leaders. According to Jonathan Karl of ABC, they plan to discuss Taiwan, Artificial Intelligence and Iran. Trump wants China to cut off Iranian trade. China wants the Strait of Hormuz to open.

After waiting for Iran’s response for a week, Trump has “firmly” rejected Iran’s response to the US plan to end the war, calling it “completely unacceptable.” With Trump going to China today, it’s not clear what will happen but I really do not have any faith in Trump’s negotiation abilities. He’d rather Putin take care of it all.

Trump is now moving forward with plans for an “election integrity army” that would reportedly operate across all 50 states ahead of the midterms. This is worrisome.

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Democrats are scheming ways to void last week’s shocking ruling by Virigina’s Supreme Courty, nullifying the will of the people that threw out the voting distict map they approved. From a Talking Point Memo report, quoting The Downballot: Send the entire court into early retirement. If the legislature could use the law on the books to lower the retirement age (and it seems possible according to this report), then the entire court would have to retire, a new one installed and they would revisit the recent case that is so controversial. Read about this plan here. I say, why not try. But the Dems might not have the stomach for such an aggressive tactic, and Governor Spanburger (D) would have to sign off on it.

Trump’s plan to clean up and paint the Capitol’s Mall reflecting pool (which does not need cleaning up nor painting) will cost $13.1 million. He says it is urgent, for saftey reasons. The government awarded that firm a no-bid contract last month, bypassing the requirement to seek competing offers by saying that the situation was so urgent that any delay would cause “serious injury” to the government. This is much more expensive than Trump previously said, and the urgency is that he wants it done before the nation’s 250th birthday. A nonprofit dedicated to landscape architecture filed a lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Washington seeking to halt the paint job. The Cultural Landscape Foundation said that “the Trump administration had ignored a law requiring advance scrutiny of projects that alter historic landmarks.”

The foundation said in its lawsuit that “every day that the resurfacing continues, the historic character of the Reflecting Pool is being further and fundamentally altered.”

SOMEONE STOP HIM.

I guess that’s us.

Thanks for being here! Have a good Monday and I will see you tomorrow.

I can’t get through the weekend without sharing a cartoon with you all. And since it’s that day of the year, I thought I would post this particular New Yorker drawing!

I hope you are having a lovely day, whether you celebrate Mother’s Day or not! Thanks for being here, see you tomorrow.

Remember when Obama said this? I live-drew it at the time, and thought I’d share today.

I usually take the weekend off from news here at Seeing Things, but I am upset about what the Virgina Supreme Court just did. In fact, according to the NY Times, two court rulings — one by the Supreme Court and another by Virginia’s SC —have delivered the GOP its biggest burst of momentum in many months. Winning the House majority will require Democrats to flip more seats in less hospitable territory. Andrew Howard of Politico writes that “Democrats just lost the redistricting war.” He continues:

The Supreme Court’s gutting of the Voting Rights Act last week, coupled with the Virginia Supreme Court striking down a voter-approved Democratic gerrymander of four seats on Friday, has all but locked in Republican gains through redistricting in this year’s midterms, giving them as much as a 10-seat boost with November rapidly approaching.

Dems will probably take back the House, but it’s not as easy as it was just days ago. Some are worried. Trump’s approval rating is abysmal, and continues to plummet but…

Trump posted:

“Huge win for the Republican Party, and America, in Virginia,” Trump gloated on social media. “The Virginia Supreme Court has just struck down the Democrats’ horrible gerrymander. MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN! President DONALD J. TRUMP”

Rep Jamie Raskin wrote:

“Today, in an outrageous outburst of right-wing judicial activism following the Roberts Court’s Callais decision, the Virginia Supreme Court has struck down the will of the voters. But democracy won’t end with right-wingers in black robes. Now is the time to campaign like never before for strong democracy, freedom and progress. The American people will have the final say in November. Organize!”

I hope you enjoy your Saturday anyway!

Here are some bracelets that two members of the Seeing Things community sent to me a while ago. If you would like one, send me a message and I will put one in the mail for you.

And as always, thank you for being here!!

I like the word skirmish, it’s funny in some way. A visual word. I don’t like the word patriarchy, or rather, I don’t like the concept. I think my first skirmish with the patriarchy— that I noticed— was when I lived in Italy, my family moved to Rome for a year. I was 16, and it was actually a crash course in sexism. The above cartoon is one you are seeing before anyone else, as The New Yorker chose not to take it.

Some news….

This is an interesting take, and glad someone is loud about it, because the Iran war is a lie, started by a madman and perpetuated by power-hungry yes-men. Much is being hidden from us. Journalist David Rothkopf wrote today in The Daily Beast (via Heather Cox Richardson):

“Not since Vietnam have we seen a more systematic effort by an administration to lie about the nature, costs, consequences, and results of a war than we have seen from the White House on Iran.”

The most significant news item I saw today is that apparently, Jeffrey Epstein left a suicide note. It’s not verified to be his handwriting, maybe that will happen soon. As reported by Politico, a judge released the sealed note, found by his cellmate weeks before he was found dead.

“They investigated me for month – FOUND NOTHING!!!” “It is a treat to be able to choose one’s time to say goodbye,” the note continues. “Watcha want me to do – Bust out cryin!! NO FUN – NOT WORTH IT!!”

The NY Times argued in a letter to the judge that there was no basis for continuing to seal the note and that his cellmate Nicholas Tartaglione had waived his attorney-client privilege by talking about it publicly. The court agreed. Does this confirm that he comitted suicide? Is the note real? Why hasn’t the cellmate been deposed?

Finally, Howard Lutnik testified yesterday behind closed doors about his connection to Epstein. Representative Ro Khanna says it all:

@msnowCommerce Secretary Howard Lutnick told members of the House Oversight Committee that he found the invitation to Jeffrey Epstein’s island to be unsettling, according to a source in the room. Lutnick also tried to walk back his previous claims about Epstein potentially using blackmail to get the plea deal he received during his criminal case, the source said. Rep. Ro Khanna, D-Calif., spoke out after the meeting to share more. #politics #trump #democrats

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That’s it for me today. Thanks for being here, see you tomorrow! Have a great Thursday.

Above and below are some drawings I did yesterday while waiting in a coffee shop. Then this morning, I did more drawings while on a boring and incomprehensible zoom meeting (not sure why I was there, tbh). I like drawing in this little journal, I hope you enjoy.

It seems really odd that the mainstream press repeatedly treats Trump as normal—actually, I’m looking at the NY Times. Their opinion writers are great, but I keep feeling the headlines are wishy washy. The president said this, he said that, he did this, he canceled that, he spends this, he spends that.

Last night, Trump said that he would pause his day-old U.S. effort to escort commercial ships through the Strait of Hormuz. He called it “Project Freedom,” and said it had made “great progress” toward a peace agreement with Iran. Oil prices plunged further after news reports on Wednesday that the Trump administration had made another proposal to end the war.

More than two months into the war, around 1,600 ships remain stranded in dangerous conditions in the Strait of Hormuz, with roughly 20,000 seafarers on board.

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His other “operation,” i.e. the war in Iran, is apparently over, according to Marco Rubio. They hope to push this narrative to end the biggest mistake of his presidency. But missles are still flying.

“The Operation Epic Fury is concluded,” Rubio said yesterday. “We achieved the objective of that operation.” The effort to reopen the strait is entirely a “defensive and humanitarian operation that would result in direct military exchanges with the Iranians only if U.S. ships came under fire.”

This is madness. Why shouldn’t we see a headline saying, “Trump is bonkers, the world is at risk, let’s collectively figure out how to stop the madness.”

US media is busy handing out Pulitzers, which I am sure are well deserved, but meanwhile the world is on fire.

Unfortunately, the Indiana GOP has decided to stick with Trump. Yesterday’s primaries in local legislative races backed the Trump-endorsed candidates. At least five of the seven anti-redistricting Republicans facing Trump-backed challengers lost, indicating Trump’s continuing sway over Republican voters in that state, and his continued capacity to successfully threaten Republicans who have a backbone and are willing to go against him (btw, here is how the NY Times puts it: “his ability to enforce political consequences for Republican officeholders who defy him”).

Trump keeps shifting the cost of his beloved (obnoxious) ballroom. He originally said he and his friends would pay for it; now it apparently will cost taxpayers, although it’s unclear how much. There is a ⁠proposal by Senate Republicans to give $1 billion in taxpayer funding to the Secret Service this year for security upgrades, including the White House ballroom. It will cost $400 million, not the $200 million originally stated.

Epstein: Trump’s commerce secretary Howard Lutnik is testifying today about his involvement with Epstein. He has been caught lying about how close he was to the sex predator. Lutnick is one of the highest-profile cabinet members to come under scrutiny; his name appeared in more than 250 documents in the Epstein files. Pam Bondi, former attorney general was supoenaed about the lack of release of files, and redactions, but she was let go from her position before she testifyed. Congress still can demand her to appear and since she did not, she has been held in contempt of court. This horrible mess keeps dragging on; my guess is it will take the Dems winning in the midterms for much of consequence to happen.

Yesterday, I gained a lot more new paid subscribers! Thank you all so very much, I can’t tell you how much it helps. Here below, on Deeper Seeing for paid subscribers, are the rest of my drawings. These are the ones I did during the zoom, and they show how much I wanted to leave the meeting.

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Maybe not the kind of fun I would want right now, but to each her own. The above is a drawing that The New Yorker did not take, so you get to see it! I so value your support here and love showing you my drawings.

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So, some news.

There are several primaries coming up in May. Trump and his people have been hand-selecting people to run against candidates they detest, local and nationwide candidates. He has been inviting his picks (great analysis and video from the NY Times here) to come to the Oval Office and take photos with him to use in their campaigns. He is preying on ambitious men and women, excited to be called to the Oval Office by the president, who perhaps have not been in government before (I don’t now that, but he’s done that before…in fact just look at his administration, starting with Pete Hegseth). It’s a false and dangerous game he’s playing, trying to prop people up in an election. It might not work.

Politico reports that on Tuesday. there is a primary for state legislators in Indiana: Trump wants to oust 8 Republican state legislators who blocked his redistricting effort there. Then on to Louisiana and Kentucky, where he’s backing challengers to two longtime enemies, Sen. Bill Cassidy and Rep. Thomas Massie (the man who spear-headed the Epstein Files Transparency Act with Rep Khana). Trump has also selected his favorite candidates in the crowded GOP primaries for Alabama Senate and Georgia governor. Stay tuned.

“The [Trump] endorsement just isn’t moving voters. It just isn’t,” said a GOP operative working on the Alabama Senate race who was granted anonymity to speak candidly. “When you’ve endorsed more than 800 people in 10 years, the potency of an individual endorsement wanes.”

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Epstein: In April 2026 Marjorie Taylor Green made an appearance at the Ron Paul Institute, and spoke about a private conversation that damns Trump even further concerning the Epstein Files. Aaron Parnas and the International Business Times shared a video of former House member Marjorie Taylor Greene revealing a phone call with Trump before she left government.

Greene: Trump said his friends would get hurt if we release the Epstein files. He said, “Marjorie, these are good people. These are people you know at Mar-a-Lago. People in Palm Beach—they’re going to get hurt by this.”

And I said, “Mr. President, people have been hurt. These women have been hurt. Have you talked to them? You should talk to them. You should have them in the Oval Office, Mr. President. You have everybody in the Oval Office—you have sports teams, you have world leaders, you have al-Qaeda terrorists that are now leading Syria, you have Mamdani. I mean, you have everybody in the Oval Office. Surely, you can have these women. Talk to them. I talk to them all the time. As a matter of fact, many of them voted for you.”

