Columbia University’s pro-Hamas radicals couldn’t have handed the Trump administration an easier opening in their war on college campus radicalism. On Wednesday afternoon, pro-Palestinian protesters stormed the Columbia campus and took over Butler Library during the school’s finals week. Calling them protesters is imprecise. They were a mob. The videos are all over social media. RIGHT NOW AT COLUMBIA: Masked anti-Israel students just broke into the library during finals week. Columbia Public Safety unsuccessfully attempted to stop them. pic.twitter.com/vBfkQFlwUW— Eden Yadegar (@edenyadegar) May 7, 2025 Columbia security fighting with protesters inside Butler: pic.twitter.com/83mpwYFvNQ— Citizen Lane (@laneshetron) May 8, 2025 Here’s a Keffiyeh-clad fanatic vandalizing school property. Protestors at Columbia vandalizing the library. On brand. Just expel them. pic.twitter.com/2lM4fOMFx0— Steve McGuire (@sfmcguire79) May 7, 2025 The New York Police Department was eventually called in and trapped the mob in the library. According to a report by The Daily Signal’s Virginia Allen, NYPD confirmed that they arrested 80 people. No charges have been made yet, but I’ll be interested to find out how many have been arrested for similar incidents in the past. Columbia University Acting President Claire Shipman put out a statement that many are praising. A+ response by Columbia President Claire Shipman to the library occupation: pic.twitter.com/RhqhQ4viS6— Steve McGuire (@sfmcguire79) May 8, 2025 This was well done. Having a media background, as Shipman does, sure helps when dealing with these situations. But I’d argue that talk is cheap. School policy allowed students and protesters to wear masks if they produced IDs when asked. But they didn’t have to wear IDs on the outside of their clothes. Of course, the masked people simply ignored the ID request when it became relevant. Situation report: protesters inside Butler still refuse to identify themselves to public safety. Protesters outside attempting to push past public safety officers as they claim their comrades are being “blocked” inside. Unaffiliated student bystanders are trapped in the library. pic.twitter.com/cTR2XmCtoG— Columbia Jewish & Israeli Students ???? (@CUJewsIsraelis) May 7, 2025 Whether that mask policy was designed to work or fail, the result was the same. Columbia University President Claire Shipman knew exactly what she was doing when she refused to require anyone wearing masks to wear ID on the outside of their clothing, and instead only committed to asking masked people to ID themselves. She invited this. She should resign. pic.twitter.com/a8R5AhbTH5— Ben B@dejo (@BenTelAviv) May 7, 2025 Not long after the mob was cleared out, Secretary of State Marco Rubio weighed in, saying that they are going to look at the visa status of the vandals. We are reviewing the visa status of the trespassers and vandals who took over Columbia University’s library. Pro-Hamas thugs are no longer welcome in our great nation.— Secretary Marco Rubio (@SecRubio) May 8, 2025 Uh oh. This latest Columbia takeover comes at an awful time for the school administration and for Ivy League schools in general. President Donald Trump has not only threatened to pull billions of dollars from schools that can’t control antisemitism and fail to protect students, but he’s also even going after their tax-exempt status. The truth is Columbia and higher education in general now operates with the sword of Damocles hanging over their heads. Trump and his administration have shown they are not only willing to criticize higher education institutions and the Ivy Leagues specifically, but they’re also prepared to go after them in the way that hurts most. The administration already pulled $400 million in grants from Columbia in March over their inaction on antisemitism, forcing the school to lay off 180 staff members. This prompted Columbia to take at least some steps to show they are getting their act together. According to the New York Post, the school agreed to “ban masks for the purpose of concealing identity, empower 36 campus police officers with new powers to arrest students and appoint a senior vice provost with broad authority to oversee the department of Middle East, South Asian and African Studies, as well as the Center for Palestine Studies.” But it’s hard to break old habits. The campus activists are used to getting their way. In the case of Columbia, the Manhattan district attorney gave those previously arrested for vandalism and disrupting campus only the lightest of slaps on the wrist. He outright dropped charges against most of the students and protesters using the bogus excuse that he couldn’t get evidence against students caught on camera trespassing, vandalizing, and assaulting on Columbia campus property. The activists know that they can play games with administrations, which is why they make a ruckus and win concessions. But why was there ever a negotiation? Why is it that the people who disrupt campus life and scream the loudest get anything? That’s not what attending a university should be about. The students who attend to study and engage in reasonable debate or discussion get shafted. The truth is, the school administration and the activists are part of the same closed circuit political ecosystem that considers support of a terrorist group that wants to exterminate Jews in the range of acceptable opinion, but support of the current president to be beyond the pale. For a very long time, higher education got away with this dynamic while our federal government gave them a blank check. But times have changed, and the universities are in the unprecedented situation of being trapped between the government and their leftist base. For decades they’ve essentially let the campus activist wing operate with impunity while doing their best to keep right-leaning voices quiet and in their place. But the angry mobs in their halls aren’t the only people they should be worried about. There is an angry storm of democracy outside their gate too, the once-silent majority that’s had enough. Decades of unaccountability have made university administrations weak in the face of determined opposition. Unlike a handful of schools, like Hillsdale College, they became used to funding their bloated bureaucracies with taxpayer money. They have no idea how to operate without unquestioned federal government financial and ideological support. The campus activists are going to continue doing what they do. Don’t think that children who are used to throwing tantrums and getting what they want are going to suddenly stop their behavior. They know campus administrations are in a bind. Despite a few token concessions, school administrations like Columbia’s have done little to demonstrate that they can get control of the mayhem, haven’t explained why extremely wealthy schools with billion-dollar endowments deserve generous taxpayer support, and haven’t demonstrated that their sudden, laughable commitment to “free speech” doesn’t just mean free speech for leftists. They are constitutionally unable to drain their swamp, Now it seems they’ve made it easy for Trump to drain it for them. The post Columbia University Mob Makes the Case for Trump to Drain Higher Ed Swamp appeared first on The Daily Signal.

