BONUS: Be afraid, be very afraid, then do something
Six international students have visa's revoked from Capital District colleges
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Thomas Friedman is a three-time Pulitzer Prize winner, author and currently a columnist for The New York Times.
He is 71 so he has seen some things and knows how the world works.
His first two Pulitzers came in the 1980s for his coverage of the conflict in Lebanon and politics in Israel followed by a third for his commentary while covering the war on terror after 9/11.
His book The World is Flat explains the globalization of the world and was assigned to my son as an essential textbook when he was in college studying history.
Thomas Friedman is no talking head.
He is a serious journalist and when he writes a column with the headline, "I've never been more afraid for my country's future," we should pay attention.
I did Tuesday.
Consider these words as the essence of the column's message:
This whole Trump II administration is a cruel farce. Trump ran for another term not because he had any clue how to transform America for the 21st century. He ran in order to stay out of jail and to get revenge on those who, with real evidence, had tried to hold him accountable to the law. I doubt he has ever spent five minutes studying the work force of the future.
Where Friedman has.
Where leaders of other countries - like China - have as well.
Sadly, that biting criticism will lead Republicans and conservatives to dismiss Friedman as another partisan hack.
They should reconsider.
After Trump posed with hard-hat wearing coal miners - Is there a safety issue at the White House we should know about? - Trump signed an executive order to bring back the coal industry.
Friedman points out that Trump has tried to eliminate wind and solar energy jobs - there are currently over 400,000 of them - to save the jobs of 40,000 coal miners.
"...it suggests that Trump is trapped in a right-wing woke ideology that doesn't recognize green manufacturing jobs as `real' jobs," Friedman writes.
Like any great reporter, Friedman takes facts, connects the dots, analyzes the data and what he sees frightens the heck out of him. Consider this:
In 2015, a year before Trump became president, China’s prime minister at the time, Li Keqiang, unveiled a forward-looking growth plan called “Made in China 2025.” It began by asking, what will be the growth engine for the 21st century? Beijing then made huge investments in the elements of that engine’s components so Chinese companies could dominate them at home and abroad. We’re talking clean energy, batteries, electric vehicles and autonomous cars, robots, new materials, machine tools, drones, quantum computing and artificial intelligence.
That has made China “the leading country globally for research output in chemistry, earth and environmental sciences and physical sciences, and is second for biological sciences and health sciences.”
Trump is doing the opposite.
He wants to revive coal.
Friedman connects the self-inflicted wound of a trade war because Trump does not understand what a complex ecosystem the world economy is with each country depending on other countries to piece together a product pipeline.
"But this farce is about to touch every American," Friedman writes. "By attacking our closest allies — Canada, Mexico, Japan, South Korea and the European Union — and our biggest rival, China, at the same time he makes clear he favors Russia over Ukraine and prefers climate-destroying energy industries over future-oriented ones, the planet be damned. Trump is triggering a serious loss of global confidence in America."
And that will lead to further economic woes with foreign countries buying less Treasury bills, forcing up interest rates so consumers will pay more on car payments and mortgages.
The Times-Picayune in New Orleans did an in-depth article on Sunday about how Trump administration cuts to science and technology has sent a chill through Louisiana's research community.
Tulane University has an enormous research wing and is in the process of a $600 million expansion to its downtown campus that is expected to have 1.7 million square feet of research facilities and laboratories that would have the added benefit of reviving the downtown economy.
It's what Friedman says Trump doesn't understand.
It's what most of us probably don't understand.
Two days after Friedman's piece, David Brooks, a 63-year-old New York Times columnist and deep thinker wrote a column titled, "What's happening is not normal; America needs an uprising that is not normal."
Brooks is thoughtful and careful writer so his column should be equally alarming. "It is a multi-front assault to make the earth a playground for ruthless men, so of course any institutions that might restrain power must be weakened or destroyed," Brooks writes. "Trumpism is about ego, appetite and acquisitiveness and is driven by a primal aversion to the higher elements of the human spirit — learning, compassion, scientific wonder, the pursuit of justice."
It was as if Brooks was picking up where Friedman left off and giving the country a direction going forward.
"It’s time for a comprehensive national civic uprising," Brooks writes. "It’s time for Americans in universities, law, business, nonprofits and the scientific community, and civil servants and beyond to form one coordinated mass movement. Trump is about power. The only way he’s going to be stopped is if he’s confronted by some movement that possesses rival power."
Both columns are must reads because there is so much more to digest.
It is our civic responsibility.
