It Takes a Sociopathic Village

Boo Radley isn't going to like them, either.

Barack Obama has announced that he will be making a farewell address to the citizens of Chicago next week, in part to "celebrate the way you've changed this country." We can't think of a better location, considering some of those "changes" include 762 murders in 2016, and the recent abduction and torture (with live Facebook streaming) of a mentally challenged white man by four black thugs, who used their time in the online spotlight laughing and spouting obscenities directed at Donald Trump and white people.

When white lunatic Dylann Roof murdered nine black members of a South Carolina church, Barack Obama made clear his belief that nobody acts alone (even if they think they do), and larger sociological connections - and corrections - must be made.

While that point can and should be debated (Obama himself denies his own "logic" every time a Muslim carries out an act of terror), it can't be debated that, even worse than a lone psychopath, there is something sicker and more inherently dangerous about a group of hate-filled people who joyfully torture another human and broadcast it to their friends. That's symptomatic of a culture of sociopathy, malignant and metastasizing.

While it's easy and appropriate to lay some of the blame on media celebration of thugs, ho's, and the gangster life, we believe the larger share of guilt belongs to generations of Democrat policy makers - Obama most decidedly included - who have destroyed black families, the educational system, and the nation's inner cities in order to provide an unending source of enslaved voters who must rely on government entitlements for survival.

Add to this the Obama administration's 8 year history of stoking racial fires, showing antagonism towards police, and their active encouragement of rioting in black communities as an appropriate and "understandable" response to acts of imagined racism.

All of this has created a sickness in the soul of too many black Americans that is as representative of Obama's "legacy" as anything could possibly be. If the man had an ounce of honesty or integrity, he wouldn't be traveling to Chicago to boast of his "accomplishments" - he'd be going there to apologize.

BONUS: A WORD ABOUT THE "RUSSIAN HACKING" INTELLIGENCE HEARINGS

Bullshit.

HOPE AND CHANGING...

We'll be talking more about this in the near future, but just to give everyone time to adjust to the idea (including ourselves), we're officially announcing that Hope n' Change Cartoons will be turning out the lights here on or slightly after the day Obama leaves office.

Hope n' Change has existed with a specific purpose in mind: to comment on the many disasters associated with the Obama administration and the culture of liberalism, and to address those issues with enough humor to boost morale for those on the Right who've been fighting back. That job has been completed and we've got the empty scotch bottles to prove it.

Mind you, we don't expect the world of politics to get any less ugly and ridiculous now - far from it. These are going to be tumultuous times and no political satirist is going to run out of raw material while Donald Trump is in office and Obama is heckling from the front row.

But we're looking forward to finding new projects to work on, both personal and professional. A lot has been "back burnered" in the past 8 years, and we're not getting any younger (although oddly, we are getting more distinguished looking). We plan to do more things which are creative, fun and funny - and don't come with rigid (albeit self-assigned) deadlines throughout the week.

A few additional points:

• We intend to keep up an easy-to-find public profile.

• This site will remain intact and we'll do whatever is necessary to keep it visible. There's a lot of history here!

• Our Hope n' Change Facebook page will continue, although whether new cartoons get posted over there will be purely a matter of whether or not our graphics Tourette's syndrome kicks in.

• Johnny Optimism will continue as usual. Sick kids and life's unfairness never get old!

• If you're on our mailing list, we're going to maintain the database so when we create another blog, write a book, or just want to stage a huge reunion party at some centrally located bar, we'll be able to reach you. If you're NOT on the mailing list, then add your information here before the end of the month.  It's free, there's no spam, and future historians will list you among the pantheon of heroes.

There's a lot more that needs to be said, but we'll save that for another day. For now, just know how sincerely appreciated you are - and let's continue business as usual while enjoying the countdown to Barack Obama's final day in office!

2016 - The Year in Rebuke (Part Two)

JULY

With the political world holding its breath in anticipation, Hope n' Change finally endorses a Presidential candidate...

While lacking the enthusiasm evinced by many Trump supporters, Hope n' Change opines that "Donald Trump is potentially a yuuuuge disrupter at a time when our political system needs huge disruption. Our nation would be far more likely to survive his possible policy failures than even a single term of Hillary Clinton's toxic policy successes."

