1/19 "God bless America" was written by a Jewish immigrant from Russia. He wasn't Christian. He wasn't born a U.S. citizen. He wrote the song about a country that gave hope to the weary.

Much of the Christian nation revision happened in the 1950s as a way to distinguish from "godless" countries.

2/19 President George Washington, in a 1790 letter to a Jewish congregation, praised the new government “which gives to bigotry no sanction, to persecution no assistance,” noting that “All possess alike liberty of conscience." https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Washington/05-06-02-0135

3/19 The 1797 Treaty of Tripoli (ratified unanimously by the Senate under President John Adams) stated that “the government of the United States of America is not, in any sense, founded on the Christian Religion” https://avalon.law.yale.edu/18th_century/bar1796t.asp#:~:text=As%20the%20government%20of%20the,existing%20between%20the%20two%20countries

4/19 Christianity was the majority religion but government institutions remained offensively secular. Efforts by religious groups to declare the U.S. officially Christian repeatedly failed in the 1800s. https://firstamendment.mtsu.edu/article/1797-treaty-of-tripoli/#:~:text=The%20U,to%20be%20Christian%20religious%20beliefs

5/19 Legal precedent continued to uphold the separation principle. In 1878, for instance, the Supreme Court cited Jefferson’s “clause against establishment of religion by law was intended to erect 'a wall of separation between Church and State.'"  https://www.law.cornell.edu/supremecourt/text/330/1#:~:text=clause%20against%20establishment%20of%20religion,244

6/19 Everson v. Board of Education (1947), the Court affirmed: “The First Amendment has erected a wall between church and state. That wall must be kept high and impregnable.” https://www.law.cornell.edu/supremecourt/text/330/1#:~:text=The%20First%20Amendment%20has%20erected,has%20not%20breached%20it%20here

7/19 Congress allowed “In God We Trust” for coinage in the 1860s, but it was not the official motto. These were administrative actions, not statutory religious establishments. Aside from appearing on coins, such references had no constitutional force.

8/19 The Pledge of Allegiance, when written in 1892, contained no mention of God – it was a purely secular patriotic oath (“one nation indivisible…"). 

9/19 From the founding through the 1950s, no federal law or founding document ever declared an official religion or mandated participation in religious observances.

Not once.

10/19 Religion was not an intentional part of the American government in any formal, nation-defining way during the 18th or 19th centuries. The national ethos was that faith was a private matter, and public life was meant to be religiously neutral, even if leaders personally were devout.

11/19 In 1907 the NY Times covered a sermon that began

QUOTE

America struck the first successful blow at the ancient alliance of Church and State. https://www.nytimes.com/1907/01/14/archives/state-allied-to-religion-dr-silverman-says-a-halt-should-be-called.html?searchResultPosition=19

12/19 The Declaration of Independence and the Constitution of the United States established a republic that was to be free from the trammels of Church interference. The Constitution expressly declared that no religious qualification should be required to hold any office or public trust.

END QUOTE

13/19 A letter to the editor from 1907 reads:

QUOTE

In connection with the agitation over the issue of coins without the motto “In God We Trust,” I have in my possession a ten-dollar gold piece of the date of 1847 on which no such motto appears. 

https://www.nytimes.com/1907/11/16/archives/left-off-in-1847.html?searchResultPosition=32


14/19 The 1950s marked a significant shift in how religion was symbolically woven into American civic life. During the Cold War, the government decided to take a stance against “godless” communism. In some sense this is when a past that had never been came into existence. 

15/19 Upon signing the bill on June 14, 1954, Eisenhower proclaimed: “From this day forward, the millions of our school children will daily proclaim ... the dedication of our nation and our people to the Almighty.”  https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/documents/statement-the-president-upon-signing-bill-include-the-words-under-god-the-pledge-the-flag

16/19 In July 1956, President Eisenhower signed a law declaring “In God We Trust” the national motto of the United States and requiring the phrase to appear on all U.S. currency. https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/july-30/president-eisenhower-signs-in-god-we-trust-into-law

17/19 Public prayer also gained official sanction from Congress in 1952 when it established an annual National Day of Prayer (signed by President Truman). This was a truly radical (defined as a political ideology favoring drastic change) step that contradicted precedent.

