Free Speech

 

Tyrants tend to hate educators, journalists, scientists, college students, and artists for a reason. It's difficult for them to DICTATE and CONTROL their words, acts and purpose.

Foreign students who dare to condemn Netanyahu's brutality risk being imprisoned and deported for speaking their conscience. Foreigners' phones are being checked by Immigration officers for anti-trump messages.

Universities, law firms, news outlets, and networks are under attack from Trump, with several bending the knee to his blackmail and threats. This needs to stop NOW.

Actors and musicians are also regular targets for Trump, but they’re not as easily intimidated by the Fascist Felon. They're not as dependent on corporate sponsors and business connections, and have the independence of their professions to allow them to get under his orange skin. 

Kudos to artists like Meryl Streep, Robert De Nero, Taylor Swift, and Bruce Springsteen for having the integrity and courage to speak out against the Criminal President.

If he is ever empowered to persecute and imprison them, he would most certainly do so. Thankfully, the US hasn’t entered this advanced stage of fascism at this point.

As if we need to learn yet another lesson from history, Harvard is showing America how to resist Trump’s fascism.

It’s past time for all corporate news media to take a similar stand.

Meanwhile artists are among the few who can publicly call out Trump without fear of retribution.

Before it was pulled for being too “political”, I responded to a thread in a music forum titled, “Please Artists, Leave your political BS at home”.​

Yes, someone got upset at a concert where the performer actually expressed an opinion.

The person posted, "Not saying an artist, can’t have their opinions, but please I don’t need to hear it at your shows.”

Has he not heard John Lennon's "Give Peace a Chance" or U2's "Sunday, Bloody Sunday", among countless other political songs? (Lennon's "Working Class Hero" and  "Gimme Some Truth" are still my favorites.)

So, of course I had to toss in my two cents:

Generally, the more a politician or leader attacks or suppresses artists, the more I side with the artist.

Mercifully, every country isn't like Russia, China, North Korea, Iran, and other dictatorships.

Free expression is a core value of democracy and vital to freedom.

Politics and aesthetics are part of the human experience.

If it demonizes others and incites violence and bigotry, it's not really art or politics. It's hate veiled as art and politics.

Some people would hate John Lennon, Bruce Springsteen, Lenny Bruce, George Carlin and even the Chicks, and others would detest Kid Rock and Ted Nugent for what they say on stage.

We are free to examine and judge what they say, and also free to reject or embrace those beliefs.

We still have a First Amendment in the US, if we can keep it...

