***. “In public affairs, stupidity is more dangerous than knavery.” [ Woodrow Wilson, 28th U.S. President ]
14] “Local economies throughout the country couldn’t thrive without them. Community colleges, in all their diversity and inclusion, were the hubs of economic mobility. As Gavin put it, “We are situated more than any other institution in America to deliver on the promises in our original founding documents that everybody deserves a good life.”
8] “The Trump administration was slashing federal funding to a host of programs designed to support first-generation and low-income students, the sort of upward-mobility, American-dream work done by community colleges.” {Ben Austen: “Hitting Close to Home”; New York Times Magazine; 8/17/25]
STUPIDITY – the Trump DICTATORSHIP is full of it. IGNORANCE is part of it. Reckless pursuit of IDEOLOGICAL. GOALS is a BIG part of it. In evaluating Trump Stupidity – ask YOURSELF – would the Chinese, or Canadians, or West Europeans, or Japanese, or Australia and New Zealand. do this???
THEN – think on the Constitution’s Preamble”s goals for ANY American government: “..a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility….promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty..” How does Trump rhetoric, executive orders, actions – achieve ‘..to promote the general Welfare..”?????
We continue with “Hitting Close to Home…President Trump’s war on higher education was meant to punish elite schools – but the nation’s 1,100 community colleges are suffering some of the worst collateral damage.” [Ben Austen; New York Times Magazine; 8/17/25]:
1] ‘..the country’s 1,100 community colleges, which educate about 6.4 million undergraduates each year – roughly 40 percent of the national total and more than twice as many as are enrolled at every highly selective college and university in the country combined.”
2] “..the “dear colleague letter the Department of Education sent to every postsecondary school in the country in February, accusing the colleges of breaking civil rights law each time they considered race when making decisions about hiring, scholarships, classes or any aspect of campus life. The letter insisted that the schools had only days to comply or else.”
3]. ‘..the ways the Republicans’ One Big Beautiful Bill will hit their schools in the near term and in the years ahead: the cascading effects of federal Medicaid reductions, which will force states to shoulder more of the financial burden and use up discretionary funding meant for their schools; the possible end of free community-college tuition…”
4] “Across the United States, community colleges have come to serve as the work-force-development arms of their local economies….It acted as a bridge to bring more women, racial minorities, immigrants, and first-generation college students into higher ed and the skilled work force….Like other community colleges, Durham Tech partnered with all sorts of employers, figuring their exact labor needs, and offered students customized training for those jobs.”
*** “The wise man takes pleasure in what is honorable, but the fool is not vexed by shamefulness.” [ Plutarch ]
5] “The Trump administration’s message is: Get on board or get out of the way,” Scott Yenor, a fellow at the Claremont Institute..”
***. “There is no possibility I have made a mistake.” [ Adolf Hitler ]
6] “..federal grants had also been axed at other big science and technology employers in the Triangle region, threatening not just college campuses but also the entire local research economy.”……”Employers are telling us we’ve got a shortage of qualified workers,’ he said. “We need to find more women.”….. Buxton said that the Bulls Academy, by targeting students of color for jobs earning upward of $45,000 a year, was also supporting the region’s big pharma company and the local economy.” [ read this again]
7] “Proposed cuts to the Department of Education budget would eliminate most funding for English-as-a-second-language classes. In California, nearly 300,000 students took free noncredit English-learner language classes at state community colleges……In a survey of Durham Tech students last year, 42 percent said they were the first in their families to attend college..” [do we know, for sure, WHO will be the next Einstein???]
9] “The Trump administration announced..it would seek to end funding of TRIO grants for students who. were the first in their families to pursue a college degree, calling the program dating back to the 1960s. “a relic of the past.”….The Trump administration had also cut staff in half both at the Department of Education, which historically managed thr country’s enormous portfolio of student loans…”
10] “The Republican spending bill initially proposed gutting funding for federal Pell grants, which helped low-income students pay for college, and limiting access to these grants for part-time and working students – the very definition of most people attending community college. After much lobbying and pleading from community-college advocates in red states as well as blue, warning of a coming catastrophe, Republicans in congress removed those provisions..”
***. “Fanatics have their dreams, wherewith they weave a paradise for a sect.” [ John Keats ]
11] “The Trump administration talked about expanding manufacturing at home. But across the country, 400,000 factory jobs were currently vacant. “That’s what’s so crazy about this,” I was told by another community college leader who asked not to be identified, out of fear of retaliation..” [dictatorships operate in an atmosphere of fear]
12] “Get care at a local hospital, or prepped for surgery at a hospital, or treated after an accident, or have someone come to your home to do repairs – “those are all community college grads, all of them,” the community college leader told me. “This collateral damage is going to end up being regional economic damage.” [shall we slit our throats together???}
13] “…Republicans in Congress were voting to defund NPR and PBS, potentially decimating the public broadcasting station that Delta housed on its campus, a service it had provided the wider Saginaw community, including its rural parts, since 1964.” [ telling the truth is not what a dictatorship wants – see Russia, China, Iran, North Korea…]
*** “The most delusional fantasies can be made to masquerade as sanity if you’ve got the political power to reinforce them.” [ Penny Skillman ]
With Justice For All 