Hello everyone! This newsletter will focus on current events, whether the fast-moving coup d'etat of the Smithsonian, threats to constitutional order and rule of law, threats to public education and information, sovereignist foreign policy, climate change and environmental destruction, attempts to marginalize queer people, sanity, and resistance, among related topics, building upon my last newsletter on March 29th. My newsletter about popular culture will be coming on April 16th. I decided to delay the beginning of my newsletter focused entirely on archives, history, genealogy, libraries, and related topics, until next month. Some of those topics will be incorporated into this newsletter in the appropriate locations.

Rather than starting this newsletter by focusing on all the horrible things that are going on, I'd like to talk about some recent examples of sanity and resistance. The biggest example of this are the hands off rallies on April 5th. Mother Jones did some great reporting around this. Mass protests were everywhere, from Manhattan to D.C., Boston to Chicago, New York City to New Haven, Philadelphia to Marshfield, whether in "blue" or "red" areas, with people naming various existential threats, whether threats to Social Security, women, books, public health grants, immigrants, Mahmoud Khalil, libraries, and more, with expression of worry about democracy, and "an unavoidable illustration of outrage." I'm glad I went to the protest in D.C. and even posted the sign I used during the protest on Instagram and Bluesky, and at the beginning of this newsletter. The corporate media may have snarled and not covered it well, but the energy is there, and it surely had an impact, as so many were brought together, possibly numbering 1-3 million, either in the U.S., Canada, or Europe.

Mother Jones also reported on the gathering of some disabled protesters on Zoom, showing that protests can accommodate anyone, even those who can't go physically to a rally, for one reason or another. Prior to this, people gathered across the country, protesting against Tesla and its CEO, the Muskrat (as he should be called), and opposing everything that DOGE is doing, in their effort to destroy the federal government from the inside, as even a 15-year-old can point out. Of course the Muskrat and other sycophants are trying to discount the mass social mobilization on April 5th, claiming the protesters were "paid," all in an attempt to dismiss the idea (which should be obvious now) that they do not have a mandate for anything they are doing. Some, like Margaret Kimberly, have said that we should not be shocked at the capitulation of ruling class institutions, which take the "path of least resistance," asserted that Democrats have run for cover, said that the ruling classes do not represent the people, and called the current political moment difficult "after several decades of weak mass organizing," noting the popularity of student encampments by the Palestine solidarity movement, and concluded that no one can be appealed to but ourselves, arguing that "mass movements may have been in existence years ago but unless they are revived the assaults on our civil and human rights will not just continue [but]…will grow ever more brazen."

On a more positive note, resistance is also clear from:

• the victory in Wisconsin with the election of Susan Crawford to the Wisconsin Supreme Court

• rallies demanding the release of the Tufts student disappeared by ICE (Rumeysa Ozturk), for whom they denied her right to medical care as some have reported

• various legal rulings, like one in favor of Mahmoud Khalil (but sadly recent rulings have favored his deportation)

At the same time, some of those who were previously hesitant to take vaccines are now deciding it is necessary to protect themselves from the measles virus and there are reports that the Muskrat may step down at the end of May from DOGE, like in LiveMint, Politico, and elsewhere, showing that the protests plus investors who are angry at him for not focusing enough on Tesla (and becoming a toxic figure) are having an impact. However, the possibility he will leave is likely a ruse. The orange one and others could be further affected by a corruption conviction against Marine Le Pen which is stopping her from running in the French presidential election in 2027, depriving them of a potential ally in France if she won the election.

Starting domestically, there is resistance to the Smithsonian coup d'etat, with the plans, which I described in my last newsletter, resisted by historians (like Clarissa Myrick-Harris, Ibram X. Kendi, and Samuel Redman), civil rights leaders, and Black political leaders (Ben Jealous and Wes Moore). They are warning that this plan aims to deny that slavery or Jim Crow laws (or segregation and racial violence) even happened, and called the plan an attack on Black America itself, said its aim is to distort U.S. history to "racist ends," and that reactionaries want tell a national story filled with political propaganda. Others called the plan a direct attack by the executive branch which is scary, troubling, a threat to art history which tells the full story, and deeply disrespectful. Even the Congressional Black Caucus, which has been criticized for years by those in Black Agenda Report for not genuinely representing Black people (and only Black elites), called the plan "patently ridiculous" and a form of "whitewashing our nation's history," adding that the administration "bans books, words, and phrases that do not fit their narrative…[it] wants to erase and retell our history," adding that Black history is U.S. history, and rhetoric otherwise is factually wrong and is "blatantly racist." It also called the orange one an "aspirational dictator." Lastly, the Secretary of the Smithsonian, Lonnie G. Bunch III said:

