Nothing but the truth. Even if against me.

Nothing but the truth. Even if against me.

Thursday, April 3, 2025

"Brown" Innocents Deported. "White Jewish" Drug Dealers Pardoned. Trump's Crony Racist Rule

The criminals in Donald Dumb's inner circle get pardoned, while innocent people get deported. What more do you need to realize that the Moron-in-Chief has transformed the US into a cesspool of cronyism and racism, stinking of the "Jewish Exception".

For more, see: 

https://www.timesofisrael.com/more-than-a-dozen-jews-but-no-sheldon-silver-among-trumps-last-minute-pardons/

https://forward.com/schmooze/128570/marijuana-kingpin-lived-with-his-orthodox-parents/

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/11/26/us/politics/trump-pardon-braun.html

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Drug Dealer Granted Clemency By Trump Arrested For Allegedly Shoving 3-Year-Old
Pocharapon Neammanee
Wed, April 2, 2025

A convicted drug dealer who had his sentence commuted by President Donald Trump in 2021 was arrested again on Saturday after being accused of shoving a 3-year-old boy on Long Island, New York. The incident marks the man’s fourth arrest in all.

Jonathan Braun, 41, was charged with assault, endangering the welfare of a child and injuring a child under the age 7 after authorities say he punched an acquaintance in the face before shoving the man’s 3-year-old son to the ground, The New York Times reported, citing court documents. The boy sustained “a red mark on his back and substantial pain,” the documents said.

Donald Trump commuted the sentence of convicted drug dealer Jonathan Braun in 2021. Pool via AP

Court documents reviewed by HuffPost revealed that Braun’s legal troubles began in 2010, when federal prosecutors accused him of several drug-related offenses. He pleaded guilty in 2011 to importing marijuana and money laundering and was sentenced to 10 years in federal prison.

In the final hours of his first term, Trump granted Braun clemency after he had served five years in federal prison.

The White House did not provide an explanation for the sentence commutation. However, The New York Times reported that Braun used a family connection to the family of Jared Kushner, Trump’s son-in-law, to try to get his case on Trump’s desk.

The White House said in a statement at the time that “upon his release, Mr. Braun will seek employment to support his wife and children.”

Court records show that Braun was fined $20 million in February last year following a lawsuit by the Federal Trade Commission, which accused him of predatory lending practices.

The agency said his loan company would illegally withdraw money from customers’ accounts and sometimes physically threaten them with violence to pay.


“The evidence also shows that Mr. Braun not only personally participated in this illegal conduct, but did so gleefully, with little remorse,” the FTC wrote.

Months later, in August, Braun was charged with three counts of assault in New York’s Nassau County, The Associated Press reported at the time. In that case, Braun was accused of attacking his wife and her 75-year-old father at their home in Atlantic Beach.

Nassau County prosecutors also charged Braun with petit larceny the same month, accusing him of evading $160 worth of tolls by driving through E-Z Pass lanes in sports cars with no license plates, according to the outlet.

Braun continued to face more criminal allegations this year. In February, he was charged with forcible touching of intimate parts after a nanny who worked in his home accused him of sexual assault, according to The New York Times and court records reviewed by HuffPost. A month later, he was arrested after allegedly threatening a nurse with poles used to hold intravenous bags.

A lawyer representing Braun did not immediately respond when reached out by HuffPost. According to the Times, Braun has been released on bail.


The Billionaire Nazi South African Buffoon Absent from "Liberation Day" Ceremony



Elon Banished From Trump Tariffs Reveal After Poll Disaster
Julia Ornedo
Thu, April 3, 2025

President Donald Trump’s allies and officials came out in full force on “Liberation Day” to support his announcement of sweeping tariffs—but one key ally was notably missing.

DOGE chief Elon Musk was absent from the Rose Garden ceremony at the White House on Wednesday, just hours after his quest to elect a conservative Wisconsin Supreme Court justice fell short.

Before announcing the new tariffs, Trump thanked his cabinet officials and Republican lawmakers who were in the audience.

The front row was occupied by top Trump administration officials, including Vice President JD Vance, Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, and House Speaker Mike Johnson.

“Thank you all for being with us,” Trump told his allies. “We appreciate it.”

Holding up a massive chart, Trump announced a 10-percent baseline tariff on all imports—and even more “reciprocal” levies on 60 other countries that went as high as 49 percent. He claimed that the U.S. has been “looted, pillaged, raped, plundered” by other nations for decades.

Stocks tumbled in real time as Trump declared America’s liberation from getting “ripped off” by its trading partners, with indexes dropping 1 to 3 percent in after-hours trading.

As the president made his big announcement, Musk was over on X engaging with conservative influencers, including “Libs of TikTok.”

Wow

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) April 2, 2025

Just last week, the cost cutter-in-chief attended a Cabinet meeting—his second—alongside other Senate-confirmed members of the president’s inner circle of advisers.

But it looks like the tides have changed.

Trump has told his Cabinet that Musk will soon be exiting the White House, according to insiders who spoke to Politico Wednesday. The Daily Beast has also confirmed that the world’s richest man informed his friends he will soon depart from the administration.

It’s a massive shift from the White House’s earlier comments that Musk was “here to stay,” despite the time limit on his tenure as DOGE chief. Because Musk is designated as a special government employee he is limited to working only 130 days a year.

The reports follow Brad Schimel’s 10-point loss to Susan Crawford in the Wisconsin Supreme Court election on Tuesday. The conservative candidate suffered a humiliating defeat despite Musk’s dramatic intervention in the high-stakes race.

The billionaire funneled $20 million into Schimel’s bid through his political action committees, which even handed out money to Wisconsin voters in exchange for signing a petition opposing “activist” judges.

Musk at Green Bay, WI, town hall wearing a cheesehead hat. / Scott Olson/Getty Images.

Musk personally traveled to Green Bay over the weekend to rally votes for the conservative judge, telling supporters in Wisconsin that the Supreme Court election could “determine the fate of Western civilization.”

“I think it’s one of those things that may seem like it’s obviously important in the state of Wisconsin, but I think it could actually be important for the country as well, and maybe for the world,” Musk said on Sunday after he came out onstage donning a cheese hat.

Soon after the Democratic candidate was declared the winner, Musk switched gears and said he “expected to lose,” arguing that the “most important thing” to him was actually just passing an amendment to the Wisconsin constitution to require voter IDs.

It was a talking point Musk picked up from the president, who reportedly still has great trust in his billionaire buddy and the Department of Government Efficiency.

“This is a BIG WIN FOR REPUBLICANS, MAYBE THE BIGGEST WIN OF THE NIGHT,” Trump said of the voter ID amendment on Tuesday night. “IT SHOULD ALLOW US TO WIN WISCONSIN, LIKE I JUST DID IN THE PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION, FOR MANY YEARS TO COME!”


Tesla's Downfall in Europe: Retribution Against the Nazi White South African

On the surface, it's a "clash over workers' rights thats been quietly brewing for months",  but the reality is that European anger at the neo-Nazis running America these days is  driving a campaign of retribution targeting the Donald Dumb's Oligarch Gang where it hurts: their wallets.

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Sweden's $80B Giant Just Dumped Tesla -- Here's Why It Could Spark a Bigger Investor Revolt

Khac Phu Nguyen
Wed, April 2, 2025




Swedens largest insurer just dropped Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA). The reason? A clash over workers' rights thats been quietly brewing for months.

Folksam, managing more than $80 billion in assets, sold its $160 million stake after tryingtwiceto push Teslas leadership toward collective bargaining agreements for Swedish mechanics. No dice. Tesla, led by Elon Musk, insists its employee benefits are already competitive. But that wasnt enough for Folksam. No improvement has been seen, said Marcus Blomberg, the insurers head of asset management and sustainability. Translation: we tried engagement, it didnt work, were out.

This isnt just about one Scandinavian fund selling a fraction of a percent. Its a warning shot. In ESG-heavy markets like the Nordics, labor standards are non-negotiableand investors are willing to walk. If others follow Folksams lead, Tesla could face more pressure in Europe, not just from unions, but from capital looking for companies that match their values.

Local Elections in Illinois: A Harbinger of a Democratic Tsunami in 2026

While the Moron-in-Chief is waging an economic war on all countries, including allies of the US, but not against Russia or Cuba, his so-called "base" is disintegrating at galactic speed. The American people can be duped by Russian propaganda and Felon Musk's Nazi dollars that brought Donald Dumb to power, but once they see the demented asshole in action, they can tell a duck when they see one.

