April 7, 2025

Why is Trump revoking student visas?

I got this question on another site and here is the answer that I wrote.

Why is Trump revoking student visas?

Because he is a fool who does not understand the layers of reasons that we have student visas and welcome international students regardless of the nation.

An international student who comes here gets an education (obviously) which they can take back to their country to make it a better place.

The less obvious reason for international students is that they get to see America and American ideals in action. It is one thing to read in a book or a film that Americans have freedom of speech, freedom of religion, freedom from unreasonable search, seizure and a whole laundry list of other rights and freedoms but it is an entirely different to see it, live, in person and in action.

Up until recently an international student could see all of these things in action and then take that information home. They can say “Yes, Americans have freedom of _________! I have seen it in action. It is no bullshit!”.

Unfortunately, with Trump’s ideological and loyalty purity tests, he is destroying that part of the educational experience. Do you think that Doğukan Günaydın, Rümeysa Öztürk, Alireza Doroudi and others will go back to their country and say “Yes, Americans have freedom of _________! I have seen it in action. It is no bullshit!”?

They got rounded up on the street, shipped to a processing facility far away and threatened with deportation without due process. Is that the image that you want them to take back to their country?

Trump does.

How does that Make America Great Again?

Do you really think that the message that these people who are getting kicked out on their ears will take back is a positive view of America? Or are they going to say “America is just as bad or is worse than our country” and undo the positive image and the moral high ground that we have had for decades?

Thanks Trump.

Thanks MAGA.

Thanks Kristi Noem.

It has taken you less than 90 days to do this level of damage to our international reputation.

Good fucking job.

January 26, 2025

Trump's actions are starting to sound more and more like

Stalin's Great Purge

Air Force scraps course that used videos of Tuskegee Airmen and female WWII pilots so says the AP headline.

This is starting to sound more and more like the Stalin Great Purge. A 2 year attack by Stalin and his followers that started with the elimination of out of favor people from photographs, books, public documents and newspapers.

My full post (with sources) is here:

https://www.quora.com/profile/Matt-Bossman/Air-Force-scraps-course-that-used-videos-of-Tuskegee-Airmen-and-female-WWII-pilots-so-says-the-AP-headline-1-This-is

December 1, 2024

I have been reading

Washington: A Life and thinking how stark the difference is between 2 American leaders. the 1st and the next one. These two quotes really sum it up how far apart these 2 men are:



and




Put yourself in Washington's shoes: Unlike us, he had no idea how "this business" was going to end but despite the overwhelming odds, he rode out and took to the field and mourned the men he knew he was going to lose. (This is why I, personally, put Washington at the top of the president's list above Lincoln and FDR).

I cannot perceive a situation where Trump would show the even the smallest sliver of Washington's bravery and compassion.

From the great to...whatever the hell Trump is (and it isn't in the same universe as great).

November 30, 2024

This is for everyone who is distressed about the dismissals of Jack Smith's cases against Trump

First things, first:

The thing to remember about Jack Smith: He is an excellent attorney. He exhibits two skills that it took me a long time to figure out their importance.

Strategy - every move that Smith made was meticulously planned and targeted. Redoing the indictments? Specifically designed to avoid the appearance of relying on evidence that could be excluded by the Trump immunity Supreme Court ruling. Move, countermove, counter-countermove and so on.
Attention to detail - good attorneys have a level of attention to detail that, to many people, border on the pathological. This attention to detail for Trumpers is almost non-existent as they all subscribe to the moral disaster of “the ends justify the means”. If they get what they want, they don’t care about the details.

With these 2 points in mind, let’s revisit the dismissal motions.

If Smith had held on and let the game play out, he gets canned and a Trumpian muppet steps in and makes the dismissal motion, the cases would be dismissed. Of that there is no doubt.

Initially, I thought it would be a good idea to allow this scenario to happen because then and forever more, the Trumpians would own the biggest travesty in presidential judicial history. The more I thought about it, the more I realized that this would have absolutely no impact on the Trumpians. Trumpians are 100000% sure that Trump has never done anything wrong. The crimes were all made up. The evidence manufactured. The courts so corrupted that they have lost all credibility etc. So for them, the dismissal, no matter how outrageous to non-Trumpians, was all that matters. it vindicates their fearless leader.

Trumpians hearing the news that the cases against Trump have been dismissed



I continued to think about it and I then realized that if Smith had let the Trumpians handle the dismissal, the dismissals would have happened but they might’ve been dismissed with prejudice. This would have closed the door, locked it and threw away the key on the government from revisiting the case.

Now, I want you to remember numbers 1 and 2 above: strategy and details.

So, Smith made his dismissal motions but he did so with 2 things in mind. First, as he filed the dismissal motions, he controlled the what it said and what was asked. Second, he relied on the Trumpians’ laser like focus on the end result but not the means or the details.

So, he filed for the dismissal, which he got. but he also included the caveat of dismissal without prejudice. This leaves the door open for the government to revisit the case sometime down the road.

Trumpians when (actually if) they realize that they got had by the “Deranged Jack Smith”



If you read thru the Trumpian exaltations, you will see that, to the last, they have completely missed this move by Smith but it’s too late now. You can’t dismiss a dismissed case.

Trump is not completely off the hook. He can still be held to account for his actions.

We may be stuck with him for a while but there is some light and hope in the distance.

November 24, 2024

For years I have kept my real name hidden behind my DU user name.

But today, I choose to reveal it to this community with an answer/commentary on another site.

https://www.quora.com/Why-do-American-voters-expect-President-elect-Trump-to-keep-his-word-on-deportations/answer/Matt-Bossman

February 18, 2023

One of the 52 submarines on Eternal Patrol

has been located.

The USS Albacore (SS 218) was located off the coast of Hokkaido, Japan where she disappeared in late 1944 (Japanese documents list that she struck a mine) and was struck from the Navy registry in 1945.

You can read about her here:
Albacore II (SS-218)

In her career, she sank 10 enemy vessels including the Japanese carrier Taihō, won the 4 Presidential Unit Citations and 9 battle stars.

January 17, 2021

I am asking you to be my sounding board

After a career in high tech, I am teaching 9th grade freshman World History (so far for all of a week).

We are doing ancient civilizations.

Is the following question too challenging for kids this age:

The stone that contains the Code of Hammurabi, the Rosetta Stone, as well as mummies and artifacts ended up in European museums. Is it right for those countries to keep these items?