My 2014 essay “The Trouble With Harvard” called for a transparent, meritocratic admissions policy to replace the current “eye-of-newt-wing-of-bat mysticism” which “conceals unknown mischief.” My 2023 “five-point plan to save Harvard from itself” urged the university to commit itself to free speech, institutional neutrality, nonviolence, viewpoint diversity and disempowering D.E.I. Last fall, on the anniversary of Oct. 7, 2023, I explained “how I wish Harvard taught students to talk about Israel,” calling on the university to teach our students to grapple with moral and historical complexity. Two years ago I co-founded the Council on Academic Freedom at Harvard, which has since regularly challenged university policies and pressed for changes.
So I’m hardly an apologist for my employer when I say that the invective now being aimed at Harvard has become unhinged. According to its critics, Harvard is a “national disgrace,” a “woke madrasa,” a “Maoist indoctrination camp,” a “ship of fools,” a “bastion of rampant anti-Jewish hatred and harassment,” a “cesspool of extremist riots” and an “Islamist outpost” in which the “dominant view on campus” is “destroy the Jews, and you’ve destroyed the root of Western civilization.”...
May 23, 2025
"In my 22 years as a Harvard professor, I have not been afraid to bite the hand that feeds me."
Writes Steven Pinker, in "Harvard Derangement Syndrome" (NYT)(free-access link).
Posts
154 comments:
I happen to think that most of what Pinker says and does is in service of his ego, not any specific principle, so I find it easy to believe that he sees himself as having integrity. I also think that Harvard convinced itself that it was more powerful than the Federal Government when it came to The Rules. I guess my conclusion is, 'we'll see', and I have a feeling we will. Harvard is a higher institution of learning, after all, so - maybe they'll learn something.
Pinker claims that for over a decade he's argued for Harvard to change. A decade. Of course opinions escalate when the institution ignores reason and persuasion.
Unhinged? I think he misspelled “highly accurate.”
Pinker laudably calls for precision in public discourse. But public discourse calls for dialectical excess in pursuit of the values that Pinker claims to support.
Ah well I suppose at Harvard they've never heard the maxim FAFO. It's going to come as a rude surprise.
I don't think Pinker has any idea how widespread and deep the disaffection for Harvard is. And not only Harvard, but so-called Higher Education generally.
Hysterical, not unhinged. It's the algorithms fault keeping the suggestible dolts dialed up to eleven. That said, Harvard does have to have a come to Gaia moment on it's undergraduate admissions and their nanny state control of the enrollees.
He forgot to add "serial plagiarists" to that extensive list of Harvard troubles.
Free speech does not include freedom to COMMIT CRIMES. Apparently Harvard cannot distinguish between the two.
We are again being asked to not believe our own lying eyes. Do not believe the articles, the stories, the anecdotes, the personal stories from people we know within that very system.
I believe Prof. Pinker, like so many at Harvard, believes they are the good, the righteous, and even more, the more intelligent. And...some of them might be. But the institution as a whole is clearly a mess, a fraud in many ways, and has been playing on its earned-long-ago reputation for maybe too long.
You need only listen to or speak with some of its recent graduates to get a dose of their work.
Like the “undocumented immigrants” it champions, Harvard does not see itself in violation of the law.
Professor Althouse, I am glad to see you posting on this issue. I am struck, however, by your continuing failure to identify or discuss the First Amendment issues at stake in Trump's campaign against Harvard. There are now two complaints on file challenging those actions as a plain violation of the First Amendment. You have a longstanding concern with the FIrst Amendment in academia, which has led you to post extensively on left wing censorship. But I have not seen a single post from you in the past several months speaking in your own voice about these issues. Why the silence?
“I also think that Harvard convinced itself that it was more powerful than the Federal Government…”
I don’t know about that, but I do think that Harvard believes that it is entirely above the fray of sordid western democracy, and that it sits in supreme judgment of all countries and forms of government and is an ideal and good unto itself.
Also, and at the risk of seeming churlish, I'll also note that Professor Althouse, after years of paying obsessive attention to Hunter Biden, is apparently completely uninterested the ways that the Trump family is using crypto as a vehicle to extract money from people who want political favors from the President. Why nothing on that?
"He forgot to add "serial plagiarists" to that extensive list of Harvard troubles."
And what did Harvard do when investigators discovered that the President of Harvard - Claudine Gay - only got her job due to having stolen thousands of pages of the academic work of others?
They fired her.
By which I mean they didn't fire her.She's still a Harvard employee. She makes a million-dollar a year salary as a tenured professor.
Of government.
And we wonder why our country is broken.
DEIsm.
The First Amendment issues at stake in Trump's campaign against Harvard ...
Harvard is free to say whatever the fuck it wants.
But not with my money.
I'm not paying for their anti-Jew Hitlery.
"Why nothing on that?"
It's because you're a concern troll, Stephen. And Althouse is smart to refuse your bait.
Democrats should go back to planning the next assassination attempt on Trump and leave Ann Althouse alone.
Final thought: if, as I am sure many of the posters here believe, the US is in an international competition with China, is it good strategy to starve scientific research, cripple our leading educational institutions, and drive away students and researchers who want to come here while encouraging American researchers to seek greener pastures? How is that a good idea, particularly when none of those research activities has anything to do with anti Semitism.
If Harvard wants Trump to stop attacking them, they should give him a plane. Or offer him a huge hangar or perhaps invest their entire endowment in Trump Coin?
Having a minimum of common sense might be a good test for Harvard.
Professor Althouse has always said that readers are free to draw her attention to issues she is not commenting about if they do so politely. I believe my posts were polite. She is free to respond or not, as she wishes.
Former Law Clerk, since you advertise your legal knowledge, have you read either of the Harvard complaints, and, if so, do you think the governments actions are in compliance with law?
There's no "first amendment" issue here. Harvard's student body contains less than half the number of white people than their percentage of the population, and of those, more than half are Jews. This is 100% illegal under the "Disparate impact" standard so beloved by leftists. Prima facie evidence of deliberate anti-white, anti-Christian discrimination. They shouldn't merely be de-funded by the government. Hundreds of their administrators should be put on trial in Federal court and given lengthy prison terms. And they need to bring them to prosecution in flyover states where the hammer will really drop on them, instead of the coastal communist shitholes.
