Tag: protests

Columbia University Folds After Trump Imposes Federal Funding Freeze — Suspends and Expels Students Involved in Anti-Israel Protests

It seems like Columbia University is finally getting the message.

The New York University, long considered one of the world’s leading academic institutions, has announced it will suspend, expel, and even revoke the degrees of students involved in last year’s anti-Israel protests.

The sanctions were confirmed by the Columbia University Judicial Board on Thursday, which said their extent would depend on the severity of their behaviors.

“The outcomes issued by the UJB are based on its evaluation of the severity of behaviors at these events and prior disciplinary actions,” the university said in a statement sent to the entire school community.

“These outcomes are the result of following the thorough and rigorous processes laid out in the Rules of University Conduct in our statutes, which include investigations, hearings and deliberations.”

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When Dissent Becomes a Crime: The War on Political Speech Begins

“Once the principle is established that the government can arrest and jail protesters… officials will use it to silence opposition broadly.”
~ Heather Cox Richardson, historian

You can’t have it both ways.

You can’t live in a constitutional republic if you allow the government to act like a police state.

You can’t claim to value freedom if you allow the government to operate like a dictatorship.

You can’t expect to have your rights respected if you allow the government to treat whomever it pleases with disrespect and an utter disregard for the rule of law.

There’s always a boomerang effect.

Whatever dangerous practices you allow the government to carry out now whether it’s in the name of national security or protecting America’s borders or making America great again – rest assured, these same practices can and will be used against you when the government decides to set its sights on you.

Arresting political activists engaged in lawful, nonviolent protest activities is merely the shot across the bow.

The chilling of political speech and suppression of dissident voices are usually among the first signs that you’re in the midst of a hostile takeover by forces that are not friendly to freedom.

This is how it begins.

Consider that Khalil Mahmoud, an anti-war protester and recent graduate of Columbia University, was arrested on a Saturday night by ICE agents who appeared ignorant of his status as a legal U.S. resident and his rights thereof. That these very same ICE agents also threatened to arrest Mahmoud’s eight-months-pregnant wife, an American citizen, is also telling.

This does not seem to be a regime that respects the rights of the people.

Indeed, these ICE agents, who were “just following orders” from on high, showed no concern that the orders they had been given were trumped up, politically motivated and unconstitutional.

If this is indeed the first of many arrests to come, what’s next? Or more to the point, who’s next?

We are all at risk.

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Yes, The Trump Administration Has The Power To Deport Mahmoud Khalil

Federal authorities arrested Mahmoud Khalil, one of the leaders of the pro-Hamas coalition at Columbia University, last weekend on the charge that he “led activities aligned to Hamas, a designated terrorist organization,” and posed a threat to national security and foreign policy.

Since that time, politicians and pundits, particularly on the left, have tried to lionize this anti-West terror-supporting radical as some kind of liberal icon and have questioned whether the government has the right to deport someone of his ilk. For the record, of course it does.

The Immigration and Nationality Act (INA) codified at 8 U.S. Code § 1182 applies to all aliens, meaning “any person not a citizen or national of the United States.” This term includes both visa holders and green card holders like Khalil. 

The INA contains a number of activities for which a person can be deemed ineligible based on security and related grounds. The relevant subsection contains nine grounds related to terrorism, the majority of which are not controversial at all: members of terrorist organizations, people engaging in terrorism, etc. 

The current debate concerns § 212(a)(3)(b)(i)(vii), which allows for the deportation of any alien who “endorses or espouses terrorist activity or persuades others to endorse or espouse terrorist activity or support a terrorist organization.” Some have claimed that deporting someone for these reasons violates the First Amendment. That is incorrect.

The premise of the question rests on the assumption that an alien (even a legal alien) has First Amendment rights that are exactly the same in every situation as the rights of a U.S. national or citizen. That is not the case. As the Supreme Court has made clear, sometimes the government may impose distinctions and conditions.

See, for example, Citizens United v. FEC (2010):

The Government routinely places special restrictions on the speech rights of students, prisoners, members of the Armed Forces, foreigners, and its own employees. When such restrictions are justified by a legitimate governmental interest, they do not necessarily raise constitutional problems. … [T]he constitutional rights of certain categories of speakers, in certain contexts, ‘are not automatically coextensive with the rights’ that are normally accorded to members of our society. (Emphasis added.)

The question then becomes, how might speech rights be applied differently to foreigners? For example, could such a condition involve not advocating for certain groups that the government, for good reason, considers dangerous and a threat to national security? 

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Fiery But Peaceful: MSNBC Describes Violent Attacks On Tesla Dealerships As ‘Protests’

MSNBC had its own ‘fiery but peaceful’ moment when anchors claimed that violent attacks on Tesla facilities are perfectly legal ‘protests.’

Attackers have put staff in danger and even set fire to Tesla dealerships and charging stations, but the MSNBC hosts were visibly annoyed that President Trump agreed the actions could constitute domestic terrorism.

