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Reposted

David Kluft @dkluft.bsky.social · 11h

Congrats to my alma mater for doing something incredibly stupid, venal and depraved only once this year and not twice. Thanks for abandoning your most marginalized students to a bigoted mob only once this year and not twice.

Whoopee

Dominique Baker @bakerdphd.bsky.social · 12h

Brown is out! They had to do more dancing in their letter because they previously capitulated and needed to reference their previous agreement but, at its core, this reiterates MIT's letter.

The clock is now on for all other institutions.

www.brown.edu/sites/defaul...

www.brown.edu

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Erica Ifill @wickdchiq.bsky.social · 1d

The presidency is the internet and vice versa. Democrats don’t know the game they’re playing and will move their policies to the right thinking that’s what ppl want. Ppl want the end of the status quo since the status quo isn’t benefitting them. Democrats constantly run on the status quo and lose

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Christopher Martell @chrismartell.bsky.social · 1d

Are you a high school U.S. history teacher in South Carolina? We are looking for participants for a study on the teaching of right wing movements. Would only involve 1-2 interviews. Sign up here: forms.gle/vPBBby34zt1g...

S.C. History Teachers: Have you taught, or do you plan on teaching, about (the history of) right-wing movements and figures?

We are Seeking Participants for a Study

Researchers at UMass Boston, SUNY Binghamton, and Boston University are interested in understanding social studies teachers’ approaches to teaching about right-wing and
conservative movements and figures.

Who Can Be A Participant? Any South Carolina history teacher who has taught (or plans on teaching) about historical or contemporary right-wing movements or figures.

What will Participation Entail? 1-2 Remote Interviews.

For questions or more information, contact Lightning Jay (ljay@binghamton.edu), Chris Martell (christopher.martell@umb.edu), or Rob Martinelle (robm@bu.edu).

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Laprofmme @laprofmme.bsky.social · 3d

Courtesy of colleagues at Penn

A variation on Benjamin Franklin’s 1754 engraving in the Pennsylvania Gazette, published in Philadelphia, in an effort to foster cooperation among the various colonies against the tyrant king of Britain, with the American colonies replaced by the nine universities selected for special collaboration opportunities

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Gregg Gonsalves @gregggonsalves.bsky.social · 5d

Here is the tale of how he ran one hospital chain into the ground. It's gruesome reading. He is not a good person. 2/ prospect.org/power/2023-1...

The Moral Authority of Marc Rowan

The private equity billionaire is leading a boycott of an Ivy League oligarch factory over a Palestinian literary festival it held last month.

prospect.org

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Gregg Gonsalves @gregggonsalves.bsky.social · 5d

Thank you @nytopinion.nytimes.com for publishing this rot. Marc Rowan has run hundreds of companies into the dust to extract profits from their failure and bankruptcies. Now he wants to do the same to American higher education. Do not believe a word this man says. 1/ www.nytimes.com/2025/10/10/o...

Opinion | Trump’s ‘Compact’ With Universities Is Badly Needed

www.nytimes.com

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Josh Marshall @joshtpm.bsky.social · 6d

Top Trump Education Officials Are Dismantling Public Schools: ‘We’re Going to Have a Lot of Empty School Buildings’ talkingpointsmemo.com/news/top-tru...

Top Trump Education Officials Are Dismantling Public Schools: ‘We’re Going to Have a Lot of Empty School Buildings’

ProPublica is a Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative newsroom. Sign up for The Big...

talkingpointsmemo.com

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Sarah Posner @sarahposner.bsky.social · 6d

These are terrible numbers for Trump (via @pewresearch.org)

www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/...

"Majorities say trump has used his office improperly; fewer say he has improved government, U.S. standing" (graphs via Pew Research)

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ProPublica @propublica.org · 7d

Texas AG Ken Paxton hired a former staffer to work on a recent case. As a state employee, her labor would have cost taxpayers $641.

As a private attorney, Paxton allowed her to bill $3,780 an hour, so that day of work cost taxpayers $24,570.

(Published July with @texastribune.org)

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton Is Outsourcing More of His Office’s Work to Costly Private Lawyers

Despite having an office of hundreds of attorneys, Ken Paxton is frequently opting for private lawyers — many to whom he has personal or political ties — to argue on behalf of Texas. One attorney cost...

www.propublica.org

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Karl Bode @karlbode.com · 7d

twice a year the entire U.S. press becomes a marketing extension of a single billionaire-owned retailer, and nobody in any position of editorial power thinks it's weird or gross

photo of Google News search results for Amazon Prime Day (the second this year)

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Ron Filipkowski @ronfilipkowski.bsky.social · 8d

The complete and total bullshit about this is that it should have been the FIRST question asked of Johnson. It is a disgrace that he was not asked about this before he ended his press conference. Unbelievable that he continues to get away with this. bsky.app/profile/atru...

Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 8d

Mike Johnson ignores a question about when he'll swear in Rep.-elect Grijalva and walks away

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jeff com-BOO-ters @helldude.bsky.social · 10d

its truly remarkable, you have to really take the measure of it and it's almost hard to comprehend it, but the president of the united states is having texas invade illinois and oregon just to make twitter content

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abbyreisman.bsky.social @abbyreisman.bsky.social · 11d

Agreed! Penn must not capitulate!

