November 14, 1910 Eugene Ely performed the first airplane takeoff from a ship. His Curtiss pusher flew from the deck of the U.S.S. Birmingham in Hampton Roads, Virginia.By January he would execute the first (takeoff and) landing on a warship, the U.S.S. Pennsylvania. Captain Washington I. Chambers of the Navy Department had been interested in the military uses for the seven-year-old invention. Naval flight training started shortly thereafter. More of the whole story.
November 14, 1954 “Ten Million Americans Mobilized for Justice” began a campaign to collect 10 million signatures on a petition urging the Senate not to censure Senator Joseph McCarthy (R-Wisconsin). The motion of censure against Senator McCarthy was for obstructing a Senate committee and for acting inexcusably and reprehensibly toward a U.S. soldier appearing before his own committee. McCarthy had used his Senate Permanent Investigations Subcommittee to publicly denounce thousands as subversive, especially within the federal government, many without any justification. The political views of most were painted as treasonable and conspiratorial, rather than differing political views. The petition effort fell about nine million signatures short. More on Joe McCarthy
November 14, 2000 Florida Secretary of State Katherine Harris, simultaneously co-chair of George W. Bush’s Florida presidential campaign organization and the public official responsible for the conduct of the election itself, certified Governor Bush’s fragile 300-vote lead over Vice President Al Gore in the 2000 presidential election. Katherine Harris Florida Judge Terry Lewis gave Harris the authority to accept or reject a follow-up manual recount from some counties where the count was open to question. Harris rejected the manual recounts.
Leading up to the 2024 presidential election, U.S. Army veteran Sae Joon Park kept in mind a warning from an immigration officer: If Donald Trump were elected, Park would likely be at risk for deportation.
Park was 7 when he came to the U.S. from Seoul, South Korea. He joined the Army at 19 and received a Purple Heart after being shot in Panama. After leaving the military, he lived with PTSD, leading to addiction issues.
After a 2009 arrest on a drug charge, Park was eventually ordered deported. But because he was a veteran, he was granted deferred action, allowing him to remain in the U.S. while he checked in with immigration officials annually.
For 14 years he did just that, while raising children and building a new life in Honolulu. Then in June, when Park went in for his appointment, he learned he had a removal order against him. Instead of facing extended time in detention, he chose to self-deport.
“They allowed me to join, serve the country — front line, taking bullets for this country. That should mean something,” he said.
Instead, “This is how veterans are being treated.”
During his first term in office, Trump enacted immigration policies aimed at a group normally safe from scrutiny: noncitizens who serve in the U.S. military. His administration sought to restrict avenues for immigrant service members to obtain citizenship and make it harder for green card holders to enlist — actions that were unsuccessful.
Now, military experts and veterans say service members are once again targets of the president’s immigration policies.
“President Trump campaigned on a promise of mass deportations, and he didn’t exempt military members, veterans and their families,” said retired Lt. Col. Margaret Stock, a lawyer who helps veterans facing deportation. “It harms military recruiting, military readiness and the national security of our country.”
Both policies barred enforcement actions against active-duty service members, absent aggravating factors. Under the new policy, noncitizen relatives of service members are not addressed.
Some service members, like Park, are choosing to self-deport. In other instances, immigrant family members of soldiers or veterans have been detained — including Narciso Barranco, a father of three U.S. Marines who was detained earlier this year in Santa Ana, California.
“The people being ripped from our communities are hardworking, honest, patriotic people who are raising America’s teachers, nurses and Marines,” Barranco’s son, veteran Alejandro Barranco, testified in July to a U.S. Senate subcommittee. “Deporting them doesn’t just hurt my family. It hurts all of us.”
This image provided by News21 shows Michael Evans, a veteran who has been deported, hugging Diane Vega, a veteran and volunteer, at the Deported Veterans Support House on Saturday, June 28, 2025, in Ciudad Juárez, Mexico. (Sydney Lovan/News21 via AP)
There is no publicly available data on how many veterans are being affected, though ICE is supposed to track service member removals and the Department of Homeland Security is typically required to share that information with Congress.
A 2019 federal report found 250 veterans had been placed in removal proceedings between 2013 and 2018. News21 could find only two DHS reports tracking removals of veterans. One, covering the first half of 2022, said five veterans had been deported; another, for calendar year 2019, said three veterans had been deported.
