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unsolicited-opinions · 15 days ago

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It's always hilarious when I see the dates on your posts because in NZ we go day/month/year.

So when I see your posts, for example one I saw just now dated 5/9/25, I'm like "oh cool post from the future". Then my brain catches up and goes "oh wait no that's not right, time travel doesn't exist. Amercian date duh"

(Please never change your date system, I enjoy the moment of confusion)

Can we talk about how weird the US is?

Most of the world uses DD/MM/YYYY, but the US uses MM/DD/YYYY

Most of the world uses Celsius, the US uses Fahrenheit.

Most of the world is metric, but the US won't let go of Imperial units.

The US is the only wealthy nation without universal healthcare.

Most of the world uses 220–240V electricity, the US uses 120-Volt

I read that only the US and New Zealand allow direct-to-consumer pharmaceutical ads.

The US is the only nation that ties many aspects of adult life (housing, employment, loans, insurance rates) to a secretive algorithm-driven credit score system.

Many countries vote on weekends or have national holidays for elections. The US votes on a Tuesday - and it's not even a federal holiday.

College sports are not an industry ($18-$20 billion per year!) anywhere but in the US.

The weirdest difference about Americans...is that they're largely unaware of how weird the US is among other nations.

It's funny. I was looking at the above and thought, I should make a list of things about the US I'm proud of! Some of the ways it is positively exceptional!

So I started making a list...and had to face the reality that Trump is attacking all of them.

1. Constitutionally Protected Free Speech

The US has some of the strongest legal protections for freedom of expression in the world - including unpopular, offensive, or political speech.

Unlike many democracies, "hate speech" laws don’t exist in the same form, and government censorship is much more restricted.

Trump hasn't dismantled free speech (yet), but he attacked the free press as "the enemy of the people," encouraged and filed lawsuits against journalists, and floated ideas like expanding libel laws to target critics. While not policy, this rhetoric chills speech and emboldens authoritarianism. His attempts to illegally de-fund public broadcasting are nakedly political, motivated by his distaste for the content of NPR and PBS, and in violation of the First Amendment.

2. Invention Culture

The U.S. is uniquely good at turning wild ideas into world-changing innovations: the airplane, the internet, the smartphone, GPS, social media, electric cars, AI, and yes, even the moon landing.

American culture prizes risk-taking and rewards failure as a learning process - rare in most countries.

Trump's immigration limits (like the H-1B visa crackdown) restricted access to top global talent, which could weaken innovation long-term. His attacks on institutions of higher education will dramatically slow technological innovation and destroy research programs. The brain drain to other nations of technical, scientific expertise has already started.

3. Higher Ed Research Powerhouse

The U.S. is home to nearly all of the top global research universities and attracts more international students than any other country.

American universities lead in medical, technological, and scientific breakthroughs.

Trump slashed funding for scientific research and gutted federal advisory panels.

Anti-intellectualism and attacks on elite universities (especially during COVID and around DEI issues) undermined trust in American academia and discouraged international students.

He also restricted foreign researchers, especially from China.

4. Peaceful Transfers of Power (Mostly)

The US had a long history of peaceful democratic transitions, without coups, assassinations, or military takeovers - uncommon for such a large and diverse nation...and then came Trump.

Trump's refusal to accept the 2020 election results, pressuring officials to overturn it, and inciting the January 6th insurrection are considered by legal scholars and bipartisan commissions as an unprecedented attack on American democracy.

5. National Parks System

The US pioneered the idea of preserving vast, stunning natural landscapes for public enjoyment - Yellowstone was the world's first national park.

The National Parks system is the gold standard for conservation tourism.

Trump opened millions of acres of protected lands to drilling, mining, and commercial use, including rolling back protections at Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante.

His administration also weakened the Endangered Species Act and gutted environmental regulations.

6. Civil Society Strength

The US has a thriving network of grassroots organizations, non-profits, advocacy groups, and independent media that hold institutions accountable and mobilize citizens.

Trump has attacked watchdog groups and frequently tried to delegitimize civil society institutions, especially those related to voting rights, environment, and racial justice.

His administration also attempted to weaponize the IRS and DOJ against political opponents.

7. Free & Open Internet

Despite pressures, the US has generally protected a free and open internet, with few restrictions on access or content compared to most other nations.

...until Trump’s FCC, under Ajit Pai, repealed net neutrality protections in 2017. Though the internet remained accessible, open access and fair competition were weakened.

9. Entrepreneurial Ecosystem

The US leads in startup creation, venture capital funding, and unicorn companies (startups worth $1B+).

It’s one of the few places where a person can come from nothing and build a global empire in their garage (literally - see Apple, Amazon, HP).

Trump's immigration restrictions hurt startups' access to talent and investment (e.g. STEM immigrants, startup visas).

Trade wars with China and uncertainty in international markets also created instability for small and medium-sized innovators.

10. Strong Judicial Review

The US Supreme Court and lower courts have real power to strike down laws and check the other branches - rare in many democracies.

Trump respected judicial review when it served him, but attacked judges who ruled against him, calling them "Obama judges" or "so-called judges."

He also appointed record numbers of federal judges, many of whom were rated "not qualified," and explicitly chosen for ideological loyalty, raising long-term concerns about judicial independence.

11. Religious Pluralism

While religion is prominent in public life, the U.S. also guarantees freedom of religion and supports a wildly diverse religious landscape - everything from Orthodox Jews to Buddhists to Wiccans to atheists.

Trump has embraced Christian nationalism and banned entry from multiple Muslim-majority countries (the "Muslim Ban"), which was later struck down and modified...until he revived it in 2025.

Rhetoric and policies have consistently signaled preference for one religious identity, undermining pluralism.

12. Robust Refugee and Immigrant Absorption (Historically)

Though flawed, the US has welcomed more immigrants than any other country in history and granted millions paths to citizenship, jobs, and education.

Trump cut legal immigration by nearly 50%, reduced refugee admissions to historic lows, ended DACA protections, and dismantled the asylum process.

His administration separated families, created a climate of fear, and made it harder for immigrants to naturalize.

Don't get me started on his ICE raids.

13. Civil Rights Legacy

The US gave birth to one of the most influential civil rights movements of the 20th century — and inspired others around the world.

Figures like Martin Luther King Jr., Rosa Parks, and John Lewis are global symbols of peaceful resistance and justice.

Trump dismantled Obama-era civil rights protections, including for transgender individuals, voting rights enforcement, and police reform oversight.

He attacked movements like Black Lives Matter and used federal forces against peaceful protesters (Lafayette Square, 2020).

14. Strong Local Government

States and localities in the US have real, constitutionally protected autonomy, enabling political diversity and experimentation (think: marijuana legalization, universal basic income pilots, or charter school models).

Trump has repeatedly threatened "blue states" and tried to withhold federal funding from states or cities that disagreed with him politically (e.g., sanctuary cities, COVID policies).

Undermining federalism in this way weakened the traditional balance of state and federal power.

15. Disaster Response Innovation

FEMA and the U.S. military lead some of the fastest and best-coordinated global disaster responses - often being first on the ground for earthquakes, hurricanes, and humanitarian crises abroad.

Trump’s handling of Hurricane Maria in Puerto Rico was widely condemned as negligent and racially biased.

His COVID-19 response lacked national coordination and downplayed science, weakening U.S. disaster response credibility.

His FEMA director was unaware there is a hurricane season.

So...most of the things about my country of which I was still proud...are being erased.

(But I'm glad our date formatting is entertaining.)

#jumblr #asks #US culture #US Politics #American Exceptionalism

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dreaminginthedeepsouth · 5 months ago

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And much more besides. And I got all of this through fraud and deception.

