Sunday: Hili dialogue

March 30, 2025 • 6:45 am

Welcome to the Sabbath for goyische cats: March 30, 2025, and we’re nearly in April. Today is National Hot Chicken Day, and “hot” here means “very spicy”. The #1 emporium for this item is Prince’s in Nashville. To wit: watch two Brits burning out their palate and gullets with Prince’s chicken. It’s hilarious!

It’s also Pretzel Day, National Doctors Day, Turkey Neck Soup Day, and Pencil Day, celebrating the day in 1858 when “Hyman Lipman [applied for] the first patent for a modern pencil with an attached eraser.”

Readers are welcome to mark notable events, births, or deaths on this day by consulting the March 30 Wikipedia page.

Da Nooz:

*Facing pressure from all sides, Katrina Armstrong, the President of Columbia University, resigned on Friday night. (Article is archived here.) This was after Columbia caved to the Trump Administration’s demands that the University reform itself so it can get back $400 million in science funding withheld by the Administration.  Oy, gewalt!

The interim president of Columbia University abruptly left her post Friday evening as the school confronted the loss of hundreds of millions of dollars in federal funding and the Trump administration’s mounting skepticism about its leadership.

The move came one week after Columbia bowed to a series of demands from the federal government, which had canceled approximately $400 million in essential federal funding, and it made way for Columbia’s third leader since August. Claire Shipman, who had been the co-chair of the university’s board of trustees, was named the acting president and replaced Dr. Katrina Armstrong.

The university, which was deeply shaken by a protest encampment last spring and a volley of accusations that it had become a safe haven for antisemitism, announced the leadership change in an email to the campus Friday night. The letter thanked Dr. Armstrong for her efforts during “a time of great uncertainty for the university” and said that Ms. Shipman has “a clear understanding of the serious challenges facing our community.”

Less than a week ago, the Trump administration had signaled that it was satisfied with Dr. Armstrong and the steps she was taking to restore the funding. But in a statement on Friday, its Joint Task Force to Combat Antisemitism said that Dr. Armstrong’s departure from the presidency was “an important step toward advancing negotiations” between the government and the university.

The statement included a cryptic mention of a “concerning revelation” this week, which appeared to refer to comments from Dr. Armstrong at a faculty meeting last weekend. According to a faculty member who attended, Dr. Armstrong and her provost, Angela Olinto, confused some people when they seemed to downplay the effects of the university’s agreement with the government. A transcript of the meeting had been leaked to the news media, as well as to the Trump administration, according to two people familiar with the situation.

Ms. Shipman, a journalist with two degrees from Columbia, is taking charge of one of the nation’s pre-eminent universities at an extraordinarily charged moment in American higher education.

The federal government is threatening to end the flow of billions of dollars to universities across the country, many of which are facing inquiries from agencies that range from the Justice Department to the Department of Health and Human Services.

But the Trump administration’s punitive approach to universities is playing out most acutely at Columbia. The university, a hub of last spring’s campus protest movement against the war in Gaza, has spent months confronting accusations from one side that it condoned antisemitic behavior and permitted lawlessness to dominate, and from the other that it stifled academic and political speech.

The government’s move this month to cut off hundreds of millions of dollars in support to Columbia — which draws roughly a fifth of its operating revenues from Washington — represented a dire threat to the university. The government told Columbia it would consider restarting those grants and contracts only after the university agreed to a list of demands.

Here’s what Armstrong announced during the Big Caving:

Among other steps, Columbia said it would have 36 campus safety officers with arrest powers, a shift with enormous resonance at a university that has a long history of campus activism and fraught ties with law enforcement. The university also said it would adopt a formal definition of antisemitism, review its admissions policies and, in a turn that was especially alarming to professors who cherish academic freedom, impose new oversight of the university’s Middle Eastern, South Asian and African Studies Department.

