James Sims

Checking in! How are we?

Thanksgiving week is historically Very Weird. It's a Very Slow Week, that also has Key News Dumps. So, it's both and not always clear what's what.

If you're still in government, especially DOJ, and something unusual is going on this week, reach out! Signal is crg.32

Conscription for Peace What peaceful equivalent of war could generate the same sense of urgency and solidarity? William James had an answer.

"If we truly believe that the country is on the brink of a civil war or a fascist takeover, then a drastic plan of action is needed. We cannot wait for a war to solve our problems for us." — Wesleyan University professor @dsj2110.bsky.social in @commonweal.bsky.social

As our democracy fights for its life, today’s @nytimes.com morning newsletter reminds me of America’s priorities—the most clicked story yesterday was about shopping for a toothbrush…

ICE detains University of Oklahoma professor with H-1B visa, colleague says The professor was detained on his way to an academic conference in Washington DC.

“As of late Monday, ICE listed Abedini on its online detainee locator, saying he was in ICE custody and giving his birthplace as Iran. It did not disclose his current whereabouts.”

Disappearing Data

“This could result in a chilling effect on the usage of open federal data in all research moving forward, and there is no replacement for the breadth of data collection that the government does.” — James Guerrera-Sapone, Wesleyan University’s research data librarian, on disappearing government data

“A professor at the University of Oklahoma has been detained by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, according to an OU faculty member.” #AcademicSKY #HigherEd

“.. The revisions set off a backlash. Seth Levi of the Southern Poverty Law Center, a nonprofit civil rights group, called the new policy ‘a national embarrassment.’”

@nytimes.com
www.nytimes.com/2025/11/24/u...

Federal Suit Seeking Names of Some Jewish Employees at Penn Sparks Backlash

“The history of creating lists of Jewish people for the government is one of the most frightening in world history.” #highered

Why Is Robert F. Kennedy Jr. So Convinced He’s Right? How an outsider, once ignored by the public-health establishment, became the most powerful man in science

1/ This is a devastatingly good article on RFK Jr by @michaelscherer.bsky.social. Even if you’re someone, like me, who has followed this arc and his devastating impact on public health, it’s a must read. Gift link: www.theatlantic.com/magazine/202...

Border Patrol’s Charlotte sting reaches into country clubs, upscale shops As undocumented immigrants stayed home and federal agents swept through the city, even the wealthiest neighborhoods got a glimpse of what life without migrants might look like.

One in five students missed class during an immigration operation in Charlotte. #education

Can the World Move On Without the U.S.? G20 Leaders Gave It a Shot.

Is this what making America “great again” looks like? “The G20 should send a clear message that the world can move on with or without the U.S.”

Review: A Chinese Classic Comes to Spectacular Operatic Life

This sounds thrilling! “A jaw-dropping feat of music theater, making a thrilling case for the vitality and potential of opera on a grand scale…’The Monkey King’ is an artistic triumph for the creators and performers alike.” #opera #arts

College enrollment in CT prisons limited by lack of space, internet About 320 incarcerated people were enrolled in higher education as of Oct. 2024. That's a fraction of the estimated 3,000 people eligible.

Wesleyan University's Center for Prison Education program offers multiple classes at correctional facilities in Connecticut, reaching 70–90 students. Our program's director Tess Wheelwright tells @ctmirror.org the work is powerful and necessary—but comes with real challenges. #HigherEd

ATTN Wesleyan University folks!

I'm discussing my new novel, THAT'S NOT HOW IT HAPPENED, @ the Wesleyan RJ Julia Bookstore with my How I Met Your Mother co-creator and fellow Wes alum, Carter Bays! Thursday, 12/11. 6:00 PM. Come say hi!

@wesleyanuniversity.bsky.social

rjjulia.com/event/2025-1...

Trump targeted them for execution. They're not backing down. The Democratic members of Congress whom President Donald Trump said should be executed for saying the military should defy his illegal orders are not backing down from their message. In response ...

