June 28th, 2022
And an Executive Assistant Shall Lead Them

Apparently Mark Meadows’ assistant, Cassidy Hutchinson, will testify tomorrow (er, today) in front of the J6 committee. Hutchinson isn’t your loyal, lying, Rosemary Woods type; on the contrary, she may turn out to be the investigation’s John Dean. She knows a lot; she saw a lot.

And because she seems to have been too young (she’s in her twenties) to have become a fully elaborated Trumpian whackjob, finding out that Trump was actively promoting the idea of killing his vice president, for instance, surprised her. The Emperor has no clothes!

On May 25, Politico reported that the Jan. 6 select committee heard testimony indicating that Meadows heard Trump say something supportive about those who were chanting “hang Mike Pence” during the riot. A witness told the committee that Meadows had been in the dining room off the Oval Office when Trump made the comment and that he told people nearby “that Trump had signaled a positive view of the prospect of hanging the vice president,” according to Politico. The New York Times reported that Hutchinson was in Meadows’ office when he complained about the comments and confirmed the account for the committee.

At the very least, Hutchinson may be able to make life for uncooperative, litigious, Mark Meadows extremely unpleasant; but clearly the committee expects much more of her than this.

June 27th, 2022
‘John Eastman’s legal scholarship is so superlative that DOJ got a warrant to read more of it.’

Feds take Eastman’s phone.

June 27th, 2022
“When I asked Eric [Trump] about the potential danger of [this] sort of rhetoric … he felt that it was … fair game…”

“… [He] felt that [violence] was the right thing to do … because the election was stolen.”

June 24th, 2022
‘It’s harder for Trump-endorsed candidates to activate the GOP’s formidable donor network when a growing number of rank-and-file Republican voters think Donald Trump is a federal criminal.’

Quotation of the day.

Though this one ain’t bad either.

Without the intimidation factor so central to Trump’s hold on power, influential Trump critics such as Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) may seize the opportunity to deepen the break with the rapidly toxifying Trump. If that happens, Republicans will face an enraged, burn-it-all-down Trump in the run-up to the 2024 elections. That may be beleaguered Democrats’ best hope of returning Joe Biden to the White House.

**************

There’s violence against others (setting a mob on your VP; spawning terrorists like RINO-butcher Eric Greitens), and there’s violence against oneself. I’m going to predict that toxifying Trump will attempt to pull off one final mass murder, with boy soldiers – who are, notoriously, the most unrestrainedly vicious of all – at the front lines. Specifically, Donald Trump Jr and Andrew Giuliani will co-captain a coordinated Proud Boys assault on Martha’s Vineyard. If that fails to decimate the elites, Trump will kill himself.

June 23rd, 2022
Trump’s Yeatsian Valedictory as He Moves to Sweden
ÅNGERMANLAND

I will arise and go now, and go to Ångermanland,
And a vast fortress build there, of rage and madness made;
 None else will I have there -- my world will I command
 And live alone in the bee-loud glade.

And I shall have my rage there, for rage's wind doth blow,
Blowing from the hearings, from where the RINOs sing;
There Bennie’s all aglimmer, and Jamie's all aglow,
And the transcripts full of Liz’s zings.

I will arise and go now, for always night and day
I see old allies dumping me and smirking more and more;
I know that court awaits me some not too distant day,
I know it in the deep heart’s core.
June 22nd, 2022
“Even Fox News’ Conservative Analysts Say Jan. 6 Hearings Prove Trump’s ‘Unfitness’ for Presidency”

Getting there.

*************

Getting where? To the final speech of Ceausescu, in this our own great county, at an enormous Donald Trump rally.

June 17th, 2022
“In the bitter end, he was just a man with a mob. Not a Republican. Not a politician. Not a president. Not a member of any political party but his own cult. A mindless, raging, bullying thug. The hearings have methodically and calmly revealed this, masterfully led by a Republican, Liz Cheney, through testimony supplied by Republican after Republican witness.”

If only it really were the end.

**************

From Andrew Sullivan’s newsletter (no link).

June 16th, 2022
I Dream of Ginni
  Sing it.

  I dream of Ginni in the witness chair
  Borne, like a traitor, on the summer air
  I see her bow her head and start to pray
  "Lord please tell me all that I should pr'haps not say."

 Many are the wild lies her merry voice would pour
All about the vile texts exchanged with cohorts
I dream of Ginni in the witness chair
Talkin 'bout John Eastman and the fond hopes they share
June 16th, 2022
King George! Al Gore!

And so much more.

Watch the January 6 hearings.

They’re on now.

Watch them now if you can.

Or after work.

You won’t be disappointed.

