Democrats Cry Foul As Anti-Free Speech Allies Turn Against Them

 by Jonathan Turley,

Below is my column in The Hill on the recent disruptions of events featuring leading Democrats from President Joe Biden to Rep. Jamie Raskin. After years of supporting the censoring and blacklisting of others, these politicians are now being targeted by the very anti-free speech movement that they once fostered. Hillary Clinton last week became the latest Democrat targeted by protesters in a visit to her alma mater, Wellesley College.

Here is the column:

You are “killing people,” President Biden told social media companies a couple of years ago. He sought to shame executives into censoring more Americans. Biden has lashed out at disinformation by anti-vaxxers, “election deniers” and others. This month, those words were thrown back at Biden himself as a “genocide denier” by protesters who have labeled him “Genocide Joe” over his support for Israel.

After years of supporting censorship and blacklisting of people with opposing views, politicians and academics are finding themselves the subjects of the very anti-free speech tactics that they helped foster.

Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.), for example, has been a leading figure in Congress opposing efforts to curtail massive censorship programs coordinated by the Biden administration. While opposing the investigation into past federal censorship efforts, Raskin continues to push social media companies to increase the censorship and silencing of Americans. Last December, Raskin sent a letter on behalf of other Democrats on the powerful House Oversight Committee demanding even more censorship, not only on election fraud, COVID or climate change, but also on abortion.

“We are troubled by the rapid spread of abortion misinformation and disinformation on your company’s social media platform,” he wrote, “and the threat this development poses to safe abortion access in the United States.”

When journalists and even other members testified in favor of free speech, Democrats attacked them as “Putin lovers” and fellow travelers supporting “insurrectionists.”

Last week, however, the left turned on Raskin.

He was giving a lecture titled “Democracy, Autocracy and the Threat to Reason in the 21st Century.” According to the Maryland Reporter, the protesters accused Raskin of being “complicit in genocide.” After efforts to resume his remarks, University of Maryland President Darryll Pines finally ended the event early.

Pines then pulled a Raskin. While mildly criticizing the students for their lack of “civility,” he defended their disruption of Raskin’s remarks as if a heckler’s veto were free speech. “What you saw play out actually was democracy and free speech and academic freedom,” he said. “From our perspective as a university, these are the difficult conversations that we should be having.”

There was, of course, no real conversation because this was not the exercise but the denial of free speech. The protesters were engaging in “deplatforming,” which is common on our campuses, where students and faculty organize to prevent others from hearing opposing views.

So, after years of Raskin encouraging the censorship of others, the mob finally came for him. The yawning response of the university was not unlike his own past response to journalists, professors and dissents who have come before his committee.

The only “difficult” aspect of this conversation is for university figures like Pines who are called upon to defend the free speech rights of speakers or faculty. They need to show the courage and principle required to uphold the free speech commitment of higher education, even at the risk of being targeted themselves. That includes the sanctioning of students who prevent others from hearing opposing views in classrooms and event forums. These students have every right to protest outside such spaces, but higher education is premised on the free exchange of ideas. There is really no further “conversation” needed, just a letter of suspension or expulsion for those who deprive others of their rights.

Deplatforming is the rage on our campuses. Universities often use it to cancel events for conservatives or controversial speakers. Often officials will sit idly by, refusing to remove protesters or deter disruptions. And that can lead to self-help measures by others.

Last week, Walter Isaacson, former CEO of CNN and the Aspen Institute, was accused of assaulting a Tulane student protester, Rory MacDonald, during an event held off campus. Isaacson, 72, who teaches at Tulane, was attending the university-sponsored event and had had enough when MacDonald became the eighth protester to stop the event. He stood up and shoved MacDonald into the hall.

MacDonald insisted that he and his fellow protesters were merely “peacefully interrupting” the event to stop others from speaking. He displayed slight scratch marks and is quoted as expressing a fear of returning to campus after the incident. Protests have been held on campus to have Isaacson fired.

I have long criticized the growing anti-free speech movement in higher education. Yet these students have been taught for years that “speech is violence” and harmful. They have also been told by figures such as Pines that silencing others is an act of free speech. Academics and deans have said that there is no free speech protection for offensive or “disingenuous” speech. In one instance, former CUNY Law Dean Mary Lu Bilek insisted that disrupting a speech on free speech is itself free speech.

Even schools that purportedly forbid such interruptions rarely punish students who engage in them. For example, students disrupted a Northwestern class due to a guest speaker from Immigration and Customs Enforcement (after the class had heard from an undocumented immigrant). The university let the protesters into the room after they promised not to disrupt the class. They proceeded to stop the class and then gave interviews to the media proudly disclosing their names and celebrating the cancellation. Northwestern did nothing beyond express “disappointment.”

