The Atlantic: The Disturbing Rise of MAGA Maoism

Trump seems to be ceding the future to China while emulating its past.

China may well come to dominate the next century—because President Donald Trump is taking a page from the most famous Chinese leader of the previous one.

The United States remains the world’s preeminent soft power. It’s a financial and cultural juggernaut, whose entertainment and celebrities bestride the planet. But as an industrial power, the U.S. is not so much at risk of falling behind as it is objectively behind already. A recent essay in the journal Foreign Affairs by Rush Doshi and Kurt Campbell, both China experts who served in the Biden administration, made the case with alarming specificity. China makes 20 times more cement and 13 times more steel than the U.S. It makes more than two-thirds of the world’s electric vehicles, more than three-quarters of its electric batteries, 80 percent of its consumer drones, and 90 percent of its solar panels. China’s shipbuilding capacity is several orders of magnitude larger than America’s, and its navy will be 50 percent larger than the U.S. Navy by 2030.

The Trump administration clearly recognizes the need to rebuild industrial capacity. In its executive order published on “Liberation Day,” the White House suggested that, without high tariffs, America’s “defense-industrial base” is too “dependent on foreign adversaries”—a clear allusion to China.

But …

But Trump’s approach to countering China has been so scattershot, so inept, so face-smackingly absurd, that it sometimes seems like covert policy to destroy America’s reputation. Rather than build a global trading and supply-chain alliance to match the scale of China, we’ve threatened to invade Canada and slapped new tariffs on our European and East Asian allies. Rather than invest in scientific discovery, which is the basis of our technological supremacy, the administration threatens to decimate the National Institutes of Health and the National Science Foundation while attacking major research universities, including Harvard and Columbia. Rather than compete on clean energy, the White House has targeted solar and wind subsidies for destruction. Rather than invest in nuclear power by expanding the Department of Energy’s Loan Programs Office, which provides billion-dollar loan guarantees for nuclear projects, the administration dismissed 60 percent of its staff. Rather than secure our reputation as the world’s premier destination for global talent, we’re driving away foreign students.

https://archive.is/j0lGD#selection-673.0-708.0

NBC News: Students and faculty demand Columbia University stand up to federal government

Columbia University students, faculty, staff and alumni launched a “speak out” Monday to criticize school leaders for bowing to the Trump administration’s demands after it pulled $400 million in federal funding from the campus.

Hundreds of students, faculty, staff and alumni were expected to take part in the 25-hour event that organizers said was intended to amplify a growing position within the Columbia community that the school administration had caved-in to Washington and that the school’s academic freedom was under attack.

The Trump administration told the university last month that it would reinstate the school’s federal funding if it met certain demands, including banning masks on campus and holding disciplinary hearings for student protesters

Students and faculty said they had some demands of their own for the university: fight back against federal attacks; protect and defend students and international scholars; re-establish diversity policies; and protect researchers.

Professors at the rally hoisted signs reading, “Columbia Fight Back,” “Defend Freedom of Speech” and “Protect our Students.”

Authorities have apprehended at least three Columbia students in recent weeks, including graduate student Mahmoud Khalil, who was involved in student protests last year.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/students-and-faculty-demand-columbia-university-stand-up-to-federal-government/ar-AA1DN5Y6

NBC News: Trump takes executive action targeting ActBlue, the main Democratic fundraising platform

ActBlue is widely considered one of the pillars of the Democratic Party’s digital ecosystem.

Trump is now trying to sic his politicized Department of Justice on the Democrats’ fund raisers:

President Donald Trump signed an executive memorandum Thursday aimed at investigating ActBlue, the leading Democratic fundraising platform.

The memorandum directs Attorney General Pam Bondi to “investigate allegations regarding the unlawful use of online fundraising platforms to make ‘straw’ or ‘dummy’ contributions or foreign contributions to political candidates and committees, and to take appropriate action to enforce the law.”

It specifically names ActBlue as an online fundraising platform being used “to improperly influence American elections.”

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/trump-administration/trump-expected-sign-memo-targeting-act-blue-rcna202673

Fear and Loathing: Mohsen Mahdawi, almost a citizen. Almost.

Mohsen Mahdawi was arrested outside his naturalization interview in Vermont. He was on track to become a U.S. citizen. ICE decided otherwise.

https://www.facebook.com/FearAndLoathingCloserToTheEdge/posts/665054132830559


Say their names! Remember them!

Rümeysa Öztürk. Artemis Ghasemzadeh. Badar Khan Suri. Yunseo Chung. Ranjani Srinivasan. Kseniia Petrova. Mohsen Mahdawi. Momodou Taal. Felipe Zapata Velásquez. Jerce Reyes Barrios. Francisco García Casique. Andry Hernández Romero. Jessica Brösche. Alireza Doroudi.