****************************

And not to drop names, but UD is super-excited to say that the solemn bespectacled young woman on the right of your screen (she’s at the right of Judge Luttig), is her friend Alice!!

June 16th, 2022
‘Exclusive: Retired Republican Judge says January 6 was ‘Well-Developed Plan’ by Trump to Cling to Power’

I don’t want to seem critical, but how well-developed, really?

June 13th, 2022
MAKE AMERICA DEAD AGAIN
Sing it.

Have you heard about the data dump?
It comes from the land of Trump 
Have you heard about mortality gap?
Red states have really got zapped

'You can take all the Medicaid you sent
From the evil folk inside the government
And shove it all up Soros's ass
Same place you shove Fauci's mask'

That is your leader, D. Trump (what's he got?)
A country full of dead and dying chumps (big chumps!)
He killed a million cowboys in the west;
He knows no rest
June 11th, 2022
Monster Theory

“[Mary] Shelley’s monster, unlike ours, has self-awareness, and a reason to wreak havoc. He knows how to feel guilty and when to leave the stage. Our monster’s malignity stems from pure narcissistic psychopathy — and he refuses to leave the stage or cease his vile mendacity.

It never for a moment crossed Donald Trump’s mind that an American president committing sedition would be a debilitating, corrosive thing for the country. It was just another way for the Emperor of Chaos to burnish his title.

We listened Thursday night to the frightful catalogue of Trump’s deeds. They are so beyond the pale, so hard to fathom, that in some ways, it’s all still sinking in…

The hearing was mesmerizing, describing a horror story with predatory Proud Boys and a monster at its center that even Mary Shelley could have appreciated. The ratings were boffo, with nearly 20 million viewers.”

If it bleeds, it leads.

June 10th, 2022
A Bitter Fool
Yet have I left a daughter:
Tifferil, fruit of a brief affair.
Then get thee hence, vile Ivankan!
O Proud Boys, take me there.

Tifferil will love the father
That all his kingdom sings
And I will have my vengeance
Yes I shall do such things...

June 8th, 2022
‘MAGA candidates fail to oust mainstream Republicans in House primaries – including a GOP Rep. who voted for Trump’s impeachment and South Dakota Senator John Thune who ex-president declared his career “over”

Know Hope.

(Yes, SOS is aware that last part should be whose career the ex-president declared ‘over’.)

May 25th, 2022
‘An aide to Pence did not immediately respond to a request for comment.’

Just let it … hang out there…

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UD REVIEWED

Dr. Bernard Carroll, known as the "conscience of psychiatry," contributed to various blogs, including Margaret Soltan's University Diaries, for which he sometimes wrote limericks under the name Adam.
New York Times

George Washington University English professor Margaret Soltan writes a blog called University Diaries, in which she decries the Twilight Zone-ish state our holy land’s institutes of higher ed find themselves in these days.
The Electron Pencil

It’s [UD's] intellectual honesty that makes her blog required reading.
Professor Mondo

There's always something delightful and thought intriguing to be found at Margaret Soltan's no-holds-barred, firebrand tinged blog about university life.
AcademicPub

You can get your RDA of academic liars, cheats, and greedy frauds at University Diaries. All disciplines, plus athletics.
truffula, commenting at Historiann

Margaret Soltan at University Diaries blogs superbly and tirelessly about [university sports] corruption.
Dagblog

University Diaries. Hosted by Margaret Soltan, professor of English at George Washington University. Boy is she pissed — mostly about athletics and funding, the usual scandals — but also about distance learning and diploma mills. She likes poems too. And she sings.
Dissent: The Blog

[UD belittles] Mrs. Palin's degree in communications from the University of Idaho...
The Wall Street Journal

Professor Margaret Soltan, blogging at University Diaries... provide[s] an important voice that challenges the status quo.
Lee Skallerup Bessette, Inside Higher Education

[University Diaries offers] the kind of attention to detail in the use of language that makes reading worthwhile.
Sean Dorrance Kelly, Harvard University

Margaret Soltan's ire is a national treasure.
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The irrepressibly to-the-point Margaret Soltan...
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Margaret Soltan, whose blog lords it over the rest of ours like a benevolent tyrant...
Perplexed with Narrow Passages

Margaret Soltan is no fan of college sports and her diatribes on the subject can be condescending and annoying. But she makes a good point here...
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From Margaret Soltan's excellent coverage of the Bernard Madoff scandal comes this tip...
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University Diaries offers a long-running, focused, and extremely effective critique of the university as we know it.
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The inimitable Margaret Soltan is, as usual, worth reading. ...
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As Margaret Soltan, one of the best academic bloggers, points out, pressure is mounting ...
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