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Celerity
Celerity's Journal
Celerity's Journal
August 15, 2023
A renewal of civil society + better internal norms supporting value pluralism + more political competition.
https://www.liberalpatriot.com/p/a-path-to-institutional-pluralism
The genius of the American political system—as envisioned by James Madison in Federalist No. 10—lies in the fact that no one faction or combination of factions can easily impose its will on everyone else thus preserving individual liberty and reducing opportunities for majoritarian tyranny. In this pluralist system, the proliferation of interest groups and the widening of their geographic distribution naturally leads to compromise and coalitions, since no one group can dominate all others and any momentary political victory will be fleeting in a system with multiple checks and balances and division of powers between the federal and state governments.
In pluralist theory, political competition works much like market competition by eliminating the worst performing ideas and factions and rewarding the better and more successful ones that can attract a wider audience. Like market concentration, however, if political competition is reduced the worst ideas and performers—or those with the most power and money—will gain strength rather than face elimination or scrutiny. Without sufficient competition, like-minded factions can easily align themselves internally to consolidate power within states and localities to achieve narrow ends in a political monopoly. Much to James Madison’s chagrin (from the grave), a lack of real political competition and dispersal of various factions across society is the exact situation American politics finds itself in today.
There are few genuinely competitive states and districts in U.S. presidential and congressional races. American cities and counties are virtual one-party polities controlled uniformly by either Democrats or Republicans. Value pluralism is almost entirely absent from most political institutions including the two political parties and the elaborate non-profit and media infrastructures that support them. There’s one way of doing business inside these political monopolies. It’s “us versus them”—pick a side. Rather than promote competition and compromise, the American political system today encourages a “give no quarter” mentality among partisans built on internal complacency and little tolerance for dissent. How might we change these unfortunate conditions to better support genuine pluralism as Madison and others envisioned? The previous piece in this series examined how cultural pluralism may be encouraged. Here we will examine some potential ideas for increasing institutional pluralism.
American civil society needs a serious reboot.
The single best antidote to ideological and partisan conformity within politics is a true blossoming of divergent ideas and groups across civil society. The philanthropic world is currently arguing over how best to encourage value pluralism in America as ideological and partisan conformity has taken over many institutions that were once dedicated to different philosophical approaches, the pursuit of individual group interests, or more neutral and analytical policy research and development. The networks of astroturfed “grassroots” organizations, think tanks, and other giant campaign organizations on both the left and the right today no longer function as independent bodies developing new ideas, gathering and analyzing neutral facts, brokering compromises, and supporting mutually beneficial, big-tent politics. Rather, the institutions that make up these political networks often converge on the same set of ideas and positions within a commonly accepted and enforced partisan framework that serves the interests of those currently in power—or those seeking power.
snip
A Path to Institutional Pluralism
A renewal of civil society + better internal norms supporting value pluralism + more political competition.
https://www.liberalpatriot.com/p/a-path-to-institutional-pluralism
The genius of the American political system—as envisioned by James Madison in Federalist No. 10—lies in the fact that no one faction or combination of factions can easily impose its will on everyone else thus preserving individual liberty and reducing opportunities for majoritarian tyranny. In this pluralist system, the proliferation of interest groups and the widening of their geographic distribution naturally leads to compromise and coalitions, since no one group can dominate all others and any momentary political victory will be fleeting in a system with multiple checks and balances and division of powers between the federal and state governments.
In pluralist theory, political competition works much like market competition by eliminating the worst performing ideas and factions and rewarding the better and more successful ones that can attract a wider audience. Like market concentration, however, if political competition is reduced the worst ideas and performers—or those with the most power and money—will gain strength rather than face elimination or scrutiny. Without sufficient competition, like-minded factions can easily align themselves internally to consolidate power within states and localities to achieve narrow ends in a political monopoly. Much to James Madison’s chagrin (from the grave), a lack of real political competition and dispersal of various factions across society is the exact situation American politics finds itself in today.
There are few genuinely competitive states and districts in U.S. presidential and congressional races. American cities and counties are virtual one-party polities controlled uniformly by either Democrats or Republicans. Value pluralism is almost entirely absent from most political institutions including the two political parties and the elaborate non-profit and media infrastructures that support them. There’s one way of doing business inside these political monopolies. It’s “us versus them”—pick a side. Rather than promote competition and compromise, the American political system today encourages a “give no quarter” mentality among partisans built on internal complacency and little tolerance for dissent. How might we change these unfortunate conditions to better support genuine pluralism as Madison and others envisioned? The previous piece in this series examined how cultural pluralism may be encouraged. Here we will examine some potential ideas for increasing institutional pluralism.
American civil society needs a serious reboot.
The single best antidote to ideological and partisan conformity within politics is a true blossoming of divergent ideas and groups across civil society. The philanthropic world is currently arguing over how best to encourage value pluralism in America as ideological and partisan conformity has taken over many institutions that were once dedicated to different philosophical approaches, the pursuit of individual group interests, or more neutral and analytical policy research and development. The networks of astroturfed “grassroots” organizations, think tanks, and other giant campaign organizations on both the left and the right today no longer function as independent bodies developing new ideas, gathering and analyzing neutral facts, brokering compromises, and supporting mutually beneficial, big-tent politics. Rather, the institutions that make up these political networks often converge on the same set of ideas and positions within a commonly accepted and enforced partisan framework that serves the interests of those currently in power—or those seeking power.
snip
August 15, 2023
The philosopher understood that learning – of a concept, of ourselves, of each other – is the undertaking of a whole life
https://aeon.co/essays/learning-for-wittgenstein-is-a-whole-life-undertaking
When I first read Ludwig Wittgenstein’s Philosophical Investigations, I was a student struggling to make sense of it. Now as I read it on the 70th anniversary of its posthumous publication, I am a teacher struggling to make sense of it. In my job, I teach adults who speak English – or at least have a good grasp of it as a spoken language – how to read and write. And not how to read and write ‘professionally’, but rather how to connect sounds to shapes on a page and vice versa, how to spell the language’s most common words, and how to write a complete sentence. There is a member of my class who, although he can say and use the words we study, and has a good grasp of consonants, will not include vowels when he spells. I will ask him to spell the word ‘went’, for example, and he will spell out ‘wnt’. If I correct him once, this currently makes no difference – the next time, he will spell without vowels just the same. As you may imagine, I can find this very frustrating. Wittgenstein writes of a similar case in one of the central sections of the Investigations. He describes teaching a pupil the series 0, n, 2n, 3n, etc, where n = 2. Only, when the pupil gets to 1000, he writes 1000, 1004, 1008, 1012:
Wittgenstein then compares this to a case of someone who does not react naturally to a gesture of pointing: someone who looks in the direction from fingertip to wrist instead of following the line beyond the fingertip. We might also think of a cat, staring blankly at a pointing finger. He goes on to suggest that the rules we take for granted as governing all manner of human activity, from mathematics to the grammar of propositions, cannot be explicated by the Platonic tradition of reference to ineffable objects, nor by a subjective ‘interpretation’ at the moment of each instantiation of the rule. Rather, they in a sense rely on shared agreement in natural inclination, or in common practices. Our understandings are just what we do. They are our form of life. (This is, it strikes me, a very teacherly attitude. Every teacher knows that it is no use just having a learner say they understand: we have to watch them do it.)
