Trump administration cancels $400 million in grants for Columbia University

[ravenstone]

I never thought I would say this, but the deaths in Beirut, the deaths on 9/11, were not enough Americans dying for our meddling in the Levant.

We need an Intifada on our own soil, with American's dying for the state's support of the oppressive regimes in Israel, in Saudi Arabia, in the Philippines, and elsewhere.

America needs to suffer ongoing pain and death until the cheering for oppressors on distantt shores is no longer treated like some football game with "our team" and their team.

We need an ongoing war of terrorists, like the Irish did the English, until our pain makes us consider the pain and death of the Palestinians, the suppression of dissent by the Saudis, and the totalitarian purges of the regime in Manila.

As Zelenskyy correctly observed in his broken English in the Oval Office, we are insulated. And our cults of personality are able to gather followers who have no idea what the foreign regimes are doing or the other half of the conflicts.

If we bleed enough, we might, MIGHT care more about the humans 3,000 miles away as much as we do cheap eggs.

 

[NotHardUp1]

Indeed it is. It is a shame that our great nation has come to this sorry end. And a sorry end, it is.

Greed in the place of generosity. Let the foreigners starve.

Harangues and harassment for our allies in place of honor for our commitments and oaths.

Broad attacks on our federal civil servants without a shred of humanity or decency.

Lies from "leaders" when the trutth sounds better.

War on the environment itself in the cause of filthy lucre.

Let it all burn first.

 

[ravenstone]

Indeed it is. It is a shame that our great nation has come to this sorry end. And a sorry end, it is.

Greed in the place of generosity. Let the foreigners starve.

Harangues and harassment for our allies in place of honor for our commitments and oaths.

Broad attacks on our federal civil servants without a shred of humanity or decency.

Lies from "leaders" when the trutth sounds better.

War on the environment itself in the cause of filthy lucre.

Let it all burn first.

It is a shame that an American wishes for the deaths of their fellow citizens.
It's a new beginning, not the end.

 

[NotHardUp1]

It is a shame that an American wishes for the deaths of their fellow citizens.
It's a new beginning, not the end.

It is a shame that the open corruption, the contravention of the Constitution, the wholesale abuse of power, is winked at by the party in power.

It is a shame that, from all the evidence, nothing short of blood will wake this nation up from its moral slumber.

I wish the deaths not because I hate the forsakers of our country, because those will not even be the ones who die. We'll all die indiscriminately. But, just as those declaring war on our oppressors in the Revolution knew the strife would wade in blood, they knew it would not be won without it.

The new beginning you speak of is an anti-American movement that masquerades in stars and bars, but is a false patriotism, a false piety.

Our Consitution is our highest shared value. Bragging about skirting it is treason, plain and simple.

We should be willing to die fighting those who conspire to bring down our nation from within. Death to the Benedict Arnolds.

 

[ravenstone]

It is a shame that the open corruption, the contravention of the Constitution, the wholesale abuse of power, is winked at by the party in power.

It is a shame that, from all the evidence, nothing short of blood will wake this nation up from its moral slumber.

I wish the deaths not because I hate the forsakers of our country, because those will not even be the ones who die. We'll all die indiscriminately. But, just as those declaring war on our oppressors in the Revolution knew the strife would wade in blood, they knew it would not be won without it.

The new beginning you speak of is an anti-American movement that masquerades in stars and bars, but is a false patriotism, a false piety.

Our Consitution is our highest shared value. Bragging about skirting it is treason, plain and simple.

We should be willing to die fighting those who conspire to bring down our nation from within. Death to the Benedict Arnolds.

Now death threats? I believe that is against the law.

 

[opinterph]

I believe that is against the law.

That is the law. In the United States, treason is punishable by death or a minimum of five years in prison, along with a fine of at least $10,000. A conviction also results in the loss of the right to hold public office.

18 U.S. Code § 2381 - Treason

www.law.cornell.edu

 

[Dargelos]

NHU's apocalyptic post can hardly be called a death threat when Benedict Arnold is already dead (1801)
Millions of Americans lecture everyone else about 'The Rapture', you would need to prosecute all of them before taking offence at anything written here.

 

[opinterph]

When they stop the pro-Hamas protestors

There are also laws about supporting terrorist organizations. I assure you if other minority students were harassed by the terrorist group the KKK these colleges wouldn't stand for it for one minute.

