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Stu Smith

Sep 9, 2024 • 8 tweets • 5 min read • Read on X

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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.

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More from @thestustustudio

Stu Smith

@thestustustudio

May 12

🚨 Los Angeles Councilmember Eunisses Hernandez says her office built a “community defense network” to respond to federal immigration raids.

She also says her office invested $500,000 in rental assistance and $400,000 in food assistance, argues DSA should become a bigger “political home,” and claims LA activists were “literally battling to prevent martial law.”

At a recent DSA-LA panel, “socialists in office” from Los Angeles, Chicago, and Minnesota explained how they use public office to advance movement politics, anti-ICE organizing, mutual aid, and attacks on the Democratic establishment.

I break it all down in my latest for @CityJournal!

These officials aren’t just doing constituent service. They’re using public office to build and protect DSA-aligned movements, steering resources, legal support, and government legitimacy toward a narrower activist base. That’s clientelism. city-journal.org/article/democr…

DSA-LA’s own writeup frames Eunisses Hernandez as the model “socialist in office”: using City Council power for anti-police crisis response, immigration defense, tenant protections, food distribution, and attacks on LAPD funding. That is movement politics through public office.

Read 4 tweets

Stu Smith

@thestustustudio

May 11

📰 My latest for @CityJournal!

Sunrise’s rebrand is not subtle. The group now wants to build the “muscle of non-cooperation,” escalate student walkouts, target companies linked to ICE, and move toward mass student strikes in 2027 and a general strike in 2028.

@CityJournal I’ve been buried and haven’t had time to cut a promo video for this article.

It’s a great look at where the Sunrise Movement is in 2026. Climate activism has taken a back seat to “getting rid of the authoritarian government we’re in.” city-journal.org/article/sunris…

https://x.com/thestustustudio/status/2041516702496616830

@CityJournal And if you’ve been following me for some time, you know how I feel about trips to Cuba.

But did you know Aru Shiney-Ajay, the executive director of the Sunrise Movement as of fall 2023, went on one of these Cuba trips?

https://x.com/thestustustudio/status/2041516702496616830

Read 4 tweets

Stu Smith

@thestustustudio

May 9

🧵DSA-LA’s 2026 voter guide is not just a list of endorsements. It is full of dirty laundry and ruthless pragmatism.

They recommend Nithya Raman for mayor over DSA member Rae Huang, even after admitting DSA-LA previously censured Raman for accepting a pro-Israel Democratic club endorsement.

They frame Marissa Roy as their first citywide power play, celebrate Eunisses Hernandez as the anti-LAPD model of socialist electoralism, praise Hugo Soto-Martinez’s “co-governance,” and describe Faizah Malik’s opponent Traci Park as “a nexus point of every working class enemy interest in LA.”

It certainly says a lot that @spencerpratt’s section in DSA-LA’s Primary Election Voter Guide focuses more on The Hills than on his actual platform.

DSA-LA does not refute Spencer Pratt’s ideas. It doesn't even mention them. Instead, the guide treats him like a pop-culture punchline because engaging his actual message would mean admitting he is speaking to real frustration in Los Angeles politics.

And that treatment appears to be unique. Other candidates get ideological labels, policy summaries, donor analysis, and strategic assessments. Pratt gets reality TV jokes, an AARP bit, and a hat joke.

But the funny part is that Pratt’s rise is still forcing DSA-LA into a tactical corner. Their own guide admits he is polling high enough to make the runoff, and that if he does, Karen Bass is probably cruising to a second term.

So after all the internal drama, the straw poll, and the obvious discomfort with Nithya Raman, DSA-LA still lands on Raman because Pratt has made the math unavoidable. They may mock him, but they are also reacting to him.

DSA-LA’s writeup on Nithya Raman is basically a case study in reluctant pragmatism.

They admit Raman has repeatedly broken with the left. She accepted an endorsement from a pro-Israel Democratic club, which led DSA-LA members to approve a censure in 2024. She broke ranks on Measure ULA. She has split from other socialist councilmembers on police funding. And she has said she would not shrink LAPD manpower as mayor.

