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Recent Appearances...

Home Front: Politix

Pelosi: Trump's Violent Rhetoric ‘Didn't End' After January 6, My Husband Was a ‘Victim of All of That'

2025-01-07

[Breitbart] Representative Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) claimed Sunday on CBS’s “Face the Nation” that President-elect Donald Trump’s violent rhetoric had not stopped and caused the hammer attack on her husband, Paul.

That’s toxic, child-molesting Canadian David DePape, 42, who in 2022 broke into the house and attacked the elderly Paul Pelosi with a hammer, fracturing his skull in an attempt to force Rep. Nancy Pelosi to come forward and admit on camera that Russiagate was a lie. There was to be a Spooktacular unicorn costume involved, and last spring he was sentenced to 30 years in the federal pen. But this is just a nasty attempt by Ms Pelosi to tar the incoming president.

Partial transcript as follows:

MARGARET BRENNAN: You know, tomorrow morning at the Capitol you and other members of Congress will be there to certify the election win in 2024 of Donald Trump. There’s an unprecedented level of security, in part because of what happened four years ago with the violent attack by his supporters to change the outcome of the last election. Why do you think that so many members of the American public decided that was not disqualifying when it came to reelecting him president?

PELOSI: Well it- again, thank you for the opportunity to talk about this because the denial that they had about the election, which is what they were acting upon, and the denial they’ve had since then about what happened on Jan- January 6 is just appalling. They want to revise history. And they just- they just can’t. But I’m so glad that they have increased security and I’m hoping that this will be very peaceful because- the public knows it. Now to your question, I think- it isn’t, I- I wouldn’t say that the American people disregarded this. They just had a different view as to what was in their interest, economically and the rest. So I don’t- I don’t call this a disregard of January 6. I just call it something that they saw in their interest economically.

BRENNAN: Even just last night at Mar-a-Lago, Donald Trump was screening a documentary about the 2020 election, claiming his win and trying to talk about the legal challenges he had. There seems to be a continued effort to claim that he won in 2020.

PELOSI: It’s really sad. It really is sad. And I don’t know about the film that he had and the rest, but it’s- it’s almost sick that he would be thinking that in 2020. He’s won the election now, that will be clear- that will be clear, and tomorrow he will be clearly- we will be accepting the results of the Electoral College. So he should be triumphant about that. But to be still trying to fight a fight that he knows he lost is- is really sad.

BRENNAN: You know, the President-elect has said that in the first nine minutes of his new term, he will pardon many of those who participated in January 6. He said he’ll look at it on a case-by-case basis, but in looking back at what happened four years ago, there are recordings, there’s video evidence of what happened. This is personal for you, some of these rioters in your office. chanting your name. One of them, one of the defendants, ‘We were looking for Nancy to shoot her in the friggin brain, but we didn’t find her.’ For you, this is personal. So when you hear about pardons, do you think the non-violent attackers deserve to be pardoned?

PELOSI: The non-violent- I think that’s a violent attacker, with the intent–

BRENNAN: – the violence itself.

PELOSI: Yeah–

BRENNAN: –The violent language, you think.

PELOSI: The violent language- yes, the intention. And of course, the intention to attack the Vice President of the United States. Now it didn’t end that day. As you know, he called out to these people to continue their violence, my husband being a victim of all of that, and it still- he still has injuries from that attack. So it just goes on and on. It isn’t something that happens and then it’s over. No, once you are attacked, you have consequences that continue. So I don’t- it’s really a strange person who’s going to be President of the United States, who thinks that it’s okay to pardon people who are engaged in an attack. But let’s- you know, let’s do this. Let’s just say okay to the American people. This is what this is about. Do not be conned by the denial of the election of 2020 and- why would he be saying that? But he- but he is. And then on top of that, the denial of what happened on January 6.

BRENNAN: But some of the 1600 defendants here were really only charged with trespassing. And when you look at the profiles, University of Chicago did a study, half of those who broke into the Capitol were white collar workers. They were small business owners. Didn’t necessarily have a criminal record. When you look at that profile, you said intention. It- it was the intention itself, you think, that needs to be considered more so than the crime. You know that- that it casts the crime itself of trespassing in a different light for you.

PELOSI: Well the President said he would go on a case-by-case basis. So I assume that- that some of those people may not have engaged in the violent activities that some of the others did. Look at this beautiful Capitol, the dome built by Lincoln. Under Lincoln’s leadership during the Civil War, they said, don’t build the dome. It takes too much steel and person power, manpower, they said, from the war effort. And he said, no, I have to show the resilience of America. And then under that dome you saw, you saw flags, the flags that, you know, just horrible flags under the dome of Lincoln. And so it was a tragedy, and we cannot be in denial about what it was. If the President is going to go on a case by case basis, I hope he does, and then maybe–

BRENNAN: –Trespassers, you would be comfortable with pardoning?

PELOSI: Well, just depends on how they define what that is. But the- but I know that some of that encouragement and then the follow up that- that so many people were threatened, including me and- and to my home, looking for me and finding my husband, and as I say, who still suffers from head injuries from- on that day. So these things don’t just happen and go away when you have a head injury. But anyway to- to- to see the threat to so many people in elective office, now going beyond me, but so many people in elective office, it shouldn’t be a threat to your family that you have chosen to do public service.

Link

Fifth Column

Jew hate for Iranian Proxies at America’s universities: 12/15-12/21

2024-12-22

100 University of Chicago faculty and activists protest lack of 'Gaza Scholars at Risk' program
[CampusReform] Anti-Israel activists at the University of Chicago recently gathered to protest university administrators for [not] implementing a 'Gaza Scholars at Risk' program.
Demonstrators reportedly chanted, sang songs, and listened to speeches outside while university officials met inside Stuart Hall.

