Cartoons Thursday

Plus Jon Stewart vs. Fetterman, new protest music and we mark Hiroshima Day.

Still free to subscribe to this nearly daily newsletter! Greg Mitchell is author of fourteen books and director of five films for PBS since 2022. In a previous life, he was a longtime editor at the legendary Crawdaddy. His latest film “Woody Guthrie and The Ghost of Tom Joad Today” is now streaming everywhere via PBS.

Many still talking about the Jon Stewart interview with hapless John Fetterman this week, particularly (but not only) aboout the senator’s ultra embrace of Israel and its wars. Here’s the entire thing.

The Washington Post:

At a Cabinet meeting at Camp David on last week, President Trump demanded answers from Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth on why he had apparently been misled on extreme munitions shortages that now threaten to limit military options with Iran. Hegseth defended himself and blamed his deputy, Stephen Feinberg, for the shortages and for not ensuring Trump was fully apprised of the issue, both persons familiar said.

Today marks the 81st anniversary of our atomic attack on the city of Hiroshima, which that day or over time killed more 150,000, mainly civilians. As the author of four books and director of two PBS films on the subject, I have been charting the final days leading up to that over at my “other” newsletter, which you can visit here. There will be another post there later today and leading up to the Nagasaki tragedy.

Lucian Truscott IV:

And now comes today, and we learn, courtesy of Trump’s son Eric, who is involved with the establishment of Trump’s presidential library, that the Qatari jet will not be transferred to the Miami library when he leaves office. Instead, an old Air Force One, similar to the one that is on display in Simi Valley, California, at the Reagan library, will be displayed at the Trump library in Miami.

Nothing was said today about what will happen to the flying palace, but I think we know the answer already. Trump plans to take the Qatari royal jet with him in January of 2029, with all its upgrades that have been paid for with our tax dollars, so he can continue to fly in the proverbial lap of luxury as a private citizen.

The question immediately arises: how will he pay the considerable costs of flying such a monstrous aircraft? Right now, it costs something on the order of $200,000 per hour to fly one of the regular Air Force Ones. God only knows how much flying the Qatari flying palace costs. Besides, the $200,000 per hour cost is doubtlessly a lowball figure. It probably costs much more than that, because all the salaries paid to fly and maintain the jet are federal salaries at government employee level. Civilian pilots and ground crews and maintenance personnel cost way more than the Air Force people who are doing the work that amounts to the $200,000 per hour figure. Just maintaining the engines alone, which must be torn down and gone through periodically to maintain their airworthiness certification, costs millions, and will cost even more millions when the people doing the work on the Qatari jet are civilians after Trump leaves office.

Unless…

And here it comes, folks. Republicans pass a new law that pays for the travel of presidents after they leave office. There is already an old law, the Former Presidents Act, that partially pays for the travel of former presidents and up to two staff members. That law caps the payments at $1 million per year, which would not cover getting the Qatari jet off the ground, into the air, and back on the ground again even once.

So, unless Democrats take back the House and the Senate in November, you can be sure Republicans will try to pass a law paying every single dollar Trump will spend traveling on the flying palace once he leaves office.

If we didn’t already need a reason to win back the House and the Senate in November, now we’ve got one. Keeping the Qatari jet in the possession of the federal government and limiting Donald Trump to $1 million a year travel expenses should become one of the rallying cries of every Democrat running for election in November. No kings! No royal jets! Ground him!

Music Pick

Low-Cut Connie has released a rocking version of his “Livin in the USA,” read about him/them here and enjoy the tune below

Sleepin’ on the streets
There’s people dyin’ out there every day
Screamin’ in the midnite
“Don’t you take my child away”

You can pay some people
To tell you what you wanna hear
Get a good lawyer
Gonna make ‘em all disappear

From Tune to Toons

Wuerker:

Anderson:

Goris:

deAdder:

Luckovich:

Photo Finish

Lunch time in the Hudson, Snowy White Egret