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Progressive Jewish Group Hits Back After Trump Calls Jews Voting for Mamdani ‘Stupid’
(www.commondreams.org)
President Donald Trump used one of his final messages before New York's mayoral election on Tuesday to insult the many Jewish supporters expected to turn out in favor of the Democratic nominee, state Assemblyman Zohran Mamdani.
“Any Jewish person that votes for Zohran Mamdani, a proven and self-professed JEW HATER, is a stupid person!!!” Trump wrote on Truth Social just hours after polls opened.
It was one final attempt to smear the assemblyman, who pre-election polls showed leading comfortably, as antisemitic over his criticism of Israel and support for Palestinian rights, which has revealed stark divisions in opinion among American Jews, with New York being no exception.
Courting Trump's support—which he earned Monday along with that of Elon Musk and senior Trump adviser Stephen Miller—former Gov. Andrew Cuomo has leaned into the most vulgar of Islamophobic attacks against Mamdani over the home stretch of the campaign, referring to him as a "terrorist sympathizer" and suggesting he'd support a second 9/11.
But in the face of these attacks, Mamdani's support among Jewish voters has remained strong. In July, with the field still fractured, he outright led among Jewish voters. And though Cuomo has bolstered his Jewish support since the dropout of incumbent Mayor Eric Adams, polls have varied widely, with some showing Mamdani and Cuomo virtually tied among Jewish voters and others showing Cuomo with a commanding lead.
Mamdani has nevertheless managed to make tremendous inroads with Jewish leaders, most recently the influential Orthodox rabbi, Moshe Indig, who endorsed Mamdani at a meeting in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, on Sunday.
He had previously earned the support of the Brooklyn native Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), Rep. Jerry Nadler (D-NY), and local leaders, including a former mayoral contender for this cycle, Comptroller Brad Lander, and Ruth Messinger, a former Manhattan borough president and Democratic nominee for mayor in 1997.
He has also received the endorsement of several Jewish organizations, including the pro-Palestinian Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP) Action, the New York-based Jews for Racial and Economic Justice (JFREJ), and Bend the Arc, a progressive Jewish organization that deals primarily with domestic matters.
— (@)
Following his latest insult to Mamdani, Jamie Beran, the CEO of Bend the Arc, said that “Trump is showing once again that he doesn’t care about Jewish people. He only uses us when it’s convenient for him, with no regard to the damage he does to the Jewish community or the danger he puts us in. Both Trump and disgraced former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo use smokescreen antisemitism to manipulate Jewish fears for their personal gain."
Trump's attack on Mamdani, a self-described democratic socialist, is hardly his first. In recent days, the president has slurred the assemblyman as a "communist lunatic" and indicated he'd cut off federal funding from New York if he wins the election. With support from Republican members of Congress, he's also threatened to strip Mamdani's US citizenship and have him deported from the country if he attempts to interfere with deployments of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents to carry out mass deportations.
But although Trump has often invoked "antisemitism" to justify his efforts to punish pro-Palestine speech, he's long degraded Jewish people who vote in ways he disagrees with. During the 2024 election, he ranted that “any Jewish person that votes for Democrats hates their religion"—an insult to the 79% of Jewish voters who voted for his opponent, former Vice President Kamala Harris. Before that, he'd repeatedly referred to Jewish Americans who do not vote for him as "disloyal" to Israel, a country in which they do not live.
In recent weeks, the Republican Party has been dogged by several scandals related to antisemitism. Last month, a leaked group chat of Young Republican operatives—including several who worked for the New York GOP—was revealed by Politico to be full of praise for Adolf Hitler and jokes about gas chambers. Shortly after, Trump's pick for the Office of Special Counsel, Paul Ingrassia, had his nomination tanked after it was revealed that he'd described himself as having a "Nazi streak."
And over the past week, the Heritage Foundation—the influential right-wing think tank behind Trump's Project 2025 agenda—has dealt with discord in its own ranks after its leader, Kevin Roberts, stridently defended right-wing commentator Tucker Carlson's friendly interview with self-described fascist and white nationalist Nick Fuentes.
