How Right-Wing Billionaires Infiltrated Higher Education

The key, Pierson explained, was to fund the conservative intelligentsia in such a way that it would not ‘raise questions about academic integrity.’ Instead of trying to earmark a chair or dictate a faculty appointment, both of which he noted were bound to ‘generate fierce controversy,’ he suggested that conservative donors look for like-minded faculty members whose influence could be enlarged by outside funding.”

“They must be given grants, grants, and more grants in exchange for books, books, and more books. [To be clear, books written by the Ivy League professors Olin bought; not books for students]

They know their ideas are bad for us and they’re forcing them through anyway. I’m sure nothing we don’t already imagine, but the linked excerpt from Jane Mayer’s Dark Money brings receipts.

There’s a difference between consumer luxury goods and actual luxury goods which are typically unbranded and bespoke.

Hi, thanks for that. Im not an electrician but I work for the IBEW! In the given example, electricians in my state have years of training and on the job experience*. To a non-electrician like me, my thinking is that they can control their environment- cut off power, and have an idea of what they’re going into at a given time. You don’t know what is behind the door at a domestic violence call.

ETA: *before earning a license. And FWIW, I’m not the one downvote; I was the second upvote. People be out here voting their opinions, not discussions.

I don’t have much thought experience in this realm so I’m happy to be shown I’m wrong. I put all the blame on the paramedics who foolishly, probably, gave deference to non-medical folks who wouldn’t know better.

But on the surface I see a benefit to that being a rite of passage in becoming a cop. If I’m a cadet expecting to, in a couple of months, have a non-zero chance to encounter someone trying to kill me at, say, a domestic violence call, I’d want to know what such an encounter would be like before it happens outside a controlled environment. No?

*I am distinguishing this from the bullshit fake fear that gets Black Americans murdered by cops seemingly every day.

I’ve had this setup and would recommend but since I’ve switched from OpenVPN to Wiregaurd I’m getting constantly hit by cloud flare verification s and captchas… and my IP hasn’t changed once since. Wondering if that’s just the environment now or specific to my protocol change. Any readers’ experiences?

I was surprised to not see this until the very bottom. There’s usually a panel about it in a lot of the environment and conservation conferences I go to for work. Storing the carbon in tree trunks and the using that wood in to build the housing that’s required is a long term carbon sink.

He’s a Mellon. I couldn’t figure out how they’re related, but Richard Mellon Scaife is a big part of the reason we’re in the political mess we are today day. Americans distrusted corporations in the 1970s - tobacco, Dow Chemical, Nader’s Unsafe at Any Speed… also low income inequality. In response, future SCOTUS Justice Powell - who was on the board of Philip Morris and close friends with GM’s general counsel wrote what was intended to be secret memo for members of the US Chamber of Commerce:

‘Attack on American Free Enterprise System’ was written to transform corporate America into a “vanguard.” Contents include “the American economic system is under attack… [enemies are] perfectly respectable elements of society…the college campus, the pulpit*, the media, the intellectual and literary journals, the arts and sciences, politicians.” Capitalists need to wage “guerrilla warfare” against those seeking to “insidiously” undermine them. “Capture public opinion by exerting influence over the institutions that shape it - academia, the media, the churches, and the courts - to control debate at its source.” Said donors should demand a say in university hiring and curriculum and “press vigorously in all political arenas.” Key to victory is “careful long-range planning and implementation” with a “scale of financing available only through joint effort.” The memo spurred the ultra-conservative foundations to weaponize their “philanthropic” giving to “fight a multi-front war of influence over American political thought.”

The Coors family heeded the call first, followed by Mellon Scaife who massively overshadowed the Coors’. These foundations, that only existed for inheritance tax avoidance, were weaponized right at this moment… two months before Powell was nominated to The Court.

That’s how close we came to living in a good timeline.

And I’m only 1/4 of the way through Jane Mayer’s Dark Money; maybe just a tip of an iceberg. I’d suggest it’s required reading for every American. I should add Mayer is also responsible for unmasking Clarence Thomas in Strange Justice, the source for nearly everything we know about his grotesque history. I haven’t read it.

*this was pre-Moral Majority, but not by much.

In case readers wants a journalist’s take instead of the subject themselves, link below. I think anyone noticing the hyperbolic way she spoke in the interview would quickly be seeking out a non-first-person perspective. The interviewer didn’t even allude to the pre-existing controversy around this lady, what terrible journalism.

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/pornhub-traffickinghub-laila-mickelwait-book-b2585302.html

This anecdote from the article is technically hearsay, but I for sure buy that a person who uses language like she does is the same kind of person who’d write this:

Aylo also shared a screenshot with The Independent of a post it said Mickelwait shared then deleted on X, describing her husband as a “trained sniper who can consistently hit a target 1360 yards away.”

Interesting parallel with the Havana syndrome guy unveiled by 60 Minutes. A Russian spy, attached to a mysterious division of the FSB, living under cover as a chef who goes on reality shows.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=JdPSD1SUYCY&pp=ygURNjAgbWludXRlcyBoYXZhbmE%3D (7:20)

It’s a convention, we don’t have to mock his supporters for having some mirth. IDK what this sour author is going to say when people are having fun wearing Joe or Kamala masks at our convention, whatever that situation may be. This is what party conventions are- people wear flag suits and ridiculous hats. Let people have their fun. Christ. We don’t have to be negative about every goddamn thing. Some things are OK.

IDK why the preceding comments are talking about wages, this is about a former US govt worker providing US govt secrets and lobbying services for the government of South Korea. For what it’s worth, the article states she was out of government service at the time, and the charge is failure to file as a foreign agent. She was compensated in $3k handbags, fancy dinners, and $37k.

Her Rommate, Luzer Twersky, has a fascinating name.

Great point. It took an entire world war that one time.

I hadn’t before heard about what happened in NH. Fascinating.

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-68077090

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Do we think jeffw is the editor of lgbtqnation? They’re flooding the community with this source day after day. I’d’ve hoped @news had a higher standard… it’s not news that Lauren Bobert is racist.

Who is it the author says called her a racist? Nobodies on Twitter. We as readers need to respect our time and attention and downvote this junk food reporting. We owe it to ourselves.

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We have gods in America. No other way to describe billionaires with unending resources that can be pointed at whatever whim they want, coupled with no consequences for anything they do.

It’s seeming like a tide of unthinkability bias is awashing the country. Maybe there’s a better word for the phenomenon where one just can’t contemplate what could be a really bad problem. Or if one can, ‘oh but [the grim outcome] is so far down the road…’

Really upset with all the straight, white lawmakers in my state that decided to ban any rifle that performs better than grandpa’s deer rifle. Trump is going to win and there will be purges. There always are when a new dictator comes to power.

And the very ruling this article is talking about would make him immune if he makes it an order.