In another victory for the mobocracy, Dickinson College canceled the commencement address of CNN host Michael Smerconish after liberal and pro-Palestinian students objected. The school decided to forego any speaker rather than risk the ire of radical students and groups. The greatest loss was not to Smerconish but to the college and the students. These graduates could have heard from one of the brightest legal minds in media and a person who has been a powerful and unflagging champion of free speech.
The decision was an unparalleled act of cowardice by President John Jones, who cited “overwhelming opposition” to Smerconish in a recent statement.
Somehow Jones viewed yielding to the mob to be a virtuous act and announced that “with the support of our Board of Trustees, I have decided to rescind the honorary degree and invitation to speak at Commencement.”
That certainly offered clarity to the question and the solution: Jones and the board should resign.
The very touchstone of higher education is a diversity of viewpoints. We have seen a growing orthodoxy on our campuses with little tolerance for dissenting views, particularly when it comes to conservative or libertarian voices. That is most evident in the selection of commencement speakers. It is now routine to invite far left commencement speakers, including at my own university. Speakers like MSNBC host Jen Psaki this year at GW are treated as ideal choices while the selection of more moderate or conservative speakers would trigger protests and cancel campaigns.
Commencements are now an extension of echo chambers on our campuses where faculties have largely purged conservatives from their ranks.
We previously discussed how surveys at universities show a virtual purging of conservative and Republican faculty members. For example, last year, the Harvard Crimson noted that the university had virtually eliminated Republicans from most departments but that the lack of diversity was not a problem. Now, a new survey conducted by the Harvard Crimson shows that more than three-quarters of Harvard Arts and Sciences and School of Engineering and Applied Sciences faculty respondents identify as “liberal” or “very liberal.” Only 2.5% identified as “conservative,” and only 0.4% as “very conservative.”
Likewise, a study by Georgetown University’s Kevin Tobia and MIT’s Eric Martinez found that only nine percent of law school professors identify as conservative at the top 50 law schools. Notably, a 2017 study found 15 percent of faculties were conservative. Another study found that 33 out of 65 departments lacked a single conservative faculty member.
Compare that to a recent Gallup poll stating, “roughly equal proportions of U.S. adults identified as conservative (36%) and moderate (35%) in Gallup polling throughout 2022, while about a quarter identified as liberal (26%).”
Targeting Smerconish is particularly maddening. I have known Michael for many years and I hold him in the highest respect. He remains one of the most intelligent and principled figures in the media. He is also one of the most consistent and committed figures in the media in his defense of the rule of law and constitutional values.
Critics have focused on excerpts from the journalist’s 2004 book “Flying Blind: How Political Correctness Continues to Compromise Airline Safety Post 9/11.” They charge that the book supports “racial profiling.” Yet, it is possible to disagree with a viewpoint or statement without seeking to cancel the speaker from being heard in a commencement or other event. Figures on the left often have a myriad of troubling past comments, but are routinely invited to speak at commencements.
The truth is that Smerconish is one of the most outspoken civil libertarians in the country and has routinely defended groups stereotyped or targeted simply for their race or national origin.
In a statement on his website, Smerconish explained how his writings have been “grossly distorted.” He added how he wished Jones would have done “the honorable thing” and called to “explain his inability to control the unjustified campus sentiment.”
He is certainly correct, but such integrity is increasingly rare in higher education where administrators and educators have remained silent as their colleagues are targeted, investigated, and sometimes fired for their views. Most Dickinson College professors have remained silent or voiced support for the cancelation in the wake of this decision.
Jones and the Dickinson board took the path of least resistance when confronted by the academic mob. In doing so, they have abandoned the core values that define higher education.
This act of surrender is particularly glaring at a college founded in 1783 by the great Benjamin Rush, a signer of the Declaration of Independence and champion of individual rights.
It is named for John Dickinson, another founding father who refused to sign the Declaration on Independence in seeking a peaceful resolution with Great Britain. Dickinson was a person of tremendous courage and principle despite his false depiction in the musical 1776.
Dickinson stood up to tremendous pressures in maintaining his position and wrote “My conduct this day, I expect will give the finishing blow to my once too great and, my integrity considered, now too diminished popularity.” Yet, he would enlist with the patriots and fight in the War for Independence. He was only one of two Framers to do so. Even his political adversary John Adams praised him for his stalwart commitment to principle and refusal to yield to pressure.
