It really bugs me that the media in this once-great nation seems to be having success equating objections to the actions of the Israeli government with antisemitism. The two are light-years apart. I have no problems with Jewish people nor Judaism, in general. I have tremendous heartburn with the actions of the Israeli government. I oppose genocide, not Judaism.

I suppose now is the time to add that I don’t support Hamas, either. When one gets down to brass tacks, I think BOTH sides are wrong in this one. Hamas was just plain stupid to launch rockets into Israel, counter-productively killing civilians who, likely, have no more control over their government than I do over mine. That does not give Israel the right to wipe Gaza off the map and claim the land for themselves.

I watched the April 11 episode of ‘Real Time with Bill Maher’ and there was much talk about the “crimes” of Mahmoud Khalil that make it “okay” to deport him, despite the fact that he has a Green Card and is here legally. ‘Crimes’ was probably a poor choice of words. NOBODY has charged any crimes, not even the criminal regime. He participated in protests against the Israeli government in their actions in Gaza. That’s it. But his opponents have accused him of saying things they don’t like and insist that should be enough. So much for the First Amendment, I guess.

Many of the claims Maher spewed centered around unsupported assertions in filings from the government – THIS criminal regime – explaining why they can deport Khalil despite his Green Card. ‘He harassed Jews on campus.’ No evidence. ‘He supports Hamas.’ No evidence. ‘He lied on his Green Card application.’ No evidence. The whole thing is built on false equivalencies. Supporting Palestinians is NOT the same as supporting Hamas. Objecting to the actions of Israel is NOT the same as being antisemitic.

Despite Maher’s obvious shift to the right in recent years, I’ve enjoyed his show for a long time and I pay attention to the things he says. So, when he leveled those charges, I sought to verify them. I couldn’t. I read the government’s filing (it was only two pages) but find their credibility lacking – especially in view of the fact that even the regime didn’t detail any of their “charges.” He acted as liaison between the protestors and the school and handed out leaflets. Reading “Stop killing innocent Palestinians” as “I love Hamas” takes some real mental gymnastics.

What I DID find was various Jewish groups supporting Khalil. They were quite clear. They DO NOT like what he said, but they defend his right to say those things. If, they add, he had done something, taken some action against Jews, they would feel differently, but, according to them, he hasn’t done any of that. He just engaged in objectionable speech and that’s what the First Amendment is about. They object to the claim that his actions were antisemitic based on the idea that frivolous claims of antisemitism undermine actual instances of antisemitism.

So now we have the criminal regime (mostly not Jewish) and Bill Maher (half Jewish by birth) out there objecting to “antisemitism” even the Jewish community isn’t citing or claiming and Mahmoud Khalil’s life being destroyed in the process – because he thinks killing innocent people is a BAD thing and stands up – peacefully, mind you – for what he believes. I remember when the US liked having those kinds of people around. Now all of that is being turned into “thought crimes.” Isn’t that from ‘1984?’

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One of the tricks MAGA media is using to keep MAGA on their side is constantly repeating MAGA conditioning that EVERY person deported to a maximum security prison without trial on those illegal flights to El Salvador was a very bad guy. If, instead, you get your information from any centrist or credible source, you know that’s not true. A prominent case in point in this moment is the case of Kilmar Abrego García. It looks, to me, like the regime is heading to a final showdown with the courts over his illegal deportation.

The short version is, there was no legal basis to deport Abrego García. A Federal judge has ordered his return. The regime has failed to comply. At first, they said they couldn’t get Abrego García back. Since the US is paying El Salvador millions of dollars to take and keep the never-charged prisoners, it seems likely they could get the guy back if they wanted to. Worse, if these clowns are deporting people, without charge or trial, to foreign countries to be held in prison and have no method in place to retrieve any one of them for any reason, they’re insanely irresponsible and absolutely out of control.

Oh, and, quick question, why isn’t DOGE looking at THAT waste of American tax dollars? Not the deportations, per se. Those are going to cost some money. But paying foreign prisons millions of dollars to hold these non-criminal prisoners is ADDING cost needlessly. It’s the epitome of fraud, waste, and abuse. Claiming these people were all violent criminals is the fraud. Paying to put them in foreign prisons instead of just dropping them off at some airport in a different country is the waste. Throwing people in prison without charges or trial is very definitely abuse.

So, the judge in the case, US district judge Paula Xinis, ordered the anti-constitutional regime to report his status and any steps that may have been taken, so far, to comply with the court’s order to bring him back. A guy named Michael G Kozak, who identified himself in a “response” filing as a “Senior Bureau Official” in the state department’s Bureau of Western Hemisphere Affairs, confirmed to the court that Abrego García in still in the infamous prison, alive and “secure,” not necessarily “well.”

The filing Kozak made said, “It is my understanding based on official reporting from our Embassy in San Salvador that Abrego García is currently being held in the Terrorism Confinement Center in El Salvador. He is alive and secure in that facility. He is detained pursuant to the sovereign, domestic authority of El Salvador.“

I added the emphasis on that last line because it’s an outright lie. In reality, he is detained pursuant to a paid request of the Bizarro United States of America. It’s important to understand, Abrego García has no criminal record, either here nor in El Salvador. He fled El Salvador as a teenager because the gangs down there threatened to kill him if he didn’t join. How horrifically ironic is it that the regime used “gang member” as their excuse to deport him?

But more importantly, that last line, “He is detained pursuant to the sovereign, domestic authority of El Salvador,” is the basis the regime plans to use to refuse to bring him home. That’s my prediction. The argument they seem to be teeing up is that he’s a citizen of El Salvador being held according to the authority of El Salvador, so how could the US ever expect to bring him home? I mean, it would interfere with the sovereign rights of a foreign nation and everyone KNOWS the US never, ever interferes with the sovereign rights of foreign nations, right?

Even the corrupt Supremely Kangaroo Court has upheld the judge’s order to facilitate the man’s return to the country. Right now, the regime is saying, “We can’t” but I suspect that, soon and very soon, their answer will change to a far simpler, “No.”

I’ll tell you this: that will be the day the US court system essentially collapses. That will be the day the criminal regime presses the fact that the courts in the United States have no enforcement authority without the cooperation of the Administrative branch. The regime’s “No” will actually be, “No. What are you going to do about it?”