What do Kushner and all the Harvard alums in the administration make of the thuggish treatment of the the institution and its current students?
Hassayamper, What you wrote is factually false. And it is not the basis for the government's recent actions against Harvard, which are expressly based on, among other things, the "un-American" ideas expressed there.
Hassayamper, What you wrote is factually false. And it is not the basis for the government's recent actions against Harvard, which are expressly based on, among other things, the "un-American" ideas expressed there.
The worst tactic to convince your opponent the validity of your argument is this: I believe X so you should agree with me on Y.
One position has nothing to do with the other. He thinks Harvard needs reforms. Good for him. But that has nothing to do with whether the current complaints about Harvard are incorrect. In fact it kind of points to the fact that he thinks he has a weak argument.
Harvard is dedicated to racial discrimination and will die on that hill if necessary. Harvard either tolerates or encourages any anti-American or anti-western or anti-Israel voice that pops up, but otherwise its suppression of speech has earned it a Dead Fooking Last ranking in freedom ratings.
Some of Harvard’s scholars do fine work but as an institution it is rotten. No organization that installs Claudine Gay as its president can claim that it is driven to excellence or motivated by the search for truth. Racism and mediocrity are the values Harvard’s leadership promotes, relentlessly.
Eva Marie, You have misstated Pinker's argument. He is agreeing that Harvard needs reforms, but that the claims that it is a Madrasa, or is no longer doing good and important work, including work that cuts against conventional left views, is flat out false. And he is also arguing that Harvard's flaws don't justify a full scale assault on its scientific research or its international students. How about you, Eva Marie--do you think that stopping Harvard's cutting edge medical research or barring it from enrolling any international students is lawful or wise policy?
"Former Law Clerk, since you advertise your legal knowledge, have you read either of the Harvard complaints, and, if so, do you think the governments actions are in compliance with law?
I don't care if they are.
This is precisely the kind of underhanded, possibly illegal and therefor effective strangulation of Harvard University that I voted for and I hope Donald Trump bends them over a pinball machine.
All Harvard has to do to put an end to this is obey federal law against discrimination and to stop student protesters from harassing other students. It's telling that they refuse to do so. They like discrimination on racial and religious grounds and have no problem with the protesters. Sorry, but I'm not sorry about them finally suffering consequences.
In reply to Stephen's question, the obvious answer is to do as Hungary and Poland and China already do. Government funding and student loan guarantees should go only to those fields of study for which there is clear evidence of benefit to society. Math, science, engineering, business, accounting, and so forth. Any student wanting to immerse themselves in feminist basket-weaving or racial scab-picking will have to do it on their own dime.
Also, any educational institution with less than 75% of its employees teaching in the classroom gets cut off from any further aid.
Tough buddy. Harvard thinks it is above the law. It is not. They have FAFO.
More Tudor parallels:
The medieval universities were a network of Roman Catholic intellectual centers using Latin as a common language to communicate with each other and try to keep the various European elites on the same page. Scholars could move freely through borders from one university to another, since all the work was in the same language and encompassed roughly within accepted RC doctrine.
A big chunk of the Reformation project was bringing these universities under the control of the emerging nation-states, mainly because the idea of a nation-state was anathema to the RCC, and also because the local elites were interested in customizing religious and political doctrines to their local circumstances. Not a coincidence that the Oxford Martyrs were martyred in Oxford, for example.
Trump wants to do the same thing with the Ivies, which ironically started out as Protestant institutions for training the local elites of each colony according to that colony's idiosyncracies. (Okay, most of them. Not Cornell or Penn. But you get my larger point.) He wants to return them to their status of American institutions for Americans, that will preserve rather than destroy an intellectual infrastructure for the American project.
I don't know why he doesn't just say "Every Red Prince from the PRC, every oligarch's kid from Russia, every Nigerian oil bandit's son, that you let into Harvard takes a seat away from a ghetto or trailer-park or barrio kid that worked her ass off to go there. Is that what you Democrats want!?"
JSM
Harvard has a choice. The same choice other people receiving federal dollars have. Do what they say or refuse the money.
"There are now two complaints on file challenging those actions as a plain violation of the First Amendment."
Hmmmm ..... which clause? "... respecting an establishment of religion ..."?
Seriously, Stephen, whose First Amendment rights do you think are being violated? Claudine Gay's? Stephen Pinker's? Some rat-bastard Muslo-Marxist from outer Hooliganistan?
Harvard is a festering boil on the overfed ass of Massachusetts. It is long overdue for lancing.
I think the comments here prove that Pinker is right in identifying a Harvard derangement syndrome.
If the issue is education, then the internet and LLMs are sneaking up on them. If the issue is credentials, they won't give up the brand without a huge fight. For many of them, eminence is everything.
(To Pete Townshend, it's a front. A put-on.)
A federal judge in Boston has already issued a TRO against the Administration's punitive measure against international students and Harvard.
A lot of us feel that even more and stronger invective can and should be directed at Harvard or ANY OTHER INSTITUTION that continues after warnings to discriminate on the basis of race sex and ethnicity. I mean if the 9-0 loss at the Supreme Court didn’t wake up the assholes then what will?
I suppose one could argue that "abridging the freedom of speech" includes any measure that hampers, in any fashion, any public expression whatsoever. Indeed, many do so argue. But I don't see that even this broad restriction imposes any positive duty on the government to fund speakers, or to lavish special privileges upon them. How is it that Harvard, which is not a person, has rights to government largesse and license that I do not?
@Stephen: Not only wasn’t I wrong but you restated his argument. One position has nothing to do with the other.
But setting that aside, why not comply with the law?
Leftists: always bite the hand that feeds them.
Rightists: always feed the hand that bites them.
Twas ever thus. And always will be.
