After a few vivid reminders that personal events continue to have an impact even in a post-capitalist, evolving autocracy, pre-apocalyptic time, I am back with a renewed commitment to posting frequently. So much has happened in the past several months that I am not going to try to summarize or itimize all of them….
Neil Young has not been shy in voicing his opinions of the Trump administration in the past, but last week, he took it to a whole other level. Last week, Young released the lyrics and audio for his latest song, “Big Crime,” which, while it doesn’t mention the president by name, leaves little doubt…
Eighty-six (slang) meaning “to throw out,” “to get rid of,” or “to refuse service to.” As much as I would love to see Agent Orange thrown out of office (86’ed), it just isn’t in the cards. He was elected by a majority of voters in a free and fair election, so we are stuck…
I find myself once again reading about the Israeli government complaining that someone (in this instance, British punk-rap band, Bobby Vylan) is being mean to them. Of course, they don’t say mean, they say ‘antisemitic’, but it’s basically about someone being critical of the actions of the Israeli government and army. The offense here…
I am a member of the Freedom of the Press Association, and in the emails they send me, they include how many days it’s been since Rumeysa Öztürk was snatched off the streets by masked thugs. As of this writing, it has been 93 days, and things are only getting worse. I had some…
In my previous post, I discussed Bruce Springsteen’s comments about the president and his administration during his May 14th concert in Manchester, England. The lines reported in the press were pretty spicy and drew a rebuke from the president, threatening him upon his return to the US (yes, really), but they were just a…
I know I have used the word fascism in several of my previous posts, but I wanted to take a moment to go into it a bit deeper and, as a bonus, show how the US Government’s view on the topic has shifted over the past 80 years (spoilers, it’s a full 180°.) Key…
The title of this post kind of says it all. It’s a quote from Bruce Springsteen at his May 14, 2025, concert in Manchester, England, where he addressed the crowd about what is happening in America and his feelings about the Trump administration. As expected, it triggered the president, again showing his disdain for…
To err is human; to really foul things up requires a computer. — BILL VAUGHAN To say I am a big fan of computers might be a bit of an understatement. I think they are incredible tools that can provide value from amusement to life-saving research and everything in between, but that doesn’t mean…
“A federal judge in Vermont has ordered that Rümeysa Öztürk, a Tufts University doctoral student and Turkish national, be immediately released from federal custody. Judge William K. Sessions’ ruling Friday comes more than six weeks after masked immigration agents picked her up on a suburban Boston street as part of the Trump administration’s crackdown on pro-Palestinian student activists.”
This is fantastic news. Unfortunately, there is no confirmation yet that she has been released from the Louisiana Gulag that she was sent to. (see update below) Hopefully, they will comply, but if not, this may be the moment of constitutional crisis with the courts that has been looming since inauguration day.
And further proof, the government isn’t fooling anybody but themselves, the judge stated:
…that her arrest and detention appeared likely to have been carried out solely in retaliation for an op-ed she wrote in a campus newspaper criticizing her school leaders’ response to the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza.
You can read the rest of the NPR article here. If you haven’t already, you should read my previous post on Rümeysa’s abduction.
EDITED TO ADD:
She was released a few hours after the court order. Again, see NPR for the details.
EDITED TO ADD:
“Ms. Ozturk’s release was in fact delayed when the government sought to make her wear an ankle monitor, prompting Judge Sessions to issue a second order on Friday for her to be released without it.” (New York Times)
I want to say the above is inconceivable, but I am pretty sure someone would point out that it doesn’t mean what I think it means. What a bunch of aragant assholes.