These are the names they are trying to vanish.

We won’t let them.

Not today. Not ever.

If they can disappear them, they can disappear you.

Fear and Loathing: Alireza Doroudi, Iranian PhD student, University of Alabama

Alireza Doroudi, an Iranian PhD student at the University of Alabama, was picked up by ICE without charge. No one will say why. He’s still gone.

https://www.facebook.com/FearAndLoathingCloserToTheEdge/posts/665054132830559


Say their names! Remember them!

Rümeysa Öztürk. Artemis Ghasemzadeh. Badar Khan Suri. Yunseo Chung. Ranjani Srinivasan. Kseniia Petrova. Mohsen Mahdawi. Momodou Taal. Felipe Zapata Velásquez. Jerce Reyes Barrios. Francisco García Casique. Andry Hernández Romero. Jessica Brösche. Alireza Doroudi.

These are the names they are trying to vanish.

We won’t let them.

Not today. Not ever.

If they can disappear them, they can disappear you.

Fear and Loathing: Rümeysa Öztürk, Fulbright scholar, Tufts University

Rümeysa Öztürk was a Fulbright scholar at Tufts University. ICE agents in masks and hoodies grabbed her off the street, shoved her into an unmarked car, and vanished her into a Louisiana detention center. Her crime? Writing an op-ed critical of Israel’s actions in Gaza.

https://www.facebook.com/FearAndLoathingCloserToTheEdge/posts/665054132830559


Say their names! Remember them!

Rümeysa Öztürk. Artemis Ghasemzadeh. Badar Khan Suri. Yunseo Chung. Ranjani Srinivasan. Kseniia Petrova. Mohsen Mahdawi. Momodou Taal. Felipe Zapata Velásquez. Jerce Reyes Barrios. Francisco García Casique. Andry Hernández Romero. Jessica Brösche. Alireza Doroudi.

These are the names they are trying to vanish.

We won’t let them.

Not today. Not ever.

If they can disappear them, they can disappear you.

Fear and Loathing: Kseniia Petrova, Russian scientist, Harvard Univeristy

Kseniia Petrova, a Russian scientist at Harvard, was deported over a technicality involving frog embryo samples. When she said she feared political persecution in Russia, they shrugged and shackled her anyway.

https://www.facebook.com/FearAndLoathingCloserToTheEdge/posts/665054132830559


Say their names! Remember them!

Rümeysa Öztürk. Artemis Ghasemzadeh. Badar Khan Suri. Yunseo Chung. Ranjani Srinivasan. Kseniia Petrova. Mohsen Mahdawi. Momodou Taal. Felipe Zapata Velásquez. Jerce Reyes Barrios. Francisco García Casique. Andry Hernández Romero. Jessica Brösche. Alireza Doroudi.

These are the names they are trying to vanish.

We won’t let them.

Not today. Not ever.

If they can disappear them, they can disappear you.

Fear and Loathing: Momodou Taal, British-Gambian PhD student, Cornell University

Momodou Taal, a British-Gambian PhD student at Cornell, was told to surrender himself or be hunted. His activism cost him his place in the country. He left voluntarily. That’s what exile looks like now.

https://www.facebook.com/FearAndLoathingCloserToTheEdge/posts/665054132830559


Say their names! Remember them!

Rümeysa Öztürk. Artemis Ghasemzadeh. Badar Khan Suri. Yunseo Chung. Ranjani Srinivasan. Kseniia Petrova. Mohsen Mahdawi. Momodou Taal. Felipe Zapata Velásquez. Jerce Reyes Barrios. Francisco García Casique. Andry Hernández Romero. Jessica Brösche. Alireza Doroudi.

These are the names they are trying to vanish.

We won’t let them.

Not today. Not ever.

If they can disappear them, they can disappear you.

Fear and Loathing: Jessica Brösche, German tourist

Jessica Brösche, a German tourist, spent eight days in solitary confinement for a visa mix-up. She described her experience as a “horror film.” This is what awaits people who land on the wrong day, at the wrong airport, with the wrong stamp.

https://www.facebook.com/FearAndLoathingCloserToTheEdge/posts/665054132830559


Say their names! Remember them!

Rümeysa Öztürk. Artemis Ghasemzadeh. Badar Khan Suri. Yunseo Chung. Ranjani Srinivasan. Kseniia Petrova. Mohsen Mahdawi. Momodou Taal. Felipe Zapata Velásquez. Jerce Reyes Barrios. Francisco García Casique. Andry Hernández Romero. Jessica Brösche. Alireza Doroudi.

These are the names they are trying to vanish.

We won’t let them.

Not today. Not ever.

If they can disappear them, they can disappear you.