Shouldn't they be studying for finals?https://t.co/DZoaKGLPWY — Paul Epps (@paulepps) April 25, 2024 During the time my son was at UC Berkeley, they had a fair number of campus protests. Usually the protests were about tuition hikes or something race-related. As a parent paying tuition, I was against tuition hikes, but I was also against my kid participating in protests when he should be studying. Whenever I heard about a Berkeley protest in progress, I’d check in with the boy to make sure he wasn’t participating, which he wasn’t. I got the impression from the way he talked about it that not only was he not participating, none of his friends were participating and no one with any sense was participating. I was at the Berkeley campus myself during one of the protests. There were 100 people, maybe less, blocking Sather Gate to protest a microaggression or something, but it… Read more →
EppsNet Archive: Protests
More Words and Phrases I’m Sick Unto Death Of: “Insurrection”
What is an “insurrection”? I guess I could look it up. Have any of the arrested protestors been charged with insurrection? If not, why do we keep saying it? The Revolutionary War was definitely an insurrection, which suggests that insurrection is not always a bad thing. Read more →
Incitement of Violence
Apple CEO Tim Cook said the removal of Parler from Apple’s online store was done because the company doesn’t consider incitement of violence free speech. “We looked at the incitement to violence that was on there and we don’t consider that free speech and incitement of violence has an intersection,” Cook told Fox News anchor Chris Wallace. Yes, “incitement of violence” is the party line and Tim Cook I guess is just a puppethead. Despite the faux outrage over the Capitol riot, the virtuous left seems ok with using and endorsing violence when it suits them. Antifa has had ongoing riots in major American cities. Left-wing “protests” often include looting, smashing store windows, burning down people’s homes and businesses. An MLK Day protest in New York City this week resulted in 11 police officers injured and 28 arrests. If you try to get a conservative speaker on a college campus,… Read more →
And That’s the Truth: 93 Percent Peaceful
[And That’s the Truth is a feature by our guest blogger, Sojourner Truth– PE] Somebody put out a report sayin that 93% of Black Lives Matter protests in the US were peaceful. Now if’n you got a brain in yo head, you realize that statement don’t mean a goddamn thing. Fust off, what counts as a protest? One guy on a street corner with a sign. Is that a protest? Next thing, what is “peaceful”? I mean, I seen clowns on the TV telling me they at a “peaceful” protest and there’s a big fire goin on behind em. So I dont know what a protest is and I dont know what “peaceful” is but even if I take the numbers they give me, 7 percent is 617 riots in 220 cities. Man, I bet Hitler is in Hell right now going “Why didn’t I think of this? Hey, I… Read more →
Biden Blames Trump For Riots Carried Out by People Who Hate Trump
Joe Biden has emerged from his basement to blame President Trump for riots carried out by people who hate President Trump. Bear in mind that these are liberal groups, rioting in liberal cities, with liberal mayors, and liberal city councils, promoting radical liberal causes, and supported by liberal money. Amidst sinking poll numbers, Joe, the media and others on the left have pivoted from months of “Violence? What violence?” to “Rioting is terrible but it’s all Trump’s fault.” Read more →
“Mostly Peaceful”
Portland mayor says protesters are ‘attempting to commit murder’ and helping Trump’s reelection campaign — Los Angeles Times I’m not sure how those two things go together but look, Mr. Mayor (is this the “Summer of Love” mayor or is that in Seattle?), you’re not going out on a limb by taking a stand against murder. Pretty much everyone is opposed to murder. But if you’d enforced at some point over the last couple months the laws against lesser offenses like assault, theft and destruction of property, the state of affairs in your city wouldn’t have deteriorated to this point. You now look like a fool saying “Someone should do something about this!” Like who, the mayor? Read more →
Ain’t That Peculiar?
