Cartoonists Versus Carpenters
Choose your companions wisely...
Mahmoud Khalil was a graduate student at Columbia University, took part in the campus protests against Israel and was subsequently arrested by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents. When Khalil’s attorney spoke to one of the agents on the phone during the arrest and asked WTF, she was told the ICE agents were acting on State Department orders to revoke Khalil’s student visa.
When the attorney informed the ICE agent that Khalil didn’t have a student visa and didn’t need one because he’s a permanent US resident with a Green Card, the ICE agent immediately changed lanes and said they were revoking that instead. When the attorney asked what about a warrant, the agent hung up on her.
Apparently the plan was to arrest Mahmoud Khalil and figure out why later.
Welcome to Donald Trump’s America.
Trump promised to crack down on students who took part in protests against the war in Gaza and claimed they forfeited their rights to remain in the US by supporting Hamas, a terrorist organization. Turns out, the Department of Homeland Security can revoke Green Cards for a broad range of illegal activity, but Khalil was never charged with a crime.
Here’s an article from the New Yorker if you want to read all the details:
https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2025/03/24/the-case-of-mahmoud-khalil
One more time:
Legal resident
Didn’t break the law
But…
Expressed opinions that the Trump administration didn’t like.
Trump said Khalil’s arrest was “the first of many” so I imagined what other activists with unpopular opinions might be on their list and came up with Jesus Christ because he was certainly an activist and—if the New Testament is any indicator—would oppose much of what Trump’s been up to.
So Trump’s arresting and deporting people without legal justification and when a judge told him to “knock that shit off” (a legal term used by the best lawyers) Trump did it anyway and attacked the judge and called him “A Radical Left Lunatic” which apparently applies to anyone who reads the U.S. Constitution and takes it seriously.
Here’s more about that issue if you want to read it:
https://www.politico.com/news/2025/03/20/judge-orders-venezuela-deportation-flights-00241968
During the campaign Donald Trump said illegal immigrants were taking “Black jobs” and “Hispanic jobs” (y’know…the jobs Trump thinks are too shitty for White people) which PBS said was inaccurate in just about every way possible and here’s exactly what they had to say about it:
According to the story you probably didn’t read:
“Economists who study immigrant labor’s impact on the economy say that people who are in the U.S. illegally are not taking native citizens’ jobs, because the roles that these immigrant workers take on are most often positions that native workers are unwilling to fill, such as agriculture and food processing jobs.”
So apparently immigrants are taking the jobs the rest of us don’t want to do, like re-roofing houses when it’s a billion degrees outside or hitting cows in the foreheads with sledge hammers or making beds in whatever hotel room we just trashed like we were rock stars on the last stop of a 16-city tour and all this talk about immigrants taking jobs reminded me:
Elon Musk is an immigrant.
And according to the Washington Post – at least for a while – an immigrant who worked in the US illegally and if you want to read all the ins and outs and denials and Musk’s justification for what he did, here you go:
https://www.cnn.com/2024/10/28/us/elon-musk-immigration-washington-post-cec
So once again we have facts that show Trump is either lying and/or wildly misinformed (I’m guessing it’s a Combo Meal) and if you haven’t already reached this conclusion, I hate to be the one to break it to you:
Donald Trump could not give a flying squirrel’s ass if he gets caught lying and neither do the people who vote for him.
Lying clearly works.
At least temporarily, but I have to say I’m encouraged by all the stories of Republican politicians showing up at Town Hall Meetings and being greeted with angry mobs which has happened so often Full-time House Speaker and Part-time Ventriloquist Dummy Mike Johnson has encouraged Republicans to quit meeting with the public.
Which is kind of ironic because Republicans say this is what Americans want, but are now afraid to meet with those Americans because generally speaking Americans seem pretty pissed off right now.
In my cynical opinion (which dramatically increases the chances that I’m right) a lot of politicians are chickenshits who would join a Satanic Cult or the First Baptist Church if they think it will get them reelected so they can stay in Washington and don’t have to go back home to their failing law practice, used car dealership or pain-in-the-ass family.
And so far the Chickenshit Politicians have been more afraid of Donald Trump and his Zombie Hordes than The Rest of Us, but people are angry (including a lot of Republicans who voted for Trump and then lost their jobs) and when we reach the Tipping Point, those same Chickenshit Politicians will turn on Trump and as far as I’m concerned, that can’t happen soon enough even though it’s going to cost me a lot of Grade A cartoon material.
BTW:
The Republicans claim the angry mobs are made up of “paid protesters” which seems pretty unlikely because the Democrats just aren’t that organized and if you want evidence, recently Sen. Chuck Schumer pissed off the other Democrats by helping the Republicans pass a spending bill (Chuck was “trying to be reasonable” which worked out about as well as “trying to pet a werewolf”) so if the Democrats can’t get their shit together and decide how to vote as a party, what are the odds they’re hiring people to go to town hall meetings in Bumfuck, Kansas?
Plus, if you think about it—and I just did—I’m a paid protester, although it doesn’t pay nearly as much as it used to, although on the upside there’s no heavy lifting involved and I’ve used what minimal talent I have to avoid real work, but on the downside, if there is a heaven (like I have to worry about going there because I’m pretty sure I failed the entrance exam) and I meet my dad…
(This is him sitting on the motorcycle he rebuilt in front of the MG sports car he rebuilt and in the background is the boat he built on top of the boat trailer he built) and he asks what I did with my life and my answer is “I drew funny pictures” I think he’s going to be just a bit underwhelmed.
BTW: I was once at a dinner party with a New Yorker cartoonist and after a pitcher of Manhattans he was telling everybody just how important cartoonists are, so I asked him:
“If you were stranded on a desert island would you rather be stranded with a cartoonist or a carpenter?”
An observation which was so impressive I stopped getting invited to those dinner parties.
First off, St. Patrick did not drive the snakes out of Ireland (which clearly didn’t stop me from using that misconception in a cartoon) because Ireland never had snakes. It’s too chilly in Ireland and cold-blooded reptiles prefer places like Florida, Louisiana and the Department of Government Efficiency.
Today’s Lesson
If He were alive today Jesus would get deported for His unpopular opinions, an immigrant is taking your jobs and don’t pick me for a desert island companion because I can’t build a boat or make a fire, but on the upside, I would make you laugh while we slowly starved to death.
Have a nice weekend.