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Illinois GOP suffered major election losses in suburbs that are critical for its rebuilding effort
Rick Pearson, Chicago Tribune
Thu, April 3, 2025

CHICAGO — Two days before Tuesday’s local elections, the Illinois Republican Party sent out an email to supporters declaring it to be “a do or die moment for us.”

The email was just another in a series of fundraising solicitations. But it may have more accurately captured the importance of the election, which featured wide-ranging Democratic victories in the suburbs critical for rebuilding a state GOP already on the verge of irrelevance in Illinois politics and reflected voter angst over the early tumultuous months of Republican President Donald Trump’s second presidency.

There was a broad rejection of what Donald Trump and the Republican Party stands for, and Illinois Democrats had perhaps one of the best nights we’ve ever had,” Democratic Gov. JB Pritzker said on an unrelated press call Wednesday from Mexico, where he is leading a state trade mission. Statewide, the Illinois Democratic Party said it backed 280 candidates in Tuesday’s election and 222, or 79% of them, were victorious.

The governor attributed the results in Illinois to both organization among state Democrats and broader national pushback against Trump administration policies and government cuts being spearheaded by Trump-aligned billionaire Elon Musk.

The anger is felt in Illinois, as it is across the entire country, and that did play a role, there’s no doubt, in turnout and in the actual results,” he said of the government-cutting actions of Trump and Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency.

Two-term Aurora Mayor Richard Irvin, a Republican, was defeated by Democrat-backed John Laesch to lead the state’s second largest city. In Orland Park, two-term Mayor Keith Pekau, a supporter of far-right elements of the state GOP, was ousted by more moderate Republican Jim Dodge.

Both Irvin and Pekau, building off their past municipal election successes, had previously sought higher office — Irvin as a candidate for the GOP nomination for governor and Pekau seeking a congressional seat — only to be defeated in those bids before losing Tuesday.

But the real devastation came in dozens of township elections across the suburbs that saw Democrats flip power from Republicans, raising the question of whether the state GOP has fallen so low on the political depth chart that it will prevent any short-term rise to competitiveness in Illinois in a Trump 2.0 era.

Democratic victories in the eastern side of DuPage County tell much of the tale.

Addison Township — which includes suburbs such as Addison, Wood Dale, Bensenville and Itasca — once had one of the most powerful vote-getting operations in the region. Home to past U.S. Rep. Henry Hyde and former Illinois Senate President James “Pate” Philip, Addison Township was flipped from Republican to Democrat in Tuesday’s elections, including the ousting of GOP Supervisor Dennis Reboletti, a former state lawmaker, according to unofficial results. In neighboring York Township, home to former one-term Illinois House speaker and longtime GOP leader Lee Daniels of Elmhurst, the GOP lost the race for township supervisor and highway commissioner as well as trustees.

Further west in DuPage’s Milton Township, home to the county seat and the once-conservative bastion of Wheaton, voters swapped out the Republican leadership for Democrats.

These results mark a seismic shift in local politics. Several townships in DuPage County that had never before elected a Democrat will now be represented by Democratic leadership — a testament to the party’s deepening connection with voters and its commitment to delivering for working families,” DuPage County Democrats said in a statement.

The county’s Democratic chair, Reid McCollum, called the voting “a profound statement,” adding that he expects Democrats will win all 49 contested township races across the county.

The GOP also faltered in local Naperville races, where five candidates for the City Council and park board backed by DuPage GOP Chairman Kevin Coyne’s political action committee, Safe Suburbs USA, were headed toward defeat in unofficial returns. Instead, the council and park board candidates heading to victory were backed by Democratic U.S. Reps. Bill Foster and Lauren Underwood, both of Naperville.

Two mayors also backed by Coyne’s PAC, Aurora’s Irvin and Lisle Mayor Christopher Pecak, also were defeated.

Coyne said “it was obviously a very disappointing night” and that Republicans faced “a perfect storm” — trying to navigate campaigns in the era of Trump, Pritzker’s spending on Democratic infrastructure and the Democrats’ longtime advantage in delivering mail-in voting, which Trump has criticized and Republicans have been slow to adopt.

“We’re not going to give up. We’re going to continue to look at how we are doing things and work toward rebuilding,” Coyne said. “I think nights like Tuesday night are going to be every election cycle until we narrow that gap” on mail-in voting and get more Republicans registered to permanently receive mail-in ballots.

The Democratic wins weren’t limited to DuPage County. In Elk Grove Township, for example, Republicans weren’t challenged for supervisor, clerk or assessor, but four Democrats defeated the incumbent Republicans on the township board of supervisors.

James Marter, a former Kendall County GOP chairman, was defeated for reelection to the Oswego Public Library District and also lost a bid for the local school board. Marter, who has already announced a GOP bid against Underwood for 2026, has run unsuccessfully for Congress since 2018 and lost a GOP primary for U.S. Senate in 2016.

In Homer Glen in Will County, Village Board candidates backed by the Homer Township ReSet slate also were headed to victory. The ReSet slate defeated the more conservative GOP organization run by controversial Township Supervisor Steve Balich in February’s primary.

Aaron Del Mar, who won reelection as Palatine Township highway commissioner, said attitudes toward Trump and Musk and their efforts to dismantle government in searching for waste, were primary factors for Tuesday’s Democratic victories.

“Republicans on a national level are very happy correctly or incorrectly about the state of affairs that are happening. But the Democrats are incredibly upset. The Democrats came out because they’re so upset and they all came out voting,” Del Mar said. “Republicans sat at home. They’re like, ‘Yeah, we’re good. We’re tearing the government down.’ And so they didn’t come out. There was no incentive.”

Del Mar, who is eyeing a potential 2026 GOP bid for governor, said he was criticized by some fellow Republicans for fielding a township slate that included a Democratic trustee. He said he views the results as a “kind of vindication” for his actions, which kept Palatine Township in Republican control.

Pat Brady, a former state GOP chairman and Republican National Committee member who has opposed Trump’s takeover of the party, said he still believed there was an opportunity for a Republican to win statewide in Illinois if they were in the socially moderate, fiscally conservative mode of the late Treasurer Judy Baar Topinka and former U.S. Sen. Mark Kirk.

“But the Trump nonsense does not work in Illinois, certainly not statewide,” Brady said.

The guy at the top, he’s just out of control with tariffs, incorporating Greenland, everything. I think there’s a lot of insecurity and fear, quite honestly, about what this president’s going to do,” he said. “And that translates to how the Republican brand has been so diminished by him. I’m not sure if it can be fixed, but it can’t be by a Trumpian candidate based in Illinois.”

_______

(Chicago Tribune’s Dan Petrella, Jeremy Gorner and Olivia Olander, and the Naperville Sun’s Tess Kenny, contributed.)


Whad'Ya Know? Economic Experts Discover Donald Dumb's "Disaster of Idiocy"

Of all the nomers slapped on Donald Dumb by his somewhat more reasonable respected, yet rightwing, former close associates (Rex Tillerson's "moron", Jim Mattis's "mind of a fifth-grader", John Kelly's “an unhunged idiot”, Gary Cohn's “dumb as shit,” and H.R. McMaster's “dope,” etc.), I have always relied on the reliable and permanent "dumb" and "moron" qualifiers for the demented asshole that runs the White House nowadays.

Now economic experts, CEOs on Wall Street and other fellow billionaires who were originally salivating at Donald Dumb's impending 4-trillion dollar tax break for them and other oligarchs, are now shitting in their pants at the recession and market crash unleashed yesterday by Donald Dumb's "liberation day".
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Big Shot Investor Savagely Sums Up Donald Trump’s Tariffs In 3 Words
Ron Dicker
Thu, April 3, 2025


White House Bimbo Propagandist Karoline Leavitt defending Sugar Daddy Donald Dumb.

In one of the more colorful objections to President Donald Trump’s glut of tariffs on Wednesday, financial pundit Ross Gerber called it a “disaster of idiocy.” (Watch the video below.)

Gerber, the CEO of Gerber Kawasaki Wealth and Investment Management, made his worrisome comments on CNN’s “Laura Coates Live.”

Coates played a clip of Republican Sens. Rand Paul (Ky.) and John Kennedy (La.) expressing concern at Trump’s major escalation in his global trade war. His announcement of a 10% minimum tariff on all imports sent global markets tumbling. American consumers will likely feel the impact in higher costs for many items.

She turned to Gerber, who happens to be a major investor in Elon Musk’s Tesla, for his take. And while at times he seemed to search for a silver lining, the money wonk could only forecast gloom and doom.

