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Fact Check: Paul Krugman Paul Krugman Weโre All Rats Now Time to take a stand, again, against racism Paul Krugman Jun 30, 2025 Zohran Mamdaniโs upset victory in New Yorkโs Democratic primary has created panic in MAGAland. Stephen Miller, the architect of Donald Trumpโs deportation policies, waxed apocalyptic: Scott Bessent, the Treasury secretary, declared that New York is about to turn into โCaracas on the Hudson.โ And Sen. Tommy Tuberville of Alabama basically declared New Yorkโs voters subhuman, saying: These inner-city rats, they live off the federal government. And thatโs one reason weโre $37 trillion in debt. And itโs time we find these rats and we send them back home, that are living off the American taxpayers that are working very hard every week to pay taxes. These reactions are vile, and theyโre also dishonest. Whatever these men may claim, itโs all about bigotry. Miller isnโt concerned about the state of New York โsociety.โ What bothers him is the idea of nonwhite people having political power. Bessent isnโt really deeply worried about Zamdaniโs economic ideas. But he feels free, maybe even obliged, to slander a foreign-born Muslim with language he would never use about a white Christian politician, even if that politician were (like some of his colleagues in the Trump administration) a total crackpot. And while Tuberville stands out even within his caucus as an ignorant fool, his willingness to use dehumanizing language about millions of people shows that raw racism is rapidly becoming mainstream in American politics. Remember, during the campaign both Trump and JD Vance amplified the slanders about Haitians eating pets. And now that theyโre in office, you can see the resurgence of raw racism all across Trump administration policies, large and small. You can see it, for example, in the cuts at the National Institutes of Health, which are so tilted against racial minorities that a federal judge โ one appointed by Ronald Reagan! โ declared Iโve never seen a record where racial discrimination was so palpable. Iโve sat on this bench now for 40 years. Iโve never seen government racial discrimination like this. You can see it in the renaming of military bases after Confederate generals โ that is, traitors who fought for slavery. You can even see it in a change in the militaryโs shaving policy that is clearly custom-designed to drive Black men โ who account for around a quarter of the Armyโs new recruits โ out of the service. So racism and bigotry are back, big time. Whoโs safe? Nobody. Are you a legal immigrant? Well, the Supreme Court just allowed Trump to summarily strip half a million U.S. residents of that status, and only a fool would imagine that this is the end of the story. Anyway, when masked men who claim to be ICE agents but refuse to show identification are grabbing people off the streets because they think those people look illegal, does legal status even matter? Does it even matter if youโre a U.S. citizen? And the One Big Beautiful Bill Act is set to massively increase ICEโs funding โ basically setting up a huge national secret police force. Now, maybe you imagine that you yourself wonโt suffer from this new reign of bigotry and imagine that everyone you care about is similarly safe. But if thatโs what you think, youโre likely to face a rude awakening. I personally donโt have any illusions of safety. Yes, Iโm a native-born white citizen. But my wife and her family are Black, and some of my friends and relatives are foreign-born U.S. citizens. Furthermore, Iโm Jewish, and anyone who knows their history realizes that whenever right-wing bigotry is on the ascendant, weโre always next in line. Are there really people out there naรฏve enough to believe MAGAโs claims to be against antisemitism, who canโt see the transparent cynicism and dishonesty? The fact is that the Trump administration already contains a number of figures with strong ties to antisemitic extremists. The Great Replacement Theory, which has de facto become part of MAGAโs ideology, doesnโt just say that thereโs a conspiracy to replace whites with people of color; it says that itโs a Jewish conspiracy. So Iโm definitely scared of what the many antisemites inside or with close ties to the Trump administration may eventually do. And no, Iโm not frightened at all by the prospect that New York may soon have a somewhat leftist Muslim mayor. Anyway, my personal fears are beside the point. Everyone who cares about keeping America America needs to take a stand against the resurgence of bigotry. Because the truth is that weโre all rats now. MUSICAL CODA Discussion about this post Michael Roseman Jun 30 Edited For a while, American bigotry was ashamed of itself. Or pretended to be. Now it runs the government. Reply Share 106 replies Megan Rothery Jun 30 Edited Take a stand - Call. Write. Email. Protest. Unrelentingly. Use/share this spreadsheet as a resource to call/email/write members of Congress, the Cabinet and news organizations. Reach out to those in your own state, as well as those in others. Use your voice and make some โgood troubleโ โค๏ธโ๐ฉน๐ค๐ https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/13lYafj0P-6owAJcH-5_xcpcRvMUZI7rkBPW-Ma9e7hw/edit?usp=drivesdk Reply Share 31 replies 852 more comments... No posts Ready for more? ยฉ 2025 Paul Krugman Privacy โ Terms โ Collection notice Start writing Get the app Substack is the home for great culture
# Fact Check: Paul Krugman on Racism and Political Reactions ## What We Know In his article titled "[We're All Rats Now](https://paulkrugman.substack.com/p/were-all-rats-now)," published on June 30, ...