Mayor Says Seattle Will Move to Dismantle Protest Zone, After Second Shooting in Less Than 48 Hours — TIME It’s peculiar how leftist radicals get hold of a piece of ground and all of a sudden they love guns and border walls . . . Read more →
I Think the NFL is Shooting Itself in the Nuts
I think the NFL is shooting itself in the nuts with these anthem protests . . . One of the things I thought was problematic with the original Kaepernick protests is that they were inarticulate. He was protesting (I think) police treatment of black citizens but what does that have to do with kneeling for the national anthem at a football game? If he were leading a demonstration in front of police headquarters, there wouldn’t be any ambiguity about the purpose of the protest. But kneeling for the anthem at a football game? There’s no obvious connection. It requires an explanation. So people are free to supply their own explanation, like “They’re protesting the anthem,” “They’re desecrating the flag,” “They’re disrespecting our men and women in uniform.” And once they’ve supplied their own explanation, they can get angry at the NFL about it. The NFL is now trying to dumb… Read more →
Fighting Fascism With Mob Violence
Here’s how different media outlets covered yesterday’s Berkeley rally . . . USA Today and the Sun-Sentinel, a Florida paper, play it straight up, telling us what happened and who was responsible: Black-clad anarchists stormed the rally, fighting against hate by kicking and punching people until police intervened. Even the Washington Post, the most left-wing, anti-Trump paper in America, which recently informed readers that there is no political violence on the left, got this one right. The Daily Mail uses the same photo as USA Today but reports only that violence broke out between the two sides. If they know any more about who was responsible, they’re not saying. Finally, NPR reports that scattered violence between left and right marred an otherwise peaceful protest. NPR notes that a radio host tried to protect a man he was afraid would be beaten to death by “a group of protestors.” If you… Read more →
It’s Hard to Tell the Violent, Intolerant Fascists Without a Scorecard
Sometimes it’s hard to remember which side the violent, intolerant fascists are on. 🙂 Mario Savio is spinning in his grave (I hope) . . . Read more →
Shake it Off (aka Haters Gonna Hate)
A Chinese woman tells me that being around white guys inhibits her ability to make edgy (i.e., racist) comments about white guys . . . I reply, “White guys didn’t get to be what we are by peeing in our pants and crying for our mamas every time someone calls us a name. Haters gonna hate. That has been amply demonstrated. We’re just gonna shake, shake, shake, shake it off.” Some people are offended by absolutely everything, some people are offended by nothing, and everyone else is somewhere in between. The people at the easily offended end of the spectrum get most of the attention. People who hear a trigger word or a dog whistle that wouldn’t bother a normal person and they’re bleeding out all over the place like hemophiliacs. That’s where most of the focus is, it seems to me. It’s a distorted view of reality. My… Read more →
Flag Burner Lights Himself On Fire
It is unfortunate that Trump’s rhetoric prevents the GOP from recruiting these fine Americans . . . Protestor lit flag on fire, then lit himself on fire, catching others on fire. Flames extinguished by firefighters. No serious injuries. — Cleveland Police (@CLEpolice) July 20, 2016 Read more →
A Riddle
What’s the difference between a student activist and a petulant crybaby? Yeah, I don’t know either . . . Read more →
I’m in Semi-Solidarity with the Protestors
I support the UC Berkeley students protesting tuition hikes but maybe with a little less conviction than I used to because my kid is a senior and no matter how high tuition goes I won’t be paying it anymore so I hope the boy was in class yesterday and not out causing a disturbance . . . Read more →
Dogged by Protesters
Obama dogged by protesters on bay visit — SFGate Dogged by protesters?! If he ever comes to Orange County, he’ll be PROTESTED BY DOGS! My owner pays so many taxes that there’s hardly any money left for pug treats! 🙁 — Lightning Read more →
Occupy Tampa
Residents and merchants here have grown weary of the Occupy Tampa movement’s 6-month presence in their midst, and some of them aim to take action. On Thursday they plan to take a petition to the Tampa City Council. It maintains that the movement has turned a privately owned park on Main Street into an impromptu squatters’ village that is unsightly and, at times, unruly. Since adult nightclub owner Joe Redner made his Voice of Freedom Park available to the movement in December, it has filled with pup tents, and has become an eyesore that is unclean, disorderly and unsafe due to people using drugs and drinking alcohol, the residents say. — West Tampa group wants Occupy Tampa out of park | TBO.com What we have here, then, is a dispute between a rich man asserting his right to use his property in any way he sees fit and the residents… Read more →
Second City Comedy
In the middle of an Occupy Chicago teach-in this week, traders at the Chicago Board of Trade dumped several sheets of paper on top of the heads of protesters below. Demonstrators were angered to find out they were showered with employment applications for McDonald’s. — Mediaite Read more →
I Am the 99 Percent
But I’m not clear on what constitutes a win with regard to the Top 1 Percent? What if we take away everything they have and leave them with nothing? Then the Top 2 Percent roll up to become the Top 1 Percent and we’d have to stage another round of protests against them, right? Why can’t we just count our blessings and enjoy what we have? You think you’d be happier with a lot of money? You wouldn’t. Where’s the evidence? The guy making a million a year wants to make 2 million a year. The guy making 2 million wants to make 10 million. The guy making 10 million is in jail for trying to steal an extra 10 million. As Epictetus used to say, “None of these objects that men admire and set their hearts on is of any use to those who get them, though those who… Read more →