This began slowly and so I didn’t take notes and then it went nuts and, well, the best I can do is show you where it seems to be now.
As far as I know, it began with this Michael de Adder cartoon …
… and the New York Times’ decision to run a full page of names of Covid-19 victims as the count neared 100,000:
Which JustVent doctored in this mash-up:
A couple of things here: One is that de Adder had already made the point, and this simply added to it. The other is that snagging people’s cartoons and altering them is a major, major no-no.
However, in this case, the effect was so strong — not gilding the lily but rather amplifying the accusation — that de Adder admitted he rather liked it.
At which point, Steve Brodner stepped in with an idea:
I’m assuming he had seen the de Adder mash-up, but I don’t know and I’m also assuming he wouldn’t appreciate a call at this hour of the morning to find out.
However, the idea took off among cartoonists of all levels, and quickly became known as “The Steve Brodner Challenge.”
A mere sampling of the responses:
Several were simply straightforward:
In John Cole‘s version, Trump takes a divot out of the paper, and thus the dignity of the names.
While Jeff Parker reminds us of what he’s playing with.
As does Jason Chatfield, who gets bonus points for having had, and survived, Covid-19.
Jim Brenneman adds a telling shadow.
Paul Berge goes for the laff, which is cheap on one hand but, then again, showing Trump as a clumsy, bad golfer would probably wound him more than portraying him as indifferent to the suffering of others.
Speaking of which, William Edwards portrays him as a cheater, kicking the ball while pretending to have chipped out of a bad lie. “Bad lie” being a golfing term, Trump never having met the other kind.
Rob Rogers shows him breaking a hole in the list, like smashing a windowpane with an errant shot. Some interesting coloring here as well.
Steve Sack stays within the “playing golf” mandate but goes beyond the teeing-off concept to add a bit of Pontius Pilate to his commentary.
And Alexandra Bowman represents several who didn’t follow the rules and show him playing golf, her piece chosen as the most direct accusation of his illogic and lack of caring.
And as these pieces were popping up on Facebook, Twitter and elsewhere (you can see a large collection on Brodner’s Twitter page, here), (or on Facebook here), Dear Leader showed why he deserves the abuse with this dishonest, tone-deaf defense of himself:
This is as readily disproven as his claims about his inaugural crowd or the millions of illegal voters bused into California, starting with his accusations about Obama, which, lest we forget …
And he doubled down on his dishonesty by suggesting that Obama was flying to Hawaii to play golf when, in fact, Obama played most of his golf on military bases, particularly Andrews, which is a chopper ride away, not in Florida or New Jersey.
And he played about a third as often.
And he didn’t charge the Secret Service for carts and pocket the money, nor was he often far enough from DC that they needed to book rooms, which the owner/operator could also have comped but chose to profit from.
As for getting ” perhaps a little exercise,” little indeed when you use carts instead of walking the course.
Herblock complained, back in Watergate days, about the cost of Nixon’s Western White House at San Clemente, both because of the price tag taxpayers had to pick up for security enhancements and because the purchase price was picked up by Nixon’s buddies.
Which seems like small potatoes today, but there’s also this:
Nixon was bothered by the demonstrations against him, which led to his famous midnight visit to attempt to chat with anti-war demonstrators at the Lincoln Memorial, and LBJ was deeply pained by the chants of “Hey, Hey, LBJ: How many kids did you kill today?”
Trump’s frequent trips to private golf clubs, by stark, shameful contrast, are a potent symbol of his tone-deaf indifference, his lack of a work ethic and his relentless self-dealing.
Giving Jay Spooner the final word, despite his not including an actual golf club in his contribution.
The thing that I find the most galling about Trump is this:
Every president since Washington has always been criticized by someone, regardless of party. Everyone who’s had a few functioning neurons as an adult is aware of this. And every president in modern memory has been dragged by the press for one reason or another.
But poor, thin-skinned, delicate little Donald actually thought that once he became president, it’d be the same never-ending love fest as one of his stupid rallies. That he’d never have to answer difficult questions or ever be criticized or ever have anyone give him less than total fawning praise.
I’ve had Trumpers that I know go on about his “tough guy” persona—I actually had my pro-Trump senator write to me that “when Trump gets hit, he hits back harder”.
