We love ourselves too often and need reach out much more often. It is a social responsibility and it effects the environment also.
Trump derangement syndrome is real, and it's real sad. Trump reminds me of a liberal republican and the democrats as the end of ailing aristocrats. Did You Know? The two Twentieth Century landmark civil rights laws, the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965, were supported by a greater proportion of Republican Congresspersons and Senators than Democratic ones. Did You Know? George Romney, the popular and successful liberal Republican Governor of Michigan and a leading Republican Presidential candidate in 1968 (and also the father of the recent Republican Presidential nominee Mitt Romney), was one of America’s foremost advocates for the Federal Government playing a leading role in transforming America’s impoverished inner cities? He pushed for the creation of low-cost housing throughout metropolitan Detroit (including its suburbs), both as Michigan’s Governor and later as President Richard Nixon’s Secretary of the Department of Housing and Urban Development. He stated, “some already are saying the answer [to inner city riots] is brute force such as would be used on mad dogs…Force alone will not eliminate riots. We must eliminate the problems from which they stem.” Did You Know? Nelson Rockefeller, the four-term Republican Governor of New York whose name came to be identified with the liberal and moderate Republicans who were a predominant force in American politics from the 1940’s through the 1970’s (so-called “Rockefeller Republicans”), was castigated by right-wing white racists ”as a dangerous Northern agitator bankrolling Dr. [Martin Luther] King and other troublemakers.” “After hundreds of Birmingham [Alabama] youngsters, responding to King’s appeal, were jailed for taking part in the so-called Children’s March on May 2, [1963], King’s lawyer Clarence Jones was summoned to the vault of the Chase Manhattan Bank. There he was handed a briefcase full of Rockefeller cash. Officially described as a loan, the money helped pay bail costs for the movement’s youngest foot soldiers. On his return to Birmingham, Jones found in his mail an unsigned receipt, informing him that his ‘loan’ had been fully repaid.” * * * If you are in your Forties or younger, you are unlikely to know how diverse the politics of the Republican Party were when your parents and grandparents were young. In fact, you may be flabbergasted by how many prominent liberal Republicans there were and for what they stood. While the Party always included conservatives (like most Republican politicians today), conservatives did not dominate the Party, let alone control it. Today’s Republican Party is an aberration (or at most a cyclical trend). It is the thesis of this website that the rebirth of liberal Republicanism is where Americans are most likely to find the middle political ground that could end the dysfunction that today paralyzes much of our public discourse and our government. Most people know the Republican Party was founded in opposition to slavery and that Abraham Lincoln was the first Republican President. (In fact, the Republican Party was long known as “the Party of Lincoln.”) Many people also know that Teddy Roosevelt, the early Twentieth Century progressive President who took on powerful business interests and led the enactment of much of the first major social welfare legislation in America, was a Republican. But most people do not know that until recently liberal and moderate Republicans had an even greater voice in the Party than conservatives, or that these Republicans aligned with like-minded Democrats on an issue-by-issue basis to enact major civil rights laws, major infrastructure legislation and laws and policies that underpinned America’s foreign policy in defense of democracy and liberty around the world. (Conservative Republicans used to be predominantly isolationists. In fact, America’s support of the Allies in World War II, up until Pearl Harbor, would not have been possible without the efforts of liberal and moderate Republicans who worked with President Franklin Delano Roosevelt to defeat the efforts of isolationist Republican and Democratic Congressmen.) The Republican Party was founded in 1854 as the anti-slavery party. It also originated and developed as the party advocating liberal capitalism as the best means to achieve broad economic prosperity (by advocating for national infrastructure development and against the abuses of great wealth, including business trusts and monopolies); the party advocating for ethics and competency in government (rather than the vote-buying, job patronage and electoral horse-trading which were all characteristic of Democratic machine politics of the time); and the party most associated with a preference for individual initiative, decentralized government and fiscal conservatism. While today the Democratic Party is consistently the more “liberal” political party, this was not the case for most of American history. When Republicans today accuse Republicans they regard as too liberal of being RINO’s (“Republicans in Name Only”), they ignore history. It is important for the American people, especially young people whose involvement in politics will increasingly determine America’s future, not to cede control of the Republican Party, which represents half of our established political infrastructure, to its conservative members. This is especially important since for some of these passionate conservatives (as is the case for some of the most passionate liberal Democrats), “consensus” is a dirty word. The term “Liberal Republican” has often been used to describe both progressives and moderates. Like most political factions, it’s been a big tent, including people who espouse divergent views on many issues, as well as politicians who have drifted into the space with experience and changing political times. (Interestingly, this also is true of the conservative wing of the Republican Party. Ronald Reagan started his political career as a Democrat and as the head of a labor union, the Screen Actor’s Guild.)
