Believe Me, I Didn't Want To Weigh In on The Student Protests— I Had No Choice; My Hand Was Forced

If you follow me on Threads, you may have seen, a couple of hours before sunrise, that I had noted that I'm so old that I heard the argument being advanced by the Biden campaign before… and captured in this little meme I created. This is how we wound up with Richard Nixon in 1968 after the country had already rejected him 8 years earlier. Biden and his people are so, so wrong if they really think they can dismiss these protests and the sentiments behind them! Republicans know how to spin this kind of thing to create a media environment that will help them electorally.

From today’s CNS morning brief: “Students nationwide advance Gaza war protests: As of Tuesday, dozens of protesters have been arrested at college campuses around the U.S. for protesting the war in Gaza, with many facing charges of trespassing or disorderly conduct. Police said 133 protesters at New York University were taken into custody late Monday and all had been released with summonses to appear in court on disorderly conduct charges. In Connecticut, police arrested 60 protesters Monday at Yale University, after they refused to leave an encampment on a plaza at the center of campus. Meanwhile, a demonstration at the center of the University of Michigan campus had grown to nearly 40 tents on Tuesday, and nine anti-war protesters at the University of Minnesota were arrested after police took down an encampment in front of the library. Columbia announced Tuesday it will have a virtual option for all classes for the rest of the semester as pro-Palestinian protests entered their seventh day. The announcement comes as Jewish leaders have called on Columbia and its president to protect students amid reports of antisemitic and offensive statements and actions on and near its campus.”

Late in 1967 and very early in the morning, I drove into the city from Stony Brook with the intention of being arrested. Going to jail was the very least I could do for the thousands— it turned out to be millions— of Vietnamese civilians being killed by my country with weapons my tax dollars had paid for. That it was an otherwise-progressive Democratic president who was doing this made it all the more painful:

Hey, hey LBJ

How many kids have you killed today?

The plan was for the police to symbolically arrest 10 leaders— Allen Ginsberg, Benjamin Spock, diplomat Conor Cruise O’Brien, Tuli Kupferberg and Ed Sanders of The Fugs, several others— and everyone else would disburse and go home. I didn’t wake up at the crack of dawn and brave the rush hour traffic into the city to disburse and go home. I attached myself to Dr. Spock and when he was the 10th person to be allowed under the police barricade, I was the 11th. The cop said no. I pointed to Spock, a national icon for his baby doctor advice, and said he’s old and could die; I’m his aide. The cop thought about it for a second and motioned me under the barricade. They threw the 11 of us into a cell with some drag queens and let us go a few hours later. Meanwhile, everyone else wanted to get arrested too so no one disbursed and the cops wound up arresting 264 persons, mostly teenagers like me.

The Biden people are insane if they think this is no big deal and don’t understand it’s just the very beginning and it’s going to spread. They’re going to be responsible for putting Trump back into the White House and irreparably damaging American democracy. “What began last week when Columbia University students refused to end their protest against Israel’s war with Hamas [as the US corporate media calls Israeli genocide against Gaza] had turned into a much larger movement by Tuesday as students across the nation set up encampments, occupied buildings and ignored demands to leave. Protests had been bubbling for months but kicked into a higher gear after more than 100 pro-Palestinian demonstrators who had camped out on Columbia’s upper Manhattan campus were arrested Thursday. Dozens more protesters have been arrested at other campuses since, and many now face charges of trespassing or disorderly conduct. With tensions at Columbia continuing to run high and some students afraid to set foot on the campus, officials said the Ivy League school will switch to hybrid learning for the rest of the semester, which will be finished by the end of next week. At nearby New York University, police said 133 protesters were taken into custody late Monday and all had been released with summonses to appear in court on disorderly conduct charges. [Conservative asshole] New York City Mayor Eric Adams [desperate to save his job] said police officers were hit with bottles and other objects at some of this week’s protests. In Connecticut, police arrested 60 protesters— including 47 students— Monday at Yale University, after they refused to leave an encampment on a plaza at the center of campus.”

This is how it starts. Last night, Reuters noted that “something is happening here but you don't know what it is, Do you, Mr. Jones?” So what do the kids want? Mostly that the U.S. not take any part in genocide. They’re specifically asking “for a permanent ceasefire in Gaza, an end to U.S. military assistance for Israel, university divestment from arms suppliers and other companies profiting from the war, and an amnesty for students and faculty members who have been disciplined or fired for protesting. Pro-Palestinian protests have drawn students and faculty of various backgrounds, including of Jewish and Muslim faiths… Organizers have widely disavowed violence against pro-Israel counter-protesters, although some Jewish students have said they feel unsafe on campus and unnerved by chants they say are antisemitic. School administrators and local law enforcement have cracked down on the protests. Columbia and the affiliated Barnard College have suspended dozens of students involved in the protests. More than 100 protesters have been arrested at Columbia, where University President [Baroness] Minouche Shafik called in New York Police to clear the encampment a day after she testified before a U.S. House of Representatives committee. She said the encampment violated rules against unauthorized protests.”

So how is Mr Jones responding? Eric Adams sees spinning the protests as violent anti-Semitism as a lifeline for his dim reelection prospects. Biden told reporters on Monday that he condemned both “antisemitic protests” and “those who don't understand what's going on with the Palestinians.” And Señor T called the campus protests “a mess.” His campaign will have a more effective talking point for him by the end of the week. And this morning I read that MAGA Mike was rushing to Columbia University today to speak with “Jewish students in the wake of pro-Palestinian protests,” although not the Jewish students who are protesting against genocide. The topic of his press conference was “the troubling rise of virulent antisemitism on America’s college campuses,” according to his office. Right-wing Zionist congressmen Anthony D’Esposito (R-NY) and Mike Lawler (R-NY) “visited” Columbia’s campus Tuesday, as did their conservative Democratic counterparts, Josh Gottheimer (D-NJ), Jared Moskowitz (D-FL), Kathy Manning (D-NC) and Dan Goldman (D-NY). These Dems are demanding the school’s leadership discipline students who have allegedly harassed Jewish students.