I love it when we get a comic mid-week. Here is Isaiah's brand new THE WORLD TODAY JUST NUTS "From The River To The Sea No Student Shall Be Free"
Shame on Columbia University for attacking the students. Shame on them.
A law firm wants to withdraw from representing Donald Trump, citing a breakdown in relations, court documents show.
The firm, which has represented Trump and his election campaign for several years, had been defending the former president in a lawsuit filed by A.J. Delgado, Trump's former senior advisor who said she was fired after she became pregnant by her supervisor during the 2016 presidential campaign. She was Trump's director of Hispanic outreach at the time.
Delgado is suing the Trump campaign and Trump's former advisers Reince Priebus and Sean Spicer, claiming gender and pregnancy discrimination. All the defendants have denied any wrongdoing in the case.
When federal candidates and committees spend money to influence elections, they have to disclose that spending in publicly filed reports, which creates transparency for voters trying to decide who to vote for and helps ensure accountability if donors’ money is misused.
Federal campaign finance laws require candidates and committees to publicly disclose not only how much they’re spending overall, but who’s getting paid to provide campaign services, and how much they’re getting paid for those services.
Every committee must itemize any expenditure or other disbursement that totals more than $200 per year (or per two-year election cycle, a candidate’s campaign), and they must identify the recipient along with the date, amount, and purpose of the disbursement.
But former President Donald Trump’s 2024 presidential campaign, his leadership PAC Save America, and three other committees directly linked to Trump appear to have violated these federal reporting requirements.
These committees’ disclosure reports show that since December 2022, they have made 108 disbursements totaling more than $7.2 million to “Red Curve Solutions” (Red Curve), virtually all of which are described as “reimbursement for legal” costs or expenses.
Red Curve Solutions is a limited liability company (LLC) run by Bradley Crate, who is the treasurer for all five of the Trump-affiliated committees, as well as for over 200 other federal campaigns and committees.
Red Curve, which Crate formed in 2009 as “Crate Consulting Group, LLC,” is a compliance and accounting firm, and does not appear to offer any legal services.
On their face, the Trump committees’ reports state that Red Curve isn’t being paid to provide legal services, it’s being reimbursed for legal services — suggesting that Red Curve paid or advanced money to the lawyers that actually provided those services.
The result of this setup is that the committees aren’t disclosing the lawyers and law firms providing legal services — or how much they’re being paid — which is what the law requires.
Concealing this information from the public is hugely problematic, as it denies voters their basic right to know — as articulated by the Supreme Court — “where political campaign money comes from and how it is spent,” and prevents them from meaningfully evaluating candidates to “make informed decisions.”
The $7.2 million that Trump’s committees have reported reimbursing to Red Curve for “legal costs” and “legal expenses” appears to exceed the amount they have reported paying to any lawyer or law firm.
Because of this payment-and-reimbursement scheme, voters have no idea who’s been paid over $7.2 million by Trump’s committees. And the reporting failure is potentially still ongoing — making it imperative that this situation be resolved quickly and transparently.
That’s why Campaign Legal Center (CLC) filed a complaint with the Federal Election Commission (FEC) alleging that Trump’s committees have violated their reporting obligations under the Federal Election Campaign Act (FECA).
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jake_iw@yahoo.c.../Inbox betty ruth mike elaine ann rebecca kat trinaMay 1 at 8:26 PM |
The more that time passes since the heyday of an ancient civilization, the more mysterious that civilization becomes. And while it's the life's work of archaeologists to unravel those mysteries, the ravages of time have a way of making that difficult. After all, archaeologists can only find the artifacts that managed to survive thousands of years of unpredictable natural processes. Nature has a way of destroying evidence.
This makes it especially exciting when an ancient civilization is discovered underwater, as finding ruins in the world's vast bodies of water is very much akin to finding a needle in a haystack. And that goes double when that discovery fundamentally changes people's understanding of the ancient world. Read on to learn more.
Although the lost city of Atlantis described by Plato only seems to exist in legends, that hasn't stopped people from holding out hope of its existence.
For many, the idea that an ancient civilization could still be thriving under the known world is an attractive proposition that inspires endless curiosity.
