Nobel Prize Winner Richard Feynman casually discusses his early life, particularly his education inspired greatly by his father’s nurturing. Feynman’s intellectual curiosity was far from average; he commonly read from the encyclopedia and taught himself trigonometry long before it was offered in school.
Feynman speaks candidly of his involvement in the Manhattan Project, his dedication to the work, his joy when it was successful, and the emotional difficulties he faced afterward realizing the destruction it has caused.
In the final segment he discusses how his scientific approach to life affected his beliefs about why we are here, what our place is in this universe, and searching ultimately for science-based truth. He notes that doubt and uncertainty are better than believing in something that might be wrong. Ultimately, Feynman posits it appears we are here without any purpose and he is not frightened by that idea.
The RC-135S Cobra Ball is a rapidly deployable aircraft, which flies Joint Chiefs of Staff-directed missions of national priority to collect optical and electronic data on ballistic targets. This data is critical to arms treaty compliance verification, and development of U.S. strategic defense and theater missile defense concepts.
In other words, it is a spy plane.
So… with all the tension building with North Korea, @CivMilAir tracks aircraft and tweets out various activity, including alerts when the Cobra Ball is airborne. Today (9.25.17), an alert was issued that the Cobra Ball was airborne over Japan, indicating the U.S. is gathering data on any possible launch activity going on in North Korea right now.
Cobra Ball airborne – Ballistic Missile detection platform airborne. Last position logged in Japan
The RC-135S, equipped with a sophisticated array of optical and electronic sensors, recording media, and communications equipment, is a national asset uniquely suited to provide America’s leaders and defense community with vital information that cannot be obtained by any other source.
Crew composition includes a minimum of two pilots, one navigator, three electronic warfare officers, two airborne systems engineers, and two or more airborne mission specialists.
There are three RC-135S aircraft in the Air Force inventory all assigned to Air Combat Command and permanently based at Offutt Air Force Base, Nebraska. The Cobra Ball is operated by the 55th Wing, and manned with aircrews from the 45th Reconnaissance Squadron, and the 97th Intelligence Squadron, using various forward deployment locations worldwide.
General Characteristics
Primary Function: Reconnaissance
Unrefueled Range: 3,900 miles (6,500 kilometers)
Length: 135 feet (41.1 meters)
Height: 42 feet (12.8 meters)
Wingspan: 131 feet (39.9 meters)
Speed: 500+ miles per hour (Mach.66)
Flight Crew: (minimum) Two pilots, one navigator
Mission flight crew: (minimum) – minimum consisting of three electronic warfare officers, two airborne systems engineers, and two airborne mission specialists
“I’ll split the atom! I am the fifth dimension! I am the eighth wonder of the world!”—Gef, The Talking Mongoose
In 1931 news stories in and around the Isle of Man began to circulate of a fantastical talking creature. Alternately referred to as a Talking Weasel, a Talking Mongoose, and the Dalby Spook, he had apparently taken up residence in a farmhouse belonging to the Irving family in an area of the country known as Doarlish Cashen. For reference, the Isle of Man is located in the Irish Sea between the islands of Great Britain and Ireland and is under the rule of Great Britain itself.
The Irving family consisted of John and Margaret Irving, two grown children who had left the house, and a young daughter named Voirrey who was about 13 years old when news of the Talking Mongoose first broke (Voirrey was born in 1918). The family also had a collie sheep dog named Mona. The Irvings had settled into their 45-acre farmstead after Mr. Irving lost his career in sales, hoping to make a go of farming, but the land was difficult and the family had fallen upon hard times. In addition, Doarlish Cashen was isolated, with the nearest neighbor being about a mile away. Daughter Voirrey had dropped out of public schooling and was a loner, preferring her dog Mona to human contact.
Jim IrvingMargaret IrvingVoirrey IrvingMona
Eventually, Mr. Irving reported the creature progressed to making animal noises, such as the meow of a cat, and then when Mr. Irving made various animal sounds back to it, the animal would accurately imitate the sounds. This lead to Mr. Irving teaching the mongoose to repeat the name of the animal he was imitating, and from there the family began teaching the mongoose nursery rhymes and other forms of language. Before long, the mongoose was quite conversant.
The first news reports of the Talking Mongoose were printed in October of 1931. Interest began to be spread around to other tabloids in London and in areas closer geographically to the Isle of Man. In 1932, the Manchester Daily Dispatch covered the story by sending a reporter in person to investigate. The Dispatch’s unidentified reporter wrote the following:
“Had I heard a weasel speak? I do not know, but I do know that I have heard today a voice which I should never have imagined could issue from a human throat; that the people who claim it was the voice of the strange weasel seem sane, honest, and responsible folk and not likely to indulge in a difficult, long- drawn-out, and unprofitable practical joke to make themselves the talk of the world; and that others had had the same experience as myself.”