Students for Justice in Palestine at Columbia University revealed they are "fighting for the total eradication of Western civilization."

Why are taxpayer dollars going to Columbia University when they are teaching students to take down Western civilization? pic.twitter.com/Y4n6vz28BZ
— Eyal Yakoby (@EYakoby) December 16, 2024

Columbia Professor Resigns in Protest After Pro-Hamas Instructor Allowed to Teach Class on Zionism
[PJMedia] International and public affairs adjunct professor at Columbia University, Lawrence Rosenblatt, sent a resignation letter to the school's administration after it had been confirmed that Professor Joseph Massad would teach a class on the "History of the Jewish Enlightenment (Haskala) in 19th century Europe and the development of Zionism."

Massad is a piece of work. On Oct. 8, 2023, the day after the Hamas slaughter of 1,200 Israelis, Massad wrote a column for the Electronic Intifada, saying, "The sight of the Palestinian resistance fighters storming Israeli checkpoints separating Gaza from Israel was astounding, not only to the Israelis but especially to the Palestinian and Arab peoples who came out across the region to march in support of the Palestinians in their battle against their cruel colonizers."

He continued, "No less awesome were the scenes witnessed by millions of jubilant Arabs who spent the day watching the news, of Palestinian fighters from Gaza breaking through Israel’s prison fence or gliding over it by air."

GOP-led congressional report backs fundings cuts for universities that boycott Israel
[IsraelTimes] House panels also urge application of discrimination protections for Jewish students to those targeted for being Zionist, saying the hatred of which is ‘inherently antisemitic’

Allegation: Carnegie Mellon Prof to Jewish Student: Time on Jewish-Related Project "Would Have Been Better Spent" Exploring "What Jews Do To Make Themselves Such a Hated Group"
[Reason-VolokhConspiracy] A federal judge has allowed the (now-graduated) student's discrimination, harassment, retaliation, and breach of contract case to go forward.

University of California settles six antisemitism, three Islamophobia complaints
[IsraelTimes] Five campuses resolve Title VI of the Civil Rights Act cases, majority of which involved antisemitism, anti-Israel discrimination surrounding pro-Palestinian campus protests.

Four of the resolved cases involved the University of California, Los Angeles, where an unruly spring encampment ended in violence and arrests. UCLA received complaints on behalf of both Jewish and pro-Palestinian students that the school had failed to protect them during the encampments, which also recently earned the campus a legal rebuke based on accusations that protesters blocked Jewish students’ access to parts of campus.

An internal antisemitism task force at UCLA also recently found that the school had fostered an antisemitic environment, including as a result of the encampments.

High school antics:

Civil rights probe finds Philly school district failed to tackle antisemitic harassment
[IsraelTimes] US Education Department faults district for not doing enough to protect Jewish students despite ‘repeated, extensive notice’ they faced bigotry from their peers, teachers and staff

Stunned Massachusetts educators, ADL call for MassCUE apology after ‘hateful’ anti-Israel and Holocaust rhetoric at conference
[BostonHerald] MassCUE’s fall education tech conference — held in partnership with the Massachusetts Association of School Superintendents at Gillette Stadium — apparently went off the rails during a panel on equity in education. That’s when the discussion reportedly delved into the current Middle East conflict in Israel and Gaza.

“Speakers leaned very heavily into the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in a very one-sided, dangerous rhetoric,” Uxbridge High School Principal Michael Rubin told the Herald.

That included references to “Israeli genocide” and “Israeli apartheid.”

A panelist also suggested that the teaching of the Holocaust has been one-sided, and “two perspectives needed to be taught,” recalled Rubin, whose grandparents survived the Holocaust, during which the Nazis killed 6 million Jews.

Link

-Short Attention Span Theater-

Nobel Prize in Economics awarded for study of social institutions

2024-10-15

Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited.
[Regnum] The Nobel Committee of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences has awarded the Nobel Prize in Economics to American scientists Daron Acemoglu, Simon Johnson, and James Robinson for studying the influence of social institutions on the prosperity of society. The first two researchers represent the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, James Robinson — the University of Chicago.

The work of the 2024 laureates helps to understand why societies without the rule of law and exploitation of the population do not prosper, the press release notes.

A good question to answer.

To assess the role of social institutions, the scientists turned to the period of colonization. In some colonies, the invaders pursued the goal of exploiting the native population and using the extracted resources for their own interests. In others, the colonists formed comprehensive political and economic systems for the long-term benefit of European migrants. The laureates' research showed that one of the explanations for why the first type of society declined and the second flourished were the social institutions that were introduced during the process of colonization.

“The implementation of inclusive institutions brings long-term benefits to everyone, while extractive institutions bring short-term benefits to those in power,” the Nobel Committee noted.

In 2023, the Nobel Prize in Economics was awarded to American Claudia Goldin for her research on the role of women in the labor market. She took a new approach to studying gender inequality and explained why women earn less than men.

Link

-Great Cultural Revolution

Is This Hate Speech?

2024-09-19

[ZeroHedge] An X Post Goes Viral, Then Gets A Hate Speech Label

Earlier this week, University of Chicago student Daniel Schmidt's post about race and crime garnered 1.2 million views on X, before its visibility was limited with a hate speech label.

In the past three years:

- Two students at my college have been murdered by black people.
- Dozens of students at my college have been mugged by black people.

I say this and get flagged for hate speech.@ElonMusk, can we please have an honest conversation about this? pic.twitter.com/OC8U7zT9Bt

— Daniel Schmidt (@realdschmidt) September 17, 2024

Because of that limited visibility, I can't embed his original post here, but I have posted the text of it below. Before we get to it, my post below includes the video in his original post, which was of a local news report interviewing another University of Chicago student, who managed to remove the magazine from a mugger's gun during an attack near the school.

