COLLECTIVE MADNESS


“Soft despotism is a term coined by Alexis de Tocqueville describing the state into which a country overrun by "a network of small complicated rules" might degrade. Soft despotism is different from despotism (also called 'hard despotism') in the sense that it is not obvious to the people."

Tuesday, August 29, 2017

Former Professor Charged with Assault for Allegedly Beating Trump Supporter with Bike Lock


Shuttershot45/YouTube




Eric Clanton, formerly a professor at Diablo Valley College, has been charged with assault for an April incident in which he allegedly bashed a Trump supporter over the head with a bike lock. The victim’s head was left bloodied and wrapped in bandages.

Clanton, however, disputes the charges. “I’m currently facing years of prison time as the result of accusations made in the most shockingly hateful parts of the internet. On April 19th I began being targeted by a dedicated swarm of internet trolls known for spewing racism, xenophobia, and misogyny onto the web,” Glanton wrote in an online blog post, apparently blaming 4chan users for his arrest.

Although Clanton insists that his charges have been levied unfairly, he has not specifically denied that he is the masked individual behind the bike lock assault. This is “just one example of the police doing everything in their power to facilitate and to legitimize the violence and the rhetoric of the so-called alt-right,” Glanton argued.

“Dealing with an unintelligible internet force smearing and threatening me online was not easy, and created stress to say the least, but I had every expectation that very few people would take them seriously, especially considering the character and credibility of their sources,” he wrote in his blog post.

In May, police searched Clanton’s home in San Leandro, leading to his arrest in Oakland, where he was taken into custody. He has been charged with four counts of felony assault with a deadly weapon, with the special allegation of causing great bodily injury to one of his alleged victims. To the charges, Glanton pled not guilty. His preliminary hearing is scheduled for September 28.

32 comments:

  1. Wonder if the Police found the bloody bike lock in the Professor's home ?

    *****

    Ivy League Profs Warn Students: Watch Out For The Real Bigots
    ED MORRISSEYPosted at 4:31 pm on August 29, 2017

    Freshman orientation usually sticks to the basics — here’s your dorm, the cafeteria is in this building, don’t forget to sign up early for timeshare slots on the mainframe. It’s been a while since I’ve been a freshman, obviously. Back in those days, universities prided themselves on their open approach to all ideas and perspectives, and the fact that you could get a 2400 baud connection on your terminal.

    SEE ALSO: Al Letson rescued a man being beaten by Antifa in Berkeley

    At Princeton’s James Madison Program, the old-fashioned values survive, at least with a few of their professors. In an open letter posted yesterday at the Ivy League institution to “our students and all students,” fifteen instructors from various Ivy League schools warned the next generation about the “tyranny of public opinion,” and the “easy, lazy way” of coping with it:

    At many colleges and universities what John Stuart Mill called “the tyranny of public opinion” does more than merely discourage students from dissenting from prevailing views on moral, political, and other types of questions. It leads them to suppose that dominant views are so obviously correct that only a bigot or a crank could question them.

    Since no one wants to be, or be thought of, as a bigot or a crank, the easy, lazy way to proceed is simply by falling into line with campus orthodoxies.

    Don’t do that. Think for yourself.

    The signatories — including luminaries such as Robert P. George and former Vatican ambassador Mary Ann Glendon — warn especially about those who label people with heterodox opinions as “bigots.” That’s usually a case of projection, and the sign of weak minds aggregating social power rather than intelligence:

    Merriam-Webster’s first definition of the word “bigot” is a person “who is obstinately or intolerantly devoted to his or her own opinions and prejudices.” The only people who need fear open-minded inquiry and robust debate are the actual bigots, including those on campuses or in the broader society who seek to protect the hegemony of their opinions by claiming that to question those opinions is itself bigotry.

    Be sure to read the whole essay. Every university and college should include this in their welcome packet for incoming students, and take steps to ensure its adoption on their own campuses. It should become the standard response to demands for “safe spaces” and hysterics over the supposed “violence” of hearing differing opinions. This message is a desperately needed reminder of the need for free speech, and our own individual and collective responsibilities for supporting it.

