Recap of this week in the revolution: Ozturk released, DHS 'out of control', and WWII veteran reminds us we've crushed fascism before. Trump's war on education escalates and his only tariff deal hurts US automakers. Trump doesn't know if he should uphold the Constitution, wants to deport immigrants to Libya, and the Gestapo continues warrantless kidnappings. Join the revolution on June 14 for No Kings Day.
The Good...
Rumeysa Ozturk was illegally detained by plainclothes Gestapo agents on March 25, 2025.
Tufts University student Rumeysa Ozturk was snatched off the streets six weeks ago by several plainclothes agents and brought to a detention center 1,500 miles from her home. This week, U.S. District Judge William Sessions ordered her release, citing that she has been illegally detained without any evidence of wrongdoing.
Ozturk's student visa was revoked, though she was not informed of this, under the claim that she was "engaged in activities in support of Hamas." There is no evidence of this claim, although Ozturk was one of 4 co-authors of an op-ed in the school's newspaper that called for the university to acknowledge the genocide in Palestine and divest from companies with ties to Israel. The article, fully protected under the Constitution's free-speech provision, provided no evidence that Ozturk was supporting Hamas or promoting antisemitism.
Sessions called Ozturk's detention traumatic and said, "the court finds that Ms. Ozturk has raised a substantial claim of a constitutional violation."
Senator Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) tells Kristi Noem that her Homeland Security department is "out of control," reminding her that "the Constitution and federal law doesn't allow you to spend more money than you've been given or to invent money." Murphy accuses Noem of exposing the United States to other attacks (such as cyber attacks) by focusing so exclusively on border security. He reminds Noem that her acts of impoundment (refusing to spend money appropriated by Congress) is illegal.
In addition to money, Murphy criticizes the department's flagrant refusal to obey the laws of our country and respect the rights of immigrants—whether they are here legally or not. He reminds Noem that the rights of immigrants to seek asylum in the United States are guaranteed by law and cannot just be ignored because she doesn't personally agree with that law.
Meet Ken Turner, British WWII veteran. He has a message for Elon Musk, who is supporting fascist causes in the United States and Europe:
"We've crushed fascism before, and we'll crush it again.
"So let's go, shall we? Let's go!"
The Bad...
Education Secretary Linda McMahon sent Harvard University a three-page letter riddled with grammatical errors and nonsensical partisan ramblings. Some critics have been kind enough to post their corrections online.
If you can manage to see past all the red ink, the letter is nothing more than chaotic rambling, filled with vague and unsubstantiated claims that Harvard is violating the law (with no mention of which law or laws are being violated).
The letter comes after Harvard refused to comply with unlawful requests to allow the Trump regime to dictate the university's admissions and hiring practices or face cuts in its federal funding. Although the Trump regime previously stated that the letter was sent to Harvard by mistake, it is now doubling-down on its requirements and threatening to pull funding from Harvard for failing to comply with the erroneous first letter.
Image by Mdnavman from Wikimedia Commons. Licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license.
Since 1980, NOAA's weather and climate disasters database has tracked the cost of extreme weather and climate events with damages totaling $1 billion or more per event. The database shows that disaster losses have been increasing over time, which many attribute to climate change and other attribute to population growth and expanding development into areas more prone to extreme weather events.
This data cannot be recreated by any other source, since the NOAA database included data sources that are inaccessible to any other researchers.
The database was shut down due to massive RIFs aimed at NOAA and the National Weather Service and part of the Trump regime's focus on destroying any programs or departments associated with the climate that could potentially suggest that the world is experiencing climate change. The White House has already announced plans to make even deeper cuts to NOAA in the future.
Donald Trump holds press briefing to watch him speak with U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer via speakerphone about the "big deal" he made.
The Trump regime has been touting a new deal with British car manufacturers to allow them to import their cars to the United States at a reduced tariff rate. This "deal" will make it cheaper to import a UK vehicle than a car assembled in Mexico under Trump's own USMCA agreement. This foolish deal will harm US automakers and suppliers and may set a precedent for other negotiations with Asian and European automakers.
So what, exactly, is the deal? Well, we started with 10% tariffs on UK automakers, artificially inflated the tariffs to 25%, then dropped them back to 10%. Master negotiation on display!
"We started at 10% and ended at 10%. Trump could have gotten the exact same amount done by doing nothing!"
