*** “We must not confuse dissent with disloyalty. When the loyal opposition dies, I think the soul of America dies with it.” [ Edward R. Murrow ]
The Trump DICTATORSHIP, or, is it the “Project 2025” DICTATORSHIP???, claims the right to do whatever it wants. It’s dictating culture, it’s state allies are changing school curricula, it’s dictating to universities and law firms, it’s dictating to state and local governments, it’s changing signs in national parks, it’s attacking other nations, it’s claiming the right to do things the Constitution says Congress does. It wants to control ALL information YOU get – like firing people who provide “the wrong” statistics. The following excerpts illustrate the suppression of free speech. {“Covert unit targeted campus activists”]:
1] “When Rumeysa Ozturk was grabbed by masked federal agents outside her Massachusetts home…Ozturk had committed no crime, yet her detention was a priority for the new Trump administration.”
2] “On Tuesday, U.S. District Judge William Young in Boston ruled that the push to target Ozturk and other students was blatantly unconstitutional.”
3] “The effort to deport pro-Palestinian student activists represented the Trump administration’s first major challenge to free speech norms in the United states…”
4] “While the Trump administration publicly accused Ozturk of engaging in activities ‘in support of Hamas,” an internal State Department memo said there was no evidence that Ozturk had engaged in any antisemitic activity or indicated any support for terrorism.”
*** “When and if fascism comes to America it will not be labeled ‘made in Germany,’ it will not be marked with a swastika; it will not even be called fascism; it will be called, of course, ‘Americanism’..” [Halford Luccock]
5]. “For this unusual assignment, one source above all was key: The [HSI] team relied heavily on the website of Canary Mission, an opaque, anonymous pro-Israel group that says it documents individuals who “promote hatred of the USA, Israel and Jews,” focusing primarily on college campuses.”
6] “Some [names] came from Betar US, a militant Zionist organization that the Anti-Defamation League considers an extremist group.”
7]. “Armstrong, the senior consular official at the State Department, testified in July that he revoked Ozturk’s visa because she was “against Tuft’s relationship with Israel” and “associated” with Tufts Students for Justice in Palestine.. Alexandra Conlon, a lawyer for the plaintiffs, drew Armstrong’s attention to the sentence in the memo saying there was no evidence Ozturk was involved in any of the activities of the suspended group.”
*** “There is no possibility I have made a mistake.” [ Adolf Hitler ]
8] “The arrest was abnormal on several levels. It was almost unheard of for students whose visas had been revoked to be arrested and sent to ICE detention, particularly in the absence of any criminal charges.”
9]. “The way the arrest unfolded startled even HSI veterans. “I’ve just never seen, on a student visa revocation, that level of force, ” said Eric Balliet, who worked at the agency for 25 years…He said he had taken violent drug traffickers into custody with less overt intimidation and haste.” [ Joanna Slater, John Hudson: “Covert unit targeted campus activists”; Washington Post Weekly; 10/5/25]
For perspective on the merits of this free speech suppression – consider the following samples of commentary on Israel’s conduct in the Hamas-Israel war. Question: has Israel’s CONDUCT left itself vulnerable to these and many other criticisms? If so, why is the Trump DICTATORSHIP suppressing speech that many are making?
1] a ‘letter to the editor”: “a Jewish person grapples with statehood”: “for too long..we have been blind to the displacement, terror, and oppression that accompanied our statehood. From its inception, Zionism has entailed the force removal of Palestinians.” [B.M.; Minnesota Star Tribune; 8/26/25]
2]. “Ver the past week, the Israel government approved a settlement project in the Central West Bank, which the country’s finance minister said “buries the idea of a Palestinian state.” [Aaron Boxerman: “After famine report, U.S. mostly silent, Israel defiant”; New York Times; 8/24/25]
3]. “The offensive began the same day that independent experts commissioned by the United Nations Human Rights council accused Israel of committing genocide in Gaza..” [Melanie Lidman, Jon Gambrell, Samy Magdy: “Israel begins long-feared ground attack in Gaza City”; The Associated Press; 9/17/25]
4] “My inescapable conclusion has become that Israel is committing genocide against the Palestinian people. Having grown up in. a Zionist home, lived the first half of my life in Israel, served in the IDF as a soldier and officer and spent most of my career researching and writing on war crimes and the Holocaust, this was a painful conclusion to reach…But I have been teaching classes on genocide for a quarter century, I can recognize one when I see one.” [Omer Bartov: “I’m a Scholar of Genocide. I KnowIt When I See It.:; New York Times; 7/20/25]
***. “In a time of deceit, telling the truth is a revolutionary act.” [George Orwell]
With Justice For All 