Tag: Resist

Munda’s Wandering Political Thoughts

Today’s provocation comes from a friend named Herb. His opinions are published every Friday. Here’s his latest. I’m firmly with Herb; capitulating to Trump or trying to appease him inspires him to take more.

Where do you stand on this? Resist, appease, or capitulate?

Any effort to appease Trump only encourages him to seek more illegitimate power

By Herbert Rothschild

After World War II, when the U.S. went to war, apologists frequently would cite Munich to justify it. Their point was that British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain and his French and Italian counterparts foolishly believed that they could appease Adolf Hitler’s territorial ambitions by signing an agreement in Munich on Sept. 30, 1938, that allowed him to annex a portion of Czechoslovakia. Such capitulation to an autocrat’s demand was a mistake that must never be repeated.

Ashland.news-Secretary-Herbert-Rothschild
Herbert Rothschild

I was much too young to assess the justifications for the war in Korea, but not for the one in Vietnam. The Vietnamese lived in a small country that had been under the colonial control of the French, then the Japanese, and the French still again after the Allies defeated Japan. I could see little resemblance between their long, painful and heroic struggle to recover their independence and Nazi Germany’s aggression against its neighbors.

Historical analogies are tricky, but they aren’t useless. Indeed, I believe that the United States now has reached its Munich moment. To compromise at all with President Donald Trump’s demands only abets his quest for unlawful executive power. Each concession encourages him to demand more. When he meets firm resistance, though, he quickly pulls back.

The latest confirmation of that analysis is the difference between what happened to Columbia University and what happened to Harvard. In March, the Trump administration froze approximately $400 million in federal funding to Columbia, citing alleged violations of civil rights laws, including the university’s handling of antisemitism and campus protests. ​To restore the funding, Columbia agreed to place its Department of Middle Eastern, South Asian and African Studies under “academic receivership,” transferring control from faculty to administrators for at least five years. ​The university also agreed to overhaul its admissions policies and disciplinary procedures, aligning them with federal directives.

Encouraged by that victory, Trump then went after Harvard. On Friday, April 11, the university received an emailed letter from Sean Keveney, the acting general counsel of the Department of Health and Human Services, making even more sweeping demands. The next Monday, Harvard firmly rejected the interference. Trump immediately announced that he was freezing $2.2 billion in research funding to the school and threatened to revoke Harvard’s tax-exempt status. Still, Harvard refused to back down.

Lo and behold, shortly thereafter one of Harvard’s lawyers received a call from Josh Gruenbaum, a top official at the General Services Administration. Gruenbaum, along with Thomas Wheeler, the acting general counsel for the Department of Education, and Keveney constituted Trump’s so-called antisemitism task force. Gruenbaum first said that he and Wheeler hadn’t signed the April 11 letter and that it shouldn’t have been sent. Then, he changed his story and said the letter was supposed to be sent at some point, just not on Friday while the task force was still talking with Harvard’s lawyers. 

Harvard sued, claiming that the government’s freeze on its research funding is unconstitutional and the demands for control over its academic policies violate the First Amendment and other federal laws. The $2.2 billion is still frozen, but further threats have stopped.

The same dynamic has played out in Trump’s threats to impose tariffs on various countries. Take Mexico. Back in November, Trump posted on Truth Social that, immediately after assuming office, he would impose a 25% tariff on products from Mexico and maintain them until Mexico stops fentanyl trafficking and migration. Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum pushed back in a letter I reprinted in a Relocations column published in early December.

After Trump assumed office, he veered back and forth over tariffs on Mexico, trying to intimidate Sheinbaum. On March 4, he imposed the 25% tariff, then two days later said he was postponing it until April. What finally happened was that Mexico was included in the 10% tariffs Trump has imposed as a minimum on all countries, but Mexican products that comply with regulations in the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement that Trump negotiated during his first term were exempted. That exemption covers about half of Mexico’s exports to the U.S.

Trump’s apologists say that these aggressive moves and subsequent pull-backs are part of his negotiating strategy, and in a way they are correct. But the real goal of Trump’s negotiations isn’t deals but the enhancement of his own power. His aggression is the way he tests how successfully he can bully his opponents.

That is what he did with Columbia University. That is what he did with the law firms Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison and Kirkland & Ellis and Latham & Watkins. And that is what he’s done with all the Republicans in the Congress. All of them caved, and their “prudence” simply incentivized him to push further. Like Harvard, like Mexico, like the law firms Perkins Coie and Susman Godfrey, like Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, the only way to deal with Trump is to say no.