"As an Institution, our commitment to scholarship and research is unwavering and will always serve as the guiding light for our content. Late yesterday, the White House issued a presidential Executive Order (EO) related to cultural institutions including the Smithsonian. We will continue to showcase world-class exhibits, collections, and objects, rooted in expertise and accuracy. We will continue to employ our internal review processes which keep us accountable to the public. When we err, we adjust, pivot, and learn as needed…As we have done throughout our history, the Smithsonian will work with the Board of Regents, including the Chief Justice, Vice President, and our congressional and citizen Regents…[and the latter] understands and appreciates the Institution's mission, as well as the importance of scholarship, expertise, and service to the American public. For more than 175 years, the Smithsonian has been an educational institution devoted to continuous learning with the public in mind and driven by our most important mission – the increase and diffusion of knowledge. We remain committed to telling the multi-faceted stories of this country's extraordinary heritage."

Bunch may be giving in too much here. On the other hand, perhaps he is aware of this part of the bill, which ended the government shutdown, and which Chuck Schumer told Democrats in cloture for (he and eight other Democrats did), an action opening the pathway for the terrible bill to pass, putting the Smithsonian's appropriations dangerously under the orange one's purview:

All the while, there are related threats to history, public education, and the like, in an effort to limit the ability of people to know what is happening and promote misinformation in the process. Part of this involves directly attacking colleges and universities with restrictions on federal funding to universities like Columbia, University of Pennsylvania, Harvard, Brown, Cornell, Northwestern, and many others, especially those with research grants, such as Johns Hopkins University. Those receiving the most federal funding, apart from JHU and Columbia, include private universities (MIT, Stafford, Duke) and public universities (University of Washington-Seattle, University of Michigan-Ann Arbor, U. of California-San Diego, University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, and University of Wisconsin-Madison), according to AP. They are among the "96 colleges facing investigations by the Education Department's Office for Civil Rights" for diversity, equity, and inclusion and other supposed "offenses," with these investigations as a form of intimidation. Already Columbia surrendered itself and the others may fall soon thereafter. After all, JHU already cut over 2,000 jobs, while Baylor, Emory, and Stanford universities all began “hiring freezes or other such adjustments,” to name a few.

Lauren Lassabe Shepherd, a historian of higher education, wrote a relevant article related to the above in History News Network. She noted that student protesters have been condemned for over a century by U.S. politicians from both parties, whether the orange one, or many others (Nixon, Reagan, Carter, and Biden). She added that college administrators have often been disappointing, while "arrests, expulsions, [or]…the revocation of financial aid" has been used to break up student protests, whether in the 1920s or 1930s. This included expelling a student from Columbia University "for organizing anti-Nazi demonstrations" in 1936, or turning over records of "Ford Foundation grant recipients to the Department of Justice" from the 1940s to 1960s, while others made requests to surveil civil rights organizers on their own campuses.

There was state repression, as she put it, "targeting antiwar activists...during the 1960s," along with state and federal legislation introduced to "discipline campus activists." College administrators sided with politicians over students, either because colleges and universities value their reputations or to preserve their funding. This included expelling (or threatening to expel) those involved in protests in the 1960s and 1970s or revoking financial aid (a tool threatened by politicians), as their higher education institutions adopted policies claiming they are "neutral." The latter has seen a resurgence, Shepherd notes, since the Palestinian solidarity protests began October 2023. "Anticipatory obedience does more to harm an institution than help it," as she points out. She ends by saying that the history of complicity by administrators is not inspiring and adds that "as long as college leaders — especially those representing the most prestigious and resourced campuses — rely on old habits of reflexive acquiescence, they invite further retribution against us all." I completely agree, especially since the role of the reactionary right is to dismantle higher education, and other public services, and "remake them in the extreme right's vision."

There are other threats to education, thanks to DOE aiming to roll "back diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts in schools and giv[e]…power back to the states" which will undermine congressional authority, hurt "under-resourced schools, poor students, and those with disabilities" and allow right-wing states to begin their form of "education" (i.e. Christian nationalist indoctrination) in schools, with absence of educational standards. The purge of military stories in a quest to remove anything that they claim promotes diversity, inclusion, or equity is bad. There is an another aspect that is just as disturbing: book purges. The U.S. Naval Academy's Nimitz Library, named after Chester W. Nimitz, purged their collection of almost 400 books, with the U.S. Navy releasing a 19-page list of all the books removed, with no reason given. It was said this was done to remove books "that promote diversity, equity and inclusion" at Pete Hegseth's order. As The Baltimore Banner reported, the book explored themes of "white supremacy, race and racism...gender identity...sexuality and diversity," including books from Stacey Abrams, Bakari Sellers, Maya Angelou, Ibram X. Kendi, Tamika D. Mallory, and many other historians and academics. This was a reduction from the 900 books they had originally flagged.

