BY HANK REICHMAN The following comes from a story published yesterday by The Hill: Republican pollster Frank Luntz on Tuesday told delegates at the Republican National Convention that the GOP has “lost” the millennial generation of voters. Addressing the South Carolina delegation, Luntz attributed the Democratic Party’s hold on younger adults to colleges and universities…
BY KELLY HAND In March the AAUP issued a statement protesting Turkish suppression of academic freedom as the government punished professors who had signed an Academics for Peace petition calling for an end to the military campaign against Kurdish separatists. AAUP vice president and Committee A chair Henry Reichman, coauthor of the statement along with AAUP president Rudy Fichtenbaum,…
BY MARTIN KICH Even before the convention began, more than 100 women posed nude for an “art installation” called “Everything She Says Means Everything.” Here is how an Esquire story on this protest opened: “As the sun rises Sunday morning over the Quicken Loans Arena in downtown Cleveland, 100 women stand completely nude, holding large,…
BY MARTIN KICH In Trump world, there are no coincidences. To cite just one of the more recent egregious examples of this phenomenon, Trump suggested that if Ted Cruz’s father bore a close resemblance to someone in the background of a photo of Lee Harvey Oswald, then Ted Cruz’s father may have been involved in…
BY HANK REICHMAN A few days ago, shortly before the failed coup in Turkey that sought to overthrow the government of Prime Minister Recep Erdogan, I posted an item to this blog, “Attacks on Academic Freedom Continue in Turkey.” When word of the coup attempt arrived very soon after my post went up, I quickly…
BY BRIAN C. MITCHELL Let the games begin. As we watch the negotiated spectacle that will play out at both political conventions, these staged reality television moments will also be set against a backdrop of heightened social, cultural, racial, and economic tensions. America has not seemed as divided nor as tribal since the 1960s. What will…
POSTED BY MARTIN KICH This is a press release from the Committee to Protect Journalists. I have added the photos of the journalists. _________________________ New York, July 18, 2016—The Committee to Protect Journalists will honor journalists from Egypt, India, Turkey, and El Salvador with its2016 International Press Freedom Awards. The journalists have faced threats, legal action,…
POSTED BY MARTIN KICH Writing for Crain’s Cleveland Business, Rachel Abbey McCafferty reports on how Cleveland’s colleges and universities are being impacted by the Republican National Convention: “Cleveland State University’s second summer session is getting underway on Monday, July 18 — the first day of the convention. With the parking restrictions and road closures in the…
POSTED BY MARTIN KICH The following is an excerpt from CNN’s Politics Nightcap daily newsletter: “RNC kick-off: Police union asks for ‘open carry’ suspension “The head of Cleveland’s largest police union is calling on Ohio Gov. John Kasich to temporarily restrict the state’s open carry gun laws during this week’s Republican National Convention after Sunday’s shooting in Louisiana that killed three officers…
BY AARON BARLOW What’s the point of having academic credentials if you can’t use them? Sure, we make them into bludgeons inside the ivory tower, but that’s really just child’s play: the bludgeons do all the real damage of balloons. Only when there is ‘real-world’ application can they have an impact, do they really mean…