Resistance breeds resistance. Early this month more than 500 law firms and 300 retired judges asked for leave to file two amicus briefs condemning Trump’s order stripping security clearances from and severing government ties with Perkins Coie. And this past Tuesday the American Association of Colleges and Universities issued a statement signed by leaders of almost 190 other universities denouncing “unprecedented government overreach and political interference” in higher education. That’s how movements grow.

On April 17, New York Times columnist David Brooks called for “a comprehensive national civic uprising” to oppose Trump. In the much-cited piece, he said that Trump is only interested in the acquisition of power “for its own sake” and is engaged in “a multifront assault to make the earth a playground for ruthless men.” He argued that we cannot deal with him piecemeal — institution by institution, sector by sector. We must coalesce into “a movement that possesses rival power.”

Good for Brooks, who was shaken out of his complacent conservatism when Trump assumed control of the Republican Party in 2016. The specific forms of resistance he advocated are lawsuits, mass rallies, strikes, work slowdowns and boycotts. While ending his list with “other forms of noncooperation and resistance” used by past movements that challenged illegitimate power, he stopped short of mentioning civil disobedience.

I think civil disobedience is necessary. Only when the Trump administration begins to jail nonviolent protesters will the diversified mass movement Brooks envisages coalesce. If I don’t get arrested in the next 12 months, I’ll consider that I missed my Munich moment.

Herbert Rothschild’s columns appear Fridays. Opinions expressed in them represent the author’s views. Email Rothschild at herbertrothschild6839@gmail.com.

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More of this, Please

Owning them by their own bullshit is so sweet!

WYOMING:

“Thank you, Madam chairman.”

“I prefer ‘Mister’ chairman.”

“Well you all voted preferred pronouns cannot be compelled speech.”

WYOMING:“Thank you, Madam chairman.”“I prefer ‘Mister’ chairman.”“Well you all voted preferred pronouns cannot be compelled speech.”

— The Tennessee Holler (@thetnholler.bsky.social) 2025-02-22T05:18:19.841Z

Persist. Resist.

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Good Visual

I picked this up from Bluesky.

Portuguese editorial cartoonist Zez Vaz reaches back to Tiananmen Square to call on American defiance.

Right wingers won’t get it. They’ll respond something along the lines of, “That’s stupid. Musk isn’t sending cybertrucks out. China sent tanks. It’s totally different.”

Yeah; it’s not different.

Defy. Resist. Persist.

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Raise Your Voice

Some Critical Info to Help Us Fight the Coup Against the People: Please Share Widely!!

Annieasksyou and tengrain at MPS are sharing resources for letting the Trusk administation know that We The People are pissed.

Annie’s points are worth pulling from her post and plopping here for added emphasis.

For anyone you know who doubts the importance of government services, perusing the links below will also be an education.

It takes a little patience to navigate among the agencies listed, and you’ll need to ignore an “Access Denied” notice.

If you appreciate this effort, there’s a request for donations to help the folks who are making this possible. All donations are tax-deductible.

I see the circulation of this information as a potentially massive citizen rebellion against Trump’s Second Attempted Coup to make us feel we have no power to oppose him and his ilk.

Let’s all fight back using our nonviolent weapons: our computers and smartphones. Please share on your blogs, social media, emails, and any other way you can think of. If you don’t want to keep all the links, you can save the instructions for adapting a government URL to reach the Wayback version.

And please, if you have Republican elected officials, contact them and tell them they must stop this wreckage. If enough Republicans can be barraged continually by their constituents, they may begin to deliver a message that even Trump can’t ignore.

Share widely. Persist. Resist.

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Wezda’s Wandering Political Thoughts

As Google goes along with the GOTP to switch the names of places on maps, it’s important to remember not to get caught up in the wash. What Google is doing is enabling and aiding Trump by encouraging him but also by trying to distract us, the Constitutional opposition.

Trump and his Project 2025 cohorts are blitzing the federal government and U.S. Constitution. They are working hard to dismember and rewrite hundreds of years of history. Our system of checks and balances, already debilitated by the GOP’s craven lust to remain in power, are under attack through a barrage of illegal activities.

Not surprising. If there’s one thing that Trump understands through his years of cheating others to make money and advance himself, it’s how to work the legal system.

