Ocasio-Cortez in OC

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez Excites OC Liberals to be Bold in Hopeful Address
(OC Weekly)

     Before June, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s name barely registered a blip outside the Bronx. After besting longtime Democratic incumbent Joe Crowley in New York’s 14th congressional district primary that month, now everyone across the nation can’t get enough of the remarkable 28-year-old puertoriqueña. Her newfound political celebrity was on full display at the Anaheim Sheraton last night where OC liberals swarmed her for selfies as soon as she walked into the banquet hall hosting a WELead OC fundraising dinner.
. . .
     “Whoever has traditionally held power usually holds on to it for a really, really long time,” said Ocasio-Cortez. “Despite the demographic changes, despite economic changes, power in this country is overwhelmingly concentrated in the wealthy. But that doesn’t mean that it has to be that way.” ….

Judge Orders DACA Be Restored
(Inside Higher Ed)
By Elizabeth Redden; August 6, 2018

     A federal district court judge in Washington ordered the full restoration of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, but delayed the decision for 20 days to give the Trump administration a chance to appeal.
     Two other federal judges have issued preliminary injunctions that have required the government to continue processing applications for DACA renewals, but Judge John D. Bates’s ruling, if allowed to go into effect, means that the administration would have to begin processing new DACA applications. DACA provides temporary protection against deportation and renewable work permits to hundreds of thousands of young immigrants known as "Dreamers" who came to the U.S. without documentation as children.
. . .
     Judge Bates issued an order in April setting aside the Sept. 5 policy memo ending DACA, finding that the government failed to adequately explain its judgment that the program was illegal. Judge Bates delayed the effectual date for the order for 90 days to give the Trump administration "an opportunity to better explain its view that DACA is unlawful."
     Now that the 90-day period has passed, Judge Bates found that the administration failed to elaborate meaningfully on its rationale….

Seeking a New 'Golden Age' of General Education
 (Inside Higher Ed)
What's a general education? Book by noted literary critic advocates a return to the basics.
By Colleen Flaherty ; August 6, 2018

James Bryant Conant

     …Harpham says that Mr. Ramirez arrived in that classroom at just the right time, during the general education movement. Articulated by Harvard University faculty members in a 1945 report called "General Education in a Free Society" and referred to as the "Redbook," in reference to its cover hue, the movement -- in the words of James Bryant Conant, then-president of Harvard -- was not about the "development of the appreciation of the 'good life’ in young gentlemen born to the purple."
     Rather, Conant said in commissioning the report, "It is the infusion of the liberal and humane tradition into our entire educational system. Our purpose is to cultivate in the largest possible number of our future citizens an appreciation of both the responsibilities and the benefits which come to them because they are Americans and are free."
     Those ideals made such an impression that they influenced the Truman Report, which was commissioned by then-President Truman and is widely seen as spurring the creation of many community colleges with a broad mission of helping students who otherwise might not have gone to college. Crucially, this humane vision for general education applied not only to Harvard but to all institutions, not least community colleges....

Why am I not surprised?

Files contradict Trump claims of voter fraud, Maine official says
(Politico)
By REBECCA MORIN

     A review of nearly 2,000 documents from President Donald Trump’s now-defunct Presidential Advisory Commission on Election Integrity contradicts claims of widespread voter fraud, Maine’s secretary of state said Friday.
     Matt Dunlap, who was a part of the commission’s board, said the files showed no evidence to support such assertions.
. . .
     In November 2017, Dunlap filed a lawsuit claiming that he had been denied access to the commission’s records and effectively frozen out of its activities. A judge later ruled that he had the right to the same information shared to other members of the commission.
. . .
     The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

New Documents Show Trump’s Election Integrity Commission Was Preparing Report on Voter Fraud Without Proof
(Mother Jones)

