At UCLA, the cops have permitted far right Proud Boy Magats to look the other way while they terrorize these encampments with fireworks and pepper spray and physical abuse and assault the protestors. Similar to Kyle Rittenhaus, they look the other way while they enable violence against peaceful protestors and put agitator plants in these events to invalidate them and give the police an excuse to attack liberals. The most antisemitic folks of all are framing the peaceful encampments as antisemitic in order to have license to attack them. This is the greatest assault on free speech and the Constitution yet in a preview of the fascist police state Trump would bring to life. Police should be there to protect the protestors' rights to petition and assembly and speech and not to be harrassed and assaulted by them or anyone else. To do so is a betrayal of the badge and uniform and to become merely a thug in a suit.

Myself, I already lived through one "Kent State" already.
I don't need another "Kent State".

Cops have no business on a college campus.
Cops have no business busting up a peaceful freedom-of-speech demonstration.

Send all the cops to Dunkin Donuts, where they belong.

I'm surprised both Hannah and the protestors devoted so much thought to Kirk. He's just trolling for attention. If you don't give him any, he will go away.

You really need to stop using the term "conservative" to describe fascist traitors. There's nothing "conservative" about violent White Nationalist thugs.

Regardless of where you are on these protests, ask yourself: would you have the same reaction if this was a group of pro life protesters behaving in exactly the same way?

Still want the police to arrest them? Still think the police should stay away?

"Students
worried the event
would bring right-wing
agitators to their encampment."

hopped-up on steroids
auditioning for El trumpfster's
Brownshit Brigade they may prompt
silly ol' Joe to call out the National Guard

my gawd this guy's outta Touch
equating anti-Nutnyahoo with
anti-Semitism whilst IGNOR-
ING the Nazis who Attacked
NON-Violent Protesters at
UCLA . I'm Rapidly losing
my Confidence in Joe

yet
Look
at the
Alternative

8/22's
Joe's day
of Reckoning

buckle up

The irony here is that Turning Point USA is one of the most explicitly anti-Jewish white hate groups, irrespective of their geopolitical stance on Israel as a country. Anyone who criticizes UW protesters' real or perceived anti-Zionism while cheering on Charlie Kirk or Candice Owens is not a serious opponent of anti-Semitism.

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/article/2024/may/06/campus-pro-palestinian-protests

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/commentisfree/article/2024/may/06/ucla-protester-mob-attack

@8, Indeed, the far right agitators attacking peaceful protestors and destroying their property don't want peace but a sanctioned target for their fascist leanings.

I think we need
to differentiate be-
tween 'peaceful' and
NON-Violent protest while
there are those who see vandalism
as Assault or Violence can too easily
equate the two as being the Same Thing

which it
Ain't.

Goebbels said to accuse the enemy of that which you are most guilty. In this case, Johnson and the far right are doing exactly that in projecting their antisemitism in order to enable it. The corporate media is complicit in this vile calumny.

@3: I like the way the story repeatedly reads as a prelude to some tense confrontation, or even outbreak of violence, but each time, all of the suspense somehow just fizzles out.

The article starts by informing us of a “crackdown,” but that turns out to be merely the police putting up barricades. We read how the encampment “exploded,” but that was just another protest group setting up tents. (However, it was “taking all four quadrants,” implying some kind of organized operation to conquer the space.)

Then we get a long sequence on the protesters trying to get a right-wing agitator’s visit cancelled or moved (yay free speech!), but the event takes place anyway, and … nothing unusual happens.

This article has more build-ups to non-climax than would a laboratory report from the early ‘90s, describing issues encountered during development of medication to treat erectile dysfunction.

where do i send my thank you card for 4 more years of trump? i cant wait for these folks to make a mess of the DNC in chicago. let’s drive enough mid-of/the roaders to the GOP. half these ‘campers’ wont vote at all in Nov. this is more pathetic performative posturing. enjoy that stacked Supreme Court, kiddo’s

When you consider that UW has already said they are not going to part ways with Boeing and their money, and that any statement calling for a ceasefire would have zero influence on Israeli policy it’s safe to say that the protest has failed.
Maybe the students time would be better spent studying for finals.

I have no problem with the encampment. They have a right to protest, and landscaping is cheap. I'm sure there's some uptight alumni who are screeching about cherry trees or graduation or something, but that's beside the point.

As long as things stay peaceful and nobody gets hateful, let it go. It will eventually dwindle away.

@lds:

"where
do i send
my thank you card
for 4 more years of trump?"

send one to Wormtongue
cap'n ahab and all the
rest who cheerleaded
Us into a genocidal
Complicity -- hell
WE sponsored it
send one to all
US Taxpayers
too. thanks!