18/19 Again I quote from 1797: 

The Senate under President John Adams) stated unequivocally that “the government of the United States of America is not, in any sense, founded on the Christian Religion.” https://avalon.law.yale.edu/18th_century/bar1796t.asp#:~:text=As%20the%20government%20of%20the,existing%20between%20the%20two%20countries

19/19 Why is a Catholic person telling you this? Because separation of church and state has benefitted both and the public. 

Religious groups are often critical of secular government. They never compare the results of theocratic governments to secular though. 

There's a reason. Don't forget that. 

America's Areligious Roots

🧵Three failures led to Iryna Zarutska's death

➡️Police failed to petition for involuntary commitment when the man reported psychosis.

➡️When the man called 911 again, they arrested him for  “911 misuse,” which contradicts the NC DHHS directive that tells you to call 911.

➡️Prior calls for help, like the time he called from the hospital, were not followed up with sustained treatment or judicially enforced commitment.

1/7

https://x.com/Info_Rosalie/status/1965114580247761030

If NC law had been followed and he had been released only with supervision and kept on court-ordered medication, Iryna likely would still be alive.

2/7

More police or harsher penalties would not have saved Ms. Zarutska.

The man himself called the police to report his psychotic delusions. Police told him they couldn’t help, though in North Carolina, they could have initiated a commitment. https://www.ncdhhs.gov/ivc

3/7

His mother also had him committed for treatment after he became violent with her. 

He was diagnosed with schizophrenia, which can make people more violent when untreated (unlike most mental illnesses) or in people with a history of violence (which he had).


If police had followed protocol in even one of these encounters, if the man had been treated and only released with supervision and court-ordered medication, Iryna might be alive. https://www.pbs.org/newshour/nation/charlotte-officials-under-fire-after-man-with-long-criminal-history-kills-ukrainian-refugee-on-train

4/7

Judges in NC can issue outpatient commitment orders that require the individual to:

➡️Participate in regular psychiatric treatment, 

and 
 
➡️take prescribed medication as part of the treatment plan

Noncompliance = back to inpatient. https://www.ncleg.gov/EnactedLegislation/Statutes/PDF/BySection/Chapter_122C/GS_122C-265.pdf

5/7

What would it look like if police had followed the law?

➡️ Taken into custody after his self-report
➡️ Examined and diagnosed (or diagnosis confirmed)
➡️ Treated inpatient; then outpatient court-ordered treatment
➡️ After release, monitored for medication compliance and relapse

Instead, the repeated bypassing of these steps left him unsupervised, untreated, and ultimately dangerous.

Iryna Zarutska paid the price for the repeated failures of law enforcement and judges, but the clear failures also mean there is hope for change in the future. 

6/7

That won't happen if people are more concerned with political gain. https://x.com/Info_Rosalie/status/1965114680743239781

7/7

Failures in Protecting Iryna

Indigenous Americans taught me the importance of being heard. I made a rule for myself: nothing about them without them. It’s a principle that’s served me well, no matter the group.

The horrific murder of Iryna Zarutska (friends called her Ira) in the U.S. demands the same. Center Ukrainian voices.

Understand the devastating image of a woman who fled an invading army, only to die violently elsewhere. Meanwhile, Ukrainians plead for the ability to defend themselves. 

And, because Russia spends billions flooding the world with lies about Ukraine, Ukrainians can face Russian aggression anywhere.

Understand what it's like to live in a world where you never know if the next person you meet has been indoctrinated with state-backed hate. 

Ukrainians already know this death may be spun, exploited, amplified, or suppressed to serve others. 

Let Ukrainians speak. Listen. Support them.

She was robbed of a country and her life. Don’t rob her or them of more.

In trending content on X, I wasn't served a single tweet from a Ukrainian on Iryna's death. 

I was served tweets from people who have been accused of receiving money from Russia at the same time, they maligned Iryna's homeland. 
https://apnews.com/article/russia-justice-department-election-foreign-influence-4888f4bfc61e46173101060ad0321d2f

Report the facts. If there is a fault in the criminal justice system, report it.   Don't use her in a war against your fellow citizens. Don't use her to demonize others.


