Our Friday News Analysis | What the World Reads Now!

CONGRATULATIONS!

PRESIDENT-ELECT TRUMP 2016 …WILL YOU DELIVER?

By: Abraham A. van Kempen
The Hague, The Netherlands
The Times of Israel, 9 November 2016, 9:00 PM
9 November 2016

Dear Mr. President-Elect,

Though I could not fathom a Trump presidency, please accept our heartfelt congratulations. I thought I understood America. I am beginning to understand Americans. What a humbling experience. Now, we must adapt to the new realities because truth, real or imagined, dictates.

You’ve brought to the world stage a disenfranchised America, a desperate silent majority, transcending race, gender, religion, and socioeconomic status.

A single male earning $133,000 annually can barely make it in New York City. Even in rural America, a bag of groceries now costs a small fortune—America’s middle-class clocks in more hours than earlier generations to put less bread on the table.

Starting in January 2017, Americans want results and instant gratification. Can you perform? Will you deliver?

• You can, together with a Republican Congress, repeal and ‘replace’ Obama Care.
• But can you overhaul the American healthcare system?
• Will you guarantee optimum health so that Americans remain fit to work, work, work?
• How will you renovate and rebuild America’s infrastructure—America’s hidden deficit—highways, airports, and mass transit to enable Americans to go to and come home from work?
• What about education and retraining to make and keep America competitive?
• How can you motivate the American job creators to invest in America’s own, to improve and fortify the factors of production, to provide jobs – good paying jobs – for all Americans, especially for those on the bottom of the social ladder?

And finally, Mr. President-Elect, will you build bridges to help bring a broken America back together again?

With every good wish to you, Mr. Trump, and to members of your families and all the good people in America, I remain,

Sincerely,
BUILDING THE BRIDGE FOUNDATION, THE HAGUE

Abraham A. van Kempen
Sr. Editor

I published this congratulatory letter thrice: 1) November 2016, 2) November 2024, and 3) today.

Editor’s Note

When in a storm and the captain orders you to climb up the mast to untangle the ropes obstructing the sails, LOOK UP.

               Don’t look down. You might fall and drown.

               To quote President Lincoln: “Destroy your enemies by becoming friends.”

               The Sacred Texts suggest: “Dignify the other the way God dignifies you.”

               How do you love your enemies? Have NONE!

               I’m excited. Happy Days are here again.

               Why? There is more convergence than divergence – resilience – in this bright, colorful tapestry called America.

               We must all change for the better.

What is the Side of the Story that is Not Yet Decisive? Edited by Abraham A. van Kempen

DAVID BROOKS | PRODUCING SOMETHING THIS STUPID IS THE ACHIEVEMENT OF A LIFETIME

“The Elite College Students Who Can’t Read Books.”

Credit...Jasmine Clarke for The New York Times

By David Brooks

NY Times Opinion Columnist
New York Times
10 April 2025

You might have seen the various data points suggesting Americans are losing their reasoning ability.

The trend starts with the young. The percentage of fourth graders who score below basic reading skills on the National Assessment of Educational Progress tests is the highest in 20 years. The eighth graders below basic percentage was the highest in the exam’s three-decade history. A fourth grader who is below basic cannot grasp the sequence of events in a story. An eighth grader can’t grasp the main idea of an essay or identify the different sides of a debate.

Tests by the Program for the International Assessment of Adult Competencies tell a similar story for older folks. Adult numeracy and literacy skills worldwide have been declining since 2017. Tests from the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development show that adult literacy test scores have declined over the past decade.

Andreas Schleicher, the head of education and skills at the O.E.C.D., told The Financial Times, “Thirty percent of Americans read at a level that you would expect from a 10-year-old child.” He continued, “It is hard to imagine — that every third person you meet on the street has difficulties reading even simple things.”

This kind of literacy is the backbone of reasoning ability, the source of the background knowledge you need to make good decisions in a complicated world. As the retired general Jim Mattis and Bing West once wrote, “If you haven’t read hundreds of books, you are functionally illiterate, and you will be incompetent because your personal experiences alone aren’t broad enough to sustain you.”

Nat Malkus of the American Enterprise Institute emphasizes that the declines among children in the fourth and eighth grades are not the same across the board. Scores for children at the top of the distribution are not falling. It’s the scores of children toward the bottom that are collapsing. The achievement gap between the top and bottom scorers is more significant in America than in any other nation with similar data.

