I previously criticized the American Association of University Professors (AAUP) for selecting Todd Wolfson as its new president. Wolfson is a controversial voice within the teaching academy and immediately doubled down on the bias against conservatives and those calling for greater intellectual diversity. He is now decrying the election and publicly joining the resistance to the Trump Administration.
Some of us have been writing for years about the decline in viewpoint diversity and the rise of an academic orthodoxy in higher education. It is one of the focuses of my new book, The Indispensable Right. Wolfson personifies the intolerance for free speech and diversity of viewpoints that now characterize American higher education.
Despite calls for greater tolerance, AAUP elected Wolfson, a Rutgers University anthropologist, who was viewed as an ally for those who oppose intellectual diversity in favor of ideological orthodoxy in higher education.
Wolfson is the author of “Digital Rebellion: The Birth of the Cyber Left.” He was known to be openly hostile to those of us who have criticized the purging of faculty ranks of conservatives, libertarians, and dissenters.
Unlike others who try to maintain the pretense of neutrality and tolerance, Wolfson is viewed by some of us as a true believer who supports the activism and orthodoxy in higher education.
It took Wolfson little time to confirm our worst expectations. He issued a statement denouncing the Trump and GOP victories as “disappointing,” dismissing any possibility that he should speak for all academics, including the dwindling number of Republicans, conservatives, libertarians, and independents who voted for the GOP.
Before the election, Inside Higher Ed reported that Wolfson called JD Vance a “fascist.”
On November 7th, he stated:
“While the results of this presidential election are disappointing, we remain steadfast in our commitment to our principles and ensuring that future generations of Americans are afforded the opportunity that higher education provides.
…The AAUP is committed to defending our campuses and the mission of higher education through organizing our communities to face the challenges ahead. Our collective power is needed now more than ever.”
Wolfson declared, “[t]here are massive political intrusions coming on, coming at us around academic freedom. There’s no way to be a neutral arbiter. We must stand for things in this environment.”
Kelly Benjamin, media relations officer for AAUP, also confirmed to Campus Reform that “the growth of repressive forces in American society, much of which is visible on the campus itself, is a source of continuing and acute alarm to the American Association of University Professors…We call on the academic community to resist all public & private assaults against this principle.”
As my book discusses, the AAUP was once the bastion of free speech and academic integrity values. It opposed the invasion of politics into higher education. However, it has become captured by the same forces that have converted our campuses into intolerant spaces for many faculty and students.
Wolfson has been widely criticized for AAUP’s decision to reverse its long-standing opposition to academic boycotts, which is viewed as targeting Israeli institutions. This move is clearly part of his strategy to make AAUP even more of a “fighting organization,” and he has insisted that “collective action of all sorts does not necessarily come into and undermine academic freedom.”
With declining enrollments numbers and revenue, figures like Wolfson are doubling down on the activisim and bias that have turned off many from higher education.
Wolfson’s election shows how the objections of so many to the lack of intellectual diversity and tolerance are having little impact on faculty. When elected officials threaten reductions in support, these same academics are outraged by the attacks on higher education. Many offer perfunctory commitments to intellectual diversity while doing little to achieve it. As shown here, they are continuing to maintain and expand the culture that is suffocating our educational programs on every level.
Jonathan Turley is the Shapiro professor of public interest law at George Washington University and the author of “The Indispensable Right: Free Speech in an Age of Rage.”
AAUP is just another Leftist Indoctrination Entity (aka “LIEs”). And Wolfson is just a Marxist Ultrasubcretin. No point in writing an article about such stupid subhumans. Such organizations should simply be abolished or neutralized. The stupidity they’re peddling is an infectious disease for which there is no cure.
abc
More proof that Dems have lost their minds: they think that if a biological male, who says he is a woman, gets elected to Congress, that means he should be allowed in women’s safe spaces (bathrooms and locker rooms) by virtue of HIS election to Congress.
You can see how crazy the Dems have become by the fact that it’s the GOP that is now the party of feminism.
Personally, I am all for this! Let those Liberal Elite broads in Congress be uncomfortable for a change! I hope he/she walks around in there with his weenie hanging out while he powders his nose, and adjusts his pantyhose!
The damage done to the student body by these so calleed “intellectuals” have done immence damage to the minds of their students. Tenure should be abandoned,
Your use of the term intellectual is incorrect, even with quotation marks around the word. The lying Marxist ideologues going by such false labels as teacher, instructor, professor, and so forth are the opposite of what an intellectual is.
I know that I joke around a lot, but let me be serious for a minute. Trump is going to have his hands full the next 2 1/2 months, and perhaps we can help him, and his transition team. There are a lot of very wise and creative people here, so why don’t we help think up names for all the internment camps we are going to need for the celebrities, writers, actors, bloggers, talking heads and marginalized peoples we have to imprison.
Let me start the list off!
Camp Sanity
Camp Serenity
Camp Binary
Camp MAGA
Camp Get-Over-Yourself!
Camp Constitution
Camp Honesty
Camp Self-Reflection
Camp Assault Rifle
I would provide a better list, but my stomach is from Hell today. I discovered the Caramel Cappuccino Mix K-Pods, that I have been chug-a-lugging, have sucralose and aspartame in them. It has been sooo bad that the EPA sent a Methane Response Team here because their satellites detected a large plume of methane gas in the upper atmosphere. That was embarrassing.
A pathetic loser. He’s only begun to be “disappointed” by events.
I assume that membership in the organization is voluntary. Are there dues required as members? If increasing numbers of professors refuse to join then his group will be relegated to the ash heap of history, where it belongs.
OT
The legal usurpation and abuse as lawfare by Alvin Bragg, New York, and Judge Juan Merchan, must be accelerated, appealed, and adjudicated by the judicial branch and Supreme Court before the so-called “defendant” takes office as the President of the United Sates of America.
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________
“Extreme remedies are very appropriate for extreme diseases.”
– Hippocrates
_________________
The singular American failure is the judicial branch, with emphasis on the Supreme Court.
More Turley swill trying to validate MAGA and Trumpism. Trump is a liar, a misogynist, a convicted criminal, someone who pushes lies about migrants stealing and eating pets, running rampant, overwhelming small towns, raping women and committing murders; the truth is that native-born Americans are far more likely to commit crimes than migrants. He lies about migrants taking jobs away from Americans–migrants do work that Americans don’t want to do, like working in meatpacking plants, agricultural work, janitorial and housekeeping jobs and nonunion construction. He lies about our economy being in shambles when it is the envy of the world–this lie was amplified by MAGA media, of which Turley is a paid pundit, and it stuck–but, it’s still a lie. He and MAGA media called Kamala Harris every kind of ugly name, calling her “stupid”, a “DEI hire”, accused her of screwing her way to the top, and lied about her not having any kind of agenda, even though she had a very specific agenda and it was Trump who did nothing but lie about somehow making personal wealth “soar”, and grocery and housing prices fall precipitiously–all without any plan. This kind of political campaign, financed by people like Musk, who gave Trump $200 million in exchange for power, is not “conservatism”–it is MAGA, and it is destructive to American democracy. So, now, Turley is paid to attack those in academia who oppose Trumpism and MAGA ism.
Wow, Gigi. Seek help, perhaps some prescription medications.
annemalcolm: WHAT FACTS did I get wrong? Name them or STFU.
No GiGi, you hit every single “fakt” on the DNC talking points list. Here’s a cookie, now go away.
Your ugly profanity reveals so much about your mental condition and why you are a Maoist. For starters, PRESIDENT Trump is not a “convicted criminal,” as he has never been sentenced. As we speak, those spurious charges are being overturned. Haitians do eat cats as a matter of well-known custom. Certain other cultures (Vietnam, N. Korea) do have a taste for dogs. They even have a dog market. We have no problem with “migrants.” President Trump first and current wives are immigrants. (So is my my husband. My mother is a refugee.) I view $35 Trillion and inflation as a problem but perhaps you are of the economic level of those not affected by it. Biden painted himself into a corner by stating that the VP would be a Black woman. That eliminated all qualified to a small subset based on race and gender, not merit. Plus, she didn’t get one vote in the 2020 primaries and had to drop out before Iowa because compared to the motley crew she was the WORST and rejected by Democrats. She couldn’t answer simple questions and delivered nothing but word salads, even unable to say what she was planning if elected, answering that she was raised in a middle class family (she was not) and would lift up all our dreams, aspirations, hopes, blah, blah, blah, but no policy or plan. I personally had a belly full of her here in CA and didn’t even vote for her for US Senate in 2016 and instead voted for her Democrat opponent, Loretta Sanchez. She was the mistress of a very powerful married CA politician (Willie Brown) who got her her first, second and third jobs, BMWs, multiple introductions, and so forth. So, perhaps we should ask her if Mrs. Brown thinks she stands for “strong families”? She lied on many issues: smoking weed in college while listing to rappers who weren’t even around then. Plus, let’s admit her husband is a disaster, knocked up the nanny, paid her off, then beat up a girlfriend. Super duper husband image. Her choice of VP even worse and a liar, stolen valor, and possible Chinese spy. Plan for high groceries? Go after the gouging grocery owners. Lol. Speaking of billionaires, who got Soros money? Bloomberg, Moskovitz, Reid Hoffman, etc. That’s it. I’m done with you. Bye.
Annemalcolm: Haitians do eat cats as a matter of well-known custom
That is not true. It mars your otherwise excellent response.
https://www.haitianreport.com/2019/03/does-haitian-eat-cats.html
from 2019, not recently. Is this false? I looked for a link to info previous to 2024.
Not to worry.
Milquetoasthouse is a legend in his own mind only.
Yes, it’s false! You’d need to be totally nuts not to see that. It’s obviously made up, tongue in cheek. And the source is hardly a reliable one for anything; it’s just a blog where anyone can write anything.
But even that worthless so-called “source” says that they never eat dogs, they never eat pets, and it’s only a small number of country bumpkins who will eat a cat only once a year. It’s all stupid nonsense, but that’s what your “source” says, so you can’t go beyond it.
There is certainly NO indication, not even a single first-hand ALLEGATION that any Haitian in Springfield (or anywhere else in the USA) ate anyone’s pet.
Gig,
ALL of them – every single one.
And I have pointed that out to you OVER AND OVER.
When you repeat the same false claims OVER AND OVER,
After being informed of your errors.
You go from being wrong, to being a liar to being immoral and unethical.
All of them.
Trump Won.
Nuff Said.
Ban For Life!
Exactly, where’s that tiny violin music?
In a long article criticizing Wolfson – Trump is mentioned twice and only in passing.
Your suffering from severe TDS
The verdict of this election is that YOU – the left are the criminals, liars, hateful hating haters.
The single most important and common reason given in exit polls for voting for Trump – was the egregious lawlessness snd lies of the left.
Gigi
This election was a verdict that you and the left are the LIARS
“the truth is that native-born Americans are far more likely to commit crimes than migrants.”
False.
First migrants are people who come to a country perform a task and then return to their home contry.
Your just engaged in more idiotic left newspeak.
We call those who come and go with the farm season – migrant farmworkers.
We call those who come to state immigrants.
The US is a nation of immigrants
not a nation of migrants.
It is true that LEGAL immigrants TEND to commit less crimes than native born – though that is very situational and subjective.
Historically immigrant groups commit more crimes than natives.
Illegal immigrants are a completely different and unsual group and tend to have two distinct components.
Those coming to the US to seek a better life – who for the most part strive to stay under the radar.
They know if they are caught for anything – they will likely be deported.
But there are MANY illegal immigrants who are criminals, drug dealers, terrorists who are coming here to commit crimes or to escape puishment for crimes they already committed.
These commit LOTS of crimes.
“He lies about migrants taking jobs away from Americans”
Nope.
“(illegal im)migrants do work that Americans don’t want to do,”
A small portion do. The overwhelming majority do NOT
“like working in meatpacking plants, agricultural work, janitorial and housekeeping jobs and nonunion construction.”
Who did those jobs before 2021 ?
This is a totallystupid argument.
“He lies about our economy being in shambles when it is the envy of the world”
The economy is in shambles and it is the envy of the world.
The average US familiy as LOST $3500/year in spendable income over the past 4 years.
That is a disaster. That comes fromBIDEN’s data.
“his lie was amplified by MAGA media”
No it is a truth that the overwhelming majority of Americans know from personal experience.
My tenants – working class families – can not afford their rent.
I have not raised rent in years. But inflation has hit them so hard that they can not afford the rent they were comfortable with in 2020.
People are not deceived by MAGA media.
They know the state of the economy from their wallet.
“He and MAGA media called Kamala Harris every kind of ugly name”
Racist, fascist, nazi, totalitarian, mysoginist, transphobe, homophobe,
hateful hating hater ?
The left and Harris is the Queen of hate speech.
“calling her “stupid””
Seems to be true
” a “DEI hire”
Definitely true.
“accused her of screwing her way to the top”
Again true.
“lied about her not having any kind of agenda, even though she had a very specific agenda”
We all know that Harris has 80 pages of “aggenda” saying nothing”
“it was Trump who did nothing but lie about somehow making personal wealth “soar””
Family incomes rose 3400/yr under Trump – again government data.
John: First migrants are people who come to a country perform a task and then return to their home contry.
That is not true. Immigrants are a subset of migrants. A migrant is anyone who moves from one place to another, whether temporarily or permanently. An immigrant is someone who has migrated into a country (and thus every immigrant to one country is an emigrant from another) with the intent to remain permanently. Immigrants can be further divided into legal and illegal; both are equally immigrants, and thus also equally migrants.
You can win any argument by changing the meaning of words.
But you can not alter the past.
The word in the past for those moving permanently is immigrant.
The word for those moving temporarily – usually for work is migrant.
Britanica – migrant: a bird or animal that moves from one area to another at different times of the year
Humans are animal last I checked.
Cambridge – migrate – moving from one place to another at different times of year:
There are migrant farm workers – not immigrant farm workers (usually)
Birds migrate – they do not immigrate.
“both are equally immigrants, and thus also equally migrants.”
non sequitur.
You are correct about emigrate and immigrate – but that is not relevant.
No one raised that.
John: “like working in meatpacking plants, agricultural work, janitorial and housekeeping jobs and nonunion construction.”
Who did those jobs before 2021 ?
Mostly illegal immigrants. It’s not as if there weren’t any before 2021.
Speak to a few farm managers and you’ll hear the truth: it’s impossible to hire Americans for some jobs. They simply refuse to do it, for any reasonable pay.
I’ve spoken to a dairy farm manager, and he told me he’s tried hiring Americans at $20 an hour to work with the cows; the few who accept the job quit within a day, as soon as they realize what it entails. So he employs illegal Guatemalans.
“Mostly illegal immigrants. It’s not as if there weren’t any before 2021.”
False – just over 56% of farm workers are immigrants. but only 1/4 of those are illegal immigrants.
