The Conversation -- April 19, 2024
Annie Karni of the New York Times: "The House took a critical step on Friday toward approving a long-stalled package of aid to Ukraine, Israel and other American allies, as Democrats supplied the crucial votes to push the legislation past Republican opposition so that it could be considered on the floor. The 316-94 vote cleared the way for the House to bring up the aid package, teeing up separate votes on Saturday on each of its parts. But passage of those measures, each of which enjoys bipartisan support from different coalitions, was not in doubt, making Friday's action the key indicator that the legislation will have the backing needed to prevail. The rule for considering the bill -- historically a straight party-line vote -- passed with more Democratic than Republican support, but it also won a majority of G.O.P. votes, making it clear that despite a pocket of deep resistance from the far right, there is broad bipartisan backing for the $95.3 billion package.
"The vote was an enormous victory in the long effort to fund to Ukraine as it battles against Russian aggression, a major priority of President Biden that has met with bitter resistance from the right. It was a triumph against the forces of isolationism within the G.O.P. and a major moment of bipartisan consensus in a Congress that for the past year has been mostly defined by its dysfunction."
Jonathan Edwards, et al., of the Washington Post: "More than 100 people protesting the war in Gaza were cleared off Columbia University's campus, arrested and charged with trespassing on Thursday. The arrests came a day after the university's president pledged during a congressional hearing on antisemitism to balance students' safety with their right to free speech. Having been summoned by Columbia President Minouche Shafik in what she described as 'an extraordinary step' to keep the campus safe, New York Police Department officers in riot gear entered the encampment with zip ties in the early afternoon and systematically arrested protesters, who offered little resistance.... Columbia's gates have been closed all week, so only people with a university identification can get in; it was a peaceful student protest, [student body president Tejasri Vijayakumar] said.... Students who participated in the encampment would be suspended, Shafik said in a letter to New York police." Thanks to RAS for the link. ~~~
~~~ Scott Lemieux in LG&$: "Apparently strongly committed to not being the latest pelt for angry donors, Columbia's leadership appeared before Congress yesterday and agreed to various investigations and firings without even suggesting that academic freedom might be an important consideration in the process. Today, they demonstrated that they got the campus free speech 'speech members of Congress disagree with' message[.]... If there's any evidence that this protest was a threat to student 'safety' that would justify an immediate and recently unprecedented crackdown by armed police, the administration certainly doesn't seem to be providing it." Thanks to RAS for the link. ~~~
~~~ Moira Donegan of the Guardian: At the GOP-run House hearing, "Minouche Shafik, the Columbia University president..., made only tepid defenses of academic freedom, instead favoring wholehearted condemnations of the protesters, assents to bad-faith mischaracterizations of the students as antisemitic and genocidal, and public, apparently on-the-spot, personnel decisions that removed some pro-Palestinian faculty and staff from their positions.... The police raid against Columbia students that followed the next day can be seen as an extension of the policy of appeasement and pre-emptive compliance with the anti-Palestinian, anti-student Republican right that Shafik adopted in her testimony.... It is worth stating plainly what happened at Columbia: the raid was nothing less than the product of collusion between a university administration and rightwing politicians to suppress politically disfavored speech." Thanks to RAS for the link. See also the discussion in Friday's Comments thread. ~~~
~~~ Oh, and this from Donegan's column: "The arrested students were charged with 'trespassing' on the campus that they are charged more than $60,000 a year to attend."
Nate Schweber & Matthew Haag of the New York Times: "A man set himself on fire on Friday afternoon near the Lower Manhattan courthouse where jurors were being chosen for the criminal trial of ... Donald J. Trump. The man doused himself with accelerant at around 1:35 p.m. in Collect Pond Park, across the street from the courthouse. Onlookers screamed and started to run, and soon, bright orange flames engulfed the man. It was unclear what motivated his action. People rushed over to try to extinguish the fire, but the intensity of the heat could be felt several hundred feet away. After a few minutes, dozens of police officers rushed over and tried to smother the flames. The man, who appeared to be alive, was loaded into an ambulance and rushed away." MB: In a press conference, following publication of this story, NYC fire officials said the man, who is in his 30s, was from St. Augustine, Florida.
