Daniel Braaten
@danielbraaten.bsky.social
Dad, Utility Political Scientist, Union Member, Sports Fan, Gardener, Northerner Exiled in Texas. Read our book https://www.bloomsbury.com/us/benched-justice-9781666934465/
Texas Tech Prof. Deena Varner on the Creighton memoranda and the administrative takeover of higher education. 👏👏⬇️
How to Occupy a University
Project 2025, Texas Tech, and the Administrative Remaking of Higher Education
open.substack.com
HAPPENING NOW: A press conference in front of Dilley Detention Center with the president of @txcivilrights.bsky.social Rochelle Garza, who is also the Chair of the US Commission on Civil Rights. She's calling on the Commission to do a full investigation into ICE detention.
New Evidence Suggests Dinosaurs Had Quinceañeras https://theonion.com/new-evidence-suggests-dinosaurs-had-quinceaneras/
HAPPENING NOW: Organizations like @txcivilrights.bsky.social and @latinovictoryus.bsky.social have organized a forum in San Antonio today called "The People’s Hearing on Immigration Enforcement." It's including public testimony about how immigration enforcement is impacting communities in Texas.
Anticipatory obedience will 👏 not👏work👏. Extremists attacking higher education in Texas will not be pacified. ⬇️⬇️ www.texasobserver.org/university-o...
University of Houston Nixed Its Gender and Sexuality Classes. That Won’t Stop Texas’ Crusade Against Higher Ed
College administrators wrongly hope that anticipatory obedience will satisfy a GOP-run Texas Legislature that is increasingly hostile toward education.
texasobserver.org
New from Andrew Joseph Pegoda: In an attempt to overcomply with Texas law, the University of Houston will eliminate over 100 women's studies, gender and sexuality courses from the core curriculum. It won't be enough to appease extremist Republicans.
University of Houston Nixed Its Gender and Sexuality Classes. That Won’t Stop Texas’ Crusade Against Higher Ed
College administrators wrongly hope that anticipatory obedience will satisfy a GOP-run Texas Legislature that is increasingly hostile toward education.
texasobserver.org
NEW: Four professors with the AAUP are suing the Texas A&M University System over its policy barring discussions of gender, race and sexuality in classrooms. They're represented by the ACLU of Texas. Story pubbing shortly: www.aclutx.org/app/uploads/...
aclutx.org
BOOM. The AAUP is suing Texas A&M University System over their censorship policy that prohibits faculty from discussing topics & viewpoints related to race, sexual orientation, & gender. www.aclutx.org/app/uploads/... 1
![AMERICAN ASSOCIATION OF UNIVERSITY PROFESSORS, LEONARD BRIGHT, VANITA REDDY, LANDON SADLER, and AARON GEORGE,
Plaintiffs,
V.
ROBERT L. ALBRITTON, JAY GRAHAM, DAVID
C. BAGGETT, JOHN W. BELLINGER, JAMES R.
BROOKS, MICHAEL A. HERNANDEZ III,
WILLIAM MAHOMES JR., KELLEY SULLIVAN GEORGIADES, and SAM TORN, in their official capacities as members of the Texas A&M University System Board of Regents,
Defendants.
CIVIL ACTION NO.
COMPLAINT FOR DECLARATORY AND INJUNCTIVE RELIEF
COMPLAINT
Plaintiffs American Association of University Professors ("AAUP"), on behalf of
its members in the Texas A&M University System ("Texas A&M"), and individually named member professors Leonard Bright, Vanita Reddy, Landon Sadler, and Aaron George (collectively, "Plaintiffs") challenge Texas A&M System Policy ("System Policy") 08.01's prohibition on teaching "gender and race ideology, or topics related to sexual orientation, and gender identity" in academic coursework (the "Censorship Policy" or the "Policy").
On its face, the Censorship Policy imposes a complete prohibition, in all core-
curriculum courses, on courses "advocat[ing]" particular disfavored views of race or gender, or
any topics related to sexual orientation or gender identity, but the Policy does not impose any corresponding ban on opposing views on these issues.](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:jcats4toei4ybf5ibk3njty3/bafkreidml3fbnbiivajg7rverpx3nckfhv3zdron6klbxc7kaffoyslpty)
NEW from me: Last night, the AAUP filed its second lawsuit against a Texas higher-ed system in recent weeks. This time, it's asking a federal judge to block what it calls a “prophylactic ban on politically disfavored speech related to race, gender, and sexual orientation" at Texas A&M.
