Biden's Horrendous Cannibalism Gaff (Really), US Hands $100M Base to Russia, Columbia Students Call for Hamas to Kill Jewish Classmates, (The Five for 04/23/24)
Plus, Starbucks union case head to the Supreme Court. Green Cards for Illegal Immigrants married to U.S. Citizens?
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Let’s dive into the news.
[one]
We just handed a $100 million military base in Niger to Russia. So you know, this week is going pretty great.
The United States will withdraw its soldiers from Niger as the West African nation is increasingly turning to Russia and away from Western powers.
The US Department of State agreed to pull out about 1,000 troops from the country that has been under military rule since July 2023, US media reported late on Friday.
US Deputy Secretary of State Kurt Campbell and Nigerien Prime Minister Ali Mahaman Lamine Zeine met on Friday, the reports said, with Washington committing to begin planning an “orderly and responsible” withdrawal of its troops from the country.
The US built a military base in Niger to combat armed groups that pledged allegiance to al-Qaeda and ISIL (ISIS) in the Sahel region, which also includes Burkina Faso and Mali.
The major airbase in Agadez, some 920km (572 miles) from the capital Niamey was used for manned and unmanned surveillance flights and other operations.
Known as Air Base 201, it was built at a cost of more than $100m. Since 2018, it has been used to target ISIL fighters and Jama’at Nusrat al-Islam wal Muslimeen (JNIM), an al-Qaeda affiliate.
While maintaining a line of communication with the military government in Niger, the US military had started preparing for the possibility of having to withdraw, with US General James Hecker saying last year that Washington is probing “several locations” elsewhere in West Africa to station its drones.
Nigerien state television reported that US officials would visit next week. There was no public announcement from the State Department on the withdrawal and officials said no timeline had yet been set.
So, Russia will move into an American military base, rent free…and the State Department will just put their hands over their ears and sing “la la la can’t hear you!” really loud.
And, given the lack of coverage of this story…it’s working.
[two]
One of the most prestigious universities in the U.S. is on the verge of a riot, has canceled in-person classes, and is rife with Antisemitism that borders on open violence.
Columbia University announced early Monday that it would hold classes remotely, a move that highlighted worsening friction at the school after a wave of protests on campus over the weekend.
The protests, which have included several moments when demonstrators have yelled antisemitic or threatening language at Jewish students and faculty, have drawn widespread attention from city and national officials and raised safety concerns for some Jewish students.
The actions have also spread to other campuses across the country, as students said they were walking out or setting up tent encampments in solidarity with Columbia students. The protesters at Columbia have taken over a lawn in the center of campus and erected tents draped with protests signs and Palestinian flags.
The university’s president, Nemat Shafik, said in a letter to the Columbia community, “We need a reset,” adding that she felt sadness about how the university’s bonds had been severely tested in recent weeks. She urged students who do not live on campus not to travel there.
Pro-Palestinian students, many of whom are Jewish, had erected dozens of tents on a campus lawn last week, and refused to leave until Columbia met their demands, including divesting from companies with ties to Israel. In an effort to quell the unrest, Dr. Shafik called in the police, who made more than 100 arrests.
This publication doesn’t tend to focus on minute-by-minute coverage of the Ukraine/Russia or Israel/Hamas wars…due to the fact that there just aren’t resources/time to do so. Whatever your thoughts are on current global events, threatening to attack Jewish students and professors just for being of a specific race/religion and being on campus, follows a thread through history that winds through Southern lynching and European gas chambers.
Whatever is going to happen here, feels like it’s on the level of 2020 social unrest in the wake of George Floyd. Only, instead of anger over policing and justice issues, the malcontent seem to be ready to go full Kristallnacht on this side of the Atlantic.
If you need me, I’ll be over here in Missouri, watching over the safety of my 1/2 Jewish wife and 1/4 Jewish daughters in a plae with a strong castle doctrine and non-existent gun laws.
UPDATE 1: As of 04/22, 47 students have been arrested.
UPDATE 2: A Jewish student at Yale was beaten with a Palestinian flag and stabbed in the eye by a group of five assailants with their faces covered on her way to her dorm.
