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Nick Fleisher

@nickfleisher.bsky.social
3.6K followers 808 following 7.2K posts

Linguist at UW-Milwaukee. Syntax & semantics, higher ed, Wisconsin politics &c.

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Nick Fleisher @nickfleisher.bsky.social · 05/10/2026
Basically every time anybody opens a cardboard box Tom Tiffany's campaign gets a nickel
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Nick Fleisher @nickfleisher.bsky.social · 05/10/2026
Alito forever blurring the line between a very narrow legal perspective and outright sophistry
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Curt Hogg @cyrthogg.bsky.social · 04/10/2026
Jackson Chourio is now the Brewers all-time postseason home run leader. He is 22 years old.
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Nick Fleisher @nickfleisher.bsky.social · 03/10/2026
"high and dangerous steeples to reach" he really is mentally stuck in 1985, this is a plot point in Back to the Future
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Nick Fleisher @nickfleisher.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
I can tell I'm in the right part of LA because I just saw Vulfmon on the street within my first 18 hours of arriving
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Nick Fleisher @nickfleisher.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
Like half the Tiffany ads are "local taxes in Milwaukee County went up while Crowley was exec" and yes, that was the grand bargain with the GOP-controlled state legislature to put MKE city and county on firmer financial footing
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Semantics of Natural Languages @semnatlangs.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
Just out in Semantics of Natural Languages: Yurika Aonuki on "Scale-sensitivity of comparatives and measure phrase interpretations in Gitksan" snl-journal.org/article/id/2...
snl-journal.org
Scale-sensitivity of comparatives and measure phrase interpretations in Gitksan
This paper demonstrates that in Gitksan, measure phrases (MPs) occurring with relative gradable adjectives (GAs) like ’wii ’nakw ‘tall’ receive differential interpretations even in the absence of an o...
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Nick Fleisher @nickfleisher.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
First the Meta "Five Years" ad and now this. Our tech overlords are all functionally illiterate
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Nick Fleisher @nickfleisher.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
They really truncated it, too
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Nick Fleisher @nickfleisher.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
"Assimilation is when I'm not racist" -Chris Rufo's podcast cohost
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Nick Fleisher @nickfleisher.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
Our current obscene gambling era is something that everyone will have been against, once it's over
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🎃Darin S Pumpkins🎃 @darinself.com · 01/10/2026
Alright class, lets gather around and discuss parties as coalitions as the ability of members of legislature (MLs) to credibly challenge or defect from party leadership.
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David M. Perry @lollardfish.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
“Cutting this much from the university budget will mean that some of the core functions of the university will be lost. It’s not possible to just do more with less — to work smarter, to trim around the edges. We’re going to have to do less with less.” Gift link: www.startribune.com/umn-cuts-sta...
startribune.com
Perry: What we lose if the U cuts $225 million
"Austerity doesn’t work. Instead, it creates a death spiral, where reduction in services leads to reductions in revenue, which lead to reductions in services, which leads to reduction in revenue, whic...
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whet moser @whetmoser.com · 01/10/2026
“what is the information diet of politicians” is an increasingly urgent question
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Nick Fleisher @nickfleisher.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
Skill issue, sorry John
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Nick Fleisher @nickfleisher.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
This is called training on your own output
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Nick Fleisher @nickfleisher.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
Not sure if Hot Rats quite fits the bill here but it's pretty close
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Jarrett Walker @humantransit.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
Milwaukee, Wisconsin: Our firm has developed some alternative concepts for the near-future of your transit network! Read all about it here: humantransit.org/2026/09/milw...
humantransit.org
Milwaukee: Transit Options for the "Fiscal Cliff" — Human Transit
It is a difficult year for transit agencies all over the US, as a range of converging problems is pushing budgets out of balance.  I discussed the problems in more detail in this post on Portland, but...
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Don Moynihan @donmoyn.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
Pete Hegseth removing tenure protections shows precisely why they are needed. He wants to silence dissent by being able to fire anyone who questions his vision of the military. www.militarytimes.com/news/pentago...
militarytimes.com
Hegseth halts tenure appointments for civilian faculty at military academies
Military academies will no longer appoint civilian faculty to tenured positions as Hegseth says it can contribute to “academic stagnation.”
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Nick Fleisher @nickfleisher.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
Say what you will about Andrew Carnegie, at least he understood that his legacy depended in part on building the university in a city that would still exist a century later
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Nick Fleisher @nickfleisher.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
Schmitt and staff: "Your wife owes money to Jackie Treehorn, that means you owe money to Jackie Treehorn"