Kobach

     …Trump disbanded the commission in January as it faced a bevy of lawsuits from voting rights and government watchdog groups. One of those lawsuits came from one of the panel’s own members, Maine Secretary of State Matthew Dunlap. A Democrat, Dunlap came to believe that he was being excluded from the work of the commission, which he suspected was being conducted almost entirely by [Kansas Secretary of State Kris] Kobach and a handful of other conservative voter fraud alarmists on the panel. Last November, Dunlap sued the commission for the materials that had not been shared with him. A federal judge ordered the government in June to turn over those records, even though the commission had ceased to operate. The government handed over more than 1,800 documents on July 18, and on Friday, Dunlap made them public.
     “Contrary to what we were promised, these documents show that there was, in fact, a pre-ordained outcome to this commission to demonstrate widespread voter fraud, without any evidence to back it up,” Dunlap said in a statement Friday.
     Among the documents turned over to Dunlap were outlines and a draft of a report to be issued by the commission. The draft, dated November 2017, included headings for evidence of “improper voter registration practices,” “instances of fraudulent or improper voting,” “instances of other election crimes” and “voter suppression.” But there was no evidence below these headings and sub-headings. “That the Commission predicted it would find widespread evidence of fraud actually reveals a troubling bias,” Dunlap wrote in a letter to Kobach and Vice President Mike Pence, the chair of the commission, that he also released Friday. “While individual cases of improper or fraudulent voting occur infrequently, the instances of which I am aware do not provide any basis to extrapolate widespread of systematic problems. The plural of anecdote is not data.”
. . .
     On Friday, Dunlap revealed that Kobach and two other commissioners considered requesting additional information federal court clerks, including “lists of individuals deemed ineligible or excused from federal jury service due to death, relocation, convictions, or lack of citizenship.” The draft of one such request to a clerk in San Diego, which was never sent, asked for the names, addresses, and “other identifying information” of individuals excluded from jury duty since 2006. The commission was in the process of building a database of names and other information that, by producing false-positive matches, would create the appearance of voter fraud and illegal voter registrations where few if any actual instances likely existed. The documents show some discussion of detailing a statistician to the committee from the Voting Section of the Justice Department to analyze the voter registration and other data collected by the commission.

Random images for a Thursday night

Zombyism is prevalent at IVC

With my bro in Anaheim, some crazy Italian place

Orange Man

"Districtular" always reminds me of "testicular"
"Visions" and "Mission statements" are inevitably gagworthy

Yes, some very uncivil people have insisted on "civility"

This is what I see. Makes it hard to teach

I looked around. "Why don't others see this?" I thought

How come the last weeks of Spring semester always feel like the end of the world?

Maggots are useful yet disgusting

The President of the college—he's, well, not an academic.

I was visiting downtown Orange one night and saw this at the back of one of those old buildings

I've personally witnessed Satan hanging out in A100

Again, what I see. What my camera saw, too. Mega-saturated

I still don't own one of these things. People think that's weird.

Many at IVC are inspired by such horrors to take action. I.e., more bullshit

ATEP has a hilarious history. It remains hilarious.
Site of an infamous pissing contest.

Poor Lupe

MUSIC FOR YOU

I kinda liked this song (1975?), especially the "she doth protest too much" lyric.
I found a documentary about it on YouTube. It was 10cc's moment in the sun

\
Always loved this one. Lots of energy.
The "Rich Kids" sought to distance themselves from other punk outfits.
Glen Matlock of the Sex Pistols wrote this. It was his band but he and the singer didn't get on, so they split up after a year, never rich

Who can fail to thrill to this song?

The "obstruction of justice" Prez ("Don't call me 'scarface'!")

Donald Trump just tweeted something new about the Russia investigation -- and it's huge
(CNN)
Analysis by Chris Cillizza, CNN Editor-at-large

Al Capone?

     President Donald Trump has made his displeasure with Attorney General Jeff Sessions, special counsel Robert Mueller and the ongoing investigation into Russia's interference in the 2016 election he is leading crystal clear over the past year. But he took that critique to new heights on Wednesday morning, suggesting that Sessions needed to step in and end the investigation.
     "This is a terrible situation and Attorney General Jeff Sessions should stop this Rigged Witch Hunt right now, before it continues to stain our country any further," Trump tweeted....

