"DC for 15" Poster Art Is Ready To Download!

My poster art series for DC's Raise The Wage campaign is now available for downloads by organizers and activists.

I've made these available as tabloid-size posters and letter-size flyers, with plenty of "clear" space for laying out customized text in the page-layout software of your choice.

Follow the "DC For $15" minimum wage campaign on Twitter.

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It's A Quarter To Three...

...so, set 'em up, Joe...!

Am I the only one here who watches Presidential speeches and news conferences these days and gets the feeling he's just not into it anymore, somehow...?

One more for his baby, and one more for the road...

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Hoorah, sledding!

According to this report on WAMU-FM here in DC, the latest Congressional spending bill prevents the District Of Columbia from funding abortion services for poor women and regulating and taxing the sale of marijuana. They did, however, repeal the ban on sledding on the Capitol grounds, after a vigorous local outcry last winter.

Apparently, they're still hurting from all the bad publicity they caught with the sledding ban, but could care less about all the ill will they get by restricting women's healthcare rights and the right to tax and regulate a plant that's been legal for nearly a year. Still, there's prime sledding opening up on the hill at the West Front, so there's that.

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Speakeasies: Then And Now

From the latest post at DCMJ.org:

Even though Initiative 71 legalized cannabis, it cannot be consumed anywhere in DC other than in a private home. This is because, the week after Initiative 71 took effect, the DC Council passed emergency legislation (Act 21-149) that banned marijuana consumption at any bar, nightclub, bingo hall, or private venue in Washington, DC. Without any pressing reason, the Mayor and the DC Council severely restricted our rights as cannabis consuming adults...

Yeah, that's right, fellow Washingtonians. You can legally drink at an alcohol bar, you can legally smoke cigars at a cigar bar, but if you want to smoke weed communally in a similar setting, you'll have to open a speakeasy -- unless the DC City Council stops doing Congress' dirty work, and Act 21-149 is allowed to expire on January 15 next year.

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Freedom Finger

As you may recall from this past spring, my longtime comrade and BBF (Best Bud Forever) Adam Eidinger, activist extraordinaire, was jailed for basically being disrespectful to a politician at a Congressional DC Oversight Committee hearing chaired by the pompous and pasty Jason Chaffetz.

Adam's recent trial on this bogus charge ended in a mistrial last week, and a retrial has been scheduled for May 2nd.

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We Are All French. Tough shit.

Remember when Beirut was attacked by suicide bombers last week, and a bunch of people died, and it was all over the media, and there was a global outpouring of condolences and solidarity? Me, neither!

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Mission Accomplished, no. 2

So, Liberals... how'd that Hope'n'Change horseshit work out for you?

Here's Obama's "George W. Bush Moment".

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Catharsis

Catharsis will be a 3 day vigil featuring a Temple of Essence that will be burned on the night of Saturday, November 21 near the Washington Monument and within eyeshot of the White House.

This ceremonial vigil is dedicated to collectively healing from the war on drugs, and is the first of its kind on the National Mall. The vigil is needed because often American society doesn’t mark a transition from a destructive and harmful policy to more compassionate one. As more voices call for an end to the war on drug users and their inhumane imprisonment, its crucial like-minded artists, activists and the community play a public role in healing and transforming to compassionate harm reduction policies.

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"We Know The Murderers!" (New Turkish Flag)

In memory and solidarity with the victims of the peace march bombing in Ankara, Turkey last week.

At mass solidarity protests all over Turkey this weekend, a common chant has been "We Know The Murderers!" At the moment nobody knows 100% for sure, but between the police blocking ambulances and attacking protesters trying to aid the wounded, and the State suppression of Twitter and Facebook, it's looking like this barbarity has Erdogan's fingerprints all over it.

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Water On Mars!

As excited as I am about the discovery of liquid water on Mars, I still can't help wondering... will the first humans on Mars be a bunch of Nestlé workers with a big drilling rig?

After all, let's not forget that the CEO of Nestlé thinks that water isn't a human right, and should be privatized.

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New Hungarian Flag

After a brief pause out of respect for the photogenic drowned refugee child, the EU member governments resumed their program of making Syrian war refugees as miserable as possible. Hungary, of course, is keeping to the high standards set by the infamous TV camerawoman by sending police to brutalize refugees. And needless to say, like Claude Rains in Casablanca, the United Nations is shocked -- shocked -- to discover that Hungary is treating war refugees like dirt.