I never expected after serving 25 years in the Navy flying combat missions over Iraq and Kuwait, flying the space shuttle, that now I've got to worry about my personal safety and that of my wife, Gabby Giffords, who was already nearly assassinated, because of something the president said.”

Impressive.

College enrollment in CT prisons limited by lack of space, internet About 320 incarcerated people were enrolled in higher education as of Oct. 2024. That's a fraction of the estimated 3,000 people eligible.

Wesleyan University's Center for Prison Education program offers multiple classes at correctional facilities in Connecticut, reaching 70–90 students. Our program's director Tess Wheelwright tells @ctmirror.org the work is powerful and necessary—but comes with real challenges. #HigherEd

How to Fix a Typewriter and Your Life (Gift Article) This is the story of how a man traded steady, grinding corporate security for a dying craft and, in the process, found his soul.

The world is still full of beauty and serenity. ❤️

Superman Comic Sets Auction Record, Selling for $9.12 Million

Stirring up long-simmering anger from boomers aimed at mothers who threw out their comic books....
Superman Comic Sets Auction Record, Selling for $9.12 Million www.nytimes.com/2025/11/20/a...

U.S. Coast Guard will no longer classify swastikas, nooses as hate symbols The military service, which falls under the Department of Homeland Security, has drafted a new policy that classifies such items “potentially divisive.”

Calling women “pigs.” Check. Trivializing the brutal murder of a journalist by saying “things happen.” Check. And now, minimizing the threat of antisemitism. Check. “The U.S. Coast Guard will no longer classify the swastika…as a hate symbol, according to a new policy that takes effect next month.”

Every member of Congress and frankly every American should denounce what Trump did today in suggesting members of Congress be executed.

It shouldn't even need to be said, but apparently does: it is beyond the pale for anyone to suggest such things, let alone the president of the united states.

🧵For over 20 years, Robert Pietranton toiled behind-the-scenes at Warner Bros. TV as one of the studio’s key publicity execs, focusing on telling stories about the division’s corporate successes (like how many shows it supplied to streamers like Apple TV and Netflix)....

Those who try to appease Trump invariably lose. Those who stand up and fight back tend to fare well.

It’s true when it comes to law firms; it’s true when it comes to higher ed; and as his failed case against CNN demonstrated this week, it’s true in his court fights against news organizations.

U.S. Coast Guard will no longer classify swastikas, nooses as hate symbols The military service, which falls under the Department of Homeland Security, has drafted a new policy that classifies such items “potentially divisive.”

Calling women “pigs.” Check. Trivializing the brutal murder of a journalist by saying “things happen.” Check. And now, minimizing the threat of antisemitism. Check. “The U.S. Coast Guard will no longer classify the swastika…as a hate symbol, according to a new policy that takes effect next month.”

“This is a perilous moment for universities. I believe that Project 2025 makes very clear that the administration intends to capture higher education for ideological purposes…” — Wesleyan University’s @msroth.bsky.social @nytimes.com #HigherEd #AcademicSKY

You know those university ads?

The ones with shots of the leafy quad + students looking into a microscope?

A lot of them look different this football season, focusing more on specific research initiatives.

And one reason why is the reason for a lot of things in this country.

An example:

Opinion | ‘We Need to Be Worried’: Three University Leaders on the Fate of Higher Education in the Trump Era The view from Dartmouth, the University of Wisconsin-Madison and Wesleyan.

“Project 2025 makes very clear that the administration intends to capture higher education for ideological purposes,” Michael Roth, the president of Wesleyan, says in a round table discussion with two other leaders of American universities.

NARRATOR: Roth quite clearly did not name call & we need our leaders to stop granting <every bad faith premise> of the far right authoritarians' lawless assault on higher education before we push back.

And it really is astounding that the political scientists who lead Vanderbilt & Wash U. seem incapable of grasping this simple fact.