One of them whined “you have this post claiming that protests at Tesla dealerships are illegal.”

She added that Trump “said today he would label violence against dealerships as domestic terrorism… So just to be clear, you protest a private company, you are labeled by this administration a domestic terrorist.”

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Professor at Center of Columbia University Deportation Scandal is Former Israeli Spy

The professor at the center of the Columbia University deportation scandal is a former Israeli intelligence official, MintPress News can reveal.

Mahmoud Khalil, a recent graduate of the university’s School of International and Public Affairs (SIPA), was abducted by Immigration Customs Enforcement (ICE) Saturday for his role in organizing protests last year against Israel’s attack on Gaza. Khalil’s dean, Dr. Keren Yarhi-Milo, head of the School of International and Public Affairs, is a former Israeli military intelligence officer and official at Israel’s Mission to the United Nations. Yarhi-Milo played a significant role in drumming up public concern about a supposed wave of intolerable anti-Semitism sweeping over the campus, thereby laying the groundwork for the extensive crackdown on civil liberties that has followed the protests.

Spooks in Our Midst

Before entering academia, Dr. Yarhi-Milo served as an officer and an intelligence analyst with the Israeli Defense Forces. Given that she was recruited into the intelligence services because of her ability to speak Arabic fluently, her job likely entailed surveilling the Arab population.

After leaving the world of intelligence, she worked for Israel’s Permanent Mission to the United Nations in New York. While there, she met and married her husband, Israel’s official United Nations spokesperson.

Although she is now an academic, she has never left the world of international security, making the subject her area of expertise. She has made a point of trying to lift women’s voices in the field. One of these was the then-U.S. Director of National Security, Avril Haines, whom she spoke with in 2023. But even though Khalil was a student in her school, she had nothing to say about his arrest. Indeed, rather than speak out on the issue (as activists have demanded), she instead chose this week to invite Naftali Bennett, prime minister of Israel from 2021 to 2022, to speak at Columbia. Students protesting Tuesday’s event were condemned by university authorities for “harassing” Yarhi-Milo.

Unprecedented Protests, Unprecedented Repression

Columbia was the epicenter of a massive protest movement across university campuses nationwide last year. It is estimated that at least eight percent of all American college students participated in demonstrations denouncing the genocidal attack on Gaza and calling on educational institutions to divest from Israel. The response was equally vast in its scale. Well over 3,000 protestors were arrested, including faculty members themselves.

The nationwide movement began at Columbia on April 17, when a modest Gaza solidarity encampment was established. Protestors were shocked when university president Minouche Shafik immediately called in the New York Police Department – the first time the university had allowed police to suppress dissent on campus since the famous 1968 demonstrations against the Vietnam War.

Mahmoud Khalil was among the leaders of the movement. The Syrian-born Palestinian refugee was willing to speak calmly and cogently to the press about the protest’s goals. A permanent resident of the United States, he was abducted by ICE on Saturday.

“ICE proudly apprehended and detained Mahmoud Khalil, a radical foreign pro-Hamas student on the campus of Columbia University. This is the first arrest of many to come,” President Trump stated. Secretary of State Marco Rubio echoed Trump’s ominous threat, announcing, “We will be revoking the visas and/or green cards of Hamas supporters in America so they can be deported.” In another clear threat, the Trump administration moved to cancel $400 million in funding to Columbia University, citing the institution’s failure to sufficiently crack down on “antisemitic” incidents on campus.

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Green Card-Holding Palestinian Trump’s Deporting Gets Even Worse News as Justice Finds Him

Mahmoud Khalil, a Palestinian activist and former Columbia University graduate student detained by immigration authorities over the weekend, appears to have violated explicit federal immigration laws.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents arrested Khalil, a permanent resident with a green card, on Saturday.

The agents originally told Khalil his student visa was being revoked, according to The Associated Press, which quoted Khalil’s attorney, Amy Greer.

Greer told the AP she spoke on the phone with the agents during the arrest and said her client had a green card. The agent then told her the green card was being revoked instead, Greer said, according to the AP.

On Sunday, in a post on the social media platform X, Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced that the federal government will be “revoking the visas and/or green cards of Hamas supporters in America so they can be deported.”

A spokeswoman for the Department of Homeland Security said Khalil was arrested “in support of President Trump’s executive orders prohibiting anti-Semitism” because he “led activities aligned to Hamas, a designated terrorist organization,” according to the AP.

On Monday, however, a federal judge in New York blocked Khalil’s deportation. Judge Jesse M. Furman said that Khalil must remain in the United States “to preserve the court’s jurisdiction” as the court considers his case, according to NBC News.

A hearing for the case is scheduled in federal court for Wednesday.

Other protesters have assembled in New York City to demand the release of Khalil.

