Grrr. I’ve been on the organizing committee for a TA union during a strike, and the whole affair was pretty unpleasant (especially since so many university administrators and tenured faculty – like me – are entitled assholes), but ultimately having the grad assistants unionized puts this part of the university mission on a professional footing. (On my campus not being unionized makes it hard to hold onto TAs, since their lives are better if they teach at the local community college, where they are part of a union, while they continue to study with us.)
University administrators almost always trot out line, “we like to think of them as students first” when fighting grad student unions. That was a tired lie even back in the 60s when it was first used.
All that said, I don’t think this is an especially Trumpian event. Opposition to grad student unions seems to transcend presidencies and party lines.
Denial (I did no such thing)
What-if (If I did such a thing I wouldn’t matter)
Admission (I did the thing)
Justification (It doesn’t matter because…)
Whataboutism (But, Hillary!)
Forgetting (Hey, look here’s a new scandal!)
The conversation I had was largely congratulatory, was largely corruption, all of the corruption taking place. It was largely the fact that we don’t want our people, like Vice President Biden and his son creating to the corruption already in the Ukraine.
And now (Biden) made a lie when he said he never spoke to his son. I mean give me a break, he’s already said he spoke to his son and now he said yesterday very firmly. Who wouldn’t speak to your son? Of course you spoke to your son.
I’ve read this some 10 times and I still can’t parse these statements. It’s like a three year old excitedly explaining … something … in jumbled words.
