Don's Tuesday Column

         THE WAY I SEE IT   by Don Polson Red Bluff Daily News   5/21/2024

Anti-Israel campus mayhem not abating

A quick reminder about the Republican Red, White and Blue Dinner: It’s June 8, at the Heart S Ranch, 17420 Bowman Road, Cottonwood. Call 530-949-2761 to reserve/pay for seats; online tickets can be purchased at https://givebutter.com/TehamaGOP and are discounted through May 31.

I wish the reported 20,000 pounds of trash removed from River Park, at taxpayers’ expense, constituted an aberration, a preventable eyesore of limited duration. Absent the construction, also at taxpayers’ expense, of the homeless facility which enabled law enforcement to remove River Park encampments—it would continue in perpetuity.

We see the problems, approaching crisis-like proportions, being forced upon private and public entities in Bend and other cities in Oregon. Decrepit RVs, tents, belongings and trash spring forth along curbs, behind businesses next to streets, and in highway rights-of-way ad infinitum, ad nauseum until agencies inform the “campers” of impending removal with directions to homeless shelters.

I’ve read that relatively few actually use said facilities, preferring the outdoor lifestyle of irresponsibility, unaccountable, rent-free living, drug-accommodation and, sadly, untreated mental conditions. I have no qualm with giving those losing a paying job or apartment through no fault of their own a helping hand, but the druggies, petty criminals and unhinged need incarceration, not enabling.

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The diabolical anti-American, anti-Israel campus mayhem would seem to be abating with semester’s end; not so. “Irvine Mayor [Farrah N. Khan] Condemns Police, Stands With Protestors During Unrest at UC Irvine,” by Jennifer Oliver O'Connell (Redstate.com), describes a mayor needing to be recalled and fired. Police need and deserve accolades for confronting the crazy scum on campus.

During America’s hot and cold wars, the term “fifth column” was understood: “a group of secret sympathizers or supporters of an enemy that engage in espionage or sabotage within defense lines or national borders” (Merriam-Webster.com). Basically, they’re not “anti-war,” they are pro-war on America and our ally, Israel. They openly side with ideological, cultural and religious antagonists that would happily slit protesters’ throats or toss them from building tops. Check that mayor’s name.

At UC Irvine, “protesters” ceased being peaceful when they took over the Physical Science Lecture Hall and plaza area. Free speech and assembly is constitutionally restricted by “time, place and manner limits”; the “heckler’s veto” on others’ free speech is anti-democratic and condemnable. Ten law enforcement agencies converged to “liberate,” you might say, the campus from the Hamas-nicks. Kudos to the peace officers subjecting themselves to the foul mouths, rubble, stench and violence.

Illustrating why I generally despise unions, 48,000 graduate student teaching assistants, researchers and other student workers have voted to authorize their union, United Auto Workers 4811, to strike “when they deemed it appropriate.” As reported by the LA Times and Pjmedia.com, the “kids” are displeased with the police action to clear UC Irvine’s pro-Palestine camp and building takeover.

So why go on strike? “Rafael Jaime, the union’s co-president and a PhD candidate at UCLA, said the goal would be to ‘maximize chaos and confusion’ at the schools that sent in the police to clear the pro-Palestine camps.” It’s illegal for them to strike. I say fire their arses and let students learn the old-fashioned way—from books, professors, tests and essays; and start taxing endowments if they object.

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Are the lunatics ever held to account? Apparently, yes. First, a Christian Phys. Ed. teacher in Jurupa Valley High School, CA, was fired because she refused the school’s 2022 policy of using students’ “preferred pronouns,” and allowing locker and rest room usage according to their “gender identity.”

She rightly believed that her free speech and religious rights were violated. The $360,000 settlement ($285,000 to the teacher) should tell the “woke,” “el-gee-bee-tee” ideologues they will pay for such violations of rights and common sense.

Last November, in Thousand Oaks, CA, a stones-throw from an Arby’s I managed in the 80s, a pro-Palestine fanatic led his fellow Hamas-nicks across the street to confront, intimidate and—as he has now been arrested for manslaughter—kill a pro-Israel Jewish man, Paul Kessler. The Moorpark College professor, Loay Alnaji, used a bullhorn to strike Kessler down to the sidewalk, inflicting a fatal injury, as recorded by observers. Peaceful? Not.

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Gov. Newsom is conducting “jihad” against the state’s energy future: “California’s new electricity-income tax is only weeks away” (Desertsun.com); “California gas regulators ensure prices might never go down with hidden 50 cent annual tax increase” (redstate.com, foxbusiness.com);

“Gavin Newsom is coming for your car, and he wants you to know it” (politico.com), reveals his obsession with phasing out gas vehicles and forcing EVs on all of us. “California Democrat Governor Gavin Newsom has ratcheted up his war on energy. Newsom-appointed Siva Gunda, of the California Energy Commission, just testified that state-run refineries are ‘on the table.’” (Steve Guest)

“California leads the nation in job losses: Federal Data—Nearly a million California residents are jobless” (Theepochtimes.com). Newsom: CA has a “National Model” to address homelessness. Really?

With a $45 billion deficit, what’s the worst that can happen?