This belief is immediately confirmed when yet another federal agency is revealed to have been corrupted by proximity to the Clinton Machine...

After laundry-listing the many, many ways that Hillary had lied, evaded, and thoroughly compromised national security with her secret email server, FBI Director James Comey decides that no charges should be pressed because:

A) He is apparently a complete political whore
B) His family was being held at gunpoint
C) He believes that women (bless their hearts) are just too darn stupid to understand computers, national security, and laws
D) Hillary made a pact with Satan which involves fellating lepers in Hell for all eternity
E) All of the above. Which, frankly, we're pretty sure is the right answer.

Energized by this undeserved "Get Out of Jail Free" card, Hillary immediately seizes on new ways to make voters hate her...

Following a black sniper's assassination of five Dallas police officers who were providing security for a "Black Lives Matter" protest, Hillary bravely declares that the actual problem is that white people need to do a better job of listening and, bizarrely, that Wall Street needs greater transparency. Based on her strong statement, an increasing number of voters begin to suspect she's using narcotics.

Meanwhile,  GOP heads explode when Senator Ted Cruz appears at the Republican National Convention and speaks passionately about the need to defend freedom and the Constitution, but fails to endorse Trump by name for reasons no one can explain...

But July isn't done with us yet. Following a series of scandals revealing sabotage against the Bernie Sanders campaign, the DNC meets to celebrate democracy by anointing a candidate selected by unelected "superdelegates"...

AUGUST

With the wind at her back, which is helpful in keeping her upright, Hillary starts fleshing out what revolutionary policies she hopes to bring to the presidency other than the ability to pee while sitting down...

But concerns grow about the candidate's health as she is increasingly seen struggling with simple tasks like speaking without coughing up a lung, getting both eyes to point in the same direction, or telling the truth...

But undaunted and pumped full of amphetamines and opioids,  Hillary throws herself into intense preparation for the upcoming Presidential debates...

And speaking of sex escapades (which is pretty much synonymous with speaking about the Clintons) another one rears its...uh...head when Anthony Weiner, the oft-disgraced husband of Hillary's right hand woman Huma Abedin, is discovered to be emailing bonergrams to an under-aged girl...

Saying "enough is enough," Huma gives up on Weiner (not that there's anything wrong with that) and prepares to face new challenges in...

SEPTEMBER

When asked to answer yet more questions about her totally illegal scheme to evade the Freedom of Information Act and, as an unexpected bonus, give away all of our nation's secrets, Hillary is struck - apparently forcefully - with a brilliant idea...

Yes, the woman who wants to be President of the United States claims to have such substantial brain damage that she can't remember anything which happened while she was engaged in criminal activity.  Which is to say her entire adult life.

Shortly thereafter, Clinton speaks to an adoring throng of hired enthusiasts at an LGBT fundraiser and makes a statement which convinces even hardened skeptics that she has gangrenous grey matter...

"To be grossly generalistic," she grossly cackled, "you could put half of Trump’s supporters into what I call the basket of deplorables. The racist, sexist, homophobic, xenophobic, Islamaphobic— you name it!"

Surprisingly, at least to Democrats, it turns out that many Americans don't appreciate being mocked, disparaged, and slandered by corrupt elites. Which is why it's (ahem) fortunate for Clinton that the public is soon distracted by a terrorist bomb blast...

29 people are hurt (and thankfully none killed) when a bomb is detonated in the Chelsea neighborhood of New York. Chelsea Clinton swears "it's just a coincidence" and "I'm working on an alibi."

Hoping to get her media narrative back on track, Hillary Clinton puts avuncular socialist Bernie Sanders on the campaign trail to say that he no longer despises everything Hillary stands for, and that he's come to the life-changing (and possibly life-saving) realization that she is the most honest, refreshing, and ethical politician ever born...

In fairness to Bernie, maybe he was just trying on his "shameless whore" costume to make ready for...

OCTOBER

Suddenly, the campaign is rocked by a series of well-coordinated (if loosely fact-checked) attacks on Donald Trump's finances...

