Veterans Day Cartoons

World War I centennial: US author honors grandfather by returning key taken from France 100 years ago

U.S. Army Private 1st Class Raymond W. Maker, left, and the key he says he took from Verdun, France, around the end of World War I. His grandson, Bruce Norton, is in France today to return the key back to the town.

One hundred years ago on this date, U.S. Army Private 1st Class Raymond W. Maker wrote in his diary “today is one of the happiest days of my life."
“The War is off, thank God. And all the boys have gone about half mad with joy. Bands are playing all day and at night all kinds of flares in the sky,” he beamed, capturing the relief felt among Allied forces as World War I officially came to an end.
It was a thrilling moment for Maker who, during the war, had been hit with mustard gas from the German army, wounded by artillery fire during the Muese-Argonne offensive – the deadliest battle in U.S. military history – and later went on to earn a Purple Heart for his service.
And now, a century later, on this Veterans Day – marking the 100th anniversary of the armistice that ended The Great War – his grandson, Bruce Norton, is in France retracing Maker’s footsteps and honoring him by returning a key his grandfather took during the war. Norton is joining the many Americans remembering the heroics of family members from generations past.
“My grandfather never spoke about the war to me, and it was only after his death that war stories were told at family gatherings about his service in France,” Norton, a former Marine and military author who is writing a book about Maker’s service, told Fox News.
The upcoming book, titled “Letters of a Yankee Doughboy,” contains more than 120 letters Maker wrote from the front lines of the war to his family in Framingham, Mass.

Maker would often write home to his family during World War I. He is pictured here as a young boy, on the far right of the bottom row. To his side, from right to left, are his stepsister Harriet, sister Eva and brother Clifford (Kip). His uncle Edward, wearing a Union Army uniform, is second from the left in the middle row, next to Edward's brother, Andrew. Both of those men fought for 19th Maine Regiment during the Civil War. Maker's father, Winfield, is standing in front of the bicycle on the far right. (Courtesy Bruce Norton)

Norton said he was given the letters in a box in 1992 while visiting his mother in Rhode Island. But something else inside that box became integral to his current trip to France this Veterans Day – a key that Maker took from a gate in the town of Verdun shortly after the war ended, which Norton is returning today to its rightful home.
“All I want to do is correct a wrong,” he told Fox News.
The story of how the iron key ended up in Norton’s possession began in 1914, when Maker joined the Massachusetts National Guard. Three years later, his unit was activated and became the U.S. Army’s 26th Infantry Division, which set off to France and encountered heavy combat.
“I hope that it won’t be so very long before I see you all again and do not lose heart if you do not hear from me very often because I may be in places where I cannot get a chance to write but will every time I can,” Maker wrote home on Oct. 6, 1917, in one of his first letters to his sister, addressed to “My Dear Eva & all the folks.”

One of the letters Maker wrote. (Courtesy Bruce Norton)

Over the next few years, Maker would – sometimes on a daily basis – pen letters to his family describing his World War I exploits as a wireman, who Norton says would “go out after these barrages and string communication wire between positions.” He also kept a diary with shorter entries.
“The fellow that was with me and myself laid in a large shell hole for about 30 hours running a telephone station, and then we got out and we went into the woods and found a dugout, and being about all in, we fell right to sleep and then the Boche started shooting over gas,” Maker wrote to his brother Kip on July 27, 1918, recalling the moments he was gassed by the Germans in France.
“We did not hear the shells and a fellow came running in with his mask on and yelled, “Gas, Gas.” Well, Kip, we put on our masks but a little too late because it had gotten us before, while we were asleep. And if that fellow had not yelled when he did, I would not be writing to you now, I guess,” he added.

