Share this page!

Enter URL or ID to Unroll

You can paste full URL like: https://x.com/threadreaderapp/status/1644127596119195649
or just the ID like: 1644127596119195649

How to get URL link on X (Twitter) App

  1. On the Twitter thread, click on or icon on the bottom
  2. Click again on or Share Via icon
  3. Click on Copy Link to Tweet
  4. Paste it above and click "Unroll Thread"!
  5. More info at Twitter Help
Stu Smith Profile picture
@thestustustudio
Sep 9, 2024 • 8 tweets • 5 min read • Read on X
Scrolly
BREAKING: Joseph Edelman, a Brown University trustee, has now resigned over the future divestment vote at Brown University.

As a result, I am releasing my recording of the Wednesday meeting where the Brown Divest Coalition presented their proposal to divest from Israel.
Here is video of the full presentation below. Remember, Brown is a private university; you can't FOIA this video. Without me, this recording may not have ever gone public.

I honestly wanted a bit more time with this footage and other divestment trainings I have recorded to present this in a digestible format. The language of ESG is how many of these students are getting their foot in the door and they are being trained to exploit this. There is a lot I could say about this subject.

However, Edelman's resignation will hopefully get sizable attention, and I hope by "democratizing" this footage, you can see how ridiculous this presentation was. If you use it, please tag me so I can boost it and comment if needed.
I really enjoyed watching Professor James Kellner grill the students after their presentation. Kellner is a Professor of Ecology, Evolution, and Organismal Biology and Environment and Society. In a past life, I imagine he must have been a lawyer. He is one of the professors who is a member of the Advisory Committee on University Resources Management (ACURM).

Here he explains ACURM's duties when it comes to "social harm." In a truly golden moment, he then asks the students if they know that Brown University is not directly invested in any of the ten companies they want to divest from.
Kellner posed a philosophical question to the students about how social harm could be easily identifiable if we presume that companies are responsible for how their products are used. He used alcohol as an example of something that is widely used yet creates social harm.

President of the Undergraduate Council of Students, Niyanta Nepal, didn't engage with this thought experiment and instead focused on how strong the students feel about divestment and how personal Palestine is for the student body.

Nepal ran on a platform of divestment and even participated in the hunger strike for eight days.
Again, Kellner gets philosophical and discusses how possibly neutrality cannot exist; if so, should we consider the net good and net harm of these companies?

It sounds like Nepal, but could be another student, responds that the students are only looking at the harm.

Kellner says, "The world is more complicated than that." He uses flying on airplanes as an example of a social harm that also provides great benefits. He asks the students to consider how the university needs to consider the totality of a company.

The students once again don't engage with these questions and go back to how the student body has spoken about not wanting to be complicit and how they have proven how great the social harm is.
Kellner now asks the students about what Brown should do considering that they have received a letter from 24 Attorney Generals threatening legal action if the university divests.

Rafi Ash, the Treasurer of the Undergraduate Council of Students and Secretary of Brown/RISD Young Democratic Socialists of America, walks us through his legal analysis of the situation. He sees this as illegal and unconstitutional. He also believes these politicians are "jockeying for political power."
Kellner is such a good professor. If he is like this in the classroom, I imagine his students grow so much if they rise to the occasion.

"I appreciate that response; I'm going to push back and ask you to try again from a slightly different point of view."

Kellner walks the students through how grants work, how they "flow through other states," and how they could be jeopardized if Brown University divests.

Ash doesn't engage with this. Instead, he blames "fundamentally extremist politicians" and wants us to consider "who does the university stand for?" He sees this as an issue of academic freedom and that these students are simply questioning the university.
Major Takeaways from the Divestment Presentation

-Kellner rules and has such a great approach. We should all be blessed to have such a professor who challenges you to be your best.
-These are the best that Brown has to offer? Really?
-Volvo being one of the companies they want to divest from makes me laugh. Raise your hand if you ever rode around in that old iconic Volvo station wagon!
-One of my followers recently said, "Nobody else has coverage on events like this and it’s so important." If you agree and appreciate my reporting, buy me a coffee! See my pinned tweet to see how to show me some love.

• • •

Missing some Tweet in this thread? You can try to force a refresh
　

Keep Current with Stu Smith

Stu Smith Profile picture

Stay in touch and get notified when new unrolls are available from this author!

Read all threads

This Thread may be Removed Anytime!

PDF

Twitter may remove this content at anytime! Save it as PDF for later use!

Try unrolling a thread yourself!

how to unroll video
  1. Follow @ThreadReaderApp to mention us!

  2. From a Twitter thread mention us with a keyword "unroll"
@threadreaderapp unroll

Practice here first or read more on our help page!

More from @thestustustudio

Stu Smith Profile picture
Jun 2
🧵 Cox Media heir Fergie Chambers says his job is to move his family’s wealth into revolutionary organizing.

