Science Shopping: Seattle Socialists Commission New Minimum-Wage Study After Dismissing Unfavorable Results of First One
Posted: June 29, 2017 Filed under: Economics, Health and Social Issues, Mediasphere, Politics, U.S. News | Tags: Barack Obama, Berkeley, Economic Policy Institute, Institute for Research on Labor and Employment, Kshama Sawant, Marxism, Michael Reich, Minimum wage, National Bureau of Economic Research, Seattle, Seattle City Counci, Socialism, Union for Radical Political Economics, University of California, University of Washington, Wealth redistribution 1 Comment
City officials stopped funding the UW team when they didn’t like the results.
Dan Springer reports: When a University of Washington study came out this week showing Seattle’s minimum wage has cost 5,000 jobs and is hurting low income workers, city leaders attacked the messenger –- a team of respected economists at Washington’s premiere public university.
The researchers, led by Jacob Vigdor, were hired by the city in 2014 to study the effects of Seattle’s $15 wage experiment. The contract called for five years of research. City officials stopped funding the UW team when they didn’t like the results.
“The moment we saw it was based on flawed methodology and was going to be unreliable, the Vigdor study no longer speaks for City Hall,” said Seattle City Councilwoman Kshama Sawant.
Sawant, a former economics professor at Seattle Central Community College who ran for office as a Socialist, accused the UW team of “ideologically editorializing.” She and Mayor Ed Murray then contacted Michael Reich, an economics professor at the University of California at Berkeley.
Reich is currently co-chair of the Institute for Research on Labor and Employment. Before earning his PhD in economics from Harvard, Reich was a founding member of the Union for Radical Political Economics (URPE), a group seeking a “human-centered radical alternative to capitalism,” according to its website.
Reich has authored several studies on the effects of raising the minimum wage. They all concluded that increasing the minimum wage only helps low-skilled workers.
As soon as Seattle politicians knew the University of Washington study found raising Seattle’s minimum wage from $11 to $13 an hour led to a 9-percent cut in hours worked and an average of $125 less earned each month, they commissioned Reich to do his own study and then criticized UW’s research.
According to emails obtained by Fox News, Reich was given a deadline by Murray. His work was to be completed just before the University of Washington team announced its results. Vigdor, the director of the study, shared with city council staffers the preliminary results of the research and provided a timeline for when it would be made public. Read the rest of this entry »
‘If you’re a lawyer arguing against free speech at the Supreme Court, be prepared to lose’
Posted: June 19, 2017 Filed under: Law & Justice, U.S. News | Tags: Berkeley, David French, First Amendment to the United States Constitution, Freedom of Expression, Freedom of speech, Lawsuit, Liberty, National Review, SCOTUS, Ted Wheeler, United States, University of California Leave a comment
Free Speech Wins (Again) at the Supreme Court
David French writes:
… Given existing First Amendment jurisprudence, there would have been a constitutional earthquake if SCOTUS hadn’t ruled for Tam. The Court has long held that the Constitution protects all but the narrowest categories of speech. Yet time and again, governments (including colleges) have tried to regulate “offensive” speech. Time and again, SCOTUS has defended free expression. Today was no exception. Writing for a unanimous Court, Justice Alito noted that the Patent and Trademark Office was essentially arguing that “the Government has an interest in preventing speech expressing ideas that offend.” His response was decisive:
[A]s we have explained, that idea strikes at the heart of the First Amendment. Speech that demeans on the basis of race, ethnicity, gender, religion, age, disability, or any other similar ground is hateful; but the proudest boast of our free speech jurisprudence is that we protect the freedom to express “the thought that we hate.”
Quick, someone alert the snowflakes shouting down speeches on campus or rushing stages in New York. There is no constitutional exception for so-called “hate speech.”
Indeed, governments are under an obligation to protect controversial expression. Every justice agrees. The ruling is worth celebrating, but when law and culture diverge, culture tends to win. The law protects free speech as strongly as it ever has. The culture, however … (read more)
Source: National Review
In two First Amendment rulings released this week, the justices argue they’re saving would-be censors from themselves.
Matt Ford reports: The U.S. Supreme Court handed down two notable victories for free-speech advocates on Monday as it nears the end of its current term. The two First Amendment cases came to the Court from starkly different circumstances, but the justices emphasized a similar theme in both rulings: Beware what the free-speech restrictions of today could be used to justify tomorrow.
In the first case, Matal v. Tam, the Court sided with an Asian-American rock band in Oregon named The Slants in a dispute with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. The PTO had denied band member Simon Tam’s application to register the group’s name as a trademark, citing a provision in federal law that prohibits the office from recognizing those that “disparage” or “bring … into contempt or disrepute” any “persons, living or dead.” Read the rest of this entry »
NYT Op-Ed: Free Speech ‘Parameters’ Must Be Redrawn To Protect The ‘Marginalized’
Posted: April 24, 2017 Filed under: Censorship, Crime & Corruption, Education, Law & Justice, Mediasphere | Tags: Ann Coulter, Berkeley, Breitbart News, Charles Murray (political scientist), College Republicans, Donald Trump, Freedom of speech, Milo Yiannopoulos, Sproul Plaza, University of California Leave a comment
Amber Randall reports: A New York Times op-ed argues for a new understanding of free speech that takes into account the experiences of the more marginalized in society.
Ulrich Baer, the author and a New York University professor, writes Monday in favor of students who protest talks on campuses from more conservative voices like political scientist Charles Murray and provocateur Milo Yiannopoulos. These students, unlike “liberal free-speech advocates,” understand that a more complex definition of free speech is needed, Baer argues.
“Universities invited speakers not chiefly to present otherwise unavailable discoveries but to present to the public views they have presented elsewhere. When those views invalidate the humanity of some people, they restrict speech as a public good,” Baer writes. Read the rest of this entry »
Michael Barone: Looking for Fascism in America? Look Left, on Campus
Posted: March 7, 2017 Filed under: Education, History, Terrorism, Think Tank | Tags: Alexandria, American Conservative Union, Berkeley, Breitbart News, Broad Institute, Campus, CRISPR, Jennifer Doudna, Liberal Fascism, Marxism, Milo Yiannopoulos, Radical Left, University, University of California, Violence, Virginia, Weimar Republic, White House Leave a comment
Michael Barone
writes: Something like that is happening now — but the violence is coming from leftists, not Trumpists. Take the University of California, Berkeley, [long pause] please. That’s where a speech to the Young Republicans by rightist provocateur Milo Yiannopoulos was shut down by a screaming mob on February 1, as this eyewitness account from Power Line’s Steven Hayward records. Not only was the speech shut down, but gangs of ski-masked and bandana-wearing protesters roamed the streets just off campus with sledgehammers, smashing ATM machines. In one instance, Hayward reports, a 62-year-old Republican who voted for Hillary Clinton held up a sign reading “1st Amendment Protects All Speech” and, on the obverse side, “Even Milo’s” was punched in the nose and dropped to the ground.
Where were the police? Not in a position to help—by design. In this “lethal, horror situation,” said University of 
California Berkeley campus police chief Margo Bennett, according to the Los Angeles Times. “We have to do exactly what we did last night: to show tremendous restraint.”
[Order Jonah Goldberg’s book “Liberal Fascism: The Secret History of the American Left, From Mussolini to the Politics of Meaning” from Amazon]
They made just one arrest. As for City of Berkeley police, according to the San Francisco Chronicle they came equipped with riot gear, but “as the violence escalated, officers pulled back.” Police on a balcony ordered rioters to disperse, but made no move to stop them, supposedly to prevent injury to “innocent protesters and bystanders.” City police made no arrests. “Our primary objective with the resources we had was the protection of life.” Read the rest of this entry »
What Explains CPAC’s Dance with Milo Yiannopoulos?
Posted: February 21, 2017 Filed under: Mediasphere, Politics, Think Tank | Tags: 1960s Berkeley protests, 9/11 Truth movement, Alex Jones (radio host), American Conservative Union, American Enterprise Institute, Antisemitism, Berkeley, Breitbart News, Donald Trump, Jews, Jonah Goldberg, Milo Yiannopoulos, MSNBC, National Review, President of the United States, United States, University of California, White House Leave a comment
‘The enemy of my enemy is my ally’
Human monkey behavior is often an under-explored element in articles about group dynamics in politics. That’s why we’re pleased to find National Review‘s Jonah Goldberg liberally including quotations from evolutionary psychologist John Tooby. This is from Jonah’s weekly column in the LATimes:
Jonah Goldberg
writes:
…From the outset, many on the right who do not consider themselves part of the Cult of Milo opposed his invitation. The disturbing thing is that, absent these videos, we would have lost the fight.
“John Tooby, the evolutionary psychologist, recently wrote that if he could explain one scientific concept to the public it would be the ‘coalitional instinct.’ In our natural habitat, to be alone was to be vulnerable. If ‘you had no coalition, you were nakedly at the mercy of everyone else, so the instinct to belong to a coalition has urgency, pre-existing and superseding any policy-driven basis for membership … This is why group beliefs are free to be so weird’.”