This purge may come to West Point, which has a library, the Air Force academies (which has a library named the Robert F. McDermott Library), as they have "also done curriculum reviews as had been required," or any other service schools (those for the Coast Guard and Merchant Marine have libraries as noted here and here), senior colleges, service graduate schools, junior colleges, public (or private) secondary schools, or maritime colleges. The libraries that exist in these schools include the Kreitzberg Library, Daniel Library, Nutting Maritime Library, and Luce Library, along with libraries at the University of North Georgia, Virginia Military Institute, California State University Maritime Academy, Massachusetts Maritime Academy, National Defense University, National Intelligence University, and elsewhere. Currently the purge at the U.S. Naval Academy impacts about 4,500 students, but if the purge expanded to all the U.S. military schools and academies, it could impact at least 242,350 students, to use the most accurate information I could find on the numbers of those who attended these schools.

Although there have been no statements yet from the ALA on this issue, PEN America, for their part, condemned this, saying that books aren't the enemy, but ignorance is, and said this retreats from Navy values, and called it the "first college-level library banning we have seen," reflecting a steep increase of government censorship, and implied it is a form of thought control. I do wonder if those librarians, who are part of Nimitz Library administration (Alan Karass and Catherine Johnson), cooperated with this purge, or any of the other staff listed did as well. If they did, they would be violating stated ALA ethics. It is curious that the the library's lead on resource management, which is "responsible for the administration of the Library's budget and collections and manages its Cataloging, Acquisitions, and Systems Units" is vacant! Although the Wayback Machine doesn't have all the data, it shows that the person in this position on December 18th of last year (Mark de Jong) was not listed there on March 29th of this year. According to his LinkedIn, he is now a director of the U.S. Naval War College. That academy has a library too: the Henry E. Eccles Library.

The book ban at the Nimitz library, the attacks on the Institute of Museum and Library Services, the Smithsonian coup d'etat, and other actions are all part of an effort to shape history in a way that is Christo-fascist. Just consider what happened to the page on the Underground Railroad on the NPS site. Originally it described the Underground Railroad as "efforts of enslaved African Americans to gain their freedom by escaping bondage," and it was replaced with a focus on allyship between White and Black people, saying "the Underground Railroad bridged the divides of race, religion, sectional differences, and nationality," and declaring that the effort "joined the American ideals of liberty and freedom…to the extraordinary actions of ordinary men and women working in common purpose to free a people," while removing an image of Harriet Tubman being an Underground Railroad conductor and put in its place stamps of White and Black people working together! Although this was later reversed and the NPS spokesperson said the criticisms were unfair because the agency focuses on "telling complex and challenging historical narratives," it is still troubling. It's almost like they thought they weren't going to get caught, and when they did, then they reversed themselves.

Just consider their removal of trans people from the NPS page for the Stonewall National Monument, which has been described as historical erasure. It comes at a time that some, like Fabrice Houdart, are calling for LGBTQ+ people to invest their "energy and resources in newer, more global efforts—ones that aren't insulated by comfort or trapped in vested interests" and lawmakers are pushing back against the attempts by the orange one to erase trans people. Presently, there are laws on the books in fourteen states (Florida, Utah, Ohio, Kentucky, North Dakota, Alabama, Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Tennessee, Idaho, Iowa, Oklahoma, and South Carolina) which make it "illegal for trans people to use the bathroom of their gender identity in certain public buildings." All the while Democrats are ceding ground on trans people to reactionaries. Coming back to NPS, there are other webpages in which there were many "changes in language, images and descriptions of historic events…[including] references to slavery, while [changes to] other [pages]...softened language about the historic struggle of Black people." There have been changes to NPS pages on Benjamin Franklin, the historic site for slaveowner Thomas Stone, Minute Man National Historical Park, Harpers Ferry National Historical Park, Appomattox Court House National Historical Park, the Niagara Movement, and the Little Rock Nine. This is just another way to bury ugly truths about history and subdue them in niceties in order to rewrite history, which should give us all chills.