Although university officials said they had already been considering some of the government’s demands, Columbia’s acquiescence drew significant condemnation on the campus and beyond. Other higher education leaders watched nervously, fearing that the university’s decision, without mounting a court challenge that many felt stood a reasonable chance of success, would provoke the government to target other universities.

Two days before Columbia announced its decision, the government said it would withhold about $175 million in funding to the University of Pennsylvania because the school allowed a transgender woman to be a member of its women’s swim team in 2022.

That would be Lea Thomas. I oppose her being allowed to swim against biological women, but I don’t think the government should be blackmailing universities to do Trump’s behest (this is the NCAA’s job.) Will Penn cave, too? Put your predictions below. And remember that Trump is using the same bullying against law firms, too. See the next piece:

*Yes, law firms are caving to Trump, too. Have a look at the first paragraph below. Skadden Arps caved! But other firms are fighting back, and winning.

Earlier Friday, President Trump said the firm Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom would provide $100 million in pro bono work on issues that he supports, heading off an expected executive order akin to those he aimed at the other firms.

What a bunch of cowards. Pro bono work for Trump! But others have taken the President to court; after all, they are law firms:

Federal judges dealt twin blows to President Trump’s retaliation campaign on Friday by issuing temporary restraining orders blocking much of his executive orders targeting two major law firms that participated in investigations of him, Jenner & Block and WilmerHale.

The rulings barred the administration from carrying out punishments described in the executive orders, like banning their lawyers from government buildings, meetings, or jobs.

Mr. Trump went after Jenner & Block because the firm once employed a lawyer who became part of the special counsel team that investigated Mr. Trump in his first term. But Judge John Bates of Federal District Court in the District of Columbia took issue with Mr. Trump’s order because it also punished the firm for its pro bono work, a common feature of many large law firms to provide legal representation to unpopular or poor clients.

Judge Bates said he found that action “disturbing” and “troubling.”

Shortly after Judge Bates’s ruling, another judge in the same courthouse, Richard Leon, issued a similar temporary restraining order against a Trump executive order targeting a different firm, WilmerHale, where Robert S. Mueller III worked before and after he served as special counsel in the Trump-Russia investigation.

The judges let stand the parts of the president’s orders stripping security clearances from lawyers at the firms.

Jenner & Block and WilmerHale had filed lawsuits in federal court in Washington earlier Friday. Now they and a third firm, Perkins Coie, have won initial victories in court.

Trump may have the legal right to withhold security clearances from law firms, or punish them in other ways. It may be legal, but it sure ain’t ethical!

*In his Weekly Dish column, Andrew Sullivan assesses “Two perfect months.”  His judgement isn’t favorable, and he’s right:

In all fairness, let’s start with a real, substantive achievement. The Southern border is more secure than it has been in decades. Biden helped a lot with his belated executive orders, but reinstating Remain in Mexico and ending largely fraudulent asylum claims have been even more effective. In February 2024, Border Patrol picked up some 140,641 migrants between legal ports of entry; this February, it was 8,347. Huge success. And proof that previous administrations actively chose to keep the border open.

But the rest is chaos, malice, revenge, and failure, tinged with levels of indecency never before seen from the Oval Office.

Start with immigration itself. If the administration had wanted to, they could have hailed the quiet border and focussed on deporting illegal immigrants by usual means. But nah. Trump decided he wants to go after legal immigrants and even legal permanent residents who have been charged with no crimes or immigration violations — because they have criticized a foreign country, Israel. He’s deploying a McCarthyite 1952 law to target any legal noncitizen who has criticized or demonstrated against the Jewish state’s wiping of Gaza off the face of the earth, proudly gutting the First Amendment for no good reason.

Wait, there’s more. Trump has also abandoned habeas corpus and due process by invoking the 1798 Alien Enemies Act to seize mere suspects off the streets and transport them instantly to a terrifying foreign jail in El Salvador. The law has only been used twice before in wartime, and, ahem, we are not at war. Anyone with brown skin and the wrong kind of tattoo is therefore now at risk of being carted off to torture by the US government, with absolutely no safeguards that they have gotten the right people. Or do you think that an administration that confuses billions with millions, and puts classified intelligence on a Signal app, is incapable of making an error?