Dickinson is a worthy model for those who believe in free speech and the need to protect a diversity of viewpoints. Indeed, he was an early target of a cancel campaign by those who refused to understand the reason for his opposition to the declaration. Now, the college named for Dickinson has become the very thing that he fought to resist in his life.
Michael Smerconish will remain a voice for tolerance and free speech. He is the very embodiment of the ideals that led to the establishment of Dickinson College.
“Dickinson was a person of tremendous courage and principle despite his false depiction in the musical 1776.
Dickinson stood up to tremendous pressures in maintaining his position and wrote “My conduct this day, I expect will give the finishing blow to my once too great and, my integrity considered, now too diminished popularity.”
***********************
Sorry, not a Dickinson fan. He forgot the first virtue is courage in opposition to oppression not in taking a stand that he knew full well would endear him to the British crown and would not result in his hanging if he was wrong. He certainly did enlist in the Continental Army but his service was undistinguished by every account.
As Prof. Turley recognizes, forms of behavior are reinforced by success. The more often the adminstrators yield to this kind of pressure, the more likely such dmeands willl be made in the future. Furthermore, in order to test their strength, the mob will increase the outlandlishness of their demands. This process can only be stopped by someone raising a hand and saying: “No more”. Once that happens, and is repeated, universities will be ba
ck on the road to being places of open thought and speech.
Edwardmahl,
Exactly! I am considering pressing our local officials to take more determined action against riotous students on our campus. I may use parts of your arguments if you don’t mind, at least the sense of them, They are clear and forceful and true.
If you are sane but homicidal you send a SWAT team with authorization to kill to the home of a former president to pick up records you could have gotten by knocking on the door and asking.
If you want to make violence more likely you tell your agents not to wear identifying gear but instead wear ordinary clothing. What are Secret Service agents to think when they see an armed gang show up at a residence they have a duty to protect?
Between denying Secret Service protection to candidate Kennedy and now pulling this dangerous stunt at the President’s home some are wondering if the failures of lawfare are tempting some in the Cabal to try more extreme measures.
I really wish that this administration would stop acting as if a foreign government were in charge.
They WANTED something to happen.
Yes, designed to provoke a response.
Ruby Ridge and Waco come to mind.
Jan 6. where Pelosi refused to have a larger National Guard presence
All designed to provoke violence.
@Iowan
Yup. Disgusting and despicable. Pelosi is one of the most vile human beings to ever serve in government, in any party, in history. The dems have a few of those at present. Sure. She gets ‘elected’. 🙄🙄
Young said: “If you want to make violence more likely you tell your agents not to wear identifying gear but instead wear ordinary clothing.”
Not disputing your account, and maybe some of that was because it was Trump, but based on my reading it is sadly not at all out of the norm for Federal authorities, in general. Judge the MAL raid behavior against what ATF did to Clinton National Airport Executive Director Bryan Malinowski when they raided his home because he was legally selling some firearms at flea markets. I think the evident mindset is very similar>
Arkansas lawmakers: Did ATF agents use body cameras in fatal raid?
https://arkansasadvocate.com/2024/04/18/arkansas-lawmakers-did-atf-agents-use-body-cameras-in-fatal-raid/
Number 6: “based on my reading it is sadly not at all out of the norm for Federal authorities,”
+++
Unfortunately I think you are right and it is getting worse. Many years ago I attended a seminar conducted by a state prosecutor and county deputies on how to lawfully conduct a sting operation. Their chief example was a store they set up that was willing to purchase stolen goods. All they did was buy, document and then arrest. Nobody encouraged people to break the law and steal; they just appeared willing to buy stolen merchandise, and word got around, and the ‘customers’ came. I was startled when they warned about getting feds involved. They were described as crazy or lawless or both. It shocked me as I still had a high opinion of the feds. That has changed.
It shocked me as I still had a high opinion of the feds. That has changed.
I will never forgive nor forget how Janet Reno, under orders of Bill Clinton, directed US Marshalls to raid the home of a Cuban family in Miami on Good Friday to placate Fidel Castro. They apprehended the boy Elian Gonzalez who came to America in the arms of his mother fleeing Communism. She was desperate to give her son a better future since the father had not seen them in years, had nothing to do with them and lived on the opposite end of Cuba. Unmoved, Reno organized an armed raid of the home before dawn as the boy screamed in the arms of an adult holding him while hiding in the bedroom closet. The US Marshall had the rifle at gunpoint, full combat gear, armed to kill. Then there is Waco, Ruby Ridge, and now Mar-a-Lago
How many of you Trumpsters fell for the lie that Biden authorized deadly force against him in serving the search warrant in MAL? Trump is trying to raise money based on this lie, which is being spread by MAGA media.