@20 tho
to be Fair
we Do have
Other* Options:

nyt:
R.F.K. Jr.
Says Doctors Found
a Dead Worm in His Brain

The presidential candidate has faced previously undisclosed health issues, including a parasite that he said ate part of his brain.

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/05/08/us/rfk-jr-brain-health-memory-loss.html

*El trumpfster
smokin Joe
or rfk jr?

o.m.f.g.

@22, 23:

good point cap'n:
I was Excessively Violent
to my Lawn yesterday* and
you oughtta See the limbs I
removed from some Trees! just
like our 2,000lb Bunker Bustin' Bombs
removing Limbs (and Lives!) from Gazans

except
it looked
so much Better
afterwards! probably
how the nutnyahoos of
this World see Palestine now?

*I MOWED that
Sumbitch Down!

@20: Nice try. The Stranger has already said the purpose of protesting Gaza is to prevent President Biden’s re-election:

“…but the movement to vote uncommitted serves a deeper purpose than unseating Biden.”

(https://www.thestranger.com/elections-2024/2024/03/18/79433368/make-sure-your-vote-got-counted)

So, if Biden is indeed not re-elected, the Stranger and supportive commenters can let their Trump flags fly. Maga hats for all!

Violence exists on a spectrum, and the accountability for selective acts of violence against property or grass should not be met with disproportionate corporeal violence against everyone affiliated with a protest in kind through unreasonable force.

speaking of (the) English

they gave us* these Manicured Lawns
Weed-free Perfection brought to
you by Big Chemical & Roundup
and a Language engineered to
Favor its weaponization for
the Nefarious - like Fran
Kluntz, Rush the Oxy-
Moron & the Newt
Gingrich (& others)
who've Split this
country for
Political
Gain.

*And those
Geo-political
Lines that defined
whole Countries - the
whole Middle East - to
Favor Our oil extraction
from its Owners to burn
this Planet down whilst de-
nying the Risks to the Planet.

Cops and barricades aren't there to keep protesters safe. They are there to 1)keep students on their way to and from class safe. 2) to provide seperation between the opposing factions. 3) to control the density of crowds as a means to minimize violence should it break out.

Standard crowd control tactics involve breaking up big groups into smaller ones.

I hope you did some warm-ups before attempting that stretch, Ahab dear. The students are the ones who are largely paying for any damage to the landscaping, and the amount of damage that this would cause is so negligible as to be laughable.

I'm also okay with symbolic gestures against the administration, such as sit-ins at the President's office, as long as they don't damage anything. That should be expected from time to time at any college or university.

What I don't approve of is what the "activists" did to the HUB a few months back, or what they did at Portland State a few weeks back (occupied the library). Administrative areas are fair game. Student and academic areas should be hands-off. And vandalism is never right.

Why is it that the same folks bemoaning "antisemitic" college students defacing campus property are the same ones who call the January 6th rioters patriots for smearing literal shit all over the Capitol while wearing Neo Nazi attire?

Progressives in 2024:

Violence - misgendering or deadnaming, having to be in proximity of someone you disagree with, seeing a police officer, asking for people to literally stop crapping all over the city

Not violent - destruction and theft of public property, chanting genocidal slogans and advocating for people to be exterminated, physically intimidating people and restricting their free movement, rape

@32. "Thats a Bingo!"**

@30: Why is it you can’t provide examples?

With quotes?

And urls?

@34. You want me to cite the actions of the January 6th rioters??

Garb@36: Wow, even you consider your comments to be such utter garbage, you won’t read them.

I asked for you to validate the premise of your question @30, by providing quotes and urls from multiple persons (“same people”), each one of whom BOTH 1) describe the current pro-Palestinian student protesters as “anti-Semitic,” and 2) “call the Jan. 6th rioters patriots.”

Got that? Or must I dumb your own words down to you even further?

@37
there
it is the
Wormtongue
getting its Money's
worth thru ridicule and
subjugation & earning its
nickname with hysterical Glee

WHY
@ tS?

why?

Trashista muy bonita!

https://apnews.com/article/trump-columbia-student-protests-jan-6-9b1a2849daf18a4362f5ee91a9bf2057

https://apnews.com/article/donald-trump-jan-6-pardons-2024-campaign-2401ead35cb1402a7b289c2c99761373

An announcer asked the crowd to please rise “for the horribly and unfairly treated January 6th hostages.” And people did, and sang along.

“They were unbelievable patriots,” Trump said as the recording ended.

