Palpable Misunderstanding

Everything above in this section is necessary background to frame the problem this President has with the First Amendment.  Where things run off the rails for him is his fixation with "retribution." "I am your retribution," he thundered famously while on the campaign trail.  Yet government retribution for speech (precisely what has happened here) is directly forbidden by the First Amendment.  The President's  palpable misunderstanding that the government simply cannot seek retribution for speech he disdains poses a great threat to Americans' freedom of speech.  It is at this juncture that the judiciary has robustly rebuffed the President and his administration.

I fear President Trump believes the American people are so divided that today they will not stand up, fight for, and defend our most precious constitutional values so long as they are lulled into thinking their own personal interests are not affected.

Is he correct?

-- William G. Young, Judge of the United States, ruling in AAUP et al v Rubio, Noem, and Trump et al that the Trump administration's effort to deport pro-Palestinian academics is a deliberate attack on free speech (30 September 2025)

RIP Jane Goodall

Confrontation can be counter productive.  Change happens by listening and then starting a dialogue with the people who are doing something you don't believe is right.

-- Dame Jane Morris Goodall DBE, born Valerie Jane Morris-Goodall (3 April 1934 - 1 October 2025), English primatologist, ethologist, and anthropologist most famous for her study of chimpanzee social and family life in the Gombe Stream National Park in Tanzania, interview at the World Summit on Sustainable Development in Johannesburg, South Africa (26 August 2002)

Expert Discernment

The supreme end of education is expert discernment in all things -- the power to tell the good from the bad, the genuine from the counterfeit, and to prefer the good and the genuine to the bad and the counterfeit.

-- Charles Grosvenor Osgood (1871 - 1964), editor and translator, in the preface to Boswell's "Life of Johnson" (1917)

One Of The Best

I hate mankind, for I think myself one of the best of them, and I know how bad I am.

-- Giuseppe Marc'Antonio Baretti (1719 - 1789), Italian literary critic, poet, writer, and translator, during his years in England often known as Joseph Baretti, quoted in Boswell's Life of Samuel Johnson

More Frequently

Men more frequently require to be reminded than informed.

-- Samuel Johnson (1709 - 1784), British author, linguist, and lexicographer, The Rambler (1750 - 1752) No. 2 (24 March 1750)

Perversion And Exorbitance

No oppression is so heavy or lasting as that which is inflicted by the perversion and exorbitance of legal authority.

-- Samuel Johnson (1709 - 1784), British author, linguist, and lexicographer, The Rambler (1750–1752) No. 148 (17 August 1751)

We Are Inclined

We are inclined to believe those whom we do not know, because they have never deceived us.

-- Samuel Johnson (1709 - 1784), British author, linguist, and lexicographer, The Idler (1758 - 1760) No. 80 (27 October 1759)