Maker mentions the key he took from Verdun in a letter to his sister, Eva. (Courtesy Bruce Norton)

Maker mentioned in his writings about being in Verdun in November of that year, the same month of his 26th birthday and the signing of the armistice. He noted in a past letter of his travels about amassing a “pile” of German helmets from the battlefields and a “lot of German stuff,” but it wasn’t until January 1919 that he made mention in his writings of the key from Verdun.
“I got a letter from Kip a day ago and he said you got the helmet OK. Was there a key in the helmet? If there was don’t lose it because I stoled it out of the north gate at Verdun and it is worth something,” Maker wrote to Eva.
A 1956 article by the Providence Sunday Journal, reprinted in a draft version of Norton's book and provided to Fox News, references the key and further explains that “besides being six inches long and heavy, [it] has the added value of belonging to the historic North Gate of the Verdun Citadel where the German advance was squelched.”
The article makes mention of a Mrs. Charles A. Post, a Rhode Island resident who traveled to Verdun that year to return the key she received from Maker, who in response was given “an official certificate from the senator-mayor of Verdun for this unexpected addition to the battle site’s historic collection.”

Norton was able to learn more about his grandfather's life through the dispatches that were sent home from the front lines. (Courtesy Bruce Norton)

Except, decades later, Norton says he found out the events described in that article were not all that it seemed.
In an excerpt of Norton’s book, he writes “in October, 1992, during a visit to Rhode Island, my mother brought out a box from within her closet and said, “I have some things I want you to have. Here are all of your grandfather’s letters from World War One, and this is the key to the North Gate of Verdun, France, the one that Daddy mailed back to Aunt Eva.
“In 1956, your grandfather gave a key to a lady, a Mrs. Post, who was traveling back to France and she presented that key to the mayor of Verdun, but what she did not know was the key that Daddy gave to her was an ornate iron key a friend of his had made by the Providence Casting Company in North Providence,” the excerpt adds.
The real key presumably exchanged hands amongst Maker’s family members in the years following World War I. Maker died in 1964 after a severe heart attack and stroke. It is not immediately clear today where the gate stood in Verdun in which the key was taken from.

The key will be accepted today at the Verdun Memorial in France.

But Norton is now meeting today with Thierry Hubscher, the director of the Verdun Memorial, to return it, a spokesperson there confirmed to Fox News.  The Memorial says it may put the key into an exhibit about the Americans’ arrival in the region.
“We are particularly honored that Major Bruce Norton chose our establishment for the symbolic return of the key to an important site of the town of Verdun,” Hubscher told Fox News in an email. “This story is absolutely incredible. This key will have taken a journey of over 10,000 kilometers before coming back to its place of origin 100 years later.”

World leaders gather in Paris a century after WWI armistice

President Trump, first lady Melania Trump, left, and German Chancellor Angela Merkel attend ceremonies at the Arc de Triomphe Sunday, Nov. 11, 2018 in Paris. (Associated Press).

President Trump joined French leader Emmanuel Macron on Sunday as nearly 70 world leaders gathered in Paris to mark 100 years since the end of World War I.
Trump was accompanied by first lady Melania Trump at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier at the base of the Arc de Triomphe. The president also was to attend a leaders' lunch hosted by Macron.
Afterward, Trump planned to visit and deliver Veterans Day remarks at the Suresnes American Cemetery and Memorial outside Paris where more than 1,500 Americans who died during the war are buried.
Rain on Saturday forced the cancellation of Trump's helicopter trip to a different American cemetery in France.
France, the epicenter of the first global conflict, was hosting the main international commemoration, pressing home the point that the world mustn't stumble into war again, as it did so quickly and catastrophically with World War II.
The world leaders were scheduled to gather at precisely 11 a.m. Paris time, the moment of the cease-fire -- but apparently arrived a bit late, the Associated Press reported.

A cemetery employee walks between graves of American service members killed during  World War I at the American Cemetery in Suresnes, on the outskirts of Paris, Nov. 9, 2018.  (Associated Press)

On the other side of the globe, the first countries and territories to see the dawn kicked off the commemorations, pushing for peace with the simple act of recalling how the 1914-1918 war killed and wounded soldiers and civilians in unprecedented numbers and in gruesome new, mechanized ways.
Australia and New Zealand lost tens of thousands of people on foreign fields far away in Europe and, most memorably in the brutal 1915 battle of Gallipoli in Turkey. Both commemorated their dead Sunday.
In Paris, the jewel that Germany sought to capture in 1914 but which the Allies fought successfully to defend, commemorations were centered around the Arc de Triomphe, where the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier represents the sacrifice of all those who gave their lives.

