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COVID California


We’re having an alarming increase in coronavirus cases in Southern California. Restaurants are closed. Hospitals are filling up. Masks are mandatory as Trumpies demand their rights to go maskless. Fox News and President Trump tell us not to believe our lying eyes.

This California Bear cartoon seems especially apt right now. I drew this one a few years ago as California was suffering from an economic malaise and a variety of other problems that seem trivial now. I dusted this oldie off, gave it a fresh coat of paint and it is better now than ever, so I sent it out to newspapers again.

Our past economic problems seem quaint now. As I was rummaging around in my bear flag oldies I found the next one about California drowning in a sea of red ink. Cartoons like this don’t travel well. Outside of the USA, people don’t know our California flag, and they don’t know what “red ink” means (it means debt). To freshen this oldie up I added some coronavirus balls to the drowning bear in the red-ink red-stripe.

Back in the old days, California was drowning in red ink because of unfunded pension obligations and poor financial decisions by our irresponsible elected officials; the good old days. I exaggerate so much in my cartoons that my drawings for mildly bad times seem just as appropriate when times are much worse –there’s a cartoon “silver-lining” that we can all be grateful for.

See more of my favorite California Bear cartoons here.


Our reader supported site, Cagle.com, still needs you!  Journalism is threatened with the pandemic that has shuttered newspaper advertisers. Some pundits predict that a large percentage of newspapers won’t survive the pandemic economic slump, and as newspapers sink, so do editorial cartoonists who depend on newspapers, and along with them, our Cagle.com site, that our small, sinking syndicate largely supports, along with our fans.

The world needs political cartoonists more now than ever. Please consider supporting Cagle.com and visit Cagle.com/heroes.  We need you! Don’t let the cartoons die!


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California and Saint Serra Statues

My cartoon today depicts the bear on the California flag pulling down a statue of Junipero Serra, the controversial Catholic saint who oversaw the opening of nine missions in colonial California. Serra participated in the Spanish Inquisition and enslaved native Americans, imprisoning them at his missions. Statues of Serra have been vandalized recently as many protests toppling statues commemorating racist historical figures have swept the nation, and the world, in the wake of George Floyd’s murder.

The California bear is something of an “everyman” character. I like seeing the movement to purge symbols honoring racist, historical figures; perhaps it is a bit of wishful thinking on my part to see California’s “everyman” tearing down Serra since there is quite a bit of support for defending the many Serra statues that dot our state like a pox. President Trump is using an executive order to boost penalties for defacing racist, historical monuments. My depiction of the California flag today is more a symbol of hope that these protests succeed than than a depiction of today’s reality.

The statue is based on one located in San Juan Capistrano that was relocated recently to protect it from protesters. I lifted Serra’s robe a bit so that I could get some Saddam Hussein action going with his ankles.

When I was in third grade I was required to build a model of a California mission and I was taught a false, fairy tale story about Padre Serra.  Thirty years later my kids went through the same thing in school. California students have been required to build those models and have been fed a whitewashed version of history for many decades. That may be changing now as the protests continue. Maybe our “everyman” bear will finally tear down that statue!

Scroll down to see some more of my favorite “everyman” California bears.

California always has a drought …


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Sometimes the drought is worse …

Even when it floods, we still have a drought …

We have fires too. And heroic firemen …

And we have legal marijuana …

 

And California was one of the first states to legalize gay marriage …

And president Trump doesn’t like California’s auto emissions standards …

See two more of my California Bear Flag cartoons, about coronavirus, here!

 


Our reader supported site, Cagle.com, still needs you!  Journalism is threatened with the pandemic that has shuttered newspaper advertisers. Some pundits predict that a large percentage of newspapers won’t survive the pandemic economic slump, and as newspapers sink, so do editorial cartoonists who depend on newspapers, and along with them, our Cagle.com site, that our small, sinking syndicate largely supports, along with our fans.

The world needs political cartoonists more now than ever. Please consider supporting Cagle.com and visit Cagle.com/heroes.  We need you! Don’t let the cartoons die!


Don’t miss our most popular cartoons of the week collections:
The Most Popular Cartoons of the Week through July 4th, 2020
The Most Popular Cartoons of the Week through June 20th, 2020
The Most Popular Cartoons of the Week through June 13th, 2020
The Most Popular Cartoons of the Week through June 6th, 2020

The Most Popular Cartoons of the Week through May 30th, 2020
The Most Popular Cartoons of the Week through May 23rd, 2020

The Most Popular Cartoons of the Week through May 16th, 2020
The Most Popular Cartoons of the Week through May 8th, 2020
The Most Popular Cartoons of the Pandemic (as of May 4th)
The Most Popular Cartoons of the Week through May 2nd, 2020
The Most popular Cartoons of the Week through 4/26/20, (all coronavirus)

The Most popular Cartoons of the Week through 4/18/20, (all coronavirus)
The Most popular Cartoons of the Week, through 4/11/20 (all coronavirus)
The Most Popular Cartoons of the Week, 4/4/20 (all coronavirus)
The Most Popular Cartoons of the Week, 3/29/20 (all coronavirus)
The Most Popular Cartoons of the Week, 3/21/20 (all coronavirus)

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Bruising Brexit

Britain’s Prime Minister Theresa May has been battered by Parliament as the Brexit deadline looms.

