Trump’s assault on Universities (2 Viewers)

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MT15

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I thought we had a thread just about Trump’s illegal attacks on American universities, especially some of our very best. Harvard has decided to fight back, while Yale and Columbia have basically rolled over. Trump had been using the excuse of rooting out anti-semitism, which MAGA actually cares nothing about, but it at least provided a paper-thin veneer of a reason. The latest letter sent to Harvard, announcing they will no longer receive any federal grants, discards that excuse. An Atlantic article about this letter:

“The intensely hostile letter that Education Secretary Linda McMahon sent to the leadership of Harvard yesterday has a lot going on. But the most notable thing about it is what it leaves out.

To hear McMahon tell it, Harvard is a university on the verge of ruin. (I say McMahon because her signature is at the bottom of the letter, but portions of the document are written in such a distinctive idiolect—“Why is there so much HATE?” the letter asks; it signs off with “Thank you for your attention to this matter!”—that one detects the spirit of a certain uncredited co-author.) She accuses it of admitting students who are contemptuous of America, chastises it for hiring the former blue-city mayors Bill de Blasio and Lori Lightfoot to teach leadership (“like hiring the captain of the Titanic to teach navigation”), questions the necessity of its remedial-math program (“Why is it, we ask, that Harvard has to teach simple and basic mathematics?”), and accuses its board chair, Penny Pritzker (“a Democrat operative”), of driving the university to financial ruin, among many other complaints. The upshot is that Harvard should not bother to apply for any new federal funding, because, McMahon declares, “today’s letter marks the end of new grants for the University.”

What you will not find in the McMahon letter is any mention of the original justification for the Trump administration’s ongoing assault on elite universities: anti-Semitism. As a legal pretext for trying to financially hobble the Ivy League, anti-Semitism had some strategic merit. Many students and faculty justifiably feel that these schools failed to take harassment of Jews seriously enough during the protests that erupted after the October 7, 2023, terrorist attack on Israel by Hamas. By centering its critique on that issue, the administration was cannily appropriating for its own ends one of the progressive left’s highest priorities: protecting a minority from hostile acts.

Now, however, the mask is off. Aside from one oblique reference to congressional hearings about anti-Semitism (“the great work of Congresswoman Elise Stefanik”), the letter is silent on the subject. The administration is no longer pretending that it is standing up for Jewish students. The project has been revealed for what it is: an effort to punish liberal institutions for the crime of being liberal.”

It simply amazes me that this letter was actually sent. It seems to suggest a First Amendment violation is being committed by the Trump Administration. I am so sick of these morons.
 
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Under pressure from the Trump administration, the University of Virginia’s president of nearly seven years, James Ryan, stepped down on Friday, declaring that while he was committed to the university and inclined to fight, he could not in good conscience push back just to save his job.

The Department of Justice demanded that Ryan resign in order to resolve an investigation into whether UVA had sufficiently complied with Donald Trump’s orders banning diversity, equity and inclusion.

UVA dissolved its DEI office in March, though Trump’s lackeys claim the university didn’t go far enough in rooting out DEI.


This is the first time the Trump regime has pushed for the resignation of a university official. It’s unlikely to be the last.

On Monday, the Trump regime said Harvard University had violated federal civil rights lawover the treatment of Jewish students on campus.

On Tuesday, the regime released $175m in previously frozen federal funding to the University of Pennsylvania, after the school agreed to bar transgender athletes from women’s teams and delete the swimmer Lia Thomas’s records.

Let’s be clear: DEI, antisemitism, and transgender athletes are not the real reasons for these attacks on higher education. They’re excuses to give the Trump regime power over America’s colleges and universities.

Why do Trump and his lackeys want this power?

They’re following Hungarian president Viktor Orbán’s playbook for creating an “illiberal democracy” – an authoritarian state masquerading as a democracy. The playbook goes like this:


First, take over military and intelligence operations by purging career officers and substituting ones personally loyal to you. Check.

Next, intimidate legislators by warning that if they don’t bend to your wishes, you’ll run loyalists against them. (Make sure they also worry about what your violent supporters could do to them and their families.) Check.

Next, subdue the courts by ignoring or threatening to ignore court rulings you disagree with. Check in process.

Then focus on independent sources of information. Sue media that publish critical stories and block their access to news conferences and interviews. Check.

Then go after the universities.

Crapping on higher education is also good politics, as demonstrated by the congresswoman Elise Stefanik (Harvard 2006) who browbeat the presidents of Harvard, University of Pennsylvania and MIT over their responses to student protests against Israel’s bombardment of Gaza, leading to several of them being fired.


