David Lay Williams

I just called and left a message at President Davis' office urging him as an alum (PHD in Gov 2003) not to sign the "compact" Trump is offering.

@fishkin.bsky.social on the “compact” with American universities. Important insights here.

Portuguese transcript of my recent interview with the good folks at @synesisideas.bsky.social.

This morning, the Trump Administration’s Department of War gave me an ultimatum: call up your troops, or we will. It is absolutely outrageous and un-American to demand a Governor send military troops within our own borders and against our will.

Don't even get me started on their metaphysics!

The Billionaire Behind Trump’s Deal for Universities

No respectable philosopher past or present, to my knowledge, has ever thought it a good thing for a single person to be so rich as to mandate the policies of nine universities simultaneously.

UT official "honored" to receive Trump's university demands The Trump administration seeks to cap international student enrollment, among other things.

Fellow @utaustin.bsky.social alumni: please consider calling the president's office and sharing your thoughts about the "compact." Phone: 512-471-1232. Share broadly. There are a lot of us.

I would only add here, I think there are two kinds of religious people -- those whose religion is a source of humility and kindness, and those who seek religion to authorize their cruelty. Not for me to say who is who, but I think we can learn a lot about people in how their religion functions.

So interestingly, Douglass observes that the most religious slave owners are the worst offenders. Having worked themselves up in knots to persuade themselves of the righteousness of slavery, they take the greatest zeal in their cruelty.

Sharp analysis from @fishkin.bsky.social

Did not work out for the Corcyrans.

Wonderful -- so delighted to learn you are reading and enjoying it! Indeed, our problems aren't new.

From Frederick Douglass’s Narrative. It’s full of passages like this. I’m thinking increasingly about the joy in which some take in inflicting pain and misery on others as a sense of domination. And I fear it explains so much.

Students holding me 15 minutes after class to go through Plato's simile of the divided line is exactly why I do this.

gross

ugh

Much too true.

Except there are no bookstores.

AI ("Actual Intelligence") I can get behind.

Billionaires Promised to Give Wealth Away — So Why Are They Richer Than Ever? Even the billionaires who’ve promised to donate their wealth can’t seem to make a dent in it.

NEW: Since 2010, some 14% of our country's billionaires have pledged to give away at least half of their wealth. Instead, most of them have collectively grown far, far richer, IPS @inequality.org researchers found.

IPS scholar @bdevaan.bsky.social on @katiecouric.bsky.social:

Someone had to. Glad it was you, Jonathan. Will sleep well tonight.

We’ll learn about that when the Board meets next.

My university lost 700 international students.

Grateful my son has an English teacher thoughtful enough to assign works on Greek mythology including passages like this.

I feel for you Jarrett, as I’ve been through the hard times like you. But as someone who is old enough to have watched every pitch of 1986, I can assure you that if we ever do win again it will be glorious. Hang in there.

I will start teaching my students how to use AI when my colleagues in computer science start to teach Homer, Dante, Langston Hughes, Borges, Foucault, Audre Lord, Spivak, and Donna Haraway in their classes

Probably don't need to watch that much to get the gist!

Credit where credit is due: this is from Edith Hamilton's Mythology, published originally in 1942. We can imagine what was on her mind then -- and we can see how timeless the issues are now.

Grateful my son has an English teacher thoughtful enough to assign works on Greek mythology including passages like this.