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…

March 9th, 2022
Keep smiling through just like you always do / Til the blue skies drive the dark clouds far away!
Mesa County Clerk and Recorder Tina Peters (pictured here in a recent lighthearted mugshot) is under arrest (if they can find her) for “three counts of attempting to influence a public servant, criminal impersonation, two counts of conspiracy to commit criminal impersonation and identity theft, all felonies, according to the Mesa County District Attorney’s Office. She is also charged with first-degree official misconduct, violation of duty and failing to comply with the secretary of state, all misdemeanors… In October, a judge also barred Peters [and an associate] from overseeing the 2021 election, and after Peters refused to follow new protocols, the secretary of state sued her again to stop her from overseeing the 2022 election. Peters is also under investigation by the state’s independent ethics committee, is facing campaign finance complaints in the Colorado Office of Administrative Courts and was cited over an allegation of contempt of court in another criminal case.”

UD ain’t exactly sure what she did – seems to have involved giving a buddy access to voting machines so he could … change the vote for Peters’ lord and savior Donald Christ …? I’m also a little unsure whether she’s … evading … the authorities or simply taking a few extra minutes for her makeup.

March 5th, 2022
“For Trump, the suppurating wound on American life, and for those who share his curdled venom, war is a hellacious distraction from their self-absorption. Fortunately, their ability to be major distractions is waning.”

All our current attention rightly focuses on Mr Puti’nhead; but it’s still fun to read George Will on the long fart trail left by the last president.

Floundering in his attempts to wield political power while lacking a political office, Donald Trump looks increasingly like a stray orange hair to be flicked off the nation’s sleeve… [His] interventions in Republican primaries continue to be unimpressive …

A European war is unhelpful for Trump because it reminds voters that Longfellow was right: Life is real, life is earnest … Trump’s strut through presidential politics was made possible by an American reverie; war in Europe has reminded people that politics is serious.

We are the sum of our choices, and Vladimir Putin has provoked some Trump poodles to make illuminating ones. J.D. Vance, groveling for Trump’s benediction (Vance covets Ohio’s Republican Senate nomination), two weeks ago said: “I don’t really care what happens to Ukraine.”

March 2nd, 2022
‘Russia is more powerful with Ukraine than it is without it. America does not want to deal with a belligerent Russia, a country with a leader that has attempted to interfere with our elections, put bounties on American soldiers’ heads and assassinated people on NATO territory. Do we want them to be even stronger?’

There is blood on the Republican Party’s hands. They were partially responsible for what is happening in Ukraine. Tucker Carlson and Donald Trump were basically as popular on Russian TV as they are here in this country. They’re constantly being played there. What is the impression given? The United States is divided, and there’s an opportunity there. So these folks now own it.

February 11th, 2022
For years, this blog has argued that Alfred Jarry’s character, Ubu, is an eerily exact prefiguration of Trump. I have even coined a name for the former president: Trubu.

Trump would Eat Torn Up Documents

in the Oval Office,

ex-White House Aide Claims

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

If you haven’t read Ubu the King yet, for goodness sake, do. Here’s the whole thing in pdf. Read and understand. It will put the latest revelations – and so much else – in perspective.

February 4th, 2022
The Mouse that…

roared.

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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.
Roland Greene, Stanford University

The irrepressibly to-the-point Margaret Soltan...
Carlat Psychiatry Blog

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...
Outside the Beltway

From Margaret Soltan's excellent coverage of the Bernard Madoff scandal comes this tip...
Money Law

University Diaries offers a long-running, focused, and extremely effective critique of the university as we know it.
Anthony Grafton, American Historical Association

The inimitable Margaret Soltan is, as usual, worth reading. ...
Medical Humanities Blog

I awake this morning to find that the excellent Margaret Soltan has linked here and thereby singlehandedly given [this blog] its heaviest traffic...
Ducks and Drakes

As Margaret Soltan, one of the best academic bloggers, points out, pressure is mounting ...
The Bitch Girls

Many of us bloggers worry that we don’t post enough to keep people’s interest: Margaret Soltan posts every day, and I more or less thought she was the gold standard.
Tenured Radical

University Diaries by Margaret Soltan is one of the best windows onto US university life that I know.
Mary Beard, A Don's Life

[University Diaries offers] a broad sense of what's going on in education today, framed by a passionate and knowledgeable reporter.
More magazine, Canada

If deity were an elected office, I would quit my job to get her on the ballot.
Notes of a Neophyte

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