Soundtrack? The only applicable soundtrack is a gunshot and a thud of a man shot in his back losing his life on the cold hard Manhattan pavement.

The Stranger's fascination with the Catholic Church needs to end. Also, there's nothing progressive about a "radical pope" who canonized Father Junipero Serra. The Vatican Bank is as corrupt as they come. Do more research please and thank you. :-)

Oh sweet another ethic conflict explodes into active war, this will be great for our GDP!

The $400M pulled by the feds represents 2.7% of Columbia's $14.8B endowment fund meaning they can probably make that back in a year on interest alone. If they wanted to stick to their morals they would continue funding this research out of their own pocket. The better question is why any of these ivy's receive any funding from the feds given the amount of money they are are sitting on.

Progressives are just as bad if not worse about listening to opposing opinions as the conservatives.
Riley Gaines had the audacity to set foot on the UW campus and give a speech.
Big deal.
It’s funny to me that the ones who cheered when Tesla cars and dealerships were set on fire and who also support Luigi Mangione believe that anyone who disagrees with them is committing an act of violence.
Grow up.

@3, Conflict over "ethic(s)" is healthy. How that conflict is resolved determines what behavior is ethical, and that which is not. :-)

@2: "The Stranger's fascination with the Catholic Church needs to end."

The Stranger has long been staffed by theatre geeks who fall hard for costumed spectacle, and the account in this headline post maintains that tradition. Plus, big public productions (like this conclave) gives the church's faithful some assurance their money pays for something more uplifting than merely the continued silence of former altar boys.

Publicly funded research is for everyone’s benefit. It’s not a donation to a fancy school, it is supporting basic and applied science that leads to new drugs and repurposing of existing treatments. Harvard et al compete for those grants and they are awarded based on merit, something conservatives generally and this administration in particular are supposedly big fans of.

Denying research funding to universities with the best talent in the world over their failure to kiss the ring is one of many reasons why people call trump’s Republican party a fascist movement. This petty withholding of public money is not only a violation of basic first amendment principles and the constitutional separation of powers, but a betrayal of American taxpayers. Most people like it when we cure diseases and this used to be a bipartisan consensus, but republicans have been told to believe biomedical science is a big woke conspiracy because some students said things that hurt their feelings, and now we all have to suffer for their gullibility and ignorance.

5 it’s always funny to me when people cry about protesters under the pretext of “free speech.” No one is accusing her of violence, they are responding to her speech with more of the same. You guys are hypocrites but more than anything you’re such babies about this stuff.

@4 You don’t understand how endowments work, so your brain is on par with the Trump Administration. Well done.

1,353 days of the Trump shit show to go.

@1:

So we can add "the U.S. legal/judicial system" to the ever lengthening list of things you clearly despise - maybe you'd prefer a bunch of New Yorkers break into the Brooklyn MDC, drag him from his cell and string him up by a rope to the nearest utility pole?

@2:

There are 1.4 Billion Catholics world-wide with 54 million of them residing in the U.S., roughly 20% of the adult population, so regardless of ones personal feelings regarding their belief system, it's still newsworthy.

@4:

Given the way the markets have been see-sawing the past several months - and no doubt will continue to do so for the next 1,300-plus days - making up the loss "in interest alone" is very much not guaranteed.

@5:

Yeah, yeah, we get it. And all those folks who happened to enter the U.S. Capital on 1/6/2021 were just innocent tourists not meaning any harm to anyone. eyeroll emoji The Right has absolutely no moral high-ground when it comes to criticizing political violence in this country, so you can stop with the bullshit whataboutisms, 'mkay?

@8:

Add to that the fact the Right is screeching like a meth-addicted howler monkey about the "woke/DEI" bias these research programs, because 1.6 GPA Bubbahs can't get hired into them ahead of 3.6 GPA People Of Color.

@4, @10: The Wall Street Journal recently analyzed Harvard's financial situation against Trump's threats, and concluded that, between the partial liquidity of the endowment, and their ability to borrow against it, the institution can easily absorb whatever punishment he can deliver. (That doesn't make Trump's actions defensible, just irrelevant.)