OBSTRUCTION OF JUSTICE: "whoever . . . . corruptly or by threats or force, or by any threatening letter or communication, influences, obstructs, or impedes, or endeavors to influence, obstruct, or impede, the due administration of justice, shall be (guilty of an offense)." (18 U.S.C. § 1503)  

Huh? The President is an idiot.

Look me shirts them a-tear up, trousers are gone
I don't want to end up like Bonnie and Clyde
Poor me —Israelites

Good gracious!
Stop that train, I want to get on
Draw your brakes brother, I just can't take it
'Cause the girl has really gone

Don't call me "Scarface"!

TRUMPSTERS ON PARADE:

"I fall to pieces"

Koch network warns of ‘McCarthyism 2.0’ in conservative efforts to harass professors
(Washington Post)

Push-back from the moneyed right

     Leaders of the donor network led by billionaire Charles Koch say they want college students to study Karl Marx, Vladimir Lenin and Mao Zedong. They also want them to read Alexis de Tocqueville, Adam Smith and Friedrich Hayek.
. . .
     Speaking to donors at their retreat in the Rocky Mountains this week, [John Hardin, the director of university relations for the Charles Koch Foundation] and other Koch officials went out of their way to criticize groups on the right that are pursuing a more confrontational approach on college campuses. Hardin said it’s not just liberals who are shouting down conservative speakers and trying to crowd out ideas they don’t like. He specifically faulted Turning Point USA, a pro-Trump student group, that has created a “Professor Watchlist” website to identify liberal faculty members.
. . .

     Sarah Ruger, the director of Free Speech Initiatives for the Charles Koch Institute, called the site an example of something that “keeps [her] up at night.”
     “It’s truly McCarthyism 2.0,” she said, referring to the 1950s red-baiting of the late senator Joe McCarthy (R-Wis.). “It’s a platform that exists to put the names and the profiles of self-identified progressive professors out there and encourages conservative students to intimidate them. … If there’s anything political tribes can agree on today, it’s that they all want to censor someone. They just disagree on who should be silenced. That’s entirely antithetical to who we are.”
. . .
     — It’s not just Turning Point USA that they’re worried about. Hardin decried a law enacted by Arizona in April, which says public colleges “may restrict a student’s right to speak, including verbal speech, holding a sign or distributing fliers or other materials, in a public forum.” He also criticized a proposal by a Republican state legislator in Phoenix to pass a bill that would ban faculty members at public universities from teaching classes that advocate for “social justice.”
     Hardin also strongly criticized draft legislation that has been circulated by the Goldwater Institute. The libertarian think tank in Arizona has received support from the Koch network in the past to oppose civil forfeiture laws. But network leaders are angry about the group’s support for mandating that public universities suspend students if they twice interfere “with the expressive rights of others,” whatever that means. The draft legislation says students must then be expelled on the third “offense.” Hardin expressed alarm about bills that have been introduced by conservatives from Wisconsin and South Carolina to Nebraska and Michigan, which are modeled on the Goldwater Institute proposal.

Trump and McCarthy's Roy Cohn: creepy pals

. . .
     -- Most Republican lawmakers treaded carefully Tuesday after Trump ripped into the Koch network on Twitter, seeking not to alienate either the president or their party’s biggest donors. Robert Costa and Sean Sullivan report from Capitol Hill: “On Monday, GOP senators privately deliberated about the path the Koch network has charted and its implications … In a private meeting at the Capitol, Sen. John Cornyn (R-Tex.) recounted his visit to the Koch conference to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and other GOP senators and aides, and described the frustration he encountered over Trump’s trade policies and conduct … Some senators in the meeting struggled to make sense of the Koch network’s new strategy of limiting its work for GOP candidates. ‘These guys want to change the direction of the country. They don’t understand how hard that is,’ McConnell said.”
     Trump loyalists, meanwhile, ripped into Koch leaders for publicly complaining about the president’s trade war, nativist immigration policies and massive increases in federal spending....