We therefore have no way of knowing if a makeup artist who legally sought asylum was rightly grabbed off the street to face certain rape and violence. And when Tom Homan was asked about due process in this case, he actually answered: “What due process did Laken Riley get?” Unbelievable that this thug is in charge of anything.

Then the utter indecency. These wannabe fascists publicly delight and revel in their acts of domination in a manner that even despotic regimes avoid. For the DHS secretary, Kristi Noem, to posture in front of a third-world gulag, with a $50,000 Rolex on her wrist, in order to scare any brown person with a tattoo in the US, is an exercise in authoritarian pornography. It is fascistic in its essence. For the White House to put out photographs of an obese criminal detainee, and add a cartoon of her in tears so that Trump can get a dictator’s boner, is pure depravity. No Christian, no believer in human dignity, no decent human being, would ever do such a thing.

He even takes out after The Free Press:

I’m not naive. As televised and online theater, the first two months have been worthy of Roger Ailes. Deporting foreigners, attacking college students, terrifying legal noncitizens, bullying other countries, brandishing brutality, and mocking left lunacy all have a real constituency. A state-sponsored cancel culture campaign against Israel’s critics gives the base and The *Free Press a real thrill. And I’ve been chastened by the obvious online enthusiasm for deporting foreigners. It appears that many Americans believe that noncitizens have no rights in this country and can be treated any way the government feels like. Suddenly, you see how fragile liberal democracy is in the hands of a duplicitous mob-boss like Trump.

. . . . Trump is now a textbook definition of a tyrant attempting to break a republic, propelled by propaganda, fueled by bigotry, contemptuous of law. And so, so many Americans are here for it. This, I truly fear, is not a drill.

Amen, brothers and sisters, friends and comrades. I am trying to have patience for 3½ more years.

*A NYT op-ed by Greg Weiner, the president of Assumption University in Worcester, MA, argues that “Colleges have to be much more honest with themselves.”  (archived here; h/t Luana). By “being honest,” he want colleges to admit to and then get rid of the unequal treatment of Left vs. Right ideologies.

. . .A recent study sponsored by the American Association of Colleges and Universities and the American Association of University Professors purported to show strong the strength of scholars’ commitment to free speech. In the survey, professors reported feeling pressure from administrators and policymakers to align with conservative views. But they also disclosed, perhaps inadvertently, how much they exert pressure from the opposite direction on their peers.

One question asked whether professors who hold a range of views should be allowed to teach undergraduates. While more than 80 percent of those surveyed would apparently tolerate a teacher who believes in a right to abortion “with no exceptions or limits,” those numbers dropped precipitously when conservative views were tested. For example, only about six in 10 said that someone who believes that “efforts to redress racial inequalities represent anti-White racism or disadvantage White individuals” should be allowed to teach undergraduates.

The contrast between those views of liberal and conservative professors, both of which are stated in cartoonish extremes, is striking regardless of what one thinks of the views being expressed. The question says nothing about whether the professors in question should be allowed to teach classes that pertain to civil rights. Yet almost 40 percent of professors surveyed seemingly oppose allowing someone espousing that view to teach undergraduates at all. By sitting on hiring and tenure committees, these scholars help regulate access to their profession. Far from defending academic freedom, their views resemble those of the Athenian jury that condemned Socrates so he could not corrupt the youth.

The reality is that for the vast majority of college courses, it should not matter what a faculty member thinks of current events because they are, or should be, irrelevant to the classroom. There is neither conservative chemistry nor progressive calculus. The same is true of honest efforts to reflect on great works of literature or philosophy.

. . . Taken together, those survey results suggest that some of the most intense pressure to conform to political orthodoxy comes from within the academy. The solution is neither more regulation nor more denial. It is sitting in front of us: Colleges and universities should retreat from politics and renew our core mission of teaching, learning and discovery.