That’s what I told him—they voted for you. Epstein victims voted for Donald Trump, and he wouldn’t have anything to do with them. And he told me his friends would get hurt. And I said, “I’m not taking my name off the discharge petition.”

Here also is the video on X, as shared by Acyn Torabi Senior Digital Editor for Meidas Touch.

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Okay, here is a rant that you probably didn’t expect from me. It combines art and politics. Perhaps I shouldn’t let it get to me so much. The Met Gala was once a celebration of creativity in fashion, but now has become a grotesque display of insane wealthy and gaudiness. Instead of being playfully artistic, the outfits have become garish, aggressive displays of look-at-meism, and overly sexualized, plastic surgery-enhanced garbage (I’m looking at you, Mrs. Bezos). I used to enjoy looking at high fashion from time-to-time, but this is beyond ridiculous, not to mention ethically suspect. I also feel that we are in a period of time where women’s bodies are being used by the media in a way that is mangeled and malformed.

We are in a visual feminist backlash.

Last night, I kept being tempted to go see which celebreties dissapointed me by attending (Ben Stiller?!!), but I didn’t want to click on the coverage. I also wanted mainstream media to be more critical. I am becoming more and more angry about those not taking a stand against injustice and the fact that because of people like Bezos, our democracy is at stake. It doesn’t have to be loud.

I hope you are having a good Tuesday. It is so beautiful here now in the Northeast, I hope it is as well where you are.

As I alluded to above in my opening paragraph, you all here with me on Seeing Things are keeping me going, both mentally and financially, and I can’t thank you enough.

Friday, a lower court in Louisianna temporarily restricted abortion providers from prescribing pills by telemedicine and sending them to patients by mail. This is one of the main ways women seeking abortions have obtained the pills—mifepristone— in recent years. Two makers of mifepristone asked the Supreme Court to immediately restore full access to the medication. It’s anyone’s guess what the court will do. One assault after another.

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The Met Gala is tonight, and the one and only Jeff Besos and wife are lead sponsors and honorary chairs. Beyonce, Nicole Kidman, Venus Williams are co-hosts with of course Anna Wintour. Income inequality is glaring these days, people are struggling because of Trump (a big Besos supporter) and this over-the-top fashion event is really bad for many reasons. I’ve never liked it. Many are boycotting it, and activists are papering protest posters across the city. Mayor Mamdani is not attending and said he is busy focussing on “affordability and making the most expensive city in the United States affordable.”

Things are (still) a complete mess with Trump’s Iran War. Today, he said he’s escorting boat traffic through the Strait of Hormuz. Not personally, that would be fun. This move makes him seem generous, as if he’s coordinating traffic in the Strait, and he’s calling the move “Project Freedom” —he has to name everything in an attempt to fool people. When in fact, he’s testing Iran. And now Iran is threating boats; Ali Abdollahi, a top Iranian military commander, warned “all commercial ships and oil tankers to refrain from any attempt to transit without coordination with the armed forces.” As has been noted repeatedly in the media, Trump often says things on social media that might affect global markets.

If he can’t get re-elected, he’s going to make as much money as he possibly can for himself, his family and friends.

Last week, Iran had sent the Pakistan mediators a 14-point plan to resolve the war, and Trump and his people are reviewing it. But initially before reviewing it, he said that he was “not satisfied” with Iran’s offer and posted: “I will soon be reviewing the plan that Iran has just sent to us, but can’t imagine that it would be acceptable in that they have not yet paid a big enough price for what they have done to Humanity, and the World, over the last 47 years.”

Trump is trying hard to fix what he started, and he’s not fooling anyone. The 1973 War Powers Act had a deadline of May 2nd on which Trump was supposed to either withdraw US troops from engagement, or get approval from Congress to authorize military action. So he sent a letter to Rep Johnson and others to say, “the hostilities that began on February 28…terminated” on April 7, when he ordered a two-week ceasefire. Ignoring the fact the U.S. fired on an Iranian tanker on April 19, the letter says “there has been no exchange of fire between United States Forces and Iran since April 7, 2026.” He always squirms out of everything and for his entire life he has been successful. Will this work?

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Trump’s approval rating is at an historic low. I have to point out how desperate he is. Heather Cox Richardson reports that he has called for the impeachment of Minority Leader Rep Hakeem Jeffries, who cannot be impeached. Trump posted:

“I got impeached for A PERFECT PHONE CALL,” Trump wrote. “Where are you Republicans? Why not get it started? They’ll be doing this to me!”

—

I want to mention the passing of a wonderful and important cartoonist, Nicole Hollander. While I never had the opportunity to meet her, she was a groundbreaking feminist cartoonist who was syndicated in papers around the country. Here is her obituary in the NY Times (gift link here); I am honored to be quoted.

I was thrilled when I discovered Nicole Hollander’s work in the late 1970’s, my first knowledge was from her early books. I loved the way her eccentric character Sylvia said things out loud that some of us thought, but couldn’t express or weren’t even fully aware of. Sylvia sarcastically went after systemic sexism, and it was groundbreaking. Hollander’s drawings challenged accepted traditions about women in society; and she also made fun of women, those who were complicit or just plain silly.

Hollander’s tone in her early Sylvia cartoons was encouraging to me. Her work said: We can say feminist things in cartoons! I felt the same about Claire Breteche from France, who was working around the same time in France, poking at cultural misogyny and men. There were no mainstream women cartoonists drawing openly feminist cartoons; there were underground women artists creating comix on the subject. Hollander was syndicated and she published mainstream books. Her drawings were a subconscious influence for me when, later in the 1980’s, I started drawing snarky women making fun of men in my New Yorker cartoons.

Hollander’s work is in the tradition of the work by Jules Feiffer and Garry Trudeau (Doonesbury): talking heads saying something about society or politics. All three of those artists were groundbreaking. With her wonderful style and voice, I am sure Hollander influenced many other women cartoonists, including myself. She will be missed, I wish she were still giving us her commentary.