‘What Are We Even Doing Here?': New Lawsuit Challenges Ban on Race and Gender Topics at Texas A&M
Plaintiffs included four faculty members whose courses were canceled or not offered.
chronicle.com
Everything is big in Texas. Including the racism, bigotry & law breaking across Texas’ public universities. And the resistance. The lawsuits are here. First one hit Tech. This one hits A&M. UT just matter of time. @texasaaup.bsky.social @aaup.org
Gautam Hans@gshans.bsky.social · yesterdayAnother banger from @aclu.org @aaup.org www.aclutx.org/press-releas...
according to Texas A&M system policy - Plato, the movie Moonlight, and the 14th Amendment are out but Phyllis Schlafly and the movie Barbie are in
Another banger from @aclu.org @aaup.org www.aclutx.org/press-releas...
ACLU of Texas, Professors Sue Texas A&M System Over Censorship Policy, Detail Violations of Academic Freedom - ACLU of Texas
Faculty have been instructed to remove educational materials — like the film “Moonlight” and writings by Plato — from syllabi following policy banning race, gender, and sexual orientation related topi...
aclutx.org
🦋 Registration is NOW OPEN for our brand new Immigration Training Program for Texas union members! The labor movement has always understood a simple but powerful truth: an injury to one is an injury to all. Learn more and register for this four-part training at texasaflcio.org/immigration
Here we go again, but w Trump in far weaker political position: so who will fall for this?
Nate Schenkkan@nateschenkkan.bsky.social · 2d agoAbsolutely not www.bloomberg.com/news/article...
Trump is taking the side of a hostile foreign actors against his own country. Its mostly just met with a shrug and "trump being trump"
John Skiles Skinner@skiles.blue · 5d agoAmazing that Iran is successfully attacking the drinking water in the American Midwest, and this is pretty directly the Trump administration's fault, yet this is not a huge scandal among his voters who live there
reason 4,598 that Trump should be impeached and imprisoned
Lindsay Beyerstein@beyerstein.bsky.social · 5d agoI can't stress enough what a crisis this is. Trump's own intelligence agencies concluded that Iran attacked Minnesota's critical infrastructure and Trump is saying that it's Minnesota's own fault and denying it was Iran. The federal government won't defend blue states in a literal war.
Make no mistake here. This is Trump objectively taking the side of Iran, a nation we are currently at war with, over the Americans in Minnesota because he hates the governor and the fact that a majority of voters there did not vote for him
Aaron Rupar@atrupar.com · 5d agoTrump: "We heard in Minnesota there was a cyberattack and they blame it on Iran. I don't think so. I blame it on Minnesota because they're grossly incompetent. Iran's got bigger problems than worrying about Minnesota."
Southern states are using the same tactics they used to intimidate civil rights activists in the 50s and 60s to harass and intimidate CAIR today. They’ve pointed to *no evidence* that CAIR is engaged in criminal activity. The whole campaign is just rank bigotry. www.nytimes.com/2026/07/31/u...
Texas and Florida Draw Up Terrorism Lists and Take Aim at a Muslim Group
The federal government designates terrorism groups. But Governors Ron DeSantis and Greg Abbott have gotten in the game, and a focus is CAIR, a nonprofit.
nytimes.com
This is the way
Hamilton Nolan@hamiltonnolan.bsky.social · 6d agoThe left needs a candidate it can unite around in the 2028 primaries and AOC is the only real choice. Nobody else checks all of the boxes. Every other option is worse. If she doesn't run, it's a missed opportunity of historic proportions. www.hamiltonnolan.com/p/aoc-must-r...
"Immigration agents sped after a vehicle through a residential neighborhood on the same day of the agency’s traffic stop pause, reportedly endangering a mother and son—before pulling a gun on and briefly handcuffing a U.S. citizen." texasobserver.org/ice-car-chas... -- @gaigedavila.bsky.social
ICE Never Stopped Chasing People in Cars in the Rio Grande Valley
Immigration agents sped after a vehicle through a residential neighborhood on the same day of the agency’s traffic stop pause, reportedly endangering a mother and son—before pulling a gun on and brief...
texasobserver.org
for the record: Atlanticism was and is good. So is multilateralism. and no, we liberals are not "hankering" for war of any kind, although we do strongly support Ukraine's defensive war for its own survival.
"There's an extreme, radical, right-wing agenda coming out of the federal government targeting higher education. The AAUP won’t exist in an ivory tower and wait for politics to be done to its members. That’s not the AAUP of 2026." – Todd Wolfson, AAUP President
AAUP Embraces Political Role With Candidate Endorsements
The group says the move is a first in its over-100-year existence, and part of countering government threats. Critics say AAUP has lost its neutrality.
insidehighered.com