Last week, we witnessed yet another case of student activists interrupting a class or event. This type of action has become all too familiar on our campuses as students and faculty shout down speakers or cancel events. However, this time, something different happened: Columbia actually suspended a student for the protest. It has also identified two other students associated with Barnard, Union Theological Seminary, and Teachers College. Those referrals will raise a novel question for their respective schools.
In connection with Tuesday’s disruption of a History of Modern Israel class, Columbia University has identified and suspended a Columbia participant, pending a full investigation and disciplinary process. The investigation of the disruption, including the identification of additional participants, remains active. Disruptions to our classrooms and our academic mission and efforts to intimidate or harass our students are not acceptable, are an affront to every member of our University community, and will not be tolerated.
A suspension is a good start. That is more than schools like Northwestern have done in similar circumstances.
Northwestern students succeeded in cancelling a speech by former U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions. Student Zachery Novicoff embodied the rising intolerance to free speech on campus. He is quoted as saying “There’s a limitation to free speech. That ends at overtly racist old white dudes.”
I criticized former Northwestern University President Morton Schapiro for his lack of support for free speech on campus. Schapiro denounced what he called “absolute” free speech positions and endorsed speech sanctions, including treating speech as a form of assault.
During his tenure, the university often seemed a mere pedestrian to mob action taken against dissenting voices. For example, we previously discussed a Sociology 201 class by Professor Beth Redbird that examined “inequality in American society with an emphasis on race, class and gender.” To that end, Redbird invited both an undocumented person and a spokesperson for the Immigration and Customs Enforcement. It is the type of balance that is now considered verboten on campuses.
Members of MEChA de Northwestern, Black Lives Matter NU, the Immigrant Justice Project, the Asian Pacific American Coalition, NU Queer Trans Intersex People of Color and Rainbow Alliance organized to stop other students from hearing from the ICE representative. However, they could not have succeeded without the help of Northwestern administrators (including Dean of Students Todd Adams). The protesters were screaming “F**k ICE” outside of the hall. Adams and the other administrators then said that the protesters screaming profanities would be allowed into the class if they promised not to disrupt the class. Really? They were screaming profanities and seeking to stop the class but would just sit nicely as the speaker answered questions?
Of course, that did not happen. As soon as the protesters were allowed into the classroom, they prevented the ICE representative from speaking. The ICE official eventually left and Redbird canceled the class to discuss the issue with the protesters that just prevented her students from hearing an opposing view.
The comments of the Northwestern students were predictable after being told by people like Schapiro that some offensive speech should be treated as a form of assault. SESP sophomore April Navarro rejected that faculty should be allowed to invite such speakers to their classrooms for a “good, nice conversation with ICE.” She insisted such speakers needed to be silenced because they “terrorize communities” and profit from detainee labor. Here is the face of the new generation of censors being shaped by speech-intolerant academics like Schapiro:
“We’re not interested in having those types of conversations that would be like, ‘Oh, let’s listen to their side of it’ because that’s making them passive rule-followers rather than active proponents of violence. We’re not engaging in those kinds of things; it legitimizes ICE’s violence, it makes Northwestern complicit in this. There’s an unequal power balance that happens when you deal with state apparatuses.”
It is the same sense of license that we saw at Stanford Law School where students shouted down a federal judge. No students (who were not masked) were punished and faculty even defended their conduct.
The Columbia incident raises a new and novel issue. The students at Barnard, Union Theological Seminary, and Teachers College are being referred to their own administrators. Even if the schools were inclined to punish such conduct, how does that question change when the conduct occurs at another school?
Many of us would generally oppose schools disciplining students for exercising their free speech rights off campus. Even being arrested for a protest outside of school is not considered a violation of most school codes. The question is whether this changes when the students conduct unlawful protests at other universities.
It is a tricky question. Universities have a unique relationship to each other as institutions of higher education. If schools treat these disruptions as “off the books” for student conduct, activists could simply agree to disrupt each other’s schools, creating a de facto license for such misconduct.
Schools could combat such circumvention by seeking trespass charges. While the Columbia student may claim the right to enter any classroom (which could be debatable), non-Columbia students cannot.
Alternatively, the schools could extend student codes to misconduct at other universities in a type of reciprosity policy. However, this would require, in my view, notice and an amending of student codes.
Take the Barnard student code. In its jurisdictional statement, the school takes a broad approach (and would notably include a charge of trespass at another school):
“The Code of Conduct applies to any program, activity or event that occurs on or off-campus. In cases where a student is involved in a non-Barnard College proceeding (such as law enforcement investigation) that student may also be subject to the Code of Conduct, which is an independent process.”
However, it refers to disruption or misconduct of the College or its operations. There is a reference to off-campus activities, but those are authorized Barnard events:
“Disruption or obstruction of teaching, research, administration, disciplinary proceedings; other College or University activities, including its public service functions on or off campus; or of other authorized non-College activities when the conduct occurs on College premises, such that others are deprived of access to such scheduled activities.”
So far this isn’t working out too well for the activists. One was identified last week and suspended immediately pending a full investigation.
In connection with Tuesday’s disruption of a History of Modern Israel class, Columbia University has identified and suspended a Columbia participant, pending a full investigation and disciplinary process. The investigation of the disruption, including the identification of additional participants, remains active. Disruptions to our classrooms and our academic mission and efforts to intimidate or harass our students are not acceptable, are an affront to every member of our University community, and will not be tolerated.
I think that the school would need to amend the language before enforcing such a policy covering the disruption of other educational institutions.
Jonathan Turley is the Shapiro professor of public interest law at George Washington University and the author of “The Indispensable Right: Free Speech in an Age of Rage.”
Common courtesy that should be written into a code of conduct agreement at Stanford, “Conduct becoming a Stanford Student,” for example, should include the punishment for violating such conduct. An invited guest has the right to speak and those who disagree with the speaker can not attend or attend – quietly and politely – to learn another viewpoint. This behavior of disruptors at speaking engagements has got to stop. A suspension won’t do it. Write into their college acceptance and agreement for a code of conduct with expulsion as the result of a violation. I’m willing to assume that many are not even citizens but students from another country. Expulsion will also result in the student losing his/her student visa and required to leave the country or be deported.
What happened to the coof story from yesterday? too many red flags?
Yes, non-sterilizing inoculation advocates are in the red when people are allowed a choice to practice risk management without censure or penalty.
Play stupid games and win stupid prizes. I am not sure if this young person needs to be expelled, but punished? Yes. It is about time to start to punish those that interrupt public discussion.
Quiet Man, would a student be expelled if he went to a class on transgenderism, started screaming against it and forced the class to disband? I think we all know the answer.
On Friday night, Trump announced he was firing 18 inspectors general throughout various federal agencies, including the Departments of Defense, Labor, State and Health and Human Services. This was done in violation of the Inspector General Act, which requires that a president give Congress 30 days advance that he plans to fire an inspector general — which is an independent watchdog that calls out waste, fraud and abuse — and give a specific reason for their firing.
Who gives a sh!t. trump said he wants to be a dictator on day 1. So be it. You elected this dufus dictator sexual abusing animal. But hey, Hunter Biden’s laptop.
Although whether Trump overstepped is TBD, he did not say he was going to be a dictator, and you know it. He said that on day one he would be a dictator in resuming drilling and closing the border only, reversing Biden (dictatorial) actions on his day one. Honest people caught the wryness in his comment.
Stop making excuses for the moronic orangutan in the Oval. Anon is right. tRUMP intended to be a dictator in every sense of the word. Prices are going up. Middle-class and poor voted for this a–hole against their best interests. Stupid. I don’t feel sorry for orangutan voters. They’re getting what they deserve.
Ohhhh the horror….
🤣🤣😎
Another a–hole Democrat police state fascist pouring out it’s Marxist tears of rage that incompetents that looked the other way at Democrat police state fascism actually got fired!
The tears are delicious as they and you get what you deserve.
Anonymous : Robert DeNiro, is that you? A bit unhinged. Your ACA has mental health provisions and it would benefit you to utilize them
Stand up Robert DeNiro and be counted! Oh, you are standing up?!
DUMB KAMALA/BIDEN VOTER!! 21% inflation under them!!!
I do not feel sorry for Trump voters either – they are getting what they asked for.
And they are happy. Trump is the only president ever to poll higher in their 2nd term than first.
Trump is more popular today than he was on Nov. 5th. Trump is more popular in UK than any other British leader.
We are also seeing how those on the left lie.
Biden and democrats claimed they needed new laws and more money to secure the border.
For the first time in decades 5 times more illegal aliens are being removed from the country per day than are getting in.
Illegal border crossings are down from a high of 11,000/day to 200.
How was this accomplished ? By following the law.
You rant that Trump is a fascist – yet he is working to RESTORE individual rights. to reduce govenrment power over our lives.
The definition of fascism is “everything inside government, nothing outside of government, nothing against government”
Trump is the REAL antiFascists – those of you on the left are engaged in orwellian word games. Fascist wannabes pretending that efforts to thwart your progress towards ever higher levels of fascism are themselves fascist.
You talk about Trump not following the law – Why were the actiosn that Trump has taken to FOLLOW US IMMIGRATION LAW not done over the past 4 years ? There are 1.3M people in this country who have gone through the entire legal process attempting to remain in this country and lost. They are criminals, they are not legitimate assylum seekers, and Courts – mostly Biden courts have ordered their deportation, and yet they remained here.
Wasn’t Biden President – wasn’t he obl;igated to follow the law ? Wasn’t Mayorkas ?
The constitution states that the executive power of the United States is fully vested in the president.
Constitutionally the President is obligated to get the consent of the Senate for top policy making positions.
But there is no other constitutional limit on Executive actions regarding hiring and firing.
Trump was elected in 2016 to Fire people. Many are angry with him that he failed to fire people in his first term.
He has been given the opportunity to redeem himself – mostly because all other choices are worse.
And even now – he is not firing people fast enough.
Whiile Congress does not have the constitutional power to meddle in executive management decisions – such as hiring and firing – and SCOTUS has confirmed that REPEATEDLY, these fired people have the same rights to file wrongful termination lawsuits as anyone else.
If you are employed in the executive branch you need not agree with the policies of the president,
But you are obligated to follow them and enforce them. If you can not do so, you must quit or be fired.
We just had the longest election cycle in US history – Trump has been running for Re-election for the past 4 years.
He made it perfectly clear what he would do as president – you are absolutely correct – those who voted for him voted FOR what he is doing now. He made no secret of what he would do as president.
And the american people elected him KNOWING that is what he would do.
That does not give the president carte blanche to violate the law and the constitution. To accomplish what he was elected to do.
But that is a debate about HOW, not WHAT.
Democrats are challenging some of what he is doing – and to some extent they are at-least temporarily successful – that is how our system works. Biden and Obama were reversed by the courts more than any prior presidents.
If Trump is overstepping – the courts will settle that eventually.
But again that is an issue of HOW – not WHAT. The american people EXPECT what Trump is doing.
Not only has Trump told people what he would do – before they voted – but the left EXAGGERATED what he would do – and people STILL voted for him anyway.
Those of you on the left empowered Trump.
You said – he was a fascist – and people voted for him anyway.
You said – he was an insurrectionist – and people voted for him anyway.
You said – he was a rapist – and people voted for him anyway.
You said – he was a criminal – and people voted for him anyway.
Either people do not beleive you, or they do not care.
Why do you think that has changed simply because Trump is doing what he promised ?
The national debt is primarily the product of shared responsibility under the Obamacares umbrella, university administrative profits, and naive Green deals.
Trump made a clever little wry comment the other day about remaining in office past his second term. Joking? It is in poor taste. Stay out of jail for life, Mr. President?
You sai dit yourself, clever and wry, yet you accuse trump dictator tendencies. Amazing how you can read into a joke and decide he’s a facist. Stay off the mind expanding drugs sir.
ATS – where do you get the idea that you matter anymore ?
While this election gave Trump a smaller mandate than he claims.
It was an Overwhelming rejection of the Left.
You don’t matter anymore.
Few people care about what you think is constitutional or legal.
Few people care what you say Trump did or did not say or do.
You have lied so much no one is paying attention.
If Trump turns out to the the big bad wolf and gobbles you up – you have no one to blame but yourself.
In 2016 we elected someone whose signature phrase was “You’re fired”
Whether we voted for him or not many of us expected and Wanted Trump in 2017 to fire significant portions of the Federal Executive.
To do What California should have down with its forests and clear the dead wood.
We have waited 8 years – but Finally, “You’re Fired” is the message of the Trump Whitehouse.
It has been far too long a wait.
Am I critical of Trump’s firings ? Absolutely – it took Far to long to get here.
Yes the american people elected Trump. They voted for the person most qualified that reflected their values.
If you wanted someone besidees Trump as president – you should have nominated someone that better refected the values of the american people.
You didn’t.
You are busy trying to sew confusion – but it is not working so well this time.
The people are on to you.
We have been through the collusion delusion, the alpha bank hoax, the Hunter Biden laptop, the russian disinformaiton nonsense, the lies and censorship about covid and we just saw that 8-10m real of fake Biden voters did not show up for the 2024 election.
Were they Real ? Maybe. Whatever the explanation for the millions of missing voters – it is not good for Democrats – for you.
Apart from being off topic, you obviously have mental health issues to deal with. Please visit a pysch asap.
Hunter Biden’s laptop.
You left out he pulled the Dwarf, Marvelous Milley and the Walrus’s Security details and took special interest in Milley including a demotion and perhaps a court martial for his treasonous actions. Every single move is exactly what he should do to bring our nation back to normalcy. Trump train is coming, if you don’t like it, get off the tracks!
“. . . which requires that . . .”
Clearly, there is a disagreement between the two branches — which is why we have a third branch, the federal courts.
There is a good argument that the “notice provision” is unconstitutional. And an even better argument that, except for judges, a president possesses “unrestricted removal power.”
Instead of using this opportunity to be intelligent, by citing the *arguments*, you take it as an opportunity to, yet again, degenerate into playground insults.
“Clearly, there is a disagreement between the two branches — which is why we have a third branch, the federal courts.”
Exactly. Trump is exploiting his powers in the interests of undoing abuses by the previous administration, rightly, and intelligently, so. Some of his actions may ultimately be determined to exceed his powers; I very much suspect that he is aware of that. But there are two advantages. First, depending on how, where, and when injunctions fall, he may get some common sense directives enforced immediately that we would be waiting for many months (or longer) for Congress to enact. Second, even if some of his actions are immediately enjoined, he has massively publicized those actions and the rationale for them in the public square, where they will be debated by thousands of citizens, and the outcome of those debates may well influence Congress to implement the will of the people more effectively than debates within Congress alone would have done.
Good first and second.
Here’s a third:
Firing them chills any IG’s tempted to politicize their positions. As in: “Damn, this administration won’t let me get away with it. Sure, I might win a Pyrrhic victory, 12 months from now. But who needs that nightmare or blot on his CV.”
Silly Anon,
Trump is cleaning house.
Its not an issue of loyalty to Trump, but one of where a role is supposed to be a-political yet the person in the role is clearly biased and part of the ‘resistance’.
In less than 1 week, Trump rolled back most of the damage done by Biden.
It will still take a year or so to reverse the actual damage, but from an administrative point of view, Trump is a force of nature.
Those cabinet picks by Trump.
Their loyalty is to the American people. They are all outsiders and can clean house.
Trump 2.0 has learned and is working hard.
Dictator? No.
That was Biden and the woke storm troopers.
-Gumby
Inspector Generals are nominated by Presidents of the Executive Office, a separate branch of government than Congress. Historically, IG have been Democrat activists who selectively target Republicans.
It’s true that the Inspector General Act requires 30 days notice to Congress, and that IG can be put on non duty leave after 15 days.
Most incoming presidents remove IGs from prior terms, though typically not all of them. President Regan fired all the IGs and replaced them with new ones.
What I’m unclear on is if the IGs are fired and out of the building, or told they’re gong to be fired, and the 30 days process of filing cause are in the works. It’s procedural. I am not clear if the purpose of Trump’s move is to litigate Congress’ authority to limit the removals of IGs.
If Congress gives itself the power to force presidents to keep politicized IGs from previous administrations who seek to undermine the EO, then that would upset the balance of powers.
Congress has its own means of investigating presidents.
https://crsreports.congress.gov/product/pdf/IF/IF11546#:~:text=This%20In%20Focus%20provides%20an,discusses%20potential%20issues%20for%20Congress.&text=An%20Inspector%20General%20may%20be%20removed%20from%20office%20by%20the%20President.
No, Karen S. “most” incoming presidents do not fire Inspectors general–the last one to do so was Reagan. Biden fired only one and that was for cause. Obama only fired a couple. Trump did this to avoid oversight because he didn’t want to have politically-independent inspectors general reporting on fraud, waste and abuse.
Actually, Obama and Biden both fired IGs, just not all of them. Obama fired Gerald Walpin, IG of the Corporation for National Community Service, and for Biden it was IG Martin Dickman, of the Railroad Retirement Board.
IGs are nominated by the Executive Branch. President Trump is not going to repeat the mistakes of his first term in office, when Democrat political apparatchiks were allowed to remain in place, who then sabotaged his presidency.
You have a difficult time staying on topic, don t you?
You told us Trump would do things if Elected.
Trump said he would do things if Elected.
Trump is president, and he is doing what He promised he would, he is doing what he promised.
He is doing LESS than YOU claimed he would.
Why are you surprised ?
Why are you under the delusion that Trump voters are getting something different from what they were promised ?
Hiring with competence-based criteria is the democratic choice.
Remember when the Democrats kept saying that we needed NEW immigration laws to stop the invasion??? An excerpt:
“Per sources, Border Patrol recorded just 582 illegal crossings at the southern border yesterday, with not a single one of the nine sectors hitting 200. I’ve never seen anything this low in all of my border coverage,” Melugin urged.
He continued, “The numbers were already flat/low in Biden’s final week, bouncing between 1,200-1,400 illegal crossings daily, but the numbers have been falling off a cliff since Trump took office.”
Melugin further breaks the numbers down, noting “To put this into perspective, at the height of the border crisis in December 2023, Border Patrol hit a record high 11,000+ illegal crossings across the border in a single day, with the Del Rio sector alone getting 4,000+”
“I’m told there were 582 illegal crossings across the southern border yesterday, with only 60 happening in the Del Rio sector,” Melugin revealed.
“And there are no longer 1,500+ migrants being released at ports of entry via the CBP One cell phone app every single day, as Trump immediately terminated the program,” he added.
“It’s still very early – we’ll see if these incredibly low numbers hold, especially heading into spring,” Melugin concluded.
Would you believe it, it turns out that enforcing the law at the border actually works!
https://www.zerohedge.com/political/border-reporter-has-never-seen-anything
The only thing Democrats cared about was trying to inflate census numbers to support more Democratic base. Import a specific demographic, localize them, generate a voting block, elect one of their face cards and then work them into Congress to continue their destruction of our country. That’s what Democrats do.
Jonathan: remember those heady days a decade ago? When Darren Smith was featured as a Weekend Contributor? Rather than employed as your Publicity Manager and Marketing CEO for jonathanturley.org.
Remember back when some of those weekend contributors had no fear of calling a Democrat CIA and Democrat CIA Director corrupt, rather than giving a corrupt Democrat CIA and CIA Director cover with faint criticism for being “low confidence”?
The CIA’s Whitewash Investigation Of Itself
Respectfully submitted by Lawrence E. Rafferty – Weekend Contibutor
https://jonathanturley.org/2015/01/25/the-cias-whitewash-investigation-of-itself/
it is now more clear than ever that Brennan was the prime mover behind a hugely inappropriate assault on the constitutional separation of powers, and continues to get away with it. Remind me again, why are we supposed to believe anything John Brennan or his CIA says? Maybe Mr. Brennan thinks he is the Wizard behind the curtain and no one can see his deception.
Jonathan, can you get some help from the Weekend Contributors that have disappeared, to write similar analyses of President Biden’s CIA Director, Gina Haskell that you don’t have the time write?
Airblown Puppy, where’s your signature block?
Pedophile Airsoft Door Gunner, oh great Airsoft Commando, please tell everybody the same war stories that you tell the kiddies of how you won the Airsoft Wars in your Mom’s back yard!
You know: Airsoft MOS, Campaigns, Theater, etc. Oh – and how many kills as a Gravy Seal Sniper in the Chairborne Commando!
Ask Gigi to lend you a set of gonads and a few inches of spine to summon up the courage to start posting with a username, pedo.
OT
Trump is offering 2M federal employees a buyout, pay through September or get fired. I guess the more illegals we get out of here the more construction and labor type jobs there will be for these poor tax funded liabilities. Time for them to get a real job, one that generates income from commerce, not one that depends upon taxation of others.
Or they could become meth addicts like the hillbillies in the south. Meth addicts spur the economy. Every car they steal means someone needs to buy another car.
Witless Willy
No. The drug abuse users are in San Fran. They have needles and poop all over the place. And the car being stolen are happening in Democrat ran blue cities.
I would tend to believe he’s the one that knows how to suck pipe…
His mental acuity speaks for itself…
Those protestors support the destruction of Israel, and genocide of the Jews. This disruption is as disturbing as people coming in KKK robes to protest the presence of black students.
Ethnic Jews are the indigenous people of Judea, birthplace of Judaism. The vast majority of Judea was already given to the Arabs, to appease them. Arab Palestine is Jordan, and parts of Lebanon and Syria. A tiny piece of the Jewish homeland was preserved for the Jewish people.
Muslim Palestinians currently live and work in Israel outside of Gaza, and serve in the Knesset. Unfortunately, Gaza is a terrorist hot spot. Muslims who refuse to live in peace in Jewish Israel should move to one of the great many surrounding Muslim countries.
The entire Middle East is Muslim, with the one exception of tiny Israel. Even that is too much for an antisemite.
Students can use protester tactics against the left to push back. I did it successfully years ago. Students today can do it too.
I had graduated years before, but some of my friends at Northwestern were members of a conservative students group. In 1985, they invited Nicaraguan Contra leader Adolfo Calero to speak on campus. (The Contras were a guerrilla resistance fighting the communist government of Nicaragua.) I warned them to be ready for trouble because in my undergraduate days I remembered that the South Vietnamese ambassador was physically thrown off the stage at the University of Illinois, Champaign. My student friends said things had changed. They hadn’t.
Marxist English Professor Barbara Foley organized a riot to prevent Calero from speaking. She seized the podium and announced that Calero had no right to speak there. Somebody threw red liquid on the suits of Calero and the local Cuban and Central American emigre businessmen who had organized Calero’s Chicago visit. The mob was physically threatening.
We got even later. Someone privately funded over a thousand cheap bumper stickers that said “Fire Foley! Expel Red Rioters.” These were plastered all over campus, and they were not the easy to remove kind of bumper stickers. Foley was denied tenure and got fired. The campus newspaper headline read “Red Rioter Fired.” We used protester tactics against the protesters, and it worked.
What the bumper stickers did, and could do again, was to give the college administration a vision of opposition from the conservative side that might escalate. Today, you might consider it a reverse broken windows policing strategy. We were breaking the rules in a minor way by plastering bumper stickers everywhere they weren’t supposed to be. But the question that the NU provost had to ponder was how far were conservative students willing to go. If there’s only one side, campus authorities have an easy choice. They appease the loud left wing protesters. But if there are two sides, campus authorities have to think about it a little harder. That’s why the Northwestern provost insisted on firing Foley.
Contact Douglas Proudfoot on X. I will help again.
That was a great story on the effectiveness of counter protesting.
I think today it would be more difficult to get traction, because professors who stand against free speech and encourage such behavior from students get praised by universities, not fired.
However, launching counter protests instead of just taking it might send a message that two could play that game.
Most Christians idealize Jews in the Middle East. Here in the USA, it’s “Jews will not replace us.”
Israel is the one engaging in genocide of the Palestinian people. In addition to killing over 40,000 Palestinians and bombing Gaza back to the Stone Age, Israeli settlers went to the West Bank and burned out Palestinian people living there. Israel has stolen the West Bank and is going after the Golan Heights, too. The UN is clear on this point–not only is Israel engaging in genocide, it won’t even allow in outside aid in the form of food, water, medical supplies. Palestinian children have died of thirst and starvation, and the survivors have their mental and physical growth stunted due to lack of protein and calories. Why should Palestinians be forced to leave their homeland so Israel can take over Gaza? Because rich Jews donated hundreds of millions to get your fat hero elected so the MAGA media you rely on keep pumping out this message? You say that Muslims “refuse to live in peace” with Israel–Israel is the one who won’t let Palestinians live in peace. They arrest hundreds of Palestinians a day and hold them without charges for months. They are taking Palestinian land. Israel tries to control all of life in Palestine–control of water, electricity, food supply. The issue isn’t anti-Semitism at all. What Israel has done is wrong. Israel’s conduct is the genesis of Hamas and other terrorist organizations.
“Israel is the one engaging in genocide of the Palestinian people. In addition to killing over 40,000 Palestinians and bombing Gaza back to the Stone Age,”
Did Israel start the war? No, Hamas did. In fact Hamas has been bombing Israel since 2005. That is after Israel removed all Israeli citizens from Gaza.
“Israeli settlers went to the West Bank and burned out Palestinian people living there.”
No they didn’t. Jews always lived there. Part of the ‘west bank’ is known as Judea. Do you know what that stands for? Jew. The Biblical history of the Jews resides in the ‘west bank’, sovereign Jewish territory. When Christians pray or talk about their Biblical figures, most are buried in the ‘west bank’ Where was the initial Capital of King David? In the ‘west bank’. In the late nineteenth century and early twentieth century when the NYTimes wrote about the Palestinians they were talking about the Jews living there.
There is no such thing as the Palestinian people. Palestine is a region not a people. The region is politicized . The Russians named the Arabs, from all over, residing in Palestine, the meaningless title Palestinians.
“Israel has stolen the West Bank and is going after the Golan Heights, too.”
If Israel stole the ‘west bank’, who did they steal it from,; the British? We have gone over this time and time again but you have desired to adopt a fairy tale and won’t look into international law , history, treaties and most particularly, the British Mandate. You prefer to remain ignorant yet you are unable to fill in any of the dots residing in your fairytale.
“The UN is clear on this point–not only is Israel engaging in genocide, it won’t even allow in outside aid in the form of food, water, medical supplies”
What is the UN clear on. It was their people that were part of the October 7th massacre.
“Israel tries to control all of life in Palestine–control of water, electricity, food supply. “
Take one item water and then you can think about the rest. Where does Israel get its water from? Much of it is from desalinization plants from the same Mediterranean sea that Gaza is attached to. Much of that water is sent to Gaza. Why doesn’t Gaza have water? Ask Hamas. They have been given enough money that can build enough desalinization plants on the mediterranean to supply the entire Middle East with water. Why didn’t that happen? Because Hamas builds bombs and spends their money killing Israeli civilians. Even the water pipes have been converted to weapons.
Start looking at the truth or tell me the facts proving me wrong. You can’t because you live in fantasy land.
