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Universities Are Becoming Billion-Dollar Hedge Funds With Schools Attached

Astra Taylor The Nation
It’s not just universities with eating clubs and legacies that are getting into the game. Many public universities are also doing so, in part because state support for education has been cut, but also to compete with richer schools by rapidly increasing their more limited wealth.

Argentina and the Vultures: the Political Economy of the Settlement

Mark Weisbrot The Hill
According to the U.S. federal judge that has held Argentina financially captive since 2014, all the people of Argentina had to do get a tentative agreement with their vulture fund debt holders was choose the right president to run their country. “Put simply, President Macri’s election changed everything,” Judge Thomas Griesa said when announcing the tentative agreement that would allow Argentina to borrow on the international market again and pay its bills.

'What Would Thoreau Do?' Community Builds Replica of Walden Pond Cabin to Block Pipeline

Nika Knight Common Dreams
The natural gas pipeline has been fiercely opposed by local residents of the Berkshires, a region renowned for its natural beauty. The nearly $5 billion pipeline project would run through Ashfield, Conway, Shelburne, Deerfield, Montague, Erving, Northfield, and Warwick, The Recorder reported, where "there are wetlands, rivers, springs, farms and forests."

The Survival of the Paris Commune

Kristin Ross and Jerome Roos Roar Magazine
Kristin Ross is Professor of Comparative Literature at New York University. Her recent book, Communal Luxury: The Political Imaginary of the Paris Commune (Verso, 2015), is a masterful study of the ideas and aspirations driving the historic revolt. ROAR editor Jerome Roos spoke to her about the Commune's legacy, its impact on 19th century radical thought, and the revival of the communal imaginary in our times.

Toddlers Kill More People in the US Than Terrorists Do

Lindy West The Guardian
Last week, a Florida gun rights activist was shot in the back by her four-year-old son. How much longer will we keep participating in the collective lie that deadly weapons keep us safe?

P.T. Barnum with Malevolence (Yes, We’re Talking About Donald Trump)

Peter Eisenstadt and Robert W. Snyder History News Network
Trump is P.T. Barnum with malevolence. People know on some level that they are being fooled. Nevertheless, they enjoy the anger, the bombast, the exaggeration, the canned and phony “honesty.” Trump has long operated in an arena in which most people don’t really believe what he is saying, and most people don’t care.

Friday Nite Videos -- March 18, 2016

Portside
Rachel Maddow | Bernie Sanders. Masters of War. Transporters and Quantum Teleportation. Making A Killing: Guns, Greed & the NRA. Samantha Bee | Cruz 101.