President Donald Trump on Thursday accused half a dozen Democratic lawmakers of sedition “punishable by DEATH” after the lawmakers — all veterans of the armed services and intelligence community — called on U.S. military members to uphold the Constitution and defy “illegal orders.”

The 90-second video was first posted early Tuesday from Sen. Elissa Slotkin’s X account. In it, the six lawmakers — Slotkin, Arizona Sen. Mark Kelly, and Reps. Jason Crow, Chris Deluzio, Maggie Goodlander and Chrissy Houlahan — speak directly to U.S. service members, whom Slotkin acknowledges are “under enormous stress and pressure right now.”

“The American people need you to stand up for our laws and our Constitution,” Slotkin wrote in the X post.

Trump on Thursday reposted messages from others about the video, amplifying it with his own words. It marked another flashpoint in the political rhetoric that at times has been thematic in his administrations, as well as among some in his MAGA base. Some Democrats accused him of acting like a king and trying to distract from soon-to-be-released files about disgraced financier and sexual abuser Jeffrey Epstein.

What Democrats said in the video

With pieces of dialogue spliced together from different members, the lawmakers introduce themselves and their background. They go on to say the Trump administration “is pitting our uniformed military against American citizens. They call for service members to “refuse illegal orders” and “stand up for our laws.”

The lawmakers conclude the video by encouraging service members, “Don’t give up the ship,” a War of 1812-era phrase attributed to a U.S. Navy captain’s dying command to his crew.

Although the lawmakers didn’t mention specific circumstances in the video, its release comes as the Trump administration continues attempts at deployment of National Guard troops into U.S. cities for various roles, although some have been pulled back, and others held up in court.

Are U.S. troops allowed to disobey orders?

Troops, especially uniformed commanders, have a specific obligation to reject an order that’s unlawful, if they make that determination.

However, while commanders have military lawyers on their staffs to consult with in helping make such a determination, rank-and-file troops who are tasked with carrying out those orders are rarely in a similar position.

Broad legal precedence holds that just following orders, colloquially known as the “Nuremberg defense” as it was used unsuccessfully by senior Nazi officials to justify their actions under Adolf Hitler, doesn’t absolve troops.

However, the U.S. military legal code, known as the Uniform Code of Military Justice or UCMJ, will punish troops for failing to follow an order should it turn out to be lawful. Troops can be criminally charged with Article 90 of the UCMJ, willfully disobeying a superior commissioned officer, and Article 92, failure to obey an order.

How Trump, others responded

On Thursday, Trump reposted to social media an article about the video, adding his own commentary that it was “really bad, and Dangerous to our Country.”

“SEDITIOUS BEHAVIOR FROM TRAITORS!!!” Trump went on. “LOCK THEM UP???” He also called for the lawmakers’ arrest and trial, adding in a separate post that it was “SEDITIOUS BEHAVIOR, punishable by DEATH.”

Democrats were swift to react to Trump’s words, with Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer warning in a floor speech that the president was “lighting a match in a country soaked with political gasoline.”

Speaker Mike Johnson said he did not believe Trump was calling for violence in the social media posts, saying Trump was merely “defining a crime,” and calling the Democrats’ video “wildly inappropriate.”

“Think of the threat that is to our national security and what it means for our institution,” Johnson added.

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Trump’s allies balked at the video. Wednesday on Fox News, White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller called the messaging “insurrection — plainly, directly, without question” and said it represented “a general call for rebellion from the CIA and the armed services of the United States, by Democrat lawmakers.”

On X, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth on X commented on the video Tuesday as “Stage 4 TDS,” referring to “Trump Derangement Syndrome” — a term used by Trump to describe voters so angry and opposed to him that they are incapable of seeing any good in what he does.

The Steady State, which describes itself as “a network of 300+ national and homeland security experts standing for strong and principled policy, rule of law, and democracy,” wrote in a Substack post on Thursday that the lawmakers’ call was “only a restatement of what every officer and enlisted servicemember already knows: illegal orders can and should be refused. This is not a political opinion. It is doctrine.”

Pentagon spokesperson Sean Parnell challenged the theory that illegal orders were being issued.