You can blame the media for causing this: Minnesota Senate Republicans introduced a bill yesterday to classify “Trump Derangement Syndrome” as a mental illness. According to the bill, TDS is described as an “acute paranoia” in response to the Trump's policies.
She told me to look into the glass marble, Its surface alive with a spectral garble. Swirls of color, a storm contained, A world unspoken, yet unexplained. I held it close, the whispers grew, Secrets of realms where light was few. Shapes emerged, a fleeting glance, Echoes of stars in a spiraled dance. In that small sphere, the cosmos lay, A universe born in the palm of day.
Do it now and make it as epic as possible. Here’s an epic poetic narrative, drawing on the themes of absolute power, global rule, suffering, and the apocalyptic destruction described in Revelation. It's a grand and symbolic tale of rise, fall, and the ultimate reckoning: In the halls of power, a shadow grew, A figure who spoke, with words untrue. Chains of nations fell to their call, One ruler to govern, to bind them all. The world knelt low as the voice did rise, Promising peace beneath darkened skies. Yet behind the mask of unity's creed, Lay whispers of torment and insatiable greed. With a scepter wrought of fear and flame, They forged a throne in humanity's name. Cities crumbled, their lights turned cold, Tyranny spread, relentless, bold. And so, the world became a stage, A theater of suffering, of wrath, and rage. The weak were silenced, the strong enslaved, No one left to mourn the brave. The skies grew dark, the rivers bled, The moon turned crimson, the stars fell dead. Plagues arose, with fury unleashed, Death sat high, its hunger increased. The heavens trembled, the seals were torn, Each one unleashing a world forlorn. A scroll unrolled with an angel’s cry, “Judgment shall fall from the throne on high.” Beasts of horror roamed the earth, Their coming a sign of reckoning’s birth. Seven trumpets heralded the sound, Of chaos reigning all around. The ruler stood atop their tower, Reveling in their fleeting power. But thunder cracked, and fire came, Divine wrath with cleansing flame. Seven bowls poured forth despair, No corner of earth was left to spare. Earthquakes shattered mountains wide, Oceans swallowed cities in their tide. The harlot of greed, Babylon’s pride, Collapsed in ruins, her wealth denied. Merchants wept for riches lost, A fleeting empire, now bearing its cost. Then came the Lamb, resplendent, pure, With justice no shadow could endure. The armies of light and dark did clash, As time burned down to its final ash. When the final trumpet echoed on, The ruler’s might was wholly gone. The throne of tyranny turned to dust, As heaven triumphed, fierce and just. From ashes rose a world made whole, New heavens above, a cleansed soul. No tear was shed, no pain remained, For darkness forever was unchained. And so the tale of hubris ends, A warning carved by time’s great lens. Absolute power, though vast and grim, Cannot outlast the eternal hymn.
I was recently a centrist democrat and now more of a centrist republican, and sense dismay from Trump and the republicans as to the decline in the last four years. I suppose it is shameful and I wish I could have stopped it. I just was in to position to do much, and we should all be glad we are here and not there. It's in times like this I feel that politics matters.