“I don’t worry too much about tomorrow. I worry about the short, medium, and long term with these policies. So, tomorrow is just, you know, a little bit of appetizer for what could be horrendously worse because the U.S. markets are certainly not cheap by any standard, and we went from almost an ideal market environment over the last year or two to now complete and utter sort of destruction of the system of trade that we’ve had for a very long time, that has benefited America greatly with lower prices! That’s the whole reason that this is set up the way it is,” he said.

“But, you know, I was just thinking about it and I’ve studied this for over 30 years, and I want to try to, you know, reassure people that things are going to be OK,” Gerber added. “But, honestly, this is just a disaster of idiocy that I can’t even tell you beyond proportions.

Gerber: I want to try to, you know, reassure people that things are going to be okay. But honestly, this is just a disaster of idiocy that I can't even tell you beyond proportions. pic.twitter.com/0sQrFxCTPJ


Wednesday, April 2, 2025

Trump and Rubio Demand EU Keep Buying US Weapons but Won't Defend it

This is just pure American stupidity. Trump and his MAGA moron gang have made its hostility to Europe abundatly clear, calling EU countries as "freeloaders", wanting to "bill" them for US attacks in Yemen, VP Vance saying, “I just hate bailing Europe out again", to which the drunkard adulterer Secretary of Defense Hegseth responded, “I fully share your loathing of European free-loading".

Clearly, the US is withdrawing its engagement with Europe because the moron-in-chief in the white house wants to save a few pennies that he then wants to divert to himself and his billionaire oligarchs in the form of tax breaks for the rich.

The message in Europe has been well received and the unanimous (except for the backstabbing Hungarian dictator Orban) decision is to move forward with establishing a European defense that does not compute the US partnership in it. Hence, the Europeans are coordinating their weapons manufacturing capabilities to produce their own weapons and no longer buy US weapons.

But the dumb and ugly Americans think they can stab Europe in the back and STILL count on it to buy US weapons, and they have no qualms admitting it in public. The stupid nerve!

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US officials object to European push to buy weapons locally
Gram Slattery, John Irish and Daphne Psaledakis
Wed, April 2, 2025

By Gram Slattery, John Irish and Daphne Psaledakis

WASHINGTON/PARIS (Reuters) - U.S. officials have told European allies they want them to keep buying American-made arms, amid recent moves by the European Union to limit U.S. manufacturers' participation in weapons tenders, five sources familiar with the matter told Reuters.

The messages delivered by Washington in recent weeks come as the EU takes steps to boost Europe's weapons industry, while potentially limiting purchases of certain types of U.S. arms.

The Trump administration's early foreign policy steps, including briefly cutting military aid for Ukraine and easing pressure on Moscow, have deeply unnerved European allies, prompting many to ask if the United States is a reliable partner.

In mid-March, the European Commission, the EU's executive body, proposed boosting military spending and pooling resources on joint defense projects, as Europe girds for decreased U.S. military engagement under President Donald Trump.

Some of the proposed measures could mean a smaller role for non-EU companies, including those based in the U.S. and the United Kingdom, experts say.

In a March 25 meeting, Secretary of State Marco Rubio told the foreign ministers of Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia that the United States wants to continue participating in EU countries' defense procurements, the sources told Reuters.

According to two of the sources, Rubio said any exclusion of U.S. companies from European tenders would be seen negatively by Washington, which those two sources interpreted as a reference to the proposed EU rules.

One northern European diplomat, who was not part of the Baltic meeting, said they had also been recently told by U.S. officials that any exclusion from EU weapons procurements would be seen as inappropriate.

Rubio plans to discuss expectations that EU countries keep buying U.S. weapons during his visit to Brussels this week, where he will attend the NATO Foreign Ministers Meeting, said a senior State Department official.

"It's a point the secretary has raised and will continue to raise," the official said.

A State Department spokesperson said Trump welcomes recent efforts from European allies to "strengthen their defense capabilities and take responsibility for their own security," but warned against creating new barriers that exclude U.S. companies from European defense projects.

"Transatlantic defense industrial cooperation makes the Alliance stronger," the spokesperson said.

The foreign ministries of Latvia and Estonia did not respond to requests for comment. The foreign ministry of Lithuania declined to comment.

U.S. POLICY PULLS IN OPPOSITE DIRECTIONS

The U.S. concern about limits on arms purchases reflects a tension at the center of the Trump administration's Europe policy.

Trump has urged European allies to spend more on defense and take greater responsibility for their own security. As it does so, the EU is looking to bring manufacturing in-house in light of the U.S. president's suggestions that his commitment to NATO is not absolute.

That runs counter to another Trump administration goal, which is to open foreign markets to U.S. manufacturers.

The mid-March defense proposal by the European Commission, dubbed ReArm Europe, included a plan to borrow 150 billion euros ($162 billion) for loans to EU governments to spend on defense projects.

Many EU governments say they are in favor of a more pan-European approach to defense. But how it would work is likely to be the subject of fierce debate - over who should have the power to decide on joint projects, who should run them and how they should be funded.

While the Commission insists there are ways for companies outside the EU to compete for defense funds under the proposed plan, arms manufacturers outside the bloc would in practice face a number of practical and administrative hurdles.

The Trump administration - like previous administrations - has pushed for European purchases of U.S. weapons before, including at this year's Munich Security Conference. Some of the sources consider the recent messages from Washington as a continuation of U.S. policy.

Still, several sources said the U.S. emphasis on the matter has intensified in recent weeks as the EU has moved more decisively to decouple its weapons procurement.

"They are upset about ReArm proposal and that the U.S. is excluded," said one senior European source.

(Reporting by Gram Slattery and Daphne Psaledakis in Washington, John Irish in Paris; Additional reporting by Lili Bayer in Brussels; Editing by Don Durfee and Leslie Adler)


Yale Jewish Prof Flees US to Canada. Rejects Trump's fake Protection of Jews




Yale Professor Leaving U.S. Spots Exact Reason For Trump's 'Brutal' Attack On Universities
Ben Blanchet
Updated Tue, April 1, 2025

A Yale University professor leaving the U.S. for Canada revealed Monday why President Donald Trump is launching a “brutal attack on America’s freedoms” and its democratic institutions.

“The message is that they’re going to do a kind of stochastic terrorism against our country. They’re going to target people one by one so that those who are in fear will shut up, essentially,” said Jason Stanley, a philosophy professor and an expert in fascism, told MSNBC’s Ana Cabrera.

“And universities are filled with fear already,” he added. “They’re ceasing to make public statements. They’re not banding together. Right now they’re targeting noncitizens for, you know, writing in student newspapers.

He went on, “I’m sure, or I suspect, they’ll start pulling people’s passports, targeting U.S. citizens for various reasons, and exploiting Americans’ ignorance.”

Stanley told MSNBC that he’s taking a roughly 25% salary cut to leave the Ivy League university’s faculty for the University of Toronto in the fall.

He added that the move is mostly about the safety of his two children, who are Black and Jewish, along with his desire to send a “warning” to Americans that’s “consonant” with his work.

Stanley told Vanity Fair that he had received the offer from Toronto before Columbia University bent the knee to Trump’s funding threats ― fueled by accusations that the school was failing to protect Jewish students from antisemitism amid peaceful pro-Palestinian protests last year.

The school’s president caved to the Trump administration with a sea of policy changes, a move that Stanley likened to a hostage — with their kidnappers behind them— “declaring that they’ve seen the light.”

“This crackdown, Columbia’s capitulation to this, is a grave sign about the future of academic freedom,” Stanley told MSNBC.

Aside from schools caving to Trump, he turned to the cases of Columbia University graduate Mahmoud Khalil and Rumeysa Ozturk, a Turkish national working on her Ph.D. at Tufts University. Both had shown support for Palestinians before being detained and sent to an Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention center in Louisiana.

Stanley — who recently told The Guardian that his grandmother and father fled Berlin, the capital of Nazi Germany, in 1939 — slammed the Trump administration for using his religion to go after academic freedom and “crushing” universities in the name of “protecting” his people.

“I love America because it doesn’t have kings. I don’t love America because we can punch other people in the nose,” he told MSNBC.

US Servicemen Dead in Lithuania are ALL Hispanics-Latinos

Yet, Donald Trump's campaign to "purify" white America's blood is targeting Hispanics, Latinos and every other people of color.

His administration considers non-whites who join the army or go to university or take federal jobs to be DEI (Diversity, Equity and Inclusion) hires - people who are not qualified but who get hired because of the color of their skin. Same thing with women: In Trump's world they belong in the kitchen and should be making babies; those who rise through the ranks of the army, universities, corporations, etc. are unworthy, unqualified DEI hires.