But if you were to read the Investigations expecting to find this conception of meaning and understanding presented as a thesis, logically derived from explicit premises, you would be sorely disappointed. The book is instead composed of a series of remarks, each spinning off from the anxiety of the last. They are not remarks made by a single speaker – rather, Wittgenstein engages a series of imaginary interlocutors in a back-and-forth in response to philosophical stimuli. In so far as there is a single voice of ‘Wittgenstein’ to lead the discussion, it is a voice of questioning, of doubt, of self-correction, and of self-criticism (the interjections come without quotation marks as often as they come with them). Its form is not so much dialogical as polyphonic. In this sense, the Investigations presents almost as a dramatic work. And the drama that takes place is one with which every teacher will be familiar: it is the drama of the classroom.
What does it mean to say that the Investigations dramatises the pedagogical moment? What does it mean to say that the Investigations is controlled by a concern about the method, and indeed the possibility, of teaching? One angle of entry would be Wittgenstein’s idea that the meaning – the ‘essence’ – of a word is to be found not by searching for the object or referent ‘behind’ it, but by looking at its use in the language games in which it is deployed. Wittgenstein says again and again that one of the best language games to study for this is the one in which the word is taught:
snip
Wittgenstein in the classroom
The philosopher understood that learning – of a concept, of ourselves, of each other – is the undertaking of a whole life
https://aeon.co/essays/learning-for-wittgenstein-is-a-whole-life-undertaking
When I first read Ludwig Wittgenstein’s Philosophical Investigations, I was a student struggling to make sense of it. Now as I read it on the 70th anniversary of its posthumous publication, I am a teacher struggling to make sense of it. In my job, I teach adults who speak English – or at least have a good grasp of it as a spoken language – how to read and write. And not how to read and write ‘professionally’, but rather how to connect sounds to shapes on a page and vice versa, how to spell the language’s most common words, and how to write a complete sentence. There is a member of my class who, although he can say and use the words we study, and has a good grasp of consonants, will not include vowels when he spells. I will ask him to spell the word ‘went’, for example, and he will spell out ‘wnt’. If I correct him once, this currently makes no difference – the next time, he will spell without vowels just the same. As you may imagine, I can find this very frustrating. Wittgenstein writes of a similar case in one of the central sections of the Investigations. He describes teaching a pupil the series 0, n, 2n, 3n, etc, where n = 2. Only, when the pupil gets to 1000, he writes 1000, 1004, 1008, 1012:
Wittgenstein then compares this to a case of someone who does not react naturally to a gesture of pointing: someone who looks in the direction from fingertip to wrist instead of following the line beyond the fingertip. We might also think of a cat, staring blankly at a pointing finger. He goes on to suggest that the rules we take for granted as governing all manner of human activity, from mathematics to the grammar of propositions, cannot be explicated by the Platonic tradition of reference to ineffable objects, nor by a subjective ‘interpretation’ at the moment of each instantiation of the rule. Rather, they in a sense rely on shared agreement in natural inclination, or in common practices. Our understandings are just what we do. They are our form of life. (This is, it strikes me, a very teacherly attitude. Every teacher knows that it is no use just having a learner say they understand: we have to watch them do it.)
But if you were to read the Investigations expecting to find this conception of meaning and understanding presented as a thesis, logically derived from explicit premises, you would be sorely disappointed. The book is instead composed of a series of remarks, each spinning off from the anxiety of the last. They are not remarks made by a single speaker – rather, Wittgenstein engages a series of imaginary interlocutors in a back-and-forth in response to philosophical stimuli. In so far as there is a single voice of ‘Wittgenstein’ to lead the discussion, it is a voice of questioning, of doubt, of self-correction, and of self-criticism (the interjections come without quotation marks as often as they come with them). Its form is not so much dialogical as polyphonic. In this sense, the Investigations presents almost as a dramatic work. And the drama that takes place is one with which every teacher will be familiar: it is the drama of the classroom.