However, in a second article printed the next day, the journalist raised the possibility that the voice was actually originating from daughter Voirrey, speculating that she may have been the source of the talking weasel through the art of ventriloquism. The reporter wrote: “Yesterday I heard several spoken sentences and was told that these noises were made by the ‘man weasel’. The conversation was between the ‘weasel-voice’ and Mrs. Irving, who was unseen to me in another room, while the little girl sat motionless in a chair at the table. I could see her reflection, although not very clearly, in a mirror on the other side of the room. She had her fingers to her lips. I kept my eyes on the face in the glass. The lips did not move, so far as I could see, but they were partly hidden by her fingers. When I edged my way into the room, the voice ceased. The little girl continued to sit motionless, without taking any notice of us. She was sucking a piece of string, I now saw.”
Article appearing in Manchester Dispatch
===============
The Irving family found the mongoose to be a nuisance at first as he was disrupting their sleep habits. Eventually, they began to accept him as a member of the household, at first naming him Jack, and later changing his name to Gef (pronounced Jeff).
Gef frequently irritated the family with incessant laughter, and Mr. Irving described it as follows: “Sometimes it resembles the tittering laugh of a precocious or mischievous child; at other times I would say it was the chuckling laugh of an aged person, and another distinct type is one which I would say was satanic laughter, or the laughter of a maniac. We all have a most intense dislike to this last laughter, as it is very trying. But, fortunately, we do not get this kind very often.”
Harry Price, Director of the National Laboratory of Psychical Research and already a famed paranormal investigator, received a letter in 1932 from the Irving’s neighbor saying he should come to Doarish Cashen to investigate this phenomenon. Price followed up with a letter of his own written directly to Irving inquiring about the situation and Mr. Irving answered promptly.
Harry Price by William Hope, 1922.
Irving wrote: “The animal in question has been seen by myself and daughter of 14 [Voirrey], in one of the two bedrooms of my house, on several occasions in the month of October last. My daughter has on two occasions in January 1932 seen its tail only, in the small back kitchen, in a hole in the wall. My wife has seen it on one occasion only in October. The colour is yellow, not too pronounced, after the ferret. The tail is long and bushy, and tinged with brown. In size, it is about the length of a three-parts grown rat in the body, without the tail. It can, and does, pass through a hole of about 1½ inches diameter. I, personally, am strongly inclined to the view that it is a hybrid between a stoat and a ferret. The bushy tail is not that of a stoat, and the size certainly half that of the ferrets I have examined. . . . My daughter says the face is all yellow, and the shape is more that of a hedgehog, but flattened at the snout, after the fashion of the domestic pig.”
Irving continued with an account of the speaking abilities of Gef: “Now as regards its speaking ability, it did not possess this power until the first week in November last; but now converses, incredible as it is, as rationally as most human beings.” Irving added, “It announces its presence by calling either myself or my wife by our Christian names. . . . It apparently can see in the dark and describe the movements of my hand. Its hearing powers are phenomenal. It is no use whispering: it detects a whisper 15 to 20 feet away, tells you that you are whispering, and repeats exactly what one has said.”
Price’s interest was piqued, but since he was already engaged in another investigation, he decided to send a representative of the National Laboratory’s Council by the name of Captain Macdonald in February of 1932. Macdonald’s report to Price showed the evidence of supernatural events to be very slim. He noted that “talking” done by Gef only occurred when Voirrey was absent from the room and that the animal said he would only speak if Voirrey were gifted with a camera or a gramophone. There was also an occasional object thrown into the room as well as “a little stream of water running from a small hole in the wall, which Mr. Irving said was the animal performing its natural functions.”
After Macdonald’s investigation in 1932, Irving continued to write to him faithfully, carefully documenting the activities of Gef in great detail. All letters were kept at the National Laboratory of Psychical Research, which was renamed the University of London Council for Psychical Investigation in 1934.
During the period between 1932 and 1935, Irving relayed the following new revelations to Macdonald.
Gef’s physical characteristics
Gef said he was an Indian mongoose born June 7, 1852 in Dehli and had been shot at by natives. (The mongoose had been introduced into the Doarlish Cashen area about 20 years prior to help control the rabbit population, so this was plausible.)
Gef started to allow the family to see him more, and “they discovered that his front feet resembled a human hand, with three or four fingers and a thumb, which gripped Mr. Irving’s fingers as in a vice. Mrs. Irving, being bolder, stroked his head and back and felt his teeth.”
Later, they examined his feet more carefully through prints he left around the house. “By Christmas 1932 Mr. Irving had discovered that the forefeet of Gef were much larger than the hind feet. Not only were they larger, but they had the appearance of human hands, with extensile fingers. He gathered these facts from impressions in the dust which the animal made during his nocturnal rambles about the house. Gef admitted that he had three long fingers and a thumb, and said they were ‘as large as a big doll’s hands’.”
The Irvings were able to make a cast of the paw prints which were presented to Price in 1935.
Gef’s Paw Prints
Gef’s special capabilities
Gef knew a few words of various languages, including Russian, Hindustani, Spanish, Welsh, Hebrew, and Flemish, but was most comfortable speaking in English or the Manx dialect. He even may have known a little sign language.
Gef only learned to speak as a result of the Irving’s lesson. “For years, I understood all that people said, but I could not speak until you taught me.”
