This Year's First Sneak Peek

A truism of the editorial cartooning biz is that there's no new news during the Christmas holidays.

That fails to take into account that we now have an impetuous, mercurial, president who demands constant adulation, considers himself accountable to no one, and yet is desperate to distract attention from his close friendship with a perv who shared his predilection for girls "on the young side."

My challenge is to figure out how the latest outburst, tantrum, or outrage is of particular interest to the LGBTQ+ community. Tune in later this week to find out how that went this time around.

...In with the Old

In keeping with the turn to a fresh calendar this week, Our Graphical History Tour moves on to a New Year: 1926

"The Cut-in Dance" by Fred G. Cooper in Life, New York, Dec. 31, 1925

Judging from most cartoonists of the time, Americans entered 1926 with a carefree optimism for the future that we who dwell in it can only envy.

"Yes, Sir, He's Our Baby" by J.T. Alley in Commercial Appeal, Memphis, Tenn., Jan. 1, 1926

As with every other holiday that year, editorial cartoonists celebrated the nation's apparent prosperity. Senate Republican leader Charles Curtis promised the Washington Times,

"Our nation greets the New Year healthy and prosperous with the benefits of a kindly Providence scattered far and wide. The outlook for the next twelve months is particularly encouraging, with all signs pointing to a continuing prosperity for all alike. The present wave of prosperity, in which all the people are sharing, will last throughout the year."

Senator Curtis would be Vice President when the wave of prosperity washed out in 1929.

"The Morning After" by Jim Ring in Washington [DC] Times, Jan. 1, 1926

In the meantime, Jim Ring depicted Father Time ditching the robe and scythe in favor of an apron and broom, the better to sweep away the bad habits of 1925.

"The New Broom" by Grover Page in Louisville Courier-Journal, Jan. 1, 1926

According to Grover Page, that was more appropriately the New Year Baby's job.

"The Skeptic" by H.T. Webster for New York World Pub. Co., Jan. 1, 1926

Harold Webster's New Year Kid was not about to settle for the post of janitor. The little man was already out of diapers and ready to take over as Operations Manager.

"I Wish Old Man '25 Had Left a Clean Desk" by William C. Morris for George Matthew Adams Service, Jan. 1, 1926

Would sitting down at Mr. Globehead’s desk bring the kid back down to size?

We have covered some of the tasks in Morris’s cartoon before: from coal mine strikes and lockouts, to French wartime debts, to colonial wars in Morocco and Iraq, to worldwide disarmament, to crime and Prohibition in the U.S., to whether to join the World Court.

But we haven’t mentioned the Tacna-Arica Situation, a border disagreement between Peru and Chile that would be settled by the Lima Agreement of 1929. So now you know.

"With Best Wishes for a Happy New Year" by J. Conagher in Life, New York, Dec. 31, 1925

J. (or F.?) Conagher's cartoon has little to do with the new year save for its caption. Rather, it's a complaint against the social reformers who brought about Prohibition and were pressing for further laws against smoking, restricting content of movies, and so forth.

And while we're on the topic of unresolved problems carrying over into the new year, Leslie Rogers had a specific issue:

"A Satisfactory Year for Him" by Leslie Rogers in Chicago Defender, Jan. 2, 1926

There had been 12 Black Americans lynched in 1925 by the Chicago Defender's count. A Rogers cartoon about the most recent, of Lindsey Coleman in Clarksdale, Mississippi, appeared in our Graphical History Tour just before Christmas.

"Low and Order at Last" by Fred B. Watson in Afro-American, Jan. 2, 1926

A jury had found Coleman, a Black veteran of World War I, innocent of the axe murder of plantation store manager Grover Nicholas, brother of one of the men who then seized Coleman as he was leaving the courthouse. They dragged him into their car, drove him out of town, and shot him 26 times.

Tom Nicholas, J.T. Trayham, H.S. Blockley and G.O. Kane were arrested and charged with Coleman's murder. But while it must have come as a disappointment to Fred Watson, it should come as no surprise to students of history today that the charges against the four were dropped before the case was ever brought to trial.

As for Grover Nicholas's murder, two Black men, Ray Ford Leonard and John Fisher were found guilty on the testimony, later recanted, of Albert Hobbs. Another alleged party to the crime, Smith Bunns, died in jail, supposedly from an epileptic fall, within hours of his arrest.