. . . Colleges and universities have a compelling story to tell. But we will have neither an audience for that story — nor the moral authority to tell it — until we are as fearless about examining ourselves as we are about decrying interference from beyond our walls.

Indeed, and although the University of Chicago has $100 million donated to examine these issues, I still hear stories of professors here proselytizing about irrelevant stuff in the classroom. However, we’re trying! See The Chicago Forum for Free Inquiry and Expression.

*Even the AP’s reliable “Oddities” section is devoid of light news, but we can at least find something that’s not about Trump or his goons. This one is about a monster hiding under the bed. For real!

A babysitter looked under a bed to reassure a worried child that there wasn’t a monster hiding there — and came face-to-face with a man who wasn’t supposed to be there, a sheriff’s office in Kansas said in a news release.

The 27-year-old was booked into jail this week after a struggle with the babysitter that knocked the child to the ground.

The Barton County Sheriff’s Office said deputies were called late Monday to the home near Great Bend, a city of around 15,000 in the western part of the state. The suspect was gone when they arrived, but the babysitter told them that the child had been complaining about a “monster” before she found the suspect.

The man once lived in the home, but that there was a protection from abuse order issued against him to stay away from the property, the sheriff’s office said.

Deputies searched but were unable to find the man until the next day, when he was captured after a foot chase, the news release said.

Online court records show the man had posted bond about 10 days earlier after he was charged with criminal threat, domestic battery and violating a protection from abuse order. Those allegations were alleged to have occurred in January and February.

But following his latest arrest, a judge ordered him jailed without bond. The sheriff’s office said additional requested charges include aggravated burglary, aggravated battery and child endangerment.

DO NOT TELL THIS STORY TO KIDS! They will never go to bed again. I wonder why the kid suspected there was a monster under the bed. Is that a constant worry for the kid, or did it hear something?

Meanwhile in Dobrzyn, Hili is a bit peckish:

Hili: Are you sure we discussed all the problems?
Andrzej: Oy, I forgot that we have to talk about dinner.
In Polish:
Hili: Czy jesteś pewien, że przedyskutowaliśmy już wszystkie problemy?
Ja: Oj, zapomniałem, że musimy jeszcze porozmawiać na temat obiadu.

And a photo of Szaron the Kulka together:

Meanwhile in Berlin, Stupsi notes that her staff Natalie has just recovered from a week of very bad flu But of course Stupsi wants food. She says:

„Na endlich bewegst du dich wieder. Ich brauche neues Katzenfutter.“  And that means, “Finally you’re moving again. I need new cat food.”

*******************

From Reader Pliny the in Between’s Far Corner Cafe (click to enlarge):

Cat Memes:

From Jesus of the Day:

From Things With Faces, a happy cookie:

I love Masih’s tee-shirt in this video. And it’s great that her would-be assassins were convicted:

From Cate: Duck with frozen beak thaws itself out:

From Andrzej; at my school and in CHEMISTRY!  Note the plethora of antisemitic comments following this post. Oy. . . .

And from Malgorzata. This is not only from my university, but from the Department of CHEMISTRY.

From Malcolm, a sandworm:

From the Auschwitz Memorial, one that I retweeted:

A Polish girl gassed to death at twelve years old. Today would have been her 94th birthday.

— Jerry Coyne (@evolutionistrue.bsky.social) 2025-03-30T09:32:57.001Z

 

Two posts from Doctor Cobb. Poor Paul Bronks!

When my doctor asks me if I've been having any feelings of anxiety or depression.

— Paul Bronks (@slendersherbet.bsky.social) 2025-03-12T10:14:02.074Z

Look at this crystal amphipod!

