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April 2016

Posted by Kemberlee Kaye on April 20, 2016 12 Comments
Harriet Tubman was a badass. And if things go as planned, she'll be gracing the front of our $20 bills in about ten years or so. In honor of Tubman's accension to currency, I present to you Drunk History's recounting of Harriet Tubman, Union spy. If you're not familiar with Drunk History, it's a show where the hosts du jour get plastered, tell a very particular historical tale, and then that tale is acted out by comedians and other well known Hollywood types. Politically correct it is not, because really, who's PC when plastered?

Posted by William A. Jacobson on April 20, 2016 3 Comments
I guess I knew this case was percolating through the system, but I didn't pay much attention to it. The Supreme Court upheld a law which paved the way for terror victims to recover damages from Iran. The Opinion is here. The legal issue was not terrorism, but whether Congress exceeded its authority. Here's the opening of Justice Ginsburg's majority opinion:
A provision of the Iran Threat Reduction and Syria Human Rights Act of 2012, 22 U. S. C. §8772, makes available for postjudgment execution a set of assets held at a New York bank for Bank Markazi, the Central Bank of Iran. The assets would partially satisfy judgments gained in separate actions by over 1,000 victims of terrorist acts sponsored by Iran. The judgments remain unpaid. Section 8772 is an unusual statute: It designates a particular set of assets and renders them available to satisfy the liability and damages judgments underlying a onsolidated enforcement proceeding that the statute identifies by the District Court’s docket number. The question raised by petitioner Bank Markazi: Does §8772 violate the separation of powers by purporting to change the law for, and directing a particular result in, a single pending case? Section 8772, we hold, does not transgress constraints placed on Congress and the President by the Constitution....
The NY Times describes the background, Supreme Court Rules Iran Bank Must Pay for Terrorist Attacks:

Posted by Kemberlee Kaye on April 20, 2016 18 Comments
Tuesday, Tennessee's General Assembly passed a bill that would defund the University of Tennesee's Office For Diversity and Inclusion. The bill has been passed to the state Senate. Legislators would divert funds currently allocated to the Office of Diversity, "to minority scholarships for engineering students. It would also bar the university from using state funds to support the annual Sex Week programming or gender-neutral pronouns," reports The Tennessean. This year's Sex Week agenda:

Posted by Kemberlee Kaye on April 20, 2016 38 Comments
Earlier this week, I blogged about the ongoing $10 bill saga and what looked to be its conclusion -- the Treasury would leave Alexander Hamilton alone, or at least on the $10 bill. Wednesday, that was confirmed. Tremendous backlash, and the assistance of a widely popular musical about Alexander Hamilton caused the Treasury to reconsider their original plans. Hamilton will stay on the front of the $10, but changes will be made to the back of the bill. While Jackson is getting booted off the front of the $20 bill, he'll likely be sticking around on its flipped.

Posted by William A. Jacobson on April 20, 2016 12 Comments
The American Studies Association (ASA) was the first significant-sized faculty association to implement the academic boycott of Israel. A lawsuit just filed by several distinguished members challenges the ASA boycott, seeks damages against individual officers and National Council members who advanced the boycott, as well as injunctive relief, arguing that ASA exceeded its purpose defined under its constitution and bylaws. A copy of the Complaint is embedded at the end of this post. The lawsuit could serve as a model for litigation against other faculty organizations which have been hijacked by anti-Israel activists.

Posted by Kemberlee Kaye on April 20, 2016 179 Comments
In a radio interview with Senator Ted Cruz Tuesday, host Sean Hannity lost his cool. Hannity contended Republicans were most concerned about the current delegate count, to which Cruz disagreed. "Sean, with all respect -- that's not what people are concerned about. I'm campaigning everyday. People are concerned about bringing jobs back to America, people are concerned about raising wages, people are concerned about getting the federal government off the backs of small businesses and people are concerned about beating Hillary. The media loves to obsess about process and this process and this whining from the Trump campaign is all silly. It's very simple," said before Hannity interrupted. Hannity cited his Twitter account, radio and TV shows as evidence that he knows best what Republicans are concerned about and again asked Cruz to explain the delegate game.

Posted by William A. Jacobson on April 20, 2016 3 Comments
One of the most common questions I get when I give speeches about the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement has to do with its funding. BDS, including in the U.S., has plenty of money to organize, fly people around, and coordinate efforts across dozens of campuses and multiple countries. Yet BDS portrays itself as just a bunch of concerned people seeking to do social justice. The money angle, though, is barely exposed. Some of the funding comes from the fundraising efforts of tax-exempt groups like Jewish Voice for Peace and the U.S. Campaign to End the Occupation. Some of it comes from churches and church-related groups like Sabeel North America and American Friends Service Committee, which use their tax exempt status to fund anti-Israel activities. Meanwhile, faculty groups like the American Studies Association exploit and arguably violate their tax exempt status by promoting academic boycotts.

Posted by Leslie Eastman on April 20, 2016 17 Comments
Kemberlee Kaye just described a deliciously alleged hoax involving a Social Justice Warrior, a cake, and now the legal department of the Whole Foods chain of stores. However, this particular story leaves a bitter aftertaste. Because our "Schools of Journalism" no longer produce real reporters pursuing solid news leads and doing basic research, but propagate progressive activists dependent on iPhones and filled with a toxic blend of moral  superiority and outrage, the concoction was set to be spread courtesy of KVUE-TV in Austin. This is how the initial report on the cake began:
Austin-based grocer Whole Foods Market is being sued after an openly gay pastor alleged a cake he ordered from the flagship store on North Lamar Boulevard contained a gay slur.

Posted by Mike LaChance on April 20, 2016 38 Comments
New York's new minimum wage is being cited as the main reason that a popular Albany restaurant is closing its doors after serving the community for decades. Mental Recession reports:
Beloved Upstate Restaurant Closes, Cites Minimum Wage Hike As Major Reason An Albany area fish fry restaurant is closing its doors after nearly 70 years in business, and the owner is pointing to New York’s $15 minimum wage as a major reason for his establishment’s downfall. Bob and Ron’s Fish Fry, described by New York Upstate as an “Albany institution” featuring “the best fish fry in the Capital Region,” announced they’d be closing their doors in less than two weeks.

Posted by Kemberlee Kaye on April 19, 2016 155 Comments
Updates (by WAJ). No surprise, the second the polls closed Trump was projected the winner. What remains to be seen is how many delegates he gets. (added) As of 11:30 p.m., Trump has approximately 60% of the vote and is credited with 89 delegates, but that likely will go up a couple more as more final results come in. Kasich has 3, and Cruz none. So Trump did what he needed to do. But he's still on a trajectory to fall short of 1237 on the first ballot. A number of commenters on TV and Twitter also are pointing out the obvious -- the Republican electorate in NY State is small relative to Democrats, so there remains no reason to believe Trump could carry the state in a general election. Hillary v. Bernie currently not called, but "leaning" Hillary. Networks call it for Hillary. https://twitter.com/LegInsurrection/status/722600349379522561

Posted by Kemberlee Kaye on April 19, 2016 8 Comments
In Guangzhou, China, police "arrested" a statue of Ronald McDonald, the fast food chain's iconic clown. Evidently, Ronald had to be removed from his perch when restaurant owners failed to remove the "obstruction."

Posted by Occam's Razor on April 19, 2016 7 Comments
This post is an update on the upcoming vote to boycott Israeli universities at the American Anthropological Association (AAA). For previous coverage, see here and here. As a reminder, at the Denver meeting on November 20th, attendees passed a resolution calling for an academic boycott of Israeli institutions. The resolution is now being voted on by the general membership, starting April 15, through May 31. Passage of a boycott means, among other things, that AAA will not cooperate with Israeli universities or the Israeli Anthropological Association (IAA), will not supply journals and databases to them and will not allow graduates of Israeli universities to partake in career fairs. It calls upon its membership to do the same, and more: e.g. not attend conferences at Israeli universities, not accept grants from them; this in addition to the “common sense” boycotts that are probably already in place.

Posted by Kemberlee Kaye on April 19, 2016 44 Comments
Last week, a self-identified gay pastor claimed a cake he purchased from grocer Whole Foods bore the message, "Love Wins Fag," in blue frosting. This story smelled funny from the get go. Why? Because Austin is one of the most LGBT-friendly locals in the country. It's basically Portland, Texas. Chances of this kind of thing happening in Austin are maybe .00001%. Not saying it's impossible, just improbable. In any case, accuser Pastor Jordan Brown made a video showing the cake in what he claims was a sealed box, unopened since he returned home from the store. Despite the clear window atop the cake box, Brown claims he did not notice the word "fag" until he reached his vehicle in the grocery store parking lot.

Posted by Kemberlee Kaye on April 19, 2016 16 Comments
We have a new contender in the nationwide contest for Most Ridiculous Student Protest -- University of New Mexico. Native American students at UNM have decided the university seal is offensive because it bears a conquistador and a frontiersman. They argue, "it glorifies the violent European treatment of natives." Or, it could be part of you know, history. But these days, all history is racist. According to the Albuquerque Journal:
The protesters want the seal – whose roots can be traced to the university’s fourth president, Edward Dundas McQueen Gray, and was most recently updated in 1969 – relegated to the dustbin of history.

Posted by Kemberlee Kaye on April 19, 2016 56 Comments
On the campaign trail in Buffalo, New York Monday night, Donald Trump mistakenly referred to the convenience store 7-Eleven in place of the 9/11 terrorist attacks. From the AP wire:
Donald Trump made an unfortunate slip-of-the-tongue while campaigning in Buffalo, New York, on Monday evening at his final rally before Tuesday's big-prize primary. Trump was about to deliver prepared remarks lauding New York values when he mistakenly mentioned the name of a popular convenience store chain in place of 9/11.

Posted by Vijeta Uniyal on April 19, 2016 4 Comments
Even before the smoke could settle over the site of yesterday’s bus blast in Jerusalem that left 21 people wounded -- two of them seriously -- the Palestinian leadership is praising and celebrating the  terror attack. The armed-wing of PLO-Fatah, active in the territory under Palestinian Authority control, applauded the Jerusalem bus blast, calling it the beginning of a new phase in Intifada, the renewed campaign of terror against Israel. Hamas, the Islamist outfit controlling Gaza said it “welcomed” the Monday’s terrorist attack, calling it “natural reaction” to supposed Israeli crimes. In the eyes of these terrorist groups, the mere presence of Jews in their historic homeland amounts to a provocation and the Jewish sovereignty over the land of Israel constitutes a crime -- severe enough to justify a deadly campaign of terror and incitement that started much before the State of Israel was even proclaimed.

Posted by William A. Jacobson on April 19, 2016 132 Comments
Donald Trump is hovering near a delegate trajectory that will gain him a majority of delegates on the first ballot, even though he will not come anywhere near a majority of votes cast in various primaries and caucuses (including caucuses that selected delegates to state conventions). In other words, using the characterization of the delegate selection process which Trump and Trumpmedia claim is rigged and amounts to "stealing" the election when it benefits Cruz relative to vote percentage, Trump would be the biggest thief of the campaign season. (By the way, the claim that state conventions are "voterless" is a lie.) This NBC News analysis as of April 11, 2016, demonstrates how the supposedly "rigged" system has helped Trump:
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