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“Once a government is committed to the principle of silencing the voice of opposition, it has only one way to go, and that is down the path of increasingly repressive measures, until it becomes a source of terror to all its citizens and creates a country where everyone lives in fear."

-- Harry S. Truman

News and Opinion

The West’s Support For Israel Is The #1 Threat To Free Speech

President Trump has made a post on Truth Social saying federal funding will be cut to universities which allow “illegal protests” on their campuses, obliquely referring to pro-Palestine demonstrations against Israel’s genocidal atrocities.

“All Federal Funding will STOP for any College, School, or University that allows illegal protests,” Trump said. “Agitators will be imprisoned/or permanently sent back to the country from which they came. American students will be permanently expelled or, depending on on the crime, arrested. NO MASKS!”

Elise Stefanik, Trump’s nominee for ambassador to the UN, made it clear that this was the Trump administration taking a position on “anti-Israel hate.”

“Antisemitism and anti-Israel hate will not be tolerated on American campuses,” tweeted Stefanik with a screenshot of Trump’s Truth Social post.

Trump’s declaration follows a completely insane statement from health secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr which makes the targeting of pro-Palestine protests much more explicit.

“Anti-Semitism — like racism — is a spiritual and moral malady that sickens societies and kills people with lethalities comparable to history’s most deadly plagues,” said Kennedy. “In recent years, the censorship and false narratives of woke cancel culture have transformed our great universities into greenhouses for this deadly and virulent pestilence. Making America healthy means building communities of trust and mutual respect, based on speech freedom and open debate.”

Leaving aside Kennedy’s ridiculous claim that antisemitism “kills people with lethalities comparable to history’s most deadly plagues” in modern times and all the weird mental contortions he’s performing to turn this into a Health and Human Services issue, conflating pro-Palestine protests with antisemitism and then claiming it needs to be eliminated as a “pestilence” squarely contradicts Kennedy’s asserted support for “speech freedom and open debate.”

Kennedy’s bat shit crazy remarks align with an accompanying statement from Secretary of Education Linda McMahon, who says, “Americans have watched in horror for more than a year now, as Jewish students have been assaulted and harassed on elite university campuses. Unlawful encampments and demonstrations have completely paralyzed day-to-day campus operations, depriving Jewish students of learning opportunities to which they are entitled.”

It's so perfect that RFK's first big initiative to "Make America Healthy Again" is cracking down on "anti-Semitic" political speech. Especially after we had to sit through all his melodramatic lectures about how he was joining the GOP because it was the new Party of Free Speech https://t.co/1xryFAuPZU

— Michael Tracey (@mtracey) March 4, 2025

They are using the completely fictional narrative of “antisemitism” on university campuses to stomp out protests against Israeli atrocities in the United States. They couldn’t be more transparent about it. Which is why civil rights groups like the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE) immediately released statements denouncing this move by the Trump administration.

“It is disturbing to see the White House threatening freedom of speech and academic freedom on U.S. college campuses so blatantly,” said Cecillia Wang, legal director of the ACLU. “We stand in solidarity with university leaders in their commitment to free speech, open debate, and peaceful dissent on campus. Trump’s latest coercion campaign, attempting to turn university administrators against their own students and faculty, harkens back to the McCarthy era and is at odds with American constitutional values and the basic mission of universities.”

“Today’s message will cast an impermissible chill on student protests about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict,” says FIRE. “Paired with President Trump’s 2019 executive order adopting an unconstitutional definition of anti-Semitism, and his January order threatening to deport international students for engaging in protected expression, students will rationally fear punishment for wholly protected political speech.”

There's a massive distortion of free speech doctrine being circulated to justify the Trump Administration's punishment of universities that allow "illegal protests" against Israel.

It's obviously a 1st Am violation to condition funding on holding or rejecting certain views. https://t.co/QqqHl85dp0 pic.twitter.com/ldlkLLSN9Q

— Glenn Greenwald (@ggreenwald) March 4, 2025

If you support freedom of speech you now have an ethical obligation to oppose Israel, even if you didn’t before.

Western governments’ support for Israel is the biggest threat to free speech in our society today. Civil rights are being stomped out throughout the western world to protect Israeli information interests, and speech is being suppressed in support of Israel more aggressively than with any other topic. We’re not seeing this level of all-out warfare against free expression on any other frontline — not Russia, not vaccines, not “election security”, not on any kind of ideological front. The west’s support for Israel is the number one threat to free speech in the west today, and nothing else comes anywhere close.

Trump’s latest announcement about “illegal protests” against Israel on university campuses is just the latest escalation in what has been an ongoing assault on all criticism of the Zionist entity. We’re seeing journalists and activists persecuted and fired for opposing Israel’s genocidal atrocities in Gaza, protests violently shut down by police, new laws shoved through at alarming speed to help target pro-Palestine demonstrators, massive amounts of social media censorship across all major platforms — all while the mainstream press commit extremely egregious journalistic malpractice with obfuscations in their reporting and punditry designed to spin Israel’s abuses in a positive light.

Even if you’ve never cared about Israel before, you should be opposing it if you care about the existence of free speech in your society. Hell, you should be aggressively resisting this war on speech even if you support Israel. When civil liberties are being snuffed out one by one with increasing brazenness in defense of a foreign state, then everyone who claims to stand for freedom has an obligation to stand against it.

COL. Lawrence Wilkerson : Netanyahu's Sabotage

Rubio Touts Trump's Steadfast Support for Israel as it Blocks Aid to Gaza

In a Tuesday phone call with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio highlighted the Trump administration's staunch support for Israel—which includes $4 billion in fresh fast-tracked military assistance—even as the key Mideast ally cuts off lifesaving humanitarian aid to Palestinians in the flattened Gaza Strip.

U.S. State Department spokesperson Tammy Bruce summarized Rubio's call with the right-wing Israeli leader, who is wanted by the International Criminal Court (ICC) for alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza:

Rubio spoke with... Netanyahu to underscore that the United States' steadfast support for Israel is a top priority for President [Donald] Trump, as shown by the recent announcement to expedite the delivery of nearly $4 billion in military assistance to Israel. The secretary thanked the prime minister for his cooperation with Special Envoy Steve Witkoff to help free all remaining hostages and extend the cease-fire in Gaza. The secretary also conveyed that he anticipates close coordination in addressing the threats posed by Iran and pursuing opportunities for a stable region.

Rubio's call with Netanyahu, which followed the Republican secretary of state's visit to Israel last month, came just two days after Netanyahu's government halted all humanitarian aid from entering Gaza. People there are reeling after 15 months of Israeli bombardment, invasion, and siege that have obliterated the coastal enclave, killing at least 48,405 Palestinians, wounding more than 111,000 others, and forcibly displacing, starving, or sickening nearly all of the strip's approximately 2.3 million people, according to local and international agencies.

Netanyahu said the aid suspension was carried out "in full coordination with President Trump and his people."

On Monday, Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz threatened that "the gates of hell will be opened" on Gaza if Hamas, which rules the strip, does not free the dozens of Israeli and international hostages it kidnapped on October 7, 2023. Hamas has delayed their release due to what it claims are hundreds of Israeli violations of a January cease-fire agreement, including deadly attacks on civilians and the aid cutoff.

Katz, Netanyahu, and other Israeli leaders are among those named in an incitement to genocide complaint filed in January at the ICC by Israeli attorney Omer Shatz. Israel is also under investigation for alleged genocide at the International Court of Justice.

Bruce's description of the Rubio-Netanyahu call does not mention the Palestinians or Gaza.

Last month, Trump proposed a U.S. invasion and takeover of Gaza, which would be ethnically cleansed of Palestinians and transformed into what the president described as "the Riviera of the Middle East."