There are some obvious contributing factors to this general decline. COVID hurt test scores. America abandoned No Child Left Behind, which put a lot of emphasis on testing and reducing the achievement gap. However, these declines started around 2012, so the leading cause is probably screen time. And not just any screen time. Actively initiating a search for information on the web may not weaken your reasoning skills. But passively scrolling TikTok or X weakens everything from your ability to process verbal details to your working memory to your ability to focus. You might as well take a sledgehammer to your skull.

My biggest worry is that behavioral change is leading to cultural change. As we spend time on our screens, we’re abandoning a value that used to be pretty central to our culture — the idea that you should work hard to improve your capacity for wisdom and judgment all the days of your life. That education, including lifelong out-of-school learning, is valuable.

This value is based on the idea that life is filled with hard choices: whom to marry, whom to vote for, and whether to borrow money. Your best friend comes up to you and says, “My husband has been cheating on me. Should I divorce him?” To make these calls, you must discern what is central to the situation, envision possible outcomes, understand other minds, and calculate probabilities.

To do this, you must train your mind, especially by reading and writing. As Johann Hari wrote in his book “Stolen Focus,” “The world is complex and requires steady focus to be understood; it needs to be thought about and comprehended slowly.” Reading a book puts you in another person’s mind like a Facebook post doesn’t. Writing is the discipline that teaches you to take a jumble of thoughts and cohere them into a compelling point of view.

Americans had less schooling in decades past, but out of this urge for intellectual self-improvement, they bought encyclopedias for their homes, subscribed to the Book of the Month Club, and sat, with much longer attention spans, through long lectures or three-hour Lincoln-Douglas debates. Once you start using your mind, you find that learning isn’t merely calisthenics for your ability to render judgment; it’s intrinsically fun.

But today, one gets the sense that many people are disengaging from the whole idea of mental effort and mental training. Absenteeism rates soared during the pandemic and have remained high since. If American parents truly valued education, would 26 percent of students have been chronically absent during the 2022-23 school year?

In 1984, according to the National Center for Education Statistics, 35 percent of 13-year-olds read for fun almost daily. By 2023, that number was down to 14 percent. The media is now rife with essays by college professors lamenting the decline in their students’ abilities. The Chronicle of Higher Education told the story of Anya Galli Robertson, who teaches sociology at the University of Dayton. She gives similar lectures, assigns the same books, and gives the same tests that she always has. Years ago, students could handle it; now they are floundering.

Last year, The Atlantic published an essay by Rose Horowitch titled “The Elite College Students Who Can’t Read Books.” One professor recalled the lively classroom discussions of books like “Crime and Punishment.” The students say they can’t handle that kind of reading load.

The philosophy professor Troy Jollimore wrote in The Walrus: “I once believed my students and I were in this together, engaged in a shared intellectual pursuit. That faith has been obliterated over the past few semesters. It’s not just the sheer volume of assignments that appear to be entirely generated by AI — papers that show no sign the student has listened to a lecture, done any of the assigned reading, or even briefly entertained a single concept from the course.”

Older people have always complained about “kids these days,” but this time, we have empirical data to show that the observations are accurate.

What happens when people lose the ability to reason or render sound judgments? Ladies and gentlemen, I present Donald Trump’s tariff policy to you. I’ve covered a lot of policies over the decades, some of which I supported and some of which I opposed. But I have never seen a policy as stupid as this one. It is based on false assumptions. It rests on no coherent argument in its favor. It relies on no empirical evidence. It has almost no experts on its side — from left, right, or center. It is jumble-headedness exemplified. Trump himself personifies stupidity’s essential feature — self-satisfaction, an inability to recognize the flaws in your thinking. And, of course, when the approach led to absolutely predictable mayhem, Trump, lacking any coherent plan, backtracked, flip-flopped, responding impulsively to the pressures of the moment as his team struggled to keep up.

Producing something this stupid is not a day's work; it is the achievement of a lifetime — relying on decades of incuriosity, decades of not cracking a book, decades of being impervious to evidence.

In Homer’s day, people lived within an oral culture; then, humans slowly developed a literate culture. Now, we seem to be moving to a screen culture.

Civilization was fun while it lasted.

DO YOU HAVE FINANCIAL DYSPHORIA?

