The powder blue Satan makes an excellent point:
Anyone who has spent a bit of time around especially elite college campuses knows that while, yes, sometimes students protest right wing speakers – sometimes this is perfectly right and good and sometimes you can argue that they go too far and the heckler’s veto is rarely if ever appropriate but these things are always a bit more complicated than people make them out to be – it’s pressure from the top that tends to discourage left wing speakers from coming to campus. There are academics and activists on the campus circuit who every knows are “controversial,” quite often because of rather strong left wing views on things like war, carceral state, economics, racial issues, etc. Black “radicals,” commies, Palestinian activists, etc. Watch those pots of money mysteriously disappear if you try to put your hands in them to fund a visit by one of these speakers. To put it simply, it’s not controversial at all to advocate invading a country for lies, and then profiting handsomely off of that, but it is controversial to suggest that maybe, just maybe, when police are executing people in your communities that something more than accepting it quietly is necessary. Military and cops are good, the poor and the marginalized are suspect. And these are our liberal institutions!
Scott Lemieux at LGM points out this is the second time this week Harvard has acted on behalf of the rich and the powerful and the bigoted:
Michelle Jones committed a horrible crime as a teenager (killing the child that she gave birth to, the result of a rape, at age 14). In prison, she became a scholar so accomplished that she was heavily recruited by elite history Ph.D programs after earning early release. One of those programs was Harvard. Only a couple faculty members decided to act to get the acceptance withdrawn, and were successful. In one case that was based on a fear of what Fox News would say. Seem like an unfair inference? He says it explicitly:
“We didn’t have some preconceived idea about crucifying Michelle,” said John Stauffer, one of the two American studies professors. [Ed. Note: this is a tell on the level with “I don’t mean to be offensive but…”] “But frankly, we knew that anyone could just punch her crime into Google, and Fox News would probably say that P.C. liberal Harvard gave 200 grand of funding to a child murderer, who also happened to be a minority. I mean, c’mon.”
Achieving tenure at Harvard so that you can delegate your admissions decisions to Fox & Friends and David Horowitz — another proud moment for America’s elites.
The “kids,” however, see through the bullshit:
Chelsea Manning, the former US soldier who leaked hundreds of thousands of state secrets and served seven years in military prison, abruptly terminated a phone call with the dean of the Harvard Kennedy school in an expression of her dismay at his decision to revoke her visiting fellowship in the face of severe pressure from the CIA.
Manning ended the conversation on Thursday as the dean, Douglas Elmendorf, tried to justify to her his decision to cancel the fellowship only a day after it had been announced. The dean had said he needed to talk to Manning “urgently” after CIA figures first raised their objection to Harvard offering the whistleblower a place among its 2017-18 visiting speaker program – raising the prospect that one of America’s most prestigious academic institutions had kowtowed to pressure from the intelligence services.
What explanation did he need to give other than the public statement? The answer is none. The only reason he called her was to assuage his own conscience- he did a shitty thing and wanted to feel better about himself, so he tried to call Chelsea up and tell her how awful he felt.
And she did the appropriate thing and hung up on his punk ass. He’ll pay no real world price for this- his job will not be jeopardized, he’ll still be treated like royalty on capus and in the academic world and the circles of power. But what he doesn’t get is to clear his conscience. Elmendorf knew he was doing a shitty thing to someone for shitty reasons- even worse when you consider Harvard is A-OK with Corey Lewandowski- so he doesn’t get to feel better about himself. He can live with what he has done.
I’m sure it’s nothing a couple scotches at the next Harvard fundraiser can’t cure.
Baud
I don’t really like Atrios, so I’ll give him props here. Good point.
Smedley Darlington Prunebanks (Formerly Mumphrey, et al.)
Yeah, but, but, some hippies were upset when the nazi Milo Yanonpolis (or whatever the fuck his name is) was going to speak at a college, so both sides. Or something…
Major Major Major Major
@Smedley Darlington Prunebanks (Formerly Mumphrey, et al.): Ben Shapiro spoke at Berkeley today, the police spent $600,000 on security.
(((CassandraLeo)))
Learning that Chelsea hung up on that asshat increases my respect for her. It was already pretty high to begin with.
japa21
@Major Major Major Major: Which they immediately gave him the bill for, right? Right?…wrong.
Baud
@Major Major Major Major: Do they ever have liberal people speak there? It seems like its always conservatives.
Major Major Major Major
@Baud: I assume they have liberals speak all the time but it’s not noteworthy so you don’t hear about it.
Baud
@Major Major Major Major: Yeah. Probably.
bystander
My college, Wash U in St. Louis, gave an honorary degree to Phyllis Schlafly. I’ve never given them another dime.
ThresherK
ESPN: We’re going to presurrender Jemele Hill to appease RealAmerica’s media.
Harvard: Hold my beer.
Raoul
Having a $35 billion dollar endowment means never having to say you’re sorry.
But, still, fuck harvard.
If we can ever get past this horrific episode of noblesse amok in the White House and Congress, one of the things I think we decent people should push for is a cap on college endowments. There is no justification whatsoever for having $35,000,000,000.00 in ‘savings’ and yet also charge what they charge, and act like they act — tax free! Fuck Harvard. Fuck this level of parked wealth for the benefit of other wealth.
trollhattan
@bystander:
Seriously? She may be comedic evil but at the end of the day certainly evil.
trollhattan
@Major Major Major Major:
Virgin Ben? Groovy, maaaan.
dmsilev
@Raoul: Harvard is an outlier, even among the Ivies and similar, in terms of ludicrous endowments. What I always wonder is why people bother to give money to Harvard now that they have this huge pile. Even a million dollar gift is just a fart in the breeze compared to whether the endowment is up or down this year.
NotMax
You’re associated with a college; you know how these things work.
Imperiling alumni money trumps reticence regarding opprobrium emanating from cowardly and shameful internal decisions.
Major Major Major Major
@dmsilev: well, it can get your idiot son admitted.
Mnemosyne
@Major Major Major Major:
Did anyone bother to show up to hear him speak?
kindness
I used to read Eschaton every day. I get about once a week or so now. Powder Blue Satan…ha. Hadn’t heard that one. Yea, open racism, sexism & prejudice are on the upswing. It’s Trump. It’s all Trump’s win.
TenguPhule
@dmsilev:
Those Deans aren’t just going to raise themselves.
Major Major Major Major
@Mnemosyne: like a thousand? All the tickets were sold or claimed or whatever.
dmsilev
@TenguPhule: I always thought Deans reproduced by budding.
Except for USC Deans; they reproduce via meth-fueled hooker orgies.
NotMax
@Raoul
Evidently not too big to quail.
TenguPhule
@dmsilev:
Spores, like all Fungus.
Nunca El Jefe
@dmsilev: see? There’s still good schools out there.
Mike J
Agreed on most points. but Manning wasn’t a whistleblower. She had no idea what was in the stuff she was leaking. It wasn’t some sort of principled stand, it was just lulz.
And yes, Manning should not have been mistreated, but she deserved to go to prison, and if not for the mistreatment, deserved to be in much longer than she got.
Jeffro
Hey, my daughter watched Chris Hayes and Ta-Nehisi Coates with me for about a half hour earlier tonight. She was like, “Mind. Blown” listening to Coates talk about white supremacy.
Bonding!
Jeffro
And on a side note, I had the opportunity to hear from the Rev. Jesse Jackson tonight – he’s on a tour of VA colleges, trying to get students to register to vote. Rambled a bit here and there but mostly a great, unifying message.
He even suggested that the ‘alt-right’ protesters in C-ville were more ‘lost than hateful’ and that we should lift them up to a higher place. He’s a better person than I am in that regard.
Major Major Major Major
@Mike J: yeah, I wouldn’t cross the street to spit on her, really, and even I agree.
different-church-lady
@Mike J:
Now wait a minute: Manning may have been stupid to go about it the way she did, but it wasn’t just for kicks. The hero worship has never sat well with me, but I think this goes too far in the opposite direction.
rikyrah
Maddow is cracking me up as she outlines all the lies of Pence and how he’s steeped in Flynn, Russia and Comey firing lies.
BuzzFeed reveals another secret meeting.
Corner Stone
@Jeffro: If she didn’t also watch HRC on TRMS last night then she is not pure enough. To the lottery!!