* * * * *

LETTERS FROM AN AMERICAN

February 3, 2025

Heather Cox Richardson

Feb 04, 2025

I’m going to start tonight by stating the obvious: the Republicans control both chambers of Congress: the House of Representatives and the Senate. They also control the White House and the Supreme Court. If they wanted to get rid of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), for example, they could introduce a bill, debate it, pass it, and send it on to President Trump for his signature. And there would be very little the Democrats could do to stop that change.

But they are not doing that.

Instead, they are permitting unelected billionaire Elon Musk, whose investment of $290 million in Trump and other Republican candidates in the 2024 election apparently has bought him freedom to run the government, to override Congress and enact whatever his own policies are by rooting around in government agencies and cancelling those programs that he, personally, dislikes.

The replacement of our constitutional system of government with the whims of an unelected private citizen is a coup. The U.S. president has no authority to cut programs created and funded by Congress, and a private citizen tapped by a president has even less standing to try anything so radical.

But Republicans are allowing Musk to run amok. This could be because they know that Trump has embraced the idea that the American government is a “Deep State,” but that the extreme cuts the MAGA Republicans say they want are actually quite unpopular with Americans in general, and even with most Republican voters. By letting Musk make the cuts the MAGA base wants, they can both provide those cuts and distance themselves from them.

But permitting a private citizen to override the will of our representatives in Congress destroys the U.S. Constitution. It also makes Congress itself superfluous. And it takes the minority rule Republicans have come to embrace to the logical end of putting government power in the hands of one man.

Musk’s team in the so-called Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, has taken control of the U.S. Treasury payment systems that handle about $6 trillion in annual transactions for the U.S. government, thus gaining access to Americans' personal information as well as information about Musk's competitors. From there, Musk claims to have been cancelling those transactions he thinks are wasteful. He claims, for example, to have “deleted” the popular Internal Revenue Service (IRS) Direct File system that enabled people to file their taxes online for free, without the help of paid tax preparers.

Musk’s team apparently consists of six engineers, aged 19 to 24, who are taking control of the computers at government agencies. From the Treasury Department, they went on to the U.S. Agency for International Development, which receives foreign policy guidance from the State Department. Their breaching of the computers there compromises our national intelligence systems, which must now be considered insecure.

From there, they went on to the General Services Administration (GSA), which manages the federal government’s 7,500 or so buildings. Musk’s people sent an email to regional managers telling them to begin ending the leases on federal offices. According to Chris Megerian of the Associated Press, the person in charge of that initiative is Nicole Hollander, who describes herself on LinkedIn as employed at Musk’s social media company, X.

Today, according to an email sent to employees of the Small Business Administration, Musk’s people have gotten into that agency’s human resources, contracts, and payment systems. The Small Business Administration supports small businesses and entrepreneurs, and under the Biden-Harris administration, small businesses boomed thanks to small-dollar loans to women, Black, and Latino entrepreneurs.

By this afternoon, Musk’s people were digging into the data of the Department of Education with an eye to dismantling it from the inside before Trump tries to shut it down with an executive order, although only Congress itself can shutter the department. According to Laura Meckler, Danielle Douglas-Gabriel, and Hannah Natanson of the Washington Post, Musk’s DOGE staffers had accessed sensitive internal data systems, including the personal information of millions of students who are taking part in the federal student aid program. It is highly unlikely that Congress would destroy the Department of Education, so Musk and Trump hope to hollow it out from within.

On a livestream last night, Musk said of his destruction of the federal government: “If it’s not possible now, it will never be possible. This is our shot, This is the best hand of cards we’re ever going to have. If we don’t take advantage of this best hand of cards, it’s never going to happen.”

Three federal employees unions are suing the Trump administration to stop Musk, and today, Democratic members of the House and Senate tried to enter the USAID building but were denied entry. Led by Senators Chris Murphy (D-CT), Brian Schatz (D-HI) and Chris Van Hollen (D-MD) and Representatives Jamie Raskin (D-MD) and Gerry Connolly (D-VA), the Democrats condemned what Raskin called Musk and Trump’s “illegal, unconstitutional interference with congressional power.”

“Elon Musk, you may have illegally seized power over the financial payment systems of the United States Department of Treasury,” Raskin said, “but you don’t control the money of the American people. The United States Congress does that—under Article I of the Constitution. And just like the president, who was elected to something, cannot impound the money of the people, we don’t have a fourth branch of government called Elon Musk. And that’s going to become real clear.”

Senator Murphy said: "[L]et's not pull any punches about why this is happening. Elon Musk makes billions of dollars based off of his business with China. And China is cheering at [the destruction of USAID]. There is no question that the billionaire class trying to take over our government right now is doing it based on self-interest: their belief that if they can make us weaker in the world, if they can elevate their business partners all around the world, they will gain the benefit.”

Murphy continued: “But there’s another reason this is happening. They’re shuttering agencies and sending employees home in order to create the illusion that they’re saving money, in order to…pass a giant tax cut for billionaires and corporations.”

While Musk and his DOGE team are trying systematically to dismantle the government, today Judge Loren L. AliKhan of the Federal District Court for the District of Columbia blocked the Trump administration’s attempt to freeze trillions of dollars in grants and loans before DOGE got going. AliKhan said that by impounding funds—which Congress declared illegal in 1974—Trump’s Office of Management and Budget “attempted to wrest the power of the purse away from the only branch of government entitled to wield it.” It is Congress, not the president, that determines federal spending.

Meanwhile, the elected president, Donald Trump, sparked a crisis last Friday when his White House press secretary, Karoline Leavitt, announced that he fully intended to go through with the trade war he had hyped on the campaign trail. Trump announced he would levy tariffs of 25% on most products from Mexico and Canada and of 10% on products from China, beginning at 12:01 a.m. on Tuesday, in violation of the trade agreement his own team had negotiated during his first term.

As soon as Leavitt announced the upcoming tariffs, the stock market began to fall, and by last night, stock market futures had fallen 450 points on the expectation of tariffs hitting at midnight tonight. Today, the stock market continued to fall. Even reliable Trump allies began to complain that the tariffs would raise prices. The Wall Street Journal editorial board called Trump’s tariffs “the dumbest trade war in history.”

Today, the president of Mexico, Claudia Sheinbaum, announced that she and Trump had “reached a series of agreements” that would pause the threatened tariffs for a month. Mexico agreed to “reinforce the northern border with 10,000 elements of the National Guard immediately, to prevent drug trafficking from Mexico to the United States,” while the U.S. “commits to work to prevent the trafficking of high-powered weapons to Mexico.”

When Trump announced their conversation shortly afterward, he omitted the part of the agreement that committed the U.S. to try to stop the flow of guns to Mexico. He also did not mention that, in fact, Mexico committed to putting 10,000 troops at the border in 2021. As Catherine Rampell of the Washington Post commented above a record of Mexican troop deployments: “Any news outlet reporting Mexico conceded anything to Trump to get him to delay tariffs has not done its homework. Trump boasts he got Mexico to commit to stationing 10K troops at our border. Apparently he didn’t realize Mexico already has 15K troops deployed there[.]”

The crisis at the northern border worked out in a similar fashion. After conferring, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Trump announced a 30-day pause in the implementation of tariffs. Trudeau agreed to appoint a border czar and to implement a $1.3 billion border plan that Canada had announced in December.

In other words, while Musk was causing a constitutional crisis, Trump created an economic crisis that threatened both domestic and global chaos, then claimed Biden administration achievements as his own and declared victory.

The tariffs on Chinese goods went into effect as planned. China has promised to levy tariffs of up to 15% on certain U.S. products beginning a week from today. It also said it will investigate Google to see if it has violated antitrust laws.

