THE SHOW NOTES: Harvard & Penn, More Disturbing October 7th Details, & Grim News For Democrats
Welcome! 750 Washington Post workers just walked off the job.
WATCH: Safty first on campus. Except for Jews. - Twitter
NEW: CNN to host two GOP presidential primary debates in 2024 - CNN
DISTURBING: What we know about rape and sexual violence inflicted by Hamas during its terror attack on Israel - CNN
TUCKER: Melania Trump wants Tucker Carlson as Trump’s Veep. - Axios
2024: Highlights from the fourth GOP presidential debate - CNN
The Show Notes is my blueprint for radio but is only for subscribers. You can subscribe and listen here.
Harvard & Penn
The Presidents of Harvard and the University of Pennsylvania attempted to walk back their disastrous congressional testimony where they justified rampant antisemitism on their respective campuses while smirking at one another between questions.
Perspective: The disdain-filled testimony drew immediate backlash from across the political spectrum that called for their termination. Even Pfizer President Albert Bourla slammed the testimony as “one of the most despicable moments in the history of U.S. academia.”
Absent: Noticeably absent has been a response from MIT. The video from the UPenn president and the statement from Harvard at least attempted to clarify the response while MIT has been incredulously silent.
BREAKING: The board of trustees from the University of Pennsylvania just called an emergency meeting to purportedly discuss the embattled president’s future.
This is Grim (For Democrats)
From Nov. 5 through Nov. 11, Democracy Corps, a Democratic advisory group founded by Stan Greenberg and James Carville, surveyed 2,500 voters in presidential and Senate battleground states as well as competitive House districts.
In an email, Greenberg summarized the results: “This is grim.” The study, he said, found that collectively, voters in the Democratic base of “Blacks, Hispanics, Asians, L.G.B.T.Q.+ community, Gen Z, millennials, unmarried and college women give Trump higher approval ratings than Biden.”
Full story at The New York Times (paywall)
Actors Recorded Videos for ‘Vladimir.’ It Turned Into Russian Propaganda.
Internet propagandists aligned with Russia have duped at least seven Western celebrities, including Elijah Wood and Priscilla Presley, into recording short videos to support its online information war against Ukraine, according to new security research by Microsoft.
The celebrities look like they were asked to offer words of encouragement—apparently via the Cameo app—to someone named “Vladimir” who appears to be struggling with substance abuse, Microsoft said. Instead, these messages were edited, sometimes dressed up with emojis, links and the logos of media outlets and then shared online by the Russia-aligned trolls, the company said.
Full story at The Wall Street Journal (paywall)
Why is Yale Giving Everyone an A?
Nearly 80 percent of all grades given to undergraduates at Yale last academic year were A’s or A minuses, part of a sharp increase that began during the coronavirus pandemic and appears to have stuck, according to a new report.
The mean grade point average was 3.7 out of 4.0, also an increase over prepandemic years.
The findings have frustrated some students, alumni and professors. What does excellence mean at Yale, they wonder, if most students get the equivalent of “excellent” in almost every class?
Full story at The New York Times (paywall)
Putin Pledges Closer Russia-Iran Ties After Rare Visit to Gulf
President Vladimir Putin and his Iranian counterpart Ebrahim Raisi vowed to deepen ties on Thursday, a day after the Russian leader made a rare visit to Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.
Putin, whose country is under a raft of US and European sanctions imposed over his February 2022 invasion of Ukraine, has built an increasingly close partnership with Iran, including in the military sphere. His talks in Riyadh and Abu Dhabi on Wednesday also demonstrated the Russian leader’s success in courting the oil-rich traditional US Gulf allies, who have been critical of Israel’s war against Hamas in Gaza.
Full story at Bloomberg (paywall)
Trending news:
Marjorie Taylor Greene on shrinking GOP majority: ‘Hopefully no one dies’ - The Hill
What we know about CosMc's, McDonald's nostalgic spin-off coming to some cities in 2024 - USA Today
TikTok Employees Criticize the App’s Response to Anti-Semitic Content - The Messenger
'It's Time': Chip Roy, Mike Rogers, and Mike Lee Introduce Bill to Defund the UN - Townhall
Michigan Offers Jim Harbaugh Five-Year, $55 Million Extension - The Messenger
Jon Rahm planning to bolt PGA Tour for LIV Golf in potential $600 million coup - NY Post
US household wealth falls in third quarter - Yahoo
House censures Bowman for falsely pulling fire alarm - The Hill
UNLV gunman ID’d as Anthony Polito, 67, professor who failed to get job at school - NY Post
Market snapshot:
The three uber intelligent and revoltingly arrogant university presidents who appeared to testify and equivocate about the attacks on Jews on their campuses this week represent everything I detest about what has become the ascension of female administrators in higher ed. Sorry gals but you make me want to smack your smirky faces. I spent 30 years working in PR at a fine research university in Atlanta and by far the worst, most selfish, disrespectful and holier than thou bosses I had were females. I hope they get an appropriate goodbye from their boards of directors. Disgusting behavior.
“Grim for democrats..”
Whatever. We aren’t falling for it this time.
The same articles were posted up to a week before the 2022 election and I do believe people may like trump more than Biden. Yet when it came time to vote they abandoned those feelings and like robots voted against him.
If Trump is the nominee we will lose. Erick is right. It doesn’t matter about the polls Dems and republicans alike will do everything in their power to stop him being president. While doing everything to get him the nomination.
GOP doesn’t care. They are focused on retaking the senate and keeping the house. I don’t think they really care about the presidency so long as Trump is there.
Be happy to be wrong but I’m not.
Trump should have conceded gracefully in 2020. Regardless if he thought it was stolen. Let the facts speak for themselves.
I think rightfully so that all the Jan 6 people be punished. But I am disappointed and appalled at the lack of any equally arranged punishment for those other incidents in 2018 and earlier.
I am also concerned about the lack of due process not afforded to those same Jan 6 people. Some whom are still sitting in jail no charges or trials.
We lack any standards for all in this country. Right now there seems to be two americas. One we’re the wheels of justice and freedom turn equally and another we’re only liberal minded policies exist.