“. . . killing over 40,000 Palestinians and bombing Gaza back to the Stone Age . . .”
That is a great example of the Left’s fantastic capacity for evasion.
Which in this case amounts to: Assume October 7. Assume (but don’t dare mention) the Hamas government’s invasion of Israel. And it’s wholesale murder and kidnapping of innocent Israelis and Americans.
Now, about those horrible retaliations . . .
Trump is implementing Project 2025, and the language in his EO is no different from that of Project 2025. The Heritage Foundation is running things. Trump is just signing away any EO’s they give him.
Just because POTATUS was a signature puppet doesn’t mean that President Trump (an actual POTUS) is the same. Guaranteed he directed and reviewed the EOs that were queued up before his innauguration.
As aweful as the stolen 2020 election has been for our nation, I think it has made President Trump truly battle-hardened and better than ever.
There’s been 5 years to bring forth evidence the 2020 election was stolen. There’s been nothing but stupid social media memes. No actual evidence. Anyone now who thinks the election was stolen is a retard.
OK, I’m a retard. I think the judges were terrified of the Left’s footsoldiers and found ways to avoid hearing the cases so their homes wouldn’t be burned down with their families inside. Intimidation was the purpose of those riots.
Folks in my old zipcode would’ve cowered when faced with antifa, folks in my new zipcode would make short work of them.
The supression of the Hunter Laptop story is enough by itself to show that the 2020 election was stolen.
I believe 2000 mules was pretty damming in addition. The ability to track ballot harvesting and mail in ballots is pretty difficult post election. They did it.
NOBODY CARES ABOUT HUNTER BIDEN. By 2020, America was in an economic crisis. Schools, businesses, restaurants were closed down. We set new daily records for deaths and infections with COVID while Trump was lying to us about the seriousness of it. Unemployment was much higher than when he cheated his way into power in 2016. The national debt was at a record level. Virtually ALL polls predicted Trump would lose–which he did. And, now that the “Hunter Laptop” has been litigated by Republicans in their Committees–what came of it? Nothing, but a lot of wasted taxpayer money and fodder for MAGA media. They couldn’t come up with any proof that Joe Biden did anything wrong. And, why this dead horse continuing to be beaten? To deflect attention away from the even worse job Trump is doing now, with his EOs that courts keep enjoining, the absolutely incompetent and unqualified candidates he keeps pushing onto the American people, so agencies can be headed by people even stupider than he is, and who won’t stand up for the American people or the mission of the agencies because they don’t even know what the agencies are supposed to be doing, much less are they able to lead them. Yet, the disciples keep on believing.
Well, for one, it’s been proven that current and former intelligence officials colluded with the Democrat Party to discredit Hunter Biden’s laptop, which outlined the criminal corruption of Joe Biden. They knew, at the time, that it was not Russian disinformation.
Attorneys who brought cases on election interference were threatened and harassed until most of them dropped the case. Then there was the solid case that Guilianni torpedoed. Different districts applied different standards to ballots, in violation of the 14th Amendment. Attorneys were threatened until they fell off the case, and then Guilliani took it over, and plowed it into the ground arguing side issues that were not quantitatively relevant.
Then there were the mail in ballots sent to everyone without them requesting it. I got 3 ballots for the previous owners of my home from a decade ago. At least one of them is dead. I threw them in the trash, but others may not have.
There were the concerted efforts by Democrats to prevent audits of voter rolls.
There were the barring of Republican poll observers during counting, while Democrat observers were allowed in. The late night dumps of ballots that were overwhelmingly Democrat.
I do think there were shenanigans in 2020, but a lot of it was apparatchiks covering for Joe Biden about the laptop, and investigations into voter rolls and mail in ballots would take years.
Karen S: WHY do you keep coming here regurgitating the vomit you got off of MAGA media. There was no “proven” collusion about Hunter’s laptop, and Republicans couldn’t come up with any proof against Joe Biden—BUT you keep repeating these lies. NO ONE CARES ABOUT HUNTER BIDEN OR HIS LAPTOP. The only people being threatened or harassed are those who call out the lies of the fat orange person you worship. The election interference cases were all dismissed due to lack of evidence. Giuliani LIED to federal courts, which is why he lost his law license. You imply that people could have voted multiple times by mail because you got ballots for former residents. Don’t you know that election officials will not process multiple ballots for multiple different people like this–do you think they just feed ballots into tabulating machines without cross-checking them against voter rolls? That doesn’t happen. NO Democrat ever tried to “prevent” any audits of anything. There were dozens of audits that proved, over and over again, that Trump did lose. None of the other lies you believe and regurgitate here over and over again are true. None of it. The only “shenanigans” in 2020 were Trump, the Big Lie, the insurrection he brought about and all of the lying about that–trying to claim Nancy Pelosi refused 10,000 National Guard troops; your oft-repeated lie that there was no violence, but if there was, it was the FBI that started it, that it was a “peaceful protest” that got out of hand–ignoring the planning meetings, the fake electors and the pre-insurrection reconnaissance missions. Trump lost in 2020 because he did a lousy job–which is what polls predicted would happen. He lied about bringing down the cost of groceries in 2024–which got moderate people to vote for him.
Gigi, sometimes, based on what you write, it appears that you don’t actually read Jonathan Turley’s blog.
The election was NOT stolen–all proof establishes that this is a lie. Polls prediced he would lose–that’s what “our nation” wanted. You MAGAs don’t speak for “our nation”. From “Wikipedia”:
“Russell Thurlow Vought (IPA: /voʊt/ VOHT, born March 26, 1976) is an American government official who served as the director of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) from July 2020 to January 2021. Before assuming this role, he was deputy director of the OMB for part of 2018, and served as acting director from 2019 to 2020.
In 2021, Vought founded the Center for Renewing America, a Christian nationalist[1] organization that opposes critical race theory[2] and advocates for the idea of America as a “nation under God.”[1] He has also played a significant role in Project 2025, an initiative led by the Heritage Foundation that aim to advance conservative, right-wing policies and reshape the federal government.[3] In May 2024, he was appointed policy director of the Republican National Committee’s platform committee.
In November 2024, President-elect Donald Trump announced that he would renominate Vought as director of the OMB for his second term as president.” Project 2025 is running this country because all of the EOs came from the book. This time, your hero has a better-organized group doling out the Executive Orders–Project 2025, all done for him. “Battle hardened and better than ever”? How many times has he already been forced to back down? Let’s see–Matt Gaetz, the freeze on government grants, and multiple lawsuits that states will win over trying to rescind birthright citizenship. Trump is arrogant and stupid. He lied to get into office. Most Americans opposed Project 2025, and Trump lied about that being the plan for his administration. All he does is lie.
” Polls prediced he would lose–that’s what “our nation” wanted”
Polls predicted that same outcome even more emphatically in the run-up to the 2016 Presidential election. Do you recall what happened after that, blathering imbecile?
Trump is implimenting the campaign promises that he made while running for re-election.
Do some of those correspond to policies advocated for by conservative and libertarian groups ? Certainly.
Pretty sure that Heritage was not advocating the use of Tarrifs as a negotiating tool.
Pretty sure Heritage was not advocating for the commutation of the sentence of Ross Ulbricht – Dread Pirate Roberts.
You just can’t let go of this project 2025 nonsense.
No Trump is not implimenting project 2025 – he is implimententing Agenda 47.
Do those overlapp ? A bit. So what ?
Can you name anything trump has done so far that was not consistent with Agenda 47 ?
That was not something he talked openly promised while campaigning ?
What is Trump implimenting that people did not KNOW they were getting when they voted for him ?
Much of What Trump is doing is even more popular than He is – and he is more popular than he has ever been.
But YOU tried hard to convince people that Trump was going to impliment Project 2025.
Voters voted for him anyway. Either they did not beleive you – and still don’t.
Or they do not care.
Regardless saying that some popular thing Trump is doing that he promised he would do while campaigning is Project 2025 is about as effective and plausable as calling everyone who disagrees with you a Nazi.
How well did that work ?
But lets assume some EO is right out of Project 2025. It is still consistent with What Trump promisedc during the campaign,
and his approval rate if 57.5%
How is saying Trump is doing something very popular that people expected getting you anywhere ?
Rather than giving federal employees the oportunity to resign while getting 9 months pay and benefits,
He could just fire them.
I would note that offering incentives for people to resign is a very standard and effective means of cutting costs.
From ABC News:
“Trump faces a number of tailwinds and headwinds in his first month in office. His marquee executive order to deport immigrants who are in the country illegally and have been accused of crimes is broadly supported by the American public. And an Associated Press/NORC poll conducted earlier this month found a supermajority of adults support deporting immigrants “who have been convicted of a violent crime” — with higher support for immigrants who are here illegally (83 percent) versus those who are here legally (69 percent). There is also support for reducing the number of immigrants coming into America legally, finishing the wall along the U.S.-Mexico border and declaring a national border emergency.
But a number of Trump’s early actions also have the potential to spark backlash. Pardoning the people who unlawfully entered the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, and committed acts of violence is decidedly unpopular, for example, with just 21 percent of adults in favor, according to that AP/NORC poll. Withdrawing from international climate agreements is also generally unpopular, according to the same survey. And there’s Trump’s attempt to end birthright citizenship, too; an Ipsos/New York Times poll from Jan. 2-10 found that Americans oppose ending birthright citizenship for children born to immigrants who are here illegally, 55 percent to 41 percent.