It’s good politics, because many of the 60% of adult Americans who lack college degrees are stuck in lousy jobs. Many resent the college-educated, who lord it over them economically and culturally.

But behind this cultural populism lies a deeper anti-intellectual, anti-Enlightenment ideology closer to fascism than authoritarianism.

JD Vance (Yale Law 2013) has called university professors “the enemy” and suggested using Orbán’s method for ending “leftwing domination” of universities. Vance laid it all out on CBS’s Face the Nation on 19 May 2024:

Universities are controlled by leftwing foundations. They’re not controlled by the American taxpayer and yet the American taxpayer is sending hundreds of billions of dollars to these universities every single year.
I’m not endorsing every single thing that Viktor Orbán has ever done [but] I do think that he’s made some smart decisions there that we could learn from.
His way has to be the model for us: not to eliminate universities, but to give them a choice between survival or taking a much less biased approach to teaching. [The government should be] aggressively reforming institutions … in a way to where they’re much more open to conservative ideas.”
Yet what, exactly, constitutes a “conservative idea?” That dictatorship is preferable to democracy? That white Christian nationalism is better than tolerance and openness? That social Darwinism is superior to human decency?

The claim that higher education must be more open to such “conservative ideas” is dangerous drivel.

So what’s the real, underlying reason for the Trump regime’s attack on education?


Not incidentally, that attack extends to grade school. Trump’s education department announced on Tuesday it’s withholding $6.8bn in funding for schools, and Trump has promised to dismantle the department.

Why? Because the greatest obstacle to dictatorship is an educated populace. Ignorance is the handmaiden of tyranny.………

 
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump is reshaping a student loan cancellation program into what some fear will become a tool for political retribution, taking aim at organizations that serve immigrants and transgender youth.

Public Service Loan Forgiveness allows government employees, such as teachers and firefighters, plus many who work for nonprofits, to have their student loans canceled after they’ve made payments for 10 years.

The Education Department is preparing an overhaul that would strip the benefit from organizations involved in “illegal activities,” with the final determination left up to the U.S. education secretary.

A draft proposal released by the department includes definitions of illegal activity that center on immigration, terrorism and transgender issues.

Several advocates invited to weigh in on the draft proposal raised concerns it would give the department subjective authority to decide if an organization is engaged in anything illegal — a power that could be used to remove entire hospital systems or state governments from the program.

“That’s definitely an indicator for me that this is politically motivated and perhaps will be used as a tool for political punishment,” said Betsy Mayotte, president of the Institute of Student Loan Advisors and one of the advocates asked to review the policy as part of a rulemaking process……….

 
Under pressure from the Trump administration, the University of Virginia’s president of nearly seven years, James Ryan, stepped down on Friday, declaring that while he was committed to the university and inclined to fight, he could not in good conscience push back just to save his job.

The Department of Justice demanded that Ryan resign in order to resolve an investigation into whether UVA had sufficiently complied with Donald Trump’s orders banning diversity, equity and inclusion.

UVA dissolved its DEI office in March, though Trump’s lackeys claim the university didn’t go far enough in rooting out DEI.


This is the first time the Trump regime has pushed for the resignation of a university official. It’s unlikely to be the last.

On Monday, the Trump regime said Harvard University had violated federal civil rights lawover the treatment of Jewish students on campus.

On Tuesday, the regime released $175m in previously frozen federal funding to the University of Pennsylvania, after the school agreed to bar transgender athletes from women’s teams and delete the swimmer Lia Thomas’s records.

Let’s be clear: DEI, antisemitism, and transgender athletes are not the real reasons for these attacks on higher education. They’re excuses to give the Trump regime power over America’s colleges and universities.

Why do Trump and his lackeys want this power?

They’re following Hungarian president Viktor Orbán’s playbook for creating an “illiberal democracy” – an authoritarian state masquerading as a democracy. The playbook goes like this:


First, take over military and intelligence operations by purging career officers and substituting ones personally loyal to you. Check.

Next, intimidate legislators by warning that if they don’t bend to your wishes, you’ll run loyalists against them. (Make sure they also worry about what your violent supporters could do to them and their families.) Check.

Next, subdue the courts by ignoring or threatening to ignore court rulings you disagree with. Check in process.

Then focus on independent sources of information. Sue media that publish critical stories and block their access to news conferences and interviews. Check.

Then go after the universities.

Crapping on higher education is also good politics, as demonstrated by the congresswoman Elise Stefanik (Harvard 2006) who browbeat the presidents of Harvard, University of Pennsylvania and MIT over their responses to student protests against Israel’s bombardment of Gaza, leading to several of them being fired.