Crime in Chicago. pic.twitter.com/S7P41A2Wzs

— Portfolio Armor (@PortfolioArmor) September 17, 2024
Authored by Daniel Schmidt on X [Emphasis mine]

RACE AND CRIME IN CHICAGO
At my college, the University of Chicago, it’s inevitable that black people will mug students at gunpoint this school year—because it happens every year. Last year more than a dozen students were mugged. One student had a gun pointed at her head while walking on campus at 3:00 PM. You may have seen the video below back in April.

I’m starting my senior year in a few days. When I began college I tried to ignore all of this... I just wanted to be a finance bro... But then an Asian student was killed by a black person one month into my freshman year and it dawned on me: Is the modern American Dream just trying to live far away from black people? That’s why investment bankers work 18-hour days? That’s the end game? That’s it?

I started thinking I shouldn’t have gone to college in Chicago. I really chose this place over Princeton, New Jersey...

But lately I’ve started asking myself: Why do I have to accept the destruction of a great institution? Why do I have to surrender it to people who want me dead? Fuck them.

John D. Rockefeller founded the University of Chicago in 1890. Since then it has produced 99 Nobel Prizes, a remarkable achievement given the school is relatively new. It’s also one of the only colleges today that sincerely protects free speech (why I can make this post without getting expelled). It’s undoubtedly the only top university that cowards haven’t co-opted. I love it dearly.

Yet nowhere else on Earth will you find such an astonishing IQ contrast within a five-minute walk. The average SAT score of a student at UChicago is 1545, the highest of any university in the country. In the past three years, two of those students have been murdered, and dozens have been mugged, by thugs whose IQs are too low to understand why killing someone is wrong. They act solely on impulse. They think it’s fun. That’s all it is.

What will happen as black crime invariably gets even worse? Will the kind of student needed to continue UChicago’s legacy of academic excellence even want to attend college in Chicago? As things stand, this is an institution headed toward its deathbed, and that makes me very sad.

I’m so tired of this. I want to ride a subway without worrying a black person will shoot me. I want to go on a date with a girl at night without worrying a black person will shoot us. I want my future children to be able to live in cities without worrying a black person will shoot them.

I was born in 2003—you cannot get me to genuinely care about slavery, or redlining, or any other past event that is supposed to force me into accepting third-world conditions as the norm for American cities. It seems the only solution is the most obvious: over-police and over-incarcerate. Bring in the National Guard. Spend $$$ on maximum police surveillance. Do whatever is necessary to make these cities safe again. Each day passed is another victim.

The problem, of course, is that we cannot arrive at that solution right now because of the fear of being called racist. I’ve seen this firsthand.

At UChicago, a left-wing group called CareNotCops routinely bullies students and professors alike from speaking out by throwing around that word. When I was a freshman and a black person murdered an Asian student, hundreds of international students wanted to organize a protest to demand more police. They felt these criminals targeted them the most. In response, CareNotCops immediately called them racist, and the demands were dropped.

This led me to realize that “racist” is a branding weaponized by the most spiteful in society to overwhelm good-hearted people with fear and forbid a brighter future. Nothing has held back progress more than the anxiety of that label. Only once we end our enslavement to that meaningless word can lives be saved.

Link

Europe

Note on Durov from the channel 'Especially for RT'.

2024-08-28

Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited.

Text taken from a V Kontakte post from Reports from the Novorossiya militia, authored by by Russian political scientist Vladimir Kornilov.
[VK] Notable articles are now coming out in the West about the arrest of Pavel Durov. They are trying to explain to Western readers who he is and what Telegram is. And it is clear how the authors of these opuses are trying to "cross a hedgehog with a snake", explaining why in some parts of the world Durov's brainchild is a "criminal instrument", and in others - a "torch of freedom and justice".

For example, Le Figaro publishes an article in which it reminds the French audience that Telegram is actively used not only by "patriots of Russia" (this, apparently, should seem like a dirty word), but also by the Russian opposition. In particular, the newspaper recalls the role that propaganda Telegram channels played in the attempt to overthrow the legitimate government in Belarus in 2020. There is obvious regret expressed about the prospect of losing such an instrument of influence in “totalitarian” societies.

Western journalist Natalia Vasilyeva, who worked for a long time as a special correspondent for the Associated Press in Moscow and is now based in Istanbul, has now introduced Durov as almost “the chief of communications of the Russian army.” And just a few years ago, she published such touching reports about the fight “for freedom of the Internet” in Russia, commenting on rallies in defense of the same Durov.

The lamentations of the fugitive Russian liberals are especially funny. University of Chicago lecturer Konstantin Sonin* also tries to present Telegram as almost the main means of communication for the Russian army, but then says that “many oppositionists and opinion leaders are puzzled by Durov’s arrest today: Telegram was their main platform for disseminating their messages.” The dilemma, however, is for our liberals. That is, they would be happy to put a noose on freedom of speech in Russia, but they act according to the principle “Why us?”

The same is said in a column published today in the British newspaper The Times. The author, well-known columnist and radio host Hugo Rifkind, explaining to readers what Telegram is, writes (hold on now): “It’s a social network with almost a billion regular users around the world, and you’re probably not one of them. That’s because you don’t live in a repressive state that regularly restricts more common forms of communication. Also, you are probably not a criminal, a child rapist, or a paranoid political extremist."

And here Rifkind writes about the same dilemma: in countries "with pernicious regimes," Telegram is a great tool for delivering the "right" (from the West's point of view, of course) messages. But is it worth putting up with the fact that in the West it is used for the "wrong" actions?

