Islamophobia Can Be a Money Pit, Too

POSTED BY MARTIN KICH This item has been distributed by Loonwatch [http://www.loonwatch.com/], a website that tracks examples of Islamophobia and other expressions of Nativism, xenophobia, White nationalism, and hate-think: “The 2016 presidential election season has been punctuated by the implosion of the Republican party, decimated by the long nurtured hatred and xenophobia that it has…

Four Numbers That Made Me Blink

POSTED BY MARTIN KICH First Number This is the opening paragraph from “Suicide Squad Kills with $135 Million Debut,” an article written by Patrick Ryan for USA Today: “The critically maligned supervillain team-up scored the biggest August debut ever with $135.1 million at the weekend box office, according to tracking firm comScore. Its No. 1 opening smashes a…

What Will Debt-Free College Mean for Public Colleges?

BY JOHANN N. NEEM Guest blogger Johann N. Neem is Professor of History at Western Washington University and a Visiting Faculty Fellow at the Institute of Advanced Studies in Culture at the University of Virginia. At the Democratic National Convention, Bernie Sanders argued that the Democrats came together to support debt-free higher education for all students…

More Judicial Appeal of Voter Suppression: Ohio

POSTED BY MARTIN KICH In the last several weeks voter suppression measures in North Carolina, Wisconsin, Texas, Kansas, and Michigan have been overturned by Federal Appeals Courts. This week a case on similar measures in Ohio is being heard. Over the last six years, there have been frequent battles in the legislature and in the…

A Long, Hot Summer on Campus

POSTED BY MARTIN KICH Scott D. Miller, the President of Virginia Wesleyan University, has written a guest column for the Virginian-Pilot with the same title as this post. After providing an overview of what a university president’s summer routine typically involves, he writes: “Then there’s this summer — which to me is exceptionally hot, volatile,…

Not Just Students Are Leaving Illinois

POSTED BY MARTIN KICH In an article for Crain’s Chicago Business, Steven R. Strahler reports on the growing exodus of faculty from Illinois public universities and colleges. In some cases, the faculty have been forced to look for positions elsewhere after being furloughed in response to budget shortfalls. But in most instances, the faculty have…

Education or Propaganda? Depends Who's Doing It!

BY HANK REICHMAN Amid the growing controversy over the leak of thousands of emails hacked from servers at the Democratic National Committee, apparently by a group linked to the Russian government, comes this report in The Times of London: President Putin has launched a secret propaganda assault on Britain from within its own borders, The Times can…

Let’s Accept Trump’s Premises

BY MARTIN KICH Let’s not beat around the bush. For the sake of argument, let’s accept that all politicians are full of shit. Why is a guy who is so patently full of shit—who repeatedly says things on camera and then very shortly afterwards denies that he said them (just today, he said that John…