Repression in the West Bank EXPOSED in Oscar-Winning Documentary

Arab leaders endorse $53bn plan to rebuild Gaza as alternative to Trump idea

Arab leaders have endorsed a $53bn (£42bn) plan to rebuild Gaza under the future administration of the Palestinian Authority (PA), in a rushed attempt to present an alternative to Donald Trump’s idea for a property development-style plan. Trump’s suggestion involved a relocation of the Palestinian population that has been widely criticised as effectively endorsing ethnic cleansing.

The prospect of the PA governing Gaza remains far from certain, however, with Israel having ruled out any future role for the body, and Trump having closed the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO) liaison office in Washington during his first term while stepping up support for Israel.

In response, the Israeli foreign ministry said the reconstruction plan “failed to address” the realities of the situation following Hamas’ 7 October attack, adding that it did not mention the killing and kidnapping of Israelis during the attack or criticise Hamas. Hamas, however, called for provision of the means to ensure the plan’s success and considered the summit a “step forward” for Arab and Islamic support behind the Palestinian cause.

The new proposal, presented at an Arab League summit in Cairo, focused on emergency relief, rebuilding shattered infrastructure and long-term economic development. The Egyptian president, Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, said in opening remarks at the summit that his government’s reconstruction plan would ensure Palestinians can “remain on their land”. Later, the UN secretary general, António Guterres, said the world body stood ready to “fully cooperate”.

Doc Back From Gaza TRASHES Trump Speech Spectacle

Trump threatens to pull federal funds for US schools allowing ‘illegal protests’

Donald Trump threatened on Tuesday to halt all federal funding for any college or school that allows “illegal protests” and vowed to imprison “agitators”, in a social media statement that prompted alarm from free expression advocates. “All Federal Funding will STOP for any College, School, or University that allows illegal protests,” the US president wrote on Truth Social.

“Agitators will be imprisoned/or permanently sent back to the country from which they came. American students will be permanently expelled or, depending on on [sic] the crime, arrested. NO MASKS! Thank you for your attention to this matter.”

In a statement on Tuesday, the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (Fire) condemned Trump’s remarks. “Today’s message will cast an impermissible chill on student protests about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict,” the group said, adding: “The [first amendment] protects controversial political speech; we don’t use the law to punish dissenters.”

Trump did not specify what constitutes an “illegal” protest, but the threat comes just one day after his administration announced it would review and could pull more than $50m in government contracts from Columbia University over the school’s “ongoing inaction in the face of relentless harassment of Jewish students”.

The protests at Columbia last year over the bombardment of the Gaza Strip saw more than 100 students arrested and suspended. Last month, Barnard College, which is affiliated with Columbia, expelled two students who disrupted a class called the “History of Modern Israel”. The government taskforce also said it would review more than $5bn in grant commitments to Columbia to “ensure the university is in compliance with federal regulations, including its civil rights responsibilities”.

Prof. John Mearsheimer : What I'd Tell Lavrov

Zelenskyy says he will work under Trump’s leadership as he proposes Ukraine peace plan

Volodymyr Zelenskyy has proposed a possible peace plan to end the war in Ukraine, saying he is willing to work “constructively” under Donald Trump’s “strong leadership” and to sign a deal giving the US access to his country’s mineral wealth. In an attempt to mend fences with Washington after Trump abruptly suspended supplies of military aid, Zelenskyy said on Tuesday he was “ready to come to the negotiating table as soon as possible”.

“I would like to reiterate Ukraine’s commitment to peace,” he wrote on X. In an extraordinary turnaround, late on Tuesday both sides appeared to be close to signing a critical minerals deal that the White House has indicated is a precursor to peace talks, Reuters reported, underlining the chaotic nature of the relationship between Kyiv and Washington under Donald Trump.

I would like to reiterate Ukraine’s commitment to peace.