What do all these publications and the emotional turmoil of Western propagandists mean? In essence, they are directly calling for Durov to be slapped on the wrist by completely banning Telegram in the territory of "democracies." Why, really, if there are enough more elite-controlled means of communication there? But in "totalitarian" states, it is necessary to continue "sowing democracy," of course, having strictly cleansed the information space of "wrong opinions."

In other words, the authors of the publications are essentially proposing to turn the platform into something like the Voice of America** of the Cold War era, when this propaganda structure carried the "only correct opinion" behind the Iron Curtain, to the countries of the Soviet bloc, but had no right to broadcast in America itself - this opinion was considered harmful there. It looks like this is the scenario that will be offered to Durov.

More from X

Imagine a world where SAUDI ARABIA is a beacon of press freedom and France has become an instrument of censorship/tyranny…

Oh yes - we are there. pic.twitter.com/S6Q9HqFBZj
— Lara Logan (@laralogan) August 27, 2024

Link

Fifth Column

U of Chicago students walk out of graduation after diplomas withheld for anti-Israel camp

2024-06-02

[IsraelTimes] Shouts, boos, calls to ‘Stop Genocide’ briefly disrupt rainy two-hour outdoor ceremony; dozens of students walk out between speeches; demonstration follows official ceremony

Dozens of anti-Israel student protesters walked out of the University of reliably Democrat Chicago, aka The Windy City or Mobtown
...home of Al Capone, the Chicago Black Sox, a succession of Daleys, Barak Obama, and Rahm Emmanuel...
’s commencement Saturday as the school withheld the diplomas of four seniors over their involvement with a pro-Paleostinian encampment. The disruption to the rainy two-hour outdoor ceremony was brief, with shouts, boos and calls to "Stop Genocide." A crowd of students walked out between speeches, and a demonstration followed the official ceremony. Some chanted as they held Paleostinian flags, while others donned, keffiyeh scarves, a Paleostinian symbol often used in pro-Paleostinian and anti-Israel protests, over their robes.

Four graduating seniors, including Youssef Haweh, were informed by email in recent days that their degrees would be withheld pending a disciplinary process related to complaints about the encampment, according to student group UChicago United for Paleostine.

"My diploma doesn’t matter when there are people in Paleostine and in Gazoo
...Hellhole adjunct to Israel and Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, inhabited by Gazooks. The place was acquired in the wake of the 1967 War and then presented to Paleostinian control in 2006 by Ariel Sharon, who had entered his dotage. It is currently ruled with an iron fist by Hamas with about the living conditions you'd expect. It periodically attacks the Hated Zionist Entity whenever Iran needs a ruckus created or the hard boyz get bored, getting thumped by the IDF in return. The ruling turbans then wave the bloody shirt and holler loudly about oppression and disproportionate response...
that will never walk a stage again, who will never receive a diploma. What about them? Who’s going to fight for them?" Haweh said in a Saturday statement.

Fair enough. You go on to your chosen profession as a paid political agitator with a side order of mostly peaceful Black Bloc/Antifa violence, for which no education is necessary, merely bloody-minded viciousness and the ability to shout slogans while beating up whichever target you’re pointed at.

University officials acknowledged the walkout, saying the school is "committed to upholding the rights of students to express a wide range of views," according to a statement.

Students have walked out of commencements at Harvard University, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and others as protest camps have sprung up across the US and in Europa
Europa

...the land mass occupying the space between the English Channel and the Urals, also known as Moslem Lebensraum...
in recent weeks. Students have demanded their universities stop doing business with Israel or companies they say support its war in Gaza.

A small demonstration after the commencement, where protesters tried to access a closed street, resulted in the arrest of one person not affiliated with the school, university officials said in a statement.

The University of Chicago encampment was cleared on May 7. Administrators had initially adopted a permissive approach, but later said the protest had crossed a line and caused growing concerns about safety. One group temporarily took over a building on the school’s campus.

University officials have said the demonstrations prompted formal complaints including for "disruptive conduct," and would require further review. The students were still able to participate in graduation, and can receive their degrees if they are later cleared after the university inquiry into alleged violations of campus policy. The university didn’t have comment Saturday about the diplomas.

Thousands of students and faculty members have signed a petition calling for the university to grant the degrees, while more than a dozen Chicago City Council members have penned a letter asking for the same.

”Why are you being so mean? Students have been rioting through the streets about whatever catches their whim since universities first formed in Paris in the Middle Ages. How dare you ruin the lives of our precious darlings by punishing them!”

Link

Fifth Column

UPenn students face felony charges over attempted anti-Israel occupation

2024-05-19

[IsraelTimes] Campus police say 7 students among the 19 protesters arrested for trying to occupy building at Philadelphia university, including person who assaulted officer

A half-dozen University of Pennsylvania students were among 19 pro-Paleostinian protesters arrested during an attempt to occupy a school building, university police said Saturday.

Their arrests came a week after authorities broke up an anti-Israel protest encampment on campus and arrested nine students — and as other colleges across the country, anxious to prepare for commencement season, have either negotiated agreements with students or called in police to dismantle protest camps.

Members of Penn Students Against the Occupation of Paleostine announced the action Friday at the school’s Fisher-Bennett Hall, urging supporters to bring "flags, pots, pans, noise-makers, megaphones" and other items, the University of Pennsylvania Division of Public Safety said in a news release.

Officers could be seen closing in "within the hour," The Philadelphia Inquirer reported. University police supported by city police then escorted the protesters out and secured the building, news outlets reported.

Police said after clearing the building that they recovered "lock-picking tools and homemade metal shields fashioned from oil drums."

Exit doors had been secured with zip ties and barbed wire and barricaded with metal chairs and desks, while windows were covered by newspaper and cardboard, and bike racks and metal chairs blocked entrances, police said.