Whoa. Cystiosoma! My what big eyes you have! youtu.be/h9a4ejqD_h4?…

— Chris Mah (@echinoblog.bsky.social) 2025-03-11T18:44:51.735Z

38 thoughts on “Sunday: Hili dialogue”

  1. Crystal amphipod reminds me of aquarium visits in those areas – definitely a feeling/mood that is a departure from the norm… is it Zen? Tao? Or other? Don’t know – don’t care…

  2. A THOUGHT FOR TODAY:
    Conscience is a man’s compass, and though the needle sometimes deviates, though one often perceives irregularities when directing one’s course by it, one must still try to follow its direction. -Vincent van Gogh, painter (30 Mar 1853-1890)

    2. An intriguing thought, indeed. I suppose trusting one’s conscience to guide one’s actions only goes so far, though, as our conscience, even if it has a certain evolutionary basis, is largely shaped by the culture and society in which we live. One person’s conscience might bother them if they don’t kill a daughter or sister who is acting promisciously, another’s might get to them if they don’t pray regularly to their deity/deities, yet another’s might nag them if they don’t properly keep their slaves in check. Go figure.

      1. And another’s conscience might require him to punch a TERF in the face, silence “fascists” “by whatever means necessary”, burn down churches for activist purposes, drive spikes into trees to be harvested, or wreak terrifying violence at a remote pipeline construction camp in the middle of the night, cutting off food to trapped workers. Keeping one’s slaves in line is hardly an act of conscience, rather simple understandable economic self-interest. It’s the people who do terrible things out of conscience that really scare me. The slave-owner is just following the rules. You can kick out his economic self-interest merely by emancipating the slaves with force of law. The conscience-driven fanatics are implacable.

        That’s why as Jerry so often says conscientious objection has to be done in full view with a willingness to face the consequences for breaking an unjust law. COs can’t pretend their consciences exempt them from the law, or all law, or intimidate the rest of us into thinking it so.

      2. A great fictional portrayal of this truth is in Huckleberry Finn. Huck’s conscience bothers him, and he worries he might wind up in hell–for helping Jim escape slavery.

        After some soul searching, during which he thinks of Jim and the things they’ve shared, Huck makes up his mind. He rejects his conscience: “all right, I’ll go to hell then.”

  3. As the various revelations about Federal funds going to NGOs have come out, I have come to the conclusion that the Federal government should stop all funding and grants to NGOs and non-profits for any purposes, and that tax-exemption for non-profits should be abolished. The political culture of our nation is too degraded for that process not to be abused to an extent that makes self-dealing and corruption more than likely, and oversight impossible.

  4. “Among other steps, Columbia said it would have 36 campus safety officers with arrest powers, a shift with enormous resonance at a university that has a long history of campus activism and fraught ties with law enforcement.”

    Yep, what an affront to the delicate sensibilities and breath-taking sense of entitlement of university students that officials dare enforce reasonable, appropriate and legal place, manner and time restrictions and prevent student commandeering and damaging of university buildings.

    1. They are always described as “peaceful demonstrators”. Always. I can accept that most of them are peaceful, but openly hiding among them are individuals who are not peaceful. Meanwhile, there are no tools for surgically extracting the miscreants, and so the tools must be blunt instruments.

      1. Yes, Mark. Like a poisoner’s “mainly arsenic free cake”.
        Mainly.

        best regards Mark!

        D.A.
        NYC

      2. If the “peaceful” protestors harbour and enable the violent among them, they are themselves not peaceful by definition. Blunt instruments are fully justified even if they can’t distinguish the arsonists and rock-throwers from the mere squatters and shitters in garbage bags. The truly peaceful ones can simply leave peacefully before the instruments are deployed. Or be their best damaged and dysfunctional selves somewhere else.

        Illegal occupation of private or public property that denies its use to the owners and those the owners intended to have use of it is not peaceful, especially if the occupiers have fenced or barricaded it. There is an implicit threat of violence against those who would attempt to use the space for its lawful purpose….particularly since the police will need to keep the lawful would-be users away from the site to avoid violent clashes. Imagine if a group of students started to dismantle illegal barricades on a quad in order to play Frisbee on the grass. You know that menacing, shoving, and punching would ensue.