None of us wants an endless war. Ukraine is ready to come to the negotiating table as soon as possible to bring lasting peace closer. Nobody wants peace more than Ukrainians. My team and I stand ready to work under…

— Volodymyr Zelenskyy / Володимир Зеленський (@ZelenskyyUa) March 4, 2025

Alarmed European leaders reaffirmed their backing for Kyiv on Tuesday as it emerged that Ukraine’s Nato allies had not been told in advance of the suspension of US aid. ... Ursula von der Leyen, the European Commission president, announced proposals to increase EU defence spending, which she said could raise up to €800bn ($848bn). “This is a moment for Europe, and we are ready to step up,” she said.

Closely Watched Atlanta Fed Model Predicts Negative U.S. Growth in First Quarter

On the very day that Donald Trump is set to deliver his State of the Union address to a joint session of Congress, with a disapproval rating of 52 percent according to a CNN poll out on Sunday, the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta’s model for predicting U.S. economic growth is flashing red.

The model is known as GDPNow and is highly respected for its accuracy. After an update yesterday based on new, incoming economic data, GDP for the first quarter is predicted to be -2.8 percent. The GDPNow staffers wrote this yesterday:

“The GDPNow model estimate for real GDP growth (seasonally adjusted annual rate) in the first quarter of 2025 is -2.8 percent on March 3, down from -1.5 percent on February 28. After this morning’s releases from the US Census Bureau and the Institute for Supply Management, the nowcast of first-quarter real personal consumption expenditures growth and real private fixed investment growth fell from 1.3 percent and 3.5 percent, respectively, to 0.0 percent and 0.1 percent.”

Let those figures sink in for a moment.

Real personal consumption expenditures growth cannot fog a mirror; They are effectively dead at zero

For the past half century, 60 percent or more of GDP has come from consumer spending. Since 2007, consumer spending has represented approximately two-thirds of GDP.

Trudeau condemns ‘dumb’ Trump trade war as Canada strikes back with tariffs

Justin Trudeau has claimed the aim of a “dumb” trade war launched by Donald Trump is to usher in the “complete collapse” of the Canadian economy and make it easier for the United States to annex Canada.

Speaking hours after the US slapped 25% taxes on Canadian and Mexican goods – and a 10% levy on Canadian energy exports – the prime minister announced retaliatory tariffs on US exports and said his country would remain defiant against the aggression. ...

Canada’s retaliatory response includes matching tariffs on C$155bn (US$107bn) worth of US goods. The first tranche of taxes applies to C$30bn worth of goods and the remaining C$125bn would kick in within 21 days, giving Canadian companies the chance to amend supply chains.

At one point Trudeau directed his comments at US voters, saying: “We don’t want to see you hurt. But your government has chosen to do this to you. As of this morning, markets are down, and inflation is set to rise dramatically all across your country. Your government has chosen to put American jobs at risk at the thousands of workplaces that succeed because of materials from Canada or because of consumers in Canada.”

He said: “Americans will lose jobs. Americans will pay more for groceries, for gas, for cars, for homes.” Addressing Trump directly, Trudeau said: “Even though you’re a very smart guy, this is a very dumb thing to do.”

US consumers warned to brace for higher prices due to Trump’s tariffs

Americans have been warned to brace for higher prices within days of Donald Trump pulling the trigger on Monday, imposing US tariffs on goods from Canada and Mexico and hiking tariffs on China.

Global stock markets came under pressure again on Tuesday, with leading indices falling sharply – and the benchmark S&P 500 losing all its post-election gains – as Canada, Mexico and China vowed to retaliate, and investors balked at the prospect of an acrimonious trade war.

US retail giants predicted that prices were “highly likely” to start rising on shelves almost immediately after a 25% duty came into effect on exports from Mexico to the US. ...

Trump, who won back the White House after pledging repeatedly to bring prices down, has acknowledged that his controversial trade strategy could lead them to rise. Consumers could face “some short-term disturbance”, the president conceded last month.

With US retailers relying heavily on imports from Mexico and Canada to stock their shelves, top executives claimed they would have no choice but to increase prices. Target, for example, relies heavily on Mexican produce during the winter months, and fruit and vegetable prices in its stores could rise as soon as this week, according to Brian Cornell, its CEO.

