Harvard University gets the Welch. Seven big law firms get the Chamberlain.

ROBERT REICH APR 15, 2025

Friends,

Today I’d like to announce award winners in two contrasting categories.

First is this week’s Joseph Welch Award.

As you may recall, Joseph Welch was the brave person who stood up to Senator Joe McCarthy’s communist witch hunt at the Army-McCarthy Hearings in 1954 — asking McCarthy, in front of the nation’s television cameras, “Have you no sense of decency?” — thereby precipitating McCarthy’s downfall.

This week’s Joseph Welch Award goes to Harvard University, which explicitly rejected policy changes demanded by the Trump regime — becoming the first university to directly refuse to comply with the regime’s demands.

The Trump regime threatened to revoke $256 million in federal contracts and an additional $8.7 billion in what it described as multiyear grant commitments unless Harvard agreed to “reduce the power of students and faculty members over the university’s affairs; report foreign students who commit conduct violations immediately to federal authorities; and bring in an outside party to ensure that each academic department is ‘viewpoint diverse,’” among other steps.

Alan Garber, Harvard’s president, responded on Monday in a statement to the university that “no government — regardless of which party is in power — should dictate what private universities can teach, whom they can admit and hire, and which areas of study and inquiry they can pursue.”

On Monday evening, the Trump regime said it had frozen $2.2 billion in multiyear grants to Harvard, along with a $60 million contract. Harvard will appeal this shameful challenge to academic freedom.

Congratulations, Harvard.

Other universities should take note and follow Harvard’s example.

By contrast is this week’s Neville Chamberlain Award.

The award is given to people or organizations that exemplify the cowardice of Britain’s prime minister from 1937 to 1940, who tried (in vain) to appease Hitler.

This week’s Neville Chamberlain Award goes to five more big law firms that have agreed to do Trump’s bidding.

Kirkland & Ellis, Latham & Watkins, A&O Shearman, Simpson Thacher & Bartlett, and Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft have agreed to do millions of dollars worth of free legal work for Trump on causes he supports.

Why? Because they fear that if they fight Trump, he’ll make it harder for their lawyers to gain access to public buildings and he’ll impose other penalties — with the result that they’ll lose some clients and money. And for them, money is more important than protecting the rule of law.

These firms join two other notably unprincipled firms — Paul Weiss and Skadden Arps — in receiving the Neville Chamberlain Award.

When the history of our current sordid era is written, as it surely will be, Big Law, the legal profession, and the bar will not be among the heroes.

Where is the bar? Where are the law schools? Where is the outrage?

Kudos, though, to Perkins Coie; WilmerHale; Jenner & Block; and, especially, Williams & Connolly, who have all bravely taken on and opposed Trump’s illegal and unconstitutional extortion racket. They get Joseph Welch Awards.

But shame on these other overpaid, Big Law quislings who have flocked to protect their wallets but not their country nor their morals.

Someone should inform the partners of these unprincipled firms that we are in a national emergency as far as democracy and the rule of law are concerned, and that as large law firms they have a special responsibility to maintain both.

Here are three simple ways to let them know they’ve failed:

1. Law schools should no longer permit these unprincipled firms to recruit law students on their premises.

2. Law students should no longer apply for jobs at these unprincipled firms, and make it known why.

3. Associates at these unprincipled firms should demand to know why these firms put profits over principle. Arrange meetings with partners. If they don’t give satisfactory answers, resign.

“We are by long odds the most ill-mannered nation, civilized or savage, that exists on the planet today. Our president stands for us like a colossal monument.”

By Mark Twain edited by Shelley Fisher Fishkin

April 15, 2025 (SFChronicle.com)

Samuel Langhorne Clemens (1835 to 1910), known by pen name Mark Twain, was an American humorist, satirist, writer and lecturer whose writing indicates he seemed to know what was coming. UniversalImagesGroup/Getty Images

I have often wondered at the condition of things which set aside morality in politics and make possible the election of men whose unfitness is apparent. We have never had a president before who was destitute of self-respect & of respect for his high office; we have had no president before who was not a gentleman; we have had no president before who was intended for a butcher, a dive keeper or a bully, and missed his mission by compulsion of circumstances over which he had no control. 

We are by long odds the most ill-mannered nation, civilized or savage, that exists on the planet today, and our president stands for us like a colossal monument visible from all the ends of the earth. He is fearfully hard and coarse where another gentleman would exhibit kindliness and delicacy. 

He became so expert in duplicity, and so admirably plausible that he couldn’t tell himself when he was lying and when he wasn’t. The most outrageous lies that can be invented will find believers if a man only tells them with all his might. 