The orange one also threatened existing constitutional order and rule of law itself. For one, the orange one wants a third term, which is not constitutionally possible, due to the 22nd amendment. Scarily, if he wanted, he could invoke an emergency and declare that there will be no election, as those in other countries have done, all while he works to continually subvert election integrity. The voter suppression provisions of the proposed SAVE Act would surely help the orange one and other GOP lawmakers stay in power. In light of this, I do not agree with the idea that "respect for the law" is the strongest weapon against fascism, especially considering the recent defamation of peace activists and unconstitutional attacks on students, which are extralegal, to say the least. All of this is unsurprising, considering the new top federal prosecutor in Washington, D.C., Ed Martin, was chummy with the January 6 rioters (who he ridiculously compared to Japanese Americans who were wrongfully incarcerated in the 1940s) even though this creates a conflict of interest. Martin has also favored (as has the DOJ) giving the Jan. 6ers refunds on money they made to cover damage to the U.S. Capitol, falsely claiming they will be "reparations"!

On a related note, recently (former) DOJ pardon attorney, Liz Oyer, accused the DOJ of "ongoing corruption" and abuse of power, after she refused to restore gun rights to Mel Gibson (he later got them back). Anyone who isn't considered "loyal" is being fired, as was clear when the four-star general who led the NSA (Tim Hough) was fired, all because Laura Loomer whispered in the orange one's ear. U.S. Navy Vice Admiral Shoshana Chatfield, "the only woman on NATO's military committee, was fired…apparently [due to]…[her] comments...that supported diversity in the force," showing the disgusting nature of those who fired her.

To make matters worse, there's been crackdowns on federal employees, with cuts to government agencies, including:

• firing employees in HHS, IRS (some are supposedly being brought back this month), and Energy Department (and claims almost half of workforce is non-essential!) [the U.S. Supreme Court hinted that these firings can continue]

• hiring freeze in DOD (except for some positions)

• illegally cutting collective bargaining agreements across federal agencies (an anti-union measure by the orange one)

• claiming states will "fill" the role of FEMA (extremely doubtful)

• saying that federal employees are under surveillance and will be monitored. This is another form of control over those in the federal government.

• giving DOGE access to the federal payroll system, which is just as terrifying, as it raises all sorts of cybersecurity concerns

Immigrants will be surveilled even more under proposed guidance, with some being added (at DOGE's urging) to Social Security Administration's list of dead people, which not only dehumanizes them, but it makes SSA an engine of racism and discrimination. The aforementioned surveillance is undoubtedly part of an effort by Clearview AI's founders, according to thousands of documents analyzed by Mother Jones, "to target immigrants and the political left," with a digital dragnet now in "the hands of the Trump administration." The latter is described, in part, by the aforementioned Mother Jones article:

Clearview had compiled a massive biometric database that would eventually contain billions of images the company scraped off the internet and social media without the knowledge of the platforms or their users…This made it easy for Clearview users to further profile their targets with other information found on those webpages: religious or political affiliation, family and friends, romantic partners, sexuality. All without a search warrant or probable cause. A diehard Donald Trump supporter, [Hon] Ton-That envisioned using facial recognition to compare images of migrants crossing the border to mugshots to see if the arrivals had been previously arrested in the United States….and targeting anyone with an 'affinity for far-left groups'…Since Clearview's existence first came to light in 2020, the secretive company has attracted outsize controversy for its dystopian privacy implications…Clearview is already well positioned to capitalize on Trump’s xenophobic plans. Today, one of the company's top customers is US Immigration and Customs Enforcement, a relationship cemented during Joe Biden’s presidency, as the agency inked bigger deals with the startup. Under the Biden administration…the agency [ICE] deployed Clearview widely, even as officials there charged with monitoring the technology were in the dark about how it was being used and by whom…During Biden's presidency, the trappings of oversight still existed. But Trump has fired many of the inspectors general who review the use of technology such as Clearview and guard against abuse. And Trump’s early actions have shown his administration has little regard for the legal, congressional, and constitutional guardrails that have constrained his predecessors. Immigrants aren’t the only people at risk. With Trump pursuing 'retribution' against his political enemies, Clearview offers a range of frightening applications…No federal laws regulate facial recognition, and many federal agencies have deployed Clearview for years with little accountability…Ton-That, who obsessed over race, IQ, and hierarchy, solicited input from eugenicists and right-wing extremists while building Clearview, and…from the outset, he and his associates discussed deploying the tech against immigrants, people of color, and the political left.