With minor changes the same people who were doing farmwork before 2021 are doing it today
Yet there are 11M-21M additional illegal immigrants in the past 4 years – a tiny portion of those are doing farm work.
In fact according to Biden administration data less than 3M of the illegal immigrants from the past 4 years are employed.
“Speak to a few farm managers and you’ll hear the truth: it’s impossible to hire Americans for some jobs.”
Correct – but the POINT of what I said was that only about 1/8th of farmworkers are ILLEGAL immigrants.
“They simply refuse to do it, for any reasonable pay.”
keep beating that straw man.
“I’ve spoken to a dairy farm manager, and he told me he’s tried hiring Americans at $20 an hour to work with the cows; the few who accept the job quit within a day, as soon as they realize what it entails.”
keep beating that straw man.
“So he employs illegal Guatemalans.”
He may be – but only 1 in 8 farmworkers are ILLEGAL immigrants. and even of those – there are millions of illegal immigrants that came prior to 2020.
The argument that you and those on the left are making is that the economy will collapase – food and and construction prices will rise if we mass deport illegal immigrants.
That argument is FALSE.
I would note as an aside that farmers have been working hard to automate over the past several decades.
They do so even though farming is one of the harder industries to automate.
Why ?
Because there are massive market presssures that keep food prices low – while the US is the largest food exporter on the planet we also import a great deal of food.
If the price of US production rises – other countries will move in.
Another major factor is that one thing that both democrats and republican presidents like to do is raid employers looking for illegal immigrants.
Employers caught with illegal immigrant workers get the crap fined out of them.
It does not matter how cheap an illegal immigrant will work – if you have to add the cost of massive fines if you get caught, as well as massive disruption.
Therefore if citizens will not do the job, and hiring illegals subjects you to enormous fines and disruptions that can easily result in customers refusing to buy from you in the future
one answer is to automate – even tasks that are normally not suitable for automation can be automated if the incentives are high enough.
Gigi,
Musk spent $200M on this election.
The entire election cost nearly 15B.
In nearly all races everywhere Republicans were outspent 2:1 or 3:1.
Gigi, voters heard and correctly discarded your claims prior to the election.
They were not deceived.
They know the truth of their own wallets.
They voted that Democrats are liars.
The voted that the MSM is liars.
They voted that Democrats and Harris are more dangerous that Trump.
We do not agree on how dangerous Trump is.
Many of us do not think he is any danger at all.
Many who voted FOR trump think he is very dangerous.
But ALL of the majority of people who voted for Trump did so because they decided Harris and YOU are more dangerous.
Yowsir!
Gigi,
Wow! I guess you’re right about one thing, Harris does have an agenda. Just look at her history in CA and the last four years of the illegitimate Biden-Harris administration. The agenda is clear and there is not a single element that is good for this nation. Good riddance, lunatics.
PS: it looks like the last bit of the agenda is escalating the war with Russia. Pure insanity, the act of fools
Dude, the election is over and you lost bigly. Did you miss it, you stupid twat?
Collective bargaining, unions, and labor laws are irrefutably unconstitutional communism. Collectivists or communists believe that because they have large numbers, they have the power. They believe they have the justifiable power to threaten and commit, violence, trespass, and property damage. The Constitution defines the severe limitations and restrictions on government and the maximal “individual” rights and freedoms of “individuals.” The Constitution allows free individuals and free enterprises to negotiate contracts. Americans are free to operate a free enterprise or accept or reject employment. The Constitution provides no validity, legitimacy, rights, freedoms, or power to any so-called “labor” collective. Every person on the planet executes “labor” or “work” as it is referred to by physics.
Karl Marx wrote the Communist Manifesto 59 years after the adoption of the Constitution because none of the principles of the Communist Manifesto were in the Constitution. Had the principles of the Communist Manifesto been in the Constitution, Karl Marx would have had no reason to write the Communist Manifesto. The principles of the Communist Manifesto were not in the Constitution then, and the principles of the Communist Manifesto are not in the Constitution now.
The Constitution does not provide unions the right to threaten and commit violence. Unions and labor laws are unconstitutional. So-called labor laws aid and abet thugs and gangs. Unions have only one element of leverage: Criminal violence. Unions exist to threaten and commit trespass, property damage, and physical injury. Labor laws merely facilitate trespass, property damage, and physical injury.
Americans enjoy the right “peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.” Americans in unions have the right to quit work, but they have no right to commit violence or to trespass. Unions do not peaceably assemble.
The entire communistic American welfare state is unconstitutional.
Unions are criminal organizations that must be extirpated along with so-called “labor” laws.
* Food is unaffordable in the lower class and sub- lower class. Who’s making all the money on that? Do you know? What’s going on?
Here’s a good one. Read it through to the end: “According to the search results, Todd Wolfson, a journalism and media studies professor at Rutgers University, was selected as the new president of the American Association of University Professors (AAUP). In an interview, Wolfson stated that he decided to run for president because he felt the need to respond to the current crisis in higher education, including declining public funding, ballooning student debt, and attacks on academic freedom. He emphasized the importance of organizing and demanding shared governance, which gives faculty a right to review and challenge policies.