Here are some facts: 1. The warrant specifically says that Trump was NOT at home: 2. The language about use of deadly force is BOILERPLATE and appears in ALL FBI search warrants, including the one used for searching for classified documents at Biden’s and Pence’s homes. It is a standard statement of policy.
Come on—admit it—how many of you fell for this latest lie?
Gigi – calling this language “boilerplate” does not change the fact that it appears in the body of warrant. Therefore, it can be relied upon by the agents serving the warrant.
It is NOT boilerplate – THAT is a LIE.
I recommended Radley Balko’s book.
But in addition for those of use alive for WACCO, RUBBY Ridge or the Bundy’s.,
Would KNOW that deadly force authorizations require signoff by the FBI director or the AG.
Night time or pre-dawn raids require special warrants.
SWAT raids require proving special circumstances.
The search warrant executed at Mar-a-Lago was legal. The SWAT rumor is just that, a RUMOR created to stir up the gullible and paranoid.
Every search warrant execution is planned with certain scenarios that might occur. They have to anticipate things can go awry or someone may choose to engage officers executing the warrant with violence or deadly force. I would say it’s standard procedure rathe than boiler plate phrasing.
Since it was a national security issue with highly classified documents having a SWAT team on standby shouldn’t be a surprise. The same is done when the military moves highly sensitive weapons across the country such as a nuclear weapon or a sensitive component. Having SWAT on standby during a search warrant execution involving highly sensitive government secrets should be expected. Right-wing media keeps stoking the rumor to gain clicks and attention.
Edward: Trump and MAGA media are LYING to you. Joe Biden did NOT “authorize “ the use of deadly force, and the warrant was executed when they knew he wasn’t home.
Why are you blind to this truth and why can’t you see how they’re manipulating you?
@edwardmah,
You do understand what boilerplate means, right? It means it’s standard phrasing on all search warrants. If a warrant is about searching a known drug house of course SWAT will be included. But that is if the authorities with the warrant choose to use SWAT. That it is in the warrant does not mean they must use SWAT.
Boilerplate means it’s on ALL warrants as in all standard forms such as a warrant.
Here’s what the FBI says:
The bureau emphasized that no extraordinary measures were ordered for the Mar-a-Lago raid. “The FBI followed standard protocol in this search as we do for all search warrants, which includes a standard policy statement limiting the use of deadly force,” the FBI’s statement read. “No one ordered additional steps to be taken and there was no departure from the norm in this matter.”
Former FBI associate director for counterintelligence, Frank Figliuzzi, supported this view on X, stating, “Yep, every FBI operations order contains a reminder of FBI deadly force policy. Even for a search warrant. Deadly force is always authorized if the required threat presents itself.”
BTW: this latest lie that Biden plotted and authorized killing Trump started with Marjorie Taylor-Greene,. Need I say more? She will stand out in history like McCarthy did for his red-baiting and blacklisting.
There is nothing “standard” about illegally raiding an ex-president’s house with deadly force over what amounts to a paperwork dispute.
The FBI executed a lawful search warrant to recover stolen classified documents after Trump lied about returning all of them. He had no possessory right to these documents in the first place. A thief cannot acquire rightful title to stolen property.
Wrong. The warrant was NOT lawful (non-particularity/specificity), and Trump did not lie about anything, and was cooperating with NARA and FBI.
YOU are lying.
Did you see the photos that were unsealed yesterday, showing Walt Nauta moving boxes of classified documents AFTER the FBI had executed the search warrant? Trump tried, but failed, to erase the security footage. Excerpted from Forbes, May 22, 2024:
KEY FACTS
A filing concerning witness testimony in the grand jury investigation that led to Trump’s indictment was unsealed Tuesday, in which U.S. District Judge Beryl Howell notes the government forced Trump’s attorneys to search Trump’s properties even after FBI investigators searched Mar-a-Lago in August 2022.
