Northwestern University bends the knee to Linda McMahon and Trumpism

Listen to Stevie Nicks and Tom Petty,
"don't come around here no more"

Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois likes to bill itself as the Harvard of the Midwest and it's academic reputation is, in fact, stellar.

But, over the past few years its' reputation has suffered due to cases of institutional abuse.

In 2023, NU football coach Pat Fitzgerald was abruptly fired in the wake of hazing and abuse scandal "The Wildcat Way", which was apparently rife throughout the NU Athletics programs.  Fitzgerald settled his lawsuit just a few months ago.

Of course ritual abuse and a widespread culture of humiliation thinly disguised as "hazing" didn't stop the plans and construction of the new FOOTBALL STADIUM as, Northwestern Athletics proudly unveiled the first looks at Ryan Field, the new $862,000,000 dollar Stadium to the public in November.

Of course, NU President Michael Schill won't see the unveiling of the Stadium because he's been forced to resign due to the Trump freeze on federal grant funding to NU.  Schill fired Pat Fitzgerald for the hazing culture at NU but, was forced to resign from bad faith rightwing pressure about "anti-semitism" at Northwestern stemming from the Gaza Protests in 2024.

Northwestern University has now shed their honor, and debased their academic integrity and freedom by paying a $75,000,000 bribe to the Trump Department of Education.

Northwestern University will pay a $75 million fine to settle allegations of antisemitism from the Trump administration, restoring hundreds of millions of federal funding, officials announced Friday.

As part of the agreement, Northwestern also said it will continue following federal anti-discrimination laws, review its international admission policies and terminate an agreement reached with pro-Palestinian demonstrators last year.

The nearly $800 million in federal research funding was abruptly paused in April.  The money is expected to be fully restored within 30 days, according to a statement from Northwestern University interim President Henry Bienen.

It's funny how close the cost of the FOOTBALL STADIUM at $862 million is to the $800 million in federal grant funds. Almost as if, had Northwestern had that money in reserve they could have resisted bending the knee to the Traitor Trump administration, and the criminals Pam Bondi and Linda McMahon.  The odious Linda McMahon is one of the few people to come to the White House criminal cabal already with a body count under her belt from her days of overseeing the WWE culture of coerced drug use, deliberate unsafe working conditions, and the gleeful abuse of men and women in order to make her a billionaire.

But, the Traitor Trump administration's disingenuous use of the Israel-Palestine situation, with full and complicit cooperation from the Corporate Media, to browbeat Universities and as a small but key component in their 2024 election strategy continues to highlight how every guardrail and every Institution that prided itself on freedom of speech or speaking truth to power were nothing more than paper-thin lies unable to withstand the slightest test.  Of course, defending academic freedom, along with law & order, helping farmers, honoring the troops, new and better healthcare plans, and home and grocery affordability were also lies Trump's cronies and their media allies unhesitatingly helped push throughout 2024 to aid Trump's election chances.

The way rightwingers (and leftists) were able to weaponize the Hamas and Israeli slaughter of innocents and use it underscores the power of agitprop and social media.  But, what the last decade of Trumpism has shown is how false the power of the Constitution and laws designed to stop the rise of Authoritarianism, how powerful propaganda remains during the internet age, how complicit and compliant the corporate media is towards Republicans and Billionaires, and how fast and feverishly white people embraced fascism.

Can't Stop Thinking about the Roman Empire...

"You ever hear of Masada? For two years 900 jews held their own against 15,000 Romans.  They choose death over enslavement.  The Romans? Where are they now?

"You're looking at them asshole..."  - The Sopranos (1999)

So, this TikTok phenomenon of Ask Your Man how often he Thinks about the Roman Empire is super irritating...

Now, I know in Internet time I'm very late to this "issue".  But, the Roman Empire isn't going anywhere...

I guess part of this is the feeling I want to have that I was into Rome before it was cool (kind of like the phenomenon of liking a band before they were big) but, of course that's not in anyway reality.

The Roman Empire has been forefront in the minds of Europeans since Odoacer was named Rex of Italiae in 476.  And of course, Charlemagne thought of nothing but the Romena Empire before and after his coronation as Emperor in 800.  William Shakespeare (if you believe Shaxkspere wrote Shakespear) wrote 4 plays about "The Roman Empire", 

And Edward Gibbon's 6 volume Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire is as old as the United States.

There have also been famous novels turned into films or series, such as Quo Vadis by Polish Nobel Laureate Henryk Sienkiewicz and Robert Graves' I, Claudius and Claudius the God.

And then there is The Film Industry, in Hollywood and abroad, which has been making films and TV series about Rome and the Roman Empire for over 100 years.  Certainly many of them are biblical in nature, Ben-Hur or The Robe starring Vic Mature come to mind.  Of course, modern revamped interest in Rome writ large probably stems from the Russell Crowe/Ridley Scott film Gladiator in 2000.

New Speaker Mike Johnson can't stop thinking about all the Gay Sex those virile muscular Roman sword swishing gladiators were engaged in.  But, it seems that the current fascination with "Rome" per se is this toxic masculinity nonsense associated with this Hard Times paradigm.

And this whole stupid Hard Times meme featuring a silhouetted faux hoplite is nothing more than a dumbed-down bastardization of the Polybius cycle of government.  and reminds me of all the stupid incels and men going their own way posting I Studied the Blade memes and We Hunted the Mammoth rhetoric.

I guess Chuck Palahniuk was 20 years too early with Fight Club...