Even now, Schlapp defends the initial decision to invite Yiannopoulis. On Monday’s ”Morning Joe,” he insisted: “The fact is, he’s got a voice that a lot of young people listen to.” A lot of young conservative people, he should have added, precisely because he enrages so many young liberals.
“If ‘you had no coalition, you were nakedly at the mercy of everyone else, so the instinct to belong to a coalition has urgency, pre-existing and superseding any policy-driven basis for membership,’ Tooby wrote on Edge.org. ‘This is why group beliefs are free to be so weird.’”
And that’s part of the problem. We are in a particularly tribal moment in American politics in which “the 
enemy of my enemy is my ally” is the most powerful argument around.
[Check out John Tooby’s book “The Adapted Mind: Evolutionary Psychology and the Generation of Culture“ at Amazon.com]
John Tooby, the evolutionary psychologist, recently wrote that if he could explain one scientific concept to the public it would be the “coalitional instinct.” In our natural habitat, to be alone was to be vulnerable. If “you had no coalition, you were nakedly at the mercy of everyone else, so the instinct to belong to a coalition has urgency, pre-existing and superseding any policy-driven basis for membership,” Tooby wrote on Edge.org. “This is why group beliefs are free to be so weird.”
[read the full story here, at LA Times]
We overlook the hypocrisies and shortcomings within our coalition out of a desire to protect ourselves from our enemies.
Today, the right sees the left as enemies — and, I should say, vice versa. Read the rest of this entry »
Simon & Schuster Cancels Milo Yiannopoulos Book Publication; Milo Disinvited From CPAC
Posted: February 20, 2017 Filed under: Breaking News, Mediasphere, Politics, Reading Room | Tags: Barack Obama, Berkeley, Black Lives Matter, Books, Breitbart News, Buzzfeed, Donald Trump, Facebook, Milo Yiannopoulos, Protest, publishing, Simon & Schuster, Threshold Editions, Twitter, University of California Leave a comment
Simon & Schuster’s Adam Rothberg announced that the company and its Threshold Editions division would be canceling its publication of Yiannopoulos’ book, ‘Dangerous.’ It was due for release on June 13.
UPDATED: Controversial far-right figure Milo Yiannopoulos has been disinvited from speaking at the Conservative Political Action Conference, it was announced on Monday.
The decision comes amid a controversy involving a video from January 2016, in which Yiannopoulos appears to defend pedophilia. It resurfaced after it was recently shared on a conservative blog, and has gained traction and backlash over the past week.
Statement: After careful consideration @simonschuster and its @threshold_books have cancelled publication of Dangerous by Milo Yiannopoulos
— (((Adam Rothberg))) (@AdamRothberg) February 20, 2017
“We realize that Mr. Yiannopoulos has responded on Facebook, but it is insufficient,” American Conservative Union Chairman Matt said in a statement. “It is up to him to answer the tough questions and we urge him to immediately further address these disturbing comments.”
In the video, a 2016 episode of podcast “The Drunken Peasants,” Yiannopoulos discussed his own experience with sexual assault as a teenager. Read the rest of this entry »
[VIDEO] Super-Serious Cuckoo Bananas Berkeley Riots Backer Proud of Labeling Opponents ‘Fascists’ to Justify Totalitarian Rhetoric & Anti-Free Speech Violence
Posted: February 13, 2017 Filed under: Censorship, Crime & Corruption, Education, Mediasphere, Politics | Tags: Academia, Activism, Anti-Free Speech, Berkeley, Breitbart News, Donald Trump, Fox News, Freedom of speech, Marxism, Milo Yiannopoulos, Protest, Regressive Left, Riots, Socialism, Tucker Carlson, University of California Leave a comment
Tucker takes on national organizer for BAMN, which was one of the biggest supporters of the protests of Breitbart editor Milo Yiannopoulos‘s campus speech.
[VIDEO] Flemming Rose Against the Worldwide Suppression of Speech
Posted: February 10, 2017 Filed under: Censorship, Education, Health and Social Issues, Law & Justice, Mediasphere, Politics, Think Tank | Tags: American Booksellers Association, Amnesty International, Berkeley, Breitbart News, First Amendment, Flemming Rose, Free speech, Free Speech Movement, Freedom of speech, Jyllands-Posten Muhammad cartoons controversy, Milo Yiannopoulos, Reason, Reason (magazine), Reason.tv, University of California, University of Oregon, video Leave a comment
Flemming Rose isn’t going to watch the decline of free speech without a fight. In 2005, while an editor at the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten, Rose commissioned twelve cartoons about Muhammad in order to overcome self-censorship. Extremists responded to the cartoons with attacks on western embassies and riots, resulting in the deaths of over 200 people.
Reason is the planet’s leading source of news, politics, and culture from a libertarian perspective. Go to reason.com for a point of view you won’t get from legacy media and old left-right opinion magazines.
Now Rose has written The Tyranny of Silence, a defense of his decision to publish the cartoons and a guide to unfettered expression in the 21st century. “I’m not willing to sacrifice freedom of expression on the altar of cultural diversity,” he says. Read the rest of this entry »
Blac-Bloc Brownshirt Anti-Free Speech Window-Smashing Riot ‘Stunningly Successful’
Posted: February 8, 2017 Filed under: Education, Health and Social Issues, Mediasphere, Politics, Terrorism | Tags: Anarchists, Anti-fascism, Anticapitalists, Berkeley, Black bloc, Breitbart News, Campus police, College Republicans, Communists, Donald Trump, First Amendment, Free Speech Movement, Freedom of speech, Marxism, Marxists, Milo Yiannopoulos, Protest, Radical Left, Riots, United States Constitution, University of California Leave a comment
An estimated 150 black bloc anarchists attacked police with rocks and fireworks and used barricades to smash windows at the student union Feb. 1, forcing the cancellation of Yiannopoulos’ appearance.
Organizers of the anti-Milo Yiannopoulos demonstration last week at UC Berkeley that ended in $100,000 worth of window-breaking chaos declared it a “stunningly successful” protest — one they’ll happily repeat if the right-wing provocateur tries to return to campus.
“We are happy with the results,” said UC Berkeley Law School alumnus Ronald Cruz of the group By Any Means 
Necessary, or BAMN. “We were able to meet Mr. Yiannopoulos’ fascist message with massive resistance.”
An estimated 150 “black bloc” anarchists attacked police with rocks and fireworks and used barricades to smash windows at the student union Feb. 1, forcing the cancellation of Yiannopoulos’ appearance.
“We are not affiliated with them, but were united in shutting down the Milo event,” Cruz said.
“Everyone played a part,” he said. “Some engaged in breaking windows — others held signs and made sure that the fascists and the police did not attack anyone.
“This was self-defense,” Cruz said. “Windows can be replaced. People can’t be.”
Protesters may have a chance to do it again… (read more)
The Left Hates You. Act Accordingly
Posted: February 6, 2017 Filed under: Censorship, Crime & Corruption, History, Mediasphere, Politics, Terrorism | Tags: Al Gore, Anti-fascism, Berkeley, Breitbart News, Donald Trump, Donald Trump presidential campaign, Hate, Hillary Clinton, Left Wing, Leonardo DiCaprio, Make America Great Again, Marxists, Milo Yiannopoulos, Progressives, Secularists, Socialism, United States, University of California 1 Comment
They hate you.
Kurt Schlichter writes: Leftists don’t merely disagree with you. They don’t merely feel you are misguided. They don’t think you are merely wrong. They hate you. They want you enslaved and obedient, if not dead. Once you get that, everything that is happening now will make sense. And you will understand what you need to be ready to do.
“You are normal, and therefore a heretic. You refuse to bow to their idols, to subscribe to their twisted catechisms, to praise their false gods. This is unforgivable. You must burn.”
You are normal, and therefore a heretic. You refuse to bow to their idols, to subscribe to their twisted catechisms, to praise their false gods. This is unforgivable. You must burn.
“Crazy talk? Just ask them. Go ahead. Go on social media. Find a leftist – it’s easy. Just say something positive about America or Jesus and they’ll come swarming like locusts.”
Crazy talk? Just ask them. Go ahead. Go on social media. Find a leftist – it’s easy. Just say something positive about America or Jesus and they’ll come swarming like locusts. Engage them and very quickly they will drop their masks and tell you what they really think. I know. I keep a rapidly expanding file of Twitter leftist death wish screenshots.
They will tell you that Christians are idiots and vets are scum.
That normals are subhumans whose role is to labor as serfs to subsidize the progressive elite and its clients.
“They are fanatics, and by not surrendering, by not kneeling, and by not obeying, you have committed an unpardonable sin. You have defied the Left, and you must be broken. They will take your job, slander your name, even beat or kill you – whatever it takes to break you and terrify others by making you an example.”
That you should die to make way for the New Progressive Man/Woman/Other.
Understand that when they call Donald Trump “illegitimate,” what they are really saying is that our desire to govern ourselves is illegitimate. Their beef isn’t with him – it’s with us, the normal people who dared rise up and demand their right to participate in the rule of this country and this culture.
