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Haydon is reading The Uncertain Center, Arthur C McGill

@haydonmp.bsky.social

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Dad, husband, double hoo.

10+ years as a fire/medic, published neuro/stroke clinical researcher, public and foreign policy degrees. Occasional woodworking posts.

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Haydon is reading The Uncertain Center, Arthur C McGill

@haydonmp.bsky.social

I don't know a ton about the 2.3, but I've heard good things.

The 2.7 is great in my truck, let's me get ~27 mpg highway but has the power to tow. I know it'll be hell when I have to replace the turbos and clean the intake since the gen 1 doesn't have port injection but it's so overbuilt.

Bottom end of 2.7L ecoboost, you can see the different ways the engine itself is reinforced and overbuilt. It let's you squeeze *way more* power out small displacement without issue. It's pretty.

See: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xZJicuObVDY

November 14, 2025 at 4:49 PM

Haydon is reading The Uncertain Center, Arthur C McGill

@haydonmp.bsky.social

In conclusion, to quote Ryan

"What I do know is that I was accused more than once by some Board members and the Governor’s office of being stubborn. Perhaps I am. But stubborn and principled often look the same, especially to those who are unprincipled."

We were committed to following the actual law. We were also open to changing policies and practices
if they were not working well or if there were persuasive, principled reasons to change course. At the
same time, I was never going to give up the core values of UVA or my own principles simply to satisfy
the prevailing political winds or the political ambitions of some. In the end, that may have been the real
problem, though I will probably never know. What I do know is that I was accused more than once by
some Board members and the Governor’s office of being stubborn. Perhaps I am. But stubborn and
principled often look the same, especially to those who are unprincipled.

November 14, 2025 at 2:59 PM

Haydon is reading The Uncertain Center, Arthur C McGill

@haydonmp.bsky.social

We are left with a series of question by Ryan.

How is Youngkin implicated?

How is Miyares implicated?

What is going on with the Board of Visitors?

Is DOJ or the BoV lying?

Was there a written agreement?

Some Outstanding Questions
In the end, I’m left with some lingering questions:
1. According to Paul Manning, the Governor knew what was happening and suggested I needed to
resign. What did the Governor know, when did he know it, and what—if anything—did he do to
try to either secure my resignation or prevent it?
2. How involved was the Attorney General’s office in directing the legal representation offered by
McGuire Woods?
Page 11 of 12

Page 12 of 12

3. Why did Rachel, Porter, and later Paul not inform the rest of the Board about the DOJ’s apparent
insistence that I resign?

4. Harmeet Dhillon, one of the DOJ lawyers, publicly and unequivocally stated—twice—that
neither she nor her colleagues asked for my resignation or offered some sort of quid pro quo.
That is not what Rachel, Porter, and Paul conveyed to me. Who is telling the truth?

5. Was it appropriate that Rachel Sheridan hired a lawyer to persuade me to resign, without
informing me or the rest of the Board?

6. Was there a written agreement before my resignation, as I was told? If so, what did it say? If
not, why was I told there was one?

November 14, 2025 at 2:58 PM

Haydon is reading The Uncertain Center, Arthur C McGill

@haydonmp.bsky.social

"Which member of the bad faith cabal was the source of the threats against UVA as an institution? It's impossible for me to know because everyone here is a bad faith liar that lies."