Gef was able to read, and would comment on what the family was reading as evidence. He was also able to do simple mental math.
Gef could perform magic tricks, such as guessing whether a penny was heads up or down from a distance.
Gef could transform into a cat.
Gef’s likes and dislikes
Gef preferred human food, and especially favored chocolate, bananas, potato pie, biscuits, lean bacon and sausages.
Gef liked to hunt and kill rabbits for the family and then tell them where the rabbit was so they could go retrieve it.
Gef liked to sing and dance.
Gef would throw small objects or spit at visitors he did not like.
Gef would take little trips into town and then would come back and tell the family of his adventures.
Gef enjoyed living with the Irvings: “This is my home. It suits me,” although he did complain he had been to nicer homes.
Gef’s best quotes
To Mrs. Irving:
“Yes, Maggie the witch woman, the Zulu woman, the Honolulu woman!”
“Hey, Maggie, look at the pious old atheist reading the Bible, and he’ll be swearing in a minute!” referring to Mr. Irving reading the Bible.
When Mrs. Irving called out: “You know, Gef, you are no animal!” Gef replied, “Of course I am not! I am the Holy Ghost!”
“I did not intend you to see me. Out of friends for seeing me!”
To Mr. Irving:
“You’re looking! Stop looking! Turn your head, you bastard! I cannot stand your eyes!”
“You are as thick in the head as a lump of kauri!”
“I’m not friends with you, Jim!”
“Hey, Jim, I’ve got joint evil in my tail.”
After a screaming episode, Gef told Mr. Irving, “I did it for devilment!”
To the household in general:
“I am a ghost in the form of a weasel, and I will haunt you!”
“I am an earthbound spirit.”
“I am not a spirit. I am a little extra, extra clever mongoose.”
“If I were a spirit, I could not kill rabbits.”
“I am a ghost in the form of a weasel, and I shall haunt you with weird noises and clanking chains.”
“I know who I am but I shan’t tell you. I am a freak. I have hands and I have feet, and if you saw me you’d faint, you’d be petrified, mummified, turned into stone or a pillar of salt.”
“I’ll split the atom! I am the fifth dimension! I am the eighth wonder of the world!”
“I am not evil. I could be if I wanted. You don’t know what damage or harm I could do if I were roused. I could kill you all, but I won’t.”
“No damned fear; you’ll put me in a bottle!”
“He’s damned well not going to get to know my inferior complex!”
“To Hell, to the Land of Mist,” when asked where he would go when he died.
“If you are kind to me, I will bring you good luck. If you are not kind, I shall kill all your poultry. I can get them wherever you put them!”
“I have three attractions. I follow Voirrey, Mam gives me food, and Jim answers my questions.”
“If you knew what I know, you’d know a hell of a lot!”
Of Harry Price or anyone he considered to be a doubter:
“The two spook men!”
“He’s got his doubting cap on!”
“I like Captain Macdonald, but not Harry Price. He’s the man who puts the kybosh on the spirits!”
“I’ll go to his house and smash the windows with my fist, and those I cannot reach with my hands I’ll break with a picture-pole!”
“Write and tell Captain Macdonald I said so and I’ll go and haunt him.”
=========
The Irving Farm with Jim and Voirrey at front door
Gef’s hair samples
Price noted in his case study, “At the request of Mrs. Irving, the animal pulled some fur off his back, some off his tail, and a few dark hairs from the end of his tail. This was done during the night, and Gef placed the ‘exhibits’ in a bowl in the living-room. Then the mongoose called out: ‘Look in the ornament on the mantelshelf and you will see something frail.’
Mrs. Irving looked, and found the fur. This was sent to Captain Macdonald, who asked Mr. Price to identify it. Mr. Price sent the hair to Professor Julian Huxley, who handed it to Mr. F. Martin Duncan, F.Z.S., the authority on hair and fur, for identification.”
In a report to Price, Mr. Duncan sent the following: “I have carefully examined them microscopically and compared them with hairs of known origin in my collection. As a result, I can very definitely state that the specimen hairs never grew upon a mongoose, nor are they those of a rat, rabbit, hare, squirrel, or other rodent, or from a sheep, goat, or cow. I am inclined to think that these hairs have probably been taken from a longish-haired dog or dogs. One point that might be of interest, though trivial at first sight: I could not detect in the hand a single hair showing the root-bulb, which rather points to their having been cut off their animal owner.”
Price was sent a second hair sample: “Early in May 1935 Gef pulled some more fur out of his back, and from the tip of his tail…. Gef said he pulled it out of his eyebrow, and: ‘Oh, God! it did hurt!’ All the new specimens of fur, etc., were sent to Mr. Martin Duncan for identification. His report was that they came from a dog. He said: ‘The so-called eyebrow is obviously one of the vibrisae,’ i.e. the coarse hairs to be found about the mouth of mammals (e.g. the ‘whiskers’ of a cat or dog).’”
