Dorf on Law

Some of the people who have been targeted by the Trump regime as "foreign enemies" have been academics.  Early this year, two graduate students from Tufts University and Columbia were swept off the streets for expressing views that Republicans now view as unacceptable.  Scholars from outside the US have been turned away or even detained at the border, and the White House continues to threaten American universities with punishments for, in the end, not being MAGA. Things are not getting better, and as with too many other areas of American life, the institutions that might do something useful are not rising to the moment.  In particular, consciously or unconsciously, some American academics have at least implicitly decided that their financial comfort is more important than maintaining contact with their international peers.  I do not draw that conclusion lightly, because it is a serious problem and deserves to be called out. Last month, I wrote a rather angry (though ...

Why are Trump and the Republicans doing so many things that harm the US and global economies?  More accurately, given that the economy has always lagged under Republican presidents, why are they doing so many  more  such destructive things than they used to?  The answer is simply that people who have become powerful will not protect the things that made them powerful because they are keenly aware that those things could soon make other people powerful.  It is simply another example of the "pull up the ladder behind me" phenomenon, but in an especially perverse way. But let us back up a bit.  Last month, I initiated an occasional series of columns under the umbrella title: "Who Knew That Trump's Superpower Would Be Destroying Wealth?"  Part 1 explained that Donald Trump and the Republicans claim to be economic geniuses but mostly are at best lucky (and at worst grifters and frauds).  At one point, I quoted a  New York Times   op-ed...

Note to readers: Fifteen days ago, I wrote  that the Democrats' only politically sane/viable choice in this year's budget battle would be to refuse to capitulate, which would mean allowing the government to shut down if necessary.  Necessary . Predictably, the Republicans are throwing all of their favorite excrement against every wall they can find, including the absurd feed-the-base-the-hatred-they-crave  claim  that, as House Speaker Mike Johnson shamelessly put it, the "Democrats could have worked with us. Instead they prioritized taxpayer-funded benefits for illegal aliens."  Wait, how is this not the fault of trans people who got together with Antifa to laugh about all the dead birds under windmills (and somehow with overweight military personnel in the mix)?  I have no doubt that Republicans are working on those talking points at this very minute. Because of travel and illness, I am not able to write a new piece today.  I do note, however, ...