Temporary pause...
Dear subscribers, Several of you have kindly asked why I'm not posting at the moment, and the reason is that we're super-busy sorting/packing our belongings in preparation for a house move. Back soon! Dan
The cornerstone of democracy...
...rests on the foundation of an educated electorate.
Latest posts
Essentials, April 22, 2025
News and commentary for understanding and coping with the years ahead... Pulling together The Pact: A Civil Rights Coalition Unity Commitment We commit to stay united in our shared vision for opportunity, prosperity, dignity, belonging and for the rights and justice necessary to ensure them. Today we face a campaign
Essentials, April 21, 2025
News and commentary for understanding and coping with the years ahead... HUAC and McCarthyism are back, with lessons for victims Process as Punishment: An American History of Political Spectacle American political theater isn’t new. The House Un-American Activities Committee operated for decades—until targets learned to
Essentials, April 18, 2025
News and commentary for understanding and coping with the years ahead... Resist, as safely as possible So You Want to Be a Dissident? A practical guide to courage in Trump’s age of fear. We analyzed the literature of protest and spoke to a range of people, including foreign
Essentials, April 17, 2025
News and commentary for understanding and coping with the years ahead... It's a concentration camp Trump Is Sending People To The Camps “More than a prison, El Salvador’s CECOT has many if not all… Extraordinary times call for extraordinary and strong language. President Trump&
Essentials, April 14, 2025
News and commentary for understanding and coping with the years ahead... Harvard to Trump: 'Hell, no' The Promise of American Higher Education No government—regardless of which party is in power—should dictate what private universities can teach, whom they can admit and hire, and which
Essentials, April 12, 2025
News and commentary for understanding and coping with the years ahead... Existence Denied [T]he administration is taking drastic steps to pressure some of those immigrants and others who had legal status to “self-deport” by effectively canceling the Social Security numbers they had lawfully obtained, according to
Essentials, April 9, 2025
News and commentary for understanding and coping with the years ahead... Obama to quisling universities: Grow a spine Have a listen to this recent appearance at Hamilton College by former President Barack Obama, who expressed polite contempt for the formerly renowned universities that have caved into the Trump regime'
Essentials, April 7, 2025
News and commentary for understanding and coping with the years ahead... Resistance is building Anti-Trump protests hit cities worldwide – in pictures Thousands of ‘Hands Off’ protesters – in the US and across major European cities – took to the streets on Saturday in a show of
Essentials, April 4, 2025
News and commentary for understanding and coping with the years ahead... Can Democrats wake up enough to denounce insane tariffs? These Tariffs Won’t Stand—Make Political/Electoral Hay Now If you’re running for Congress or considering running for Congress or know… Trump can only
Essentials, April 2, 2025
News and commentary for understanding and coping with the years ahead... Muskism is ballot-box poison Wisconsin supreme court race: liberal Susan Crawford beats Musk-backed candidate Liberal judge says victory is against ‘unprecedented attack on our democracy’ after defeating Brad Schimel in the most expensive judicial election
Essentials, March 31, 2025
News and commentary for understanding and coping with the years ahead... They knew, and so do we "But every day," he said, "these people, in their neat Germanic way, would get out their feather dusters and go outside. And, never thinking about what it meant, they would
Essentials, March 28, 2025
News and commentary for understanding and coping with the years ahead... What "Signalgate" means “Signalgate” has morphed from one scandal — the insane inclusion of one of the nation’s top journalists in one of the world’s most elite and secret group chats
Essentials, March 27, 2025
News and commentary for understanding and coping with the years ahead... Academic freedom's fast demise Columbia’s Capitulation, and Wesleyan’s Pushback Today on TAP: Appeasing dictators only invites more of the same. More university presidents should know that. “It’s a Vichy moment
Essentials, March 24
News and commentary for understanding and coping with the years ahead... A lawyer's courage [I]t has been a blatant disregard for rule of law and it's been building an obvious over the last several weeks. But Paul Weiss' decision to give in to the