Cartoonists slam Trump's many failures on Covid-19, take a look at Nov. 3 election

This cartoon from Tom Janssen at Cagle.com shows President Trump's reelection chances plummeting as the number of Covid-19 cases continue to rise. 

This Guy Parsons cartoon portrays Trump as the Rodney Dangerfield of American politics, facing many empty seats in rabidly racist Tulsa, Okla., when he resumed holding campaign rallies.

"And then, like a miracle, it goes away!" Trump is quoted as saying of the coronavirus in this sendup by Steve Sack, the Pulitzer Prize-winning cartoonist at the Star Tribune in Minneapolis Minn.

Two amazing "medical facts" explored in this cartoon by Monte Wolverton are 1) people who take a Covid-19 test are hypochondriacs and 2) social distancing and face masks cause herpes.

Tombstone makers are catering to victims of Covid-19 who refused to wear face mask, says cartoonist David Fitzsimmons of the Arizona Daily Star and Tuscon.com. "He fought to breathe free or die," one tombstone says (upper left).

U.S. Attorney General William Barr has shown a propensity to punish those investigating Trump, so cartoonist Steve Sack portrays the "Barr Code" as reading "Corrupt."

Freelance cartoonist Bob Englehart of PoliticalCartoons.com suggests statues of front-line pandemic heroes replace those that are being torn down because they represent racism.

Flying without a parachute is the wickedly satiric result of  passengers refusing to wear face masks on a commercial airliner, cartoonist Dave Granlund says.

You've heard of Dr. Hannibal Lecter, the fictional forensic psychiatrist turned serial killer. So, cartoonist Kevin Siers of PoliticalCartoons.com slams justice ill-served by portraying Attorney General William Barr as Hannibarr Lecter, who says, "Justice is served with some fava beans and a nice chianti."

Award-winning cartoonist Jimmy Margulies lampoons Trump's touting of miracle cures for Covid-19, focusing on Roundup, the week killer linked to cancer and multimillion dollar settlements in numerous lawsuits. Margulies was the political cartoonist at The Record of Woodland Park for many years.

Trump is the embodiment of the coronavirus in this cartoon from J.D. Crowe. "The tests are making me look bad," he says while wearing a hat with the message, "America first in Covid Deaths."

In this cartoon by Rick McKee, the Grim Reaper tells a man complaining it's too hot to wear a mask: "It's not the heat, it's the stupidity." 

As the July Fourth weekend approaches, cartoonist Dave Granlund believes Americans could use a refresher course on the Declaration of Independence.

Croatian cartoonist Petar Pismestrovic shows Trump as a gunfighter dealing with two enemies -- the coronavirus and the election.

Steve Nease at PoliticalCartoons.com portrays Trump fanning the flames of racism by finding another way to blame the Covid-19 pandemic on China.

-- VICTOR E. SASSON

Binge-watching Netflix, Trump touching his face, other precious Covid-19 moments

Cartoonist Dave Whamond of Cagle.com says most of us "have been training for this our entire lives," referring to coronavirus pandemic measures, including binge-watching Netflix.

"When D.J. Trump talks, people listen" (and the stock market takes a dive) is yet another timely cartoon from Whamond, whose work has appeared in magazines and newspapers.

On Feb. 28, the president labeled 

the new coronavirus 'a hoax,'

but just 2 weeks later -- on a Friday the 13th -- declared
 a 'national emergency'

Cartoonist Daryl Cagle of DarylCagle.com has President Trump violating the first rule of personal hygiene during the coronavirus pandemic, touching his face, in a variation on the "See No Evil, Hear No Evil, Speak No Evil" cartoon.

From Adam Zyglis, Pulitzer Prize-winning cartoonist for The Buffalo News, on the need for social distancing during the pandemic.

The panic buying and rationing of toilet paper by Americans who were "scared shitless" of the coronavirus, in the words of political satirist Bill Maher, was illustrated by cartoonist Steve Sack of the Star Tribune in Minnesota.

Cartoons by Jimmy Margulies, above and below, illustrate the sad state of our health-care system, and the danger posed to workers' pensions during the coronavirus pandemic.

Margulies cartoons also can be seen on his Facebook page.

Cartoonist Joe Heller of Cagle.com illustrates the dilemma of Americans who were urged to stay at home just as gasoline prices fell. Heller is the editorial cartoonist for the Green Bay Press Gazette in Wisconsin.

If you don't laugh, then you'll have to cry at twist, turns of worst U.S. president ever

Cartoonist Dave Granlund zeroes in on the Robert Mueller investigation (of Russian interference in the 2016 election) turning up the heat on President Trump, whose facade of lies and deception is slowly melting away.

