Thursday, April 17, 2025
D+162/88
1905 Supreme Court held that the maximum work day was unconstitutional in Lochner v. New York by declaring the "right to free contract" implicit in the due process clause of the 14th Amendment of the Constitution
1941 US Office of Price Administration formed to handle rationing
1961 1,400 Cuban exiles landed in the Bay of Pigs in a doomed attempt to overthrow Fidel Castro
1969 Sirhan Sirhan was convicted of assassinating US Senator Robert F. Kennedy
In bed at 9, up at 4:20.
Prednisone, day 362; 3 mg., day 21/21; Kevzara, day 3/14; CGM, day 15/15; Trulicity, day 6/7. 2 mg. of prednisone at 4:35 a.m. and 1 mg. at 4 p.m. Other meds at 11:05. Replaced the CGM at 10 a.m., and requested a refill from the VA pharmacy.
Stump removal for the big spruce tree that was taken down on Monday. Total cost for the tree removal and stump grinding was $1006.05. The provider was the Briski Brothers, LLC, of Cedar Grove.
Weaponizing factitious-anti-anti-semitism. Trump, his wholly-owned IRS, DHS, and DOJ are attacking major universities on the pretense of fighting anti-semitism. The latest notorious example is Harvard University, possessor of a $53 billion endowment, but operationally supported by huge federal grants and contracts. On Tuesday, Trump publicly called for Harvard to lose its tax-exempt status under the Internal Revenue Code. On Wednesday, Maggie Haberman and Andrew Duehren wrote an article for the NY Times, "I.R.S. Is Said to Be Considering Whether to Revoke Harvard’s Tax-Exempt Status."
The university is already under intense financial pressure. The Trump administration has said it is cutting off $2.2 billion in federal funding for Harvard after it refused to comply with a list of the government’s demands.
On Wednesday, the homeland security secretary, Kristi Noem, canceled nearly $3 million in agency grants to Harvard, according to a statement from the Department of Homeland Security.
Ms. Noem also wrote a letter to university officials requesting “detailed records on Harvard’s foreign student visa holders’ illegal and violent activities” by the end of the month, according to the agency statement. Without a response, the university could lose the “privilege of enrolling foreign students,” the statement said.
The intensifying standoff between the Trump administration and Harvard is part of a broad pressure campaign against some of the nation’s most elite universities. Led by top White House aides and senior officials from agencies across the government, the effort is part of a bid by conservatives to realign the liberal tilt of academia.
The strategy has roiled higher education as the Trump administration scrutinizes dozens of schools over their handling of antisemitism allegations, diversity practices and policies on transgender athletes. At stake are billions of dollars in federal funding that the White House is threatening to pull from universities that do not comply.
Is this pretextual claim of fighting anti-semitism "good for the Jews"? I suspect it will only increase anti-semitism by those prone to it by putting Jews in the same category as other "coddled minorities and special interest groups," like Blacks, Hispanics, Muslims, gays, and transgender folks, etc. Many among us view life and government programs, and policies as zero-sum games. If women are targeted for a government benefit, men lose. If Blacks and Browns are targeted, Whites lose, and so on. There is little reason to believe that Trump himself, Kristi Noem, and Pam Bondi are personally concerned about Jews qua Jews, especially Jewish students enrolled in Ivy League universities. They may care about Israel, but not about Jews qua Jews, or Jewish students at the most elite educational institutions in the country. Nonetheless, the pressure is being put on Harvard (and Columbia and others) based primarily on its failure to protect Jewish students from anti-semitism on campus. I read the April 11 letter to Harvard's president from the GSA and the general counsels of DHS and DOE. It is stunning in its arrogance. It basically demands that Harvard put all of its governance, educational, and research operations under the control of the federal government, a complete takeover. If Harvard fails to accede to the demands, it threatens to deny Harvard all access to government grants and contracts, and certification necessary for the acceptance of foreign students, a heretofore incredible abuse of governmental power and authority. Harvard has responded to the government's demands in a letter from its Washington lawyers that states: "Neither Harvard nor any other private university can allow itself to be taken over by the federal government. Accordingly, Harvard will not accept the government’s terms as an agreement in principle."
We should remember that Trump is, in his own way, following the lead of his former rival, Ron DeSantis, who quite literally took over a much smaller, much less elite college in Florida whose curriculum, administration, and faculty displeased him because they were too "woke" and coommited to DEI, New College of Florida, in Sarasota. On January 6, 2023, DeSantis seized control of the college by appointing six new members to its board of trustees. The school was non-traditional, perhaps like Reed College in Portland or Colorado College in Colorado Springs. I don't know how New College has been doing since the DeSantis takeover but a quick internet search revealed that their 2025 graduation speaker is Alan Dershowitz and among the college's outside speakers this year is Tom Homan, Trump's 'border czar' and RFK, Jr., supporter Russell Brand, and Trump's controversial Covid-19 pandemic advisor, Scott Atlas.
Geri went shopping at Costco, Target, and the Dollar Store this morning and was out for about 2 and 1/2 hours. She's getting back to normal.
Another mass shooting, this one at Florida State University in Tallahassee. Ma nishtanah?
I started a huge project: creating a rough index of these journal entries. It looks like it will take forever, but it has me reading stuff that I wrote long ago, reminding me of how long I have kvetched about my failing eyesight, aching back, executive functioning failures, wasted days, and general decrepitude.
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