April 30, 2024

OPEN THREAD: This is my open thread. There are others like it, but this one is mine.

Posted at 9:30 pm by Glenn Reynolds

COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY ANTI-ISRAEL PROTESTS LIVE UPDATES: Anti-Israel protesters swarm Penn Station and crowd subway during rush hour, wild video shows.

Hundreds of anti-Israel protesters could be seen on the steps of New York City’s Penn Station before taking a rush hour train toward Columbia University, video shows.

A group of approximately 150 anti-Israel protesters congregated at New York University’s campus on Tuesday, calling for the university’s administration to reevaluate their negotiations with the protesters, as demonstrations heat up in the Big Apple.

Columbia students who took over Hamilton Hall are now facing expulsion, according to a memo sent out by the Ivy League school.

Hundreds of anti-Israel protesters could be seen on the steps of New York City’s Penn Station and later swarming the train hall, video shows.

Protesters were seen beelining toward the doors of Moynihan Train Hall, where Amtrak and the LIRR runs.

When inside, demonstrators marched and stood for the uptown A train in swarms.

Trains, eh? It seems bad form by the protesters to remind voters of anti-Semites’ historical obsession with them.

As is this: Oh Look, A Night of Broken Glass at Columbia.

And from America’s Newspaper of Record:

Posted at 8:30 pm by Ed Driscoll

2024 IS WAY TOO CRAZY FOR EVEN THE BABYLON BEE TO SATIRIZE:

“Marxian lens,” huh? Why so reactionary?

Flashback: Berkeley students angry that they have to read Marx, not because he was, well, a Marxist, but because he was yet another dead white European male: “The course syllabus employed a standardized canon of theory that began with Plato and Aristotle, then jumped to modern philosophers: Hobbes, Locke, Hegel, Marx, Weber and Foucault, all of whom are white men. The syllabus did not include a single woman or person of color.”

As James Lileks wrote in response, “Marx is in foul order in Berkeley not for his ideas, or the heaps of corpses accumulated in his name, but because he had a prostate. By the way, Foucault died of AIDS, so you can dismiss everything the students wrote. Homophobes and haters. No, kids, don’t bother defending yourselves. As your heroes would no doubt say: If it wasn’t true, we wouldn’t have accused you.”

Related: Karl Marx Calls Mexicans Lazy. Will Social Justice Warriors Demand Noted Racist Karl Marx Be Banned From Study on Campus ?

Posted at 8:14 pm by Ed Driscoll

COLUMBIA NOW SHOWING SIGNS OF CONSIDERING THINKING ABOUT TAKING STEPS TO POSSIBLY ACQUIRE A BACKBONE:

But:

Background: Columbia Students Storm University Building and Hoist Banner Calling for ‘Intifada.’

Posted at 4:27 pm by Glenn Reynolds

BOOK I JUST READ: Don’t Believe Everything You Think: Why Your Thinking Is The Beginning & End Of Suffering. #CommissionEarned This is a weird little book but if you have anxiety or depression and want to give it a try, might be worth it. It is an easy read and entertaining. That said, I am not sure why it is an Amazon chart best seller but maybe I’m missing something. If you have read it, let me know what you thought in the comments.

Posted at 3:37 pm by Helen Smith

THE ELECTRIC VEHICLE BUBBLE DEFLATES: Elon Musk issues brutal email to Tesla staff as he goes ‘absolutely hardcore’ and fires two senior executives, his entire Supercharger team, and moves to lay off hundreds more employees.

The Tesla boss, who sat down with Chinese premier Li Qiang on Sunday promising an imminent roll-out of driverless cars in the country, sent a brutal email to senior managers Monday night, The Information reported.

Rebecca Tinucci, senior director of the electric vehicle maker charging infrastructure, and Daniel Ho, head of the new vehicles program, will leave on Tuesday morning, the report said.

Musk also plans to dismiss everyone working for Tinucci and Ho, including the roughly 500 employees who work in the Supercharger group.

‘Hopefully these actions are making it clear that we need to be absolutely hard core about headcount and cost reduction. While some on exec staff are taking this seriously, most are not yet doing so,’ Musk said.

Plus: “Tesla’s public policy team, which was led by former executive Rohan Patel, will also be dissolved.”

Posted at 2:47 pm by Stephen Green

SPOILER: THEY’LL STILL DESPISE US. US military pier for Gaza costs $320 million, Pentagon says.

The U.S. military’s initial cost of the temporary floating pier off Gaza’s coast is about $320 million, a Pentagon official said Monday.

“We’ve been very clear this is a temporary solution to help get humanitarian aid into Gaza. This is just one other way of getting aid in,” Pentagon spokeswoman Sabrina Singh told reporters.

The figure, first reported by Reuters, has not previously been disclosed about the operation that includes about 1,000 American troops.

The pier, known as Joint Logistics Over-the-Shore, or JLOTS, is meant to provide a new way to deliver badly needed aid into Gaza. The World Health Organization has warned some 2.3 million Gaza inhabitants face extreme hunger that could become a full-blown famine by next month as Israel continues its war against Hamas militants, who launched a surprise assault in October from the enclave.

President Joe Biden first announced the JLOTS operation on March 7 during his State of the Union speech. One day later, Air Force Maj. Gen. Pat Ryder said the temporary pier would be operational within about 60 days.

We’re getting laughed at on so many levels.

Posted at 1:45 pm by Stephen Green