Getting busy around here, but I still have time to share all my opinions with you.

The problem of “Neoliberalism” begins in carefully naming it, and then not over-applying it.  This piece helpfully focuses on “private equity”—rich investors—and the damage they do to the economy and our society.  

A piece on the spirituality of the Black Lives Matter movement.  

I haven’t really thought about this, but the effect of the virus on the many college towns that rely on a transient population is trouble. And the fact that it coincides with the decennial census promises much longer term financial damage to those towns: 

Compounding the concern is the 2020 census. Conducted every 10 years, the national head count determines the distribution of federal funding for a vast number of local and state programs, including transit, public safety and Medicaid.

Because the window for responses has coincided with campus shutdowns, college towns are reporting significant undercounts of students living off-campus, with dire financial implications.

China may be pushing India more seriously into the arms of the United States.  If we are smart, we’ll welcome that alliance.  And work to make India a more inclusive place, as well.  

Personally?  I’d argue for burning them at the steak.  Pour encourager les autres.  

A too-polite engagement with a charlatan, but it’s valuable for stating some deep truths about higher ed in America:

Of the approximately 20 million students enrolled in degree-granting institutions, about 15 million attend public colleges or universities. Further, enrollment in community colleges represents the largest proportion of all public university enrollment, with almost six million students attending public two-year institutions. The Community College Research Center at Columbia University estimates that 44 percent of all undergraduates are enrolled at community colleges.…Of the approximately 20 million college students enrolled in degree-granting institutions, less than a million attend for-profit schools. And the trend is only going away from for-profits, whose enrollment peaked at over two million in 2010, with drops of around 100,000 students in each subsequent year.

I didn’t know that “Back Story”, a Podcast on American history originating from UVA, was ending.  This article gives you some sense of what was special about it.  I encourage you to check out the archives of the show.

A nice article capturing how disinformation spreads.  (Pro tip: it has something to do with our biases about what we want to believe.)

This is an interesting story about how in the past 50 years we have lost the ambition we once had as societies (think “Moon shot”) and a suggestion that. of all things, the science of management might help us do better.