Our former Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi — pretty much the embodiment of how I coined the term “Demofiend” — evidently donated so much of her ill-begotten wealth to the University of California, Berkeley that the school is opening an institute in her name.
How’s this for a name that makes you want to laugh: the Nancy Pelosi Institute for Representative Democracy? The 86-year-old communist, er, Congresswoman, who is retiring from her life as Headmistress of the Swamp this year, claims her namesake will be nonpartisan.
Hold the guffaws, please.
I got my hands on an early copy of the prospective curriculum, and it wisely focuses on what she is both best at and most famous for — how to throw tantrums during speeches by someone she disagrees with, and how to game behind-closed-doors political maneuvering to win on Wall Street, aka stock-market trading based on inside knowledge of upcoming legislative actions.
First on the agenda will be Ms. Pelosi demonstrating how to tear up an opponent’s speech, as she did on TV with printed copies of Donald Trump’s State of the Union address (pictured). Second will be how to secretly inform one’s spouse of upcoming investigations and legislation to game bets on the stock market and become super-rich. Third, or perhaps first, will be strategic details on how to lie about everything you’ve done unethically on the public dime for your personal gain.
Berkeley is an interesting location for an institute named after Ms. Pelosi. Granted, she does live nearby, although ib nowhere near as loathsome a place as Oakland, Calif., Berkeley’s home turf. But the irony is huge. Berkeley is home to the 1960s Free Speech Movement, led by Mario Salvo. The movement was basically an uprising against the Vietnam War and its reliance on the draft for soldiers, aka a White Middle Class Revolt against going to war.
Here’s more irony about the whole ridiculous plan: Berkeley refuses to allow conservatives to speak on campus. Conservative commentator Milo Yiannopoulos had to be rushed into hiding at UC Berkeley in February 2017. Later, a scheduled talk by Ann Coulter had to be canceled due to threats to her safety.
According to the Wall Street Journal: “The Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression, a nonpartisan, free-speech advocacy group, gave the university an F in its free-speech ranking this year, placing it 217th out of 252 schools.”
Free speech, eh? Looks like Ms. Pelosi fits right in.