        1. Absolutely 100% yes, Leslie.
          Your analysis is similar to the argument that to censor punishes the listeners more than the speaker.

          Random, violent and menacing chaos caused by young “encamping” narcissists who aren’t getting dates on campus or in public… denies free movement, and ownership rights to the larger public.

          We do not tolerate public menaces or childish “takeovers” in civilized societies. Purveyors of this disorder can be punished. If they are here as aliens, deported. Like Khalil. By their non peaceful protests they graduate to being “criminal aliens” and thus automatically deportable. Green card, preggers wifey, NBC tears… or not.
          THAT is the hard legal line one crosses upon naturalization.

          cheers Leslie

          D.A. (J.D.)
          NYC

  5. Right now the courts are the only entity standing up to Trump. Besides his pathological need for petty retribution, Trump going after law firms is a signal to all lawyers–don’t sue me to stop my edicts or you’ll suffer the consequences.

    1. I don’t understand why they regularly issue temporary restraining orders against his edicts, rather than flat out ruling against them. Perhaps the temporary order is the more efficient option? If a judge simply rules against Trump’s actions, as clearly they should, he would automatically appeal and that ties up more judges and more time. So perhaps that is the reason for the temporary restraints which avoids some of that. But I don’t really know.

      1. A court will, as far as I know (and I’m a lawyer but my legal education is 40+ years old), only issue a permanent order after a full trial in which both sides to a dispute are heard. But if something is urgent, a court can issue a temporary restraining order, or a preliminary injunction, after only limited hearing(s) – provided that the side requesting the TRO can show that the facts and the law are clearly in their favor and there would be considerable harm if the other side were to be allowed to continue its behavior. In the ultimate of urgency, a court can issue an ex parte preliminary injunction after hearing from only one side – but the other side must be so clearly legally in the wrong that the court doesn’t see a real chance for it to prevail in a full trial, and again the probability of considerable harm if the behavior were to continue.
        So, take the birthright citizenship proclamation by Trump. Several Federal district courts (courts of first instance) have issued preliminary injunctions against the enforcement of the denial of birthright citizenship, finding that the denial violates the 14th Amendment to the Constitution (and the 1898 Supreme Court case of Wong Kim Ark), and noting that denial of US citizenship would harm the individuals whose citizenship is denied. Trump has appealed the preliminary injunctions, and at least one Court of Appeal (second instance court) has upheld the one that was appealed to it; and two weeks ago Trump asked the Supreme Court to limit these preliminary injunctions to only the named plaintiffs rather than applying them nationwide. [The issue of nationwide injunctions issued by district court judges has been a question for a while; but the situation at present is that a district court can issue a nationwide injunction.] My view on that is that the Supreme Court should duck the issue now, and let a full trial occur somewhere, be appealed, and be finally decided by the Supreme Court if necessary – the alternative is that a child born to non-citizen parents in one state would be a US citizen and a child born in another state would not, which seems highly undesirable given the nationwide reach of the Constitution and Federal law.

  6. Stupid Sullivan, again. For a guy who gets some things right he gets a lot wrong.

    And he’s always so FIRM in his moral superiority (see videos).

    “Brown skin and the wrong tattoo” is retarded b/c I ask Sullidish this question:
    “Drew, mate, how many citizens of El Salvador – here or there – with FACE TATTOOS – do you think ARE NOT gangsters?”

    Only in broken countries like E.S. is “I’m a criminal and I’ll advertise this on my face” a Thing. They broadcast their criminality. So… thanks!
    Do we want criminals like that living here? I think not.
    E.S. isn’t broken anymore – they’ve gone from the highest to nearly the lowest murder rate in the W. Hemisphere and Bukele polls at above 80 percent.
    .
    . On terrorism disposal:
    Further, on the chaos his arrest has unleashed alone, let alone his promotion of Islamic terrorism, the terrorist Khalil must be deported back to Algeria.

    It is good though, changing attention to Terrorist Khalil will give the Israeli heroes cover to finally take care of Gaza. Onwards heroes!