    The only two true questions this missive raises are these: Could they not find any more than 15 Ivy League professors to sign their names to this document? And can we get someone to air-drop a few thousand copies on Berkeley?

    http://hotair.com/archives/2017/08/29/princeton-profs-warn-students-watch-real-bigots/

    ReplyDelete
  2. Putin orders mass evacuation for citizens near NK border....DRUDGE

    http://www.dailystar.co.uk/news/latest-news/640943/russia-evacuation-vladivostok-north-korea-missile-test-vladimir-putin


    USA Tests New Bombs...

    Russia Says War Games 'Purely Defensive'...

    Putin orders mass evacuation for citizens near NK border...

    Missile Over Japan Warning to Guam?

    SKorea live-fire drills simulate destroying NKorea leaders...

    China: 'Tipping point'....DRUDGE

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. What this country needs is a bourgeois ascendancy -

      August 29, 2017
      I Don't Like Living in Interesting Times
      By Christopher Chantrill

      One of my favorite quotes is the coward Falstaff cringing to Prince Hal before the Battle of Shrewsbury in 1403.

      I would ‘twere bedtime, Hal, and all well.


      If you are a conservative or dissident rightist -- or any kind of person, left or right -- I defy you to say that you never wish for the cold civil war to be over, and all well.


      But the fact is that almost nothing in this world gets decided peacefully by an open and frank discussion of the issues. Reality may be objective, but our theories about reality are faith, and often enough we want to decide questions of faith by force.

      Put it this way. Baby-boomers like me like to sneer at the folly of politicians in the 1930s that failed to stop Hitler until it was too late. What a bunch of losers!

      But ask yourself: what would it have taken for the Baldwins and the Chamberlains and the Daladiers to leave go of their comfortable theories of disarmament treaties and collective security before it was too late?

      Now ask yourself what it would take for liberals to leave go of their comfortable theories about diversity and institutional racism and stop their mad race-based university admissions culture before it’s too late?

      This week the New York Times ran a chin-stroker article about the fact that black and Hispanic university admissions have failed to rise at all since 1980. Raaacism!

      But David French at NRO notes a curious correlation. The current racial stats on college admissions by race happen to correlate with marriage.

      The cohort that’s most overrepresented in American colleges and universities, Asian Americans, also happens to have the lowest percentage of nonmarital births in the United States.

      Here are the birth stats of children born to married parents: Asian Americans: 83.4%; Whites: 79.8%; Hispanic: 37%; Blacks: 29.4%.

      Delete
    2. Correlation is not causation, say the philosophers, but what do you think?

      Last week I had a little fun with a new book by Mark Lilla, The Once and Future Liberal: After Identity Politics, reviewed by William Voegeli. Here is the key article of Lilla’s liberal faith:

      Effecting beneficial changes requires wielding power, [Lilla] argues, and in democracies, securing power means winning elections.

      You mean like implementing Affirmative Action and Diversity programs to effect beneficial changes in university admissions?

      Or welfare programs that disconnect poor children from their fathers? Or government education that subjects children to life-tenured government schoolteachers?

      But what if wielding political power has nothing to do with the case?

      Could it possibly be that the key to university admissions is not Affirmative Action but the marriage culture? Could it be that the answer to education is not more government programs but married Tiger Mothers who care about their children? In that case, of course, beneficial changes will have nothing to do with politicians wielding power. It might even make things worse.

      Could it be that the answer to our problems would be a new ascendancy of the bourgeoisie? As Glenn Reynolds writes:

      When the middle class was ascendant, it had the power to force bourgeois norms on elites, and every many of the poor.

      A bourgeois ascendancy would once more privilege following the rules, going to work, and obeying the law. Imagine where that might lead, on the bathroom front.

      My point is that liberals are not going to cry “Uncle” on any of their wonderful programs to effect beneficial changes and not coincidentally enjoy the wielding of political power. Not this year, not next year. Not until utter ruin is staring them in the face.

      And maybe not even then. See: Maduro, Nicolas; Venezuela, president of.

      I admit that I am like Falstaff. I would like this whole cold civil war decided by bedtime. I really don’t want to be in a culture war between the creatives and the normals. Why can’t we all just get along?