At Stanford, law students prevented a federal judge from speaking. When the judge asked for law school officials present to intervene, former Stanford DEI Dean Tirien Steinbach stepped forward and attacked the conservative judge for triggering the students by sharing his views. After a national outcry, Stanford President Marc Tessier-Lavigne and Law School Dean Jenny Martinez issued a joint apology that notably did not include punishment for a single student.

These schools are enablers of the anti-free speech movement as much as figures like Raskin.

For years, academics supported such mobs or remained silent as their colleagues were cancelled or fired. Now they are suddenly discovering the value of free speech as the mob comes for them.

Censorship and blacklisting create an insatiable appetite. While Democrats fostered such efforts to silence conservatives and dissenters on vaccines, climate change, abortion, transgenderism and other issues, they now find themselves pursued by the very mobs that they once led. Just two years ago, Biden was celebrated for denouncing social media executives as “killers” for allowing free speech. Now he, Raskin, and others are accused of killing others with “Zionist disinformation.”

It is an epiphany that often comes too late. During the French Revolution, journalist Jacques Mallet du Pan remarked that “like Saturn, the Revolution devours its children.”

https://www.zerohedge.com/political/democrats-cry-foul-anti-free-speech-allies-turn-against-them

Washington Offers Tehran Negotiations To Avoid Striking Israel: Report

 Via The Cradle

Iranian diplomatic sources say the US is trying to convince Iran not to retaliate against Israel for its bombing of the Iranian embassy in Syria earlier this month, Al-Jarida newspaper reported on Monday.

The Israeli strike targeted a building attached to the Iranian embassy in Damascus. It led to the killing of the commander of the Quds Force of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), Brigadier General Mohammad Reza Zahedi, his deputy, and five other IRGC officers. A source in the Iranian foreign ministry told the prominent Kuwaiti daily newspaper Al-Jarida that Washington offered Tehran direct negotiations with Tel Aviv to de-escalate the conflict.  

According to the source, Washington will guarantee to persuade Tel Aviv to stop its military operations in Syria and Lebanon on the condition that Iran commit not to retaliate against Israel for the Damascus attack.

At the same time, a diplomatic source in Beirut told Al-Jarida that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu rejected an American proposal to pledge to stop attacks in Syria.

The source added that Iranian leader Ali Khamenei is reviewing the US offer but is not expected to accept it if it does not include guarantees for a comprehensive ceasefire in Gaza and to stop all Israeli and US attacks on Iranian targets or those belonging to Iran's allies in the Axis of Resistance.

The source revealed that the Iranians had also previously received a verbal Israeli proposal via a Gulf state. In the proposal, Tel Aviv claimed it was ready to stop operations against Iranian targets in Syria and Lebanon in exchange for Tehran abandoning retaliation for the killing of Zahedi, whose killing was considered the most significant blow to Iran since the assassination of Qassem Soleimani.

According to the source, the Iranian Foreign Ministry responded to the Israeli message by saying that the proposal must also include a ceasefire in Gaza.

However, some IRGC leaders were unhappy with the foreign ministry's response, viewing the Israeli proposal as a trap. The IRGC leaders argued that any negotiations with Israel must take place only after Iran has retaliated.

The source stated that IRGC commanders believe that Israel's targeting of the Iranian consulate is an opportunity that should not be missed to strike a strong blow at Israel, especially since the consular building in Damascus is considered sovereign Iranian territory and was targeted in a clear violation of international law.

The source said that the IRGC leadership believes Washington will not enter a war with Iran even if it retaliates against Israel. They also consider that an adequately harsh strike against Israel will compel it to accept a ceasefire in Gaza and abandon any plans to invade Lebanon or escalate its bombing in Syria.

https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/washington-offers-tehran-negotiations-avoid-striking-israel-report

Fed up librarians struggle to contain rampant sex, drug use and violence

 A stern “shush” doesn’t cut it anymore.

Once relied upon as hushed oases of learning, American libraries are now under siege, with staffers from California to New York complaining of rampant disorder and daily peril.

“There are times now you feel more like a security guard than a librarian,” one Brooklyn library employee told The Post this week. “This isn’t what a lot of us signed up for.”

Many libraries have turned into de facto shelters for those on the margins of society, including the homeless and mentally ill, a trend that has surged since the COVID-19 pandemic.

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Christian Stark was arrested for filming children in a Tampa library restroom.Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office
Exasperated staffers are witnessing public sex, drug use and worse while suffering sexual harassment and explosions of violence on a routine basis.

