Trump Regime Blows Up Harvard and Students' Lives - The Friday AM Quickie 5/23/25
There's a valuable lesson in the tale of social media user "leftits," who allegedly spat on MAGA hack prosecutor Ed Martin, then bragged about it online. I'll leave it for you to discern the lesson. I'm off, Whitney's back Monday! - Corey
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THE BIG NEWS
MAGA Demolition of Higher Ed Enters Scary New Phase
In retaliation for Harvard University standing up to the Trump regime's attempt to take over its administrative functions and dismantle academic freedom across the country, Homeland Security Secretary Kirsti Noem yesterday revoked the university's certification to enroll international students. According to the New York Times, some 6,800 international students attend Harvard, accounting for more than a quarter of the student body. Harvard calls the government's action "unlawful." It's also batsh*t crazy authoritarianism run amok.
As the Washington Post reports, Noem accuses Harvard of "allowing 'anti-American, pro-terrorist' foreigners 'to harass and physically assault individuals'" as well as "working with the Chinese Communist Party by hosting and training members of its paramilitary group." Administrators have been given 72 hours to hand over their records, including photos and videos, on international students, with a special focus on those who engaged in "protest activity on or off campus over the past five years." One free speech advocate frames the order as an anti-American demand for Harvard to set up a surveillance state.
Harvard's international students, per the order, must transfer to another institution or be expelled from the country. But there's reason to think the regime's campaign to destroy education in the US will stop with its wealthiest university, when more than 1 million international students attend colleges across the US every year, contributing tens of billions of billions of dollars to university systems and the wider economy. All that is at risk, in addition to the country's reputation – not to mention its edge in science, scholarship, and cultural production.
Harvard this morning filed a lawsuit against the government to stop the unlawful retribution.
In related news, a federal judge in California blocked the regime from terminating the immigration status of foreign students, although it's unclear how the decision might apply to Harvard students. And at the University of Maryland, Kermit the Frog delivered this year's "Kermencement" address, telling graduates that "rather than jumping over someone to get what you want, [you should] consider reaching out your hand and taking the leap side by side, because life is better when we leap together." Aha! Another communist subversive in a cap and gown!
MORE STORIES TO WATCH
Senate Takes Up GOP's Big Bogus Bill
House Republicans barely passed Trump's budget bill yesterday with no Democratic votes, 215-214-1. Now the bill moves to the Senate, where Republican margins are similarly narrow. The bill robs the poor to line the pockets of the ultra-rich; some are calling it "the largest upward transfer of wealth in American history." In addition to putting work requirements on Medicaid, cutting access to abortion and gender-affirming care, and slashing food stamp benefits (see below), the bill eliminates federal worker protections, makes it cheaper to buy silencers for firearms, and undermines the rules of law. But some Senate Republicans aren't happy with the massive budget deficits and debt burden that will result, and want to rewrite the bill to slash even more benefit programs. They may also break up the bill into smaller chunks they can agree on – a retreat the legislative strategy behind the MAGA agenda. House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries says the Republicans may have guaranteed that they lose the House in next year's midterms. It's a little early to count chickens, but inshallah they lose the Senate too.
Anticorruption Protesters Heckle Trump Crypto Diners
Major American banks are considering teaming up to launch their own cryptocurrency, the Wall Street Journal reports, "the latest sign that mainstream and crypto finance are inching closer together" under the regulatory free-for-all of the Trump regime. An initial skeptic, Trump has shamelessly and brazenly cashed in on the big crypto con, most recently by selling access to himself to anyone who spent one or two million bucks or so on his branded $TRUMP coin. The 220 "winning" buyers gathered at the Trump National Golf Club in Sterling, Virginia last night for an "intimate," black-tie optional dinner with the wannabe dictator. Democratic Sen. Jeff Merkley joined a 100-strong crowd of protesters outside the event, yelling so loudly that he reportedly lost his voice. "This is like the Mount Everest of corruption," Merkley observed. Inside the club, some felt buyer's remorse. "After giving a speech of just under 30 minutes, President Trump danced as he left the room," one attendee wrote. Sorry, suckers!
QUICKEST QUICKIES
- With 4-4 Tie, Supreme Court Rejects Publicly Funded Religious Charter Schools, at Least for Now In a separate decision, the court also greenlit Trump's power to fire independent agency directors – not including the head of the Federal Reserve. via the New York Times and NBC News.
- Trump and Netanyahu Officials Seize on DC Israeli Embassy Murders to Justify Anti-Democratic Agenda "'As we mourn, we also fear this tragedy will be manipulated by the far right to criminalize all criticism of Israel in the name of fighting antisemitism,' Rabbi Jill Jacobs, executive director of T'ruah: The Rabbinic Call for Human Rights, wrote in a statement. 'We have to continue to be clear about the difference between antisemitic attacks like this and valid criticism of Israel and Israeli policy — something Israel is subject to just like any other country.'" via the Washington Post and Politico.
- Loony Right-Wing Alberta Secession Advocates Really Do Want to Become the 51st State – and They May Get a Chance to Vote on It Indigenous groups in the oil industry-dominated Canadian province have been protesting crackpot Premier Danielle Smith's encouragement of the secession referendum, saying it violates their treaty rights. via the New York Times and the Edmonton Journal.
- Judge Permits Mahmoud Khalil to Hold His Month-Old Son for the First Time The Trump regime had wanted the detained Columbia University student activist's family visit to take place behind a plexiglass barrier, if it took place at all. via the AP and NBC News.
SOME NUMBER
1.3 million
That's how many people will lose food stamp benefits every month on average over the next decade under the Republican's big bogus bill, according to the Congressional Budget Office. But as Politico reports, the "exact number of people who could lose access to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program is not yet clear, because the bill’s various provisions could interact with each other."
ON THE SHOW TODAY
5/23: Happy Friday! The guest will be Ryan Grim of Drop Site News.
DON'T MISS MR CLIPS
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That's what happens when you go around bragging about ruining people's lives and throwing Nazi salutes.
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Sam explains his mixed feelings on the whole Cuomo situation.
PARTING WORDS
"I'm surprised that Afrikaners are OK with being called refugees, they are quite a proud people. I'd like to get a glimpse into their lives and get a sense of this fear that has driven them out of a country where they live like kings and queens."
-- Adelaide Xaba, a retired teacher in Johannesburg, South Africa, speaking to the New York Times about Donald Trump's false claims of white "genocide" in her country and his invitation to admit aggrieved Afrikaners to the US as "refugees." Contrary to Trump's insane claims, which echo white supremacist conspiracy theories, there were 49 people killed on South African farms in 2023, some of them Black; that same year, there were 27,621 killings, and 80 percent of the victims were low-income young Black males, the Washington Post reports.
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