I suspect that most students at Harvard just roll their eyes at these "activists". The big left-wing issue in my college days was Apartheid in South Africa. Most of us were against it but we still ridiculed the protesters who put up a "shantytown" in the middle of campus and promptly started using it to promote every leftist cause under the sun (No ROTC on Campus! End Capitalism! Reagan/Bush EEEEEVIL!!!). The difference today seems to be that the school administration spends much more time listening to and are much more deferential to these clowns than they were in the past.
"I think the comments here prove that Pinker is right in identifying a Harvard derangement syndrome."
Harvard is a private corporation, and an extremely profitable one. If you want to make the argument that its activities are so plainly in the public interest that they should be publicly funded, go ahead. Make that argument. To the public. Oh, wait, the public are "deranged". You would rather make the argument to someone more ranged, like Claudine Gay. Well, congratulations. You've convinced Claudine.
Pinker's remarks actually make clear that polite criticism accomplished nothing. Now it's someone else's turn, and they're done being nice.
"... do you think that stopping Harvard's cutting edge medical research or barring it from enrolling any international students is lawful or wise policy?"
I can't answer for Eva Marie, but if all you've got is "Harvard's cutting edge medical research", well, no one's stopping it. We're just not going to pay for it any longer.
As to lawful and wise, for the federal government to exercise the discretion granted it by law is certainly lawful. Whether it is "wise" to exercise that discretion in the manner and for the reasons it is being exercised is certainly open to debate. It appears that one federal goal, which many here seem to share, is the elimination in racial preferences in admission. Personally, I think Harvard should be able to enroll anyone they like, based on any criteria they favor. The Civil Rights Act was and remains a tyrannical imposition. But I don't think the federal government should be in the business of funding racist organizations, either.
Can Trump do that? Does the tax money Harvard get, allow Trump to impose string he wants? Maybe this should work it's way to the Supremes.
"Does the tax money Harvard get, allow Trump to impose string he wants?"
Yes and no. The "research" funding comes with a contractual agreement to follow certain laws, which Harvard is openly violating. But the granting of student visas is not tied to funding. It is simply the prerogative of the State Department to decide who will get a visa.
Seven of my family members went to Harvard. It was (and could be again) an incredible place. I love Pinker. But when governing boards picked Claudine Gay as President, it showed the fish was rotting from the top.
From Jim Treacher:
What do you call a Nazi with an Ivy League degree and a fancy title?
A Nazi.
Yup
Just another Maher. A hardcore lefty starting to realize " we've gone to far, guys, the rubes aren't buying our shtick anymore they're coming with tar and feathers"
The district court judge entered a TRO without even hearing from the United States. What was the immediate and irreparable harm that couldn't wait?
From the news accounts, Harvard's case looks very weak to me. Foreign students have no constitutional right to be granted student visas.
The Trump Administration is just trying to fix the horrible Jew hate that Harvard has done nothing about. Did Harvard expel the Law Review editor that beat up a Jew on campus?
Harvard deserves all the grief it is getting right now. Lawfare can be played by two.
SCOTUS will reverse the district court judge. Jewish students were having their civil rights infringed at Harvard and the US can punish Harvard for its failures.
The bottom line is that more US students will be admitted and they will pay full tuition.
Jupiter:
Exactly right. The Secretary of State has absolute discretion as to who gets a student visa and it is not subject to judicial review by a district court judge.
"Harvard's cutting edge medical research " really? Have you checked in on the reproducibility crisis lately?
MJB Wolf:
I cited that Students For Fair Admissions SCOTUS case in a brief submitted to a Nebraska federal judge. It is a civil rights case.
I wrote that SCOTUS was fed up with racial discrimination in this country. "The only way to stop discriminating based on race is to stop discriminating based on race."
A federal judge in Boston has already issued a TRO against the Administration's punitive measure against international students and Harvard.
I wish the men of Boston would revive their good old 1770s tradition of horsewhipping, tarring and feathering any King's men who forgot that they were merely hired help.
"Also, any educational institution with less than 75% of its employees teaching in the classroom gets cut off from any further aid."
Hassayamper may wish to re-think that one. Obviously, the overabundance of intersectional grief counselors and gender transition advisors will get classes in order to spread their filth wider and deeper (together with obscene fattening of their already salacious salaries), all is required to meet that 75% ultimatum.
Stepehn said
"... do you think that stopping Harvard's cutting edge medical research..."
What research is that? Harvard med using gential mutilation on unduly influenced minors ? Selling human body parts for profit?
Unhinged he said, but not untrue. No lies detected. Unhinged behavior gets unhinged language.
"A federal judge in Boston..."
Ha! The Boston sewers are full of them, bobbing to and fro with the inexorable current along with the other dark lumps.
I asked for a TRO from a federal judge in my civil rights case and it was promptly denied. The judge is a Creighton Law alum and we were on Law Review together. Super smart guy and a great judge.
"A federal judge in Boston...
Readering obviously thinks a Boston judge is some type of anti-Trump kaiju, and that settles the matter. Ha! Piffle and blather. Two can play the corrupt magistrate game. The President can find a similarly venile judge to issue a warrant against Harvard's properties enabling the FBI to conduct a thorough search of all buildings, cabinets, mass storage devices, personal devices, luggage, drawers, and closets for materials relating to incidents of domestic terrorism, anti-semitic intimidation, other unspecified evidence of crimes and infractions.
That would be fun to watch, particularly the green and purple hair being torn from their roots in mute frustration and sputtering, frothing, futile rage.
Predictable court injunction makes this mud fight a national event. Professional wrestling at its best, and Trump is selling tickets.
Sounds like the judge thinks she can compel the State Dept to issue student visas? Is that correct?
Got to be careful. I’m at Harvard right now.
And do you think a judge would interfere with Harvard from ejecting me from their property for my speech?
Invective is usually deranged. That includes, for example, the invective directed against Israel and Jews by Harvard students and visitors. OTOH, when will Trump “get” that National Security and foreign policy are in the hands of the ACLU and Democrat District Court judges.
I wonder if the shortsighted nimrod masquerading as a Chief Justice understands how close we are to a majority cheering when Trump tells the federal judiciary to “pound sand.”
Eva Marie says. "Why not comply with the law?" Good question, and it applies equally to the federal government.