But while that thought remains attractive thousands of years after Plato's writings, it actually isn't unheard of for archaeologists to find deep-sea evidence of lost communities.
As is the case for this ancient Roman statue, these lost cities once stood on land but found themselves submerged amid changes in sea level and other natural forces.
But while it doesn't evoke the kind of sophisticated wonder that imaginings of Atlantis tend to suggest, one lost ancient civilization has been the subject of great archaeological interest in recent decades.
And that's partially because its existence fundamentally changes humanity's understanding of ancient Europe.
According to National Geographic, the British Isles have only been islands for the last 6,000 years.
Before that, they were connected to the rest of Europe by an area known as Doggerland.
Doggerland was an area of land in Northern Europe, now submerged beneath the North Sea, that connected Britain to continental Europe. It was repeatedly exposed at various times during the Pleistocene epoch due to the lowering of sea levels during glacial periods. It was last flooded by rising sea levels around 6500–6200 BCE. The flooded land is known as the Dogger Littoral.[1] Geological surveys have suggested that it stretched from what is now the east coast of Great Britain to what is now the Netherlands, the western coast of Germany and the Danish peninsula of Jutland.[2] It was probably a rich habitat with human habitation in the Mesolithic period,[3] although rising sea levels gradually reduced it to low-lying islands before its final submergence, possibly following a tsunami caused by the Storegga Slide.[4] Doggerland was named after the Dogger Bank, which in turn was named after 17th-century Dutch fishing boats called doggers.[5]
The archaeological potential of the area was first identified in the early 20th century, and interest intensified in 1931 when a fishing trawler operating east of the Wash dragged up a barbed antler point that was subsequently dated to a time when the area was tundra. Vessels have since dragged up remains of mammoths, lions and other animals, and a few prehistoric tools and weapons.[6]
As of 2020 international teams are continuing a two-year investigation into the submerged landscape of Doggerland using new and traditional archaeo-geophysical techniques, computer simulation, and molecular biology. Evidence gathered allows study of past environments, ecological change, and human transition from hunter-gatherer to farming communities.[7]
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Archaeologists in Germany have unearthed an Early Bronze Age burial ground which was designed to keep the deceased from returning to life.
The site is what is known as a “revenant”, or “zombie”, grave – with “revenant” referring to an individual who comes back from the dead, either as a spirit or revived corpse, often to torment the living.
Revenant graves, dating back thousands of years, have been discovered across Europe, and are characterised by evidence of precautions taken to keep the dead where they belong: firmly in the ground.
Strategies included piercing the corpses with a lance or placing large stones on their legs to pin them down, Newsweek reports.
Most of these graves date to the Middle Ages (from the 5th century BC to around the 14th Century AD), but some go as far back as prehistoric times.
The latest example, understood to be some 4,500 years old, was found near the village of Oppin in the German state of Saxony-Anhalt during excavations ahead of planned construction work.
The "extremely interesting" grave contained the remains of a man aged between 40 and 60 at the time of his death, the state’s Museum of Prehistory announced in a Facebook post.
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The man was found with a large stone, measuring a metre (3.3 feet) in length and 50cm (1.6 feet) wide, lying over his legs.
The museum noted that the rock “must have been placed there for a reason, probably to keep the deceased in the grave and prevent him from coming back to life.”
Susanne Friederich, the archaeologist in charge of the excavations, told Newsweek: "We know that already in the Stone Age people were afraid of revenants. People wanted to prevent this with magic.
"Back then, people believed that dead people sometimes tried to free themselves from their graves.
“Sometimes, the dead were laid on their stomachs. If the dead lies on his stomach, he burrows deeper and deeper instead of reaching the surface," she explained.
They are the fifth generation of their family to make wine in the village of Dernau. Meike, 44, is blond, thoughtful and a little serious; Dörte, 42, who has dark hair that comes down to her waist, is quicker to laugh. Both have the same steady gaze. Their father, Werner Näkel, is a hero in the Ahr, widely credited with transforming it from a place where sugar was added routinely to cheap, bad wine into a region with award‑winning vintages.