In June, U.S. Rep. Yassamin Ansari, an Arizona Democrat, and nine members of Congress wrote to federal officials seeking the number of veterans currently facing deportation — noting “some estimates” put the overall number of deported veterans at 10,000.
Her office did not return messages. DHS and ICE also did not respond to questions.
Federal lawmakers have proposed several bills to protect immigrant service members and their relatives. One measure, introduced in May, would give green cards to parents of service members and allow those already deported to apply for a visa.
U.S. Sen. Tammy Duckworth, an Illinois Democrat and Army veteran, has sponsored some of that legislation. She told News21: “This is about the men and women who wore the uniform of our great nation, many of whom were promised a chance at citizenship by our government in exchange for their service. It’s about doing the right thing.”
As of February 2024, more than 40,000 foreign nationals were serving in active and reserve components of the Armed Forces, according to the Congressional Research Service. Another 115,000 were veterans living in the U.S.
Serving in the military has long been a pathway to citizenship, with provisions providing expedited naturalization dating back to the Civil War.
During designated periods of hostility, noncitizens who serve honorably for even one day are eligible to apply for naturalization if they meet all criteria. The U.S. has been in a period of hostility since 2001.
This image provided by News21 shows Army veteran Jose Francisco Lopez holding a portrait from his time in service on June 28, 2025, at the Deported Veterans Support House in Ciudad Juárez, Mexico. (Sydney Lovan/News21 via AP)
Despite that longstanding policy, the Department of Defense, during Trump’s first term, required service members to complete six months before obtaining military documents required to apply for citizenship.
The American Civil Liberties Union sued, and in 2020, a federal judge struck down the change. The Biden administration wound up rescinding the six-month policy.
Nevertheless, ACLU attorney Scarlet Kim said: “If you don’t get your citizenship while you’re serving and then you’re discharged … you can potentially become vulnerable to deportation.”
That’s the situation facing Army veteran Marlon Parris.
Parris, born in Trinidad, has been in the U.S. with a green card since the 1990s. He served in the Army for six years and received the Army Commendation Medal three times, according to court records.
Before his discharge in 2007, he was diagnosed with PTSD — which was cited when Parris pleaded guilty in 2011 to conspiracy to distribute cocaine and sentenced to federal prison.
Upon his release in 2016, the government assured him he would not be deported, according to the group Black Deported Veterans of America. But on Jan. 22, agents detained Parris near his home in Laveen, Arizona. In May, a judge ruled he was eligible for deportation.
His wife, Tanisha Hartwell-Parris, told News21 the couple plan to self-deport and bring along some of the seven children, ranging in age from 8 to 26, who are part of their blended family.
“I’m not going to put my husband in a situation to where he’s going to be a constant target, especially in the country that he fought for,” she said.
This image provided by News21 shows memorabilia from Jose Francisco Lopez’s service during the Vietnam War displayed inside the Deported Veterans Support House on Saturday, June 28, 2025, in Ciudad Juárez, Mexico. (Sydney Lovan/News21 via AP)
A report published last year by the Veterans Law Practicum at the University of California, Berkeley, School of Law noted that more than 20% of veterans with PTSD also have a substance use disorder, and that can result in more exposure to the criminal justice system.
That situation is “the most common scenario in terms of how deportation is triggered,” said Rose Carmen Goldberg, who oversaw completion of the report and now teaches in the Veterans Legal Services Clinic at Yale Law School.
The report stressed that even though deportation does not disqualify veterans from benefits earned through service, “Geographic and bureaucratic barriers may … stand in the way.”
In 2021, the Biden administration launched the Immigrant Military Members and Veterans Initiative (IMMVI) to ensure deported veterans could access Veterans Affairs benefits. The program offered parole to those needing to return to the U.S. for legal services or health care.
Jennie Pasquarella, a lawyer with the Seattle Clemency Project, said the biggest flaw of the program is that parole into the U.S. is temporary — a “dead end” if a veteran doesn’t have a legal claim to restore legal residency or to naturalize.
“We had asked the Biden administration to do more to ensure that there was a further path towards restoring people’s lawful status beyond parole,” she said. “Basically, we didn’t succeed.”