Trump lawyers carried out subsequent searches of Trump National Golf Club Bedminster, Trump Tower and storage units and offices, in addition to Mar-a-Lago, Howell noted.
Additional classified materials were found at an off-site office, a storage unit and at Mar-a-Lago, Howell wrote, noting Trump’s lawyers found a box with four documents that included classified materials in a Mar-a-Lago closet.
An empty folder and a “mostly empty folder marked ‘Classified Evening Summary’” was found in Trump’s bedroom at Mar-a-Lago, Howell noted, remarking, “No excuse is provided as to how the former president could miss the classified-marked documents found in his own bedroom at Mar-a-Lago.”
Howell’s ruling also asserts Trump purposely obstructed the government’s investigation after it subpoenaed him to turn over all the remaining classified documents in his possession, saying the government “sufficiently demonstrated” Trump violated the obstruction statute by showing he “intentionally concealed the existence of additional documents bearing classification markings” from his attorneys.
Trump’s spokesperson Steven Cheung has not responded to a request for comment.
If Trump was cooperating, he would have returned all of the classified documents upon the multiple polite requests.
NONE of that is true, and no one “moved boxes” which is perfectly legal anyway.
YOU are lying.
Anonymous: I QUOTED FORBES–hardly a left-wing publication. Is Forbes lying? It wasn’t “perfectly legal” for Trump to have the classified documents in the first place, to retain them after multiple polite requests to return them, to hide them from the FBI and even his own lawyer, to move them around to prevent detection and seizure and to try to erase security footage to cover up what he did. It’s this conduct that got him indicted in Florida, and even Turley can’t defend it.
FORBES is completely left-wing and Chinese-owned.
YOU ARE LYING
Criminally stupid comment.
Trump’s presence is completely irrelevant – heavily armed Secret Service was there, and introducing deadly force could have resulted in a mass casualty event. This was likely your goal.
A NO FORCE order should have accompanied the illegal warrant given the potential for blue-on-blue escalation and confusion (ask Dan Bongino who worked SS and deconfliction).
The only conclusion is Wray and Garland wanted a Waco-style shootout, for which both should be prosecuted severely and jailed for life.
I beleive they were HOPING for a gun battle.
The only conclusion is that there are too many gullible people out there who believe whatever lies they are fed by a chronic liar and manipulater, so hungry and desperate for power that he spews outrageous and provably false accusations against Biden.
Gigi, which DHS contractor is your employer?
YOU are the liar and seditionist here.
There’s nothing ordinary about dumping identifying clothing so as not to be recognizable as FBI personnel while conducting a search or raid. We’ve all seen photos and videos of FBI raids where agents are wearing clothing clearly identifying them as FBI. in big letters. Ditching the identifying clothing is a recent developement that appears to have begun during the Russia-Collusion Hoax.
Law enforcement does not dump clothes that in BIG BOLD LETTERS Identifies themselves – because otherwise they can be legitimately killed when serving a warrant. When a police officer breaks into a home – even authorized by a warrant – if they do not identify themselves and they are shot – the person shooting them is JUSTIFIED.
This is why we severaly restrict no knock warrants, night and predawn raids and the use of SWAT teams.
Each of these requires special authorization – they are NOT boilerplate.
FBI Agents on a raid typically have special vests – usually bulletproof with FBI in giant letters.
In the hope that if they startle or wake someone they will hestitate a second and read the VEST before firing.
What is a Trumpster?
Gigi,
The Warrant does not control whether Trump will be at home or not.
But even it it was magically possible to know with 100% certainty at the time the warrant was drafted, that Trump would not be there – Armed private Private security as well as Armed secret Service absolutely Would be there.
These people are NOT the Bundy’s in Nevada – another instance of the FBI authorizing Deadly force against people who were ultimately found to be acting lawfully – nuts but still lawfully.
These are Secret Service agents, and securtity people – many of whom are former law enforcement.
They are not at MAL to plot a coup. They are their to protect the former president as required by law, and his property.
These are people who will respond perfectly respectfully to an FBI Agent in a business suit presenting a warrant.
But who are likely to shoot first and ask questions later when confronted by NInja SWAT teams with assault weapons and No identification.
This was a deliberate effort to provoke a confrontation.
Nor is the only time this has occured – we have seen this type of Gestapo Nacht und Nebel tactics from Left wing nuts before.
A SWAT team was sent on a predawn raid of Stone and Manafort, and several Prolife protestors.