The Ahr has always flooded, sometimes with significant loss of life. In 1910, 200 people died in the valley. In a tunnel leading into Altenahr, plaques denote the high-water marks of historic floods. “In the immediate period after the event, there’s a small window of time for implementing and approving radical solutions,” says Greiving. “But this is probably limited to a couple of months after the event.” After the 1910 floods, officials considered building a reservoir near Rech, a small village in the Ahr, to collect water in case of flooding. Instead they built the Nürburgring racing track, to create jobs during a time of high unemployment.
A law firm wants to withdraw from representing Donald Trump, citing a breakdown in relations, court documents show.
The firm, which has represented Trump and his election campaign for several years, had been defending the former president in a lawsuit filed by A.J. Delgado, Trump's former senior advisor who said she was fired after she became pregnant by her supervisor during the 2016 presidential campaign. She was Trump's director of Hispanic outreach at the time.
Delgado is suing the Trump campaign and Trump's former advisers Reince Priebus and Sean Spicer, claiming gender and pregnancy discrimination. All the defendants have denied any wrongdoing in the case.
When federal candidates and committees spend money to influence elections, they have to disclose that spending in publicly filed reports, which creates transparency for voters trying to decide who to vote for and helps ensure accountability if donors’ money is misused.
Federal campaign finance laws require candidates and committees to publicly disclose not only how much they’re spending overall, but who’s getting paid to provide campaign services, and how much they’re getting paid for those services.
Every committee must itemize any expenditure or other disbursement that totals more than $200 per year (or per two-year election cycle, a candidate’s campaign), and they must identify the recipient along with the date, amount, and purpose of the disbursement.
But former President Donald Trump’s 2024 presidential campaign, his leadership PAC Save America, and three other committees directly linked to Trump appear to have violated these federal reporting requirements.
These committees’ disclosure reports show that since December 2022, they have made 108 disbursements totaling more than $7.2 million to “Red Curve Solutions” (Red Curve), virtually all of which are described as “reimbursement for legal” costs or expenses.
Red Curve Solutions is a limited liability company (LLC) run by Bradley Crate, who is the treasurer for all five of the Trump-affiliated committees, as well as for over 200 other federal campaigns and committees.
Red Curve, which Crate formed in 2009 as “Crate Consulting Group, LLC,” is a compliance and accounting firm, and does not appear to offer any legal services.
On their face, the Trump committees’ reports state that Red Curve isn’t being paid to provide legal services, it’s being reimbursed for legal services — suggesting that Red Curve paid or advanced money to the lawyers that actually provided those services.
The result of this setup is that the committees aren’t disclosing the lawyers and law firms providing legal services — or how much they’re being paid — which is what the law requires.
Concealing this information from the public is hugely problematic, as it denies voters their basic right to know — as articulated by the Supreme Court — “where political campaign money comes from and how it is spent,” and prevents them from meaningfully evaluating candidates to “make informed decisions.”
The $7.2 million that Trump’s committees have reported reimbursing to Red Curve for “legal costs” and “legal expenses” appears to exceed the amount they have reported paying to any lawyer or law firm.
Because of this payment-and-reimbursement scheme, voters have no idea who’s been paid over $7.2 million by Trump’s committees. And the reporting failure is potentially still ongoing — making it imperative that this situation be resolved quickly and transparently.
That’s why Campaign Legal Center (CLC) filed a complaint with the Federal Election Commission (FEC) alleging that Trump’s committees have violated their reporting obligations under the Federal Election Campaign Act (FECA).
Regardless of whether Red Curve is a corporation or an unincorporated entity (that information isn’t publicly available) its contributions would appear to violate federal campaign finance laws: either FECA’s prohibition on corporate contributions or FECA’s contribution limits. And Trump’s committees also appear to have violated the law by knowingly accepting these unlawful contributions.
Tweetable quote:For over 16 months and counting, Trump’s committees have effectively concealed from the public how they’re spending millions of dollars on legal services.