Center Ukrainian Voices

1/23 🚨🧵This should be a MUCH bigger story.

The White House, under pressure from Bukele, quietly dismissed U.S. terrorism-related charges against MS-13 leaders, undoing the U.S.-led Joint Task Force dismantling the transnational gang. 

THIS is why the deportations had to be a show. 

2/23 Joint Task Force Vulcan was a U.S. law enforcement initiative that aimed to dismantle MS-13 leadership through terrorism charges and extraditions. And dismantle them, they did. 14 of the world’s highest-ranking MS-13 leaders faced terrorism charges. https://www.justice.gov/usao-edny/pr/ms-13-s-highest-ranking-leaders-charged-terrorism-offenses-united-states

3/23 That group they arrested will be important later: Ranfla Nacional. 

John Durham, an interim U.S. attorney, is moving to dismiss charges against key MS-13 leaders, citing “geopolitical and national security” reasons.

4/23 These dismissals are occurring despite massive prior DOJ investment and high-profile indictments, some of which were based on years of evidence and collaboration with Central American authorities. https://beta.elfaro.net/en/el-salvador-en/bukele-gets-trump-to-toss-the-work-of-vulcan-the-task-force-that-pursued-ms-13

5/23 This appears to be part of a quid pro quo deal. 

Bukele reportedly demanded the return of MS-13 leaders held in U.S. custody as a “point of honor” during negotiations over El Salvador accepting Venezuelan migrants deported by the U.S.

6/23 Trump’s team agreed, offering to return the nine MS-13 leaders captured by Vulcan in exchange for Bukele receiving up to 300 Venezuelan nationals and Tren de Aragua members in CECOT, El Salvador's notorious terrorism prison.

7/23 Dismissals were done quietly under Rule 48 of the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure, which allows the government to drop charges “in the public interest.” Here, it's being used for political trade-offs. https://www.propublica.org/article/bukele-trump-el-salvador-ms13-gang-vulcan-corruption-investigation

8/23 By framing these deportations as a crackdown on crime, both Trump and Bukele please their respective audiences.

Trump gets to say he's “cleaning house” by removing violent criminals.

9/23 Bukele gets to posture as a leader who “finally” has custody of the most dangerous MS-13 leaders, even though many were already under his protection before being captured again by U.S. authorities. https://elfaro.net/en/202108/el_salvador/25670/Criminal-Investigation-Found-the-Bukele-Administration-Hid-Evidence-of-Negotiations-with-Gangs.htm

10/23 These were surgically targeted returns of specific MS-13 leaders who:

Held critical knowledge of Bukele’s secret negotiations.

Were likely to testify under oath about it. 

Were liabilities if they remained in U.S. custody.

Remember that group? Ranfla Nacional.

11/23 Defense attorneys say these moves are an attempt to prevent the MS-13 leaders from testifying about Bukele’s secret negotiations with the gangs—talks that allegedly involved vote-buying and reducing homicides in exchange for perks and leniency. 

12/23 In 2020 and 2021, El Faro revealed Bukele’s pacts with MS-13 and 18th Street gangs, confirmed later by U.S. government sanctions and DOJ indictments of Bukele officials. https://elfaro.net/en/202112/centroamerica/25893/Treasury-Dept-Salvadoran-Government-Pacted-with-MS-13.htm

13/23 Who's getting dismissed? "Greñas"

Charges dismissed in March 2025, deported under the Alien Enemies Act, bypassing normal immigration procedures. He was flown to El Salvador alongside Venezuelan deportees.

14/23 "Vampiro"

Defense is fighting his deportation aggressively. At issue is whether the U.S. can suppress his testimony and shield Bukele from accountability by sending him back to face Salvadoran charges in a system known for abuse.

15/23 This undermines six years of U.S. law enforcement efforts and the evidence that MS-13 is a transnational threat. Vulcan’s mission has effectively been gutted. MS-13 will go on, and it will continue to threaten the U.S. and South America. 