Stars are the universal cartoon symbol for pain. Star swirling around the head symbolize headache and dizziness. The European Union flag is great for pain and dizziness and is something that most cartoonists have drawn. Here are some of mine. The first one is then-president Chirac of France from back in 2005 –I don’t quite remember why he had an EU headache back then, but the EU has been causing headaches for many years.

This bull with an EU headache went with some euro-stock-market troubles some time ago.

Here’s Germany’s Angela Merkel having a Greek, euro-economic headache …

Here’s one from brilliant Canadian cartoonist, Dale Cummings …

These two are from Martin “Shooty” Sutovec, my pal from Slovakia …

These two are from my Bulgarian cartoonist buddy, Christo Komarnitsky.

This one is by Kap from Barcelona, Spain …

Somehow I don’t think this EU headache will be ending anytime soon.

It may just get much worse.

 

 

 

 

 

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Trump Sweeps Into My New Store

No matter what garbage comes out each day, Trump just sweeps it under the patriotic rug so it becomes invisible to his supporters.

I drew a similar cartoon some years ago, when I was angry with Obama for sweeping our civil rights under the constitution-rug with his massive system of surveillance on everyday folks …

Sometimes it seems like only the rugs change.

Do you like the Trump flag-rug cartoon? Come visit my cool new store.cagle.com store site where we have framed prints and cool products, like this coffee mug …

… and this phone case …

We’ve gotten requests for framed prints for a long time. We have some nice ones in store.cagle.com now …

I selected by most popular cartoons for store.cagle.com. Come take a look!

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Trump vs. California

My blue, home state of California has taken the lead in pushing back against President Trump, from dozens of lawsuits to legislation about taxes, the environment and immigration among many other things. Trump doesn’t like push-back and California’s “sanctuary cities” really make Trump mad – that’s why I drew that face-off.

 

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California Fires

The fires around me in Southern California are terrible this week. The skies are brown, the ash falls like snow, and the firemen are heroes. Here’s my California flag cartoon on the firefighters.

There’s lots of frightening stuff going on outside! Stay safe!

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USA vs Mexico

Sorry to be away from doing the videos for so long! Yesterday I streamed my process drawing this one and you can see the whole thing in real time in the YouTube videos below. Here’s the angry face-off between the Trump-USA and Mexican eagles.

The Mexican eagle really should face the other way, but I flipped the bird.

The video below shows me drawing this one, from scratch, on paper, with a pencil.

In the next video I’m coloring the cartoon in Photoshop …

Yes! The beard is gone for the foreseeable future! (I know that is shocking – it’s still me … really.)

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California’s “Drought”

We live with a never-ending drought in California – especially in Santa Barbara where I was just hit by a whopping $906.15 water bill for December from my local Montecito Water District. The bill included a $480.00 penalty, a $144.90 “surcharge” and a $44.59 “meter service charge.” The charge for the actual water used was $236.66. I have no idea why I had a higher reading on the meter last month. I’m guessing that the gardener may have left my low-flow sprinklers running – but that is just a guess.

I might try appealing the bill, but I’m allowed to appeal only the $480.00 penalty portion of the bill and the water district charges a non-refundable fee of over $200.00 to appeal a penalty (they tell me my appeal would be rejected because I can’t explain the high meter reading).

In “drought stricken” California we live with the random threat of crazy water bills bloated by penalties, along with our “gold is the new green” lawns. No amount of rain seems to impact the drought perception. Our local reservoir, Lake Cachuma, remains at alarmingly low levels compared to other lakes because it isn’t much of a lake; it is sustained with deliveries of water from the California state water system, which have been curtailed because of the drought. Other, better planned California reservoirs have been overflowing from the recent storms. As much as I hate to say it, I have to agree with Donald Trump that the California drought is more a matter of poor planning and poor priorities.

Nothing will turn a liberal cartoonist into a conservative like receiving a $906.15 water bill when the whole state is flooded.

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Brexit and the Stock Market Crash – Ouch!

I skipped doing a video on this one as I’m packing everything up for my move back to California!

1132-EUbull500dpiCMYK500Stars signify pain in cartoons, so the Brexit bonk on the head to the stock market bull seemed appropriate. I put a bunch of texture in this one. Maybe someone will print it big.

I’m outta here for a while, driving my car from Nashville to California, and doing some sightseeing on the way – so, sorry, but the cartoons should resume in a couple of weeks.

 

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Brexit!

This is Brexit day! I drew two versions of a missing star EU flag, a tame suitcase version and a flipping-off version for editors who are not so tame. We’ve getting tons of Brexit cartoons coming in and I’m posted a few of my favorites below.

I see that the missing star theme is all over the web today, so these cartoons hold fall into a Yahtzee or near-Yahtzee I’m sure, but this is the one editors will need for the weekend.

Here’s the tame version …

So … which one is better?

Here are a few of my Brexit favorites …

By Dave Granlund

By Arend van Dam

By Osmani Simanca

By Christina Sampaio

 

By Marian Kamensky

By Tom Janssen

By Pavel Constantin

By Patrick Chappatte

By Luojie

By Angel Boligan

By Marian Kamensky

By Hajo

All of these cartoons are available in high resolution to reprint at Politicalcartoons.com.