Higher education
May 5, 2024 — Scott Johnson
The Middle East Forum’s Dexter Van Zile visited Gaza Solidarity Encampments in Boston/Cambridge at Emerson College, MIT, and Harvard (he didn’t make it into Harvard Yard). MEF has posted his report “Students for Justice in Palestine Grooming American Students for Intifada: A First Person Account.” Who are these people? What do they want? What do they have to say? Who funds them? It’s an enterprising report. I am sorry to
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May 4, 2024 — Scott Johnson
Mason Goad is a research fellow with the National Association of Scholars. Yesterday he visited the Kill-the-Jews crowd’s Gaza Solidarity Encampment at George Washington University, a mile from the White House, and posted a photo thread here on X. To borrow a phrase, the hate is too damn high! Goad sets the scene with this photo featuring the revolutionary who has donned a mask to protect his identity. Another mask
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May 4, 2024 — Scott Johnson
Students of ancient American history may recall the Northwest Ordinance of 1787. The Northwest Ordinance covered the territory out of which Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, and Wisconsin were ultimately carved. It guaranteed religious freedom (Article 1) and prohibited slavery (Article 6) in the territory. Adopted by the Confederation Congress, it is one of the four founding or organic laws of the United States. See generally Richard H. Cox, Four Pillars
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May 3, 2024 — Scott Johnson
In the eruption of support for Hamas and hatred of the Jewish people at Columbia University’s Gaza Solidarity Encampment, we have discovered a humorous sidebar. Olivia Reingold originally dredged up lost-and-found entries from the mixed-up files of the encampment and posted them on X. I’m in the lost and found chat for Columbia’s encampment, where a comrade is currently freaking out that their other comrades might steal their Adderall prescription.
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May 2, 2024 — Scott Johnson
The gentlemen of Pi Kappa Phi at UNC Chapel Hill have given us a morale booster by protecting the American flag from the kill-the-Jews crowd on campus. They join the Columbia night-shift custodian fighting off the Hamilton Hall Hamasniks in an early bid for man-of-the-year recognition. See the photo below depicting them standing guard. One of the best photos of 2024 so far: Fraternity brothers are pelted by anti-Israel protesters
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May 1, 2024 — Scott Johnson
Cliff May is founder and president of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies (FDD) and a columnist for the Washington Times. He is a veteran reporter, foreign correspondent, and editor for the New York Times and other publications. Cliff’s current column is “The ideological cocktail poisoning American campuses” (at FDD, where it is posted with its many links). Cliff has kindly given us his permission to post his columns on
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May 1, 2024 — Scott Johnson
The police were finally requested to enter Columbia and begin to restore order last night. The Washington Free Beacon’s Jessica Costescu was on the scene and has filed this story that was updated at 7:20 (EDT) this morning. It is difficult to absorb the ant-Semitic enormity of what has transpired at Columbia and elsewhere in support of Hamas over the past weeks. Where is the FBI?? We need to know
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April 29, 2024 — Scott Johnson
The Columbia Spectator brings us up to date on the state of play in “Columbia does not plan to call NYPD to campus, according to community email.” The Spectator story draws on the email from the president, provost, and co-chairs of the board of trustees that is included in the tweet below. The tweet provides an executive summary that can also be translated into the words of the old song
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April 26, 2024 — Scott Johnson
Well, they may be ignorant or stupid, they may be evil, but they may also need help. Take, for example, Columbia undergrad Khymani James — please. James may be in need of help, but he appears to be busy negotiating with the authorities at Columbia to stand down. One of the Columbia students leading the “protest” posted this video stating that “Zionists do not deserve to live” Some in the
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April 26, 2024 — Scott Johnson
Texas Governor Greg Abbott has expressed his support for the removal of the pro-Hamas kill the Jews crowd from their nascent “occupation” of the University of Texas at Austin. In the tweet below Governor Abbott reported: “Arrests being made right now and will continue until the crowd disperses. These protesters belong in jail.” Shut up, he explained: “Antisemitism will not be tolerated in Texas. Period.” Arrests being made right now
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April 25, 2024 — Steven Hayward
The Atlantic today has posted up an article from George Packer that, as John Podhoretz noted on Twitter, you could have read in Commentary at any point for the last 35 years. The fact that this is appearing in The Atlantic perhaps marks a turning point in established liberal opinion, but will college administrators and trustees take note and do anything about it? It’s a long piece, but here are
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April 25, 2024 — Scott Johnson
In an act of leadership that contrasts with the malicious indifference of President Biden and his team, House Speaker Mike Johnson went up to Columbia University to call for the restoration of order on campus. He spoke from the steps of Low Library to denounce the treatment of Jewish students on campus. I have posted video below. Johnson was joined by a GOP delegation including Reps. Virginia Foxx, Anthony D’Esposito,
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April 24, 2024 — Scott Johnson
The pro-Hamas kill the Jews crowd in the Gaza Solidarity Encampment at the heart of campus has received an extension. Not to get the campers’ term papers in, of course, but rather to vacate the encampment at the heart of the campus. The encampment is unauthorized and was supposed to be removed days ago. Columbia President Minouche Shafik then set a deadline of this morning at 8:00 a.m. She has
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April 23, 2024 — Scott Johnson
Columbia University presents an extreme case of the rot infesting our major institutions — elite organs of higher education, corporate America, the mainstream media, the entertainment business, the legal profession, the teachers’ unions, and so on. We can learn from Columbia’s extremity. It highlights elements of the phenomenon that otherwise remain beyond our view. The rot at Columbia runs through the students, the administration, and the faculty of the university.
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April 23, 2024 — Scott Johnson
The silence of President Biden on the eruption of anti-Semitic “protests” on elite college campuses constitutes a disgusting sidebar to the unfolding story. He was asked about them yesterday as he shambled down a sylvan path in Triangle, Virginia. “I condemn the antisemitic protests,” Biden told reporters. “I also condemn those who don’t understand what’s going on with the Palestinians.” “Palestinians” widely support Hamas, Islamic Jihad, and the terrorist forces
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April 22, 2024 — Scott Johnson
The Columbia campus appears to have been taken over by the pro-Hamas kill the Jews crowd among the student body. Jessica Costescu rounds up the news in the Washington Free Beacon story “Columbia University Campus Unravels in Face of Escalating Anti-Semitic, Eliminationist Protests.” The New York Post reports “New anti-Israel tent city takes over Columbia University lawn days after NYPD raid as activists vow to stay ‘forever.’” In other words,
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April 21, 2024 — Scott Johnson
Working for then Minnesota Senator Walter Mondale in the summer of 1969, I went to hear the late Allard Lowenstein speak to a large group of interns. Lowenstein was serving his only term in Congress before he was gerrymandered out of his district. Lowenstein asked us to go back to our campuses, do our thing in opposition to the Vietnam war, and “eschew violence.” He said the word “eschew” several
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