Published July 20, 2025
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Partially True
Fact Check: Ozempic causes blindness
# Fact Check: "Ozempic causes blindness" ## What We Know Ozempic, a medication that contains the active ingredient semaglutide, is primarily used for weight management and diabetes control. Recent st...
Published July 20, 2025
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Partially True
Fact Check: Jeffrey Epstein introduced 14-year-old victim to Donald Trump at Mar-a Mar-a-Lago, Ghislaine Maxwell trial testimony reveals
# Fact Check: "Jeffrey Epstein introduced 14-year-old victim to Donald Trump at Mar-a-Lago, Ghislaine Maxwell trial testimony reveals" ## What We Know During the trial of Ghislaine Maxwell, one of th...
Published July 20, 2025
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Partially True
Fact Check: After the phase of the Trump presidency, where he's no longer answering questions, he's reacting to the sound of them. Now, I want you to watch this very carefully. Peter Doocy, Fox News reporter, of all people, tosses Trump a softball question. Do you think there's a threat of a left-wing militia targeting ICE? You know, a simple yes or no, or let me talk about Antrifa, would have probably done the trick. But instead, Trump just starts saying random words. I do not believe that Trump has the cognitive capacity to parse, understand, and meaningfully respond to most questions.
# Fact Check: Trump's Cognitive Capacity and Response to Questions ## What We Know The claim suggests that former President Donald Trump lacks the cognitive ability to understand and respond meaningf...
Published July 20, 2025
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Partially True
Fact Check: Transcript 00:00 White conservatives is not considering this child an anchor baby. Education is elevation and let's get into the conservative contradictions of everything they say about immigration. For instance, do y'all know that Melania Trump's visa was questioned in a congressional hearing this January twenty twenty-five. You want to know why? Melania Trump was a college dropout who arrived in the United States on a Einstein visa. Get this though. Reserved. The other visa is reserved for people with extraordinary ability and sustained national international acclaim such as a palitza, Oscar, Olympic Winter, But listen, Baron was born 00:32 March 20th two thousand and 6. Melania became a US citizen July twenty-8th two thousand and 6. Trump wants to end birthright citizenship when his own child is a product of birthright citizenship. We can question a Mexican-American citizen for marrying an undocumented Mexican. Oh yeah, we gotta be able to question when Europeans do the same thing or no. On my mama, think about it. There are 666, 000 illegal immigrants in the United States from European countries. The vast majority of them are white. Yet you don't 01:03 see a single one of them have their children stripped away from them, raided, locked up in cages, and we all know why. You know equal protection under the law has always been a myth and the word immigration has always been a cold word for unwanted color people. They ain't worried about they child being kidnapped. They ain't worried about dropping Baron off at school or in college and him being being kidnapped by masked Asians. Elon Musk worked in United States illegally in 1995 after quit his school job. I feel like if a Haitian immigrant came over here and worked illegally and ended up amassing a whole bunch of wealth they will find and trump wants to end birthright citizen ship? everything to be illegitimate because you started off illegal. Let's pay attention to the language too y'all. So Donald Trump's grandfather was a illegal migrant and a Trojan horse. Which means that Donald Trump's parents is a product of being what they call what a tether baby, a anchor baby, a birthright citizenship. To the people on this side, they do not believe that the Second Amendment only applies to muskets. So you believe that their only applies to the sentence of slaves is stupid. Which brings me to another point. When these folks want to distance themselves from 02:06 everybody that benefited from slavery, they love to tell you about their proud immigrant background a
# Fact Check: Melania Trump's Visa and Birthright Citizenship Claims ## What We Know During a congressional hearing in June 2025, Democratic Representative Jasmine Crockett raised questions about Mel...