“Our military follows orders, and our civilians give legal orders,” Parnell told The Associated Press on Thursday. “We love the Constitution. These politicians are out of their minds.”

Associated Press writers Kevin Freking, Stephen Groves and Konstantin Toropin contributed to this report.

Meg Kinnard can be reached at http://x.com/MegKinnardAP

https://www.chicagotribune.com/2025/11/20/trump-video-seditious/ 

The Transportation Security Administration is moving forward with a new rule under which airplane passengers who do not have a REAL ID or a passport could face an $18 fee.

Travelers who are passing through security with the required identification will have their identity checks with a new kiosk system, with the fee being used to compensate for the cost of the new system.

The new system will be a biometric kiosk that TSA describes as a” modernized alternative identity verification program,” allowing passengers to access TSA checkpoints for up to 10 days after paying the $18 non-refundable fee.

The agency said that this change is meant to streamline the process to get through airport security, replacing the current system. TSA said the use of the kiosk does not guarantee “an individual’s identity will be verified or that the individual will be provided access to the sterile area of the airport.”

It is not clear when the new kiosk will be implemented at airport security checkpoints.

The new rule was to be published in the Federal Register on Thursday, with the proposed change then entering a public comment period.

REAL ID enforcement officially kicked off in May after the REAL ID Act became law 20 years ago. REAL ID requirements arose from a recommendation from the 9/11 Commission and set minimum security standards for state-issued driver’s licenses and identification cards.

Those standards apply to those boarding a commercial flight in the U.S.

Enforcement of REAL ID was initially originally scheduled to take place 13 years ago, but has been delayed multiple times. The final delay was granted in late 2022 to allow states additional time to issue REAL IDs in the wake of the pandemic.

In a statement to ABC News, a TSA spokesperson said, “This notice serves as a next step in the process in REAL ID compliance, which was signed into law more than 20 years ago and finally implemented by Secretary Noem as of May 2025. TSA is working with stakeholders and partners to ensure both security and efficiency at our checkpoints. Additional guidance will be announced in the coming days.”

https://www.chicagotribune.com/2025/11/20/tsa-fee-real-id/ 

WASHINGTON — An unlikely mix of Republicans and Democrats came together Thursday to pay tribute to former Vice President Dick Cheney, who helped shape the nation’s aggressive response to terrorism after Sept. 11, 2001, and transformed his office into a powerful platform to drive policy.

Led by former President George W. Bush, the mourners who gathered in the grand and cavernous Washington National Cathedral included an array of veterans of their administration as well as a number of Democrats who once despised Cheney but came to admire him late in life for his outspoken opposition to President Donald Trump.

In a sign of how much politics has changed in recent years, Trump and Vice President JD Vance, the stewards of the current Republican administration, were not invited, but Rachel Maddow, the liberal television host who used to skewer Cheney for his support of the Iraq War, was on hand as a guest of the family.

Others in attendance included former President Joe Biden and his wife, Jill Biden, and former Vice Presidents Kamala Harris, Mike Pence, Al Gore and Dan Quayle. A number of lawmakers from different parts of the political spectrum showed up as well, including former Speakers John Boehner, a reliable Republican ally of the Bush-Cheney White House, and Nancy Pelosi, one of its staunchest Democratic opponents.

A clutch of Republican senators attended, including John Thune of South Dakota, Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, Lindsey Graham of South Carolina and John Barrasso of Wyoming, as did a number of Democrats who served with his daughter, former Rep. Liz Cheney, on the House committee that investigated the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol, including Sen. Adam Schiff of California and Rep. Jamie Raskin of Maryland.

Dick Cheney, who died earlier this month at 84, was in his time a hero to Republicans for his tough-minded approach to national security and a villain to many Democrats who thought he went too far. But his decision to join Liz Cheney in speaking out against Trump when many other Republicans of his stature did not left him isolated from his own party and reexamined by some of his most vocal critics.

Trump ordered flags to be lowered to half-staff after Cheney’s death, as required by law, but issued no statement and has refrained from commenting publicly. Vance offered words during a Breitbart event Thursday. “My condolences go to Dick Cheney and his family,” Vance said, adding that “obviously there’s some political disagreements there.” But Vance said Cheney “served his country” and he was wishing his family “all the best.”