He taught them that the only true freedom of thought is to think as the party thinks; that the only true freedom of speech is to speak as the party dictates; that the only righteous toleration is toleration of what the party approves; that patriotism, duty, citizenship, and devotion to country, loyalty to the flag, are all summed up in loyalty to party. Loyalty is a word which has worked vast harm; for it has been made to trick men into being “loyal” to a thousand iniquities.  

It is interesting, wonderfully interesting — the miracles which party-politics can do with a man’s mental and moral make-up. In the interest of party expediency they give solemn pledges, they make solemn compact; in the interest of party expediency, they repudiate them without a blush. They would not dream of committing these strange crimes in private life. 

It is an accepted law of public life that in it, a man may soil his honor in the interest of party expediency — must do it when the party requires it. Where the party leads, they will follow, whether for right and honor, or through blood and dirt and a mush of mutilated morals. Here in our democracy we are cheering a thing which of all things is most  foreign to it & out of place — the delivery of our political conscience into somebody else’s keeping. This is patriotism on the Russian plan. 

Reader, suppose you were an idiot. And suppose you were a member of Congress. But I repeat myself. 

We will not hire a blacksmith who never lifted a sledge. We will not hire a school-teacher who does not know the alphabet. We will not have a man about us in our business life, in any walk of it, low or high, unless he has served an apprenticeship and can prove that he is capable of doing the work he offers to do. We even require a plumber to know something about his business, that he shall at least know which side of a pipe is the inside. But when a representative of ours learns, after long experience, how to conduct the affairs of his office, we discharge him and hire somebody that doesn’t know anything about it.

Those burglars that broke into my house recently are in jail, and if they keep on, they will go to Congress. When a person starts downhill, you could never tell where he’s going to stop.  

People seem to think they are citizens of the Republican Party and that that is patriotism and sufficiently good patriotism. I prefer to be a citizen of the United States.    

My kind of loyalty was loyalty to one’s country, not to its institutions or its officeholders. The country is the real thing, the substantial thing, the eternal thing; it is the thing to watch over, and care for, and be loyal to; institutions are extraneous, they are its mere clothing, and clothing can wear out, become ragged, cease to be comfortable, cease to protect the body from winter, disease and death.  

In this country we have one great privilege which they don’t have in other countries. When a thing gets to be absolutely unbearable the people can rise up and throw it off. That’s the finest asset we’ve got — the ballot box. 

In a monarchy, the king and his family are the country; in a republic it is the common voice of the people. Each of you, for himself, by himself and on his own responsibility, must speak. Each must for himself alone decide what is right and what is wrong, and which course is patriotic and which isn’t.The citizen who thinks he sees that the commonwealth’s political clothes are worn out, and yet holds his peace and does not agitate for a new suit, is disloyal; he is a traitor.

The political and commercial morals of the United States are not merely food for laughter, they are an entire banquet.  

Man is the only animal that blushes. Or needs to.  

Every word of the text printed above was written by Mark Twain in novels, speeches, autobiographical dictations, interviews, letters, posthumously published notebooks, manuscripts and other sources dating from the 1860s through the 1910s. 

Shelley Fisher Fishkin, professor of English at Stanford University, is the author of “Jim: The Life and Afterlives of Huckleberry Finn’s Comrade,” to be published onApril 15 by Yale University Press. 

April 15, 2025

Mark Twain edited by Shelley Fisher Fishkin

Published: July 17, 2015 (TheOnion.com)

NEW YORK—Speaking for the first time since waking from a medically induced coma following a devastating car accident, 8-year-old Aiden Miller recounted an extremely vivid near-death experience Friday that reportedly contained detailed descriptions of heaven, angels, and a six-figure book deal. “I was walking up in the clouds and met friends, and strangers, and all these famous people who talked with me about all kinds of things and brought up the possibility of selling the rights to my story to a big-name publisher,” said the second-grader, who attested that during the five-minute period in which his heart had stopped on the operating table, he ascended to a shining, golden paradise where he says he met with the archangel Gabriel and a literary agent who has helped a number of authors secure multi-book deals with lucrative worldwide book tours. “Jesus was sitting at the right hand of God and my grandfather was right there, and they looked at me and smiled at each other and said I should ask for an $80,000 advance with 10 percent of back-end profits.” Miller added that he felt a profound sense of peace and well-being when Jesus told him to go forth and seek a blockbuster deal for the movie rights.