Seven of the students arrested on Friday remained in jug Saturday awaiting felony charges, including one person who assaulted an officer, campus police said. A dozen were issued citations for failing to disperse and follow police commands. They have been released from custody.

The attempted occupation of Fisher-Bennett Hall came a week after city and campus police broke up a two-week encampment on the campus, arresting 33 people, nine of whom were students and two dozen of whom had "no Penn affiliation," according to university officials.

Meanwhile,
...back at the chili cook-off, Chuck and Manuel's rivalry was entering a new and more dangerous phase...
a group protesting Israel over the war in Gazoo
...Hellhole adjunct to Israel and Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, inhabited by Gazooks. The place was acquired in the wake of the 1967 War and then presented to Paleostinian control in 2006 by Ariel Sharon, who had entered his dotage. It is currently ruled with an iron fist by Hamas with about the living conditions you'd expect. It periodically attacks the Hated Zionist Entity whenever Iran needs a ruckus created or the hard boyz get bored, getting thumped by the IDF in return. The ruling turbans then wave the bloody shirt and holler loudly about oppression and disproportionate response...
against Hamas
Hamas

..the well-beloved offspring of the Moslem Brotherhood,...
and demanding that the University of reliably Democrat Chicago, aka The Windy City or Mobtown
...home of Al Capone, the Chicago Black Sox, a succession of Daleys, Barak Obama, and Rahm Emmanuel...
divest from companies doing business with the Jewish state temporarily took over a building on the school’s campus Friday afternoon.

Members of the group surrounded the Institute of Politics building around 5 p.m. while others made their way inside, the Chicago Sun-Times reported. The demonstrators hung a sign renaming the building "Casbah Basel al-A’araj," after the "hipster terrorist" killed in a 2017 shootout with Israeli forces in the West Bank.

The Chicago protest follows the May 7 clearing of an anti-Israel tent encampment at the school by police. University of Chicago administrators had initially adopted a permissive approach, but said earlier this month that the protest had crossed a line and caused growing concerns about safety.

On Friday, campus coppers using riot shields gained access to the Institute of Politics building and scuffled with protesters. Some protesters climbed from a second-floor window, according to the Sun-Times.

The school said protesters attempted to bar the entrance, damaged university property and ignored directives to clear the way, and that those inside the building left when campus coppers entered.

"The University of Chicago is fundamentally committed to upholding the rights of protesters to express a wide range of views," school spokesperson Gerald McSwiggan said in a statement. "At the same time, university policies make it clear that protests cannot jeopardize public safety, disrupt the university’s operations or involve the destruction of property."

No arrests or injuries were reported.

Nearly 3,000 people have been arrested on US campuses over the past month. As summer break approaches, there have been fewer new arrests and campuses have been calmer. Still, colleges have been vigilant for disruptions to commencement ceremonies.

On Thursday, police began dismantling a pro-Paleostinian encampment at DePaul University in Chicago, hours after the school’s president told students to leave the area or face arrest.

The war in Gaza began when Hamas and other murderous Moslems stormed into southern Israel on October 7, killing around 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and taking 252 hostages. The Hamas-run Gaza health ministry says more than 35,000 people in the Strip have been killed or are presumed dead in the fighting so far, though only some 24,000 fatalities have been identified at hospitals. The tolls, which cannot be verified, include some 15,000 terror operatives Israel says it has killed in battle. Israel also says it killed some 1,000 murderous Moslems inside Israel on October 7.

280 soldiers have been killed during the ground offensive against Hamas and amid operations along the Gaza border. A civilian Defense Ministry contractor has also been killed in the Gaza Strip.

Link

Fifth Column

Police in riot gear dismantle anti-Israel encampment at Chicago’s DePaul University

2024-05-17

[IsraelTimes] Protesters leave voluntarily as cops move in; school publishes examples of over 1,000 complaints about pro-Palestinian protests, including antisemitic harassment of students

Police began dismantling an anti-Israel encampment early Thursday at DePaul University in reliably Democrat Chicago, aka The Windy City or Mobtown

reliably Democrat Chicago, aka The Windy City or Mobtown

...home of Al Capone, the Chicago Black Sox, a succession of Daleys, Barak Obama, and Rahm Emmanuel...
, hours after the school’s president told students to leave the area or face arrest.

Officers and workers in yellow vests cleared out tents and camping equipment at the student encampment, leaving behind yellow squares of dead or dying grass where the tents had stood. Front-loaders were being used to remove the camping equipment.

Just across the street from where the encampment was spread across a grassy expanse of DePaul’s campus known as "The Quad," a few dozen protesters stood along a sidewalk in front of a service station, clapping their hands in unison as an apparent protest leader paced back and forth before them, speaking into a bullhorn.

In videos from the scene broadcast on local media and social networks, protesters could be heard chanting anti-Israel slogans such as "Intifada, intifada," a reference to periods of deadly Paleostinian terror attacks against Israeli civilians in the late 1980s and early 1990s and again in the early 2000s.

Chicago police said that all of the protesters at the encampment "voluntarily left" the area when police arrived early Thursday.

"There were no confrontations and there was no resistance," Jon Hein, chief of patrol for the Chicago Police Department, said at a news briefing. "As we approached, all the subjects voluntarily left the area."

Hein said, however, that two people, a male and female in their 20s, were arrested outside the encampment "for obstruction of traffic."

The university posted on its website examples of over 1,000 registered complaints about the protest encampment, including pictures of antisemitic stickers and posters, damage to university property and testimony from students.

"My son and I watched a group of five masked men carrying Paleostinian flags push a Jewish man to the ground and then steal his Israeli flag. I was called a baby killer, a murderer, a genocide supporter.  My friends had paint thrown on them, were pushed and verbally assaulted," one student testimony from DePaul read.