— (@)
"The antisemitism smears against Zohran Mamdani increasingly fall flat because people are learning to see through smokescreen antisemitism," Beran told Common Dreams. "That is, how bad actors who have never joined our work, or any work, to actually end antisemitism, instead only use antisemitism to promote themselves and their agendas—which harm Jews, our loved ones, and our neighbors. Trump and his allies claim to defend Jews, yet ignore antisemitism in their own ranks."
"Jewish leaders who actually want to end antisemitism know that leaders like Zohran understand that a strong democracy keeps Jews—and all of us—safest," she continued. "Jews exist across many identities, from immigrants, to trans people, from Black and brown people, to those with disabilities who are struggling to afford life in the city. And actually trying to end antisemitism and all bigotry requires all of us.”
From Common Dreams via This RSS Feed.
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YouTube Quietly Erased More Than 700 Videos Documenting Israeli Human Rights Violations
(theintercept.com)
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100+ US Campus Protests to Call Out Trump Attacks and Unaffordable Education
(www.commondreams.org)
Aiming to "organize millions of students to disrupt business as usual and force our schools and our political system to finally work for us," progressive groups and labor unions are planning a nationwide day of coordinated protests at over 100 US campuses on Friday, November 7.
Planned by Students Rise Up, in coordination with the American Association of University Professors (AAUP) and Higher Education Labor United (HELU), the upcoming demonstrations "will be the first in a series of nationwide days of protests leading up to student strikes and worker actions on May Day 2026," according to organizers.
In addition to the unions, groups backing the effort include Campus Climate Network, College Democrats of America, Gen-Z for Change, Indivisible, Jewish Voice for Peace, March for Our Lives, and Sunrise Movement, whose executive director, Aru Shiney-Ajay, stressed in a Tuesday statement that "everyone deserves an accessible, affordable, and quality education."
"Everyone deserves to be safe at school—no matter their race, gender, or immigration status," Shiney-Ajay said. "Everyone deserves the freedom to peacefully protest. We're joining with worker allies to demand our administrations and politicians start fighting for an education system that works for our generation."
We demand an end to student debt! We're disrupting business as usual on Nov 7 to demand college affordability, the freedom to teach & learn, and safety for the most vulnerable on our campuses. Signs made by Josh MacPhee 🔥 grab one when you protest this Friday! #DefendHigherEd#EndStudentDebt
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— AAUP (@aaup.org) November 4, 2025 at 11:14 AM
The plans for the protests come as campus administrations are considering President Donald Trump's "Compact for Academic Excellence in Higher Education," which schools can sign for priority access to federal funding and other "positive benefits." Critics have condemned it as "authoritarian" and an "extortion agreement," and some top universities have declined to sign on.
Alicia Colomer, managing director at Campus Climate Network, said Tuesday that "young people are making their message very clear: Universities should be a place of learning, not propaganda machines. That's why students, workers, and alumni around the country are taking action."
As part of Friday's protests, organizers said, participants will urge campus leaders to reject Trump's "loyalty oath" and, more broadly, "commit to freedom of expression, college for all, and security for all at school."
Asked to comment on the day of action, Madi Biedermann, deputy assistant secretary for communications at the US Department of Education—which initially offered the compact to a short list of prestigious universities—repeated previous statements, telling Inside Higher Ed that "the Trump administration is achieving reforms on higher education campuses that conservatives have dreamed about for 50 years."
"Institutions are once again committed to enforcing federal civil rights laws consistently, they are rooting out DEI and unconstitutional race preferences, and they are acknowledging sex as a biological reality in sports and intimate spaces," Biedermann added, referring to diversity, equity, and inclusion.
Meanwhile, AAUP president Todd Wolfson put out a statement taking aim at the president's assault on higher education.
"From attacks on academic freedom in the classroom to the defunding of lifesaving scientific research to surveilling and arresting peaceful student protesters, Trump's higher education policies have been catastrophic for our communities and our democracy," he said. "We're excited to help build a coalition of students and workers united in fighting back for a higher education system that is accessible and affordable for all and serves the common good."
From Common Dreams via This RSS Feed.