Americans are also mostly not confident, according to the same AP/NORC poll, that Trump will be able to bring down the price of goods and services, such as groceries and health care. This is notable, as it’s likely the biggest issue that convinced moderates to vote for him in the 2024 election. And there is only middling support for enacting tariffs on imports, with 29 percent in favor of a tax on all goods entering the U.S. — Trump’s key economic proposal. Nonpartisan economists argue Trump’s new tariffs would cause prices for the average American to rise, not fall. Tariffs would also likely curb the Biden-era rebound in manufacturing and house-building by increasing the cost of goods used in construction.
While Trump’s tax cuts are also mostly popular in isolation, the costs that come along with them (Republican legislators in Congress will mandate other programs, such as Medicare or Medicaid, be cut to offset the lost revenue) could be deeply unpopular. The lowest point in Trump’s first-term approval, before his ratings cratered after the events of Jan. 6, came after Republicans tried to repeal the Affordable Care Act and reduce funding for Medicaid in 2017.
Finally, Trump goes up against an apparent gravitational force that pulls down on approval ratings as time goes on. Presidents tend to enjoy their best net approval ratings at the start of their terms. Then, as policies are passed that shift the effective ideology of the U.S. government away from the ideology of the average voter, and as the president inevitably marginalizes members of his own constituency by focusing his political capital on other policy domains, voters leave the president’s side and his approval rating dips. This has been a consistent pattern for the last 80 years, barring events in foreign wars or attacks on the homeland.”
So, it’s all downhill from here–which is why the architects of Project 2025 had dozens of Executive Orders all drafted up for the fat one to sign ASAP–as time goes on, resistance to Trump will continue to grow, even among Republicans, as he continues to screw up, just like he did the first time. How many times already has he been forced to back down and/or been hauled into court? We already have Matt Gaetz, forced to withdraw his nomination, the freeze on grants and loans that was enjoined, and lawsuits over ending birthright citizenship. Note the sentence above–THAT THE BIGGEST ISSUE THAT CONVINCED MODERATES TO VOTE FOR TRUMP WAS THE LIE ABOUT IMMEDIATELY BRINGING DOWN THE COST OF GROCERIES–not any of the things he’s already done.
We’re never going to let you MAGAs forget that–Trump lied his way into office by falsely promising that he could bring down the cost of groceries. Every time he or one of his minions claim that voters gave him some “mandate” to do the illegal and unwise things he’s doing—they are LYING. Americans mostly do NOT approve of what your hero has done so far–less than 10 days in.
George is angry because George Soros and XI are no longer running America from the White House.
Why didn’t George notice that over the last four years?
“Trump White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said during a briefing Tuesday that she didn’t know whether the program providing health care to more than 72 million low-income Americans had been impacted. Leavitt didn’t mention Medicaid as one of the direct-assistance programs that would be immune to the freeze.”
Did you read that…
“she didn’t know whether the program providing health care to more than 72 million low-income Americans had been impacted”
She didn’t know.
Welcome to the dumbest government in the history of human society.
If you voted for trump, may you get cancer and die a miserable death.
Or, you could ask your uncle trumpy to pay your bills.
Yea, good luck with that. All he wants is your love and your money.
Who gives a —-, comrade, Social Security, Medicare et al. are irrefutably unconstitutional and you will never be able to cite the Constitution for a legal basis.
What you are funding is redistribution of wealth per the orders of the “dictatorship of the proletariat (hired help)” derived from Karl Marx and his Communist Manifesto to achieve “from each according to his ability, to each according to his needs.”
You’re an anti-Constitution, anti-American communist parasite slavering for yet another taste of other people’s money.
The American thesis is Freedom and Self-Reliance.
You want money, you want “free stuff,” you want “free status,” you want entitlements, go generate them yourself exercising your freedom in the free markets of the private sector.
Total BS, liar. The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled on the constitutionality of both Social Security and Medicare. In cases such as Helvering v. Davis (1937), the Court upheld the Social Security Act as a constitutional exercise of Congress’s power under the General Welfare Clause of the Constitution. Similarly, Medicare has been upheld under the same constitutional provisions. These rulings mean that, according to the highest judicial authority in the United States, these programs are constitutional.
The Constitution also grants Congress the power to tax and spend for the general welfare. Social Security and Medicare are funded through taxation and are designed to promote the general welfare by providing financial support and healthcare to the elderly and disabled. This aligns with the constitutional mandate to provide for the general welfare.
And, the Constitution also includes the Necessary and Proper Clause, which allows Congress to enact laws that are necessary and proper to carry out its enumerated powers. Social Security and Medicare can be seen as necessary and proper means of ensuring the economic stability and health of the population, which in turn supports the overall functioning of the nation.
And the Supreme Court of 1973 said abortion was a constitutional right; and the Supreme Court of 1869 said secession was unconstitutional; it said because secession is not prohibited, secession is prohibited.
General Welfare means ALL or the WHOLE WELL PROCEED – that’s roads, water, electricity, post office, fire, police, internet, etc., security and basic infrastructure.
Social Security and Medicare exist for 18.7 % of the population.
______________________________________________________________________
“The laying of taxes is the power, and the general welfare the purpose for which the power is to be exercised. They [Congress] are not to lay taxes ad libitum for any purpose they please; but only to pay the debts or provide for the welfare of the Union. In like manner, they are not to do anything they please to provide for the general welfare, but only to lay taxes for that purpose.”
– Thomas Jefferson
_______________________
The entire communist American welfare state is unconstitutional including, but not limited to, admissions affirmative action, grade-inflation affirmative action, employment affirmative action, quotas, welfare, food stamps, minimum wage, rent control, social services, forced busing, public housing, utility subsidies, CRT, DEI, WIC, SNAP, TANF, HAMP, HARP, TARP, NPR, Health and Human Services, Housing and Urban Development, Environmental Protection Agency, Agriculture, Education, Labor, Energy, Obamacare, Social Security, Social Security Disability, Social Security Supplemental Income, Medicare, Medicaid, “Fair Housing” laws, “Non-Discrimination” laws, etc.
Article 1, Section 8, provides Congress the power to tax for ONLY debt, defense, and “general Welfare” – ALL or THE WHOLE WELL PROCEED through governmental provision of security and basic infrastructure – omitting and, thereby, excluding any power to tax for individual Welfare, specific Welfare, particular Welfare, favor or charity. The same Article enumerates and provides Congress the power to regulate ONLY the Value of money, Commerce with foreign Nations, and among the several states, and with the Indian Tribes, and land and naval Forces.
Further, the 5th Amendment right to private property was initially qualified by the Framers and is, therefore, absolute, allowing no further qualification, and allowing ONLY the owner the power to “claim and exercise” dominion over private property.
Government exists, under the Constitution and Bill of Rights, to provide maximal freedom to individuals while government is severely limited and restricted to facilitating that maximal freedom of individuals through the provision of security and infrastructure.
The Necessary and Proper Clause is nothing more than a perfunctory redundancy for the purposes of clarification—a reinforcement of that which was previously codified—and may not be wielded to amend and impose separate acts that do not represent but alter the letter and spirit of the Founders and Framers.
No one cares what the blackmailed FDR courts called constitutional.
I care and agree with the Supreme Court that Social Security is constitutional.
“I care and agree with the Supreme Court that Social Security is constitutional.”
And the basis for your conclusion that those programs are within the powers extended to the Federal government by the Constitution is?
Get ready for another desperate exercise in distorting and misapplying the “general welfare” clause, folks.
What a horrible thing to wish, only a depraved psychopath could put that to post, disgusting and karma has a way of boomeranging to those consumed by hatred.
If you didn’t vote for Trump, may you live forever in the depths of your own darkness with your mind as porous as a sponge, just on the edge of cognitive thought, just enough to know that Trump’s MAGA shall rule your world forever.
ATS – you don’t matter anymore.
Outside the far left – no one cares what you think about the Trump administration.
Trump is moving agressively on the most consequential first 100 days program that we have ever seen.
I do not care what portions of the Federal Government are exempted from this offer – why exempt any of them ?
The Federal government actually continued to function fairly well in the midst of Pelosi’s shutdown in Trump’s first time.
Probably 90% of the federal workforce could go with no decline in services.
Only idiot left wing nuts presume that fewer people means a decline in services.
In the real world most companies work very hard to deliver the greatest amount of services with the least number of people.
That is how you rise standard of living.
This is a gift to left wing nut snowflakes in the federal government – they should take it.
He also took away funding for cancer research, including PEDIATRIC cancer research. But, he’s got lots of money, at $850 million per military plane ride, to deport migrants, half of whom have no criminal history.
“$850 million per military plane ride”
Are they being served caviar and Veuve Clicquot?
“. . . half of whom have no criminal history.”
If you are in a country illegally, you are by definition a criminal.
Apparently, you don’t feel like mentioning the fact that Biden deported some 270,000 migrants, in 2024 alone. But, somehow, such deportations are only now cruel and unusual.