What does it mean to say that the Investigations dramatises the pedagogical moment? What does it mean to say that the Investigations is controlled by a concern about the method, and indeed the possibility, of teaching? One angle of entry would be Wittgenstein’s idea that the meaning – the ‘essence’ – of a word is to be found not by searching for the object or referent ‘behind’ it, but by looking at its use in the language games in which it is deployed. Wittgenstein says again and again that one of the best language games to study for this is the one in which the word is taught:
snip
August 15, 2023
https://twitter.com/JonathanPieNews/status/1691106666442293248
Jonathan Pie - Stop The Boats
https://twitter.com/JonathanPieNews/status/1691106666442293248
August 15, 2023
https://www.berlingske.dk/samfund/al-qaeda-med-klar-opfordring-til-muslimer-i-danmark-haevnens-pligt-er
The recent Koran burnings in Denmark and Sweden have provoked violent reactions in the Muslim world, and the Danish government is working on a ban. Now perhaps the world's most notorious terrorist organization, al-Qaeda, has also joined the conflict.
Tore Refslund Hamming, who is a Ph.D. in militant Islamism, explains in a post on X the content of a statement that was shared on al-Qaeda's central media agency, al-Sahab, on Sunday. The title of the announcement is "The obligation to attack the aggressive peoples".
According to Tore Refslund Hamming, two out of three pages of the announcement focus on the Koran burnings in Denmark and Sweden, which are described as a coordinated attack on all Muslims by the countries' populations and governments. "Denmark and Sweden are two small, despicable countries that amount to no more than two small spots on the world map."
After that, the announcement becomes more aggressive, reports Tore Refslund Hamming. Attacks on the two countries are thus specifically called for. "People of Islam in Sweden, Denmark and all of Europe - the duty of revenge is placed with you," writes al-Qaeda.
snip
https://twitter.com/ToreRHamming/status/1691134170263703552
https://twitter.com/ali_yaqoub03/status/1691145180420648961
Al-Qaida calls for terror attack on Sweden and Denmark
https://www.thelocal.se/20230815/today-in-sweden-a-roundup-of-the-latest-news-on-tuesday-109
Terror organisation al-Qaida is urging its supporters to carry out terror attacks on Sweden and Denmark in revenge of a series of Quran burnings in the two countries, reports Danish media.
"The threats came yesterday from al-Sahab, which functions as al-Qaida's media centre. This is really not anything new, but just another call to people around the world to exact revenge, and it's directed at lone actors," Swedish terrorism researcher Hans Brun told TT.
Swedish security services have previously said that the terror threat against Sweden has increased as a result of Quran-burning demonstrations, although there have generally been more counter-protesters present at the demonstrations than actual protesters. Brun said he did not believe that al-Qaida's statement would affect the overall security situation.
"You could look at it as a call to action. If this was something they had organised themselves they wouldn't have announced it in advance like this. You should also remember that al-Qaida these days is significantly weakened," he told TT, adding that threat would likely have the biggest impact on Danish and Swedish diplomats working in the Middle East rather than on people within the borders of Sweden.
Terror organisation al-Qaida is urging its supporters to carry out terror attacks on Sweden and Denmark in revenge of a series of Quran burnings in the two countries, reports Danish media.
"The threats came yesterday from al-Sahab, which functions as al-Qaida's media centre. This is really not anything new, but just another call to people around the world to exact revenge, and it's directed at lone actors," Swedish terrorism researcher Hans Brun told TT.
Swedish security services have previously said that the terror threat against Sweden has increased as a result of Quran-burning demonstrations, although there have generally been more counter-protesters present at the demonstrations than actual protesters. Brun said he did not believe that al-Qaida's statement would affect the overall security situation.
"You could look at it as a call to action. If this was something they had organised themselves they wouldn't have announced it in advance like this. You should also remember that al-Qaida these days is significantly weakened," he told TT, adding that threat would likely have the biggest impact on Danish and Swedish diplomats working in the Middle East rather than on people within the borders of Sweden.
https://www.berlingske.dk/samfund/al-qaeda-med-klar-opfordring-til-muslimer-i-danmark-haevnens-pligt-er
The recent Koran burnings in Denmark and Sweden have provoked violent reactions in the Muslim world, and the Danish government is working on a ban. Now perhaps the world's most notorious terrorist organization, al-Qaeda, has also joined the conflict.
