Illegal Legals

Avatar photoby

Attribution: Trump military occupations illegal by John Cole, PoliticalCartoons.com

[John Cole is a freelancer who draws for:
Tennessee Lookout, tennesseelookout.com
Pennsylvania Capital-Star, PennCapital-Star.com
The Pilot, Southern Pines, NC, thepilot.com
NC Policy Watch, ncpolicywatch.com
Virginia Mercury, virginiamercury.com and syndicated by CagleCartoons.com ]

💬 Add your voice: Comment on today’s post
Share

53 thoughts on “Illegal Legals”

  1. why stop at cities or at borders… what, where, why and who’s next?
    https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/sep/07/
    The Guardian view on the ‘war on drugs’: Donald Trump is turning a failed metaphor into a more dangerous reality
    Editorial

    More than five decades ago, Richard Nixon launched a “war on drugs”. The drugs won. Now Donald Trump is turning a failed metaphor into a worse reality.
    On Tuesday the US president claimed that the military had killed 11 drug traffickers from Venezuela, posting footage of the strike that US officials said took place on a speedboat in international waters in the Caribbean. The administration supplied no evidence for its claim that the boat contained Tren de Aragua members, or drugs, and gave varying accounts of its destination. It also warned that there was more to come, with the secretary of state, Marco Rubio, arguing that intercepting boats had not curbed the drugs problem: “What will stop them is when you blow them up.” Earlier this year, Mr Trump secretly ordered the use of military force against cartels internationally.
    With US warships patrolling the coast of Venezuela – and F35 fighter jets reportedly dispatched to Puerto Rico – some fear that this could be pretext for a disastrous intervention, as its president, Nicolás Maduro, has suggested. Alternatively, Washington may hope it unnerves other regime members into unseating him, or prompts Mr Maduro himself to flee – two longstanding dreams. The US has already offered a $50m bounty for his arrest. At best, this may be political theatre, with both Mr Maduro and Mr Trump posturing for their bases.
    If this campaign truly targets the drugs trade, it is dangerous and misguided. Like rebranding the Department of Defense as the “Department of War”, it speaks to Mr Trump’s love of macho spectacle. But it sets a precedent for launching military strikes on whomever the US authorities wish, without congressional approval or a UN mandate, simply by declaring that they are “at war”.
    The Obama administration stretched the boundaries of executive power, and any plausible definition of self-defence and imminent threat, with its campaign of drone assassinations, including those of American citizens far from battlefields, under the hazy label of the “war on terror”. Despite the high civilian toll and minimal transparency, it met lamentably little political pushback.
    The Trump administration has gone even further. Cartels are spreading and entrenching themselves in Latin America, devastating communities. But arbitrarily designating them as terrorists is plainly a nonsense. Extrajudicial killings of this kind are always wrong. Offenders who would not face the death penalty if charged are executed without due process. Innocents inevitably fall victim too. Many children were among the thousands killed in Rodrigo Duterte’s “war on drugs” in the Philippines. The former president is now awaiting trial for crimes against humanity at the international criminal court.
    Summary executions are also counterproductive. They make it harder to gather information, and strikes on foreign soil would make governments less likely to cooperate with US efforts, due to the domestic backlash – especially in Mexico. That would not only hamper the fight against drugs, but also Mr Trump’s efforts to curb migration.
    To tackle its devastating fentanyl epidemic, the US must ultimately tackle demand: an immense task, since it means addressing the conditions that birthed this crisis, as well as entrenched addictions. In the meantime, carefully targeted action and financial disruption would be more effective than killing cartel members. Above all, the administration should stem the flow of US arms, which have supercharged violence in Mexico and elsewhere.

  2. why stop at war on drugs or war on crime? why not a war on education?

    John Oliver discusses Donald Trump’s war on higher education, the history of right-wing attacks on what universities research and teach, and how a weird little tree frog might – might! – just save us all.

  5. Uncomfortable history documentary to watch that is just the kind Trump would hate:

    The Levys of Monticello. The little-known story of the Levy family, who purchased, owned and carefully preserved Thomas Jefferson’s home, Monticello, for nearly a century – far longer than Jefferson or his descendants. The remarkable story of the Levys also intersects with the rise of antisemitism and the stain of slavery that runs throughout the course of American history.

