Newspaper cartoonists are not up to task of conveying the horrors of the Russian invasion of Ukraine and killing of civilians

HOW IS THIS FUNNY? Showing a clownish Vladimir Putin in a Russian tank stopped by a parking-enforcement boot is far from funny, especially when the backdrop looks like a destroyed apartment building in Ukraine.

 Portraying Putin as clownish

dishonors the men, women,

 and children who are dying

BY VICTOR E. SASSON

EDITOR

HACKENSACK, N.J. -- Cartoonist Daryl Cagle has been distributing the cartoons of 60 editorial cartoonists and 14 columnists to about 850 subscribing newspapers for more than 20 years.

I'm appealing to them to stop commenting on the criminal Russian invasion of Ukraine, if they are going to make fools of themselves by minimizing the brutality, loss of innocent life and assault on democracy.

I've included only 4 of the many cartoons out there. They are just awful.

REALLY? In this cartoon, a box marked "PUTIN" is on the left of the dictator's desk and another marked "PUTOUT" is on the right.

KILLING OF INNOCENTS: At least this cartoon seems to condemn the killing of civilians in Ukraine, but instead of showing graphic images of corpses torn apart by Russian missiles, the cartoonist appears to mimic the 1937 Spanish Civil War painting by Pablo Picasso of the bombing of the city of Guernica.

PUTIN'S BOY TOY: The Kremlin believes right-wing wacko and Fox News' chief liar Tucker Carlson is vital to its propaganda effort, but I'm far from sure the play on words -- "Russian Dressing" -- conveys that message.

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.

North Korea summit may be a distraction from mountainous breasts Trump adores

Adult film star Stormy Daniels is suing President Trump so she can make, uh, a clean breast of her affair with the New York billionaire after Melania Trump gave birth to their son, Barron. Melania is the stormy weather forecaster in this sendup from cartoonist Dave Granlund.

Cartoonist Granlund satirizing the war of words between North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un and President Trump over which leader has a bigger nuclear "button."

-- HACKENSACK, N.J.

By VICTOR E. SASSON

EDITOR

We've survived another insane week of the Trump presidency -- with visions of an adult film star's enormous, surgically enlarged breasts and a possible summit with North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un.

Donald J. Trump would be the first sitting U.S. president to meet with a North Korean leader in hopes of obtaining a nuclear-disarmament pledge.

But former President Jimmy Carter obtained a nuclear disarmament agreement with Un's grandfather in 1994, according to ABC News.

And in 2009, former President Bill Clinton also went to North Korea at a time when tensions were high over its nuclear program, and helped free two journalists.

Just a distraction?

Trump's visit isn't a sure thing, but he's got such a mess on his hands at home it may not matter.

And all the coverage of a possible summit is distracting from last week's real news:

The probe of Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential election is intensifying, and could result in an obstruction of justice indictment against Trump as one former aide after another is charged or cooperates with Special Counsel Robert Mueller.

And details of Trump's affair with a big-breasted porn star starting in 2006, after son Barron was born, are spilling out even as she sues to be allowed to tell all, including "still images" of what satirist Bill Maher speculates is Trump's "junk." 

Meanwhile, many are asking why Trump isn't applying sanctions Congress already OK'd against Russian dictator Vladimir Putin for his war crimes in Syria, and his recent, Kim Jong Un-like boast of having "invincible" nuclear weapons that could destroy U.S. defenses.

See: Trump isn't the only cause of stress in our lives

See:'Do You Remember When Love Was King?'

These doctored photos of President Trump and Kim Jong Un, above and below, appeared on Twitter (@bornmiserable).

N.J. environment

As today's front-page story in The Record shows, the environment in North Jersey went to hell while Chris Christie was governor from January 2010 to January 2018.

Now, the Woodland Park daily's environmental reporters are spending all their time on toxic disasters in Pompton Lake and Edgewater, the latter just across the Hudson River from Manhattan.

"Elevated levels of  a chemical that can be harmful to humans ... has been wafting in the air from the Quanta Superfund site in Edgewater for nine months [italics added] as workers continue to entomb a century's worth of pollution on the property closely surrounded by homes and businesses, Staff Writer Scott Fallon reports.

If the foul-smelling, potentially harmful air has been present for nine months, why is The Record just writing about it now?

Dysfunctional Englewood

The small city of Englewood has been mismanaged for decades.

Just look at the segregated elementary and middle schools; and high property taxes, despite revenue from the owners of million-dollar mansions on the East Hill, a small industrial area and hundreds of new apartments downtown and along Route 4.

Now, The Record leads today's Local front with a story under this headline:

"Englewood's 'dire' finances

 to be studied"

In the same sentence that quotes the "city manager," Englewood is referred to as a "borough" (1L).