Illegal immigrant killed 3 after 'sanctuary' release from custody, ICE says

Luis Rodrigo Perez, 23, a Mexican national, is accused of killing three people in Missouri, authorities say. (Associated Press)

 

 

 

 

Thank You Democrats!

An illegal immigrant accused of a triple murder in Missouri was previously jailed and released in New Jersey on domestic violence charges, authorities said, putting the spotlight on the conflict between local and immigration authorities nationwide.
Luis Rodrigo Perez, 23, a native of Mexico, is charged with fatally shooting two men and wounding two others on Nov. 1 and fatally shooting a woman the next day.
He was being held on domestic violence charges at the Middlesex County Jail in New Jersey in December 2017 and was released in February, NJ.com reported.
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officials said they placed a detainer on Perez while he was in custody, but the request was not honored nor was the agency notified when he was let go, said Corey Price, acting executive director of ICE.
“Yet again, an ICE detainer was ignored and a dangerous criminal alien was released to the streets and is now charged with killing three people,” Price said. “Had ICE’s detainer request in December 2017 been honored by Middlesex County Jail, Luis Rodrigo Perez would have been placed in deportation proceedings and likely sent home to his country – and three innocent people might be alive today.
"It is past time that localities realize the perils of dangerous sanctuary policies and resume their primary goal of protecting their residents," Price added.

“Yet again, an ICE detainer was ignored and a dangerous criminal alien was released to the streets and is now charged with killing three people.”
— Corey Price, acting executive director, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE)

In an email to the Associated Press, Middlesex County officials said the detainer wasn't honored because it didn’t meet the necessary criteria.
“This order would have authorized Middlesex County to turn over custody of Mr. Perez prior to, or upon completion of his sentence,” they wrote. “Instead ICE officials chose to do nothing, which places all responsibility of Mr. Perez’s actions squarely upon ICE.”
The county said it adopted a policy last year of honoring detainer requests from ICE if the inmate has convictions for first- or second-degree offenses or is ordered deported by a federal judge.

"It is past time that localities realize the perils of dangerous sanctuary policies and resume their primary goal of protecting their residents."
— Corey Price, acting executive director, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE)

During Perez’s stint in jail, ICE never requested an order of deportation against Perez, county officials wrote.
Missouri law enforcement officials believe Perez and Aaron Anderson, 19, killed their ex-roommates Steven Marler, 38, and Aaron Hampton, 23, after they were kicked out of their Springfield home.
ILLEGAL IMMIGRANT ICE WANTED DEPORTED IS NOW CHARGED IN WIFE'S STABBING DEATH
Perez is also accused of killing a 21-year-old Sabrina Starr the next day at her house. He is charged with eight felony counts in the shootings.
Anderson told investigators he was waiting with Starr in an SUV outside Hampton and Marler’s home when Perez shot them, adding that he could hear the victims begging for their lives while on the phone with Perez.
He was charged as an accomplice to first-degree murder and three other felonies.
Perez’s girlfriend, Dalia Garcia, 23, is charged with tampering with evidence after she allegedly rode a bus from New Jersey to help burn evidence.

Dalia Garcia, 23, is charged with tampering with evidence in connection with three deaths in Missouri, authorities say. (Greene County, Mo., Jail)

President Trump has consistently bashed municipalities that refuse to cooperate with immigration authorities. The U.S. Border Patrol officials said Friday that its agents detained more than 50,000 people crossing the U.S.-Mexico border in October.
The news came on the same day Trump issued an executive order declaring that anyone entering the U.S. illegally from Mexico outside of established ports would be ineligible for asylum.