    If you have Prime Video streaming service it is free, or you can buy or rent from Amazon.

  7. Just watched it last night. I couldn’t believe the uproar over a Jew being buried on the grounds. At least now the site receives the respect it deserves. Plus it doesn’t gloss over the ownership of slaves and their part in preserving the building.

    I like my history straight forward warts and all, and this is one of the best of the type.

  15. Reddit is all about the US Army Reserve ads. Any of y’all seeing those ads where you spend time? How long before they start drafting young men (because icky girls can’t be war-fighterzzz)?

  17. Any of y’all seeing those ads where you spend time?

    I’m getting those same ads on Reddit- I haven’t seen US Army reserve ads anywhere else but Trumpco has been running all sorts of CBP hiring ads online also

    your tax dollars at work, funneled to “advertising companies”

  21. here are the unwritten rules on possession of a foul ball or home run ball in a baseball game:

    If it’s on the ground, it belongs to nobody

    if it’s in the air, it belongs to nobody

    The ball doesn’t belong to you just because it traveled directly at you or your seat

    If two people have possession of it and they are both adults it is tug-of-war. Whoever gives it up first has more dignity.

    If two people have possession of it and one is an adult and one is a child, The adult should let the child have it.

    If an adult catches a baseball in the proximity of a young fan and the ball has no value, the adult, regardless of relationship to the child, gives it to the child

    When I was a kid, everyone understood these rules, and some people still do because there is a video going around of a 20-something catching a ball and giving it to an unrelated child and then that same child catches a second ball and gives that ball to the adult, which was a beautiful moment

    Here it is, How To Be A Human:

    https://www.reddit.com/r/nextfuckinglevel/comments/1nbpc0s/man_gives_baseball_to_kid_in_the_stands_and_later/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=mweb3x&utm_name=mweb3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button

  23. someone just asked me if I want to move to California and my for whole life the answer to that was an immediate “no” but now it’s a “hmmm”

    I either sell all my shit now or one day someone throws it in a dumpster, hmmmm

  24. So WTF is Mike Johnson trying to do, lying about SFB being an FBI informant re Epstein? Funny kind of pious Christianity coming out of that one.

    With Dumbass’ new focus on Chicago, looking at crime trends there seems appropriate. Council on Criminal Justice has the figures. Dumbass better be aware that there are categories where he might want to STFU – the two that stand out to me are homicides and drugs.

  25. anon

    As a born and bred Californian, I can tell you there are great parts of the state that while more expensive than most of the US are still affordable. Unfortunately it is a paradise with water for fewer than 20 million human beings trying to service 40 million. South of Santa Barbara used to be cattle and agriculture, the bread basket of the nation. Now it is pretty much freeways and cement.

    If I were to return after a 25 year absence, it would be north of San Francisco.

  26. I heard/read the sfb was a FBI informant on Epstein months ago. Might have been on twit, but long lost and a search did not work well. Mickie probably was saw it in a report and spewed it out.

    Craig – now that stupid had the blue tarp ripped away, how hard would it be for some enterprising activist to hand out blue tarps to anyone walking by? Thousands of blue tarps, not just at Lafayette Square, but all of D.C.

  27. Epstein (the topic, not the guy) ain’t dead yet. WaPo.

    The House Oversight Committee received documents it subpoenaed from financier and convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein’s estate on Monday. The committee is in the midst of an inquiry into the federal government’s Epstein sex-trafficking investigation, that aims to dispel lingering questions about the scope of Epstein’s sex abuse and his death.

    Aides for the Oversight Committee said the documents include a redacted version of the so-called “birthday book” Epstein’s former partner Ghislaine Maxwell gifted him for his 50th birthday that reportedly contains a collection of messages to Epstein from high-profile associates, as well as Epstein’s will, a non-prosecution agreement between Epstein and the U.S. attorney’s office for the Southern District of Florida, and financial records.

    Of course redacting the names of the people who contributed wishes to the book leaves it pretty meh.

  30. Orange Adolf is spinning out from Epstein. All of the crazy stuff from the WH isn’t just him, of course, because he’s a non-reader, incurious, low IQ toad who is pushing 80 and definitely isn’t creating all of the garbage coming out in his ~truths~ page.

