Texas excluded about two dozen Islamic schools from its $1 billion voucher program for being linked to the Council on American-Islamic Relations, a Muslim civil rights group. The group does not appear on federal lists of foreign terrorist organizations. https://wapo.st/40m11qX
New HistPhil post: David Callahan reviews Bill Clinton's 2024 memoir of his post-White House years, "Citizens," and argues that his philanthropic legacy (almost always discussed in the glare of right-wing attacks) deserves more attention and respect.
histphil.org/2026/03/09/b...
Florida Gov. DeSantis issued an order barring Muslim advocacy group CAIR or "any person known to have provided material support or resources" to CAIR from receiving any contract or benefit from Florida state or local governments. A court just struck that down, notes Eugene Volokh, who concurs.
Breaking: The House Oversight Committee is requesting transcribed interviews with 7 new individuals as part of the panel's Epstein investigation:
Bill Gates: May 19
Kathryn Ruemmler: April 21
Ted Waitt: April 16
Doug Band: May 5
Leon Black: May 13
Lesley Groff: June 9
Sarah Kellen: June 3
My god.
There should be a law against naming any institution for a sitting president and a norm against naming institutions for a living individual.
New HistPhil post: Deepak Bhargava reviews @johnfabianwitt.bsky.social The Radical Fund, finding in the early 20th C. history of the Garland Fund lessons for today's progressive, radical, and movement-oriented funders.
histphil.org/2026/02/17/a...
6: So in the philanthropy space, the question that this piece underscores is: should Mellon’s role change in a context of shrinking support for the humanities from government sources. Does its own unaccountable power become more of a democratic problem in this funding regime? My sense is yes.
5: The problem is that this role is justified bc it assumes market & state support for more conventional work. The model gets scrambled & philanthropic power becomes more of a problem, when philanthropy supports work that is at once experimental *and* hegemonic, as Harper suggests.
4: In this case, Mellon is fulfilling precisely that role, one that is consistent w/ democratic and pluralistic norms.
3: There are reasons for this, beyond ideological tribalism. One of the underlying justifying rationales of philanthropy within a democracy, as Rob Reich has so well articulated, is to support experimental or marginalized work, that which the market or the government would not.
2: Generally speaking, philanthropy scholarship spends much less time focusing on the proclivity of philanthropy to warp or capture movements or fields when it's pushing leftward—as opposed to when it's exercising a moderating or conservative force, when it’s deemed a threat to democracy.
1: There’s been lots of talk abt the Tyler Austin Harper Atlantic piece on the Mellon Foundation as an intervention (whether commendable or silly) in the contemp crisis of the humanities, but much less as one wrt to the crisis of philanthropy in a democracy. I'm not surprised.
Maggie Lemos & Guy-Uriel Charles revisit their 2018 article on "patriotic philanthropy," big private gifts to public programs or institutions, in light of its embrace by Pres. Trump, highlighting its links to the imperial presidency & hollowing out of state capacity.
histphil.org/2026/02/12/r...
Freedom 250 has "emerged as another vehicle...thru which ppl & companies w interests before the Trump admin can make tax-deductible donations to gain access to...a pres who's maintained a...willingness to use the levers of govt power to reward financial supporters."
www.nytimes.com/2026/02/08/u...
Normalize the rejection of in vivos naming rights--across the board.
punchbowl.news/article/whit...
WIN: A federal court blocked Texas AG Ken Paxton’s attempt to revoke a pro-voting group’s corporate charter.
The group, which focuses on increasing voter turnout among young Latinos, argued Paxton’s actions were part of an intimidation campaign meant to halt voter registration efforts.
What diner are they gonna visit?
New post-doc position working with me in a new lab at @snfagora.bsky.social ! It's one year appointment, renewable for up to 5 years. The position includes data analysis and independent research, mentorship of lab members, and participation in SNF Agora Institute life.
apply.interfolio.com/178796
it is important to assert, while recognizing all the dangers it faces, and all the ways it has disappointed in the last year, that civil society in the US is still vital and strong.
www.nytimes.com/2026/01/18/o...
The Dells' $6b pledge to support Trump Accounts has been understood as a push for nonprofit "disintermediation." But, as Madeline Brown & I argue, it also highlights the import of the robust nonprofit infrastructure that's advanced the cash benefit field.
www.urban.org/urban-wire/d...
New HistPhil post:
histphil.org/2026/01/13/r...
Jeffrey Berry, James Glaser, & Deborah J. Schildkraut outline the findings on the relationship btw political ideology and charitable giving from their recent book, Everyday Democracy: Liberals, Conservatives, and Their Routine Political Lives.
For a bit of a timeline cleanse...I recently finished watching Heated Rivalry, and the obvious question I have is:
Is the proposed Hollander-Rozanov hockey/mental health nonprofit the most narratively consequential charity is recent cultural history?
The 10-year old me would have had his mind blown to know that Don Mattingly would one day be wearing a Phillies uniform. I don't remember why, but even as a devoted Phillies fan, he was always my favorite player growing up. I remember checking box scores every morning to see if he outhit Wade Boggs.
I do agree that the dropoff in play of the offensive line has been a MAJOR factor and one that still doesnt get enough focus. Depth a real issue there, given no guarantee there'll be a bounce back (at least w/ OG-OC play). Lane will be fine. Until he's not.
Why not both? (ie, on that one red zone flub, the decision to throw from shotgun on 3rd and 3, and then to do so again on 4th down, was just duuuuuumb). DBs stunk, but I don't think playcalling helped much.
I'd understand this reading if Remmick had "captured" bluegrass music, which had/has a sig commercial market in US. But trad Irish music? The devil stepdancing to "Rocky Road to Dublin"? It's not coherent as commercial critique, IMO. This guy seems to agree...
www.conorfitzgerald.com/p/sinners-an...
Finally saw Sinners; founds parts of it enjoyable, others heavy-handed. But one thing that really confounded me was its treatment of trad Scots-Irish music, literally the devil's music. Esp. given celebration of non-Anglo trad music in film, doesn't this point to a pretty ugly cultural politics?
I think there should be regulation for public bodies--and a strong norm for private ones--that having one's name attached to an institution should be an exclusively posthumous honor.
www.cnn.com/2025/12/18/p...
For those trying to get a handle on the sprawling Darwin-at-the-galapagos variety of contemp mega-philanthropy, I highly rec @insidephilanthropy.com series on billionaire giving in a new Gilded Age. Here's the first post from David Callahan w/ predictions: www.insidephilanthropy.com/home/the-fut...
