18 February—In an editorial cartoon by R.J. Matson titled “Statue of Liberty Resigns” this is the text of a notice on the base of the Statute of Liberty in New York Harbor from which Lady Liberty has just departed—presumably on her way back to France—in a rowboat named Vive la France:

Dear America,
With regret I offer my resignation. I have truly loved my almost 140 years as your beacon of liberty, but I can no longer serve with the honesty and integrity this job requires. It has become impossible for me to simply stand here while the corrupt mayor of New York City has promised to circumvent sanctuary laws and assist ICE agents in the mass deportation of undocumented immigrants as part of an illicit deal with President Trump’s cronies in the Department of Justice to drop all charges against him.
—Lady Liberty

On second thought, Matson’s cartoon is well worth experiencing in the flesh. So here’s the link to it on the Cagle website: https://cagle.com/cartoonist/r-j-matson/2025/02/14/292842/statue-of-liberty-resigns

On third thought, all editorial—i.e., political—cartoons are well worth experiencing in the flesh, regardless of bias. A real live hard-copy newspaper and/or website with nothing but editorial cartoons and comic strips would be a much better read than any rag that’s out there now on paper or the internet.

Anyway, when Donald Trump made a sympathetic comment in passing directly to New York Mayor Eric Adams (who had only recently been indicted and was at the dinner but didn’t perform) in his stand-up routine at last October’s Alfred E. Smith Memorial Foundation Dinner, we didn’t think twice about it because we were sure that Trump wasn’t going to get elected again.

Unfortunately, we were wrong. Even though the weaponized (according to Trumpists, at any rate, who excel at hurling unsubstantiated invective) Democrat Department of Justice indicted a Democrat politician, despite the unfortunate extra-legal assumption that when a person is indicted he’s guilty, it was entirely possible that Adams was in fact innocent.

That was then. Technically, of course, Eric Adams is innocent until proven guilty. Even given his quid pro quo with Trump and his henchmen. So wouldn’t you figure that he’d relish the opportunity for a jury to acquit him? He does insist he’s innocent, after all.

On the subject of Trumpists, this just in from La Conservatissima, reacting to yesterday’s disquisition: “I’m shocked you the penny pincher Wanting to continue to support Zelensky when he can’t account for billions of dollars (probably a deal that sent the money to the Biden’s).. take care of our people in NC and California…. We have supported him enough!!!”

Evidently La isn’t aware that the “missing” $100 billion isn’t missing at all. The funds in question paid for activities that arose because of Putrid’s war, of course. And they’re all accounted for. Some paid for sending equipment and funds directly to Ukraine, for instance, while some paid for activities that arose as a result of the war but were not actually spent in Ukraine. And so on. So it’s not on Zelenskyy to account for the funds La is bitching about.

La Conservatissima thus owes President Zelenskyy an apology.

And, for the record, the United States hasn’t substantively supported Ukraine since Putrid invaded Crimea in 2014, during Barack Obama’s reign and before Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s. Lots of lip service, not enough matériel, too many conditions and limitations . . .