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Claudine Gay Resigns as Harvard President: Live Updates
Audaces fortuna iuvat
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Warning: there is considerable propaganda in this. Nonetheless, there’s enough certifiable fact to make it worthwhile.
Most striking is that Fryer came from an extremely disadvantaged background. His persecutors came from upper class families. Notably, Claudine Gay is Exeter and Stanford, and apparently has little or no experience with the actual lives of lower class African Americans.
If this were simply anecdotal, it wouldn’t matter. But I believe it’s the pattern. Class matters far more in this society than race, a fact that the Coates and Gays of the world would rather die than admit. A terrific town-and-gown feud is shaping up in the black community. Witness the rising Trump numbers in ethnicity.
BTW, I spent 15 years on the CEB, warning about the effects of the wealth gap. Well, the chickens have come home to roost. To my 2ay or thinking, the culture wars are being driven by middle class angst over the increasing difficulty of keeping up.
Now back to online chess.
I wouldn't give you two cents for all your fancy rules if, behind them, they didn't have a little bit of plain, ordinary, everyday kindness - yeah, and a little looking out for the other fella, too.
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Thanks for sharing that video GR.
Good to see you here as well.
Gay’s resignation is the least that could be done. My hunch is it won’t change much as to the culture that Gay represented and espoused.
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Sic transit gloria mundi (so shut up and get back to work) -
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SCOOPLET + 🧵Danielle Allen, a highly respected Harvard poli sci prof, interviewed for the presidency in 2022.
She didn't get past an early round.
Worth asking why Gay got the job while Allen didn't come close.
I'm not saying I know. But it sure wasn't scholarship…
— Alice (@AliceFromQueens) January 3, 2024
Also relevant to the discussion.
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Mick,
Sorry to disappoint, but as I live through my 78th year on this small planet, I’m not interested in doing controversy here. I’m more interested in what you did about Social Security, since – if my numbers are right – you have reached that age. If your experience is typical, you were at first tempted to forego the benefit, then took a look at all the money deducted over the years, and decided what the hell. FDR did not intend it as a welfare program, and ultimately that perspective prevails with most of us.
As for the rest, about the only prediction that I’d make with any degree of confidence is that the structure of elite education in this nation is doomed, and thank God. One reason is that we distribute information now so well and in so many forms that the value added of an elite degree is extremely dubious. An autodidact can acquire all the education he or she needs without the colossal expense. All you really get from your Stanford, Harvard, or Pomona’s is certification, that you are in fact Smart. (There’s a scene in the Wizard of Oz that showed up the farce much better than I could.) The Varsity Blues case is not a small matter – it showed up how rotten to the core is the admissions process, as did much of the evidence uncovered in Students for Fair Admissions, the affirmative action case. If the world were as it should be, Clarence Thomas’ paean to actual American pluralism would be read at every Fourth of July celebration. But the really killer opinion on how morally bankrupt the system is was Gorsuch’s. Here’s a link.
The real Constitutional issue that besets our nation is the complete failure of Congress to function in the way the Founding Fathers intended. I am hoping for the emergence of a Third Party.
If you are sick of both the New York Times/Washington Post/CNN agenda reporting – ‘progressive elites reassuring other progressive elites about the state of an America that has never existed’, to quote some articulate someone whose name I should remember, but don’t – and Fox News belligerency, head out to the substack platform, and subscribe to the likes of Andrew Sullivan and Barry Weiss. I have my own little blog there, to which I don’t contribute as often as I should.
The only thing preventing the Democratic Party from complete collapse is the odious personality of Donald Trump, completely unfit for any elected office, particularly the Presidency, I give a monthly contribution to Nikki Haley and hope for a voter’s rebellion in Iowa and New Hampshire.
Over and out, Happy New Year.
I wouldn't give you two cents for all your fancy rules if, behind them, they didn't have a little bit of plain, ordinary, everyday kindness - yeah, and a little looking out for the other fella, too.
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As for elite education, I couldn’t agree more. In 2012, I did an executive Master’s in Marketing Management at the Kellogg School at Northwestern. In our last class, an instructor named Brian Uzzi said that whichever one of the top dozen or so universities figures out now to offer their classes online to a large scale audience would swamp the system and mark the beginning of the end of the American social experiment in post-high school socialized learning.
As for Democrats, I think Biden is stronger than the polls show, but almost any third party will weaken him dramatically. Trump’s a wild card. Not sure what the upcoming timely convictions will mean. I like Haley as well, by quite a margin over the other Republicans. My son likes Vivek.
As for Social Security. I’m eligible to have the lowest level in October, 2024 when I turn 62. My employers and I have paid in over $400k into Social Security and about $225k into Medicare. At $2,650 a month, I’d take out what I put in after about 13 years (with 0% return). I don’t think I’ll retire for another 8-10 years, so it’s unlikely that I’ll put in for Social Security until I max out at age 70. If the government offered to just return my contributions in exchange for opting out of the system, I’d still take it in a heartbeat.
Audaces fortuna iuvat
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Vivek Ramaswamy is a rabbit for the mainstream Right.
In distance running, a rabbit goes out hard, setting a very high pace for the other runners. He has no chance of winning, but effectively changes the pace of the race by forcing everyone else to keep up.
That’s Vivek. He… pic.twitter.com/2OVfwwhvra
— Alaric The Barbarian (@0xAlaric) January 4, 2024
I agree with this Vivek take. He’s very good at messaging, and engaging. Also, he’s willing to change his mind and admit when he is wrong.
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