Police also found knives and a pellet gun while dismantling the tents, according to the university.

After clearing out the encampment at DePaul University, Chicago police found multiple knives and a pellet gun.

The move to clear the campus came less than a week after the school’s president said public safety was at risk.

The university on Saturday said it had reached an "impasse" with the school’s protesters, leaving the future of their encampment on the Chicago campus unclear. Most of DePaul’s commencement ceremonies will be held the June 15-16 weekend.

In a statement then, DePaul President Robert Manuel and Provost Salma Ghanem said they believe that students intended to protest peacefully, but "the responses to the encampment have inadvertently created public safety issues that put our community at risk."

Efforts to resolve the differences with DePaul Divestment Coalition over the past 17 days were unsuccessful, Manuel said in a statement sent to students, faculty and staff Thursday morning.

"Our Office of Public Safety and Chicago Police are now disassembling the encampment," he said. "Every person currently in the encampment will be given the opportunity to leave peacefully and without being arrested."

He said that since the encampment began, "the situation has steadily escalated with physical altercations, credible threats of violence from people not associated with our community."

Tensions at DePaul flared the previous weekend when counter protesters showed up to the campus in the city’s Lincoln Park neighborhood and prompted Chicago police to intervene.

The student-led DePaul Divestment Coalition, which is calling on the university to divest from Israel, set up the encampment April 30. The group alleged university officials walked away from talks and tried to force students into signing an agreement, according to a student statement late Saturday.

"I don’t want my tuition money to be invested in my family’s suffering," Henna Ayesh, a Paleostinian student at DePaul and Coalition member, said in the statement.

DePaul is on the city’s North Side. Last week, police removed a similar encampment at the University of Chicago on the city’s South Side.

The News Agency that Dare Not be Named has recorded at least 79 incidents since April 18 where arrests were made at campus protests across the US. More than 2,900 people have been arrested on the campuses of 60 colleges and universities. The figures are based on AP reporting and statements from universities and law enforcement agencies.

Link

Fifth Column

Cops clear anti-Israel encampment, arrest 33 at DC campus as mayor's hearing canceled; 2600 arrested on 50 campuses thus far

2024-05-09

[IsraelTimes] Officials made decision to clear tents after demonstrators ’gathered improvised weapons’ and were ’casing’ school buildings with possible intention of occupying them

Police using pepper spray cleared an anti-Israel tent encampment at George Washington University and arrested 33 demonstrators early Wednesday, hours after dozens marched to the home of the school’s president as city officials prepared to appear before Congress on the protest’s handling.

District of Columbia Mayor Muriel Bowser and Metropolitan Police Chief Pamela Smith were called to testify Wednesday afternoon at the Republican-led House Oversight and Accountability Committee, but the hearing was canceled after the arrests. The mayor said she spoke with Rep. James Comer, chairman of the House panel, on Wednesday morning and "he expressed his interest in making sure the city and the chief can focus on this ongoing operation" and pulled the hearing.

After the crackdown, Bowser told news hounds that she and the police made the decision to clear the camp based on shifting information about increased threats to public safety. "Our response to demonstrations is always rooted in public safety and responsibility," she said.

Smith added that there were signs that "the protest was becoming more volatile and less stable." Among them were indications that protesters had "gathered improvised weapons" and were "casing" university buildings with the possible intention of occupying them, said Jeffery Carroll, the police department’s executive assistant chief.

Tensions have ratcheted up in standoffs with far-left protesters of the Israel-Hamas
Hamas

...a regional Iranian catspaw,...
war on campuses across the United States and increasingly in Europe. Some colleges cracked down immediately; others have tolerated the demonstrations. Some have begun to lose patience and have called in police over concerns about disruptions to campus life and safety.

DC police said officers moved to disperse demonstrators at George Washington because "there has been a gradual escalation in the volatility of the protest." They said arrests included ones for the assault on a police officer and unlawful entry. They confirmed they used pepper spray outside the encampment against protesters who were trying to break police lines and enter.

George Washington had warned of possible suspensions for continuing the camp on University Yard. Protesters carrying signs reading "Free Paleostine" and "Hands off Rafah" also marched to school President Ellen Granberg’s home Tuesday night.

The school said in a statement: "While the university is committed to protecting students’ rights to free expression, the encampment had evolved into an unlawful activity, with participants in direct violation of multiple university policies and city regulations."

A week ago, the George Washington encampment was host to a somewhat chaotic visit from several Republican members of the House oversight panel who criticized the protests and condemned Bowser’s refusal at that point to send in police.

Bowser on Monday confirmed the city and police department declined the university’s request to intervene. "We did not have any violence to interrupt on the GW campus," she said then.

But in the early hours of Wednesday, hundreds of Metropolitan Police Department officers descended on the scene, reported The GW Hatchet, the university’s student newspaper.

At least two officers deployed pepper spray on protesters, who then set up an impromptu medical area at a market near the campus, the paper said. Organizers ran to a convenience store to buy water to rinse their eyes.

Since April 18, just over 2,600 people have been arrested on 50 campuses, figures based on AP reporting and statements from universities and law enforcement agencies after this latest pro-Paleostinian movement was launched by a protest at Columbia University in New York. Many, if not the majority, of the arrests are believed to be non-students as bully boy, outside agitators have joined the campus protests.

Another anti-Israel encampment was cleared by officers in riot gear at the University of reliably Democrat Chicago, aka The Windy City or Mobtown
...home of Al Capone, the Chicago Black Sox, a succession of Daleys, Barak Obama, and Rahm Emmanuel...
on Tuesday after administrators who had initially adopted a permissive approach said the protesters had crossed a line, increasing safety concerns. Hundreds of protesters had gathered for at least eight days until administrators warned them Friday to leave or face removal.

