The good news is that this week’s Fetch is less relevant than it was last week, when Kim Jong-un was threatening to nuke Guam and Donald Trump was goading him on with “tough guy” talk. How great was the actual risk North Korea would fire a nuclear weapon at the US or anywhere else? About as much as it remains. Today Kim Jong-un has backed down. But he will stick his chest out again eventually. The diehards in Trumpistan will argue that this proves the president’s bluster was effective in calling the North Korean bluff. Actually, it began as bluff, and has been bluff all along. What Trump did was ratchet up the tensions, put everyone on edge, and relied on Kim Jong-un to choose the rational course. Yet in the end North Korea has demonstrated that it has the plans and the will to bring death and destruction to hundreds of thousands of people. Trump has shown he is willing to push a rival nuclear power right up to the edge. And in the end, his oneupmanship has done nothing to actually disarm North Korea.
I finished this cartoon on Sunday morning and posted it to Patreon for my subscribers. (You can be one, too!) Over the weekend a Nazi white supremacist drove his car into a crowd of counter protestors opposing the gathering of white supremacists in Charlottesville, VA, killing a woman, Heather Heyer, and seriously injuring 39 others. In response to this violence, Trump was quick to blame “many sides” but it took three days for him to confront and name the hate groups that vocally support him and march in his name. After much pressure, he finally stepped up, but it was disingenuous, given that he shortly revealed he is considering granting a pardon to the extreme racist Joe Arpaio. Trump is a white supremacist, a fascist, and should never have been allowed by one of the two-party system’s major players to have gotten a nomination for president, let alone stepped into the office. A total disgrace.
Speaking of responses, people who are using the death of Heather Heyer, a Bernie Sanders supporter, to score political points against Sanders and his supporters should stop. For crying out loud. The DSA, antifa, and other groups of the Left showed up to confront Nazis. Not one of them reached out to create some “alt-right/alt-left” coalition. I really wish the Clintonistas and Sanders-Bros would keep their shit-talking out of this.
Good news: Deandre Harris has raised more than double what he needed for medical expenses. Best of wishes to him.
Fetch: YOO HOO! ALL CLEAR! YOU CAN COME OUT NOW!
Kevin: NO, THANK YOU.
Kevin: I HAVE PROVISIONS TO LAST 30 YEARS: HAZMAT SUITS, FOOD, RADIATION SICKNESS PILLS, WATER, ALL 9 SEASONS OF INSPECTOR LEWIS ... I'M GOOD.
Fetch: OH, COME NOW.
Fetch: YOU CAN'T LET NUCLEAR BRINKMANSHIP BY TWO EGOTISTS SCARE YOU AWAY FROM THE JOYS OF LIFE.
Kevin: WELL... OKAY....
A mutant appears
Mutant: HI. DINNER READY? THE MUTIES ARE GETTING "HANGRY".
Fetch: SHHHHH! ALMOST!
Kevin: WHAT WAS THAT?
Fetch: NOTHING! WE'RE HAVE A BAR-B-QUE. C'MON OUT!
Mutant: OOOOOH, BBQ!
Oh we’re going to have a wing-ding, summer smoker underground.