This is what happens when the University realizes that the threats of losing their accreditation are real, so they need to take action.
That along w actual lawsuits by Jewish Students and their organizations… and alumni funding drying up.
What the —- happened to America?
I am incapable of assimilating these once-unacceptable occurrences.
I received a forceful swat with a wood paddle in junior high for either chewing gum or not wearing a belt; I don’t remember exactly.
I was called into the vice principal’s office, including an appearance by my father, for having hair so long that it actually, if only barely, touched my ears.
Most kids followed the rules and did what was expected of them and what they were told.
By the way, we were taught about George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Ben Franklin, the American Revolution, rights and freedoms, and, at least mild, patriotism—actually taught that in school; can you imagine?
Northwestern is hopeless. Have a couple of family members that went there. They are lost; love ’em but lost. I would never send a kid of mine there.
@Diogenes
All higher ed in America is hopeless. It is a losing and very expensive proposition at this point. We need to accept this and do things differently. Even if you are currently even sending your kids to a state college, your are lighting dollars on fire. We have a long way to go with this one, four years will not be nearly enough. And there will be a pause in-between. There is no way to calculate the damage woke leftists have done to our society. We can turn it arouns, but it’s going to take a long, long time. This was by design on their parts.
Yeah I know what you mean.
Evanston wanted to pay reparations.
The University is tax free but everyone else isn’t. So if you live in Evanston you pay a shit load in property tax.
And they make a shit ton of money.
Donald Trump is claiming that he sent the U.S. military to turn on the water in California, even though it never happened.
Wait a minute. I thought Biden was the incompetent one?
“The United States Military just entered the Great State of California and, under Emergency Powers, TURNED ON THE WATER flowing abundantly from the Pacific Northwest, and beyond,” Trump wrote. “The days of putting a Fake Environmental argument, over the PEOPLE, are OVER. Enjoy the water, California!!!”
What the hell? Does this guy actually think he is god and controls the water? Or perhaps he is just the reincarnation of Neptune?
No he is the president of the untied states – he advised Newsome and Bass that they had emergency powers to deal with the fires and they could use them to address their problems.
That advice was also a Warning – because the president ALSO has emergency powers.
Trump is not God, or Neptune. But he is someone with the power to alter the allocation of water when there is an emergency.
Which is exactly what he did.
The question is Why didn’t Bass or Newsome ? They had the same power.
Trump’s a moron. As evidenced by his like minded followers commenting on this blog.
Wah, wah, wah. Trumps a moron. Wah, wah, wah.
LOL, when the recession starts later this year let’s see your name on these pages touting how Trump isn’t a moron.
Coincidentally, California turned on water pumps that had been offline “for maintenance.”
I don’t know if you’re familiar with the water wars in Central California, but restricting and wasting water has been driving the residents of California to distraction for years.
I find this to be an interesting kerfuffle. Trump announced the military and DOGE turned on CA water. CA disputed that claim and said pumps were just off-line for maintenance. DOGE announced that it turned on federal water pumps. Given that even NPR called out Gov Newsom for lying about defunding fire readiness, I’m going to give this story some more time to play out. I’d be interested to know if President Trump was referring to the Army Corp of Engineers. That is the military engineering branch, and it was, in fact, in California. Perhaps the press room representing the state mistakenly expected marines.
https://www.politico.com/news/2025/01/28/trump-said-military-turned-on-the-water-in-california-not-quite-00200907
“The Department of Government Efficiency paid California’s water-delivery infrastructure a visit on Monday following President Donald Trump’s withering criticism of the system.
DOGE officials visited the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation’s water pumps in Northern California and said they’d worked with the agency to increase water deliveries south, as Trump has been pushing California to do.
“Congratulations to the Administration and DOI’s Bureau of Reclamation for more than doubling the Federally pumped water flowing toward Southern California in < 72 hours,” the agency posted on X on Tuesday morning. Was an honor for the DOGE team to work with you. Great job!”
The pumps, which move water south from California’s wetter northern region, are federally owned and operated. California officials said late Monday that they had been down for maintenance. They also said Trump did not send the military into the state to “turn on the water,” as Trump claimed in a social media post…
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said in a Tuesday briefing that the Army Corps of Engineers — a branch of the Defense Department that specializes in dams and other engineering work — had been in California responding to the fires, although she didn’t specify whether they had gone further north to Reclamation’s facility."
I forgot to add that the LADWP chief claimed he had no idea how long the Santa Ynez reservoir had been offline during the Pacific Palisades fire. I find it difficult to believe that DWP would not know that the reservoir was drained and put out of commission last March, almost a year ago, to repair the floating cover that reduces evaporative lost, as required by environmental regulations. I can find no information if repairs actually started yet.
Thus, California’s denials about help from the feds should be taken with a grain of salt.
Here’s what USA Today says about that: “The claim: Los Angeles officials ‘refused to fill’ water reservoirs before fires
A Jan. 8 Facebook post (direct link, archive link) claims the devastating Los Angeles fires in January 2025 were able to spread in part because of intentionally poor water management.
“Reports are saying the city of Los Angeles refused to fill the water reservoirs, so there’s no water in the fire hydrants to fight the fires,” the post reads.
The post was shared nearly 800 times in two weeks.
Our rating: False
One reservoir operated by the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power was empty when the blazes began. But that was because it needed repairs to comply with water quality regulations, not any kind of refusal. The rest of the region’s reservoirs were filled, in some cases higher than average.
Repairs needed at empty reservoir
Much discussion has focused on firefighters’ access to water for battling the blazes in Los Angeles which have killed at least 28 people and damaged more than 15,000 structures since Jan. 7. Fire hydrants ran dry in Pacific Palisades, uphill from most of the city of Los Angeles.
While claims of mismanagement of the water system by local officials spread quickly amid the disaster, there was no effort by the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power to deliberately keep its reservoirs empty beyond one that was drained for repairs several months prior, according to a department website.
The 117-million-gallon Santa Ynez Reservoir was drained in February 2024 because a floating cover installed in 2011 to comply with environmental regulations tore, making it possible for bird droppings and other contaminants to get into the water. Allowing that water to enter the city’s drinking water supply, the same supply drawn on for fire hydrants, would violate the Safe Drinking Water Act, according to Greg Pierce, director of the UCLA Water Resources Center.
“They had to drain it to comply with drinking water regulations,” Pierce said. “There’s a conversation we can have about maybe we shouldn’t be keeping all reservoirs up to those standards, that maybe not all need to have potable water, but then we have to have separate systems and build infrastructure for that, and that has cost implications that will need to be discussed.””
SO, KAREN–THEY WERE TRYING TO KEEP BIRD DROPPINGS FROM CONTAMINATING THE HUMAN WATER SUPPLY–that was the reason for repairing the cover–not evaporative loss.
Gigi – the Santa Ynez reservoir was taken offline in March 2024 to repair a torn floating cover, which was installed due to environmental regulations. If work has begun anytime in the nearly one year since, I can’t find any articles on it.
Most reservoirs across the country do not have floating covers. Surface water flows over dirt, ducks paddle around on it, birds drink and poop in it, along with deer, and all the other wildlife that encounter that surface water.
Water is not typically treated before going into a reservoir, which is just a holding basin, essentially, for raw surface water. The Santa Ynez Floating Cover Project was initiated to reduce disinfectant byproducts caused by exposure to sunlight, to limit algae, so DWP could switch from chlorine to chloramine as a disinfectant. The cover also reduces evaporation. Putting a cover over raw water is not going to keep it clean. Some reservoirs in CA have floating covers, but not all. Water is treated to become potable.
I’ve gone fishing in reservoirs over the years, so please stop all caps screaming about bird droppings. Reservoirs hold raw water.
Governor Newsom (D) and the state legislature are currently investigating why the reservoir was still offline.
I neglected to add that the floating cover was installed in 2011, after a 4 year project period. It was supposed to last 20 years, but instead, it needed repairs in 2022 and 2024.
“Governor Newsom (D) and the state legislature are currently investigating why the reservoir was still offline.”
What do Democrats do? Nothing, but they are big on investigations.
Agreed. My point to Gigi is that if the reservoir being empty was perfectly normal, then Gavin Newsom wouldn’t be scrambling to save face by calling for an investigation.
That cover was supposed to last 20 years after it was installed in 2012. It already needed repairs in 2022, and 2024. They’ll probably cover the rest of the reservoirs, since that worked out so well. Maybe city water will start shutting off like the electricity already does.
“restricting and wasting water has been driving the residents of California to distraction for years. ”
More like decades. It is the central tenet of the plot of the 1974 movie “Chinatown” starring Jack Nicholson and Faye Dunaway…
Trump claimed, on his LIE Social outlet, that the federal government entered California to turn on water. That was a LIE. From Reuters:
“WASHINGTON, Jan 28 (Reuters) – California on Tuesday denied President Donald Trump’s claim that the U.S. military entered the state to release more water in the wake of deadly wildfires.
In a Truth Social post late on Monday, Trump wrote: “The United States Military just entered the Great State of California and, under Emergency Powers, TURNED ON THE WATER flowing abundantly from the Pacific Northwest, and beyond.”
California’s Department of Water Resources responded hours later.