In the absence of aid in the U.S., more veterans are turning to help elsewhere.
José Francisco Lopez, a native of Torreón, Mexico, and Vietnam War veteran, experienced PTSD and addiction. He eventually went to prison for a drug-related crime and in 2003 was deported.
“I almost gave my life in Vietnam, and now they just throw me away like garbage,” he said.
For years, Lopez thought he was the only deported veteran in Mexico — until he met Hector Barajas, a deported Army veteran who in 2013 founded the Deported Veterans Support House in Tijuana.
Inspired, Lopez opened his own Support House in Ciudad Juárez.
Lopez, 80, is now a legal resident of the U.S. but splits his time between El Paso and Juárez, providing deported veterans housing, food and advice about how to apply for benefits. Since opening the support house in 2017, he’s helped about 20 people.
Back in Seoul, Park, 56, is adjusting to life in a country he hadn’t visited in 30 years. When he first arrived, he cried every morning for hours.
“It’s a whole new world,” he said. “I’m trying to really relearn everything.”
Park’s attorney started a petition to urge prosecutors to dismiss his criminal convictions, to help cancel his deportation order. More than 10,000 people have signed.
Park said he’s grateful for the support but has little faith he will ever be allowed to return to the U.S. He said: “This is not the country that I volunteered and fought for.”
News21 reporters Tristan E.M. Leach, Sydney Lovan and Gracyn Thatcher contributed to this story. This report is part of “Upheaval Across America,” an examination of immigration enforcement under the second Trump administration produced by Carnegie-Knight News21.
from the end of the shutdown,-and I have huge hope that we the people will continue to stand together to help each other through the days!-we do get the Astronomy Photo of the Day again!
Explanation: Few cosmic vistas can excite the imagination like The Great Nebula in Orion. Visible as a faint, bland celestial smudge to the naked-eye, the nearest large star-forming region sprawls across this sharp colorful telescopic image. Designated M42 in the Messier Catalog, the Orion Nebula’s glowing gas and dust surrounds hot, young stars. About 40 light-years across, M42 is at the edge of an immense interstellar molecular cloud only 1,500 light-years away that lies within the same spiral arm of our Milky Way galaxy as the Sun. Including dusty bluish reflection nebula NGC 1977, also known as the Running Man nebula at left in the frame, the natal nebulae represent only a small fraction of our galactic neighborhood’s wealth of star-forming material. Within the well-studied stellar nursery, astronomers have also identified what appear to be numerous infant solar systems.
Abby Martin joins the program to discuss her new film, Earth’s Greatest Enemy which exposes the U.S. military as the world’s largest polluter. Live-streamed on November 6, 2025.
Here’s the latest signature. This was done on my iPad, which was a little sad for me because I hadn’t used it in over a month. I had to reboot my Procreate program, and there was some lag. Don’t worry, baby. Daddy’s coming home.
A hard part about writing my signature is controlling my arm and applying pressure. Someone mentioned that I should strum one of my guitars as physical therapy, but I think there are better exercises. Plus, not being able to strum a guitar only makes me sad. It’s almost as sad as not being able to draw.
So why did six Democrats (one Independent and whatever the fuck Fetterman is) cave in on the government shutdown? They had just overwhelmingly won elections in New York City, New Jersey, and Virginia last week. The public was correctly blaming Donald Trump and Republicans for the shutdown. Proof of that was Donald Trump’s fight with courts to prevent snap benefits from feeding the hungry. Are Democrats upset over flight delays? Are they afraid Thanksgiving would be ruined? What did they get for rolling over?
Michael De Adder correctly has them surrendering.
Fake cartoonists Margolis and Cox have them surrendering, too. I can’t tell what’s going on with the person in the left-hand corner because the artwork is so bad. Why didn’t they finish writing “government?” There is plenty of room.
In the new deal, SNAP and WIC will receive additional funding, and there are a few other modest concessions on spending levels elsewhere in the government. Laid-off federal workers will be rehired, and furloughed federal workers will be given back pay. But remember, this entire fight was over subsidies for the Affordable Care Act being suspended. In exchange for rolling over, Democrats got a promise from Republicans that there would be a vote on healthcare subsidies. Basically, Democrats got a promise from Republicans that they’ll think about it.