LETTERS FROM AN AMERICAN

HEATHER COX RICHARDSON

#Musk #coup #Letters From An American #Heather Cox Richardson #Tariffs #unlawful coup #The US Constitution #DOGE #Department of Education #US Government #US Constitution #Rule of Law

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odinsblog · 6 months ago

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Veterans’ health care

 A 1996 law set eligibility requirements for military veterans to receive hospital, medical and nursing home care and authorized spending for those services and patient enrollment. That law has not been renewed, but Congress regularly allocates additional Department of Veterans Affairs funding and allows benefits to increase automatically based on inflation. VA provides medical care to more than 9.1 million enrolled veterans, according to the agency. 

Drug development and opioid addiction treatment

Most of this spending relates to the bipartisan 21st Century Cures Act of 2016. That law provided money to the National Institutes of Health and Food and Drug Administration to modernize pharmaceutical research and medical trials. It funded research for cancer cures and state-level grants for opioid addiction and other substance abuse treatment.

 State Department

In 2003, Congress passed the Foreign Relations Authorization Act, which set policy priorities and created spending authority for the State Department. That law has not been renewed, but Congress every year since has passed annual funding bills for the department, which Trump has announced he’ll nominate Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Florida) to run.

 Housing assistance

President Bill Clinton in 1998 signed the Quality Housing and Work Responsibility Act, which overhauled federal housing assistance policies, including voucher programs and other antipoverty assistance. The Department of Housing and Urban Development and other agencies continue using this law to implement federal housing programs.

 Justice Department

In 1994, Congress passed the landmark Violence Against Women Act and has renewed it multiple times since. In 2006, lawmakers packaged a VAWA renewal with authorizing legislation for the Justice Department. As with the State Department, Congress has not approved new authorizing legislation for the Justice Department since, but it has funded the agency — and even authorized hundreds of millions of dollars more for a new FBI headquarters — every year.

 Education spending

The 2015 Every Student Succeeds Act delegated power to state and local education officials to set primary and secondary education achievement standards. It gives billions of dollars in federal grant money to state and local education officials to fund schools and school districts. Those standards are still used by the Education Department, even though the legislation has not been reauthorized. Trump has suggested he’d like to eliminate the entire department.

NASA

Stripping funding for NASA, which was last reauthorized in 2017, could spell doom for Musk’s commercial spaceflight firm, SpaceX. The company has contracts worth more than $4 billion — including for return trips to the moon and retiring the International Space Station — linked to programs approved in the 2017 law.

 Health-care and student loan programs

What’s known as the Affordable Care Act, or Obamacare, was actually passed in two separate bills in 2010. The Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act represents the second bill, which included some tax revisions and technical changes to the ACA. The law has not been reauthorized since, but the Department of Health and Human Services reported in March that more than 45 million people have health insurance coverage backed by the Affordable Care Act.

The law that made those final tweaks to the ACA also overhauled the Education Department’s student loan program. Where some schools relied on private lenders to issue federally backed loans, with this law, the government itself became the lender. That change has since enabled President Joe Biden to offer student loan debt relief, though many of his most ambitious policies have been blocked by the courts. Student loans are generally funded through mandatory spending — similar to social safety net programs such as Medicare and Social Security — and not subject to annual spending laws.

 International security programs

The 1985 International Security and Development Cooperation Act bundled together authorizations for a number of international security programs, including funding and regulations for arms sales to allies, economic aid for developing countries, airport security, anti-narcotics-trafficking policies, the Peace Corps and more. This Reagan-era law continues to be foundational to congressional funding and federal policy.

 Head Start

Head Start provides preschool education for children from low-income families. In the 2023 fiscal year, more than 800,000 children enrolled in Head Start programs, according to the National Head Start Association. The program also helped place more than 530,000 parents in jobs, school or job-training programs. It was last authorized in 2007.

(continue reading)

#politics #republicans #project 2025 #elon musk #donld trump #vivek ramaswamy #deregulation #kleptocracy #oligarchy #department of government efficiency #republicans are evil #tax the rich #the cruelty is the point

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tedcruzhasastupidface · 3 months ago

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Philip Low is founder and CEO of Neurovigil, and has been a MIT research affiliate, an adjunct professor at Stanford, an oncology researcher at Harvard, and earned his PhD in computational neuroscience at USDC. He is also personally familiar with Elon Musk. These are his words, not mine. I'm going to share the thesis he published yesterday. It echoes the same themes I've been warning of, but paints a more precise picture of a defined plan. It's a heady read, so buckle up:

MY THESIS

1. The Panama Canal was just an excuse to invade Panama;

2. The tariffs were just a way to soften up Canada and Mexico before invading them both;

3. National Security was just an excuse to invade Greenland;

4. The Alien Enemies Act was just an excuse to detain Canadians and British citizens, including the tourists held in custody without due process, and have leverage over Canada and the UK before attacking Canada;

5. Grok was programmed to reveal very little about chatter regarding the invasion of Canada despite there actually being significant chatter about it on X;

6. The censorship on Social Media was to keep the People from being outraged, thus limiting their influence on Congress and making the tyranny of the executive possible. There was also specific censorship for people living in Canada to keep them in the dark before the attack on Canada which is the same reason they want to remove Canada from Five Eyes;

7. The attacks on universities and the free press were just a way to scare the public into silence and submission before calling for Martial Law and instituting a draft, which is also why senior commanders and JAGS were removed, in case Trump used the Insurrection Act against ordinary citizens. Waiving the Epstein files, having a copy of everyone’s tax returns, reminding current and former officials he could remove their security by doing that with a number of them, were ways to intimidate the “ruling class” and keep them quiet and pliable (incidentally, Putin used such techniques to initially scare rivals and detractors);

8. The President is deeply compromised. Trump does not work for the American people. He works for Elon Musk. That was also evident from the Tesla infomercial he did at the White House;

9. The Vice President who he met through Peter Thiel was chosen by Elon and works for him too. He is the one who first scolded Zelenskyy and who snubbed the German chancellor to meet the AfD which Elon is supporting;

10. Putin spoke to Elon repeatedly and Elon gave him access to Starlink terminals over Ukraine against dirt (money laundering, Epstein, past or current affiliations with Russia, etc.) on / control over Trump. USAID had paid for these terminals and was investigating Starlink. DOGE was an excuse to kill USAID and a number of other agencies regulating Elon’s companies, including CFPB which was overseeing the Tesla loan program and was to regulate X’s payment system. Elon used Trump to burn classified USAID records;

11. Putin and Elon made a deal whereby Elon would use X and his money, with assistance of JD Vance, to push nationalists in Europe and fracture the EU, help Trump get elected and use their partnership with / influence on / control of Trump to get the US out of NATO, have it abandon Ukraine militarily, without even military guarantees, and leave it and the rest of Europe at the mercy of Russia. Elon would use Trump to end American democracy, abolish the Constitutional Republic and invade Panama and Greenland and at least every place in between, including Canada and Mexico (and again use X and his wealth to prop up any foreign leader in favor of annexation), thereby achieving his fascist’s grandfather fantasy of a version of the “Technate” and rule it as Dictator like Sulla, the Roman Dictator he admires. Trump would not endorse Vance and would support Elon’s political ambitions (by merging the US with Canada, which Elon is also a citizen of, a new constitution would remove the requirement for a US born head of state);

12. The purge of the intelligence agencies, the removal of officers investigating whether Trump was a Russian asset and whether there was election interference, the confiscation of their data, and the placement of some leaders sympathetic to Russia was, among other things, precisely to prevent the Public, Congress and the Armed Forces from finding any of this out until it would be too late.

