U Penn has $24.8 billion endowment, growing at 12%/year. But they still insisted they had to do whatever Trump told them to do. Perhaps they need both better moral compasses and stronger math skills. www.inquirer.com/education/up...

I wrote a little more than could fit in a Bluesky: open.substack.com/pub/dojero/p...

CNN joins the anti Mamdani propaganda train. Just look at the headline. Of course, the article says that all three candidates want the same police commissioner. Is that what the headline indicates? share.google/zdkRLTojqjtU...

For those willing to read state sponsored media, as opposed to the jingoism of propaganda systems like the NY Times or CBS news, this is a good summary of the vague, feel good moments that Xi had with Trump. The West is going to have to accept China's power, like it or not.

While American politicians and universities and law firms cave to Trump, Xi and Lula show that he's all silly bluster. aje.io/87q5tj

Von der Leyen refers to a confrontational world, ignoring the fact that it is the West that has insisted on confrontation, instead of cooperation, as the nations of the Global South have sought. www.euronews.com/my-europe/20...

Why are Southern states huge supporters of the Republican Party? Is the distrust of Federal government so powerful? share.google/NihXI381XEsu...

This is not an indication of anything more than Jeffries' political calculus: he wants to back the winner, and he wants to cut the legs out of any leftist who runs against him in a primary. www.nytimes.com/2025/10/24/n...

David Todd's review of Melenchon's book offers valuable ways to consider the left's problems, not just in France, but throughout the West. One interesting theory is that we're living through a cult-of-personality era that makes leftist collective aspirations far more difficult. Perhaps the answer

The EU, Switzerland, the US, the UK... All pretend to promote freedoms of privacy, speech, various cultural orientations. All pretend that they are superior to the rest of the world because of these. None of it is true. share.google/8aI3XrrpBMx5...

The Court is unequivocal in its condemnation of genocidal Israel and its American supporters. Sadly, it won't have much impact on the ground. But it is still a triumph for anyone opposed to the horrible massacre of a people by a powerful state: www.nytimes.com/2025/10/22/w...

The EU continues to shove its collective nose up the US ass. And continues to mouth the same silly claims that it is somehow needed more by China than the reverse. As this latest fiasco shows, nothing could be further from the truth. share.google/3ybwRQhxhXvX...

Great idea from Chris Murphy.

This is the same Governor Shapiro who condemned the peaceful anti genocide protestors on campuses and called for them to be expelled and prosecuted. Shapiro is no advocate of protest or free speech. share.google/6WzOR2gwUkbs...

AP finds it necessary to put the Republicans in the headline. Why? Because it, too, is a part of the propaganda system. It will not matter. This fascist regime is not popular. It does not have majority support. And its rule will not continue past 2026, when the elections are held.

Again and again, we must understand that the Democratic Party is filled with hating war-mongers. Have a look at the votes in favor of nearly $1 trillion for our military, including yet more money for Israel. And see how it works in terms of who pays the Senators. jacobin.com/2025/10/mili...

The typical response of the Democrats. Let's write a mildly unhappy letter about a gross violation of the law. Why aren't they in court?

This is hardly a tough decision. But the universities should sue Trump for this illegal imposition of a political viewpoint in order to get Federal funds. If the Supreme Court finds it's legal, the next Democratic administration must impose opposite political views under the same conditions.

All liberal Democrats should be facing primaries if they start voting to pay the military and no one else. Soldiers are not more important to our society than the millions of other Federal employees. All matter. All should be paid, if one should be paid.

All those who were horrified by the concept of Donald Trump getting a Nobel Peace Prize should be signing @codepink.bsky.social petitions to the Nobel committee, lambasting them for their choice of Machado. The Prize has always been nothing more than a propaganda tool for the West.

The deprivation of health care is one of the most immoral components of the American system. Health care is a human right...a more important human right than the right to free speech or the practice of religion.It's essentially the right to be alive. We are an incredibly cruel collection of people.

The US conducts illegal wars at every opportunity.The latest is the one against Venezuela.That Congress and the media permit our fascist leader to murder people in international waters is an indication of how little the lives of non-Americans matter to us, even as we assert moral superiority.

A good review of a collection of books on the distortions of truth arising from social media algorithms. After reading it, we should ask why anyone is still using X (including all the good liberals on Bluesky). www.nybooks.com/articles/202...

Penn State originally refused this deal because they said they couldn't afford the $3 million/year they'd have to pay in support. But Penn State also came up with $45 million in severance to fire their football coach. It's just a matter of priorities. www.inquirer.com/news/pennsyl...

The Netherlands has established itself a firmly entrenched in the belligerent West, always seeing enemies. If any of the Global South countries takes control of a company, it's labeled as evil communism. When the West does it, it's an attack on evil communism. share.google/eW5MycLWvsdJ...