“The Left won’t say it out loud – at least not yet – but make no mistake. If violence is what it takes for the Left to prevail, then violence we will have. You saw it, and you were meant to. Berkeley was a message about the price of dissent where leftist hold sway. And they seek to hold sway everywhere.”
They hate you, because by defying them you have prevented them from living up to the dictates of their false religion. Our rebelliousness has denied them the state of grace they seek, exercising their divine right to dictate every aspect of our puny lives. Their sick faith gives meaning to these secular weirdos, giving them something that fills their empty lives with a messianic fervor to go out and conquer and convert the heathens.
And the heathens are us.
Oh, there are different leftist sects. There are the social justice warriors who have manufactured a bizarre mythology and scripture of oppression, privilege, and intersectionality. Instead of robes, they dress up as genitals and kill babies as a blasphemous sacrament.
“They hate you, because by defying them you have prevented them from living up to the dictates of their false religion. Our rebelliousness has denied them the state of grace they seek, exercising their divine right to dictate every aspect of our puny lives.”
Then there are the pagan weather religion oddballs convinced that the end is near and that we must repent by turning in our SUVs. Of course, the “we” is really “us” – high priests of the global warming cult like Leonardo DiCaprio will still jet around the world with supermodels while we do the ritual sacrificing of our modern comforts.
“How to we respond? The first step is to end the denial.”
Then there are the ones who simply worship themselves, the elitists who believe that all wisdom and morality has been invested in them merely because they went to the right college, think the right thoughts, and sneer at anyone living between I-5 and I-95.
“You wonder why they ignore the rule of law, why they could switch on a dime from screaming at Trump for refusing to preemptively legitimize a Hillary win and then scream that he is illegitimate the moment she lost? Because their only principle is what helps the left win today. That’s why the media gleefully, happily lies every single day about every single thing it reports.”
But all the leftist sects agree – they have found the revealed truth, and imposing it upon the benighted normals like us is so transcendently important that they are relieved of any moral limitations. They are ISIS, except with hashtags instead of AKs, committed to the establishment of a leftist caliphate. Read the rest of this entry »
Powerful: Protester Writes ‘Tolerance’ On Face Of Man He Just Beat Unconscious
Posted: February 2, 2017 Filed under: Entertainment, Humor, Mediasphere | Tags: Berkeley, Breitbart News, Donald Trump, Freedom of speech, Milo Yiannopoulos, Parody, Protest, Republican Party (United States), San Francisco Bay Area, San Francisco Chronicle, satire, University of California Leave a comment
BERKELEY, CA—A protest at UC Berkeley turned violent Wednesday night into Thursday morning as hundreds of rioters set fires, assaulted people, damaged vehicles, and smashed storefronts. But in the midst of all the chaos: an inspirational moment. After beating a man unconscious for disagreeing with him, a masked protester pulled out a black marker and […] Read the rest of this entry »
Liberal Fascism Author Jonah Goldberg: ‘UC-Berkeley Should Be Ashamed of Itself’
Posted: February 2, 2017 Filed under: Education, Mediasphere, Politics, U.S. News | Tags: 2016, Berkeley, Breitbart News, Conservative, Donald Trump presidential campaign, Fascism, Freedom of speech, Jonah Goldberg, Liberal Fascism, Milo Yiannopoulos, Republican Party (United States), Riots, UC Berkeley, University of California, video, Violence Leave a comment
“I wrote a book called ‘Liberal Fascism’ about a decade ago, and even then the best working definition of a Fascist in America is ‘a conservative who’s winning an argument’. The way the Left operates, they just try to shout down anyone who disagrees with them, these campuses are little, sort of soft-Totalitarian states where disagreements is actually a heresy.”
“By all means, Milo has a right to speak, he has free speech rights, they should have let him speak, the far smarter strategy would be to ignore these things, but the clampdown on free speech that’s more troubling is when they block people like Condoleeza Rice from being able to give a speech. The whole point to protecting outrageous speech is that it keeps the zone of speech for reasonable important speech safer, the way they do this kind of stuff is so counterproductive, it feeds into the worse impulses on both the right and the left, and Berkeley, and the administration of Berkeley should be ashamed of itself.”
[Order Jonah Goldberg’s book “Liberal Fascism: The Secret History of the American Left, From Mussolini to the Politics of Meaning” from Amazon]
[And Jonah’s other popular book, The Tyranny of Cliches, also available at Amazon]
[NEW – Berkeley’s Shame – NR Editors]
[Also see – [VIDEO] Jonah Goldberg with Bill Kristol: Trump’s Candidacy, Conservative Exile, and ‘Liberal Fascism’ Revisited]
[More – Charles Murray: The Trouble Isn’t Liberals. It’s Progressives]
[More – Populism Is Not Fascism]
[VIDEO] MSNBC’s Hallie Jackson Calls Milo a ‘Flame-Thrower’ Despite Protesters’ Fires
Posted: February 2, 2017 Filed under: Breaking News, Education, Mediasphere, Politics, U.S. News | Tags: Breitbart News, College Republicans, Davis, Donald Trump, Freedom of speech, hate speech, Hillary Clinton, Milo Yiannopoulos, Protest, Simon & Schuster, Twitter, University of California Leave a comment
MSNBC reporter Hallie Jackson ironically referred to Breitbart editor Milo Yiannopoulos as a “flame-thrower” on Thursday while scenes played out of people at California-Berkeley literally setting fires the night before in protest of him speaking on their campus.
“Jackson’s use of the term ‘flame-thrower’ was humorous given that Yiannopoulos was not the one who actually caused parts of campus to go up in flames.”
“This protest developed overnight out at Berkeley because Milo Yiannopoulos, sort-of noted troll, sort-of flame thrower if you will, was set to speak,” Jackson said, as images showed of the chaos. Read the rest of this entry »
Censorship Wins Again—and So Does Milo
Posted: February 1, 2017 Filed under: Breaking News, Mediasphere, Think Tank | Tags: Anarchists, Anti-Fascists, Berkeley, breitbart, California, College Republicans, Facebook, Free Speech Movement, Milo Yiannopoulos, Protest, Riot, San Francisco, San Francisco Bay Area, San Francisco Chronicle, Socialism, Tolerance, Twitter, University of California 1 Comment
UC-Berkeley Protesters Set Campus on Fire, Shut Down Milo Yiannopoulos Event
Robby Soave writes: Berkeley is burning tonight: the university campus that birthed the Free Speech Movement played host to a despicable display of violence and censorship Wednesday evening that culminated in the cancellation of a planned speech by controversial Breitbart tech editor Milo Yiannopoulos.
Anti-Yiannopoulos protesters wearing black scarves over their faces hurled fireworks at the building where the alt-right leader was supposed to speak. They also tore down barricades and smashed windows. They used gasoline to start a significant fire on the street that threatened to engulf a nearby tree, and forced police to push people back.
“This is what tolerance looks like at UC Berkeley.”
— Mike Wright
Authority figures deployed rubber bullets and tear gas in an attempt to control the situation. A student who attended the event told me that it seemed like the majority of the violent protesters were not students, but older, masked rioters from the “antifa” movement.
A protester runs back after smashing windows during a protest against right-wing troll Milo Yiannopoulos who was scheduled to speak at UC Berkeley on Wednesday, Feb. 1, 2017. (Doig Duran/Bay Area News Group)
[Read the full story here, at Reason.com]
“This is what tolerance looks like at UC Berkeley,” said Mike Wright, a member of the Berkeley College Republican group that invited Yiannopoulos to speak. Shortly after he made this statement, smoke bombs were set off around him, and someone threw red paint at him, according to The San Francisco Chronicle.
Yiannopoulos released the following statement on Facebook:
I have been evacuated from the UC Berkeley campus after violent left-wing protestors tore down barricades, lit fires, threw rocks and Roman candles at the windows and breached the ground floor of the building. My team and I are safe. But the event has been cancelled. I’ll let you know more when the facts become clear. One thing we do know for sure: the Left is absolutely terrified of free speech and will do literally anything to shut it down.
As I write this, at 10:00 p.m., the violence and chaos are ongoing. Yiannopoulos was forced to evacuate the campus. Read the rest of this entry »
[VIDEO] Protesters Start Fire Over Breitbart Editor Speech; UPDATE: Milo Responds
Posted: February 1, 2017 Filed under: Breaking News, Education, Mediasphere, Politics, U.S. News | Tags: American Civil Liberties Union, Berkeley, Breitbart News, College Republicans, Donald Trump, Facebook, Left Wing, Martin Shkreli, Milo Yiannopoulos, Protesters, Riot, Twitter, University of California Leave a comment
Rioters break windows, set fire to force cancellation of Breitbart editor’s UC-Berkeley talk
A planned talk at the University of California-Berkeley by polarizing Breitbart News editor Milo Yiannopoulos was canceled Wednesday evening after protesters threw smoke bombs and flares at the student union building where he was scheduled to speak.