@8: As your "kiss the ring" cliche suggests, it's more of a basic cult of personality than anything as intellectually difficult as fascism. ;-)

@12: Why would I or anyone despise our U.S. legal system for providing due process for an alleged first degree murderer awaiting trail?

I feel like you guys are just a couple hundred thousand more comments from fixing this Gaza stuff. Keep it up!

Cult of personality and fascism are not mutually exclusive, in fact they operate hand in hand. Running a country is absolutely difficult work and when you have a charismatic leader whose followers believe to be uniquely qualified to make the trains run on time, you can see why fascist regimes don’t end well. It’s never a good idea to over-promise when your plan is to under-deliver.

Dweeeeeeebeeeeee..... Sometimes a drug dealer gets shot (mmm hmmm C. Rock). The only difference is this time it resulted in a nationwide man hunt because the dude was whiteeeee with the moneeee which is why dweeeeebeeee chose to comment. "Nobody fucks with whiteeeee on dweeeebeeee's watch, NOBODY!!!!"

@16: "Cult of personality and fascism are not mutually exclusive, in fact they operate hand in hand."

I agree completely, but our best metaphor of Italian origin for this gang is not the fascists, but the mafia. They're really about the theft and corruption; furthermore, they lack the basic organizing skills necessary for running a successful fascist organization.

People being harassed enough to require a police escort just for attending a Riley Gaines speech at the University of Washington:

https://x.com/i/status/1919998077114458234
https://x.com/i/status/1919942840156639644

@19, Sounds like a typical gay pride event or drag queen story hour. Doesn’t make it right but it also doesn’t make it special.

Well if the KKK took their masks off and walked into a cross burning in the middle of Harlem I bet they would wish they had a police escort too. Serves the bigots right that they should fear for their welfare for a change. Dweeeebeee YOU SO FUCKING SUCK.

@19 I think you shared the wrong links nobody in those "required" a police escort, it was just some people having mean things said to them

@20, 21 & 22:

friggin' bravo.

Brave move turning comments off in the IEB protest article.

@8 it’s not denying them funding because they didn’t kiss the ring. It’s denying them funding because they would literally choose to defend antisemitism on their campus rather than protect Jewish students. If the research is that important, then I’m sure Columbia isn’t the only institution or organization looking into it so while it’s sad, we are losing their brain power. There are plenty of other research bodies out there who are happy to accept that funding. The researchers themselves are also free to leave Columbia and join another organization to continue their work. Columbia made a choice and that choice comes with ramifications.

@21 I think your analogy is backwards. There was only one group covering their faces and harassing people last night. So to correct the analogy I’m glad the police were there to protect a historically marginalized group advocating for the rights against the KKK.

@25 Bwahahahahahaha!!!!! I bet you listen to that band Centurion as well for a little extra self validation. Remember we are in the drumpf regime era and the little white vans (thumping out beats from your favorite band Centurion) will be back soon enough, scooping up people who protest drumpf's regime. The transphobes and racists and white christian nationalists are empowered and when they come waltzing into our front yard with their bull shit, we gotta make it mizzzzerabbbbbble for those ass holes.

@25, You don’t understand the first thing about any of this. Congress sets the federal budget per the United States constitution, and NIH grants are apportioned by the NIH based on the merits of the proposal. It doesn’t matter what his excuse is, it’s not the president’s job to decide how research grant money is spent, and it makes no sense to punish researchers for an administrative dispute over student protest. This is all extremely, indefensibly unconstitutional.

There is also no indication that they are planning to give the money to someone else. They have frozen NSF and NIH grants across the board and they are billing this entire project as an effort to save money. What he and apparently you don’t understand is that Columbia et al aren’t going to lose their talent to other schools but other countries. Whatever “savings” we get from gutting public research will be lost by the brain drain and the dismantling of a trillion dollar industry.