"Happy New Year" by Orville P. Williams in New York Evening Journal (?), Jan. 1, 1926

White editorial cartoonist O.P. Williams offered his readers a cartoon encouraging tolerance in the new year. I've posted a number of his cartoons against the Ku Klux Klan, so I'll give him credit for as much sincerity on the issue as I'll give President Coolidge, who may have inspired this cartoon.

Toward the end of his December 8, 1925 annual message to Congress, Coolidge had this to say about racial, ethnic, and religious tolerance in the U.S.:

"Our country has many elements in its population, many different modes of thinking and living, all of which are striving in their own way to be loyal to the high ideals worthy of the crown of American citizenship. It is fundamental of our institutions that they seek to guarantee to all our inhabitants the right to live their own lives under the protection of the public law. This does not include any license to injure others materially, physically, morally, to Incite revolution, or to violate the established customs which have long bad the sanction of enlightened society.

"But it does mean the full right to liberty and equality before the law without distinction of race or creed. This condition can not be granted to others, or enjoyed by ourselves, except by the application of the principle of broadest tolerance. Bigotry is only another name for slavery. It reduces to serfdom not only those against whom it is directed, but also those who seek to apply it. An enlarged freedom can only be secured by the application of the golden rule. No other utterance ever presented such a practical rule of life."

"Speeding the Transient" by Gustavo Bronstrup in San Francisco Chronicle, Jan. 1, 1926

On that note, I'm afraid it's time to slide along ourselves. Thanks for coming along on this sweep through history!

Out with the News...

I started taking photographs of each year's newspaper headlines way back at the end of 1973 as a way of making bookmarks in my photo albums. Lately, with fewer newspapers being published, and some of the remaining ones reserving the front page for local stories, I've had to resort to pasting together screen grabs — which at least makes available those world headlines that U.S. papers relegate to page 6B.

That said, here's my collage for 2025:

Wishing you all better news in 2026,

―Paul

Q Toon: Culture Cancels Back

Who says there's never any news between the holidays?

Chuck Redd is a jazz vibraphonist and drummer who has presented the Christmas Eve "Jazz Jams" at the John F. Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts every year since 2006. This year, he abruptly canceled his performance after Donald Joffrey Trump's handpicked board of directors voted to deface the building by bolting his name above President Kennedy's. 

“When I saw the name change on the Kennedy Center website and then hours later on the building, I chose to cancel our concert,” Redd told The Associated Press.

If you were hoping to ring in the new year with the jazz stylings of The Coolers, they, too, canceled tonight's program. Redd and the Coolers are by no means alone in disassociating themselves from the Trumpified JFK Center. 

Trump, in one of the first acts of his second term as President of the United States, fired the JFK Center's existing Board of Directors, naming a new board who elected Trump its Chairman. In response, producers of Hamilton canceled its 2026 run at the Kennedy Center; actor/producer Issa Rae and J. Geils Band lead singer Peter Wolf and folk singer Kristy Lee called off their scheduled appearances, as has Doug Varone's Dance Company; and folk musician Rhiannon Giddens moved her concert to a different D.C. venue, The Anthem. 

The Brooklyn-based Puerto Rican band Balún canceled their concert there last February, explaining, "Recent events made it clear that the space no longer aligns with our values. Our safety, integrity, and commitment to justice come first." The Washington National Opera were also mulling leaving the DJTJFK Center due to a 43%  drop in ticket sales since the Trumpsters' hostile takeover, although they have since denied thinking about it

The Center's Trumpist president, Ric Grenell, has announced that the DJTJFK board plans to sue Redd for breach of contract, sending Mr. Redd an angry letter on "Donald J. Trump & John F. Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts" letterhead.

My guess is that Mr. Redd's lawyers might argue that he is not in breach of contract because anything calling itself "The Donald J. Trump & John F. Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts Board of Directors" has no authority to act on behalf of the John F. Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts. The Center's birthname was explicitly mandated by congressional act at its creation, and another act of Congress would be required to change it.

Given Mr. Trump's history of stiffing contractors and performers at the long since bankrupt casino bearing his name, I wouldn't count on paychecks from the transfigured DJTJFK Center being worth the paper they would be printed on. No doubt, the ether through which any bitcoin from them wafts is worth even less.

✍

By the way, per U.S. Code § 76j,

(b)Restriction on additional memorials

(1)Except as provided in paragraph (2) of this subsection, the Board shall assure that after December 2, 1983, no additional memorials or plaques in the nature of memorials shall be designated or installed in the public areas of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts.