This is C.I.'s "Iraq snapshot" for today:
- New York police assault student protesters after White House denounces anti-genocide occupation at Columbia
- Gaza Solidarity Encampment initiated at University of California-Irvine
- Northwestern University encampment organizers end anti-genocide protest, provoking widespread opposition
- Democrats demand police crackdown at Columbia University Gaza encampment
- Gaza Solidarity Encampment organized at Western Michigan University
- Report: Over 900 anti-genocide protesters arrested on college campuses in the United States
- Over 1,000 students and community members march against genocide at Yale University
- Thousands of Chicago-area students protest Gaza genocide
- Encampment set up at Montreal’s McGill University as anti-genocide protests spread to Canada
- “Money they are getting from us students—is going to produce weapons which are killing innocent people,” Michigan State student tells WSWS
- Campus protests against Gaza genocide spread globally despite police repression
- International students in New York City denounce attacks on anti-genocide protesters, “The struggle for Palestine and the struggle by workers everywhere are the same”
- Los Angeles police blockade University of Southern California campus from public, press after arresting 93 protesters
- Anti-war encampment grows at University of Pittsburgh: “Biden, Trump, Bush and Obama, all of them are committed to continuing war”
- Hundreds arrested and assaulted by US police as protests against Gaza genocide expand on college campuses
- “The right to protest is at stake,” Columbia student tells WSWS
- Hundreds of students rally against genocide in Washington, D.C.
- Boston police forcibly remove tent encampment at Emerson College
- Socialist Equality Party vice presidential candidate Jerry White denounces police rampage in Austin, Texas
- “I think that the real antisemitism is conflating the Israeli state with Jews,” Columbia faculty member tells WSWS
- Student protests against Gaza genocide, police repression, expand to Italy, France
- LAPD conducts mass arrest at University of Southern California campus
In order to prevent objective documentation of their brutality, police forced legal observers, press and medics to leave the campus area, and even public streets nearby, before they began their assault. As of this writing it is unclear how many protesters have been arrested and the extent of their injuries.
The police brutality witnessed at Columbia Tuesday night was replicated across the country. At the University of South Florida in Tampa, riot police were recorded firing tear gas and rubber bullets against unarmed and peaceful protesters.
The coordinated and violent assaults on non-violent student encampments have been ordered from the White House. On Tuesday, the Biden administration issued a series of statements doubling down on the lie that anti-Gaza genocide protests continuing to spread across US university campuses are antisemitic, signaling its support for stepped-up police attacks and arrests of peaceful protesters.
In response to the occupation of Columbia University’s Hamilton Hall by pro-Palestinian students in the early morning hours of Tuesday, White House Deputy Press Secretary Andrew Bates declared:
President Biden has stood against repugnant, antisemitic smears and violent rhetoric his entire life. He condemns the use of the term “intifada,” as he has the other tragic and dangerous hate speech displayed in recent days. President Biden respects the right to free expression, but protests must be peaceful and lawful. Forcibly taking over buildings is not peaceful—it is wrong. And hate speech and hate symbols have no place in America.
Biden’s lead was taken up by New York Mayor Eric Adams, a former cop, who said “external actors” were behind the Columbia occupation and demanded that all protesters “leave the area now.” He added that the occupation “must end now.”
The occupation of the classroom building came in response to the university’s announcement that it had begun suspending students who defied its order that a protest encampment set up two weeks ago be disbanded. The administration effectively placed the entire campus on lockdown.
This followed the mobilization of New York City police to attack and arrest hundreds of protesters, who courageously refused to end their protest demanding that the university divest from Israel as part of the fight to stop the US/Israeli slaughter of Palestinians, which has already taken the lives of more than 34,000 defenseless civilians, mainly women and children.
Following the occupation of Hamilton Hall, the university announced that it would expel students who refused to leave the building.
The hypocrisy of the White House statement defies description. Biden and his accomplices in both parties and all branches of the government are supplying the fascistic government of Benjamin Netanyahu with the bullets, bombs, tanks, missiles and war planes that are being used to murder and starve Palestinians, while providing political cover for the murderous Zionist regime. Along with its imperialist and NATO allies around the world, the US is defying mass demonstrations all over the world demanding a halt to the greatest war crime since the Nazi Holocaust against the Jews during World War II.
Fireworks, tear gas and fights broke out just after 10:50 p.m. Tuesday night and continued early Wednesday morning as around 100 pro-Israel counter-protesters attempted to seize the barricade around and storm the ongoing Palestine solidarity encampment in Dickson Plaza.
