Authoritarianism and Fascism Alerts
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The President of the United States is (in the words of his first Secretary of State) a “fucking moron”
He’s now threatening to cut off trade with any country that maintains a trade imbalance, unless he gets his way on interest rates. He doesn’t understand the causes of trade imbalances. Trump’s extraordinary ignorance, his extraordinary narcissism, and his Mafia mentality explain almost everything he does. Even the NYT, which acknowledges that Trump is a…
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How the Trumpistas silence internal critics
Not quite the “night of the long knives,” but a similar spirit!
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Here’s how the Republican steal the midterm elections in the House
Law professor Michael Dorf discusses.
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Life in authoritarian America, a case in point
To be clear, American has done this kind of authoritarian shit before, but far less of it since the 1970s.
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Blast from the past: “How Trump Can Attack Higher Education: A Guide”
Back in 2024, and, sadly, it was prescient. While Title VI has, indeed, played a very large role, I did not anticipate the sheer lawless way the Trumpistas would deploy it (i.e., no investigation, no process, just going straight to suspension of federal monies).
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Johns Hopkins President Ron Daniels’ continuing war on academic freedom
First he was involved in the Trump Administration’s document calling for a massive violation of academic freedom, and now he intends to take the war on academic freedom to every department at Hopkins by pushing for “a shift in the recruitment of faculty,” partnering with the conservative American Enterprise Institute in order “to move with…
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Do “liberal” faculty “indoctrinate” their students to be liberal?
This study says the answer is “no.” I cannot comment on the methodology, but let’s remember that many of the most important right-wing figures in American life are graduates of Harvard and Yale (e.g., Ted Cruz, Josh Hawley, J.D. Vance, Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito, Vivek Ramaswamy, and on and on). Perhaps they are anomalies, or…
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The Trump collaborators: Michael Crow (Arizona State), Ron Daniels (Johns Hopkins), Douglas Girod (Kansas), Andrew Martin (Wash U/St. Louis)
These four university President have participated in drafting a new “call to action” from Linda McMahon, the former wrestling executive turned Secretary of Education, to the nation’s universities. Crow and Martin are no surprise, but Daniels is, and he and Martin have now disgraced their universities, since the “call to action” is both internally inconsistent…
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If Trump weren’t such a short-sighted malevolent buffoon…
…it might have occurred to him that murdering another country’s head of state (who was also a major religious figure) would result in threats like this to him and his family (see also). Of course, one suspects that the Iranians won’t dare act on this, since it would compel our humane leaders to murder millions…
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San Jose State professor fired after engaging in pro-Palestinian protests reinstated by arbitrator’s decision
An interesting case. It seems like the right decision: firing a tenured professor was wildly disproportionate to the offense, given the professor’s strong record. It was no doubt crucial that the San Jose State faculty is unionized.
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The “federal election assistance” commission that Trump gutted
His firing of the last three commissioners is not as ominous as it seems. Of course, Trump has only malign purposes, so who knows what further mischief he will try to work there.
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Yale AAUP Chapter lawyers up as it threatens to take legal action if Yale Admin cuts a deal with Trump
CHE story here. It’s obviously true that “deals” with a criminal like Trump are almost never reliable, but, contrary to what the article suggests, there is no “academic freedom” right to engage in unlawful discrimination in admissions. The only question here is factual: does Yale continue to discriminate against white and Asian applicants? If so,…
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Texas AAUP sues Texas Tech over its clearly unlawful attemps to control course content and faculty speech
I trust the federal courts will put a stop to this mischief. I hope they get to depose Gauleiter Creighton! (Earlier coverage.)
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Not only a malevolent buffoon, and an incompetent ignoramus…
…but also increasingly disabled, mentally and physically. This would make for an amusing read, except for the the terrible reality that he has real power and can continue to do real damage.
“Though not outright proof on its face” is where the heuristics from the conversation would inform next steps. Plagiarism of…