Jeffro
@Corner Stone: She’s watching Maddow right now…heck, I haven’t seen the HRC interview yet myself…
Cheryl Rofer
Saw a thread today on Twitter about how Milo is “planning” some sort of all-out conservative bash in Berkeley in a week or two, EXCEPT
no venue has been set
few of the advertised speakers have confirmed
It looks like he may call it off and claim that he was forced to by those terrible Berkeley liberals, but it’s never really been on.
Corner Stone
@Jeffro: Two for the lottery!!
Adam L Silverman
Just a heads up for everyone: I am available to come to your university and speak on the Israeli-Palestinian dispute, the fight against ISIL, US operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, the Saudi war in Yemen, how national security strategy and policy are made, and several related topics as someone who has actually worked on these things at a high level of the US government.
All lines are open. Operators are standing by.
NotMax
@Corner Stone
Still trying to digest Mom’s (age 89) take on Maddow. Likes her, agrees with her politically but won’t watch unless I’m there because “she shouts too much.”
Yet she’ll sit through most anyone on CNN.
Adam L Silverman
@Jeffro: It was an excellent segment.
Adam L Silverman
@NotMax: Have you considered turning the volume down?
NotMax
@Adam L. Silverman
What, no culturally relevant recipes included?
;)
TenguPhule
@Adam L Silverman:
Free shipping with every delivery.
Raoul
OT, but the auto-roll ad on this damn web site is now worse than ever. Hitting pause doesn’t work. Hitting mute doesn’t work. The only thing that works is closing the tab and starting over.
Please, Alain and John. Fix this.
Thank you.
Brendancalling
I hate these people. I’d express that in much more evocative terms by it’s not nice to wish a heart attack on anyone. Well, almost anyone.
Corner Stone
@NotMax: Rachel repeats herself a bunch but I don’t recall her being “shouty” about any of it. I personally find her to be a very poor interviewer on significant topics but a decent interlocutor to guide most normal discussions. Rachel does get animated at times but it always seems to be a bright smile and a knowing wink kind of thing, IMO.
Mike J
@Raoul:
If your family earns less than $65k, you pay nothing to go to Harvard. Between $65k and $150k, you pay between 0 and 10%. And yes, that paying nothing includes room and board and fees, but not books or travel.
John Cole
@Raoul: What ad? I literally load this site 100 times a day and I never get any volume on any ads. I have never experienced it. What browser are you using? Email me.
This is driving me insane.
Adam L Silverman
@NotMax: Sure, I’m flexible on negotiating the topics. I’m also someone who likes to bundle the talks. So if you want me for a big, in the evening talk, I like to also do a talk with students looking to go into the policy world about how strategy and policy is actually made. Or if you’ve got an archeology club, I’m happy to do my archeology in a conflict zone stuff from when I was deployed in Iraq.
Adam L Silverman
@TenguPhule: Only to the lower 48.
Major Major Major Major
@John Cole: “it works on my box!”
Hey, your comments aren’t blue.
efgoldman
@TenguPhule:
Just pay a small handling charge
Adam L Silverman
Here’s another FYI:
Yutsano
@Adam L Silverman: Let me work a few contacts at Washington State University. I could also get you a gig at the University of Washington but my leads there aren’t as solid. Either way as long as you come out here there will be a meet-up.
(((CassandraLeo)))
@different-church-lady: I regard it as naïveté more than stupidity, honestly. It’s easy to forget now, but Wikileaks had a lot of very smart people fooled into thinking it really gave a shit about human rights, which, to be clear, many of the people who’d worked there genuinely had. It’s also my impression that Manning leaked all those diplomatic cables with the understanding that sensitive content that would endanger people’s lives if published would be redacted, and that Wikileaks had actually done such redactions in the past.
The Collateral Murder video was definitely whistleblowing, and it’s just as absurd to argue otherwise as it is to argue that Manning did nothing wrong at all.
NotMax
@Corner Stone
Yeah, the show’s tendency to provide repetitious backstory reaching back to the discovery of fire is downright soporific.