16/23 Why? To protect Bukele from further exposure related to his deals with criminal networks, enabling him to maintain domestic control while avoiding international scrutiny. 

17/23  There was just one problem. Kilmar Abrego Garcia. If they had to bring him back, they might also have to bring other people back. 

The big show of gang members was to subvert the law and avoid Judicial Review. 

18/23 A review would allow a judge to demand a public explanation, permit a gang member to testify under oath, and prevent backroom deals. 

19/23 You may recall that right around this time, we observed a coordinated media campaign aimed at inflaming public opinion and pressuring judges.  https://www.reuters.com/legal/trump-faces-court-deadline-explain-deportation-venezuelans-2025-03-18/

20/23 Judges had to be stopped, or the plan wouldn't work. https://www.reuters.com/investigations/these-judges-ruled-against-trump-then-their-families-came-under-attack-2025-05-02/

21/23 If a federal immigration judge reviewed these deportations, they’d have the authority to:

Demand a public explanation.

Allow the accused to testify under oath.

Trigger delays that expose the geopolitical backroom deals.

22/23 The Trump administration’s urgency wasn’t just about national security. It was about beating the clock before a federal judge made the court records public and found “bad faith,” forcing a trial. https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/supreme-court/chief-justice-pushes-back-calls-impeach-judges-rule-trump-rcna196922

23/23 

Serious about terrorism, my ***. 

https://www.state.gov/designation-of-international-cartels/

White House Dismisses MS-13 Charges, and That's Just the Beginning

These are certainly some choices. 

Bold move by DoD to celebrate U.S. Flag Day with a graphic that looks like the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation approved it. Did you hire a designer from the Internet Research Agency on Upwork?

Two days earlier, the State Department celebrated Russia’s National Day, in a statement that reads like the author is hoping to get their visa unblocked.

What’s next? A Human Rights Day greeting from the Saudi Ministry of Interior? Maybe a Press Freedom Award from the PLA. 

Bold Choices

The MAHA report serves as a vignette of techniques used to mislead the public by exploiting the credibility and language of science. A closer look reveals not only bias but outright fabrication.

The report claims to cite over 500 scientific sources. That sounds impressive—until you try to verify them.

At least seven of the studies don't exist. Not misquoted. Not misrepresented. Fabricated and cited as if they were published in major journals.  https://www.notus.org/health-science/make-america-healthy-again-report-citation-errors

With fake titles, fake DOIs, and fake authors, it looks a lot like what we have come to know as AI hallucination. https://www.ox.ac.uk/news/2024-06-20-major-research-hallucinating-generative-models-advances-reliability-artificial

Katherine Keyes was stunned to see her name on a study she never wrote. She never published anything with that title. It never appeared in the journal. https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=_Rc2f7UAAAAJ

Two studies supposedly linking advertising to rising ADHD prescriptions in kids? Also fake. One "author" doesn't exist. The other, a real doctor, confirmed that he had never written anything like it. 

Another claim says 25 to 40 percent of kids with mild asthma are overprescribed steroids. The source? A phantom paper. The supposed author says he never collaborated with the listed co-authors and disputes the conclusion, calling it a distortion.

Even real studies are misused. One paper is cited to argue that therapy is more effective than medication, even though it only compared antidepressants and placebos. Therapy wasn’t even part of the study.

A statistic about an 800 percent rise in antipsychotic prescriptions? Misquoted. The real study showed an increase over a different time period.

Another citation used to argue that screen time is ruining children’s sleep? Misrepresented. The study was on college students. Wrong population. Wrong journal.

This is not sloppiness. It's strategic. The MAHA report creates the illusion of consensus, leveraging the hard-won credibility of institutions that conduct credible and accountable research to promote an unaccountable, dishonest ideology as equal to evidence-based practice. 

It repackages anti-vaccine beliefs and what--incredibly--seem like AI hallucinations as credible research.

Kennedy called this report a milestone. He's right—but not in the way he thinks. It marks the first time that one of the most respected scientific institutions presented fabricated data as the rationale for policies that would directly harm the American people.