In the summer of 1935 Harry Price and his colleague R.S. Lambert made a personal visit to the farmstead. While there, Gef refused to appear or speak. Price did note that the heavily paneled double walls throughout the house left a three inch gap which caused sound to carry in strange ways. He was also able to take a look at what the Irvings called Gef’s Sanctum, an area in Voirrey’s room toward the ceiling where he could hang out and bounce his favorite ball. Gef immediately became active again after Price and Lambert left, and Mr. Irving sent an artist’s rendering of Gef based on descriptions the family gave him.
Rendering of Gef by George Scott
While Price was never able to prove that Gef didn’t exist, his accounts of the investigation are clearly in favor of Gef being a hoax by the Irving family. What was never clear to this day is the why. The Irving’s never seemed to profit financially from the Gef story, and it was never completely understood if the three worked in concert with one another, or if Jim really believed in the existence of Gef. Once Voirrey moved away from the home, the Gef visitations ceased for good.
In 1946, the new owner of the farm claimed to have trapped and killed Gef and a story ran in the paper with a photo. However, the animal appeared to have been too large to fit Gef’s carefully document description.
Clipping claiming Gef had been killed.
Resources
Confessions of a Ghost Hunter, Harry Price, 1936.
The Haunting of Cashen’s Gap: A Modern ‘Miracle’ Investigated, Harry Price and R.S. Lambert, 1936.
The March for Free Speech through UC Berkeley with Milo Yiannopoulos, Pamela Geller, Mike Cernovich, and more speakers will take place this Sunday at 12:00pm (NOON).
COUNTER-EVENT
Sunsara Taylor, a writer for Revcom.us and one of the co-initiators of Refuse Fascism, has called on everyone to stand up against Milo at Sproul at 10 am to preempt Milo’s plans.
“Refuse Fascism along with other groups is planning to be out at Sproul on Sunday to protest and confront the Milo-led fascists, and understand full well that this battle is far from over, and that it underscores the urgency of driving this whole fascist regime from power.” Courtesy Refuse Fascism.org
UC Berkeley Police Department said in an alert that there is still a possibility for large crowds and demonstrations on and near campus Sept. 24.
The list of prohibited items is as follows:
No backpacks or bags
Weapons (firearms/simulated firearms)
Ammunition
Weapons (dirks/daggers /ice picks)
Improvised Weapons as determined by Law Enforcement Officers
Tasers /stun guns or similar devices
Mace/pepper spray/bear spray/wasp spray
Hard plastic, metal, or glass bottles and jars (Nalgene, bike water bottles, etc.)
Wearing masks of any kind
Gas masks
Helmets
Animals other than working service animals
No object/sign larger than 30” X 30” (objects/signs will only be allowed if made of foam core, cardboard or paper)
Shields
Balls or other projectiles
Hard or frozen fruit/vegetables
Sticks /selfie sticks/poles/clubs/pipes (wood, plastic or metal)
Chains with padlocks
Baseball bats
Fireworks
Explosive devices
Incendiary devices
Aerosols/pressurized cans
Batteries
Hard coolers
Umbrellas
Artificial noise making devices
Monos/tripods
Laser pointers
Tobacco products (including e-cigarettes)
Skateboards/scooters/bicycles
Bicycle U-locks
Balloons
Illegal drugs
BBQ Grills of any kind (charcoal, propane, etc.)
Structures, canopies or pop-up tents
Wagons or carts that can be pulled
Drones and other unmanned aircraft systems
Packages
Liquid (other than water in factory-sealed, clear plastic bottles
The National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) was secretly created on September 6, 1961 in response to the Soviet launch of Sputnik with the purpose of overseeing “all satellite and overflight reconnaissance projects whether overt or covert.” The existence of the organization is no longer classified today but continues to work to foster “Innovative Overhead Intelligence Systems for National Security.”
Atlas V to Launch NROL-42
The launch of the Atlas V Rocket was televised live via YouTube and on the United Alliance Website on 9.23.17. The intelligence gathering mission appears to be a regularly scheduled flight and is the sixth launch to occur in 2017.
Launch Location: Space Launch Complex 3, Vandenberg Air Force Base, California
Launch Notes: This launch will be ULA’s sixth of 2017 and 121st overall. NROL-42 will be the 25th mission that ULA has launched for the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) since the company was founded in 2006. This mission will mark the 73rd Atlas V launch since its inaugural launch on Aug. 21 2002.
————————–
The National Reconnaissance Office’s (NRO) systems are critical to National Security, U.S. policy makers, and war fighters. These systems provide the foundation for global situational awareness, and address the nation’s toughest intelligence challenges. Frequently, NRO systems are the only collectors able to access critical areas of interest, and data from overhead sensors provides unique information and perspectives not available from other sources.
The NRO’s key customers and mission partners include: policy makers, the Armed Services, the Intelligence Community, Departments of State, Justice and Treasury, and civil agencies. All of them depend on the unique capabilities NRO systems provide:
Monitoring the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction
Tracking international terrorists, drug traffickers, and criminal organizations
Developing highly accurate military targeting data and bomb damage assessments
Supporting international peacekeeping and humanitarian relief operations
Assessing the impact of natural disasters, such as earthquakes, tsunamis, floods, and fires.