Shouting is just not something I’d associate with Ms Maddow. Ebullient, yes. Her delivery has become much, much smoother since she became comfortable with talking into the mic while being seated (her Air America shows were delivered while standing).
Ohio Mom
@Smedley Darlington Prunebanks (Formerly Mumphrey, et al.): As I recall, the protest against Milos Y-I don’t know how to spell his name either, wasn’t just because he’s an unworthy jerk, it was because he was planning on calling out and identifying undocumented students. The protestors wanted to protect their undocumented classmates. But yeah, I agree, both sides…
I still check Atrios everyday. Partly out of loyalty I guess, and partly because at least a couple of times a week, he has a very insightful nugget. I never read the comments though, the threads are one long party full of people I don’t know and references I don’t get.
NotMax
@Adam L. Silverman
Philistine!
Raoul
@dmsilev: My alma mater, a mid-size private university, now has a $1.2 Billion endowment.
Enrollment of 10,394 w/ 8,891 undergrad, 1,503 graduate students. That’s $115,350 per student in investments backing the school. My gift would be a piffle, I give nothing to the school any more. I used to give a few hundred a year for scholarships, not to the endowment. But I stopped.
I now give $1,000 a year to the scholarship fund for the 2 year Community College that is about 8 blocks from home. The school has a tiny alumni foundation, and the student body is 27% first generation college, something like 3/4s ‘diverse’ and (this is shocking) over 10% of the students experience some form of homelessness during their studies (I take this to mean they couch surf, bounce from place to place, etc with no or inadequate permanent address. Some probably literally live in shelters at some point). My partner’s church has a backpack & school supply drive for them annually. For college students. The church also makes a giant pile of sandwiches once a month for the students in the school’s program for precariously housed people.
So, when I look at Harvard and their $35 billion, I really do mean it when I say Fuck Harvard. Fuck the skewed incentives in this country that over-support bloated places like that and make local schools actually building the workforce of tomorrow to fight for g-d damned table scraps.
Steeplejack
@Jeffro:
That was a surprisingly good interview. Hayes slowed down the usual “rapid-fire snippets and go to a commercial break” pace, and both he and Coates took their time and “went deep.” I enjoyed it a lot more than I thought I would. I was thinking “mildly onerous homework assignment,” but I was very pleasantly surprised. I recommend the replay to anyone even mildly interested.
Davebo
Look, Harvard is an investment bank that hands out diplomas on the side to America’s elite. A good law school supposedly and it’s been encrusted into the US corporate culture to the point where Fortune 5’s like a Harvard MBA on a resume but in the end I could care less.
They also have a medical school that brought us Jill Stein and Haruko Obokata so I guess they have that going for them.
Adam L Silverman
@Yutsano: Thank you I’m happy to do either or both. I’d love to get back to doing some of these. Haven’t done one in a couple of years. And, of course, every little bit of extra income always helps…
(((CassandraLeo)))
@Ohio Mom: Atrios’ comments are pretty much unreadable. They rarely have anything to do with the subject at hand, and it’s not even all that common for them to have much to do with politics. Atrios himself is worth reading a couple times a week though, when he actually writes more than a few sentences.
Major Major Major Major
@Ohio Mom: many of the protestors did feel that way. Some didn’t, and broke a bunch of windows and lit cars on fire.
Adam L Silverman
@NotMax: Her professional naif schtick is a bit grating.
Adam L Silverman
@NotMax: We offer a very competitive discounted rate to Hawaii, Alaska, and Canada.
Adam L Silverman
@Ohio Mom: Given that he outed at least one transgender student at a different talk, I wouldn’t put anything past him.
Gravenstone
@Adam L Silverman: what the everlovingfuck? Is that really a thing somewhere in this broken world?
Steeplejack
@John Cole:
People need to remember that when they’re reporting problems they need to provide as much specific information as possible:
1. Which particular ad.
2. Your device’s operating system.
3. Your browser.
4. Which version of the site you’re using—desktop or mobile.
All of that helps Alain et al. run down the problem.
Adam L Silverman
@Gravenstone: Apparently it is all theoretical/conceptual at this point. I’m actually reading the article now.
Davebo
@John Cole:
In fairness, it is a short trip!
Major Major Major Major
@Adam L Silverman:
where’s the fun in that?
