Robert Reich, The Guardian - 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 law over 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.
1 comment:
TYhe next timer tell Trump to fuck off and that he is an idiot. And then challenge him to a debate . And then fact check everything he says. you will get fired anyways so might as well humiliate trump while you are leaving.
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