Here's the sequence of events. Trump says he is investigating antisemitism at Harvard. Harvard points to remedial measures it has already taken and indicates its willingness to engage in further dialogue. (Later it releases an extensive internal study of those issues and promises further reform.) Rather than engage in dialogue, Trump issues a demand that Harvard turn over much of its admissions, hiring and academic policy to the feds. Harvard sues for violation of the APA, Title VI and First Amendment. In response to Harvard asserting its rights, Trump triples down with two additional funding cutoffs and now an order telling Harvard that a quarter of its student body can't attend next year. None of those actions does anything to address anti Semitism. Trump's own statements make clear that all are retaliatory. Professor Althouse could tell you, authoritatively, that retaliation for the assertion of First Amendment rights is itself a First Amendment violation. But she is mum. I wonder if she fears that if she is frank with her commenters, you will cancel her.
That this is even an issue should cause international students to reconsider applying to Harvard.
Stephen:
Has Harvard expelled any students for beating up Jews? If not, why not? What effective actions has it undertaken?
The game Harvard is playing is to drag things out. Give us more time! We are playing nice! Further dialogue my ass!
I attended a CLE lecture put on by the Nebraska Bar Ass'n featuring the Dean of the University of Nebraska Law School. As a cynic and experienced lawyer, it was very clear to me that the law school deans from around the country had cooked up clever workarounds to the SCOTUS case telling them to stop discriminating based on race.
These so-called elites need to be brought to heal. No more Mr. Nice Guy.
Harvard is not above the law.
And the UNL-Law dean is a Harvard Law alum.
Creighton expelled students for not taking the Covid-19 vax. The case was argued this week in the NE S. Ct.
"Harvard points to remedial measures it has already taken and indicates its willingness to engage in further dialogue."
BS. Harvard was requested to provide information about the involvement of its international students with the criminal justice system. It provided some, but not all, of the information requested. As Harvard was unwilling to provide the information needed by the State Department to administer the educational visa program, Harvard was excluded from that program.
"That this is even an issue should cause international students to reconsider applying to Harvard."
Yeah. That is the "irreparable harm" that led the hag-in-a-bag to issue the TRO. But in reality, the damage is already done. About a quarter of Harvard's students are on visas, and you had better believe they are looking to transfer right now. No TRO is going to change their minds. Their options are transfer or leave the country.
Harvard needs to pay a steep price for its terrible leadership. Don't forget that the last President was a plagiarist. She wasn't qualified for the job.
If Harvard caves, and caves hard, right now, it's already too late to stave off the inevitable, but they might still get a reach-around.
"She wasn't qualified for the job."
Well. By Harvard's standards, she was the best-qualified available candidate, at least until she blew up. It is possible -- indeed, highly likely -- that the qualifications Harvard was considering were racial and sexual, and therefore in violation of US employment law. Which is another beef the Trump administration has with Harvard.
If Trump wants to use his powers vindictively against those who disagree with him, that’s his right as king!
Anyone who disagrees, should be deported!!!!
- MAGAt Nation
Dave Begley, I am not aware of any Jewish students having been beaten at Harvard and neither is my AI helper. Do you have a specific incident in mind?
Stephen: I saw it on video and pictures. I think the NY Post. The guy was a law review editor.
From Twitter/X, "Harvard refuses to hand over disciplinary records relating to foreign students, which is a violation of the regulations governing access to the government’s SEVP program and SEVIS system for a school’s intake of foreign students and researchers. So now they lose access. Simple."
Nothing about "dialoguing" in the regulations.
Here's Andrew Sullivan, who conspicuously has the courage to name what is going on. https://open.substack.com/pub/andrewsullivan/p/trump-declares-war-on-harvard-b09?r=1xkna0&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=email
His bottom line:
"Stripping Harvard of hundreds of millions of dollars for scientific research in order to punish queer theorists in the English Department is capricious, idiotic, and malevolent. But the blunt withdrawal of certification so that Harvard has to lose a quarter of its student body immediately, along with an even greater percentage of its tuition income, is clearly an attempt to destroy the place. It’s spite and vengeance.
"This is not about ending wokeness; it’s about extending wokeness to correct what DHS calls, in classic woke terminology, “an unsafe campus environment.” It’s not about expanding free speech; it’s about more surveillance, restriction, and sanctions on free expression, as the case of Rümeysa Öztürk proves. The DHS secretary — who graduated from South Dakota State University at the age of 41, and who has no idea what habeas corpus is — wants Harvard to provide “any and all video footage, in the possession of Harvard University, of any protest activity involving a nonimmigrant student on a Harvard University campus in the last five years.”
"Not violence, not criminal action, just “protest activity.” What is this, the Soviet Union? We already know Rubio is surveilling and targeting foreign students purely for their speech in a blatant assault on the First Amendment. And this assault on Harvard is merely an extension of the administration’s attempt to control and censor political debate."
Stephen said...
"Also, and at the risk of seeming churlish, I'll also note that Professor Althouse, after years of paying obsessive attention to Hunter Biden, is apparently completely uninterested the ways that the Trump family is using crypto as a vehicle to extract money from people who want political favors from the President. Why nothing on that?"
****************
Stephen, making unsupported drive-by slimings won't get you much attention here. Why not give us some evidence to support your assertions?
While you're at it, why not go here:
https://www.ed.gov/about/news/press-release/joint-task-force-combat-anti-semitism-statement-additional-harvard-actions?utm_source=chatgpt.com
..to see Harvard itself admitting Jewish students have been subjected to physical assaults.
"Furthermore, Harvard's own Presidential Task Force on Combating Antisemitism reported that Jewish students had been subjected to physical assault and intimidation, with insufficient response from university leadership."
(per chatGPT)
Overall, my impression of you is not that you are churlish, only that you can't make an argument, or do even the most elementary research before posting.
From the Harvard Student Handbook, "Harvard College strives to maintain a safe and secure environment for all members of the community and thus does not tolerate physical violence or threats of physical violence used by or against the members of the community. Students are expected to avoid all physical conflicts, confrontations, and altercations unless their own safety or that of another is at extreme jeopardy. Failure to do so will ordinarily result in disciplinary action, including, but not limited to, requirement to withdraw from the College."
