For years, I have written about the analogy of what is happening on our campuses to the French Revolution, including faculty enablers becoming the targets of radical groups. Many faculty were silent as conservatives and libertarians were purged from faculties. Some even supported cancel campaigns against professors and speakers with opposing views. Now the analogy has become even more poignant on my campus of George Washington University after protesters held mock tribunals and called for the heads of the President, Provost, and Board of Trustees to be cut off by guillotine.
I discussed earlier how the D.C. police refused to clear the street outside of the law school and next to the quad. In D.C., it often matters what you are protesting in determining whether action will be taken.
As for the guillotine video, the Post Millennial reported on the scene:
In the mock tribunal, the woman asks “How do the people find you?”
The crowd shouts, “Guilty!” then “Guillotine! Guillotine! Guillotine!”
“Bracey, Bracey, we see you! You assault students too. Off to the motherf*cking gallows with you,” the woman chants, along with the gleeful activists.
Moving on to the Board of Trustees, she states “On the charges of having a vested interest in the genocide of Palestinian people as they profit off Zionist weapons and purchases that you refuse to divest the apartheid as they line their pockets. The people find you.”
“Guilty!” The crowd screams with a mix of mob rage and joy.
“To the Guillotine!” the girl yells. “Board of Trustees, we charge you with genocide. I hope all that money is gonna save you when you’re rotting in jail.”
The crowd calls out President Grandberg, as well. “On the charges of using our tuition dollars to fund genocide, and selling out students to Zionist interest, the people find you?”
“Guilty!” The crowd yells.
“As you already know where I am sending her,” she adds, referring to the guillotine. “Her and her f*ck *ss bob.”
Fortunately, we got rid of shop in many schools years ago so the actual construction of a gallows may prove challenging. Amazon can deliver a guillotine but it is only five inches tall so it might be a bit of a Spinal Tap moment for the new Jacobins.
Few of us expect tumbrils to roll in Foggy Bottom. These students clearly thought that this was funny and no one believes that they are turning into little Robespierres. However, the rhetoric of these protests have displayed violent and unhinged elements – fueled by radical activists from Antifa and other organizations.
The protesters have already succeeded in forcing concessions from universities like Brown, Northwestern, and Rutgers. The growing protests have also clearly spooked the White House, particularly with the chant “Genocide Joe” catching on across the country. At GW, that image was projected over the large flag hung by the school.
The protesters are likely to take solace in the fact that the Biden Administration just reportedly put a hold on an ammunition transfer to Israel. It is not clear if this will be a mere symbolic hold that will be lifted or something more significant. Israel is preparing the long-announced offensive in Rafah in southern Gaza where the remaining Hamas fighters are located.
bring back the billy club batteries not required.
Yes! The police should be giving “hickory haircuts” to those idiots.
There was some discussion earlier in the comments section about whether a “few Battalions” being worth the slaughter that has occurred so far in Gaza. Battalions in Hamas are an indistinct measure of the number of men and Hamas has no real known number of men per unit. Most Battalions cover a distinct area of several blocks but manning can vary in size.
In WW2 an American infantry division consisted of 3 regiments with 3 battalions per regiment as well as command elements, medical units, artillery, etc or about 15,000 men per division.
I would remind everyone that in the battle of Manila in early 1945, a rogue command of 17,000 Japanese soldiers in Manila decided on a last stand in the city (contrary to orders) and to cause as much havoc as they could. They specifically murdered thousands of civilians and they and the attacking American army used artillary in the city resulting in over 100,000 civilian deaths.
The Americans in 1942 had evacuated Manila and declared it an “open city” with no military presence and the city was mostly spared destruction.
In 1945 the Japanese failed to do that and caused a pitched battle in one of the largest metropolitan areas in Asia. The known murdering of civilians in mass forced an American attack to try to save what they could. The Japanese forced this slaughter with only ad hoc positions without significant “digging in” and prepared fortifications.
Hamas has had almost 20 years to build tunnels and fortifications and that makes fighting in this city and area beyond imagination for most militaries.