SCOTUS REJECTS Trump, DOGE Foreign Aid Cuts

Down with "Big Egg!"

$5 a dozen: major egg companies may be using avian flu to hike US prices

Major egg corporations may be using avian flu as a ruse to hike up prices, generating record profits while hurting American consumers, new research suggests. The cost of a dozen large eggs hit almost $5 in January – a record high in the US and more than two and a half times the average price three years ago before the avian flu outbreak. This signifies a 157% inflation rate for eggs – a previously go-to affordable protein source for many American families.

And while avian flu has been a principal driver of rising consumer egg prices, the highly concentrated egg market may also be contributing to the soaring consumer prices – and the spread of the virus, according to new analysis by Food and Water Watch (FWW) shared exclusively with the Guardian.

“Bird flu does not fully explain the sticker shock consumers experience in the egg aisle … corporate consolidation is a key culprit behind egg price spikes,” said Amanda Starbuck, lead author of the FWW report The Economic Cost of Food Monopolies: The Rotten Egg Oligarchy. “Powerful corporations that control every step of the supply chain – from breeding hens to hatching eggs to processing and distributing eggs – are making windfall profits off this crisis, raising their prices above and beyond what is necessary to cover any rising costs.”

The analysis found that in some regions, prices were going up even before the new strain of the deadly H5N1 virus had affected poultry flocks and reduced egg production. The south-east, for instance, remained free of bird flu in its table egg flocks until January 2025. In fact, egg production rose in 2022 and 2023 compared with 2021 levels. Yet retail egg prices in the region increased alongside national spikes, according to FWW analysis of government data.

Even as egg production recovered in 2023, prices did not come down. Between April and December 2023, national retail inventories of eggs each month exceeded the five-year average by as much as almost 13%. Yet the average egg price for consumers was higher than the five-year average each month. In one case, the country’s largest egg producer, Cal-Maine, boasted a sevenfold increase in gross profits in fiscal year 2023 compared with 2021, after increasing prices above rising costs – and despite its flocks not being affected by avian flu during that period.

Cal-Maine, which produces one in every five eggs eaten in the US, issued shareholder dividends totaling $250m in fiscal year 2023 – 40 times more than the previous fiscal year. The Mississippi-based company sold 7% more eggs in 2024 compared with 2021 and tripled its profits over the same period, according to company filings.

Trump launches fresh attacks on US abortion rights

The Trump administration fired off a series of dramatic attacks on abortion rights on Tuesday, as it signaled its plan to to drop out of a case defending access to emergency abortions while asking the US supreme court for permission to join a case against the abortion provider Planned Parenthood.

The justice department said it would move to dismiss the case over emergency abortions, which had been originally filed by the Biden administration, according to court papers filed by the largest hospital network in Idaho. The Biden administration had sued Idaho over its near-total abortion ban, which it accused of running afoul of a federal law that protects patients’ right to health care in emergencies.

The dismissal could come as soon as Wednesday, St Luke’s Health System wrote in a court filing. The hospital has previously said that Idaho’s ban forced its providers to fly women out of state for emergency care.

Meanwhile, the Trump administration has filed paperwork asking the US supreme court to let it join the upcoming oral arguments in a case over South Carolina’s attempt to eradicate Medicaid funding for medical services offered by Planned Parenthood.

Although it is already illegal to use federal dollars to pay for abortions, South Carolina’s Republican governor, Henry McMaster, ordered the state department of health to block Planned Parenthood from Medicaid because, McMaster said, “payment of taxpayer funds to abortion clinics, for any purpose, results in the subsidy of abortion and the denial of the right to life”.

"A Declaration of War Against the American People": Ralph Nader on Trump's Address to Congress

‘Unusually strong’ storms bring risk of tornadoes and flash floods to US south

Severe thunderstorms are forecast to batter the southern and central United States on Tuesday, with a threat of tornadoes, damaging winds, blizzards, flash flooding and dust storms possible from the southern Plains into the lower Mississippi Valley and south-east. Meteorologists warn that a line of powerful thunderstorms will probably sweep through Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama, and could include destructive tornadoes. The main threats are strong destructive gales, tornadoes and at least some areas of large hail.