Together with other Defense Department satellites, the NRO systems play a crucial role in providing global communications, precision navigation, early warning of missile launches and potential military aggression, signals intelligence, and near real-time imagery to U.S. forces to support the war on terrorism and other continuing operations.
NRO satellites also support civil customers in response to disaster relief and environmental research. Scientists created a global environment database using NRO imagery to help predict climate change, assess crop production, map habitats of endangered species, track oil spills, and study wetlands. NRO data also forms the basis for products that help depict and assess the devastation in areas affected by natural disasters.
The NRO’s innovation also inspired technology in everyday life with contributions to medical imaging, global communications, high-definition television, cellular phones, the global positioning system (GPS), and much more.
With its vigilance from above, the NRO gives America’s policymakers, intelligence analysts, warfighters and homeland security specialists the critical information they need to keep America safe, secure, and free.
By Dana W. White | Chief Spokeswoman, U.S. Department of Defense | September 23, 2017
Earlier today, U.S. Air Force B-1B Lancer bombers from Guam, along with U.S. Air Force F-15C Eagle fighter escorts from Okinawa, Japan, flew in international airspace over waters east of North Korea.
This is the farthest north of the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) any U.S. fighter or bomber aircraft have flown off North Korea’s coast in the 21st century, underscoring the seriousness with which we take the DPRK’s reckless behavior.
This mission is a demonstration of U.S. resolve and a clear message that the President has many military options to defeat any threat. North Korea’s weapons program is a grave threat to the Asia-Pacific region and the entire international community. We are prepared to use the full range of military capabilities to defend the U.S. homeland and our allies.
A U.S. Air Force B-1B Lancer, assigned to the 37th Expeditionary Bomb Squadron, deployed from Ellsworth Air Force Base, South Dakota, prepares to take off from Andersen AFB, Guam, Sept. 23, 2017. This mission was flown as part of the continuing demonstration of the ironclad U.S. commitment to the defense of its homeland and in support of its partners and allies. (Photo by Staff Sgt. Joshua Smoot)
A U.S. Air Force F-15C Eagle takes off from the Kadena runway Sept. 23, 2017, at Kadena Air Base, Japan. Kadena-based F-15s escorted U.S. Air Force B-1B Lancer bombers executing a mission east of North Korea, flown to demonstrate the ironclad U.S. commitment to the defense of its homeland and in support of its partners and allies. (Photo by Senior Airman Quay Drawdy)
A U.S. Air Force B-1B Lancer, assigned to the 37th Expeditionary Bomb Squadron, deployed from Ellsworth Air Force Base, South Dakota, receives fuel from a U.S. Air Force KC-135 Stratotanker Sep. 23, 2017. This mission was flown as part of the continuing demonstration of the ironclad U.S. commitment to the defense of its homeland and in support of its allies and partners. (Photo by Tech. Sgt. Richard P. Ebensberger)
A U.S. Air Force B-1B Lancer, assigned to the 37th Expeditionary Bomb Squadron, deployed from Ellsworth Air Force Base, South Dakota, receives fuel from a U.S. Air Force KC-135 Stratotanker Sep. 23, 2017. This mission was flown as part of the continuing demonstration of the ironclad U.S. commitment to the defense of its homeland and in support of its allies and partners. (Photo by Airman 1st Class Christopher Quail)
U.S. Air Force B-1B Lancers, assigned to the 37th Expeditionary Bomb Squadron, deployed from Ellsworth Air Force Base, South Dakota, take off from Andersen AFB, Guam, Sept. 23, 2017. U.S. Air Force aircraft were flying within international norms and laws. (Photo by Staff Sgt. Joshua Smoot)
A U.S. Air Force F-15C Eagle takes off from the Kadena runway Sept. 23, 2017, at Kadena Air Base, Japan. Kadena-based F-15s escorted U.S. Air Force B-1B Lancer bombers executing a mission east of North Korea, flown to demonstrate the ironclad U.S. commitment to the defense of its homeland and in support of its partners and allies. (Photo by Senior Airman Quay Drawdy)
Although original plans for a 4-day Free Speech Week in Berkeley hosted by Milo Yiannapoulos have been tabled, a Free Speech event is still planned for Sunday, September 24, 2017 at UC Berkeley’s Sproul Plaza at noon.
Flanked by conservatives Mike Cernovich and Pamela Geller, who promise to attend the rally, as well as Lauren Southern and others.
Below is his full press release regarding the event and Milo’s official statement:
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
MILO YIANNOPOULOS STATEMENT ON FREE SPEECH WEEK
9/23/2017
We are calling an emergency press conference today earlier than scheduled for two reasons.
First, I’m sorry to say that the student group hosting Free Speech Week has withdrawn its sponsorship. We were not given advance notice of this and I’m disappointed to have been completely blindsided by their letter, a copy of which is available on my Facebook and YouTube.
I do understand their fears and they are right on all counts when they say UC Berkeley is threatening their educational futures. But we cannot host an official university event without a student sponsor.