But none of what he does is “tough”—he whines and throws tantrums like a pathetic little child. The fact that his supporters find that behavior “tough” speaks volumes, I think.
I was bullied quite a bit as a kid, and I learned pretty early on that you don’t show strength by telling everyone around how very, very meeeeeaaaaan that kid is being—you suck it up and get on with your life.
And it’s more than a little ironic that the crowd that sneers about “snowflakes” and “victim mentality” are the ones that chose this pathetic, mewling little wimp as their champion.
Yeah, but the thing is, he may be a pathetic, mewling little wimp, but he’s a RICH, pathetic mewling little wimp. And they ADORE that.
One thing that I have learned about the Far Right over the years is that they always accuse others of what they are, in fact, guilty of. In doing so, they give themselves away; just listen to what they say about others and you’ll know what they’re doing, or plan to do. From Trump bashing Obama over golfing, to rabid authoritarians with guns screaming about tyranny, they telegraph their blows like a punch-drunk boxer. They are everything they say they’re not, and none of what they say they are.
Hello,
I saw some cartoon examples of The New York Times-page on your site. Can you add mine also? It has 3,5 million views till now and is really going viral. You can find my cartoon on the paper-page here: https://twitter.com/vrjrdgstknng/status/1264350689540608000/photo/2
Thanx in advance,
Mark Dolk
The Netherlands
He is a brilliant cartoonist and social commentator.
I really enjoy seeing all of these. My favorite versions are from Pat Bagley, Steve Sack, J.D. Crowe did a fantastic one that’s not seen here, John Cole, and Jason Chatfield. I like them all but those are my faves and they make me wish I had been a bit more creative with mine.
Cheers to Steve Brodner for coming up with the idea of a protest.
I’m thinking exhibit when this has run it’s course — it will no doubt have to be a virtual show, but still worth collecting for posterity.
These are all excellent. Amazing the different variations there are of the golfing and the NY Times list. One is better than the other. But in reality they are all really so sad.
Thanks for this round-up. So many great ones.
I hadn’t seen his tweets about this on account of his blocking me on Twitter. Not terribly upset about missing the daily inanity, if I’m honest.
It’s such an honor to have my cartoon included here! Thank you so much for the feature, Mr. Peterson–and thanks to Mr. Brodner for conceptualizing this challenge!
It’s disappointing to see this somber list of names being exploited for political gain. I’m guessing many of dead were supportive of Trump. Not sure they’d appreciate being used in this way.
Also, how about some original ideas. The first to do this NYT golfing Trump showed imagination, albeit in a distasteful way, but kudos for the originality. For the rest, it’s just group-think mob mentality. I didn’t think that’s the way editorial cartoonists worked.
Pretty sure it’s how demonstrations work, Al. Large groups of people. Sometimes they chant or sing. These people drew pictures.
I think pointing out the President’s lack of empathy and the lazy way his lack of focus and his inactivity contributed to all those deaths — of both his supporters and his opponents — is a perfectly reasonable political point upon which to mount a protest.
And two days of golfing — not one, but two — in the middle of a deadly crisis is a reasonable focus for that protest.
Mark, do you think anyone would agree with me that it’s extraordinarily distasteful to use victims, half of whom were likely Trump fans, as political fodder? Just my humble opinion.
Michael deAdder is a talented & brilliant cartoonist. we here in his home province of New Brunswick, Canada are very, very, proud of him and the impact & insight he provides. His works and commentary will stand the test of time.
Fun to do. I haven’t had people screaming at me in years! The pros did it better.
I wish that the New York Times would publish all 100,000 people’s names, ages, and locations. Like Trump’s Vietnam Wall, people who were killed on his watch.
The majority of these untimely deaths must be attributed to the USA Commander in Chief’s stupidity, denial, medical ignorance, and inability to listen to the warnings he got and ignored in 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, and 2019 about preparing for the coming pandemics.
By being warned repeatedly and not implementing a reasonable preparedness plan before it hit, Apprentice President Trump effectively signed a death warrant for these 100,000 people and the tens of thousands more who will die in the coming months.
Medical R&D should have been and continue to be the #1 top priority until the US can beat emerging diseases in weeks, not years.
I wish to play! (Scroll down a bit)
http://www.myth-fits.com/
Are there Fabulous Prizes?