That made him a target for Neville Roy Singham’s network, which tried to bring him into its orbit with plans for what Chambers described as a “second People’s Forum.”

But the relationship blew up over differing views on the necessity of direct action, leading Fergie to start spilling secrets about what he says sits at the center of the entire Singham network, the Party for Socialism and Liberation.

If you want the juicy details of what it’s like to be courted by the Singham network, and why Fergie may have just shown Congress where to investigate next, go read my latest at @CityJournal!
This was an insanely fun piece to write, but it had to be written for readers who may not know every name in the Singham orbit. Click through the links, because Fergie’s tweets are the real treasure map here. Enjoy!
city-journal.org/article/jim-fe…
Fergie Chambers says the rural “second People’s Forum” was supposed to offer two-week retreats, political schools, and united-front education work. But the project started to look very different once he got closer to it.

He says they realized “they’re all just PSL staff, they’re all funded by the same people,” and that the proposed curriculum was “all PSL cadre classes.” When he suggested bringing people from other organizations onto the board, he says they told him no.

This experience gets to the question at the center of all Singham network discourse. Is this a loose coalition of allied left-wing groups, or a coordinated infrastructure project built around one party?

Fergie seems to think he got his answer.
Read 7 tweets
Stu Smith Profile picture
May 31
🚨 Hasan’s Marxist Agitprop Masterclass

Everything about this superclip is mandatory viewing if you want to understand DSA and Hasan’s alliance with the organization.

First, DSA is not framed as some slightly more progressive wing of the Democratic Party. Hasan describes it as “directionally on the diametrical opposite side of the political spectrum” from the “liberal capitalist Democratic Party.”

Second, Hasan zeroes in on what he sees as the problem with Americans. They “do not have class consciousness” and “do not have political education.” And without those things, “you can’t have organizing on the basis of class.”

So what is the solution for Hasan?

“To foment class consciousness and to engage in agitative propaganda, as is the Marxist tradition.”

He then says elections are “one of the most viable routes to reach the masses.”

In other words, when DSA candidates go on Hasan’s stream, this is not a standard interview. He sees it as part of the Marxist tradition of agitprop, using his platform to create political action, build class consciousness, and bring people into DSA.

Third, he is completely right about the DSA growth model. He says that whenever you get “an AOC style figure or Zahra Mamdani,” DSA’s ranks “explode” with new paying members.

And fourth, the caucus part is hilarious. Hasan explains that DSA is “a massive institution with many different caucuses,” all “constantly fighting one another.” But when asked to choose between them, he says it is like “picking favorite children.”

I don’t think Hasan is alone in giving a blanket answer like that, but if DSA were principled, it would have to grapple with the fact that the organization has some genuinely insane caucuses, including ones that have put out statements in support of Elias Rodriguez.
I would say Liberation Caucus is probably the craziest caucus inside DSA.

And here is Hasan with DSA Emerge, another DSA caucus that “just likes a little bit of Mao.”
But seriously, DSA’s Liberation Caucus is out here talking about executing people after the revolution, and it still has a seat inside DSA’s Red Rabbits Security Commission, which trains the broader organization on “security culture.”
Read 6 tweets
Stu Smith Profile picture
May 28
🧵 One of DSA’s top national figures, National Political Committee co-chair Ashik Siddique, sat down with Brazil’s Perseu Abramo Foundation and laid out a pretty clear vision for where DSA sees itself right now.

DSA is an organization waiting to become a political party in all but name, building local political machines across the country while using elected office and street movements to create conflict with Democrats, Republicans, corporations, and billionaires.

DSA candidates should “stand up with movements on the streets,” members should remain “agitational,” and the organization should be willing to antagonize Democratic officials like New York Governor Kathy Hochul.

Understandably, DSA sees the election of Zohran Mamdani in New York City as a huge victory. But Siddique really hammers that NYC DSA is also the model to replicate in all 50 states because it did not even exist nine years ago.

The future Siddique painted is one where DSA forces its way into power by playing foil to both Democrats and Republicans, while slowly building the infrastructure and elected bloc of a national political party.
What Siddique is describing here is DSA’s inside/outside strategy.

On the outside, you have the movement: the activists, the street pressure, the screaming protesters, and the DSA machine keeping the demands alive.

On the inside, you have Zohran smiling, negotiating, and asking nicely.

It is basically political good cop, bad cop.

Mamdani can maintain the polite public relationship with Gov. Kathy Hochul, while DSA keeps “agitating” and being “very antagonistic” toward her from the outside.
Democrats winning is not enough for DSA or Siddique.

DSA’s role is to act as the foil, pushing the Overton window of the Democratic Party leftward while building its own elected bloc.