Tore Refslund Hamming, who is a Ph.D. in militant Islamism, explains in a post on X the content of a statement that was shared on al-Qaeda's central media agency, al-Sahab, on Sunday. The title of the announcement is "The obligation to attack the aggressive peoples".
According to Tore Refslund Hamming, two out of three pages of the announcement focus on the Koran burnings in Denmark and Sweden, which are described as a coordinated attack on all Muslims by the countries' populations and governments. "Denmark and Sweden are two small, despicable countries that amount to no more than two small spots on the world map."
After that, the announcement becomes more aggressive, reports Tore Refslund Hamming. Attacks on the two countries are thus specifically called for. "People of Islam in Sweden, Denmark and all of Europe - the duty of revenge is placed with you," writes al-Qaeda.
snip
https://twitter.com/ToreRHamming/status/1691134170263703552
https://twitter.com/ali_yaqoub03/status/1691145180420648961
August 15, 2023
https://www.reckon.news/news/2023/08/florida-kids-will-now-be-taught-pragerus-climate-denialism-amid-record-heat.html
In the aftermath of Hurricane Ian in Sept 2022, 2.5 million children missed school in Florida. Five schools were damaged, and three were destroyed as the category four hurricane hit the sunshine state from the west side – something that rarely happens. Over 168,000 children were kept out of the classroom for weeks, with some missing as many as 100 school days. The losses for children were huge, while scientists and environmentalists said this was an example of climate change in action. And yet, as the unwelcomed anniversary of Hurricane Ian approaches, many of Florida’s school kids - who have endured one of the hottest summers on record and have been swimming in coastal waters over 100 degrees - will now be taught that climate change is not real.
The baffling juxtaposition, which education and environmental experts claim is the equivalent of teaching children that fire doesn’t exist as it engulfs their classrooms, is being brought to Florida’s K-5 schools by the right-wing non-profit group PragerU with the explicit blessing of Gov. Ron DeSantis and the state’s board of education. The same duo has pushed anti-progressive politics in recent months that targeted the LGBTQ community, abortion rights, gun control, Black history, book bans, and gender identity while also trying to bully Disney away from its support of liberal issues.
PragerU’s sleek and highly produced educational videos, presented in a series of cartoons, delicately infer that climate activists are like Nazis, wind and solar power pollute the earth, and that record global temperatures are merely cyclical and have nothing to do with human actions. While environmental advocates and educators work hard to show the true extent of climate change, hoping it will alter human behavior, PragerU’s arrival in one of the country’s largest public school systems is undoubtedly a major blow to the movement. Raymer Maguire, director of policy and campaigns at the Cleo Institute, a women-led environmental education and advocacy group in Florida, told Reckon that teaching climate denialism could have a detrimental impact on Florida’s students going forward.
“By teaching future generations blatant lies and propaganda and that climate denialism that is in direct contradiction to scientific fact,” he said. “We are setting up our future generations to not have the tools and the education they need to tackle what is arguably the greatest crisis that they’re going to face in their lifetime.” Maguire also noted that offering different points of view to children was perfectly reasonable, provided they were rooted in scientific fact and good faith, which he says PragerU is not doing. “What they’re doing is completely denying the nearly universally accepted scientific fact that humans burning carbon is resulting in us having the climate impact that we feel today,” he added.