I would stgronjgly advise reading Radley Balko’s book “The rise of the warrior cop”
He documents an explosion of fatal police encounters – often with innocent people because Law Enforcement engaged in shock and awe tactics where they were wholely in appropriate.
We have had otherwise innocent people kill police offices because they broke into a home predawn with overwhelming force and expected people who were asleep to note that they had ONCE said they were police – before breaking through doors and windows.
They have served SWAT warrants on the wrong address and had homeowners shoot police officers, because the thought they were theives, or shoot at them and then get killed themselves – or their wives and children.
There are real instances where these tactics are needed – but they are incredibly rare. They involve serving warrants against violent criminals who have a long history of responding violently to police.
These tactics are not merely wrong – they are illegal in many states – specifically because they CAUSE violent conflict rather than alleviate it.
They are WRONG whether Trump is the target, or Stone or even a local small time drug dealer that has no reputation for violence.
We saw this during the Clinton administration with Ruby Ridge and David Koresch – resulting in the MURDER by the FBI of lots of completely innocent people over inconsequential crimes – The FBI ultimately LOST the criminal case associated with Ruby Ridge and there was serious consideration by state law enforcement of filing manslaughter charges against FBI agents who without a valid warrant or even a valid crime murdered Weavers family. The FBI managed to avoid some scrutiny at Wacco – because they killed everyone – over minor gun charges.
McVeigh cited these as justifcations for the OKC bombing.
So many decisions by the Feds are often so stupid – the Raid on David Koresch was on April 19.
I used to be people memorized this
“Listen, my children, and you shall hear
Of the midnight ride of Paul Revere,
On the eighteenth of April, in Seventy-Five:
Hardly a man is now alive
Who remembers that famous day and year.”
Guess what the date of the OKC bombing was ?
This is like what idiot did not expect Al Queda to be up to something on the 10th aniversary of 9/11
(Libyan Ambassador murdered).
Extremists – left, right, religious place great significance to dates.
Pay attention.
“The language about use of deadly force is BOILERPLATE and appears in ALL FBI search warrants”
False. I noted Wacco and Ruby ridge above. This is NOT new. The FBI is NOT permitted to use Deadly force – except in response to deadly force, and ROI lanbguge regarding the USE of deadly force is NOT part of ANY warrant, and not part of the ROI for any FBI action absent Specific authorization by the director of the FBI. At Ruby Ridge – Director Freeh specifically authorized the use of Deadly force.
At Wacco – AG Reno authorized it. ROI’s that include th euse of deadly force are NEVER boilerplate. they ALWAYS require signoff at the very top.
“including the one used for searching for classified documents at Biden’s and Pence’s homes. It is a standard statement of policy.”
False, further neither of these were predawn SWAT raids as used against Trump, Stone, Manafort, and Pro-Life protestors as well as many J6 defendants.
I am going to use Rubby ridge and Wacco as examples – because bother were determined to be inappropriate raids.
As a rule law enforcement in the US CAN NOT serve a search warrant from 10pm until 7am – when people could be sleeping.
Because we KNOW that when you break into a home during those hours there is often confusion and because people often respond with deadly force. I would not this prohibition dates back to 16th century England.
The prohibition is NOT absolute – a NBight time raid can be authorized – but only by the courts and only under very special circumstances.
Generally were there is already an expectation of violence, and surpise is critical to try to avoid violence.
Next the same thing it true of SWAT raids – regardless of the hour. Lots of Ninja warriors breaking into a house heavily armed and poorly identified is a recipe for violence.
It is actually common for really nasty people to call the police and report violence in progress at someones home – to “SWAT” them.
It is not uncommon for a SWAT Team to raid perfectly innocent peoples homes end up with either a police officer or someone innocent killed.
MTG has been SWATTED by left wing nuts atleast a half a dozen times. It is so frequent that the police no longer take reports of violence at her home seriously – it is just another Crank Swat call.
Regardless, people get killed from this. A mayor in a DC loop town had his dog murdered over a SWATTING.
Neither SWAT teams NOR deadly force ROI’s are “routine”
Again -go read Balko’s book, your full of Schiff.
BTW the special authorization requirements are not “policies” they are considered the due process required by the constitution.
Our founders were subject to these types of raids by the British which is why in the US warrants are required and without proving special circumstances you can not stage night time or pre-dawn raids.
