Costs of Columbia Discontent

For John, BLUF:  as Dr Cynthia Watson says, actions create consequences.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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13 Federal Judges Say They Will No Longer Hire Law Clerks From Columbia University, Citing ‘Virulent Spread of Antisemitism’ and ‘Explosion of Student Disruptions’

From the Washington Free Beacon, by reporter Aaron Sibarium, 6 May 2024.

Here is the lede plus one:

Thirteen federal judges said Monday that they would no longer hire law clerks from Columbia College or Columbia Law School after the university allowed an encampment on its lawn to spiral into a destructive occupation of a campus building. The judges cited the "explosion of student disruptions" and the "virulent spread of antisemitism" at Columbia, which has now canceled its main graduation ceremony because of the unrest.

Led by appellate judges James Ho and Elizabeth Branch, who spearheaded a clerkship boycott of Yale Law School in 2022 and Stanford Law School in 2023, as well as by Matthew Solomson on the U.S Court of Federal Claims, the judges wrote in a letter to Columbia president Minouche Shafik that they would no longer hire "anyone who joins the Columbia University community—whether as undergraduates or as law students—beginning with the entering class of 2024."

"Freedom of speech protects protest, not trespass, and certainly not acts or threats of violence or terrorism," the judges wrote. "It has become clear that Columbia applies double standards when it comes to free speech and student misconduct."

Good.

Would that more Judges take this position, including our Justices on The Supreme Judicial Court.

Hat tip to the InstaPundit.

Regards  —  Cliff

Welcoming Immigrants

For John, BLUF:  The photo cut:  Lowell City Councilor Paul Ratha Yem chose items for his family’s Sunday dinner in the New Pailin Market, home to a thriving Cambodian community. The state recently announced that it is moving about 70 migrant and homeless families into the Lowell Inn and Conference Center..  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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Lowell is getting dozens of migrant families. Their struggles resonate with Cambodian community.

From Boston Globe, by Correspondent Daniel Kool, 26 April 2024, 5:50 a.m..

Here is the lede plus four:

Vanna Howard watched as Khmer Rouge militants captured her father in the late 1970s during the group’s reign of terror in Cambodia.  She watched as three of her younger siblings and her grandparents were lost to sickness and starvation in a genocide that killed more than 1.7 million people.

Now Howard, a state representative, and other Cambodians in Lowell are watching with empathetic eyes as dozens of new migrant families trickle into Lowell — the latest stop on a harrowing journey that took some through multiple countries in search of opportunity.  She said she sees reflections of her experience in the newest wave of migrants arriving in Massachusetts.

When Howard fled Cambodia, making her way to a refugee camp in Thailand, she walked for “weeks and weeks, similar to the folks who have been coming to our border” in the United States.

“We need to treat this matter with empathy, with compassion,” Howard said, her voice cracking with emotion. “Nobody wants to leave their home country.  The decision to leave their home country — it has to be so bad that you are willing to risk your life to flee."

The state announced last week that it would move nearly 70 migrant and homeless families from Bedford to the UMass Lowell Inn and Conference Center.  Many of those being relocated are Haitian migrants who fled a country consumed by gang violence.

The lead photo shows Lowell City Councillor Paul Ratha Yem, who was on City Life Show this last Friday.  Lowell is a City of immigrants.  I came here 30 years ago. I say to Councilor Yem that while he was born in Cambodia, like me he came here from the Southland (Southern California), where he lived in San Bernidino, and did work in Long Beach, where I did High School.

I am opposed to President Biden's Open borders policy.  For one thing, I don't understand his underlying objective.  He has not been able to articulate the value.  Further, he cannot explain what historians and social scientists know about the ability of this nation to absorb new immigrants and make them successful and proud Americans.

