Isra Hirsi, Ilhan Omar's Daughter, On Columbia Arrests, Barnard Suspension, Palestine Protests

Source: Teen Vogue

When Barnard junior – and former Teen Vogue cover star – Isra Hirsi, 21, tweeted on April 18 she was suspended for her involvement in the Gaza Solidarity Encampment at Columbia University, I immediately headed uptown so we could talk about the suspension. While I was on the subway, she stopped responding. Columbia students launched the encampment in the center of campus at 4 a.m. on Wednesday April 17, timed to a congressional hearing on campus antisemitism featuring Columbia University President Nemat “Minouche” Shafik. Though her mother, Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN), would go on to make noteworthy contributions at the hearing, Hirsi was otherwise occupied with the occupation.

...

Social media posts showed that during that same 1 p.m. block on Thursday, Shafik emailed the Columbia University community, informing them that she had officially told the New York Police Department to enter campus and dismantle the encampment. Isra, fellow Barnard junior Soph Askanase, and Barnard freshman Maryam Iqbal were the first to receive suspensions at the encampment; the three were arrested alongside over 100 students in the 20 minutes it took me to get into Columbia’s campus — past the police officers, campus security, additional hired Allied Universal private security, media, and protesters swarming the locked gates. (Despite the heavy security presence, NYPD Chief John Chell later told the Columbia Spectator that the students “offered no resistance whatsoever, and were saying what they wanted to say in a peaceful manner.&quot

That Thursday, Columbia became one of the nation’s trending topics, and Hirsi in particular caught intense heat, though not for the first time, as a longtime advocate on social justice issues. After her release, Hirsi faced being evicted from her dorm and inflamed social media backlash — much of which, she says, is based on “misunderstanding” and “misrepresentation.” Simultaneously, pro-Palestine campus encampments in solidarity with Columbia’s were popping up across the country, from Miami University in Ohio to the University of North Carolina to Yale. We met on Saturday at Morningside Park, 48 hours after her arrest.

Read more: https://www.teenvogue.com/story/isra-hirsi-ilhan-omar-columbia-arrests-barnard-suspension-palestine

No Golden Globes threads?

I'm surprised....

Oppenheimer
Christopher Nolan
Lily Gladstone
The Boy and the Heron
Paul Giamatti

....and many more

NYT: Trump Leads in 5 Critical States as Voters Blast Biden, Times/Siena Poll Finds

Harvard student groups doxed after signing letter blaming Israel for Hamas attack

Source: USA TODAY

A truck drove around Harvard University's campus on Wednesday displaying the names and faces of several students allegedly affiliated with student-groups that co-signed a letter blaming Israel for Hamas' attack.

The stunt claimed by the conservative media group Accuracy in Media comes after several CEOs have called on Harvard to release the names of students affiliated with groups tied to the controversial letter that solely blamed Israel for the attack.

The billboard called the students “antisemites.”

In a message on X, Hedge fund CEO Bill Ackman called for students to be named so he and other companies don't hire them.

Read more: https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2023/10/12/harvard-doxxing-truck-accuracy-in-media/71151814007/

What we know about Israeli hostages taken by Hamas

Source: BBC News

A "significant number" of Israeli civilians and soldiers are being held hostage by Palestinian militant group Hamas in the Gaza Strip, the Israeli military says.

Some are alive and some are presumed dead, military spokesman Lt Col Jonathan Conricus said.

Children, women, the elderly and the disabled were among those taken, he said.

"These are numbers that were up until now unimaginable," he said. "This will shape the future of this war."

Hamas says the number of Israelis captured was "several times greater" than dozens and they had been taken to locations throughout the Gaza Strip.

Read more: https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-67044255

Kosovo mourns a slain police officer, some Serb gunmen remain at large after a siege at a monastery

Source: ABC News

PRISTINA, Kosovo -- Kosovo on Monday observed a day of mourning for the Kosovar Albanian police officer killed by Serb gunmen in the north of the country in one of the worst confrontations since it declared independence from Serbia in 2008.

About 30 masked men in combat uniforms opened fire on a police patrol near the village of Banjska in the early hours of Sunday morning, killing one officer and injuring another. They then fled to a nearby Serbian Orthodox monastery, breaking down the gates with an armored personnel carrier before barricading themselves in with priests and visiting pilgrims.

The stand-off ended when most of the assailants escaped on foot under cover of darkness on Sunday evening. Three of the gunmen were shot and killed by police.

...

Flags were at half-staff on all public buildings in the capital Pristina Monday to mourn the slain officer, Afrim Bunjaku. In northern Kosovo, where most of the ethnic Serb minority lives in four municipalities around Mitrovica, police searched for the gunmen who had escaped.

Read more: https://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/kosovo-mourns-slain-police-officer-serb-gunmen-remain-103457286

WAPO: Anxiety ripples through the Democratic Party over Biden

Such “Washington whispers” have become far too common among “bed-wetting” Democrats, said Jim Messina, who ran Barack Obama’s 2012 campaign and recently put together a 24-slide deck aiming to calm the jitters, which he sent to prominent Democratic officeholders.

“I’m not saying that this is going to be easy and he’s fine,” Messina said in an interview. “Look, America is split right down the middle. Both parties are going to get 46 percent, and we’re fighting over the rest.”

But he said Biden is in a much stronger position than Trump and encouraged Democrats to stop their public and private agonizing. He said one senator texted him immediately after receiving his presentation, which included details on Biden’s string of early endorsements by key groups, the impact of cooling inflation and the popularity of many of the president’s achievements.

Other polls are also flashing warning signs for Democrats. A CNN/SSRS survey found that Biden’s approval rating was mired at 39 percent, with nearly three-quarters of respondents saying they were concerned about his age. The poll also found that most Democrats want the party to nominate a different presidential candidate.

Question for older DUers - what was December 7 1966 like?

Thinking of 9-11 22 years later, I started wondering about a comparable event. I know most baby boomers/ greatest gen/ and silent gen that I know compared 9-11 to the day JFK was assinated, but in terms of loss of life and the consequent war, my thought was that the bombing of Pearl Harbor was a more apt comparison.

My question: was there a big deal made about the 25th anniversary of Pearl Harbor? Obviously there was no social media, but did TV and radio do "where were you...?" stories, and were the colors half-masted throughout the US?

Is there a good place to get "Lock Him Up" merch?

Bumper stickers/magnets? Shirts?

A New Jersey restaurant is refusing service to children 10 and under

Nettie's House of Spaghetti in Tinton Falls, NJ has made the following statement via social media: