“In the illiberal world created by Trumpism, you don’t have to ask—you can just proclaim. You can change on a dime, saying or thinking anything at all.”

Well, this explains being more openly critical

My non-Higher Ed friends caught the NPR piece mentioned by Dr. Kelchen here. It's a reminder that the perceptions of Higher Ed are much more impactful than the facts.

“What should give Americans equal pause is the inhumanity happening beyond the cameras, away from the view of judges and lawyers and the media. Due process is not a constitutional right afforded only to citizens; legal restrictions on unlawful detention apply to all people on U.S. soil.”

“It is not hard to predict chaos and confusion for the next several years. That is time that should be used instead to strengthen our education system and help states and localities with all the guidance and assistance and funding they need.“

“Florida’s rapidly expanding voucher program effectively bankrupted the K–12 funding formula in 2024–25, resulting in a $47 million deficit.”

“When will the woke left realize the evil of cancel culture”

New: Reuters has tallied job losses, suspensions and investigations stemming from the reaction to Charlie Kirk's Sept. 10 assassination. Its findings: More than 600 Americans have been punished, and the figure is likely to be an under-count. www.reuters.com/investigatio...

"The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people." US Constitution

“The Trump administration’s restructuring plan will create “more confusion, more mistakes and more barriers” for students and families in need of support”

Multiple health professions were excluded from the higher professional student loan cap. Now, casual observers may say “well, colleges should lower tuition for those programs”. But it’s not that simple.

one thing i think is true is that republicans assumed that democrats would not respond in kind and that the forceful pushback spooked them (a lesson to learn here, perhaps)

“In any other administration, at any other time in American history, this level of corruption would be a political disaster — a scandal that could bring down the administration. For the Trump administration, it is a Tuesday.”

“This isn’t about improving student outcomes; it’s about implementing a business model that transforms students into widgets instead of human beings who need support.”

“The loss of an elimination status means that measles will once again be considered endemic to the US, an embarrassing public health backslide for a vaccine-preventable disease.”

The White House Intervened on Behalf of Accused Sex Trafficker Andrew Tate During a Federal Investigation

“The deployment of warships, aircraft and troops to the southern Caribbean represents the biggest US naval mobilization in Latin America since the invasion of Panama in 1989. Meanwhile, the strikes on boats near the two countries have earned sharp condemnation”

“When the Trump administration brutally cut federal funding for biomedical research earlier this year, at least 383 clinical trials that were already in progress were abruptly cancelled, cutting off over 74,000 trial participants from their experimental treatments, monitoring, or follow-ups”

"Mr. Trump’s abuses of spending power fall into three categories. First, he has refused to spend money that Congress allocated...Second, Mr. Trump has spent money that Congress has not allocated...Third, the president has taken steps that effectively overturn Congress’s spending decisions."

“I never thought I would lose my father in this way,” said Cheila Carranza, 14, this week, holding back tears as she gazed at a photo of him on her phone in her grandmother’s crowded home, where she lives in one room with her mother and two siblings.

“closer inspection shows that an increasing number of structural supports — across businesses, labor markets, consumers and stocks — are looking wobbly. A Jenga-like collapse, meaning an unexpected economic downturn, is not inevitable. But it is a growing, underappreciated possibility.”

“The former guard at a military prison notorious for its harsh treatment of Palestinians told the AP detainees were routinely shackled with chains and kicked and hit with batons, and that the facility had been dubbed a ‘graveyard’ because so many prisoners were dying there.”

Will Kash investigate this? “An Indiana Senate Republican who President Donald Trump called out in a Truth Social post Sunday for not backing the White House’s plan to draw new congressional maps was later targeted by a swatting, according to local authorities.”

‘Trump is inconsistent with Christian principles’: why the Democratic party is seeing a rise of white clergy candidates - The Guardian

How Elon Musk’s Changes to X Made Our Discourse Far Stupider talkingpointsmemo.com/tpm-25/how-e...