—Brian Tyler Cohen
The Ugly...
Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay
Donny 2-Dolls is still dead-set on implementing the largest deportation operation in U.S. history, and he's having a hard time doing that legally. So, he'll just do it illegally.
The Constitution of the United States of America says that no person shall be "deprived of life, liberty, or property without due process of law." The Trump regime has blatantly disregarded this constitutional requirement despite multiple Supreme Court rulings. When asked, "don't you need to uphold the Constitution of the United States as president?" Trump's response was "I don't know."
A woman was detained by ICE/Gestapo agents without a warrant in Worcester, Massachusetts. Neighbors, including Worcester City Councilor Etel Haxhiaj, formed a human ring around the woman and her children. Haxhiaj stated, "The way immigrants in Worcester and across the Commonwealth are being targeted and terrorized by this federal administration for deportation is absolutely unconstitutional."
ICE agents attempting to arrest the woman refused to show a warrant, and called local police officers for assistance. They broke through the human chain and arrested the woman, and later arrested her teenage daughter, who tried to stop the men from taking her mother, along with another woman who tried to stop the teen's arrest.
The name and whereabouts of the woman taken remains unknown.
Image by Berthold Bronisz from Pixabay.
After the backlash the Trump regime has faced over imprisoning immigrants in a Salvadoran prison without due process, their solution is to...send them to Libya instead. We don't even have an embassy in Libya because it is considered to be such an unsafe country.
Libya is known for its inhumane treatment of migrants trying to make their way from Africa into Europe. The Trump regime is also looking for other countries to deport migrants to, and Secretary of State Marco Rubio says, "the further away from America, the better." The countries being targeted are all known for their cruel treatment of prisoners.
Regardless of where deportees are being sent, they are being arrested, deported, and imprisoned without due process, which is a violation of the United States Constitution. No one should be sentenced to life in prison anywhere simply for being in the United States illegally.
Newark Mayor Ras Baraka
Image by Anthony Turner from Wikimedia Commons. Licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Generic license.
New Jersey Mayor Ras Baraka has been opposing the opening of a new ICE detention facility and has filed a lawsuit to prevent the facility from opening because it failed to obtain the proper permits and was not up to code.
Baraka was at the facility for a press conference, where he was hoping to speak with members of Congress who were there to inspect the facility, exercising their oversight authority. Baraka and others were standing in a public area outside the property of the ICE facility for over an hour. At one point, the gate was opened and Baraka walked a few feet into the facility to speak with individuals inside. He was later asked to leave, and left the facility, returning to the public areas outside the fence. After this, ICE agents came out of the facility to the public area and arrested the mayor. Baraka was later released, though the charges have not yet been dropped.
"Taking their lead from the president of the United States, they feel like they can just violate any court and do whatever they want," said Baraka in an interview with MSNBC.
What did I/we do last week?
Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay.
Since early February, the majority of my free time has been consumed with doom-scrolling as I try to wrap my head around the Trump regime's systematic dismantling of our democracy.
This week I tried to reign in some of the Trump-induced chaos in my own life by getting back to a project I was working on prior to this madness.
Don't get me wrong...I'm still spending way too much time doom-scrolling and not nearly enough time on living my life. But I'm trying to at least set aside a little time for personal sanity.
What can you do this week?
Donnie Two-Dolls wants a military parade and a "made-for-TV display of dominance" in honor of his birthday on June 14. This parade is estimated to cost around $90 million of taxpayer money. There is no purpose to this parade other than to make him feel like a powerful dictator.
But we the people will not stand for such an attempt to project a false image of power. We don't have kings, and we don't host made-for-TV displays of dominance. Not in America.
Around the country, massive protests are being planned for that same day everywhere except the parade location itself to draw attention away from Trump's parade and show the world where the real power lies: With the people.
This one needs to be bigger than any previous protests. We need everyone who opposes the Trump regime to make every effort to attend and to stand firmly on the right side of history.
On the lighter side...
— Dr. Harmony (Patsy Evans Ph.D.) (@drharmony.net) May 9, 2025 at 12:07 AM
— Solidarity✊ (@solidarity2025.bsky.social) May 8, 2025 at 7:27 PM
— Morgan J Freeman (@mjfree.bsky.social) May 4, 2025 at 6:40 PM