UPDATE 3: Students are now encouraging Hamas to kill their Jewish classmates.
UPDATE 4: Wow, they’re really not hiding the ball here, are they?
[three]
The first rule of diplomacy…just don’t bring up cannibalism. Like, ever.
The 46th President of the United States was unable to abide by that rule.
The Associated Press reports:
Papua New Guinea’s Prime Minister James Marape accused Joe Biden of disparaging the South Pacific island nation by implying that an uncle of the U.S. president had been eaten by “cannibals” there during World War II.
Biden’s comments offended a key strategic ally as China moves to increase its influence in the region.
The president spoke at a Pennsylvania war memorial last week about his Army Air Corps aviator uncle Second Lt. Ambrose J. Finnegan Jr., whom he said was shot down over Papua New Guinea, which was a theater of heavy fighting.
“They never found the body because there used to be — there were a lot of cannibals for real in that part of New Guinea,” Biden said, referring to the country’s main island.
Marape said in a statement on Sunday that Biden “appeared to imply his uncle was eaten by cannibals.”
“President Biden’s remarks may have been a slip of the tongue; however, my country does not deserve to be labeled as such,” Marape said in a statement provided by his office to The Associated Press on Monday.
[face palm].
[four]
The Supreme Court will hear a major case around unionization this week.
NPR reports:
When Starbucks barista Florentino Escobar first heard that the Supreme Court had taken up a case involving him and six of his co-workers from Memphis, Tenn., he was shocked.
"I was like, 'Wait, the Supreme Court? Like we're talking the U.S. Supreme Court?'" he says.
Escobar is one of the Memphis 7, a group of Starbucks baristas and shift supervisors who were fired by the company in February 2022, days after they announced their intent to unionize.
Starbucks said the employees had violated multiple company policies, including allowing a television crew into the store after hours. The workers believe they were fired for trying to organize a union.
On Tuesday, the Supreme Court will hear arguments — not about whether Starbucks illegally interfered with the union drive, but about whether a lower court erred in ordering Starbucks to reinstate Escobar and his co-workers while their firings were being investigated.
That order and the decision to grant it are at the heart of the case that the nine justices will hear.
Their ruling could have far-reaching implications for labor organizing efforts across the U.S. and across industries, from auto to retail to academia and beyond.
While I’m moderately pro-labor-union…uhhh, yeah, letting the media into a retail store without permission is a pretty universal fire-able offense in the retail world.
Starbucks likely found a reason to fire these workers because they unionized, but it’s difficult to prove internal motivation in a court of law.
In related news, a UAW union just got voted in at a Volkswagon plant in Tennessee.
[five]
Finally, major changes could be coming to immigration policy.
Biden's Department of Homeland Security (DHS), headed by Alejandro Mayorkas, has reportedly been considering a plan to give legal status to any immigrants that are married to a US citizen and in the country illegally.
White House officials as well as some in the DHS have been considering how to avoid deportation of those who have been living in the US for a long time, per a report from the Wall Street Journal.
The proposal has gained steam in the Biden White House and at DHS, with policy makers looking over a range of possibilities to give work permits to those who are in the country illegally, per the outlet's reporting.
There are about 1.1 million illegal immigrants that are married to US citizens in the country. Non-citizens married to Americans can usually obtain a green card when they are wedded, however, many of those who entered the country illegally can be denied the immigration status because they had crossed the border illegally and were already guilty of a crime.
According to the WSJ, the policy most favored by the Biden administration at the moment is known as "parole in place." It is used on a small scale with veterans who are married to illegal immigrants on a case-by-case basis. The Biden administration has used something similar to admit refugees from Ukraine and Afghanistan in recent years.
Using the program would cut out a lot of regulations in the way of illegal immigrants married to US citizens to obtain a green card and legal status in the US. With the current number of illegal immigrant spouses in the US, people familiar with the process say around 700,000 would qualify for the change in legal status.
Per data from Harvard’s Kennedy School, more green cards and working immigrants do lower the wages of working class Americans.
Until the next one,
-sth