But increasingly the “deep state” is doing to republicans – what it has not all that often done to Drug dealers.
“Come on—admit it—how many of you fell for this latest lie?”
You did.
Seek help for the ridiculous mental problems that cause you to run on and on and on and on.
NUTCHACHACHA, are you insane?
______________________________________
“The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results.”
– 12-Step Program, Alcoholics Anonymous
_______________________________________________
You have generated NO (i.e. zero) converts, yet you continue.
There is no point to your ridiculous behavior.
You’re fooling yourself, mista sista!
Why not just be happy with your welfare and affirmative action life—so long as it persists and remains available to ya’all?
OpenAI, News Corp. sign multi-year content deal
https://www.foxbusiness.com/technology/openai-news-corp-multi-year-content-deal
It won’t be long before Rupert Murdoch replaces Turley with an AI “lawyer.”
Aninny, you and your sidekicks, Dennista and NUTCHACHACHA, have no credibility, but then that is nothing new, right?
It seems that someone on the faculty needs to grow a pair.
They need to review and modify the student code of conduct so that its clear that these sort of outbursts will not be tolerated and that they will face repercussions.
Imagine a student who was told to leave the university and that they were suspended pending an investigation.
Now it seems that most of these students will be allowed to return.
But what if they weren’t. That they were tossed from the University and they failed the last quarter’s classes. That if they were to graduate, the diploma would be withheld and if they were expecting to go to graduate school, they could forget it.
I’m sure they’d cry, threaten to sue, and even sue the University.
Claiming that their 1st Amendment rights were violated.
Of course they would be in for a rude awakening.
This should freeze the cancel culture and teach some of these students an important lesson.
Keep in mind that they are only a small portion of the student population.
-G
This too will pass
Nothing to say anymore but take their endowments and stop sending your kids. These institutions are fully lost. 🤷🏽♂️
PALESTINIANS, IRANIANS, QATARIS, SAUDI ARABIANS ET AL.
__________________________________________________________________
“New 9/11 evidence alleges ties between hijackers, Saudi government”
– Families of 9/11 victims and rescuers are suing to release video
– Footage allegedly shows Saudi officials welcoming hijackers to US
“Senior Saudi government officials helped the hijackers plan the attack,” Elizabeth Vargas.
– NEWSNATION
In other words, these college students want Freedom of Speech for themselves only, but want to deny those same rights to other people that have a different point of view. Hopefully they will stay out of government in the future.
The United States has over 330 million people and each has a different experience and different opinion. Americans will never agree on everything and that’s a good thing.
Since these students are so concerned about innocent people being harmed and killed, why were they so silent when Hamas attacked innocent people in Israel on October 7, 2023 (the equivalent of America’s 9/11)?
Hamas, the official government in Gaza, crossed into Israel and murdered infants, women and civilians at a rock concert less than a year ago. Where is the sympathy for Israel? Why not protest for all innocent people including Israelis?
Today in 2024, Guantanamo Bay gulag is still open. It has a near 99% failure rate. According to the ACLU and Human Rights Watch, more than 40,000 innocent Americans are still being blacklisted by the United States exceeding 20 years now. Where are the college students at Harvard and Yale protesting these human rights abuses? Conservative students should care also since January 6 sympathizers have likely been added to 9/11 blacklists as terrorist suspects and punished for life without charge or trial.
Why go to college if you can’t use logic and debate?
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Come on guys !!!!
Why no more responses?
We were having such great fun !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Why would any organization equivocate in favor of “Palestinians” when it was precisely the Palestinians who enabled and empowered Hamas to heinously abduct, imprison, assault, batter, rape, decapitate, and murder innocent Israelis?
There is no degree of separation between the savage Hamas and the barbarian Palestinians.
One is either part of the solution or part of the problem.
Palestinians are a substantial part of the problem, if not all of the problem, under different guises.
If Palestinians claim innocence, it is the duty of Israel, America, the United Kingdom et al. to relieve the Palestinians of the onus and subjugation of Hamas.
College students – both Liberal and Conservative – may want to consider this fact from American history. Political parties usually don’t lead or expand constitutional rights. Political parties usually FOLLOW behind court rulings.
A political party didn’t lead on women’s voting rights before 1920. The ACLU attorneys and constitutional attorneys won those rights in court, then the political parties followed behind. Neither Democrats nor Republicans won those rights, plaintiffs in court did. Prior to 1920, 100% of voters were men driving the political parties.
