UPDATED: Plain For All To See

Even if you have a less than fanatical devotion to news and politics, it probably hasn't escaped your attention that the United States has quickly slipped into autocracy. Some might even call it fascism. A reader of this blog sent me a substack article by Emmett Macfarlane that readily attests to this, and I shall not attempt to summarize it here. It is best if you read it yourself.

That theme has been very much on my mind of late, brought into strict relief almost daily. Judges are impugned; judicial orders are ignored; security clearances are being revoked. Increasingly, the long arm of Don Trump's vengeance is being felt. 

So what happens when it is essentially made a crime to speak out against this rot from within? That answer is not yet fully known, but recent developments suggest it is nothing good. Take, for example, the length universities are now taking to curry favour with the Trump regime. After the regime pulled $400 million in funding from Columbia University, allegedly for not sufficiently protecting Jewish students from pro-Palesinian protest, the university has supinely submitted to its demands in the hopes of getting that funding restored.

Columbia’s concessions followed a letter from interim President Katrina Armstrong detailing changes the school would implement:

• Security upgrade: 36 peace officers will soon be authorized to make arrests.
• Academic oversight: A senior vice provost will now monitor Columbia’s Middle Eastern, South Asian and African Studies department—an area targeted by conservatives.
• Speech limitations: New restrictions on protests and disciplinary changes are being rolled out.
• Redefining antisemitism: Columbia pledged to formally adopt a new definition aligned with Trump administration expectations 

But critics from across academia blasted the move.

• Rutgers professor Todd Wolfson called it “arguably the greatest incursion into academic freedom…since the McCarthy era.
• ”Columbia student leader Mohammad Hemeida said the university “gave in to government pressure instead of standing firm on the commitments to students and to academic freedom.

Columbia has been in the news lately involving the totally unjustified regime efforts to deport Mahmoud Khalil over his pro-Palestinian activities. 

His case has become a test of President Donald Trump's pledge to combat antisemitism and deport noncitizen college activists who the Department of Homeland Security said “led activities aligned to Hamas, a designated terrorist organization.”

Khalil, 30, who holds a green card granting him permanent residency in the U.S., is being held at the Central Louisiana ICE Processing Center, more than 1,000 miles from his home in New York City. His legal team is trying to get him released.                                                                                                                             

Perhaps one of the worst example of academic cowardice from Columbia is that it has revoked degrees. 

On Thursday, the university announced it was expelling, suspending and revoking the degrees of 22 students following last year’s Hamilton Hall protest, fulfilling one of the nine demands issued in a letter from the Trump administration to Columbia.

But Columbia is hardly the only university being targeted.  Over at Cornell, this has happened:

The Department of Justice on Friday asked a Cornell University student who is suing the Trump administration after helping lead campus protests last year to surrender to immigration authorities, according to a new court filing.

Lawyers for Momodou Taal, a Ph.D. student who is a U.S. visa holder and a dual citizen of the United Kingdom and Gambia, said in court documents that he received an email from a Department of Justice lawyer with a notice to appear — which initiates the deportation process — and an invitation to surrender to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

It should be clear to all but the MAGA cultists that any resistance to Washington's efforts to remake Amerika into something only a fascism enthusiast could love will be punished by deportation, funding cuts, or worse. The ultimate fates of Khalil and Taal are still 'works in progress.' However, given that the universities now seem to be falling into line in order to save themselves, something Chris Hedges discussed at length in Death of The Liberal Class, no one can be even remotely hopeful about their fates.

UPDATE:

In response to something else, my friend John sent the following, which seems especially appropriate for America:

I am reading Mark Twain and he writes of his interview with Satan.  They are discussing Twain’s efficient wood stove that provides comfortable heat while he stays in a house in Europe.  Satan asks if they use this wood stove in America.  Twain  is surprised and says roughly, “ surely Satan is familiar with America.”  Satan replies, “Well, no I have not been there.  I am not needed there.”