The NY Times goes "front page crazy" with a story screaming that over the past few years, Donald Trump may have paid all the federal income tax he legally owed - which possibly, and only possibly, equaled "none." Not only is "Man Pays Correct Amount of Taxes" not a scandal, it's not even interesting.

What is interesting is that the story was written based on illegally obtained information which was leaked to the public. Democratic spokespeople offer high praise for the publication of illegally leaked documents, then report a weird feeling "like a crow just stepped on my grave."

In a shocking revelation that even offends serial rapist Bill Clinton, an old audiotape reveals that Donald Trump once used the word "pussy" in a conversation which did not involve cats. Even worse, a (very small) parade of women come forward, dabbing tears, to share tortured memories of being "kissed without permission" by Donald Trump, who used only Tic Tacs for breath control.

Unfortunately for Hillary, none of this is as interesting as Wikileaks' release of thousands of documents detailing the corruption of the Clinton Foundation, Hillary's "pay for play" use of the State Department to solicit bribes, and the overall sleaziness of everyone in the Democratic party.

Suddenly finding illegally obtained information which was leaked to the public abhorrent, the media and the White House blame Russian hackers because it sounds better than "our own idiocy." Joe Biden warns of draconian counter measures...

In the midst of all this, early voting begins, with record numbers of voters flooding to the polls to decide which of the two least popular candidates in American history will win...

But wait! With Halloween in the air, James Comey doesn't need to dress up as a ghost to scare the sheet out of Hillary - he simply reopens her "thing that wouldn't die" email espionage case only days before the election.

Hilariously, it turns out that in the course of investigating Anthony Weiner's underage sexting activities, the FBI has discovered thousands of Hillary's State Department emails on his personal laptop...as well as on his laptop computer.

And so the stage is set for...

NOVEMBER

Following a hostage video in which James Comey, bruised and bound, says that nothing suspicious other than Top Secret documents was found on Weiner's "spank bank" computer, Election Day arrives at last.

Left-leaning media political pundits sport Cheshire Cat grins, and Hillary Clinton's team pops champagne corks as the poll results start to come in.

Soon after which the grins fade, the champagne goes flat, and (according to trustworthy sources on the Left) Armageddon arrives...

Trump wins to the shock and disbelieving horror of liberals everywhere...

Apparently unaware of how the American voting system works, those on the Left are further devastated by the realization that while Hillary won the popular vote, it's only the critical electoral college vote that decides the Presidency...

While many anti-Americans take the news of Trump's victory badly,  perhaps the most convincing display of grief comes from Fidel Castro who actually goes to the trouble of dropping dead...

Which at long last brings us to...

DECEMBER

In the weeks following the election, it becomes clear that American voters were sick of being denigrated, disrespected, and lied to by their own government. Tired of seeing their health insurance costs skyrocket while their benefits plummeted. And unwilling to accept a stagnant economy which seemingly offered jobs only to hedge fund managers and fry cooks.

Granted, not everyone saw the election results in the same way...

When his analysis is roundly laughed at, Barack Obama goes back to his default position of claiming that the election was somehow "hacked" by evil Russians who, inexplicably, liked the idea of Donald Trump having a nuclear arsenal.

The soon-to-be ex-president declares the alleged hacking to be a grave and immediate existential threat to our nation, then takes swift action by boarding Air Force One for another extended, multi-million dollar vacation in Hawaii...

Back on the mainland, the electoral college finally meets to officially cast their votes. And once again, a dazed and broken Hillary has to settle for second place...

With only days left in the year, Americans finally breathe a sigh of relief - confident that they can enjoy the holidays without any vacationing presidents suddenly launching a vicious sneak attack on one of our closest allies. They are, of course, wrong...

With assistance (and likely direction) from the Obama administration, the U.N. passes a resolution condemning Israel, eroding that nation's legitimacy and chances for eventual peace.  It is a transparently petty and vindictive act from a petty and vindictive president bent on burning the world down if he can't be in charge.

In the final days of his wretched administration, he also admits floods of refugees and illegals into the country, grants early release to a record number of felons, and puts thousands of new regulations in place to hamper the American economy under Donald Trump.

Which is why the stroke of midnight on December 31st has never been sweeter...