SHOCK VIDEO: Man Beaten Unconscious at UC Berkeley Riot – https://t.co/DIErDAZ8VG pic.twitter.com/WSrZYCLPwh
— Breaking911 (@Breaking911) February 2, 2017
“Violent left-wing protesters stormed the building and forced me to be evacuated by police and by my security detail,” Yiannopoulos told Fox News‘ Tucker Carlson in a phone interview from an undisclosed location.
There were no immediate reports of any injuries or arrests.
Yiannopoulos, 32, is a vocal supporter of President Donald Trump and a self-proclaimed internet troll whose comments have been criticized as racist, misogynist, anti-Muslim and white supremacist.
The decision to cancel was made two hours before the start of the event because a crowd of more than 1,500 people had gathered outside the venue, the university said in a statement.
“We condemn in the strongest possible terms the violence and unlawful behavior that was on display, and deeply regret that those tactics will now overshadow the efforts to engage in legitimate and lawful protest against the performer’s presence and perspectives,” the statement read, in part.
Hundreds of peaceful demonstrators carrying signs that read “Hate Speech Is Not Free Speech” had been protesting for hours before the event.
BREAKING: Driver Runs Down #Milo Rioters Near UC Berkeley pic.twitter.com/aUNSN1WXp0
— Breaking911 (@Breaking911) February 2, 2017
In the evening, a small group dressed in black broke windows, threw smoke bombs and flares, and set a large bonfire outside the building. Some members of that group were wearing hooded sweatshirts.
The demonstrators were met by tight security in the form of law enforcement armed in riot gear. Some rioters broke windows and lit fireworks, while others pulled away the metal barricades in front of the building.
A shelter in place order was in effect and the Cal campus was placed on lockdown. Read the rest of this entry »
[VIDEO] MILOMAGEDDON: Protests Against Breitbart Editor at Berkeley Turns Into Riot
Posted: February 1, 2017 Filed under: Breaking News, Health and Social Issues, Mediasphere, Politics | Tags: Anarchists, Breitbart News, College Republicans, Davis, Facebook, Left Wing, Martin Shkreli, Milo Yiannopoulos, Protest, Riot, San Francisco Bay Area, San Francisco Chronicle, Twitter, University of California Leave a comment
Berkeley 1964 v Berkeley 2017. pic.twitter.com/2Qz6j9nxz1
— Stephen Miller (@redsteeze) February 2, 2017
BREAKING: Milo is now the 2nd most flaming thing on UC Berkeley‘s campus. pic.twitter.com/FuTt9q2nG0
— The Swog Blog (@hunterswogg) February 2, 2017
If you really want to crush Milo, or anyone in the audience-building business, ignore him. He prays day and night for drama like this.
— Kevin D. Williamson (@KevinNR) February 2, 2017
The Breitbart News editor was set to deliver a speech inside a UC Berkeley campus building but hundreds of protesters began throwing fireworks and pulling down the metal barricades police set up to keep people from rushing into the building. Windows were smashed and fires were set outside the building as masked protesters stormed it.
The Berkeley Police Department said people threw bricks, smoking objects, and fireworks at police officers. University police locked down all buildings and ordered a shelter in place, and later fired rubber pellets into the crowd of protesters who defied orders to leave the area.
#BREAKING: UC Berkeley planned event by @Breitbart editor #MiloYiannopoulos is canceled after protest turns violent pic.twitter.com/KsTPQ2yfNG
— Kris Cruz (@rc_kris) February 2, 2017
Protests against alt-right speaker Milo move off UC Berkeley campus and into the streets. pic.twitter.com/c8CKFszmPJ
— Shane Bauer (@shane_bauer) February 2, 2017
“This is what tolerance looks like at UC Berkeley,” said Mike Wright, a Berkeley College Republican member said as smoke bombs went off around him. Someone threw red paint on him. “It’s sad.”
Protesters argued that hate speech isn’t free speech, countering the university’s explanation — free speech — on why it had allowed the event to proceed even as students demanded that the university cancel it.
Yiannopoulos was invited to speak at the campus by the Berkeley College Republicans, a student group that was warned Tuesday by university officials that the event could result in the targeting of undocumented students. Yiannopoulos, an editor for the right-wing Breitbart News website, was expected to use the event in Berkeley to kick off a campaign against “sanctuary campuses” that have vowed to protect undocumented students as President Trump cracks down on illegal immigration.
Here’s a UC Berkeley ‘Antifa’ rioter attacking a female #Trump supporter, then beating a man with a flag-pole… pic.twitter.com/yWWmjXgXTW
— John Binder 👽 (@JxhnBinder) February 2, 2017
Police now on the second floor balcony shooting pellets (tear gas, I think) into the crowd. Chants of “fuck the police.” pic.twitter.com/rIoUu3f5np
— Michael Bodley (@michael_bodley) February 2, 2017
Violence at UC Berkeley by antifa. This is not a protest #miloatcal pic.twitter.com/7tGd8q0ZTd
— Lukas Mikelionis (@LukasMikelionis) February 2, 2017
Event that was to feature a speech by alt-right figure Milo Yiannopoulos canceled amid protest on UC Berkeley campus https://t.co/MtKh0vdfdo pic.twitter.com/habG0p2PiM
— ABC News (@ABC) February 2, 2017
Violent protests force cancellation of speech by Breitbart’s Milo Yiannopoulos at UC Berkeley https://t.co/1tqDvEWfVc pic.twitter.com/dWGOF5I3Dx
— USA TODAY Multimedia (@usatodayvideo) February 2, 2017
Three lines of zip-tied metal fencing separated the crowd of protesters from campus police officers who had secured the building where Yiannopoulos was supposed to speak at 7 p.m. He had arrived earlier, escorted by security, and police said he had left the building after the protests erupted. Read the rest of this entry »
Poll: 74 Percent of Californians Want to End Sanctuary Cities
Posted: January 23, 2017 Filed under: Health and Social Issues, Mediasphere, Politics, U.S. News | Tags: Barack Obama, Berkeley, Boulder, College Republicans, Colorado, Donald Trump, Illegal immigration, Presidency of Barack Obama, San Francisco, Sanctuary city, Shooting of Kathryn Steinle, Texas, U.S.Immigration and Customs Enforcement, United States, University of California 1 Comment
Roughly 74 percent of California residents want to see an end to sanctuary city policies, according to a poll by UC Berkeley. Read the rest of this entry »
UPDATE: Violence Punctuates UW Talk by Breitbart Editor Milo Yiannopoulos
Posted: January 20, 2017 Filed under: Censorship, Crime & Corruption, Entertainment, Mediasphere, Politics, U.S. News | Tags: Beitbart News, Breitbart News, College Republicans, Democrats, Donald Trump, Facebook, GOP, Left Wing Violence, Marxism, Milo Yiannopoulos, Progressivism, Protest, Socialism, Twitter, University of California, University of Washington, UW Leave a comment
Katherine Long and Lynn Thompson report: One man was shot and wounded, several people were hit with paint and officers avoided flying bricks outside the University of Washington’s Kane Hall on Friday night, where Breitbart News editor and provocateur Milo Yiannopoulos addressed a crowd on President Trump’s Inauguration Day.
A chaotic confrontation between ticket-holders and protesters started early in the evening in Red Square with shouts and fights. Authorities reported a man in the crowd had been shot in the abdomen. Medics took him to Harborview Medical Center with potentially life-threatening injuries, the Seattle Fire Department said.
Yiannopoulos, who came at the invitation of the university’s student College Republicans club, briefly left the stage to confirm the shooting. Minutes later, he returned, saying, “If we don’t continue, they have won.” The crowd cheered.
The event was free but was sold out by reservation. His talk, which mocked liberals to big laughs and was greeted with a standing ovation, began just after 8 p.m.
Once the speech ended, police told the audience to remove their pro-Trump hats and other gear before leaving the lecture hall. Officers escorted the crowd out through an underground parking garage as a crowd of about 250 people remained outside the building.
Gayle Hammersley, a UW student, stood with friends in the middle of Red Square holding a sign that displayed her
opposition to the speech. “We’re not OK with fascism and racism,” she said. “I don’t think this should be allowed.”
Jimmy Michalee came up from Auburn with friends to hear the speech. He was wearing a red “Make America Great Again” hat, but he said he was a libertarian, and voted for Gary Johnson. He said he didn’t agree with the crowd’s tactics to try to shut down the speech, and believed everyone had a right to speak his or her mind.
[Read the full story here, at The Seattle Times]
Ava Meier, a Pierce College student, called Yiannopoulos “the most fabulous villain on the internet.”
“We’re so politically correct, he’s a breath of fresh air,” she said.
The provocative far-right editor’s controversial tweets resulted in his being banned for life from using Twitter.
People began lining up for the speech late in the afternoon. The crowd began clashing about two hours later, when a group of people dressed in black showed up and forced its way to the front of the line. One man waved a black-and-red anti-fascist flag, and another shouted to the people in line: “Go back to Bellevue, rich kids!”
“White power,” one side shouted.
“Nazi scum,” the other side responded.
Some officers wore riot gear and carried batons. Crowds outside started throwing bricks and other items at officers, and several people were hit with blue paint.