    That said, he is aware of what he has done with regard to Epstein, minors, and other women against their will, and he is angry that folks aren’t dropping it. He’s gotten away with things his entire, miserable, worthless life. Expect every kind of crazy to come out of him and those surrounding him.

    Personally, I think Adolf thought it was a good idea to say he was an FBI informant; I think he called MAGAt Mike and told him to say it. Nobody thought it through, because the only way you can inform on something is if you have first-hand knowledge. That means tRUMPsky would have needed to have seen Epstein doing something. Which, of course, he did – but he needs to be able to deny being involved at all, so informant doesn’t work as a cover story.

    The hot word he used was “hoax,” because that smokescreen always means there’s fire.

  31. My California family members are all judgey, churchy Republicans. The traffic was terrible when I was there in the late 90s. No desire to go back, although I thought about a visit….but then (F)Elon ~won~ the election. I’ll fly when an adult is Secretary of Transportation, and we have an administration that isn’t hellbent on deregulation.

  33. https://www.politico.com/news/2025/09/05/immigration-mandatory-detention-00548660

    A powerful Justice Department appeals panel has declared that anyone in deportation proceedings who entered the U.S. without legal authorization is not entitled to be considered for release on bond by an immigration judge.

    The ruling upends a decadeslong understanding of federal law and could subject millions of immigrants to mandatory detention — a loss of liberty that advocates say could cause many to voluntarily leave the country even if they have meritorious cases to remain.

    It also conflicts with recent federal court rulings finding the administration’s efforts to expand immigration detention violate the law and due process.

    The decision is binding on federal immigration courts, the network of executive branch judges who handle routine deportation proceedings and are distinct from the federal judiciary. Rulings by immigration courts, including the BIA, can ultimately be overturned by the attorney general, who oversees the system.
    The BIA ruling, however, is not binding on the judicial branch. And under recent Supreme Court precedents it is unclear how much weight those judges — and ultimately the Supreme Court — will give to the Justice Department’s view of the law.

    One former immigration judge, Dana Leigh Marks, said in an interview that the ruling seems intended to encourage those in deportation proceedings to give up the fight and agree to return to their countries of origin or another country.

    *Very confusing, which is probably the point since Stephen Miller can’t just execute every brown person.

    Folks who entered without inspection are “applicants for admission,” so no bond hearing, no judge, and ICE decides if you get released (and what are the odds of that?).
    No bonding out for folks who entered without inspection would mean DACA (dreamers) brought here as children.

  34. https://apnews.com/article/banksy-mural-london-royal-courts-justice-c08b2cef093ea6a0520302eacfbd871f

    A new mural by elusive street artist Banksy showing a judge beating an unarmed protester with a gavel will be removed from a wall outside one of London’s most iconic courts, authorities said Monday.

    The mural appeared Monday and depicts a protester lying on the ground holding a blood-splattered placard while a judge in a traditional wig and black gown beats him with a gavel. Banksy posted a photo of the work on Instagram, his usual method of claiming a work as authentic. It was captioned “Royal Courts Of Justice. London.”

    Security officials outside the courthouse covered the artwork Monday with sheets of black plastic and two metal barriers, and it was being guarded by two officers and a security camera.

    While the artwork doesn’t refer to a particular cause or incident, activists saw it as a reference to the U.K. government’s ban on the group Palestine Action. On Saturday almost 900 people were arrested at a London protest challenging the ban.

    Defend Our Juries, the group that organized the protest, said in a statement that the mural “powerfully depicts the brutality unleashed” by the government ban.

    “When the law is used as a tool to crush civil liberties, it does not extinguish dissent, it strengthens it,” the statement said.

  35. https://apnews.com/article/trump-commutation-braun-long-island-arrests-d0613b9f684f95806956b07dd4dbd890

    A convicted New York drug dealer whose federal prison sentence was commuted by President Donald Trump has been found guilty of violating the terms of his release after being arrested and charged in connection with several recent crimes.

    In 2019, Braun was sentenced to 10 years in federal prison after pleading guilty to drug-related charges. He served roughly a year behind bars before Trump commuted his sentence in the final days of his first term in January 2021.

    Braun had been a high-ranking member of an international group that smuggled more than 100,000 kilograms (220,460 pounds) of marijuana from Canada into the United States, federal prosecutors said at the time.

    Jonathan Braun now faces up to five years in prison when he’s sentenced Oct. 9.