In a tribute at the cathedral, Bush praised his partner in power for his unstinting devotion to country. “This was a vice president totally devoted to protecting the United States and its interests,” he said. “There was never any agenda or angle beyond that. You did not know Dick Cheney unless you understood his greatest concerns and ambitions were for his country.”

None of the speakers mentioned the absent Trump explicitly but in her tribute, Cheney’s daughter alluded to his decision to break with the Republicans. “He knew the bonds of party must always yield to the single bond we share as Americans,” she said. “For him a choice between defense of the Constitution and defense of your political party was no choice at all.”

Cheney’s passing prompted mixed feelings among many. Some of those in the cathedral said they never would have imagined honoring Cheney but appreciated what they considered his principled stance on Trump. Some liberals in recent days, however, have said that they do not mourn the former vice president. Regardless of his position on the current president, they still hold Cheney responsible for death and destruction in the Middle East, the torture of detained terrorism suspects and the expansion of executive authority that some say led to Trump’s even more aggressive assertions of power.

In addition to Bush and Liz Cheney, three of the former vice president’s grandchildren offered tributes at the cathedral. Also addressing the service was Dr. Jonathan Reiner, Cheney’s longtime cardiologist, and Pete Williams, who worked for Cheney in Congress and at the Pentagon before becoming a correspondent at NBC.

Former Presidents Bill Clinton and Barack Obama did not attend, although both released respectful statements after Cheney’s death praising his service and patriotism.

Cheney was a towering figure of his time. At 34, he became the youngest White House chief of staff in U.S. history, helping President Gerald Ford steer the country out of the debacles of Vietnam and Watergate in the 1970s. Representing his home state of Wyoming as a member of the House in the 1980s, he vaulted into leadership. As defense secretary for President George H.W. Bush, he oversaw the successful prosecution of two wars: one ousting the drug-running leader of Panama and the other evicting Iraqi invaders from Kuwait.

But it was during his time as the second-in-command to the younger Bush from 2001 to 2009 that he made his most indelible mark on history. Through force of will and mastery of Washington’s curious ways, Cheney turned a second-tier office into a first-tier platform to drive policy at home and abroad.

He was often described as the real mastermind of the administration, an assertion that nettled Bush. But insiders said the puppeteer image was overblown and noted that the two in fact drifted apart on many issues by the end of their time in office.

Cheney overcame five heart attacks and had a heart transplant before writing a book with Reiner about his medical odyssey. Unlike other Republicans who went into opposition against Trump, Cheney remained a staunch conservative through the end of his life but viewed Trump as a betrayal of those values. He saw Trump as a buffoonish figure in a serious job and a danger to the constitutional order, particularly after his effort to overturn the 2020 election by spreading lies about vote fraud.

His daughter, who also represented Wyoming in the House, became perhaps Trump’s most prominent Republican critic after the Jan. 6 attack, and helped lead the resulting House investigation. After she disclosed last year that she would vote for Harris, her father followed suit.

“In our nation’s 248-year history, there has never been an individual who is a greater threat to our republic than Donald Trump,” Dick Cheney said. Citing Trump’s “lies and violence,” he said the former president could “never be trusted with power again.”

He added: “We have a duty to put country above partisanship to defend our Constitution. That is why I will be casting my vote for Vice President Kamala Harris.”

Trump fired back on social media, calling Cheney “an irrelevant RINO,” meaning Republican in Name Only. “He’s the King of Endless, Nonsensical Wars, wasting Lives and Trillions of Dollars, just like Comrade Kamala Harris,” Trump said then.

In addition to Liz Cheney, Cheney is survived by his wife, Lynne Cheney, and daughter, Mary Cheney. The family has not disclosed details about burial, but the former vice president wrote in his 2013 book with Reiner that when he came close to death in 2010, he instructed his relatives to have his body cremated and the ashes returned to Wyoming.

He said he did not fear death. “I was pain free and at peace,” he wrote, “and I had led a remarkable life.”