That said, those who are here are here and we, as Lowellians and as Citizens of our Commonwealth need to make these people feel welcome and we need to provide them shelter and food and work.  Even if they eventually return to the nation from which they came, while they are here, they are fellow human beings and we need to help them to do and live their best.  Lowell is a good place for that to happen, and for immigrants to learn, from us, the importancve of human rights and respect for those rights.

Regards  —  Cliff

Pleasantly Surprising Vote

For John, BLUF:  Amidst all the turmoil amongst the Ivy League schools, it turns out the students at Columbia elected an israeli Jew as Student Body President.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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Israeli student elected by Columbia for role of student president as protests surge

Here is the sub-headline:

The election comes as the Columbia campus experiences an overwhelming wave of anti-Israel protests and student encampments.

From The Jerusalam Post, by The Staff, 28 April 2024 06:47, Updated: 28 April 2024 08:45.

Here is the lede plus two:

Columbia University has elected Israeli student Maya Platek as Columbia student government president for the 2024-2025 school year, the organization Students Supporting Israel (SSI) announced Friday.

The election of an Israeli student for the role comes as the Columbia campus experiences an overwhelming wave of anti-Israel protests and encampments.

Platek has been determined to speak up for Jewish students on campus as a member of SSI, an organization that, according to its website, aims to allow for a pro-Israel voice on college campuses.

Law Professor Glenn Harlan Reynolds commented;  'SECRET BALLOTS ALLOW THE SILENT MAJORITY TO SPEAK".

I mentioned this to someone and used the term Australian Ballot.  They drew a blank.  However, Wikipedia recognized this term for the Secret Ballot  While the Secret ballot is as old as ancient Greece, in the United States it didn't start until after the Presidential Election of 1884 (Democrat Governor Grover Cleveland of New York vs Republican James G. Blaine of Maine),♠ with Kentucky being the last state to adopt it, in 1891.

Per Wikipedia the four components of an "Australian ballot" were:

1. an official ballot being printed at public expense,
2. on which the names of the nominated candidates of all parties and all proposals appear,
3. being distributed only at the polling place and
4. being marked in secret.

There are those of us who are dubious as to if a Secret Ballot can be sustained in an era of no excuse mail-in ballots and ballot harvesting.

Hat tip to the InstaPundit.

Regards  —  Cliff

♠  Wikipedia characterized the election as being "set apart by unpleasant mudslinging and shameful personal allegations that eclipsed substantive issues, such as civil administration change."

Flapping in the Breeze

For John, BLUF:  Do you ever feel your elected officials will sell you out if they find what seems like a larger patch of voters?  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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The Other Kind of Marxism

Here is the sub-headline:

If you don’t like a politician’s principles, there’s a good chance he has others.

From The Wall Street Journal, by Columnist Andy Kessler, 28 April 2024 at 11:51 am ET.

Here is the lede plus four:

Today’s politicians are steeped in Marxism.  Not Karl, but Groucho, who is supposed to have said:  “Those are my principles, and if you don’t like them . . . well, I have others.”

On Jan. 22, 2021, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said of Donald Trump’s second impeachment:  “Make no mistake, a trial will be held in the United States Senate and there will be a vote whether to convict the president.”  Fast forward to a week ago, when articles of impeachment were delivered to the Senate against Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas.  Mr. Schumer said:  “Impeachment Article 1 does not allege conduct that rises to the level of high crime or misdemeanor . . . and is therefore unconstitutional.”  No trial.  No vote.

This tossing of principles can be found everywhere.  In 2020 President Trump tried to ban social-media app TikTok over national-security concerns.  Now Mr. Trump is against a ban, writing last month on Truth Social:  “If you get rid of TikTok, Facebook and Zuckerschmuck will double their business.  I don’t want Facebook, who cheated in the last Election, doing better.”

In August 2020, Joe Biden told ABC’s David Muir, referring to Covid:  “I would shut it down.  I would listen to the scientists.”  By October 2020, Mr. Biden insisted, “I’m not going to shut down the country, I’m going to shut down the virus.”  Lockdowns continued.