"The university remains a place where dissenting voices have many avenues to express themselves, but we cannot enable an environment where the expression of some dominates and disrupts the healthy functioning of the community for the rest," University of Chicago President Paul Alivisatos wrote.

Other schools are letting protesters hold rallies and organize their encampments as they see fit.

The president of Wesleyan University, a liberal arts school in Connecticut, has commended the on-campus demonstrations, which have included a tent encampment, as an act of political expression. The camp there has grown from about 20 tents a week ago to more than 100.

"The protesters’ cause is important — bringing attention to the killing of innocent people," university President Michael Roth wrote to the campus community Thursday. "And we continue to make space for them to do so, as long as that space is not disruptive to campus operations."

The Rhode Island School of Design’s president, Crystal Williams, spent more than five hours with protesters discussing their demands after students started occupying a building Monday.

On Tuesday the school announced it was relocating classes from the building, which was covered with posters reading "Free Paleostine" and "Let Gazoo
Islamic Hellhole adjunct to Israel and Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, inhabited by Gazooks. The place was acquired in the wake of the 1967 War and then presented to Paleostinian control in 2006 by Ariel Sharon, who had entered his dotage. It is currently ruled with an iron fist by Hamas with about the living conditions you'd expect. It periodically attacks the Hated Zionist Entity whenever Iran needs a ruckus created or the hard boyz get bored, getting thumped by the IDF in return. The ruling turbans then wave the bloody shirt and holler loudly about oppression and disproportionate response. In October of 2023 Gazooks belonging to Hamas invaded Israel, killed over a thousand people, raped a bunch of women. Then they bitched and moaned about genocide when their butts handed to them in the entirely justified retaliation.
Live."

Some colleges have tried tactics from appeasement to threats of disciplinary action to clear the way for commencements.

Police moved in Tuesday night to break up an encampment at the University of Massachusetts. Video from the scene in Amherst showed an hours-long operation as dozens of coppers in riot gear systematically tearing down tents and taking protesters into custody. The operation continued into early Wednesday.

Police said about 130 people were arrested there Tuesday night after protesters refused orders to disperse.

Further details on the charges and the schedule for arraignments will be forthcoming. Early this morning, UMass Police said 109 people had been booked and charges were pending for approximately 25 other individuals.

UMass Chancellor Javier Reyes said he ordered the sweep after discussions over a wide range of demands failed to yield an agreement to dismantle the encampment and engage in "constructive discussions."

The demonstrators have been calling on their universities to end all partnerships with Israeli academia and to cut all financial ties with companies linked to Israel — a nearly impossible goal given that most colleges have complicated portfolios that include investments in companies that might not be Israeli-based themselves but do have ties with Israel such as Google, Microsoft and the S&P stock exchange.

Link

Fifth Column

Former Obama Education Secretary Attends Chicago Encampment with Radicals Connected to Burning U.S. Flag

2024-05-06

[Breitbart] Arne Duncan, former President Barack Obama’s Secretary of Education, was photographed at an anti-Israel encampment next to a Chicago alderman who has received criticism for speaking in front of a burned American flag.

In a post on social media from the Coalition of Progressive Staffers from the Mayor’s Office and the Chicago city council, Duncan was seen standing next to Alderman Byron Sigcho-Lopez, who represents Chicago’s 25th ward, at an anti-Israel encampment at the University of Chicago.

Sigcho-Lopez was seen speaking at the encampment at the university on Monday.

Sigcho-Lopez has previously faced criticism from several Chicago aldermen and veterans after he was captured on video speaking at a rally in March where the American flag was burned, according to CBS News.

Link

Fifth Column

Gaza campus protests spread to Chicago high schools, alarming Jewish students

2024-05-03

It should alarm more than just the Jewish students.

[IsraelTimes] Half a dozen high schools allow hundreds of students to briefly skip class for sit-ins, with many then marching to encampments at nearby universities where they are embraced

Hundreds of students held sit-ins at Chicago public high schools in solidarity with Paleostinians in Gazoo
Islamic Hellhole adjunct to Israel and Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, inhabited by Gazooks. The place was acquired in the wake of the 1967 War and then presented to Paleostinian control in 2006 by Ariel Sharon, who had entered his dotage. It is currently ruled with an iron fist by Hamas with about the living conditions you'd expect. It periodically attacks the Hated Zionist Entity whenever Iran needs a ruckus created or the hard boyz get bored, getting thumped by the IDF in return. The ruling turbans then wave the bloody shirt and holler loudly about oppression and disproportionate response. In October of 2023 Gazooks belonging to Hamas invaded Israel, killed over a thousand people, raped a bunch of women. Then they bitched and moaned about genocide when their butts handed to them in the entirely justified retaliation.
on Wednesday, as anti-Israel protests trickled down from the college campuses that they’ve upended in recent weeks.

Several dozen students were seen participating in the demonstrations at each of half a dozen high schools, where some Jewish students said the demonstrations — and the schools’ decisions to allow them — left them feeling unsafe.

"I learned in the early months of high school that if you don’t fit with the majority ideology, people will only see you as one aspect and won’t like you. I’ve lost many lifelong friends this year for being a proud Jew," said Jones College Prep senior Mira Rosenblum during a presser with local Jewish leaders in Chicago.

Rosenblum accused her school’s administration of ignoring antisemitism. While her request to hold a vigil after Hamas
Hamas

...one of the armed feet of the Moslem Brüderbund millipede,...
’s October 7 onslaught was denied, Jones allowed hundreds of students to participate in a January walk-out along with other Chicago public schools calling for a ceasefire, the teen claimed. Rosenblum said that she was subsequently "doxxed and called anti-black and Islamophobic for filing a complaint against the student leaders who compared themselves to Jewish rebels fighting against Nazi Germany."