New York Times reporters liveblog developments on Day 4 of the Trump 2016 criminal election interference case brought by the Manhattan district attorney. What with Trump's hair all messy and his nodding off minutes after he landed in his comfy leatherette nap-time chair, Bedtime for Bonzo started awfully early today:
Maggie Haberman: "Trump spoke in the hallway before re-entering the hold room. Apparently without a sense of irony, he told reporters, 'They've taken away my constitutional rights to speak and that includes speaking to you.'"
Haberman: "Trump has taken his seat. His hair is uncharacteristically messy. Like the wind hit it on the way into court."
Haberman: "Trump appears to have fallen asleep in court again. It happened several times just now. His eyes were closed for extended periods and his head dropped down twice." [MB: There must be something physically/psychologically wrong with Trump to cause him to fall asleep when most people would be wide-awake and engaged.]
Kate Christobek: "So far this morning, we've lost two potential jurors who were excused after they said they could not be fair and impartial."
Jonah Bromwich: "It may be slow going. Lawyers on each side have many challenges to spend now that we are in the alternate phase: 12 each, in fact. We could lose as many as 24 prospective alternates during voir dire."
[MB: If you can, scan the liveblog. I skip a lot of the "color," but it's often worth reading, at least for the fun of it. For instance, there's this, which is the type of remark I'm skipping: ~~~]
~~~ Wesley Parnell: "Because technology use is limited -- and phone calls are strictly prohibited in the hallways and courtrooms -- reporters who need to make phone calls have resorted to using the 15th floor bathrooms. They're using them to relay information to their editors and, in one case this morning, to patch into a live radio hit from inside a stall. The reporter did not convey on live air that he was inside the men's lavatory, instead conducting himself with aplomb."
Bromwich: "Multiple jurors have started crying as they have opened up about their lives in front of the judge and the former president. A very intense Friday as we near the end of jury selection."
Haberman, et al.: "Prosecutors and defense lawyers interviewed 22 prospective jurors during a Friday morning session to see if they could pick an additional five to serve as alternates, to add to the 12 jurors and one alternate who were selected a day earlier."
Jesse McKinley: "We now have a complete panel. 12 jurors and six alternates."
Bromwich: "... some part of the afternoon will be devoted to a hearing known as a Sandoval hearing, in which the judge will determine what questions prosecutors could ask Trump in cross-examination were he to testify. It's an important hearing and will almost certainly inform whether the former president testifies.... The judge confirms there will be a Sandoval hearing at 3:15.... Prosecutors will seek permission to cross-examine Trump about lawsuits he's lost, women he&'s attacked and a judge who found him to have testified in a 'hollow and untrue' manner during his civil fraud trial last year."
Schweber: "Al Baker, a spokesman for the court system, says the trial schedule would not be affected by the man setting himself on fire [near the courthouse]." ~~~
~~~ Matthew Haag: "The pamphlets the man threw into the air before he lit himself on fire appeared to be published online before the incident. The documents espoused anti-government conspiracy theories as well as criticisms of New York University."
Bromwich: "And now the Sandoval hearing has begun.... Justice Merchan is not weighing in on the individual issues, merely letting the lawyers fight them out, then moving down the list prosecutors provided."
Bromwich: "Justice Merchan just read another judge's determination aloud, from a case in which Trump sued Hillary Clinton. That judge found that the lawsuit was 'completely frivolous, both factually and legally,' and 'was brought in bad faith for an improper purpose.' Justice Merchan reads another quote from the judge in that suit, in which he labeled Trump a 'sophisticated litigant who is repeatedly using the courts to seek revenge on political adversaries.' The judge said: 'He is the mastermind of strategic abuse of the judicial process, and he cannot be seen as a litigant blindly following the advice of a lawyer.' Justice Merchan sounds inclined to allow prosecutors to cross-examine Trump on this matter."
Haberman: "Justice Merchan is warning the defense not to keep blitzing the court with motions to reconsider matters that have been settled. The defense is literally targeting his decisions one by one, Merchan says: 'There comes a point where you accept my rulings.'"
Bromwich: "'You won't' delay the trial, the judge says sharply to the defense, as we seem close to wrapping up for the day."
McKinley: "'Sir, can you please have a seat?' the judge says to Trump, as he rises before court is adjourned."
Donald Trump Has Been Asking, "Are You Better Off Than You Were Four Years Ago?" Let's Check. Top News in the NYT, April 19, 2020: "Sloppy laboratory practices at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention caused contamination that rendered the nation's first coronavirus tests ineffective, federal officials confirmed on Saturday."
