Sun City, AZ
March 30, 2025

by Rich Scheck

Trump’s stunning comeback victory last November represented the continuing disgust
by millions of Americans at our government’s abandonment of the Constitution across
a wide range of issues, especially those pertaining to freedom of expression.

The gestapo tactics on full display last week against a young Turkish woman doing graduate work at Tufts University should leave all….ALL….decent citizens outraged at the spectacle of masked agents literally kidnapping a helpless woman off the streets of a major city for having the temerity to express her concern about the war in Gaza.

Irrespective of the merits of Israel’s conduct in that tragic conflict, the willingness….
eagerness….of Trump’s minions led by Secretary of State Rubio to stoop to such
mean spirited behavior without any semblance of due process reeks of the worst
kind of bullying typical of authoritarian regimes.

Writing an article in the school paper expressing one’s views without calling for violence
is typical for opposing perspectives in the normal course of public debate. A heavy-handed
response by agents of the state accompanied by Rubio’s boasting about dispatching
hundreds of such “lunatics” is execrable to the max.

I do NOT suffer from TDS like so many of those on the Left who are irrationally acting out
in over-reaction to the sweeping actions of the Unitary Executive platform Trump promised to his loyal MAGA base.

Much of what he is doing pushes the boundaries of constitutional norms but in ways that
are arguably creative and no different in their scope than, say, Roosevelt’s New Deal or
Johnson’s Great Society……although reflecting a different agenda.

But when it comes to protected speech, this kind of behavior is totally lacking in merit and
justification and can only be explained by the unrelenting genuflection of this Administration to all things favorable to the Greater Israel Project.

Sadly, only Democrats and Independent lawmakers have so far expressed their concern
although Libertarians like Tom Massie and Ron Paul appear to also be deeply concerned.
https://www.theinteldrop.org/2025/03/29/dozens-of-us-lawmakers-condemn-disturbing-arrest-of-tufts-student-with-pro-palestine-views/

I could go on much longer but have said enough for all with an open mind and an
appreciation of our long tradition of protected speech which we saw brutalized in
a different fashion by Biden with his censorship, lawfare and surveillance tactics
that also undermined the Constitution.

Our country is hanging by a thread and this arrest did great harm to what remains of
the little trust most have for the government today. Forgetting to evoke the War Powers
Act and/or call on Congress to declare its support for bombing other nations is perhaps
even more serious although arguably its the other side of the same tyrannical coin.

I pray Trump finds the courage to restrain himself and cease his reliance on brinkmanship. I urge him and his band of cabinet warmongers to slow down and cease going in search of “monsters to destroy” which was the other key pledge to his base before WW3 expands even faster and further beyond the areas already involved in kinetic action.

Finally, I demand he obey any court order to release the woman involved and cease his
gestapo tactics that are undermining any good he is doing as well as the rule of law.