Jones College Prep did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

"When I see all of this anti-Zionism, it really feels like antisemitism," Jones freshman Max Rubenstein told ABC 7. "At least all the Jewish students are a little uneasy when they see this large-scale protest."

"Anyone who is antisemitic and calls themselves pro-Paleostinian is not pro-Paleostinian," a Jones protest organizer, who was identified only as Atticus, told the network.

"While we support students’ constitutional right to free expression, harassment, discrimination, and bias-based harm have no place in our school community and will not be tolerated," Chicago Public Schools said in a statement.

Explaining the impetus for the day’s sit-ins, Atticus said, "We wanted to show our support to growing encampments around the country, including Northwestern, Columbia and general protest for Paleostinian genocide."

While the sit-ins took place without any reported incidents, the university campus protests Atticus cited have led to hundreds of arrests, including some 300 anti-Israel Lions of Islam who ~~violent~~ mostly peacefully took over a building at Columbia University. At the University of Caliphornia, an impregnable bastion of the Democratic Party, Los Angeles, dueling groups of pro-Paleostinian and pro-Israeli protesters squared off in ugly fistfights that led to several injuries on Wednesday.

The university protests have mushroomed across the country, with organizers pledging to remain in tents on campus quads until their schools sever all academic and financial links to Israel. Administrators have been forced to decide between calling in police to rein in violators, which risks calling more attention to the cause, and cutting deals with them, infuriating US politicians and Jewish organizations.

Until this week, though, the encampments were limited to college campuses. Chicago has seen the largest number of high schoolers joining their older peers, but similar sit-ins were reported in Austin, Texas, and Seattle, Washington. A New Jersey sit-in scheduled for last week was reportedly canceled after a pair of county commissioners demanded that the district’s superintendent intervene.

At Walter Payton College Preparatory High School, media was not allowed inside as the sit-in took place, but participants could be seen through the building’s windows.

The group was seated on the floor facing a student leader who read off information regarding the Israeli-Paleostinian conflict, provided tips on how to demonstrate and taught pro-Paleostinian chants they should expect to hear and echo.

Chicago Public Schools issued a guidance for the day’s protests that allowed them to extend for 30 minutes, but the sit-in at Jones lasted twice as long, according to one parent of a student there. The rallies were organized by Chicago Youth For Justice.

After the sit-ins, many of the participating students proceeded to march to nearby "Gaza solidarity encampments" that were established earlier this week at DePaul University and the University of Chicago.

High schoolers were embraced upon their arrival, with one of the Jones students given the opportunity to lead hundreds at the University of Chicago in a chant of "Joe The Big Guy Biden
...46th president of the U.S. The very model of probity....
’s sending bombs killing children and their moms!"

At DePaul, Lincoln Park High School students joined college students in a traditional Native American circle dance in the middle of the quad, which was filled with tents and Paleostinian flags.

"That was to remind us that as indigenous people, we are united in liberation," one of the college protest organizers declared at the end of the song, to applause from the high school visitors.

Another organizer took the mic to report that he had just come from a meeting with DePaul stakeholders who refused to accept the protesters’ demands.

"Everyone here on this squad right now is staying here and is not moving until this disgusting university divests from these genocidal corporations," he shouted to cheers from the hundreds present.

"Disclose, divest, we will not stop, we will not rest!" they chanted repeatedly.

High schoolers then joined their college-aged peers in making signs that were hung on the fence surrounding the DePaul quad.

"Netanyahu is a modern-day Hitler and Biden is his b****," read one.

Another featured a Marvel cartoon captioned "Magneto hates Zionists!"

One student was seen putting up a sign she made that read "No pride in genocide."

Approached by a passerby who asked her if she knew that queer people are marginalized and targeted in the West Bank and Gaza, the masked student replied that she was not aware of this but added, "No one is free until everyone is free" before finishing zip-tying the sign and scurrying away.

At the presser held by Jewish community leaders several miles away, the Jewish United Fund’s Jane Charney demanded that Chicago Public Schools (CPS) clamp down on the sit-ins.

"How are CPS leaders going to ensure that Jews are not harassed and are able to be present in their schools in the fullness of their identities? What consequences will be meted out to those who use antisemitic language? How will teachers and students be trained to understand the American Jewish experience and our deep connection to Israel? CPS has been silent on all of these questions," Charney lamented.

"So far, we have seen not much beyond available ’processing spaces’ for Jewish students and repeated appeals that students abide by the norms of the Student Code of Conduct — the very same student code of conduct that prohibits sit-ins," she said, adding that Jewish clubs have been urged not to campaign for the release of hostages, while the January ceasefire walk-out was tolerated.

"This hypocritical and selective enforcement of campus rules and capitulation to mob rule sends a clear message to Jewish students and their families that our safety and our ability to be present at our schools in the fullness of our identity is not important."

Link

-Great Cultural Revolution

Survey: Two-Thirds Of Elites Say There's Too Much Freedom In America

2024-01-20

[Federalist] The nation’s ruling class holds deeply authoritarian opinions widely divorced from the rest of the American electorate, finds a survey out this week. It found nearly 60 percent of American "elites" think there is too much individual freedom in America. Meanwhile, nearly 60 percent of registered voters have the exact opposite opinion, reporting the United States has too much top-down control, limiting liberty.

The study, titled "Them Vs. U.S," defined the American "elite" as "having a postgraduate degree, a household income of more than $150,000 annually, and living in a zip code with more than 10,000 people per square mile." Such people account for about 1 percent of Americans. The study also examined a sub-sample of the 1 percent who graduated from Ivy League schools or other name-brand institutions such as Northwestern, Duke, Stanford, and the University of Chicago.

Link

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