My favorite butter (water buffalo) used to be $4 but is now $7, which I thought was outrageous until I found similar products online for $30 to $50. My annoyance turned to gratitude, and I stocked up. This applies to many items today. Our ability to discern value is mostly broken.

Stokkete/Shutterstock

By Jeffrey A. Tucker
Epoch Times
16 April 2025

Annotated by Abraham A. van Kempen

Five years ago, we had a clearer understanding of our financial situation. The signals were evident, whether rich, poor, or in between, and so was our sociocultural standing. We could gauge if we were advancing, stagnant, or falling behind.

Inflation and life disruption over the past four years have disturbed everything in ways we are only now grasping. Inflation is often called an invisible tax, which is accurate because we sense something is happening but do not fully understand it.

It was strange because, for 40 years, we had a clear sense of costs, good or bad deals, and what was expensive. We checked our bank accounts and knew if we were doing well or nearing trouble.

My favorite butter (water buffalo) used to be $4 but is now $7, which I thought was outrageous until I found similar products online for $30 to $50. My annoyance turned to gratitude, and I stocked up. This applies to many items today. Our ability to discern value is mostly broken.

When inflation began, we were told it was transitory, which we took to mean temporary. Many assumed prices would soon return to 2019 levels. This was an adjustment period, and for most of four years, financial news reported inflation was “cooling” and improving month-to-month.

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In the end, terrible things have happened to our standard of living. Everything is more expensive, so our earnings buy less of the life we want. Estimates suggest a 25 percent decrease or higher, with many items increasing by 100 to 200 percent.

Considering this from a personal finance perspective is understandable. Many call it financial dysphoria, where we go from feeling secure to waking up anxious about bankruptcy. The uncertainty ahead is daunting.

What you feel as an individual or household reflects what businesses face today. They examine their balance sheets in disbelief. All costs are rising, not just labor and materials. Insurance, rent, fees, health care, and utilities are significantly higher. Even if revenue appears fine, its clarity is questionable.

After four years of confusion, people are starting to see reality. Dysphoria is becoming a new frugality, a panic reorganization of spending. Cut back, eat at home, do it yourself, and learn to live less expensively. None of us are sure it will be enough, but people realize times have changed dramatically.

The Wall Street Journal highlighted how young women abandon expensive manicures, pedicures, and hair colorings. The journalist explored Google searches for DIY alternatives and tutorial traffic on video sites- finding significant evidence of this trend.

This Thesis Aligns Closely With My Observations As Well.

Cooking at home is crucial. Eating out can harm personal finances. Many have become used to frequenting local bars and ordering freely. Current payment methods create a misleading sense of financial security.

We enjoy ordering, eating, and drinking, feeling pampered. We reluctantly paid with our card when the bill arrived, surprised by the cost. The damage is done; we cannot undo what we’ve consumed. This habit continues until we realize how much of our disposable income is spent on it.

After years, Americans recognize this practice must end or be reduced, contributing to the current troubles of many restaurants. Surviving business closures and restrictions from 2020–2023, they reopened, ready to serve, and customers returned.

Inflation began affecting both customers and businesses. We’ve experienced turbulent times, swinging between feelings of being wealthy and feeling impoverished, uncertain of our actual status.

Accounting is a harsh taskmaster, blocking dreams and determination to overcome obstacles. Revenue must ultimately exceed expenses; otherwise, the business fails.

Accounting is a final check on despots' dreams and reflects an undeniable reality. Even if denied, institutions must comply. It's why socialism failed; collecting capital ownership stripped the most productive resources of realistic price signals, leading to waste and economic irrationality. Socialist systems have consistently collapsed.

Ignoring accounting is perilous. Yet, this has always been the dream of governments, leading to the establishment of central banks. They allow regimes and financial systems to print money without confronting accounting realities. The costs of this approach manifest as inflation, industrial distortions, and unsettled foreign accounts.

Today's events aren't surprising but are still tragic for those who studied economics. Most Americans, except the wealthy, face more challenging economic conditions than five years ago. The decline in purchasing power is more devastating than anticipated.

The current economic environment’s saving grace is inflation's significant decline. Recent data reveals remarkable actual price drops in some industries and a real-time annualized rate of 1.4 percent—still too high, but a welcome relief.

Sadly, this coincides with the realization that we are likely in a recession. While Trump’s tariff wars bear some blame, the recessionary conditions existed long before his tariff decisions. An empirical study commissioned by the Brownstone Institute last year documented the recession since 2022. No one has disputed these conclusions, yet the financial press continues to act as if all is well.

