Silly Cartoon Saturday

Above is a drawing of mine from The New Yorker. I feel sorry for the rhino, from her expression she appears so trusting. She should listen to her gut, don’t you think?

Was it Melania’s gut that told her to make that speech the other day? That’s what she wants us to believe, it seems. We don’t know why she did. I am still waiting for the thing to drop that prompted her to make the public denial of her friendship with Epstein and Maxwell (despite all the photos and emails). It was great that she made the speech, because it pushed the subject back on the front page right after Trump bombed Iran to try to distract us. There are so many pieces to this puzzle, including Russia connections, that it’s hard to know why she walked out and stood behind the presidential seal (a no-no), looking pissed off and denying rumors. She urged that the survivors should be allowed to speak their minds and tell their stories, when in fact it’s the people —men and women— who are possibly implicated in the Epstein Files who should be asked to testify under oath. Like her husband and herself.

JD Vance was in Hungary to meddle in a foreign election and endorse the Hungaraian president, Viktor Orban, in the election on Sunday. Orban is an ultra-right leader with dictator tendencies; he may lose, a NY Times article today states that many of his loyalists are defecting. Neither Moscow nor Trump want this outcome, plus it would be a huge embarassment if Orban lost right after Vance traveled to Hungary to support him. It would be a great sign if he lost, a win for democratic ideas.

One man who is defecting said, “I considered myself a right-winger, too, but I’m not sure anymore,” he said. “I have a crisis of identity like the whole country.”

I am hoping this is how the US right wing is thinking now.

From Heather Cox Richardson’s letter this morning: “A recently revealed transcript of an October 2025 phone call between Orbán and Russian president Vladimir Putin shows Orbán promising to be a “mouse” aiding the “lion” Putin, telling the Russian leader: “In any matter where I can be of assistance, I am at your service.” Tonight Hungarians filled the streets to protest Orbán, chanting “Russians, go home.””

Peace talks are happening in the Middle East. Right now it is a very brittle cease fire. Our negotiating team heading to Pakistan for the talks are Vance, Steve Witkoff, and Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner. I will watch and wait.

Thanks for being here! We are screening our documentary Women Laughing today at Sebastopol, California Film Festival. I love hearing the laughter of the audience, it’s cathartic.

I hope you can laugh today with someone.