Bottom line: Elon Musk is Donald Trump’s Russian handler, and he is working alongside JD Vance to destroy Europe, and with Trump to end democracy, abolish the Constitutional Republic, and invade at least all of Central and North America, collectively the “Technate” — sympathetic to Russia and her expanding even beyond the boundaries of the former Soviet Union to subsume Europe — which he intends to rule as Dictator.

Philip Low

PS. I am an award-winning computational neuroscientist and entrepreneur. I strategically design discrete physical tools and mathematical techniques to capture, unmask, leverage or create super stealth patterns in a wide spectrum of domains ranging from non-invasive brain scanning to cryptography. The technologies I have invented are worth billions of dollars, and I am their largest financial owner. I stand to benefit absolutely nothing financially from Elon’s peaceful removal from the White House. As an independent and foreign citizen, I stand to benefit nothing politically from any impeachment of Trump and Vance. I take no pleasure in writing a thesis on any Technocratic Coup. Elon became my older brother when I met him and I always regarded Elon as much closer than my own siblings. However, given how well I know him, and how dangerous he truly is, I feel, as a concerned world citizen, a sense of moral responsibility to speak out, for The People, for Freedom, despite multiple threats to my life.

#Donald Trump #jd Vance #Elon musk #valdimir Putin #Putin #peter thiel #USA #united states #Europe #Russia #philip low

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misfitwashere · 5 months ago

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Clearly illegal

This isn't about cutting the size of government. It's about further concentrating power in Trump's hands.

ROBERT REICH

JAN 28

Friends,

Apologies for interrupting you again, but this is important. As of 5 pm ET today, Trump will halt tens of billions of dollars in federal spending.

Although Social Security, Medicare, and other payments to individuals will not be affected, all other domestic spending will stop — grants, loans, spending to research, charities, universities, community projects, climate, infrastructure, foreign aid, and so on.

The scale of Trump’s order is wildly broad — it cites federal spending totaling $3 trillion — and argues that federal spending must be aligned with “Presidential priorities” while reviews are undertaken.

Officials then have until February 10 to report to the Office of Management and Budget. By then, the OMB will likely be run Russ Vought, Trump’s nominee — and, not incidentally, the chief author of Project 2025 — who has made no secret of his determination to slash government spending (while also delivering a huge tax cut to the wealthy).

Last week, Trump barred certain spending he disagreed with, including programs involving “diversity, equity and inclusion” and and nongovernment organizations he believes undermine the national interest.

He also ordered a 90-day freeze on all foreign aid spending, which has jeopardized congressionally authorized foreign assistance including military aid to Ukraine and the distribution of medications in Africa and developing nations.

Friends, this is illegal.

Under the U.S. Constitution, Congress holds the power of the purse, and Congress approved these payments.

While Trump has the power to pause spending, subject to review, this isn’t really about pausing. It’s about stopping. That’s called “impounding.”

In 1974, Congress enacted the Impoundment Control Act, in response to Nixon’s abuses of power. The Act bars a president from not spending money Congress has appropriated.

Trump believes the Impoundment Control Act is unconstitutional — but the Supreme Court determines what acts of Congress are not constitutional. And in the 1975 case of Train vs. City of New York, the Court unanimously upheld the constitutionality of the Act.

So where is this heading?

Apparently, Trump wants the current Supreme Court to reverse its 1975 ruling — something that the Court rarely does, especially when the original decision was unanimous. But, as it displayed in Roe v. Wade, the Roberts court has few compunctions about reversing itself.

Big picture: This is not a conservative ploy to shrink the size of government. It’s a neo-fascist ploy to concentrate even more power in Trump’s hands.

#robert reich

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fireheartwraith · 2 years ago

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I feel like I should explain ENEM, aka why the brazilians have been grieving since the date of the november 4th event was announced

ENEM stands for Exame Nacional do Ensino Médio (National High School Exam). It happens once a year since 1998, and, although at first it was just to gage how the education was on a national level, it soon became a gateway to university.

The test takes place on two days (that are now two consecutive sundays), from 13:30 to 19:00, and each day the student has to answer 90 questions. The first day is always human sciences and languages (Portuguese language and literature, foreign language (English or Spanish), history, geography, sociology, and philosophy) plus an essay. Nobody knows what the essay is about until the moment of the exam, so there’s always a lot of speculation. The theme is always about a social issue: last year's, for exemple, was "the challenges for the appreciation/respect of the traditional communities and peoples of Brazil", like the quilombolas and natives. The second day tests the students' knowledge on maths and exact sciences (biology, physics, and chemistry).

ENEM is famously a very "read-y" test. Every question requires a lot of reading comprehension, interpretation, and interdisciplinarity. Maybe the internet has done americans wrong, but the SAT's look so easy in comparison. We always make fun of them by saying Harvard it's not actually hard, it's just expensive.

Which brings me to my next point: college! The grade you get on the ENEM can get you into a university using three different programs

SISU: gets you into a public (and free) university (the best university in the country is public btw, University of São Paulo - USP)

PROUNI: gets you a scholarship in a private university (it can get you a 100% scholarship but you need a VERY good grade)

FIES: student loans

And, obviously, the better your grades, the better your chances. You are graded from 0 to 1000 in every subject and also get a general grade. So if you want to study physics, you don’t need to do great in literature, but you should still try to get a decent grade. The more competitive courses, like medicine (there's no such thing was pre-med), can get down to the decimals, especially in prestigious schools.

ENEM isn't the only test you can do to get into a university, though! Some schools have their own test. USP, for exemple, has the FUVEST, so you can get in through either test, but FUVEST is always paid and you can only do it in, like, three cities in São Paulo, while the ENEM happens countrywide, which is why it's so important. The tests are called "vestibular" and the people taking them are "vestibulando".

Therefore, most 3rd year high school students take the test. It's basically a rule to do it if you want to get into a university, but if you are not on your last year of high school, you have to pay to take it (my case). Some people have to go to another city to take the test, it's a whole thing.

This year, the first day of ENEM is happening on Sunday, November 5th. And QSMP's most important event so far is happening on Saturday night, November 4th. May the Lord have mercy on our souls

You can check out the "atrasados do enem" for some giggles though. It's the "event" that happens because some people always arrive after the gates close at 13:00 and then break down crying in the middle of the street. It got so famous people started hiring actors to pose as vestibulandos just to go viral.

Now you know a bit more about brazilian culture!

Here's a link to download last year's exam if you want: first day | second day

#qsmp #qsmp event #brasil #brazil #brazilian culture #cultura brasileira #enem #brazil: putting ENEM in enemies since 1998 #high school #university

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milfstalin · 9 months ago

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[...]

Ultimately, this story about Pakistan is more properly understood as one about the contest between China and the U.S. that pits the rest of the world in the middle. Chinese officials, we learned, regularly told their Pakistani counterparts that Beijing doesn’t see the contest as zero sum, that it’s okay to be friendly with both major powers. The U.S. does not quite see it that way, and Pakistan knows it. The result is the story below. If you’re at all interested in foreign affairs, we think you’ll find this one enlightening.

[...]

In October of 2022, a pivotal year for Pakistan, military chief Qamar Javed Bajwa finally won what he had long been striving for: an official state trip to the United States. His mission was explicit; a document prepared for Bajwa ahead of the visit is titled, “U.S. Re-Engagement with Pakistan: Ideas for Reviving an Important Relationship.”

[...]

From New York, Munir Akram, Pakistan’s representative to the United Nations, began reporting back cables highlighting “sarcastic” comments from his Chinese counterpart, who openly tweaked Akram about Pakistan’s sudden swing toward Washington. In private conversations with their Pakistani counterparts over the past year, as reported by Pakistani diplomats, Chinese officials have expressed displeasure with Islamabad for “switching camps”—rather than merely seeking open relations with both countries.