NotMax
@Adam L. Silverman
Occasionally she will leave the desk and stand to report while highlighting a graph or some such and one can almost immediately discern a more polished, more comfortable demeanor and delivery.
Major Major Major Major
@Davebo: if you lived here, you’d be home by now.
Davebo
@Adam L Silverman: I just cleaned the pool and the asshole owner wants to submerge!
I hate the uber wealthy.
Elizabelle
@Steeplejack: Linky please.
I don’t watch cable news, but will make an exception for the TNC and HRC interviews. Although I still may want to throw something.
Hello to your kitteh with the heated throw. Fall is coming.
Davebo
@Major Major Major Major:
Bought the townhouse. Crazy here but the maintenance fees are crazier!
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Adam L Silverman:
WHAT?
omnes omnibus
@NotMax:
That’s her Oxford PhD showing.
[Adam losing it in 3, 2, 1…]
Major Major Major Major
@omnes omnibus: where did your capital letters go?
Chris T.
@Smedley Darlington Prunebanks (Formerly Mumphrey, et al.): I like to call him “self-admitted pedophile Milo Ywhatever”.
Davebo
@Adam L Silverman:
Veterans of Foreign Wars, Nome AK. (907) 443-9569
Travel expenses probably won’t be covered but the fishing is great!
Chris T.
@NotMax: You have purty words!
Omnes Omnibus
@Major Major Major Major: Thanks for reminding me. I accidentally deleted my ‘nym last night and apparently felt a little small while retyping. My self-esteem is back to normal now.
Steve in the ATL
@Major Major Major Major: they have the weekend off
Omnes Omnibus
@Steve in the ATL: Fuck that. If I gotta be here, they gotta be here.
Adam L Silverman
@NotMax: The delivery isn’t the issue. Regularly pretending to not understand how anything works in terms of policy, strategy, politics, and government when one has a doctorate in government is.
Steve in the ATL
@NotMax:
I was thinking something like this earlier today about whether my alma mater would drop General Lee’s name. The vast, vast majority of alumni donations would cease forthwith.
Maybe in a couple of generations.
Adam L Silverman
@omnes omnibus: It is what it is.
Steve in the ATL
@Omnes Omnibus: careful–you’re going to push them to join a union
Adam L Silverman
@Davebo: Thanks, I think.
Corner Stone
I can’t stand this Suebsang Buzzfeed reporter person.
Steeplejack
@Elizabelle:
It was a live TV show. But the interview appears to be at the top of the MSNBC site now.
ETA: It appears to be divided into several parts.
Sab
@Steve in the ATL: Only you think this is a problem.
Corner Stone
@Elizabelle: The HRC interview is good but exactly what you would have expected. A lot of people here said they could not watch because it would make them upset, etc. But really it was a fairly factual recital of things we already knew. HRC handled herself very professionally and TRMS was as milquetoast as you’d expect.
Worth watching though, for sure. IMO
PigDog
Harvard screwed up by bringing her on in the first place. I struggle to imagine what educational insights she has to offer their audience.
Corner Stone
I love me some Jemele Hill.
Chrome agnomen
@Jeffro: the higher place i would like to lift them to is a gibbet.
Corner Stone
@PigDog: You mean in contrast to the value Corey Lewandowski has to provide?
Major Major Major Major
@PigDog: considering they brought on Lewandowski in the same tranche this isn’t really a very good point in re her dismissal.
Edit: ninja’d
Jeffro
@Adam L Silverman: Clearly we need to cut taxes, billionaires are suffering…
Loved this:
They better be sure they pull up onto the right beaches…”stand your ground” applies when one thinks one’s repelling Atlanteans, amirite?
Amir Khalid
@Gravenstone:
There’s a few richer-than-God people out there just waiting to have their fancy piqued by something both outlandish and outlandishly expensive.
PigDog
@Corner Stone: nope, he’s not worthy either, but he’ll have good gossip.
Jeffro
@Raoul: We should work on an op-ed asking Harvard to give our institutions just the interest on a billion or two of their endowment for a few years…since they suck at helping large numbers of first-in-their-family college students, why not share 1/35th of the wealth with colleges that do quite well in that space?
debbie
@Corner Stone:
Do you think she’ll be able to stay at ESPN?
Corner Stone
I hate this stupid, fucking pig ignorant “Bada Book, Bada Boom” commercial push. Doubtful I was ever going to book a room in one of these chains but it’s a guarantee now that I will not.
Omnes Omnibus
@Corner Stone: And with that comment, I declare you fully back in the swing of things.
Jeffro
@Steeplejack: Hayes showed some courage in throwing his and others’ misperceptions out there…Coates really kept a great balance between expressing his anger at the sheer fact of Donald Trump and wanting people to know where Trumpov came from.
Sab
@NotMax: My Dad age 93 loves Maddow but othwerwise watches Faux and CNN. Weird side effect of dementia. I don’t think Rachel Meadow is in any respect demented, but her slow careful buildup to her point does appeal to the elderly who used to know but have long since forgotten what she has just discovered. Would also be useful for the young if only they could sit still to listen.
Corner Stone
@debbie: IMO, Jemele doesn’t mind this fight with ESPN. Interested to see where she goes next.
Gravenstone
@Amir Khalid: Most of those seem more interested in buying a politician (or twelve). For the true strivers, they buy entire parties. Not sure there’s enough profit in becoming a Bondesque megalomaniac villain.
Raoul
@John Cole: Sorry to drive you insane, John. Now of course the ad isn’t auto-playing (edit: ad for Xfinity internet is auto-playing, but muted and if I click, now the pause works), so I’ll keep track in the next few days and email you if (probably when) loss of mute/pause recurs.
FYI Chrome (current ver. 60.0.3112.113) on a mid 2013 Macbook Air running OSX El Capitan 10.11.6
Best,
Raoul
Jeffro
@Chrome agnomen: See, now that’s just not helpful ;)
(me too btw) (but what they tell me is, non-violence works in the end)
Steeplejack
@Omnes Omnibus:
We need to hear somebody exhorted to get fucked up their stupid ass.
Omnes Omnibus
@Steeplejack: Sure, but we don’t expect a home run every at bat.
Major Major Major Major
@Raoul: maybe I should just make Alain a button that submits a complaint.
Adam L Silverman
@PigDog: @Corner Stone: @Major Major Major Major: This fellowship is sort of a strange beast. The Institute of Politics is part of the Kennedy School of Government. The Kennedy School of Government doesn’t actually interact with Harvard’s academic political science department, the Department of Government. Rather the Kennedy School is sort of a fusion of several research units – think mini think tanks, some of which also issue graduate degrees for practitioners. Some of their scholars are legit researchers and practitioners who conduct applied research. Some of them are just big names who do Deity knows what.
The Institute of Politics is one of these units within the Kennedy School that brings on important or notable individuals within national politics on fellowships for a year. I’m not sure there’s any real transparency to their decision making process.
I know a couple of folks at the Kennedy School. One is a former Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense I gave a courtesy briefing to while at TRADOC back in 2009. I’m pretty sure she has this position because she’s a Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense – as in when she was leaving government service she made a phone call. My impression is that is how a lot of these fellowships get filled. The issue with some of these folks is that their currency as practitioners gets stale very quickly. She’s been out of government for almost 15 years. Same thing for the big names like David Gergen. I’m sure he’s great when discussing how the White House worked under Clinton, but he’s been out of the game for 20 years.
As for this year’s crop of Institute of Politics fellows, I’m not really sure what they have to offer. Is Spicer going to do a pro-seminar on how to be the worst Press Secretary in any administration in modern history? Lewandowski going to talk about how to serve as body man with the hopped up title of campaign manager? What exactly is Mary Katherine Hamm going to contribute? How to write polemics and comment on CNN roundtables? These are not serious people. They don’t have serious information or knowledge to impart. It is a glorified dog and pony show. And, honestly, this would have been the same reality for Manning. Her claim to fame is not being separated during Initial Military Training despite every indication being that she should have been, followed by breaking Federal classification laws and regulations and being taken advantage of by a Russian intel front. I’m not sure that experience provides a basis to add anything of significance to a serious discussion.
Steeplejack
@Raoul:
Send the info and bug reports to Alain, not Cole.