Ezra Klein, an opinion columnist for The New York Times, wrote,“This, in the end, is the calculation the defecting Senate Democrats are making: They don’t think a longer shutdown will cause Trump to cave. They just think it will cause more damage.”
I understand why Democrats may get that impression. Donald Trump is flying to Asia, playing golf, traveling to me MAGA-Lardo, going to football games for no fucking reason, and ramping up support to name the new stadium in Washington, DC after him, and it’s obvious he doesn’t care about people starving. So what does Trump care if the government shuts down? And what do Republicans care either? They’re all on vacation. Mike Johnson sent Republicans on vacation. They want Democrats to own the shutdown, but they’re not doing anything to end it.
It is especially frustrating because these Democrats have been in Washington, DC long enough to know better than to trust Republicans. I wouldn’t be surprised if Republicans never even hold a vote on the subsidies for the Affordable Care Act. I mean, House Republicans did not make this deal, so they don’t have to hold a vote on the subsidies. Only Senate Republicans have promised to hold a vote.
Kicking Lucy’s football is a lazy trope, but John Darkow has it right that Democrats are nothing but a bunch of suckers.
Chuck Schumer did not vote for this plan, but do you blame him as the Democratic Senate leader for it happening, as Dave Whamond has cartooned about here? Personally, whether Schumer deserves part of the blame or not, doesn’t matter in concerning his fate, as he has always been a weak leader.
Democrats have the view that Donald Trump is not caving, thus they’re caving into in without even negotiating. Are you telling me that Donald Trump’s strategy of not giving a fuck is working to sway Democrats?
Chris Britt has it right that these eight are nothing but a bunch of chickens.
Mike Luckovich sure this cartoon last week or so, but now I believe it’s the Democrats, who are curving themselves up. If nothing else, they’re serving Obamacare up for the slaughter.
I don’t think anyone has explained the healthcare subsidy situation better than Matt Davies has. As someone who is benefiting from Obamacare and government subsidies, I feel like we’re getting rolled over.
And Steve…
I know you get reprints when you don’t blame anyone specific, but it wasn’t just Congress that was responsible for the shutdown. Maybe someday you’ll be able to cartoon about issues after you understand them.
This was almost as cowardly as…
…when Ramirez was afraid to blame Donald Trump for pardoning George Santos. Seriously, Michael… “they” did not pardon George Santos. Only one person could have pardoned George Santos, and I don’t know if you know how the Constitution works, but it doesn’t say that person is “they.”
Was Rudy Giuliani guilty of trying to help Trump steal the 2020 election? Donald Trump thinks he is. That’s why he got a pardon this week. This isn’t like Joe Biden giving his son and Dr. Anthony Fauci pardons, Fauci being preemptive, because Donald Trump has proved those were necessary as he has turned the entire Justice Department into his personal attack dog, and is ordering it to go after his political enemies and seek revenge. But nobody was really going after Rudy on criminal charges in federal courts. A pardon does not save Rudy from paying out the civil judgment from the Georgia election workers any more than it stops his farts or black shoe dye from running down his skull.
Bill Bramhall, who was a couple of days after Lucko’s turkey, caught that this pardon was in the right season.
Along with Giuliani, Trump pardoned John Eastman, a corrupt lawyer who advised Trump’s 2020 campaign; Mark Meadows, the former White House chief of staff; Boris Epshteyn, a presidential adviser; and Sidney Powell, an insane lawyer who blamed conspiracy theories for Trump’s defeat to Joe Biden. None of these people has been charged in federal courts, though they have been charged in state courts. Trump’s pardons are only symbolic as they don’t protect his friends from state charges.
This is another example of Trump using the presidency to help himself and his friends and not the American people. This is what happens when a felon gets pardon powers.
I’m sick of the new normal, which includes pandering to a 79-year-old toddler. Part of this new normal is naming shit after Trump. There’s talk of renaming the Kennedy Center after Donald Trump. There’s talk of renaming the metro system in Washington, DC after Trump, the $1000 savings account for newborns is called the Trump account, lawmakers had proposed renaming Dulles International Airport after Trump, and now, Trump is demanding that the new football stadium on the old RFK Stadium site be named after him. Donald Trump didn’t have anything to do with securing the stadium deal any more than he did with ending the war between Hamas and Israel.