"Madam Chairwoman, my constituents demand answers, but the
truth is being censored and covered up. As a result, the DOJ is harassing peaceful patriots across the country. Without
accurate answers, conspiracies continue to form" - Rep Gosar. AZ (R). https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/CHRG-117hhrg44570/html/CHRG-117hhrg44570.htm

https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-news/paul-gosar-newsletter-antisemtic-racist-pro-hitler-website-links-1234794315/

“It’s almost like Jan. 6 is baked into the electorate on the far right. When they see Jan. 6, they automatically think peaceful patriots being persecuted as political prisoners,” said Denver Riggleman, a former Republican congressman and senior technical adviser for the House select committee that investigated the attack. “It normalizes violence as an acceptable method for political disagreement. In effect, it endorses domestic terrorism. Not to mention that January 6th is a case study in radicalization and actions based completely on fantasy.”
https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2023/01/06/jan-6-prisoners-supporters/

https://youtu.be/XA6x_BQrCI4?feature=shared
Rep. Don Bacon calls 1/6 protestors Patriots
https://dccc.org/don-bacon-defends-gop-candidates-at-capitol-during-deadly-january-6-insurrection/

https://wisconsinexaminer.com/2024/05/08/nebraska-u-s-rep-bacon-seeks-to-censure-minnesota-rep-omar-over-antisemitic-rhetoric/

"We're ashamed of nothing," said GOP Rep. Matt Gaetz of Florida during an appearance with Georgia Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene on a podcast hosted by former Trump strategist Steve Bannon, who has been indicted for defying a subpoena from the House committee investigating the insurrection. "We're proud of the work that we did on Jan. 6 to make legitimate arguments about election integrity."

Greene slammed Republican Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas, another potential 2024 contender, for having characterized the anniversary as an event marking "a violent terrorist attack on the Capitol" Wednesday.

She accused Cruz of disrespecting "MAGA patriots" and "people that rioted at the Capitol and did breach the Capitol."

https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/one-year-ago-republicans-condemned-jan-6-insurrection-yesterday-their-response-was-far-more-muted

Polling released last year by the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, conducted by YouGov, shows that about 1 in 6 Americans think that “patriot” is a good descriptor for those who participated in the events at the Capitol, with that number jumping to 3 in 10 among Republicans.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2024/01/05/trump-desantis-jan6-patriotism/

Josh Hawley demands the National Guard be sent to Columbia to break up the protests after fist bumping the Jan 6th rioters and then running from them like a scrub.
https://www.politico.com/news/2024/04/22/columbia-new-york-troops-00153651

Tucker Carlson and various other MAGA loyalists rebranded January 6th rioters as peaceful sightseers who revered the capitol.
https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/fox-news-star-tucker-carlson-ramps-up-jan-6-lies-with-footage-provided-by-house-republicans

The list goes on and on and on, but there's a cursory Google search with non paywall sources you could just as easily do yourself. But since you are either too lazy to do your own fact checking or have been living on the moon in the past three and a half years, you can lead a horse to water but you can't make it drink.

Not that you will take these sources and citations in good faith anyway. Everybody knows what happened on January 6th and that it's the same scumbags who enabled that insurrenction attempt and then tried to whitewash it in history who are the most vocal about antisemitism and cracking down on college protests. They elected Trump as their candidate for Ford's sake!

How Republicans Echo Antisemitic Tropes Despite Declaring Support for Israel

Prominent Republicans have seized on campus protests to assail what they say is antisemitism on the left. But for years they have mainstreamed anti-Jewish rhetoric.

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/05/09/us/antisemitism-republicans-trump.html?te=1&nl=the-morning&emc=edit_nn_20240509

Good, well compiled source here

@39, @40: So, your point is Republicans are horrible people? It took you three tries to come up with evidence for that stunningly original proposition?

"Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable."
- John F Kennedy

@41. No, my point was to qualify my earlier claims with evidence that I cited, which you requested. My claim is that the far right is projecting their antisemitism to discredit the protestors and uphold a double standard that permits the ingroup to freely espouse antisemitic rhetoric while cracking down on the college protestors in order to their project their antisemitism as a political ploy. Their concern and posturing is merely ceremonial and self-serving. I have provided evidence to that end.

Believe it or not, I do not believe all Republicans are horrible people. However, their insistence on legislating their morality makes them dangerous to democracy, and I believe the people they elect to high office are willing to destroy this country and subvert the Constitution and separation of powers for total control.

@43: Um, ok. Perhaps I just expect the far right to play in the traffic at the intersection of Stupid and Crazy. But, who cares about the “far right” in Seattle? It’s not like they have any influence. I’m far more concerned about eliminationist rhetoric used by pro-Palestinian protesters in places like New York and Seattle, and especially at universities. Such language has no place in civilized discourse, let alone at institutions of higher learning.