Much of the disorder, they assert, takes place within close proximity to children.

“It’s sad,” the Brooklyn librarian said. “You’ll see parents come in with their kids after they first move here. They’re excited, they get their card, then you don’t see them again after awhile. They’ve told me firsthand that they just don’t feel like it’s a safe environment.”

In an unprecedented recent case, veteran Iowa librarian Jennifer Goulden filed suit against her former Des Moines branch, asserting administrators ignored her complaints of chaos — and even retaliated against her for speaking out.

Goulden catalogued a string of troubling incidents, including patrons masturbating to pornography at computer terminals within feet of children and threatening her with violence after she rebuffed their advances.

Goulden said her alarms were either downplayed or ignored by administrators, and she eventually quit her position for her mental health in her lawsuit.

“The challenges librarians are facing right now are off the charts,” said Ryan Dowd, the CEO of a company that provides training for public facing employees, including librarians.

Dowd said many library staffers get no training in areas they likely never thought they would have to master — like dealing with a heroin overdose or someone in the throes of a schizophrenic episode,

The problem, he said, has exploded since COVID — and libraries are on the frontlines of the nation’s worsening homeless crisis.

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A library in Antioch, California abruptly closed in February due to staff concerns over sex and violence.Contra Costa Library District

A branch in Antioch, California abruptly shuttered in February after employees complained of unaddressed sex inside and outside the branch, drug use and violence.

“We’ve also had drug activity and drug use both inside the library and on library property,” Brooke Converse, a Contra Costa County Library System representative, said at the time.

“People having sexual intercourse inside the library or on property in full view of patrons and staff. We found bullet casings on library property.”

The location only reopened after employing an armed security guard who checked all patrons prior to their entry.

Desperate librarians in Long Beach, California, issued so many pleas for help local politicians passed a law permitting the suspension of disruptive attendees. Their complaints ran the gamut — from unclothed patrons sleeping inside location to fistfights in the stacks.

“We need to protect our patrons and our staff,” said Long Beach library director Cathy De Leon after the measure was passed last month.

Florida authorities reported in February that 27-year-Christian Stark filmed at least four children inside a Tampa library bathroom — and even recorded himself masturbating at the branch. He is currently in custody while awaiting trial.

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A library in Boulder, Colorado was shut down for a year due to methamphetamine residue found in bathrooms.Google Maps

A Nashville library was locked down last August when gunfire erupted inside the facility during a fight between juveniles, leaving three people injured.

“At the public library?” asked librarian and witness Brent Dickerson after the incident, according to the Tennessean. “You’d never think that. But we’re living in a different time now. I don’t know. It’s unbelievable.”

Librarians are also having to manage brazen drug use inside their places of work. Some complain of open marijuana use, while a Boulder, Colorado location had to shutter for more than a year after methamphetamine residue was found in restrooms.

A study by the San Diego Union-Tribune found police are called to the city’s $185 million main branch — where a man was shot dead last August — roughly once a day.

Librarians told The Post they remain committed to providing inclusive spaces for their local communities, but a lack of mental health support and overwhelmed administrators are making the situation untenable.

“We want to do our jobs,” one said. “In a lot of communities, people have nowhere else to go. Most of the people who come here don’t cause any problem at all. But there has to be more support, more of a plan to deal with what’s happening.”

Others, including Goulden, said they’ve been forced to develop tactics to parry constant sexual harassment from patrons who can become aggressive.

While many cities contract with security firms to maintain order at local libraries, their presence isn’t always effective.

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A man was shot and killed at San Diego’s main library last August.Google Maps

A 23-year-old former New Orleans library guard was hit with attempted murder charges last year after she fired at a patron who had thrown a brick at her colleague.

Staffers at the location complained the security firm failed to properly train their employees, and claimed they would often escalate tense situations needlessly, according to Nola.com.

With libraries also becoming culture war flashpoints over events like Drag Queen story hours and controversial book being available to under 18s, locations across the country have also been on the receiving end of bomb threats and other forms of harassment.

“I’m checked out at this point,” the Brooklyn staffer said. “No pun intended. I’m just trying to get through the day.”

The American Library Association did not respond for a request for comment.

https://nypost.com/2024/04/08/us-news/librarians-struggling-to-contain-sex-drug-use-and-violence-across-the-us/

Biden’s 33,000 secret migrant flights to New York passes buck to city taxpayers

 Mayor Eric Adams keeps blaming Texas Gov. Greg Abbott as the culprit responsible for the city’s migrant crisis, which has hoovered up millions in taxpayer resources.