If the DOJ was sincerely threatening UVA if I did not resign, I think it’s important to recognize that that
presented a difficult choice. What is not clear to me, however, is whether the threat was real, or whether
the idea came from the Board members who spoke with the DOJ lawyers, our own lawyers, the
Governor, or some combination of that group. Harmeet Dhillon emphatically and publicly stated, twice,
that neither she nor her DOJ colleagues demanded my resignation or offered some sort of quid pro quo.
This is not consistent with what I was told by Rachel and Paul, but I was never in the room when these
conversations took place.
Given the contradictory statements, someone is obviously not telling the truth, and it’s not clear to me
what incentive Harmeet would have to be dishonest about this. It’s not as if the Trump administration
has been shy about calling for resignations. Forcing university presidents to resign, moreover, has not
been part of the playbook of the Trump administration; as far as I know, I am the only university
president in the country who has been forced to resign as part of a supposed deal with the Trump
administration. At the very least, we had Board members who were apparently more complicit than
other universities.
To that end: Assuming the threat did come from the DOJ, I do not understand why the Board members
involved did not say from the very beginning that forcing the resignation of the president because of
federal pressure is off the table. It is puzzling and disappointing that they did not recognize and convey
that this was an outrageous incursion into the Board’s own authority, with little legal basis or

November 14, 2025 at 2:54 PM

Haydon is reading The Uncertain Center, Arthur C McGill

@haydonmp.bsky.social

This is the most startling passage.

"Manning reached out directly to the DOJ
lawyers to make sure he was not missing anything, and he said that they told him that if I didn’t resign,
they would “bleed UVA white.”"

During the ten-day period before I resigned, I also reached out to a former Board member, who has
extensive connections in DC, to see if there was some way to stop this from happening. We spent
several days trying to understand if this was a bluff and/or if there were some way to forestall the
looming threat to UVA and to me. In the meantime, Paul Manning reached out directly to the DOJ
lawyers to make sure he was not missing anything, and he said that they told him that if I didn’t resign,
they would “bleed UVA white.”

November 14, 2025 at 2:50 PM

Haydon is reading The Uncertain Center, Arthur C McGill

@haydonmp.bsky.social

Here we see evidence of a multi pronged, and well-staffed effort of lawyers that organized around the Trump administration's war on higher education, and how they go around from institution to institution threatening leadership to resign. "Beth Wilkinson"

Beth reached out to me on Tuesday, June 24, two days before I resigned. She got quickly to the point,
saying that she heard I was willing to resign and wanted to walk me through what that would look like.
Startled, I said I thought she was going to talk about her experience with Columbia, but instead she was
focused solely on persuading me to resign. I told her, as I had told Rachel and Paul, that I would resign
if it were in the best interest of UVA, but that it wasn’t clear to me it was. I also asked her if she was
working for the Board as their lawyer, and she told me she was.
This surprised me, both because Rachel did not indicate that Beth was already working for the Board,
and also because lawyers representing a potentially adverse party have an ethical duty to indicate as
much—and not pretend they are the same side. The conversation continued to be tense, and at one point
Beth told me that I was going to be kicked out one way or the other, and that if I didn’t resign, the Board
would fire me. This was obviously different from what Paul had told me days earlier, namely that the
Page 6 of 12
decision to resign was mine alone. Beth then indicated that the Board might even try to fire me for
cause if I did not resign, which would mean not just leaving the presidency but losing my tenured
faculty position and being kicked out of the university altogether. A little flabbergasted, I asked how in
the world could the Board possibly fire me for cause. She fumbled with the question and then offered
one reason: that I walked out of a Board meeting. That never happened.

November 14, 2025 at 2:47 PM

Haydon is reading The Uncertain Center, Arthur C McGill

@haydonmp.bsky.social

Here is Governor Youngkin threatening to destroy the state flagship university if Ryan didn't resign.

Paul told me that he had heard from both the Governor and Rachel about the need for me to resign. He
told me that, as a friend, he did not want me to go through the ordeal of trying to fight the federal
government, and he was worried what the DOJ—and other agencies—might do to UVA, especially with
respect to research funding. He also told me that I would likely be blamed for the losses. It was unclear
to me whether this conversation was Paul’s idea, or whether he was carrying water for the Governor and
Rachel.

November 14, 2025 at 2:42 PM

Haydon is reading The Uncertain Center, Arthur C McGill

@haydonmp.bsky.social

Here Ryan notes Attorney General Miyares refused to allow UVA to bring on anyone other than conservative friendly attorneys in order to defend itself.

