The sophists taught, rather publicly, the view that the summit of happiness is to combine the appearance of justice with actual injustice: Gregory McBrayer; in Brill’s Companion to Leo Strauss.
(Professor at Center of Columbia University Deportation Scandal Is Former Israeli Spy)
Mahmoud Khalil, 30–year-old holder of a green card permitting him permanently to live and work in the United States, spouse of an American, lettered in his field after study at an Ivy League university, with nothing on his record to suggest criminal activity of any kind: Mahmoud Khalil is now under arrest and awaiting deportation at an Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention facility in Jena, a town of 4,100 in the Louisiana boondocks.
Mahmoud Khalil was arrested last Saturday evening at his apartment near Columbia University, where he recently earned a graduate degree. Mahmoud Khalil’s crime — sorry, no crime, let me try again — Mahmoud Khalil’s offense — no again — Mahmoud Khalil has simply exercised his free-speech rights while leading demonstrations, beginning in the spring of 2024, against Zionist Israel’s campaign of terror in Gaza. Mahmoud Khalil, to be noted, is Palestinian, born and was raised in a refugee camp in Syria. He is formally a citizen of Algeria.
For a time after his arrest, Mahmoud Khalil’s family was unable to contact him and did not know where he was. Now they know but cannot see him. Were this one of the Latin American dictatorships of the 1970s and 1980s—Pinochet in Chile, Videla and his junta of colonels in Argentina—we would say Mahmoud Khalil has been “disappeared.” At writing he has been prevented from consulting with his attorneys….
https://scheerpost.com/2025/03/15/patrick-lawrence-season-of-the-sophists
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CHRIS HEDGES: Julian Assange exposed the crimes of empire; and that can’t be tolerated
Alexandre Koyré: The Political Function of the Modern Lie (1943)
In video from Gaza, former CEO of Pegasus spyware announces millions for new venture
Daniel Nemenyi: Submarine state – On secrets and leaks
Samizdat: Russia’s Underground Press (1970)
Nobel Peace Laureate: ‘We journalists are the defence line between dictatorship and war’ (2021)
After the truth-shower 