Harvard can't even write the word "expel."
Personally, I think the feud has become a distraction and gone too far, but it would be nice to see the college return to what it was after WWII when it brought together young people from all over the country and perhaps benefited America, rather than throwing itself open the world's rich and saying "To hell with flyover country!"
Princeton's unofficial motto is "Princeton in the Nation's Service." Supposedly it goes back to the always controversial Woodrow Wilson. Lately it's been unofficially amended (supposedly at the suggestion of Sonia Sotomayor) by adding "and in the Service of Humanity." Looking at what the WEF and other globalists believe would serve humanity it might be better for them to get back to the nation's service (assuming they actually did do some good in Wilson's day and after).
"Everybody Has A Plan Until They Get Punched In The Face."
I can see why academics are having hard time here. Edwin Hubble was a boxer, I can't think of any other academics with that background.
pinker is the theorist behind the blank slate, that humans are totslly maleable, once upon a time, Harvard had some uses even in the humaniities, the late Hume Horan, nee Entezam,
was taught the Arabist Hamilton Gibb, Princeton had the Late Bernard Lewis, another great, a former British army intelligence officer in the great war,
Cutting USAID to NGOs, cutting other federal grants, cutting access to the funds of foreign students, the Trump administration is out for blood and they've been studying how best to draw it from Democrats and the institutional Left.
Evidence regarding the corrupt use of crypto by Trump's family to enrich themselves. https://www.wsj.com/finance/currencies/trumps-memecoin-gala-dinner-draws-crypto-tycoons-a-basketball-star-and-protests-96e6874c?mod=Searchresults_pos1&page=1
As long as they leave my beloved Yale alone, have at it. Boola, Boola!
Further on Trump corruption, some comments from Jack Goldsmith and Bob Bauer, respectively the leading experts from both parties on presidential power:
In a striking departure from Trump 1.0, the Trump Organization in this second term revised the company’s ethics policy to allow for a broad range of transactions between the organization (including affiliated entities) and foreign partners and counterparties—including foreign governments. The Trump Organization, which manages Trump family hotel and resort assets, designated under the policy an “ethics advisor” whose duties are limited to a “review” of some, but not all, deals with foreign governments. (The company recently fired its first ethics advisor, William Burck, and has not announced a replacement.)
The policy notably permits business dealings with sovereign wealth funds, “state-owned enterprises,” or other state-owned entities engaged in commercial activities. And the policy does not establish any mechanism for checking for “foreign government interests [that] may also lurk behind even … supposedly private overseas business activity.”
How this policy is implemented in particular cases is unclear, as it does not provide for any public accounting of the deals reviewed for conflict of interest issues. There is evidence that the policy, so permissive in design, is also permissive in application. Significant questions have arisen in particular over foreign participation in the crypto industry, which Trump and his family have established since his first term. The policy has not precluded large foreign investor purchases of the $TRUMP memecoin that the president has actively marketed.
Moreover, the Trump family-affiliated World Liberty Financial (WLF), which markets cryptocurrency, may not be a Trump Organization affiliate subject to the policy. It is affiliated with the Trump family, holding its interest in WLF through “an entity affiliated with Donald J. Trump and certain of his family members.” Either way, WLF entered into a deal that clearly implicates the Emoluments Clause: Binance, the world’s largest crypto exchange, has announced that an Abu Dhabi-backed investment fund will use a World Liberty Financial “stablecoin” to make a $2 billion investment in the exchange.
These avenues for foreign government financial involvement with the president fly directly in the face of the Foreign Emoluments Clause in Article I, Section 9, which provides that “no Person holding any Office of Profit or Trust under [the United States], shall, without the Consent of the Congress, accept of any present, Emolument, Office, or Title, of any kind whatever, from any King, Prince, or foreign State.”
The adoption of the clause reflected the framers’ powerful concern about foreign government corruption of the presidency. The danger persists to this day: A Council on Foreign Relations study last year noted that “[t]he oldest form of foreign influence remains one of the most widespread: using money or other material benefits to win elite favor.” Among the countries that the study cites as engaging in this behavior: Qatar.
Dravrahism is the way.
Save me
Save me from tomorrow
I don't want to sail with this ship of fools, no, no, no, no
“I am not aware of any Jewish students being beaten at Harvard and neither does my AI helper.”
Get a better AI helper.
“In October 2023, Ibrahim Bharmal, an editor of the Harvard Law Review, was identified by the antisemitism watchdog group Canary Mission as part of a group of anti-Israel protesters who allegedly harassed and physically confronted a Jewish student during a pro-Palestinian “die-in” protest at Harvard University. Videos circulating online showed protesters, including Bharmal, surrounding the student, chanting “Shame!” and using keffiyehs to block and push him as he attempted to pass through the demonstration. The student can be heard saying, “Don’t touch me,” and “Don’t grab me,” while trying to navigate the crowd. The incident, which went viral on social media, sparked significant backlash, with figures like billionaire Bill Ackman calling for Bharmal’s suspension and questioning why he remained an editor at the Harvard Law Review.
Harvard University and the Harvard Law Review did not publicly comment on disciplinary actions regarding Bharmal, and as of November 2023, he remained listed as an editor, though the Law Review’s board of editors webpage was temporarily inaccessible.”
Well Shit, Eva Marie, based on that lone anecdote, Harvard should STFU and take there medicine. After all, Donnie was elected in a landslide…..
Since TrumpCo is focused on Harvard and not every college and/or University, this seems like an equal protection case, not free speak
"Further on Trump corruption ...".
So, we're punting on Harvard?
The judge in this case is Allison Burroughs. Obama judge.
There is a three page brief in support of the TRO.
Not a single docket entry by the United States.
It is laughable to think that Harvard has suffered an immediate and irreparable injury such that the United States isn't allowed to present evidence.
Rigged.
Harvard has 14 lawyers; including Robert Hur.
This judge will be reversed at some point.
First of all TBH, are you saying that’s ok?
Second, I was answering a specific question.
Third, Harvard’s own report acknowledges problems in this area.