The chaos comes as Chancellor Gene Block faces criticism for improper handling of the encampment and the same day the university deemed the encampment to be unlawful, threatening students inside with suspension and expulsion. Security and UCPD both retreated as pro-Israel counter-protesters and other groups attacked protesters in the encampment – led by Students for Justice in Palestine and UC Divest Coalition at UCLA – that followed similar ones across the country.
There has been a minimal police presence on campus despite multiple events of counter-protesters antagonizing the encampment since Thursday.
UC President Michael Drake released a statement Tuesday evening supporting the university’s decision to label the encampment as unlawful, adding that “when it threatens the safety of students, or anyone else, we must act.”
In an emailed statement sent at 12:40 a.m., Mary Osako – the vice chancellor of strategic communications – said the university had called law enforcement personnel for immediate support.
“Horrific acts of violence occurred at the encampment tonight,” she said in the statement. “The fire department and medical personnel are on the scene. We are sickened by this senseless violence and it must end.”
At around 10:50 p.m., counter-protesters – who had been gathering around the encampment since that afternoon – began wrestling with protesters inside and CSC security hired by UCLA over the metal barricades surrounding the Gaza solidarity encampment. The barriers came down shortly afterward, and counter-protesters wearing masks then began shoving the wooden boards surrounding the encampment, attempting to topple them onto the protesters inside.
“If they can be there, so can we,” a counter-protester shouted through a megaphone as they tore down the metal barriers. Just before the barriers came down, another yelled, “You guys are going to want to get this. This is history being made.”
CSC security officers hired by the university retreated into Kaplan Hall shortly after, refusing to allow entrance into the building to anyone, including Daily Bruin reporters. The Daily Bruin had previously been pledged 24-hour access to Haines Hall by UCLA Media Relations to protect the safety of its staff, but when reporters attempted to access the building, they found it locked. No immediate remedy was provided, and Media Relations only said that they were working on providing a solution.
After the barricades came down, counter-protesters and protesters inside the encampment began to fight. Counter-protesters shot fireworks into the encampment just after 11 p.m., and irritant gasses were released from both sides. A Daily Bruin reporter was indirectly sprayed in the face.
The People’s City Council, a collective of different activist organizations, has published a statement on behalf of the UCLA Palestine Solidarity Encampment.
It said that the encampment was attacked with gas canisters, pepper spray, fireworks and bricks overnight.
According to the statement, the university’s external security watched and filmed the attack, while law enforcement did not intervene.
Hundreds of students marched Tuesday at the University of North Texas, demanding the school disclose any foundation investments that might benefit Israel’s military.
The Palestine Solidarity Committee, a student organization, coordinated the walkout.
“Our youth is fighting a just cause for the liberation of Palestine,” Palestine Solidarity Committee member Talia Irsh told WFAA. “They are standing up to say that we are not okay with genocide. We are not okay with our institutions funding genocide and profiting off of genocide.”
AMY GOODMAN: As police crack down on student protesters around the country, we begin today at Columbia University, where scores of students took over Hamilton Hall just after midnight last night after the school began suspending students who refused to leave the Gaza Solidarity Encampment, which began almost two weeks ago. Columbia’s Emergency Management Operations Team says it has now locked down the main campus following the occupation. Hamilton Hall was also the site of a historic student occupation in 1968. Students have renamed the building Hind’s Hall in honor of Hind Rajab, a 6-year-old Palestinian girl killed by the Israeli military in Gaza.
PROTESTER: [echoed by the people’s mic] This building is liberated in honor of Hind, a 6-year-old Palestinian child murdered in Gaza!
AMY GOODMAN: Students are calling for Columbia University to divest from Israel. Democracy Now! was on campus Monday. We spoke to professors and students after a vote around noon to stay in the encampment despite being sanctioned with interim suspension.
PROTESTERS: Disclose! Divest! We will not stop! We will not rest! Disclose! Divest!
AMY GOODMAN: I’m Amy Goodman, host of Democracy Now! We’re on the Columbia University campus. Right behind us is the tent encampment. There are dozens of tents there. And then you see around me are people in orange fluorescent vests. They are the faculty. They are the professors at Columbia University who are here to protect their students. It’s just before 2:30, when a news conference will be held. We just passed a 2 p.m. deadline, when Columbia President Shafik said after this point that the students can be suspended. It’s not clear whether they will be moving in the police. On Friday, President Shafik said they would not send in the New York police. But as we were coming up from the subway, there were scores of police. And I now have heard that they’re standing there with plastic handcuffs. But these students are determined.