It’s good politics, because many of the 60% of adult Americans who lack college degrees are stuck in lousy jobs. Many resent the college-educated, who lord it over them economically and culturally.

But behind this cultural populism lies a deeper anti-intellectual, anti-Enlightenment ideology closer to fascism than authoritarianism.

JD Vance (Yale Law 2013) has called university professors “the enemy” and suggested using Orbán’s method for ending “leftwing domination” of universities. Vance laid it all out on CBS’s Face the Nation on 19 May 2024:


Yet what, exactly, constitutes a “conservative idea?” That dictatorship is preferable to democracy? That white Christian nationalism is better than tolerance and openness? That social Darwinism is superior to human decency?

The claim that higher education must be more open to such “conservative ideas” is dangerous drivel.

So what’s the real, underlying reason for the Trump regime’s attack on education?


Not incidentally, that attack extends to grade school. Trump’s education department announced on Tuesday it’s withholding $6.8bn in funding for schools, and Trump has promised to dismantle the department.

Why? Because the greatest obstacle to dictatorship is an educated populace. Ignorance is the handmaiden of tyranny.………

It seems to me that the only thing he considered was himself with this "he could not in good conscience push back just to save his job." It sounds like he didn't even consider pushing back to stand up for the students against Trump. It seems his decision was only about what he thought was best for him It's disappointing to me.
 
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The Trump administration announcedWednesday that it would restart interest charges for student loan borrowers enrolled in the Biden-era Saving on a Valuable Education plan, increasing bills for nearly 7.7 million people.

On August 1, the Department of Education will resume interest on SAVE payments, giving enrollees just weeks to figure out a personal financial plan after spending the last year relieved from making interest-free paymentswhile litigation played out.……

 
Should’ve known better. Harvard would rather quit acknowledging women and minorities exist. This just gives them an excuse.



 
American students are applying for U.K. universities in record numbers amid Donald Trump’s college crackdown during his first few months in office.

The Trump administration has intervened in higher education, pressuring states, colleges, and universities to abandon diversity, equity, and inclusion programs while attempting to dictate curriculum.

The president has also launched high-profile battles against institutions such as Harvard University, freezing billions of dollars in federal funding over alleged liberal bias and antisemitism and threatening their tax-exempt status.

All of that appears to be driving American students across the Atlantic, with new figures from the U.K.’s university admissions service, UCAS, showing 7,930 applications from American students for the fall 2025 semester.…….


 
American students are applying for U.K. universities in record numbers amid Donald Trump’s college crackdown during his first few months in office.

The Trump administration has intervened in higher education, pressuring states, colleges, and universities to abandon diversity, equity, and inclusion programs while attempting to dictate curriculum.

The president has also launched high-profile battles against institutions such as Harvard University, freezing billions of dollars in federal funding over alleged liberal bias and antisemitism and threatening their tax-exempt status.

All of that appears to be driving American students across the Atlantic, with new figures from the U.K.’s university admissions service, UCAS, showing 7,930 applications from American students for the fall 2025 semester.…….


The Great American Brain Drain intensifies.
 
Less than a decade ago, Gregory W. Brown helped fundraise for the University of Virginia by posing for pictures in his old dorm room.

Now he is central to the Trump administration’s effort to crack down on his alma mater for promoting diversity, equity and inclusion programs, as one of two Justice Department leaders and U-Va. alumni to threaten sweeping funding cuts and compel the school’s president to resign.

Brown is one of several key architects of President Donald Trump’s wide-reaching campaign to root out liberal ideology from higher education who graduated from the prestigious universities the president has emboldened them to transform. Driven by personal experience, the staffers are pushing to overhaul the progressive culture they feel has come to dominate elite colleges and universities.

One newly minted Harvard Law School graduate, now a policy adviser to the president, spurred an investigation into the legal journal he once helped edit. Another Trump administration official, Josh Gruenbaum, repeatedly confronted a student group affiliated with Students for Justice in Palestine while he was earning business and law degrees from New York University. He now sits on a multiagency task force that investigates schools for reports of antisemitism.

Democrats have denounced the push as hypocritical, accusing Trump staffers of benefiting from the nation’s most selective universities only to deny disadvantaged students the ability to do the same. Administration officials maintain that the schools have sacrificed academic rigor for a version of diversity that excludes right-leaning swaths of the country. In interviews, five of the officials described feelings of social isolation on campuses and a closed-minded environment hostile to young conservatives.