Mara Kage, a University of Washington student from Brazil, held a sign with the word “respect” on it. She said Yiannopoulos, like Trump, was inciting hateful speech. Read the rest of this entry »
Man Shot Outside Milo Yiannopoulos Event at University of Washington
Posted: January 20, 2017 Filed under: Breaking News, Censorship, Crime & Corruption, Mediasphere, U.S. News | Tags: Agitators, Breitbart News, California, College Republicans, Left Wing, Marxism, Milo Yiannopoulos, Progressivism, propaganda, Protest, Red Square, Socialism, The University of Washington, Twitter, University of California, Violence Leave a comment
Left Wing Violence Erupts at UW’s Red Square
SEATTLE — A man was shot at a University of Washington protest in the campus’ Red Square outside an event with controversial Brietbart News editor Milo Yiannopoulos, CBS affiliate KIRO reports.
Seattle Fire Department said that the man has possible life threatening injuries.
“Adult male transported to HMC with possible life threatening injury from a gun shot wound. Pt transported from area near Spokane Ln NE”
— Seattle Fire Dept (@SeattleFire) January 21, 2017
The University of Washington College Republicans invited Yiannopoulos to speak on Friday. People have been waiting outside for the event since around 5 p.m.
Report from @KIRO7Seattle on the shooting at the protest of Milo Yiannopoulos’ speech at the University of Washington. pic.twitter.com/gerLD7cEaI
— Nick Jacob (@nicktjacob) January 21, 2017
Protesters showed up on campus around 6 p.m. and began clashing with police….(more)
MT @GabeCohenKOMO: This high school sr says he was just beaten by protestors outside @Uw Milo Yiannopoulos event. pic.twitter.com/zpPEYhI2OH
— Walk Toward The Fire (@RichardRSmithJr) January 21, 2017
KIRO7 reports:
…An online petition asked UW president Ana Mari Cauce to ban Yiannopoulos from the event.
“Please make the right choice President Ana Mari Cauce and stand up for student safety and tolerance on campus. Please stand with us – your students, faculty, staff, workers, and community members in opposing this hatred from being spread on our campus,” the petition said.
The group behind the petition said that Yiannopoulos’ visit would violate the university’s student conduct official censorship code. They specifically pointed to the following section:
Discriminatory harassment. Official Censorship policy: “Discriminatory harassment” (censored speech) is language or conduct directed at a person because of the person’s race, color, creed, religion, national origin, citizenship, sex, age, pregnancy, marital status, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, disability, or veteran status that is unwelcome and sufficiently severe, persistent, or pervasive such that it could reasonably be expected to create an intimidating, hostile, or offensive environment, or has the purpose or effect of unreasonably interfering with a person’s academic or work performance, or the person’s ability to participate in or benefit from the university’s programs, services, opportunities, or activities.
Protesters threw rocks, fireworks, and other items at officers. They blocked the entrance to Kane Hall, but Yiannopoulos’ speech still started around 8 p.m.
“Seattle officers at the park had confiscated wooden poles, heavy pipes and hammers.”
A KIRO chopper caught video of bike officers rushing to a crowd of people at 8:30 p.m. Moments later they started responding to a man on the ground.
UW alert went out to students, telling them to stay out of the area. Read the rest of this entry »
CT Scan of 1,000-Year-Old Buddha Statue Reveals Mummified Monk Hidden Inside
Posted: November 13, 2016 Filed under: Art & Culture, Asia, History, Science & Technology | Tags: Beth Shapiro, CT scan, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Hot Springs, Lion, LiveScience, Mammoth Site, New York City, Santa Cruz, Society of Vertebrate Paleontology, University of California, Uyandina River Leave a comment
What looks like a traditional statue of Buddha dating back to the 11th or 12th century was recently revealed to be quite a bit more. A CT scan and endoscopy carried out by the Netherlands-based Drents Museum at the…(read more)
Source: Colossal
Records Show Obama Hired Behavioral Experts to Expand Use of Govt. Programs
Posted: September 9, 2016 Filed under: Censorship, Crime & Corruption, Politics, Science & Technology, White House | Tags: Artificial Intelligence, Berkeley, Boston, John Holdren, Midas, Milind Tambe, NASA, Office of Science and Technology Policy, Presidency of Barack Obama, Social work, University of California 1 Comment
Information about this absurd behavioral team remains sketchy because the administration, which claims to be the most transparent in history, withheld nearly 100 pages of records that could have shed light on the taxpayer-funded group’s secret operations.
The Obama administration quietly hired 20 social and behavioral research experts to help expand the use of government programs at dozens of agencies by, among other things, simplifying federal forms, according to records obtained by Judicial Watch. The controversial group of experts is collectively known as the Social and Behavioral Sciences Team (SBST) and it functions under the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP).
In 2015 Obama signed an executive order directing federal agencies to use behavioral science to sell their programs to the public, the records obtained by Judicial Watch reveal. By then the government had contracted “20 leading social and behavioral research experts” that at that point had already been involved in “more than 75 agency collaborations,” the records state. A memo sent from SBST chair Maya Shankar, a neuroscientist, to OSTP Director John Holdren offers agencies guidance and information about available government support for using behavioral insights to improve federal forms. Sent electronically, the memo is titled “Behavioral Science Insights and Federal Forms.”
The records, obtained from the OSTP under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), also include a delivery by Holdren in which he insists that the social and behavioral sciences “are real science, with immensely valuable practical applications—the views of a few members of Congress to the contrary notwithstanding—and that these sciences abundantly warrant continuing support in the Federal science and technology budget.” Holdren, a Stanford and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology graduate is a peculiar character who worked as an environmental professor at Harvard and the University of California Berkeley before becoming Obama’s science advisor. In the late 70s he co-authored a book with doomsayer Paul Ehrlich advocating for mandatory sterilization of the American people and forced abortions in order to depopulate the country. A head of the OSTP Holdren technically oversees the SBST.
Information about this absurd behavioral team remains sketchy because the administration, which claims to be the most transparent in history, withheld nearly 100 pages of records that could have shed light on the taxpayer-funded group’s secret operations. The Obama administration cited an exemption—officially known as B5—that applies to deliberative process, which allows government officials to discuss policy without the discussions being made public, or attorney client privilege. In this case it appears that the administration used the deliberative process exemption to withhold the records since it’s unlikely that attorney client privilege applies. B5 is the most abused of the FOIA exemptions and is regularly used to hide material that may embarrass the government. Read the rest of this entry »
Powerful NSA Hacking Tools Have Been Revealed Online: ‘Keys to the Kingdom’
Posted: August 16, 2016 Filed under: Breaking News, Crime & Corruption, Science & Technology, Self Defense, War Room | Tags: Apple Inc, Asunción, Berkeley, California, Cloud computing, Hack, Hacker, Internet, Internet service provider, NSA, The Washington Post, University of California 1 Comment
Strings of code were released to the Internet by a group calling themselves ‘the Shadow Brokers’. They claim the code is a tool that can be used to hack into any computer.
The cache mysteriously surfaced over the weekend and appears to be legitimate.
Ellen Nakashima reports: Some of the most powerful espionage tools created by the National Security Agency’s elite group of hackers have been revealed in recent days, a development that could pose severe consequences for the spy agency’s operations and the security of government and corporate computers.
“Faking this information would be monumentally difficult, there is just such a sheer volume of meaningful stuff. Much of this code should never leave the NSA.”
— Nicholas Weaver, a computer security researcher at the University of California at Berkeley
A cache of hacking tools with code names such as Epicbanana, Buzzdirection and Egregiousblunder appeared mysteriously online over the weekend, setting the security world abuzz with speculation over whether the material was legitimate.
The file appeared to be real, according to former NSA personnel who worked in the agency’s hacking division, known as Tailored Access Operations (TAO).
[Read the full story here, at The Washington Post]
“Without a doubt, they’re the keys to the kingdom,” said one former TAO employee, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive internal operations. “The stuff you’re talking about would undermine the security of a lot of major government and corporate networks both here and abroad.”
Said a second former TAO hacker who saw the file: “From what I saw, there was no doubt in my mind that it was legitimate.”
“Without a doubt, they’re the keys to the kingdom. The stuff you’re talking about would undermine the security of a lot of major government and corporate networks both here and abroad.”
Strings of code were released to the Internet by a group calling themselves “the Shadow Brokers”. They claim the code is a tool that can be used to hack into any computer.
The file contained 300 megabytes of information, including several “exploits,” or tools for taking control of firewalls in order to control a network, and a number of implants that might, for instance, exfiltrate or modify information.
The exploits are not run-of-the-mill tools to target everyday individuals. They are expensive software used to take over firewalls, such as Cisco and Fortinet, that are used “in the largest and most critical commercial, educational and government agencies around the world,” said Blake Darche, another former TAO operator and now head of security research at Area 1 Security.
The software apparently dates back to 2013 and appears to have been taken then, experts said, citing file creation dates, among other things.
“The tools were posted by a group calling itself the Shadow Brokers using file-sharing sites such as BitTorrent and DropBox.”