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Top ICE Official Says Protesters Can Be Arrested for Simply Criticizing Mass Deportation Campaign: Court Filing
(www.commondreams.org)
A court filing released late on Monday alleged that US Border Patrol Commander-at-Large Gregory Bovino said that merely making what he called "hyperbolic comments" about immigration enforcement operations, including President Donald Trump's "Operation Midway Blitz" in Chicago, was enough to justify being arrested.
As reported by the Chicago Sun-Times on Tuesday, attorneys representing several Chicago-based media organizations who are suing to restrict federal immigration agents' use of force in their city claimed that Bovino said during a sworn deposition that "he has instructed his officers to arrest protesters who make hyperbolic comments in the heat of political demonstrations."
The attorneys also said in the court document that Russell Hott, the field director for Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in Chicago, said during his deposition that he did not agree that it would be "unconstitutional to arrest people" simply for expressing opposition to his agency's current mass deportation operation in the Windy City.
This section of the filing caught the attention of Steve Vladeck, a law professor at Georgetown University, who said it appeared federal immigration officials are straightforwardly violating the First Amendment right to peacefully protest.
"It's impossible to overstate how much of what ICE is doing on the ground reflects this completely preposterous conflation of hostile speech and hostile conduct," he wrote in a post on Bluesky. "The First Amendment protects—or, at least, is supposed to protect—the former up and until it's a 'true threat,' which none of this is."
Elsewhere in the filing, the plaintiffs' attorneys alleged that Bovino said during testimony that he had "interacted with many violent rioters and individuals" at the ICE facility in Broadview, Illinois, which in recent weeks has become the focal point of local protests. Additionally, the attorneys wrote, Bovino would "not admit he has ever seen protesters who were not violent rioters."
The attorneys commented that "by Bovino's logic, anyone who shows up to protest is presumptively violent or assaultive and he can 'go hard' against them."
The case involving the Chicago media organizations and federal immigration enforcement officials is currently being overseen by US District Court Judge Sara Ellis, who last month issued a temporary restraining order that barred federal officers from using riot control weapons “on members of the press, protestors, or religious practitioners who are not posing an immediate threat to the safety of a law enforcement officer or others.”
Federal immigration officials have been employing increasingly aggressive and violent tactics in the Chicago area in recent weeks, including attacking a journalist and a protesting priest with pepper balls outside an Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility; slamming a congressional candidate to the ground; dragging US citizens, including children, out of their homes during a raid in the middle of the night; and fatally shooting a man during a traffic stop.
A hearing on whether to make permanent Ellis’ restraining order which strictly limits the use of riot control munitions has been set for November 5.
From Common Dreams via This RSS Feed.
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'Illegal, Immoral, and Absolutely Cruel': Trump Says He'll Defy Court Order on SNAP Payments
(www.commondreams.org)
In apparent open defiance of two federal court rulings, President Donald Trump said Tuesday that his administration will not fund a key federal nutritional aid program until after the Republican government shutdown ends, leaving millions of families even more vulnerable to hunger at a time of crisis-level food insecurity.
In a post on his TruthSocial network, Trump took aim at both the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) and the administration of former President Joe Biden.
"SNAP BENEFITS, which increased by Billions and Billions of Dollars (MANY FOLD!) during Crooked Joe Biden’s disastrous term in office (Due to the fact that they were haphazardly 'handed' to anyone for the asking, as opposed to just those in need, which is the purpose of SNAP!), will be given only when the Radical Left Democrats open up government, which they can easily do, and not before!" the president wrote. "Thank you for your attention to this matter."
"Trump's message to 42 million Americans: Eat dirt."
Responding to the president's post, Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) wrote on social media, "After a judge ordered Donald Trump to make SNAP payments, the wannabe king declared he will defy a court order and won't help people afford groceries."
"Trump's message to 42 million Americans: Eat dirt," she added.
Trump is now saying he will only pay SNAP benefits once the Republican shutdown is over, despite a federal court order.As a result, 42 million kids, seniors, veterans, and people with disabilities could go hungry. This is illegal, immoral, and absolutely cruel.
[image or embed]
— Rep. Ted Lieu (@reptedlieu.bsky.social) November 4, 2025 at 8:49 AM
Data from the nonpartisan US Government Accountability Office have shown that approximately 70% or more of working-age, non-disabled adults receiving Medicaid and SNAP benefits work full-time—defined as 35 hours or more per week.