I note that you have not yet presented evidence to support the allegation that some or all of the Columbia University protesters were supporting Hamas or other terrorist organizations. Please follow up to add substantiation.

Please provide evidence to support the veracity of your insinuation that the protestors at Columbia University are pro-Hamas. It will be helpful for me to better understanding your basis for posting that statement.

 

[NotHardUp1]

In a related case, a commenter was posting a response to a video clip showing a track athlete striking her competitor with a baton in a race, and then denying it as accidental. The enraged comments quickly turned racist and one commenter declared that he was reporting the injustice to the federal government to try to get her school's federal funding terminated.

So, the trial balloon that Trump and his cabal floated with Columbia is working. He's not only purging federal ranks of anyone he perceives as lacking fealty, and publicly persecuting groups or insttitutions that differ with his priorities or politics, he's setting up the beginnings of a fanatical brown shirt precursor, where MAGATs report on political enemies, even if just suspected of not toeing the line. DOGE is being used to instill domestic terror within the government itself.

This very much resembles how Germans were expected to monitor Jews at the beginning, and how North Koreans and Iranians are expected to do the same.

The threat to use the federal government BECAUSE they see the demonstrated (illegal) use of it as a personal power extension by the president is a sign.

Additionally, Trump's tirade yesterdat AT THE JUSTICE DEPARTMENT, clearly is signalling he is about to start prosecutions of his enemies. He couldn't wait two monts to begin his "legal" pogrom. We'll be enbroiled in lawsuits and challenges to the SCOTUS for not only the entire administration, but for a decade after AND thei spinoff civil suits.

The lawyers must be already buying new suits.

The Columbia case, as well as the other illegal abrogations in the terminations of Congress' appropriated fundings, will either be overturned by the SCOTUS, or we'll spin into civil war rapidly.

We just saw the Democrats green light the Continuing Resolution in the Senate, giving Trump no check of abuse for the next six months, when this was one of the very few opportunities to blunt the GOP's excesses with the new administration. The internet is full of fury with the capitulation.

If the Supreme Court doesn't uphold the necessary authority of Congress in enacting the will of the electorate, then we have an open cabal against the U.S. Constitution, and the ONLY option remaining will be revolutiton itself. When one's elected representatives no longer fight for the rule of law, or shrug and allow openly illegal abuses to continue with only a "hope" of resolution after some possible election years hence, and if it is sanctioned by the Court, then we are in a totalitarian state.

I had some slight hope the Democrats would take the C.R. to take a stand, but the wheel house is empty, and the ship is headed for the rocks.

 

[rareboy]

Sadly, I have no confidence in the Roberts court upholding the constitution any more.

While Amy Coney Barett's distaste for Trump at the SoU speech was visceral however fleeting, the right wing justices are being directed by their owners to deliver the country to a small white right wing christian/jewish cabal of oligarchs who want the country to return to its slaveholder/landowner roots because they don't believe in democracy. At the moment, I think she is the weak link in the conservative bloc on the court...oddly, she still seems to have some sense of what is at stake and doesn't seem fully committed to turning the US into an autocracy to be ruled by Trump.

The capitulation of the 10 Dems was a test that showed the fundamental weakness in a party that has gotten used to governing like it was the 1970's. They could have forced Johnson to deal. They chose not to. For all the high flown notions of 'not wanting to shut the country down', they will reap the same result as the executive branch seizes full control over spending.

We'll see lots more savage cuts to universities in the US..not to protect Jewish students, but to decimate the academic ranks, to destroy post secondary education as accessible to anyone but the tiny moneyed class who are there to be groomed to rule...and of course, to harp upon my favourite theme...to harvest the savings in order to relieve corporations and the wealthy from paying federal taxes.

Perhaps the most chilling side note to the funding cuts is the seizure of a Palestinain protestor in contravention of the law, for peaceful protest. But it was also very heartening to see some of the very influential Jewish voices being raised in the US in protest against this.

 

[KaraBulut]

...Perhaps the most chilling side note to the funding cuts is the seizure of a Palestinain protestor in contravention of the law, for peaceful protest. But it was also very heartening to see some of the very influential Jewish voices being raised in the US in protest against this.