“What’s clear is that these are highly sophisticated and authentic hacking tools,” said Oren Falkowitz, chief executive of Area 1 Security and another former TAO employee.
Several of the exploits were pieces of computer code that took advantage of “zero-day” or previously unknown flaws or vulnerabilities in firewalls, which appear to be unfixed to this day, said one of the former hackers.
The disclosure of the file means that at least one other party — possibly another country’s spy agency — has had access to the same hacking tools used by the NSA and could deploy them against organizations that are using vulnerable routers and firewalls. It might also see what the NSA is targeting and spying on. And now that the tools are public, as long as the flaws remain unpatched, other hackers can take advantage of them, too.
“The disclosure of the file means that at least one other party — possibly another country’s spy agency — has had access to the same hacking tools used by the NSA and could deploy them against organizations that are using vulnerable routers and firewalls. It might also see what the NSA is targeting and spying on. And now that the tools are public, as long as the flaws remain unpatched, other hackers can take advantage of them, too.”
The NSA did not respond to requests for comment.
“Faking this information would be monumentally difficult, there is just such a sheer volume of meaningful stuff,” Nicholas Weaver, a computer security researcher at the University of California at Berkeley, said in an interview. “Much of this code should never leave the NSA.”
The tools were posted by a group calling itself the Shadow Brokers using file-sharing sites such as BitTorrent and DropBox. Read the rest of this entry »
Capitalism is the Great Anti-Pollutant
Posted: April 26, 2016 Filed under: Economics, Global, History, Think Tank | Tags: Air Pollution, Bacteria, Capitalism, Disease, Economic planning, Environment, Free Markets, Health, Indoor air quality, Industrial Revolution, Life expectancy, Pollution, Sick building syndrome, University of California, University of Surrey Leave a comment
Contrary to popular myth, the environment over the past 200 years has become less polluted and toxic for humans.
In July 1924, Calvin Coolidge Jr., the Presdient’s 16-year-old son, died of an infection from a toe blister he got playing tennis on the White House lawn. The bacteria that took young Calvin’s life is staphylococcus aureus, known as “staph.” …
Were health-care products such as antibiotics, antibacterial ointments, and inexpensive clean and disposable bandages available 92 years ago, Calvin Coolidge Jr., would have escaped the bacterial pollution that killed him. Factories and vehicles used to produce and distribute these items use energy, and dispense waste. But capitalist production and consumption are not destroying a pristine Eden. Instead, capitalist production and consumption are replacing more immediate and more lethal forms of environmental pollution for less immediate and less lethal forms.
We denizens of modern market economies are today largely free not only of the filth of lethal staph infections, but also of other up-close and dangerous pollutants that our ancestors routinely endured, or died of. We sleep, in sturdy buildings, on beds that rest on hard floors beneath hard roofs. Our pre-industrial ancestors did not. Save for the tiny fraction of people in the nobility and clergy, nearly everyone slept in flimsy huts on dirt floors beneath thatched roofs. (Sometimes these dirt floors would be strewn with hay, thresh, to make them less unpleasant.)
Not only were thresh-strewn dirt floors obvious sources of regular up-close pollution of a sort that is unknown to a typical first-world person today, thatched roof themselves were ferments of filth. They kept out rain and cold less effectively than our modern dwellings. Worse, they were home to rats, mice, birds, spiders, hornets, and other animals, which would drop their own wastes onto the huts’ inhabitants. They were also highly flammable.
Of course these pre-industrial huts contained no running water or indoor plumbing. Daily bathing and other routines of personal hygiene that we moderns take for granted were largely unknown to most before the industrial revolution.
For heat in the winter families would bring farm animals into the huts, especially at night. To shield themselves from the droppings of these farm animals, each of these families would cut a trench in the floor across the width their hut. They’d sleep on the side of the trench opposite where the animals slept. Unfortunately, the trench did little to protect the family from whatever insects the animals brought into the huts with them. Read the rest of this entry »
University of California Considering Recognizing a ‘Right’ to Be ‘Free From…Expressions of Intolerance’
Posted: September 12, 2015 Filed under: Education, Law & Justice, Politics, Think Tank | Tags: Academic freedom, California, Eugene Volokh, hate speech, Kentucky, Kim Davis, Progressivism, propaganda, Regents of the University of California, Socialism, Stalinism, The Washington Post, UCLA School of Law, University of California 1 Comment
Eugene Volokh: “Depicting or articulating a view of people with disabilities (both visible and invisible) as incapable”? Why, that’s “Intolerance” that “has no place at the University of California.” This is a university, not a place to discuss views we dislike!
Source: The Washington Post
IGS Poll: What Do The Majority Of Californians Think About Sanctuary City Policies?
Posted: September 4, 2015 Filed under: Law & Justice, Politics | Tags: African American, Archipelago, Barbed wire, Berkeley, California, Illegal immigration, Immigration, Institute of Governmental Studies, University of California 2 Comments
A majority of Californians are opposed to ‘sanctuary city’ policies in which local jurisdictions ignore federal immigration detainer requests, according to a new poll from the Institute of Governmental Studies at the University of California, Berkeley.
Caroline May reports: The poll, released Friday, reveals that opposition to local officials ignoring federal immigration requests runs high in The Golden State and cuts across ideological and ethnic lines.
“We found very broad-based opposition to the idea of sanctuary cities. Californians want their local officials to abide by the requests of federal authorities.”
— IGS Director Jack Citrin, a political science professor at UC-Berkeley, in a statement
According to the online survey of 1,098 California residents, 74 percent said “local authorities should not be able to ignore these federal requests,” and just 26 percent said authorities should be able to ignore such requests.
“As for individual ethnic groups, 65 percent of Latinos said they opposed sanctuary policies. Seventy-five percent of Asians, 75 percent of African Americans and 80 percent of whites agreed.”
Republicans were the most opposed to sanctuary policies with 82 percent saying local officials should not be allowed to ignore detainers. A majority of Democrats and independents were also opposed — 73 percent and 71 percent, respectively. Read the rest of this entry »
Parents Dedicate New College Safe Space In Honor Of Daughter Who Felt Weird In Class Once
Posted: July 16, 2015 Filed under: Censorship, Education, Entertainment, Humor | Tags: Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990, Dedication, George Washington University, Posttraumatic stress disorder, Rutgers University, Santa Barbara, satire, Student, The New Republic, University of California Leave a comment
Alexis Stigmore had to endure 40 harrowing minutes of class in a distressed state, forced to look at the world through the eyes of a set of people she disagreed with. Now there is a safe space dedicated in her honor.
LYNNFIELD, MA—In an effort to provide sanctuary for Lynnfield College students exposed to perspectives different from their own, a new campus safe space was dedicated Wednesday in honor of Alexis Stigmore, a 2009 graduate who felt kind of weird in class one time.
“When our Alexis felt weird after hearing someone discuss an idea that did not conform to her personally held beliefs, she had no place to turn.”
Addressing students at the dedication ceremony, parents Arnold and Cassie Stigmore noted that while the college had adequate facilities to assist victims of discrimination, abuse, and post-traumatic stress, it had until now offered no comparable safe space for students, like their beloved daughter, who encounter an academic viewpoint that gives them an uncomfortable feeling.
“If unfamiliar thoughts are ever provoked in your mind, or in the mind of someone you know, you can come to this place and feel safe again.”
“When our Alexis felt weird after hearing someone discuss an idea that did not conform to her personally held beliefs, she had no place to turn,” said Arnold Stigmore, standing outside the $2 million space that reportedly features soothing music, neutral-colored walls, oversized floor cushions, fun board games, and a variety of snacks. “God forbid any of you, in your years at this institution, are ever confronted with an opinion you do not share. But if you are, you will have a refuge on this campus.”
“As a parent, I’ll always wish I could have been there for her in that lecture hall, protecting her from those unwelcome concepts.”
“If unfamiliar thoughts are ever provoked in your mind, or in the mind of someone you know, you can come to this place and feel safe again,” he added. Read the rest of this entry »
OH YES THEY DID: Science Magazine Retracts Study on Voters’ Gay-Rights Views
Posted: May 28, 2015 Filed under: Health and Social Issues, Mediasphere, Science & Technology | Tags: Berkeley, Columbia University, fraud, Gay, Gay Rights, List of science magazines, Marcia McNutt, New York City, Peer review, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, University of California 1 Comment
NEW YORK — Science magazine has formally retracted an article about a study gauging the ability of openly gay canvassers to shift voters’ views toward support for same-sex marriage.
One of the authors of the article, Columbia University political science professor Donald Green, requested the retraction on May 19, saying co-author Michael LaCour had been unable to produce the raw data underlying the study….(more)
Study had claimed that a brief discussion with a gay canvasser could make a voter more likely to support gay marriage.
For Science magazine,
Amid a tidal wave of criticism, Science is retracting a study of how canvassers can sway people’s opinions about gay marriage published just 5 months ago. The retraction comes without the agreement of the paper’s lead author, Michael J. LaCour, a political science Ph.D. student at the University of California (UC), Los Angeles. LaCour’s attorney has told Science that LaCour made false claims about some aspects of the study, according to the retraction statement, including misrepresenting his funding sources and the incentives that he offered to survey participants.
