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Deutschmeister's avatar

A few quick hits today:

1) I saw Scott Walker on CNN last night dutifully dog-whistling that Joe Biden's economic policies have failed America, as if opinion automatically equals fact. Let's take a closer look ... 216,000 new jobs added to the economy. Gas prices significantly down. Inflation down. Record online holiday season purchases. Jammed airports and highways for holiday travelers. In other words: Thanks, Joe. It's nice to see that Governor Divide-and-Conquer is just as wrong now as he was when he made hyperpartisanship and demonization of the political left and public sector workers fashionable in Wisconsin. Walker's schlock is well past its expiration date. Why anyone seeks his opinion at this point is beyond my comprehension.

2) Donald Trump's faith was on full display with "Two Corinthians" in 2016. Using the Bible as a prop during the George Floyd crisis wasn't a good look either. Anybody here think he breaks bread with friends and family with recitations from the Scriptures? Perhaps "Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the Earth."?

3) Can we stop pretending that whatever happens at Harvard is representative of what takes place at all other institutions of higher education? It has become exhausting to hear commentators equate what happens there, under their circumstances, with the very different reality at the vast majority of other, smaller, less affluent, less elite, more public than private, more classroom-driven schools. It isn't. For all the good work people like me do in the educational environment every working day, we wouldn't be allowed to walk on Harvard's campus, much less have a say in their policies and working conditions. So let's stop assuming that one size fits all on this issue. Better still, how about if we take some time to point out all the many things that our universities do well and right in preparing our students for bright futures, good careers, and becoming well-rounded citizens in our society and global community instead of always looking for reasons to denigrate them and call into question their legitimacy? The discussion has been way out of balance for far too long. In this forum as elsewhere, let's hit a reset button and see it as more than just a convenient, and too often disingenuous, political football, please and thank you on behalf of all of us who deserve better than the prevailing guilt-by-association approach.

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BlueOntario's avatar

If you worship a god who hates others and shows his favor by bestowing wealth on people you like (one has to ignore all the wealthy people one disagrees with, they earn money dishonestly, I guess), then Trump is very faithful and is that god's chosen representative on Earth.

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Jeff Smith's avatar

And the name of Trump's god is Mammon. If the illiterates on the right would try reading their Bibles instead of just using them as cudgels against anyone who is not like them, they would recognize that.

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Lewis Grotelueschen's avatar

"Donald Trump's faith was on full display with "Two Corinthians" in 2016. "

Not to mention a lifetime with the satiation of Greed and Lust as the goals.

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JB's avatar

ye the gaslighting continue

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KMD's avatar

And Donald's minister at the Marble Collegiate Church in Manhattan ( where Trump is supposedly a member) once said that he never sees Donald in church.

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Tim Coffey's avatar

I think a better question for Harvard is, "Why is it that the most important educational institution in the United States is turning out so many awful people?" You know, Bannon, Kushner, Cruz, Cotton, McEnany, etc.

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Ellen Hinchee's avatar

I wouldn’t say “important” either, but it definitely has cachet because of how hard it is to get into. And so many of these nutty extremists come out of Harvard and Yale that I’ve been asking for a while “WTF are they teaching at Yale Law (or insert Harvard school of your choice)?” They definitely weren’t brainwashed by the dreaded “woke” faculty.

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Tim Coffey's avatar

Whenever I think of the Ivies, I think of Al Pacino's speech during "Scent of a Woman" when his character Frank Slade is ripping it up on behalf of Chris O'Donnell's character, Charlie Simms, at a hearing.

"Makers of men; creators of leaders; be careful what kind of leaders you're producin' here."

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Colleen Kochivar-Baker's avatar

I don't take it as a given that Harvard is the most important educational institution in the States. It may be for politicians and legacy families, but those two groups don't represent very many people.

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Molly Ciliberti's avatar

The Ivy League is living on hubris. You can get a better education at lots of other universities. It is the BS status of the name of the university. My ex taught at Yale and I saw the legacy and daddy donated a building students get their gentlemen’s C and their degree. Harvard is not the most important or best university in the US. It is all a house of cards.

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Tim Coffey's avatar

You're right, but when you look at the fact that Harvard, to borrow from David Frum, is a hedge fund with a university attached to it, Harvard is quite important.

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Colleen Kochivar-Baker's avatar

I grant you that parameter.

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Tim Coffey's avatar

Harvard and its Ivy brethren may be elite institutions, but when I look at the kind of people they're sending out into the world, I cringe.

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BlueOntario's avatar

They offer proof to the accusation that the purpose of "education" is to get rich.

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Tim Coffey's avatar

Or more explicitly, to achieve wealth without paying any sort of price for detestable behavior.

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BlueOntario's avatar

Ethics and morals courses only offered to pad one's GPA.

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Tim Coffey's avatar

Damn. You're more cynical about that than I am. 😎

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