Trump in fact never hid his deep hatred of army personnel and soldiers. He deems anyone who puts his/her life at risk for their country are "suckers and losers". He just doesn't understand the notion of sacrifice for a higher cause; he himself is a draft dodger who wouldn't waste his time and risk his life fighting in Vietnam. His wealthy father's connections gave Donny a waiver from serving because of mysterious bone spurs that normally affect elderly people, not 20 years old.

Trump's DOGE terrorist group goes around dismantling, among other federal agencies, the VA Administration and abandoning care for the hundreds of thousands of veteran soldiers. Trump's administration is erasing, banning, deleting anything that celebrates women, people of color and other minorities who served their country for fear they cast a shadow over white men who ought to remain the dominant group in this country, even as the country's demographics are slowly but inexorably creeping to make white anglo-saxon protestants a minority by 2050, still the largest minority to be sure, but a minority nonetheless.

As he wages war on non-whites in this country, deporting anyone that "looks" Arab or Hispanic or even German or British, the death of four US soliders training in Lithuania has exposed the facts that Trump prefers to keep under lid: They are all Hispanics.
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Last US soldier found dead after Lithuania training accident. 3 others identified
LOLITA C. BALDOR
Updated Wed, April 2, 2025

Lithuania Missing Soliders. This combination of images shows from left, Army Pfc. Dante D. Tatiana, 21, of Dededo, Guam, Sgt. Edwin F. Franco, 25, of Glendale, Calif., and Sgt. Jose Duenez, 25, of Joliet, Ill., three of the four soldiers who were killed in a training accident near Pabradė, Lithuania, in March 2025. (Department of Defense via AP)

WASHINGTON (AP) — The final U.S. soldier who went missing in Lithuania has been found dead, bringing to an end a massive weeklong search for the four service members whose armored vehicle was pulled from a swampy training area, the U.S. military said Tuesday.

The bodies of the three other soldiers were recovered Monday after U.S., Polish and Lithuanian armed forces and authorities dug the M88 Hercules vehicle out of a peat bog at the expansive Gen. Silvestras Žukauskas training ground in the town of Pabradė.

The Army released the identities of the three soldiers recovered Monday, but the fourth soldier's name has not been made public as family notifications continue. They were Sgt. Jose Duenez Jr., 25, of Joliet, Illinois; Sgt. Edvin F. Franco, 25, of Glendale, California; and Pfc. Dante D. Taitano, 21, of Dededo, Guam.

The soldiers, part of the 1st Armored Brigade Combat Team, 3rd Infantry Division, were on a tactical training exercise when they and their vehicle were reported missing a week ago, the Army said.

“This past week has been devastating. Today our hearts bear the weight of an unbearable pain with the loss of our final Dogface Soldier,” Maj. Gen. Christopher Norrie, 3rd Infantry Division commander, said in a statement Tuesday. “Though we have received some closure, the world is darker without them.”

Hundreds of Lithuanian and U.S. soldiers and rescuers took part in the search through the thick forests and swampy terrain around Pabradė, 6 miles (10 kilometers) west of the border with Belarus. The 63-ton (126,000-pound) armored vehicle was discovered March 26 submerged in 15 feet (4.5 meters) of water, but it took days to pull it out of the bog.

Lithuanian armed forces provided military helicopters, fixed-wing aircraft, unmanned aerial systems and search and rescue personnel. They brought in additional excavators, sluice and slurry pumps, other heavy construction equipment, technical experts and several hundred tons of gravel and earth to help the recovery.

Navy divers maneuvered through thick layers of mud, clay and sediment with zero visibility to reach the vehicle Sunday evening and attach steel cables so it could be pulled out. When just three of the four bodies were found, the divers began a search of the bog area for the fourth.

Gen. Christopher Donahue, commander of U.S. Army Europe and Africa, expressed gratitude to the U.S. allies who sent troops and equipment to help in the search and recovery.

“I can’t say enough about the support our Lithuanian Allies have provided us. We have leaned on them, and they, alongside our Polish and Estonian Allies — and our own Sailors, Airmen and experts from the Corps of Engineers — have enabled us to find and bring home our Soldiers," Donahue said in the statement. "This is a tragic event, but it reinforces what it means to have Allies and friends.”

According to the 3rd Infantry Division, Duenez was an M1 Abrams tank system maintainer and had served more than seven years in the Army. He deployed to Poland in 2021 and Germany in 2022, and he was currently serving in the 5th Squadron, 7th Cavalry Regiment.

“Sgt. Jose Duenez will always hold a special place in our hearts. As both a leader and a soldier, he set an example every day — always the first to arrive and the last to leave, greeting every challenge with a smile and a readiness to support anyone who required assistance,” said Capt. Madyson K. Wellens, a commander in his squadron.

Franco was also an M1 Abrams tank system maintainer who had been in the Army for more than six years. He deployed to Korea in 2020 and Germany in 2022.

Wellens said Franco's “infectious smile and genuine joy in being with his team were matched only by the tenacity and drive. He never asked more of his soldiers than he was willing to give himself — a true testament to his character."

Taitano was also an M1 Abrams tank system maintainer. He had been in the Army for nearly two years, and this was his first deployment.

Cpt. Matthew Lund, another 5th Squadron commander, said "Taitano will always be remembered as the spark of the team. He wore a smile on his face no matter the environment or task and constantly brought the team together with his charisma and laughter.”

Approximately 3,500 soldiers from the brigade deployed in January to locations across Poland and the Baltic states for a nine-month rotation as part of Operation Atlantic Resolve, which supports NATO allies and partners following Russia's invasion of Ukraine in 2022.

“This loss is simply devastating,” said Norrie, the 3rd Infantry Division commander. “We are wrapping our arms around the families and loved ones of our Soldiers" during this difficult time.

==================================================

Opinion

A tragedy and a scandal reveal Trump's low regard for the lives of soldiers
Lucian K. Truscott IV
Tue, April 1, 2025

It is one of the tragic truths of military life that oftentimes a soldier has to die before anyone notices where the soldiers are and what they’re doing there. This was the case last week in Lithuania when four soldiers from the First Armored Brigade of the Third Infantry Division went missing after their M88 armored recovery vehicle disappeared in what is described as a peat bog during a training exercise near the border with Belarus, a close ally of Russia.

The bodies of three of the four soldiers were recovered Monday after a week-long effort to pull the M88 from the swampy bog. The army has not announced their names, and efforts continue to find the body of the fourth soldier who remains missing. President Trump was asked during a press availability at the White House last week if he had been briefed on the disappearance of the soldiers in Lithuania. He replied that he had not, and the questioning from reporters moved on to other topics.

This is sadly typical of what happens when soldiers are lost in training accidents, which happen all the time. When soldiers aren't at war, they are training, and much of what they do is dangerous. The M88 is what amounts to a 140,000-pound armored tow truck, equipped to pull other armored vehicles such as M1A1 tanks and Bradley armored personnel carriers that have either broken down or somehow gotten stuck in mud or snow or in a ditch. The army hasn't announced what the mission was that the soldiers were on, other than to say they had been sent out to recover another vehicle that had broken down. It isn't clear yet what happened to send the M88 into the peat bog, but it is suspected that the vehicle was moving down a road and somehow slipped into the swampy waters of the bog. If I were to guess, I'd say the M88 was probably lost at night when visibility was poor, and the road through a dense forest was unmarked.

The thing about armored vehicles is that, protected by their thick armor, you feel safe until something goes wrong. Then, as apparently happened with the incident in Lithuania, when the vehicle gets trapped and sinks into the bog, the crew is unable to escape.

Here is what may have happened. The M88 and its crew were being held in reserve and were sent out on the recovery mission when news came in over the radio that another vehicle was in trouble. Using a powerful winch, the M88 recovery vehicle can pull something that weighs up to 140,000 pounds out of trouble or lift a vehicle weighing up to 35,000 pounds using its crane-like boom. The M88 typically has a crew of three: a vehicle commander, a driver and a third soldier to assist in extractions. The three bodies that were recovered were found inside the vehicle. It is not known what happened to the fourth body, but he was probably the vehicle commander and was standing in the commander’s cupola at the time the M88 slipped off the road into the bog and was able to jump free, only to get sucked into the bog along with the M88.

I don't know how long the Third Infantry Division has been in Lithuania, but I do know what they're doing over there. They are deterring Vladimir Putin from any thought he has that he and his puppet president of Belarus might decide to roll over the Baltic states and Poland when Russia gets through with Ukraine, as unlikely as any of that might seem at this point in the three-year war Ukraine has fought for its survival.