      The answer is pretty obvious. Our liberal friends won’t stop wielding political power until it is taken out of their cold dead hands, or at least until half the liberals retreat into their safe spaces with post-election stress disorder after President Pence gets elected in 2024.

      Margaret Thatcher told us that “the trouble with Socialism is that eventually you run out of other people’s money.” But she was wrong.

      What really happens when you run out of other people’s money is that you blame saboteurs and wreckers for the mess. Oh dear, how 20th century of me. These days you blame raaacists.

      The trouble with Socialism is that even after you run out of other people’s money you still refuse to look reality in the face, so long as you have a Deep State to do your dirty work for you and un-mask the opposition’s phone calls.

      Sorry Falstaff. No bed-time for you.

      Christopher Chantrill @chrischantrill runs the go-to site on US government finances, usgovernmentspending.com. Also see his American Manifesto and get his Road to the Middle Class.

      http://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2017/08/i_dont_like_living_in_interesting_times.html

      Delete
    3. This comment has been removed by the author.

      Delete
    4. .

      In order to blame the left for making up excuses to justify their arguments, ol Chris makes up excuses for how they get away with it. Typical. One fringe nut from the right blaming the fringe nuts on the left. We see it every day. Mirror images. Tomorrow, we'll see some nut on the left blaming the nuts on the right in the same manner. Well...maybe not here, but in the broader world.

      :o)

      .

      Delete
  3. .

    On the last stream, I put up a video link to two guys arguing over the justification for Antifa tactics. One was the head of the SPLC who argued against the tactics they use. The other, like the guy in the lead video above was a member of Antifa, a college professor, and a defender of their tactics.

    Given how the movement seems to be growing, you would think there would be some way (perhaps RICO charges) that would allow law enforcement to stem the violence before someone gets killed or disabled.

    .

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Agreed. It's all fun and games until someone loses an eye.

      Delete
    2. I watched on the news some knuckle head in Berkeley with a scarf on his face taunting someone to hit him. Last time someone did that to me, I round housed him. Granted it was about 25 years ago and my buds hustled me out of the place. Sure felt good, though.

      Delete
    3. Not such a good idea, according to this article -

      Laura Ingraham: It’s Time To Think About Designating Antifa A Terrorist Organization
      ALLAHPUNDITPosted at 10:01 pm on August 29, 2017

      ....Like it or not, most Antifa droogs are U.S. citizens; if you mainstream the idea that they’re “terrorists,” inevitably you also mainstream the idea that their rights can be abridged to an extent that garden-variety criminals’ rights can’t. That’s treacherous terrain....

      http://hotair.com/archives/2017/08/29/laura-ingraham-time-think-designating-antifa-terrorist-organization/

      Delete
  4. The Judge has tossed out Sarah Palin's libel suit against the New York Times.

    He's probably right, but, damn, I was hoping she'd take the NYT for a good ride.

    A free press is the basis of Western Democracy, dudes.

    Well, one of them....

    ReplyDelete
  5. Both T Rex and now Mad Dog Mattis are dissing the Pres -

    REDSTATE
    BREAKING: Mattis Halts Transgender Military Ban

    https://www.redstate.com/joesquire/2017/08/29/breaking-mattis-halts-transgender-military-ban/

    FRED KAPLAN
    James Mattis basically told the troops that their president is failing them

    http://hotair.com/headlines/archives/2017/08/james-mattis-basically-told-troops-president-failing/

    One begins to wonder who is left on his side in the Administration....

    ReplyDelete
  6. VIDEO

    August 29, 2017
    Fake news SHOCKER: CNN video exposes true Antifa
    By Keith Edwards

    http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2017/08/fake_news_shocker_cnn_video_exposes_true_antifa.html

    ReplyDelete
  7. What we all ought to do is shut the hell up -

    Don’t bother trying to understand those on the ‘other side’

    MARK KINGWELL
    SPECIAL TO THE GLOBE AND MAIL
    15 HOURS AGO

    ....We'd still co-exist, versions of Immanuel Kant's notional "nation of devils" ruled by uneasy self-interest. But it won't be through talking things over, let alone hugging them out. Limit indulgence in the cup of conviction; let's have more constraint, less conversation. That's your path to a stable future, friends – by not trying to be friends.

    https://beta.theglobeandmail.com/opinion/dont-bother-trying-to-understand-those-on-the-other-side/article36099762/

    ReplyDelete
  8. Any missile fired by the North at Guam would have to pass over Japan, and analysts told AFP that Pyongyang appeared to have chosen the trajectory as a "half-way house" option to send a message without crossing a red line.

    Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe was nevertheless visibly unsettled, dubbing the launch an "unprecedented, serious and grave threat."

    Despite Trump's rhetoric, officials in Washington privately echo the warning by Trump's now former chief strategist Steve Bannon that it is too late for a pre-emptive strike against the North.

    ReplyDelete

  9. By Stephen Dinan - The Washington Times - Tuesday, August 29, 2017

    HILLARY CLINTON’S CASE ISN’T INTERESTING ENOUGH TO THE PUBLIC TO JUSTIFY RELEASING THE FBI’S FILES ON HER, the bureau said this week in rejecting an open-records request by a lawyer seeking to have the former secretary of state punished for perjury.

    Ty Clevenger has been trying to get Mrs. Clinton and her personal attorneys disbarred for their handling of her official emails during her time as secretary of state. He’s met with resistance among lawyers, and now his request for information from the FBI’s files has been shot down.

    “You have not sufficiently demonstrated that the public’s interest in disclosure outweighs personal privacy interests of the subject,” FBI records management section chief David M. Hardy told Mr. Clevenger in a letter Monday.

    “It is incumbent upon the requester to provide documentation regarding the public’s interest in the operations and activities of the government before records can be processed pursuant to the FOIA,” Mr. Hardy wrote.

    Mrs. Clinton, is the 2016 Democratic presidential nominee, former chief diplomat, former U.S. senator, and former first lady of both the U.S. and Arkansas.

    ReplyDelete
  10. Teacher Training For LGBT Is Insufficient. It's Now LGGBDTTTIQQAAPP

    Now, the entire point of this LGGBDTTTIQQAAPP inclusivity training (that’s their new acronym) is to become “more familiar” with the current language of this new movement and to become more sensitive to the students in the movement. If they’re taking pointers, I’d suggest shrinking their acronym, but enough about that stupid thing.

    Here’s the main problem I have with this entire thing: the Elementary Teachers’ Federation of Ontario alleges that half of the public secretly identifies with LGBT, citing this survey:

    https://wtam.iheart.com/featured/mike-trivisonno/content/2017-08-24-teacher-training-for-lgbt-is-insufficient-its-now-lggbdtttiqqaapp/

    ReplyDelete
  11. Maddow is SO Hot!

    https://tse3.mm.bing.net/th?id=OIP.bnbwQrb6eC8-GRI6zfCIggDSEo&w=161&h=188&c=7&qlt=90&o=4&pid=1.7

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. She's a "knock out".

      One glance and you fall unconscious.

      Delete
  12. Cattle Drive, Houston:

    https://www.facebook.com/100008502332141/videos/1794131820880212/

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Ah, T-Bones !

      My Niece doesn't eat meat and I'm beginning to think she is right.


      Good News !! - My Eclipse Stamps have arrived !!

      Delete
  13. "grandmother being jet ski'd out of her living room in Houston"

    https://www.facebook.com/nikkideeray/photos/a.147820015244542.28224.131309706895573/1914933041866555/?type=3&theater

    ReplyDelete
  14. Fake foto of "Houston Airport"

    http://bgr.com/2017/08/28/hurricane-harvey-flooding-houston-airport-photo-fake/

    ReplyDelete
  15. Reports of the launch by North Korean media were lacking the usual boasts of technical advances, indicating the test may not have accomplished its intended goals.

    ...

    In commodities, gasoline hit a near-two-year high after Hurricane Harvey shut down nearly a fifth of the US's refining capacity, and more closures are expected.

    ...

    The rise in crude inventories as a result of refinery shutdowns, however, weighed on oil prices.

    ReplyDelete
  16. I think the Texans have truly conducted themselves well throughout the ordeal.

    ReplyDelete