Corner Stone
@Steeplejack: Hi, Hillary! Big fan. Superfan, really. Yeah, could you please dedicate my copy of your book to, “Fuck Trump. Fuc-”
“Woah, guys! Wait a second! No need to toss me out behin–“
Adam L Silverman
@Jeffro: Looks something like this:
And this:
Corner Stone
That fucking Jane Coale. First she was saying how attractive Chelsea Manning is and now she’s opening a discussion about Nas?
This lady, I am telling you what.
? Martin
In sunny news:
Fuck y’all, we’re going in our own direction.
Corner Stone
@Adam L Silverman: Pretty sloppy staff work.
Davebo
@Jeffro: The fact that Harvard charges tuition at all tells you all you need to know.
Major Major Major Major
@? Martin: that’s not very brotherly of you.
Mike J
@Davebo: They don’t unless you make more than $150k.
? ?? Goku (aka The Hope of the Universe) ? ?
Golly gee, maybe you could just tell Fox News to go pound sand and go fuck itself.
And isn’t disturbing that the fucking CIA can have so much domestic influence?
Regnad Kcin
@Adam L Silverman: C’mon now, the K School has always been a little suspect to begin with, plus the damn CIA has been on ivy campuses since the beginning, and no amount of noise from the hoi polloi will convince the Harvard Overseers differently.
BeezusQ
Havard sucks on so many levels (see: Kushner, J admission acceptance). As for Michelle…actually uses her prison time to better her life, educate herself, give back…how dare she?! So uppity. As for the extreme right that keep coming out here to UC Berkeley, it is NOT about their message, it is about provoking violence, not conversation.
Adam L Silverman
@Corner Stone: Yep. Over reliance on magic, extraterrestrial weaponry, super powers. This wouldn’t have happened if Batman was there!
? Martin
@Major Major Major Major: Yeah, well, we put Clinton up by 3 million votes – bigger margins than Obama. We’re not putting up with this shit, nor are we willing to wait out the next 3 years.
Mike J
Is Hastings the Norman coördinate?
(Star Trek marathon on BBCA)
Adam L Silverman
@Regnad Kcin: Yes, that’s what I said that the K School is a strange beast and a dodgy one too boot.
Major Major Major Major
@? Martin: shame about the rest of the Clinton voters who don’t live in California. Of course, it would have been a lot worse downticket if they did.
Omnes Omnibus
@Mike J: At my 25th college reunion, my class had a lunch with the university president. When asked about tuition and financial aid, she noted that the 90% of students received some aid. She was asked why the school did just lower tuition; she said that when people had the money to pay full freight, they were going to get it and use it to help others. My school is a LAC with 1500 students and a $300 million endowment. FWIW I got significant scholarships when I was starting there, but my parents started doing quite well while I was in school and my aid package was adjusted accordingly. Very little of the aid package was loans. I give something every year to at least acknowledge the help I got (more some years than others).
? ?? Goku (aka The Hope of the Universe) ? ?
@Adam L Silverman:
Did somebody mention something Batman related?
chud.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/Scooby-Chin-Music3.jpg
Regnad Kcin
@Adam L Silverman: we’re in violent agreement, then… :)
I mean, they were certainly the ground zero of grad inflation, back in the day — not a good recipe for solid academic foundations, add in the pernicious effect of celebritism, and there you go.
Adam L Silverman
@Regnad Kcin: It is what it is.
Jeffro
@Adam L Silverman: @Corner Stone: Ok, I call Cyborg, I’m Cyborg in that one!, as my son would say.
Mike J
RIP Harry Dean Stanton.
youtube.com/watch?v=xcJXT5lc1Bg
different-church-lady
You all do remember who else went to Harvard, don’t you?
frosty
@Raoul:
This is a really good idea and I may start doing this. I quit giving to my school the 2nd or 3rd time some Silicon Valley entrepreneur alumnus gave them a couple million. They don’t need my $100.
Jeffro
@Davebo: They charge it just to look generous when they don’t…and it makes the .001% feel ok about going there, they’re “paying”, after all.
I’m still writing the op-ed. They could be helping multiple universities address actual societal needs without missing a beat (or a buck)
Adam L Silverman
@Jeffro: Whatever makes you happy.
Jeffro
Btw looks like the Office of Government Ethics is backtracking on allowing anonymous donations to legal defense funds for Trumpov Admin officials.
(story went up this afternoon so this might have been cited already)
frosty
@Major Major Major Major:
Hmm, if you did that, you could do a form that requires input for all the info John just mentioned: browser, hardware, etc. Might drive him and Alain a little less insane.
Major Major Major Major
@frosty: you can auto fill a lot of that too.
@Regnad Kcin: ok, we get it, you went to college in Boston. Well, not in Boston. Near Boston. Across the river.
Omnes Omnibus
@different-church-lady: FDR? JFK? BHO? Bill Kristol? Neither Bill nor Hill?
Adam L Silverman
@frosty: Now that’s just crazy talk!//
Steeplejack (phone)
Mooch rerun on Colbert tonight, if anyone’s interested. Starting now.
frosty
@Adam L Silverman: Good to see I haven’t lost my touch.//
The Pale Scot
@Raoul: You could try deleting cookies and emptying your browser cache. Better to use a cookie manager, every browser has an addon or extension so you can protect the cookie for places like this but kill the ad trackers. More likely to just get a vanilla ad.
Steeplejack (phone)
Aw, hell, no! Brian Williams welcoming Peggy Noonan to “our on-air family tonight.”
That’s it. I’m over to Perry Mason on MeTV: “The Case of the Prodigal Parent.”
. . . God, actually hearing Nooners talk is worse than you can imagine.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Omnes Omnibus: Al Franken.
Omnes Omnibus
@?BillinGlendaleCA: John and John Quincy Adams. We could go for hours.
Corner Stone
@Steeplejack (phone): Unsurprisingly, that was a very poor segment.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Omnes Omnibus: Actually Franken was also a fellow at the Kennedy School, that’s when he wrote “Lies and the Lying Liars…”
The Pale Scot
A sub with windows? OK
This sounds like something the Sea Steader looneys would go for
Steeplejack (phone)
@Corner Stone:
Can we get Andrew Lack a lower tumbrel number based on this?
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Steeplejack (phone): Yes.
Corner Stone
@Steeplejack (phone): When it all goes south, that dude is in the Bush compound in Paraguay or he is a dead man.
That’s just science.
NotMax
Quashing Sessions.
Omnes Omnibus
@NotMax: Maybe our institutions aren’t failing.
NotMax
Adam, something for your Florida file.
One ardently hopes the putrid policeman’s removal from the force won’t be long in following the department’s removal of his photo.
Adam L Silverman
@NotMax: Saw that earlier today. When I was a post-doc at UF I had a retired Gainesville PD detective take several classes with me. He’d gone back to get his degree. He’d served in Vietnam. He was a hoot to have in class. Real good guy. Good student. And, of course, great stories.
Major Major Major Major
@Adam L Silverman: oh yeah, well, I’ve met interesting people too, so there.
(Is how half your stories make me feel!)
Doug R
@Steeplejack: WTF is up with that gawdawful rack of Taboola click crap I have to scroll through to get to comments?
The one thing that’s worse than ads-sponsered links, FFS.
Running Firefox on an Android phone, btw.
Steeplejack (phone)
@Doug R:
The Taboola block should be at the bottom of the page, like it is on every other goddamn site on the Internet. I am composing a stern letter to Alain on this subject.
Amir Khalid
@Gravenstone:
There’s a difference, though. Undermining democracy in pursuit of more wealth and privilege is business, and buying politicians is buying work tools. Luxury submarines are toys. Real-life Bond villains such as Vladimir Putin don’t really do big toys, alas; they are too busy villaining.
SgrAstar
@Mike J: Pfft. The UCs pay tuition and fees, plus cover living expenses, etc for students whose parental income falls under a $60k cap. And the total endowment of all 10 UC campuses is <<<< Harvard's $35 billion. Go Bears.
Tenar Arha
@Jeffro: I went to see TNC interview Hayes at MIT when Hayes was on his first book tour. They are interesting to watch & listen to. Guess I’ll have to dig up their talk for weekend viewing.
ETA typo