All is not well, and that's obvious. Taxes have risen due to inflation, and millions of individuals and businesses are struggling to complete their returns before the deadline. A pressing issue for many is what we are getting for our payments.

We’ve spent three months hearing about immense waste, fraud, and abuse in the federal budget. Additionally, we face unsustainable debt, mandatory entitlement spending, and an unpopular healthcare system. The system urgently needs reform.

As we await reform, we are expected to pay even as financial realities highlight how much worse off we are than in the past. Despite the gizmos and digital services available, our real disposable income was less than five years ago.

This explains our financial dysphoria. Despite the excitement over political changes in Washington and discussions of a Golden Age, there's little time to achieve meaningful change. Accounting remains the hidden master, unaffected by political rhetoric or activism.

Jeffrey A. Tucker, founder and president of the Brownstone Institute, has authored thousands of articles and 10 books in five languages, including “Liberty or Lockdown” and serves as editor of “The Best of Ludwig von Mises.” He writes a daily economics column for The Epoch Times and discusses economics, technology, social philosophy, and culture. Contact: tucker@brownstone.org.

A RECKONING IS COMING FOR THE PRIVATE EQUITY (PE) ECONOMY

PE titans could lose millions, but working-class Americans might pay more.

Illustration by Daniel Medina

By Eric Salzman

Substack.com
16 April 2025

Annotated by Abraham A. van Kempen

Two weeks ago, we wrote about private equity firms using a “dividend recap” strategy to pay themselves special dividends.

This happens when PE-owned companies take out large loans to pay investors, burdening the companies with debt while ensuring investor returns.

We focused on Clarios International, recognizing their vulnerability to calamity due to high leverage.

President Trump’s war on globalization through tariffs raises the odds of a global recession. Goldman Sachs forecasts a 45% chance of a U.S. recession after Trump announced a 90-day pause on reciprocal tariffs on all countries except China, down from a prior forecast of 65%.

In other words:

Investors are fleeing and trying to dump shares in private equity, but managers have many tools to slow them down.

That’s bad news for the 12 million Americans directly employed by private equity-backed companies and nearly 8 million who work for their suppliers.

Private equity firms depend on two key factors for success:

• Strong demand exists for private equity debt, specifically through leveraged loans and high-yield bonds.
• Robust demand for their companies when they need to exit

Goldman Sachs doubled default predictions for leveraged loans from 3.5% to 8% and raised high-yield bond defaults from 3% to 5%. In response, leveraged loans, high-yield bond mutual funds, and exchange-traded funds experienced record weekly investor outflows leading Goldman to label it “Flowmegeddon.”

According to Bloomberg News, private equity firms have limited options in this volatile market.

Despite a tariff reprieve, barriers to asset transactions persist. Buyout barons face challenges managing their portfolio companies. With investment realizations delayed again, the risk of damage to their stagnant holdings rises.

Private equity firms are known for cutting expenses. These cutbacks will be minor compared to what they might do if they cannot sell or refinance in a weakening economy.

A potential recession negatively impacts everyone, but the risks are more significant for employees of private equity-backed companies.

WHAT IS EUROPE AFRAID OF?

Prof. Glenn Diesen and Judge Napolitano | Reinstating Ukrainian Neutrality. Are Europeans Seeking to Dominate Ukraine, Russia, and Incurring Debt to Build a New Europe Militarily?

Watch the Video Here (27 Minutes, 07 Seconds)

Judge Andrew Napolitano with Glenn Diesen
Substack.com
16 April 2025

I had the opportunity to discuss Europe's irrational behavior with Judge Napolitano.

Europeans continue to snub diplomatic efforts with Russia and sabotage Trump’s peace initiative in Ukraine even though the war is effectively over.

Years of shared dominance and rigid ideology have led to a lack of the strategic thinking necessary to adapt to a swiftly evolving global landscape.

EUROPE AND THE UKRAINE QUESTION

Will Europe's fear of Putin prolong the war?

In February, US Special Envoy for the Middle East Steve Witkoff, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, and National Security Adviser Mike Waltz held discussions with Saudi and Russian officials in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Those present included Saudi Foreign Minister Faisal bin Farhan Al Saud and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov. / Photo by Russian Foreign Ministry/Handout/Anadolu via Getty Images.