Happy New Year from Stilton Jarlsberg and Hope n' Change Cartoons...which, after 8 long years, finally has actual hope for change.

2016 - The Year in Rebuke (Part One)

If we had to sum up 2016 in a single word, it would be...unprintable. Seriously, we'd be working hard to come up with the vilest, most appalling, utterly disgusting and likely illegal word in our rich, albeit genuinely filthy vocabulary - and even then we'd fail to do justice to this rotten collection of months.

Fortunately, we don't have to sum things up in a single word. We have this entire page to work with, so let's dive straight into...

JANUARY

The year hits the ground running (like an abscessed boil) when the Post Office releases a "Forever" stamp commemorating the Muslim festival Eid al-Adha, which honors the willingness of Ibrahim to slit his son's throat after being "triple dog dared" by Allah. As part of the festival, modern Muslims are still expected to sacrifice their best farm animal...assuming they have the financial ability to first buy it an orange jumpsuit and get it to pose for a Youtube video.

And speaking of people associated with Youtube videos, Hillary Clinton stays busy denying that she  ever had classified documents on her private email server. An assertion which, like everything else Hillary has ever said, turns out to be wildly untrue.

Of course, not all newsworthy events were domestic. Or even comprehensible...

John "You Rang?" Kerry comes out with the least encouraging pronouncement imaginable about the throat-cutting, suicide-bombing, allegedly non-Islamic murderers of ISIS, ISIL, Daesh, or whatever the hell other name the administration thinks likely to be unrecognized by Democratic voters.

Specifically, Kerry further downgrades our nation's goal from "destroying, degrading, or disrupting" the maniacal killers to merely "denting" them. His goal apparently being to make Hillary look like only the second worst Secretary of State ever, just in time for...

FEBRUARY

Early in the Democratic debate process, Martin O'Malley shocks everyone by announcing that he'd dropped out of the race - which was the first time anyone knew he'd been in the race.

Following Hillary Clinton's discovery in Iowa that she is less popular among young females than a yeast infection, Hillary asks herself what vivacious, high-powered celebrity superstar could help her reel in youthful female votes in New Hampsire, and she comes up with...

Oddly, threats of eternal damnation don't save Hillary from a landslide loss to Bernie Sanders, causing Hillary to break out the really big gun...

But just as things get really bleak for Hillary, the entire political landscape is changed by an unexpected death...

Beloved conservative Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia suddenly dies in bed with a pillow on his head. A local judge pronounces the death due to natural causes without seeing the body or ordering an autopsy, because Obamacare doesn't cover those things.

In the following days, Obama decides to skip Scalia's funeral owing to an absolutely unavoidable scheduling conflict involving a critical tee time...

The country will not see such a blatantly petty snub again until, well, a few days later in...

MARCH

"If I didn't attend a funeral for a sitting Supreme Court Justice," the president may well have said, "I sure as hell won't be wasting my time going to one for some first lady. There's nothing less important than a first lady!"

In his place, the president appropriately sends...the first lady.

And speaking of skipping commitments, seemingly unstoppable primary candidate Donald Trump has a few clearly expressed ideas on the subject...

But of course, there's more than just an election going on. Barack Obama is still holding the reins and shaping critical foreign policy. Which is how we ended up with...

In his never-ending quest to build a legacy, the president tries to normalize relations with the oppressive communist dictatorship of Cuba in hopes of increasing the number of investment opportunities for his wealthy donors, and decreasing the number of Cuban immigrants whose children might grow up to become conservative GOP presidential candidates.

But only days later, the world is again shocked by a brutal act of terrorism - this time in a Brussels airport. Despite his busy travel schedule, Obama immediately swings into action...

Rather than doing diddly-squat about the carnage in Brussels, Obama attends a baseball game with new BFF Raul Castro, then jets off to Argentina where he performes a pelvis-grinding tango at a state dinner to prove his masculinity to ISIS.

Which brings us to...

APRIL

To help shore up support from women who just can't seem to understand the whole complicated "birds & bees" thing, Hillary declares that "unborn persons" have no rights - making it perfectly acceptable to take viable children in the final days (or hours) of gestation and turn them into chop suey. An observation that Bernie Sanders quickly echoes, while admitting that it's put him off Chinese take-out for awhile.