Soldiers go where they are ordered to go. They don’t have a voice in the politics of their mission or in the rationale behind it. As we learned recently from the exchange of views among Trump's national security team on the Signal app as they planned the attack on Yemen, there is little love among people like Vice President JD Vance and Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth for our European allies who find themselves on the front lines of what is rapidly becoming a new Cold War between the civilized world and Russia. Trump has made noises about pulling our military forces completely out of Europe and letting NATO and European Union states go it alone when it comes to defending themselves against any Russian aggression that might lie in their future.

But for right now, there are American soldiers and members of the Air Force stationed on European soil, with sailors in harm's way offshore in the Baltic, North and Red Seas. They didn't ask to be sent over there. They were ordered. Naval vessels and their sailors are being fired upon daily by Houthi rebels in Yemen. And though the soldiers of the Third Infantry Division are not engaged in combat in Lithuania, the job they are doing is not without danger, as we learned last week with the deaths of four soldiers.

Training accidents are a fact of life in the military. In the first Gulf War, more soldiers were killed or wounded in training accidents during the run-up to the war when they were in Saudi Arabia than were killed when they crossed the border into Kuwait and engaged the Iraqi army. Nearly everything soldiers do is dangerous. They carry deadly weapons. They shoot them in training. They ride around in heavy armored vehicles like tanks and armored personnel carriers and MRAP mine-resistant armored vehicles. If one of those things runs over you, you're dead. They are sometimes transported in combat helicopters like the Blackhawk, which have been involved in aerial accidents with each other and with ground obstacles. The Blackhawk that went down recently near Washington D.C. when it collided with a commercial airliner was operating in a training exercise.

Just as soldiers are killed in wars, they can also die in training for war.

We sit over here in our homes in the United States ordering pizza and watching Netflix and putting the kids to bed and getting ready to go to work in the morning, and overseas, soldiers and sailors and airmen and Marines are in harm's way just by the jobs that they do. We have some 140 military outposts around the world. People wearing uniforms are stationed in every one of them. We don't know who they are or where they are or what they're doing until they make the news, and the way they usually make the news is by being injured or killed either in training or engaged with an enemy we don't even know about.

The loss of four soldiers from the Third Infantry Division is a tragedy. That the president of the United States had not even heard about it a day after it happened is sadly typical, especially of this president, who has repeatedly expressed his disdain for members of the military under his command.

Trump's national security team cared so little about the pilots they sent into combat against the Houthis that they used the insecure civilian Signal app to plan the mission. And now we have learned that four soldiers lost their lives defending European nations that neither Trump nor his vice president nor his secretary of defense care about. It is both a tragedy and a scandal.

Sadly, soldiers are learning that not even the loss of their lives has stirred the hollow souls of Donald Trump and his men.

Tuesday, April 1, 2025

Trump's RFK Jr is Discrediting and Destroying US Science

After cutting funding for the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the National Science Foundation (NSF), and bringing university research to a near halt, here is the voodoo imbecile with a frog in his throat and a worm in his brain attacking private medical and drug manufacturing research. Like in the Soviet Union, Trump and his anti-science idiots want American science to fit their ideology.

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Moderna and Novavax shares plunge after key FDA official steps down, citing discord with RFK Jr. who he says ‘wishes subservient confirmation of his misinformation and lies’
Sasha Rogelberg
Updated Mon, March 31, 2025


A top FDA regulator resigned Friday, citing Robert F. Kennedy's persistent spread of vaccine misinformation. (Al Drago/Bloomberg—Getty Images)

The forced resignation of FDA vaccine regulator Peter Marks has, in part, sparked anxiety in Big Pharma investors, as shares in Moderna and Novavax slide. Marks’ departure comes amid a sweeping overhaul of the Department of Health and Human Services, helmed by vaccine skeptic Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

Key personnel changes within federal public health agencies have appeared to shake investor confidence in vaccine makers. Shares of Moderna and Novavax plunged Monday following the announcement Friday that key Food and Drug Administration official Peter Marks was stepping down from his position.

The share price of Moderna plummeted more than 12% since the personnel change as of Monday afternoon, while Novavax fell about 7%.

Marks, head of the FDA’s Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research, was a key individual in regulating and approving vaccines and other treatments, such as gene therapies. During President Donald Trump’s first administration, Marks was credited for coining the name and concept of Operation Warp Speed, the initiative to expedite the development of COVID vaccines.

The regulator’s departure comes amid sweeping cuts in the Department of Health and Human Services, which include the elimination of 10,000 positions across 28 divisions. The HHS is currently helmed by Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who has previously espoused beliefs in erroneous information about vaccines. Last week, the Senate confirmed Jay Bhattacharya, who opposed COVID vaccine mandates and lockdowns, as head of the National Institutes of Health.

Kennedy reportedly gave Marks the option of either resigning or being fired, an anonymous former FDA official told the Associated Press. Marks cited Kennedy’s spread of vaccine misinformation as one of the reasons for his resignation.

“I was willing to work to address the Secretary’s concerns regarding vaccine safety and transparency,” Marks said in his letter of resignation. “However it has become clear that truth and transparency are not desired by the Secretary, but rather he wishes subservient confirmation of his misinformation and lies.”

Big Pharma stocks responded similarly when Trump announced Kennedy as his pick to lead in November. Vaccine makers lost $8 billion in market capitalization overnight.

Moderna and the FDA did not respond to Fortune’s requests for comment. Novavax declined to comment.

Headwinds for Big Pharma

The massive overhaul within the HHS, particularly in the FDA, is a likely headache for pharmacy companies looking not only for vaccine approval but for development, according to Myles Minter, a health care analyst at William Blair. Marks’ resignation signals to vaccine developers that the HHS has grown less friendly to vaccination efforts.

“This is a line in the sand that there could be some regulatory uncertainty for additional vaccines coming through the pipe,” Minter told Fortune. “And they are going to be incredibly important for Moderna.”

Shortly after Trump’s election victory, Moderna CEO Stéphane Bancel said the company would work with the administration using “facts and data.” Continued efforts by the Trump administration to divest in vaccine funding and spread misinformation could fracture that relationship, according to Minter.

The Trump administration plans to eliminate $28 billion in global-health funding, according to a leaked document viewed by Bloomberg and the New York Times. Those efforts include the 5,341 projects, such as HIV vaccine development, and funding to vaccine alliance Gavi. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which HHS oversees, will conduct a large-scale study to look at the connection between vaccines and autism, which has been thoroughly debunked.

“It becomes increasingly difficult for vaccine developers to interact with an administration that keeps appointing people that are clear skeptics,” Minter said. “It has been said and viewed as a potential headwind there, despite the fact that they are open to working with whatever administration is put in place.”


Good News: The End of Felon Musk’s Co-Presidency Coming Soon

Donald Dumb hinted Monday that Musk may have to go back to running his company, apparently because citizen protests against Tesla have severely diminished the value of the brand while better competitor EV companies have skyrocketed in value. Musk’s brand may be tainted forever, as citizens and consumers are nowhere near to forgiving the neo-Nazi illegal immigrant from South Africa for firing tens of thousands of government employees.

Trump said of the Tesla CEO. “He wants to [go back to his company]. I'd keep him as long as I could keep him.”

The president’s comments came amid growing public concern about the chaos and turmoil caused by Musk’s DOGE, and while the once high-flying Tesla brand is crashing.

As a “temporary government employee”, Musk is under a 130-day cap on his services at the White House, which means his tenure should end by the end of May.

Tesla, meanwhile, is experiencing severe turbulence. Sales of its electric cars are plummeting around the world as Musk-fueled rage makes the vehicles increasingly unpopular with consumers who once flocked to the brand. The company’s share price plunged 36 percent in the first quarter. He himself acknowledged that his DOGE “efforts” to slash federal spending is costing him — and Tesla — “a lot.”

Backlash over Musk’s leading DOGE was swift and has grown in recent weeks as Musk claimed last week that DOGE cuts an average of $4 billion in federal spending each day. But Musk has been complaining like a spoiled brat that his “…Tesla stock and the stock of everyone who holds Tesla has gone, went roughly in half. I mean it’s a big deal.” Tesla stock dropped by more than 5% to $248 per share in pre-market trading yesterday Monday as investors await weaker first-quarter sales than previously expected. Deliveries are expected to have taken a hit from the “Tesla Takedown” protests that have continued to put pressure on Tesla, as well as weaker sales in Europe and China.