Jimmy Margulies, onetime editorial cartoonist at The Record of Woodland Park, calls Trump's flunkies "Birds of a Feather." All have been convicted of lying wildly to cover up the dirty deeds they performed for the president.

Dave Granlund likens the job of White House chief of staff to babysitter.

Cartoonist Steve Sack of the Minneapolis Star Tribune refers to Budget Director Mick Mulvaney, Trump's choice for acting chief of staff, as the bottom of the barrel. That makes sense. Mulvaney is a conservative Republican from the South, having served in the South Carolina General Assembly before being elected to Congress. 

Jobs at the White House are as fleeting as fame. Cartoonist Ed Wexler of PoliticalCartoons.com has Mulvaney referring to himself as "the new temp."

Trump has vowed to shut down the government, if Democrats don't give him $5 billion to build the wall along the Mexican border. Cartoonist Rick McKee of The Augusta Chronicle sees a shutdown as a Christmas gift to Democrats.

-- VICTOR E. SASSON

Cartoonists say money and greed are root of all of Trump's evil, 2016 election fraud

Cartoonist John Cole of The Times Tribune in Scranton, Pa., exploring the latest evidence that Donald J. Trump was a candidate who personally directed an illegal scheme to manipulate the 2016 presidential election, and whose advisors had more contact with Russia than he acknowledges.

Cartoonist Steve Sack of The Minneapolis Star-Tribune illustrates a report that Trump promised a $50 million penthouse to Russian President Vladimir Putin as part of a Trump Tower deal in Moscow. He has Trump saying, "No pets," except me.

The red Christmas trees in the White House take on new meaning in this cartoon from Christopher Weyant of The Boston Globe. "I chose the [hammer-and-sickle] ornaments," Trump says

The murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi exposed Trump's cold-blooded view of U.S. relations with Saudi Arabia, as illustrated by cartoonist Steve Sack. The president exaggerated wildly about the amount of arms sales to the oil-rich kingdom.

The New York stock exchange tanked last week amid trade jitters with China, and Trump's tweets didn't help, as shown in this cartoon by Rick McKee of The Augusta Chronicle in Georgia. 

Cartoonist Randy Bish of The Pittsburgh Tribune Review exploring Trump's appearance at the funeral for George H.W. Bush, the 41st president of the United States. All of these cartoons and many others from around the world can be found at The Cagle Post.

-- VICTOR E. SASSON

Trump wages campaign to make America white again in image of his beloved Russia

From cartoonist Ed Wexler. See more at PoliticalCartoons.com.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

HACKENSACK, N.J. -- Thanks to satirist Bill Maher for reminding us how firmly President Trump has rejected the melting pot in favor of the despot, Russian dictator Vladimir Putin.

In fact, a popular drink in Putin's realm is the White Russian, made with vodka, coffee liqueur, cream or milk, the acerbic comic noted on his HBO show, "Real Time with Bill Maher."

Trump and other white Republicans are waging war on people of color, whether they live in the United States or just want to come here.

Nearly all of Trump's official actions have been to roll back laws and regulations enacted or adopted during the administration of Barack Obama, our first black president, many of which helped minorities.

Payback for tax cut

His one big legislative accomplishment -- the Trump tax cut -- is helping the GOP by "unlocking tens of millions of dollars in campaign donations from the wealthy conservatives and corporate interests that benefited handsomely from it," The New York Times reports.

"Billionaires and corporations that reaped millions of dollars in tax cuts are pumping some of that windfall into the Congressional Leadership Fund, a 'super PAC' ... that is flooding the airwaves ... with increasingly sharp attacks on the Democratic candidates vying to wrest control of the House [in the Nov. 8 elections]," according to today's Page 1 story.

For example, casino magnate Sheldon Anderson gave $30 million to the PAC after his company, Las Vegas Sands, reported a nearly $700 million windfall from the tax law this year, The Times says.

Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev with Russian athletes -- all white -- who won medals in the 2018 Winter Olympics (Russian government photo).

From Steve Sack, editorial cartoonist for the Minneapolis Star Tribune.

From cartoonist Milt Priggee, a native of Anchorage, Alaska. The news media appear to be losing their titanic struggle with President Trump, who calls them the "enemy of the people." Despite the attacks, reporters are falling all over themselves to be the first to disseminate the president's latest lies, whether contained in a tweet or shouted over the roar of his helicopter. It's a sad day for the Fourth Estate.

Melania Trump slaps away her husband's hand, seems to join the MeToo movement

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

HACKENSACK, N.J. -- Today's selection of cartoons from Cagle.com focuses on Melania Trump, first lady of the United States, and her distaste for the husband who cheated on her after the birth of their son Barron.