A bad time for climate denial education............
snip
Florida kids will now be taught PragerU's climate denialism amid record heat
https://www.reckon.news/news/2023/08/florida-kids-will-now-be-taught-pragerus-climate-denialism-amid-record-heat.html
In the aftermath of Hurricane Ian in Sept 2022, 2.5 million children missed school in Florida. Five schools were damaged, and three were destroyed as the category four hurricane hit the sunshine state from the west side – something that rarely happens. Over 168,000 children were kept out of the classroom for weeks, with some missing as many as 100 school days. The losses for children were huge, while scientists and environmentalists said this was an example of climate change in action. And yet, as the unwelcomed anniversary of Hurricane Ian approaches, many of Florida’s school kids - who have endured one of the hottest summers on record and have been swimming in coastal waters over 100 degrees - will now be taught that climate change is not real.
The baffling juxtaposition, which education and environmental experts claim is the equivalent of teaching children that fire doesn’t exist as it engulfs their classrooms, is being brought to Florida’s K-5 schools by the right-wing non-profit group PragerU with the explicit blessing of Gov. Ron DeSantis and the state’s board of education. The same duo has pushed anti-progressive politics in recent months that targeted the LGBTQ community, abortion rights, gun control, Black history, book bans, and gender identity while also trying to bully Disney away from its support of liberal issues.
PragerU’s sleek and highly produced educational videos, presented in a series of cartoons, delicately infer that climate activists are like Nazis, wind and solar power pollute the earth, and that record global temperatures are merely cyclical and have nothing to do with human actions. While environmental advocates and educators work hard to show the true extent of climate change, hoping it will alter human behavior, PragerU’s arrival in one of the country’s largest public school systems is undoubtedly a major blow to the movement. Raymer Maguire, director of policy and campaigns at the Cleo Institute, a women-led environmental education and advocacy group in Florida, told Reckon that teaching climate denialism could have a detrimental impact on Florida’s students going forward.
“By teaching future generations blatant lies and propaganda and that climate denialism that is in direct contradiction to scientific fact,” he said. “We are setting up our future generations to not have the tools and the education they need to tackle what is arguably the greatest crisis that they’re going to face in their lifetime.” Maguire also noted that offering different points of view to children was perfectly reasonable, provided they were rooted in scientific fact and good faith, which he says PragerU is not doing. “What they’re doing is completely denying the nearly universally accepted scientific fact that humans burning carbon is resulting in us having the climate impact that we feel today,” he added.
A bad time for climate denial education............
snip
August 15, 2023
https://www.thedailybeast.com/the-newest-under-the-radar-attack-on-academic-freedom
https://archive.li/lxjvN
The legislative war on college and university free speech has sadly become a persistent feature of the policymaking process in statehouses across the country. Another round of state legislative sessions has come and gone and with it many new proposals that would impose extensive restrictions on what can be taught in higher education classrooms. Since January 2021, state governments have introduced 99 educational gag orders focused on higher education and dozens of other censorious higher ed restrictions as part of what PEN America has dubbed the “Ed Scare”—a sweeping nationwide campaign to upend the integrity and autonomy of educational institutions in favor of state dictates on what content and curricula are appropriate in schools.
This drive to muzzle core questions about race, identity, and history has triggered a broad counter-movement, as former higher education presidents, faculty, students, and grassroots communities have joined hands to preserve the crown jewel of American democracy: a welcoming, independent higher education system that enables diverse viewpoints and challenging ideas to flourish. Their efforts to draw attention to and fight back against legislative efforts to censor our campuses have been invaluable. There is another key factor, however, that has flown under the radar yet been a vital bulwark against state censorship: the voice of university accreditation agencies.
Unfortunately, those same agencies are now the target of the latest attacks on campus free expression. Accreditation is a largely unknown but vital element of the higher education system. The seven regional accreditation agencies exist to ensure a basic standard of educational quality and a basic commitment to core principles like graduation rates, curricular standards, and sound institutional management. They also ensure that colleges and universities protect the academic freedom of faculty and resist undue political interference from the government. If an institution fails to uphold these standards, it can lose accreditation, which then costs its students access to federal financial loans, Pell Grants, and work-study funds, all tied to accreditation by federal law. In addition, many employers and licensing boards withhold recognition of degrees granted by unaccredited colleges.