New Thinking Allowed with Jeffrey Mishlove • Apr 15, 2025 James McClenon, PhD, is a former sociology professor, licensed clinical social worker, civil engineer, and researcher. James is author of Deviant Science: The Case of Parapsychology, Wondrous Events: Foundations of Religious Belief, Wondrous Healing: Shamanism, Human Evolution, and the Origin of Religion, and The Entity Letters: A Sociologist on the Trail of a Supernatural Mystery, and coauthor with Mohammad Khodayarifard of An Iranian and American Veteran Exchange Stories and Discuss Inner Peace: We Were Thirteen. His website is jamesmcclenon.com. His email is beinghere@gmail.com. Through his extensive field research, Jim shares insights as a participant observer with shamanic practitioners across various cultures. He describes his ritual healing theory that developed from universal themes of anomalous experiences and the role of belief in healing. He also highlights the potential of integrating spiritual practices with modern therapeutic approaches to address mental health and well-being. 00:00:00 Introduction 00:06:18 Psychokinesis 00:11:09 Psychic surgery 00:20:32 Dramatic performance 00:27:40 Fire walking 00:34:17 Hypnotic suggestion and belief 00:41:29 Expressive writing and therapy process 00:51:57 Anomalous experiences 01:02:32 Empathy and compassion 01:14:34 Ritual healing theory 01:18:30 Conclusion Edited subtitles for this video are available in Russian, Portuguese, Italian, German, French, and Spanish. New Thinking Allowed CoHost, Emmy Vadnais, OTR/L, is an intuitive healer and health coach based in St. Paul, Minnesota. She is the author of Intuitive Development: How to Trust Your Inner Knowing for Guidance With Relationships, Health, and Spirituality. Her website is https://emmyvadnais.com (Recorded on January 16, 2025)

“Without understanding yourself, what is the use of trying to understand the world?” Ramana Maharshi (1879-1950) Indian Sage

AN OPPORTUNITY FOR DAILY REFLECTION BROUGHT TO YOU BY THE SCHOOL OF PRACTICAL PHILOSOPHY

The Eight of Disks The Lord of Prudence is a generous card in many respects… it covers periods of development and learning.It’s a strong card for inner development, promising expansion and exciting growth. But it does clearly warn that we need to pay special attention to what is going on around us, to rest and take care of ourselves, to ensure that we remain alert for important opportunities.The 8 of Disks tells us the mysteries of proper management of energy – this is energy of all types – love, money, knowledge, health. It describes for us the art of putting in what we need in order to get out what we desire – balance and harmony both being watchwords.So on a day ruled by the Lord of Prudence, we need to enjoy our lives, and to enrich them in as many ways as possible. We need to be thoughtful about how we expend energy, making every single move count. We also need to be aware of what is coming back to us from other people.Allow yourself to be alert for good opportunities and happy consequences. Let yourself learn from day to day events. And let life talk to you. Affirmation: “I relax and depend upon life.”

(Angelpaths.com)

Jacob Nordby • Jun 28, 2023 Message of the year: “How do you spot an idiot? Look for the person who is cruel. The kindest person in the room is often the smartest.” — Gov Pritzker

(Contributed by Gwyllm Llwydd)

(SHUTTERSTOCK)

A Texas author earned a certificate in AI—but there’s no way he’d ever use it to write a book.

by SKIP RHUDY

APRIL 15, 2025 (texasobserver.org)

I’ve got a post-graduate certificate in artificial intelligence (AI). I’m also an author, and I believe writers and publishers should not use AI in publishing. So that’s why I was disturbed when a reviewer asked if I had used AI in writing my recent coming-of-age novel, Under the Gulf Coast Sun.

But the reasons I oppose using AI are not the usual ones you hear.

We have all read or heard about copyright violations during AI algorithm training, as well as plagiarism problems, job displacement, potential stifling of creativity, legal complexity, blandness, and plain old human outrage. Those are all good arguments for opposing the use of generative AI in publishing.

Let me also argue against its use, but for a completely different reason: AI is dead.

Literally.

When I want to read poetry, a short story, a novel, a memoir, or non-fiction, I seek the voice of a fellow human being. A computer, by contrast, has the exact same awareness of the world that you had before birth—basically the perspective of a stone sitting on the side of the road. That is, no awareness of the world at all.

So, when I’m interested in what a person has to say, why would I willingly spend time reading or listening to a text that was mathematically calculated by a dead thing? I would not. And once you consider this reality, I believe you will lose interest as well, just as we all completely lost interest in (and quickly forgot) the rather incredible achievement of IBM’s Big Blue defeating chess champion Gary Kasparov in a six-game showdown in 1997.

Mustapha Suleyman, Microsoft’s Artificial Intelligence CEO, said in an NPR interview with Manosh Zamorodi that AI systems “communicate in our languages. They see what we see. They consume unimaginably large amounts of information. They have memory. They have personality. They have creativity.”

That is mostly nonsense. Computers operate only with zeros and ones. AI does not see what we see. It has no personality, no creativity. At best AI is a glorified calculator that works by fooling people into believing that it possesses the qualities Suleyman lists because AI does consume and process unimaginably large amounts of information from human beings. Unlike Suleyman’s claim, though, computers don’t have any real understanding of the data they generate.