“In addition to these known problems, independent researchers have noted certain statistical irregularities in the responses,” Science Editor-in-Chief Marcia McNutt wrote in the retraction statement. “LaCour has not produced the original survey data from which someone else could independently confirm the validity of the reported findings.”
McNutt wrote: “The reasons for retracting the paper are as follows: (i) Survey incentives were misrepresented. To encourage participation in the survey, respondents were claimed to have been given cash payments to enroll, to refer family and friends, and to complete multiple surveys. In correspondence received from Michael J. LaCour’s attorney, he confirmed that no such payments were made. (ii) The statement on sponsorship was false. Read the rest of this entry »
Are Conservatives a Little Paranoid? The Obama Administration has ‘Richly Earned Citizens’ Distrust’, says David French
Posted: May 11, 2015 Filed under: Censorship, Think Tank, War Room, White House | Tags: 9/11, Al Gore, Berkeley, Bush Administration, Conspiracy, Coup, Dissent, George W. Bush, Global warming, Hillary Clinton, IRS, Mark Halperin, Misconduct, Paranoia, Pope, Sedevacantism, University of California Leave a comment
No, the Obama administration isn’t going to invade Texas
David French writes:
…Let’s not forget that more than half of Democrat voters thought it was “very” or “somewhat” likely that the Bush administration either “assisted in the 9/11 attacks or took no action to stop the attacks because they wanted the United States to go to war in the Middle East.” Let that sink in: 
For all the elite’s disdain of allegedly gullible conservatives, a majority of the Left believed that an American president was complicit in mass murder.
[Disagreement as Mental Illness]
[Cultural Conservatives Have Barely Begun to Fight]
[The P.C. Thought Police Aren’t Fragile; They’re Vengeful and Malicious]
But extreme paranoia wasn’t limited to the Democratic rank and file. As National Review’s own Rich Lowry pointed out, Naomi Wolf (former campaign consultant to Bill Clinton and Al Gore) actually wrote a book explaining how the Bush administration was mirroring the early actions of dictatorships like those in Germany, Russia, and China. Harper’s Magazine published breathless stories about a barely averted Bush administration “coup” or “military dictatorship.” Even as recently as 2013, the National Journal published an article claiming that military officers were considering “staging a coup” against President Obama — the basis for the claim was a series of statements by a retired 
general who specifically declared that no coup was being contemplated.
[Democrats Push to Criminalize Dissent]
[The Burdens of Thought Policing]
In this atmosphere of earned distrust, it is appropriate for elected officials to ask questions about even benign and well-meaning military exercises. No, the Obama administration isn’t going to invade Texas or Utah. Yes, there are some bottom-dwelling, opportunistic conspiracy-mongers who’ve done their best to whip up public concern. Read the rest of this entry »
[VIDEO] Bill Maher Forces Liberals To Eat Their Own Vomit: ‘Islamophobia Kills?’
Posted: January 17, 2015 Filed under: Mediasphere, Politics, War Room | Tags: Berkeley, Bill Maher, Charlie Hebdo, Freedom of speech, Freedom of the press, HBO, Islam, Islamism, Jihadism, media, Real Time with Bill Maher, Rush Limbaugh, Sony, Terrorism, University of California Leave a commentIn the final segment of Friday’s edition of HBO’s Real Time, host Bill Maher took aim at those who oppose free speech, especially taking liberals to task for the “Islamophobia kills” campaign and being against “bullying” when it’s convenient.
“Yeah, liberals hate bullying alright but they’re not opposed to using it when they causally throw out words like bigot and racist.”
“It does cower people into avoiding this debate. And if you’re doing that, you don’t get to wear the “Je suis Charlie” button; the button you wear is ‘Je suis party of the problem.’ And that goes for everybody,” he added.
Some are willing to have an open debate. Others are too delicate, fragile, prefer to join movement that advocates unplugging their opponent’s microphone, so they won’t risk being “offended” by forbidden points of view
[BONUS: The pro-censorship website crooksandliars.com disapproves of Maher’s defense of free speech with this thumb-sucking, pouting, infantile headline: Maher’s New Rule: Limbaugh Can Say Whatever He Wants, You Little People Can Just STFU]
Maher criticized Catholic League president Bill Donahue for blaming the publisher of Charlie Hebo for not understanding “the role he played in his tragic death. Maher says that’s essentially blaming a woman for rape because she was wearing clothes that were too provocative.
“Free speech only works if there are no waivers. No waivers. Including for religion.”
— Bill Maher
Next, Maher slammed frequent guest of the show Glenn Greenwald for saying anti-Muslim speech is a “vital driver” for the occupation of Muslim countries and killing the innocent.
“Really? Newspaper cartoons did all that? Wait until they get to the horoscopes and the crossword.”
“It reminds me of one of those protest signs that I saw up in Berkeley last month; it said: ‘Islamophobia kills.’ Does it? The phobia kills? Or maybe it’s more the AK-47s, and the beheadings, and the planes into buildings,” Maher responded.
There it is.This Just about sums up our #FreeSpeechRally today & the Muslim counter protest. RSVP FB #standforfreedom pic.twitter.com/nELTozlr9L
— Pamela Geller (@PamelaGeller) January 17, 2015
“…Ironically you’re not even a proper liberal because you don’t get free speech. You’re just a baby who can’t stand to live in a world where you hear things that upset you. Oh, you’re not alone.”
Maher even defended Rush Limbaugh from campaigns in recent years to boycott him and get companies to pull their advertisements from his show. Read the rest of this entry »
Free Speech’s Shrinking Circle of Friends
Posted: December 30, 2014 Filed under: Global, Law & Justice, Mediasphere, Politics, Think Tank | Tags: Appellate court, Berkeley, Center for Constitutional Rights, Commencement speech, Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, Jan Brewer, Supreme Court of the United States, United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, United States district court, University of California 1 Comment
Liberals and even some conservatives embrace the ‘heckler’s veto’ threat to the First Amendment
Barry A. Fisher writes: An essential freedom-of-speech paradigm was established in 1949 by the Supreme Court in Terminiello v. Chicago. In that case a vitriolic, racist speaker spoke to an auditorium packed with supporters. Outside the auditorium was what was described as “ ‘a surging, howling mob hurling epithets’ at those who would enter and ‘tried to tear their clothes off.’ ” The police blamed the mob’s action on the speaker, Arthur Terminiello, a Catholic priest under suspension by his bishop. He was convicted of disturbing the peace and fined.
“University of Chicago law professor Harry Kalven Jr. would later coin the term “heckler’s veto” to describe what would have happened had the court decided otherwise. First Amendment rights could be “vetoed” by others who create a public disturbance that forces the silencing of the speaker.”
The Supreme Court, in a 5-4 decision, reversed the conviction and ruled that Terminiello’s speech was protected by the First Amendment. The court said that the police, instead of taking action against the speaker, should have protected him and controlled the crowd, including making arrests if necessary. University of Chicago law professor Harry Kalven Jr. would later coin the term “heckler’s veto” to describe what would have happened had the court decided otherwise. First Amendment rights could be “vetoed” by others who create a public disturbance that forces the silencing of the speaker.
Sony ’s recent crisis over the film “The Interview”—along with the domestic political correctness and anti-hate speech movements, various international agreements and globalization itself—is leading the country precisely toward a heckler’s veto.
There is growing support, including among academics and racial and religious advocacy groups, that what they define as hate speech…Law professors have concocted influential concepts like ‘outsider jurisprudence,’ ‘critical race theory,’ ‘critical feminist theory’, and ‘storytelling’ theory to define some kinds of politically incorrect speech as not speech at all, but ‘mechanisms of subordination.'”
Protesters have silenced speakers on several occasions this year, sometimes with the law’s support. In February a panel of the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a California high school’s decision to prohibit students from wearing American-flag T-shirts on Cinco de Mayo “to avert violence.” In August a panel of the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the ejection of an anti-Islam Christian group from an Arab festival in Dearborn, Mich., on the theory that the group’s speech would incite festivalgoers to violence. (In October the full court agreed to reconsider the decision.)
In December protesters against the non-indictment of a police officer in Ferguson, Mo., stormed into an auditorium at the University of California, Berkeley, and shut down a speech by Internet entrepreneur Peter Thiel . And during the past academic year, protesters caused the cancellation of commencement addresses by former U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice at Rutgers University, and International Monetary Fund Director Christine Lagarde at Smith College. Read the rest of this entry »
Education: The Microaggression Farce
Posted: November 21, 2014 Filed under: Education, Think Tank | Tags: Academic Senate, California, Campus, City Journal (New York), Graduate school, Los Angeles, Microaggression, Racism, Undergraduate education, University of California 2 Comments
Heather Mac Donald writes: In November 2013, two dozen graduate students at the University of California at Los Angeles marched into an education class and announced a protest against its “hostile and unsafe climate for Scholars of Color.” The students had been victimized, they claimed, by racial “microaggression”—the hottest concept on campuses today, used to call out racism otherwise invisible to the naked eye. UCLA’s response to the sit-in was a travesty of justice. The education school sacrificed the reputation of a beloved and respected professor in order to placate a group of ignorant students making a specious charge of racism.
