David Waldstreicher

Picture of DOGE guy Nate Cavanaugh

Screenshot of my DOGE letter “Dr. Joseph Rezek Dear NEH Grantee, This letter provides notice that the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) is terminating your federal grant (Grant Application No. FEL29509824) effective April 3, 2025, in accordance with the termination clause in your Grant Agreement. Your grant no longer effectuates the agency's needs and priorities and conditions of the Grant Agreement and is subject to termination due to several reasonable causes, as outlined in 2CFR§200.340. For instance, NEH has reasonable cause to terminate your grant in light of the fact that the NEH is repurposing its funding allocations in a new direction in furtherance of the President's agenda. The President's February 19, 2025 executive order mandates that the NEH eliminate all non-statutorily required activities and functions. See Commencing the Reduction of the Federal Bureaucracy, E.O. 14217 (Feb. 19, 2025). Your grant's immediate termination is necessary to safeguard the interests of the federal government, including its fiscal priorities. Any objections or appeals to this termination will be managed in strict accordance with the President's Executive Orders,

Last year, this guy (left) from DOGE used ChatGPT to find NEH grants that were too “DEI” for Trump, and canceled them, including mine, as shown by the letter I received last April (right). Huge new NYT article on the back story link below

thank you for this. brings back better times.

The American King Goes to War This is not what the Founders intended.

The constitution's design does not grant the president a kinglike ability to take the country to war by himself, lest he do so for self-serving reasons. That is the entire purpose of dividing that authority between POTUS and Congress. Guess what just happened? www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2026/0...

just don't go to the wbc you'll be fine

I agree, though i have colleagues who remain suspicious. Why the change? (1) partly because the work has been good? (2) 20th c. now dominant in history depts, less insecure? (3) pop culture being done by other departments as well? (4) Reagan to Trump continuum of politics becoming ever more tv show?

frankly trump himself is iraq war blowback

2026 John Patrick Diggins Memorial Lecture- ONLINE RSVP Please fill out the information below to remotely attend the John Patrick Diggins lecture on 02/25/26 from 6:30 PM - 8:00 PM. A Zoom link will be sent out on the morning of the lecture.

TONIGHT The brilliant Mary Sarah Bilder is joining us at 630 for the 13th John Patrick Diggins Memorial Lecture: "The Perils of Sex: Catherine Macaulay's Constitution of Liberty" Segal Theatre, CUNY Graduate Center
In-Person RSVPs: email History@gc.cuny.edu
Online:
docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F...

Tonight! Join us in person or on zoom!

employed the 11 yr old girl across the street, who was shut out of Dad & brother shoveling, for 20 minutes, paid her 3x what she asked, felt great all day.

If you appreciated my @nybooks.com article, you'll love my new book Blue Power: How Police Organized to Protect and Serve Themselves, out from @basicbooksgroup.bsky.social in April. Order with discount code BLUE20 at www.hachettebookgroup.com/titles/stuar...

Print is a rent strike.

The brilliant Mary Sarah Bilder is joining us Wed. 2/25 at 630 for the 13th Annual John Patrick Diggins Memorial Lecture: "The Perils of Sex: Catherine Macaulay's Constitution of Liberty"
Segal Theatre, CUNY Graduate Center
In-Person RSVPs: email History@gc.cuny.edu
Online: Register at bit.ly/2026

Mary Sarah Bilder is joining us Feb. 25 at 630-8 @cunygraduatecenter for the 13th Annual John Patrick Diggins Memorial Lecture:

"The Perils of Sex: Catherine Macaulay's Constitution of Liberty"

The Segal Theatre at The CUNY Graduate Center
365 5TH Ave. New York, NY 10016

Wow!! Migration and the Origins of American Citizenship by Anna O. Law @unlawfulentries.bsky.social is out!! As timely as it is important.

"Every man of Sense amongst us knows that the Army is not kept here to protect, but to enslave us; and notwithstanding our Assemblies have given vast sums of Money to provide them with such Necessaries which many of the good Burghers want." (John Lamb, "To The Public," Jan. 15, 1770).

newspapers too.

Pennsylvania is like Long Island of my youth this week:

DA Krasner: ICE are wannabe Nazis.
Gov. Shapiro: what a terrible thing to say.
Sen Fetterman: calling people that leads to violence.

reminds me of conversations on playgrounds during the 1970s and i know who was on the side of the bullies.

I am catching up on this, but am quite willing to help do something public and explicit about the pattern. It's pure territorialism combined with a litigious streak, worthy of the oldest of the old boys. This time hiding behind others because not just free to punch down at so respected a scholar

CHEF'S KISS.

ICE Begins Buying ‘Mega’ Warehouse Detention Centers Across US Plans for such centers and jails in nearly two dozen communities have sparked protests over suitability, proximity to homes and schools.

BIG news from @bloomberg.com, which confirms that ICE has gone ahead and *purchased* multiple commercial warehouses with the aim of converting them into mass detention camps.

This is likely to be the big detention story of 2026 — literal warehousing of people.
www.bloomberg.com/news/feature...

I am glad if the suing and bullying pattern is known. Making it hard to be objective and appreciative of their work.

This is extremely fishy, because the Constitution Center is (1) not part of the Park Service, (2) not part of the government - it's a private entity, which (3) has a Republican board head that pushed out (liberal) Pres & CEO, Jeffrey Rosen, in a "leadership dispute" acc. to the Inquirer and NY Times

Are You There, Constitution Center? It’s Me, a Citizen - The Philadelphia Citizen Jeffrey Rosen is out; the Constitution Center must decide if it will remain a genteel place of scholarship or try to save democracy

Informative but I am much more skeptical - to me looks like right-wing takeover that was always on the verge.

I was inspired to research and write _Slavery's Constitution_ after visiting the Center for the first time after it opened.

thephiladelphiacitizen.org/constitution...

all while cutting PhD spots. loser stuff. www.ctinsider.com/news/educati...

So, incredibly, the White House has chosen to escalate in blue Minnesota and retreat in Maine to protect a vulnerable GOP Senator.

It's confirmation that Trump-Vance-Miller view ICE as a partisan govt-backed militia to attack blue America while propping up their regime. 1/

This is extremely fishy, because the Constitution Center is (1) not part of the Park Service, (2) not part of the government - it isa private entity, which (3) has a Republican board head that pushed out (liberal) Pres & CEO, Jeffrey Rosen, in a "leadership dispute" acc. to the Inquirer and NY Times

i have never felt a shortage of contempt for clintons

Go directly to Palestine. Do not pass go, do not collect $200.

Snowcialism!

He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislatures.