They want the U.S. ignorant. They need the U.S. ignorant. The more ignorant people are, the more likely people are to believe their bullshit and vote for them.
Besides, people who are not ignorant make them feel insecure.
All this plus prayers / positive intentions to the Senate Parlimentarian! She is doing an awesome job pushing back on a lot of the fuckery in this BUB and, so far, the leadership seems disinclined to ignore her. She is my new hero!!
I am at a friend's convocation today, he and I started out in the same class/year but he took a side route before going back to school a couple of decades later.
Noticed there are lots of people with foreign names and females in the various graduating classes today.
This is definitely not the domain of the angry white guys who make up the bulk of MAGAt yout.
Not sure letters beat phone calls. Every former and some current legislative staffers say the phone call count is “what counts” on a daily basis. Immediate gratification has made its way to the political elite.
It's time to play hardball. To all you practicing physicians: when a patient comes to you, ask them if they are Trumpistas. If so, send them away, regardless of how serious their condition might be.
It's no longer a question of "free speech" or "freedom of conscience". It's a question of survival.
I would suggest the Doonesbury treatment method, from years ago:
“Do you want the evidence-based medical treatment that may or may not be lawful or do you want the ideologically-correct treatment approved by Republican legislators.”
Never lose sight of the fact that the stupid big ol' fat tax giveaway to rich fuckwads is the reason they get to pretend that they need to destroy the services of government to save the budget. Make the tax giveaway GO away and hey, presto, there's plenny moneys in the budget to spend.
Wish my alma mater, the university of (what the fuck) Florida (again) would have stood up to Rick Scott. By the time Ronny D took over Tally, they were so used to being subservient, they didn't even do more than whimper when the last round of ruffo-isms came down.
I thought paper letters were inefficient, because after the anthrax incidents 22 years ago, snail mail goes through additional screening before reaching a Congressional office. Therefore, it is not effective for anything time sensitive, like influencing pending legislation up for a vote.
"...Although the Service’s deliveries to agency mail rooms (and third-party agents
hired to receive and handle an agency’s mail) were initially delayed up to 3 months in the months immediately following the October 2001 anthrax incident, by late February 2002, the time frame for delivering irradiated mail had decreased to about 8 days. Currently, D.C. federal mail typically is delayed 2 to 3 days...."
I'm affiliated with one of these universities, and I can assure you we are well aware of the threats both existing and on the legislative horizon. Our messaging has centered on the importance of higher education and academic research to American competitiveness and prosperity since the Second World War. Our congressional delegation is all-Democratic and on our side. It hasn't helped.
This isn't in itself a reason not to try. It is a reason to demand more from the people we send to Washington to represent us, and for those of us on the left, to demand that the Democratic Party stop sucking at getting elected.
Pretty sure it was the same way in the McCarthy era when colleges and universities groveled before the government and blackballed any academic who appeared to be further to left of Richard Nixon.
This is a horribly naive screed. Universities need to contact their elected officials? Oh, what a good idea I'm sure they hadn't thought of that.
Paper letters? Have you been asleep for 2 and 1/2 decades? Since the anthrax attacks nearly 25 years ago, the postal security measures protecting Congress means that a paper letter can take months to reach a congressional office. So much for trying to influence a vote scheduled for next week.
Listing the statistics of the value of biomedical research at a university? Another novel idea that I am sure no University administrator has ever thought of since 1945. Thank you!
Seriously, this article gives other people work to do, assumes that those people are stupid, and then over promises the result of a few letters and phone calls to already well informed public officials who know damn well the value of their local universities and will vote to destroy those universities regardless.
The author of this waste of bytes should return to college to study how time works.
'this waste of bytes' sounds suspiciously early 00's to me. also boring.
meaning i'm actually eager to WRITE A LETTER to my congresscritters. i'm not entirely sure how to 'write letters' but i'm pretty sure i can figure it out.
Well, thank you so much for reading it though. And yes please write a letter to your elected officials, but if the letter's addressed to Capitol Hill expect it not to be received for 3 to 4 weeks. And then don't expect to receive a reply for another three to four weeks. All told that's 2 months. A lot can happen in 2 months. The son of a bitch is only been in office for six months.
I read about this earlier this week, but the piece I read didn’t say just that funding for higher education would be curtailed unless the institutions followed the party line. It said funding would be killed period. Which means only the wealthy can afford college.
That’s the way it was when I went to college. The student loan program did not exist. However, tuition wasn’t out of control. It cost my father $250 per semester to send me to a state school in Virginia. Many land grant colleges did not charge tuition to in-state students. When I transferred to AU, it was $350 a semester. So middle class kids could and did go to school.
But what Republicans want to do now, with tuition costs in the hundreds of thousands of dollars, is prevent people like me from getting an education at all, which will also limit their job opportunities.
So it is a plot to dismantle any classes but rich and poor. I fervently hope this ugly bill costs them any chance at power in politics for decades, if not forever.
The oligarchs are ok with limiting who goes to university.
They don't want social mobility and they certainly don't want broad-minded citizens.
They want a small coterie of extremely privileged students and an even smaller cadre of high-performing plebians who are grateful for the opportunity.
An excellent and trenchant example of this is R.F. Kuang's novel "Babel" in which bilingual students are the tiny rump of scholarship students in the British university system. Worth the read, very instructive.
You know public education stopped being affordable in the Reagan era when Racist Raygun and his Maladministration were upset that Black students were getting as well-educated as White students, yes ... ?
“ But what Republicans want to do now, with tuition costs in the hundreds of thousands of dollars, is prevent people like me from getting an education at all, which will also limit their job opportunities.”
What are you talking about? Soon they’ll be plenty of mindless manual labor jerbs in horrendous working conditions that pay you in company script and pocket lint. As I once overheard a bunch of Republicans chatting amongst themselves say: “Someone’s got to clean the toilets.” Why shouldn’t it be you, peasant?
Postcards work too. Like letters they must be retained as RECORDS.
In 20,000 years, when the Alien Overlords (AO) finally visit our completely dead planet, they will be able to dig through the rubble to find the letters and postcards. AO grad students will then be assigned to the task of using the trace DNA on the letters and postcards to 3D print out replicas of the writers of the letters and post cards. (This is why you need to sign your letter and post card with a small bit of your own spit.)
The AO grad students will then shake the Replicant humans hands and say "Greetings! We're finally here!"
The annoyed Replicant humans will get pissy and say "What took you guys so long?"
Glad you're feeling better about the whole situation with the nice cover and everything. Meanwhile major private research universities are cutting 10% of employment and shedding faculty. Meanwhile, Trump has shut down the multi-university research center working on a vaccine for AIDS.
It's going to take a lot of University magazine covers to bring that back.
They want the U.S. ignorant. They need the U.S. ignorant. The more ignorant people are, the more likely people are to believe their bullshit and vote for them.
Besides, people who are not ignorant make them feel insecure.
All those things, and especially if those people are Black
https://bsky.app/profile/jamellebouie.net/post/3lskfgwlmus2z
Excellent. Also thanks for the priority ranking of email, letter and phone calls. But is there still time for letters?
I personally will send an email and follow up with a phone call
That way, you have a paper trail if they try to ignore you
All this plus prayers / positive intentions to the Senate Parlimentarian! She is doing an awesome job pushing back on a lot of the fuckery in this BUB and, so far, the leadership seems disinclined to ignore her. She is my new hero!!
All of this
I wish this non-comment had more likes
People don't appreciate the job she's doing
I am at a friend's convocation today, he and I started out in the same class/year but he took a side route before going back to school a couple of decades later.
Noticed there are lots of people with foreign names and females in the various graduating classes today.
This is definitely not the domain of the angry white guys who make up the bulk of MAGAt yout.
They're not in school
https://www.wonkette.com/p/hello-university-administrators-hoping/comment/129742558
"A bad idea is a bad idea forever"
Not sure letters beat phone calls. Every former and some current legislative staffers say the phone call count is “what counts” on a daily basis. Immediate gratification has made its way to the political elite.
That's why people - Senators - like Kristin Gillibrand turn their voice mail off
It's time to play hardball. To all you practicing physicians: when a patient comes to you, ask them if they are Trumpistas. If so, send them away, regardless of how serious their condition might be.