Republicans abuzz over Schmidt's divorce from GOP
(Politico)
     The onetime McCain strategist won’t comment on his talks with potential 2020 Democrat Howard Schultz.
     By BEN SCHRECKINGER, ELIANA JOHNSON and DANIEL LIPPMAN

Anti-Trump conservative
abandons GOP

     Questions about [Steve] Schmidt’s future began to swirl in June when he announced his departure from the GOP in a series of tweets embracing the Democratic Party. It was a rare act of defiance in a party that has mostly fallen in line behind President Donald Trump — one that has many Republicans talking about what exactly Schmidt plans to do next.
     Working for a Schultz campaign would complete Schmidt’s decade-long process of estrangement from the Republican Party after spending much of his career at its highest levels.
. . .
     The speculation began in earnest in July, when Schmidt, who served as chief strategist to John McCain’s 2008 presidential campaign, abruptly stepped down as vice chairman of public affairs at the PR firm Edelman after eight years on the job.
. . .
     Schmidt’s moves coincided with Shultz's announcement of his retirement from Starbucks, effective June 26. Schultz’s retirement has fanned speculation that he will run for president as a Democrat in 2020, a prospect with which he has openly toyed as he mulls his post-Starbucks future.
. . .
     Before there were never-Trumpers there was Schmidt, who publicly expressed regret at his role in bringing Sarah Palin onto the 2008 Republican ticket, a fiasco that presaged the party’s turn toward reality-show populism.
. . .
     After the Palin experience, Schmidt became an early critic of the Republican Party’s drift generally, and the influence of Trump specifically.
     "Birtherism is a fringe issue that's way out of the mainstream, and it's disturbing when you see people you ... have some level of respect for, whether it's members of Congress or even Donald Trump, falling into that category," he told CNN in 2012.
. . .
     Last week, Schmidt described Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) as complicit in the Russian election attack….

I don't know just what you're tryin' to do
You told me that your love for me was true
I don't understand my love, please tell me what to do
If you really want me to, I'll go.

Trump dump

DeVos to Announce New Push for Deregulation, Innovation
(Inside Higher Ed)
     Top Education Department official describes plan to "rethink" higher-education standards through new rule-making process, to be announced today, on accreditation, the credit hour standard, the faculty role online and more.

     The Trump administration says it wants more innovation in higher education. And it believes rewriting the rules for college accrediting agencies is the best way to encourage innovation.
     In an exclusive interview with Inside Higher Ed, the administration's top higher education official described the philosophy behind the latest proposed regulatory overhaul, which the U.S. Department of Education unveiled Monday by introducing a wide-reaching rule-making session.
     The changes the department is mulling give the clearest sign so far of an affirmative higher education agenda from the Trump administration, which in its first 18 months has focused on blocking or watering down key Obama administration initiatives. The proposals could have far-reaching effects on the educational models colleges pursue, as well as for noncollege education providers.
     Diane Auer Jones, the department's principal deputy under secretary, delegated to perform the duties of under secretary and assistant secretary for postsecondary education, said the administration's goal is to reduce compliance requirements for accreditors, freeing them up to focus on educational quality while more clearly defining the college oversight roles of those agencies, state governments and federal regulators. The broad plan from Education Secretary Betsy DeVos to "rethink" higher education is a stark contrast to the Obama administration's approach, which made a signature policy of tougher scrutiny of accreditors, often citing oversight failures involving low-performing for-profit colleges.
     “Accreditation is right at the crux of almost everything you do in higher ed,” Jones said last week. “We’re looking at every aspect of accreditation and saying, ‘Does this make sense?’”
     In what will be the one of the most controversial proposals, she said the department wants to drop a standardized definition for academic course work, known as the credit hour, that the Obama administration rewrote in 2010 to curb credit inflation. The rule-making session also will feature a re-examination of requirements for online education, including faculty interaction and state authorization rules. In addition, Jones said, negotiators will be tasked with evaluating rules for competency-based education and the outsourcing of academic programs to nonaccredited providers and considering changes to the federal aid eligibility of religious institutions….