The bitcoin article is pay-walled, but i am prepared to believe that Trump and members of his family have failed to take vows of poverty. Although, my understanding is that Trump's net worth has declined since 2016. Not even counting the third of a billion he owes Letitia James.
Contrary to Begley's claim, that student was not beaten up, and the students who confronted and shoved him were criminally charged--charges that were resolved in April. Under University rules the disciplinary process could not proceed while criminal charges were pending. So tell me, how does this justify summarily cutting off billions of dollars of funding and summarily preventing Harvard from enrolling a quarter of its student body?
Let's stipulate that Pinker has been trying to speak up and say "hey, Harvard can do better" for the last 12+ years.
How's that been working out?
We're long past the point of settling for incrimental reforms. It's time for surgery, chemo, and radiation.
Stephen said...
Further on Trump corruption, some comments from Jack Goldsmith and Bob Bauer, respectively the leading experts from both parties on presidential power:
Oh look an appeal to authority from someone that supports censorship, political assassination, stalinist prosecutions of political opponents, and using demented old men as a figurehead government.
Nobody thinks you are a reasonable or honest person Stephen. You are a corrupt hack.
A broad voting coalition gave Trump a landslide victory because we have decided that the wealthy elite and corrupt regime running this country need to stop enriching themselves with our money.
We all hate Harvard because Harvard is a toxic racist evil group of rich people who hate our country.
At least 70% of the voters in the US don't want our government giving our money to Harvard and wants Harvard to start paying some damn taxes.
Fuck Harvard. I do not mind if you burn it to the ground. I would support it tbh. The people who benefit from Harvard are old rich boomers who mislead younger people and saddle them with debt while transferring no useful skills. Further they are radicalizing a generation of young idiots.
Harvard is a massive net negative to our country and we would be better off without it in every way.
Stephen said...
Contrary to Begley's claim, that student was not beaten up, and the students who confronted and shoved him were criminally charged--charges that were resolved in April. Under University rules the disciplinary process could not proceed while criminal charges were pending. So tell me, how does this justify summarily cutting off billions of dollars of funding and summarily preventing Harvard from enrolling a quarter of its student body?
At no point do we have to justify cutting off taxpayer funds to Harvard. Fuck Harvard and all of the rich people that are associated with it.
It is time to stop taking money from poor people and giving it to rich people at Harvard.
Further you are taking money from a country where at least 70% of the country does not want to pay for the racism and terrorism that Harvard is pushing.
We should be confiscating the Harvard endowment to pay off student loan debt.
"At no point do we have to justify cutting off taxpayer funds to Harvard."
Harvard has billions of their own dollars. Let them use that for their funding.
Persuasive as always, Achilles. The voice of reason.
well that endowment may not be all it's cracked up to be,
https://x.com/LawrenceLepard/status/1925887448078258277
What needs to be remembered here is that this sort of shit has not been going on for years in higher education, it's been going on for decades. An example from personal experience:
In the summer of 1974, I was a 17 year old teenager who did gardening work for a old family friend who just happened to be a Harvard grad. Needless to say, Harvard grads were pretty rare on the ground in a 45,000 person town in northern Alabama. When I told him that I had decided to go to Saint John's College in Santa Fe, like my older brother, he told me he was glad I had found a college I wanted to attend. "I was going to sponsor you to Harvard, but after the way they kowtowed to the Black Panthers, I'm not sending them anything, no money and no students. I'm done with them."
This was in 1974 and the incident with the Panthers had occurred a few years before! These bad habits are now so ingrained that any reset is going to be brutal by definition!
Here's Bill Ackman, Harvard grad, on Harvard's situation. He makes the rather obvious point that, whatever the merits of the case, it behooves Harvard to attempt to de-escalate its confrontation with the President of the United States. Which raises the interesting question; Is there anyone at Harvard in a position to do that? Maybe not. If Garber tries to appease Trump, the likes of Pinker will savage him. Better to get shot down in flames by outsiders, than burned at the stake by your fellow academics. The pattern lately has been, that Ivy League presidents are defiant, right up to the day they resign. Perhaps they see no better options.
narciso gets it wrong, when he says:
"Pinker is the theorist behind the blank slate, that humans are totslly maleable....
***********
I read that book a long time ago. It gets pretty dense, so I asked AI Claude about its main premises. Here's the reply:
"Steven Pinker's "The Blank Slate" (2002) argued** against three dominant ideas** about human nature that he saw as dogma in academia and popular culture:
The Blank Slate - the notion that the human mind has no innate traits and is shaped entirely by culture and experience. Pinker argued this view ignores substantial evidence for innate psychological mechanisms and universal human behaviors.
The Noble Savage - the idea that people are naturally good and that violence and selfishness are products of corrupt institutions. He contended this romanticized view overlooks evidence that aggression and competition have deep evolutionary roots."
The Ghost in the Machine - the belief that there's something beyond the physical brain (like a soul) that accounts for human behavior. Pinker advocated for a materialist view where the mind emerges from brain activity."
So he shouldn't be placed among the post-modern bulshittists.
"well that endowment may not be all it's cracked up to be,"
From the link:
"Imagine you're a donor who's being cultivated by Harvard to give money. Well, where's your money going? It goes to Harvard, and it goes out the door to pay interest expenses to bondholders. My experience with charity- nonprofits that have large amounts of debt- it's a death spiral because the donor doesn't want to give money that- they want to give to a project, they don't want to give to pay interest expense."
Rhetorical question: If Harvard's donors don't want to pay interest expenses, why might anyone think that taxpayers would like to?
I do think Harvard is being singled out. Let’s do the same for other Universities.
"Let’s do the same for other Universities."
Letting them twist in the wind for a bit isn't going to hurt anything.
For those who are interested in the corruption story that Althouse is not commenting on, here is a free link to the Journal's account. https://www.wsj.com/finance/currencies/trumps-memecoin-gala-dinner-draws-crypto-tycoons-a-basketball-star-and-protests-96e6874c?st=5M2g7k&reflink=desktopwebshare_permalink
Yes, SCOTUS is content to permit Hawaiian judges to compel the State Dept. to issue visas as Harvard deems appropriate. That's the message I've received loud and clear...
