HIGHER EDUCATION BUBBLE UPDATE: St. Louis University to host Dylan Mulvaney, denies College Republicans request to hold event with former NCAA swimmer a day later.

TRUST THE SCIENCE: Bombshell Testimony Reveals WHO Pushed for COVID Vaccine Passports Despite Knowing They Were a Scam.

IS IT NOW A CRIME TO BE A JEW IN LONDON? PRETTY MUCH. “At a ‘pro-Palestine’ march on Saturday, a Jewish man was threatened with arrest, supposedly because his mere presence was ‘antagonising’ the protesters and breaching the peace.”

I remember 20 years ago when people like Melanie Phillips were talking about “Londonistan” they were treated as extremist alarmists. Have you noticed that the “extremist alarmists” keep turning out to be right?

THE RESEMBLANCE IS UNCANNY: ALERT: Someone Mailed ‘Actual Potato’ to Brian Stelter’s House.

EVERYTHING IS GOING SWIMMINGLY: Niger’s Eviction of U.S. Commandos, Drones Derails America’s Counterterror Strategy: Washington eyes contingency plan to shift forces to defensive ring around West African countries hardest hit by al Qaeda, Islamic State.

The Biden Administration has allowed our enemies to steal a march on us in many parts of Africa.

Flashback: “But the truth is, when we’re engaged with the Chinese, we get an airport. And when we’re engaged with you guys, we get a lecture.”

HARVARD NEEDS A RON DESANTIS, BUT A MITT ROMNEY WOULD BE AN IMPROVEMENT OVER WHAT THEY’VE GOT NOW: Harvard needs a new president. I suggest Mitt Romney.

As the grandson of Holocaust survivors and president of the American Jewish Congress, I find it devastating that Harvard has failed to vigorously address the unchecked antisemitism on campus. Anyone who has studied there can attest that Harvard is not an antisemitic institution. I never for a moment felt oppressed or marginalized as a student on the Harvard campus. But to my dismay, recent years have seen an unconscionable spike in — and even worse, an administrative tolerance of — hate speech directed at Jews, including targeting Jewish students. The university’s response has thus far been ramshackle and unproductive, to put it mildly.

Harvard has problems, and Harvard is a problem.

BETTER LATE THAN NEVER: Brutally Honest Bill Maher: “Ron DeSantis Wasn’t Wrong.”

DON’T TRUST GOOGLE. GOOGLE IS ASSHOLE. The Latest (Weird) Google Evil.

WHEN THEY SHOW WHO THEY ARE, BELIEVE THEM: She Seems Nice: MA Transportation Secretary, ‘Basically, We’re Going After Everyone Who Has Money.’

CAN THEY BOTH LOSE, PLEASE? The Climatistas vs. The Hamasnik.

NOW OUT FROM ANDREW WAREHAM: The Pinchbeck Peer, Book 8: The Clever Man. I like this series.

OUT ON A LIMB: Opinion: EV Range Does Matter.

WHY DID IT HAVE TO BE SNAKES: Enormous snake in ancient India was longer than a school bus: ‘The past is full of giant snakes.’

NEW FRONTIERS IN LEFTIST PROJECTION: Hillary Clinton: ‘What Trump really wants’ is to ‘kill his opposition.’

A friend writes: “Between Hillary’s kill list remarks, Civil War, and bonus Biden cannibalism thing, that and the pro-terrorism, the American left is really turning into a death cult.”

Turning into?

NEWS I HOPE YOU CAN’T USE: Alcohol-induced blackouts may be linked to how a person drinks, not just how much.

SPACE: Constellation of Starlink satellites grows with latest SpaceX launch from Florida.

HEALTH NEWS: Gay, bisexual men infected during mpox outbreak faced stigma, shame.

THE NATIONAL LAWYERS’ GUILD CLAIMS A LOT: National Lawyers Guild stands by claim protesting at Berkeley dean’s house is free speech.

CONSEQUENCES: Ilhan Omar’s daughter charged for role in anti-Semitic Columbia protest. The kind her mom just suggested don’t exist.