He Has Trump's Number

I don't especially feel like writing today, so I hope this pithy analysis of Don Trump resonates, at least with those who are not part of the cult. Thanks to my friend Gary for sending it along.

The Tenor Of The Times

Great thing, Amerikan values, eh?

UPDATED: For Those Who Think We Have No Power

When I watched this video, I couldn't help but think about the woman I wrote about yesterday. According to her, we are such a small market that anything we do to retaliate in this current conflict with the U.S. has no impact.

She couldn't be more wrong:

The video also amply demonstrates how many regular people are negatively affected by Trump's tariff madness. I guess he would regard them only as collateral damage in a battle for a greater good. I'll leave readers to figure out what that greater good could be.

UPDATE: Charlie Angus has emerged as a very, very strong voice for Canada as it battles the madness seizing the U.S. If you have time, please consider watching this video in which he warns us against travelling to that benighted country:

A Brief Observation

I was in my local LCBO yesterday buying a couple of craft beers when, waiting in line, I overheard an interesting conversation. A woman, perhaps in her thirties, was talking to an older gentleman who was buying a bottle of Havana Club rum. While I overheard only part of the conversation, prompted, I guess, by the absence of American alcohol, it went something like this:

"We are such a small market that anything we do has no effect on the Americans. So, I say, enjoy what you want."

I couldn't resist offering a fact-check, and I told her that the American distilleries were indeed suffering, and that we do have a substantial impact since the LCBO is the one of the largest purchasers of booze in the world. Her reply was a perfunctory, disinterested, "Oh, is that right?" I assume she then  returned to her insular world, where things are as she ordains them to be.

I was neither surprised nor upset by her perspective, but the incident was yet another reminder of the cocoons in which too many people envelop themselves, aided and abetted by highly 'curated' sources of information that serve only to reinforce one's beliefs and prejudices. Social media and right-wing news sources are often the main culprits.

I have a relative whose son has a worldview totally dictated by such sources, much to the consternation of his parents. Married with two children, he seems to be in love with the U.S. and would gladly see Canada absorbed by that diseased nation. A staunch PP supporter, he saw Trudeau as a traitor to our nation. Additionally, he sees the world as a dangerous place, having chosen to homeschool his children lest they be indoctrinated by the 'woke agenda' of public education.

And speaking of PP, another person who likes to traffick in disinformation, I offer a comment from lungta on yesterday's post, which dealt with Conservative campaign tactics: 

Think 'lil pp is playing out of the drumpf playbook. Smith (TC Dani) went silent to win in Alberta too. Kamala had a textbook oldschool campaign , remember? And there is the "moron mining" on those vlog sites where you have no responsibility to know the truth, no responsibility to tell the truth, only a drive to mobilize the morons to get out and vote , probably for the first time. That's the audience 'lil pp is appealing to.The big blue tent has the fundamentalists and proud boys already. Just trigger those other guys .

A sadness of democracy, as we know it, is there is no requirement to have any understanding of anything let alone political policy to play.

My optimism is tempered by those previous results.

Now, more than ever, knowing about the world is crucial to our national survival. While it often seems like a thankless task, we have no choice but to continue our efforts to inform and be informed, take action and expect results. We cannot aspire to anything less in these troubled times.

Who's Afraid Of The Big Bad Press?

The answer is Pierre Poilievre, better known as PP on this blog.

Althea Raj reports new restrictions on reporters seeking to cover the lad in the upcoming campaign.

On Tuesday, Conservative national campaign director Jenni Byrne informed journalists that, in a break with tradition, the party will not allow journalists to accompany its leader on his bus or plane during the next election campaign.

This move will prevent journalists from peppering PP with pesky questions, but not entirely, according to Byrne, as she averred

steps are being taken to ensure media will be able to “share any public events, participate in events on the ground, and ask questions remotely and in-person.”

