Bret Robertson

Universities had 17 years of warning. They responded by doing the opposite of what the math demanded. In 2008, American birth rates fell off a cliff. The Great Recession made people stop having kids. Those never-born children would be turning 18 right now. The number of U.S. high school graduates peaked at roughly 3.9 million in 2025. By 2029, that number drops 15%. By 2041, it drops by nearly half a million students per year. Every school in this tweet had access to the same Census data. They all saw the same curve. Administrative positions at U.S. colleges grew 60% between 1993 and 2009, ten times the rate of tenured faculty growth. Non-instructional spending (student services, administration) grew 29% from 2010 to 2018. Instructional spending grew 17%. Average tuition at public four-year schools went from $3,500 in 2000 to $10,560 in 2023. Yale now has more administrators than undergraduate students. 5,460 administrators for fewer than 5,000 undergrads. They built the cost structure of a growth company on top of a customer base that was mathematically guaranteed to shrink. The split in this data tells you everything. Clemson, Syracuse, Duke, UNC, and Indiana are all cutting because the model broke. Alabama, Ole Miss, and the University of Florida are turning away more applicants than ever. Harvard gets five applications for every spot. The middle is where the cliff hits. Elite schools absorb demand. Everyone between elite and community college fights over a shrinking pool. The Fed published a study in December 2024 predicting 80 colleges will close in the next five years. Since 2016, over 100 already have. In 2024 alone, 28 shut down. One per week. These program cuts and layoffs are a decade late. The birth rate data was sitting in Census spreadsheets the entire time. Everyone in higher education administration saw the enrollment cliff coming. They hired more administrators anyway.

At this point it’s obvious the billionaires are trying to kill us. What do you mean the new AI data center in Utah will raise the state’s nightly temperature by 20+ degrees???

In the movie “Top Gun”, Maverick picks up Kelly McGillis by singing in the Officer’s Club. The “O Club” – as it’s known – was a thing, but died a slow death. I missed most of it in my career. In the day, Mom got pissed at the Nellis AFB O’ Club for “Lingerie Night” where models came in & showed off lingerie for sale. It was an early memory for me, seeing those women cross the hall…Mom was beyond pissed & went on a crusade w/ the other Officer’s wives, ending up in the General’s office. They won, but I wish they hadn’t. Before 9/11, the Air Force allowed busses of women to come onto the base on weekend nights, headed to the O’ Club. My Dad was the commander of Security Forces at the time; it was a thing he allowed & for a reason. Seriously, busses full of women, all going to the O’ Club…it was a hot spot at any base. The O’ Club could be a wild place. Once, at Nellis, Dad got a call on a Saturday (I think, but definitely a weekend). It was “Red Flag”, with fighter pilots from all over the world attending to do simulated air war against each other…they’d gotten drunk in the O’ Club & started actually fighting, smashing things up. Shit show. He told his troops to go get all the dogs…Nellis was a center for military dog training & he had turned the “Squadron” into a “Group”, then made “Silver Flag” in the desert, where SF got to play war. It was now not just a place SF could be stationed, it was the home of SF. Anyway, he recalled all the troops, went to the club & locked all the doors except one. Then they let the dogs in…nobody escorting, just release the dog with the command to go fuck things up. One by one, the pilots came out in surrender. He loved that story…wish I could hear him tell it one more time. Anyway, the Tailhook Scandal happened & that was the death signal. Now, Commanders counted the amount of drinks you had. Instead of being a place you could relax, you had to be on duty still. You had to pay to be a member of the O’ Club. It became a place where your career was in jeopardy, so membership declined. The Officer & Enlisted Clubs eventually merged to try & survive, but I don’t think it has gone well. Some Commanders would hold mandatory meetings there, and you had to be a member to attend, which generated some memberships, but that was received poorly. The Pilot Training Bases still have a decent club scene. They don’t allow civilians to come anymore, but it’s a bunch of young trainee pilots trying to flex on each other, playing a very physical game called “Crud”. You’ll have to google that. I helped a Major refit the Club at Vance AFB around 2000. He knew what to do & it was great…he managed to get an ejection seat & a stick from the T-37 right at the bar. Then he wired it so that if you pulled the “Trigger” on the stick, it set off alarm lights & sirens in the club, and now our brand new, naive student who fancied himself a steely-eyed killer owed the whole club beers when the lights & alarms went off. I had a few good nights at O’ Clubs. Vance AFB could get wild on Assignment Night. Randolph AFB was still kicking… the AF Nursing program was based nearby & it had a basement Crud room w/ sandbag walls, so things could get wild when the nurses showed up to have fun. My buddy may make General, but I remember him passing out on a General’s lawn as a Lieutenant after a good night at Randolph & being woken by the sprinklers. We lost something. Some of it was worth discarding, but not all of it was & it built relationships in a way we lack today. The Clubs were good, and it makes me sad they are in such a bad state today.

I’m pro-freedom, pro-law and order, pro-limited government, and pro-the Declaration and the Constitution. And so today I’m a Democrat.

When we came into office, we uncovered a $12 billion budget deficit. Today, I’m proud to say we brought it down to zero. We didn’t close the gap on the backs of working people. We closed it while funding parks, libraries, safer streets and making historic investments in public housing. Call it Pothole Politics. Call it Democratic Socialism. It's government that delivers for the people who make this city run. That’s what New Yorkers deserve. And that’s what we will keep fighting for every single day.

New reporting reveals RFK Jr. is exploring banning certain SSRIs, potentially barring drugs like Zoloft, Prozac and Lexapro. Decades of research shows SSRIs are safe and effective.

Han Solo still fighting against the empire

In Chicago, we believe in academic freedom, teaching Black history, supporting trans and immigrant youth, teaching civics, and doing our part to stand up to the billionaires who have taken over federal government to bring back the confederacy. The same people erasing the Tuskegee airmen from museums are investigating CPS and our CEO for staying committed to teaching about them. It’s not a coincidence that the administration disenfranchising Black voters in the South is investigating how we teach their children in the North. It’s yet one more example of why we need our state leaders to take seriously the need to Trump proof Illinois.

New reporting reveals RFK Jr. is exploring banning certain SSRIs, potentially barring drugs like Zoloft, Prozac and Lexapro. Decades of research shows SSRIs are safe and effective.

New reporting reveals RFK Jr. is exploring banning certain SSRIs, potentially barring drugs like Zoloft, Prozac and Lexapro. Decades of research shows SSRIs are safe and effective.

“I don’t want AI helping doctors. I want it running global healthcare.” “We’re linking medical records, biometric IDs, payment systems — one system, one stream of patient data.” Your body turned into data, inside a system you don’t control.

She's wearing shirt about "kindness" as she does this. You can't make it up.

She's wearing shirt about "kindness" as she does this. You can't make it up.

That's an interesting chart. Young men have stayed similarly conservative for over 25 years, while young women have drifted much further left. Why such a divergence? What has changed for young women that hasn't changed for young men?