They also admit Rae Huang has the more radical grassroots platform. But then they turn around and recommend Raman anyway.

Why? Because DSA-LA knows the math. Raman is the only candidate besides Bass and Spencer Pratt polling in double digits, and Pratt’s rise has made the jungle primary impossible for them to ignore. DSA-LA lands on the candidate they are clearly uneasy about because she is the only realistic left-wing vehicle to stop a Bass vs. Pratt runoff.

They even underline the point themselves: “It is not an endorsement.” 😆

Read 9 tweets

Stu Smith

@thestustustudio

May 2

🚨 BREAKING: “Death to America” Comes to @virginia_tech

At Virginia Tech tonight, Mohamed Abdou opened his “Death to the Akademy” speech by declaring, “We are in a war, a racial religious war since 1492.”

He told students America is “the larger monster,” praised “General Sinwar,” called October 7 the “blessed day of Al-Aqsa Flood,” and said jihad can mean defending life “using the sword.”

Then he praised students as “a branch of the resistance” and said they were recognized as “a branch of the mujahideen.”

And when he explained “Death to America,” he was explicit.

“When we say Death to America, we mean, and loud and clear, a total end to U.S. empire. The destruction of this crusading settler colony, their entire project.”

Virginia Tech spent the last few days insisting this event was not happening. It happened. And this is what was said.

Stick around, because there is a lot more to unpack. We are not even halfway through his speech yet.

Attention: @CACIIntl, @SystemsPlanning, @MITREcorp, @LeidosInc, @northropgrumman, and @LockheedMartin.

You all have documented partnerships, funding relationships, or national-security recruiting pipelines with Virginia Tech.

You may want to know what Mohamed Abdou told students there.

He urged people to “halt the weapons industry,” “destroy locally where you are at,” and disrupt “every single choke point” and “every single supply chain bottleneck” by “all means necessary.”

Why should any defense contractor keep investing in a university that is trying to downplay this?

You already heard Mohamed Abdou frame this as a “racial war” and invoke jihad.

He told students not merely to oppose Hitler, but to “understand what Hitler stands for.” Then he immediately claimed the “modern Zionist entity” manifests a “Hitlerite mentality.”

He went further, racializing Jews as white people who can pass unnoticed unless they are “wearing a yarmulke,” which erases the identity and lived reality of Jews of every background worldwide.

Read 8 tweets

Stu Smith

@thestustustudio

May 1

🚨 BREAKING: Far-left May Day agitators are shutting down major roadways across Washington, D.C.

Blocking highways isn’t “peaceful protest.” It’s organized coercion through public disruption. This is what civil terrorism looks like.

“This is what democracy looks like,” according to Free DC: blocking roads so ordinary people can’t get to work.

They say they’re trying to “end the occupation,” raise awareness for May Day, and push D.C. statehood.

Instead, they’re staging a little occupation of their own.

Outside of protesting someone at their home, this might be my least favorite activist tactic.

Blocking roads so ordinary people can’t go places is truly scumbag behavior.

Read 4 tweets

Stu Smith

@thestustustudio

Apr 29

🚨 At The People’s Forum, Mohsen Mahdawi Says Social Media Built the Pro-Palestinian Movement’s “Infrastructure,” Calls It a “New Revolution”

Former Columbia encampment leader Mohsen Mahdawi, whose path to a Columbia philosophy degree stretched from his 2014 arrival in the U.S. to his 2025 graduation, spoke at The People’s Forum earlier this week.

Mahdawi described social media as one of the pro-Palestinian movement’s most powerful achievements. He said the movement has built an “infrastructure” through social media that lets activists bypass mass media, share information directly, and decide where to focus their energy.

Mahdawi later framed social media as part of a “new revolution” in campaigning: a way to “present yourself,” “combat big money” and “AIPAC money,” and speak “your truth” against established institutions.

His praise for Hasan Piker fits into that analysis too. Mahdawi called Hasan “a force” who helped bring many people together, even though Hasan ultimately skipped the event over safety concerns.