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Tripping Refugee

Y'know, I've seen mainstream media types pull some pretty lowdown stuff in my day. I've heard Chris Matthews telling the antiwar movement it should apologize. I've heard Bill O'Reilly call the Black Lives Matter movement "terrorists". I've heard a CNN anchordroid acting disappointed at the absence of violence at the premiere of Straight Outta Compton. But I've never seen something as rock-bottom piss-poor as the Hungarian TV camerawoman sticking her leg out to trip a Syrian war refugee trying to flee the Roeszke detention camp.

What's especially sad about this, though, is that the camerawoman's behavior pretty much encapsulates the current policies and attitudes of most EU member states.

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"Progressive" Sanders Loves Him Some Drones

I was just checking out this short article in The Hill today about Pwogwessive hero Bernie Sanders and his declaration that he wouldn't end the US drone warfare program. Can somebody please tell me again why I should so much as lift a finger to support this brazen hypocrite? Check this out:

“I think we have to use drones very, very selectively and effectively. That has not always been the case,” Sanders said.

No shit, Sherlock. Christ, is this clown really the Great Progressive Hope? Are you friggin' kidding me, man?

“What you can argue is that there are times and places where drone attacks have been effective,” he added.

Oh, yeah, especially against weddings, funerals and schools. Now we know why Bernie doesn't spend much time discussing foreign policy, and prefers to keep beating the shit out of that old economic inequality riff. If Pwogwessive America found out too much too soon, they'd bolt the Donkeycratic Party and run like the place was on fire.

Basically, what we're got here is a warmed-over Obama, with the economic inequality rhetoric dialed up a notch or two for all the gullible bougie pwogwessives. Dude had to be dragged kicking and screaming into addressing the ongoing police reign of terror against Black America, and he'd probably still be ignoring the issue if #BlackLivesMatter hadn't publicly gotten all up in his shit about it.

This doorknob needs to stop referring to his sheepdog campaign as a goddamn' "revolution". It's really offensive.

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New Lebanese Flag

For my readers in the US: the ongoing wave of "You Stink" protests in Lebanon isn't just about the trash not being picked up. It's about favoritism, corruption, greed, and incompetence.

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Leave Bernie Alone!

Looks like "Progressive" America is still yelling for a WAAAAHHHHmbulance after a Bernie Sanders media event was busted up by #BlackLivesMatter. After months of Sanders failing to address the ongoing wave of racist police terrorism, #BLM took it on themselves to bring it up in Seattle -- much to the consternation of lily-white "Progressive" America.

Never mind that Sanders -- along with the rest of Liberal and "Progressive" America -- happily got on board with Bill Clinton's brutal assault on the Serbian people in the Spring of 1999. Never mind that after Nineleven™, Sanders just as happily voted to fund the assaults on the people of Afghanistan and the liberty and dignity of US citizens by the Department of Homeland Security. Never mind that Sanders has had little problem voting to fund Israeli barbarity in Palestine and the coup government in the Ukraine. Never mind that Sanders lobbied heavily for a slice of war machine pork barrel in Vermont in the form of a USAF F-35 base.

Never mind all that; "Progressive" America honestly still thinks that Sanders can bring this country the kind of revolutionary change it needs, so when somebody comes along -- especially black somebodies -- to call him out on his hypocrisies, all "Progressive" America seems to care about is that they're making Bernie look bad. "Why don't you disrupt Republican events?" they whine, predictably. "Why don't you disrupt Hillary's events?" they complain bitterly, crying, shrieking like that Chris Crocker kid in the infamous "Leave Britney Alone" video.

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#BernBabyBern

What the hell kind of rank-ass politician goes on and on about "revolution" while voting to continue funding Israeli barbarity in Palestine? And what kind of politician talks big talk about "revolution" while knocking himself out to get a base in his home state for a fighter jet whose development ran into trillions of dollars, and already has a reputation for being one of the biggest pain-in-the-ass fighters the Air Force ever had? And what kind of politician can't shut up about a "revolution" while running as a Democrat, for Christ's sake?

"Feel The Bern", my ass.




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Unsponsored Post

DC Stoners rejoice! The much-loved Capitol Hemp -- one of the main reasons we voted to legalize weed in DC -- is back and better than ever up in Adams-Morgan thanks to longtime DC activist, shop co-owner and my best-bud-forever Adam Eidinger. And not only do they sell pipes and bongs, but you can actually talk about weed in the shop. Is that nuts, or what?