City fighting is always the worst and most costly fighting for offence, defense and civilians, but you have to go where the enemy is and literally dig them out.
References-Battle of Stalingrad , Battle or Berlin (the Russian losses on taking Berlin were horrendous) Possibly a reason why Churchill, FDR, Eisenhower and Montgomery were more than willing to let the Russians take the city.
In my own defense, I was saying that six battalions is absolutely, positively a clearly legitimate target, worthy of an offensive even if it comes with collateral damage.
I really need to work on my proofreading. Sheesh.
Urban warfare on top of tunnel warfare would be like fighting in Aleppo and Iwo Jima at the same time.
Jonathan: Looks like you are now at the center of the maelstrom of student protests at GWU. And it’s happening right outside your office where students are chanting “Guillotine! Guillotine! Must be a very uncomfortable position for a conservative to find himself in these days. The student protesters out side your office are conducting what is called a “mock trial”–something your are familiar in your law school. It’s not a REAL trial. The students were “mocking” GWU administrators and the Board of Trustees for their failure to come out forcefully in support of the Palestinians in Gaza.
But you seem to think there is some sinister plot going on. You say “the rhetoric of these protests have displayed violent and unhinged elements–fueled by radical activists from Antifa and other organizations”. Antifa must be the culprit! That’s getting to be a pretty tired argument. If that were true how do you explain the massive protests at universities all around the country? Are they all led by Antifa and affiliated organizations? That would make Antifa probably the most centralized and well run group in the country to be able to pull that off. And we know that is not true. Just look outside your office. See anyone from Antifa there? Nope. Just students –some of whom you might recognize as students from your own law school. These protests are not run from some central command. Blaming Antifa for the protests won’t cut it now! You barking up the wrong tree!
The students outside your office are not the equivalent of the Jacobins. You won’t see any actual gallows erected outside your office. That’s unlike J6 when DJT’s insurrectionists put up gallows in front of the Capitol. You weren’t terribly worried about that display. You called J6 mostly peaceful that turned into a simple “riot”. You refuse even to this day to call J6 an “insurrection”–despite rulings to the contrary by courts around the country, even the DC Court of Appeals.
But comparisons to the French Revolution are apt. It seems you are now on the side of the “ancien regime”–the term used to refer to the old social order that fell in the French Revolution. You stand for the old order. You don’t show much respect for the intelligence of your students–their ability to think independently. That’s says much more about you than it does of your students! I think Woody Guthrie would know “Which side are you on?” And it’s not with the student protesters! I think Bob Dylan put it best about your predicament in the “Times they are a changin'”:
“Your old road is rapidly agin’
Please get out of the new one
If you can’t lend a hand
For the times they are a-changin'”
Yeah. Apparently, 35,000+ dead women and children in Gaza has crossed some ‘red-lines’ even for ‘genocide Joe’.
Snowden, Hamas could free the people today…but they won’t. How many dead Germans was ok for you? How many dead Japanese was ok? How many Iraqis? Koreans? Chinese Muslims? Syrians? It is always too many when it is Israel defending themselves, it is never too many when any other nation on earth does it. This is Jew hatred and bigotry couched in performance art caring and virtue signaling.
The Gazans elected and support Hamas, the Gazans cheered parades of vehicles carrying dead Jewish girls, the Gazans cheered on 9/11. There is a reason why Egypt, Jordan, Saudi Arabia and Syria won’t take Gazans in and that reason is they are radicalized beyond reason right now and the world needs to be cautious. You wouldn’t take in anyone that supported Bin Laden or ISIS would you? This is who Gaza is right now.
Why don’t you suggest that Iran take in Gazans since they support them?
Dgsnowden, where do you get your information? Do you dial the hotline, TERRORIST? What is the age of a terrorist who throws bombs and takes hostages? What is the sex of such terrorists? We have seen Hamas children throwing bombs, and we saw Gazan females that held hostages.
The truth is that no army in the world has ever been as careful of the civilian population as the IDF. That caution has cost Israeli lives. Do we know how many people were killed? Not really, but we know that most Gazans killed were involved in terror or died as a result of Hamas using women and children as shields or from Hamas rockets that fell short of Israeli land.