So: we will be hosting an unofficial university event. My security team confirmed to me this morning that the police department will be out in force on Sproul Plaza tomorrow at noon. We will not be deterred. We will proceed no matter what, in whatever format we can, to realise the promise of Free Speech Week and send a message that conservatives will not be bowed by pressure from academics, the media or anyone else.
UC Berkeley hypocritically named this academic year its “Year of Free Speech”, which is something you’d only do if you had a really serious PR problem. That PR problem will be worse, not better, today, and Berkeley has only itself to blame.
The administration has done everything in its power to crush its own students’ aspirations. UC Berkeley may have a deservedly poor reputation for free speech, and its students will graduate knowing less than when they came in as freshmen, but you have to give the school credit: they are masters of bureaucratic dirty dealing.
Under the terms currently offered to us by the university, Berkeley Free Speech Week could be more safely held in a London no-go zone or in a Paris Shariah-compliant area. It would be safer to stand in a Stockholm ghetto and blame Muslims for the rape epidemic in Sweden than to embrace free speech in Berkeley, a town that considers ANTIFA its unofficial police force. Nonetheless, we will be continuing with our plans, albeit in modified form.
I had hoped to use this press conference to discuss the speakers and events planned for Berkeley Free Speech Week. And I will. But that has become a little more complicated as of late last night. The first thing to tell you is that there will indeed be speeches and rallies this week, beginning tomorrow on the UC Berkeley campus. But before I continue, I’d like to reaf a statement from Mike Wright of the Berkeley Patriot.
The Berkeley Patriot, a UC Berkeley student organization had proposed hosting a “free speech” week on the campus later this month. Contrary to their assurances and to their statements to the media, the UC Berkeley administration has done everything in its bureaucratic powers to obstruct and prevent the Free Speech Week event from occurring.
Despite depositing tens of thousands of dollars in reservation monies, submitting to endless forms and duplicate requests for information, and being subjected to overt pressure to discontinue the event, the students of the Berkeley Patriot persevered.
However, after the Berkeley Patriot filed a complaint with the US Department of Justice earlier this week, the UC Berkeley administration began an extensive, co-ordinated campaign of harassment and retaliation against our members. Baseless and unconstitutional charges of “hate speech” and other odious campus rules violations have been leveled against our members, coupled with threats to conduct “investigations.” The adminstration’s threats are reminiscent of the Salem Witch Trials.
Several members of the Berkeley Patriot are concerned that there will be consequences up to and including expulsion from the university as retaliation for our sponsorship of Free Speech Week. These threats to the academic freedom and futures of our members are too much to bear. Accordingly, we must regretfully withdraw our sponsorship.
Let there be no mistake. We would not be cancelling the event but for the wrongful, illegal, and retaliatory action by the UC Berkeley administration-actions that escalated after we filed our complaint with the Justice Department. Milo Yiannopoulos and his team at Milo, Inc did everything they could to make Free Speech Week a success, including underwriting the event. They have already spent over $100,000 on security fees and other costs.
Retaliation by government officials against persons who make complaints of corruption or other government misconduct can result in criminal or civil liability. Because of the retaliatory actions by the UC Berkeley administration, the Berkeley Patriot, through its legal counsel, is in the process of filing an additional complaint with the US Department of Justice for retaliation. We will release a copy of the complaint when it is sent to the appropriate federal agencies.
We apologize to the many people who have travelled in to California for this event. We hope you understand that UC Berkeley has placed us in an impossible position from which there is no happy resolution.
So, UC Berkeley this week engineered a witch hunt in the form of a formal police investigation against its own students. It’s almost impossible to believe. We learned it in an email from Chancellor Christ. This is the same Chancellor Christ who previously declared that Berkeley is the home of free speech. But as soon as a couple of Republican students put up posters that offended her, she called for a police investigation into hate crimes.
Since when did putting up offensive posters become a crime in America? It’s the foulest hypocrisy imaginable and it reveals what’s really going on. Berkeley has become a police state that sticks the cops on students who say things that the administration doesn’t like.
What’s more, various officials from the university have privately threatened these students’ academic careers, their hopes and their futures. I cannot ask the Berkeley Patriot to risk their entire futures and nor should anyone else.
With the loss of our student sponsor and absent a sensible agreement from UC Berkeley itself about indoor venues, I can confirm today that we will be rescheduling Ann Coulter and Steven Bannon for later in the academic year.
But to repeat, tomorrow’s rally will proceed.
UC Berkeley knew that our headline speakers had to be indoors for security reasons. In fact, their security advisors reached the same conclusion as ours — for speakers like Ann Coulter, who had already experienced Berkeley’s trademark hostility, there was no way an outdoor venue could be made safe. To say nothing of the former chief strategist to the President, Steve Bannon. Or Uncle Steve as he’s known now to the conservative movement.
Berkeley thus made it their mission to shut down the arrangements the Berkeley Patriot made for speaking halls, and forced Berkeley Free Speech Week to be an outside-only event.
To ensure the venues were lost, they wrote contracts with the Berkeley Patriot that lacked a force majeure clause. This means that the six figure security fees they were demanding were non-refundable in the event that Berkeley itself cancelled the event. Why would the students sign a contract without a force majeure clause, when the university has proven time and time again it is happy for Antifa and friends to shut down events as they stand by watching?
