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Progressives Tag

Ithaca, NY, loves it some Democratic Socialism of the Bernie Sanders type. Ithaca is the second Most Pro-Sanders Zip Code in the nation, just behind the Mission District of San Francisco. https://res.cloudinary.com/crowdpac/image/upload/v1/posts/sqxrdtsjkv8eqenihsjf.jpg Here are the directions to my house, circa November 2008:
To live in Ithaca is to live in a city alive with anti-Bush, anti-war protest.  I often joke that the directions to my house in Ithaca  read as follows:  Take a right at the fifth Obama sign, a left at the third “Impeach Bush” placard, bear right at the “Support Our Troops, End the War” poster, and we are the house just after the “There’s a Village in Texas Missing its Idiot” banner.
Ithaca really is "10 Sq. miles surrounded by reality"

My wife and I walked into a pizza place in Boston near the hospital one of my daughters has been in (*) when my wife noticed this poster about getting paid to protest. The poster promised pretty good summer money, that certainly would be attractive to otherwise unemployable SJW's. The poster was by "Grassroots Campaigns." Sounds pretty grassrooty, doesn't it? Grassroots Campaign poster cropped logo The poster had the type of tear-off strips so common on posters on or near campuses:

Madeleine Albright is set to deliver the commencement address at Scripps College. You would think that the nation's first female secretary of state would be welcomed at the women only school but we live in strange times. Back in April, students objected to Albright for being white, now they've decided the real problem is that she's a war criminal. The Los Angeles Times reports:
Madeleine Albright a war criminal? Scripps College's baffling crusade for simple thinking Ah May, when flowers are blooming, allergens are wafting and aggrieved college students are mewling about commencement speakers whose politics don't sufficiently hew to the ultra-liberal standards set by the campuses' most outspoken activists.

Disgraced communist and former Obama "Green Jobs Czar," Van "Cash for Clunkers" Jones, hasn't been resting on his laurels since his abrupt 2009 middle-of-the-night departure from the Obama administration. He was busy serving at the front of the progressive campaign to diminish and demonize the Tea Party into obscurity, and he has now, apparently, turned his attention to Donald Trump's candidacy and is warning progressives not to underestimate The Donald. In a video posted at the MoveOn FaceBook page, Van Jones lists three specific "dumb ideas progressives have about Donald Trump." Via Mediaite: 1. Trump will self-destruct 2. He’s bad on policy, so he will lose 3. Demographics will save us

The Family Policy Institute of Washington recently spoke with some students from Seattle University and asked them simple questions about gender and the differences between men and women. Here's a description from their blog:
The second episode in FPIW’s wildly popular College Kids Say the Darndest Things series launched Monday afternoon, just hours after the federal government inserted themselves into the battle between the unrealistic social justice agenda and biological science.

Harvard is instituting a new policy which will punish students who join single-sex clubs by prohibiting them from serving in leadership roles. While many students are unhappy with the new rules, it was women at the school who recently staged a protest. The Harvard Crimson reports:
Hundreds of Women Protest Harvard Sanctions Continuing to mount pressure on administrators, more than 200 women rallied in front of Massachusetts Hall Monday against a new Harvard policy that will bar members of unrecognized single-gender social organizations from holding leadership positions in official clubs and receiving top fellowships.

Campus culture has drifted so far to the left that students at Georgetown are protesting Obama's secretary of homeland security Jeh Johnson, who's slated to deliver the commencement address for their School of Foreign Service. Students have decided Johnson is too conservative on immigration to speak at the university. Blake Neff reports at the Daily Caller:
The Latest Campus Speaker Denounced As Too Conservative Is An Obama Cabinet Secretary Students at Georgetown University are protesting against the school’s choice of commencement speaker because he enforced the law by deporting illegal immigrants. Secretary of Homeland Security Jeh Johnson is scheduled to deliver the commencement address May 21 to graduates of Georgetown’s School of Foreign Service. Some student activists are dismayed by Johnson’s selection, because his role as secretary places him in charge of monitoring the country’s borders and deporting illegal immigrants.

Harvard clearly thinks single sex organizations are a bad thing and they're taking extraordinary measures to discourage students from joining them. Let's dispel once and for all with this fiction that progressives believe in choice. The FIRE blog reports:
Harvard Brings Back the Blacklist for Final Club, Fraternity, Sorority Students BOSTON, May 6, 2016—In a stunning attack on freedom of association, Harvard University announced today that members of independent, single-sex, off-campus organizations will be blacklisted from Rhodes and Marshall scholarships and banned from leadership of on-campus organizations or athletic teams.

A decidedly progressive student group at Cornell University called Black Students United has sent a letter to school administrators saying they want the entire faculty to undergo training in diversity and a host of other garden variety issues in identity politics. The Cornell Daily Sun has the story:
Cornell Black Students United to Submit Faculty Training Resolution to Student Assembly Black Students United will present a resolution prompting the Faculty Senate to examine how Cornell’s faculty members are educated in diversity issues at the Student Assembly’s meeting on Thursday. The resolution originated from one of the demands BSU delivered to Cornell’s administration last semester regarding faculty training, according to a BSU facebook post.

Student protesters at Ohio State University recently learned a valuable lesson. Mainly because the administration drew a line in the sand and told them calmly that if they persisted, they would be arrested and possibly expelled. The way it was handled was brilliant. An administrator explained to the students that the people who work in the building they were occupying deserve to feel safe too, a concept which blew their minds. The Atlantic reported:
Ohio State Turns the Concept of 'Safe Space' Against Student Protesters At Ohio State last week, a sit-in and protest inside a university building was cut short when students were warned that they would be forcibly removed by police, arrested, and possibly expelled if they did not vacate the premises within a few hours, by 5 a.m.

Bill Whittle's new Firewall video is inspired by a recent incident at San Francisco State University which we also wrote about. As usual, Whittle does an outstanding job of dismantling the left and exposing them for the hypocrites they are. Here's a partial transcript via Truth Revolt:
Firewall: Appropriate This! Well, “Cultural Appropriation” is the latest form of combat used by Social Justice Warriors: a term used by crybullies to describe themselves as fighters against prejudice and privilege. They are the first warriors in history to burst into tears and require weeks of therapy at the mere sight of an actual weapon.

Last December I noted the fear I've seen voiced among progressives, particularly on Facebook, that Donald Trump was making Ted Cruz acceptable, Is Overton Window wide open for Ted Cruz?:
I noticed this Facebook comment on the page of a local Ithaca liberal Democrat, on a post criticizing Donald Trump:
Donald Trump looks like the warm-up act. Whoever follows him from the Republican party looks reasonable (and sane) by comparison.
The commenter didn’t use the term, but she was describing how Trump has moved The Overton Window. The Overton Window has been described as follows:
The Overton window is a political theory that refers to the range (or window) of policies that the public will accept. The idea is that any policy falling outside the Overton window is out of step with public opinion and the current political climate, and formulated to try and shift the Overton window in a different direction, or to expand it to be wider.
As Republicans move toward a contested convention, at which Cruz has a strong likelihood of prevailing, I'm noticing more progressive concern. Heather Digby Parton at Salon writes, Ted Cruz’s terrifying reinvention: How America’s most detestable senator is repackaging himself for November:

Can you tell what's racist about the image above? Allow me to explain. You see the black girl is nothing more than an arm rest for the white girl. That's the latest outrage from the left. The photo was part of an ad for the Gap but they've pulled it and apologized. Ace of Spades says it's "Because They're Weak and Stupid and Have Been Scared By People Who Are Even Weaker and Stupider" and he's right. USA Today reports:
Gap apologizes for racially insensitive ad Clothing retailer Gap apologized on Tuesday after receiving criticism that an ad for the company’s children’s clothing line was racially insensitive.

A young woman who was pepper sprayed at a Trump rally in Wisconsin this week is facing charges because video from the incident shows she punched an older man in the face. Some liberal media outlets have been advancing a false narrative that she was sexually assaulted. Professor Jacobson addressed this issue in a prior post. The Hill reported the police recommendation:
Police recommend charges for teen pepper-sprayed outside Trump rally The 15-year-old pepper sprayed at a Donald Trump rally earlier this week may face charges of disorderly conduct for allegedly punching a man in an altercation captured on video.

An incident at San Francisco State University captured on a video which is quickly going viral, shows a white male student being confronted by a young black woman who is apparently also a student. The young man is wearing his hair in dreadlocks and the woman tells him this is a form of cultural appropriation, a message he clearly doesn't want to hear. The Washington Free Beacon reports that the incident is being investigated and provides a transcript:
San Francisco State University Investigating ‘Cultural Appropriation’ Incident Captured on Video San Francisco State University is investigating a spat captured on video during which a black female student physically confronted a white male student over the “cultural appropriation” suggested by his hairstyle. A spokesman for the university said that school police were called to the scene of the incident, which was captured on video Monday afternoon...

Thomas DiMassimo, who rushed Donald Trump on stage at a recent rally, appeared in court this weekend and pleaded not guilty. WDTN News reported:
DiMassimo pleads ‘not guilty’ in stage rush case Thomas DiMassimo, the man accused of rushing the stage during Donald Trump’s rally in Vandalia pleaded not guilty to federal charges. 2 NEWS Investigates’ Natalie Tendall was in the courtroom Friday morning. DiMassimo faces a possible maximum sentence of one year in prison, $100,000 in fines and one year of probation. The Judge allowed DiMassimo to go free until his next court appearance as long as he adheres to some rules. DiMassimo is not allowed to travel outside the southern district of Ohio, he must attend all court appearances and he must undergo a psychiatric evaluation if one is ordered by the Court.

In his newest Firewall video, Bill Whittle points out that the disruptions at recent Trump events are part of a much larger issue, namely the left's war on speech and ideas with which they disagree. You don't have to like Trump to appreciate Whittle's argument. He provides numerous examples from recent history involving Milo Yiannopoulos, Ben Shapiro, David Horowitz and more. Here's a partial transcript via Frontpage Mag:
Firewall: American Fascists Well, this election year is getting ugly, and it’s going to get uglier. There have been several massive disruptions both inside and outside of Donald Trump rallies, and more are promised.

University of Missouri student Mark Schierbecker was one of the student journalists on the scene when former Mizzou professor Melissa Click famously called for some muscle. Yesterday, he published a story with additional details at the College Fix. It seems Click had a second incident with a student reporter that day, a charge she initially denied. Here's part of Schierbecker's report:
VIDEO: Mizzou’s Melissa Click grabbed another journalist’s camera at racial protest Instructed protesters ‘Do not talk to the press’ The University of Missouri communication professor who was fired this month for her role in fighting with student journalists at a racial protest in November has denied her actions then represented a pattern.