If our government wants to make federal research grant funding contingent on how administrators respond to campus protests and student safety concerns, someone in congress can sponsor a bill and pass a law. Republicans have both houses and no excuse to not follow the letter of the constitution. If this problem is as serious as Trump is making it out to be and you are defending, this is his obligation. Instead he is creating chaos that will disrupt critical research, potentially leading to people dying for stopping treatment, only to end up paying out when the lawsuits make their way through the courts, and surrendering our edge in biomedical research to China and the EU.

@24,

Where are comments disabled? I checked the most recent posts to the page and don't see any that are turned off.

@27

why do commenters
like @25 Hate America?
did She do something to hurt
their Feelings when wee & knee-hi?

@26 - It's WAY MORE EFFECTIVE to call him "bLoNaLd bLuMpFh" (written just like that) than it is to call him "drumpf".

Try it! You will soon find how much more satisfying it is, and how much more effective it is at convincing your ideological opponents of your position.

LOL

@25 But it's not antisemitism that conservatives are concerned about, but ridding themselves of DEI, race-based admissions and Equal Opportunity Employment. That's the agreement that Columbia and Harvard have to accept to restore their funding. Antisemitism is just the wedge issue that conservatives are using to divide opinion and ram through their extreme agenda of an America only for whites. Much like law firms that Trump doesn't like and movies filmed in Vancouver are not really national security threats. Don't be an apologist for white supremacy because Ivy league schools have wealthy alumni.

@31 "Don't be an apologist for white supremacy because Ivy league schools have wealthy alumni."

D13 doesn't need any excuse to be an apologist for white supremacy. Notice they wrote "I’m glad the police were there to protect a historically marginalized group" after Phoebe shared links to videos of an old white couple being yelled at while surrounded by police.

@20: In your own humble spins, that is.
@22: Okay, then "needed" is more accurate.

@28: I guess it was disabled initially. in retrospect, it would have been better to leave them off. blegh.

33 what does this even mean

"Pakistan also says they shot down five Indian aircraft in the attack, but India hasn’t confirmed."

First-ever combat use of a PL-15, first-ever shoot-down of a Rafale ... big day for Pakistan, even if it was their country that got bombed. 😄

@35: You're the unparsable one.

36 if you don’t have a counter argument or worse, you can’t explain your own cryptic comments, you should consider saying nothing at all so you don’t sound butthurt in addition to letting everyone know you don’t have anything meaningful to say

@32
And what were the "protesters" yelling? :

"Kill yourself!"

"Have you thought about dying today? Do it. Before someone does it for you."

"I hope you die behind the wheel, you stupid transphobic bitch!"

"It would be so beautiful to see your bodies hanging from the tree" [I guess lynching is "progressive" now]

And the most "progressive" one of all:
"You look too much like a trans woman to be transphobic"
Neck slitting gesture"

It's hilarious how the worst insult the Antifasoy could come up with against the accused "transphobe" is to tell the "transphobe" that they "look trans".

Seems pretty "transphobic" on the part of the Antifasoy, who obviously subconsciously thinks being "trans" is bad and makes someone ugly.

LOL SO "PROGRESSIVE"!
YOU REALLY CAN'T MAKE THIS SHIT UP

@37: You started it with your contorted comparisons in @20, and then you have the gall to complain about "cryptic" responses you get. Something that is not cryptic is that you're aligning yourself with the rage and hate if you have no empathy for what those attendees faced as the walked to their cars.

@38 applies to you as well.

39, If you were confused by my saying gay pride requires police security you could have said so though I don’t see how you could miss the point because it’s pretty simple. You were a gay man in a past life so you should know these events are heavily fortified.

I also said I don’t approve of people yelling at terfs but, you know, sticks and stones, free speech,ets. Conservatives are supposed to be champions of that stuff but maybe you didn’t get the memo.

@40: So the vicious insults, as listed in @38, are just sticks and stones as far as you're concerned. So noted. Who knows what dispositions had those attendees have. Just ordinary older folks. The yesteryear "TERF" slur is so banal.