“The military did not enter California. The federal government restarted federal water pumps after they were offline for maintenance for three days. State water supplies in Southern California remain plentiful,” the agency said early on Tuesday in an X post.
Trump, a Republican who visited California on Friday just days after taking office, has repeatedly made false claims that Democratic Governor Gavin Newsom and other state officials refused to provide water from northern areas to fight the fires.
On Sunday, he ordered the federal government to override the state of California’s water-management practices to bolster firefighting efforts.
The order directed the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation to deliver more water and hydropower through the Central Valley Project, a network of dams, canals and other infrastructure, even if that conflicts with state or local laws.
A spokesperson for Newsom said that move would not have made a difference in the state’s firefighting efforts as the Los Angeles region gets most of its water from other sources and did not have a shortage.
Some hydrants in the Los Angeles area ran dry during the height of the wildfires, but local officials say that was because they were not designed to deal with such a massive disaster.
“Water supply has not hindered firefighting efforts. Reservoirs in California are at or above average storage levels for this time of year, thanks in part to years of proactive water management,” according to the California Association of Water Agencies, a statewide coalition of public water agencies.”
But, water supplies were turned on. As usual there is more to the story. The fires started early January. Why didn’t Biden do that?
What are you talking about? Pumps that were under repair and turned on when routine repair was done? What does routine repair have to do with trump? And no, there is no water from the Pacific Northwest and beyond heading to California, trump is an idiot. Why can’t you admit that? And he had only been in office a week. Sheesh. How many thousands of lies will we get this term?
“Pumps that were under repair and turned on when routine repair was done?”
You are pretty stupid. The pumps were under federal control. Biden had over two weeks to turn them on once the emergency started. Biden didn’t do anything. One day you will grow up and stop being an A$$.
I do not know if this was under Federal control or not – it does not matter.
In an emergency like a forest Fire Presidents and Governors have emergency powers, to secure necescary resources.
This was both a stupid mistake on Biden and Newsomes part and a political blunder.
Even if this is really only a small problem – Trump will still get credit for taking action – maybe more credit than he desrves – but that was Newsome and Biden’s failure.
” Governors have emergency powers, to secure necescary resources.”
It may be acceptable, but I don’t think it is legal. That is up to a court to decide.
Trump gets credit for it because he did it. Biden didn’t, Newsome didn’t and no one else called for it, so I give him tremendous credit.
States may codify “emergency powers” that do not deny Americans any aspect or facet of any of their multitudinous other rights, freedoms, privileges, and immunities.
No state has any power to deny constitutional rights to individuals.
Essentially we are not discussing rights, but ownership of the property and assets within.
Please cite the Constitution for “emergency powers.” The closest you will come is a suspension of habeas corpus by Congress during invasion or rebellion (southern states were executing secession). Martial law, which Lincoln forcibly imposed, is unconstitutional.
Spoken like the delusional MAGA you are–all you really know is that Biden and Newsom are at fault.
If as you claim the pumps were undergoing routine repairs when the fires started the repairs should have stoped and no resource or expense should have been spared to get the water moving again. That should have taken hours or days – a month ago.
It should have have had to wait for Trump.
Just a quick google search – the San Joaquin which is definitely in the pacific northwest is the source of 2/3 of CA’s water.
And Yes – CA like mosts states gets some water from within the state and some from “beyond”
Most of CA’s water comes from Beyond.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sacramento%E2%80%93San_Joaquin_River_Delta
Democrats in California should have built a water pipeline from Canada or reasonable facsimile 50 years ago.
” How many thousands of lies will we get this term?”
How many times will you open your mouth ?
Anonymous is a dope, a liar and a drunk.
A bottomless pit of despair
He has a significant resume but not one to brag about.
Part of ALL waterworks projects includes redundancy measures. I recall Biden first tried to float out a cover story that the electric companies shut down the electric grid thereby preventing pumps from running. Problem is that every single pump station and waterworks plant come with emergency backup generators, redundancy. They have to align their lies. Leadership failed, EOS.
The Colorado River supplies some of California’s water, and its head is in Colorado, the Mountain West (not Pacific Northwest).
Water also comes from the watershed north of Sacramento, which is fed from runoff from Mount Shasta (northern CA), and the Klamath Mountains, (Northern CA and Southern OR).
Then there are surface water drainage basins. Some of those basins, like North Coast, receive water from rivers like the Klamath and Lower Columbia River, with headwaters in Oregon.
There’s more, but yes, California does benefit from water in the Pacific Northwest outside the state. It can confuse some people, because the basins themselves are located in CA, and not everyone knows where the headwaters are located for surface water in California.
We’ll have to see if the repairs were expedited.
On another note, the Santa Ynez reservoir was taken off line and drained in March 2024. This was done to repair a torn floating cover, which reduces evaporative loss, as required by CA environmental regulations. I looked, but could not find evidence of whether repairs were even begun at the time of the fire. The LADWP chief claimed he had no idea how long that reservoir was out of service. It’s highly doubtful that the DWP didn’t know when a reservoir that serves Pacific Palisades was taken off line.
If work had not begun, we’ll need to investigate the holdup. If work was begun, but took almost a year to repair a torn cover, that needs to be addresed. If the reservoir was taken off line and drained when the permits and clearances weren’t even ready for the repairs, because regulations wouldn’t allow water stored with a torn cover, then that’s another investigation.
I live in CA, and the rampant incompetence killed people in those fires.
Karen S: why do you believe this MAGA media crap and repeat it? The fires were due to: 1. unusually wet spring–caused vegetation to flourish beyond normal levels; followed by: 2. unusually dry fall–no rainfall for weeks and weeks–the foilage dried up, becoming tinder for; 3. the unusually hot, dry Santa Ana winds that blew at hurricane force levels. All 3 of these things were due to climate change. Some spark somewhere started a fire–it might have been some New Years fireworks that were still smoldering. Sparks were driven for miles away, starting other fires, and the process repeated itself, overwhelming fire control efforts. The Santa Ynez reservoir was offline because it was full of bird droppings that were contaminating human water supplies. They had to repair a cover to stop this–that reservoir would not have made any difference, according to CA water officials because it would not have been used to fight this fire. Local reservoirs were full. Some hydrants did not work because water pressure was low due to so many hydrants being open at the same time and the system was not designed to handle this strong of a load.
But, because Gavin Newsom might be a presidential contender, he just HAS to be at fault–so Trump and MAGA media make up lies to blame him. But, all you know, because you believe every lie put out by MAGA media, is that there was “rampant incompetence”.
Gigi – “MAGA media crap”?
NPR ran an article on the topic of Gov Newsom (D) misleading the public on fire prevention efforts, and defunding those efforts. There are also articles in the LA Times if you choose to read them.
https://www.npr.org/2021/06/25/1010382535/gavin-newsom-misled-public-about-wildfire-prevention-work-report-says
“An investigation from CapRadio and the California Newsroom collaboration has found that Gov. Gavin Newsom, D-Calif., misrepresented his wildfire preparedness and even disinvested in prevention…
So early on, Newsom identified some key wildfire prevention projects, and that includes things like forest thinning and prescribed burns, and they were meant to protect some of the most vulnerable communities in California. And he claimed 90,000 acres were treated, but we found that’s not true. The state’s own data shows that, in reality, it was less than 12,000 acres, so just a fraction of what Newsom claimed. And looking at the bigger picture, not just those specific projects, we also found that the state’s fire prevention work overall dropped by half last year, which was the worst wildfire season on record for California. And during that time, Newsom also slashed about $150 million from the state’s wildfire prevention budget…
In our interview, Porter argued that a single acre of forest management can save an entire community, but the inverse is also true; an overgrown acre left untreated could lead to a community burning to the ground. And this is people’s lives, homes and businesses that are at stake. And I spoke to fire survivor Mitch Mackenzie, who lives in Sonoma County wine country. He lost his home in a 2017 fire, and he says he felt misled by Newsom’s grand promises.
MITCH MACKENZIE: I’ve lost my home. Lots of other people have lost their homes. If he’s serious about stopping these fires, somebody need to take the initiative. And I thought that’s what he professed that he was going to do, and I think it’s kind of deceptive.”
“. . . the foilage (sic) dried up, becoming tinder for . . .”
Maybe they should have cleared that foliage out. You know, practiced good forestry management — which has only been know and practiced for centuries.
@Seth
There was this fish that someone in CA claimed was going extinct so that they couldn’t divert the water for LA’s needs.
That is true, but there were federally controlled sources of water that were under maintenance and needed to be turned on. The fish had nothing to do with that. Biden didn’t do anything but destroy, and those who try to show him in a good light are fools who need to be treated as such.
“There was this fish that someone in CA claimed was going extinct ”
Wasn’t that the “delta smelt” that was later shown to not even be a distinct species?
The smelt was shown to be a social meme Trump pulled out of his ass in order to find blame.
Or Newsome.
It was a federal water supply, so I don’t know if Newsome had the power, but being from the state he certainly should have known about it and been first to call for its immediate return to activity..
I am honestly not sure of your federal claim. My understanding of Water in the west – which is completely different than the rest of the world is that it is governed by multi-state compacts. Regardless, in an emergency you do not watch LA Burn to ash and people die.