On “The View” on Thursday, former President Joe Biden expressed that he wasn’t surprised former Vice President Kamala Harris lost to President Donald Trump last November. He cited both sexism and racism as the main reasons for her loss, while later correcting a host on his wife's religion.

Robert Francis Prevost, 69, is originally from Chicago. He is the first American Pope and will take the name Leo XIV. He is conservative on church doctrine but progressive politically and socially. According to the Vatican, Leo XIV is considered a ‘moderate reformer’ who aligns very much with the Bergoglian agenda. He was a close […] The post A Pope Is Chosen: A Firm Believer in Social Justice appeared first on www.independentsentinel.com.

Reporter Mark Halperin has a big scoop, and his scoops are usually accurate. A source “very familiar with the Bidens” tells Mark Halperin that “Biden Inc.,” the family business that generated millions of dollars in revenue to support the family lifestyle, has dried up. “The trough is empty, the spigot is turned off,” says Mark. […] The post “Biden Inc” Is Running Out of Money appeared first on www.independentsentinel.com.

President Donald Trump announced on Thursday that he would tap a new nominee to serve as the U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia after his pick, Ed Martin, struggled for support. In comments from the Oval Office, Trump expressed disappointment in Martin’s situation. The nomination was pulled after GOP Sen. Thom Tillis of North Carolina met with Martin and said Tuesday that he would not back him for the U.S. attorney role. “He is a terrific person,” said Trump. “He wasn’t getting the support from people that I thought.” “I just want to say, Ed is unbelievable. Hopefully we can bring him into, whether it’s DOJ or whatever, in some capacity because he’s really outstanding,” the president continued. “To me, it was disappointing. I have to be straight. I was disappointed. A lot of people were disappointed. But that’s the way it works sometimes. That’s the way it works.” “And he wasn’t rejected, but we felt it would be very – it would be hard. And we have somebody else that we’ll be announcing over the next two days who’s going to be great,” he added. ? BREAKING: It seems Sen. Thom Tillis (R-NC) succeeded in tanking the nomination of Ed Martin to U.S. Attorney for D.C. Trump: "We have somebody else that will be great. I just want to say, Ed is unbelievable. Hopefully we can bring him into, whether it's DOJ or whatever, in… pic.twitter.com/NYsK0sjIC3 — Eric Daugherty (@EricLDaugh) May 8, 2025 Tillis told reporters on Tuesday that his opposition to Martin was largely over disagreements about the January 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol. “I have no tolerance for anybody that entered the building on Jan. 6, and that’s probably where most of the friction was,” the Republican senator said. He added that he had visited with Trump and suggested SEC Chair Jay Clayton be appointed to the post. “If you take a look at his tenure as SEC … he’s a rock solid, smart guy,” Tillis said. “So all I’ve said was: ‘Look, if we’ve got to find another nominee, I wouldn’t count him out if he would be willing to serve.’” It’s unclear if Trump means to take Tillis’ advice. Tillis’ pushback to Martin blocked his nomination in committee. As a member of the Judiciary Committee, Tillis’ opposition meant that Martin’s nomination would stick in committee in an 11-11 vote, assuming all other Republicans supported the nominee and all Democrats opposed. Martin is currently serving as acting U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia. His appointment is set to expire on May 20. The acting U.S. attorney sparked some pushback among Republicans over his past comments on the January 6 riot and some of the people involved.