The only ones that can’t seem to get things straight are the anti-Semites. You sound like one and are likely one. Your biggest problem is you can’t back up anything you say with facts or logic.
Here’s something to make Dennis smile while making decent people puke:
https://redstate.com/bonchie/2024/05/06/watch-hamas-simps-show-up-to-protest-at-auschwitz-completely-undercutting-their-claims-n2173816
You really need to disenthrall yourself from the idea that the J6 “gallows” was anything other than cheap street theatre.
https://twitter.com/TaylerUSA/status/1508947329113636864
The Spinal Tap Stonehenge analogy applies here, too.
“He asked me for some collateral so I pulled down my pants.”
-Bob Dylan
“when DJT’s insurrectionists put up gallows in front of the Capitol”
Correction: the FBI informants and undercover infiltrators who “put up the gallows in front of the Capitol”.
Funny, isn’t it, that the FBI is STILL arresting J6 grandma’s who entered the building thru doors HELD OPEN FOR THEM and prayed inside the Capitol, over 3 years ago — yet they have not yet “found” the “insurrectionists” who built the gallows or planted bombs outside the DNC. It’s just such a mystery.
Dennis — it is really astounding how disinformed you are. You should be enraged at how dumbed-down your Democrat party and their propaganda presstitutes keep you. Stupid uninformed voters = good Democrat voters.
That’s unlike J6 when DJT’s insurrectionists put up gallows in front of the Capitol.
No, they didn’t. It’s exactly alike. Hanging people in effigy is a long-standing tradition of American democracy.
BLACKSTONE FELT THAT A NEW WIND WAS BLOWING IN THE LEGAL DOMAIN AND POINTED OUT ITS MAIN ACADEMIC HOTBEDS: SWITZERLAND, HOST OF A LIVELY SCHOOL OF NATURAL LAW WITH BARBEYRAC, BURLAMAQUI, AND A NEWCOMER FROM THE PRINCIPALITY OF NEUCHA^TEL, EMER DE VATTEL, WHO IN 1758 PUBLISHED THE TREATISE LE DROIT DES GENS.2 BLACKSTONE WAS FAMILIAR WITH THE LATTER WORK AND INVOKED IT REPEATEDLY. VATTEL’S TREATISE WAS AVAILABLE ON AMERICAN SOIL ALREADY IN 1762.
The Reception of Vattel’s Law of Nations in the
American Colonies: From James Otis and John
Adams to the Declaration of Independence
William Ossipow and Dominik Gerber*
ABS TR ACT
The treatise of the Swiss philosopher and jurist Emer de Vattel, The Law of Nations (1758), is well known in the United States and has attracted sustained scholarly atten-tion. Against the widespread assumption that the reception of The Law of Nations in America only started in 1775, this article establishes that Vattel’s treatise was available on American soil already in 1762. This finding paves the way for inquiry into Vattel’s intellectual authority in the revolutionary context from the early pamphleteers to the Declaration of Independence. Following a reception-based methodology that facilitates robust inferences from patterns of intertextuality, this study aims to make up for the gap in Vattel’s historiography regarding the crucial period between 1762 and 1776. New England, and the Boston area in particular, turn out to be the hotbeds of Vattel’s reception. A special emphasis is put on the central role of John Adams as a transmitter of Vattel’s thought in the colonial discourse in spring 1776. In the great political documents of this time, most of which were written by Adams or by patriots close to him, such as Richard Henry Lee, a recurrent argument, called the Vattel-Adams argument, was put forth, forging a claim on the loss of royal protection into a justification of secession. The present study demonstrates that this rationalization bears unmistakably Vattelian marks. Furthermore, considering Thomas Jefferson’s mastery of intertextual practice, it is argued that the first, second, and fifth paragraphs of the Declaration can be robustly shown to contain both immediately Vattelian hypotext and Lockean hypotext mediated by Vattel. Beyond its objective of uncovering a hitherto neglected aspect of the revolution’s intellectual underpinnings, this study offers a new perspective on the intertextual complexity and density that characterize the political documents of the revolutionary era.