Here are a half-dozen glimpses into her life as President Trump's third wife:

SUPPORTS A BIG BEAUTIFUL WALL: David Fitzsimmons, staff cartoonist for the Arizona Daily Star in Tucson says Melania will be the one to build a wall -- between her and President Trump. 

GREEN CARD VIOLATION IN '96: Cartoonist Dave Granlund suggesting Melania might be arrested by Trump's ICE police for having worked illegally in the U.S.

STATE OF THE UNION IS STORMY: J.D. Crowe, staff cartoonist for the Mobile Register in Alabama, capturing the tensions of the Trumps' marriage. Adult film star Stormy Daniels bared most of the details of her sexual encounter with Trump, despite a $130,000 payment intended to shut her up.

NON-DISCLOSURE AGREEMENT: Cartoonist Jeff Darcy of The Plain Dealer in Cleveland suggesting this is the big question on everybody's mind in the event she seeks a divorce from the Liar-In-Chief.

BROMANCE WITH FRENCH PREZ: Steve Sack of the Minneapolis Star Tribune trying to explain the touchy feely meeting between Trump and French President Emmanuel Macron.

TRUMP SHITS ON WIFE'S CAMPAIGN: Adam Zyglis of The Buffalo News commenting on Melania's attempts to stop cyber-bullying when Trump is one of the biggest such bullies.

See more cartoons: Chaotic Trump presidency

The Times: Inside Trump's White House bedroom, his battle for self-preservation

Cartoonists Steve Sack of the Minneapolis Star Tribune, above, and Jimmy Margulies, below, commenting on how Congress is bought and paid for or in the pocket of the National Rifle Association, which bribes elected officials with millions of dollars in campaign contributions to make guns easier to buy and own.

Margulies is the former cartoonist at The Record of Woodland Park, my local daily newspaper, which has gotten much worse since Gannett Co. bought the publishing company that puts it out in July 2016, and laid off more than 350 employees.

-- HACKENSACK, N.J.

By VICTOR E. SASSON

EDITOR

Based on interviews with 60 advisers, associates, friends and members of Congress, The New York Times on Saturday took us inside President Trump's White House bedroom and bathrooms in an online report that carried this headline:

"INSIDE TRUMP'S HOUR-BY-HOUR

BATTLE FOR SELF-PRESERVATION"

But you won't find a word about Trump tweeting while seated on the toilet -- an image that was popular after he took office last Jan. 20.

"With Twitter as his Excalibur, the president takes on his doubters, powered by long spells of cable news and a dozen Diet Cokes," according to reporting by Maggie Haberman, Glenn Thrush and Peter Baker.

"But if Mr. Trump has yet to bend the presidency to his will, he is at least wrestling it to a draw."

News media

Trump likely will be undone by the investigation of Russian meddling into the 2016 election, but this kind of coverage in The Times, Washington Post and and other news outlets isn't really damaging him.

"Around 5:30 each morning, President Trump wakes and tunes into the television in the White House's master bedroom," The Times begins. "He flips to CNN for news, moves to 'Fox & Friends' for comfort and messaging ideas, and sometimes watches MSNBC's 'Morning Joe' because, friends suspect, it fires him up for the day.

"Energized, infuriated -- often a gumbo of both -- Mr. Trump grabs his iPhone. Sometimes he tweets while propped on his pillow, according to aides. Other times he tweets from the den next door, watching another television....

"...He sees the highest office in the land much as he did the night of his stunning victory over Hillary Clinton -- as a prize he must fight to protect every waking moment, and Twitter is his Excalibur.

"Despite all his bluster, he views himself less a titan dominating the world stage than a maligned outside engaged in a struggle to be taken seriously...."

See: Trump appears to be winning battle with media

Steak and ice cream

Referring to Trump as a "lifelong hotelier," The Times says the president's "principal mode of blowing off steam is his nightly dinner in the White House residence..." with invited guests. 

"Mr. Trump has always relished gossiping over plates of well-done steak, salad slathered with Roquefort dressing and bacon crumbles, tureens of gravy and massive slices of dessert with extra ice cream."

For more, see TRUMP'S WAY.

James Comey

In today's column on former FBI Director James Comey, Mike Kelly of The Record betrays his dislike of Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton (Opinion front).

Most observers say Comey reopening the investigation into Clinton's handling of classified information on Oct. 28, 2016 (10 days before the election) hurt her campaign, and contributed to her defeat.

Kelly blames Clinton's defeat on "her own mistakes."

Today's Better Living section, which is filled with a couple of dozen photos of cookies, should have carried a warning label for the many older readers who are diabetic, and suffer from related heart problems. 

The author, Liz Johnson, is a "content strategist" at lohud.com and The Journal News, a Gannett paper that covers Westchester, Rockland and Putnam counties in New York.

"Lohud" is Gannett speak for "Lower Hudson Valley."