And here's the Journal's editorial, also unlocked. Main points: clearly illegal retaliation, really bad public policy. "This will be terribly damaging to America’s ability to attract talented young people who bring their enterprise and intellectual capital to the U.S." https://www.wsj.com/opinion/donald-trump-harvard-dhs-foreign-students-kristi-noem-b8ac80ed?st=qhygeD&reflink=desktopwebshare_permalink
..I didn't realize so many Hawaiian judges resided in the seaport Federal building...
After reading the article, Pinker’s approach is to hide his agreement with the Trump administration between sentences condemning Trump.
I stand corrected, Harvard is often protested for the wrong reasons, after Sachs and Summers shock therapies which created the Russian oligarchs and empowered the likes of Putin,
Matt Taibbi as coeditor of the Exile, wiith Mark Ames, was privy to what those policies did in Russia, and he viewed? US economic policy in similar ways, in the aftermath of the property bubble of 2008-9
When the Trump Administration targets the institutions and faculty of higher education, they are all appalled that the government dares to mess with their sacred rights of academic freedom. However, back under the Obama Administration, remember the Dear Colleague Letter from the Office of Civil Rights in the Dept. of Education? The result of this letter was that college & universities set up kangaroo courts where the sexual lives of their students were brought under public scrutiny, and penalties brought down on students (almost all of them male) without any legal protections. The results were so bad that I don't know of one school's judgement that wasn't reversed and the school sanctioned when challenged in a court of law where the accused had actual legal protections.
Of course, the schools didn't care about the government meddling in the most private aspect of of their students' lives as opposed to the administration & faculty. It didn't matter that the edict was backed up by the threat of the loss of government funding, just like Trump's. The administration of the Lightbringer had spoken, and it could do no wrong! They were happy to roll over and take the government's fist up their ass! After all, it was just the students, and especially, those icky boys who were the targets! Ewwwww!
Now, there's a new sheriff in town, and he wants the heavy hand of the federal government to be applied to students, faculty, and administration alike. Quelle horreur!
I'm sorry. Cry me a fucking river!
This may be the district-judge injunction that blows up the whole ongoing con-job, because Rubio doesn't need to violate it actively in order to prevent all those students from coming. He can just say that every single visa application needs very close scrutiny, and there is not telling how long it will take (especially since he only assigns a single clerk to go over the paperwork, etc.).
I have to tell you all, though, that despite Harvard in particular and academia in general deserving a very serious slap-down, a lot of these actions are harming not just the Hamassholes and the slimy administrators and the crazies but also some excellent students who really have earned admission, scholarships, fellowships, etc.
I completely agree that there's nothing wrong with rejecting the entitled children of dictators and corruptocrats, but mixed in among those are some actual merit cases who would end up contributing greatly to America.
And that's why some of us have been vox clamantis in deserto all these years, futilely trying to warn the normals and semi-normals in academia that we should reform ourselves before the outside world reforms us and a lot of babies were going to get thrown out with the bathwater.
And the policy does not establish any mechanism for checking for “foreign government interests [that] may also lurk behind even … supposedly private overseas business activity.”
Who or what is the quoted part from? Is there some requirement that this be part of a company's policies? Or is this just the opinion of "the leading experts from both parties on Presidential power," neither of whom I have ever heard of?
Moreover, the Trump family-affiliated World Liberty Financial (WLF), which markets cryptocurrency, may not be a Trump Organization affiliate subject to the policy. It is affiliated with the Trump family, holding its interest in WLF through “an entity affiliated with Donald J. Trump and certain of his family members.” Either way, WLF entered into a deal that clearly implicates the Emoluments Clause: Binance, the world’s largest crypto exchange, has announced that an Abu Dhabi-backed investment fund will use a World Liberty Financial “stablecoin” to make a $2 billion investment in the exchange.
Note the speed with which the shells are moving around in that paragraph. "...clearly implicates the emoluments clause...?"
Make your case. Appeals to authority, innuendo and tenuous "links" and "affiliations" do not an argument make.
From Stephen's link; "Launched just before Trump’s inauguration, $TRUMP quickly soared in value before crashing. Blockchain data suggests that a small number of savvy traders made millions of dollars on the coin by buying early and selling near the peak, while hundreds of thousands of smaller investors lost money. The memecoin’s price is down around 80% from its January peak."
Sounds pretty standard for "digital currency". I will point out, to get invited to the dinner, you had to be one of the "the 220 largest holders of the memecoin." Sounds like this was a consolation prize for the poor suckers left holding the bag.
Stephen said...
For those who are interested in the corruption story that Althouse is not commenting on, here is a free link to the Journal's account. https://www.wsj.com/finance/currencies/trumps-memecoin-gala-dinner-draws-crypto-tycoons-a-basketball-star-and-protests-96e6874c?st=5M2g7k&reflink=desktopwebshare_permalink
The American people have recently found out that the Democrat party was shoveling trillions of taxpayer dollars to itself through corrupt NGOs while Hunter Biden was using hte autopen to pardon himself because his father was too impaired to do anything.
But Stephen wants you to look at people who have actual businesses.
He also voted for Trump of course. These people are just so transparent and lame at this point.
Jupiter said...
From Stephen's link; "Launched just before Trump’s inauguration, $TRUMP quickly soared in value before crashing. Blockchain data suggests that a small number of savvy traders made millions of dollars on the coin by buying early and selling near the peak, while hundreds of thousands of smaller investors lost money. The memecoin’s price is down around 80% from its January peak."
There are at least 100 Trump meme coins.
None of them have anything to do with Trump. People like "Stephen" are just a joke.
""This will be terribly damaging to America’s ability to attract talented young people who bring their enterprise and intellectual capital to the U.S."
I guess us Americans will just have to rely upon our own enterprise and intellectual capital. What rotten luck! That, and all that cutting-edge medical research too! Boy, this is really a dark day for the USA!
Maybe Harvard could issue a memecoin ....
"This will be terribly damaging to America’s ability to attract talented young people who bring their enterprise and intellectual capital to the U.S."