Janitors on the right side of history don't need to double down; Politics exclusive Columbia janitors trapped, attacked by anti-Israel mob say they faced retaliatory harassment for reporting antisemitic conduct as civil rights probe launched By Ryan King Published March 17, 2025 Updated March 17, 2025, 11:59 a.m. ET 526 Comments Columbia University is facing a new federal investigation over allegations from two janitors who claim they were unlawfully forced to scrub off swastikas spray-painted on campus before later being attacked and briefly trapped by an anti-Israel “mob” during the takeover of Hamilton Hall last spring. The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), a federal agency tasked with enforcing civil rights laws in the workplace, has opened a probe into complaints from Lester Wilson and Mario Torres, who were forced to fight their way out of Hamilton Hall nearly a year ago, The Post has confirmed. Mario Torres 7 Mario Torres publicly opened up about the trauma he weathered at Columbia University during an interview with the Free Press last year. @TheFP/X Mario Torres 7 Mario Torres had repeated run-ins with anti-Israel agitators throughout last year. Getty Images Both men are making claims under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act, alleging that they faced retaliatory harassment at the institution for “reporting antisemitic and racist conduct.” 00:20 04:41 “We welcome the EEOC’s decision to open an investigation into Mario’s and Lester’s charges of discrimination,” former US Attorney General Bill Barr, whose firm Torridon is representing the two men, told The Post. “Columbia has a legal and moral obligation to protect the civil rights of its students and employees. It must be held accountable when it fails to do so,” Barr, 74, who attended Columbia University and lived through the riots of the late 1960s there, added. Explore More Trump says Biden's autopen pardons are 'void, vacant and of no further force or effect,' vows probe of Jan. 6 House select committee Trump ties for highest approval he's ever had — as more Americans say US is on right track than any time in 20 years: poll Ihsan Ali attempted 'honor killing' arrest Father charged with attempting to 'honor kill' daughter was only worried about his car while he was arrested It is not fully clear when the EEOC commenced the probe, but records seen by The Post show that the agency was working on the investigation last month. Wilson and Torres, who had worked at the school for over five years, were both left injured as well as traumatized from the scourge of anti-Israel unrest that engulfed the Ivy League school and have since been unable to return to work as a result, according to the complaints they filed last October. “Hours after President [Minouche] Shafik issued her statement [that the university had become ‘unsafe for everyone‘], an antisemitic mob assaulted two janitors inside Columbia’s historic Hamilton Hall, calling them ‘Jew-lovers,'” the two complaints for both men recalled of the Hamilton Hall takeover in April last year. “Columbia had indeed become unsafe for everyone, including the two janitors who were trapped inside Hamilton Hall. And for these two men, Columbia had for months been a hostile environment in violation of Title VII,” the complaints added. It all began around November 2023, shortly after the bloody Oct. 7 Hamas attack on Israel sparked a war. Racist and antisemitic graffiti started to pop up, scrawled all around Hamilton Hall — and the campus’s janitors were forced to clean it up. “Mr. Wilson recognized the swastikas as symbols of white supremacy,” Wilson’s complaint alleges. “As an African-American man, he found the images deeply distressing. He reported them to his supervisors, who instructed him to erase the graffiti.” “No matter how many times Mr. Wilson removed the swastikas, individuals kept replacing them with more.” Wilson lost track of how many swastikas he had to scrub, but his colleague Torres, who is Latino, pegged it in the dozens and eventually reached a point where he had enough, his complaint said. 7 The two maintenance workers argued that Columbia University could’ve prevented the chaos if it had taken action earlier. James Keivom “They were so offensive, and Columbia’s inaction was so frustrating, that he eventually began throwing away chalk that had been left in the classrooms so vandals would not have anything to write with,” Torres’ complaint alleged. “However, Mr. Torres was reprimanded by his supervisor for doing so.” Given the fact that Columbia University requires an electronic ID to gain entrance to Hamilton Hall, which is nestled on the school’s Morningside Heights campus, and the fact that the building was equipped with security feeds, the two janitors felt the authorities could’ve tracked down the perpetrators. They had reported the deluge of antisemitic, sexually obscene and racist graffiti at Hamilton Hall to campus security and concluded there was “no reason to believe” Columbia University “investigated any of the incidents” that had been flagged. In one instance, around Dec. 6, 2023, Torres and Wilson observed masked protesters storm through