One thing that I noticed in the NYC protests again the Mahmoud Khalil arrest was that Jewish and veteran protesters were there with very visible shirts indicating the name of their organization.

They also filled up the lobby of Trump Tower and were arrested while the local press filmed them.

They're getting the big picture of what the implications are, shown by the protest banners with the references to Nazis.

 

[rareboy]

At the moment, they are that most important and hopefully unbreakable thread in current history that will help save the US from tumbling into the abyss.

And I despair, because there certainly were the Germans and the Dutch and the French and other s who protested against the villification and criminaliztion of the Jews in Europ and then they all have to go underground...or are silenced by the fascists.

 

[NotHardUp1]

I will say that the thought Senator Schumer had on voting for the C.R. was that the powers given the president during an expired funding ARE dangerous. He reasoned that the GOP was even hoping the Dems would take the bait and enable a grab for more power.

That said, BOTH parties are responsible for allowing Congress to pass procedures that grant provisional power. It only exists because both parties have played chickenshit politics instead of negotiating the budget as required by law.

Congress has basically abandoned its authority by degree, and now we are here, without a way out, and the GOP has become so corrupt that it knowingly is blocking the assertion of the Constitution.

 

[KaraBulut]

I will say that the thought Senator Schumer had on voting for the C.R. was that the powers given the president during an expired funding ARE dangerous. He reasoned that the GOP was even hoping the Dems would take the bait and enable a grab for more power.

The people on the left who are calling for Schumer's replacement aren't mad that he voted for ending cloture (i.e. "he voted for the bill before he voted against it"). They're mad that he went to the negotiating table on behalf of the Democrats and got nothing in exchange for the votes.

At best, Schumer admitted that the Democrats aren't able to communicate their message to the American public. At worse, the Democrats don't have a coherent message at all.

 

[rareboy]

The people on the left who are calling for Schumer's replacement aren't mad that he voted for ending cloture (i.e. "he voted for the bill before he voted against it"). They're mad that he went to the negotiating table on behalf of the Democrats and got nothing in exchange for the votes.

At best, Schumer admitted that the Democrats aren't able to communicate their message to the American public. At worse, the Democrats don't have a coherent message at all.

Schumer is about the worst at negotiating anything with the GQP. For years, his go along to get along approach has sapped the energy and focus of the Democratic party.

Because he's been there too long and keeps thinking that his colleagues have a shred of decency and fair play. And he is one of the worst communicators because I don't beleive he really does give a shit about anyone other than his corporate owners and big money donors. He and the other old guard Dems are totally out of touch with the middle class and

I see him as someone who actually doesn't care if the US slides into an autocracy with an impotent legislature just there for show.

He and the other hacks would still pull a paycheck and perform a kind of theatre at the federal government level, while depending on the states to somehow protect other people's interests.

 

[rareboy]

Not surprisingly, at the end of the day, Columbia is capitulating.

Won't they be surprised when they find out that it isn't enough. That the entire exercise is just intended to strip funding anyway.

Oh well.

Now let's see if students are safer in about 6 months.

https://www.wsj.com/us-news/education/columbia-university-trump-demands-federal-funding-e94d41ca

 

[rareboy]

Oh. Wait.

Let's see how this unfolds....

 

[rareboy]

A further thought on capitulation by academics.

Past experience has shown that under real dictatorships, Universities and colleges cave pretty quickly and completely.

Besides an incredible tendency toward self-preservation and comfort, tenured academics maybe sometimes only care about their academic focus and not on the function of society around them...as though they live in a cloistered world separated from politics.

The ones to watch out for, though, are those who see their moment has come and the goals of their Fuhrer align with their own. I can guarantee that even Columbia and other schools forced to lick Trump taint will see some of those voices emerge.

Some perspectioves on what Autocrats want from education:

https://www.chronicle.com/article/what-autocrats-want-from-academics-servility

 

[rareboy]

Somewhat related...TrumpCo. are now looking to withold federal dollars from Maine univerities and colleges

until the Governor apologizes personally for her challenge to Trump at the Governors' press conference.

Of course, the threatened action by Trump will also go to court.

 

[rareboy]

What is somwhat surprising is that the collapse and capitulation is taking such a short amount of time.

But I suppose it is a grand tradition in the US all the way back to the McCarthy era.