🚨 Seriously? – April 25 2024

*Stock data as of market close, cryptocurrency data as of 5:00pm AM. 

Lead: Protests over Israel Explode on College Campuses 

credit: UPI

Protests at New York University got heated when protestors chased NYPD Assistant Chief James McCarthy away after making an arrest. McCarthy tried to escape protestors in a building, but the door was locked. No one was hurt, but this video shows how emotionally charged and upsetting these campus protests have become. 

Students have their right to speak out about Israel, and Jewish people have the right to feel threatened by that. It is a boiling situation. 

But are universities more worried about their wealthy Jewish donors than their students' voices? One Jewish alumni of Colombia said this to the Financial Times: ““To have our students protesting in favour of Hamas and the Houthis and Iran — it’s not a great look for the university.” 

Many of them are not protesting in favor of Hamas. They are protesting against Israel’s military campaign against civilians in retaliation for October 7. Then again, some of them don’t know exactly what they’re protesting, and that is their right too. 

College campuses did this to themselves by not standing for free speech in the last two decades, allowing students to antagonize speakers, creating small free-speech zones, and shouting down causes they didn’t like. Now they don’t even know how to do it when some of them clearly want to.   

Major Win Against Pandemic Treaty

credit: who

The World Health Organization has made major changes to the Pandemic Treaty, the most important change being that it would no longer be a binding document that would remove a country’s ability to make its own decisions about pandemics and pandemic measures. Phew, that’s a biggie! 

This is the document that the WHO was trying to pass, which would give the organization the power to implement pandemic measures such as lockdowns, vaccines, and other treatments. It would mandate population censorship and give the WHO the power to declare anything a pandemic risk and reorganize all business and land use. 

The vote is scheduled for May, and a revision to the treaty was due in March, but it was only just released. 

The WHO made other major changes such as removing the idea of an “infodemic,” which they defined as even true information that could influence behavior. They also dropped the proposal for global censorship. 

We will go over what this means in today’s Redacted episode. 

Welcome to Hillsdale College’s FREE Online Courses

Let’s Begin!

Time is our most precious commodity, and I've heard from so many of my listeners who have asked for my advice about how they can spend it wisely to improve themselves and the people around them.

History. Economics. The Great Works of Literature. The Meaning of the U.S. Constitution. Did you study these things in school? Probably not. Or, even if you did, maybe it’s time for a refresher. Time and technology have changed a lot of things, but they have not changed basic, fundamental truths about the world and our place in it.

If you're tired of scrolling through shows on Netflix and want to learn something valuable, check out these FREE college courses from our friends at Hillsdale College. Use your precious time to learn something new and inspiring like the history of our Constitution or dozens of other great classes. 

The courses are self-paced so that you can start whenever and wherever. Go right now to Hillsdale.edu/Redacted to start. It’s free, and it’s easy to get started.

You're an Extremist! 

credit: t. everett

Liberals in Canada are going wild that Justin Trudeau’s Conservative opponent Pierre Poilievre went to a protest against carbon taxes. Prime Minister Trudeau says that this proves he supports “conspiracy theorists and extremists."

Trudeau called anyone who did not take the Covid vaccine an extremist and now his government is still answering for the draconian measures and vaccine harms. You would think he would learn to be a bit humbler and ask people why they believe certain things rather than talk down to them. 

But no. Trudeau does not want to understand why people might be against a carbon tax, namely because it has not been proven that carbon exacerbates climate change and the working people are tired of bearing the brunt of added costs. Trudeau won’t hear that. He will not stoop so low as to talk to people who disagree with him at all. 

Poilievre was seen saying this at the protest: “Everyone hates the tax because everyone's been screwed over.” 

Trudeau says that this shows that Poilievre “will do anything to win.” Polls show him doing just that but there is a long way to go. The election is not until 2025. 

What's Trending?

credit: x

Reggie Bush is trending because he got his Heisman Trophy back 14 years after forfeiting the football prize. He lost the trophy when the NCAA sanctioned USC because they said that Bush received improper benefits during his college football career. Bush lobbied to get his trophy back because NCAA has since relaxed those rules and he succeeded. 

A video of a young man jumping between train platforms in Hong Kong has gone viral and launched a police investigation to find him and stop him from doing that. 

NFL Draft is trending because that happens today. The Chicago Bears get first pick this year. 

Billie Eilish is trending for this cover story with Rolling Stone in which she talks a lot about sex. You’ve been warned. 

News By The Numbers

15%. That is how much shares of Meta dropped after the company reported first quarter earnings. The company made money and beat expectations but investors soured on the idea of increased cost to run the Metaverse. 

29%. That is how many voters in Pennsylvania voted in the primary election on Wednesday, which is a fairly dismal turnout. According to The Philadelphia Inquirer, “the most surprising thing about the state’s turnout numbers might be how evenly uninterested people were across the state.”

12 years. That is the possible prison sentence for an Oklahoma man who accidentally left a bag of hunting bullets in his luggage on a trip to Turks and Caicos. He was stopped by customs and arrested and now he is being detained in the Caribbean. 

Birth Rate Plummets In U.S. 

credit: giphy

U.S. fertility fell to the lowest rate ever recorded since the government began tracking this in 1930. The rate is 1.62 births per woman, which is a 2% drop since 2022. 

As Birthgap documentary filmmaker Stephen J. Shaw points out, the reasons for this are varied. Cultural shifts have women waiting longer to have children, which sometimes means that their most fertile years go unused. Infertility is increasingly a problem, even in younger women. And many women think that they’ll have plenty of time only to find out later in life that they don’t. Shaw calls this generation the “unintended childless.” 

Why should we care?

Because this will leave an entire generation of young people with a massive amount of old people to support and tank global economies that are built on the concept of regeneration. Demographers say that immigrants could fill this gap but dropping birth rates are happening even in the more populous nations of Africa and South America.