Minority Reports
March 5, 2025
From Truthkast.com: The Ignorance Epidemic: A Threat to Our Democracy:
[In the USA]… a staggering 54% of adults read below a 6th-grade level, with a shocking 20% unable to comprehend text beyond a 5th-grade level. Low literacy rates end up costing Americans up to $2.2 trillion every year. …
Instead of treating this as the national emergency it is, GOP political leaders seem to be capitalizing on it. Remember when Donald Trump proudly declared, “I love the poorly educated”? It wasn’t just a gaffe; it was a telling moment that revealed a disturbing strategy. The fact is, Trump has consistently performed better among voters with lower levels of formal education. Is it any wonder, then, that there are reports of plans to abolish the Department of Education altogether?
March 3, 2025
From The Nation: Vampire Weekend. What I learned at Bryan Johnson’s “Don’t Die” summit is that optimizing yourself like artificial intelligence is not only futile. It is also very expensive:
“Johnson and his longevity business represent how tech money, scientific half-truths, and optimization culture all converge into a new religion for those wealthy enough to worship at its altar. …
All of this for the low, low price of $249—the cost of a general admission ticket at the early-bird rate. (But don’t fret, you can pay up to $1,799 for an ultra-premium ticket, which gets you a gift bag and an unspecified “Exclusive Don’t Die Experience” with Johnson himself. …
The most daring proposal I heard all day was that we can save our messy human selves from technological obsolescence by capitulating to algorithms in advance. Is that a good idea? In keeping with this authoritarian moment in American history, what Johnson’s Blueprint and its commercial ecosystem does, ultimately, is invite us to understand our own dehumanization as a form of empowerment.
February 26, 2025
From The Atlantic (Anne Applebaum): Putin’s Three Years of Humiliation. The Russian president can’t win his war against Ukraine unless he persuades its allies to betray it:
“For Donald Trump, the only real cards are big money and hard power. Players, in his world, are people whom no court can block, no journalist can question, no legislator can oppose. People whose money can buy anything, whose power cannot be checked or balanced….
[Putin] still wants to show the world that the era of American power is over, that America will not defend allies in Europe, Asia, or anywhere else. He still wants to nullify the rules and laws that kept Europe peaceful for eight decades, to create instability and fear, not only in the countries that border Russia but across the continent and even around the world.
The war will only end, truly end, when Putin gives up these goals. Don’t accept any peace deal that allows him to keep them.”
February 22, 2025
From Heather Cox Richardson’s Letters from an American (02/21/2025):
“….While Trump and his team have claimed they have a mandate, in fact more people voted for someone other than Trump in 2024, and his early approval ratings were only 47%, the lowest of any president going back to 1953, when Gallup began checking them. His approval has not grown as he has called himself a “king” and openly mused about running for a third term.
A Washington Post/Ipsos poll released yesterday shows that even that “honeymoon” is over. Only 45% approve of the “the way Donald Trump is handling his job as president,” while 53% disapprove. Forty-three percent of Americans say they support what Trump has done since he took office; 48% oppose his actions. The number of people who strongly support his actions sits at 27%; the number who strongly oppose them is twelve points higher, at 39%. Fifty-seven percent of Americans think Trump has gone beyond his authority as president.”
February 20, 2025
FromDemocracyNow!: “I Am Finally Free!”: Indigenous Leader Leonard Peltier Released After Nearly 50 Years Imprisoned:
“….when we got him back to Turtle Mountain, the streets were lined with hundreds and hundreds of people welcoming him home, holding up signs, cheering, singing, war whooping. It was a beautiful, beautiful sight. I remember seeing the sign that said, “Miigwech, Leonard Peltier,” which in the Anishinaabe language ”miigwech” means “thank you,” and the amount of love and gratitude in which he was embraced by his community, his people and his movement. It was an absolutely historic and moving day.”
Congratulations America!