@41

"nasty dispositions"?

not to Worry:
Cadet Bonespurs's
gonna outlaw Free Speech
directly after his Happy Birthday
cum Nuremburg Rally on June 14th

and all the jackbooted Homophobes
can Spit-shine each others' foot-
wear till they can See their
hideous reflections

and place their
Shiny Boots
firmly upon
your scraw-
ny necks &
they'll ALL
have Sun-
ny Dispo-
Sitions
to Die
For.

@42
Most People do not Read
your Drivel
if every
One
would Stop
Responding
to kristo it
Would
go
Away

"Antifasoy" being used unironically is so breathtakingly and painfully birdbrained that it's ultimately hilarious instead of offensive.

Could ya pass me the antifasoy? 🤣

@42

A. True!

B. False!

C. @CD -- Bingo!

D. speaking of "Progressives":

would the deFacto "Leaders"
of the "Progressives" - Bernie Sanders,
AOC, maybe Nader, Hedges, & Gov Pritchard

Endorse your (ALL CAPS!!!) Claim that
your statements in @38 represent
absolutely ANYThing that
"Progressives" Endorse?:

"LOL SO 'PROGRESSIVE'!
YOU REALLY CAN'T MAKE THIS SHIT UP"

or would they chuckle
tossle your hair and
wish you "well" un-
der C. Bonespurs's
Fascist daymare?

'cuz I'm "guessing"
Otherwise.

"Progressives"
bought to You
the 40-hour workweek
Weekends an End to workers
injured of the Job being Fired for
getting injured (bet you Hated that one!)
(PLUS THEY* GET COMPENSATED for DYING! OH
the Humanity) and all that shit the Owner Class lords
over the Working Class -- well, Usta, but thedjt's taking US back with all due Haste

sorry, I gotta
"Pause" -- run-
ning outta Pixels

*well, their
"Surivors" do.

Dweeeebeee, those were my contorted comparisons. Ugh, you’re getting too old for this shit. I suggest you go to the euthanasia clinic and drink the spiked Soylent tea, sleep it away into eternity while Edelweiss plays softly in the background.
And Kristo’s drivel is solid GOLD! they’re the next Andy Warhol meets Robert Hayden of the written word!

@45 was for @43
apologies for all
the Confusion

@38 ~ speaking of Protesters
and their "Unamerican"
Protestations:

from The Intercept:

Police
Shot Them
in the Head With
Rubber Bullets. Now
UCLA Gaza Protesters Are Suing.

A day after being attacked by a pro-Israel mob,
protesters were shot by rubber bullets —
whose use is restricted by
California law.

Police conspired to violently attack anti-genocide protesters at the University of California, Los Angeles last year, according to a suit filed last week in Los Angeles Superior Court.

At the height of the school’s encampment against Israel’s war on Gaza last spring, one of hundreds across the country, a mob of pro-Israel protesters attacked pro-Palestine protesters for more than four hours.

On the night of April 30, 2024, police stood by and watched as counter-protesters aimed and shot fireworks, sprayed chemical agents, harassed, and sexually assaulted pro-Palestine protesters, students and faculty alleged last month in a separate, ongoing lawsuit.

oodles More:
https://theintercept.com/2025/05/05/ucla-gaza-protesters-sue-cops-rubber-bullets/

the Patriarchy
and Unbridled Capitalism
cannot have Anyone talking back

Bend the knee
& bend over
Fascism’s
Come to
America.

@46 - you're Too kind!
and, like Pomeranian,
above, says, prob-
ably Correct.

@47c -- oh and
wormmy, too!

RIP Kevin Diers from KISW and KUOW... host of Metalshop and occasional writer for the Stranger and all around good dude.

@48: Yes Kristo, your drivel is solid gold but still just drivel.

@50

"'Dribble'?
I will give you dribble.
You listen to Me, Ms. Krapotkin."

--Linda Litske, 'Burn After Reading.'

plenty more
where That
came from.

Looks like "Antifasoy" really hit a nerve with CDizzle lol, I figured it would.

Hayduke with the encouragement of suicide, right on schedule, that's sooooo "Progressive".