Additionally, Wolfson’s background as a union leader and his involvement in the Rutgers University faculty strike in 2023, as well as his leadership in uniting multiple types of higher education workers, may have contributed to his selection as AAUP president.
It’s worth noting that Wolfson’s stance on academic freedom and his willingness to take a strong stance against perceived threats to it, such as his public criticism of Senator JD Vance as a “fascist,” may have also influenced the AAUP’s decision to select him as president. However, the specific reason for his selection is not explicitly stated in the provided search results.”
Let’s have a honest look at Wolfson… he leans so far Left that he had entered the territory of the Reactionary Right, at the top of the Circle where Left comes to meet Right… no decent ‘Classic Liberal’ would ever support this dude and his out of step 1960’s SDS stuff……
OT, but another example of how lucky we were in dodging a Harris admin, DNC union rips leadership for laying off employees without severance
“facing the fallout of callous and short-sighted mismanagement by senior leadership.”
“These cuts go far beyond typical campaign turnover and impact employees who were previously told their positions would be retained after the election,” the statement said.
https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/campaigns/3233316/dnc-union-rips-laying-off-employees-without-severance/
How to blow through $1.5 billion and wind up $18-20 million in debt. Must been all those celebrities they paid who did not move the needle.
But, I thought they were actual supporters of Harris! Silly me.
,,actually.. blowing through moolah is easy for these wokesters.. a lot of pockets to fill under the table.. after all one of their top smiling leaders made a family cottage industry of this…………..
OT
Can we really doubt that the Trump/Biden election was stolen when they are openly defying a state supreme court decision and continuing to count illegal ballots?
Precedents don’t matter anymore. People break laws all the time. Those are the justifications.
https://nypost.com/2024/11/18/opinion/pennsylvania-democrats-show-their-true-disdain-for-democracy-in-bob-casey-dave-mccormick-race
If they are comfortable doing this in full daylight, what are they willing to do in the dark?
Election reform has to be a major issue for the Trump administration. Enough cheating. We aren’t Venezuela….yet.
@Young
In a word: nope. There is no question the dems stole 2020 and 2022. I have said it before, and it’s such a silly thing, but Elon restoring free speech on Twitter very well might have saved the world. America is going to lead the way again, and in spite of the governments of Western Europe – eventually they will change, too. They can’t not in the 21st century. The time of oligarchs is dead. Dead and buried. It is only a matter of time. I do not know what the modern left, in all of their malfeasance, will do. I guess it doesn’t matter if we kick them to the dustbin.
James: ” restoring free speech on Twitter very well might have saved the world.”
I have thought the same.
Note that Kamala won states with no ID requirement.
Yes she did. I think ID can be required for all federal elections despite local laws.
By the way, the census should not count illegals for congressional seats.
“The Times, Places and Manner of holding Elections for Senators and Representatives, shall be prescribed in each State by the Legislature thereof; but the Congress may at any time by Law make or alter such Regulations, except as to the Places of chusing Senators.”
Congress can make election laws. State legislatures can make election laws.
No we should not count anyone except citizens for congressional seats.
* DNA samples to vote.
* personally, I would have run an experiment to prove how many times I could vote but knew it was a federal crime so I didn’t.
Young,
Those people need to be arrested, charged, stand trial. If their peers find them guilty, then they need to do real prison time.
Upstate,
Very true. Stripped of office, banned from any office of public trust, and jailed.
Young: Here are some stats for you, courtesy of Harry Enten of CNN, the “wizard of odds”:
So far, Trump’s vote total is less than 50%–so more than half of those who voted did not vote for him. His margin over Harris, so far, without all of the results being finalized, due to mail and military ballots that are still being tabulated is 1.7%–ALL WITHIN THE MARGIN OF ERROR. And Trump’s number is likely to go down even further This means that the election COULD HAVE GONE EITHER WAY.
Hillary beat Trump in 2016 in the popular vote by 2.1% margin.
Joe Biden beat Trump by 4.4% margin.
Trump is lying when he claims an “historic mandate”–Trump’s “victory”, which was the product of lies, misogyny, fake promises about grocery and housing prices dropping precipitiously and personal wealth soaring, lying about our economy, xenophobia and racism ranks 44th out of 51 in the last 200 years.
The NY Post is MAGA media, owned by Murdoch, and what you cite is nothing but an “opinion piece”.
The only true “election reform” we need is to abolish the Electoral College.