    D.A.
    NYC

    1. Yes, but at the cost of democracy and civil rights for those imprisoned in a severely overcrowded gulag. It’s difficult not to have mixed feelings about this.

      1. As a (former) defense atty I have to agree with you Adrienne. Pres Bukele’s stuff wouldn’t fly in civilized democracies.

        But… and this is a huge but… he was elected (legally) to really make a difference and I’ll put it to you that if your murder rate where you live is above 60 per 100K nobody in your country is thinking about anything else: your economy and society is eff’ed, violence and decapitated bodies all over, hope for your future gone and your civic health is utterly ruined. They had a murder rate that high… Godzilla level of damage.

        So the good people of E.S. — legally — fairly— elected a guy whose policies would be utterly unacceptable where you and I live Adrienne, me in NYC and you… I’m guessing in a western democracy.

        “And that makes all the difference.” Frost.

        respectfully,

        D.A.
        NYC

        1. And now that the murder rate is finally under control, he could begin building new prisons or converting existing structures into prisons to ease overcrowding at CECOT. He could start making it possible for inmates there to have due process and to speak to attorneys. But to my knowledge he doesn’t. And he’s subverted his country’s limits on presidential terms and made himself a dictator. I’m not sure I can agree with you that this is all justified still.

          1. Isn’t that the business of the citizens of El Salvador to work out with their government, though, and not yours, Adrienne? They can either struggle to change prison conditions, civil rights, and presidential terms, or they can acquiesce to what their government is doing, depending on their preferences and their power. Either way it’s not the business of the United States Government what happens to undesirable aliens it deports to El Salvador or anywhere else. Whether it’s “justified” for President Bukele to do what he does is simply irrelevant to America’s enforcement of its immigration laws.

            If Congress passed a law prohibiting the Executive from deporting aliens (back) to dictatorships with hell-holes for prisons, you country would fill up pretty quickly with some very not-nice people.

        2. There is a deeper point here. The era of “liberalism” is over. Bukele is just one data point (an important one). My standard comment on this is as follows.

          “China is very good at building dams, the US is very good at enforcing PC. Which system will prevail in the 21st century?”

          This is not about Biden, Harris, or Trump. The problems pre-date all three.

          In 1968, it was fair to say that the US had an effective government and other countries did not.

          In 2025, this isn’t so clear. Let me use one of my favorite examples. California tried to build a high-speed rail line and failed. Costs in 2020 were estimated at $80 billion and possibly as high as $99.8 billion. The project collapsed under its own weight (cost). The nation of Spain built an HSR from Madrid to Barcelona at a cost of $6 billion. By coincidence, the distance is about the same.

          Of course, California has substantial mountain ranges as you approach San Francisco (from the south) or Los Angeles (from the north). Conversely, the Central Valley of California is one of the flattest places on Earth (way flatter than Spain).

          The details here are not really that important. The important fact is that the US/California is now a place where things don’t get done.

          In 1968, the US was in the final stages of the Apollo program (which would succeed in 1969) and China was starting the debacle of the Cultural Revolution. Stated differently, the US was arguably among the most effective nations on Earth and China was among the least effective nations on Earth. What about now?

          Of course, I could mention males in female sports…

  7. I live in Nashville and have eaten at Prince’s twice. In my younger days, I craved hot food and would request the highest number heat at Thai or Indian restaurants. But Prince’s is another level of hot. On first bite, a deep flush would rush through my body and I would gasp for air while waiting for it to subside. Water made it worse. But after a few minutes, the initial shock wears off and you can’t stop eating it.
    It was a unique experience but now Nashville Hot Chicken is a commodity found at several places. The best one here now is called 400 Degrees. Worth a visit if you have time. It can take 45 minutes to get your order.