Trump’s cabinet nominees have been confirmed. pic.twitter.com/utXqpvqupt
— Boomertarian Norm (@BoomertarianN) February 13, 2025
February 12, 2025
From Irish Star: Trump has ‘reading age of an 11-year-old’ in Truth Social posts, according to ChatGPT:
After analyzing a post made by Donald Trump on his Truth Social account, discussing his recent phone call with President Vladimir Putin, ChatGPT opinion is based on several factors:
“Simple Sentence Structures – The text relies on relatively straightforward sentence construction, with a mix of short and long sentences but without complex syntax or nuanced argumentation.”
“Repetitive Phrasing – Phrases like “We both reflected,” “We both believe very strongly in it,” and “we will someday have in working together” suggest a lack of linguistic variety typical of more mature writing.”
“Overuse of Exclamation Marks – Frequent exclamation marks are more common in less formal or emotionally charged writing, which can indicate a less developed sense of tone in written communication.”
“Basic Transitions and Coherence Issues – The text jumps between ideas without strong logical connectors, leading to a somewhat fragmented structure (e.g., transitioning abruptly from discussing historical alliances to a mention of negotiations).”
February 7, 2025
From a guest essay opinion on The New York Times: Now Will We Believe What Is Happening Right in Front of Us?:
“… This anti-democratic movement has no interest in compromise. Any concessions will help consolidate the powers of a lawless presidency and entrench a new, kleptocratic, authoritarian form of government in the United States. …the leaders of the anti-democratic movement made clear well before the election — in documents such as the Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025, which sought to provide Trump with an aggressive right-wing agenda he could just pick up and run with — that they intend to demolish the system of justice as we know it and replace it with a form of policing in service of the ruling party and its chosen leaders. In its first two and a half weeks, the Trump administration has delivered on that promise…. In the coming months and years, the anti-democratic movement will cause many people to suffer real harm. We need to make sure these people know who did this to them — and who will fight for them. In the present circumstances, it is our duty to protect our democratic republic from a lawless president and the profoundly anti-American movement he leads.”
February 6, 2025
From Democracy Now!: Peter Beinart author of Being Jewish After the Destruction of Gaza, A Reckoning:
“Donald Trump views Palestinians as subhuman, and therefore wants to oversee a mass ethnic cleansing, which would be one of the greatest crimes of the century.And all across Washington, you hear people essentially shrug, where people say, “Maybe it’s impractical.” I don’t care. The question is not whether it’s impractical. The question is whether we should be thinking about how we get Donald Trump in front of the International Criminal Court as a war criminal. This is one of the most monstrous things an American president has said in our time. And the fact that he can be assimilated like this is just testament to the profound dehumanization of Palestinians that suffuses American public discourse.”
February 5, 2025
From DemocracyNow!: “Elon Musk is going to pay for his tax cut with your Social Security.”
Lindsay Owens breaks down the billionaire’s unprecedented takeover of key government functions, including trillions in Treasury Department payments.
February 2, 2025
Shortly after the Gaza ceasefire deal was signed, a conversation between Yanis Varoufakis (Greek economist and politician) and Francesca Albanese (UN Rapporteur on Palestine) at the MeRA25’s National Convention — offering a wider prospective and contextualization largely unavailable on mainstream media:
January 30, 2025
From Gizmodo.com:
President Donald Trump held a rambling, unhinged press conference Thursday about the midair collision between a commercial plane and military helicopter in Washington, D.C. Wednesday night that killed 67 people. The entire press conference was a long series of excuses about why Trump’s administration wasn’t to blame for the crash and the president repeatedly said “diversity” in hiring of air traffic controllers was to blame. “The FAA is actively recruiting workers who suffer severe intellectual disabilities, psychiatric problems, and other mental and physical conditions under a diversity and inclusion hiring initiative spelled out on the agency’s website. Can you imagine?” Trump said.