~~~~~~~~~~
Marie: I've had an extraordinary amount of trouble this morning, not the least of which was a bot (or person) who "wrote" dozens of fake comments in the middle of the night. I've deleted them, but I don't feel confident that this is the end of the mischief, which seems to come with every presidential election year. If the site breaks down, it's probably not because I broke down.
Maxine Joselow of the Washington Post: "Future oil and gas drilling will be limited across more than 13 million acres of the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska, the nation's largest expanse of public land, under a sweeping Biden administration plan aimed at protecting sensitive ecosystems and wildlife. The Interior Department's final rule represents one of President Biden's most significant steps to curb fossil fuel development on federal lands. It could help the president's reelection campaign court young voters, a key Democratic constituency, after many youth climate activists criticized the administration's approval of a massive drilling project on Alaska's North Slope last year. In a separate move, Interior announced Friday that it will block a controversial road crucial to operating a planned copper and zinc mine in northern Alaska, saying it would threaten Indigenous communities and fragment wildlife habitat. Together, the two decisions are aimed at safeguarding some of Alaska's last wild places from development."
Catie Edmondson of the New York Times: "House Republicans took a critical step late Thursday night toward bringing up the long-stalled foreign aid bill for Ukraine and Israel, after being forced to rely on Democratic votes to move a plan to consider it out of a key committee and onto the floor. The 9-to-3 vote in the critical Rules Committee was an early step in the convoluted process the House is expected to go through over the next couple of days to approve the $95 billion aid package. It reflected the extent of far-right anger over Speaker Mike Johnson's plan to push through the legislation over the opposition of ultraconservative Republicans, and underscored how heavily the speaker will have to rely on Democrats to push it across the finish line. In a spasm of anger, three far-right Republicans on the panel, which controls what legislation comes to the House floor, refused to back the rule needed to bring up the foreign aid bill, putting it on track to die in committee. But Democrats on the panel stepped in to save it in an extraordinary breach of custom." ~~~
~~~ Luckily, Miss Margie has come up with some amendments to these bills which will make them all better, not the least of which is -- wait for it -- one funding Jewish space lasers. Yes, really, Sarah Rumpf of Mediaite reports that MTG filed: "an amendment to the Israel funding bill that included 'such sums as necessary shall be used for the development of space laser technology on the southwest border.'... She also filed an amendment to the Ukraine bill that requires '[a]ny Member of Congress who votes in favor of this Act' to 'conscript in the Ukraine military.'... Rep. Jared Moskowitz (D-FL) reacted to Greene's latest amendments by tweeting that he had '[j]ust submitted an amendment ... appointing MTG as Putin's Special Envoy to the United States Congress.'" ~~~
~~~ AND Philip Bump of the Washington Post has some thoughts on MTG's Jewish space lasers amendment.
The Trials of Trump & the Trump Gang
Ben Protess, et al., of the New York Times: "At 4:34 p.m. on Thursday, a jury of 12 citizens was selected to determine the fate of an indicted former president for the first time in American history.... 'We have our jury,' Justice Juan M. Merchan proclaimed as the 12th juror was added.... The selection of the 12 capped a seesaw day in which the judge first excused two people who had been seated earlier in the week...." NPR's report is here.
David Bauder & Larry Neumeister of the AP: "The judge in Donald Trump's hush money trial ordered the media on Thursday not to report on where potential jurors have worked and to be careful about revealing information about those who will sit in judgment of the former president. Judge Juan Merchan acted after one juror was dismissed when she expressed concern about participating in the trial after details about her became publicly known.... On Fox News Channel Wednesday night, host Jesse Watters did a segment with a jury consultant, revealing details about people who had been seated on the jury and questioning whether some were 'stealth liberals' who would be out to convict Trump."
~~~ Marie: The AP reporters seem to have missed the significance of Watters' commentary. Merchan reluctantly dismissed the juror, saying she would have "been a very good juror." As Maggie Haberman wrote in the NYT's liveblog of yesterday's courtroom events, "[A prosecutor] notes that Trump posted on social media quoting Jesse Watters on Fox News appearing to attack the jurors, saying they were activists trying to get on the jury to harm Trump. He underscores that they are asking Justice Merchan to hold Trump 'in contempt.'" Both sides in the case are limited to ten peremptory challenges to jurors (and two 12 to alternates), and they were using them up fast. So Trump and Watters went around the restriction and frightened a juror into asking to be excused. That is, Trump & Watters bought Trump an extra peremptory strike. There would be a different jury today had Trump not intimidated a juror. Lock him up.