Whatever helps you sleep, Gigi. I know you need comfort, girl.
annemalcolm: It’s part of MAGA indoctrination to be so deep into belief in Trump that you feel entitled to talk down to people who aren’t followers of your lying, convicted criminal, narcissistic sociopathic leader. You are the one who needs help–help understanding how dangerous it is when there is an entire media system dedicated to getting so many people to fall for blatant lies, how dangerous it is when so many people have been indoctrinated to hate others–not just other Americans who disagree with them–of which it is almost half of us–but the cultural “other”–e.g., migrants, educated people, especially women and minorities. Minorities are not “poisoning the blood” of America–that, plus calling them “vermin, animals, criminals, murderers and rapists” is language straight from Hitler’s playbook–and you fell for it. The truth is that our democracy has never been more fragile than it is right now–not just because a dangerous narcissistic sociopath lied his way into office, or that he is aided and abetted by MAGA media set up by the wealthy to get tax breaks, rolling back of consumer and environmental protections and other benefits, all at the cost of the rest of us. Their agenda was to push a sociopath into the U.S. Presidency, and because he is trying to circumvent the Constitutional requirement for the Senate to “advise and consent” on cabinet appointments BECAUSE he has chosen people solely on the basis for being syncophants to him–not because of their qualifications. In fact, he doesn’t want qualified people because they know more than him and might actually take their oath to the Constitution seriously. This is the making for an autocrat–something the orange person you worship craves–attention, adulation, power, stoking fear–AND IT IS WRONG
So, you don’t like the statistics that prove that Trump’s “victory” was far from either historic, much less a mandate to deconstruct our way of life and the Constitution under which we live? Who gives a sh(t?
Gigi.
Of course I wasn’t discussing statistics.
I was speaking of blatant violation of the law and open, even boasted, defiance of a state supreme court ruling.
When a bank robber seen in the act is saying he is robbing the bank, CNN statistics don’t help shape my opinion.
The idea of a margin of error only makes sense for estimates, such as for pre-election polls. For the rigorous count of a hard number such as a vote count the idea of margin of error makes no sense.
Were you sick the day they taught arithmetic in elementary school?
Elections do have a margin of error but it should be in the neighborhood of 1:100,000 not 2:100.
In the US ISO 9001 manufacturing processes – which are much more complex with more possibilities for error than Voting,
are required to meed 6sigma – which is about 3.4 errors per million parts produced.
Polls have a very large margin of error because they have a small sample size and an enormous number of educated guesses that are used to transform that sample into an estimate for a state or a nation.
Gigi typed: “The only true ‘election reform’ we need is to abolish the Electoral College.”
Few things gratify readers here more than you being stupid enough to disclose a desire for something as likely to happen as you winning an intelligence contest in a room filled with unconscious persons on life support.
The Founding Fathers considered personality defects exactly like yours when they invented what you despise, the electoral college. That would never occur to you because progressives are devoid of self-reflection, preferring to blame all their self-induced defects on others and “circumstances beyond your control.”
Surely this prover is meant for you: “The best parts of you fell on the floor.”
AP says 50.3% – with Harris receiving 48% –
While I do not trust AP – CNN is even less trustworthy.
You fail to grasp this election was ALSO a vote on the credibility and trust worthyness of the MSM – and they LOST.
No this election is NOT within the margin of error.
If we can not COUNT ballots without getting 2 in 100 wrong – we have no business trying to run a country.
Possibly 50 house elections are won by less than 1%.
What is usually refered to as the “margin of error” regarding elections is the POLLING error.
Polling is a complicated mathematical process and as we saw has lots of ways to make errors.
While I doubt that any election officers manage to reach 6sigma levels of reliability – which is what manufaturers conforming to ISO 9001 must acheive – that is about 3.4 errors per MILLION, I do expect that the US can count ballots without getting 2 in 100 wrong.
There is no good reason that we can not actually reach 6sigma – except that politicians really do not want to conduct electionws well.
“Joe Biden beat Trump by 4.4% margin.”
Where did all those ballots go ?
Joe Biden was a piss poor candidates in 2020,
He rant a really crappy campaign and 81M ballots were cast for him.
Harris is no worse a candidate, she ran a far better campaign,
and she received almost 10M less ballots. Trump received only 2M more votes in 2024 that 2020.
Where did all the Biden ballots go ?
Could it be Election Fraud ?
If you want to get rid of the electoral college – you must pass a constitutional amendment. That requires 3/4 of all states to vote for that amendment.
Do you see that happening ? Do you see Montana, Alaska, Delaware, Hawaii, New Hampshire or pretty much any states besides, NY, TX and CA voting for a popular vote ?
The Murdocks do NOT like Trump.
Regardless – Sorry Gigi, Trump has a mandate – and YOU know it.
This election was a referendum on Who the liars are – and the electorate decided that You, the left, the MSM, and democrats are the liars.
That YOU are more dangerous than Trump.
Trump has a MAGA base that is perhaps 45M voters that will likely vote for him come h311 or high water.
But more than 31M people actually thought about this election – they were not mezmerized by Trump.
Probably the single largest factor in their vote – was that 2016-2020 was better than 2021-2024.
Not because Trump said so, but because the people are not the stupid cretins that you constantly claim.
They may make mistakes. – 70+M people made the mistake of voting for Harris.
But they are no t beguiled.
“The only true “election reform” we need is to abolish the Electoral College.”
That will actually increase election fraud, and regardless Trump won the popular vote.
You say 2% isn;t a mandate.
It absolutely is when 98% of Harris’s press coverage is positive and nearly the same percent of Trump’s is negative.
When Democrats engage in massive lawfare to try to throw him off the ballout or send him to jail for non crimes.