He knows now, yes, legal counters will steadily amass about what he’s doing. But just like the deny and delay tactics employed by insurance companies, Trump and the GOTP will deny and delay, willfully tearing down our society and government in the name of power and greed. Sure, it will be challenged in court, and will ssslllooowwwllly work its way to the Roberts Supreme Court. What will happen there? Pretty unpredictable. Roberts worries more about his legacy than anything else. There’s a strong chance that he’ll convince himself that democracy in the United States has gone to shit — thanks to several previous rulings made by his court, BTW. Once he decides that, he’ll cynically conclude, it’s the ones in power will write his legacy, and will back the GOTP’s bullshit moves.

Craven. Calculating. Cunning. Cruel. Greedy. Unprincipled. Selfish.

That’s the Trump administration. That’s the GOP, now fully transformed into the Grand Old Trump Party, an arm of the Heritage Foundation, supported by MAGAs.

George Conway recently said it well: “Because they are evil, we must stand up to them. But because they are also stupid, we needn’t be afraid to.”

So stand up. Fight. Don’t let them overwhelm you. Resist. Persist.

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Hate & Ignorance

Amazing that we have hate and ignorance being exposed here in liberal Ashland, Oregon.

A man, hair dresser by trade, has confessed that he’s frightened and bought a gun for his protection. Dark skinned, he’s from Hawaii. Ignorant people assume he’s from Mexico. “Go back to your own country,” they tell him. “Go back to Mexico.”

What needs to be expressed about such ignorance and hate? They’re being empowered by their pathetic legislators and are being fed a diet of such ideas out of right wing media, false news sites, and the tRump White House. I want to assume they’re ignorant; I don’t want to assume they’re making a conscious choice to be so hateful. I know some, like Steve Bannon, make a conscious choice to be hateful. That renders it sadder yet.

The others may have personal issues. Threatening people and acting violent and hateful may be an outlet for their own toxic lives. It compensates for their lack of direction, purpose and intelligence. I don’t know. Perhaps people that I think are lovely are actually such haters. I’ve been fooled before.

We had another Resist protest march this past Tuesday. The topic was SCOTUS nominee Neil Gorsuch. We applauded Senator Claire McCaskill’s comments regarding Gorsuch. She splendidly recounts why Gorsuch is such a horrible choice: “I cannot support Judge Gorsuch because a study of his opinions reveal a rigid ideology that always puts the little guy under the boot of corporations. He is evasive, but his body of work isn’t. Whether it is a freezing truck driver or an autistic child, he has shown a stunning lack of humanity. And he has been an activist — for example, writing a dissent on a case that had been settled, in what appears to be an attempt to audition for his current nomination.” The entire read is worthwhile.

We ended up detouring into side conversations, like Russia’s role in our last election, the fact that Republicans kept Obama from filling the vacancy and now claim that the ‘people have spoken’. Oh, the reek of bullshit.

Republican legislators are trying to avoid their constituents as their constituents express their anger and frustration with what’s happening in and with the Federal government. Voters have taken to attending town hall meetings with red disagree cards. Those brave Republican legislators are having anyone with such cards on them turned away. They are such cowards, and demonstrate fear and ignorance themselves. How can we expect more from their followers and supporters.

A woman wrote on Facebook, “Oh, you liberals. Quit whining. We’re not like North Korea. We’re not beheading people like ISIS is doing, or kidnapping people like they are in Africa.”

Such comments anger me. We’re striving for the highest ideals of freedom, justice, equality and tolerance, and you’re trying to lower the bar. No wonder you’re behind such an ignorant President.

Weeks like these are good for my waistline. I don’t eat too much. Reading about the political and business insanity kills my appetite.

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The Last Four Movies

We’ve seen four movies in five days to cap off our annual Oscar whirl. I already posted about the terrific animated film, ‘Kubo and the Two Strings’. Following it was an absurdist black comedy, ‘The Lobster’. 

Colin Ferrell, Rachel Weitz and Jenna Coleman star. These are all actors I enjoy. Their portrayals in this were all low energy, as if people were straining to comprehend what was happening. Emotional responses were muted, like too much emotion had already been expended in their lives.

We follow Colin Ferrell’s character from his arrival at the hotel and orientation. One hand is cuffed so he could appreciate, “Two is better.” The premise, that if you don’t have a mate, you will be turned into an animal, and that this is now the accepted social norm, is never explained. Nor is the hotel’s limitations on clothing so that everyone is dressed in the same manner, or having the women hunt in dresses. It’s absurd, right? None of the concepts underlying the plot are explained. You just go along with it. Strange, but engaging.