Now, with their U.S. gamble failing to pay off, Pakistani officials have become increasingly frantic in their efforts to repair relations with China, including, asthe documents reveal, by granting China approval for a military base at the port of Gwadar—a major and longstanding strategic demand of Beijing—and authorizing joint military operations inside Pakistan.

[...]

Internal reports emphasize Pakistan’s wish that its relations with the U.S. and China not be “zero-sum.” “What the Pakistani military prefers is to be able to maintain a balance between their Chinese and U.S. military relationships,” said Adam Weinstein, deputy director of the Middle East program at the Quincy Institute and an analyst on Pakistan. “They believe that if things are balanced, both sides will have an incentive to keep relations strong.”

Despite this preference, a classified internal Pakistani intelligence assessment judges China to be a more “natural strategic ally” than the U.S., with whom Pakistan is deemed to share “limited” strategic interests.

Facing such loss of trust from a key ally, the documents also show that Pakistan’s military-backed government privately promised Beijing a long-coveted concession: a Chinese military base in the key port city of Gwadar. Gwadar is a key node in China’s Belt-and-Road Initiative—the last stop in a land corridor through Pakistan that would connect China’s economy westward, and make it less reliant on shipping transit in the South China Sea.

In return, Pakistan asked for a major upgrade in economic and military assistance from Beijing in order to insulate Islamabad from the fierce reaction from the U.S. such a deal is expected to provoke.

[...]

This August, Pakistani government sources vented frustration to the media over their failed reconciliation with the U.S., lamenting the meager benefits that mending ties had brought. Government sources told the Express Tribune that “Pakistan’s reliance on the United States to secure the IMF package was not yielding the results.” This week, the IMF announced a decision to consider Pakistan’s loan request at an upcoming meeting slated for September 25, raising hopes that a deal may still be secured.

Pakistan’s private concessions to China come as the U.S. State Department has continued to publicly defend the military regime from criticism over its role in rigging elections this February, gross human rights abuses inside the country targeting the press and civil society, and an ongoing crackdown on supporters of now-imprisoned former Prime Minister Khan. That crackdown now includes credible threats to Khan’s life, as he continues to be held in government custody despite repeated rejection by the courts of the charges against him.

“We believe good governance, long-term capacity building, and sustainable market-based approaches that let the private sector flourish are the best paths to sustained growth and development,” the State Department told Drop Site News in its post-publication statement. “Our partnership with Pakistan spans the full range of regional and bilateral issues, including increasing trade and investment, strengthening security cooperation, promoting regional security and stability, building climate resilience, supporting democracy and human rights, and expanding people-to-people ties.”

The rigging of elections this February was met with general indifference in Washington, as has the ongoing suppression of press and political activism in the country. On the economic front, Pakistan’s imploding economy has consumed Western aid with nothing to show for it but soaring inflation, blackouts, an internet slowed to a crawl, and joblessness.

18 Sept 2024

#china #pakistan #geopolitics #drop site news #us imperialism #imperialism #article

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mastermark1960 · 11 months ago

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I am a proud American that is shocked by the stupidity of both the left and right. The left for having no clue about how money works and the right for not stopping the insanity. Abraham Lincoln once said a house divided against itself can not stand. Truer words were never spoken. We are a divided nation due to the political manipulations of the one world order. Our great nation is being eaten alive by the ignorance of the left and right. Ignorance is curable and stupidity is terminal. Please do not be stupid. Contrary to how the left and right thinks deficit spending is not ok. I'm here to inform you that it needs to stop NOW. The way to stop this is not with ever higher taxes but through sound fiscal policies. Corporations need to bring our jobs home. Corporations need to invest in training programs to teach welfare recipients skills allowing them to be productive members of society. A collage education is not a necessary prerequisite to prosperity and in fact has harmed way to many young people.

Ever hear of student loan forgiveness? Working to better your life and to have pride in their accomplishments needs to be an important goal in rebuilding our great country. Remember this proverb. Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day. Teach him how to fish and you feed him for a lifetime.

It is an old proverb and should have included women. We as a nation need to teach every American how to fish. We need to dismantle the nanny state so every American, no matter their race, creed, color, or religion, is proud of their country and themselves. The only people we should take care of are those with sever physical or mental disabilities. We also need to stop foreign aid that gives the United States of America no direct benefit. Corporate greed needs to end. Personal greed needs to end. We all need to work together to repair our great country ASAP. Please read the website main street economics. Get educated on how we are spending ourselves out of a country. I am neither a Democrat nor a Republican. I am a fiscal conservative. We are currently borrowing money to service the debt and this is not sustainable. If you hate the United States of America please leave. We don't need or want you among us. There is no room for hate of any kind in my great country. We Americans need to work together towards this common goal or face the same fate as the Roman empire.. Thank you for reading my post. I hope everyone has a bright and prosperous future.

#democrats #republicans #war is real #fiscal responsibility #donald trump #kamala harris #joe biden #united states #united we stand #divided we fall #education #collage

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karadin · 4 months ago

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While you were sleeping ...

Federal Judge blocks Musk from firing federal employees through the Office of Personnel Management

Republican Congress passes a bill in the House to slash Medicaid and SNAP (food stamp) funding in order to give a 4 TRILLION dollar tax cut to the wealthiest of the 1%.

Republican Senate passes bill to tackle defense spending and other priorities first while leaving cuts to social programs in another bill. Trump backs the House plan. No democrats voted on behalf of either bill.

Trump administration blocks the access of student loan borrowers to process, file and consolidate loans through the Student Aid.Gov website.

Go to your loan servicing site, in some cases you can upload forms, but you can still do your loan work via phone or by mail. Look for the IDR paperwork online, even if it states it's an older form, it does not hurt to try. You can find address for mailing on your loan servicers site.

If you need to do your annual reporting of income, contact your loan servicers or mail them proof of income, tax return or at least 2 paystubs and send them a letter with your name, address, phone, email and your loan account number.

Go to your student loan accounts online and record you most current statement, in case you will have to prove the status of your loan, balances etc, at a future date. Consider switching your notifications from email to paper.

If you are switching from the SAVE program to another form of income based repayment, IBR is still available and as yet, untouched as it was mandated by Congress.

DC Judge blocks Trump administration from freezing ANY federal grants and loans

A Judge blocks Trump administration from stopping federal refugee program

Judge blocks Trump administration from freezing or stopping any foreign aid contracts - however SC Justice Roberts put a pause on this ruling

Musk fires employees at National Oceanic and Atmospheric Agency (Republicans want to privatize weather reporting and suppress news on climate change)

Trump wants to privatize the United States Postal Service, merging it into the Commerce Department.

Elon Musk is given the task of re-vamping the Federal Aviation Administration flight programs, stealing a contract worth billions from Verizon FAA employees were illegally fired and replaced by Space X workers (Trump states that he is leaving it to Elon Musk to decide his own conflicts of interest, as Musk has many government contracts, in fact, the fed contracts are keeping Musk in the red, as his unpopularity to tanking his value in Tesla.

#while you were sleeping #student loans #us students loans #save program #income based repayment #ibr loan #usps #noaa #trump court losses #elon musk #faa #trump administration #democracy #us politics

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4bttnra · 5 months ago

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Heather Cox Richardson

February 3, 2025 (Monday)

But they are not doing that.

