I think at least for me its time to get active and have some faith that at least in our courts there are people across the aisle horrified with what's going on. I may heavily disagree with their politics but an 80 year old man from the Reagan days standing up to all of this really made my day. Maybe there's a few things we can learn from the old bulls :)
On the general subject of free speech, there are some informative [and frankly chilling] posts on BlueSky from "Home of the Brave". 7 days ago they posted video clips showing Stephen Miller, then captioned the video with the following:-
Stephen Miller last month: "The Democrat Party is not a political party. It is a domestic extremist organization."
Stephen Miller today: "There is an all of government effort to dismantle left-wing terrorism... The central hub of that effort is going to be the JTTF."
Collins: "As the DHS Secretary, would you say that Democrats are a domestic extremist organization, yes or no?"
Kristi Noem: "Their views are extreme and they don't align with the American people at all."
I don't want to be alarmist or inflammatory, but these comments from two senior government officials are particularly concerning. It is becoming increasingly possible/plausible that the move to put National Guard and Troops in to Democrat-leaning cities [with relatively low crime rates] while ignoring Republican-leaning cities [with relatively high crime rates] is not just as part of an early vote suppression program for 2026 [which seemed possible given the timing alongside the moves to have Republican states mess with their district maps] but perhaps, also, to serve as deliberate, intended agent provocateurs, with the aim of provoking local citizens to resist and thereby generate the "made-for-television" [and I mean that literally] evidence that the "Democrats" are a "violent, extremist organization". It would create the pretext to label them as such and outlaw them as such.
It would create a situation in which there would be no legitimate opposition to the Republican party in 2028.
Difficult to know where this goes. Getting increasingly concerned with the complete ineptitude of Congressional Democratic leadership. I don't know where they are or what they've been doing for the last 8 months... but it feels like Democratic leadership are all out with the pixies.
Genuine question. Does anyone have thoughts or insights on the deliberate conflating criticism of the actions of the present Israeli government with anti-semitism? OK, clearly it is in the best interests of the current Israeli administration to brand all critics of their foreign and military policy as being "anti-semitic", but there is a world of difference between those two things.
It's no secret that Rubio, Trump and other leading members of the current administration are banking on the fact that the vast majority of the electorate are too ignorant to understand the difference. They are using that ignorance as a vehicle to enable them to threaten an entire community with deportation for having the temerity to criticize the domestic policy of another nation. I mean, c'mon, citicizing the domestic policies of other nations is like fifth most popular US sport, after football, baseball, basketball and ice hockey.
But that does not and should not automatically mean that "criticism of Israel" must always equal anti-semitism. I have life-long Jewish friends - people I attended college with literally decades ago - and they are as disgusted by the genocide committed by Netanyahu as the rest of the world... I'm asking out of a genuine desire to better understand how this conflation is so successful and how to best respond to people who don't see the distinction. If we're not able to see this, then in essence we're saying that current or future tyrants have all they need to manufacture their enemies, divide and conquer, and commit atrocity.
We have to be better than this. It worries me that elected representative - Democrats in particular, but from both sides of the aisle - aren't better at calling out this hatred for what it is. I'd love to see elected Democrats, particularly from New York where there is such a vibrant and thriving Jewish community, be able to stand up - with their Jewish friends and colleagues and constituents - and call out this disgusting practice for what it is.
Thank you for this article. It made me proud again. Americans will stand up for their Democracy! ❤️🩹🤍💙
God bless Judge Young. He ripped them a new one in spectacular, patriotic fashion. Are you paying attention, SCOTUS?!
My professor said "Hope is an active process."
I think at least for me its time to get active and have some faith that at least in our courts there are people across the aisle horrified with what's going on. I may heavily disagree with their politics but an 80 year old man from the Reagan days standing up to all of this really made my day. Maybe there's a few things we can learn from the old bulls :)
On the general subject of free speech, there are some informative [and frankly chilling] posts on BlueSky from "Home of the Brave". 7 days ago they posted video clips showing Stephen Miller, then captioned the video with the following:-
Stephen Miller last month: "The Democrat Party is not a political party. It is a domestic extremist organization."
Stephen Miller today: "There is an all of government effort to dismantle left-wing terrorism... The central hub of that effort is going to be the JTTF."
8 days ago, Kaitlyn Collins [CNN] interviewed DHS Secretary Kristi Noem:
Collins: "As the DHS Secretary, would you say that Democrats are a domestic extremist organization, yes or no?"
Kristi Noem: "Their views are extreme and they don't align with the American people at all."
I don't want to be alarmist or inflammatory, but these comments from two senior government officials are particularly concerning. It is becoming increasingly possible/plausible that the move to put National Guard and Troops in to Democrat-leaning cities [with relatively low crime rates] while ignoring Republican-leaning cities [with relatively high crime rates] is not just as part of an early vote suppression program for 2026 [which seemed possible given the timing alongside the moves to have Republican states mess with their district maps] but perhaps, also, to serve as deliberate, intended agent provocateurs, with the aim of provoking local citizens to resist and thereby generate the "made-for-television" [and I mean that literally] evidence that the "Democrats" are a "violent, extremist organization". It would create the pretext to label them as such and outlaw them as such.
It would create a situation in which there would be no legitimate opposition to the Republican party in 2028.
Difficult to know where this goes. Getting increasingly concerned with the complete ineptitude of Congressional Democratic leadership. I don't know where they are or what they've been doing for the last 8 months... but it feels like Democratic leadership are all out with the pixies.
Genuine question. Does anyone have thoughts or insights on the deliberate conflating criticism of the actions of the present Israeli government with anti-semitism? OK, clearly it is in the best interests of the current Israeli administration to brand all critics of their foreign and military policy as being "anti-semitic", but there is a world of difference between those two things.
It's no secret that Rubio, Trump and other leading members of the current administration are banking on the fact that the vast majority of the electorate are too ignorant to understand the difference. They are using that ignorance as a vehicle to enable them to threaten an entire community with deportation for having the temerity to criticize the domestic policy of another nation. I mean, c'mon, citicizing the domestic policies of other nations is like fifth most popular US sport, after football, baseball, basketball and ice hockey.
But that does not and should not automatically mean that "criticism of Israel" must always equal anti-semitism. I have life-long Jewish friends - people I attended college with literally decades ago - and they are as disgusted by the genocide committed by Netanyahu as the rest of the world... I'm asking out of a genuine desire to better understand how this conflation is so successful and how to best respond to people who don't see the distinction. If we're not able to see this, then in essence we're saying that current or future tyrants have all they need to manufacture their enemies, divide and conquer, and commit atrocity.
We have to be better than this. It worries me that elected representative - Democrats in particular, but from both sides of the aisle - aren't better at calling out this hatred for what it is. I'd love to see elected Democrats, particularly from New York where there is such a vibrant and thriving Jewish community, be able to stand up - with their Jewish friends and colleagues and constituents - and call out this disgusting practice for what it is.