That should alarm everyone who cares about reality and our ability to continue living in it. 

Unrolled here https://typefully.com/Info_Rosalie/UaJI4zC

How the MAHA Report Uses Scientific Credibility to Launder Its Beliefs

I'm going to tell you something the government won't (and I can't believe I'm the one saying this): coronavirus damages the placenta. Women who are infected experience double the baseline rate of stillbirths.

A CDC report found that among pregnant U.S. women with COVID-19, 1 in 80 deliveries resulted in stillbirth, compared to 1 in 155 for uninfected women--- but under new leadership, the CDC isn't telling you that. 
https://apnews.com/article/coronavirus-pandemic-science-health-2ac91326c0cd16f67eba01885516ef2d

I'm not a political pundit or a wellness influencer with something to sell. I went into debt to study public health, even though nearly any other field would have been more lucrative, because this work matters. 

I didn't start talking about it because it was trending on social media. I started talking about it because it is my profession.

I'm sharing this because reality doesn't care about what's trending on Twitter or what your mom's Facebook group says. 

The coronavirus can damage your placenta, and denial won't protect your baby. It doesn't care how you vote or whether you go to church. You can prevent an infection that can destroy almost all of the placenta in the worst cases. 

QUOTE: 

Researchers in 12 countries, including the United States, analyzed placental and autopsy tissue from 64 stillbirths and four newborns who died shortly after birth. The cases all involved unvaccinated women who had COVID-19 during their pregnancy.

The study bolsters evidence from small case reports, and it confirms that placenta damage, rather than an infection of the fetus, is the likely cause of many COVID-19-related stillbirths. 

END QUOTE.

Don't be the next parent who has to hear RFK Jr. deny that infectious disease caused your child's death. Whatever he says, it won't bring your child back, and it won't make the facts untrue.

https://typefully.com/Info_Rosalie/6qRWeRb

Coronavirus can destroy the placenta and lead to stillbirths

Iowa State University graduate school programs have started rescinding offers to prospective students as departments scramble to respond to funding uncertainties. https://iowacapitaldispatch.com/2025/03/07/iowa-state-university-rescinds-some-admission-offers-for-graduate-students/ 


A prospective international Ph.D. student shared a letter from ISU, received on March 5, stating that their chemistry department offer was withdrawn due to uncertainties in federal research funding that supports graduate work.

Iowa State University Graduate School Programs Rescind Offers

🧵Attacks on civil society are strong indicators that human rights violations are imminent. We should pay attention to HR 9495.

Supporters frame it as a counterterrorism measure, but what it allows resembles the dynamics in bills later used to suppress and control NGOs.

This "anti-terrorism" framing pressures critics to support the bill, as the bill's supporters will frame any opposition as support for terrorism. This bill paves the way for abuses of power under the guise of protecting the public. 

https://www.amnestyusa.org/reports/laws-designed-to-silence-the-global-crackdown-on-civil-society-organizations

Supporting terrorism and terrorist organizations is ALREADY illegal in the US, with several strict laws on the books. 

18 USC § 2339A: Criminalizes providing material support in service of terroristic aims https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/18/2339A

18 USC § 2339B: Prohibits providing material support to organizations the State Department has designated as foreign terrorist organizations https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/18/2339B

18 USC § 2339C: Forbids direct or indirect funding of terrorism https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/18/2339C

18 USC § 2339: Criminalizes harboring or concealing known terrorists  https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/18/2339

These statutes already carry severe penalties and cover the key ways terrorist organizations procure support. 

With such measures in place, what does HR 9495 actually achieve? 

HR 9495 grants the government the power to strip tax-exempt status from any organization classified as "supporting terrorism." It introduces a designation process with limited appeals, akin to Russia's approach to "undesirable" organizations. https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-18938165

If the designation is based on classified information, the court can review it without the organization's presence and privately, without public disclosure. How can you defend yourself from accusations if you don't know what they are?
https://www.congress.gov/bill/118th-congress/house-bill/9495/text#H4370CA43297E4EB981BE07120307E71F

HR 9495's IRS review and restricted court recourse grant the government significant discretionary power and limited opportunity for public scrutiny of potential abuse. 