At the very beginning of his Commentaries on the Laws of England, William Blackstone expressed concern about the state of the science of law in England. He observed that the vitality of the law studies was greater on the continent than in the British Isles: [N]or have the imperial laws been totally neglected even in the English nation. A general acquaintance with their decisions has ever been deservedly considered as no small accomplishment of a gentleman; and a fashion has prevailed, especially of late, to transport the growing hopes of this island to foreign universities, in Switzerland, Germany, and Holland; which, though infinitely inferior to our own in every other consideration, have been looked upon as better nurseries of the civil, or (which is nearly the same) of their own municipal law. In the meantime it has been the peculiar lot of our admirable system of laws, to be neglected, and even unknown, by all but one practical profession, though built upon the soundest foundations, and approved by the experience of ages.1 Blackstone felt that a new wind was blowing in the legal domain and pointed out its main academic hotbeds: Holland, the country of Hugo Grotius; Germany, where Pufendorf and Wolff had taught; and, designated in the first place, Switzerland, host of a lively school of natural law with Barbeyrac, Burlamaqui, and a newcomer from the principality of Neuchaˆtel, Emer de Vattel, who in 1758 published the treatise Le Droit des gens.2 Blackstone was familiar with the latter work and invoked it repeatedly.
Roughly at the same time, three European legal reference books became available in the colonies, providing legal and political elites with the state of the art in matters of law and jurisprudence. Besides Blackstone’s Commentaries these were Cesare Beccaria’s Essays on Crime and Punishments and two works by authors of the Swiss school of natural law, the aforementioned Law of Nations by Emer de Vattel as well as The Principles of Natural and Politic Law by Jean-Jacques Burlamaqui.3 The importance of these works during the revolutionary period can be easily assessed because of the numerous quotations and mentions in the works of John Dickinson, John Adams, James Wilson, and Thomas Jefferson. As Kathryn Preyer rightly stated, referring to Bernard Bailyn, “[t]he American political culture had enabled Enlightenment ideology to be more effective in America than in Europe throughout the colonial period.”4
Upon its arrival in America, Vattel’s Law of Nations, which systematically applied the principles of natural law to relations between states, took its place in this vibrant intellectual environment and significantly changed the scope and language of political and legal debate in the colonies. We aim to reconstruct the story of the early reception of this work on American soil in this article.5 We pursue this inquiry not only for its intrinsic interest, but also because we believe that this little-known piece of history enables a fresh understanding of the early ties between the American colonies and international law.
Time has come to stop putting up with this nonsense. Students involved should be booted, non student provocateurs
need to be arrested and charged with trespassing. Enough.
Don Mei
Why the need of the megaphone? The whole mob doesn’t appear to number more than four or five revolutionaries. SNL has new skit to perform.
Dear Prof Turley,
There are approximately 1.6mil civilians still surviving in Rafah along with the ‘remaining Hamas fighters’. Most of them are women and children.
Even ‘genocide Joe’ has cut-off ammunition to Bibi & co. But there is ‘nothing like the sight of an amputated spirit .. . there is no prosthetic for that.’
The D.C. metro cops, at least, refused to intervene with student protesters at GW on free speech grounds (not poor comedy routines.). It’s right there in the 1st amendment.
I only hope the kids have a sit-in for Ukraine too .. . ‘genocide Joe’ has about destroyed that place.
*I don’t think the administrators of GW know what ‘out-of-order’ is
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lLvXyVUHqwQ
Dgsnowden, you are right about genocide Joe even though you still don’t understand the genocidal intent of Hamas. Take note how there is an evacuation of civilians from the area of Rafah that Israel will attack. Do you think the Americans or British did the same when they invaded Normandy. Only a fool lacks that knowledge.
So now the little liberals are for the death penalty. Like the French revolution, and many others, these useful idiots would be in the next wave of the purged.
On the left they’re useful idiots. On the right they’re simply retards. Take your pick.
Be prepared. The Rapture will happen soon.