Then the administration dodged questions on that very clear and simple point for days on end. A fully annotated email history is available on my Facebook and Instagram and to the people in this room today for those who’d like more granular detail.
While this was going on, UC Berkeley engaged in a co-ordinated and massive misinformation campaign with the willing participation of the press, including some of the journalists in this room, who credulously reported whatever the university told them.
Two narratives have sprung up as a result. The first is that the Berkeley Patriots were hopelessly disorganized. This is largely untrue, though of course I am disappointed by their actions today.
The second is that I somehow knowingly allowed fans to spend money travelling to Berkeley though I suspected the event would be cancelled. This is equally false.
To those fans who travelled long distances and booked hotels to be here, I am sorry that UC Berkeley screwed you like they did. They screwed all of us. I’m out $100,000 on this event with no realistic prospect of ever seeing that money again.
For those of you in the press who think this was all a charade for attention, grow up. There are a lot cheaper ways to make headlines than wiring $65,000 to UC Berkeley. To say nothing of the staff time and other expenses we have already incurred. I would not have asked Mike, a friend of mine, to miss time with his children for a publicity stunt. And I wouldn’t have wired Berkeley tens of thousands of dollars either.
But even though I lay the blame for this event squarely at the feet of UC Berkeley administrators, I am going to make it right for the people who travelled in. Please forward your flight tickets, train receipts and hotel reservations to berkeley@milo-inc.com. We have a huge surprise planned for you tomorrow.
I deeply appreciate the efforts freedom-loving Americans have gone to in order to support this event and I am personally grateful to the fans who came in from all four corners of the earth. I want you to know that I share your frustration with the administration and with the media, and that I will take care of you. Berkeley did this to you, but I’m going to fix it.
I’m also announcing today that I am endowing conservative students at Berkeley with $10,000 so that they can continue the good work of holding UC Berkeley’s feet to the fire. This endowment will be called the Mario Savio Free Speech Fund and it is intended to mitigate the damage done to the Berkeley Patriot and conservatives on campus by UC Berkeley’s bureaucratic machinations.
I have with me here today the Mario Savio Award for Free Speech, which I intended to give Ann Coulter on the final night of Free Speech Week. I considered smashing it on the steps on Sproul Plaza to declare that free speech at Berkeley is dead, but instead I will take it home and keep it in my closet until the day we successfully host Ann on Berkeley’s campus. I’m optimistic that this will be very soon.
UC Berkeley has decided to transition from being the birthplace of the Free Speech Movement to the funeral pyre of free speech. But I will not allow them to win. They may have forced us to reschedule some of our headliners. They may have chased away most of our warm-up acts with fear, uncertainty and doubt. But we will not be deterred.
In my capacity as a private person I will give a speech every day from Sunday to Wednesday on the steps of Sproul Plaza and speak at length on the subjects Free Speech Week was advertised to cover.
Although without student sponsorship we can no longer offer our speakers the police protection that would have come with an officially registered event at UC Berkeley, we nevertheless invite the Berkeley PD to make peaceable assembly in Sproul Plaza safe in the coming week, so that I, and anyone else who would like to speak in his or her capacity as a private citizen, can exercise our Constitutional rights without bodily harm. I will be joined tomorrow on the Berkeley campus by Mike Cernovich, Lauren Southern, Sabo, Ariana Rowlands, Lisa de Pasquale and Pamela Geller.
The reason we’ve gone to all this trouble is simple but important. Free speech is under threat like never before on college campuses. A recent survey from the Brookings Institute paints an even scarier picture: 1 in 5 students are fine with violence as a response to unpopular or controversial speech. This is the devastating legacy of three decades of unchallenged progressivism on American college campuses.
Berkeley is the home of the Free Speech Movement, supposedly. But Berkeley opposed free speech from the Left in the 60s just as it opposes it from the Right today. Both positions are wrongheaded and dangerous. Although the political dynamics of free speech have changed — now it’s conservatives fighting the liberal establishment for the right to express themselves — one thing remains constant from the 1960s to today, and that is UC Berkeley’s unwavering hostility to free expression.
Although I’m disappointed by Chancellor Christ’s and Janet Napolitano’s statements about me and about our speakers, I recognize and appreciate their commitment, however perfunctory, to the First Amendment in their commitment of police resources to Free Speech Week. I respect their difference of opinion, but I think they are deeply misguided about the sort of people we are.
I invite the Chancellor and I invite Janet Napolitano to debate me on free speech. Perhaps Sam Harris or Dave Rubin could moderate, on the Berkeley campus of course. America has been waiting for a clash of worldviews on this most critical of subjects. How about we make it happen?
Planning Free Speech Week has been very expensive and very complicated. We have been asked to spend hundreds of thousands on an event at Berkeley while Berkeley refuses to deal with us directly, insisting on working though students because it knows it can hoodwink, manipulate, bully and intimidate them.
