✈️The Plane Truth Edition✈️

Emoluments Shmoluments

Today we’ve got enough cartoons about Trump’s sketchy and unconstitutional plan to accept a luxury plane from Qatar to fill a carry-on bag.

By Rob Rogers (Andrews McMeel)

By Matt Wuerker (Andrews McMeel)

By Nick Anderson (Substack)

By Matt Davies (Andrews McMeel)

By Chris Britt (Creators Syndicate)

By Pedro Molina (Counterpoint Media)

On a related note, Michael Ramirez (Creators Syndicate) offers his take on the vintage technology entrusted to the air traffic controllers responsible for our lives.

Welcome aboard Newark Liberty International, where the terminal is shiny, the lines are long, and the air traffic control system is powered by floppy disks and parts scavenged from eBay. Yes, you read that right — while travelers enjoy $2 billion in polished terrazzo floors and artisanal coffee kiosks, the people guiding 300-ton flying metal tubes overhead are relying on 1980s tech that wouldn’t even impress a Commodore 64.

And Matt Davies (Andrews McMeel) shares his perspective on the corresponding delays plaguing Newark Airport.

Moving on to other pressing topics, the nation’s cartoonists are concerned about our health care system, and they have a plan, or at least “concepts of a plan.”

By Clay Bennett (Counterpoint Media)

By Tim Campbell (Counterpoint Media)

By Dana Summers (Tribune Content Agency)

By the way, If you want to learn more about the terrifying system some of our air traffic controllers are using, read this article in NJ.com. In a nutshell, on April 28, this outdated system finally blinked — literally — causing a 90-second blackout between pilots and controllers. That may not sound long unless you’re, say, one of the 20 aircraft lining up to land with only a prayer and a radar ping to go on. Newark spiraled into chaos, flights were canceled, passengers fumed, and five controllers went on trauma leave.

Why? Because for the past 25 years, the FAA and Congress have treated critical tech upgrades as optional. We’ve poured billions into airports looking pretty while ignoring the fact that your uncle’s basement flight simulator probably has better software.

To fix it, the Trump administration has now pledged a bold new program to modernize air traffic systems — presumably sometime after Trump accepts (or denies accepting) that gift jet from Qatar. Meanwhile, air traffic controllers are still swapping slips of paper like it’s 1947 and crossing their fingers that copper wires don’t rust.

Congress is now scrambling to act shocked and allocate funds — again — to stop the flying Jenga tower that is U.S. aviation from toppling. But experts warn that unless we stop duct-taping together Cold War radar systems with garage-sale spare parts, the next tech failure may not be just a delay — it might be a disaster.

So next time you're flying through Newark, remember: your pilot’s cool, your plane is new, and the entire system keeping you airborne might be held together by a RadioShack bargain bin.