Published July 20, 2025
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Partially True
Fact Check: โICE agents are raiding L.A. in masks without badges, names, or accountability. They ignore city and state leaders. They answer only to Trump, Stephen Miller, and Kristi Noem.So the Save America Movement is launching Liberty Vans: ๐บ๐ผ๐ฏ๐ถ๐น๐ฒ ๐ฟ๐ฒ๐๐ฝ๐ผ๐ป๐๐ฒ ๐๐ฒ๐ฎ๐บ๐ ๐๐ถ๐๐ต ๐ฐ๐ฎ๐บ๐ฒ๐ฟ๐ฎ๐, ๐ฐ๐ต๐ฎ๐ฝ๐น๐ฎ๐ถ๐ป๐, ๐น๐ฎ๐๐๐ฒ๐ฟ๐ & ๐๐ฒ๐๐ฒ๐ฟ๐ฎ๐ป๐. ๐ช๐ฒโ๐น๐น ๐ณ๐ผ๐น๐น๐ผ๐ ๐๐๐ ๐ฟ๐ฎ๐ถ๐ฑ๐ ๐ถ๐ป ๐ฟ๐ฒ๐ฎ๐น ๐๐ถ๐บ๐ฒ, ๐ณ๐ถ๐น๐บ ๐๐ต๐ฒ๐บ, ๐ฎ๐ป๐ฑ ๐๐ต๐ผ๐ ๐๐ต๐ฒ ๐๐ผ๐ฟ๐น๐ฑ ๐๐ต๐ฎ๐โ๐ ๐ต๐ฎ๐ฝ๐ฝ๐ฒ๐ป๐ถ๐ป๐ด ๐ถ๐ป ๐ผ๐๐ฟ ๐ฐ๐ผ๐บ๐บ๐๐ป๐ถ๐๐ถ๐ฒ๐. It'll cost $500,000 to launch this operation in L.A. and expand nationwide.โ๐งต
# Fact Check: โICE agents are raiding L.A. in masks without badges, names, or accountability. They ignore city and state leaders. They answer only to Trump, Stephen Miller, and Kristi Noem. So the Sav...
Published July 20, 2025
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Partially True
Fact Check: Donald Trump promised "no tax on tips" during his campaign, and his "big, beautiful bill" actually followed through on that promise until you read the fine print. While Trump is out bragging about no longer having tax on tipped wages, the REAL language of the bill shows that only the first $25,000 of tipped wages are eligible as a "deduction, not a complete reduction on taxes. The whole thing was a scam from the beginning.
# Fact Check: "Donald Trump promised 'no tax on tips' during his campaign, and his 'big, beautiful bill' actually followed through on that promise until you read the fine print." ## What We Know Duri...
Published July 20, 2025
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Partially True
Fact Check: IMAGINE HAVING A GOVERNMENT THAT NOW HAS OVER 30 PEOPLE EMPLOYED IN THE ADMINISTRATION WHO USED TO WORK FOR A TV STATION THAT HAD TO PAY $787 MILLION FOR LYING TO ITS VIEWERS.
# Fact Check: "Imagine having a government that now has over 30 people employed in the administration who used to work for a TV station that had to pay $787 million for lying to its viewers." ## What...
Published July 20, 2025
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Partially True
Fact Check: Kash Patel gives Congress intel on alleged Chinese plot in 2020
# Fact Check: Kash Patel Gives Congress Intel on Alleged Chinese Plot in 2020 ## What We Know Kash Patel, the FBI Director, recently claimed that he provided Congress with intelligence regarding an a...
Published July 20, 2025
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