When Trump announced their conversation shortly afterward, he omitted the part of the agreement that committed the U.S. to try to stop the flow of guns to Mexico. He also did not mention that, in fact, Mexico committed to putting 10,000 troops at the border in 2021. As Catherine Rampell of the Washington Post commented: “Any news outlet reporting Mexico conceded anything to Trump to get him to delay tariffs has not done its homework. Trump boasts he got Mexico to commit to stationing 10K troops at our border. Apparently he didn't realize Mexico already has 15K troops deployed there[.]”

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dreaminginthedeepsouth · 5 months ago

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Nick Anderson/Political Cartoonist :: @Nick_Anderson_

Spreading like...

* * * *

LETTERS FROM AN AMERICAN

January 13, 2025

Heather Cox Richardson

Jan 14, 2025

The incoming Trump administration is working to put its agenda into place.

Although experts on the National Security Council usually carry over from one administration to the next, Aamer Madhani and Zeke Miller of the Associated Press today reported that incoming officials for the Trump administration are interviewing career senior officials on the National Security Council about their political contributions, how they voted in 2024, and whether they are loyal to Trump. Most of them are on loan from the State Department, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and the Central Intelligence Agency and, understanding that they are about to be fired, have packed up their desks to head back to their home agencies.

The National Security Council is the main forum for the president to hash out decisions in national security and foreign policy, and the people on it are picked for their expertise. But Trump’s expected pick to become his national security advisor—his primary advisor on all national security issues—Representative Mike Waltz (R-FL) told right-wing Breitbart News that he wants to staff the NSC with people who are “100 percent aligned with the president’s agenda.”

Ranking member of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Representative Gerry Connolly (D-VA) warned that the loyalty purge “threatens our national security and our ability to respond quickly and effectively to the ongoing and very real global threats in a dangerous world.”

But during Trump’s first term, it was Alexander Vindman, who was detailed to the NSC, and his twin Eugene Vindman, who was serving the NSC as an ethics lawyer, who reported concerns about Trump’s July 2019 call to Ukraine president Volodymyr Zelensky to their superiors. This launched the investigation that became Trump’s first impeachment, and Trump appears anxious to make sure future NSC members will be fiercely loyal to him.

With extraordinarily slim majorities in the House and Senate, Republicans are talking about pushing through their entire agenda through Congress as a single bill in the process known as budget reconciliation. Budget reconciliation, which deals with matters related to spending, revenue, and the debt limit, is one of the few things that cannot be filibustered, meaning that Republicans could get a reconciliation bill through the Senate with just 50 votes. If they can hold their conference together, they could get the package through despite Democratic opposition.

House speaker Mike Johnson and Republican leaders have said that the House intends to pass a reconciliation bill that covers border security, defense spending, the extension of Trump’s 2017 tax cuts, spending cuts to social welfare programs, energy deregulation, and an increase in the national debt limit.

But Li Zhou of Vox points out that it’s not quite as simple as it sounds to get everything at once, because budget reconciliation measures are not supposed to include anything that doesn’t relate to the budget, and the Senate parliamentarian will advise stripping those things out. In addition, the budget cuts Republicans are circulating include cuts to popular programs like Medicaid, the Affordable Care Act (more commonly known as Obamacare), the Inflation Reduction Act’s investment in combating climate change, and the supplemental nutrition programs formerly known as food stamps.

Still, a lot can be done under budget reconciliation. Democrats under Biden passed the 2021 American Rescue Plan and the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act under reconciliation, and Republicans under Trump passed the 2017 Trump tax cuts the same way.

A wrinkle in those plans is the Republicans’ hope to raise the national debt limit. As soon as they take control of Congress and the White House, Republicans will have to deal immediately with the treasury running up against the debt limit, a holdover from World War I that sets a limit on how much the country can borrow. Although he has complained bitterly about spending under Biden, Trump has demanded that Congress either raise or abandon the debt ceiling because the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office estimates that the tax cuts he wants to extend will add $4.6 trillion to the deficit over the next ten years, and cost estimates for his deportation plans range from $88 billion to $315 billion a year.

Republicans are backing away from adding a debt increase to the budget reconciliation package out of concern that members of the far-right Freedom Caucus will kill the entire bill if they do. Those members want no part of raising the national debt and have demanded $2 trillion in budget cuts before they will consider it. Tonight, Senate majority leader John Thune (R-SD) told Jordain Carney of Politico that Senate Republicans expect the debt limit to be stripped out of the budget reconciliation measure.

So Republicans are currently exploring the idea of leveraging aid to California for the deadly fires in order to get Democrats to sign on to raising the debt ceiling. Meredith Lee Hill of Politico reported that Trump met with a group of influential House Republicans over dinner Sunday night at Mar-a-Lago to discuss tying aid for the wildfires to raising the debt ceiling. Today, House speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) confirmed to reporter Hill that this plan is under discussion.

Indeed, Republicans have been in the media suggesting that disaster aid to Democratic states should be tied to their adopting Republican policies. The Los Angeles fires have now claimed at least 24 lives. More than 15,000 firefighters are working to extinguish the wildfires, which have been driven by Santa Ana winds of up to 98 miles (158 km) an hour over ground scorched by high temperatures and low rainfall since last May, conditions caused by climate change.

On the Fox News Channel today, Representative Zach Nunn (R-IA) said: "We will certainly help those thousands of homes and families who have been devastated, but we also expect you to change bad behavior. We should look at the same for these blue states who have run away with a broken tax policy.... Those governors need to change their tune now.” Senator Ron Johnson (R-WI) blamed Democrats for the fires and said of federal disaster relief: “I certainly wouldn't vote for anything unless we see a dramatic change in how they're gonna be handling these things in the future.”

Aside from the morality of demanding concessions for disaster aid after President Joe Biden responded with full and unconditional support for regions hit by Hurricane Helene (although Tennessee governor Bill Lee is still lying that Biden delayed aid to his state, when in fact he delayed in asking for it, as required by law), there is a financial problem with this argument. As economist Paul Krugman noted today in his Krugman Wonks Out, California “is literally subsidizing the rest of the United States, red states in particular, through the federal budget.”

In 2022, the most recent year for which information is available, California paid $83 billion more to the federal government than it got back. Washington state also subsidized the rest of the country, as did most of the Northeast. That money flowed to Republican-dominated states, which contributed far less to the federal government than they received in return.

Krugman noted that “if West Virginia were a country, it would in effect be receiving foreign aid equal to more than 20 percent of its G[ross] D[omestic] P[roduct].” Krugman refers to the federal government as “an insurance company with an army,” and he notes that there is “nothing either the city or the state could have done to prevent” the wildfires. “If the United States of America doesn’t take care of its own citizens, wherever they live and whatever their politics, we should drop “United” from our name,” he writes. “As it happens, however, California—a major driver of U.S. prosperity and power—definitely has earned the right to receive help during a crisis.”

Today, Biden announced student loan forgiveness for another 150,000 borrowers, bringing the total number of people relieved of student debt to more than 5 million borrowers, who have received $183.6 billion in relief. This has been achieved through making sure existing debt relief programs were followed, as they had not been in the past.

Establishment Republicans continue to fight MAGA Republicans, and MAGA fights among itself: former Trump ally Steve Bannon yesterday called Trump’s sidekick Elon Musk “truly evil” and vowed to “take this guy down.” But even as their enablers in the legacy media are normalizing Republican behavior, a reality-based media is stepping up to counter the disinformation.

Aside from the many independent outlets that have held MAGA Republicans to account, MSNBC today announced that progressive journalist Rachel Maddow will return to hosting a nightly one-hour show for the first 100 days of the Trump presidency.

And today journalist Jennifer Rubin joined her colleagues who have abandoned the Washington Post as it swung toward Trump. She resigned from the Washington Post with the announcement that she and former White House ethics lawyer Norm Eisen have started a new media outlet called The Contrarian. Joining them is a gold-star list of journalists and commentators who have stood against the rise of Trump and the MAGA Republicans, many of whom have left publications as those outlets moved rightward.