Al Franken

In the coverage of the resignation of Sen. Al Franken and other elected members of Congress accused of sexual misconduct, the news media are spending little time commenting on why Trump shouldn't also step down in view of his sexual harassment of women.

In an op-ed column on Friday, Editorial Page Editor Alfred P. Doblin swings wildly between the "powerful men who allegedly treated women, and in some cases, other men, as objects created for their enjoyment," and an ice cream store in Montclair.

I read the shop's name over and over before I got the play on words. Dairy Air Ice Cream Co. recalls derriere, the French word for buttocks.

But the problem is not the name, Alfred P. Doblin says; it's the logo, "a shapely bovine ... with her ample tush pushed out and tattooed with 'DA' in a heart."

Doblin calls the logo "obvious sexism," but Trump's "disrespecting women" is mentioned only in passing.

See a video of 16 women who accuse Trump of unwanted kissing and worse: 'He groped me'

In another Margulies cartoon, the lighting of the Christmas Tree in Manhattan's Rockefeller Center is compared to the restoration of electricity and lights in hurricane-ravaged Puerto Rico. "Amazing! That's more lights than in all of Puerto Rico," someone in the crowd says.

Trump climbs back into bed with Putin -- in a royal F.U. to probe of Nov. 8 election

Cartoonist Nate Beeler of The Columbus Dispatch in Ohio suggests that before their meeting on Friday in Hamburg, Germany, President Trump rolled out the red carpet for Russian dictator Vladimir Putin, who allegedly meddled in the Nov. 8 presidential election.

-- HACKENSACK, N.J.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

No one in their right mind should be buying a USA Today report of a "stunning" agreement between President Trump and Russian dictator Vladimir Putin not to meddle "in each other's" future elections.

That so-called accord -- reported on Page 1 of The Record on Saturday -- is merely a distraction as a special counsel and intelligence officials continue to investigate Russian meddling in the Nov. 8 presidential election.

Before the election, Trump himself invited the Russians to hack Hillary Clinton's emails, and that country's cyber terrorists did break into the computers of the Democratic National Committee.

The intent was to injure Clinton and aid a Trump victory, The Washington Post has reported, adding President Obama didn't retaliate against the Russians until December out of concern "he might himself be seen as trying to manipulate the election."

Obama expelled 35 diplomats and closed two Russian compounds.

Old news

By today, the Trump-Putin meeting and Russia's interference in the presidential election is old news at the Woodland Park daily, which continues its hysterical front-page reporting on the impact of track repairs in New York's Penn Station.

The U.S. investigation is far from over, yet today's Opinion section doesn't carry an editorial condemning Putin for trying to hurt Clinton and help Trump.

Nor, does The Record question the positive spin put on the meeting by Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, former head of Exxon Mobil, which does a tremendous amount of business in Russia.

Meanwhile, Columnist Mike Kelly's column harks back to the New Jersey government shutdown, and Governor Christie's "full manspread" a week ago on the beach in Island Beach State Park (1O).

On Friday, The New Yorker ran John Cassidy's story under this headline:

"THE TRUMP-PUTIN BROMANCE IS BACK ON"

"Putin had gotten what he wanted from the meeting: a commitment from the U.S. to move from the election controversy and normalize relations," Cassidy reported. 

In a reference to the Coppertone ad, cartoonist Steve Sack of the Minneapolis Star Tribune shows how the news media exposed Governor Christie hogging the beach all for himself, family and friends on July 2.

Lame duck Christie still can screw N.J.

Business as usual

A day after the Trump-Putin love fest, it was business as usual for The Record's Better Living editors, whose food and lifestyle stories read like advertising.

Saturday's Better Living section published a highly promotional story praising North Jersey landscape and pool designers.

The stupid headline -- "7 stunning Bergen backyards that will make you happy it's summer" -- suggests the seven backyards and pools are open to the public, which I'm sure isn't the case.

So, why would readers be "happy it's summer"? It makes no sense.

In an email, a reader of The Sasson Report said:

"What is going on -- an ad for pool designers? What reader will ever see these pools or have anything to do with them? It is only the super rich -- what a waste of space." 

Lists, not journalism

Gannett Co. bought The Record about a year ago from the Borg family, who laughed all the way to the bank to deposit more than $40 million (July 6, 2016).

Then, just as Gannett has done with its newly acquired newspapers across the country, Editor-cum-Hatchet Man Richard A. Green cut the staff to the bone.

By the end of March, more than 350 employees of North Jersey Media Group were shown the door.

Now, all readers seem to get are lists when it comes to food, lifestyle and travel stories, like Saturday's seven backyards, and today's "O Canada, 150 things to see and do up north" in the Travel section.

Friday's Better Living centerfold raved about "9 great summer date spots."