As for the Metro, a Republican introduced a bill that threatened to withhold federal funding for Washington’s rail system unless the name was changed to the Trump train. Why? There’s no fucking reason given for this fealty to Trump. Republicans want to hold funding hostage, not for any policies or improvement, but just to name the system after Donald Trump. I seriously doubt Donald Trump has ever taken a ride on the Metro.
As you may know from reading this blog, I love Subway systems. I use the Metro more than any other train system, and it’s one I know very well. I will take it as a personal insult if the name is officially changed to the fucking Trump Train. This will be an insult to the entire city of Washington, and no longtime resident of the city will ever refer to it as the goddamn Trump Train.
I have said it before, and I will say it again. This is some Saddam Hussein-level bullshit. Of course, Republicans don’t care about the optics anymore.
I’m very surprised the Supreme Court refused to revisit gay marriage. You know if zealots Clarence Thomas and Amy Coney Barrett had their way, they would try to overturn it the same way they did with Roe. Precedent doesn’t mean anything to the Supreme Court anymore. Neither does the Constitution nor the law. SCOTUS would rather go by the Old Testament than by the United States Constitution.
Donald Trump is promising tariff payments to middle-income Americans. He said, “We’re going to issue a dividend to our middle-income people and lower-income people of about $2,000. And we’re going to use the remaining tariffs to lower our debt.”
Two things: this contradicts his argument that tariffs are not taxes being paid by American consumers, and his tariffs aren’t bringing in enough revenue to give everyone $2,000. If you make Americans pay these tariff dividends from the budget, then aren’t Americans paying for the dividends just like they’re paying for the tariffs? Donald Trump doesn’t even have any details for this new plan. He thinks it’s magic money that’s going to appear out of thin air.
Donald Trump wants the tariffs to pay off the deficit. American consumers are paying the tariffs. Donald Trump wants to pay American consumers out of the debt for paying for the tariffs. You don’t need to be an economics major to know that this is madness.
As Bill points out, it’s the tariff, stupid. If Democrats do come out winning over Trump’s tariff policy, I’m sure they will find a way to blow it.
Donald Trump is now demanding that the BBC apologize to him for editing part of a video of his speech before the January 6 attack, and to pay him lots of money, or he will sue them for $1 billion. This sounds like Dr. Evil threatening the BBC.
As Jack points out, ethics are lapsing with the American media. Now, when 60 Minutes interviews him (after CBS allowed him to bribe them), it’s about as ethical as when Fox News does not give him follow-up questions.
Trump believes the video made him sound more violent than he really was, ignoring that the attack on January 6 was violent and an attempt to overturn the 2020 election. But as usual, Donald Trump is demanding to be bribed. The American press has failed to stand firm against Donald Trump and his threats, so I hope the British press does not give in. I need to believe in something.
Joel Pett points out what Donald Trump wants edited out.
This is one reason why I like to have the BBC as one of the four channels in the multiview feature.
Have you heard of Mar-a-Lago face? Usually, people who have a little work done don’t want to advertise it. Most people lie about it when questioned. But now it seems that they’re all going the Kristi Noem route, and going for the Melania. Having your lips filled and being proud of it is very much a Palm Beach thing, but now it’s extending to Washington, DC. Now there are MAGAts in Washington who are having work done, and they’re proud of it. They want everyone to know, which means their faces look fucking stupid. It seems the facelift of Washington isn’t just going to be in the city. I guess collagen-filled lips are better for kissing Donald Trump’s ass with. Dammit, that’s a political cartoon.
If I see a bunch of Kristie Noems on the “Trump Train,” I’m going to lose my shit. Last June, during Trump’s birthday parade, I did tell some MAGAts on the metro to fuck Trump. A MAGAt’s right to free speech to wear that ugly cap on the Metro also applies to my free speech to tell them to go fuck themselves.
Let’s talk about some stroke stuff. I am currently wearing a temporary heart sensor. I hate it. Since I got out of the hospital, it’s been the bane of my existence.
Please watch. As she says the site is called Dunning Kruger and states it is not fake news or lies because it is totally fictional and made up. But tRump believes it. Hugs
Scottie's Playtime 