"I do not know if they were exercising their independent judgment or receiving directions from a Board member and/or the Attorney General’s office".

It is important to understand that in order to get outside counsel, we must get the Attorney General’s
permission. We were allowed to hire McGuire Woods, a law firm with which we had worked in the
past. We asked for the three lawyers who had worked with us previously, but only two were
approved—Jack White and Farnaz Thompson. Both are very good lawyers who are also conservative,
and Farnaz worked on Project 2025. The third lawyer—the senior most lawyer of the three—Jonathan
Page 3 of 12
Blank, is a UVA alum and a moderate. Despite his seniority and the volume of work required, as well
as his knowledge of UVA, I was told he was not allowed to participate.

It is impossible for me to know, but the timing of the DOJ letters, the ever expanding scope of their
inquiries, and their willingness to give us extension after extension made me wonder more than once if
the DOJ was not actually interested in our response, perhaps because they showed—from what I saw-
that we were complying with the law. Regardless, the public claim made by one of the DOJ lawyers
that we kept stalling by asking for extension after extension was misleading, at best. Why our own
lawyers did not seem to understand or appreciate that submitting information in stages would be better
than submitting nothing at all, especially given the false accusations that we were stonewalling, remains
a mystery to me. I do not know if they were exercising their independent judgment or receiving
directions from a Board member and/or the Attorney General’s office.

November 14, 2025 at 2:40 PM

Haydon is reading The Uncertain Center, Arthur C McGill

@haydonmp.bsky.social

Ryan notes that this began in earnest in the Spring, when the university board of visitors received a resolution directly from the governor. He notes how it was inflammatory but that he was advised at the time not to fire anyone.

The trouble began at the March 2025 Board meeting, when we received a resolution regarding diversity,
equity, and inclusion (“DEI”) that Governor Youngkin’s office drafted. This was the first time in my
seven years that the Governor’s office had drafted a resolution on behalf of the Board.
The original resolution was quite sweeping and filled with inflammatory rhetoric criticizing DEI, much
of it lifted from President Trump’s executive order. After numerous edits and intense conversation, the
resolution passed by the Board was fairly mild—so much so that the Board, which included four
members appointed by the previous, Democratic Governor, adopted the resolution unanimously. We
were directed to dissolve “the DEI office” at UVA and move all permissible programs to another
institutional home within the University, and we were to ensure that we were complying with anti
discrimination laws. We were specifically told by an official in the Governor’s office that we were not
being directed to fire anyone. We were told to update the Board within 30 days.

November 14, 2025 at 2:34 PM

Haydon is reading The Uncertain Center, Arthur C McGill

@haydonmp.bsky.social

To start, he calls out Youngkin and Rector Sheridan directly for misleading statements on the circumstances of his departure, and that this is his opportunity to set the record straight. An absolutely remarkable document.

In light of Rector Sheridan’s letter, as well as the Governor’s, which I do not think present an accurate
accounting of my resignation, I am sending my document to all of you now. I am sorry for the slight
delay. I did not send this to you yesterday because I thought it would be inappropriate to do so on the
third anniversary of the tragic deaths of three of our students

November 14, 2025 at 2:31 PM

Haydon is reading The Uncertain Center, Arthur C McGill

@haydonmp.bsky.social

Remarkable that a lame duck governor whose tenure was characterized by an inability to govern with the legislature and a series of no confidence votes at universities he claimed to protect would think this comes across as anything but impotent and sad.

"Throughout my term, I have worked hard to ensure that they [Virginia universities] are indeed free of political interference and are safe environments for learning, and appointed individuals with extraordinary skills, competence and experience necessary to manage our incredible higher education institutions," he wrote. "I hope you too will take that to heart."

In closing, Youngkin stressed that the transition period between Election Day and Inauguration Day not only allows an incoming governor to prepare, but allows the outgoing governor to "wrap up and transfer ongoing initiatives."