Florida's secretary of state orders recounts in Senate, gubernatorial races; Trump 'watching closely' Last Update 3 hours ago

Florida’s secretary of state announced Saturday that there will be recounts in the Senate and gubernatorial races after the races became tight enough to trigger them -- amid controversy over the handling of the counts, with President Trump warning that he will be "watching closely."
Secretary Ken Detzner issued the order after the unofficial results in both races fell within the margin that by law triggers a recount. The results of the machine recount will be due by 3 p.m. ET this coming Thursday. The votes in the Senate race between Democratic Sen. Bill Nelson and Republican Gov. Rick Scott, and the gubernatorial race between Republican Rep. Ron DeSantis and Democratic mayor of Tallahassee Andrew Gillum, will be recounted. There will also be a recount for the race for agriculture commissioner.
Election officials in Miami-Dade County said they launched a "machine recount" Saturday evening, meaning they were loading paper ballots into scanning machines. The processing of some 800,000 ballots could take several days, the Associated Press reported.
Earlier Saturday, 266 stray ballots from a mail sorting facility in Opa-locka arrived at Miami-Dade's Elections Department, a spokeswoman for the department told the Miami Herald on Saturday evening. But the Opa-locka ballots won't be counted because Florida law says that mail-in ballots can be counted only if they arrive by the time that polls close on Election Day, the newspaper reported.
Miami-Dade had received some 15,000 mail ballots Tuesday while conventional voters were at the polls, the report said.
On Saturday morning, a group of protesters outside the Miami-Dade agency's offices demanded that all ballots be counted, regardless of when they were received, the Herald reported.
In Florida, a mandatory recount occurs if the winning candidate’s margin is less than 0.5 percent. If the margin is less than 0.25 percent, the recount must be done by hand.
NEWT GINGRICH: AS DEMOCRATS TRY TO STEAL ELECTIONS, THEIR DISHONESTY THREATENS THE VERY FABRIC OF OUR COUNTRY
Both Scott and DeSantis led their races after the midterms on Tuesday, with Gillum conceding to DeSantis. But as the days went on, and more votes were counted, those leads have all but disappeared.
Scott’s lead by Saturday afternoon was reduced to 0.15 percent and DeSantis’ was 0.41 percent.
The shrinking leads quickly led to suspicions from Republicans that foul play was afoot in Democratic strongholds of Broward and Palm Beach counties. Democrats, meanwhile, have accused Republicans of trying to stop all votes from being counted. President Trump on Saturday told reporters that “they are finding votes out of nowhere.”
"What's going on in Florida is a disgrace," he said.
He reacted within moments to the announcement of the recounts by accusing Democrats of "trying to steal two big elections in Florida!"
"We are watching closely!" he added.
Scott had asked the Florida Department of Law Enforcement to investigate the counties’ election departments, but a spokeswoman told the Associated Press there would be no investigation as there was no credible allegation of fraud.
Gillum welcomed the recount in a news conference on Saturday.
"I am replacing my words of concessions with an uncompromising and unapologetic call that we count every single vote," he told reporters. He also called for calm, and said he was prepared to accept "whatever the outcome of this election so far as every single vote...is counted."
Scott took to Twitter on Saturday evening, revealing that "7,500 volunteer recount representatives" were at the ready in Florida.
"Reps will be deployed all over FL to make sure any potential issues are reported so they can be quickly reviewed and resolved," he tweeted. "We won't allow unethical liberals to steal this election!"
In a sign of the turmoil that could ensue, protesters gathered outside the Broward elections office ahead of the announcement. Broward in particular has long been the source of election controversies. In 2016, Republican poll watchers complained that staff was opening absentee ballots in private, thereby making it impossible for groups to question whether ballots were cast, according to Politico. The GOP sued in 2017 to make sure Election Supervisor Brenda Snipes followed the law.
BALLOT MIXUP PUTS MORE HEAT ON BROWARD ELECTIONS OFFICIAL AS KEY FLORIDA RACES REMAIN UNRESOLVED
On Friday, the Miami Herald reported that there were invalid ballots mixed in with about 200 valid ones, but not solution was immediately found for the problem.
The announcement was likely to bring back memories for Floridians of the tempestuous 2000 presidential election, where a chaotic recount decided the result of the election -- with Republican George W. Bush eventually nudging out Democratic candidate Al Gore.

Crooked Democrats Stealing Midterm Election Cartoons

Democrats in Florida.

The Grinch ?

Top of the Line Democrat :-)

 Democrats are upset because Jeff Sessions lost his job, what the hell's up with that?

To late for this, the dumb ass democrats took over the house.