Thank you for being here, everyone. I really appreciate it. Have a good start to your week if you can. Hang in there. See you later.

It’s not clear to me why I draw so many cave people cartoons. The above was one The New Yorker did not take, but the one below they did, and it was published not too long ago. I think cave people drawings help us see how absurd life is! Maybe? Or perhaps meaningful….

I really am sort of partial to drawing cave women, and here is another in that vein.

This weekend was a podcast kinda weekend— I did one on Friday and will do a video podcast in Inwood, Manhattan tomorrow.

The above is actually a radio show, but it will be archived so can I call it a podcast? We were live yesterday at 5. It’s called Correct Me If I’m Norm” on Radio Free Rhinecliff. We had a lot of fun in a tiny room at the back of a grocery story in the tiny town of Rhinecliff, NY.

I’m taking a breather from politics this weekend, which, unless there’s breaking news, has become the plan here at Seeing Things. I think it’s good for our mental health, don’t you?

I hope you have a lovely Saturday! Thanks for being here, I really appreciate it.

Yesterday, I spoke about this in my live broadcast with Andy Borowitz, but wanted to write about it today. Originally I thought King Charles’ visit would be a bore, but it was anything but. In a very sneaky way.

Yesterday morning after I heard Heather Cox Richardson on social media discuss the speech Trump gave welcoming Charles, I decided to go listen. I also listened to Charles’ address to Congress. Richardson sums it up in her letter today.

Trump’s speech was riddled with indirect white supremacy guised as pride for our country and our Founding Fathers. Charles’ words were a guised warning to the president and American people. Trump read his speech and seemed not to grasp the words. Charles command of his words was masterful and gave me hope. Of course Charles gets it, and wants anyone who listened to know that the UK is on our side and on the side of democracy, and not Trump’s. He spoke about the importance of NATO, supporting Ukraine, checks and balances, and more, but he did it so subtly that Trump probably didn’t understand. But we do.

Within a few moments after he started, Charles made indirect reference to violence, and as I listened, I thought he was referring the January 6th Insurrection. However, without naming it, he was referencing the Hilton Hotel incident, yet I don’t think I am wrong in believing he was also referencing January 6th attack on our democracy.

“We meet, too, in the aftermath of the incident not far from this great building that sought to harm the leadership of your nation and to foment wider fear and discord. Let me say with unshakeable resolve: such acts of violence will never succeed. Whatever our differences, whatever disagreements we may have, we stand united in our commitment to uphold democracy, to protect all our people from harm, and to salute the courage of those who daily risk their lives in the service of our countries.”

Lionel Barber in his Substack concurs, writing, saying the King implied: “we/they must not flinch in the face of populist violence aimed at overthrowing our democratic institutions as occurred on January 6, 2021. He added a pointed reference to Magna Carta and the principle that executive power is subject to checks and balances - something which has escaped Trump.”

Trump thinks in simple terms: it’s all about brave strong Anglo Saxon warriors saving the world from people who are not Anglo Saxon, and making them subservient in the process.

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There was other guised commentary, brilliantly executed by Charles. I have never thought a whole lot about Charles, but now I have great respect for his subtle diplomacy. Here is the speech in its entirety. It’s better to watch it because he uses his tone and humor so well.

Then I listened to Trump’s speech when he welcomed Charles earlier that day. I saw in the video a moment when Charles looks at Trump as if he cannot believe what he’s hearing.

In his speech, which I don’t suggest you watch because it’s painful (But here it is if you want to), Trump characterized the American Revolution as a some sort of Anglo Saxon Brave journey for “what’s right,” carried on by warriors descendant from England. Excerpts below that to my ears are dog whistles:

“The American patriots who pledged their lives to independence in 1776 were the heirs to this majestic inheritance. Their veins ran with Anglo-Saxon courage. Their hearts beat with an English faith in standing firm for what is right, good, and true.”

“In the centuries since we won our independence, Americans have had no closer friends than the British. We share that same root, we speak the same language, we hold the same values, and together, our warriors have defended the same extraordinary civilization under twin banners of red, white, and blue.”

“If they could see us today, our ancestors would surely be filled with awe and pride that the Anglo-American revolution in human freedom was never, ever extinguished, but carried forward across centuries, across oceans, and across history, until it became a fire that lit the entire world.”

And then this arrogant take on the UK and US that has a domination feel to it:

“Let us remember what has made our countries the two most exceptional nations the world has ever known, and together, let us go forward with even stronger resolve to carry on our sacred devotion to liberty and to the traditions of excellence that have been our shared gift of all mankind.”

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Other news. It was excrutiating to hear the Supreme Court decision yesterday to gut a key section of the Votin Rights Act. The NY Times calls the Voting RIghts Act a “ stunningly effective piece of legislation secured at the cost of blood and lives in the South in the Jim Crow era, the act helped Black voters match and sometimes exceed registration rates of those of white people.” The Court’s majority said, in essence, that the aims of that law had been satisfied.

Justice Kagan wrote that she “will be interested to see, for example, whether time will vindicate the majority’s view that the ‘great strides’ made in African American office holding, ‘particularly in the South,’ will hold up after the issuance of this opinion. My own guess is not.”

“It is for the people’s representatives in Congress to decide when the nation need no longer worry about the dilution of minority voting strength,” she wrote. “So long as Congress has not done so — and it has not — this court has no right to cancel (sorry, ‘update’) a duly enacted statute on the theory that it knows better.”

Journalist Chris Hayes reminded us in a video on social media that we can hold hope that we can overcome this. During Reconstruction after the Civil War, there was an effort to instill legal equality between the races with the passing of the 13th and 14th and 15th ammendments. It didn’t last long, Southern whites made sure of it, and Jim Crow crept in very quickly and Black voters were forced by violence and other intimidation to stop voting. Finally, in 1965, the Voting Rights Act was passed, and equal access to voting began to return.