👉 Labeling this bill as a counterterrorism measure gives it a powerful rhetorical shield. It legitimizes expanded state power while making it politically and socially untenable to oppose.

HR 9495 employs a familiar tactic: use security concerns to cast a wide net, restrict civil society's options, and deter opposition. What is happening is not new. https://www.amnestyusa.org/reports/laws-designed-to-silence-the-global-crackdown-on-civil-society-organizations/

If this policy could improve national security, I'd be the first to support it. As it is, this bill threatens First Amendment-protected activities by stymieing them while shielding itself from scrutiny.

When you see a law like this, you should first ask how this could be weaponized against you. If you are conservative, imagine a Dem trifecta with this law. If the inverse is true, then a conservative one. 

How could this be misused? You should ALWAYS ask this.

Think very hard about that because the pendulum always swings eventually, and what looked like an advantage before suddenly becomes a tool for depriving you of protected speech and organizing. https://www.amnestyusa.org/reports/laws-designed-to-silence-the-global-crackdown-on-civil-society-organizations/

I'm sure a standard reply to this thread will be something like -- those laws weren't the same. This is about terrorism! No, these laws aren't the same in content, but the dynamic across all of them is the same. 

They are examples of how governments frame laws that apply to NGOs as national security. These laws are later used to suppress civil society.  https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/campaigns/2018/02/civil-society-is-under-attack-in-hungary/

Please see the four examples of existing laws that are more than sufficient to handle the concern HR 9495 claims to address. The existing laws do not allow the government to use classified information to strip NGOs of their tax-exempt status, denying them any meaningful appeal. 


The framing here -- intentional or not-- sets the discussion so that dissent becomes "pro-terrorism." 

When you see something like this, your instinct should be suspicion. You can read the unrolled version of this thread here: https://typefully.com/Info_Rosalie/4tLn4Jf

Unpacking HR 9495

🧵I apologize for the wait but hopefully this makes up for it. We released a series summarizing content but also a data analysis of tweets and headlines. 

Pronouncing Nonsense in German
This report covers content shares between April 23 to May 3, 2024 https://infoepi.org/posts/2024/05/08-german-doppelganger-may-2024.html

Pronouncing Nonsense in French

This report outlines the key themes from content shared by the Doppelgänger Operation from April 23 to May 3, 2024. 

https://infoepi.org/posts/2024/05/07-french-doppelganger-may-2024.html

Sentiments and Emotion in Doppelgänger Tweet Text

These data reflect the content of tweets from likely Doppelgänger accounts, posted during April and May of 2024. 

Trust and Fear were the two most commonly associated sentiments with words from the Tweets. https://infoepi.org/posts/2024/05/08-doppelganger-tweet-text.html

Fear was the most common emotion associated with words in the headlines. Both of these used EmoLex (aka the NRC Word-Emotion Association Lexicon). https://infoepi.org/posts/2024/05/08-article_sentiment.html

We also translated the tweets into semantic triplets (subject, predicate, object) to see which ones were the most common. The most common word was Ukraine but when we removed Ukraine to see other words, Macron was the biggest. https://infoepi.org/posts/2024/05/08-doppelganger_spaCy.html

Were you curious which headlines appeared in the tweets? We gotchu. This includes the destination links from the links in Doppelgänger tweets. It has links to credible news outlets, unreliable news outlets, and the hallmark clone websites.
https://infoepi.org/posts/2024/05/07-articles-shared-by-doppelganger.html


We also looked at collocation. 
Collocation describes how frequently certain words appear close to each other in a text. The most common colocation was a tie. One of them, occurring over 170x, was Ukraine and corruption.  https://infoepi.org/posts/2024/05/08-doppelganger-data-analysis.html

If you've missed the series you can find all reports and information about accessing the data here. https://infoepi.org/posts/2024/04/series.html

Last week our research was features in the New York Times in an article on foreign malign influence. https://www.nytimes.com/2024/05/02/business/media/campus-protests-russia-china-iran-us.html

You can read the unrolled version of this thread here: https://typefully.com/Info_Rosalie/UntDece