  8. All major public and private universities will bend the knee to Trump if and when he comes after them. Across many decades these institutions have become more and more dependent on federal grants and contracts to keep the lights on and everyone employed. They have sold their independence for government $$$ because you can no longer do most cutting edge science on the cheap. Thus, federal monies have become the universities’ heroin and we are now all hopelessly addicted. Historically, this addiction has been good for science and the general welfare. But, it is an addiction nonetheless. So when our supplier (now Trump & MAGA) can cut off the supply entirely, the ramifications of going ‘cold turkey’ are too dire to contemplate! I suspect Trump will shortly come after my institution (the U. of California system). And, when he says “jump”, the only response will be “how high?”

  9. In a related matter, the government is threatening financial support to U. of Pennsylvania. over that institution’s misconduct in women’s sports: it allowed a male swimmer (Will, who calls himself Lia, Thomas) to compete as a woman.
    Colin Wright argues simply that “the underlying principle is clear: institutions that disregard fairness and biological reality should not expect continued financial support from the federal government.” Wright phrases the issue in terms of institutional competence. How can an institution which ignores biological reality also be trusted to provide “indirect support” of grant-funded research into biological and physical reality? Shouldn’t institutional promotion of Astrology, for example, jeopardize an institution’s claim for the indirect support portion of grants in real Astronomy?

  10. I’ll never forgive Sullivan for parroting blood libels:

    “He’s deploying a McCarthyite 1952 law to target any legal noncitizen who has criticized or demonstrated against the Jewish state’s wiping of Gaza off the face of the earth, proudly gutting the First Amendment for no good reason.”

    This is why antisemitism is on the rise – because idiots like Sullivan casually smear Israel’s name and spread lies. I’m not saying Israel is perfect, and there’s definitely legitimate criticism. I have plenty. However, handing out Hamas pamphlets is not legitimate criticism, it’s material support to a terror organization. Kidnapping and beating up two janitors is also not a form of protest or free speech. Spreading lies about Israel trying to wipe Gaza off the face of the earth is also not legitimate criticism – it’s a blood libel.

    If Israel wanted to do that, they would have instead of sending 808 soldiers, our brothers, sons and fathers (and also daughters and sisters) to fight there and die. The callous and false remark by Sullivan is an insult to their memory.

    1. I also found that sentence by Sullivan to be appalling, for the same reasons you enumerated.

    2. 100% Ms. Spring. Please comment at WEIT more often!
      Here’s the thing with Sullidish…. and PCC(E) is a fan:

      He’s a bright guy with a super accent. He writes very well.
      Often he comes up with some excellent arguments between right and left and this is valuable.

      But he is also a pub level loudmouth and shoots his mouth off on sh… stuff.. he knows little about: medicine, drugs, the Middle East and maybe it is his arrogant self conviction of stuff he PROVES TO US he is ignorant of that is so grating.
      I’ll leave it at that but look forward to your future posts!
      best,
      D.A.
      NYC
      me: https://whyevolutionistrue.com/2020/06/10/photos-of-readers-93/

    3. I believe there must be equal rights for all: if there is free speech, then everyone must be allowed to do so – rights are indivisible.

      But I also believe that A.S. harbors anti-Semitic sentiments.

  11. Even the one excuse that made it supposedly “reasonable” to support Trump, the economy, is now elephant waste.

    1. IMO we ain’t seen nothing yet. Stay tuned. I’ll be delighted to be mistaken about this.

  12. Some measure of how far gone academia really is, comes from the Sokal Squared hoax. A feminist journal (Affilia: Journal of Women and Social Work) accepted for publication a chapter of Mein Kampf with ‘men’ replacing ‘Jew’.

  13. Columbia has a horrid reputation. Columbia’s bad reputation long precedes the attacks of 10/7/2023. Let me quote from Yenomi Park.

    “I expected that I was paying this fortune, all this time and energy, to learn how to think. But they are forcing you to think the way they want you to think”

    “I realized, ‘Wow, this is insane.’ I thought America was different, but I saw so many similarities to what I saw in North Korea that I started worrying.”

    “Even North Korea is not this nuts. North Korea is pretty crazy, but not this crazy”

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