One way or another – you get more water.
I said it was federal because I read from more than one source. It doesn’t matter. Trump did something that should have been done earlier. It is only a man like Trump who keeps on top of almost everything. That is a hard task.
Mr. Meyer
The elected officials were negligent in their actions. The National Disaster Recovery Framework puts forward the standards for preparedness, prevention and recovery. It lays out the criteria framework for federal, State, local and territories for disaster preparedness and recovery measures. It lays out all the steps and procedures so even a caveman can do it. Every State implements this standard in their emergency management program. California’s leadership failed them.
I am sure you are correct about the preparedness and recovery measures, but I am not sure that particular “valve” was included in them.
Are you joking? Trump is stupid, incompetent and hateful. He can’t stop lying.
If Trump is stupid, what does that make you? A retarded amoeba?
List the ten most important things Trump did and tell us which ones are stupid and why. Bring your friends along, lots of other amoebas. Unfortunately combined you won’t have a functioning brain.
@Anonymous
As usual, apropos of nothing whatsoever. *yawn*. I squish mosquitos and then carry on. You are ridiculous, and you are an idiot, in the truest sense of the word. I cannot imagine the people that pay you think this is worth the investment. This will only increase. Enjoy your laptop job or troll room while it still exists. That business model is about to tank, and rather spectacularly, in the United States. Maybe you can get a job trolling for Britain.
Wait a minute, i thought Prof. Turley’s post is about an incident at Columbia University, not about water pumps in California.
ATS – no one believes you about pretty much anything.
All you need is the least awareness of reality to demonstrate that Trump has more stamina and competence than most of the country –
But why bother ?
You don’t matter anymore.
Some thoughts on the democratic party from a leading Democrat analyst.
https://www.liberalpatriot.com/p/the-hills-the-left-will-die-on
President Trump needs to send a Marine Expeditionary Force into California to ally with the 40th Division, reconquer the state, and take it back from all of the illegal alien foreign invaders.
It’s not California.
It’s MexAfricAsia!
Remember the Alamo!
The communist parasites in California should have installed a pipeline from Great Bear Lake, Canada, 50 years ago.
They didn’t have the “vision thing” because they were focused on stealing other people’s money to give out to leeches and their freeloading comrades and beneficiaries of entitlements.
Biden was incompetent.
True, Biden was incompetent. But Trump is a criminal and a rapist. Nikki Haley is neither.
Niki Haley? Geez , cut it out Beav, you’re killing me!
“Nikki Haley is neither”
Haley made statements during her campaign that made her appear to be a YANS (yet another neocon stooge). Whether those statements truly represented her opinions, or were a desperate attempt to increase her support from Deep State affiliated Republicans (Trump was already pulling ahead in polls and fundraising) is unknown, and immaterial, because if it was merely a strategy, it backfired. She lost, and deserved that outcome. Get over it.
“It is a tricky question. Universities have a unique relationship to each other as institutions of higher education. If schools treat these disruptions as “off the books” for student conduct, activists could simply agree to disrupt each other’s schools, creating a de facto license for such misconduct.”
*******************************
Not really that tricky. Like pirates, miscreant and virulent anti-free speechers are the enemy of every institution of higher learning. Suspend them on site.
If pro-life students took the exact same actions in disrupting and terrorizing a feminist studies class, would they be expelled or merely suspended? Of course they never do that but I am asking a hypothetical question.
In my view it makes no sense to go easy on violent disruptors just because their reprehensible actions took place at a different school. Until they are expelled and criminally charged, the elite universities in America are dead and worthless. That goes double for institutions with weak, sniveling administrators like Northwestern. College students are blithering idiots and their idiocy is encouraged by garbage administrators like Morton Schapiro and Todd Adams. Definitely no tax money should go to these places until they clean up their act.
What I would have loved to see is the professor and students in that class, immediately upon having their classroom invaded, bar the doorway so none of the invaders could leave. Then demand that they unmask, or else have their masks ripped off. If they are so proud of their activism, let them be identified, rather than acting like the bullying, hate-filled cowards they are.
Jonathan: In a previous comment I pointed out that DJT’s pardons of the Jan. 6 insurrectionists have had serious consequences for law enforcement. Some of those pardoned have engaged in other crimes since their release. Daniel Charles Ball, on of those DJT pardoned, was arrested last week on new federal gun charges. And Ball is not the only one.
NBC News is reporting that Matthew Huttle, age 42, who took part in the Jan. 6 Capitol insurrection by assaulting police with a flag pole and was on supervised release at the time of his pardon, was shot and killed yesterday in Indiana during a traffic stop by a sheriff’s deputy. According to a sheriff’s department report Huttle resisted arrest and was found to have a firearm on his person.
Unfortunately, some of those who DJT pardoned now feel vindicated and emboldened to commit new crimes. They now feel they have DJT’s back. That’s a terrible sign to send to law enforcement. It’s no wonder, then, that judges in DC have decried DJT’s pardons as a violation of the rule of law. Had DJT not pardoned Huttle maybe he would be alive today!
Dennis – I do not know the FACTS and neither do you.
You claim that Ball was pardoned. And then quickly arrested on gun charges – that is implausible.
If he was pardoned – he continues to have his first amendment right to bear arms.
Even if he had NOT been pardoned – recent SCOTUS decisions constrain post conviction restrictions on the right to bear arms to convictions for violent fellonies. Are you claiming Ball robbed a bank in the past few days ?
I do not know what the facts are – and neither do you – but I would bet on a failute by LAw enforcement.
I would note that there are stories that ATF is ignoring Trump executive orders. So maybe that is what you are talking about here.
Regardless – you do not seem to grasp that you are not a trusted reporter.
So if you want to make claims like this and have anyone pay attention to them – you need to cite a reliable source.
With respect to Huttle – your source is NBC news – enough said.
You say Huttle was resisting arrest – Arrest for WHAT ?
Why was he even stopped ?
Further Traffic stops virtually near lead to arrests.
You claim Huttle was pardoned – again the terms are relevant.
If he was pardoned rather than had his sentence commuted – then he can legally possess firearms.
Further you make claims about what he did – you do NOT say what he was convicted of and whether his sentence was commuted or pardoned.
You expect everyone to beleive – just because you claim so that the Traffic stop was legitimate, that there were legitimate grounds for arrest – a traffic stop is not sufficient. That Huttle was a person not to posses, and that there was legitimate grounds to search his car for a firearm.
You claim Huttle was resisting arrest and that the firearm was in his car – you do NOT claim Huttle was using the firearm at the time.
There are LOTS of hurdles before a police officer can arrest someone that must be met.
There are even more before the officer can shoot someone.
Generally that person must be an imminent threat to life or bodily injury to yourself or others.
Nothing in your rant established that either of these things were legitimate.
Then you start engaging in mind reading.
The Judges in DC long ago lost any connection with the rule of law.
One of the reasons these pardons were so broad is because these defendants did not get a fair trial. They did not get due process.
If we are going to read Minds, it is far more reasonable to beleive that Huttle and Ball have lost trust in govenrment to protect their rights.
There are many good police officers out there – many of them were J6 protestors.
You seem to forget that a huge percent of J6 protestors were law enforcement or military or former law enforcement or military.
I find it odd that you are ready to presume that Dereck Chauvin a carreer officer who arrested a Thug with a long history of violence and drug issues for passing a counterfeit bill and who spent 20 minutes resisting arrest, that Chauvin Murdered Floyd.,
But You presume that Huttle and Balls cases are both related to J6 and justified.
Maybe they were – maybe they werent.
Huttle was an alcoholic with a long history of minor offenses going back to 2008.
On J6 he merely entered the capitol and was pardoned for doing so just like everyone else who entered the capitol.
None of whom ever should have been charged in the first place.
Huttle had been out of DC jail for more than 6 months prior to this.
Huttle’s attorney said that Huttle was not violent. but had a history of “resisting arrest” when Drunk.
Resisting arrest is not supposed to lead to death.
There is no indication Huttle used or attempted to use the gun allegedly in his car.
Huttles attorney is seeking the body cam video before deciding whether there is a wrongful death claim.
Perhaps left wing nuts like you should do the same.
I can find absolutely nothing claiming that Huttle had anything to do with the Flag pole incident or any violence.
He received a very short custodial sentence for parading throught he capitol.
Please do not make the facts up.
Ball was in pretrial detention at the time of his pardon. There was no sentence, no conviction, merely an allegation.
Ball had convictions from Before J6 for domestic violence which is why he was arrested as a person not to possess in Florida based on a warrant issued PRIOR to J6 for offenses in Florida.
Trump did not and can not pardon people for state crimes having nothing to do with J6.
No one was “emboldened” Ball barely had time to leave the DC prison before being arrested – he did NOT comitt some new crime.
he was merely arrested on an old state offense predating J6
can you get your facts straight.
How much time did Ball serve without trial, possibly in solitary confinement? Time served? Do you think Ball’s constitutional rights were served or violated? And finally, if this was the only marginally incorrect pardon out of 1600 then that isn’t too bad. I’d like to point out that Biden pardoned a whole rash of those in his inner circle who were never charged and didn’t serve one minute in “pre-trial detention.”