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Well, Well, Well: We May Be Getting Closer to the Truth About the J6 Pipe Bomber

By all rights, Kamala Harris’s storyline for Jan. 6, 2021, should have been that she narrowly escaped being assassinated by a bomb timed to detonate at the Democratic National Committee headquarters when the newly elected vice president was inside. But she never mentioned it. In fact, the pipe bomber case and the FBI’s handling of it turned into vapor right after they tracked down the bomber’s cell phone. None of this makes sense.

Maybe things will make sense soon. 

FBI Chief Kash Patel has been sending the documents that the Senate and House Judiciary Committees have been seeking for years. Julie Kelly reports that some of the documents turned over involve the January 6 pipe bomber. 

The mysteries of Jan. 6, 2021, are legion. Law enforcement, the feds, and an untold number of their assets were in the crowd inside and out. Munitions were blasted at people protesting outside the Capitol Building, not because they were rioting — they weren’t — but to rile them up. 

Intelligence specialists I’ve spoken with say the riot of January 6 was obviously an intentional operation. The Metropolitan Police Department of D.C. was seen on video encouraging protesters to get inside of the Capitol Building (and it’s charging Judicial Watch $1.5 million to get its hands on any more of the videos).

But the pipe bomber story is one of the biggest mysteries of January 6. The FBI originally released grainy video of an individual sitting on a bench in the dark and supposedly planting the pipe bomb the night before outside the DNC. The individual’s eyes have been blurred to subvert facial recognition software. 

That person was seen talking on a cell phone. Yet the FBI swore that the same cell phone technology used to track down hundreds, if not thousands, of people in Washington, D.C. around January 6 was now corrupted for this specific bomber on the night of January 5. That’s as interesting as the Secret Service text messages going missing at that time. 

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Elon Musk Reveals The Big-Name Democratic Donors Funding Attacks on Tesla Stores

Elon Musk has revealed the big-name Democrat donors behind the protests at Tesla stores.

Posting on the X platform that he owns, Musk said that he believes five groups are behind the protests, many of which have resorted to violence.

However, these groups are all funded by ActBlue, the troubled Democratic Party fundraising organization backed by liberal billionaire donors including George Soros and LinkedIn founder Reid Hoffman.

Musk explained:

An investigation has found 5 ActBlue-funded groups responsible for Tesla “protests”: Troublemakers, Disruption Project, Rise & Resist, Indivisible Project and Democratic Socialists of America.

ActBlue funders include George Soros, Reid Hoffman, Herbert Sandler, Patricia Bauman, and Leah Hunt-Hendrix.

ActBlue is currently under investigation for allowing foreign and illegal donations in criminal violation of campaign finance regulations.

This week, 7 ActBlue senior officials resigned, including the associate general counsel.

The Tesla CEO asked followers to share any additional information with him in the post’s replies.

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Former NIH Director Does Cringeworthy Musical Performance at Anti-Trump Rally

Can someone please call the Democrats and ask them to stop singing songs? The cringe is getting difficult to take.

Dr. Francis Collins, former director of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), busted out a guitar at an anti-Trump event and began banging away as if he was Woody Guthrie or something. The result was so off the charts bad that it’s difficult to describe.

Why do they think this is a good idea?

The Daily Caller reported:

At Anti-Trump Rally, Former NIH Director Sings The Same Way He Practices Science

Former National Institutes of Health Director Francis Collins sang during an anti-Trump rally in video posted on social media Friday.

Collins, who retired in December 2021 after he was appointed in 2009 by then-President Barack Obama, came under fire during the COVID-19 pandemic for trying to shut down “The Great Barrington Declaration,” which criticized the COVID-19 lockdowns. Collins joined a “Stand Up For Science” protest that aired on CSPAN2, where he attempted to lead the protesters in a song and teach them lyrics.

“You got that, so it’s all the good people, but the second line, part of this family, the last line, we’re joined together by this noble dream. Do that with me,” Collins said before breaking into the song.

During Collins’ tenure as director of NIH, the agency funded “gain of function” research at the Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV) in China via EcoHealth Alliance. Collins refused to answer questions publicly about WIV’s research, even though a lab leak at WIV is suspected to have caused the COVID-19 pandemic.

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Rubio Revokes Student Visa For Alien Who Was Cited For Criminal Behavior in Connection with Hamas Protests

Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced the State Department has revoked the first visa for an alien cited for criminal behavior in connection with “Hamas-supporting disruptions.”

This marks the first such case since President Trump’s order to expel foreign Hamas supporters studying in the U.S. on student visas.

Since the Hamas terror attacks on civilians in Israel on October 7, Hamas sympathizers have taken to the streets and taken over college campuses to cheerlead for the terrorist organization.

In a fact sheet issued by the White House, President Trump made it clear that terror supporters who are guest in America are not welcome.

“To all the resident aliens who joined in the pro-jihadist protests, we put you on notice: come 2025, we will find you, and we will deport you.”

“I will also quickly cancel the student visas of all Hamas sympathizers on college campuses, which have been infested with radicalism like never before.”

Reporter Bill Melugin reports the individual cited was “a university student,” and “ICE will proceed with removing this person from the country.”

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