Authoritarianism and Fascism Alerts
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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.
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A fitting July 4th essay for an America in which that malevolent buffoon is still President
Here (the full essay is behind a paywall, alas–but here are some excerpts).
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U of Tennessee pays $1.9 million to assistant professor wrongfully fired…
…for exercising her First Amendment rights after the murder of Charlie Kirk. She did not, however, get her job back, but my guess she will walk away with more than one million of the settlement. Hopefully these kinds of payouts will teach spineless administrators something the next time the exercise of First Amendment rights offends…
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The super-legislature’s reign of terror
Too many awful decisions since last week, it’s hard to know which one to single out, but Michael Dorf at Cornell is good on today’s decision gutting independent federal agencies and “empower[ing]…a corrupt, vindictive narcissist whose preferred replacements for subject-area experts are sycophantic ignoramuses.”
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Today in Trumpian authoritarianism: Syracuse edition
One story, how many others?
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Trump’s “rolling coup”
Everyone should read this. Although Trump is a colossal screw up whose support is collapsing thanks to his incompetence, he has laid the foundation for massive political repression, for which the midterm elections seem the likely trigger given that the Republicans will lose in a free and fair election. UPDATE: A scenario for how the…
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The war on academic freedom at Texas Tech, another ongoing saga
What a disaster: About half of Texas Tech University faculty members who responded to a recent survey said they’ve changed their course content — without being asked — to comply with policies restricting how they can teach about race, sex, sexual orientation, and gender identity. Another quarter reported they’d done so at administrators’ request, and…
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Trump’s war on democracy and the rule of law, an ongoing saga
Former FBI agents have created a support network for current agents because, [t]his administration is firing and intimidating Special Agents, Intelligence Analysts, and professional staff for blatantly partisan reasons. Political leaders are using the FBI’s authority to open poorly predicated investigations to interfere with elections, advance ideological goals, and seek vengeance. Please remember that the…
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Abuse of Title VI at Penn to target “anti-semitism”
An account here. We have noted the weaponization of Title VI (which began with Biden!) in the past.
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More on the persecution of Professor Mesyats and colleagues by the Russian government
A propos this earlier report, philosopher Elizaveta Shcherbakova at the Humboldt University in Berlin has now kindly shared this very detailed account of what is happening. Please take a few minutes to learn more about this case. I will post updates about any initiatives that the international community can take on behalf of these victims…
I first met Tom around 2002. I was a graduate student in Philosophy at UVA and dating someone who was…