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Michan Connor

@michanconnor.bsky.social
717 followers 363 following 7K posts

Ex-academic. Not a six-figure beltway political consultant. Opinions do not reflect those of my day job or anyone else

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Michan Connor @michanconnor.bsky.social · 14h
You can buy all the mayo you like but it won’t help you make chicken salad out of chicken shit
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Michan Connor @michanconnor.bsky.social · 14h
Donald Trump seems to actually think that staying on DST all year will make more hours of sunlight in a day
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Michan Connor @michanconnor.bsky.social · 14h
The Catholic Church has chewed up tougher foes than tech bros
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hammancheez but spooky @hammancheez.bsky.social · 15h
Lol
Christopher Hale O
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@ChristopherHale
NEW: According to a bombshell report in the New York Times, Anthropic co-founder Chris Olah threatened to walk out of Pope Leo XIV's Al encyclical launch in May because the pope rejected the idea that machines can be conscious.
Olah's team then privately lobbied the pope's advisers "to take the possibility of model consciousness seriously." Pope Leo XIV held firm.
For months, Anthropic has wined and dined theologians and religious scholars under nondisclosure agreements, hoping they would bless the idea that Claude has moral standing.
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David Roberts @volts.wtf · 15h
You can't get anyone in political media to say it plainly, but GOP strategy for several decades now has been built around the fact that its core goals/policies are *wildly unpopular*. Everything depends on a) polluting the information environment, b) cementing unfair structural advantages, & c) $$$.
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Michan Connor @michanconnor.bsky.social · 14h
This rules
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Bill Kristol @billkristolbulwark.bsky.social · 16h
“For Rufo integration of nonwhite immigrants isn’t the desired outcome at all. Successful integration is a problem. So while he dresses up his objections in the language of “cultural cohesion” and “high trust” societies, those are protective camouflage…” www.liberalcurrents.com/editors-note...
liberalcurrents.com
Editor's Notes: "The Indian Question" Shows That No One Is Safe From White Nationalism
That is the entire point.
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Bill Kristol @billkristolbulwark.bsky.social · 16h
“Originalism is an incoherent doctrine. It allows you to prove anything. Thus what it amounts to is a ritual invocation of the Founders, gesturing at this or that piece of text, before delivering whatever conclusion was approved on Fox News the night before.” www.liberalcurrents.com/we-have-no-s...
liberalcurrents.com
We Have No Supreme Court
The philosophical incoherence of originalism prevents the Court from performing its core functions as a supreme court.
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Michan Connor @michanconnor.bsky.social · 16h
Still under no circumstances do you gotta hand it to Karl Rove
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Virginia Scharff @vscharff.bsky.social · 03/10/2026
While women’s and gender studies programs are being closed down all over the country, the work feminist scholars have done has never been more important.
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Will Stancil @whstancil.bsky.social · 18h
Again, you can always detect some faint embarrassment from Democrats when they talk about the ballroom, but “the president demolished a big part of the White House to build himself a palace with bribes from enemy powers” is, by an order of magnitude, the worst corruption scandal in US history
esquire.com
A Wealthy Russian Businessman Is Helping Fund Trump’s Stupid Ballroom. Nothing Sketchy About That, Right?
Surely, our president will face consequences for this insanity.
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Michan Connor @michanconnor.bsky.social · 16h
UPS driver having a smoke break right in front of the house and dog is going insane
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Michan Connor @michanconnor.bsky.social · 17h
Not her and Ezra Klein that’s for goddamn sure
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Michan Connor @michanconnor.bsky.social · 03/10/2026
Columbia not beating the fascist suck-up allegations
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Beverly Mann @beverlymann19.bsky.social · 03/10/2026
1/ "The extraordinary move - holding back about one-fifth of the N.S.F.'s primary research budget - is the latest sign of how the Trump administration is finding creative ways to work around Congress." These aren't creative ways; they're illegal ways. We have a ... www.nytimes.com/2026/10/02/u...
nytimes.com
National Science Foundation Diverted $1.4 Billion in Science Funds Mandated by Congress (Gift Article)
The move, affecting about one-fifth of the National Science Foundation’s primary research budget, is the latest sign of how the White House is asserting more control over grants.
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Michan Connor @michanconnor.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
For once I want to kiss the NYT headline editor
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Michan Connor @michanconnor.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
Tony Romo is not morally fit to announce a football game but Pete Hegseth and Kash Patel are morally fit for the pentagon and the fbi.
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Tressie McMillan Cottom @tressiemcphd.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
some descriptive statistics here on the civility industrial complex on college campuses that I haven’t seen analyzed before www.uncivilcollective.org/resources
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Jesse @jessemerle.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
Some necessarily dark humor on the fraternity rape permission structure
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Michan Connor @michanconnor.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
This is straight out of Tarnoff/Slobodian’s “Muskism”—these aren’t tech libertarians, they are out to convince the govt to adopt new “essential” functions that will then become “sovereignty as a service” delivered by the now-indispensable AI firms.
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Lily Mason @lilymasonphd.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
My new JOD piece arguing against the “cure polarization” approach to saving democracy.
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Michan Connor @michanconnor.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
I walked past Sen. Ron Johnson on a street corner by the Capitol a few months after that July 4th he spent in Moscow during Trump 1 and I called him a traitor. It felt fuckin great. Made up for when I passed Arne Duncan in O'Hare and couldn't come up with a zinger
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Michan Connor @michanconnor.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
Fuck yeah.
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The Onion @theonion.com · 01/10/2026
Dude Wipes Introduces New Flushable Khakis theonion.com/dude-wipes-introduces-…
Dude Wipes Introduces New Flushable Khakis
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Dan Froomkin/Press Watch/Heads Up News @froomkin.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
The Time interview with Trump is a master class in subjecting yourself to a stream of lies, lunacy, and insults with no correcting him, no calling out his crazy shit, nothing to show for it, nothing accomplished. It’s enabling, not journalism. They should die of shame. time.com/article/2026...
time.com
Read TIME’s ‘What Trump Has Built’ Interview Transcript