Yesterday, New York Times reporters ran a live-blog of courtroom developments as they happened. The liveblog is here. Yesterday's Conversation includes a number of the reporters' entries.
Alan Feuer of the New York Times: "A federal judge on Thursday rejected ... Donald J. Trump's attempt to delay a group of civil lawsuits that are seeking to hold him accountable for inspiring the violence at the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. Mr. Trump had sought to have the suits put on hold until after the completion of his federal criminal trial connected to many of the same events. But in a nine-page ruling, the judge, Amit P. Mehta, decided that the civil lawsuits could move forward without running the risk that Mr. Trump might damage his chances in the criminal case by revealing his defense strategy prematurely or making statements that prosecutors might use against him. Last month, when lawyers for Mr. Trump first asked Judge Mehta to postpone the civil cases, it was the latest example of the former president seeking to pit his multiple legal matters against one another in an effort to delay them." Politico's story is here.
Alan Feuer of the New York Times: "The federal judge overseeing ... Donald J. Trump's classified documents case on Thursday denied initial attempts by Mr. Trump's two co-defendants to have the charges against them dismissed. The ruling by the judge, Aileen M. Cannon, was the first time she had rejected dismissal motions by the two men, Walt Nauta and Carlos De Oliveira, both of whom work for Mr. Trump at Mar-a-Lago, his private club and residence in Florida.... Judge Cannon has still not reached a decision on several other dismissal motions filed by Mr. Trump and Mr. Nauta, and she has yet to set a new date for the trial, which was originally scheduled to begin next month but now seems unlikely to start before midsummer." ~~~
~~~ Marie: Another no-brainer. Obviously, the argument "I didn't know what was in the boxes" is meant to be made at trial, not in a pretrial motion.
Presidential Race
Adam Nagourney, et al., of the New York Times: "The elaborate rollout of a Kennedy family endorsement of President Biden on Thursday -- talk-show interviews, a campaign event with the president -- was the most powerful sign yet of rising concern in the Biden camp that Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s independent White House bid presents a serious threat to the president's re-election prospects. Members of this prominent Democratic family, including most of Mr. Kennedy's siblings, had already signaled their support for Mr. Biden. Mr. Kennedy's estrangement from much of his family had grown increasingly apparent over the years, as he became a leading spokesman against Covid vaccines and promoted conspiratorial theories about the 1968 assassination of his father, Robert F. Kennedy.... Democratic worries about Mr. Kennedy have grown as he has turned up his attacks on the president and worked to win ballot lines in critical battleground states. Michigan election officials announced on Thursday that he had secured a spot as a member of a little-known third party."
Trump Takes a Cut from Down-ballot Candidates. Alex Isenstadt of Politico: "In a letter received by Republican digital vendors this week, the Trump campaign is asking for down-ballot candidates who use his name, image and likeness in fundraising appeals to give at least 5 percent of the proceeds to the campaign." Extra credit for giving more than 5%! Thanks to Akhilleus for the link. See also his commentary in yesterday's thread. (Also linked yesterday.)
Tom Boggioni of the Raw Story: "Donors to Donald Trump's 2024 presidential campaign are not only helping to pay his massive legal bills as he faces an onslaught of criminal charges but they are also helping prop up his businesses at a time when he is facing financial difficulties. According to new campaign filings, reported ... by USA Today's Zac Anderson and Erin Mansfield, four checks written between February and March went to Trump's Mar-a-Lago and Trump National Doral Miami for nearly a half million dollars from his joint campaign committee.... This is not something new, as the report notes that 'the Trump campaign and affiliated political committees paid businesses owned by Trump at least $4.9 million since the start of 2023.... Most of that money -- $4.1 million -- went to TAG Air, Inc. for air travel. The report also added that 'Trump's various campaign committees and a super PAC controlled by his supporters also spent at least $809,000 at his properties since the beginning of last year.'" (Also linked yesterday.)