“It’s a good thing we have bright individuals who have attended these schools and witnessed some of these injustices firsthand,” said Karoline Leavitt, White House press secretary. “We want people with lived experience leading the charge.”

Overseeing parts of the extensive effort is Stephen Miller, the longtime Trump aide and White House deputy chief of staff who rose to national prominence as a far-right student voice defending Duke University lacrosse players wrongfully accused of rape. Miller has hired at least two architects of the push to remake higher education — May Mailman and Daniel Wasserman, a senior White House official said — both graduates of elite schools where their conservative values often put them at odds with classmates.

Together, the staff under Trump, who prizes his degree from the University of Pennsylvania’s business school, and Vice President JD Vance, who graduated from Yale Law School, are looking to reshape academia — working to purge campuses of diversity, equity and inclusion efforts and imbue the next generations of students with their worldview..............

The Trump staffers who set out to reshape their alma maters


 
The Great American Brain Drain intensifies.

Denmark is experiencing a significant rise in the number of U.S. citizens seeking employment opportunities here. And it's not just researchers or highly educated professionals applying — an increasing number of skilled tradespeople are also showing interest.

Denmark maintains a “Positive List” of occupations in high demand, covering both academic and vocational fields. These lists are updated regularly and serve as a fast-track to residence and work permits for qualified applicants.

While the academic list includes jobs in research, IT, and engineering, the vocational list features a wide range of essential trades, including:
  • Auto mechanics
  • Carpenters
  • Nurses and other healthcare professionals
  • Construction workers
  • Electricians

All it typically takes is a relevant vocational diploma and a few years of experience. Many Danish companies also advertise these jobs on LinkedIn and other international job platforms.

Importantly, these are not low-wage jobs. Denmark has strong labor unions, and most professions are covered by collective bargaining agreements that ensure fair pay, regulated working hours, and good working conditions.
 
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Denmark is experiencing a significant rise in the number of U.S. citizens seeking employment opportunities here. And it's not just researchers or highly educated professionals applying — an increasing number of skilled tradespeople are also showing interest.

Denmark maintains a “Positive List” of occupations in high demand, covering both academic and vocational fields. These lists are updated regularly and serve as a fast-track to residence and work permits for qualified applicants.

While the academic list includes jobs in research, IT, and engineering, the vocational list features a wide range of essential trades, including:
  • Auto mechanics
  • Carpenters
  • Nurses and other healthcare professionals
  • Construction workers
  • Electricians

All it typically takes is a relevant vocational diploma and a few years of experience. Many Danish companies also advertise these jobs on LinkedIn and other international job platforms.

Importantly, these are not low-wage jobs. Denmark has strong labor unions, and most professions are covered by collective bargaining agreements that ensure fair pay, regulated working hours, and good working conditions.
How hard would it be to integrate and be accepted into your society for an English speaking person who is tragically monolingual?
 
How hard would it be to integrate and be accepted into your society for an English speaking person who is tragically monolingual?
It’s actually quite easy — English is taught starting in 2nd grade, so virtually everyone in Denmark speaks English fluently. A little-known fact: many English and Danish words are closely related. I remember reading Beowulf when I was in school in the U.S., and I found it much easier to understand than many of my classmates — because many of the Old English words actually have Scandinavian roots.

Also, as part of the integration package for those granted work permits, language courses are included to help people settle in and thrive.

The company I worked for before retiring had a very international environment — about 70% Danish and 30% from various other nationalities. One of the co-founders came to Denmark as a child, arriving as a Vietnamese boat refugee who was lucky enough to be rescued by a Maersk ship. (At the time, Denmark offered asylum to all refugees rescued by Danish merchant vessels.)
 
It’s actually quite easy — English is taught starting in 2nd grade, so virtually everyone in Denmark speaks English fluently. A little-known fact: many English and Danish words are closely related. I remember reading Beowulf when I was in school in the U.S., and I found it much easier to understand than many of my classmates — because many of the Old English words actually have Scandinavian roots.
Good to know. I grew up in a family that spoke a language I didn't understand, Cajun French, so I'm comfortable with not knowing what others are saying as long as we have a language in common. I'd try to learn Danish, but I've struggled with learning another language. I've heard immersion is the best way to learn.

Also, as part of the integration package for those granted work permits, language courses are included to help people settle in and thrive.

The company I worked for before retiring had a very international environment — about 70% Danish and 30% from various other nationalities. One of the co-founders came to Denmark as a child, arriving as a Vietnamese boat refugee who was lucky enough to be rescued by a Maersk ship. (At the time, Denmark offered asylum to all refugees rescued by Danish merchant vessels.)
 

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