So, yes. Let artists voice their opinions.  We can be grateful most of them aren’t as ignorant, hateful, and dishonest as Kid Rock and Ted Nugent.

~~~~~~~~

And predictably so, the thin-skinned Toddler Tyrant throws a tantrum:

“HOW MUCH DID KAMALA HARRIS PAY BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN FOR HIS POOR PERFORMANCE DURING HER CAMPAIGN FOR PRESIDENT? WHY DID HE ACCEPT THAT MONEY IF HE IS SUCH A FAN OF HERS? ISN’T THAT A MAJOR AND ILLEGAL CAMPAIGN CONTRIBUTION? WHAT ABOUT BEYONCÉ? …AND HOW MUCH WENT TO OPRAH, AND BONO???”

“I am going to call for a major investigation into this matter. Candidates aren’t allowed to pay for ENDORSEMENTS, which is what Kamala did, under the guise of paying for entertainment. In addition, this was a very expensive and desperate effort to artificially build up her sparse crowds. IT’S NOT LEGAL! For these unpatriotic ‘entertainers,’ this was just a CORRUPT & UNLAWFUL way to capitalize on a broken system. Thank you for your attention to this matter!!!”

Democratic Agenda

 

I’m fed up with Republicans calling Democrats communists, and corporate media getting away with saying Democrats stand for nothing but “wokeness” and LGBTQ rights, and that they have no agenda. 

Low approval ratings for the Democratic party in recent polls reflect the success of this massive partisan propaganda. We've learned Republican messaging through simplistic bumper sticker slogans will always be more effective than Democrats’ nuanced discussions of policy.

Democrats need to make more of an effort to communicate their policies and agenda to the public and to emphasize what they stand for and against. I have these few suggestions.

Democrats stand FOR Ukraine, and AGAINST Putin's war crimes.

Democrats stand against CRIMINALS in the White House.

Democrats stand AGAINST Trump, MAGA, racism, white nationalism, and "Project 2025".

Democrats stand for protecting Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, food stamps, public healthcare, public education, and other government services that are CONSTITUTIONAL provisions for the general welfare.

Democrats stand for CONSTITUTIONAL provision for the general welfare by environmental regulations that protect our land, water, and air from corporate pollution.

Democrats stand for government monitoring of banking and corporate crime and abuse of the public trust and for the enforcement of all CONSTITUTIONAL regulation of commerce.

Democrats stand for CONSTITUTIONAL taxes on corporations and the rich.

Democrats stand for an economy that works for EVERYONE.

Democrats stand for public funding of medical research in universities and for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), and National Institutes of Health (NIH).

Democrats stand for a FREE press.

Democrats stand for protecting VOTING RIGHTS.

Democrats stand for reproductive RIGHTS for women.

Democrats stand for an independent judicial system and against politicized or personalized law enforcement. 

Democrats stand for EQUAL JUSTICE under law. 

In short, most Democrats stand for a multi-racial, democratic, representative government OF the people, NOT just powerful oligarchs, BY the people, NOT just the rich economic elites, and FOR the people, NOT artificial corporate entities.   

Democrats should unite in calling out the Right’s agenda.

Along with POWER and tax cuts for the rich, MAGA stands for the glorification of Trump and his deranged idea of “making America great” by punishing and tormenting people, law firms, universities, civil servants, scientists, educators, and anyone else they hate.

Due Process

 

As we are painfully seeing, Trump and his followers seem to find difficulty in understanding what tariffs and due process are.

While not trying to denigrate them, I’ll explain the latter for their edification . (And for Trump followers, denigrate means "to put down" and edification means "to be instructed.) 😉

For the more curious, open-minded, and clever type of Trump supporters:  

"Due process" is a Constitutional* guarantee that applies to all "persons", not just citizens. This includes illegal immigrants. The rule of law with due process is absent in fascist dictatorships and communist police states.

Only in a dictatorship can the criminal leader simply declare a person like Abrego Garcia a terrorist and gang member without showing evidence, (Due process) and then send him to a life sentence in a gulag. The Administration even admitted deporting him was a mistake. The unreliable police detective who accused Garcia of being a member of the gang MS-13 was suspended days later for leaking confidential information to a woman he was paying for sex. Not that Trump and his mob care.

And remember, without due process Trump can accuse anybody he doesn’t like of being, or doing, whatever he says he is, or did. It could be you or me next. Only the courts can stop him from this illegal autocratic behavior. 

Now Garcia will need to move to a sane country to be safe from TRUMP and his legions of thugs. Yes, he now needs asylum from the Trump Gang. 

KilmarAbrego Garcia is 29-year-old man from El Salvador who has been is married to a U.S. citizen and a father of three children. He was deported on March 15, 2025, from the United States in what the Trump administration called an "administrative error" and is currently in prison in El Salvador.

Garcia has never been convicted or charged with a crime and in 2019, a judge in Maryland granted him a "withholding of removal" status. That allowed him to legally work and live in the U.S. He was granted a work permit by the Department of Homeland Security and lived and worked in Maryland up until his deportation.

Now Trump is refusing to have Garcia released, even after the Supreme Court upheld an order to facilitate his return. This is also what a fascist dictator does. 

Even US citizens are being illegally detained.

American born Twenty-year-old Juan Carlos Lopez-Gomez was detained in a Florida jail even after his mother presented his birth certificate in court. Another American citizen, Nicole Micheroni was ordered to leave the country within seven days.

See? No DUE PROCESS!

===

DUE PROCESS IN IMMIGRATION PROCEEDINGS

I. DUE PROCESS

A. Generally

“Immigration proceedings, although not subject to the full range of constitutional protections, must conform to the Fifth Amendment’s requirement of due process.” Salgado-Diaz v. Gonzales, 395 F.3d 1158, 1162 (9th Cir. 2005) (as amended); see also Grigoryan v. Barr, 959 F.3d 1233, 1240 (9th Cir. 2020); Gonzaga-Ortega v. Holder, 736 F.3d 795, 804 (9th Cir. 2013) (as amended); Vilchez v. Holder, 682 F.3d 1195, 1199 (9th Cir. 2012); United States v. Reyes Bonilla, 671 F.3d 1036, 1045 (9th Cir. 2012); Pangilinan v. Holder, 568 F.3d 708,709 (9th Cir. 2009).

“[O]ur immigration laws have long made a distinction between those aliens who have come to our shores seeking admission . . . and those who are within the United States after an entry.” Leng May Ma v. Barber, [357 U.S. 185, 187] (1958). Aliens “who have once passed through our gates, even illegally,” are afforded the full panoply of procedural due process protections, and “may be expelled only after proceedings conforming to traditional standards of fairness.” Shaughnessy v. United States ex rel. Mezei, [345 U.S. 206, 212] (1953)

===

OK. All in favor of the rule of law with due process, a show of hands, please.

Thank you. 

And now, all in favor of dictatorship, feel free to insult, denigrate, or ignore me and my facts. Chances are you didn't read this far anyway, amirite?

Notice what color the guy is, and what he's done, who gets a break.