It's no longer a question of "free speech" or "freedom of conscience". It's a question of survival.
As much as this appeals, I would think that licensing boards would have serious issues with this.
(unfortunately)
Sad to say, you are probably right. We have to find a way to play hardball that is actually legitimate.
I would suggest the Doonesbury treatment method, from years ago:
“Do you want the evidence-based medical treatment that may or may not be lawful or do you want the ideologically-correct treatment approved by Republican legislators.”
Never lose sight of the fact that the stupid big ol' fat tax giveaway to rich fuckwads is the reason they get to pretend that they need to destroy the services of government to save the budget. Make the tax giveaway GO away and hey, presto, there's plenny moneys in the budget to spend.
They could also cut the multiple billions they want to give to DoD
That'll never happen, though
Wish my alma mater, the university of (what the fuck) Florida (again) would have stood up to Rick Scott. By the time Ronny D took over Tally, they were so used to being subservient, they didn't even do more than whimper when the last round of ruffo-isms came down.
I thought paper letters were inefficient, because after the anthrax incidents 22 years ago, snail mail goes through additional screening before reaching a Congressional office. Therefore, it is not effective for anything time sensitive, like influencing pending legislation up for a vote.
I would refer you to the 2008 GAO report that I posted below. Here's the link again:
Link: https://www.gao.gov/assets/gao-08-938r.pdf
The applicable part:
"...Although the Service’s deliveries to agency mail rooms (and third-party agents
hired to receive and handle an agency’s mail) were initially delayed up to 3 months in the months immediately following the October 2001 anthrax incident, by late February 2002, the time frame for delivering irradiated mail had decreased to about 8 days. Currently, D.C. federal mail typically is delayed 2 to 3 days...."
I'm affiliated with one of these universities, and I can assure you we are well aware of the threats both existing and on the legislative horizon. Our messaging has centered on the importance of higher education and academic research to American competitiveness and prosperity since the Second World War. Our congressional delegation is all-Democratic and on our side. It hasn't helped.
This isn't in itself a reason not to try. It is a reason to demand more from the people we send to Washington to represent us, and for those of us on the left, to demand that the Democratic Party stop sucking at getting elected.
Pretty sure it was the same way in the McCarthy era when colleges and universities groveled before the government and blackballed any academic who appeared to be further to left of Richard Nixon.
It is different now. You can be in trouble if you are to the left of Attila the Hun.
This is a horribly naive screed. Universities need to contact their elected officials? Oh, what a good idea I'm sure they hadn't thought of that.
Paper letters? Have you been asleep for 2 and 1/2 decades? Since the anthrax attacks nearly 25 years ago, the postal security measures protecting Congress means that a paper letter can take months to reach a congressional office. So much for trying to influence a vote scheduled for next week.
Listing the statistics of the value of biomedical research at a university? Another novel idea that I am sure no University administrator has ever thought of since 1945. Thank you!
Seriously, this article gives other people work to do, assumes that those people are stupid, and then over promises the result of a few letters and phone calls to already well informed public officials who know damn well the value of their local universities and will vote to destroy those universities regardless.
The author of this waste of bytes should return to college to study how time works.
'this waste of bytes' sounds suspiciously early 00's to me. also boring.
meaning i'm actually eager to WRITE A LETTER to my congresscritters. i'm not entirely sure how to 'write letters' but i'm pretty sure i can figure it out.
Well, thank you so much for reading it though. And yes please write a letter to your elected officials, but if the letter's addressed to Capitol Hill expect it not to be received for 3 to 4 weeks. And then don't expect to receive a reply for another three to four weeks. All told that's 2 months. A lot can happen in 2 months. The son of a bitch is only been in office for six months.
Yes please do contact your lawmakers. Good luck.
This is not the place for you. Go back to Breitbart.
"...the postal security measures protecting Congress means that a paper letter can take months to reach a congressional office."
One hopes you have statistics to back this up, because it sounds like something you pulled out of thin air.
Nope, here it is, friend:
https://community.citizensclimate.org/resources/item/19/304#:~:text=you%20can%20put%20the%20letters%20in%20an%20envelope%20and%20mail%20them%20to%20the%20D.C.%20congressional%20office.%20Allow%20three%20weeks%20for%20letters%20to%20pass%20screening%20and%20be%20delivered
See above. Current delay is 2- 3 days
The current delay is weeks. A 2008 (!) GAO letter to Congress claimed 2 to 3 day delivery. Calendar says this is 2025.