You Can't Make up This Stuff. Yvonne Sanchez of the Washington Post: “A top leader of the national conservative group Turning Point Action, which has amplified false claims of election fraud by ... Donald Trump and others, resigned Thursday after being accused of forging voter signatures on official paperwork so that he could run for reelection in the Arizona House. State Rep. Austin Smith (R) -- who was senior director at Turning Point Action, the campaign arm of Charlie Kirk's Turning Point USA -- was accused by a Democratic activist of submitting petition sheets with rows of voter names, addresses and signatures that 'bear a striking resemblance' to Smith's handwriting, according to a complaint. Smith 'personally circulated multiple petition sheets bearing what appear to be forged voter signatures,' the complaint said."
~~~~~~~~~~
Louisiana. Yes, Republicans Are Cruel, Sick SOBs. James Finn of the (New Orleans) Times-Picayune: "A Louisiana House committee voted Thursday to repeal a law requiring employers to give child workers lunch breaks and to cut unemployment benefits -- part of a push by Republicans to remove constraints on employers and reduce aid for injured and unemployed workers.... First-term state Rep. Roger Wilder, R-Denham Springs, who sponsored the child labor measure and owns Smoothie King franchises across the Deep South, said he filed the bill in part because children want to work without having to take lunch breaks." MB: Yeah, that's what I figured. Kids hate lunch.
~~~~~~~~~~
Israel/Palestine, et al.
The Washington Post's live updates of developments Friday in the Israel/Hamas war are here: "The Israeli military carried out a strike inside Iran in retaliation for a barrage of missiles and drones launched last weekend, an Israeli official said Friday. It was not clear what damage the apparently limited strike caused, but the official ... said it was intended to signal to Iran that Israel had the ability to strike inside the country. A second person familiar with an Israeli briefing on the attack ... said the strike was 'carefully calibrated.'... There was no damage to Iran's nuclear sites, including those in Isfahan, the International Atomic Energy Agency said Friday morning. Isfahan is the site of Iran's largest nuclear research complex; the area is home to a military base. Iranian state media said air defenses intercepted 'three small drones' in Isfahan province in central Iran." ~~~
~~~ CNN's live updates for Friday are here. The New York Times' live updates are here.
Yonette Joseph of the New York Times: "The United States blocked the U.N. Security Council on Thursday from moving forward on a Palestinian bid to be recognized as a full member state at the United Nations, quashing an effort by Palestinian allies to get the world body to back the effort. The vote was 12 in favor of the resolution and one -- the United States -- opposed, with abstentions from Britain and Switzerland."
Brett Murphy of ProPublica: "A special State Department panel recommended months ago that Secretary of State Antony Blinken disqualify multiple Israeli military and police units from receiving U.S. aid after reviewing allegations that they committed serious human rights abuses. But Blinken has failed to act on the proposal in the face of growing international criticism of the Israeli military's conduct in Gaza, according to current and former State Department officials. The incidents under review mostly took place in the West Bank and occurred before Hamas' Oct. 7 attack on Israel." Thanks to RAS for the link. (Also linked yesterday.)
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Reader Comments (17)
Again, with the Jewish space lasers!
Moscow Margie is obsessed with them. Now she wants to use Jewish space lasers to kill Mexicans coming across the border.
Do these fucking people have any ideas that don’t involve cruelty, and harm to others up to and including killing them?
She used to think that Jews used their space lasers to start forest fires in California. Now, apparently thinking what a cool idea that was, she can use the same trick to light up brown people.
It’s all they think about. “How can I kill people I hate?”
And not to be outdone…
One other malignant cancer growth on the body politic, otherwise known as Tom Cotton, has his own ideas about how to hurt people he doesn’t like.
In his eyes, anyone protesting the war in Gaza, if they get in his way, should have their skin ripped off or be thrown off a bridge. Especially if their protest pisses off or even slightly inconveniences anyone else.
Oh yeah, and he suggests that people not worry about bothering the police. Just get out the baseball bats and guns, or whatever else they have at hand, and go to work. “Cotton said he ‘would encourage most people anywhere that get stuck behind criminals like this who are trying to block traffic, to take matters in their own hands’ and solve the problem without involving police.”
Like ripping off their skin?
Who even thinks of shit like that? Ripping off their skin? These are some truly sick fucking people.
Tom Cotton evidently wants that ripped off human skin to enhance
his office's decor.
That's something he learned from the Nazis, who used human skin
to make lampshades for der fuerher, so I've heard.
I see in one of the links posted above, that good ol’ Charlie Kirk is at it again, or at least one of his pals. A guy working with Kirk’s abominable Turning Point thingie who screams about election fraud is himself an election fraudster.