Randi Weingarten 🖇️📚✊🇺🇸 @rweingarten.bsky.social · 11d

Taking Trump’s loyalty oath would be a profound betrayal of students, staff, faculty, the public, higher education, & our shared democracy. We urge schools not to capitulate & not to negotiate but to unite now in defense of democracy and higher ed.

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The New York Times @nytimes.com · 12d

In @nytopinion.nytimes.com

Trump’s proposed “compact” with nine major universities “is extortion, plain and simple,” Erwin Chemerinsky writes in a guest essay. “It is not hyperbole to say that the future of higher education in America requires that every university reject it.”

Opinion | Trump’s ‘Compact’ With Universities Is Just Extortion

There seems to be no limit to the president’s odious attempts to control higher education.

nyti.ms

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Adam Serwer @adamserwer.bsky.social · 12d

This is why you shouldn’t be chickenshit. You’re not saving anything. You’re dooming everything you claim to love. bsky.app/profile/thef...

LOLGOP ❌👑❌ @thefarce.org · 12d

"Autocrats take over countries when elites — business leaders, media figures, civil society — accommodate rather than resist."

Trump is racing against time

The president's approval rating is closer to Nicolás Maduro's than Vladimir Putin’s

www.gelliottmorris.com

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Mark Copelovitch @mcopelov.bsky.social · 13d

Months, and several rounds of authoritarian escalation later, we are still waiting for the urgent, loud, public collective action from university presidents.

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Adam Serwer @adamserwer.bsky.social · 12d

Universities considering capitulating to the Trump “conditions” should use this real world example to understand they will simply be destroying their own institution. bsky.app/profile/nich...

Nicholas Grossman @nicholasgrossman.bsky.social · 12d

Chris Rufo's disastrous takeover of New College in Florida shows what universities would become if they sign the Trump regime's extortionary "compact."

New College was supposed to model the anti-woke conservative higher-ed Americans crave. Instead, it showed the opposite, and serves as a warning.

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Jess Calarco @jessicacalarco.com · 13d

"This is extortion, plain and simple.... The only solution is solidarity and collective action against this effort at federal control over higher education."

A sobering analysis of the illegality of the administration's "compact" and its stakes for higher ed. 🎁🔗

www.nytimes.com/2025/10/02/o...

Opinion | Trump’s ‘Compact’ With Universities Is Just Extortion

www.nytimes.com

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Jess Calarco @jessicacalarco.com · 13d

By my read, the only way for a university to comply with this compact is to gut their social sciences, arts, and humanities, and a good chunk of their sciences, too.

www.washingtonexaminer.com/wp-content/u...

www.washingtonexaminer.com

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Rex Huppke @rexhuppke.bsky.social · 13d

Show me one corporation, one person, one institution that has willingly caved to the Trump administration's bullying and had things work out for the better. I'll wait.

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abbyreisman.bsky.social @abbyreisman.bsky.social · 13d

Agreed! Penn MUST NOT CAVE IN TO THIS THREAT!

Nelson Flores @nelsonlflores.bsky.social · 13d

Grateful to @aaup-penn.bsky.social speaking out against the Trump administration’s latest attempt to recruit Penn and other universities to sign on to a government takeover of higher education in exchange for a favored status in receiving federal grants.

aaup-penn.org/statement-by...

Statement by the AAUP-Penn Executive Committee on the Compact for Academic Excellence in Higher Education | AAUP–Penn

October 2, 2025 We have received reports that Penn has been “invited” to sign a so-called “Compact for Academic Excellence in Higher Education” by the federal government, and that failing to do so wou...

aaup-penn.org

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Nelson Flores @nelsonlflores.bsky.social · 13d

Grateful to @aaup-penn.bsky.social speaking out against the Trump administration’s latest attempt to recruit Penn and other universities to sign on to a government takeover of higher education in exchange for a favored status in receiving federal grants.

aaup-penn.org/statement-by...

Statement by the AAUP-Penn Executive Committee on the Compact for Academic Excellence in Higher Education | AAUP–Penn

October 2, 2025 We have received reports that Penn has been “invited” to sign a so-called “Compact for Academic Excellence in Higher Education” by the federal government, and that failing to do so wou...

aaup-penn.org

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Brennan Center @brennancenter.org · 13d

The country’s two biggest private prison companies are poised for a major profit windfall, with this summer’s budget bill providing an infusion of funding for immigration detention. Once the increased detention and deportation capacity ramps up, it will be difficult to unwind.

Private Prison Companies’ Enormous Windfall: Who Stands to Gain as ICE Expands

For years private prison companies have been an important partner for ICE as the government carries out its immigration agenda.

www.brennancenter.org

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David Roberts @volts.wtf · 15d

The president said, in a televised speech, that he's sending his new, less restrained, more violent military into US cities to practice their brutality on immigrants and minorities, to better train them to apply that brutality to other countries.

He said this out loud.

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Jay Rosen @jayrosen.bsky.social · 16d

If you wondered how many of the major newsrooms covering the Pentagon would give in to Pete Hegseth and sign a new agreement if they wanted to maintain access, it looks like the answer is... none. So far. Via @status.news

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