Or, you know, higher education could actually end this tomorrow by co-operating with federal regulators, following their own rules about student & faculty behavior, not admitting nut job foreign students just for the money, and, you know, complying with the SCOTUS ruling that forbids race based discrimination in admissions and hiring.
But, they can't do that. You know why? Because if the truth gets out about what they've been doing all these years, just like the "fake" Biden administration and Kamala's campaign that disappeared $1.5 billion in 100 days, they won't survive the scrutiny.
The institutional Left that runs the universities will burn the village to the ground to save it. Hiding behind the hostages of "Think of all those great students and our incredible research" is all they have left, as their behavior can't withstand public transparency.
Expect this to get really, really ugly.
Why are the best and the brightest so easy to brainwash?
Apropos of the First Amendment, a second district court (Bush appointee) has just issued a preliminary injunction in favor of the Jenner firm holding Trump's executive order unconstitutional Prediction: similar orders will follow shortly in the Wilmer and Susman cases. And if the administration dares to appeal. those orders will be affirmed. This is the worst presidency for the first amendment since the Red Scare of the 1920's.
Stephen said...
Apropos of the First Amendment, a second district court (Bush appointee) has just issued a preliminary injunction in favor of the Jenner firm holding Trump's executive order unconstitutional Prediction: similar orders will follow shortly in the Wilmer and Susman cases. And if the administration dares to appeal. those orders will be affirmed. This is the worst presidency for the first amendment since the Red Scare of the 1920's.
Stephen is dead set on replacing the native population.
And he believes the courts are going to help him and his little cabal keep replacing the native population.
Stephen just does not realize how unpopular the racist traitorous and terrorist supporting Ivy Leagues are right now. He does not realize how unpopular importing cheap foreign labor and foreign terrorists to our campuses so they can terrorize native born students is.
Keep pretending you give a crap about the first amendment. We know what happens to a conservative that tries to speak on the Harvard campus.
Go F yourself you dishonest hack.
You'd have to have a heart of stone not to laugh...
"The future queen of Belgium may face complications pursuing her master's degree at Harvard amid the Trump administration's move on Thursday to ban the Ivy League school from enrolling international students."
https://x.com/NBCNews/status/1925929917897720041
"Why are the best and the brightest so easy to brainwash?"
Take a look at the parents for a clue.
"The future queen of Belgium may face complications pursuing her master's degree at Harvard..."
They don't have good colleges in the capital of Europe?
“They don't have good colleges in the capital of Europe?“
No one goes to Harvard for the education. They go for the connections. That’s what Harvard is fearful of losing - the gravy train from government job to professorship back to government job when the Democrats are in power then back to professorship if (God forbid) Democrats lose. Which would be ok if they all weren’t such jerks.
Stephen
Harvard has to say what it wants for free instead of with taxpayer dollars. How is that not free speech?
the gravy train from government job to professorship back to government job when the Democrats are in power then back to professorship if (God forbid) Democrats lose.
Yeah, I get that. But... the future queen of Belgium?
"I completely agree that there's nothing wrong with rejecting the entitled children of dictators and corruptocrats, but mixed in among those are some actual merit cases who would end up contributing greatly to America."
Yeah, it's too bad America doesn't produce any kids with merit these days, so Harvard has to import a bunch of Third-World Marxists. Must be something in the water.
"How is that not free speech?"
Well, there are those emanations from penumbras, after all. Must be in there somewhere.
Pinker has his own TDS problem that might cloud his judgement. Remember how he and his wife danced in celebration after Biden won in 2020?
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=TTLACwWD748
Toy
"Yeah, it's too bad America doesn't produce any kids with merit these days, so Harvard has to import a bunch of Third-World Marxists. Must be something in the water."
America does produce those kids (sadly, massively fewer since covid, because the primary education system has collapsed), and those kids' in- and out-of-classroom educations are enhanced when they get to meet, learn with and from, and befriend equally brilliant kids from around the world. If those were all 100% admitted on merit and were limited to, say, 10% of the entering class, and if the admission of American students was also uniformly on merit, this would be nothing but a positive.
(and if we had some ham, we could have some ham and eggs if we had some eggs).
Those here who are interested in the corruption story, and those who aren't, can all join hands and give Steven a rousing shout-out: "Get your own damn blog!"
Harvard is the NPR of Universities.
"Why are the best and the brightest so easy to brainwash?"
People who consider a job in a steel factory as a form of Hell on Earth will never understand how the dignity of a well paying, steady job can form the basis of building a family. Especially for workers who don't have the intellectual wherewithal, or even the simple option of earning an advanced degree in math, or whatever it takes to thrive in a financialized economy.
Well now I have to skip over another long winded LLR Chuck-like moby. Perhaps our old Nemesis has relocated to Cambridge and changed his handle again. Either way, the thinking half of our commenter crew should not engage or respond with the chucks who prove that they are not here to actually discuss facts.
The relevant part,
"Government watchdog groups have said the dinner could potentially violate federal rules against soliciting gifts. Some $148 million worth of $TRUMP was purchased by investors to win spots at the dinner, according to Inca Digital, a blockchain analytics firm. ""
"Government watchdog groups" I'm gonna go out on a limb here and state that these "watchdog groups" are mostly funded by Soros.
Of course Stephen is no where to be found when Pelosi is gaming the market on insider information.
You see Stephen. If you're going to be morally outraged it helps to be morally consistent.
The only thing that he would get from the colleagues he supports now if he misspoke on some woke topic is approbation.
I've taken a bunch of Harvard classes through its Extension School. So did a family member. I have yet to encounter a professor being political in class. All the professors we have experience with have seemed obsessed with their subjects, not politics.
Harvard has things it needs to address, generally with admissions and administration decisions--not professors, but I agree with Pinker that the discussion around it has become totally unhinged and disconnected from reality.
"If those were all 100% admitted on merit and were limited to, say, 10% of the entering class, and if the admission of American students was also uniformly on merit, this would be nothing but a positive."
Why 10%? Why shouldn't the student body at an American university be 100% foreign-born? Hell, the students at Caribbean medical schools are 100% foreign-born.
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