    The Long Island resident had been accused of menacing a hospital nurse and a fellow synagogue member on two separate incidents, as well as of groping his family’s nanny and evading bridge tolls.

  39. https://www.huffpost.com/entry/sonia-sotomayor-racial-profiling-dissent_n_68bf0681e4b055a5037b975c

    Justice Sonia Sotomayor issued a scathing dissent to Monday’s Supreme Court ruling authorizing immigration agents’ use of racial profiling, saying it’s “unconscionably irreconcilable” with the U.S. Constitution.

    “We should not have to live in a country where the Government can seize anyone who looks Latino, speaks Spanish, and appears to work a low wage job,” Sotomayor wrote.

    President Donald Trump’s administration, and now the nation’s highest court, have all but declared that “all Latinos, U. S. citizens or not, who work low wage jobs are fair game to be seized at any time, taken away from work, and held until they provide proof of their legal status to the agents’ satisfaction,” Sotomayor wrote in her response to Justice Brett Kavanaugh’s opinion for the 6-3 decision.

    *Well, at least universities are banned from using race to…oh, wait.

  41. Did not draw this picture and did not sign it.

    Only the intentional ignoramuses believe a single thing he says.

  43. Blue
    It’s in my music. Owens created that whole Bakersfield sound. Put it up to honor Bronco’s time in the oil fields though she might have been at the coastal ones.

  44. Mar-a-Lago Member Reportedly Made Crude Gag About Epstein Selling Trump a Woman for $22,500

    A member of President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago Club joked about the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein selling Trump a “fully depreciated” woman for $22,500 in 2003, according to a new report.

    “Jeffrey showing early talents with money + women! Sells ‘fully depreciated’ [redacted] to Donald Trump for $22,500,” read the letter published by the Wall Street Journal. “Showed early ‘people skills’ too. Even though I handled the deal I didn’t get any of the money on the girl!”

    On Monday, members of the House Oversight Committee received a copy of a birthday book that was put together for Epstein’s 50th birthday in 2003, including a bizarre birthday message Trump reportedly sent to Epstein – which the president has denied penning.

    The birthday book also reportedly featured contributions from former President Bill Clinton and billionaire investor Leon Black, as well as a letter written by Mar-a-Lago member Joel Pashcow joking about Epstein selling Trump a woman.

    Photo of Trump’s Bawdy Birthday Letter to Epstein — Which Trump Called ‘Fake’ — Is Released

    The Wall Street Journal has published a photo of a bawdy letter President Donald Trump reportedly wrote to Jeffrey Epstein for his 50th birthday — which the president claimed was “fake.”

    *If EPSTEIN gets any closer to being the undoing of Donald J. tRUMP…is he crazy enough to put those nuclear codes to use? Who will stop it?

  51. “Who is that bum over there Why it’s Jeffrey, I declare The man of means in sweat shirt and jeans At a black tie formal affair.

    To add to life’s piquancy Jeffery, with increasing frequency.
    on any occasion
    With little persuasion
    Will outrageous the public decency.

    I have heard that Jeffrey will act With morals, decorum and tact, with honor, good will and truth, but forsooth This information may be inexact.

    As far as I can detect, Jeffrey seems to select To express his mood, Terms rude, crude and lewd, and politically incorrect.

    Jeffrey at half a century, with credentials plenipotentiary,
    though up to no good whenever he could, has avoided the penitentiary.”

    *Who wrote this for Epstein’s 50th?

  52. https://nypost.com/2025/09/08/world-news/drone-strikes-greta-thunberg-led-gaza-flotilla-in-tunisian-port-organizers-say/

    A drone reportedly targeted and struck the lead boat of a flotilla led by activist Greta Thunberg while on a mission to deliver aid to the Gaza Strip, according to organizers.

    The strike occurred on the “Family Boat,” flying under a Portuguese flag in Tunisian waters while carrying members of the flotilla’s Steering Committee, Global Sumud Flotilla posted in a statement on Monday.

    The committee included Thunberg and other activists and was inside the Tunisian port of Sidi Bou Said when the drone hit, the Israel Times reported.

    *There is video of fire coming down from the sky and hitting the boat, which counters the story some of the news is trying to tell.

Comments are closed.

Join the Trail Mix

Get an alert when Craig goes live, and the link when our Open Thread heats up.