Ed Luce watching democracy die in the United States of America

www.chronicle.com/article/view... I didn’t choose the headline!! DM if you need a version that isn’t paywalled.

“This is extortion, plain and simple. It is not hyperbole to say that the future of higher education.. requires that every university reject it…The only solution is solidarity and collective action against this effort at federal control over higher education.” www.nytimes.com/2025/10/02/o...

This conversation was very good and well worth watching: www.youtube.com/live/RB1FLkR... @aaup-penn.bsky.social @aaup.org @chenjerai.bsky.social @proftwolf.bsky.social

Once again, it is *faculty*—not administrators—who brought this case and won. Including UC Faculty Association chapters of the AAUP.

“Put most bluntly: Viewpoint diversity is anathema to academic freedom.” JHU-AAUP President Lisa Siraganian presents seven theses against viewpoint diversity and the dangers it poses to academic freedom in a new article for #Academe. @lsiraganian.bsky.social

I appreciate how @lsiraganian.bsky.social is seriously engaging claims about "viewpoint diversity" and "intellectual pluralism" and how they're weaponized by the Trump administration and other actors to launch attacks against Higher Ed. A Well-researched, compelling, and important read. #academicsky

Good morning & happy Labor Day 🌞 Let’s all give a shout out to our labor unions. I’m a member of @aaup.org & @aft.org!!! #UnionStrong #Solidarity

www.hopkinsaaup.org/teach-in What does trump mean for Hopkins? Find out! Come one and all to our Hopkins teach in! 1-3 today, Gilman 132

Eager to share this cluster on modernism in comics, now on @mmodernity.bsky.social Print Plus! With contributions from @lkonstan.bsky.social, @lsiraganian.bsky.social, Paul Peppis, Jean Lee Cole, Marie Sartain, Mike Classon Frangos, and @kinohi.bsky.social.

More here: gothamist.com/news/armenia...

Chartering an AAUP chapter at Georgetown. Please join AAUP, please join us to stand up for our profession, our colleagues, our students, staff, and rights. Email me if you need more info. Trying to end social media forever but needed to announce for colleagues interested.

This continues to be the biggest story in the country: DOGE has already squandered half a trillion dollars in 6 weeks. Not billion. half a trillion, $500 billion talkingpointsmemo.com/edblog/irs-p...

Twenty prominent law professors have joined a letter defending academic freedom and the First Amendment against the Trump Administration’s recent treatment of Columbia. Among those from right of center: Michael McConnell, Eugene Volokh, Keith Whittington, Steve Calabresi, and Richard Epstein.

Wow - as NLRB/MSPB arguments kick off at DC Circuit, Judge Henderson asks if Trump's removal powers are so sweeping that he could fire all female agency heads, or all those over 40. Dep AG says yes! Trump-appointed Judge Walker swoops in to try to salvage: 'don't have to go there' due to the 14th A

Everyone--EVERYONE--in higher education has to understand that this is Trump's plan for you, too: federal control over scholarship, curricula, discipline, admissions--everything. They want you to submit. Your only other option is to stand up, together.

www.law.utoronto.ca/events/2025-... If you’re in Toronto today, I’m here too!

"The question the embattled university president asked [me], in effect, was how a university fights an authoritarian regime." "I told him to frame his fight to gain as many allies as he can." Note FIGHT. Universities must act. Keeping their heads down won't work. 1/4 www.chronicle.com/ar...

happy ides of March, the time when we celebrate a Senator stabbing you in the back

NEW: Family of Mahmoud Khalil just released footage of his arrest “Stop resisting” “He’s not resisting” Agents seen continuing to ignore Mahmoud’s wife as she asks basic questions

Every Armenian remembers when Trump proudly announced that he had negotiated an end to the 2020 War and that Azerbaijan had agreed to a ceasefire. (There was no ceasefire. And there were no consequences.)

Make no mistake, it is the students and our future scientists that will be most hurt by these disastrous decisions. Whole careers just won't happen. A generation of scientists will be lost. It's already started.

This has little to do with specifics of Columbia U. Rather this is intended to be an example to all Universities to toe the line or else. This part of the strategy of targeting and crippling areas where typically your opposition is traditionally found. Orban did the same in Hungary.

AOC: It's really because Republicans— they’re very thin skinned and they're very sensitive, and their feelings are very easily hurt. And so they have to vote on censure resolutions.

New story summarizing the "highlights" of the NIH under the first 6 weeks of this "administration"... (No Paywall) wapo.st/4h8aiZx

2 day change -1,400 (always a tweet)

I confess that when I was doing admissions this year I did not ask myself “which of these people will become the next Hitler if we turn them away?”

You might not see it in the mainstream media, but over 10,000 people protested today at Tesla showrooms across the country, another 10,000+ rallied in support of national parks, and more than 1,000 gathered in Vermont to protest Vance’s visit.

Vance debasing himself at the feet of Trump, who continues to lick Putin’s boot on the world stage. What an embarrassment these two belligerent buffoons are to our country.

www.thebaltimorebanner.com/economy/fede... Heartbreaking stories, worth reading them all.

In the latest installment of my series on Trump administration overreach, I discuss the Dept of Education "Dear Colleague" letter condemning race-based preferences and also seemingly (but maybe not actually) condemning even classroom statements promoting equality or recognizing racism exists.

No time like now to join the AAUP! Just this decision alone makes your dues worth every penny.

When in doubt, tear it all down, see what breaks, assume you can repair it—maybe with AI? It’s the federal government; how hard can it be? This is incompetence born of self-confidence. It’s the certainty that if you’re smart at one thing you must be smart at all of the things.

"It might seem like firing half the factory’s employees would lead to lower-quality work, but simple math shows that if you make half the number of people work twice as long, you get the exact same output."

Journalists should report the truth the way this judge laid it out.

It seems almost unavoidable at this point that we are headed for a deep, deep recession. Just based on 200K+ federal firings & pullback of contracts, the March employment report (to be released April 4) seems certain to show bigger job losses than any month ever outside of a few in 2008-9 and 2020.

DOGE has gained access to our Social Security system, and now Musk is spreading lies about massive fraud all so we greenlight his taking an ax to everything. I call out his B.S. in today’s piece: https://buff.ly/3X5uNPt

Are people finally waking up? The real fight isn’t about bathrooms or drag queens—it’s about who holds power & at whose expense. Culture war is just a distraction, keeping working people too busy fighting each other rather than noticing who’s actually robbing us blind: billionaires—not each other!

One of our supporters shared this with us—people are getting creative tonight!

It’s almost like “ai” is a massive scheme to devalue, and destabilize labor while shifting power back into the hands of corporations.

One thing Democratic leadership could do right now is to name an alternate HHS secretary--someone to provide ongoing public updates and health information. And do it for other departments too. Start showing voters what a Democratic government would look like--press conferences, speeches, all of it.

This reads like the opening paragraph of a novel so bleakly dystopian you'd put it down after five pages