Trump threatens funding cut if UC Berkeley 'does not allow free speech'

[Jose Garcia]

Source: The Hill

President Trump early Thursday threatened to cut federal funding to the University of California, Berkley after violent protests broke out on its campus Wednesday in response to a planned appearance by a far-right commentator.

"If U.C. Berkeley does not allow free speech and practices violence on innocent people with a different point of view - NO FEDERAL FUNDS?" the president tweeted Thursday morning.

Donald J. Trump ✔ @realDonaldTrump
If U.C. Berkeley does not allow free speech and practices violence on innocent people with a different point of view - NO FEDERAL FUNDS?
6:13 AM - 2 Feb 2017

A scheduled appearance by right-wing commentator Milo Yiannopoulos was canceled Wednesday night about two hours before the Breitbart editor was scheduled to speak.

Read more: http://thehill.com/homenews/administration/317494-trump-threatens-no-federal-funds-if-uc-berkeley-does-not-allow-free

[Ohioblue22]

1. this dumfk doesnt understand the 1st a.

[DetlefK]

2. Shall we bring up his demonization of journalists? Or how people got beaten up during his rallies?

[canuckledragger]

5. It's ALWAYS projection with Trump

and his conservative ilk.

It's their number one rule: blame a scapegoat for the things THEY are guilty of.

[winetourdriver01]

15. Protests

Maybe we should forget the "Freedom Riders" who were butchered in the 60's? Look, I live in the bay area- we don't like fascists, and we will tell the world about it.

[OKNancy]

3. He has no power to cut funds however

He's such a jerk.

[Laurian]

4. He thinks he's the king with power over everything.

F'ing idiot. I never thought the guy was very smart and he reinforces my opinion every day.

[harun]

23. He thinks he's a Fuhrer

[RegexReader]

44. pretending to be Fuhrer

will only be the beginning.

[Locrian]

6. careful

"This was a group of agitators who were masked up, throwing rocks, commercial grade fireworks and Molotov cocktails at officers," U.C. Berkeley Police Chief Margo Bennet told The Associated Press.

Question everything - this could easily have been staged. I saw instigators at trump protests too - they're very obvious and fit perfectly with the bannon mindset of troll/distrupter.

Think about it: the main tactic online with them is to disrupt / corrupt/ agitate.
It's a natural progression to doing it in real life.

[7962]

9. How about Chief bennet arrest a few of them and ID them??

That would settle who was at fault

[dhill926]

20. exactly...

[CottonBear]

12. NPR this AM reported that agitators weren't students.

I was surprised that NPR stated this fact.

[ChazII]

18. I heard that teachers were

part of the the demonstration. I was channel surfing so I can't remember if it was a local station, CNN or MSNBC.

[olddad56]

25. thanks for sharing your unsubstaniated hearsay with us. Very helpful.

[7962]

24. And how do they know that if nobody got arrested & ID'd?

With the video I've seen, the whole thing was poorly handled. there were many there who should have been arrested. The school lost control from the very start.

[olddad56]

27. the only cops there were Berkeley campus police.

they were outnumbered and were ordered not to escalate the situation.

[LanternWaste]

28. Your narrative, while consistent in its particular placing of blame...

" The school lost control from the very start..."

Your narrative, while consistent in its particular placing of blame, seems to be rarely supported by evidence.

[Eliot Rosewater]

31. You notice that also? There are still a few around like this one

They should be happy, the most vile, filthy, disgusting, violent, wretched pair of human beings alive, rump/bannon are now in charge and will be killing brown people, gay people, Latino people, liberal people, surely they are happy now?

[7962]

39. Maybe you should look up Evelyn Beatrice Hall before spouting such nonsense.

unless you're one of the recent crop of progressives who only believe in speech you agree with. Guess you'd have fit right in at that "protest".
Ever donate to the ACLU? They represented the Nazis once. Does that mean you support Nazisif you've donated? No.

[7962]

38. Evidence is available to anyone who cares to view it.

You are the one who is more likely to postulate simply based on your odd obsession with my posts

[mopinko]

16. nothing tarnishes a protest like a few bricks through a window, so

yeah, every time i see that i assume it's the old "black blok" aka cop disrupters.
that's why they never seem to get arrested.

[Xipe Totec]

7. Blah, blah, blah. nt

[nikibatts]

8. That wasn't Trump..that was Pence who is not writing his statements behind the scene.

Or someone else. He has new teleprompter that are extra large and hung in the back of every room where he speaks. Cameras that panned the room at his announcement on SCOTUS.

This is perhaps the most hypocritical moment to day. Trump at a prayer breakfast. He will probably talk about how he had bigger crowds than Jesus.

[7962]

26. "They're saying I've got many more disciples than Jesus ever had"

[rzemanfl]

10. Donald Mario Savio Drumpf. "What a know nothing he is."

Frederick Douglass told me that over coffee this morning.

[randome]

17. Hey, what's he been up to lately?

[hr][font color="blue"][center]Where do uncaptured mouse clicks go?[/center][/font][hr]

[WinkyDink]

21. Dead. Eleven years.

[rzemanfl]

45. Almost 122 years. n/t

[Mc Mike]

11. Becuz dRUmpf, the repugs, and nazis are all about free speech.

They're strongly against violence, too.

[Sunlei]

13. trump Republicans seem behind the dark dressed masked men who again threw BRICKs at police.

broke glass and moved/use portable pipe fence as weapons.

No arrests by police? WTF is with that? police don't arrest people who threw bricks at them? they arrest people who look at them 'funny'.

[Liberaltalker]

46. If I was there with my friends

we would have got in these masked peoples face with cameras and tried to unmask them then we would have made a citizens arrest and brought the video evidence with us to the cops. Cops would have had no choice but to arrest them then... We have to fight back against these bastards and control the optics. Expose the infiltrators each and every time!

[Gothmog]

14. Trump loves his nazis

[wildeyed]

19. Wow, Trump supports hate speech overtly now.

Yiuannapoopusss, Beirtbart and Loose Cannon Bannon are trying to move the Overton window to include overtly racist, white nationalist hate speech. The problem is that when hate speech goes unchecked, eventually people end up in camps or hanging from trees for their race or religious beliefs. Decent people can get a bit touchy about that kind of thing.... And besides, they do have the FREEDOM to say their nasty shit. People have the freedom to call it nasty shit too. They talk tough, but get sooooo delicate and sensitive when anyone disagrees with them! What a snowflake!

And besides, U Berkeley DID allow the speech. The administration scheduled it. It was shut down due for safely reasons due to protesters. There is no logical way to conclude that Berkeley should now have their funding cut. So I dunno what he is yammering on about now.

[J_William_Ryan]

22. More ignorance of the law from Trump and the right

The rights enshrined in the First Amendment are not absolute, they are subject to reasonable restrictions by government, consistent with free speech jurisprudence.

[riversedge]

30. Yes, just like we can not yell FIRE in a crowded area when none is there-. Damn that Rump is STUPID

[riversedge]

29. The Univ has a responsibilty to cancel events when harm may come to some. good on Univ of B.

[TexasBushwhacker]

34. I have to wonder why Milo was scheduled in the first place n/t

[riversedge]

35. He has been touring the US-lots of University's have scheduled and I have to say lots

of students attend. Damn!!

[TexasBushwhacker]

37. When Richard Spencer spoke at Texas A&M

Most of the attendees were protesters.

[underpants]

32. Good article here - that's not how college funding works. PERIOD!

http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1002&pid=8584857

[JTFrog]

33. Hate speech is not free speech.

This fucker knows nothing of our constitution.

[7962]

41. Actually, it is.

Nowhere in the 1st Amendment does it specify the type of speech. Existing law says whats not allowed, such as the old "fire in a theater" comment. Merely insulting a group or groups doesnt mean the speech isnt protected.
And who is the arbiter of what constitutes "hate speech"? Do we want who is in control now to start making that determination? Oh hell no!

[matt819]

36. Two observations

Freedom of speech works in all directions.

The RW shill does have the right to speak.

People have the right to protest.

The decision to cancel the event had nothing to do with censorship or free speech, but, rather, safety.

Another way to look at it:
Der Drumpfenfuhrer had a right to speak in Wisconsin.
Harley Davidson said that maybe that wasn't such a great idea and disinvited him.
The decision to cancel the event had nothing to do with censorship or free speech. Are Harley-Davidson's tax credits, or whatever, being threatened?

Next observation: I don't have a fucking clue as to what the federal government does to fund the UC system. And neither does the orange shitgibbon occupying the WH. I do know that CA is a net giver on the tax dollar front.

[7962]

40. "orange shitgibbon"....gets me EVERY time!!! :)

[NCDem777]

42. Protesting this little shitheel just gives him what he wants: An audience

Better to just let him speak to his little group of cretins and be done with it.

He's little more than an 8th grade 4chan troll in an adult's body. Paying him any mind just gives him what he wants.

[muriel_volestrangler]

43. Trump is using this to divert attention from his multiple problems

The university was firm that the speech would happen, until the violence, not started by the university, of course, happened. Then they had to stop it for public safety. I think even Trump knows that, but certainly everyone around him does, and they know they couldn't withhold funds because of it; but they've seen this as a way of firing up Trump's base, and drawing attention away from the Muslim ban, screwed-up Yemen raid, and all the other idiocies Trump has caused recently.