Also, if you don't think the shouted death threats and death wishes and projected bigotry ("you look trans"), and aggressive physical intimidation, aimed at elderly women, simply for attending a speaking event, from those Antifasoys isn't standard-issue "Seattle Progressivism" these days, then you are really naive.

Yall have a really terrible optics problem. Almost nobody actually likes you, especially when you do/condone such awful behavior.

Bruh you can call me Antifasoycrates

@52: lol Who are you again?

@54
I'm a guy on the internet who thinks the PNW "Progressives" have terrible optics and public relations. Who are you?

@53
Antifasoycrates, were you the lisping fat guy in black bloc yelling death threats and suicide encouragement at elderly women?

@54: I repeat, lol. Knock yourself out

@57
Why are you responding to yourself and telling yourself to knock yourself out? Seems like a pretty dumb thing to do.

@54 ~ do you Not recognize
The Wormtongue when
it raises its fugly
Head? nor
did I, init-
ially.

Excellent Call:

when One ai Sickbott
Ain't quite Enough
be Fruitful and
Multiply.

hell, ol' wormmy
he ain't even
Trying to
Hide it.

he's like Cadet Bonespurs:
been getting Away with
it for so Long, why tf
even Bother?

Q. What do the Womtongue
and his Cadre of Reich
Wing Apologists
Want?

A. Death to derr Schlogg
and ALL Things
Progressive.

@59a

"Womtongue"?
who tf "edits"
this dribble?

Sorry,
wormmy!

@56. Yeth.

it's kinda like
mowin' the
lawn:

you can decapitate
the Dandy Lions
but they're Still
There Lurking
waiting for

lucifer?

@41, Yes they’re just words. I’m never going to defend people shouting obscenities at strangers but I’m also not going to clutch my pearls over something that at worst hurts people’s feelings and happens every single day with far less fanfare than at some silly terf lecture.

Also terf was coined by a self-identified terf. If it’s become a slur it’s only because you guys soiled your own reputation. If you have a better word for being an anti-trans bigot feel free to drop it here but it will end up in the same place as terf the minute it catches on. It’s not the word, it’s the beliefs the word describes.

@41: You can't discuss any trans related topic without using insults and calling people transphobic bigots. Why is that?

I have an extensive track record of good faith conversations, even difficult ones, even with you when you’re not being a douche. But if the shoe fits I’m not going to mince words, like if you’re attending a riley gaines lecture or you speak out against trans people every time the opportunity presents itself, or if your previous profile got banned for transphobic comments.

If you’re as firm in your beliefs as your behavior suggests you should embrace the accusation with pride. Have the courage to own your convictions instead of crying like a baby when someone calls a spade a spade.

@65: We're not talking about me, but the attendees of the Riley Gaines speech. You just admitted that anyone who attended that speech is deserving of the words you won't mince. You can't read their thoughts, their politics, or where they stand on trans issues. Yet you feel justified being in attack mode without any justification. Again, why is that?

I’m talking about both of you, but if she’s attending an event for a terf whose entire claim to fame is tying for 5th with a trans woman i think it’s safe to assume she’s sympathetic.

But you’re very astute to observe that i can’t read her mind so I’ll tell you what — if that old bag of bones finds this post and says she was only there to boo, I’ll apologize to her. You can still fuck off though.

@67
What if that old lady who was limping along with the cane while being physically intimated by that fat guy and the junkie girl told you that she was there to support Riley Gaines?

What would you do?

Would you scream "kill yourself!" at her?
Would you tell her you'd love to see her hanging from a tree? I hear that's a superduper "Progressive" thing to say and that lynching us ultraProgressive.
Would you tell her she "looks trans", since that totally makes sense and is Doubleplusgood "Progressive"?

I remember when "Progressives" used to say that mean "words are violence". Now meany words are no big deal (unless you are Shiloh Hendricks).

Pick a lane and stay in it.

@67: Your last sentence is admission you lost this debate. You get frustrated and lash out. Just like a little kid.