Democrat governor mulling 2020 presidential run grants clemency to criminals

Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper granted 23 people clemency, reports said Friday.  (Gov. John Hickenlooper via Facebook)

Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper issued pardons to 23 people with criminal records on Friday, bringing his total while in office to 89, according to reports.
The Democrat's pardon letters were granted to people who finished their sentences and became "contributing members of their communities," the governor's office announced, according to the Denver Post.
Hundreds of people have applied for a pardon from the governor, the report said.
Hickenlooper, 66, has been Colorado's governor since January 2011. He will be leaving office in January because state term limits prevented him from seeking a third term.
Another Democrat -- Jared Polis, 43, who was elected Tuesday and will be the state's first openly gay governor -- will succeed Hickenlooper.
The governor's review of petitions for clemency takes into consideration input from various sources, including crime victims, victim advocates, judges and prosecutors, Denver's Fox 31 reported.
Drugs, theft and fraud were the most common criminal offenses among the people pardoned Friday, the Post reported.
“The chance of getting a pardon largely depends on individual circumstances,” criminal defense attorney H. Michael Steinberg of Greenwood Village writes on his website. “The older and less serious the conviction, and the more compelling the life story is, the higher the chance of getting a pardon.”
Hickenlooper has said he plans to review about 475 clemency petitions before he leaves office, according to Fox 31.
The pardons allow those convicted of felonies to apply to restore their right to possess firearms, the paper reported.
In October, while he was at a New Hampshire cafe, Hickenlooper said he was "leaning strongly" toward a presidential run.
“To be honest, I haven’t made the final decision. And if I say I’m absolutely going to, there are all kind of legal ramifications,” Hickenlooper said.
So far, he’s already traveled to Iowa and started a political action committee, according to media reports.

Arizona Senate vote count settlement reached; counties given extension to cure ballots

Republicans and Democrats in Arizona reached an agreement in court Friday that gives all counties in the state until this coming Wednesday to address problems with ballots, as vote tallying for the state's tight Senate race continues.
As of 8:15 p.m. ET Friday, Democratic candidate Kyrsten Sinema led Republican candidate Martha McSally by roughly 20,000 votes statewide, according to the Arizona Secretary of State's Office. Sinema has received 991,189 votes and McSally 970,986, the office said.
As the ballot count continued, Sinema for Arizona campaign manager Andrew Piatt issued a statement saying: “Once again, today’s data confirmed our expectation that as the ballots are counted, Kyrsten will steadily build her advantage and be elected to the U.S. Senate. Nine counties reported today - five of which are counties where McSally is favored and where she needed to perform very well in order to regain even a narrow path to victory. That didn’t happen and since election night, Kyrsten netted 38,258 votes and now is leading by 20,203 votes - or 1 percent. She will win this race.”
The settlement comes after Republicans filed a lawsuit Wednesday in a bid to prevent Maricopa and Pima counties – the two biggest counties in the state – from using procedures that permit mail-in ballot fixes to occur beyond Election Day, arguing that the practice was improper.
Four local Republican parties filed the lawsuit.
FLORIDA AT CENTER OF EXPLOSIVE POST-ELECTION FIGHT, AS NEW ARIZONA SENATE TALLY GIVES EDGE TO DEM
If the signature on the voter registration doesn't match that on the sealed envelope, both Maricopa and Pima County allow voters to help them fix, or "cure" it, up to five days after Election Day.
Many other counties allow voters to cure only until polls close on Election Day.
However, now all counties may cure ballots until Wednesday.
Roughly 272,000 votes remained uncounted, the Arizona Secretary of State's Office reported Friday.
JUDGE SIDES WITH FLORIDA’S RICK SCOTT, CITES ‘VIOLATION’ OF STATE CONSTITUTION BY ELECTION OFFICIALS
“We know there's urgency out there, but we want to get it right, not quick,” Maricopa County Recorder Adrian Fontes said, according to the Associated Press.
President Trump tweeted about the Arizona election ahead of Friday’s settlement.
“Just out — in Arizona, SIGNATURES DON’T MATCH. Electoral corruption - Call for a new Election? We must protect our Democracy!”
The agreement would affect only a few thousand votes, the AP reported.