In the latest broadside, Adams dared Abbott to spend a night in a NYC migrant shelter, while the no-thanks Abbot fired back that Adams’s sanctuary city policies were “aiding and abetting” the border disaster.

Some 37,000 of New York’s estimated 150,000 migrants — or 25% — were bused from Texas.

But there’s another number, comparable to that, that Adams should blame on another politician: Joe Biden.

A new report from me and my organization, the Center for Immigration Studies, finds that the Department of Homeland Security secretly has okayed the flights of some 33,000 illegal immigrants directly to the New York region from foreign airports. That’s 22% of the city’s migrant influx.

One of Biden’s flying immigrants was a Haitian man, Pierre Lucard Emile, who was recently accused of raping a developmentally disabled teen girl. The administration reportedly authorized him to fly directly from Haiti into John F. Kennedy International Airport as part of the immigrant flights program.

Over 25 percent of New York’s estimated migrants are bussed from Texas.Christopher Sadowski

Biden is, of course, far more responsible than Abbott for New York’s troubles because he’s doing nothing to enforce border laws in the first place, thus flooding Texas and other southern states with unsustainable numbers of illegal immigrants.

Yet Adams gives Biden a total a pass on the flights, which Biden could shut down with a phone call, preferring to continue pretending that the Republican Abbott is the cause of Gotham’s problems.

DHS reports that it has approved the flights of more than 386,000 immigrants directly from foreign airports into the U.S. since launching the program without Congressional authorization in January 2023.

The flights were intended mainly for Cuban, Haitians, Nicaraguans and Venezuelans but since expanded to five other nationalities. It is alternatively referred to as the “CHNV Program” or the “Advanced Travel Authorization Program.” Under it, U.S.-based “sponsors” apply for air travel permission on behalf of aspiring illegal border crossers in other countries who provide information via an online program and mobile cell phone app called CBP-One.

Once Biden’s U.S. Customs and Border Protection approves their applications, the aspiring illegal border crossers arrange for their own flights by commercial air into a government-approved U.S. international airport, and U.S. customs inspectors process them into the country.

A separate twin program has brought in some 420,000 more from 100 countries at eight land ports over the past year.

Both programs are predicated on a legally challenged mass use of an authority in the Immigration and Nationality Act that allows a president to grant temporary “humanitarian parole” into the country of immigrants in emergency situations on a “case by case” basis.

But this administration has applied this highly restricted “case-by-case” parole authority to far greater numbers of foreigners than any other before, more than a combined 800,000 by both land and air ports paroles, to reduce the optics of thousands illlegally crossing the land border at once.

Pierre Lucard Emile, a Haitian migrant, was arrested by Boston Police in September 2023 on heinous sexual assault charges.

The administration has not coordinated this effort with Adams or other big-city mayors, nor with taxpayers who have to shoulder the costs of hundreds of thousands of people just showing up. Biden has hid where the illegal immigrants are being flown and in what numbers.

The administration was so determined to keep this information from the public that it denied a 2023 Center for Immigration Studies Freedom of Information Act request for it.

In fact, the administration is so bent on obfuscating the basic program details that its monthly border statistics report presents this section as a strange unidentified orphan, amorphously titling it as only “CHNV Program” and not once mentioning potentially interest-flagging immigrant “flights” or “air travel” or “airports.”

But using available public records for the April 1 report, I was able to narrow down the regions receiving these flights, showing that Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis’ Florida is by far the biggest initial landing zone in the country with 326,000 through February first showing up to that state’s many international airports – and the 33,000 flights into the New York area’s airports.

“It is secret because they’re not telling anybody. They don’t tell us anytime somebody comes in,” DeSantis said in an April 4 press conference. “They don’t give us any information on it. They are not coordinating with state government at all. If they throw six people on a commercial flight coming from a foreign country, there’s no acknowledgement at all to state or local authorities. That’s just a fact.”

DeSantis has a plausible theory about the huge volume of flights landing in Florida: that some perhaps significant percentage of those initially landing there are processed through U.S. Customs to domestic flights and continue onward to cities like New York.

If what the governor believes is true, that means the number reaching Gotham is much higher than 33,000.

How many is it really? Mayor Adams doesn’t want to know. If he did, he could put pressure on the administration to stop the flights. But he won’t. He’ll just keep trying to blame Republicans, when the danger is coming from inside his house.

Todd Bensman is a senior national security fellow at the Center for Immigration Studies.

https://nypost.com/2024/04/08/opinion/joe-bidens-33000-secret-migrant-flights-to-new-york-passes-buck-to-city-taxpayers/