When Democrats try to count invalid ballots.
When you try to assassinate him twice.
When you call him a nazi, a fascist and the end of democracy
And he wins anyway.
That is called a mandate.
That is called people do not beleive you or trust you.
The Democrat commissioner who boasted of counting illegal ballots appears to have panicked when there were calls to lock her up.
She claims her words were taken out of context.
https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2024/11/democrat-commissioner-bucks-county-who-openly-bragged-about
A reasonable assumption considering how 2020 was handled.
But this isn’t 2020. New Rangers are riding into the lawless territories.
Her words are mostly evidence of intent for her vote to count Illegal ballots.
trying to change the context of what she said does not alter the fact that she voted to violate the law.
Stop. Sending. Your. Kids.
Kill endowments. Eliminate tenure. Education seems to be one of the last places we need to exterminate the rats and cockroaches. Let’s do it.
Nothing about this any longer resembles ‘education’. We have to acknowledge that the college experience of old is dead. Dead and buried. There is nothing to brag about regarding a modern degree (*cough*educational transaction receipt*cough*). Enough, already. Nobody is taking this sheet seriously anymore, least of all EMPLOYERS. An entire generation of mid 30s to early 40 year-olds are about to move back home because their ‘education’ and ‘experience’ cannot compensate for their lack of actual intelligence, yes, education, or ability to think critically or fairly.
Enjoy that, parents that could not do the right thing due to ‘feelings’ and being terrified your kids did not think you were their ‘best friend’. You all are pathetic, and that crosses the wealth spectrum.
What benefits of higher education is Wolfson talking about? Massive debt that will keep them hobbled for at least a decade? Or the more than 50% of college graduates who are working in fields that don’t require a degree? Or the 25% who 10 years post graduation are earning $32,000 annually; equal to the median for a high school graduate?
It must be remembered the AAUP is a collective that through its leadership decides and regulates the actions and activities of its individual members. The problem with AAUP’s regard for academic freedom arises when a politically activist leadership uses it to marginalize and even silence dissent. It will be a difficult and arduous climb out of the abyss that progressives like Wolfson believe they are in, but they will eventually make it out once they come to appreciate their academic freedom is not threatened. They well may, however, have to begin sharing it with others in their academic disciplines with whom they have not agreed.
To those ignorantly calling Democrats communists. Maybe research the distinction between communist regimes versus the American model:
The communist model supposedly wants “equal outcomes” – everyone drives the same size car and owns the same size house for followers of Karl Marx and Lenin.
By contrast, the American model promotes “equal opportunity” (not equal outcomes like the communist model). The American system rewards hard work, talent and ingenuity. Not everyone has the same car or same size house.
Since the government got involved in things like public education, marriage and religion (social engineering) then you have to apply the American “equal opportunity” test. Conservatives invented this government “social engineering”.
Since the government rewards marriage and having children (through tax code financial rewards), that equal opportunity must also be offered to mixed-race couples and LGBT-couples. If this government reward is withheld, those couples pay a higher tax rate than other married couples.
If the government rewards dependent children (using the tax code) that same opportunity must be offered to mixed-race and LGBT-Americans.
In public education for example, since the government is involved, every child should receive a quality education (equal opportunity) as other children.
It’s not communism with equal outcomes, it’s the Founding Fathers model goal of “equal opportunity”!
“Since the government rewards marriage and having children (through tax code financial rewards), that equal opportunity must also be offered to mixed-race couples”
What the fvck are you talking about, you spastic? There are no “mixed race couples” in the tax code. there are no LGBT couples in the tax code.
Democrats are called that because they support EQUAL OUTCOMES.
Mixed-race couples were allowed to marry in every state in 1967.
LGBT-couples were allowed to marry and adopt nationwide less than 10 years ago.
Prior to that, these couples were denied the tax reward that straight couples received from the tax code. These couples paid a higher tax rate than other married couples. They subsidized straight couples through the tax code.
Thrupples pay more too. So unfair! Also, if we lowered the age for marriage, then teens would get the benefit of lower tax rates.
Where do state and federal governments obtain the power to legislate marriage – single/multiple, age, etc.?
People have the natural and God-given right and freedom to marry.
Government has no constitutionally enumerated power with respect to the institution of marriage; it has no power to regulate marriage.
Citizens enjoy the right and freedom of marriage per the 9th Amendment.
The 9th Amendment constitutional right to and freedom of marriage cannot be regulated or denied by states.
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
9th Amendment
The enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people.
States are not limited to enumerated powers. They inherently have all powers that neither the US constitution nor their own constitutions deny them. Only the federal government is limited to its enumerated powers.
Bozo, states have no power to deny the rights and freedoms of individuals who have the natural, God given, and constitutional right and freedom to marry per the 9th Amendment.
Please cite the Constitution.
Try reading the question.
How do you know that marriage is protected by the 9th? Nothing in its text says or implies so, so you need external evidence. Without it, states are free to regulate it any way they like, because your assertion that they’re limited to enumerated powers is FALSE.
So the onus is only you to cite evidence that a practice that has gone unchallenged for centuries is somehow unconstitutional.