Meanwhile, the Social Security Administration (SSA)’s website has been crashing and blocking millions of retirees from accessing their accounts, and call centers are overwhelmed with long wait times. A former White House official with the Office of Management of Budget, Julie Siegel, says Elon Musk is destabilizing the Social Security Administration’s technology and operations, creating widespread access issues for millions of Americans. The agency has faced website crashes and overwhelmed call centers, leaving many struggling to resolve payment problems.

Siegel served as Deputy Federal Chief Operating Officer at the Office of Management and Budget under the Biden administration until January 2025. She says that DOGE's actions are deliberately aiming to discredit social security by disrupting its operations. Since Musk’s raids on SSA offices nationwide, recipients have complained of long wait times on phone lines and website glitches, making it harder to resolve issues with payments or update personal information. The SSA website has crashed multiple times in the last 10 days, blocking millions from accessing their accounts. By undermining the reliability of SSA services, the pretext can then be made that it is inefficient and needs to be replaced or revamped.

The agency has undergone a significant staff reduction, with further plans for the closure of local offices, and the agency's phone system is struggling to handle the surge in calls. All of this has resulted in worsening customer service, Siegel said, particularly affecting vulnerable groups like retirees and disabled Americans. "You actually need actual human beings to operate the technology, and [Musk] keep[s] firing people," she said, adding under the current administration, "staffing is down and the technology is breaking," which is resulting in a "lot of really angry customers."

"… you don't break the old system without building the new system," she said, adding system failures "can't be a surprise." Musk reportedly plans to go even further with his "modernization" efforts and overhaul much of the agency systems.

But experts warn that "This is exactly what happened when [Musk] took over Twitter and fired all the engineers, the website was glitching," he said. "When you're running a social media website, outages happen and then the platform comes back up and nobody's off any worse. But when you're running a massive government bureaucracy, any kind of tinkering or changes in the code on the website could have serious ramifications for people who rely on these checks."

Musk has attacked the reputation of the Social Security Administration by referring to it as a Ponzi Scheme fraught with widespread fraud, including among other things, that tens of millions of dead people are erroneously receiving payments. This claim has been widely refuted by experts and former SSA commissioners.

Why would Musk, and Donald Dumb behind him, deliberately undermine Social Security? Simple: They want to PRIVATIZE IT, i.e. give the “lockbox” and its money to private corporations that would invest it in the stock market and cause its demise at the next 2008 financial market crash. They want to privatize it so it will be profitable for the shareholders of those corporations. In simple terms, they want to gamble with taxpayers and retirees’ money. As a retiree myself, I find the management of the Social Security Administration to be exemplary, in contrast to my lifelong dealings with other private companies (phone, media, insurance…) that are often corrupt, slow, and inefficient.

But the GOP and its Republican billionaire elite are adamant at brainwashing dumb Americans into believing that "government is bad" and "private sharks are good". When you privatize, you place profit before service, and people suffer. We've all been there, we've all had bad experiences with corporations. Why do we continue to listen to the barbarians of the MAGA-GOP?

Sunday, March 30, 2025

The US: End of Academy & the Rise of Dogma

How quickly has Trump's WASP-KKK-MAGA-GOP revolution upended decades and centuries of building a liberal American academy, as it currently fosters a dogmatic authoritarian, mercantile, ideological conformism to one man's ignorant regressive view of the world. Two months already and the damage is for the most part very hard to repair if it's not altogether irreversible.

As is always the case with dictators, their top enemies are universities, the media and the "alien" immigrants, all of whom share the unique feature of presenting different, and perhaps contrarian, perspectives and viewpoints than the prevailing nativist narrative, something that dictators don't like. 

But neo-Nazis, white supremacists, KKK and other Fascists have periodically emerged to the forefront in the socially backward, ultra-religious, developing United States that is still evolving out of its primordial swamps of colonialism, violence, and arrogant adolescence: The John Birch Society, George Lincoln Rockwell, Virgil Effinger, William Luther Pierce, Barry Goldwater, David Duke, Pat Buchanan, Joe McCarthy, and others whose modern manifestations are like the Proud Boys, Oath Keepers, and QAnon. Even the National Rifle Association (NRA), hiding under the dubious 2nd Amendment, has stood as a militia of armed white supremacist nativists.

The Fascist vein is not an external import into US life: it is in the DNA of the republic. It is in fact in the DNA of all political entities born out of a colonial womb: South Africa, Israel, the US... among others. The reason for this has to do with a mechanism similar to the biological process of "speciation" or the formation of new species. When a group is separated into two subgroups by obstacles - usually geographic like an ocean, a mountain, a river, etc., the two subgroups begin to differentiate themselves from one another. With time, the differentiation becomes so pervasive that the two groups no longer interbreed with one another, and hence they become two separate species where there used to be only one. This is in strictly biological terms.

But the mechanism applies also to groups of humans who get separated or move from one geography or ecosystem to another. Colonial settlers are the perfect example. The moment English settlers arrived to Charlestown or Plymouth on the east coast, they began diverging from their English folks back in England. 

One thing in particular takes place. The English who stayed in England do not experience an interruption or a divergence in the normal ongoing course of their evolution as a society. But the English who migrated out of England and settled in what were the "colonies" got separated from their native ecosystem back in England, which causes an interruption, a pause if you will, in that evolution while they make sense of their new ecosystem and begin to adapt to it. In so doing, they gradually become another "species".

On the geological scale of human social evolution, the United States (and other similar colonial experiments like Australia, Canada, Israel, South Africa etc.) is STILL in the throes of defining its new identity. Just like a teenager, it doesn't know who it is, it doesn't know where it is going, it rejects "advice" from its parents and peridocally erupts in bursts of rage, sort of cultural acne eruptions. Trump is one such burst of acne on the American skin. So while England itself has evolved out of its colonial barbarity into a more civilized country, the US was stuck in the "moment of its founding". The interruption in the normal course of its evolution back in the English motherland leaves it adrift in trying to understand itself.

All of this explains the periodic irrationality that strikes the American "conservatives" who are unable to adapt to changing societal norms and scientific progress. They are the teenagers in the family who are unable to adjust to the family's evolution while they themselves are still struggling with their own acne.

The behavior of the Trump's government officials on the Signal Chat Group is that of teenagers.

Now that Zionism holds the US hostage, Trump's teenagers have been let loose to rampage and plunder the traditions of free inquiry at America's major universities. The target is to silence the Palestinian narrative into non-existence. Smart readers will understand and accept that colonial Zionism sees the Palestine question as a zero-sum game: The existence of Israel is founded on the predicate of the deletion of Palestine. There cannot be a Palestine next to Israel for a simple but rarely told reason: Israelis KNOW that they made their country on the ruins of Palestine. Just as it is accepted in the West that the victim of rape should not be made to marry her rapist (a custom in some backward countries), Palestine should not be made to live side by side with its rapist Israel because it will constantly remind the latter of its crime. Hence, the natural tendency is to go for a "Final Solution": Completely eliminate the existence, the narrative, the historical records, the people... everything that pertains to Palestine. Palestine must cease to exist if Israel is to move past its guilt of raping Palestine.

Trump is undoing the American academy for daring - not out of sympathy, but out of sacrosanct academic freedom - to maintain alive the Palestine narrative.
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‘Canary in the coalmine of totalitarianism’: how Columbia went from a home for Edward Said to a punching bag for Trump

Alice Speri
Sat, March 29, 2025


People rally in support of Palestinians at Columbia University in New York on 22 April 2024.Photograph: Charly Triballeau/AFP via Getty Images

Last week, Columbia University announced that it would cave to demands by the Trump administration and adopt sweeping measures against pro-Palestinian activity on campus, including new restrictions on protest and the takeover of an academic department from faculty control.

The news sent shock waves across higher education institutions nationwide for what appeared a stunning capitulation to attacks on academic freedom and the independence of the department of Middle Eastern, south Asian and African studies, or Mesaas, which became a scapegoat for what the administration viewed as a pro-Palestinian climate on campus. It was also a remarkable turn of events for a university that had for years been a home for cutting-edge academic discourse on Palestine, beginning with the scholarship of Edward Said, a leading Palestinian intellectual.

It was precisely that legacy that also made Columbia a target of campaigns to censor Palestinian narratives – long before the protests that kicked off after 7 October 2023 drew the attention of conservatives and others who believe American campuses have become too leftwing. In the latest twist in the drama engulfing the university, its interim president, Katrina Armstrong, announced Friday she was stepping down. She is the second president of the university to resign in eight months.