We can do it again.

Thanks for being here! I hope you have a great day. Keep the faith, we can get through this.

While we talked politics, I drew.

We mostly dished about King Charles’ visit to Washington yesterday, so I drew about that. My first time drawing Charles! Unfortunately, by far not the first time I’ve drawn Trump.

When I finished this one, we were having so much fun chattering on about stuff, I did a second drawing.

I hope you enjoy this, I certainly did. Andy makes me laugh so much. Have a great Wednesday, see you tomorrow. Thank you for being here.

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What happened on Saturday is breaking news and important, but it is sucking the air out of the room. Trump and his cronies are making sure it does, all in an effort to sway opinion (and sympathy) before the midterms.

A gunman, identified as Cole Tomas Allen, came close to all those gathered at the Washington Hilton for the White House Correspondants’ Dinner on Saturday night. No one was injured, although shots were fired. He was arrested and will be charged soon, not with attempted assasination but other gun related charges. He left writings, which I put at the bottom of my post if you want to read what he said.

Not alone in this, my first thought was that Trump staged this for sympathy, and votes. Reading more about the gunman, I doubt it. This shooting occured just after conspiracy theories about the last attempt to shoot Trump were resurfacing again on the right. The New Republic has an interesting piece on conspiracy theories by Michael Tomasky:

“I’m sure most of America is grateful that the sitting president wasn’t assassinated. Love the incumbent or hate him, that would be a traumatic national event. But he would be quite mistaken to expect an outpouring of sympathy from a country that strongly disapproves of the job he’s doing, and where 55 percent of the people, according to last week’s Fox News poll, consider him mentally unfit to serve as president. He is still prosecuting a deeply unpopular war, building massive detention camps, and proving both incompetent to manage the economy and impotent to impact gas prices. Cole Tomas Allen didn’t change any of that.”

The event happened around 8:30PM on Saturday, Trump and his administration did a press conference at around 10:30PM. Almost immediately in his remarks, he mentioned the need for his big ballroom, and that the Correspondants’ dinner needs to be rescheduled—where, I don’t know. Security at the Washington Hilton was incredibly bad, everyone is acknowledging this. And then he did a 60 minutes interview with Norah O’Donnell the next day, and lashed out at her. Below is a clip of that moment when he responds to parts of the manifesto that directly (but not by name) go after Trump. Horrible. Ironic because it happened at a dinner supposedly celebrating freedom of speech.

@60minutesThe gunman who attempted to storm the White House Correspondents’ Dinner wrote a letter explaining his actions and accusing "Administration officials" broadly of various serious crimes. When Norah O'Donnell read this list of crimes to President Trump, he was offended.. “I read the manifesto. You know, he's a sick person. But you should be ashamed of yourself reading that because I'm not any of those things,” he tells Norah O’Donnell during the 60 Minutes interview. #whcd #donaldtrump #uspolitics #correspondentsdinner

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Assistant Attorney General Shumate said last night’s incident “proves, yet again, that the White House ballroom is essential for the safety and security of the President, his family, his cabinet, and his staff. When the White House ballroom is complete, President Trump and his successors will no longer need to venture beyond the safety of the White House perimeter to attend large gatherings at the Washington Hilton ballroom. The White House ballroom will ensure the safety and security of the President for decades to come.” He wrote to the lawyer for the National Trust for Historic Preservation demanding that the organization drop its lawsuit against Trump’s planned ballroom.

Republicans are blaming Democrats for violent rhetoric. Less than 24 hours after calling on Americans to “resolve our differences,” Trump said in an interview with CBS’ “60 Minutes” that “I do think that the hate speech of the Democrats … is very dangerous.” Republican National Committee Chair Joe Gruters cast Saturday’s incident as “the inevitable result of a radicalized left that has normalized political violence.”

What about the violent rhetoric coming out of Trump’s mouth for years?

Meanwhile the Epstein Files still have not been fully dealt with.

And there is a crucial deadline coming up: The War Powers Act requires the president to notify Congress of war within 48 hours of starting a conflict. Then, fighting must stop after 60 days unless Congress either declares war or authorizes the use of the military for that specific action. That day will be May 1st. A majority of Americans do not approve of this war, if the Republican Congress votes a continuance, that’s not good for them in the next election.

This whole thing—the aftermath of the shooting— makes me furious, mostly because I really dislike how Trump grabs the narrative and throws out lies so quickly. His people follow suit, and the mainstream media doesn’t know how to push back. Democrats need to keep stepping up.

I hope you all are okay, thank you so much for being here. Have a good start to your week.

The shooter’s manifesto:

“Hello everybody!

So I may have given a lot of people a surprise today. Let me start off by apologizing to everyone whose trust I abused.

I apologize to my parents for saying I had an interview without specifying it was for “Most Wanted.”

I apologize to my colleagues and students for saying I had a personal emergency (by the time anyone reads this, I probably most certainly DO need to go to the ER, but can hardly call that not a self-inflicted status.)

I apologize to all of the people I traveled next to, all the workers who handled my luggage, and all the other non-targeted people at the hotel who I put in danger simply by being near.

I apologize to everyone who was abused and/or murdered before this, to all those who suffered before I was able to attempt this, to all who may still suffer after, regardless of my success or failure.

I don’t expect forgiveness, but if I could have seen any other way to get this close, I would have taken it. Again, my sincere apologies.

On to why I did any of this:

I am a citizen of the United States of America.

What my representatives do reflects on me.

And I am no longer willing to permit a pedophile, rapist, and traitor to coat my hands with his crimes.

(Well, to be completely honest, I was no longer willing a long time ago, but this is the first real opportunity I’ve had to do something about it.)

While I’m discussing this, I’ll also go over my expected rules of engagement (probably in a terrible format, but I’m not military so too bad.)