Wow. What a surprise!
It seems like you can’t go very long without reading another report about some unconscionable scumbag who is directly connected with Charlie Kirk (himself the avatar of unconscionable scumbags). Last week, we saw a scam operation in Georgia which attempted to present Donald Trump as a “man of the people”, (*guffaw-guffaw*) beloved by black Americans. But oops! It was all a set up involving a woman named Michaelah Montgomery, who works for a political operation run by Kirk.
Which itself is pretty funny, considering what an unreconstructed racist prick he is. This is the same guy who a few months ago questioned whether blacks should be allowed to fly planes (Tuskegee Airmen?) and has been on the warpath against Martin Luther King saying that King’s place in American culture is based on “fake history”, and that the Civil Rights Act King supported destroyed the Constitution. He’s also asserted that he would never allow a black or lesbian surgeon to operate on him. Whadaguy.
This is also the same guy who not long ago went on the attack against LGBTQ people, calling them pedophiles, perverts, and, that ever popular winger obloquy, groomers. Last year, at a “Pastors Summit” (oooh, doesn’t “Pastors Summit” sound like a barrel of laughs?) run by Kirk, it came out that one of his sponsors was an actual (as opposed to made up) registered sex offender.
Kirk was instrumental in getting Fatty to boot Ronna McDaniel. But every time his name pops up, you can be sure there’s some nastiness buried just below the surface.
Liars, scammers, racists, sex offenders, religious bigots…and Donald Trump.
Show me who your friends are..
Forrest,
My first thought was “Eeew…Nazi lampshades…” but then I thought “Jesus, I think Forrest is right.”
It has also been reported that the Nazis experimented making soap
out of rendered Jewish fat.
That apparently didn't work out, since they starved them so there was
not much fat to render.
I'm surprised there was never a Trump Soap on the market.
Brandy Zadrozny
"A sheriff, a felon and a conspiracy theorist walk into a hotel. They're there for the same conference.
The Constitutional Sheriffs and Peace Officers Association is urging lawmen to form posses, seize voting machines and investigate baseless claims of voter fraud."
Senator Jon Ossoff takes Republicans to task on the border.
Trying not to be too alarmist at this early point (saving it for October), but that kook, RFK, Jr. getting on the ballot in Michigan is potentially very bad news.
Biden won Michigan in 2020 by 154,000 votes. But between Kennedy and Cornel West, and the ever present effort to remove Democrats from voter rolls, that margin could dwindle significantly.
Of course there’s also the danger of voter apathy to worry about as well, spurred on by indefatigable both-sides media coverage.
These ego driven, spoiler candidacies wouldn’t worry me as much if voters turned out in decent numbers (hell, I’d love to see 70% turnout, but I’ll take 60%) but that’s less likely with the constant media whining about “Not these two guys again!” and complaints about Biden’s age.
Stephen Robinson
"Trump’s covid response was even worse than you remember
In a sane country, it would disqualify him from ever again holding office."
Scott Lemieux and Washington Post
Columbia President Shafik received the message from Republicans loud and clear and wants to avoid what happened to her fellow female university presidents before her.
"More than 100 people protesting the war in Gaza were cleared off Columbia University’s campus, arrested and charged with trespassing on Thursday, a day after the university’s president testified before Congress as part of an investigation into antisemitism at colleges.
Students who participated in the encampment would be suspended, Shafik said in a letter to New York police."
"They’re not merely suspending students but kicking them out of their dorm rooms effective immediately"
At least they gave them fifteen minutes to pack everything up. It is a valuable lesson about peacefully protesting against the powerful. Ms. Shafik learned that lesson and she is now trying to impart it on the next generation of Columbia students. Knuckle under children, it is just easier for us all. And then no one needs to be skinned.
@RAS: I'd like to emphasize here that Columbia's response to Lady Fascista Stefanik is how democracy ends and autocracy prevails. It's not what Lady Fascista and her ilk try to take; it's what other institutions are willing to voluntarily give up.
The capitulation here is stunning. Columbia University is located in one of the most liberal towns in the U.S. in one of the more liberal states in the U.S. Moreover, that Columbia president* conceded academic freedom and free-speech rights to a party that (1) has a fucking two-vote majority (I think it may effectively be three, because one Democrat is in a coma) in the House, (2) is a minority in the Senate, and (3) lost the White House by 7 million votes in the last election. (Admittedly, they do own the highest court.)