Columbia’s announcement followed the Trump administration’s cancellation of $400m in federal funding, mostly for scientific research, over what the White House said was the university’s failure to protect faculty and students “from antisemitic violence and harassment”. Notably, Columbia’s bending to the government’s demands did not immediately restore the funding, with Trump administration officials indicating they would continue to monitor adherence to the policies they forced on the university.

Columbia’s submission prompted the condemnation of academic freedom advocates nationwide, who warned of more government interference to come.

“Columbia is the canary in the coalmine of totalitarianism,” said Sheldon Pollock, a Columbia professor and former chair of the Mesaas department. “This is a very worrying development across the board for university faculty.”

Trump had demanded Columbia place the Mesaas department under “receivership” – meaning, outside control, and the university has, at least in part, agreed. The department played no formal role in last year’s protests, and Said and other prominent scholars of Palestine, like Rashid Khalidi, were more closely affiliated with other departments. But Mesaas became a symbol for what was viewed as a pro-Palestinian climate on campus that some faculty note is a function of the university’s longstanding commitment to the humanities, which has long attracted more progressive scholars.

“Columbia has been associated with the Palestinian cause for a long time because it was possible to say things on the Columbia campus that in many places it was not possible to say,” Bruce Robbins, a professor of English literature, who is Jewish, said. “People who were involved in Palestine – in the issue, and in the study of the subject – found a home at Columbia where they might not have found a home somewhere else.”

A history of backlash

Columbia scholars have been studying the Middle East since the 18th century, when the university appointed its first professor of “Oriental languages”, as the academy at the time referred to the study of non-western cultures. Two hundred years later, Said’s book Orientalism became a foundational work of postcolonial scholarship. But it was his writing about the Middle East, and Palestine in particular, that established him as an icon for Palestinian scholarship.

In one of his seminal works, The Question of Palestine, Said wrote that discussion of the Arab world, and Palestinians in particular, was “so confused and unfairly slanted in the west that a great effort has to be made to see things as, for better or worse, they actually are”. Elsewhere, he noted that there was no “permission to narrate” the Palestinian experience in western discourse, and that those who tried were punished. In dozens of articles and books, Said forcefully insisted on the need for Palestinians to reclaim dominant narratives of their history, fundamentally reframing what was then a discourse largely echoing the Israeli perspective.

But what made his work so groundbreaking also made him, and Columbia, where he spent his entire career, a target.

On multiple occasions, Said’s office at Columbia was raided and vandalized. The FBI kept tabs on him. And he was often the subject of smear campaigns, including an article in the conservative Jewish magazine Commentary, which memorably called him “Professor of Terror”.

Said’s career coincided with – and likely contributed to – the gradual shifting of American students’ views on Israel, particularly following the 1982 invasion of Lebanon and the two intifadas, or Palestinian uprisings. When he died in 2003, the backlash shifted on to Columbia itself, and other critics of Zionism who had found a home there, like the Mesaas professors Hamid Dabashi and Joseph Massad. (Neither responded to an interview request.)

In 2004, four Columbia undergraduates were interviewed in a documentary, Columbia Unbecoming, in which they accused three university professors with what at the time was the Middle East and Asian languages and cultures department, or Mealac – including Dabashi and Massad – of unfair treatment and intimidation over their pro-Israel views. The documentary was produced by the David Project, a Boston-based group created to counter negative narratives about Israel on US campuses. The documentary ignited a sweeping controversy and calls on Columbia to fire its faculty, including from the then congressman Anthony Weiner. Some of the students featured in the film, as well as the conservative journalist Bari Weiss, who was an undergraduate at Columbia at the time, launched an initiative called Columbians for Academic Freedom, which represented students who said they had been intimidated by their professors for their views.

Following the Columbia Unbecoming controversy, the university convened a panel to investigate the allegations and found no misconduct. But it also reorganized the Mealac department, tacking on south Asian and later African studies and cross-appointing faculty from other disciplines to expand its scope. Now called Mesaas, it remained a cosmopolitan home for critical theory, the academic critique of social structures and systems of power. But it is only one of several venues in which Columbia students are exposed to scholarship on Palestine, which is also hosted by the university’s Middle East Institute and Columbia’s Center for Palestine Studies, established in 2010 as the first of its kind at a US university. (The center is also to be placed under receivership.)
Antisemitism accusations

Since Israel’s war in Gaza started after the 7 October Hamas attacks, Columbia has been at the forefront of the debate over alleged antisemitism on campuses. A conversation that had previously centered on “tolerance” of pro-Israel views had made way for mounting allegations of antisemitism, a strategy that has been increasingly pursued by pro-Israel groups. Such allegations have resulted in congressional hearings, several lawsuits, the former president Minouche Shafik’s resignation, faculty and student expulsions, and the targeting by immigration authorities of foreign students who expressed pro-Palestinian views.

There was internal pushback as well, including a letter last month signed by about 200 Columbia faculty calling on the university to implement “concrete action” to protect the Jewish community on campus. That letter included many of the same demands later presented by the Trump administration, including a mask ban and the adoption of a definition of antisemitism that critics argue wrongly conflates some criticisms of Israel with antisemitism. It also asked for an investigation of Massad, who faced backlash and calls on the university to remove him after an op-ed he published in the Electronic Intifada a day after the Hamas attacks, referring to scenes from the attacks as “awesome” and “stunning”.

People are beginning to wonder who is vetting their syllabus, who may be listening in class and reporting on them.
Sheldon Pollock


The letter also called for measures against faculty who participated in last year’s encampment, the expulsion of students who “disrupt teaching”, and the hiring of at least three tenured “pro-Israel” faculty at Mesaas “to allow ideological diversity and to combat indoctrination against the west and Israel under the guise of ‘academic independence’”. (It did not, however, call for the department to be put under receivership. The Guardian reached out to the four faculty who led the letter effort but got no response. The only Mesaas faculty member who signed it, the retired professor Nehama Bershon, declined to comment.)

Last year, Robbins, the English professor, taught a class on literary representations of atrocity. The syllabus included a week dedicated to the war in Gaza, which happened to coincide with the protest encampment. Robbins took his students to visit the encampment, offering those who didn’t want to go the possibility to opt out. The timing was a “historical coincidence”, he said. “It would almost be crazy not to take advantage of this.” In response, two students filed a formal complaint, accusing Robbins of interfering with their education by holding the class at the encampment. The university has launched an investigation, and Robbins is “awaiting judgment”, he says.

“I got into the profession thinking that making students uncomfortable is part of my job description.”
A canary in the mine

Many Columbia faculty and students were away for spring break last week and were stunned by the news that the university would bend to the Trump administration’s demands. On Tuesday, the American Association of University Professors and the American Federation of Teachers, two unions representing faculty, sued the Trump administration on behalf of their members at Columbia over the cancellation of federal funding. Faculty have also talked about a possible strike. Some scholars outside Columbia have called for a boycott of the university.

Pollock said that a chill was sweeping through faculty. “People are beginning to wonder who is vetting their syllabus, who may be listening in class and reporting on them; colleagues who are green card holders have looked at the Mahmoud Khalil attack as a test case,” he said. (The Guardian reached out to several scholars affiliated with Mesaas and other departments, but few agreed to talk on the record, with one senior professor citing a “dangerous” situation on campus.)

What is clear to all is that this is just the beginning, said Jeremy Young, a historian and higher-education advocate who until recently worked as the director of state and higher-education policy at PEN America.

“It’s a terrible precedent to set,” he said of the Trump administration’s demands and Columbia’s response; Young emphasized he was not speaking for PEN. “The government is acting like a bully, and if a bully gets what they want from using bullying tactics, they’re just going to keep going until someone stands up to them. And that wasn’t Columbia, but I hope it’ll be another institution.”


Saturday, March 29, 2025

Greenland Before vs. After US annexation

BEFORE TRUMP.....







THEN,

AFTER TRUMP....













US-Canadian Couples Torn Apart because of Donald Dumb

One of my sisters-in-law is a Catholic Lebanese immigrant to the US, married to a redneck ultra-religious Baptist idiot from Atlanta, Georgia. She barely finished high school and is one of those morons who voted for Trump and loves "strong men" in politics. If you ask her why, she doesn't really know. It's just that Trump "talks strong", which means Trump voters are by and large enamored with the superficial perception than with the substance. It's easy because the dumb asshole in the White House has no susbtance. He is like my uneducated sister-in-law, deprived of any judgment based on knowledge, awareness and understanding. 

Having married a white christian evangelical primitive redneck from the pro-slavery state of Georgia, she herself - even though she's an Arab, a Catholic, and an immigrant - has become a more radical redneck than the moron she married. She brags about hating Arabs and Blacks and she worships Donald Dumb. I refuse to speak with her. 