~~~~~~

*Fifth Amendment

No person shall be held to answer for a capital, or otherwise infamous crime, unless on a presentment or indictment of a Grand Jury, except in cases arising in the land or naval forces, or in the Militia, when in actual service in time of War or public danger; nor shall any person be subject for the same offence to be twice put in jeopardy of life or limb; nor shall be compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against himself, nor be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor shall private property be taken for public use, without just compensation.

*Fourteenth Amendment, Section 1:

All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside. No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.

Maher & Trump

Let's have a look at the recent meeting between Trump and Bill Maher that has become such a hot topic. I instinctively avoided watching Maher's HBO show, knowing what I know about both men. It would have spoiled a perfectly good evening.

But transcripts work just as well for this discussion. Maher's remarks are in quotation marks. Mine follow in parenthesis. 

 “He’s much more self-aware than he lets on in public. Look, I get it. It doesn’t matter who he is at a private dinner with a comedian. It matters who he is on the world stage. I’m just taking as a positive that this person exists, because everything I’ve ever not liked about him was, I swear to God, absent.”

(“Self-aware”? What does that mean? He never stops thinking about himself? What wasn’t absent was Trump's manipulation of celebrities to get more attention.)

“At least on this night with this guy, Bob, Kid Rock told me the night before, he said, ‘If you want to get a word in edgewise, you’re going to have to cut him off. He’ll just go on.’ Not at all. I’ve had so many conversations with prominent people who are much less connected.”

(Much less connected to reality, decency, or humanity? Please.) 

“People who don’t look you in the eye, people who don’t really listen because they just want to get to their next thing. People whose response to things you say just doesn’t track. Like what? None of that with him. And he mostly steered the conversation to, ‘What do you think about this’?”

(Ah, yes. So Maher was actually being interviewed on the Trump Show.)

“I know your mind is blown. So is mine.”

(Speak for yourself, Bill.)

“You can hate me for it, but I’m not a liar. Trump was gracious and measured. And why isn’t that in other settings, I don’t know, and I can’t answer and it’s not my place to answer. I’m just telling you what I saw, and I wasn’t high.”

(He was “gracious and measured” for reasons beyond Maher’s grasp.)

"I had supported him in the idea that Gaza could be Dubai."

(Yes, build those beachfront casinos. MAGA Lite Maher rarely, if ever, condemns Netanyahu’s brutality or Israeli demolition of Palestinian homes, and theft of their land.)

“I never felt like I had to walk on eggshells around him. And, honestly, I voted for Clinton and Obama, but I would never feel comfortable talking to them the way I was able to talk with Donald Trump. That’s just how it went down. Make of it what you will.”

(OK. This is what I make of it. Clinton and Obama are much smarter than Maher. He’s more relaxed with someone closer to his level of intelligence.)

“I feel it’s emblematic of why the Democrats are so unpopular these days", Maher concludes.

(Maher conveniently ignores the real factor. Fascists are better at propaganda because they have no moral boundaries or regard for truth. Far Right propaganda networks have been more successful in deluding Americans with lies than traditional corporate media has been with reaching them with facts. Trump’s criminal behavior and attempts to overturn the 2020 election were sidelined by corporate media’s paucity of reporting lower inflation, their obsession with Biden’s age, and the usual horse race normalization of the 2024 election.)