John F. Kennedy and Robert Kennedy ultimately did the right thing on racism and fighting Jim Crow practices, but they usually followed behind the ACLU attorneys. On interracial marriage, Robert Kennedy deferred the Lovings family to the ACLU in the landmark “Loving v. Virginia” case. ACLU attorneys won those rights, not political parties.
Neither political party led on interracial marriage rights prior to 1967 nor equal marriage rights for LGBT couples. Democrats actually opposed equal marriage rights not that long ago. ACLU attorneys representing plaintiffs won those rights, then the political parties followed behind.
Political parties help overturn and weaken Eminent Domain rights (your home can only be taken away for legitimate government purposes). The Institute for Justice (constitutional lawyers) fought for those rights in court, neither Republicans nor Democrats put up a fight for our rights. [source: true life movie “Little Pink House” about this landmark U.S. Supreme Court case].
College students are smart enough to not blindly follow any political party like sheep. They are in college to actually use their brain for critical thinking. Both Liberals and Conservatives win rights by respecting the U.S. Constitution (not politicians) or trying to pass a constitutional-amendment to improve our constitution.
Today some colleges got it backwards. They are violating the First Amendment censoring speakers while blindly following political parties.
Smerconish actually follows the U.S. Constitution and is very fair in his debates, even to those that may disagree with him. If college students are afraid to debate maybe you shouldn’t be in college!
Those rights were won – by lawyers arguing the constitution. Not by passing new laws.
There is no role for government – beyond enforcing the constitution as written.
We have subsequently and correctly decided that laws targeting people for their sexual orientation are unconstitutional.
A centuries old principle of law is that we can not criminalize conduct that does not have atleast the probability of harming others.
A crime is an intentionally wrong act that will cause harm to others, or an intentionally reckless act that can easily case harm to others.
Those on the left should consider when they criminalize conduct that does no harm, that empowers the right to do the same.
@ John Say
You post dozens of long-winded, incoherent diatribes every day, with unrelated and disconnected thoughts, that are absolutely impossible to comprehend.
Have you heard of “pressure of thought and pressure of speech”.
It results in an uncontrollable urge to give voice to any fleeting thoughts without any kind of filter.
These are common symptoms in psychotic disorders, especially bipolar disorder.
Another bipolar disorder symptom is severe insomnia. Do you find that you need very little sleep, or can go for several days without sleep.
This is a typical finding in the manic phase of bipolar disorder.
Just trying to be helpful.
No your not trying to be helpful, your just being obnoxious.
Do you honestly think I give a schiff about your bizarre mental health theories ?
I do not have insomnia, I have work ours different from many people. I often work with people on the west coast or New Zealand.
People who make assumptions without knowledge of the facts make themselves look like fools.
I have adopted children as well as had jobs that required TS/SCI security clearances, I have had my background and mental health thoroughly checked – I am not bipolar, nor do I suffer from anxiety and depression – like about 1/2 of all left wing nuts.
I am not psychotic and I am not giving voice to fleeting thoughts rushing through my head.
At least 90% of my posts are directly responding to stupid posts by left wing nuts.
If you did not make so many stupid posts and we not in such fundamental ways wrong – my responses would be non existent.
You can shut me up trivialy – Check the facts before you post. Google is your friend. But do so properly – google will find you the actual facts on most anything. But it will also find you lots of wrong opinions. It does not take a lot to tell an opinion from a fact.
But so few of you on the left are able.
I think you may have confirmed my point.
Many fleeting disconnected thoughts.
Your LONG and rambling response seems a little defensive.
You could have just dismissed me as a fool in one sentence, and left it at that.
If you are “working” these odd hours of the early morning, how can you also be reading posts here and responding to so many of them with such long-winded responses. Just reading a post, then thinking about it, then posting your very long responses would take a lot of time. How can you be both “working” and spending so much time here in the early morning.
ATS – have you head of confession through projection ?
Seriously? All of that balderdash is to ignore the illicit inflection point that was Lincoln, who broke every fundamental law in existence, stole America from actual Americans, and effectively redistributed that wealth for the sake of his fellow traveler, Karl Marx, when the act which would have been accretive to America went undone, incomplete, and unfinished, that is, the compassionate repatriation of the long-suffering African abductees, per the immigration law of the American Founders and Framers.