Seymour Hersh
Substack.Com
16 April 2025

Annotated by Abraham A. van Kempen

I am reading as the second Donald Trump presidency approaches a showdown between executive branch powers granted by the Constitution and the Supreme Court's authority.

Trump will soon visit Rome for a yet-to-be-announced meeting with Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, one of his closest supporters in Western Europe. She is scheduled to meet him tomorrow at the White House.

Last week, I spoke with officials about peace talks concerning the Ukraine War. I have written about those talks here with perhaps unwarranted optimism. Fearing disaster in Ukraine, Europe has rallied behind Volodymyr Zelensky, the embattled president whose recent White House visit ended in humiliation, garnering sympathy from many observers.

Trump views Putin as a business partner. There have been discussions about the Trump family developing a major beach resort in Crimea, occupied by Russia since 2014, alongside a similar project in Donbas, Ukraine. The U.S. would lift all sanctions on Russia and resume buying Russian gas and oil, possibly funding rare earth mineral mining in Siberia.

The talks were seen as key to an earlier Russia-Ukraine agreement, but from Trump’s view, have stalled as NATO and the EU pledged more support for Ukraine while both sides keep firing at military and civilian targets. The intense ground war, which peaked at over ten thousand casualties monthly on each side, has slowed. Russia’s weary frontline troops are making progress along the long front. Still, a knowledgeable American official informed me that the ground war won't be decisive unless an anxious Europe sends NATO and other military forces to Ukraine. “That,” the official said, “Russia will not accept.”

Both sides are still in discussions with senior Trump aides present, including sessions in Saudi Arabia. The goal is to “end what everybody says is a militarily destructive war.”

One reason for the failure to settle is the widespread hatred of Putin in Europe. Many in Western Europe view him as someone “who will show up in sheep’s clothing, but he is the Devil.” Mark Medish, a Ukrainian-American Democrat and former National Security Council official, pointed out that Europeans are not monolithic:

“A Calvinist-crusader band spans the Baltic, Nordics, Dutch, and Brits, consumed by Russophobia and bearing the brunt of hybrid warfare miscues. In contrast, largely Catholic-Orthodox pragmatists in southern Europe are skeptical of the northern hawks' escalatory zeal, seeking not peace at any cost.”

Medish, an informal advisor to the EU on intelligence and politics, noted: “Apart from places like Hungary, the Euros are almost all united in their shock at Trump’s naked pivot against Kyiv and the EU toward Moscow.”

The official advising the Trump administration said the “Saudi government wants it”—a settlement—“to happen not just for the world’s oil market” with increased production.

“But Europe does not want this. They are fighting tooth and nail. Trump tells Europeans to ‘take it or leave it.’ He thinks it will be great for the European economy.”

The official praised Saudi leadership's involvement in European diplomacy. “The world is changing, and nobody notices it,” he told me. “Europe is bankrupt, and the Saudis are the future.” The Saudis have realized they must join the modern world. “This started years ago, and the Saudis no longer walk around in robes and live in tents.” (The current leadership also faces accusations of murdering an internal opponent.)

During our talk, the official emphasized European leadership and Western media's inability to move past their instinctive hatred of Putin and oppose a settlement that allows Russia to maintain control over significant portions of Ukraine it occupies.

A political scientist studying postwar Europe explained that the case for supporting Ukraine against Russia stems from a common European disdain for Putin and hostility toward Trump. “Europeans are afraid of Russia,” he said, “and Russia does not want Ukraine to be a free country.” They also fear Trump “because he is close to Russia and will sell Europe down the river . . . to get what he wants from Putin. “

“Why is Trump so willing to weaken Europe to placate Putin?” the expert asked. “Trump wants to deal with Putin, and Europeans doubt America’s defense against a potential Russian invasion. Europeans have adjusted their plans in two and a half months, assuming Trump would veto any NATO deployment.”

This raises questions amid White House chaos. Will Vladimir Putin escalate the war against Ukraine if he doesn't get his way in peace talks? Does he think Trump will support or ignore him?

Is America ready to war against NATO?

COL DOUG MACGREGOR | RUSSIA WILL NOT STAND BY IF IRAN IS ATTACKED

Watch the Video Here (20 Minutes, 00 Seconds)

Host Daniel David
Deep Dive
15 April 2025

Israeli Strategy Post-October 7 Attack

The speaker doubts that Israel did not know about the Hamas attack on October 7, 2023, pointing to the country's extensive surveillance capabilities. Subsequently, the attack has been leveraged to support Israel's broader regional goals, such as upholding nuclear superiority and military dominance.

