If there’s one thing classicists know it's that ancient Greece did not have a Senate, despite what Trump's defense lawyer, Bruce Castor, might have claimed . But the trotting out of Greco-Roman antiquity, however mistaken, in President Trump Donald Trump Biden to hold virtual bilateral meeting with Mexican president More than 300 charged in connection to Capitol riot Trump Jr.: There are 'plenty' of GOP incumbents who should be challenged MORE ’s second impeachment trial is only the latest demonstration of how easy it is for classics to be co-opted by the right. Within the last two months, classicist Victor Davis Hansen was part of the committee behind the now-defunct 1776 Commission Report and insurrectionists infamously paraded many classical symbols during the Capitol insurrection on Jan. 6. Classics are now engaged in a deep reckoning on why these associations have stuck around so easily. Some have suggested that something inherent to the discipline is at fault: we cannot separate out the discipline from the systems of oppression it has supported. But there is another reason; the systemic underfunding and under-appreciation of the humanities, especially of the pre-modern humanities like classics. ADVERTISEMENT The 2008 financial crisis brought significant cuts to arts and humanities disciplines. The Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) disciplines, meanwhile, have been the beneficiaries not only of funding increases, but of a concentrated governmental push during the Obama years. COVID-19 has meant a significant downturn for both, but as we celebrate science for our delivery from the pandemic, the same is not quite true for the humanities, which are increasingly seen as impractical, if they are seen at all. As a classicist, the sting of invisibility is acute, especially when no less than Dr. Anthony Fauci Anthony Fauci One dose of Pfizer vaccine offers significant protection for ...
Bruce westerman
CIA Documents Stir Debate Over Alleged Clinton Plan To Link Trump To Russia
The director of national intelligence declassified two CIA documents this week regarding Hillary Clinton’s alleged role in approving a plan to link Donald Trump to Russia’s election meddling in 2016. John Brennan, the former CIA director, wrote in notes in late July 2016 that U.S. intelligence intercepted Russian analysis that asserted that Clinton had approved the plan. The intelligence underlying the documents remains classified, making it difficult to discern how the intelligence was collected and what it said about Clinton. A flurry of election-related developments occurred in late July 2016, including the release of emails hacked from the DNC and the FBI’s opening of Crossfire Hurricane. CIA documents declassified this week have stirred a partisan debate over whether Hillary Clinton authorized a plan in July 2016 to link Donald Trump to Russian hackers during the presidential campaign. John Ratcliffe, the director of national intelligence, approved the release of the documents on Tuesday as part of a broader effort to declassify information related to the CIA and FBI’s intelligence-gathering activities against Trump in 2016. One of the documents contains handwritten notes that former CIA Director John Brennan wrote following a briefing in late July 2016 for President Obama regarding Russia’s election meddling. Brennan wrote that U.S. intelligence obtained insight into Russian intelligence analysis which asserted that Hillary Clinton had approved a campaign plan to “stir up a scandal” against Trump “by tying him to Putin and the Russians’ hacking of the Democratic National Committee.” Late July 2016, when Clinton allegedly approved the plan, saw a flurry of activity both in terms of Russia’s meddling in the presidential campaign and investigations into Trump’s possible links to the Kremlin. The FBI opened its counterintelligence investigation of the Trump campaign on July 31, 2016. Christopher Steele, a former British spy ...