It's a long story, but one worth reading, especially with everything going on right now, noting the mass surveillance that the administration wants to tap into in order to engage in repression of dissent (this is already happening with visas of students being revoked at various universities). Without a doubt, they are probably already combing through photos of those who attended the rally on April 5th. After all, the article quoted reports noting that between April 2018 and March 2022, the DEA, ATF, CBP, FBI, and U.S. Postal Inspection Service used Clearview, with the latter "targeting Black Lives Matter protesters," without privacy requirements in place. "Hundreds, if not thousands, of local law enforcement departments have also embraced Clearview with even looser oversight," which is even more troubling. Groups like CodePink, which has been falsely accused of being "funded" by the Chinese Communist Party (it is not), and those engaged in union organizing, will undoubtedly be targets.

Just as disturbing is the present racist domestic and sovereignist foreign policy, going beyond simple efforts against diversity, bringing cases against Disney for policies supposedly promoting "diversity, equity, and inclusion," and threats against immigrants. This has included:

• threatening South Africa

• threatening Venezuela (by cutting off payments to PDVSA)

• threatening Panama (which has led to a huge domestic protest crackdown despite the contract for Hong Kong company, which has been authorized to operate Panama Canal ports, under threat of cancellation due to findings that there was irregularities in the contract renewal)

• massive tariffs on fifty countries (which will obviously not reverse globalization nor will they resurrect the dying industrial base in the U.S. since the tariffs are not import substitution), which were somewhat pulled back, including 17% tariff on Israel, with the orange one saying "don't forget, we help Israel a lot. We give Israel $4 billion a year…We give Israel billions of dollars a year. Billions. It's one of the highest of anyone. We give a lot of countries money, you wouldn't believe it. We take good care of our friends, and we don’t take care of our enemies"

• threatened tariffs on Russia

• threats to bomb Iran if it does not make a nuclear deal (which it previously rejected and for good reason) [and preparing B-2 bombers to hit targets within Iran which will supposedly spare civilians]

• threats to invade Greenland

• ending funding to to World Food Program emergency aid "helping keep millions alive in Afghanistan, Syria, Yemen and 11 other impoverished countries, many of them struggling with conflict"

Infamously, Venezuelan immigrants were sent to the mega-prison, known as Terrorism Confinement Center or CECOT, in El Salvador, which is known for its horrible conditions (even called a "black hole of human rights"), with the claim they "can't" get them back, which is an utter lie. These individuals were disappeared without much evidence, more likely than not, against them. A recent story by 60 Minutes this past Sunday made this clear. They may rot in the prison with no way of escape, and die there. The blood will be on the hands of all the members of the reactionary administration who sent them there, as it will be on the Supreme Court, which ruled 5-4 in favor of the administration, saying it can continue using the 1798 Alien Enemies Act to deport undocumented immigrants on the "condition it allows immigrants to argue their cases in court." Likely the administration won't follow the latter, because who is enforcing it? However, as Newsweek notes, the ruling could "drastically slow down the pace at which immigrants can be deported [if]…they [are] all be allowed to challenge their detention and removal through habeas petitions."

When it comes to climate change, it will certainly get worse, as will environmental destruction. This is evident from climate change denial, staffing cuts at the EPA (and moving to another building to "consolidate" office space) and cutting grants to climate groups working on bettering the environment, even as some groups elsewhere are continuing the fight for environmental justice. As plutonium falls out of favor, the toxic mineral lithium, which is "volatile, flammable...challenging to mine, sustain and re-cycle," is becoming a challenge which needs to be confronted as solar panels become more common. This all comes as the reactionary administration wants to spend more on fossil fuels and target local infrastructure grants for more walkable neighborhoods, bike lanes, and so on. Any project that "might prioritize benefits to disadvantaged communities or reduce emissions," as Mother Jones put it, will be flagged, all part of an effort to weaken efforts to make transportation more sustainable and boost the fossil fuel industry (like coal), clearly sending us backwards.

This is tied, in some ways, to the growing measles outbreak, with RFK Jr. giving mixed messages. Medical experts say that while he "is showing more direct support for the measles vaccine…he's also sharing information about debunked remedies," which undoubtedly puts public health at risk. The same goes for his declaration that fluoride needs to be removed from drinking water, which (if it happens) will "harm children's teeth," with the EPA, led by anti-abortionist, election fraud believer, and Zionist Lee Zeldin, agreeing to comply with his request. This is the same person who has welcomed companies to bypass regulations on mercury pollution or claimed government groups and nonprofits which received money from the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund were defrauding the U.S., resulting in Citibank freezing their accounts! As The People’s CDC rightly put it, in their weather report on April 7, people "need to disrupt the current state of so-called 'order' in which few very rich people control what we can eat, breathe, and wear on our faces," through starting "a tenants association, organiz[ing] your coworkers, [or] join[ing] debt strikes and debt collectives."

That’s all for this newsletter. Until next time.

- Burkely