Along with the usual brain-numbing array of smoking items, hemp clothing and food, there's also an eclectic selection of books and art -- including postcards and signed prints by yours truly, painstakingly curated from 15 years worth of cartoon and poster art going back to "A16" and printed on good, stout hemp cardstock. It's historic, it's iconic, and it's cheap. Such a deal. And remember -- after I'm dead, the value of this work will skyrocket well into three digits.

Follow Capitol Hemp on Twitter.

Map Of Kurdistan, Revised

Al Jazeera reports that Turkey, ostensibly attacking ISIS, has been stomping the living crap out of the Kurds. Turkey, of course, swears up and down that they aren't targeting the Kurds. For clarity, here's a map of the region for our US readers.

"That's our story, and we're sticking to it." --Tayyip Erdogan

"Intifada Everywhere" Picked Up By Mondoweiss

I'm honored to have been included in Mondoweiss' review of posters and protest art from Israel's 2014 military campaign against Gaza, which killed over 2,000 Palestinians. The works featured in this article, Bombers, Blood and Teddy Bears, were selected by Mondoweiss from the over 175 artworks contained in the Palestine Poster Project archives.


Catherine Baker writes at Mondoweiss:
"The spirits of the more than 2,000 Palestinians who were killed in Israel’s 50-day military operation against Gaza last summer have been immortalized in the posters that have emerged from the conflict. The online Palestine Poster Project Archives contains more than 175 posters on Gaza published in the past year. 'Art is not a mirror held up to reality but a hammer with which to shape it,' in the words of Berthold Brecht..."




"This poster fuses three contemporaneous events: the war on Gaza launched by Israel on July 8; Michael Brown’s killing by a police officer in Ferguson, Missouri, on August 9; and the disappearance of 43 students from Ayotzinapa teachers school after being taken into police custody in Guerrero, Mexico, on September 26. “Ferguson to Palestine” is now a rallying cry (see slogan on the Apartheid Wall, below) and an organizing principle. The ties between these three movements will not likely be undone, and this can only benefit Palestine.

In Flugennock’s poster, the three men are similar in their stance and determination but unique in their garb and choice of weapon. The caption, “Intifada Everywhere,” can be read in at least two ways: “There are uprisings going on everywhere,” and, “There is a right to rise up wherever there is injustice.”

The large hashtags are a new element for Palestine posters. These direct the audience via social media into specific conversations and actions. In this way the poster becomes more than a statement; it serves as a signpost."


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...and here's some more of my work on the subject of Israeli barbarity in Palestine:

- American Handala, September 2014
- From Gaza To Missouri, August 2014
- Toys In The Attic, August 2014
- Bring Back Our Boys, June 2014
- Star-Spangled Banner, November 2012
- Look Out, Bibi's Redlining!, September 2012
- Obama's AIPAC Speech Condensed, May 2011
- Nerobama, January 2009
- Poor Man's F-16, July 2006
- Nuclear Threat, June 2006
- What Has Ariel Sharon Learned From The Holocaust?, February 2002

What Part Of "NO"...

...won't they understand?  
"We invented democracy – BITCHES!"
–the Greeks

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"Would Whoever Can Reach The Phone..."

For those of you not of a certain age, a popular college fad in the 1950s was telephone booth stuffing. In fact, there were often competitions between colleges to see just how many students could cram themselves in. Oh, yeah, and you might also want to ask your parents or a great uncle what a telephone booth was.

Which brings us to the state of play in the current GOP Presidential nomination battle royale... I can't wait to see what the first debates are going to be like. I won't bother watching unless they make 'em do it in a big steel cage, with Mean Gene Okerlund as the moderator.

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And, here's some more rock 'em, sock 'em election action:
"Cromnibus Island", December 2014
"Yer Liberals, no. 2: Make Him Do It", November 2012
"Middle Class First", October 2012
"Blankness You Can Believe In", April 2012
"My Little Party", February 2012

Bride Of Frankenfood

Those of you who've been following the Hillary Clinton campaign recently -- you poor sufferers -- are probably aware of Hillary's close ties to Monsanto and her continued support for GMO crops. In fact, her support for GMOs recently earned her the nickname "Bride Of Frankenfood" from Iowa environmentalists.

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...and, here's still more Hillary hilarity: 
Hillary In '08! 02.01.06
Your Jackass Slate For 2008, 02.17.07
Hillary Answers The Tough Ones, 12.10.07
I'm With Stupid, 04.16.15
Hillary Sez: "This Starts With You", 04.17.15

Disaster Capitalism 2.0

Why worry about the expenses of upgrading your fleet and complying with safety standards when you know you can wreck a town and get out of jail free -- y'know, like BP?