Behind ‘The Lobster’ came something one hundred and eight degrees different: an animated film about animals as people, ‘Zootopia’. The movie takes it name from the animal nation’s major urban area, Zootopia. Central to the is Judy Hopper’s dream of being a police officer, and her life as the first bunny copper in Zootopia. A crime spree has sprung up in which animals are disappearing. It’s a good movie for young people to watch. One of the baristas, a twenty year old, has watched it four times while baby-sitting children. Her take is that its message is not to stereotype people, which is demonstrated by individual’s roles as wolves, foxes, weasels, sheep and bunnies. It is more, she acknowledged. The movie takes on bullying, determination and persistence, and pursuing your goals despite obstacles. All of this is done through a clever, humorous lens that’s more slanted toward adults, such as the lemmings, all dressed the same, leaving the Lemmings Brothers building.

My wife asked, which movie, ‘Zootopia’ or ‘Kubo and the Two Strings’ would receive my Oscar vote? I loved Kubo’s beautiful, amazing artwork, and the film’s ethereal aura. I also enjoyed and admired the plucky young main character’s good nature and determination. Yet, ‘Zootopia’ edged it out to receive my vote. Kubo is better at art; I thought ‘Zootopia’ was better at entertainment. A fun movie, ‘Zootopia’ kept my interest. I would have given the Oscar to ‘Zootopia’, but the edge was the thickness of a sheet of paper.

Last, last night, we watched the documentary, ‘13th‘.  This film meticulously states facts connecting the end of the civil war and the transition from black people being slaves as owned property to slaves as criminals. The documentary attacks the issues from multiple points of view, laying out a convincing narrative that letting slaves go wasn’t financially acceptable, and all the manners in which blacks, especially men, were portrayed in popular media and entertainment as criminals, thugs and murders.

Blacks naturally reacted. As blacks reacted, whites reacted. We follow the political arc, beginning with the Thirteenth Amendment. The Thirteenth Amendment abolished slavery and involuntary servitude, except as punishment for a crime. There was the out, the loophole. Blacks were locked up in greater and greater numbers as drug use was criminalized by the legal system. ALEC – American Legislative Exchange Council – established its agenda of feeding states the legislative measures and acts that furthered a reactionary social agenda but also helped its members realize increasing profits through state laws. From that, CCA – the Corrections Corporation of America, an ironic name if ever heard – is born, as is the monetized incarceration system that establishes prisons as profit centers. Now America has fallen from leading the world in many areas, but has managed to imprison more people than any other nation. And disproportionately imprisoned are blacks, and more specifically, black men.

It’s demonstrated in the documentary how the system is gained so that many blacks who are arrested, even when they’ve not committed a crime, are never convicted of a crime but end up spending time in jails and prisons through plea bargains, and how the fear of the maximum sentence is leveraged to encourage plea bargaining.

Senator Cory Booker points out that most race riots begin with incidents of police brutality. The hype over the threat from the Black Panthers is portrayed as the greatest danger to America. Footage Angela Davis’ gripping, powerful testimony in her trail is presented.

Politically, Lee Atwater’s notorious recordings are heard about how to manipulate voters. Willie Horton is brought up again, and how it turned the election for Bush. Bill Clinton’s role and his erroneous policies are shown, and their tangible impact, along with the insane, ‘Three Strikes Law’.

Political hype feeds fears; fears led to election victories; election victories lead to increased demonizing of blacks; increased demonizing leads to greater criminalizing, which develops into greater profits. A direct result is Donald Trump’ s election as ‘the law and order president’. His boogeyman are the brown people, refugees and immigrants. Guess which pretty little group of white dominated men is profiting from increased worries about immigrants and refugees?

Yes, ALEC.

As a final straw, prisons are being used as source for cheap labor for American companies to build their products. Meanwhile, poor, unemployed and underemployed people are distracted into believing the problems lie with immigrants, refugees and terrorists. And as each political party tries to regain office, they must outdo the previous administration’s stance as being tough on law and order. President Obama was finally one to begin to point out what was happening; Hillary changed her stance from hard on crime to intelligent on crime.

I recommend you see the film.

So here we have these movies, which teach our children to be strong and unafraid, to be honest and hopeful, along with one mocking our position on marriage as an institution, and finally one demonstrating the truth about how politicians and corporations manipulate and guide people to fear and hate, and vote and profits.

This, by the way, is why I march against Trump’s Agenda.

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