Were this kind of thing to happen in any of the countries the propaganda newspaper, the New York Times, didn't like (China, Russia, Venezuela, Iran, etc), the article would be all about autocracy, strongmen, and the lack of democracy. Here, it's none of those. www.nytimes.com/2025/10/10/w...

Great piece. Of course, markets are mostly just people with money trading that money with other people with money and both getting right from the transactions. No other point to most of those transactions. And certainly not much reason.

A bizarre farce from the sad office holders in the US Senate and House. These are the same people who have allowed president after president to wage war after war, up to and including our new hot one against Venezuela. apnews.com/article/cong...

I think @vijayprashad.bsky.social understates the case. It's worse than a joke. It's a tool of the propaganda system that the West uses to make the people of the First World believe they are superior to the rest of the people in the world. But it is also a joke, and it has nothing to do with peace.

Until this sale, Dominion appears to have been owned by State Street Capital (Wikipedia says). Which is how capitalism works: State Street has no motivation except making money for capitalists. So it sells to a right wing Trumpian. Capitalism only works for capitalists. apnews.com/article/domi...

A truth about all of us who live in comfortable bubbles away from the horror of genocide and daily neo-fascism.

Why does anyone care about the Nobel Peace Prize, which has been won by one of the great warmongers of all time, Henry Kissinger? Why dignify that prize with ink?

The headline misses the point, which is that John Fetterman again voted Republican. We must run a primary candidate against this fascist genocide lover when he next faces an election. Not even the classic liberal Democrat should be willing to vote for him. apnews.com/article/trum...

Another reason why Mamdani cannot get support from Democratic Senator Schumer, since Schumer supports the genocidal killings of more than 67000 Palestinians. Which side would you rather be on, for our against genocide? share.google/P4fhTkjX3ksC...

The insanity of using countries to identify artists never ceases to embarrass the pathetic people who put these events together. At the current Chopin Competition, note that Lynov is the only pianist not allowed to have a country (Russia). And note that the Van Cliburn exhibition used the word.

What's remarkable is that the universities are treating this as a serious proposal worthy of anything beyond immediate rejection and tossing it in the garbage. www.inquirer.com/education/up...

The Democratic Party should, at the very least, shout back at the use of terms like extreme and far left. Liberals in the party are often barely left of center, and sometimes not even left of anyone. We on the left only wish the Democrats were on our side. They aren't.

It's impossible to overstate the level of disdain that Macron has for the people of France. No matter how many times they tell him they don't want him or his followers, he just appoints more of the same. xhnewsapi.xinhuaxmt.com/share/news?i...

Compare the Chinese approach at the UN to the American approach. Decide for yourself which better reflects your hopes for the world. english.news.cn/20251004/8dc...

I suppose it is not surprising that a senator from Idaho doesn't understand the realities of world politics and economics. Doesn't understand that the US is not more powerful than China and that threatening them is an exercise in futility. Doesn't understand that we should be working with China

The Republicans say it's punishment. This isn't the right headline.

The US economy is for and by the rich capitalists. Assessing its performance is always just a matter of asking how rich people are doing. The answer, most of the time, is that they're doing very well. Measuring consumer spending means measuring how much rich people are spending. Measuring GDP means

Great piece on the Catholic Church's long history of siding with fascism, and on Cardinal Dolan's disgusting praise of Charlie Kirk. www.thenation.com/article/soci...

Our exaltation of our military, or the people who kill, is one of the most ruinous elements of our culture. We are capable of grotesque and inhuman treatment of others because we believe we are superior and because we believe that those others are less than human. Genocide. Massacres. All OK.

Macron is strongman bully, not a leader. Having lost all support from the people of his country, he refuses to do the right thing and resign. share.google/v4A5sB9Apubg...

I don't know about atheists, but all capitalists are socialists in foxholes. The US is not a state capitalist system like China. It's a socialist system for the exclusive benefit of capitalists www.wsj.com/politics/pol...

Why does the Times put the word, theft, in quotations? If it were any country in the West, instead of Russia, they wouldn't. But make no mistake: this is the EU committing theft. www.nytimes.com/2025/10/01/w...

Don't just read @vijayprashad.bsky.social . Weep with him for the countless victims of the Cemetery State of Israel. And take action with him, shouting out, to try to stop the world from ignoring the horror. substack.com/@luciddialec...

What the hell is the headline? To be clear: the Republicans caused the shutdown, not the Democrats. The Republicans passed the bill that destroyed health care funding, not the Democrats. That's what caused the shutdown. apnews.com/article/demo...

The Democrats should be in lockstep, never referring to the shutdown, always referring to the Republican shutdown. It's that kind of discipline that our media respects. They will never not quote such things. Of course, the lockstep can't include Republican John Fetterman, who insists on calling