Iran previously had nuclear agreements with the U.S., but these were terminated during President Trump’s administration, mainly due to the pro-Israel lobby's influence. The current U.S. position, significantly swayed by Israeli interests, aims to promote regime change in Iran.

Israel’s Demand for Regional Domination

The Israeli government, especially under Netanyahu, aims to dismantle Iran's regime to secure long-term safety and maintain regional dominance. This effort involves preventing Iran from acquiring nuclear capabilities and curbing its influence.

Iran’s Restraint

Iran has consistently opted against military retaliation in response to provocations, demonstrating restraint rather than weakness.

The speaker points out that Iran possesses considerable military strength, particularly a formidable missile stockpile, but aims to steer clear of warfare—contrasting with Israel and the U.S., which seem more eager to provoke conflict.

Growing Regional Alliance

Regional powers, including Egypt, Iran, and Turkey, are increasingly united against Israel and the U.S., although some Gulf states are more aligned with Western interests due to their weaker militaries. Geopolitical Implications: Russia and China are unlikely to remain passive in the event of an Iranian attack. Iran holds strategic significance for Russia concerning access and security in Central Asia.

A conflict between the U.S. and Israel against Iran could provoke a larger confrontation with these nations.

Consequences of War

Any military action against Iran, especially a large-scale bombing campaign, could spiral into a much larger war, drawing in regional and global powers and potentially leading to U.S. losses across the Middle East.

Lack of U.S. Strategy

The speaker criticizes Washington's lack of strategic thinking, contrasting it with Russia's more calculated geopolitical approach. The U.S. risks massive loss by ignoring the potential consequences of a broader war.

THIS IS HOW SERIOUS TRUMP IS ABOUT BOMBING IRAN

Mehdi Hasan with Iranian-American relations expert Trita Parsi

Watch the Video Here (17 Minutes, 24 Seconds)

Host Mehdi Hasan with Iranian-American relations expert Trita Parsi
Zeteo – Mehdi Unfiltered
16 April 2025

Donald Trump’s strongman act could drag the US into yet another Middle East war — this time, with Iran. Trump gave Iran two options: talk to us directly, or we will bomb you like never before.

According to Trump, Iran went with the former.

But how possible is a conflict with Tehran?

To break it all down, Iranian-American relations expert Trita Parsi joins Mehdi Hasan on ‘Mehdi Unfiltered.’

               “A lot of countries, including the Iranians, are discounting a lot of those threats, not in the sense that they don't take them seriously — they're preparing, but they understand that that's part of the noise that Trump seems to want to do.”

Mehdi and Parsi discuss nuclear weapons, whether the desire for war is Trump’s or Netanyahu’s, Israel’s Gaza assault and its ever-expanding impact on Iranian allies (from Syria to Lebanon to Yemen), and how much weaker that leaves Iran in the face of a possible US/Israel-sponsored attack.

Watch the FULL interview to hear Mehdi challenge Parsi on whether it may have been too soon for him to suggest earlier this year that Trump was engaged in “peace efforts” in the Middle East.

HOW TRUMP'S GREED, GRIFT AND RACISM ARE COLLAPSING AMERICA'S DEMOCRATIC EXPERIMENT

Historian Heather Cox Richardson joins The Left Hook to discuss how the Trump Administration reflects America's tradition of the aristocracy abusing capitalism and racism to exploit the masses.

Watch the Video Here (46 Minutes, 50 Seconds)

THE LEFT HOOK WITH WAJAHAT ALI
AND
HEATHER COX RICHARDSON
APR 16, 2025

One of the sagest and most prescient voices during America’s descent towards authoritarianism has been historian Heather Cox Richardson, whose blockbuster Substack Letters from an American has become essential reading for anyone concerned about saving our beleaguered democracy.

Recently, Heather reached out to me after a Bluesky post I wrote discussing how America’s inability to acknowledge and uproot its twin original sins of greed and racism has destroyed our country. Although the post sounds apocalyptic, I share Heather’s hope that the majority can save the sinking ship. However, we both agree it’s an “all hands on deck” moment that requires work, sacrifice, and resistance from every individual and institution.

