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 last political cartoon that I chose was a picture of Donald Trump holding up to what looks like a credit card.  Upon further examination, we can read that it says, “Trump Woman Card”.  It then at the bottom of the card says “Exp: Stone Age”.  The card is dark brown and most of the colors in the card are very mellow.  In the back of the picture we can see Donald holding t with a speech bubble saying, “Never leave home without it”.  We as the reader can see many different aspects to this cartoon.  For one, we can see that this is a direct bash as to how Donald Trump looks at women’s views and ethics.  We can also see that the expiration date is in the stone age because that really is a dated way to think.  Women now have the same rights and opportunintes as men so thinking women are lesser really shows that this ideal is very dated.  At the bottom of the card it confirms our thought as to this bashing the views of women in Donald Trump’s eyes.  It says, “The Vulgarian Express Card”.  This is obviously a pun at the credit card, American Express.  I believe that this cartoon says a lot about how the American people look at Donald Trump’s views.  Many of the comments that Donald Trump has made about women have rubbed people the wrong way.  This is just a prime example as to why people and authors make comics that depict Trump in this manner.        

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.  