“Corporate and billionaire owners of major media outlets have betrayed their audiences’ loyalty and sabotaged journalism’s sacred mission—defending, protecting and advancing democracy,” Rubin wrote in her resignation announcement. In contrast, the new publication “will be a central hub for unvarnished, unbowed, and uncompromising reported opinion and analysis that exists in opposition to the authoritarian threat.”

“The urgency of the task before us cannot be overstated,” The Contrarian’s mission statement read. “We have already entered the era of oligarchy—rule by a narrow clique of powerful men (almost exclusively men). We have little doubt that billionaires will dominate the Trump regime, shape policy, engage in massive self-dealing, and seek to quash dissent and competition in government and the private sector. As believers in free markets subject to reasonable regulation and economic opportunity for all, we recognize this is a threat not only to our democracy but to our dynamic, vibrant economy that remains the envy of the world.”

In what appears to be a rebuke to media outlets that are cozying up to Trump, The Contrarian’s credo is “Not Owned by Anybody.”

LETTERS FROM AN AMERICAN

HEATHER COX RICHARDSON

#wildfires #nick anderson #political cartoon #Letters From An American #Heather Cox Richardson #incoming #TFG #corporate and billionaire owners #The Contrarian #corruption #disaster aid #house republicans #MAGA agenda

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the-garbanzo-annex-jr · 8 months ago

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by Jaryn Crouson

Professors connected to anti-Israel protests head programs that received millions of taxpayer dollars, according to a report released Wednesday by government transparency group Open The Books.

The Department of Education has spent $283 million on foreign studies grants since 2020, with over $22.1 million going towards programs studying the Middle East, Open The Books found. The study analyzed the top three grant recipients, Indiana University, Columbia University and Georgetown University, and found that each highlighted anti-Israel professors as distinguished staff in their programs.

“These universities all have multibillion dollar endowments,” Amber Todoroff, deputy policy editor at Open The Books, told the Daily Caller News Foundation. “They get tax breaks, government-backed student loans, and enormous sums through federal grants and contracts. Through these Title VI grants, they’re getting funding specifically for departments that have hosted radical professors, instigating shameful protests nationwide. It’s high time Congress takes a closer look at how this money is being spent, and, with so many new ways to learn languages and international culture, if it’s even necessary at all.”

Universities received these funds in the form of two different grants: National Resource Centers grants, which go directly to departmental programs, and Foreign Language and Area Studies (FLAS) grants, which can be used to give students fellowships to study foreign regions or languages, according to Open The Books.

Columbia received $2.8 million in FLAS grants from 2020 to 2024, according to the report. Its program is meant to “examine transnational connections, develop Islamic studies, and deepen specialist expertise on the region,” according to Columbia’s 2018 grant proposal.

The 2018 application mentioned Joseph Massad, a professor in the Middle Eastern, South Asian and African Studies department, as a selling point for the university’s program, noting that his classes “focus on the modern history, gender, political economy, international relations, politics and culture of the region.” The university received $653,632 in an FLAS grant in the 2022-2023 school year that was used in part to fund a fellowship for a student to take Massad’s “Gender and Sexuality in the Arab World” class, according to Open The Books.

Massad was alleged by students to be biased “against both Israel and the West” in his classes, according to Open The Books, citing nonprofit group Middle East Forum. The professor published an article the day after Hamas’ attack in 2023 calling it a “stunning victory,” and he gave a talk at the university in 2002 titled “On Zionism and Jewish Supremacy.”

Columbia experienced intense anti-Israel campus protests during the spring semester that resulted in over 100 arrests and multiple safety concerns. (RELATED: Many Pro-Palestinian Protesters Remain In ‘Good Standing’ At Columbia)

🧵On October 8, Professor Joseph Massad described the Oct. 7 brutal terror attack as “awesome” and a “stunning victory.” He also happens to be the chair of an important academic approval Committee. Watch as @Columbia President claims: “he is no longer a chair of that… pic.twitter.com/rRU32HQnTv — House Committee on Education & the Workforce (@EdWorkforceCmte) April 17, 2024

Indiana University raked in $2.84 million in federal grants from 2020 to 2023 for its Middle East program, and touted professor Abdulkader Sinno its 2018 grant application for his specialization in “the evolution and outcomes of civil wars, ethnic strife and other territorial conflicts; Muslim representation in Western liberal democracies; Islamist parties’ participation in elections,” according the report. Sinno reportedly served as a faculty advisor for the university’s Palestinian Solidarity Committee, which was involved in hosting an “anti-Israel counter protest” where members confronted participants of a Hillel demonstration.

Sinno attempted to sidestep university policies to host the pro-Palestinian speaker Miko Peled for the organization, booking the speaker as an academic event rather than student event, according to the university’s students newspaper, the Indiana Daily Student. The decision led to a two-semester suspension from teaching and a year suspension from advising student groups, according to Open The Books.

Even after the suspension, Sinno gave a speech at an “alternative” graduation for anti-Israel activists during which he praised them for being part of a “proud tradition” and said that their protesting showed “empathy and caring,” according to WFYI.

More than 50 protesters were arrested on Indiana University’s campus in April after a clash with police that left multiple injured, according to Fox 59.

Georgetown received $2.64 million from the Department of Education from 2020 to 2023 in FLAS funding, and it named Associate Professor and Director of Georgetown’s Center for Contemporary Arab Studies Dr. Fida Adely in its 2018 grant proposal, the report found. Adely is a member of the Faculty for Justice in Palestine’s National Advisory Board, according to Open The Books, which is a group that “encourages academic and cultural boycotts of Israel and Israeli academic institutions,” according to its website.

Hundreds rallied on Georgetown’s campus during the spring semester, hosting an encampment that lasted more than a week and scuffled with police, according to the university’s student newspaper, The Hoya. Adely participated in an October rally, calling on the university to divest from Israel-linked companies, according to a separate student paper, The Georgetown Voice.

“By funding schools that teach radical ideologies and practice a far-Left DEI philosophy, controversial professors and administrators are also gaining access to a vast ecosystem of tax dollars, and influence over impressionable young people,” the report concluded. “These funds can be used to advance their research, build their standing as credentialed academics, gain tenure, and impact international policy discussions. Meanwhile, our national interest in these grants comes into considerable question. Are we encouraging more professionals who will be credible in these fields and represent U.S. interests, or more folks who are determined to ‘dismantle’ the ‘settler colonialism’ they see all around them?”

Columbia, Georgetown, Indiana University, Massad, Sinno and Adely did not respond to the DCNF’s request for comment.