(2)Paragraph (1) of this subsection shall not apply to—

(A)any plaque acknowledging a gift from a foreign country;

(B)any plaque on a theater chair or a theater box acknowledging the gift of such chair or box; and

(C)any inscription on the marble walls in the north or south galleries, the Hall of States, or the Hall of Nations acknowledging a major contribution;

which plaque or inscription is permitted under policies of the Board in effect on December 2, 1983.

End of the Year Sneak Peek

What's on tap for 2026? Let's take a look:

Oh, shoot. Looks like it has been heavily redacted.

The Year I Almost Broke Up Max and Leo

This week's Graphical History Tour looks back on the year 2025. You may have heard of it.

I was going to post enough of my cartoons to give a more-or-less thorough overview of the year; but, gosh, there was a lot of news these past twelve months ! Most of it bad. You know something? It's just too damn soon to relive the whole damned year.

Instead, I'm pulling together the story line that developed after I drew characters Max and Leo getting swept up into the Absolutely Corrupt Trump Administration's ethnic cleansing spree.

February

MAGA Max and Liberal Leo first appeared in 2024 as my way of commenting on the widening political divide in the U.S.: a same-sex couple with widely divergent opinions on issues not exclusively of LGBTQ+ concern.

I initially thought I could wrap this story line up after a few episodes, but I had no idea that the reality was going to be much worse than anything I had in mind.

March

Max's first step to try finding out what the thugs and goons at ICE had done with Leo was to contact the deep state a government agency, only to find that Elon Musk's Dogeketeers were busy destroying government's ability to function. I purposely left vague what government department this fellow worked in, save that it was apparently not Homeland Security.

April

I never specified where the prison holding Leo was; I called it Trumplinka in my blog, but not in the cartoons. Early reports were that the U.S. was flying detainees to remote locations in Columbia and releasing them with nothing more than the clothes on their backs. Originally, I thought Leo would end up being dumped with other prisoners somewhere in South America, then contacting Max to come bring him his passport.

Then we learned that the Absolutely Corrupt Trump Regime was sending its hapless victims to CECOT, a Dante-esque concentration camp in El Salvador, without even those clothes. 

April

I had no plan for breaking Leo out of that hell, so I had to think of something else.

Having him deported to the Heard and McDonald Islands wasn't going to work out, either.

I could have involved Leo with either of two LGBTQ whose kidnapping by ICE made news in 2025 (statistically, there must be others), but the Trumpsters have consistently lied or feigned ignorance of their status. One was Georgia barber Rodney Taylor, a double amputee seized because of a past juvenile offense for which he had been pardoned. Liberia-born Taylor was brought to the U.S. by his mother for medical treatment; his pending application for U.S. residence has been put on hold while he remains incarcerated.

May

The other was Angelo Hernandez, a gay Venezuelan stylist wrongly accused of gang affiliation due to tattoos and deported to CECOT.

Tattoos were the supposedly incriminating evidence against another man the Trumpsters sent to CECOT, Kilmar Abrego Garcia. While the State Department tried to prevent Democratic members of Congress from meeting with Abrego Garcia, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Cruella deNoem got herself a photo op with overcrowded CECOT prisoners behind bars as her backdrop, and the White House resorted to PhotoShopping tattoos onto Abrego Garcia's hands.

July

By summer, the Absolutely Corrupt Trump Regime was flying deportees off to foreign countries, to which the deportees seldom had any ties, including Guatemala, Honduras, Uganda, Belize, and Paraguay — with little or no notice, in order to stymie any legal effort to get them their day in court. So I decided that I had better get Leo out of the Trumpsters' clutches one way or another. 

August

You don't hear much about last summer's catch phrase, "Trump Always Chickens Out" (TACO) any more. He's been doubling down on riveting his name onto everything from the John F. Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts to his latest fantasy of gold-plated coal-powered Trump Classy  battleships.

July

In a movie, TV series, or adventure comic strip, there would have been exciting scenes of the American plane attempting to escape the crossfire only to crash in a huge explosion. The deportees would have wrested the keys to their shackles from that stranded ICE agent. Then, during a ceasefire negotiated by the Canadians and the E.U. long enough to evacuate their embassy personnel — oh, I'll let Leo pick up the story from there:

August

I draw a weekly cartoon, however, which runs in some newspapers and magazines that publish biweekly or monthly. And some of them may have elected to run cartoons I had drawn on other topics during the seven months when this story line dragged on.