The markets are responding positively to a vast shift in the direction of the Trump economic policy direction (a little change that I’ve been calling for since well before Liberation Day). I’m very happy about it as well. There’s a reason that’s vitally important: Right now, the Republicans have a lot of running room, and one of the reasons they have a lot of running room is because the Democrats continue to be insane. I don’t just mean they’re insane in terms of their policy preferences, although many of those policy preferences are quite crazy. I mean, culturally speaking, the Democrats seem determined to do ridiculous things. People on the Left in big cities continue to push ridiculous policies and imagery that is going to make them more unpopular, which gives Republicans a lot of running room. Here’s the latest bizarre example, although it’s symptomatic of a broader crisis inside the Democratic Party, courtesy of Times Square in Manhattan. There is a brand-new 12-foot statue in Times Square titled “Grounded in the Stars” by an artist named Thomas J Price. What is this 12-foot tall statue that is “grounded in the stars?” It appears to be a slightly to moderately overweight black woman wearing jeans that are too tight for her, wearing a T-shirt that she apparently got at Walmart, and staring angrily at the cashier at CVS. There’s nothing about this that is aspirational. There’s nothing about this that is inspiring. This person is completely anonymous. We have no idea what makes her a hero or heroine. WATCH: The Ben Shapiro Show Apparently, just being kind of grumpy in front of a TSA agent is enough to make you one of the heroes of American society. The statue was meant to be a stark contrast to two other statues in Duffy Square: One of Father Francis Duffy and the other of George M. Cohan, the founder of Broadway, the Great White Way.  Father Duffy was a Canadian-American soldier, a Catholic priest and a military chaplain who served in the 69th Infantry Regiment on the Western Front in France during World War I. Duffy Square is named for him. These are actual-heroic and world-changing figures. But the new statue is meant to be a contrast, because this person is just a person who might need a dose of Ozempic and looks frumpy and mad and uninspiring. According to the website for this particular work, the statue was created with the idea of “disrupting traditional ideas.” The Left is constantly attempting to disrupt traditional ideas. But perhaps a traditional idea is good, such as, “You should have to do something heroic for us to build you a statue.” It shouldn’t just be a random black lady, although I do understand that for the Left, the basic idea is that every hero of the past is actually a villain, and the only person for whom you put up a statue is a person who is completely anonymous, has no background, no bad social media posts, and never did anything. Those are the people to whom we should build statues. There’s nothing from the statue that makes this person in any way important to anyone else, and yet this self-centered statue is supposed to represent the future of America and the future of Western civilization. According to the website, “Price’s work offers viewers a unique opportunity to experience Times Square in a new light and share in a moment of personal reflection and empathy amidst the hyperactivity of the district.” That’s ridiculous. The whole thing is ridiculous. If you just want to see random people standing around in Times Square, you could do that with random, actual humans. You don’t need a 12-foot statue to accomplish this. It’s silly, but that silliness has an underlying depressing message: There is no such thing as heroism. There is no such thing as iconic status that can be achieved by accomplishment. The only thing worth worshiping is a bizarre narcissism of do-nothingism. If that’s the sort of stuff the Left wants to embrace, the Right has a lot of running room.