Pentagon chief blocks officers from Ivy League schools and top universities

Hiring costs time, money, and other engineers time and effort. Wasting money and time reviewing a pool with less good candidates will simply lose you business over time, as you waste more resources to obtain the same result.

The decision has nothing to do with any of that tho. Te goal is to punish suspect liberals.

And to give advantage to candidate from right wing and conservative institutions. Because that is the oficial state ideology now.

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They're against anyone cancelling their "culture"

Fascism always trends to incompetency because loyalty is more important than skill and knowledge.

The nazi regime destroyed a lot of what today would be classified as "woke research" by the reactionary right. Sexuality studies, social studies and so on. The book burnings were not only about rooting out fiction, they destroyed research.

That was not my takeaway from the Oppenheimer movie.

Or from … history.

The Germans chose to extremely underinvest in their nuclear program to maintain financial and political support for their rocket program.

The rocket program was so fundamentally different from the Manhattan Project it’s hard to see the Germans doing anything like it.

It's more complicated. At many of these top universities, woke means don't hire whites. And Jews are often lumped in with whites. The Jewish percentage at top schools has dropped dramatically as wokeism appeared. At Princeton, one top professor campaigns to "eliminate whiteness" and he's very open about it.

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Each of those three bowed their head to D&I demands, paid the bribe-fine demanded by the U.S. president, and revised their diversity definitions as demanded. So of course they’re exempt; that’s why they chose to pay their protection fee, after all. For example:

https://info.cornell.edu/executive-orders/federal-agreement/

> The university was reluctant to pay $30 million to the federal government to settle the OCR complaints; however, the alternative course of action would involve years of legal actions against the government with an uncertain outcome and untold costs to careers and livelihoods.

Maybe they like Cornell's existing military affiliation?

Meredith: You know, I once dated a couple of guys from Cornell. They were really nice, gave me a ride home.

Andy: I seriously doubt anyone from Cornell dated you.

Creed: It's pronounced "colonel." It's the highest rank in the military.

Andy: It's pronounced Cornell! It's the highest rank in the Ivy league.

Maybe they are right to block these institutions then?

If this is the quality of product produced what’s the point?

Our Harvard/Stanford etc management seemed less capable than products of state schools. It kind of shocked me as I thought once I got into startups and scaleups with Ivy League talent I’d be way over my head. Very much a let down.

My first reaction was, "watch, they're going to replace actual rigorous educational institutions with religious colleges" and lo and behold, "Liberty University" is at the top of the list for replacement civilian institutions.

https://www.thecrimson.com/article/2026/2/26/langer-harvard-...

The list of replacements institutions from the memo states at the bottom:

> These institutions meet the following criteria: intellectual freedom, minimal relationships with adversaries, minimal public expressions in opposition of the Department, and Graduate-level National Security, International Affairs, and/or Public Policy Programs.

So it is definitely political and not based on merit.

Then UMich - a notably Dem leaning govt program - wouldn't be included.

Personally, I remember taking Fairbanks Center associated classes and noticing how we have the children of Chinese VVIPs sitting next to active duty members.

It sparked interesting conversations, but seeing someone who was a test pilot at Hanford sitting next to a scion of a Red Family was interesting to say the least.

The program also absolutely did used to publicly give advice to the CCP at the time, and on the listservs I'm still on I do still see publicly pronounced UFWD members responding and posting events in the Boston area.

Ofc, if I noticed this then it was absolutely known to three-letter agencies and State, and some of the institutions included are part of a larger culture war, but there is a kernel of truth - too many children of various countries dignitaries attended the program.

Edit: can't reply

> I think isolationism amongst the war party is less helpful than some degree of interaction

UMich isn't an isolationist program though - it's a program which imo is the closest to how foreign policy was managed under the Obama admin.

You "work & study" all for your country? That is impressive. Where I'm from, most people educate themselves for their own benefit and not because of some greater nationalistic plan. But we also don't pledge allegiances every single day for 11+ years of schooling, maybe that helps.

Did you use AI to write an HN comment?

> Independent institutions are weakened or dismantled.

Trump filed massive frivolous lawsuits against law firms, colleges, financial first and other business entities. Most fell in line with a few exceptions.

> Courts are subordinated to the executive.

The courts broadly have not fallen, but there are judges that are purely partisan (Eileen Canon, the dude who sighed the Georgia search warrant). Given enough time the courts will fall.

> Regional governments lose autonomy.

Trump has begun putting pressure on blue states by withholding money. Ice was dispatched to Minneapolis to show everyone what will happen to those that defy him. Local government is still mostly safe, but give it time.

> Legislatures either become rubber stamps or are dissolved.

We'll see what happens in the midterms.

> Emergency powers are often invoked and then made permanent.

IEEPA comes to mind. But his invasions emergencies too.

> Second, they eliminate political opposition. Rival parties are banned.

The midterms may be the last chance before opposition is either banned or entirely impossible.

> Opposition leaders are jailed, exiled, or killed.

Charges against political opponents like Leticia James, Adam Schiff, James Comey. Broadly thrown out for now, but if the courts fall this will happen. ICE has been charging protestors with bullshit charges constantly.

> Trade unions are dissolved or absorbed into state-controlled structures.

Businesses accomplished this years ago on their own.

> Elections, if they continue, become symbolic rather than competitive.

Midterms. We'll see

> Third, they cultivate loyalty to a single leader. The regime builds a personality cult around a figure presented as the embodiment of the nation. Loyalty shifts from constitution and law to the leader personally. Oaths of allegiance are often rewritten to bind military, civil servants, and professionals directly to that individual.

This is just MAGA. I don't believe oaths have been changed yet.

> Fourth, they fuse nationalism with identity politics. The state defines a “true people” and casts minorities, dissidents, or outsiders as internal enemies. This often leads to discriminatory laws and, in extreme cases, ethnic cleansing or genocide, as occurred under Adolf Hitler.

Rise of white Christian nationalism, branding of protestors/opposition as domestic terrorists.

> Fifth, they control information. Independent media is suppressed or co-opted. Propaganda becomes a primary governing tool.

Bari Weiss reshaping CBS, Bezos reshaping wapo, Sinclair media refusing to air Jimmy Kimmel, Brendan Carr threatening licenses for speech. Every single thing trump does on twitter and truth social.

> Education systems are reshaped to reinforce ideology. Culture, art, and science are pressured to align with the state narrative.

DOGE cancelling grants for non approved research. Integration of Turning Point USA into schools.

> Sixth, they militarize society. Paramilitary groups are normalized or integrated into state power.

ICE.

> Public life adopts martial symbols and rhetoric.

Not much, but soon.

> Foreign policy often becomes expansionist, framed as reclaiming national greatness.

Greenland, Venezuela, Iran.

> Seventh, they restructure the economy around state direction and political loyalty. Private property may remain formally intact, but major industries operate in alignment with state priorities. Business leaders who cooperate are rewarded; those who resist are sidelined or punished.

Anthropic/openai drama this week, golden shares in US Steel, Nvidia export controls, tariffs.

> The through-line is loyalty over legality. Institutions stop being neutral frameworks and become instruments of the ruling ideology. The regime reframes dissent as treason and criticism as sabotage.

If you don't see this you're not paying attention.

One thing not mentioned is blatant massive corruption, nepotism, cronyism. We see that every single day.

Thanks for the list.