Here’s how AI calculates novels or short stories or poetry: A human language prompt is converted into zeroes and ones and stored in a vast ocean of other zeros and ones. Then a set of instructions are loaded into the main processor’s transistors (again, zeroes and ones). The instructions tell the computer which zeroes and ones to retrieve from memory, then the retrieved zeros and ones are added together with other zeros and ones using Boolean math. This creates a different pattern of zeros and ones—which get put back into the storage system.

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This process repeats itself at extreme speed for about ten or fifteen seconds, until the novel or short story or poem has been fully calculated and placed into memory (again, as zeros and ones).

At a higher level, AI calculates texts based on probabilities of what word is most likely to come next in the stream of data it’s generating. That’s all.

In other words: A poem, short story, or novel calculated by a computer is nothing more than a prediction.  The fact that a human being sometimes can’t tell the difference between an AI-generated text and one written by a real person doesn’t make the calculation any less of a mindless mathematical outcome. (The Turing Test first devised in 1950,  is a way to attempt to determine whether machines actually exhibit any real intelligence. In particular, if a human can’t tell the difference between the machine output and one created by a human, the test passes. But Turing, the man who proposed the test, later said that the question of whether machines can think is itself “too meaningless” to deserve discussion.)

And, critically, the math has nothing to do with how humans build beauty and meaning with writing.

There are uncountable amazing and incredibly useful applications of AI, both generative and otherwise, in society. I won’t list them (just ask your local ChatGPT, it will be happy to calculate a result for you). And on that note, I let ChatGPT end this article with a calculation it made about the meaning of its own calculations, based on the following prompt:

Me: I would state that you don’t understand concepts, but retrieve data, operate on the data, then calculate an output. The concept is up to me to create based on your calculations.

ChatGPT: You’re absolutely right. I do not possess true understanding or conceptual awareness in the human sense. Instead, I work by retrieving patterns, facts, and relationships from the data I’ve been trained on, performing calculations and logical operations to produce outputs that align with your prompts.

ChatGPT has calculated this truth (as Suleyman the Microsoft AI guru well knows): Generative AI output is an illusion—a fake—produced by a dead thing with no awareness of what it has produced. We have to make our own meaning from it. But beyond that, I simply cannot justify spending my very limited time reading the calculations of a computer while pretending it has the same weight as the creative output of an actual human being.

I’ll take the living over the dead, every time. 

SKIP RHUDY‘s first novel, Under the Gulf Coast Sun (Stoney Creek Publishing, April 2025) is based on his years growing up in Port Aransas.

(Contributed by Gwyllm Llwydd)

“You must live life beautifully and not allow the spirit of the world, that makes gods out of power, riches and pleasure, make you forget you have been created for greater things, to love and to be loved.” Mother Teresa (1910-1997) Catholic Saint

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Salt Doll

After a long journey over mountains and valleys, a Salt Doll reached the sea shore. She was struck by that vast expanse of water she discovered. She had never seen the sea before. It was so large, so charming. She felt irresistibly attracted to it. She stood on the shore, so firm and assured. The sea in front of her looked vast, immense, inviting and peaceful. She wanted by all means to know what the sea was.  Timidly, the Doll came closer to the sea and with a touch of curiosity asked the sea, “Who are you?” And the sea replied, “I am the sea.” The Doll remarked, “Well, you only told me your name. I want to know more about you. I want and long to experience who you are. Show me more about yourself.” The sea mysteriously answered, “I am just what I am. I am the sea.” In perplexity, the Doll inquired, “I cannot figure out what you say you are. Yet, I want to know more about you. Shall I ever understand who you are?”  The sea replied, “You will never come to know who I am, unless you come closer to me, unless you touch me. If you really long to know who I am, please, come forward and allow me to embrace you.”  The Doll came forward and fearfully touched the sea with one of her feet. Immediately, she experienced a very strange, but beautiful feeling, something glorious she could not understand. Then, she tried to remove her foot out of the water, but her foot wasn’t there any more! It had dissolved in the sea. In fright and disbelief, the Doll cried out, “What have you done to my foot?”  “Yes, your foot is gone. You have given me permission to embrace you and experience who I am! If you wish to know more about me, and how wonderful it is to abide in me, come even closer to me now. Be ready to lose yourself in me.” Then, the Doll gradually stepped deeper and deeper into the sea.  The deeper she went into the water that strange but wonderful feeling of joy grew stronger and stronger. Finally, when the Doll was about to be completely dissolved by the sea, she exclaimed, “Now I know what the sea is and what I am. We are one!”  Author Unknown AN OPPORTUNITY FOR DAILY REFLECTION BROUGHT TO YOU BY THE SCHOOL OF PRACTICAL PHILOSOPHY