SUEDA POLAT: My name is Sueda Polat. I’m a student organizer. I’m a graduate student at Columbia University. I study human rights here. I’m also part of the negotiating team.
AMY GOODMAN: And if you could tell us what is it exactly you’re demanding?
SUEDA POLAT: Simple. We don’t want to trade in the blood of Palestinians. And that means divestment from all direct and indirect holding that this university has, whether that be weapons manufacturing, companies that operate illegally in occupied territory, companies that produce information technology for the occupation army. Complete divestment.
We’re also requesting disclosure. We don’t have transparency on this university’s investments. And we need that to be able to push the movement further.
We’re also requesting amnesty. Hundreds of our students have been disciplined over the past six months on unfair premises. We’re willing to put a lot on the line for this cause. My right to education shouldn’t come before the right to education of Gazans.
LINNEA NORTON: My name is Linnea Norton. I’m a Ph.D. student here.
AMY GOODMAN: In?
LINNEA NORTON: In — I study ecology and climate science. I’m a second-year. And yeah, I’ve been part of the initial encampment and was one of the over a hundred students who were suspended and arrested, or first arrested and subsequently suspended.
We have our doctors in John Jay Hall, just there. And my shoulder was injured during the arrest because we were zip-tied for like seven hours straight. And I couldn’t go to the doctor. So I had to go to — because I wasn’t allowed to enter campus and be on campus property. So I had to go to urgent care.
AMY GOODMAN: So you had to pay for that.
LINNEA NORTON: Yeah, yeah.
PROTESTERS: Hey hey! Ho ho! The occupation has got to go!
SHANA REDMOND: My name is Shana Redmond. I am a professor of English and comparative literature and the Center for the Study of Ethnicity and Race. And I’m here today because this is leadership in action. These students have taken the worst of circumstances on a global scale and the worst of circumstances at a very localized university scale and turned it into something beautiful. The encampment here, complete with a library, complete with a deescalation team, complete with lessons and teach-ins, has modeled for this campus what open and free inquiry and debate actually looks like.
As the students say, we keep us safe. And so, we, as faculty, are here to assist in ensuring that that is made true.
NADIA ABU EL-HAJ: I’m Nadia Abu El-Haj. I’m an anthropologist, a professor of anthropology, and the co-director of the Center for Palestine Studies. The people behind me in the orange vests are mostly faculty, some staff, who have been mobilized since the last police raid, however long ago it was. We’ve mobilized faculty who would come out and stand sort of both guard but also mostly witness if the police came in again. The president has promised that the police would not come in. That was a promise made two days ago. But this morning, her email said that the encampment would be cleared after 2 p.m. if the students didn’t leave. So we’re not quite clear what that means, how they’re going to clear the encampment.
I mean, the core issue in the immediate is, of course, the genocide going on in Gaza. And the kind of depiction of the students as somehow Hamas supporters or antisemites and sort of dangerous rabble-rousers is a complete misrepresentation of these students. They’ve been calm. They’ve been incredibly well organized. And they’re taking a principled stance.
AMY GOODMAN: What about the fact that today a Jewish student sued the university, saying they don’t feel safe on campus?
NADIA ABU EL-HAJ: I think that there is a really important distinction to be made between feeling unsafe and being unsafe. So I would start with that. I am more than willing to engage any student in a conversation about feeling unsafe. And we’re hearing a lot of that from Muslim and Palestinian students, as well. But as I told the Palestinian students I met with about this months ago, I think it’s helpful to disentangle: When you say, “I feel unsafe,” what are you feeling? Are you uncomfortable? Are you offended? Are you angered? Or are you actually unsafe?
