Ger FitzGerald

A Columbia genocide scholar says she may leave over university's new definition of antisemitism NEW YORK (AP) — At universities across the country, academics have raised alarm about growing efforts to define antisemitism on terms pushed by the Trump administration, often under the threat of…

“A university that treats criticism of Israel as antisemitic and threatens sanctions for those who disobey is no longer a place of open inquiry,” said Marianne Hirsch, a prominent genocide scholar and the daughter of two Holocaust survivors.
religionnews.com/2025/07/28/a...

It's a sign of how far we've fallen: QAnon shaman is rhe Walter Cronkite of the Trump administration.

Opinion | Why Trump Can’t Shake Jeffrey Epstein

"There was a woman I interviewed before the riot really started on Jan. 6 who was totally nice and said: I’m here in D.C. for Jan. 6, and also I’ll be going up to Comet Ping Pong to see the underground child tunnels" www.nytimes.com/2025/07/17/o...

“I didn’t sweat at the time because I had suffered what I would describe as an overdose of adrenalin in the Falkland’s War … it was almost impossible for me to sweat.”

“I didn’t sweat at the time because I had suffered what I would describe as an overdose of adrenalin in the Falkland’s War … it was almost impossible for me to sweat.”

Trump Taps Palantir to Compile Data on Americans

The Trump administration is working with private companies like Palantir to create detailed reports on every American, which could help them weaponize our personal information in their quest to deport immigrants and punish critics.

This is a huge threat to our constitutional rights.

In a dramatic incident captured on video, U.S. Department of Homeland Security police Wednesday handcuffed one of Rep. Jerry Nadler aides in the congressmember's Manhattan office, which is in the same federal office building as an immigration courthouse. In the video, which was shared with Gothamist and filmed by a person who was monitoring activity in immigration court, DHS officers entered Nadler’s district office and accused staff members of “harboring rioters.” A Nadler staffer is seen crying and being handcuffed. Another officer is at a door trying to enter a private area of the office while a staffer asks for a warrant. DHS later said in a statement that “one individual” — the woman seen being handcuffed — had blocked police from performing a security check they intended to do based on information there were protesters in the lawmaker’s office. Later that day, protesters gathered outside of the federal building, demonstrating against U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

Department of Homeland Security officers invading a congressman's offices and arresting a staffer who tried to stop them is very, very bad. gothamist.com/news/homelan...

Legal Group Funded by Conservative Megadonors Challenges Trump’s Tariffs

I'm thinking it's related to this? www.nytimes.com/2025/04/10/b...

By saturating the environment with messages, you can shape how people perceive reality itself. Ellul emphasized that propaganda is most effective when it becomes ambient or totalizing — so that individuals adopt its framing without realizing it, and perceive their circumstances within that context.

Here's my set of takes on Biden and his age and ability to do the job.

1) The decision to seek reelection was very obviously the wrong one, and indeed I'd say catastrophically so. *At the time* it may have been defensible but with the benefit of hindsight, it was a terrible mistake.

Judge says Trump lacked authority to dismantle U.S. Institute of Peace U.S. District Judge Beryl Howell said President Donald Trump lacked the power to terminate without cause the board of the independent U.S. Institute of Peace.

Well, finally - the wheels of justice move slowly... www.washingtonpost.com/national-sec...

Who TF is Albrecht Gräbb? Is this some kind of time-traveling Baader-Meinhoff brain fart?

the list of people who are awake at 3am PST, have access and the ability to make changes to Grok, and is shitting and farting and sobbing about the plight of the boer is extremely short

U.S. and China agree to slash tariffs for 90 days in major trade breakthrough The U.S. and China on Monday agreed to suspend most tariffs on each other's goods in a move that shows a thawing of trade tensions.

Okay, so in huge victory the likes of which has never been seen before Trump puts back on the ground the rake he stepped on four weeks ago. www.cnbc.com/2025/05/12/u...

Also worth a reminder that Guatemala privatized its postal service in 2006 and then it went belly up in 2016 leaving Guatemala with no functioning postal service to this day.

I'll just take this moment to point out that the US Institute of Peace, just a few weeks ago, contained one of the finest concentrations of US expertise on India and Pakistan, and crisis management in South Asia.

Harvard professor offers a grim assessment of American democracy under Trump Steven Levitsky studies how healthy democracies can slip into authoritarianism. He says the Trump administration has already done grave damage: "We are no longer living in a democratic regime."

Harvard's Steve Levitsky, coauthor of How Democracies Die: "We are no longer living in a democratic regime." Must-listen interview - remarkably clear about the severity of the situation we now face www.npr.org/2025/04/22/n...

This is an unusual order for several reasons, suggesting the majority thought it necessary. This was issued:
• after midnight
• before the government even responded (perhaps most irregular)
• while a Fifth Circuit request remains pending &
• before a dissenting justice could finish their statement.

there is no world in which the answer to the democratic party’s problems is gavin newsom

Washington Post screenshot: “Asked about the Abrego García case yesterday, California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D), another 2028 presidential prospect, called it a “distraction” and shifted focus back to the lawsuit he was announcing against the administration’s trade policies. “It’s exactly the debate they want,” Newsom told reporters. “Because they don’t want this debate on the tariffs. They don’t want to be accountable to markets today.””

Gavin Newsom calls Kilmer Abrego Garcia a “distraction” @washingtonpost.com

What an absolute disgrace he has become.

Beyond repulsive and shameful.

absolutely stellar senatoring, no snark, good work

If the IRS deprives Harvard of its tax-exempt status, that's very bad for Harvard but it's also a catastrophe for the IRS. Instead of a neutral agency that enforces tax law, it will become a tool of partisan warfare. It may never recover.

Legal permanent resident of the U.S., showing up to apply for citizenship, with no allegations of criminal activity, is arrested and detained by masked police.
This is fascism, and that is not a word I use lightly.
www.nytimes.com/2025/04/14/n...

Trump Finally Met an Adversary Totally Immune to His Bullshit And it’s not the Supreme Court.

"The bond market is not like the Supreme Court, or Paul Weiss, or Columbia University, or any of the other institutions Trump has conquered, co-opted, or corrupted."

"He cannot scare it into submission. He cannot bribe it."

from @jvl.bsky.social

www.thebulwark.com/p/trump-fina...

If you are in any way shape or form someone who both is *and* understands what it means for you to *be* in contact with an archive of material, you need to start doing whatever it takes to protect those archives, right now.

Madam, your flower shop is toast.

Musk is uncharacteristically quiet on X since Crawford’s win in WI