Administration officials (not including Mr. Patel): they are targets, prioritized from highest-ranking to lowest

Secret Service: they are targets only if necessary, and to be incapacitated non-lethally if possible (aka, I hope they’re wearing body armor because center mass with shotguns messes up people who *aren’t*

Hotel Security: not targets if at all possible (aka unless they shoot at me)

Capitol Police: same as Hotel Security

National Guard: same as Hotel Security

Hotel Employees: not targets at all

Guests: not targets at all

In order to minimize casualties I will also be using buckshot rather than slugs (less penetration through walls)

I would still go through most everyone here to get to the targets if it were absolutely necessary (on the basis that most people *chose* to attend a speech by a pedophile, rapist, and traitor, and are thus complicit) but I really hope it doesn’t come to that.

Rebuttals to objections:

Objection 1: As a Christian, you should turn the other cheek.

Rebuttal: Turning the other cheek is for when you yourself are oppressed. I’m not the person raped in a detention camp. I’m not the fisherman executed without trial. I’m not a schoolkid blown up or a child starved or a teenage girl abused by the many criminals in this administration.

Turning the other cheek when *someone else* is oppressed is not Christian behavior; it is complicity in the oppressor’s crimes.

Objection 2: This is not a convenient time for you to do this.

Rebuttal: I need whoever thinks this way to take a couple minutes and realize that the world isn’t about them. Do you think that when I see someone raped or murdered or abused, I should walk on by because it would be “inconvenient” for people who aren’t the victim?

This was the best timing and chance of success I could come up with.

Objection 3: You didn’t get them all.

Rebuttal: Gotta start somewhere.

Objection 4: As a half-black, half-white person, you shouldn’t be the one doing this.

Rebuttal: I don’t see anyone else picking up the slack

Objection 5: Yield unto Caesar what is Caesar’s.

Rebuttal: The United States of America are ruled by the law, not by any one or several people. In so far as representatives and judges do not follow the law, no one is required to yield them anything so unlawfully ordered.

I would also like to extend my appreciation to a great many people since I will not be likely to be able to talk with them again (unless the Secret Service is *astoundingly* incompetent.)

Thank you to my family, both personal and church, for your love over these 31 years.

Thank you to my friends, for your companionship over many years.

Thank you to my colleagues over many jobs, for your positivity and professionalism.

Thank you to my students for your enthusiasm and love of learning.

Thank you to the many acquaintances I’ve met, in person and online, for short interactions and long-term relationships, for your perspectives and inspiration.

Thank you all for everything.

Sincerely,

Cole “coldForce” “Friendly Federal Assassin” Allen

PS: Ok now that all the sappy stuff is done, what the hell is the Secret Service doing? Sorry, gonna rant a bit here and drop the formal tone.

Like, I expected security cameras at every bend, bugged hotel rooms, armed agents every 10 feet, metal detectors out the wazoo.

What I got (who knows, maybe they’re pranking me!) is nothing.

No damn security.

Not in transport.

Not in the hotel.

Not in the event.

Like, the one thing that I immediately noticed walking into the hotel is the sense of arrogance.

I walk in with multiple weapons and not a single person there considers the possibility that I could be a threat.

The security at the event is all outside, focused on protestors and current arrivals, because apparently no one thought about what happens if someone checks in the day before.

Like, this level of incompetence is insane, and I very sincerely hope it’s corrected by the time this country gets actually competent leadership again.

Like, if I was an Iranian agent, instead of an American citizen, I could have brought a damn Ma Deuce in here and no one would have noticed s–t.

Actually insane.

Oh and if anyone is curious is how doing something like feels: it’s awful. I want to throw up; I want to cry for all the things I wanted to do and never will, for all the people whose trust this betrays; I experience rage thinking about everything this administration has done.

Can’t really recommend it! Stay in school, kids.”

This New Yorker drawing of mine emerged from just drawing. Some cartoonists write first, I tend to draw first. I clearly remember that I didn’t think about drawing someone with a cat on a tray.

Today’s Deeper Seeing for paid subscribers is something I wonder about: the evolution of a cartoon, or at least my perspective on it. Creativity is mysterious, that’s probably why I think about it…although it’s important not to think about it when actually creating!

But how did the drawing above come to be?

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I often get asked if the cartoons in The New Yorker relate to the articles that surround them. They do not; in fact, it’s someone’s job at the magazine to make sure the cartoons don’t. That said, the drawing above is not supposed to be related to anything in my writing below, although you might think so!

On Tuesday night, Virigina voters narrowly approved a redistricting plan that could boost Democrats’ chances of winning four House seats in the midterms. It was a blow to Trump and Republicans. Hopeful.

Supporters of Trump, and the man himself, immediately cried that the vote was rigged. And they sued Virginia, of course. He wrote on social media:

“In addition to everything else, the language on the Referendum was purposefully unintelligible and deceptive. As everyone knows, I am an extraordinarily brilliant person, and even I had no idea what the hell they were talking about in the Referendum, and neither do they! Let’s see if the Courts will fix this travesty of ‘Justice.’”

Trump is ordering the Navy to attack any boats in the Strait of Hormuz he says are laying mines. In the same breath he says the “US has total control of the Strait and Iran doesn’t know who its leader is.” He said US minesweepers were working “at a tripled up level” (Trumpspeak at its best) to clear any mines from the waters.

On social media, he posted:

“Iran is having a very hard time figuring out who their leader is! They just don’t know! The infighting is between the “Hardliners,” who have been losing BADLY on the battlefield, and the “Moderates,” who are not very moderate at all (but gaining respect!), is CRAZY! We have total control over the Strait of Hormuz. No ship can enter or leave without the approval of the United States Navy. It is “Sealed up Tight,” until such time as Iran is able to make a DEAL!!! Thank you for your attention to this matter.”

A Navy Secretary was forced out this week after only 13 months on the job. In the middle of war. Not a good look. Apparently Phelan designed a big ship for Trump’s “Golden Fleet” in order to curry Trump’s favor, but Hegseth and others don’t like it and the conflict forced the secretary to resign. Phelan, a wealthy financier, was one of several businessmen tapped for top Pentagon posts by Trump. What a mess.

