Your friendly neighborhood cartoonist being inspired by our most recent Graphical History Tour, Jim Beautron returns for this week's Q Syndicate cartoon:
The idea I pitched to Q Syndicate required a congressman being interviewed on TV; so I decided that in the ten years since he first sprang forth from my pen, Jim Beautron has parlayed a seat in his state legislature to a seat in Congress.
There he represents every Republican who has decided that the deadly fires ravaging homes and businesses near Los Angeles are an irresistible opportunity to complain about irrelevant issues Republicans hate.
Because Los Angeles's Chief of the Fire Department is not just a woman but a lesbian one at that, Trumpster activists pounced on the idea that the fires were somehow caused by Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion programs.
Billionaire Elon Musk helped circulate screenshots of the Los Angeles Fire Department's four-year-old 'racial equity action plan,' writing "They prioritized DEI over saving lives and homes."
The city's fire chief, a 22-year veteran firefighter, happens to be the first woman and openly gay person in that role. The chief, her fire department and the city government quickly became targets in right-wing media.
"When you focus your government on diversity, equity, inclusion, LGBTQ pet projects, and you are captured by environmentalists, we have been warning for years that you are worried about abstractions, but you can't do the basic stuff," Charlie Kirk, founder of the Trump-aligned nonprofit Turning Point USA, said on his podcast this week.
Just in case the American public might see that as a little far-fetched, Republicans in Congress, led by the Speaker of the House from frequent federal disaster assistance recipient Louisiana, added their own favorite woke boogiemen to the barriers to federal aid.
House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-Louisiana) said Monday that “there should probably be conditions on that aid” and pointed to disagreements about California’s “resource management” and “forest management mistakes.” ...
Rep. Zach Nunn (R-Iowa) said California and other Democratic-controlled states would need to atone for “bad behavior” if they wanted federal assistance. ...
Rep. Brad Sherman (D-California), whose district has suffered some of the worst damage, told The Washington Post that rebuilding could cost more than $150 billion.
The death toll from the fires is up to 24, and thousands of homes have been destroyed. More than 100,000 residents have had to evacuate to flee the blazes.
Lawmakers typically approve federal aid after natural disasters without requiring states to change policies first....
"The country expects that the federal government will come in and help people,” Sherman said. “Look, I voted for aid for Hurricane Sandy and Maui and Hurricane Laura in the delta in Louisiana, and the idea that something my party wanted would be part of that, it didn’t occur to me. No, we just provided the aid.”
And no natural disaster would be complete without this: squawking on Trump Social, the Felon-elect accused Newsom of refusing to sign a non-existent "water restoration declaration that would have allowed millions of gallons of water, from excess rain and snow melt from the North, to flow daily into many parts of California."
Perhaps from now on, Democrats need to stop being so altruistic when disasters strike Red America.
So the next time a hurricane levels Florida, or tornadoes hit Kansas, or the New Madrid fault flattens Tennessee, or Texans freeze or fry because their electrical grid collapsed, let's insist on granting unconditional citizenship to every immigrant who identifies as Latinx.
Too much? Okay, we'll settle for raising the debt ceiling.
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