Below are readers commenting on a Canadian-US couple struggling with the divisions sowed by Donald Dumb's brutality against, and hatred of, everything and everyone that are non-white, non-Anglo-saxon protestant, a.k.a "UnAmerican" to use a McCarthyist term. 

Make sure to read my post-script following the BuzzFeed piece.

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This Canadian Woman Won't Visit Her American Boyfriend's Parents While Trump Is President, And He's Upset — Now She Wants To Know If She's Overreacting
Morgan Sloss
Fri, March 28, 2025

Only a few months into Donald Trump's second term, the US's relationships with other countries have quickly deteriorated. The most obvious example is Canada — our neighbor to the north and long-time ally, whose citizens are now conducting boycotts and canceling trips (rightfully so) over the president's alarming behavior. Canadians have even started protesting at the border and outside US embassies.

Horacio Zamora Rios/ Pixelnews/Future Publishing via Getty Images / Artur Widak/NurPhoto via Getty Images

Well, a Canadian woman who is dating an American man recently posted in the r/AmIOverrecating subreddit, wondering if she is in the wrong for not wanting to visit the US with her boyfriend. Here's the full story:

"My boyfriend (31, male) and I (31, female) are an American and Canadian couple living in the UK. I’m back home in Canada right now visiting family, and obviously, things are quite tense with Trump threatening to destroy our economy and trying to wear us down into submission."

Considering the political environment in the US, many people urged her (OP) to stay away:

"A German guy was just detained for over two weeks in an ICE detention center while visiting his American girlfriend. Look up the news article. We are on international watch lists for rapidly devolving human rights. Do not come here 😢."

—u/Benevolent_Grouch

"Yeah, don't come here. This is a shit-hole country. Y'all, this is why education is important. Something like 54% of the American population can't read above a 5th-grade level. Apparently, they failed history as well. They're so uneducated they applaud with glee each time another right is stripped away. Our own people aren't safe here; you won't be either."

—u/FormidableMistress

"A friend of mine was just talking about this issue today. I don’t think a lot of people here in the US really comprehend how disturbing it is to have a close ally turn on you and start saying stuff like that. Even as a joke (which I don’t think it is either), it’s going to have long-lasting effects on the US-Canadian relationship. As someone in the US, I think your response is 100% valid. You don’t go visiting countries that are stabbing you in the back."

—u/ParfaitMotor7007

Plenty of Canadians chimed in with their thoughts...

"I have a bias, but I say not overreacting. I canceled a trip yesterday, and when I called, the American on the other end tore my head off. Did not help his argument at all. They don't see that we're taking this seriously. Many of my American friends have had zero compassion, and it's been difficult wanting to maintain these friendships."

—u/Free_Big3865

"I’m also Canadian, and hubby is American. We live in Ontario, and the majority of his family lives in Florida. We’ve put a pin in US travel for at least a year to see how things unfold. Your reluctance to travel is completely understandable."

—u/Glittering_Page9759

"Seriously, this is not nothing. It's serious. Trump is moving swiftly away from allies towards Russia. Americans can act like it's all just about the bullshit Trump says it is, but it's an attack to destabilize and weaken our country [Canada]. Not to mention if our prime minister said the kind of things Trump said, Americans would shit their pants in rage. Americans, including your boyfriend, need to understand the gravity of the situation from our point of view."

"I have canceled my trip to NYC. Anytime you take a stand, someone is going to tell you you're overreacting and over-emotional. They just want you to stop rocking the boat. You should be proud of yourself."

—u/General-Visual4301
====================================================

My own personal take:

For many decades in the US, I used to hear jokes and see cartoons about Canada becoming a US state. BUT, not all of Canada. Just the anglophoneys who hate their French Québec fellow countrymen because of English Protestant racism against French Catholics. 

Now suddenly, the anglophoneys of Canada know they have no fundamental raison d'etre to exist as non-US Americans. Same language, same religion, same mistreatment of indigenous people, same racism against non-whites. In a way, and dispensing with the legal aspects of Trump's claims to Canada, anglophoney Canada is really historically an accident of 1800s English-American warfare, it's an unintegrated part of the United States rebellion against the English crown. I don't honestly think that many Canadians give a hoot about the English monarchy, so they have no essential difference bewteen the other anglophoneys south of the ceasefire line that defaulted into an artificial border.

THE ONLY THING KEEPING CANADA TOGETHER is the French Québec Province to which the anglophoneys should now be clinging like stink on a monkey if they have any hope of surviving Donald Dumb's impending phagocytosis of Canada. Without the French Québecois and their own identity, anglophoney Canada has no genuine substantive identity and should quickly be absorbed into the US. If I were a French Canadian, now is the time to run a referendum on Québec independence from the slowly vanishing anglophoney Canada. You'll win in a landslide. If there are any people in Canada who definitely don't want to be part of the US, it is Québec.

For decades, the Canadian anglophoneys laughed condescendingly at their Québecois fellow Canadians who keep fighting to maintain their identity against the surrounding engulfing anglophoney culture. Now the shoe is on the other foot: Anglophoney Canadians should find those attributes that differentiate them from Americans; unfortunately there are none to be found. Instead, they should borrow ideas for specific identity parameters from the Québecois if they hope to stay out of Donald Dumb's clutches. 

When Donald Dumb absorbs Canada, he will absorb only the Anglophoney provinces. Québec will maintain its unique identity and perhaps seek its independence. If if doesn't, it risks becoming another ridiculous tourist-trap "French Quarter" like" Louisiana's New Orleans for ignorant drunkard American tourists. 

I predict that faced with a full-fledged dictator like Trump who is eyeing unconstitutional third and fourth terms, Canada will not sustain the American assault, and as a result Québec is much more likely now to secede and replace a Canada truncated of its anglophoney provinces that become states of the American union.

Friday, March 28, 2025

How President Musk is Stealthily Destroying Social Security



Opinion

Elon Musk has a dodgy plan to gut Social Security and please billionaires
EJ Montini, Arizona Republic

Thu, March 27, 2025

America's Co-President Elon Musk has referred to Social Security as “the biggest Ponzi scheme of all time.”

He told a host on Fox Business that “Most of the federal spending is entitlements. That’s the big one to eliminate.”

Musk and his helper, Donald Trump, want to gut the system. After all, billionaires have no need for Social Security.

However, they know that if they tried a direct approach and simply slashed Social Security benefits, even their most ardent sycophants in Congress would balk, knowing they’d be booted from office in the next election.

DOGE cuts make it tough to access Social Security benefits

 

White House Senior Advisor, Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk attends a cabinet meeting held by U.S. President Donald Trump at the White House on March 24, 2025 in Washington, DC.

So, instead of drastically cutting benefits, the plan seemingly is to make it more and more difficult for people who have earned those benefits to get them.

That’s why Musk and his DOGE bros want to cut thousands of jobs from Social Security’s workforce, close regional offices, and limit phone service by requiring recipients to show up in person to verify certain changes to their accounts.

As a result, the Social Security Administration website crashed four times in 10 days this month because the servers were overloaded, blocking millions of retirees and disabled Americans from logging in to their online accounts.

Democratic U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren succinctly outlined the plot to gut Social Security at a hearing in Washington, D.C.

Not just retirees rely on Social Security

She said, “DOGE is considering slashing up to 50 percent of the Social Security Administration’s workforce. That means longer lines, more errors, and for everyone who gives up or who dies before they get their benefits sorted out, those delays and errors also turn into benefit cuts.”

Warren added, “The law is to deliver the benefits that people are legally entitled to. If you don’t have the staff. If you don’t answer the phones. If you don’t fix the mistakes. People don’t get what they’re legally entitled to.”

Exactly.

The list of people who will be most at risk includes retirees, of course. But also individuals with disabilities, patients in hospitals, people who live in remote areas, even children, many living in foster homes.

It goes on.

Long lines, confusion and delay hurt us all

Already, legitimate Social Security recipients are feeling it. Very long wait times for callers. Confusion. Uncertainty.

Delays in receiving Social Security benefits can be catastrophic for some recipients. Many people rely on the money to help take care of their most basic needs.

A survey done in January of this year found that, without their benefits, 42% of Americans 65 and older reported, “I would not be able to afford the basics, such as food, clothing, or housing.”

Former Social Security Administration Commissioner Martin O’Malley said recently at a briefing, “I can tell you that democracy is waking up to this very, very real threat that they are coming for Social Security.”

Coming?

I believe they’re already here.