This comes with a rather significant qualifier, as

the campaign will provide an “equitable balance” at all news conferences between local and national media — in effect limiting the number of questions political reporters get to ask.

Why are the Conservatives bucking tradition and kicking the media off the plane? It’s no secret the Conservatives have never liked having reporters accompany them. Some believe the press gallery is full of left-leaning journalists who don’t give them a fair shake. 

According to Raj, controlling the message is paramount in the Conservatives' strategy.

The Conservatives already choose not to hold news conferences in the National Press Theatre, where they don’t control who asks the questions. Away from Parliament Hill, Poilievre’s team often decides which reporters ask questions — and there are no followups. Poilievre has also picked fights with the journalists who ask him probing questions. Rather than answer, he attacks: the CBC, the Canadian Press, freelance reporters he doesn’t like.

People like PP know that social media play an increasingly important role in conveying propaganda information, especially to young people.  That may be good for his political fortunes, but ultimately bad for democracy. The mainstream media are still our best bets for accurate information, given the fact-checking that goes into their reports. No such constraints exist for social media. 

And I am sure that suits PP just fine.

UPDATED: Another Reason To Avoid Travel To The U.S.

As I have been writing of late, more and more Canadians are choosing not to travel to the U.S. for holiday purposes. The American attacks on our sovereignty have rightly rankled people, but now there are additional reasons to avoid the increasingly fascist country.

You have probably heard of new rules requiring Canadians visiting for more than 30 days to register as aliens and be fingerprinted. However, there is something else to now worry about beyond administrative inconvenience, as evidenced by the horrifying experience of Canadian Jasmine Mooney. While some may say she brought this on herself because of a visa 'irregularity',  most Canadians do not expect imprisonment upon entering America.

Jasmine Mooney, an actor who is also co-founder of the beverage brand Holy! Water, was detained on 3 March in San Diego, California.

The 35-year-old Canadian citizen’s work visa to the US was reportedly revoked back in November while traveling from Vancouver to Los Angeles, and she was attempting to file a new application.

Her mother, Alexis Eagles, who lives in British Columbia, says Mooney was detained at the San Ysidro border crossing between Mexico and San Diego, the busiest land border crossing in the world, on 3 March with an incomplete application for a work visa. Eagles told the Vancouver Sun that instead of sending her daughter to Canada or advising her to fix her application, US Customs and Border Protection officers arrested her.

What ensued was nothing short of a nightmare. 

She spent three nights in the detention centre, then was transferred. “We eventually learned that about 30 people, including Jasmine, were removed from their cells at 3am and transferred to the San Luis detention center in Arizona,” Eagles said.

“They are housed together in a single concrete cell with no natural light, fluorescent lights that are never turned off, no mats, no blankets, and limited bathroom facilities.”

Every time Mooney was transferred, she was handcuffed and in chains, Eagles claimed.

Mooney told ABC 10 that she was appalled by the conditions inside the private detention facility in San Luis where she was being kept.

“I have never in my life seen anything so inhumane,” she said. “I was put in a cell, and I had to sleep on a mat with no blanket, no pillow, with an aluminum foil wrapped over my body like a dead body for two and a half days.”

The case did not escape the attention of David Eby, C.C.'s premier, who said

he was "profoundly concerned about these kind of actions" by the U.S. administration, saying they "violate the very idea that Canadians are safe in the U.S. when we visit." 

"The nature of our relationship is so fraught right now that this case makes us all wonder, you know, what about our relatives who are working in the States? What about when we cross the border, what kind of experience are we gonna have?" 

Mooney is now back home in British Columbia, but her experience sends a chilling message to all of us. As my mother used to say, "It's better to be safe than sorry." Indeed, all Canadians would be wise to keep such observations in mind if contemplating crossing the border, and err on the side of caution. 

UPDATE: If you would like to read Jasmine Mooney's first-person account of her ordeal, please click here.