“The silence on the repeated assailment of our work by white female colleagues, our professor’s failure to acknowledge and assuage the escalating hostility directed at the only Male of Color in this cohort, as well as his own repeated questioning of this male’s intellectual and professional decisions all support a complacency in this hostile and unsafe climate for Scholars of Color.”
The pattern would repeat itself twice more at UCLA that fall: students would allege that they were victimized by racism, and the administration, rather than correcting the students’ misapprehension, penitently acceded to it. Colleges across the country behave no differently. As student claims of racial and gender mistreatment grow ever more unmoored from reality, campus grown-ups have abdicated their responsibility to cultivate an adult sense of perspective and common sense in their students. Instead,
they are creating what tort law calls “eggshell plaintiffs”—preternaturally fragile individuals injured by the slightest collisions with life. The consequences will affect us for years to come.
[Heather Mac Donald is the author of “The Burden of Bad Ideas: How Modern Intellectuals Misshape Our Society“, available at Amazon]
UCLA education professor emeritus Val Rust was involved in multiculturalism long before the concept even existed. A pioneer in the field of comparative education, which studies different countries’ educational systems, Rust has spent over four decades mentoring students from around the world and assisting in international development efforts. He has received virtually every honor awarded by the Society of Comparative and International Education. His former students are unanimous in their praise for his compassion and integrity. “He’s been an amazing mentor to me,” says Cathryn Dhanatya, an assistant dean for research at the USC Rossiter School of Education. “I’ve never experienced anything remotely malicious or negative in terms of how he views students and how he wants them to succeed.” Rosalind Raby, director of the California Colleges for International Education, says that Rust pushes you to “reexamine your own thought processes. There is no one more sensitive to the issue of cross-cultural understanding.” A spring 2013 newsletter from UCLA’s ed school celebrated Rust’s career and featured numerous testimonials about his warmth and support for students.
It was therefore ironic that Rust’s graduate-level class in dissertation preparation was the target of student protest just a few months later—ironic, but in the fevered context of the UCLA education school, not surprising. The school, which trumpets its “social-justice” mission at every opportunity, is a cauldron of simmering racial tensions. Students specializing in “critical race theory”—an intellectually vacuous import from law schools—play the race card incessantly against their fellow students and their professors, leading to an atmosphere of nervous self-censorship. Foreign students are particularly shell-shocked by the school’s climate. “The Asians are just terrified,” says a recent graduate. “They walk into this hyper-racialized environment and have no idea what’s going on. Their attitude in class is: ‘I don’t want to talk. Please don’t make me talk!’ ”
When the Left Turned Against Free Speech
Posted: May 31, 2014 Filed under: Censorship, Education, Politics, Think Tank | Tags: Abortion, Free Speech Movement, Matt Welch, Miller-Young, Professor, UCSB, University of California, University of California Santa Barbara 3 Comments
The long, ugly journey from the Free Speech Movement to professors assaulting protesters
For Reason, Matt Welch writes: On March 4, in a designated “free-speech zone” at the University of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB), associate professor of feminist studies Mireille Miller-Young walked over to a 16-year-old anti-abortion protester named Thrin Short and demanded that Short take down a graphic sign showing pictures of aborted fetuses. When Short refused, Miller-Young forcibly snatched the sign out of the smaller girl’s hands, then handed it to her students and walked away triumphantly. The rattled teen accurately accused Miller-Young of being a “thief,” to which the professor implausibly retorted: “I may be a thief, but you’re a terrorist!” Adding injury to insult, Miller-Young then shoved the protester and barred her from entering a campus elevator. Moments later, the professor and her students cut the stolen poster to shreds.
The story gets worse. According to the ensuing police report, Miller-Young maintained that she had set a good example for her students by acting like a “conscientious objector” to offensive hate speech that had “triggered” her emotions and violated her “personal right to go to work and not be in harm.” Many students, too, remained defiant about the assault long after tempers cooled.
“We, as students of UCSB, are in solidarity with Professor Miller-Young and urge our student body, staff, faculty, and community members to provide as much support as possible,” reads a petition submitted by “UCSB Microaggressions” that as of press time had received more than 2,000 signatures, dwarfing a rival petition asking for the professor’s ouster. “We do not condone the hate speech and media attention she has been actively receiving.” Read the rest of this entry »
Military Funds Brain-Computer Interfaces to Control Feelings
Posted: May 29, 2014 Filed under: Think Tank | Tags: Barack Obama, Brain implant, DARPA, Mental disorder, University of California, White House Leave a commentThis week the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, or DARPA, awarded two large contracts to Massachusetts General Hospital and the University of California, San Francisco, to create electrical brain implants capable of treating seven psychiatric conditions, including addiction, depression, and borderline personality disorder.
The project builds on expanding knowledge about how the brain works; the development of microlectronic systems that can fit in the body; and substantial evidence that thoughts and actions can be altered with well-placed electrical impulses to the brain.
“Imagine if I have an addiction to alcohol and I have a craving,” says Carmena, who is a professor at the University of California, Berkeley, and involved in the UCSF-led project. “We could detect that feeling and then stimulate inside the brain to stop it from happening.” Read the rest of this entry »
Heather Mac Donald: Don’t listen to today’s narcissistic academics—the West’s cultural inheritance is indispensable
Posted: January 18, 2014 Filed under: Education, Think Tank | Tags: English literature, English studies, post colonialism, Postcolonialism, Shakespeare, UCLA, University of California, University of California Los Angeles, William Shakespeare 2 Comments
Rabelais’s Gargantua (overlooking Paris) exulted in the possession of classical learning. THE GRANGER COLLECTION, NYC
The Humanities and Us
Heather Mac Donald writes: In 2011, the University of California at Los Angeles decimated its English major. Such a development may seem insignificant, compared with, say, the federal takeover of health care. It is not. What happened at UCLA is part of a momentous shift in our culture that bears on our relationship to the past—and to civilization itself.
Until 2011, students majoring in English at UCLA had to take one course in Chaucer, two in Shakespeare, and one in Milton—the cornerstones of English literature. Following a revolt of the junior faculty, however, during which it was announced that Shakespeare was part of the “Empire,” UCLA junked these individual author requirements and replaced them with a mandate that all English majors take a total of three courses in the following four areas: Gender, Race, Ethnicity, Disability, and Sexuality Studies; Imperial, Transnational, and Postcolonial Studies; genre studies, interdisciplinary studies, and critical theory; or creative writing. In other words, the UCLA faculty was now officially indifferent as to whether an English major had ever read a word of Chaucer, Milton, or Shakespeare, but was determined to expose students, according to the course catalog, to “alternative rubrics of gender, sexuality, race, and class.”
Obama’s Extreme Use of Executive Discretion
Posted: December 19, 2013 Filed under: Law & Justice, Politics, White House | Tags: Barack Obama, Enforcement discretion, Obama, Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, United States Congress, United States Constitution, University of California, Vanderbilt Law Review 2 Comments
“To contend that the obligation imposed on the president to see the laws faithfully executed implies a power to forbid their execution is a novel construction of the Constitution, and is entirely inadmissible.”
George Will writes: Congressional Republicans’ long-simmering dismay about Barack Obama’s offenses against the separation of powers became acute when events compelled him to agree with them that the Affordable Care Act (ACA) could not be implemented as written. But even before he decreed alterations of key ACA provisions — delaying enforcement of certain requirements for health insurance and enforcement of employers’ coverage obligations — he had effectively altered congressionally mandated policy by altering work requirements of the 1996 welfare reform; and compliance requirements of the No Child Left Behind education law; and some enforcement concerning marijuana possession; and the prosecution of drug crimes entailing mandatory minimum sentences; and the enforcement of immigration laws pertaining to some young people.
Republicans tend to regard Obama’s aggressive assertion of enforcement discretion as idiosyncratic — an anti-constitutional impatience arising from his vanity. This interpretation is encouraged by his many assertions that he “can’t wait” for our system of separated powers to ratify his policy preferences. Still, to understand not only the extravagance of Obama’s exercises of executive discretion but also how such discretion necessarily grows as government does, read Zachary S. Price’s “Enforcement Discretion and Executive Duty” forthcoming in the Vanderbilt Law Review. Price, a visiting professor at the University of California’s Hastings College of the Law, demonstrates that the Constitution’s “text, history, and normative underpinnings” do not justify the permissive reading Obama gives to its take care clause, which says the president “shall take care that the laws be faithfully executed.”
It is, says Price, part of America’s “deeply rooted constitutional tradition” that “presidents, unlike English kings, lack authority to suspend statutes” or make them inapplicable to certain individuals or groups. Indeed, the take care clause may have been intended to codify the Framers’ repudiation of royal suspending prerogatives. Hence the absence of an anti-suspension provision in the Bill of Rights.
pundit from another planet 