The singular American failure is the judicial branch, with emphasis on the Supreme Court, the Justices of which swear an oath to support the Constitution, and that august body completely failed to nip Lincoln in the bud by finding the inescapable truth that secession was and remains not prohibited and fully constitutional, ultimately reversing Lincoln’s unconstitutional anti-American actions and compelling Lincoln’s impeachment and conviction for treasonable crimes of the highest of offices.
Anonymous- Your description of the campaign for women’s suffrage seems to be inaccurate. The ACLU and other lawyers seem to have played little part. It was suffragette groups and temperance groups, working together, that succeeded in getting voting rights into state constitutions, as early as 1869 in Wyoming. Temperance anmd women’s rights seem to have been tied together and gained strength concurrently. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Women%27 s_suffrage_ in_the_United_States The ACLU was founded in 1920.
Curious how universities, which were so big on diversity when it came to affirmative action in student recruitment, takes the opposite tack when it comes to viewpoint diversity in its faculty and guest speakers.
One of Political Correctness’/Woke Identity Politics’ many paradoxes. The closing of the American Mind proceeds apace, guaranteeing its demise and inevitable relegation to the dustbin of history.
Diversity, welfare, affirmative action, quotas, forced busing, public housing, unfair “Fair Housing” laws, discriminatory “Non-Discrimination” laws, favor, charity, bias, etc., are unconstitutional.
There are only winners and losers.
You believe the truth, the Constitution and the Bill of Rights; you win.
You believe lies and propaganda; you lose.
_______________________________________________
“It doesn’t work if you don’t believe.”
– Violet, The Skeleton Key
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@ 00:30
https://youtu.be/zI-NSs1JxeA
Imagine sending a bunch of your own citizens to their deaths from the comfort of your Qatari luxury hotel suite and seeing a bunch of paid trolls taking over the (once) best universities and cheering for you.
Imagine getting a free ride to the (once) best universities in the world and all you can muster is cheering for or against a party in the middle east conflict scam. What a waste.
Naturally, given the priorities of Professor Turley and his hired trolls, who speaks at a college commencement party before the drunken kegger is more important subject matter than who sits on the federal bench.
Still, this sad milestone bears some note:
“Biden celebrates confirming 200 federal judges during presidency”
https://justthenews.com/politics-policy/biden-celebrates-confirming-200-federal-judges-during-presidency
“Today, we reached another milestone in the effort to protect the freedoms and liberties of all Americans: the confirmation of the 200th federal judge since I took office,” he said in a statement. “These judges are exceptionally well-qualified. They come from every walk of life, and collectively, they form the most diverse group of judicial appointees ever put forward by a President – 64% are women and 62% are people of color.”
LOL LOL LOL — 64% women, 62% people of color, and probably 99% communists. Party on, Professor.
The perfect DEI combination. Thanks fool, I mean Joe. Rev. Al must be proud of you.
It’s questionable whether Reverend Al voted for KKK Joetard, but we know Professor Turley voted for him, being a llifelong Chicago democrat who voted for Obama and Hillary, and being teacher, mentor, and advocate of Trump-hating onvicted multiple felon Michael Avenatti.
In doing so, they have abandoned the core values that define higher education.
Dickinson’s core value$ are listed plainly on their website:
Tuition for the 2023-24 academic year is $62,900.
https://www.dickinson.edu/homepage/1657/quick_facts
Medical school tuition at Texas public universities ~ $20,000 / year. Many other states offer similar tuition.
With Marxists taking over “higher” education like Dickinson, Harvard, Yale, Columbia, et al, paying them for a university degree is a sign that capitalism is embraced by the Left all too enthusiastically. Hypocrites.
Any post of Turley’s that makes Leftists unhappy serves an important purpose.
“No man can tame a tiger into a kitten by stroking it. There can be no appeasement with ruthlessness. There can be no reasoning with an incendiary bomb.” Franklin D. Roosevelt
“Appeasement only makes the aggressor more aggressive.” Dean Rusk
I just wish some reporter would ask Michael Smerconish if he ever commented on people like Ann Coulter or Riley Gaines being canceled. Or ask him if he commented when Condi Rice was booted as well as Mike Pompeo. Did Mikey sit quietly while the sharks ate the others thinking that they wouldn’t eat a fellow liberal shark?