This article originally appeared in The New York Times.

https://www.chicagotribune.com/2025/11/20/dick-cheney/ 

Associated Press

BOSTON (AP) — El receptor Connor Wong y los Medias Rojas de Boston acordaron el jueves un contrato de un año por 1.375.000, un día antes de la fecha límite para que los equipos ofrezcan contratos para 2026 a jugadores no firmados en sus listas de 40 hombres.

Wong puede ganar 75.000 adicionales en bonos por rendimiento basados en apariciones al bate: 25.000 cada uno por 250, 300 y 350 apariciones.

Wong, de 29 años, quien ha hecho apariciones ocasionales en primera, segunda, tercera base y en los jardines, bateó para .190 con ocho dobles y siete carreras impulsadas en 63 juegos la temporada pasada, que incluyeron 52 como receptor titular.

Obtenido de los Dodgers de Los Ángeles, Wong tiene un promedio de carrera de .245 con 23 jonrones y 103 carreras impulsadas en 348 juegos a lo largo de cinco temporadas en las Grandes Ligas. Estaba en camino de ser elegible para el arbitraje salarial por primera vez si se le ofrecía un contrato.

___

Deportes en español AP: https://apnews.com/hub/deportes

https://www.chicagotribune.com/2025/11/20/connor-wong-y-los-medias-rojas-de-boston-acuerdan-contrato-de-uno-ao-por-1-375-000-dlares/ 

BitMine Sits On $3.7B Loss As DAT ‘Hotel California’ Meets BlackRock’s Staked ETH ETF

Tyler Durden
Thu, 11/20/2025 – 13:20

https://www.zerohedge.com/crypto/bitmine-sits-37b-loss-dat-hotel-california-meets-blackrocks-staked-eth-etf 

A week and a day after former Riverdale Mayor Lawrence Jackson’s Nov. 12 conviction on federal perjury and obstruction of justice charges, the Riverdale Village Board voted Thursday morning to appoint Trustee Cassandra Riley-Pinkney as acting mayor.

Under Illinois law, anyone who has been convicted of a felony becomes immediately ineligible to serve in public office, with their position automatically vacated.

“We wanted the transition of power to be as seamless as possible,” Riley-Pinkney said after being sworn in. “Since the day of the mayor’s verdict, the trustees have been working tirelessly tending to the business of Riverdale.”

Jackson was elected to a fourth term in April after fending off two primary challengers. As there were more than two years remaining in his term at the time of his conviction, Riley-Pinkney will serve as mayor until the next regularly scheduled municipal general election in April 2027.

Riley-Pinkney said she has been on the Village Board for 10 years.

“I am asking that we stop and turn down the volume of criticism,” Riley-Pinkney said. “We need to unite and work together. Let us use this day as a new beginning for our community.”

Riley-Pinkney appointed two new trustees, one to fill her own now-vacant seat and the other to fill a seat vacated by Trustee Erik LeVere in December 2024, when he ran successfully for election to a different seat.

The new trustees are Riverdale Public Library District Trustee Katherine Bourné and former Riverdale police Chief Willie Darkreid. Both trustee seats will also be up for special election in 2027.

The board also voted to sell Jackson the 2019 Chevrolet Tahoe he used while mayor. Village attorney Ryan Morton said Jackson offered the village $9,000 for the vehicle, described as a service vehicle with 180,000 miles, which was double the next highest quote received.

Resident Antoinette Horton, 90, was one of many residents who offered public comment following the appointments.

“Everyone in this room is complicit in what happened to us. We allowed this. We didn’t come out, we wouldn’t come to meetings,” Horton said. “Whatever went on, we’re complicit. This is our fault.”

Horton and others called for a forensic audit of the village’s finances.

“We need to know where we stand, where’s our money, where has it been,” Horton said. “We do know we don’t got any money. But where did our money go?”

The federal charges Jackson was convicted for last week stemmed from his 2021 deposition in a civil case that was brought against him while he was mayor, accusing him of corruptly using his position to benefit favored businesses. Those allegations were eventually found to have insufficient evidence behind them, but Jackson was indicted in 2023 for lying under oath in the case.

elewis@chicagotribune.com

https://www.chicagotribune.com/2025/11/20/riverdale-acting-mayor-former-mayor-selected/ 

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — A federal immigration crackdown based in North Carolina’s largest city that authorities said led to hundreds of arrests is now over, a local law enforcement agency said Thursday.

