BEWARE THE IDES OF MARCH:  On the 15th day of March, 1939, Nazi Germany invaded Czechoslovakia.

QUARANTINE, ITALIAN STYLE:  It’s kind of adorable.

OH, HIM AGAIN … THE GUY WHO SAID LET THEM F*****G DIE”:  Trinity College sociology professor still doesn’t like white people.  What’s odd is that the Hartford Courant thinks his op-ed is worth publishing.  Can you imagine a newspaper publishing the same sort of drivel from a KKK Grand Dragon?

I GUESS IT’S NOT IMPOSSIBLE, BUT …:  “If Biden’s the Nominee, Might He Pick Michelle Obama as His Vice President”?

THE SPEECH THAT CONVINCED REPUBLICANS THAT ABRAHAM LINCOLN WAS PRESIDENTIAL TIMBER:  On this day in 1860, Lincoln gave his famous Cooper Union address in New York.

One eyewitness described it this way:  “When Lincoln rose to speak, I was greatly disappointed. He was tall, tall, — oh, how tall! and so angular and awkward that I had, for an instant, a feeling of pity for so ungainly a man.” However, once Lincoln warmed up, “his face lighted up as with an inward fire; the whole man was transfigured. I forgot his clothes, his personal appearance, and his individual peculiarities. Presently, forgetting myself, I was on my feet like the rest, yelling like a wild Indian, cheering this wonderful man.”

MOVE ALONG. THERE’S NOTHING TO SEE HERE: Last week’s report of the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights hasn’t gotten much attention (and I suspect that suits the Commission’s majority just fine). It was supposed to highlight Obama-Era (and Bush-Era!) Department of Education’s warnings to colleges and universities that they must exercise control over students who make “sexual comments, jokes or gestures,” “spread rumors” (even true ones), or apparently write just about anything deemed to be offensive “of a sexual nature.” The idea when the report was originally planned (in 2013) was to show how colleges and universities are pressured to limit speech that is protected by the First Amendment. Alas, due to changes in the membership of the Commission over the course of Obama’s Presidency, the long-delayed report turned into more a defense of those policies than a critique. The report has a tone of “Move along … nothing to see here” to it. Here’s my short dissent.

The good news is that the Trump Administration will soon be making two new appointments to the Commission. I am looking forward to welcoming two new colleagues.

UNIVERSITY OF OKLAHOMA IS NOT OK:  A second University of Oklahoma professor has used the n-word.  Kathleen Brosnan, a history professor, was reading “a historical document” that repeatedly uses the forbidden word.  Campus goes crazy.  In response the university is making “diversity and inclusion training” mandatory for all faculty, staff, and administrators.  Someone should FOIA the cost of this.

GRAND TETON NATIONAL PARK:  On this day in 1929, Calvin Coolidge (the coolest President our nation has ever known) signed an executive order establishing Grand Teton National Park.

“ON THE CULT OF PERSONALITY AND ITS CONSEQUENCES”: Most speeches by politicians don’t say much, and what they do say often isn’t true. But on this day in 1956, First Secretary of the Soviet Union’s Communist Party Nikita Khrushchev shocked the members of the 20^th Party Congress by doing something completely novel: He laid some truth on them about their late leader Joseph Stalin:

Stalin acted not through persuasion, explanation, and patient cooperation with people, but by … demanding absolute submission to his opinion. Whoever opposed this concept … was doomed to removal from the leading collective and to subsequent moral and physical annihilation. …

…

Lenin used severe methods only in the most necessary cases …

Stalin, on the other hand, used extreme methods and mass repressions at a time when the revolution was already victorious. … It is clear that here Stalin showed in a whole series of cases his intolerance, his brutality, and his abuse of power. …

…

Stalin’s willfulness vis-à-vis the party and its central committee became fully evident after the 17^th party congress, which took place in 1934….

It was determined that of the 139 members and candidates of the party’s Central Committee who were elected at the 17th congress, 98 persons, that is, 70 percent, were arrested and shot ….

The same fate met not only the central committee members, but also the majority of the delegates to the 17^th party congress. Of 1,966 delegates with either voting or advisory rights, 1,108 persons were arrested on charges of anti-revolutionary crimes, i.e. decidedly more than majority. This very fact shows how absurd, wild, and contrary to common sense were the charges ….

(Note that there are different versions/translations of what Khrushchev said. This is one of them.)

The speech was intended to be secret. But it was leaked. Its effects were shattering all over the Soviet Union. Riots in Stalin’s homeland of Georgia had to be suppressed.

Here in the United States, its effects among Communists were sweeping. In a 2017 New York Times article entitled “When Communism Inspired Americans,” Vivian Gornick (a red diaper baby herself) wrote of the devastating effect the speech had on American Communists: “Night after night the people at my father’s table raged or wept or sat staring into space.” Gornick reported that within weeks of the speech’s publication in the West, 30,000 members of the party in the United States had quit.

Note that Khrushchev’s speech has been criticized (and for good reason). What he said about Stalin was true, but he concentrated on the horrors of Stalin’s actions against party members. What about the millions of non-party members who died at the hands of the party? And he repeatedly contrasted Stalin with Lenin, whom he praised, when both deserved to be condemned in the strongest possible terms. Still, it was a step forward for a nation that had seen nothing but horror from its leaders for decades.

HEATHER MAC DONALD DESERVES A MEDAL:  She continues to speak truth to shrieking college students.

JOHN FUND:  Bernie Bros. say Bernie will win by boosting turnout.  That plan may backfire.