I'm disgusted. I'll give Stefanik this: she has really exposed the bunch of feckless losers who theoretically run our major universities.
@Marie: Totally agree. Though the Ivies seem to produce a disproportionate percentage of the awful people helping to undermine democracy. Here's an opinion piece about this capitulation.
Moira Donegan at The Guardian
"The police raid against Columbia students that followed the next day can be seen as an extension of the policy of appeasement and preemptive compliance with the anti-Palestinian, anti-student Republican right that Shafik adopted in her testimony. In its war on education and ostentatious displays of grievance against “woke” universities, the far right has made itself hostile to academic freedom, peaceful protest and vast swaths of progressive speech. In her willingness to unleash state violence against student protestors, Shafik proved herself their willing ally. It is worth stating plainly what happened at Columbia: the raid was nothing less than the product of collusion between a university administration and rightwing politicians to suppress politically disfavored speech.
Not all of the congresspeople whom Shafik testified before on Wednesday were pleased with Columbia’s approach. Ilhan Omar, of Minnesota, grilled Shafik extensively on her administration’s approach to pro-Palestinian speech on campus, noting with alarm that several students had been suspended for their participation in peaceful demonstrations. “There has been a recent attack on the democratic rights of students across the country,” Omar told Shafik. The next day, Omar’s daughter, a student at Columbia’s Barnard College, was suspended from the school.
Universities, meanwhile, have putative value commitments – to things like free inquiry, open expression, equality and dignity among their students and the pursuit of justice – that are in fact wildly out of step with their real institutional incentives. Sneering attention from conservatives, after all, is not merely a tedious waste of time, though its certainly that; it is also a threat to universities’ relationships with the people whose interests shape their academic policies with more and more bald transparency: their donors.
Shafik wanted to disperse the accusations by Republicans that her university was too deferential to a progressive cause. And so, she sicced the cops on a bunch of kids. In doing so, she betrayed not only her students, but the values of the university itself."
Marie,
Quite right. Fascist and authoritarian thugs like Stefanik, and most of the MAGA crowd, have learned that instilling fear is their handiest weapon for getting what they want. They’ve also learned that it’s easiest to bully those who won’t take them on, those who aren’t prepared to fight for their rights, or those for whom hand to hand political combat to the death with screamers and liars who threaten to go after them, their jobs, and their families is not what they signed up for and aren’t really equipped to handle.
This is the classic bully playbook. And it works.
University and college presidents might do okay with the sort of infighting that goes on within academia, many, if not most, are former academics themselves. But tangling with prima donna department heads is not the same as going up against dirty street fighters whose only rule is to win at all costs.
Plus, in their role as university presidents, these people are primarily fund raisers and school figureheads. They spend most of their time worrying about budgets and keeping cranky donors happy. As such, they are inordinately sensitive to any complaints that might damage their ability to keep the money coming. Academic freedom, pursuit of learning, and creating an environment for the development of good citizens are down the list.
Likewise, the thugs go after other groups they see as easy targets. This is why you see Proud Boys showing up armed to the teeth at school board meetings to threaten and harass board members and parents who might not want to go along with their white supremacist, right wing demands.
We see now that at least 17 states are getting ready to pass (some already have) bills that will allow them to throw librarians in jail unless they kowtow to their book banning demands. Librarians didn’t sign up for this (although I do recall one older lady who ruled over the public library I visited regularly as a kid. She was a force of nature, but rather unusual for that profession).
Just today, a juror in Fatty’s trial who was threatened by Jesse Watters (not named directly, but with the information he gave out, her family and friends identified her right away) and, fearing that Trump would sic his mob on her, asked to be dismissed. She was already sworn in, but the mob got her scared.
This is how they work. It’s disgusting that a university president (at Columbia, no less!) knuckled under so quickly, but not surprising. I’m guessing had they ordered her to sign a loyalty oath and give the Hitler salute to Trump, she would have done it.
Meidas Touch is reporting that TFG is farting in the courtroom as he's falling asleep. (starts ~8 min.)
Been looking for an honest headline, but can't find "Columbia Caves" anywhere on the net.
Rep Bennie Thompson D-MS has filed a bill stripping Secret Service protection from an individual convicted of a felony with a sentence of one year or more.