Being doxxed makes you unsafe. Being sprayed by chemicals makes you unsafe. Having the right-wing Christian nationalists on the outside trying to climb the fences into Columbia makes people unsafe. But a lot of what is being labeled as unsafe is being made uncomfortable. And if there are specific instances of physical threats and violence against Jewish students, of course they need to be dealt with. But the depiction of campus as a kind of hotbed of antisemitism that makes Jewish students unsafe is just not true. And there are lots of Jewish students in the encampment. JVP is a very powerful force on this campus, and they don’t think it’s an accurate description.
MAHMOUD KHALIL: Throughout the negotiations, the Shafik administration treated this movement as a matter of internal student discipline rather than a movement or rather than as one of the great moral and political questions of this generation.
ANURIMA BHARGAVA: Anurima Bhargava, civil rights lawyer and filmmaker. This is, you know, we’re into the second — third week of the encampment. Obviously, this morning, there was a statement by the president, very much sort of putting people on alert and trying to give herself the legal foundation that she didn’t have when she arrested students the first time.
And I think, in many ways, we continue to see a very — very much an encampment that has been peaceful. There are many, many students who came here when they heard about the fact that there’s action that has been promised to be taken today. And so we see a lot of people. A lot of students have come in support of the students who have been part of the encampment for all of these days. And I think this is somewhat of a situation of the university’s own creation, right? Because by suggesting that they’re going to take action today, there have been a lot more students who have come onto campus.
And in many ways — again, this is the last day of classes. This is a time where we’re going into study period. And if you can see around you, there’s a lot of efforts to get ready for commencement. And so, we’re at the end of the school year. And in many ways, this request to sort of remove students because of a safety concern — obviously, two weeks ago, when this happened, it was, you know, even the chief of police of the New York Police Department was saying that these students were peacefully protesting, and they were not resisting arrest, and they were peacefully here.
PROTESTERS: Disclose! Divest! We will not stop! We will not rest! Disclose! Divest!
AMY GOODMAN: Some of the voices of students, professors and their supporters at Columbia University, the Gaza Solidarity Encampment Monday, as many students refused to leave even as they faced suspension. Standing outside of Columbia University on the sidewalk, I then spotted civil rights activist Reverend Herbert Daughtry. I asked why he was there.
REV. HERBERT DAUGHTRY: My name is Herb Daughtry. My church is the House of the Lord Churches. And I’m standing out here today to support the students, the right to protest for what they believe is right. That’s our tradition. I’ve stood on many lines before, across the world, for Roman Catholics in Northern Ireland, for Jews here, for Palestinians. I just believe that somebody somewhere must be advocating for peace.
AMY GOODMAN: Let me ask you: Did you know Dr. King? And when were you with him?
REV. HERBERT DAUGHTRY: Well, Dr. King, yes, we go back, 1958, ’59, something like that, particularly on the War in Vietnam, 1967. I was at the Riverside Church when he made his famous “Why I Oppose the War in Vietnam.” And —
AMY GOODMAN: Do you see this as a similar moment? Where people take a position that — even people in King’s inner circle said, “You shouldn’t take on the Vietnam War. It’s not your war. You are a civil rights leader.” And he said, “No, all of these issues are connected.”
REV. HERBERT DAUGHTRY: And I’m a follower of Dr. King. I believe our efforts are to save the planet, save the people. That’s what I believe that I’ve been called to do. And wherever there are oppression, exploitation, wherever there are people who — listen, Jesus said, told us, the least of these, to struggle for, speak for, work for, the least in society. And so we try to identify where are — where’s the pain, where’s the misery. And I’ve been to Sudan. I’ve been to Israel. I’ve been to Ireland, you name it, and Saigon. So, you know, I’m 93 now, so been —
AMY GOODMAN: So, you were here at Riverside Church, just down the road from Columbia University, on April 4th, 1967, a year to the day before Dr. King was assassinated, when he gave his speech here against the War in Vietnam. What was it like to be in there?
REV. HERBERT DAUGHTRY: Well, I had taken some young people. And it was an electric moment. Everybody was waiting for him and when he speaks, because he was mesmerizing. And when he speaks, his reasoning was compelling, persuasive, for anybody who had even a balanced mind. And it was an electric moment. And, well, it was an unforgettable moment.
AMY GOODMAN: Do you see parallels to today?