In 2011 -- after the 2008 George W. Bush Administration letter, Washington NGOs were telling their supporters that paper mailing takes THREE WEEKS to reach congressional staffers. Source: https://community.citizensclimate.org/resources/item/19/304#:~:text=you%20can%20put%20the%20letters%20in%20an%20envelope%20and%20mail%20them%20to%20the%20D.C.%20congressional%20office.%20Allow%20three%20weeks%20for%20letters%20to%20pass%20screening%20and%20be%20delivered
I read about this earlier this week, but the piece I read didn’t say just that funding for higher education would be curtailed unless the institutions followed the party line. It said funding would be killed period. Which means only the wealthy can afford college.
That’s the way it was when I went to college. The student loan program did not exist. However, tuition wasn’t out of control. It cost my father $250 per semester to send me to a state school in Virginia. Many land grant colleges did not charge tuition to in-state students. When I transferred to AU, it was $350 a semester. So middle class kids could and did go to school.
But what Republicans want to do now, with tuition costs in the hundreds of thousands of dollars, is prevent people like me from getting an education at all, which will also limit their job opportunities.
So it is a plot to dismantle any classes but rich and poor. I fervently hope this ugly bill costs them any chance at power in politics for decades, if not forever.
The oligarchs are ok with limiting who goes to university.
They don't want social mobility and they certainly don't want broad-minded citizens.
They want a small coterie of extremely privileged students and an even smaller cadre of high-performing plebians who are grateful for the opportunity.
An excellent and trenchant example of this is R.F. Kuang's novel "Babel" in which bilingual students are the tiny rump of scholarship students in the British university system. Worth the read, very instructive.
Right!
You know public education stopped being affordable in the Reagan era when Racist Raygun and his Maladministration were upset that Black students were getting as well-educated as White students, yes ... ?
“ But what Republicans want to do now, with tuition costs in the hundreds of thousands of dollars, is prevent people like me from getting an education at all, which will also limit their job opportunities.”
What are you talking about? Soon they’ll be plenty of mindless manual labor jerbs in horrendous working conditions that pay you in company script and pocket lint. As I once overheard a bunch of Republicans chatting amongst themselves say: “Someone’s got to clean the toilets.” Why shouldn’t it be you, peasant?
Many jobs require a degree, even if you don’t really need one to do that particular job.
Being forced by economics not to be able to get a degree will put such jobs out of people’s reach.
Postcards work too. Like letters they must be retained as RECORDS.
In 20,000 years, when the Alien Overlords (AO) finally visit our completely dead planet, they will be able to dig through the rubble to find the letters and postcards. AO grad students will then be assigned to the task of using the trace DNA on the letters and postcards to 3D print out replicas of the writers of the letters and post cards. (This is why you need to sign your letter and post card with a small bit of your own spit.)
The AO grad students will then shake the Replicant humans hands and say "Greetings! We're finally here!"
The annoyed Replicant humans will get pissy and say "What took you guys so long?"
getting it right:
https://www.harvardmagazine.com//sites/default/files/styles/toc_issue_cover/public/2025-06/ja25.jpg.webp?itok=-CNZWFHr
Now that's what I like to see
If only university magazine covers actually accomplished anything.
TROLL ALERT! Everybody block Herr Snackmeier
I think it reflects an 'official position' of the institution
and that official position is one which is both relevant here,
and inspirational to maaaaaaany more humans than just the Harvard community, I think
Glad you're feeling better about the whole situation with the nice cover and everything. Meanwhile major private research universities are cutting 10% of employment and shedding faculty. Meanwhile, Trump has shut down the multi-university research center working on a vaccine for AIDS.
It's going to take a lot of University magazine covers to bring that back.
Harvard - which remains one of the most trusted institutions in the country - is giving the green light to say "stop!" to all of that to everyone
I think that has value
I can't decide which is worse, the mixed metaphor or the death grip on the pollyanna act.
okay
we can disagree on this