California Community Colleges might keep present accreditor after all: What I’m reading March 21, 2016 (updated)

Updated for stories on Hillary Clinton, Donald Trump, and Too Big To Fail

California Community Colleges

Eric Kelderman, “California’s 2-Year Colleges Explore a New Accreditation Model,” Chronicle of Higher Education, March 18, 2016, http://chronicle.com/article/California-s-2-Year-Colleges/235775


House of Representatives

Theodoric Meyer and Elena Schneider, “Trump puts GOP House majority in jeopardy,” Politico, March 21, 2016, http://www.politico.com/story/2016/03/trump-gop-house-majority-jeopardy-221004


Supreme Court

I don’t expect to agree with John Roberts on much. He is a conservative at the pinnacle of a system of injustice that I disagree with profoundly. But having noted that U.S. elections have become contests to see who will be tyrannized by whom, it’s interesting to hear Roberts say, “the [confirmation] process is being used for something other than ensuring the qualifications of the [Supreme Court] nominees.” The politicization he objects to[1] becomes important because as a country, we are no longer even interested in, let alone willing to accommodate the views of our opponents. Instead, our opponents will tyrannize us if they are in power, especially but not exclusively when they can claim a “bipartisan consensus,” as we see, for example, with neoliberalism, which no longer cares about human beings, but instead reduces all value to exchange value and offers no solace whatsoever to the poor or the unemployed. In response, if we have a loud enough voice, we might lay claim to human rights, but we only need do so because we are not otherwise cared about, we need those rights to be enforced, and those rights are meaningless unless they are enforced.[2]

Adam Liptak, “John Roberts Criticized Supreme Court Confirmation Process, Before There Was a Vacancy,” New York Times, March 21, 2016, http://www.nytimes.com/2016/03/22/us/politics/john-roberts-criticized-supreme-court-confirmation-process-before-there-was-a-vacancy.html


Hillary Clinton

Hillary Clinton burnished her neoconservative credentials in a speech to AIPAC. For all that, many neoconservatives seem to still find her repulsive and may well support an independent or third party candidacy.

Ted Rall, March 21, 2016
Jerry Holbert, March 21, 2016.

Lauren McCauley, “Critics Aghast at ‘Disgusting Speech’ Clinton Just Gave to AIPAC,” Common Dreams, March 21, 2016, http://www.commondreams.org/news/2016/03/21/critics-aghast-disgusting-speech-clinton-just-gave-aipac


Donald Trump

Dave Johnson, “Fact-Check This: Arrogance Of Elites Helps Drive The Trump Phenomenon,” Common Dreams, March 22, 2016, http://www.commondreams.org/views/2016/03/21/fact-check-arrogance-elites-helps-drive-trump-phenomenon


The Economy

Simon Johnson, “The End of Big Banks,” Project Syndicate, February 29, 2016, https://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/blockchain-technology-end-big-banks-by-simon-johnson-2016-02

Footnotes

  1. [1]Adam Liptak, “John Roberts Criticized Supreme Court Confirmation Process, Before There Was a Vacancy,” New York Times, March 21, 2016, http://www.nytimes.com/2016/03/22/us/politics/john-roberts-criticized-supreme-court-confirmation-process-before-there-was-a-vacancy.html
  2. [2]George Kent, Ending Hunger Worldwide (Boulder, CO: Paradigm, 2011).

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