Message Regarding the Ongoing Campus Protests
A message from President Ellen M. Granberg President
May 5, 2024
[Link] president.gwu.edu/message-regarding-ongoing-campus-protests
—
George Washington University president says pro-Palestinian encampment is ‘unlawful,’ calls for end
President Ellen Granberg said the protest was “co-opted by individuals who are largely unaffiliated with our community and do not have our community’s best interest in mind”
By: Mauricio Casillas, News4 ~ May 5, 2024
[Link] nbcwashington.com/news/local/george-washington-university-president-says-pro-palestinian-encampment-is-unlawful/3609422/
—
BREAKING: George Washington University’s U Yard has been “renamed” Shohada Square, effectively Martyrs Square.
“We reject the terms that our Imperialist, Colonialist, Colonialist Overlords have chosen for us. We name shit for ourselves and we do it to honor our martyrs.”
By: Stu – @thestustustudio · May 3, 2024
[Link] twitter.com/thestustustudio/status/1786604701179347269
Video Link:
https://video.twimg.com/ext_tw_video/1786603715220090880/pu/vid/avc1/720×1280/w2SQd6dFO-eJ98UX.mp4?tag=12
—
At the George Washington University Gaza Solidarity Encampment today, the protesters held a “People’s Tribunal” where they put President Ellen Granberg, Provost Christopher Bracey, the Board of Trustees, @GWPolice, and many others on trial.
Is it normal for students to want to hang their provost and chop the heads off of the Board of Trustees?
“Guillotine, Guillotine, Guillotine, Guillotine” …
By: Stu – @thestustustudio · May 3, 2024
[Link] twitter.com/i/status/1786541753064931643
Video Link:
https://video.twimg.com/ext_tw_video/1786538829211439104/pu/vid/avc1/1280×720/Po1z8lmmYqWY5elb.mp4?tag=12
“These students clearly thought that this was funny, and no one believes that they are turning into little Robespierres. ”
I do.
The Pro-Hamas student protesters at Columbia and UCLA are making a very convincing case for bringing back water cannons. Just sayin….
Hang Mike Pence! Hang Mike Pence!
“They found a fashionable audience awaiting them: windows overlooking the square had been rented at fancy prices; ladies came arrayed as for a festival. When Robespierre’s head was held up to the crowd a shout of satisfaction rose. One more death might mean little, but this one, Paris felt, meant that the Terror had come to an end.”
I ate a bag of Dick’s. They were yummy for my tummy.
https://dickspotatochips.com/
Bookmarked!
A Professor of history at the University might want to tell these kids what happened to Maximilien Robespierre: he was executed in July 1794, by the guillotine in the Place de la Revolution. The same way he demanded of those who dared to oppose him.
And a good time was had by all. Except Robespierre.
Time to END Federal Aid to colleges including the backing of student loans.
Defund Democrat Fascists! These are self inspired protests, these are globalist organized and trained destruction of the WEST
BLM, Hamas lovers, pro Drugs, pro illegals, importing 3rd world actors funded by GOVERNMENT, etc….want the RUIN of the WEST
There is a Reason China GAVE the Bidens millions! Chinas gives billions to US universities….to both fund the worst while stealing as much as possible
Private universities like Harvard have become hedge funds which offer classes. Their tax exemption should be removed. And while we’re at it, every church in America should be taxed. Religious organizations are nothing more than a bunch of people getting tax free status to engage in worshipping a figment of their imaginations… and we let them make tens of billions??????
So 1.1% of the populations hates and is hated by 2% of the population and I care why? Because that 2% controls much of academia, media, and neo-con philosophy and power.
I’m pissed at the 96.9% of the population that let the 2% have that influence. And wish that the 1.1% and the 2% would simply F off and go platy their world domination games somewhere else. Insane.
Achmed Allah
The way ISIS Jihadi John dealt with the heads of infidels was efficient & under budget.