Copy editors wanted

Readers eyes are rolling at another Mike Kelly piece that keeps them guessing on the meaning of the headline on today's Opinion front:

"It's time for a new plan

for Hudson rail tunnels"

Readers have to plow through thousands of words of background information on the Opinion front (1O) and the continuation page (4O) before Kelly reveals his solution in the last five paragraphs:

Appeal to the Port Authority to take over the project now that Trump has refused to fund the second attempt to replace the 100-year-old tunnels, which Christie initially killed in 2010. 

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." 

Bizarro Trump: 'Covfefe' tweet, a severed head, killing regulations to boost profits

Cartoonist Daryl Cagle lampooned President Trump's embarrassing Twitter poop, such as this week's "covfefe."

This cartoon from Dave Granlund suggests what Trump son-in-law and greedy real estate executive Jared Kushner envisioned during the transition for back-channel communications with Russia.

-- HACKENSACK, N.J.

By VICTOR E. SASSON

EDITOR

"Despite the constant negative press covfefe"

Did President Trump fall asleep during the tweet heard round the world as he was trying to type the word "coverage"?

Or, as Hillary Clinton said, "I thought it was a hidden message to the Russians."

Did the shocking photo of comedian Kathy Griffin beheading Trump come before or after "covfefe"? I can't keep up. 

Now, we're waiting for the president's announcement this afternoon on whether the United States will pull out of the Paris climate accord, joining Syria and Nicaragua as the only other countries not in the global pact.

Even Russian President Vladimir Putin, who helped Trump get elected on Nov. 8, has endorsed cutting heat-trapping emissions that are at the root of climate change.

An Internet meme that appeared as tensions rose after North Korean missile tests.

Rules kill profits

Trump has claimed time and again that environmental regulations kill jobs, but what he really means is that companies earn far less profit when they're forced to cut their plants' air and water pollution.

On Wednesday, Op-Ed Columnist David Leonhardt of The New York Times, commenting on all of Trump's lies and other B.S., said:

"His untruths about his tax plan, immigrants, voter fraud, crime and many other subjects serve a similar purpose. They attempt to create enough confusion about basic facts that Trump’s preferred policies, and his kleptocratic approach to government, can start to sound sensible. In reality, those policies would benefit the affluent (starting with his own family) at the expense of most Americans."

Coal plants closed

In New Jersey, PSEG Power permanently closed two of its three coal-fired generating plants, one of which spewed "soot, heavy metals and other toxic chemicals that impaired the air quality of nearby neighborhoods, the broader New Jersey region and New York City," reports The Record of Woodland Park (6A).

PSEG's decision to shutter the plants "mirrors a trend nationally, as the costs of coal and maintaining the plants are no longer cost effective," Staff Writer James O'Neill says.

Coal is more expensive than natural gas and other forms of energy, giving a lie to Trump's claim that cutting regulation will bring back mining jobs.

Since 2010, power companies across America have closed or announced plans to close 253 coal-fired plants, according to the Sierra Club.

And complying with environmental regulations cost PSEG Power $1.2 billion, eroding its profit.

"A few years ago, PSEG Power spent $1.2 billion to add pollution-control devices" to the plants that were shuttered this week after investigations found the utility had modified them in violation of the federal Clean Air Act, according to The Record.

Voters turned off by coverage of politics

Times to cut editors

On Wednesday, The New York Times offered buyouts to its newsroom employees "to reduce layers of editing and requiring more of the editors who remain."

The buyouts will include copy editors, who edit for grammar, spelling and style; check facts, correct faulty logic and make sense of garbled prose, the paper said.

The Times noted copy editors have "frequently been targeted in cost-cutting efforts in newsrooms across the country."

The Record started cutting the number of copy editors in 2008, when then-Publisher Stephen A. Borg ordered a major downsizing of the Hackensack newsroom about a year before relocating the paper to Woodland Park.

The payroll was slashed more extensively after Gannett Co. bought the Borgs' North Jersey Media Group last July -- a total of 350 jobs were cut by the end of March, including 50 editors and reporters.

Now, the paper is filled with even more errors than before, and columnists like Mike Kelly, John Cichowski and others don't appear to be edited at all, allowing then to go on and on and on.

In fact, as coverage of local and state news has declined in recent years, The Record's columnists have been encouraged to write longer and fill space.

More errors

The Record's story on the closing of two coal-fired power plants on Wednesday is an example of how errors usually caught by copy editors have proliferated:

The headline says:

"2 N.J. coal power plants permanently close"

But the caption under a photo of one of the plants is in error, saying it is "slated for closure by PSEG Power."

And more than once in the text the reporter wrote "Thursday," and no editor changed that to "today."

Fat but healthy

On Wednesday, a large photo of Dr. Mehmet and Lisa Oz of Cliffside Park appeared on The Record's Better Living front to promote "the couple's most recent collaboration," a cookbook.

"The Oz Family Kitchen" is described as more than 100 of her favorite recipes "supplemented with healthy eating tips" from him.

What's wrong with this picture?

The doctor's wife is clearly overweight, and she apparently ignores her husband's "healthy eating tips."

That's not very good advertising for the book.

Sugary yogurt, pesto with fish and more