November 14, 2025 at 1:49 PM

Haydon is reading The Uncertain Center, Arthur C McGill

@haydonmp.bsky.social

This is distinct from ventricular fibrillation where the person is pulseless and clinically dead.

Compare the two ecgs below, one for afib and the other for vfib.

… you can see why I think they got this mixed up.

Atrial fibrillation ecg rhythm tracing. Not the irregularly irregular but *organized* complexes.

Vfib rhythm tracing, see the chaotic and disorganized electrical activity.

November 13, 2025 at 6:54 PM

Haydon is reading The Uncertain Center, Arthur C McGill

@haydonmp.bsky.social

There’s a lot happening here, I think they mean “atrial fibrillation” because “ventricular fibrillation” is “clinically dead unless immediately resuscitated”.

Atrial fibrillation is that arrhythmia I talked about a bit on the podcast, and it’s what he’s said was the underlying source of his stroke

"During an early morning walk, Senator Fetterman sustained a fall near his home in Braddock.
Out of an abundance of caution, he was transported to a hospital in Pittsburgh.
Upon evaluation, it was established he had a ventricular fibrillation flare-up that led to Senator Fetterman feeling light-headed, falling to the ground and hitting his face with minor injuries.
Senator Fetterman had this to say: 'If you thought my face looked bad before, wait until you see it now!'

November 13, 2025 at 6:49 PM

Haydon is reading The Uncertain Center, Arthur C McGill

@haydonmp.bsky.social

It’s *really* there.

From the letter our Governor Elect sent to the university.

“You are pretenders, cease your damaging actions to our beloved institution or myself and my near super majority in the state legislature will ensure you do.”

Over the past six months, the actions of the Board of Visitors have severely undermined the public's and the University community's confidence in the Board's ability to govern productively, transparently, and in the best interests of the University. This loss of confidence is reflected in the numerous votes of no confidence from both the faculty senate and the student council - constituencies essential to the University's success and those directly affected by the critical decisions before the Board. In addition, as five Board appointees have failed to achieve confirmation by the General Assembly, the Board is not fully constituted and its composition is now in violation of statutory requirements in crucial respects, further calling into question the legitimacy of the Board and its actions.

November 13, 2025 at 12:49 PM

Haydon is reading The Uncertain Center, Arthur C McGill

@haydonmp.bsky.social

Real sign of the times here.

clintpup.bsky.social@clintpup.bsk... • 9h
But Black Dynamite, I live in Gomorrah!
2
Yorubarbie loves sour a... @caladal... • 9h But, black dynamite, *|* live in Babylon!!!

November 13, 2025 at 11:49 AM

Haydon is reading The Uncertain Center, Arthur C McGill

@haydonmp.bsky.social

He’s doing great, Fig

November 13, 2025 at 1:28 AM

Haydon is reading The Uncertain Center, Arthur C McGill

@haydonmp.bsky.social

山人
ASHUT ThE
NITENNA SALUATION COUNCE
TRESSE NONENO RESINO MEEN ANGERICA
ALL HAIL ABIGAILT
PEACE
LONG LIVE THE DEMOCRATIC DICTATORSHIP OF THE NATIONAL SALVATION COUNCIL UNDER THE LEADERSHIP OF CHAIRWOMAN SPANBERGER!

Abigail Spanberger getting married, with cavman, in front of the rotunda at UVA.

November 13, 2025 at 12:44 AM

Haydon is reading The Uncertain Center, Arthur C McGill

@haydonmp.bsky.social

This does not look like a pleasant way to crash a very large aircraft based on those exhaust streams.

Picture still crashing of C130 *spiraling* out of the sky. Not great.

November 12, 2025 at 4:13 PM

Haydon is reading The Uncertain Center, Arthur C McGill

@haydonmp.bsky.social

Man, Larry Summer's is trash.

"I observed that half the IQ In world (sic) was possessed by women without mentioning they are more than 51 percentof populations...."