White supremacists have held minor campaigns on college campuses in the past, but an unprecedented amount of hate-group propaganda and a rebranding of white supremacy as “alt-right” have been especially geared to recruit and provoke college students in recent months. A recent report by the Anti-Defamation League cited at least 107 incidents of white-supremacist propaganda on college campuses since September, at least 65 of which have occurred since January. Posters with messages like “Make America white again” and “Imagine a Muslim-free America” have been found in high-traffic areas on campuses in 25 states.
...at the same time Republican legislators are using academic freedom to clamp down on real academic freedom. The timing isn't a coincidence:
Conservative critics have opened a new chapter of their long-running complaints about institutions such as UW-Madison ... It could also foreshadow new legislation that seeks to change what many Republicans see as a lack of “intellectual diversity” on college campuses, by pushing institutions to invite more conservative speakers and hire more right-leaning faculty. Speaker Robin Vos, (R), who last year called for UW institutions to invite more conservative speakers, has indicated that he wants to see the System’s funding tied to the variety of voices on campus... In December he and Rep. David Murphy, (R), criticized a course on white identity and racism titled “The Problem of Whiteness.” Sen. Steve Nass, (R), told his colleagues that a program in which students discuss masculinity amounted to the university declaring a “war on men.”
Which begs the question...
Donald Moynihan, director of UW-Madison’s La Follette School of Public Affairs said, “Would you start looking at people’s voting registrations, or who they had donated money to? The degree to which this would be government intrusiveness on people’s lives would be mind-boggling.”
...which has now been answered by right wing Brownshirt's...
Turning Point USA has put together a list of academics that they say discriminate against conservative students and use their lectures to push their left-wing propaganda. But what about the first amendment?
Turning Point USA's Charlie Kirk laughed at, even scoffed at the idea that this is somehow "Hitlerian," but historically....
The practice of Hitlerian authorities removing professors for any but scholastic reasons … Still others left because they would not subject their conscience to the dictates of the National Socialist ideologies as preached by the government. A professor at the University of Rostock demanded from the German government, which controlled all universities, that he be given a clear guarantee that the government leave unimpaired his freedom to seek and teach the truth. Despite his prominence in his field, he was ousted from his position.
This whole Republican health care debacle ignores the inhumanity of their plan.
Health care is really a moral obligation to treat the sick and save lives. The ethical side of health care should state clearly it would be utterly repugnant to profit from these services. But that's not the debate we're having.
The New England Journal of Medicine put together a list of industrialized nations "universal health care" systems. It's fascinating reading, and maybe a little frustrating as well. After looking at other country's evolving efforts, and what they found worked and didn't, nothing they've done is reflected in Paul Ryan's plan. Ryan is basically reinventing the wheel here.
The Basics: I found 4 basic elements; mandatory participation, a comprehensive government plan with oversight, and supplemental funding for generally older citizens paid for the young.
Nothing in Ryan's plan echoes what other country's have already evolved to. Ryan is building an experimental flawed system that will impact every American, with no do-overs.
Best Health Care "Reform" Explanation: John Oliver does a thorough job of shredding the obvious problems in Ryan's plan, problems the media simply touches on but doesn't decisively say won't work. It's a fast 18 minutes:
No one deserves Tucker Carlson's narrowly focused snarky questioning than Paul Ryan. Ryan firmly stays within his ideological vision, at the expense of peoples lives, so he can reward the wealthy with bigger and more ghoulish tax cuts. Even Tucker can't believe it...:
Ryan lied when he said the ACA had open enrollment for the entire year. It doesn't; Nov. 1 through Dec 15 isn't a year last time I checked. The other choice: "You can enroll in or change your Health Insurance Marketplace plan only if you have a life event that qualifies you for a Special Enrollment Period." Anyone up for a life event?
Unbelievably, Ryan's plan would only allow for a once in a lifetime signup period for first time insurance purchasers, who would then have to keep paying their premiums without a break - forever - or be penalized. And that penalty would be a 30 percent increase on premiums for one year, putting affordability out of reach for most people. Republicans are guided by their suspicion that most people want to game the system, so punishment is always their top priority.
Turning Point USA has put together a list of academics that they say discriminate against conservative students and use their lectures to push their left-wing propaganda. But what about the first amendment?