I know we are not surprised about this next story, but I have to mention it. Yesterday, the championship women’s tennis team from Georgia was invited to the White House to meet with Trump. He only shook the hands of the men (“administration officials” is all I know about them) and then all the men stood in front of the women, partially obscuring them. But what reallys stands out to me in the photo is that the women look as if they are objects.

I can’t even.

He uses women. And we suspect worse.

Below is a drawing I did in the first year or so of Trump’s first stint at the White House. At the time, I was drawing him in short pants because I believe him to be a schoolyard bully. He’s much more than that we now know.

I hope all is well in your world as we head to the weekend. I will post a Deeper Seeing for paid subscribers tomorrow. Something about cartoons!

Thanks for being here, see you then.

Hope.

In our monthly Talk and Draw for April, Heather and I decided to focus on this anniversary. Her words tell us about the evolution of Earth Day, and help us understand the why. I draw as she talks.

Heather and I were in the same location last week, so we decided to do our greeting in person together! We were in Portland Maine, above at a fun, laid-back pub in Portland, The Continental. Earlier in the day, there was a screening of Women Laughing, thanks to the Portland Museum of Art and the University of Maine and the huge crowd who came out to see the film and hear us talk.

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Heather and I were in-discussion onstage after the screening, it was terrific. Her questions about the film ( which I directed with Kathleen Hughes) were nuanced and insightful—did I expect anything else? Here is what she says in her post yesterday about our film:

“It’s a look at the women who have drawn cartoons for the New Yorker throughout its history, and their cartoons, shown in the film, will get you laughing. But I was fascinated by the examination of art in the (quite short) film. As the cartoonists explained, their art reflected their own internal vision, and yet it speaks to huge audiences. That universality, in turn, creates a community that both reflects and changes society.”

Changing society for the better, any way we can. And that includes planting trees.

Thanks for being here! Have a good Wednesday, and Happy Earth Day!

If you don’t already, follow Heather’s Letters From An American.

Yesterday, I wrote about the chaos that is the Iran War and all the talks/discussions that seem to be happening or not. What I learned today is that some White House officials are very concerned about how Trump is interfering with peace talks by posting conflicting things on social media. He’s not in the room of the talks, for one thing, and we don’t know if he is on phone calls with key players. A year ago, I would have said this is a tactic they are using. And Trump may think it’s a tactic— he has used social media to great effect (I don’t mean that in a positive way) over his years while in office. But frankly, I think now his postings are simply rants of someone who knows he is losing. He’s losing MAGA and he may be losing his mind as well. Trump also may be well aware that the way he manipulates with what he posts affects the stock market, and so he and his friends can take advantage and make a lot of money with insider trading.

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We are in a crisis of this presidency in a new way. I believe more people around Trump now understand how bad he is.

Today, right-wing personality Tucker Carlson issued an apology for his past support and promotion of Trump. Tucker Carlson said, “I’ll be tormented for a long time by the fact that I played a role in getting Donald Trump elected. And I want to say that I’m sorry for misleading people.” Here is a link to listen to what he says. I assume Carlson still has a lot of influence on the right, so it will be interesting to see if this leads to defections.

In addition, Wired reports that some MAGA followers are suggesting that the attempted assasination of Trump was staged. The BBC reports that conspiracy theories along these lines are uniting MAGA supporters and anti-Trump groups. I know many of us questioned at the time if it was possibly staged.

Today, Virginia is voting on a map that could give the Democrats four seats in the House in the midterms. Republicans had created an advantage in their voting maps recently, and if Virginians vote to approve a new map, it would be undone. This would be huge. Polls close at 8pm, so stay tuned. Trump has already posted on social that Republicans should vote NO.

What’s so bizarre is that I worry that we now take this kind of thing from a president for granted, but in the past, this was unheard of. Remember?? Presidents did not openly try to interfere with elections.

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Trump and his family are making TONS of money as he remains in office. His son-in-law Jared Kushner got the Saudis to invest in his company. Senator Jon Ossof this weekend said Kushner is “on the Saudi payroll for $2 billion,” a reference to the $2 billion a Saudi sovereign wealth fund controlled by Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (MBS) has invested in Kushner’s private equity firm. Now Kushner is part of the very small team in the Middle East negotiating peace. Ossof continues:

“And now he’s leading American diplomacy in the Middle East. Apparently, while at the very same time, asking princes and sheikhs across the Arab world to give him billions more. If you’re watching this online, don’t take my word for it. Look it up for yourself. Can you imagine…a normal sitting U.S. ambassador just hitting up Saudi Grand Prince Mohammed bin Salman for billions of dollars? But he’s a Trump. A royal. A princeling. The rules are for us, not for them. And it’s not just Jared getting in on the action. A company owned in part by Eric and Don Jr. has been pitching Gulf kingdoms on its drone interceptors during this war. The Financial Times reported: ‘Pete Hegseth’s broker looked to buy defense fund before Iran attack.’ I tell you what, never before have we seen so little effort to hide so much corruption. The Mar-a-Lago Mafia has taken American corruption to spectacular new heights.”

Underneath it all— the war, the economy, Epstein Files, election denying and interferance, ballrooms with bunkers, gardens becoming concrete, and ridiculous arches— Trump and his friends and family are enriching themselves “like nobody’s seen before.”

Thanks for being here, see you tomorrow. I hope your Tuesday goes really well and that you can take some time to breathe.

Aren’t there days when you feel like this?