REV. HERBERT DAUGHTRY: Yeah, where people are gathered to make these issues, to raise these issues, yes. What impressed me is when people are putting their lives on the line, their conveniences on the line. That impressed me. So, when you run across people who are willing to risk something precious, you take note. And so, if Dr. King were here, I believe he’d be here. And it was he who said, “If we haven’t found something to die for, we haven’t found something to live for.”
AMY GOODMAN: That’s the legendary civil rights activist Reverend Herbert Daughtry at 93. His daughter, Reverend Leah Daughtry, was the CEO of the Democratic National Conventions in 2008 and 2016. As her father proudly said, they were rated the best conventions ever.
This is Democracy Now! When we come back, we take a journey 56 years ago, to 1968, when Hamilton Hall was occupied. Stay with us.
Jordan has strongly condemned an attack it said was carried out by Israeli settlers on two Jordanian aid convoys.
The two convoys were on the way to Gaza, state news agency Petra reported.
The condemnation comes ahead of an expected visit by US Secretary of State Antony Blinken to Jordan as part of a Middle East trip that included a visit to Israel.
Gaza remains under assault. Day 208 of the assault in the wave that began in October. Binoy Kampmark (DISSIDENT VOICE) points out, "Bloodletting as form; murder as fashion. The ongoing campaign in Gaza by Israel’s Defence Forces continues without stalling and restriction. But the burgeoning number of corpses is starting to become a challenge for the propaganda outlets: How to justify it? Fortunately for Israel, the United States, its unqualified defender, is happy to provide cover for murder covered in the sheath of self-defence." CNN has explained, "The Gaza Strip is 'the most dangerous place' in the world to be a child, according to the executive director of the United Nations Children's Fund." ABC NEWS quotes UNICEF's December 9th statement, ""The Gaza Strip is the most dangerous place in the world to be a child. Scores of children are reportedly being killed and injured on a daily basis. Entire neighborhoods, where children used to play and go to school have been turned into stacks of rubble, with no life in them." NBC NEWS notes, "Strong majorities of all voters in the U.S. disapprove of President Joe Biden’s handling of foreign policy and the Israel-Hamas war, according to the latest national NBC News poll. The erosion is most pronounced among Democrats, a majority of whom believe Israel has gone too far in its military action in Gaza." The slaughter continues. It has displaced over 1 million people per the US Congressional Research Service. Jessica Corbett (COMMON DREAMS) points out, "Academics and legal experts around the world, including Holocaust scholars, have condemned the six-week Israeli assault of Gaza as genocide." The death toll of Palestinians in Gaza is grows higher and higher. United Nations Women noted, "More than 1.9 million people -- 85 per cent of the total population of Gaza -- have been displaced, including what UN Women estimates to be nearly 1 million women and girls. The entire population of Gaza -- roughly 2.2 million people -- are in crisis levels of acute food insecurity or worse." THE NATIONAL notes, "At least 34,568 Palestinians have been killed and 77,765 injured in Israel's military offensive on Gaza since October 7, the Gaza Health Ministry said on Wednesday. In the past 24 hours, 33 people were killed and 57 injured, the ministry added." Months ago, AP noted, "About 4,000 people are reported missing." February 7th, Jeremy Scahill explained on DEMOCRACY NOW! that "there’s an estimated 7,000 or 8,000 Palestinians missing, many of them in graves that are the rubble of their former home." February 5th, the United Nations' Phillipe Lazzarini Tweeted:
Foreign doctors returning from Gaza describe being left “speechless” by the overwhelming scenes of trauma in the enclave’s hospitals.
Shariq Sayeed, a vascular surgeon from Atlanta, Georgia, says his team treated 40 to 60 patients a day, most of them young people with shrapnel injuries he had never seen before.
“Most were patients 13, 14, 15, 16 and 17 years of age,” Sayeed said. “… And unfortunately, there is a very high incidence of infection, … so once you have an amputation that doesn’t heal, you end of getting a higher amputation.”
Ismail Mehr, an anaesthesiologist from New York who led the medical mission, said the foreign doctors were “speechless” when they saw the number of injuries and warned that a looming Rafah offensive would push Gaza’s health sector beyond its capacity.
“I hope and I pray that Rafah is not attacked,” Mehr said. “The health system will not be able to take care of that. It will be a complete catastrophe.”
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