Cross and Gen Z
It’s day 8 of the Trump trial, the fourth day of testimony. Before entering the courtroom this morning Trump whined to the press using his 750 word vocabulary (copy and paste). He wished Melania a happy birthday. She hasn’t been in court to support him so his birthday wish will fall on debt ears. Boris Epshteyn is there though, for the second day in a row. He just got indicted in Arizona for attempting to overturn the 2020 election. The DOJ subpoenaed him awhile back and seized his phone. The Select Committee subpoenaed him too. He refers to himself as Trump’s “quarterback” for all of his legal battles. Epshteyn helped Trump negotiate Trump Tower in Moscow. He was the legal advisor on Trump’s 2016 and 2020 campaigns, and director of communications for Trump’s inauguration committee. He was at the meeting at the Willard Hotel, the “command center” for the insurrection on January 6. He and Trump are partners in crimes.
David Pecker is being cross examined by Trump’s attorneys. They are trying to suggest that he and Michael Cohen were freelancing when they bribed Trump’s tits and trysts.
The defense attorney keeps calling Trump “President Trump” and the prosecutors keep objecting. The judge keeps sustaining those objections. “President Trump” — get out of here.
A new hearing has been set for May 2 to deal with Trump’s latest violations of the gag order (4 and counting). The judge hasn’t even decided on the first 10 violations yet. May 2 is on a Wednesday, their day off. Watch Trump use some of his 750 words to complain about not getting to campaign (golf) on that day.
It’s day 6 of student protests at nearby Columbia. They set up an encampment to protest the war in Gaza. 120 students have been arrested so far. Students have also been suspended and hundreds of faculty have walked out in support of the student protesters. Columbia is located in the heart of Manhattan. It has a large Jewish student population with a dual degree program with Tel Aviv. It has a good sized Arab Muslim population with a large Middle Eastern studies program as well.
The students are demanding an immediate cease fire in Gaza, an end to investing in companies that fund weapons for Israel to be used in the Palestinian war, transparency in the university’s investments, and amnesty for the students who have been arrested and suspended. Things escalated when the cops were called in and now the situation has grown past protesting the war in Gaza to the state using violence to stop students from exercising their first amendment rights. Now Columbia has closed its campus and converted to online learning a week before finals.
Similar protests have popped up on college and university campuses all across the country in solidarity. The same thing is happening — the administrations are trying to silence their students and are calling the cops in if students don’t stop protesting. The LAPD invaded the University of Southern California and students got hurt as a result. The cops have been using unnecessary force to dominate and contain students. USC canceled its main commencement ceremony after dozens of campus arrests. These students missed their high school graduations because of COVID lock downs and now they’re missing their college graduations. They’re pissed.
This is the generation that grew up doing lock down and active shooter drills. They’ve never been safe at school. They don’t trust the government because the government has done nothing to protect them. They have always been in danger. They’re pissed.
Students at Cal Poly used their lifetime of active shooter defense training to barricade themselves inside the school then pushed the gunmen (the cops) back until they left. One student conked a cop on the head with a plastic Sparkletts water jug. Gen Z pushed back on state violence and won.
Cops shot into crowds of unarmed protesters at Emory College in Atlanta with rubber bullets and tear gas. They arrested students and faculty. Economics professor Caroline Fohlin was violently thrown to the ground and arrested.
At the University of Texas in Austin, one protester yelled out at the cops, “Where were you during Uvalde?!!!”
The cops have shown up at Emerson College, Harvard, UNC, NYU, and more. Students and faculty members are being arrested all across the country. People are getting hurt.
Gen Z has had it with the government. They have never known their government to do for them what it’s supposed to do — serve the people. It’s letting people die and terrorizing children. The school shooting kids are grown up now and it’s payback time. The government hasn’t listened to them so now they’re coming for the government, using defense tactics and survival skills they learned to defend themselves in case a bad guy showed up at their schools with a gun. Now they’re having to fend off cops at college.
Joe Biden has more to contend with from Gen Z than being called “Genocide Joe.” He not only has to keep fixing what Trump and the Republicans broke and campaign against an insane tyrannical despot, he’s got to try and understand and respond to a traumatized generation that sees America for what it really is. Joe Biden’s America is very different than Gen Z’s America.