The “unusually strong” storm system has been gaining strength over the past few days, boosted by warm, moist air from the Gulf thanks in part to human-made global heating. ... There is also a risk of flash floods as heavy rainfall is forecast for parts of the midwest and down into the Lower Mississippi Valley and mid-south region on Tuesday.

A tornado watch has been issued for far east Texas into much of central and northern Louisiana and southern Arkansas through Tuesday afternoon. Potentially historic fire conditions could lead to blazes across the Texas Hill Country and south central Texas on Tuesday, including Austin and San Antonio. ...

NWS meteorologists said temperatures would be highly changeable going through the middle of the week due to the storm, which is moving eastwards – bringing rain and thunderstorms across the east coast. Severe storms could hit regions across the mid-Atlantic towards the middle/end of the week.

US supreme court weakens rules on discharge of raw sewage into water supplies

The US supreme court has weakened rules on the discharge of raw sewage into water supplies in a 5-4 ruling that undermines the 1972 Clean Water Act. The CWA is the principle law governing pollution control and water quality of the nation’s waterways.

The Republican super majority court ruled on Tuesday that the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) cannot employ generic, water body-focused pollution discharge limits to Clean Water Act permit holders, and must provide specific limitations to pollution permittees. The ruling is a win for San Francisco, which challenged nonspecific, or “narrative,” wastewater permits that the EPA issues to protect the quality of surface water sources like rivers and streams relied upon for drinking water.

In a 5-4 ruling written by Justice Samuel Alito, the court blocked the EPA from issuing permits that make a permittee responsible for surface water quality, or “end result” permits – a new term coined by the court. “The agency has adequate tools to obtain needed information from permittees without resorting to end-result requirements,” wrote Justice Samuel Alito, who was joined by Chief Justice John Roberts and Justices Clarence Thomas and Brett Kavanaugh, along with Justice Neil Gorsuch, who joined part of the majority opinion.

The EPA issued San Francisco a permit allowing it to discharge pollutants from its combined sewer system into the Pacific Ocean. The permit’s conditions include prohibitions on discharges that contribute to a violation of applicable water quality standards. The permit included generic prohibitions on the impacts to water quality, as part of the EPA’s efforts to halt San Francisco’s releases of raw sewage into the Pacific Ocean during rainstorms.

Also of Interest

Here are some articles of interest, some which defied fair-use abstraction.

Class Action Lawsuit Against California Congress Members Over Gaza Genocide Goes International

Trump’s Protest Threat Reflects Belief That Free Speech Belongs to Some

Understanding Trump’s Tariffs Effects On World Trade & How He’s Ending The American Era

Chainsaw Diplomacy

Craig Murray: Ukraine, Diplomacy & War

Musing About Europe Without NATO

Patrick Lawrence: Speak, Claudia!

Coca Cola: Made in Mexico, Apparently

Here Comes Trump's Privatization of the Social Security Administration

Trump Set to Whack US Working Class With Historic $2,000 Tax Hike

‘The blue blues have never left us’: a new book examines the color’s spanning ties to Black culture

Nature Photography Contest 2024 winners and finalists – in pictures

Prosecutor DELAYS Response to Luigi Mangione's EXPLOSIVE Allegations of Illegal Detainment

A Little Night Music

Little Willie Littlefield - Little Willie's Boogie

Little Esther and Little Willie Littlefield - Turn the Lamps Down Low

Little Willie Littlefield - Jim Wilson Boogie

Little Willie Littlefield - Rockin´ Chair Mama

Little Willie Littlefield - Hit The Road

Little Willie Littlefield - It's Midnight No Place To Go

Little Willie Littlefield - Rock-A-Bye Baby

Little Willie Littlefield - Hucklebuck With Willie

Little Willie Littlefield - Drinkin' Hadacol

Little Willie Littlefield - Sweet Home Chicago