#joseph massad #department of education #taxpayers #columbia university

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di-kot-o-me · 3 months ago

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Philp Low on Elon Musk & Donald Trump

MY THESIS

The Panama Canal was just an excuse to invade Panama;

The tariffs were just a way to soften up Canada and Mexico before invading them both;

National Security was just an excuse to invade Greenland;

The Alien Enemies Act was just an excuse to detain Canadians and British citizens, including the tourists held in custody without due process, and have leverage over Canada and the UK before attacking Canada;

Grok was programmed to reveal very little about chatter regarding the invasion of Canada despite there actually being significant chatter about it on X;

The censorship on Social Media was to keep the People from being outraged, thus limiting their influence on Congress and making the tyranny of the executive possible. There was also specific censorship for people living in Canada to keep them in the dark before the attack on Canada which is the same reason they want to remove Canada from Five Eyes;

The attacks on universities and the free press were just a way to scare the public into silence and submission before calling for Martial Law and instituting a draft, which is also why senior commanders and JAGS were removed, in case Trump used the Insurrection Act against ordinary citizens. Waiving the Epstein files, having a copy of everyone’s tax returns, reminding current and former officials he could remove their security by doing that with a number of them, were ways to intimidate the “ruling class” and keep them quiet and pliable (incidentally, Putin used such techniques to initially scare rivals and detractors);

The President is deeply compromised. Trump does not work for the American people. He works for Elon Musk. That was also evident from the Tesla infomercial he did at the White House;

The Vice President who he met through Peter Thiel was chosen by Elon and works for him too. He is the one who first scolded Zelenskyy and who snubbed the German chancellor to meet the AfD which Elon is supporting;

Putin spoke to Elon repeatedly and Elon gave him access to Starlink terminals over Ukraine against dirt (money laundering, Epstein, past or current affiliations with Russia, etc.) on / control over Trump. USAID had paid for these terminals and was investigating Starlink. DOGE was an excuse to kill USAID and a number of other agencies regulating Elon’s companies, including CFPB which was overseeing the Tesla loan program and was to regulate X’s payment system. Elon used Trump to burn classified USAID records;

Putin and Elon made a deal whereby Elon would use X and his money, with assistance of JD Vance, to push nationalists in Europe and fracture the EU, help Trump get elected and use their partnership with / influence on / control of Trump to get the US out of NATO, have it abandon Ukraine militarily, without even military guarantees, and leave it and the rest of Europe at the mercy of Russia. Elon would use Trump to end American democracy, abolish the Constitutional Republic and invade Panama and Greenland and at least every place in between, including Canada and Mexico (and again use X and his wealth to prop up any foreign leader in favor of annexation), thereby achieving his fascist’s grandfather fantasy of a version of the “Technate” and rule it as Dictator like Sulla, the Roman Dictator he admires. Trump would not endorse Vance and would support Elon’s political ambitions (by merging the US with Canada, which Elon is also a citizen of, a new constitution would remove the requirement for a US born head of state);

The purge of the intelligence agencies, the removal of officers investigating whether Trump was a Russian asset and whether there was election interference, the confiscation of their data, and the placement of some leaders sympathetic to Russia was, among other things, precisely to prevent the Public, Congress and the Armed Forces from finding any of this out until it would be too late.

Philip Low

#philip low #trump #musk #election interference #russia #putin #america under occupation

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reading-writing-revolution · 3 months ago

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Week 17 - The Return

Experts in authoritarianism advise to keep a list of things subtly changing around you, so you'll remember.

I asked ChatGPT to take all the items in this week's list and sort them into one of three categories -- Fraud, Waste or Abuse. Since that's the reason given that Trump is dismantling everything, I thought we should use that context -- themes -- to help readers understand what is happening. Here are the results -- sorry if this is really long:

Here is a categorization of the actions under Fraud, Waste and Abuse, as defined:

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FRAUD (Policies that deceive the public or enable corruption)

- Trump delivering misleading, campaign-style speech at DOJ, calling for jailing opponents.

- Executive orders targeting law firms like Perkins Coie and Paul Weiss for their work.

- EEOC targeting DEI programs under the guise of rooting out “discrimination.”

- Demotion of IRS chief counsel to allow Musk’s DOGE access to sensitive tax data.

- Reassignment of FBI background checks to Pentagon to reduce oversight.

- Use of Project Veritas video to justify pulling $14B in EPA grants.

- Suppression and manipulation of USAID, EPA, and foreign aid systems to favor Trump/Musk allies.

- Firing of FTC commissioners without cause, contrary to precedent.

- Ferguson making unilateral FTC decisions after stacking the commission.

- Fannie Mae/Freddie Mac nominee ousting 14 board members with no explanation.

- Promotion of IRS agents tied to House GOP impeachment attempts.

- Secretive dismantling of Ukraine child-abduction tracker program.

- Disinformation regarding autopen voiding Biden’s pardons.

- Alleged attempt to involve Trump family in Binance, which is seeking a pardon.

- Executive order to dismantle federal agencies, including watchdog and equity-focused ones.

- Misuse of executive power to attempt to deport lawfully present individuals without due process.

- DOJ filing to remove judge overseeing constitutional violation, refusing to attend court hearings.

- DOGE reconstructing website to obscure canceled contract details.

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WASTE (Reckless destruction of necessary government functions and resources)

- Congress ceding budget and tariff authority to Trump, reducing oversight.

- Canceling programs and grants already appropriated by Congress.

- Firing thousands of federal workers, including scientists, educators, and civil servants.

- Elimination of EPA science office and rollback of environmental regulations.

- Halting USAID programs impacting public health and research institutions (e.g., Johns Hopkins).

- Dismantling Food Division at FDA and shuttering infant formula safety committees.

- Cutting staff at National Nuclear Security Administration during peak strategic need.

- Dismantling Radio Free Europe and Voice of America without lawful process.

- Canceling grants to Columbia and other schools unless they change policy on protests.

- Pulling student loan repayment options; firing 1,300 Education Department employees.

- Executive orders to abolish national monuments and dissolve protective orders.

- Demanding remote workers return while cutting building leases, harming SSA and public services.

- Attempting to shift FEMA responsibilities to underfunded local governments.

- Halting FBI background checks and replacing with minimal Pentagon vetting.

- Reassignment of disaster preparation roles away from federal structure.

- Starlink systems routed through White House/GSA data centers without full oversight.

- Executive order targeting DEI in Foreign Service and ordering retaliatory action.

- UCLA issuing “recession watch” as economic instability worsens due to tariffs and chaos.

- Calls to annex Greenland and deploy troops to Panama with unclear planning or necessity.

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ABUSE (Policies designed to harm, distress, or instill fear)

- Threats to imprison political opponents; labeling DOJ officials “corrupt.”

- Attacks on judges, including demands for impeachment and incitement of harassment.

- Firing Shelly Lowe, Native American NEH head, without cause.

- Strip searches and restraint chairs used on migrants.

- Deportation threats and defiance of court orders (e.g., Khalil case).

- Advising foreign students not to publish views due to risk of deportation.

- Detention of visa holders (e.g., Dr. Alawieh, Jasmine Mooney) without clear cause.

- Use of Alien Enemies Act to deport Venezuelans, many with no criminal record.

- Deporting individuals despite federal judge’s orders to halt.

- Defaming Judge Boasberg and threatening judicial independence.

- Expelling South Africa's ambassador over political criticism.

- Scrubbing DEI references from Arlington National Cemetery site.

- Ending gender-affirming care for veterans.

- AG Bondi labeling anti-Tesla vandalism “domestic terrorism” without due process.

- Spreading vaccine misinformation and suggesting bird flu be allowed to spread.

- Executing sweeping layoffs without evaluating performance or public service needs.

- Erasing public messaging promoting science and figures like Fauci.

- Blocking transgender military service via executive order.

- Intimidation of lawyers and law firms defending opposition interests.

- Labeling mainstream news (VOA, AP, Reuters) as “propaganda” to justify shutdowns.

- Forcing mass employee reassignments to distant offices.

- ICE intimidation tactics targeting peaceful protestors and legal residents.

- Doge staff forcibly entering U.S. Institute of Peace office.

- DOJ and ICE citing “lack of information” as reason for detaining individuals.

#politics #fuck trump #resist #for democracy #the list #amy siskind

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misfitwashere · 5 months ago

Text

January 13, 2025

HEATHER COX RICHARDSON

JAN 14

The incoming Trump administration is working to put its agenda into place.

In what appears to be a rebuke to media outlets that are cozying up to Trump, The Contrarian’s credo is “Not Owned by Anybody.”

—

#heather cox richardson #letters from an american

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