Brooks concludes:
"In other words, a civic uprising has to have a short-term vision and a long-term vision. Short term: Stop Trump. Foil his efforts. Pile on the lawsuits. Turn some of his followers against him. The second is a long-term vision of a fairer society that is not just hard on Trump, but hard on the causes of Trumpism — one that offers a positive vision. Whether it’s the universities, the immigration system or the global economy, we can’t go back to the status quo that prevailed when Trump first rode down the escalator."
It's not about politics.
This is about survival now.
Local students deported
Some 1,300 international students have had their student visas canceled in recent weeks, by the Trump administration, including current students at the University at Albany, RPI and Siena College, according to The Times Union.
The government made a pact granting these students access to our education system, then revoked it.
That is not right.
More protests today
The local Indivisible group has scheduled protests in Saratoga and Glens Falls Saturday at noon.
In Saratoga, the protest will be at the corner of Broadway and Church streets.
In Glens Falls, it will be at the corner of Glen and Bay streets - in front of Crandall Library.
Immigration issue
Most American agree - from both parties - that anyone immigrating to the United States should do so legally.
But a Reuters/Ipsos poll found very few agree with the way the Trump administration is gong about it.
An overwhelming number of people agree with Trump that undocumented workers who have committed violent crimes should be deported, but the public is not so quick to deport other undocumented immigrants.
Here is what the poll found:
- U.S. adults oppose deporting undocumented immigrants who have lived more than 10 years in the U.S. by a 37-point margin.
- They oppose deporting undocumented immigrants who are parents of U.S. citizens by a 36-point margin.
- They oppose deporting undocumented immigrants who have broken no laws in the U.S. other than immigration law by an 18-point margin.
It also found this about Trump's defiance of the courts:
- 82% of Americans, including 68% of Republicans, think “the president should obey federal court rulings even if he disagrees with them.”
- Only 40% think he “should keep deporting people despite a court order to stop,” although 76% of Republicans think he should violate a court order.
Big hardship
Some of President Trump's most loyal supporters - Rep. Mike Johnson and Sen. John Kennedy - are from Louisiana.
The New Orleans Times-Picayune reported last weekend this:
The Trump administration, aided by billionaire Elon Musk, is slashing federal spending in the name of removing bloat and waste. In recent days, Louisiana officials learned they are set to lose hundreds of millions of dollars in FEMA funding to protect against storms and tens of millions of dollars in funding for public health. The state’s farmers are dealing with the loss of some $350 million in agricultural programs.
It will be interesting to see the reaction of Johnson and Kennedy to those cuts to their home state.
Voice of America
CNN's Brian Stelter reports that in the month since Voice of American news coverage abruptly stopped, an advocacy group called "Save VOA" says. "VOA's silence leaves a void in global news coverage and information access, particularly in regions with restricted media. This void allows other entities, like China and Russia, to potentially fill the gap and exert greater influence."
Disinformation
Stelter also reported that "Disinformation has completely destabilized global politics, from the Oval Office to the town council level. Deliberate lies and disinformation campaigns make it much harder for neighbors to relate to one another and share the same reality."
Politico's Maggie Miller reported this week that "Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Wednesday announced the closure of the agency's hub for fighting foreign disinformation campaigns."
Rubio's announcement was titled "Protecting and Championing Free Speech at the State Department," when it appears it is just the opposite.
Eileen Guo of MIT Technology review wrote it's "a win to foreign governments like Russia, Iran, and China — and the office's mostly conservative critics."
Ken Tingley spent more than four decades working in small community newspapers in upstate New York. Since retirement in 2020 he has written three books and is currently adapting his second book "The Last American Newspaper" into a play. He currently lives in Queensbury, N.Y.
Last evening I stood and sang and listened to the Good Friday service. The story of how Jesus was arrested and tried and killed.
How Peter denied Jesus three times.
Jesus was a given an copportunity to speak and establish the facts. He was willing to to die for a greater cause. People who already were with sin. Born imperfect. Us all.
Our Government is evil and needs to be confronted. A Mother near Plattsburgh is the nearest I know of the treachery of Trump. Her and her children detained because of alleged violations with immigration. No clear facts established and people taken wrongly. There is an organized effort were not fully aware of. Limes haveen drawn and there's seems to some order to the officers gathering people.
This happening inside out now peaceful nation. We need to stand against this. The Jan 6 attack was organized too. Time to organize and move. Speak be heard and declare it what it is. Do the right thing. Love your neighbor as yourself.
Copy and pasted the line this article speaks of clearly....
"What's happening is not normal; America needs an uprising that is not normal."
Do your part resist and protest as you must.
The long term vision Brooks is calling for is what MAGA dismiss as Woke.