Police Clear Columbia Protesters

Wednesday, May 1, 2024

Vol. 13, No. 2176

CAMPUS CLEARED: A large New York police special response team in riot helmets entered Columbia University last night and removed the protesters who had taken over a campus building and those living in a tent camp in support of Palestinians in Gaza.
  Clashes between rival protest groups broke out at UCLA and a large contingent of police was brought in to deal with what they called “multiple acts of violence within the large encampment.”
  Rather than bust down the front door of the occupied Hamilton Hall at Columbia, the police used a mobile ramp to enter unopposed through a second floor window of the building. The officers wore helmets and had zip-tie cuffs but did not appear to be carrying riot batons or shields. The were reported to have used flash-bang grenades inside the building.
  Earlier in the evening the University had sent out notices for students to “shelter in place” and warned that it would begin expelling protesting students. They also said, “We regret that protesters chose to escalate the situation through their actions” and “we were left with no choice.” They said that the group that took over Hamilton Hall was not led by people affiliated with the university.
  Shortly before the operation began any press that managed to be on campus were herded away. At 9:35 officers began escorting arrested people to vans on 114th street.
  New York Democratic Sen. Chuck Schumer condemned the takeover, saying that “smashing windows with hammers and taking over university buildings is not free speech; it is lawlessness.”
  Protests continue at other universities. On lower Fifth Avenue in Manhattan, pro-Palestinian protesters took over the lobby of the Welcome Center of the New School, a private university.
  Officials at Portland State University closed the campus after students broke into its library, and police officers made dozens of arrests at universities in California, Georgia, North Carolina, and elsewhere across the country.
  Police officers ended the eight-day occupation of an administration building at California State Polytechnic University in Humboldt. Encampments at Yale and the University of Pittsburgh appeared to have emptied out.

TRUMP ON TRIAL: Donald Trump was fined $9,000 for nine violations of the gag order in his Stormy Daniels payoff case and Judge Juan Merchan threatened the former president with jail if he doesn’t control himself.
  Trump has been ordered not to verbally attack witnesses, the jury, court staff or their families. Judge Merchan determined that Trump had made nine public statements on social media and his campaign website attacking witnesses and the jury. He ordered Trump to remove the posts by yesterday afternoon. Judge Merchan said, “The court will not tolerate continued willful violations of its lawful orders.”
  Prosecutors have already alerted Merchan to four more potential violations by Trump which are to be the subject of a hearing tomorrow.
  In testimony, Keith Davidson, the lawyer who negotiated the $130,000 Trump payoff to Stormy Daniels, and discussed the $150,000 payment to Playboy model Karen McDougal, explained how the deals were made. Davidson said that for the Stormy Daniels deal she was code-named “Peggy Peterson” and Trump was “David Dennison.” He talked about how unpleasant it was to deal with Trump lawyer Michael Cohen.
  Earlier in the day, the jury heard more from Gary Farro, the banker who helped Trump Cohen set up a shell company for passing money to Stormy Daniels. He established a paper trail and a critical element is that Trump Cohen put $131,000 into the corporation from his home equity loan and the money was paid to Daniels quickly after.

THE ONCE AND FUTURE PRESIDENT: In a lengthy interview with Time Magazine, Donald Trump said that if re-elected to the presidency he would use the military to detain and deport migrants and hedged on the possibility of political violence after the 2024 election.
  On the latter he said, “I think we’re going to win, and if we don’t win, you know, it depends. It always depends on the fairness of an election.”
  Trump said, “I don’t think they’ll be able to do the things that they did the last time, which were horrible.” The truth is that no one did anything to unfairly deny him the election.
  On using the military against migrants Trump said, “Well, these aren’t civilians, these are people that aren’t legally in our country. This is an invasion of our country.”

THE WAR ROOM: At least five people were killed and more than 30 injured by a Russian missile attack on the Black Sea port city of Odesa that appears to have destroyed an historic building with dramatic spires known locally as the “Harry Potter castle.”
Ukraine said the Russians used cluster bombs in the attack. The building seemed to have no strategic value to make it a target.

THE SPIN RACK: Florida’s six-week abortion ban goes into effect today with political implications for the fall election. — Under threat of being sued by presidential son Hunter Biden, Fox News removed a six-part miniseries “The Trial of Hunter Biden” from its streaming platform Fox Nation. The miniseries showed sexually explicit images of Hunter Biden purloined from his laptop left in a repair shop. — The Biden administration is moving to reclassify marijuana as a less dangerous drug. Currently it’s listed as “Schedule 1” along with heroin, ecstasy and LSD even though marijuana is legal for recreational use in 24 states. — ABC News has fired weather reporter Rob Marciano because of what the New York Post attributed to “anger management issues.” Marciano had been banned from the “Good Morning America” studio in Times Square more than a year ago.

BELOW THE FOLD:  British singer, dancer and actress FKA Twigs told a US Senate Judiciary subcommittee that she has used artificial intelligence to create a deepfake of herself that to interact with fans and journalists so she can focus on her music. So … was that really her sitting before the Judiciary Committee?

Saturday, November 23, 2024

Page Two

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Thursday, October 31, 2024

The Most Corrupt Justice

Monday, October 2, 2023

Democracy and Video in the Dark

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Page Two: Do the Right Thing

Tuesday, February 1, 2022

Page Two: Sound Recall

Monday, September 13, 2021

Page Two: Cuomo Must Go

Friday, August 13, 2021

Trump and the Truth

Tuesday, November 3, 2020

The “Great” President

Monday, March 30, 2020

It's Been Said

"Christians, get out and vote, just this time. You won't have to do it anymore. Four more years, you know what, it will be fixed, it will be fine, you won't have to vote anymore, my beautiful Christians. I love you Christians. I'm a Christian. I love you, get out, you gotta get out and vote. In four years, you don't have to vote again, we'll have it fixed so good you're not going to have to vote."

Donald Trump courting the vote of the Christian right