Science!  Sadly, some scientists have prancing principles.  Anthony Fauci, then director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said in March 2020, “There’s no reason to be walking around with a mask.”  In October 2020, when CNBC’s Shepard Smith asked if we need a national mask mandate, Dr. Fauci quickly answered, “Yes, we do.”  The Washington Post and BuzzFeed, via a Freedom of Information Act request, found this February 2020 Dr. Fauci email:  “The typical mask you buy in the drug store is not really effective in keeping out virus, which is small enough to pass through material.”  In January 2023, the respected Cochrane Review agreed:  “Wearing masks in the community probably makes little or no difference.”

And on it goes.

I don't mind politicians "growing" in their understanding and ethics.  I dislike their way of being a windsocket and going with the breeze.

Hat tip to a Friend in Texas.

Regards  —  Cliff

A National Pubic Radio Network

For John, BLUF:  Sgt Mom pretty well covers the waterfront concerning National Public Radio.  It is off the rails.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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To the Great Surprise of Many…

From Chicago Boyz, by Sgt. Mom, 18 April 2024.

Here is the lede plus two:

… It turned out that there was one genuine, for real, professional old-line journalist still working at National Public Radio.  Was being the operative word, as business reporter Uri Berliner quit, after spectacularly blowing up any lingering pretense of the publicly financed institution being an impartial and unbiased news-gathering organization, reporting on news without fear, favor or partisanship.  Frankly, anyone claiming to be the teeniest bit rightish of center and believes that load of codswallop is likely too innocent to be let out in public without a dedicated keeper.  They probably believe every word in the NY Times, as well – although as Agent K of Men in Black observed – that publication stumbles into the truth on rare occasions.

Uri Berliner’s final report may yet blow apart NPR federal funding, both that which is direct, and that which is paid to them by local affiliates for the rights to air their various news, information and entertainment features.  The new CEO for NPR, one Katherine Maher, appears to be a singularly unappealing progressive apparatchik, a neurotic child of ruling-class privilege without a single shred of a background or experience in journalism … but all the right progressive opinions.  (I swear, I’d be a better fit for that job based on a DINFOS shake-n-bake course for print and broadcast journalism, followed by twenty years as a military public affairs specialist!)  I’d also swear that Katherine Maher was another generated parody like Titania McGrath, but alas – she’s all too horribly real.

I do wonder if this might be the final straw that breaks NPR.  For all their many awards, organizational self-regard, and incestuously close connections to the Washington power structure, they have also been hemorrhaging ordinary listeners in Flyoverlandia for years now.  I’m one of those once-listeners myself.  Heck, I even worked for years at the local affiliate here in San Antonio on a part-time – on the classical music side, though.  Every time I mentioned how I came to quit listening to NPR – a fair number of commenters chimed in with similar tales of disenchantment and outright disgust.  NPR used to make at least a pretense at being even-handed, the presence of that lugubrious old talking prune, Daniel Schorr notwithstanding – or Cokie Roberts, the daughter of two (count ’em!) longtime career Democrat Party politicians, Lindy and Hale Boggs.  NPR did more than the immediate sensational bleeding and leading coverage of news, and extended features … and then … and then, they seemed to have less and less to say to anyone who wasn’t a bicoastal progressive.  For me, the point came sometime between 9-11 then the election of Obama; definitely by the time of the rise of the Tea Party.  NPR looked at the Tea Party with the horrified interest of someone discovering a dead worm in their expensive mushroom vol-au-vent appetizer, before thumbing through their golden Rolodex of experts and demanding an explanation … instead of, you know – calling up any of the local Tea Party organizations and asking them.

Yes, I know.  Venturing into the hinterland and speaking to those bitter clingers would be asking to much.  Or hiring someone like Reporter Salena Zito.

I think Mr Uri Berliner was trying to save NPR.

Hat tip to the InstaPundit.