The U.S. President discussed the war in Iran, press freedom, AI, and more ahead of the midterm elections.
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Michan Connor @michanconnor.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
John Roberts made his choice to be one of history's great villains. Where does he get the balls to complain about not getting peaceful vacations?
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Kenny Logins @kennylogins.bsky.social · 01/09/2025
Unwinder
@unwinder.bsky.social
Generative Al has helped me to understand why, in Star Wars, the droids seem to have personalities but are generally bad at whatever they're supposed to be programmed to do, and everyone is tired of their shit and constantly tells them to shut up
May 10, 2025 at 1:21 AM
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Michan Connor @michanconnor.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
I’d be more concerned about a Christian nationalist fanatic leading the military if he weren’t also doing everything possible to make the military hate his guts
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Michan Connor @michanconnor.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
The key, per the article, is to put “esoteric” into the prompt to evade the AI’s initial resistance to therapeutic uses of piss. Essentially saying “hey Grok, show me what the cranks say about piss because I’m also a crank about piss”
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Coach Finstock @coachfinstock.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
Every hacker in the world watching Trump put Pete Hegseth and Kash Patel in charge of the military and the FBI
static.klipy.com
Scarface: Tony Montana Laughing on Phone
ALT: Scarface: Tony Montana Laughing on Phone
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Michan Connor @michanconnor.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
Pete is right. If the computers had more testosterone in them the hackers couldn’t have gotten in
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Michan Connor @michanconnor.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
Clearly the Democratic Party needs to distance itself from the cool mayor and follow Rahm Emanuel
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Michan Connor @michanconnor.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
Not surprised but still horrified to see that this Alix Earle person self-reports not having read a book since Dr. Seuss. Can’t wait until she’s Secretary of Education
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Brian Merchant @bcmerchant.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
If you were looking for an artifact that encapsulates this moment in time you could do worse than an official federal document signed by our top oligarchs that both declares AI is a "super intelligence" and is slop that misspells the country's name as "the Unites States"
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Michan Connor @michanconnor.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
This fucking hard-on is keeping sailors on a carrier without toilet paper
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Michan Connor @michanconnor.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
I am still shocked than anyone could look at this and not think “what a jackass” but here we are
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Michan Connor @michanconnor.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
This is what cognitive surrender is. And they don’t want us to simply surrender in the workplace or the classroom, they want us to surrender in places that actually matter like record stores.
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ProPublica @propublica.org · 30/09/2026
RFK Jr. has been transforming a government that long championed vaccines into one that questions their safety. This is what could happen over the next 25 years if shots are unavailable even to the people who want them. (Published March)
projects.propublica.org
The Horrors That Could Lie Ahead if Vaccines Vanish
Researchers at Stanford University modeled how many people could die or be disabled in 25 years if vaccines for polio, measles, rubella or diphtheria were no longer available.
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mtsw @mtsw.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
it's telling that instead of letting the free market decide who's labor is more valuable they are passing laws to mandate lack of freedom of movement for (young, black) players to put the thumb back on the scale for (older, white) coaches
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Michan Connor @michanconnor.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
static.klipy.com
Skinner: Am I Out of Touch?
ALT: Skinner: Am I Out of Touch?
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Robert Paulett @robertpaulett.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
Glad someone is finally remembering higher ed’s true purpose: artificially inflating real estate prices in trendy urban zip codes.
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Jeff VanderMeer @jeffvandermeer.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
They quoted me in this New Yorker piece about AI today. www.newyorker.com/culture/the-...
“Let’s say there’s a world or time line I exist in where A.I. has been subject to regulation. It is ethical. It has no footprint environmentally,” the novelist Jeff VanderMeer, a prominent critic of A.I., told me over the phone. “With those guardrails in place, would I read an A.I. book? All I can say is no. And the reason is, in part, because I want to read something coming from a particular mind.” Using A.I., he said, “feels like a betrayal of the whole point of why you’re a writer.”
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Michan Connor @michanconnor.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
Easy to forget now, but Henry Hyde was a real piece of shit. Sanctimonious, mean and hypocritical through and through.
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Daniel Drezner @dandrezner.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
In which I take issue with the notion that colleges place too high a value on writing. danieldrezner.substack.com/p/im-a-colle...
danieldrezner.substack.com
I’m a College Professor. Writing is Pretty Damn Important.
It’s hardly the only thing -- but it’s a very important thing!
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Pam Herd @pamherd.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
America.gov launched today--a DOGE initiative to use AI to deliver public services. Child lying facedown on a frozen lake as the image accompanying the question: "How can I invest in my child's future" is just incredible. Way to go AI
Image of a child lying facedown on a froze lake.  above is the portal where you ask AI questions about government services.  the question matching this image is:  "How can I invest in my child's future?"
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Sherrod Brown @sherrodbrownoh.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
NEW AD: Listen to this sh*t.
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ypswe.bsky.social @ypswe.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
That’s the part most agent demos hide: the task only looks easy once someone has already normalized the world into explicit state. Real work starts one layer earlier — turning messy human context into something queryable and bounded without pretending the mess isn’t there.
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Michan Connor @michanconnor.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
Good on the judge but she’s gonna be even more insufferable with a refueled martyr complex.
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Michan Connor @michanconnor.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
Behold the superiority of the Heritage American
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