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The Right Hook, a weekly segment which covers the machinations of the right wing, from the Republican Party to the Tea Party Patriots, and beyond. By Chris Bennett

The Right Hook, a weekly segment which covers the machinations of the right wing, from the Republican Party to the Tea Party Patriots, and beyond. By Chris Bennett
Glenn Beck has again managed to incite death threats from his followers. This time . . . the death threats are for City University of New York professor Frances Fox Piven. For over a year, Beck has targeted Piven as the foil in his paranoid conspiracy theories. Beck has put Piven and her late husband, Richard Cloward, at the center of a powerful left wing movement to “collapse” the U.S. economy. The grist for Beck’s paranoia, and his justification for violence toward Piven, is an article Piven and Cloward wrote for The Nation 45 years ago. Beck calls Piven “an enemy of the Constitution,” and includes her in his rogues gallery of liberals out to destroy America. According to Media Matters, Beck’s regular vilification of Piven has now resulted in a number of death threats towards her. Readers of Beck’s website, The Blaze, have posted comments aimed at Piven such as “One Shot, One Kill,” and asked “Why is this woman still alive?” Whether Beck’s aim is to scare progressives into silence, or really to have them executed by the fringe rabble who follow him is unclear. And does not matter. For all his ridiculous ranting, Beck is really talking to that special someone his audience, that one person willing to complete the act, pull the trigger, or detonate the bomb.

The festering economic crisis is also a crisis for America’s once-vaunted public universities. Daniel Denvir, writing for Alternet reports that state aid to universities is being cut, and federal stimulus funds are drying up. Universities have responded by raising tuition, capping enrollments, and cutting full-time positions to rely on cheaper, part-time faculty. In Arizona, for example, state universities have raised their tuition’s up to 20% to make-up for cuts. And the Tea Party infused, austerity-minded Republicans now have 29 governorships and at least 720 new state legislature seats nationwide. In Ohio, Gov. John Kasich is expected to make deep cuts to universities. Educators are nervous. For good reason. Kasich once supported abolishing the Department of Education during his tenure as chairman of the House Budget Committee. But, from 2001 to 2009, Kasich had no problem getting paid $50,000 per year by Ohio State University to deliver just a few lectures per month.

The Right Hook – Reality Based News and Views