“A democracy whose citizens operate with fundamentally different understandings of the past and its implications cannot sustain itself. Americans desperately need a shared story, with all its complexities and contradictions. Without that, this American experiment, as we understand it, will end.”

I have to admit I’m surprised to see Trenton Bishop O’Connell here. He was the president of CUA my senior year and was definitely taking it in a more politically conservative direction.

“The standards for high school students, approved Thursday by the Florida Board of Education, include instruction on the use of the word ‘McCarthyism' as an insult and how the use of the terms ‘red hunter and red scare’ is identified with ‘slander against anti-communists.’”

“For years, MAGA influencers demanded the release of the Epstein files. Now that 20,000 documents have been released, many raising questions about Donald Trump, they're shrugging.”

That “in” is important. It means they’re looking at options for invading another country. Didn’t he promise the opposite when he ran?

NEW: The first two years of Massachusetts' millionaire tax has raised $3 billion more than expected. And rather than driving the rich away, IPS researchers found that the number of millionaires has *increased.* Tax the rich. Greg Ryan in @bloomberg.com:

“A federal immigration crackdown is worsening New Jersey’s health care labor crisis, forcing thousands of immigrant workers out of jobs, and putting the state’s most vulnerable residents at risk.”

"Work funded by the canceled grants included technical support for farmers using climate-friendly practices like planting cover crops, local food purchases for schools and improving nutrition for people receiving federal food aid." www.reuters.com/legal/litiga...

The current $473 million price tag now includes $172 million spent in LA, almost $270 million for the occupation of D.C. nearly $15 million for Portland, Oregon; and more than $3 million for Memphis, Tennessee, and almost $13 million for Chicago, which both began last month.

“The Trump administration has developed plans for a shift in homelessness policy that would slash support for long-term housing programs, and critics say it could quickly place as many as 170,000 formerly homeless people at risk of returning to the streets.”

“As the number of children diagnosed with autism rises in New Jersey, Rutgers University is launching a new federally funded program to prepare the next generation of special education administrators.”

Rutgers University is launching a new federally funded program to prepare the next generation of special education administrators amid rising autism rates.

"Four in five New Jersey parents who want afterschool child care can’t enroll their children, according to a new survey."

This is long overdue. Charter school governance is the Wild West and there needs to be greater transparency and accountability.

“The $80 million campaign aims to contact 10.5 million voters nationwide, through canvassing, digital advertising, voter contact mail and an early vote campaign. That includes knocking on 4.5 million doors across four Senate battleground states — Iowa, Georgia, Michigan and North Carolina.”

“Nearly 3.6 million New Jerseyans cast ballots in last week’s Nov. 4 election—representing approximately 54% of registered voters—the highest turnout for a non-presidential election in the state since at least 1998.”

A U.S., European or Arab policy that says no to formal annexation but does nothing to stop de facto annexation will be interpreted by Israel as an invitation to continue apace. Israel has made life in the West Bank increasingly unbearable for the approximately three million Palestinians living there

Yet another reminder that this administration does not care about everyday people. Trump administration declares CFPB funding illegal www.politico.com/news/2025/11...

“Alongside the faculty reductions, all Rider employees will see a 14% pay cut starting December 1. The university is also suspending retirement contributions indefinitely and requiring remaining faculty to teach more classes per semester.”

“Despite having shed all sorts of woke baggage like qualified faculty, library books, and gender studies, New College somehow costs the state much more. Much, much more. In the 2020-2021 school year, New College’s total spending was $53 million. Now? $93 million.”

Really cant understand how badly the Dems messaged this fold. The easy out was to say "we never expected Trump would illegally starve children and when SCOTUS stepped in to illegally help him we couldn't put kids at risk."

No, no, no. Senate Democrats secured the concepts of a plan for a handshake for a promise to hold a vote they will lose.

Just utter abject failure. Unbelievable.

“Democrats may have been more surprised than anybody to discover their shutdown strategy was actually drawing political blood. Their instinct was to withdraw the knife anyway.”