From The Guardian:
Notably, when the Trump administration came in on 20 January, it started swiftly firing federal employees, meaning the Federal Aviation Administration’s leadership is now dotted with vacancies. There is no Senate-confirmed administrator leading the agency.
Michael Whitaker, the administrator under Biden, left the agency after Elon Musk, the billionaire Trump supporter, demanded he resign, the Daily Beast reported. Trump nominated Chris Rocheleau to lead the agency in the aftermath of the crash. ….Conservatives often blame the air traffic controller shortage on diversity measures, a line of attack so frequent that one of Trump’s executive orders specifically focused on ending the FAA’s diversity programs, part of a government-wide push against these programs in the new administration. … Tennessee Garvey, a pilot and the chair of the Organization of Black Aerospace Professionals, told NBC News that DEI had been inappropriately “weaponized” and blamed for safety issues without any proof.“There’s never been any proof that DEI causes any safety issues, because it doesn’t,” he said.
January 28, 2025
#ACompleteUnknown enters the American cinematic songbook through the mind and music of Bob Dylan. A movie-experience not to be missed! Also, useful to know “at least 27 places where it veers from historical record”, thanks to Rolling Stone.
January 27, 2025
From Team Zeteo: ‘Truly Frightening’: Top Historian on MAGA and Tech Bros’ Unprecedented Alliance
Heather Cox Richardson, of Letters From an American fame, tells Mehdi Hasan what worries her most about this 
moment in US history – and what gives her hope.
It’s been a historic week in the United States as a man who was twice impeached, convicted on 34 felony counts, and incited an insurrection has now returned to the White House as Commander-in-Chief for the second time. Since Monday, Trump has issued a dizzying number of executive orders, compared himself to President William McKinley, and freed the same Jan. 6 rioters who tried to violently overthrow the government on his behalf just four years ago.
“These tech bros have control over very large digital platforms that determine many of the ways in which we live,” Richardson tells Mehdi. “They also determine our public speech, and that is truly frightening.”
January 26, 2025
From The Nation: It’s Time to Stand Up Against Trump 2.0
…..Trump and his allies have been boasting since election night that he won a resounding landslide victory that gives him a popular mandate to implement his radical agenda. Most mainstream news coverage has uncritically repeated that claim.
But the claim is false. The official vote tally as monitored by the nonpartisan Cook Political Report shows that Trump won only 49.80 percent of the popular vote. The other 50.2 percent went mainly to Kamala Harris, who won 48.33 percent, with the remaining 1.87 percent spread among third-party candidates.
In other words, more Americans voted against Trump in 2024 than voted for him. Even in the Electoral College, where his margin was substantial, if a mere 114,884 voters in three states—Michigan, Wisconsin, and Pennsylvania—had shifted from Trump to Harris, then Harris, not Trump, would have been the 47th president of the United States.”
January 25, 2025
From Heather Cox Richardson’s Letters from an American (01/24/2025):
“…..Trump has undertaken to dismantle the postwar democratic government at home, too. He has stopped the funding for repairing roads, bridges, airports, and ports that passed Congress in a bipartisan vote in 2022, as well as taken away funding for new solar manufacturing plants and other new systems to address climate change.
He has frozen all travel and communications at the Department of Health and Human Services, including the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the National Institutes of Health. “We’ve never seen anything like this,” one researcher told Dan Diamond, Lena H. Sun, Carolyn Y. Johnson, and Mark Johnson of the Washington Post. “This is like a meteor just crashed into all of our cancer centers and research areas.”
And, of course, Trump has declared a war on diversity, equity, and inclusion programs. In his revoking of LBJ’s Executive Order 11246, itself based on FDR’s Executive Order 8802, he explicitly rejected the principles for which the Americans fought in World War II.”
January 24, 2025
From Democracy Now! : “A Terrifying Moment”: Son Who Tipped Off FBI Fears for His Life After His Father Receives Jan. 6 Pardon: