Sunday, September 24, 2017
UC Berkeley student group cancels 'Free Speech Week' event
Confusion swirled over the fate of University of
Berkeley’s controversial “Free Speech Week” after the student group that
organized it canceled the event but a featured speaker insisted it was
still being held.
UC Berkeley spokesman Dan Mogulof
said Saturday that the Berkeley Patriot student organization told
university administrators that the four-day event scheduled to start
Sunday had been canceled.
But the event's co-organizer, right-wing provocateur
Milo Yiannopoulos, said in a Facebook post that while the student group
may have pulled out, he and other speakers had not."We shall speak in Berkeley, we shall speak on the plazas and the steps. We shall defend free speech, whatever the cost may be. We shall never surrender!" Yiannopoulos wrote, adding that he was paraphrasing Winston Churchill.
The conservative student group Berkeley Patriot was dropping out for safety reasons, the Berkeleyside, a local website, reported Saturday.
“The university has made it impossible to hold the event,” the group’s attorney, Marguerite Melo, told the website. “A lot of these speakers have withdrawn. To have an empty gesture of ‘Free Speech Week,’ when there are no speakers is impossible. And the university couldn’t guarantee our speakers would be safe.”
“We are very disappointed,” she added “We are going to cancel. We have made a determination, or our clients have, that it is just not safe. If we had had Zellerbach Hall, that would be a different story. But my clients didn’t want to be responsible, even morally, if something happened.”
The website reported that the group’s withdrawal does not mean Yiannopoulos and the other speakers he has invited can’t come to public spaces on the campus. It only means there won’t be amplification provided.
"It is extremely unfortunate that this announcement was made at the last minute, even as the university was in the process of spending significant sums of money and preparing for substantial disruption of campus life in order to provide the needed security for these events," Mogulof said in a statement, according to KNTV.
Some headline speakers, including Ann Coulter, have backed away from the event or said their names were listed without their knowledge.
In an email to the Associated Press Friday, Coulter said she considered going but opted not to after she heard "the administration was dead set on blocking this event."
"I also don't think Berkeley deserves to hear a brilliant and entertaining Ann Coulter speech," Coulter added in her email.
Steve Bannon, the former chief strategist for President Donald Trump, was on Yiannopoulos' lineup of speakers, but has not said publicly if he plans to attend. It was reported Friday that Bannon would not travel to Berkeley and was focusing his energies on campaigning for Roy Moore in next week's Republican runoff for the Senate in Alabama.
A number of other listed speakers have posted comments on social media saying they don't plan to show up, either. Among them is James Damore, a former Google employee who was fired for writing a memo viewed as sexist. He tweeted that he never knew he was on the list.
Yiannopoulos' attempt to speak at Berkeley in February was shut down by masked anarchists who rioted on campus.
Trump urges fans to boycott NFL in ongoing criticism of flag-kneeling players
A picture is worth more then a thousand words. |
A picture is worth more then a thousand words. |
A picture is worth more then a thousand words. |
President Trump on Sunday extended
his attack on NFL players who kneel during the national anthem, and
suggested fans boycott games as he continued his call for team owners to
“fire or suspend” the offenders.
“If NFL fans refuse to go to games
until players stop disrespecting our Flag & Country, you will see
change take place fast,” Trump tweeted. "Fire or suspend!”
Several minutes later, he tweeted: "..NFL attendance
and ratings are WAY DOWN. Boring games yes, but many stay away because
they love our country. League should back U.S."Trump started his criticism in earnest Friday night when he asked a crowd at a political rally in Alabama: "Wouldn't you love to see one of these NFL owners, when somebody disrespects our flag, to say 'get that son of a b ---- off the field right now? He's fired.'"
He continued the criticism Saturday when he rescinded Golden State Warrior Stephen Curry’s invitation to the White House this spring to honor his team’s 2017 NBA championship.
Trump’s weekend remarks were met with sharp criticism from professional athletes and team owners -- including NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell, who called the remarks “divisive,” and NBA star LeBron James, who called Trump a “bum.”
North Korea stages massive anti-US rally
Totally Brainwashed. |
Tens of thousands of North Koreans packed into Kim
II Sung Square in Pyongyang on Saturday as the government staged a
massive rally against President Donald Trump and the United States.
The huge crowd listened to speeches
from senior officials, and a parade of marchers carried signs with
slogans such as “Decisive revenge" and “Death to the American
imperialists."
The rally capped two days of response to a combative
speech by Trump on Tuesday at the United Nations General Assembly in New
York City.In response to recent weapons tests by North Korea and a steady stream of provocative statements from the government of Kim Jong Un, the U.S. president mocked Kim as a "Rocket Man" who was on a "suicide mission," and said the U.S. would “have no choice but to totally destroy North Korea" if forced to defend itself or its allies.
Totally Brainwashed |
Rallies like Saturday’s in Pyongyang are regular occurrences in North Korea, as part of the government’s effort to win approval from citizens, Agence France-Presse reported.
Members of the crowd voiced support for their government and criticized Trump and the United States, the news agency reported.
"Trump is a warmonger and a backstreet gangster," said Ri Il Ung, 24, a student at Pyongyang Mechanical University. "It's quite ridiculous that such a person could become a politician."
Ordinary North Koreans normally share only government-approved statements when speaking to foreign reporters, according to AFP.
Trump: North Korean leaders 'won't be around much longer' if they strike US
If North Korea's foreign minister hoped to draw a
response from U.S. President Donald Trump with his Saturday speech to
the U.N. General Assembly, he succeeded.
"Just heard Foreign Minister of North
Korea speak at U.N.," the president tweeted late Saturday. "If he
echoes thoughts of Little Rocket Man, they won't be around much longer!"
The president was referring to Ri Yong Ho, who on
Saturday called Trump "a mentally deranged person full of megalomania,"
and promised that a strike on the U.S. mainland was "inevitable.""Little Rocket Man" was Trump's now-infamous label for North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.
The address by Ri in New York City began as the Pentagon announced it had flown bombers and fighter escorts to the farthest point north of the Korean Demilitarized Zone by any such American aircraft this century.
"This mission is a demonstration of U.S. resolve and a clear message that the president has many military options to defeat any threat," Defense Department spokesman Dana White said in a statement.
"North Korea's weapons program is a grave threat to the Asia-Pacific region and the entire international community. We are prepared to use the full range of military capabilities to defend the U.S. homeland and our allies," White said.
The Pentagon said B-1B bombers from Guam, along with F-15C Eagle fighter escorts from Okinawa, Japan, flew in international airspace over waters east of North Korea on Saturday. Unlike on previous so-called "show of force" missions, the U.S. aircraft were not accompanied by South Korean or Japanese planes.
"While conducted unilaterally, this mission was coordinated with regional allies - namely the Republic of Korea and Japan - and was a strong testament to our ironclad alliance," U.S. Pacific Command spokesman Cmdr. Dave Benham told Fox News, using the official name for South Korea.
B-1 bombers are no longer part of the U.S. nuclear force, but they are capable of dropping large numbers of conventional bombs.
U.S. Pacific Command would not be more specific about many years it had been since U.S. bombers and fighters had flown that far north of the DMZ, but Benham noted that this century "encompasses the period North Korea has been testing ballistic missiles and nuclear weapons."
At the United Nations, Ri said that his country's nuclear force is "to all intents and purposes, a war deterrent for putting an end to nuclear threat of the U.S. and for preventing its military invasion, and our ultimate goal is to establish the balance of power with the U.S."
He also said that Trump's depiction of Kim as "Rocket Man" makes "our rocket's visit to the entire U.S. mainland inevitable all the more."
Trump on Friday had renewed his rhetorical offensive against Kim.
"Kim Jong Un of North Korea, who is obviously a madman who doesn't mind starving or killing his people, will be tested like never before!" the president tweeted.
On Thursday, Trump announced more economic sanctions against the impoverished and isolated country, targeting foreign companies that deal with the North.
"North Korea's nuclear weapons and missile development is a grave threat to peace and security in our world and it is unacceptable that others financially support this criminal, rogue regime," Trump said as he joined Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and South Korean President Moon Jae-in for a meeting in New York.
Hours later, Kim responded by saying Trump was "deranged" and vowed the president would "pay dearly" for threatening to "totally destroy" North Korea if the U.S. was forced to defend itself or its allies against an attack.
In a speech last week at the United Nations, Trump had issued the warning of potential obliteration and mocked the North's young autocrat as a "Rocket Man" on a "suicide mission."
Trump's executive order expanded the Treasury Department's ability to target anyone conducting significant trade in goods, services or technology with North Korea, and to ban them from interacting with the U.S. financial system.
Trump also said China was imposing major banking sanctions, too, but there was no immediate confirmation from the North's most important trading partner.
If enforced, the Chinese action Trump described could severely impede the isolated North's ability to raise money for its missile and nuclear development. China, responsible for about 90 percent of North Korea's trade, serves as the country's conduit to the international banking system.
North Korea has said it intends to build a missile capable of striking all parts of the United States with a nuclear bomb. Trump has said he won't allow it, although the U.S. so far has not used military force to impede the North's progress.
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