COMING ATTRACTIONS:  My colleague Maimon Schwarzschild and I recently signed a contract with Encounter Books to edit a volume of essays on how race-preferential admissions policies have (and continue to) undermine higher education.  An updated version of this essay will be among them.  Plus several new essays from authors to be announced. Look for it in early 2021!

IF YOU’RE IN THE PHOENIX AREA: Here’s an worthwhile way to spend the upcoming weekend: Arizona State University’s School of Civic and Economic Thought and Leadership is holding a conference on Citizenship and Civic Leadership in America from Friday, February 28^th to Saturday, February 29^th. The keynoters will be Rich Lowry, who will speak on “Nationalism and America” and Yascha Mounk, whose talk will be “The Decline of Democracy Standing Up for Liberal Democratic Values.” Panel speakers will include Christopher Caldwell, Shikha Dalmia, Kurt Lash, Glenn Loury, Henry Olsen, and Wilfred McClay. It should be an interesting weekend. I’ll be there too (as a panel moderator, so I’ll have an easy job).

THE CANDIDATES COMPARED: Bernie Sanders may be a disaster for the Democratic Party.  But it isn’t clear that the other candidates are preferable on the crucial issues.  For example, Sander proposes to cut the number of people incarcerated at both the federal and state level by a whopping 50%.  Alas, that’s absurdly unrealistic.  But Pete Buttigieg has made the same proposal.

Since some people have the idea that Buttigieg is a moderate, my friend Barry Latzer’s discussion of the candidate’s criminal justice proposals may be worth a look.

(My own thoughts on crime—and in particular the racial aspect of it—are here.)

THE LARGELY FORGOTTEN BOMBARDMENT OF ELLWOOD: On this day in 1942, less than three months after the attack on Pearl Harbor, a Japanese submarine bombarded an oil field near Santa Barbara. Panic ensued.

It’s not surprising that Californians were on edge. In the weeks following Pearl Harbor, a number of Japanese submarines had been patrolling the American West Coast. They had sunk two merchant ships and damaged several more. Although the submarines had left the area, everyone knew they could come back.

In February at least one of them did. The 365-foot long I-17 submarine with a crew of 101 was commanded by Commander Kozo Nishino. Under orders from his superiors, Nishino had his men fire repeatedly. Mercifully, little damage was done. A derrick and pump house were destroyed, but it could have been much worse.

Santa Barbarans had no way of knowing what would come next. Fearing the attack was a prelude to an invasion, hundreds fled.

Some reported that they had seen individuals signaling the submarine (or several submarines) from the shore. This apparently false information caused pressure for the internment of Japanese Americans to mount. But such is war—false information is the norm, not the exception.

The panic didn’t end there. On the next night came the so-called Battle of Los Angeles—an epic false alarm in which a weather balloon was possibly mistaken for an air attack.

#NOTHARVEY:  IF THE NATION IS THINKING THIS, WHAT MUST THE JURORS THINK?:  “Why Harvey Weinstein Might Walk.”

CAN YOU HELP?: My friends at the National Association of Scholars are preparing a report on administrative bloat in higher education and the student debt crisis. As a part of their research, they’d like to interview a number of individuals about their post-high school choices and/or their experience with student loans.

Ms. Arnold, the NAS research associate working on this project, would like to interview individuals in the following broad categories:

• People who attended college in the past or who currently attend college.
• People who did not attend college.
• People who chose a non-traditional education path.
• Parents of college students or college-bound students.

(Yep, that’s everybody and then some.)

Interviews will be conducted via telephone (preferably) or via Google forms. Interviewees who don’t want their names used in the report can have their names “anonymized” for the final report.

Please contact Ms. Arnold at arnold(at)nas(dot)org if you are willing to be interviewed.

By the way, if would like to join the National Association of Scholars, that can be arranged. I am a proud member.

HOT, HOT, HOT OFF A VERY COLD PRESS!: Today the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights released its long-delayed report on the conflict between the First Amendment and the Department of Education’s enforcement of sexual harassment law. At least that was what it was supposed to be about when the Commission undertook the report way back in 2013. Many delays followed. When, in December of 2016, President Obama appointed his out-going Assistant Secretary of Education for Civil Rights to head the Commission, the report evolved into more of a defense of the Obama-Era Office of Civil Rights than a critique. My dissent is here. I hope to write much more on this topic in the future. Right now this little dissent will have to do.

THE WIZARD OF MENLO PARK STRIKES AGAIN:  On this day in 1878, Thomas Alva Edison was awarded a patent on the phonograph.  Altogether, Edison held 1,093 American patents (as well as numerous foreign patents).

I CAN’T IMAGINE ANY FAIR-MINDED PERSON IS SURPRISED:  Evidence that conservative students really do self-censor.  

THIS IS SERIOUS:  Trump hasn’t ended Obama’s War on the Suburbs.  He and HUD Secretary Carson have barely started to roll back Obama’s notorious Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing program.

THUG:  It’s another word you can use if you don’t want to be called a racist.  Just ask the Governor of West Virginia.

JOHN FUND: “There’s Zero Chance Bloomberg Would Pick Hillary.“

A HUGE POSTER OF HER ILLUSTRATIONS HUNG OVER MY BED FROM AGE 11 to 17:  Barbara Remington, illustrator of Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings, Dies at 90.

OF COURSE THEY DO: Media largely ignore Jussie Smollett indictments, offer zero primetime coverage.

They wouldn’t want to hurt business for the Southern Poverty Law Center, now would they?