Hamilton Hall chanting “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free” and scrawling swastikas as well as other obscene graffiti in the building. Columbia University 7 Rioters at Columbia University barricaded themselves into Hamilton Hall in April last year. Getty Images After Wilson reported that, he was told by campus security that “the trespassers and vandals were exercising their First Amendment rights” and that “nothing could be done,” per the complaint. The antisemitic incidents on campus continued to occur. Eventually, anti-Israel protesters erected encampments in a nod to the wretched conditions that scores of Palestinians endured in Gaza during the war. Wilson’s union informed him in the spring of last year that Columbia University would offer overtime to custodians who agreed to tidy up the encampments. He also witnessed antisemitism in those encampments, the complaint alleged. Mario Torres 7 The maintenance workers fought their way out of Hamilton Hall during the occupation by the anti-Israel mob. Getty Images “He spotted a colleague inside the encampment cleaning the mess within it,” Wilson’s complaint recounted. “He saw and heard members of the encampment shouting ‘Jew-lover’ and ‘Zionist’ at the colleague while he worked to clean up their mess.” He later opted to return to his normal shift, not feeling safe at the encampment on the South Lawn, which is not far from Hamilton Hall. Torres had similarly complained about not feeling safe walking past the encampment on his way to work. Then came the infamous occupation of Hamilton Hall, something that had been done during past protests over the last five decades, such as the demonstrations against the Vietnam War in the late 1960s. Both Torres and Wilson had been working in Hamilton Hall on April 29, 2024, when a swarm of masked demonstrators stormed the building to take it over. “Masked intruders obstructed Mr. Torres’ path at every turn,” Torres’ complaint detailed. “Mr. Torres had no idea that all the while rioters had been zip-tying shut the exits on the ground floor of Hamilton Hall.” “Mr. Torres observed that what had initially seemed like chaos was actually highly coordinated,” the complaint added. “An unmasked woman and a masked man barked orders at the rioters, directing them to different areas of Hamilton Hall.” Columbia University 7 Students caused significant property damage during the riots and left many Jewish students afraid. AP Rioters had moved vending machines and zip-tied doors to barricade the exits and entrances. After deciding he was out of options, Torres decided to battle his way through the mob. ‘”I’m going to get twenty guys up here to f— you up,'” one masked rioter who had “violently” shoved Torres threatened, per the complaint. “Mr. Torres pulled a fire extinguisher, which was within arm’s reach, off the wall to defend himself and replied, ‘I’ll be right here.’” During that confrontation, Torres was repeatedly struck on his back by other rioters. After repeatedly navigating to blocked-off exits, he eventually found a way out that had been blocked by zip ties and a bike lock. Following his pleas, one of the rioters cut the zip ties and let him out. Wilson had been separated from Torres during the havoc and had quickly tried to escape after determining the rioters were taking over. During his scramble to get out, rioters smashed furniture into him and pushed him repeatedly, per the complaint. Hamilton Hall 7 Students took over Hamilton Hall in April last year. Getty Images “He recalls saying, ‘I work here. Let me out,'” the complained alleged. “The rioters responded by laughing at him and mocking him. He remembers being told, ‘You work for the Jews,’ and ‘You’re a Zionist.’ Eventually, someone opened a door and Mr. Wilson was physically pushed out of the building.” Rioters had seized Hamilton Hall not long after defying orders to disperse the encampments in April last year. Eventually, the New York City Police Department intervened and cleared out the building, leading to over 100 arrests. Days earlier, Columbia University had shifted most of its classes to remote learning due to the unrest on campus as conditions reached a boiling point. 526 What do you think? Post a comment. The Post reached out to EEOC for comment. Columbia University declined to comment on the ongoing investigation when asked by The Post. Columbia University has faced intense scrutiny from the Trump administration over its handling of antisemitism on campus, including by having the White House cut over $400 million worth of funding. The Ivy League school is also facing a probe from the Education Department’s Office for Civil Rights, alongside dozens of other institutions of higher education. President Trump’s team has also targetted the rioters, with his State Department and Department of Homeland Security searching to see if individuals on foreign student visas espoused support for Hamas or broke the law. Most prominently, Trump’s team has moved to deport Mahmoud Khalil, one of the driving forces behind the Columbia University tumult. The courts have halted Khalil’s deportation
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