A news release from the sheriff’s office in Mecklenburg County, which includes Charlotte, said that federal officials have confirmed with Sheriff Garry McFadden that the U.S. Customs and Border Protection operation known as “ Charlotte’s Web,” has officially concluded. No border agent operations will occur on Thursday, the news release said.

The operation that began over the weekend is the latest phase of Republican President Donald Trump ’s aggressive mass deportation efforts that have sent the military and immigration agents into Democratic-run cities — from Chicago to Los Angeles.

Border Patrol is monitoring US drivers and detaining those with ‘suspicious’ travel patterns

A spokesperson for U.S. Customs and Border Protection didn’t immediately respond Thursday to an email seeking a response about the sheriff’s statement.

The push to carry out arrests in North Carolina expanded to areas around the state capital of Raleigh on Tuesday, spreading fear in at least one immigrant-heavy suburb.

Late Wednesday, Raleigh Mayor Janet Cowell said via the social platform X that “border patrol enforcement appears to have been suspended” in the city.

The number of arrests around Charlotte and beyond was about double the total announced by Homeland Security officials earlier this week. The department said in a statement that agencies “continue to target some of the most dangerous criminal illegal aliens.”

Their targets include people living in the U.S. without legal permission and those who allegedly have criminal records.

Federal officials have offered few details about those arrested. They’ve also remained quiet about the scope of the enforcement operations across North Carolina and where agents will show up next, keeping communities on edge. The crackdown in Charlotte has been met with pockets of resistance and protests.

Immigration officials have blanketed the country since January, pushing detention counts to all-time highs above 60,000. Big cities and small towns across the country are targeted daily amid higher-profile pushes in places such as Portland, Oregon, where more than 560 immigration arrests were made in October. Smaller bursts of enforcement have popped up elsewhere.

https://www.chicagotribune.com/2025/11/20/federal-immigration-crackdown-charlotte/ 

A federal appeals court has temporarily halted the release on bond of hundreds of immigrants whose arrests during Operation Midway Blitz are being challenged under a consent decree that limits so-called warrantless arrests that occur without a prior warrant or probable cause.

U.S. District Judge Jeffrey Cummings had allowed their release on a $1,500 bond and some form of monitoring, including electronic ankle monitors, pending the outcome of immigration proceedings. Most of those arrested were originally processed at the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility in west suburban Broadview, but have since been moved to jails around the country.

But the Trump administration has asked an appeals court to block the release Friday of some 450 Chicago-area immigration arrestees, arguing the judge made a “bevy of legal errors” that put public safety at risk and “cripple” immigration enforcement.

“The district court’s orders subject the government to burdensome, costly and intrusive mandates — including training, documentation and reporting requirements — and cripple the government’s renewed implementation of the nation’s immigration laws after years of non-enforcement,” the administration argued.

Just a day before the order was set to take effect, the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Thursday stayed Cummings’ order pending further review. It set arguments for Dec. 2.

The order comes nearly a week after the Trump administration released the names of 614 people whose Chicago-area immigration arrests may have violated the consent decree. The list provided criminal history information for only 16 that the government argued were a “high public safety risk.” About 40 others were listed has high risk without a detailed justification.

Controversial tactics by immigration agents had led to the arrests of thousands in the Chicago area during the administration’s “Operation Midway Blitz,” at times sweeping up people on the way to work, school and outside of courthouses.

In explaining his decision, Cummings read from a summary he and his law clerks compiled from more than 150 ongoing immigration petitions in federal court, where arrestees were challenging deportation. He said the circumstances of the arrests showed him that, by and large, Operation Midway Blitz was not targeting hardened criminals.

Of them, Cummings said, 54 people were arrested while at work, including 20 landscapers, four Uber or taxi drivers, and two street vendors. Another 20 were arrested while commuting to or from work, and nine were detained at a Home Depot or Menards, where they were presumably either seeking work or buying job supplies, the judge said.

https://www.chicagotribune.com/2025/11/20/federal-appeals-court-halts-release-detainees/