On Friday, federal judges in Massachusetts and Rhode Island ruled against the US Department of Agriculture’s refusal to pay at least part of the $8 billion in SNAP benefits—also known as food stamps—to rightful beneficiaries in November via a contingency fund established by Congress.
The administration responded to the rulings by saying it would only fund around 50% of the total monthly benefits, while warning of likely payment delays.
Plaintiffs in the Rhode Island case—represented by Democracy Forward and the Lawyers’ Committee for Rhode Island—subsequently filed an emergency request seeking a court order compelling Trump and his administration to comply with Friday's order.
“The Trump-Vance administration continues to play politics with people’s lives through failing to ensure SNAP payments are expeditiously available," Democracy Forward president and CEO Skye Perryman said in a statement Tuesday. "This is immoral and unlawful."
"The political posturing should stop now," Perryman added. "The administration needs to fully fund SNAP benefits so people can eat, today. We should not need to go to court to force the administration to provide food all people are entitled to in this country, but here we are—back in court to demand that the administration acts consistent with the judge’s order."
Alejandra Gomez, executive director of Living United for Change in Arizona (LUCHA), said ahead of a planned Tuesday press conference: “It took two court orders and mounting public pressure for the Trump administration to fund SNAP assistance partially, which is not good enough. Arizona families in need deserve better."
“December SNAP benefits are not guaranteed, and every day that Congress fails to act, children will go hungry, food banks run dry, and working families will pay the price," she added. "It is time to end the shutdown, fund healthcare and SNAP.”
Now in its 35th day, the ongoing federal government shutdown is tied for the longest in US history. Vulnerable people—already reeling from record cuts to social programs to pay for tax breaks for billionaires and corporations under the so-called One Big Beautiful Bill Act signed by Trump in July—are feeling even more pain, at a time when more than 47 million Americans, including 1 in 5 children, are living in food insecure households.
"I did not receive any benefits at all... And they said there is no promise of even getting any type of benefits for November," Danielle Rodriguez, a single mother in Pennsylvania who lost $400 in monthly SNAP aid, told MSNBC's Ana Cabrera Monday.
"'Mommy, do you want my piggybank money to help with groceries?'"
"Unfortunately, I've had to reach out to my utility companies and stuff like that to go on payments to use some of my bill money to buy groceries for me and my kids," she continued.
"It's very stressful being a single mom of two kids. I have a 9-year-old, and she is offering her piggybank money," Rodriguez added. "And she's like, 'Mommy, do you want my piggybank money to help with groceries?' And it's sad to hear my child say that to me because I'm mom—I'm supposed to do everything. I'm supposed to be their protector."
Mitch Jones, managing director of policy and litigation at Food & Water Watch, said in a statement: “At a time when rampant corporate consolidation has driven grocery prices sky-high, Trump continues to choose cruelty over the rule of law. He must abide by recent court orders and immediately release SNAP aid to the millions of low-income American families suddenly hanging on the precipice of an unconscionable hunger crisis."
“If Trump had any shred of humanity in him, he would do whatever was necessary to prevent hunger and suffering in the country he claims to love," Jones added.
From Common Dreams via This RSS Feed.
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Exposing the Tata Group, a major sponsor of the New York Marathon and a leading supporter of the Gaza genocide
(mondoweiss.net)
By sportswashing its reputation through events like the New York City Marathon, the Indian conglomerate Tata Group has built a multi-billion-dollar brand name as it directly profits from Israel’s occupation and genocide.
From Mondoweiss via This RSS Feed.
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'Going to Make Their Lives Hell': Trump Plans All-Out Pressure Campaign on GOP Senators to Kill Filibuster
(www.commondreams.org)
President Donald Trump is reportedly planning to escalate his campaign to eliminate the filibuster in the US Senate.
According to a Tuesday report from Axios, Trump plans to relentlessly harass Republican senators until they accept his demands to kill the filibuster, which imposes a 60-vote threshold for closing debate on most legislation in the Senate ahead of a final vote.
One Trump adviser told the publication that the president plans to be relentless in lobbying Republicans to end the filibuster in a way he never was before.