Regards  —  Cliff

College Protests Run Amok

For John, BLUF:  I am probably slow, but when in college I didn't have time to take off for protests.  I needed to be cracking the books, as we used to say.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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“This is an openly anti-American movement, which is using Israel as the scapegoat”

Here is the sub-headline:

“Academia, particularly at the level of Columbia and the Ivy League, is completely broken. I don’t think it can be repaired internally. They have created over 20 to 30 years a unified monoculture which is hostile to western values, which is hostile to capitalism, and which exploits and singles out Israel as the object of their ire as a mobilizing tactic…. People need to understand that there is no internal opposition left.”

From Legal Insurrection, by Professor William A. Jacobson, Tuesday, 23 April 2024 at 08:30pm.

Here is the lede plus three:

There is a plus-side to the vile anti-Israel and antisemitic encampments at Columbia and several other universities – the anti-American side of the movement is on full display.  As I’ve been saying for years, the racialized and radicalized campuses are a threat to our nation, now they have shown their hand for all to see.

When they burn American flags, and when they chant for the destruction of the U.S., they are showing us who they really are.

It’s going to get worse.

After spending months screaming for an Intifada (the suicide bombing campaign against Israel), don’t be surprised when some of them try to fulfill their sick fantasies.

I know a former Professor from Columbia and have had numberous conversations with him about various issues in the Middle East (his area of expertise).  I have never thought of him as radical or anti-semetic.  I learned, and at the same time I felt my views were respected.  But, he retired a decade ago.  There are, or at least, have been, intelligent, thinking adults in academia.  But, they seem absent today, and that is bad for our Republic.

The current state of the Ivy League and other elite schools makes me think the smart, informed, parent of a high school senior would consider two years at a community college and then a state university.  Or a known non-radical school, such as Franciscan University of Steubenville.

There is also the view of opinionnater Stephen Kruiser, "Let the Protesters Stay Until Academia Burns to the Ground."  As Professor Glenn Reynolds says from time to time, "what can't go on won't."

I defend the right of the college campus protesters to protest.  I do not condone their intimidating fellow college students, such that those students do not feel safe going to class.  I defend the right of the college campus protesters to be ignorant slobs.  I don't have to accept their uninformed views.

Hat tip to the InstaPundit.

Regards  —  Cliff

Supporters of Hamas

For John, BLUF:  As an American I am saddened by masses of college students exercising their First Amendment rights in support of Hamas, a terrorist organization.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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Columbia Protestors Clarify They Only Want Death To America After America Is Done Paying Their Student Loans

From BabylonBee, 23 April 2024.

Here is the lede plus two:

NEW YORK, NY — As pro-Palestine groups continued to gather on campus following the establishment of the Gaza Solidarity Encampment, Columbia University protestors clarified that they only want "Death to America" after America is done paying their student loans for them.

"Death to America… in like, 3 or 4 years when I graduate!" shouted one student protestor. "America truly is the ‘Great Satan' that ravages and oppresses other countries and deserves to be wiped off the face of the earth…as soon as the American taxpayers finish paying off our tuition loans!

"But as soon as that's done, then, yeah, totally, death to America!"

Over the top?  Maybe.  But, it is The Bee.

On the other hand, these student protestors are both ignorant and over the top.  They are an embarrassment to freedom loving people.  Further they seem oblivious to the attitudes of Hamas and like groups toward women and those who identify as LGBQT+.  Where are they getting their education on various societies around the world?

Finally, these demonstrators seem oblivious to the fail of those living in what is now Israel, Jews, Palestinians and Beduins alike.  Should they just die?  Should they all be "transported far beyond the northern sea!"  Likely, if there is not another Holocost, those people would end up in America.  While I would be sad to see the demise of Israel, I would be happy to welcome those 9.9 million new Citizens to our melting pot.

Hat tip to the InstaPundit.

Regards  —  Cliff