It didn’t take long. Now Joe Biden is siding with Hamas to curry the favor in an election of his muslim constituency in swing states to assure his reelection. Joe knows that in Palestinian elementary school hate the Jews is being taught. Joe knows that the Hamas charter calls for the murder if every last Jew. Knowing these things, he is strengthening Hamas’s ability to survive by limiting arms to Israel. It’s not surprising. Joe Biden has always been a man who will do anything to stay in power. We should never forget that he embraced segregationist from the south in his party. Many refuse to see him for who he really is.
@thinkitthrough,
What happened?
@thinkitthrough,
I apologize realized Turley included a reference to what you are talking about. I agree with the professor. The move may by symbolic or maybe a warning to Israel that there is a limit to our support if Israel continues to ignore calls to avoid civilian casualties. It has been well known that the U.S. does not support an invasion in Rafa. People have nowhere else to go but to ruins and uncertainty that humanitarian and medical aid will be available. The problem is Israel is not properly preparing the zones it claims as designated safe zones. Israel doesn’t really care about the well being of ordinary Palestinians and the evidence on the ground does not comport to what they are saying. Withholding ammunition may be a fair warning to Israel that there is indeed a limit to what it can do and we can certainly dictate how much ammunition they get if there is a line that is crossed by Israel.
..the problem is that ‘ordinary Palestinians’ are the prebiotic for supporting a thriving Hamas.. saying you care about their well-being is saying you care about the well-being of Hamas……… it’s just that simple.. which is why Hamas always exists and always will try to take out Israel. example Oct. 7. God Bless Israel for finally standing up and saying ‘we’ve had enough of this for years & years… we now draw a line in the sand…..’
Joe Biden is no more siding with Hamas than Donald Trump is giving it up the poop shute to porn stars and underage girls.
Deep down, Trumpsters side with Hamas, too. But the optics of the moment make it look better to give Jews a great big wet tongue sloppy kiss.
“Deep down, Trumpsters side with Hamas, too,” says a pro-Biden, IC operative who likely knows that Biden’s ‘bait and switch’ tactics will cost him greatly with Jewish voters.
Hence, he stirs the pot. Actual truth is that I, as a non-Jewish, Trump supporter, believe the Jews have been the light of civilization for millennia. The great majority of what Western Civilization has achieved is due primarily to them, and them alone.
You believe Israel is the light of civilization. You think Jews only look out for their own kind and cannot be loyal citizens of the countries in which they live, that Jews (George Soros) are involved in a global conspiracy to control world governments and economies, that Jews are greedy, that Jews control Hollywood, and that the Jews killed Jesus. Come on man, look up the lynching of Leo Frank or some old Klan literature.
The left loves Jews but hates Israel. The right loves Israel but hates Jews.
It’s all about the power and money yielding control. It’s not just jews it’s the entire monetary banking scheme. You’re in debt the second you’re born, taxed at every step and in debt the day you die. Your rank and file is determined by your ability to produce. If you’re a good work horse you get a fed a few carrots along the way, if you’re a non achiever you get cigarettes, crack and a bottle of MD2020 to help you get through quickly.
..your generalizations are waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay off the mark
Dear Anonymous from the Darkside… only a fool makes sweeping generalizations and especially ridiculous ones about those who support President Trump……………….
I don’t think MAGA people are the crackheads cornhole…ask Larry Sinclair and Hunter.
“It’s not surprising. Joe Biden has always been a man who will do anything to stay in power.”
Well, let’s be fair. He needs to stay in power. An independent investigation of the Biden crime family could be very awkward.
Keep telling yourself that.
So, somehow, the alleged presence of a few Hamas fighters justifies the extermination of thousands of civilian non-combatants (including children) regardless of their support or opposition to Hamas? And you claim to believe in the rule of law?
Yes, how despicable; just don’t watch those civilians/children on Oct 7. Hamas always follows the rule of law/war.
You mean a few thousand Hamas terrorists who are intentionally hiding in civilian areas? They are legitimate targets, and collateral damage is not “extermination”. The civilian/terrorist casualty ratio is very low, which it would not be if Israel was trying to target civilians.
Hiding your terrorists in civilian areas is not a magic “get out of being attacked free card”.