Siddique says Democrats need to offer a “clear alternative.” But for DSA, that “clear alternative” is obviously socialism/communism.

Some in DSA still think they can take over the Democratic Party. Others want a clean break.

Either way, this strategy lets them pursue both at once. DSA keeps electing socialists inside the system, more often than not on the Democratic ballot line, while pressuring Democrats from the outside and forcing the party to move toward them whether it wants to or not.
Read 10 tweets
Stu Smith Profile picture
May 27
🧵 I watched Hasan’s Cuba doc so you don’t have to

A regular Hasan viewer asked me to watch his Cuba documentary, seemingly because it would change my mind. It actually did the opposite.

We are still waiting to learn more about the reported OFAC probe into the Nuestra América Cuba convoy, which Fox says involves as many as 40 Americans, including Hasan Piker.

But this is the “journalism” Hasan is going to point to as proof that his Cuba trip was legitimate.

The medical missions are presented as pure humanitarian virtue, with no serious scrutiny of the forced-labor allegations, how much of the doctors’ pay the regime keeps, or whether host countries are receiving fully accredited care.

Cuba’s blackout-ridden, Soviet-era power grid becomes a story about American cruelty and heroic solar panels from China, not the regime’s decades of mismanagement.

The medical “miracle cures” get the soft-touch treatment too, with no real interrogation of what has actually been proven, what is still experimental, and what is just regime hype.

And the doc literally ends with a close-up on The People’s Forum, CODEPINK, a Fidel Castro billboard reading “Fidel, faithful to your legacy,” as Hasan repeats the revolutionary slogan “Patria o muerte, venceremos.”

But wait, there’s more.
I honestly don’t think I’ve ever seen anything quite like it.

Almost 15% of the entire documentary is just Cuba’s Deputy Foreign Minister, Carlos F. de Cossio, talking largely uninterrupted.
Even Medea Benjamin, who is reportedly also facing a subpoena, has offered a more critical view of Cuba than Hasan’s documentary ever did.
Read 10 tweets
Stu Smith Profile picture
May 27
🚨 Manolo’s Cuba “Aid” Pitch Turns Into a Call for Political Upheaval Inside America

In an interview yesterday from Havana, The People’s Forum executive director Manolo de los Santos essentially said material aid is not what Cuba needs most right now.

What will “help Cuba the most,” he says, is “massive mobilization” inside the United States to “change the reality within the United States.” He says that would also help Mexico, Iran, and “the people of the world.”

You need a far-left dictionary to know what Manolo means by “massive mobilization” and “reality,” but he is pretty clearly calling for a mass uprising to change America’s political reality.
This fits Manolo’s broader thesis. America has mass mobilizations, but never the revolution, because there is no vanguard to discipline the chaos and turn it into power.

That sounds insane to say out loud, but listen to him say it himself.
This is from the Youth Brigade trip to Cuba.

His latest interview gives you a taste of the anti-imperialist worldview, but this clip makes it clearer.

Cuba is part of a global anti-American front that connects Havana to North Korea, Iran, and beyond.
Read 5 tweets
Stu Smith Profile picture
May 25
🚨 Hasan Names Singham, PSL, ANSWER, and Code Pink in One Breath

On stream today, Hasan Piker discussed the reported Treasury scrutiny and said the broader target is “probably Singham” and “his operation,” naming PSL (Party for Socialism and Liberation), ANSWER Coalition, Code Pink, and “anything that he has ever financed.”

He then acknowledged that Roy Singham lives in China and has been “a funding vehicle” for political movements and activism in the United States.

That is exactly why this matters.

This was never just about one influencer’s Cuba trip. It is about the Singham-linked ecosystem, the groups it funds, the delegations it supports, and the political operations built around them.

Hasan didn’t refute the network. He mapped it.
Singham usually stays far from the public-facing side of the operation. His influence runs through subordinates, funding channels, and the groups orbiting his network.

That’s why it stands out when people inside that ecosystem mention him directly.
Fergie Chambers, another far-left financier funding similar projects, offers a pretty revealing critique of the Singham network and how little transparency there is around Singham’s role. Image
Read 5 tweets

Did Thread Reader help you today?

Support us! We are indie developers!

This site is made by just two indie developers on a laptop doing marketing, support and development! Read more about the story.

Become a Premium Member ($3/month or $30/year) and get exclusive features!

Become Premium

Don't want to be a Premium member but still want to support us?

Make a small donation by buying us coffee ($5) or help with server cost ($10)

Donate via Paypal

Or Donate anonymously using crypto!

Ethereum

0xfe58350B80634f60Fa6Dc149a72b4DFbc17D341E copy

Bitcoin

3ATGMxNzCUFzxpMCHL5sWSt4DVtS8UqXpi copy

Thank you for your support!

Follow Us!

Send Email!

:(