But life and death issues soon take a backseat to a far more important crisis in America...

Springsteen and other (ahem) "artists" boycott North Carolina following passage of a law which segregates bathroom privileges based exclusively on an individual's God-given plumbing rather than their current (and sometimes whimsically flexible) gender self-identification.  This kicks off a firestorm of controversy around the country as liberals try to force businesses to create new bathrooms for each of the 51 sexual genders (no, really) recognized by Facebook, or at least let anyone who enjoys peeing in front of kids do so to fight discrimination.

The country becomes so embroiled in the issue that it becomes necessary for Barack Obama to remind the nation who truly suffers from discrimination in our wretched country...

The tone deaf president assembles a group of allegedly popular rappers (including Nicki Minaj, Busta Rhymes, J. Cole, Wale, DJ Khaled, and others we couldn't possibly pick out of a police line-up) to help with his "Brother's Keeper" initiative which is designed to encourage young black men to avoid incarceration for undocumented acts of wealth redistribution.

Unfortunately, during the president's remarks, rapper Rick Ross's court-ordered ankle bracelet goes off. It turns out that the man selected by Mr. Obama to serve as an exemplary racial role model is required to wear the device until his trial date for aggravated assault and battery, pistol-whipping, and kidnapping.

Were the other dignitaries at the summit nonplussed? Based on their actual pictures below, we're guessing not...

Meanwhile, as the primaries wear on, people finally start realizing that Trump might actually become the GOP nominee...

By the way, in case you don't know, the cartoon above is a tribute to "Forbidden Planet," which is the best sci-fi movie ever made. If you've never seen it, get your hands on it and watch it NOW while the rest of us move on to...

MAY

By a significant margin, Hoosiers go to the polls to declare that they find Trump to be the candidate who is outstanding in the field. And trust us, Indiana folk (like us!) love jokes about fields. But feeling distinctly un-loved, Cruz says "enough" and drops out of the race, practically guaranteeing Trump's nomination.

Assuming, of course, that he doesn't fall prey to the latest death-dealing malady inflaming the media...

In response to the dread threat hypothetically presented by mosquito-borne Zika virus, Barack Obama requests $2 billion to prevent the blood-sucking parasites coming across our southern border from wreaking destruction. The $2 billion will be used to put the young mosquitoes in good schools, settle their families in middle class neighborhoods, and give the grown mosquitoes some walking around money until they can find permanent blood-sucking jobs in government.

That is, unless someone intends to drastically reduce the number of blood-sucking jobs in government...

Donald Trump "seals the deal" when his delegate count pushes over the magic number of 1,237 with multiple states left to go to further pad his margin of victory.  The people have spoken - and they're using very short (frequently 4-letter) words as they storm into...

JUNE

Because Donald Trump's blunt candor is generating so many news stories, Barack Obama jumps back into the erudition spotlight with a devastatingly brutal dissection of contemporaneous political rhetoric and offers wise analytical advice...

Of course, there's no "okey-doke" going on in the Democratic primaries. Everything is honest, legit, and above board...

Bernie Sanders grows peevish when the Associated Press declares Hillary to be the overall winner of Democratic primaries which haven't happened yet. It's almost like a conspiracy of some sort is working against him - but that's crazy, right?

Then without warning...

Terror returns to the United States in the form of an ISIS-inspired lunatic who kills and wounds over 100 people at a Gay nightclub in Orlando, before being sent straight to Hell by a policeman's bullet.

Authorities struggle to discern the killer's motives, having nothing to go on other than his actual 911 phone call in which he swears allegiance to ISIS, and shouts"Allahu Akbar" during his death-dealing spree.

Such a vile act is obviously unacceptable to the Obama administration, and they move quickly to let future terrorists know what they'll be up against...

Frankly, all of these events are getting so overwhelming that Hope n' Change needs a little time off - so we play hooky for a week, confident that it will be a slow period for news.

We are, of course, dead wrong...

(END OF PART ONE - JOIN US WEDNESDAY TO WRAP UP THE YEAR!)