But we soldier on knowing we are on the right side of history, knowing that free speech has to be fought for anew in every generation, knowing that in the end, common sense will prevail and freedom will win. There is no appetite in America for the destruction or erosion of the First Amendment. But only a few people each generation bother to stand up for the rights of everyone else.
The good news is that there are some happy warriors left. The even better news is that Free Speech Week is just the opening salvo in a seven-month long assault on leftist intolerance in American universities. If you thought this was the end of something, sorry, think again. I’m going to be doing this for another 30 years.
We will go through this madness, and we will do it again and again and again, until conservative speakers are given the same rights and privileges as their left-wing counterparts at every college in the country. I will not rest until every student in America feels able to share their politics openly and proudly without fear of being marked down on essays, laughed at in the classroom or punished for inviting their speaker of choice.
Along those lines, Ariana Rowlands, chair emeritus of the College Republicans at UC Irvine, has a plan.
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Due to the constant and increasing suppression of conservative rights by college administrators, as made even only more apparent by UC Berkeley’s cowardly handling of Free Speech Week, I would like to propose the creation of a California College Republicans Legal Defense Team. This team of lawyers would be for the purpose of providing legal assistance to College Republican chapters in the state and is something we do not currently have at our disposal. Our current resources have been organizations like FIRE, Harmeet Dhillon Law Firm, Shawn Steel Law Firm, and Freedom X. Under the current model California College Republicans has not played an essential role in connecting College Republican chapters with legal support, and I feel this has led to the lack in confidence on the part of many college students who end up being too scared to stand up and take action. The purpose of the team would be as follows:
1. To connect chartered College Republican chapters with free legal assistance should they need it.
2. To deter college administrations and instructors from suppressing College Republican chapters
3. To provide assurance to College Republicans that they will be protected and that the organization they charter under will provide that.
It is my hope that announcing my intention to create a California College Republicans Legal Defense Team at this press conference today will not only create an immediate deterrence to prevent college administrations and professors from targeting conservative students and groups, but that it will also gain national attention and hopefully lead other states and maybe the national level to do the same. Now’s the time to show the left we’re going to fight back, and we’re not going to take the suppression of our rights any more.
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UC Berkeley is not the end. It is just the beginning. My new international TROLL ACADEMY tour starts in a month, with dates throughout the US, UK. Germany and Australia.
I’m happy to exclusively reveal today the first four dates of the tour.
Wednesday October 25 I’ll be speaking at Cal State Bakersfield — I’m happy to at last confirm that one, and thank you to the students there who have been working so hard to make it happen
On Friday and Saturday October 27 and 28 I’ll be at the Phoenix Convention Center in front of an audience of 2,000. I understand Ted Cruz and Allan West pulled out when he heard I was headlining the first — you’re welcome, Republicans.)
Sunday October 29 we’re at San Diego State University
And then Tuesday October 31, I’m excited to be at Cal State Fullerton.
To the student groups considering hosting a Troll Academy event, you can be rest assured that we will devote the time and assets needed to help you deal with hostile schools. Most schools are neither as capable nor as black-hearted as Berkeley when it comes to stopping free speech on their campus, and we will assist you every step of the way.
To find the current schedule and more information about the Troll Academy tour, visit trollacademy.org.
Instead of letting the inmates run the asylum, many universities welcome speakers some students find controversial. Among those who still try dirty tricks to keep speakers like me off campus, the vast majority do not possess the resources, clout, and pure malevolent evil of UC Berkeley, so their efforts to keep me off campus will be unsuccessful.
No matter how successful the Troll Academy tour is, it would not be complete if we granted Berkeley a victory in preventing me from speaking in an indoor venue properly policed and ticketed, just as any other speaker would be. Therefore, I am happy to announce that UC Berkeley will be part of the Troll Academy tour. I will return to Berkeley, at the invitation of the Berkeley Patriot, in April 2018.
The administration of UC Berkeley would be well served by not repeating their actions from Free Speech Week with my next appearance on campus. It will not work forever, and they can rest assured that I am just as obstinate and determined as they are. So are Berkeley’s Republican and libertarian students.
Finally, I have some more good news. One of the many things I’ve been able to do with the $12 million investment I received earlier this year is establish myself as America’s most exciting new publisher of dangerous books. My new publishing house, Dangerous Books, established with $3 million investment this year, is today announcing its second title, after my own New York Times bestselling memoir.
The book is called Fatwa: Hunted in America, and to tell you about it, here is the author, Pamela Geller.
Update2/2: #Seismic actvy in non-active zone of interest 2#CTBT: All 3 Events related 2geological stress from Sept3 Man-made main blast! pic.twitter.com/TWTSlOg8Kh
Hearing the statement of the chairman of the DPRK State Affairs Commission, we agricultural workers are extremely surprised by, rather than angry about, the rhetoric of the president of the “only superpower in the world”. We think that he should be sent to a psychiatric hospital.
If Supreme Leader Kim Jong Un gives an order, we will fork Trump on to a compost heap in our farm so that he, who is ignorant of the DPRK which has emerged as a world-class nuclear power, would no longer be ridiculed by others.
Kim Myong Chol, a farmer at the Posan Cooperative Farm in Kangso District, Nampho