HMM: Tennessee Volkswagen employees overwhelmingly vote to join United Auto Workers union. Probably not going to help VW’s faltering fortunes.

WELL, GOOD: Aspiring Maryland Trans Shooter Thwarted.

Andrea Ye was clearly a fan of Audrey Hale and referenced her in her writings. She had been researching instructions for bombmaking and fantasized about murdering elementary school students because she “might get tackled” if she shot up a high school. This sounds like a textbook definition of a monster if I’ve ever heard one.

Plenty of outlets picked up the news of the arrest, but there was one curious commonality among many of them. The majority of headlines I came across completely failed to mention the fact that she was trans. The BBC only described the aspiring shooter as a “teen.” The Independent similarly went with “teenager.” WTOP News in Washington described Ye as a “Montgomery County Student.” WHIO News in Ohio went with “Maryland Teen.”

Back in Montgomery County, officials didn’t seem to want to talk about the suspect’s trans identity either. Watch as County Executive Marc Elrich explodes when being asked why the trans angle is being covered up and why he is “burying the lede.”

They’re devoted to the narrative, under which only white males and conservatives can be demonized based on their identity.

WEIRD, THEY’RE ALSO REFUSING PROTECTION TO BIDEN’S OTHER OPPONENT, RFK, JR. Trump appears to be target in bill to strip Secret Service protection from convicted felons.

Trump — and RFK, Jr. — would be well-advised to rely on their own private security anyway, given the Secret Service’s record over the last couple of decades, and the general corruption and weaponization of the federal bureaucracy.

DOINGS IN THE DARK: Senate passes reauthorization of key US surveillance program after midnight deadline.

After its midnight deadline, the Senate voted early Saturday to reauthorize a key U.S. surveillance law after divisions over whether the FBI should be restricted from using the program to search for Americans’ data nearly forced the statute to lapse.

The legislation approved 60-34 with bipartisan support would extend for two years the program known as Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. It now goes to President Joe Biden’s desk to become law. White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan said Biden “will swiftly sign the bill.”

“In the nick of time, we are reauthorizing FISA right before it expires at midnight,” Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said when voting on final passage began 15 minutes before the deadline. “All day long, we persisted and we persisted in trying to reach a breakthrough and in the end, we have succeeded.”

I didn’t trust them to use this fairly when it passed originally, and I trust them much, much less now.

COLUMBIA: Columbia Students Call on President Shafik To Restore Order on Campus: ‘We do not feel safe walking to nor around campus.’

Related: Arab-Israeli Journalist Assaulted at Columbia University, Forced To Cancel Speech: ‘Instead of a lecture, I went to file a police complaint,’ Yoseph Haddad said.

Plus:

The Ivy League, the envy of the world, with students lining up to try to gain admission
Because who wouldn't want an "education" like this?

— Laura עם ישראל חי (@FinstenLaura) April 19, 2024

When people make threats like that, believe them, and act accordingly.

ALAN DERSHOWITZ: Universities like Columbia must end the double standard and stop tolerating campus antisemitism.

Columbia University’s president and other college administrators have stated that the chant “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free” is permissible political speech.

On an abstract level, they are correct.

It is also permissible for white supremacists to demand all blacks be sent back to Africa and all Muslims to Saudi Arabia.

The First Amendment protects homophobic, sexist and transphobic speech too.

But would any school permit such bigoted chants?

Imagine what would happen if a group of white-supremacist students demanded South Africa be returned to white apartheid control: “From the Atlantic to the Indian Ocean, South Africa should be free of BLACKS and returned to WHITE control!”

Would it take action against such racists?

Of course it would.

The racist diversity, equity and inclusion bureaucracy and its bigoted brother “intersectionality” would demand it, and the school would comply.

So the issue is not one of abstract free speech.

It is whether the school applies the same standard to Jews, blacks, gays and other minorities.

And, of course, it doesn’t. “Free speech” is just a slogan to it, not a commitment.