* and the penumbra
They are specifically Maoists.
Crazy wrong.
“equal opportunity”
To what? Play professional sports? A job? A woman? A seat at a college?
Properly speaking, an opportunity is an outcome. It’s the result of talent, work, merit. There is in fact no difference between “equal opportunity” and “equal outcomes.” They both require redistribution from those who have earned them to those who have not — which is the very foundation of communism.
“. . . the Founding Fathers model goal of “equal opportunity”!
That is false. The FF argued for equality under the law.
I mean DJT and the new right have targeted higher ed. What do you want them to do, not fight back?
Yes. They have no “right” to resist the legitimate authority of the USA and the state that created them in the first place and that fund them.
Have to say, as a “conservative,” actually more of a centrist – someone who believes historically and philosophically speaking that American “freedom” lives slightly center-right (or perhaps even slightly center-left depending on the definition of but one or two words, thereby and therefore considered “conservative”) – that I don’t necessarily view Todd Wolfson as an unreasonable individual or a threat, what I actually see is someone concerned, from a faculty perspective, that Donald Trump will disassemble higher ed. I think that’s a reasonable concern, from a faculty perspective. But not a concern for much of America, or the “working-class,” Wolfson purports to represent. Place out of time, or perhaps Wolfson just landed on the wrong side of American issues?
betudollar
The left has actively sought to divorce words from their meaning as a means to accomplish political objectives.
The normal meaning of “Conservative” is a person who starts from the assumption that what already is, is likely superior to a proposed change.
Or put differently that all changes are required to prove they are better than what is already (and they they will scale) before they can be imposed broadly.
It is less common to be both conservative and liberal or progressive, or on the left, but it is NOT impossible.
left, right, center are relative terms – the center has been moving left for decades.
The election sof 2016, 2024, and even the razor thin win in 2020 and the marchalling of forces needed to accomplish it are a reflection of the fact that the pendulum started swinging more conservative with Obama’s presidency and that move right was stronger still during Biden’s
Regardless the center moves arround.
The so called right today has significantly different values than 20, 40, 60 years ago.
The so called left today is similarly different.
In a number of areas republicans and democrats have flipped values.
Though there are complexities.
You are free to be concerned about Trump – though one of the reasons for Trump’s fairly substantial victory in the face of massive opposition is that the majority of voters decided
Claims regarding Trump were overblown
or lies
or they actually wanted what the left claimed the threat was.
But I would ask you with respect to higher education – how Can Trump destroy it ?
Much of higher education in this country is private.
What is not is run by the states and over the past 2 decades has become virtually financially self sufficient.
So what leverage has Trump over higher education ?
Many – especially libertarians want an end to the Department of education – and have wanted that since Nixon created it.
It is a pointless waste of money with no benefit to our education system.
I would be ecstatic to see the department of education gone.
But I do not expect that, it is incredibly difficult to get rif of entire government departments – no matter how useless or even harmful they are.
But lets say the Department of Education is eliminated – will that change higher education ?
If at all only to the extent that colleges will be slightly freer to pursue their own policies than “suggested” ones from DC.
While in the long run I suspect this will work to the detriment of the woke idiots running out higher education.
in the short run it will make it work.
The reasons that our Woke higher education will ultimately fail has nothing to do with government – except in the sense that it will fail faster without government propping it up.
Woke higher education will fail – because it does not work.
Just as woke K-12 education will fail because it does not work.
We are spending more and more money on education with increasingly worse outcomes.
That is failure and that will change.
Education is in fact the perfect example of WHY we must keep government limited and out of things that are not its domain.
Because government props up failure.
Government even progressive government is unbelievably conservative – i.e. RESISTANT TO CHANGE.
But worse than conservatism, it is resistant to change even when it is obviously failing.
Outside of government failure does not endure.
Personally – I am not concerned with making specific changes to our education system.
Just reducing the role of government in them.
I honestly beleive that modern progressivism is a huge failure and that it is responsible for the damage to our education system.
Your worried about what Trump will do to higher education – it would be incredibly difficult for him to make it worse.
But regardless of what I beleive – eliminate government from education and if work progressive education can survive and thrive in a free market – then my views do not matter.
Regardless, there are only 4 levers that the federal government has on higher education.
The first is suggestions by the department of education
Eliminate the department of education and you eliminate that lever.
The next is government grants – again eliminate them and you eliminate that lever
The next is government guaranteed student loans. Eliminate those and you will return market disciplines to education in so many ways.
Free markets ALWAYS drive prices down and quality up.
If you do all of those the 4th goes away too. Because higher education receives government funding, it is by law subject to the same first amendment constraints as governmnt.
Eliminate all government funding of higher education and colleges and universities can be as woke as those paying for higher education allow.
Perhaps “higher ed” should become the guarantor of ed loans. This will make them full partners rather than the American taxpayer, most of whom do not attend university. Making universities and their endowments underwriters for ed loans will naturally eliminate the non-academic “degrees,” force departments with their top heavy admins to combine, and have an interest in students who will add to the body of knowledge and not drain it.