In any case, my Better Half and I were taking a road trip to an out-of-town wedding in August, meaning that I'd be away from my drawing board for a while. There was no better reason to wrap the story up in a cartoon I could draw ahead of time — provided Trump didn't declare war on Canada in the meantime. (Especially since our return trip took us through southern Ontario.)

August

So now I have to figure out where Max and Leo go from here.

Assuming Max continues his loyalty to the Trumpreich, how does Leo not end every argument with "Don't you remember, your fascist Trump bastards arrested me without charge, held me in prison for months without due process, and sent me to some third world hellhole in the middle of a civil war?"

Maybe, to borrow a phrase, the problems of two little people don't amount to a hill of beans in this crazy world. But if this couple can stick it out together in spite of everything around them, maybe there is still hope for the rest of us.

Q Toon: Kennedy-nial of Care

During Donald Joffrey Trump's first term, I drew a cartoon about his transphobic policies that suggested that he was only pursuing them to satisfy his supporters on the religious right. They are hardly a factor in his second term, so I have to conclude that his persecution of the transgender community is central to his psyche.

Somewhere along the line, there's a girl in his past who turned out to have a little something extra downstairs, and the experience haunts him like Freddy Krueger.

Trump has found a kindred spirit in Robert Felcher Kennedy. The erstwhile environmentalist readily forsook advocacy for renewable energy and fuel efficiency in favor of feels-based health care.

Don't like pills and needles? You're in luck. Newly revised Health & Human Services protocols recommend against vaccines in favor of poultices, whale blubber, and burning some parsley, sage, rosemary and thyme. 

Suffering from gender dysphoria? You're in luck, too. Kennedy and the Republican establishment have declared that it doesn't exist any more. If you're unhappy looking in the mirror, botox, lip injections, and rhinoplasty are all hunky-dory, but everything below the chin has gotta stay just as God made it.

And they have ways of making you get used to it.

The ban takes the form of two new proposed rules from Medicaid and Medicare. The first prohibits doctors and hospitals from receiving federal Medicaid reimbursement for gender-affirming care provided to transgender patients younger than age 18. Medicaid is the health care program that covers low-income Americans.

The second rule blocks all Medicaid and Medicare funding for any services at hospitals that provide pediatric gender-affirming care. Virtually every hospital in the country takes Medicare, which covers older Americans and the disabled. Because hospitals rely on Medicare, the rule would have a wide-ranging effect.

Supporters and opponents of transgender rights agree that, taken together, the forthcoming hospital rules could make access to pediatric gender-affirming care across the country extremely difficult, if not impossible.

Even non-chemical, non-surgical approaches are verboten. The Trump Food & Drug Administration has sent warning letters to companies that manufacture and sell chest binders, used by transgender men and some nonbinary people to flatten their chests. The FDA charges that the companies failed to register their products as Class I medical devices with the FDA, in violation of the Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act.  “Failure to adequately address this matter may result in regulatory action being initiated by the FDA without further notice. These actions include, but are not limited to, seizure and injunction.”

I don't imagine that the FDA is going to send that same letter to the makers and sellers of girdles and brassieres.

FDA Commissioner Marty Makary claimed that the brands were guilty of “illegal marketing of breast binders for children, for the purposes of treating gender dysphoria.”....

Makary did not cite evidence that any of the brands market their binders to children; Them found no such marketing copy supporting Makary’s claim on the brands’ websites. Conservatives have claimed for years that discussions of gender identity alone are harmful to children, and their rhetoric has escalated over time; during the HHS press conference, Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services administrator Dr. Mehmet Oz falsely claimed that trans youth regularly receive vaginoplasties and phalloplasties costing up to $150,000; in fact, the vast majority of gender-affirming surgeries performed on minors are breast reduction procedures offered to cisgender boys.

The House has also passed bills this month making it a crime to provide gender-affirming care to transgender minors and prohibiting Medicaid reimbursement for gender-affirming care for youth. Neither bill has much chance of passing the Senate unless tucked into other must-pass legislation ― such as the next temporary government funding bill.

All of which will be worth remembering every time Republicans try to tell you that they are not the party of big, obtrusive, over-regulating government.

P.S.: Merry Christmas, and Happy Miscellaneous Holidays!