Social media was abuzz over the weekend about the article in the Atlantic about FBI Director, Kash Patel, which details his recent behavior. Here is an excerpt: “He is erratic, suspicious of others, and prone to jumping to conclusions before he has necessary evidence, according to the more than two dozen people I interviewed about Patel’s conduct, including current and former FBI officials,” and who described “Patel’s tenure as a management failure and his personal behavior as a national-security vulnerability.” An FBI director is expected to be available and focused on his job—especially when the nation is at war with a state sponsor of terrorism. Current and former officials told me that they have long worried about what would happen in the event of a domestic terrorist attack while Patel is in office, and they said that their apprehension has increased significantly in the weeks since Trump launched his military campaign against Iran. “That’s what keeps me up at night,” one official said.

The FBI has to have someone at the helm who is beyond capable, in my humble opinion (I know we probably didn’t always had that). Of course, in the Trump tradition, Patel is suing the Atlantic for defamation. It will be interesting to see how that plays out.

Speaking of missing people, it was reported by the Wall Street Journal that Trump was purposefully kept out of the Situation Room during the search and rescue efforts of the missing airman from the downing of a US war plane in the Iran war. Apparently after the incident, Trump was frantically yelling and screaming at staff. “Aides kept the president out of the room as they got minute-by-minute updates because they believed his impatience wouldn’t be helpful,” the source claimed.

It’s hard to keep track of what is actually going on with the war in Iran, which of course is partly intentional and partly incompetence on Trump’s part. He claims one thing, and Iran disputes it. Trump announces grandiose changes, such as regime change (which has not and never did happen), and that the Strait of Hormuz was open when it was not, and is in fact still controlled by Iran; and now we are blockading it. He says the war is over, and then attacks an Iranian cargo ship. There’s a truce, then a cease-fire, an agreement….and none of it is true. Or partly true. I can’t keep track of what Netanyahu is doing, either. Now Vance is returning to Islamabad for peace talks. Supposedly. Tehran said it didn’t agree to such talks. Trump wrote on social media:

“We’re offering a very fair and reasonable DEAL, and I hope they take it because, if they don’t, the United States is going to knock out every single Power Plant, and every single Bridge, in Iran. NO MORE MR. NICE GUY!”

Finally, I just have to say: what’s with Hegseth’s suits? They look too small, which I guess is his attempt to show off how much he works out. And the tie area is always bunchy. His clothes annoy me and he annoys me. Hegseth recently had a prayer service at the Pentagon during which he asked those gathered with him to pray as he recited something he thought was from the Bible. It was from the movie Pulp Fiction, a famous line said by Samuel Jackson’s character before he blasts bullets into someone. Here in this video below, Jamelle Bouie explains it perfectly:

@jamellebouieThe Secretary of Defense (note: it still isn't the "Secretary of War") seems very confused about what is or is not in the Bible. In this video, I discuss his most recent buffoonery and what this says about the Trump administration's relationship to religion. Shoutout to Connor Lynch for editing this video. You can find his services at: https://www.connor-lynch.com

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That’s it for me today, I hope your Monday is going well! Thank you for being here, so great to have you in our community!

I thought I’d share a New Yorker cartoon of mine set in a baseball stadium, since we are in the season!

Baseball is the only sport I watch. When I was little, my father took me to Senators’ games in Washington DC, and I have grown to love the game. Such subtle drama and nuance in the personalities. One of the things I love to do if I go to a game (which is not that often, tbh), is watch the crowd watching the game. In my experience, in New York, it is a terrifically diverse audience, in race, gender, ethnicity and generation.

People together, gathering for a time to relax and forget about the world for a few hours.

Below is a drawing at Yankee Stadium that I did in 2018 for CBS News. I was thrilled to live draw the team beforehand, draw the players and the practice. And then the game! I will share all the drawings with you at some point. I even got one player to draw on my iPad, it was so fun.

I hope you have a very good Sunday. Hang in there, take some time for yourself.

See you tomorrow, thank you for being here!

The above was done a while ago, but it applies now. So many drawings that I have done about this horrible man in the last ten years can be shared over and over. Frightening.

I’m trying to visualize the day when we tear down Trump’s arch. It hasn’t even been built yet. I’m waiting for a judge to stop it from being built.

According to the NY Times, the huge lack of consultation on his designs has created push back. A group of Vietnam War veterans has sued to stop construction, citing “no congressional authority and that the arch would obstruct the view between the Lincoln Memorial and Arlington National Cemetery”— they say he needs authorization of Congress, but its complicated. He may or he may not—as usual with Trump, he’s got a way around everything. This ridiculous arch would likely be paid for through a mix of public and private money and they want to break ground this summer. A member of his Commission of Fine Arts (peopled by Trump lackies) suggested that the gold statues be removed from the top to make it lighter and not as tall. I am sure those are Trump’s favorite parts—the gold, and the fact that it will be the biggest arch in the world.

A judge has stopped Trump’s ballroom construction (for now), so maybe there’s hope.

So good: NPR recieved a $113 million donation! Philanthopist Connie Ballmer gave $80 million for its digital innovation efforts. An anonymous donor gave $33 million to the NPR Network, a web of affiliated public radio stations across the United States.

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Israel and Lebanon have reached a cease-fire, and Trump says talks with Iran might resume this weekend. I am happy for the Lebanese people that they can return to their homes, but I worry it will only start again.

In Hungary, we are watching incoming prime minister Peter Magyar undo what his autocrat predecessor was building in his country to take control of rights. We can imagine what might happen when Trump loses. Magyar appeared on tv after his defeat of Orban—state media had not let him appear on it before the election—and said he intended to suspend the station’s news service because “state media does not provide the journalism that the country deserves.” He also put an end to the state subsidies for Orban’s right-wing-allied university, and that Hungarian president Tamas Sulyok, a close ally of Orban, was “unfit to serve as the guardian of legality” and “must leave office immediately.”

Another cartoon for you today, as we head into warm weather in the northeast! Actually, we already had 80 degree weather, it was alarming. Why am I always surprised when the weather changes? Trying to figure out what to wear in the last few days was the usual scramble, with sweaters and jackets scattered around everywhere.

Thanks for being here!! See you tomorrow.