In this important Chai Talk, Heather shows how Trump is the latest manifestation of an aristocratic class that has used and abused capitalism to gain power at the expense of the many. She also discusses how MAGA has several competing ideologies and movements, including Christian nationalists and the broligarchy, that can be exposed and weakened. Most importantly, we end the conversation on practical steps that can and must be taken by the majority who are still able and willing to fight a fascist regime.

LETTERS FROM AN AMERICAN

By Heather Cox Richardson
Substack.com
16 April 2025

A large crowd of protesters seeking the return of Kilmar Abrego Garcia, the Maryland man whom the Trump administration sent to a notorious terrorist prison in El Salvador, milled around the courthouse this afternoon where U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis held a hearing on the case.

Anna Bower, Roger Parloff, and Ben Wittes of Lawfare observed the hearing. She explained that Judge Xinis is gathering evidence to determine whether individuals in the administration have acted in contempt of court.

The court ordered the administration to facilitate Abrego Garcia’s return to the U.S. and provide updates on their actions to make that return happen. Judge Xinis said, “What the record shows is nothing has been done.” She dismissed the administration lawyer’s argument that yesterday’s Oval Office meeting between President Donald Trump and the president of El Salvador Nayib Bukele was part of the effort to “facilitate” the case.

As Bower said, we all know what’s happening, but it’s currently impossible to determine which individual is responsible for the stonewalling. For that matter, Bower added, those speaking for the administration usually deny any personal knowledge of the case, simply stating they have been made aware of the facts they are representing. Judge Xinis called for two weeks of fact-finding to determine if the Trump regime followed her orders to facilitate his return. The judge informed Abrego Garcia’s lawyers that they may conduct four depositions and apply for two more, make up to 15 document requests, and submit up to 15 interrogatories (these are lists of written questions that must be answered under oath and in writing).

Xinis noted that “every day Mr. Garcia is detained in CECOT is a day of irreparable harm.”

Bower added that the Trump regime is likely dragging this out partly because it allows them to showcase the one aspect of their agenda that is still polling well. The staged meeting with Bukele enabled officials to receive widespread media coverage for the outright falsehood that Abrego Garcia was a member of the MS-13 gang. As Greg Sargent reported today in the New Republic, this story came from a police officer who, just weeks later, was suspended for “providing information to a commercial sex worker who he was paying in exchange for sexual acts.”

The Oval Office event also allowed White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller to falsely claim that the Supreme Court’s unanimous decision against the administration was, in fact, in its favor and to reiterate the series of heinous crimes he links to immigrants. This focus on the case has also allowed Miller to appear on news shows, where he continues to repeat those falsehoods.

The administration needs the immigration issue to appeal to its base, but it is unclear whether Americans like Miller’s approach to immigrants. Data journalist G. Elliott Morris noted today in Strength in Numbers that while polls say Americans generally like Trump’s approach to immigration—a recent Reuters/Ipsos poll said 49% were in favor—they hate the specifics.

The same Reuters/Ipsos poll says that 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.

The questions specifically about immigration are even starker.

Please Continue Reading …

BUILDING THE BRIDGE! | A WAY TO GET TO KNOW THE OTHER AND ONE ANOTHER

Making a Difference – The Means, Methods, and Mechanism for Many to Move Mountains

Photo Credit: Abraham A. van Kempen, our home away from home on the Dead Sea

By Abraham A. van Kempen
Senior Editor
Updated 19 January 2024

Those who commit to 'healing our broken humanity' build intercultural bridges to learn to know and understand one another and others. Readers who thumb through the Building the Bridge (BTB) pages are not mindless sheep following other mindless sheep. They THINK. They want to be at the forefront of making a difference. They're in search of the bigger picture to expand their horizons. They don't need BTB or anyone else to confirm their biases.

Making a Difference – The Means, Methods, and Mechanism for Many to Move Mountains

Accurate knowledge promotes understanding, dispels prejudice, and awakens the desire to learn more. Words have an extraordinary power to bring people together, divide them, forge bonds of friendship, or provoke hostility. Modern technology offers unprecedented possibilities for good, fostering harmony and reconciliation. Yet its misuse can do untold harm, leading to misunderstanding, prejudice, and conflict.

Continue reading

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OUR MONDAY EDITION

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The views expressed are solely those of the author and may or may not reflect those of the Building the Bridge Foundation