"He will call them at 3 o'clock in the morning," they said. "He will blow them up in their districts. He will call them un-American. He will call them old creatures of a dying institution. Believe you me, he's going to make their lives just hell."
Another adviser told Axios that Trump is "really mad" about Democrats being able to force a government shutdown—now tied for the longest in history—even when Republicans have control of the US House, Senate, and presidency.
The official White House account on X even got into the action on Tuesday with an all-caps post demanding that GOP senators "TERMINATE THE FILIBUSTER!!!"
Even so, there so far is no indication that enough Republican senators are going to obey Trump's orders on this issue, especially since three of them—Sens. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska), Bill Cassidy (R-La.), and Susan Collins (R-Maine)—voted to convict him at his second impeachment trial in 2021.
Many Republicans, including former Senate GOP Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), have long taken the view that the filibuster is a net benefit for their party given that it gives them the ability to indefinitely stall most progressive legislation.
In fact, Fox News reported on Tuesday that current Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) believes there are at most a dozen Republican votes in his caucus in favor of scrapping the filibuster.
In an interview with Axios, Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) expressed confidence that Republicans wouldn't really walk the plank for Trump on this issue.
"Republicans are rubber stamps for Donald Trump on everything else," he said. "This may be the one area where they've decided not to play ball."
During former President Joe Biden's term, 49 Senate Democrats voted to eliminate the filibuster but were blocked from getting to the majority by then-Sens. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) and Kyrsten Sinema (D-Ariz.), both of whom would eventually leave the Democratic Party to become independents.
From Common Dreams via This RSS Feed.
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Canada's Plan to Take in Palestinians from Gaza Is a "PR Show," Families Say
(www.dropsitenews.com)
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To Check Trump's Power Grab, Progressives Make Final Push for Prop 50 in California
(www.commondreams.org)
Election watchers across the country and even overseas were anticipating the results in New York City on Tuesday as progressives hoped for a victory for state Assembly Member Zohran Mamdani and his mayoral campaign that's relentlessly focused on the needs of working people, but democracy advocates also urged attention on a key ballot measure in California aimed at countering Republican gerrymandering.
The grassroots group Our Revolution was sending canvassers out to advocate for a "yes" vote on Proposition 50, which would throw out the state's current district map in favor of one that could give Democrats five additional seats in the US House of Representatives.
If approved, the ballot measure would pass the Election Rigging Response Act "to counter [President] Donald Trump’s scheme to rig next year’s congressional election and [reaffirm] California’s commitment to independent, nonpartisan redistricting after the next census."
Trump has called on Republican-controlled states including Texas, Missouri, and North Carolina to redraw their district maps and employ racial gerrymandering to increase the likelihood that the GOP will win more seats in the House.
"Trump’s GOP is rigging maps to steal Congress. Prop 50 is how we fight back," said Our Revolution.
— (@)
On Monday, US Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY)—who has previously spoken out in favor of Prop 50—addressed her nearly 10 million followers on Instagram in a video regarding the New York City election, the president's attacks on federal food assistance, and the ballot measure in California.
"It's our way of fighting back against all of the the racist gerrymandering happening across the country," said Ocasio-Cortez, who is reportedly considering a Senate or presidential run. "Approving Prop 50 in California helps balance the scale against all of the attacks on communities across the country."
View this post on InstagramA post shared by Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@aoc)
Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-Calif.) also campaigned for Prop 50 on Monday, saying at a rally that after passing the measure, Democrats "are going to win the midterms."
"And when we win the midterms, we are going to cut our time in hell by half," he said.
Saikat Chakrabarti, who is running to unseat former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) in 2026, said that Prop 50 is one thing that he and the longtime congresswoman "actually agree on."
"This," he said, "is how we fight back against Trump."
From Common Dreams via This RSS Feed.
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Outrage over video leak of Israeli soldiers’ gang rape of Palestinian exposes rot in Israeli society
(mondoweiss.net)
There’s outrage in Israel over the leaked video of Israeli soldiers gang-raping a Palestinian prisoner. However, the outrage isn’t about the rape itself but the fact that the video was leaked in the first place.
From Mondoweiss via This RSS Feed.
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