...and speaking of which, here's some more Disaster Capitalism 2.0 fuckery:
Spill Baby Spill, April 2010
Plugged At Last, May 2010  

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...and, here's the musical inspiration for this droppage:
The Crazy World Of Arthur Brown, "Fire", 1968

 

Nevermore!

For those of you who rocked, I salute you.

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All night, all day!

DC Marches in Solidarity with Baltimore Uprising, Apr 29 2015 from Mike Flugennock on Vimeo.

I'm going to be real blunt here -- the State, the police, and the media in this country are a bunch of rank-assed, faking sons of bitches.

The Democratic Party: Graveyard Of Movements

Alright, US Left, time for a little history lesson – and a cautionary tale. Can any of you out there name a single popular democratic people's movement for peace, liberty or social/economic justice which wasn't finally at some point infiltrated, co-opted and bled to death by the Democratic Party? Anybody?

Bueller?

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...and for context, here's some more Democratic Party movement co-opting tomfoolery:  
It's Going To Be A New Day, November 2006
Wisconsin – Look Out Behind You, February 2011
"Occupy" Movement: Beware the Vampire, October 2011
We Are The 1%, October 2011
Infiltrator, October 2011
Occupy DC Visits Democratic Party Fundraiser, December 2011
"99% Spring": 100% Bullshit, April 2012
Obama's March On Washington Anniversary Speech, Condensed, August 2013

Democracy IS "Disorderly"!

This past week, at a Congressional Oversight (plantation masters) Committee meeting about to overturn a DC local law, my long-time BBF, comrade and DC freedom fighter Adam Eidinger was snatched from his seat by police, hustled out of the hall and placed under arrest. The charge is, for all intents and purposes, Giving A Dirty Look To A Politician -- not joining an organized disruption, or jumping up during the proceedings -- nothing conventionally "disorderly", but basically just being there, with his Phrygian Cap and throwing a quick side-eye at DC's new plantation overseer.

And so, it's in honor and solidarity that I present this portrait of Adam, on the occasion of this bizarre and disturbing arrest.

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Hillary sez: "This Starts With You"

So, anyway, last Sunday afternoon, Adam, Ben and I were hanging around the DCCC office, passing one, knocking back a DC Brau and helping Adam write his op-ed for CNN -- and after that carnage was hosed off the floor, Adam decided to try to sign up on the Hillary Campaign Site for cheap lulz.

The headline on the masthead announced "This Starts With You", which was bad news right from the git-go. After being asked for our full name, address, phone number, zip code, email address, credit card information, Twitter handle, HIV status and blood type -- and dismissing half a dozen exhortations to send cash and sign up for an email list -- we took ourselves a semi-ironic click on the Terms Of Use and the Privacy Policy buried deep therein. Hilarity ensued.

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...and, here's some more classic Hillary action from the '08 Presidential freak circus: 
Hillary In 2008! One More Bite Won't Kill You, February 2006
Your Jackass Slate for 2008, February 2007.
Hillary Answers The Tough Ones, December 2007.

I'm With Stupid

So, Hillary Clinton is taking another whack at becoming America's Margaret Thatcher -- as if we hadn't seen this coming since about 2009.

A lot's been made about the vacuous, smarmy campaign kickoff video, of course, but an equal amount of confusion and mockery has arisen around Hillary's campaign logo. Aside from the fact that it looks like the logo for a plus-size women's fashion warehouse outlet, there's also the matter of the arrow pointing to the right.

It goes without saying that a lot of your denser Liberals and Pwogwessives are puzzled; one Pwog tweeted to the effect that it's a mistake, and that the arrow wasn't pointing in the direction Mrs. Bill wanted to take the country in. Oh, for Christ's sake, somebody tie me to a railroad track. Of course that's the direction she wants to take the country. This should be obvious to anyone who's been paying attention to Hillary ever since she carpetbagged her way into the Senate -- with her support for US/NATO bombing campaigns in Serbia, her support for the Patriot Act, her support for Israel, and the way she damn' near broke her neck rushing to support Bush's crimes in Iraq. You'd have to have been living in a cave for the past fifteen years (this would take in most Liberals) to not realize what a horrid, bloody, greedy warmongering neocon authoritarian she is.

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Historic Handshake

So, this week at the Summit Of The Americas, President Sparkle Pony and Cuban leader Raul Castro met for the first time, shaking hands in what's being hailed as some kind of iconic moment. Needless to say -- for some otherworldly reason -- the US Left's nipples are exploding with delight.