Accrediting agencies are a powerful tool for protecting academic freedom. In North Dakota, for example, a legislative effort to impose harsh limits on tenure protections was defeated after a former chancellor of the state’s university system publicly aired his concerns that political interference could lead to loss of accreditation. Meanwhile, in both Texas and Ohio, legislators carved out important exceptions to their proposals to ban diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) programs in order to meet accreditors’ basic DEI standards. And prominent advocates across the higher education space, including the accrediting agencies themselves, have noted that educational gag orders, or laws that restrict what can be taught in schools, chill free speech, and violate academic freedom. That’s exactly why accreditors are now under attack.
snip
The Newest Under-the-Radar Attack on Academic Freedom
The next frontier for state-led university censorship is looming and the consequences would go far beyond just risks to free expression.https://www.thedailybeast.com/the-newest-under-the-radar-attack-on-academic-freedom
https://archive.li/lxjvN
The legislative war on college and university free speech has sadly become a persistent feature of the policymaking process in statehouses across the country. Another round of state legislative sessions has come and gone and with it many new proposals that would impose extensive restrictions on what can be taught in higher education classrooms. Since January 2021, state governments have introduced 99 educational gag orders focused on higher education and dozens of other censorious higher ed restrictions as part of what PEN America has dubbed the “Ed Scare”—a sweeping nationwide campaign to upend the integrity and autonomy of educational institutions in favor of state dictates on what content and curricula are appropriate in schools.
This drive to muzzle core questions about race, identity, and history has triggered a broad counter-movement, as former higher education presidents, faculty, students, and grassroots communities have joined hands to preserve the crown jewel of American democracy: a welcoming, independent higher education system that enables diverse viewpoints and challenging ideas to flourish. Their efforts to draw attention to and fight back against legislative efforts to censor our campuses have been invaluable. There is another key factor, however, that has flown under the radar yet been a vital bulwark against state censorship: the voice of university accreditation agencies.
Unfortunately, those same agencies are now the target of the latest attacks on campus free expression. Accreditation is a largely unknown but vital element of the higher education system. The seven regional accreditation agencies exist to ensure a basic standard of educational quality and a basic commitment to core principles like graduation rates, curricular standards, and sound institutional management. They also ensure that colleges and universities protect the academic freedom of faculty and resist undue political interference from the government. If an institution fails to uphold these standards, it can lose accreditation, which then costs its students access to federal financial loans, Pell Grants, and work-study funds, all tied to accreditation by federal law. In addition, many employers and licensing boards withhold recognition of degrees granted by unaccredited colleges.
Accrediting agencies are a powerful tool for protecting academic freedom. In North Dakota, for example, a legislative effort to impose harsh limits on tenure protections was defeated after a former chancellor of the state’s university system publicly aired his concerns that political interference could lead to loss of accreditation. Meanwhile, in both Texas and Ohio, legislators carved out important exceptions to their proposals to ban diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) programs in order to meet accreditors’ basic DEI standards. And prominent advocates across the higher education space, including the accrediting agencies themselves, have noted that educational gag orders, or laws that restrict what can be taught in schools, chill free speech, and violate academic freedom. That’s exactly why accreditors are now under attack.
snip
August 15, 2023
Stupid quote of the night:
"Electing Trump for the third time, putting him back in the White House, and saving our country is plan A," Rep. Clay Higgins, R-La., told Fox News Digital.
August 15, 2023
Exclusive: Georgia probe into Trump examines chaplain's role in election meddling
September 9, 20228:50 PM GMT+2
https://www.reuters.com/world/us/exclusive-georgia-probe-into-trump-examines-chaplains-role-election-meddling-2022-09-09/
ATLANTA, Sept 8 (Reuters) - Georgia election worker Ruby Freeman didn’t recognize the man who banged on her door. Terrified, she called 911. She had reason to fear. By the morning of Dec. 15, 2020, when she saw the stranger's red sedan parked in her driveway, she had received hundreds of threats from supporters of former U.S. President Donald Trump. Two weeks earlier, Trump’s campaign had falsely accused Freeman and her daughter, Wandrea “Shaye” Moss, of pulling fake ballots from suitcases at Atlanta's State Farm Arena to rig the 2020 election for Democrat Joe Biden.
