Academic Rants

 In 2015, Kendrick Lamar released his critically acclaimed album "To Pimp A Butterfly".  The cover featured groups of young black men piled up in front of the White House. Beneath the pile was a knocked out President Obama. It always struck me strange that Lamar was criticizing the president when he was a hero in many households. I wonder what a contemporary protest album cover might look like if taking on the current administration. In our highly media centric world, politicians are not exempt from harsh criticism. The American public has strong opinions and they are willing to attack with impunity. Yet, as a nation we are divided on Donald Trump as a businessman, politician, and president. Mr. Trump doesn't shy away from a fight and he pushes back with sharp knives. Could this be why, in light of everything that he does, that President Trump is not subject to the same level of scrutiny given to other presidents and politicians? It's unimaginable but Donald Trump is ...

  January 20th is more than a month away and the Trumpsphere is back in full effect. 45/47 is dominating the airways more than ever before. It started with the proclamation that this was the greatest election victory ever (it wasn't) and that this was a mandate for the people that Trump was needed to save America (again)! It was followed up by some of the most amazing cabinet selections that would ever find their way into a history book. By modest estimations, the president-elect's cabinet was the wealthiest ever - worth hundreds of billions of dollars.  A week later, interviews on Face The Nation and Meet The Press revealed that the Trump team might have to dial down some of the campaign promises. Even the president-elect admitted that he might not be able to lower food and gas prices. Other Trump assurances about the economy, the wars in the Middle East and Ukraine, the tariffs, and mass deportations have also started to unravel.  These events threw some moderates and m...

History teaches us that we can develop possible interpretations for historical events. Currently, three theories have emerged to explain the results of the 2024 presidential election. Often, we identify with causations or interpretations that look best or cause the least pain. As a result we may error in judgement. Such mistakes lead to a revisionist interpretation becoming the more dominant or more widely accepted viewpoint.   The first theory suggests an underestimation or a misreading of the strength of former President Trump and his MAGA movement. It argues that the MAGA secretly grew since 2021 and that more Americans embraced President Trump's policies. I find fault with this theory as it is underdeveloped and confusing. Numerically staunch MAGA has remained unchanged. It has never exceeded more than 35% of the Republican base. What did change is the empathy for the former president and a greater conversation on the border and prices, but neither of these issues necessar...

 I began writing this entry in December 2023 and then got sidetracked. At that time I was hoping that the 2024 election would be between two new faces. I thought if Nikki Haley and Kamala Harris respectively represented the Republican and Democratic Parties, that the country would have a reset and the parties could start again. Then Joe Biden would have fulfilled his mission of being a bridge to a new American decade. A Haley or Harris administration would give America the dominate female perspective, an immigrant perspective, and a minority perspective. All important qualities as we move closer to 2045. Unfortunately, things went terribly wrong! Instead we ended up with a Trump-Biden rematch. And then even that went horribly wrong. As Nikki Haley argued, in a perfect America, older Americans, those over 70 would be discouraged from running for president. Hence, neither Donald Trump nor Joe Biden would be candidates for president in 2024. Also eliminated from contention would be fo...

 It has been a while since I've written.  Last time I was excited by the prospects of Congestion Pricing. This is no longer true. As the plans have developed, they have revealed a great deal of financial inequities for the residents of New Jersey and may create environmental problems for those living in Bergen County, Harlem, Washington Heights and University Heights in the Bronx. At the same time, I've been saddened by the global events. Actually traumatized. I feel that the world is upside down. I'm frustrated by the politics of war. Most notably those in Gaza and Israel. Too many innocent people have been killed. Any hope for peace have been dashed, and the dreams of a two-state solution fade further from our imaginations.   And while the rules of war have not been observed in the Middle East or Ukraine, they have also not been observed in the African conflicts that the mainstream press has ignored. Thousands have also been killed in Congo and South Sudan. Additio...

 Once again America is rocked by a Supreme Court decision, one that isn't really a decision based on legal precedents. The politics of race and class as well as personal agendas encouraged six members of the court to vote against the policies of the University of North Carolina and Harvard University.  Since its introduction Affirmative Action has been problematic. However, if equality had been achieved, it would not have been needed. Sadly, we are rehashing an old story. American history was not on trial. But it should be. Centuries of discrimination, attempts at remedies and then backlashes failed to convince the Court that a better solution was needed. The United States refused to blame itself for crafting weak or faulty judgements since the Regents of the University of California v. Allan Bakke in 1978. In contrast to the previous cases, especially the 2003 University of Michigan cases, when the court attempted to define Affirmative Action, this has been a watershed moment...

New York City is the nation's most populated city. However, it is not regarded as a "car city", but rather the American standard of "working mass transit." Unfortunately working mass transit, or at least the American model, has numerous flaws that have been exposed by COVID-19. Currently, the consumer-based models of mass transit are hemorrhaging as many Americans have not returned to work on a regular or daily basis. Center cities now deserted due to remote plans fail to have the numbers needed to keep transit systems out of the red. And as mass transit fails, other parts of the urban economy will also fail. Occupancy in malls, offices and other retail spaces will continue to decrease unless people are pushed back to center city business districts. While San Francisco represents one extreme of the failure of the center city, Manhattan represents another.  Although the density of New York City, particularly Manhattan, will not turn mid-town into a ghost town, an...