I'd like to suggest that my fellow US lefties calm the hell down -- after all, this is President Drone Strike we're talking about here, and he's obviously trying to corral the Pwogwessives back onto the Democratic reservation for the 2016 Electoral Freak Circus.

More importantly, I really do hope Mr. Castro has the sense to look the hell out, and not turn his back for a moment. After, this is President Drone Strike he's dealing with here.  

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Phrygian Capitol

Hey, now, Free DC! Got those Phrygian Caps ready? Because it's just about time for the DC Democracy Vigil on Tax Day, April 15. Find out more and RSVP at the DC Cannabis Coalition:

At the beginning of this year we sought volunteers to staff a DC Democracy Vigil. Had Congress moved to overturn Initiative 71, we planned to stage at 24 hour a day vigil to highlight our discontent. But after our meeting last week with Representative Jason Chaffetz’s staff, where we offered him a chance to reset relations with DC residents, we came away thinking Congressional leaders are not going to lift a finger for us! We have no choice but to escalate protests NOW to ruin their fake "freedom" brand and see them exposed for what they are: Oppressors.

So... y'ever wonder why the Statue Of Freedom on top of the Capitol Dome isn't wearing a Phrygian Cap? Check it out here...

In 1854, when sculptor Thomas Crawford was preparing models for sculpture for the United States Capitol, Secretary of War Jefferson Davis (later to be the President of the Confederate States of America) insisted that a Phrygian cap not be included on a Statue of Freedom, on the grounds that "American liberty is original and not the liberty of the freed slave". The cap was not included in the final bronze version that is now in the building.

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Phrygianism Protest!

Hey, there, Free DC! Time to bust out your Phrygian Caps and get together for the Tax Day protest at Congress, featuring the DC Cannabis Coalition's legendary Liberty Pole! 

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More Phrygian Cap kookiness: 
Ye Olde Colonial Constituents Day, 02.08.15
State Of The Union: Don't Ask, 01.20.15

Are you ready for some chaos?

According to the fearmongers at the Washington Post, chaos will ensue when DC's Initiative 71 takes effect without provisions for commercial sales. If being able to smoke, grow and share without fear of arrest constitutes chaos, then bring it on.

This art was based on my new logos and icons for the DC Free Cannabis Seed Share and the DC Cannabis Coalition. 

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#F26

On February 26, the possession, use, sharing and growing of marijuana officially becomes legal in the District Of Columbia.

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Ye Olde Colonial Constituents Day

Congratulations, DC! Your new plantation overseer -- that is, the new chairman of the House Oversight Committee -- is a Mormon with an injection-molded face, one Jason Chaffetz of Utah.

Seeing as how part of his job is getting in the way of the people of Washington, DC when they try and govern themselves, then perhaps he might be interested in such issues as traffic, parking, trash pickup, Metro subway fires, and that goddamn' streetcar project that keeps falling behind schedule.

Join us as we take these and other grievances to our new colonial governor at his office in the Rayburn Building on March 17... won't you?

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Blood In The Water

So, I was hanging around the Prop 71 office the other day, working on sketches and listening to Our Exalted Leader Adam Eidinger giving an interview to Cannabis Radio News over at Marijuana Public Media, and in the course of his discussion of the growing pushback against GOP meddlers regarding DC's Initiative 71, Adam threw down the phrase "blood in the water"...

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So, Sue Me

Long story short: DC Mayor Bowser and the City Council plan to defy Congress and honor the will of the voters and implement Initiative 71. A gaggle of GOP clowns in the House are threatening litigation to prevent it. The response of Mayor Bowser and the Council is, in so many words, "so, sue me."

DC Marijuana Initiative Transmitted To Congress, Roll Call, 01.13.15 

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State Of The Union: Don't Ask

Tonight, President Sparkle Pony delivers his State Of The Union Address.

...and, what's the deal with that cap? 

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It's Pope Frank's World – We Just Live In It

So, four cartoonists are murdered by religious fundamentalists in Paris and the Pope says "you cannot make fun of the faith of others", and that there should be limits to free speech when it comes to religion.

Talk about your socio-political tone deafness. Has His Holiness even been paying attention to what's going on when he pops off with that crap? What the hell does this guy do all day, anyway?

I can't make fun of the faith of others, huh? Watch me.

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Je Suis Charlie!

Self-Portrait With Pencil Launcher

 

...in memory and solidarity. Je suis Charlie! 

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