Tyrants don't become tyrants without an ability to charm and dupe the most gullible, egotistical, resentful, and angry people who’ve been indoctrinated by their propaganda. Maher has fallen for the charms of a criminal sociopath and doesn't know it.

One more point. Let’s not overlook the most obvious reason Maher jumped at the opportunity to meet Trump. He wants MAGA viewers to boost his falling ratings.

No Worries

 

Absolutely!* 

Such gross incompetence should be immediately punished! 

The Dow, April 4, 2025: – 1,679.39

The Dow, April 5, 2025: – 2,231.07

The Dow drops 3,910.46 in two days and Trump goes golfing. 

Nothing to see here. Forget 2012. The Black Guy was president in 2012. Now it's totally different. 

That was then. 

This is now.

Trump, April 4, 2025: “This is a great time to get rich, richer than ever before!!!”

No worries. It's time to CELEBRATE!

Our Tangerine Tyrant is a proven stable genius and is in complete control. If you don't believe him you're a commie who hates America.

*While this 2012 tweet may be fake, PolitiFact Notes: Searching the Trump Twitter Archive, a database of Trump’s X posts, using keywords like "Dow" and "impeached" showed no such post, although it does not include deleted posts before September 2016.

So, even if it's fake, it sounds just like what he'd say.

On June 4, 2014. Trump did tweet, "Are you allowed to impeach a president for gross incompetence?"

Trump Means Business

 

Trump means business with his tariffs! Tough measures are needed! No more Mr. Nice Guy and no more unfair deals with penguins.

 

"In the end, they're not coming after me. They're coming after you — and I'm just standing in their way."

Those penguins will NOT stop Trump from making America great again! 

Their Bottom Line

 

 

There are far too many gullible and duped Americans who BELIEVE every word from Trump and other radical Right extremists is gospel. It's no coincidence that wrapping their dishonesty in religion has been an effective tactic in deception. It's also no coincidence they would think the rest of us are commies. They are so deeply INDOCTRINATED with those delusions that the True Believers will side with greedy oligarchs over everyone else, including their own best interests.

This has been the strategy of the radical Right economic elites since the rise of Hitler. Most Americans have no idea that antisemitic fascists like Charles Lindbergh and Henry Ford HATED FDR and praised Hitler. Hitler’s American fans incessantly accused FDR and Democrats of being communists. It was perhaps their first Big Lie. Like today’s Republicans they were the usual mix of white racists and sociopathic greedheads.

Today the vast radical Right media empire has succeeded spectacularly in indoctrinated semi-literate, low-information dupes who can’t even attempt critical thinking. They’re the sort who’ve been conned into thinking social justice, critical race theory, Social Security, Medicare, food stamps, and other public services are communism and even critical thinking is “Marxist".

Now the fascist elites are empowered to eliminate all the "Marxist" agencies and programs of the US Government that are clearly supported by OUR CONSTITUTION. Social services and public health and education are demonized by the fascist elites because they have no use for them. And they have no empathy or concern for the millions of Americans who need them.

How dare a constitutional government try to have power over the rich?

Taxes? Check.

Regulation of commerce? Check.

Provision for the general welfare? Check.

Wow. The founders were such commies, amirite? That’s all gotta go. Trump and Musk know best.

So, what's NOT in the US Constitution?

"Presidential immunity" isn't there. Neither is a provision for an unelected oligarch billionaire to recklessly shut down agencies on his own whims.

Impeachment is in the Constitution. But Mitch McConell and his party refused to convict Trump for his criminal conspiracy to overturn the 2020 election.

Then six highly partisan and corrupt Supreme Court Justices bent their knees to protect the CRIMINAL President Trump from accountability. America’s descent into fascism and ruin is now entirely on them.

Their bottom line is clearly visible to anyone who looks.

All of the hate, lies, misery, division of our people, and senseless cruel destruction of our government and federal jobs is deliberately inflicted by unpatriotic rich assholes so they can wield power over our government and to grift and reap its largesse without having to pay taxes.

Screw public employees. Screw the unemployed. Screw the poor, Screw the hungry. Screw the sick. And screw the middle class. Screw our allies. And screw America. Trump’s Republican Party is imposing their version of Putinism in America. He is their role model. 

They are actively and successfully corrupting, rigging, and destroying the system to perpetuate their dictatorship. And we are frighteningly close to the tipping point, if not already past it.

They truly ARE the fascist Greedy Oligarch Party.