
     In the political cartoons pictured above, there are many thoughts and ideas brought up in the form of comical cartoons, these pictures are all related because they all are not focused on the main, pressing issues surrounding the country today.  They are focusing on the candidate’s weaknesses and also making fun of current problems that can be see all throughout the country.

     In the first picture, we see an outline of what appears to be Rosie O’Donnell being crossed out by Presidential candidate Donald Trump.  It is a rather large woman so that is the individual that is implied in the graphic.  Over the silhouette is a red circle with a line drawn across which is implying the person is somehow bad or not a good person.  At the bottom of the ad it shows text saying, “This Message Brought to You by Donald Trump for President.”  The feud between Trump and O’Donnell began back in December of 2006 over the Miss USA pageant.  Trump decided not to fire Tara Conner after finding out she had been a-part of underage drinking and also drug use.  O’Donnell was cohost of The View at this time and made slanderous remarks about trump and his lack of judgement.  She grilled him on his multiple marriages and his business dealings to include calling him a “Snake-Oil Salesman on Little House on the Prairie” and also said that he was not a “Self-Made Man.”  Trump did not like these statements and responded back to O’Donnell, "I'll most likely sue her for making those false statements -- and it'll be fun. Rosie's a loser. A real loser. I look forward to taking lots of money from my nice fat little Rosie."   ("The Donald Trump-Rosie O'Donnell Feud: A Timeline." CNN. Cable News Network, n.d. Web. 09 Oct. 2016.)  This is where the hate for Rosie O’Donnell sparked for Trump.  They have been in many arguments since then to go as far for Donald to call her a “Pig.”  They have also been in many Twitter fights that have escalated into full scale arguments.  

     The next cartoon that we see is of Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton on podiums at a debate.  They are both standing talking and are both hooked up to a polygraph machine.  As seen in the cartoon, both of the candidates are lying while they are giving their speeches.  Hillary has a very sheepish look on her face like she has something to hide.  Trump on the other hand is pushing through his speech.  At the top of the cartoon we can see it says, “A Debate We’d Like to See.”  The reasoning behind the text is that the author thinks that both of the candidates are liars.  The artist of the cartoon also feels as if many people feel the same as he does.  This again is an example of how the bigger issues faced in America are being swept under the rug and pettiness such as a debate is taking precedence over all of the pressing issues.  

     The next cartoon is the most provocative out of all the comics I picked as it has to do with Black lives matter.  In the graphic, there is an African American man lying face down with what appears to be his head blown off with three white officers pointing pistols at him.  The officers that are pointing guns at him are saying in a speech bubble, “His hands weren’t up high enough.”  One of the officers even has his hand raised like he had won a trophy.  The female that is depicted in the middle of the group of officers is intended to be Betty Shelby.   On the patrol car written on the side it says “Black Lives Don’t Matter”, we can see that this is also a car from the Tulsa County Police Department.  On the top of the car we can see a tally of the number of kills they had made against African Americans.  This cartoon is in response to the shooting of Terence Crutcher by officer Betty Shelby.  This is a very graphic but informative cartoon in which it shows us that the cops that are killing African Americans in the end really do not care. What we as the reader can take from this is that this kind of behavior has to be stopped and everyone needs to get into a state of equilibrium with one another because going around killing people for fun or rioting.

     The last cartoon that I chose depicts Colin Kaepernick kneeling and on the other side of the man with the “America” shirt a dead unarmed African American man.  The man in the middle is depicted as the majority of the United States in saying that Colin Kaepernick kneeling is more offensive than the dead Black man.  The artist and author of the cartoon are trying to send the message that the country is somewhat alright with the killing of unarmed innocent African Americans but the thought of someone that is such a public figure kneeling for the presentation of the American Flag and the singing of the National Anthem is so wrong.  What we as the reader can get from this is that America really has its priorities wrong in the sense of people thinking something that is very miniscule being considered offensive while real problems that people are facing everyday are not being handled in the manner that they should be.

     In closing, all of the comics that I chose were all inter-related with one another in some shape fashion or form.  In the political cartoons pictured above, there are many thoughts and ideas brought up in the form of comical cartoons.  These pictures are all related because they all are not focused on the main, pressing issues surrounding the country today.  I believe the real underlying meaning within these comics is the fact that there are real issues that are occurring in America every day and people are either looking over them and not worrying about them or they chose to scrutinize minor things that are not even in comparison to other pressing issues.  People need to stop worrying about the various feuds that are going on between Donald Trump and Rosie O’Donnell and be concerned about the people that are losing their lives to the cops that are killing innocent people.  People need to stop scrutinizing Kaepernick for not standing for the National Anthem but instead dig into the major issues surrounding the killing of unarmed black men.  That is what we as the reader can draw from various cartoons such as these.  