The man had already passed a message to Freeman through a neighbor: Freeman's time was running out, he said, and he could help her and her daughter. When a police officer responded and questioned the man outside Freeman’s home, he introduced himself as Steve Lee, a police chaplain from Illinois.
https://twitter.com/Reuters/status/1568279313753022470
Now Lee is under scrutiny in a criminal investigation into alleged election interference by Trump and his allies in Georgia, according to a source with direct knowledge of the probe. Lee played a central role in a failed effort to pressure Freeman to admit to an election fraud that never occurred, according to a Reuters examination of police body camera footage and court documents, as well as interviews with key participants.
After being rebuffed by Freeman, Lee contacted Harrison Floyd, who had run outreach to black voters for Trump’s 2020 campaign. Floyd arranged another visit to Freeman on Jan. 4, 2021, this time from Chicago publicist Trevian Kutti, who threatened Freeman with jail unless she provided information on election fraud, Reuters reported last December.
https://twitter.com/Reuters/status/1568322003375108096
snip
Cliffgard FAFO (cop chaplain indicted along with Trump and 17 others)
Exclusive: Georgia probe into Trump examines chaplain's role in election meddling
September 9, 20228:50 PM GMT+2
https://www.reuters.com/world/us/exclusive-georgia-probe-into-trump-examines-chaplains-role-election-meddling-2022-09-09/
ATLANTA, Sept 8 (Reuters) - Georgia election worker Ruby Freeman didn’t recognize the man who banged on her door. Terrified, she called 911. She had reason to fear. By the morning of Dec. 15, 2020, when she saw the stranger's red sedan parked in her driveway, she had received hundreds of threats from supporters of former U.S. President Donald Trump. Two weeks earlier, Trump’s campaign had falsely accused Freeman and her daughter, Wandrea “Shaye” Moss, of pulling fake ballots from suitcases at Atlanta's State Farm Arena to rig the 2020 election for Democrat Joe Biden.
The man had already passed a message to Freeman through a neighbor: Freeman's time was running out, he said, and he could help her and her daughter. When a police officer responded and questioned the man outside Freeman’s home, he introduced himself as Steve Lee, a police chaplain from Illinois.
https://twitter.com/Reuters/status/1568279313753022470
Now Lee is under scrutiny in a criminal investigation into alleged election interference by Trump and his allies in Georgia, according to a source with direct knowledge of the probe. Lee played a central role in a failed effort to pressure Freeman to admit to an election fraud that never occurred, according to a Reuters examination of police body camera footage and court documents, as well as interviews with key participants.
After being rebuffed by Freeman, Lee contacted Harrison Floyd, who had run outreach to black voters for Trump’s 2020 campaign. Floyd arranged another visit to Freeman on Jan. 4, 2021, this time from Chicago publicist Trevian Kutti, who threatened Freeman with jail unless she provided information on election fraud, Reuters reported last December.
https://twitter.com/Reuters/status/1568322003375108096
snip
August 15, 2023
Brian Kemp is now one of the most important political actors on the stage now.
He can refuse to condone removing Willis, and will thus become MAGAt public enemy (in terms of Rethugs) number 1. Trump will likely rhetorically, aspirationally target him for destruction in that event.
or
He can help force a firing of Willis and then stand back and wait for 2028.
or
He can go full MAGAt and cut a deal to become Trump's VP in exchange for aiding the firing of Willis. (riskiest of the last 2 as Trump likely will lose in 2024 and then Kemp is tainted completely with his sell-out to Trump).
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