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Nick Fleisher @nickfleisher.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
A load-bearing feature of the argument here is that the author doesn't "rely on prepared scripts when I teach," which is completely beside the point
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Nick Fleisher @nickfleisher.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
iOS autocorrect is terrible at learning. My daughter's name starts with L. Dozens, probably hundreds of times over the years I have typed "L's" in a text only to have it autocorrected to "Al's". I always change it back. It keeps happening. Dogshit technology
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Nick Fleisher @nickfleisher.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
"Enjoy your death trap, ladies"
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Julia Carrie Wong @joolia.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
yes my bull went rogue in your china shop but I think we can all agree there’s no liability here it’s an agentic being
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Mark Copelovitch @mcopelov.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
🧵👇🎯 If you want to connect dots & understand why we never do elite accountability in 🇺🇸 politics & society & haven’t since at least Iran-Contra but really since Appomattox, this is a very good a place to start I learned many things as a Poor Kid at Yale & Harvard, but perhaps this lesson above all
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Anthony Moser @anthonymoser.com · 26/01/2026
"ai" is not a genie that can't be put back in a bottle, it's a pillar of smoke that dissipates unless you keep burning money
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Nick Fleisher @nickfleisher.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
The only Texas song you need to know is "That's Right, You're Not From Texas" by Lyle Lovett
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Mackenzie Easy-Ups @babdotcom.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
some idiot telling a computer to say ouch, the computer says "ouch" and the imbecile is amazed
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Nick Fleisher @nickfleisher.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
Love too commit fraud by simply paying into an insurance fund
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Nick Fleisher @nickfleisher.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
Apple has got to stop with the California-based OS names. I love California but who can keep them all straight? We need differentiation. macOS Chesapeake. macOS Four Corners. macOS Gowanus. Please, anything
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Nick Fleisher @nickfleisher.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
Wait, every team in the AL West is under .500?
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Nick Fleisher @nickfleisher.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
You all watch too much tv, that much is clear
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Nick Fleisher @nickfleisher.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
Courting controversy to rank 30 Rock as low as 8th imho
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Nick Fleisher @nickfleisher.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
Apple has buried the toggle to disable suggested replies in Messages under the Keyboard menu(!) in the macOS 27 System Settings, but you can still disable it: System Settings → Keyboard → Text Input → Edit → All Input Sources → turn off Show suggested replies
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Nick Fleisher @nickfleisher.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
The Academy for Unusually Ambitious Young People sounds straight out of Lemony Snicket
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Nick Fleisher @nickfleisher.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
Money pls
UW-Madison grant solicitation "Reimagining the Bathroom", asking for proposals to use AI to change how bathrooms work
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Nick Fleisher @nickfleisher.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
What if Louis XIV was a scumbag real estate developer from Queens?
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Nick Fleisher @nickfleisher.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
Increasingly convinced that a Democrat will hold this seat come Jan 2029
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Nick Fleisher @nickfleisher.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
If Obama had talked about trade deficits this way he would have been hounded from office by the entire national political and media apparatus
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the babahuck @tylerhuckabee.bsky.social · 16/09/2026
rip annie dillard
One of the things I know about writing is this: spend it all, shoot it, play it, lose it, all, right away, every time. Do not hoard what seems good for a later place in the book or for another book; give it, give it all, give it now. The impulse to save something good for a better place later is the signal to spend it now. Something more will arise for later, something better. These things fill from behind, from beneath, like well water. Similarly, the impulse to keep to yourself what you have learned is not only shameful, it is destructive. Anything you do not give freely and abundantly becomes lost to you. You open your safe and find ashes.
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Nick Fleisher @nickfleisher.bsky.social · 01/06/2026
How can a website obsessed with 30 Rock question whether there is great conservative art?
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Nick Fleisher @nickfleisher.bsky.social · 16/09/2026
The board's statement—"The board understands that without such appropriate recognition it is unlikely that President Trump will provide the fundamental oversight of the renovation of the main building and lead the fiscal rescue of the center"—is one of the most embarrassing things I have ever read
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Nick Fleisher @nickfleisher.bsky.social · 16/09/2026
*finger to earpiece* We are now hearing that Puppet Show have withdrawn from the Ed Sheeran tour
Still image from This Is Spinal Tap, marquee that reads "Theatre Entrance / Puppet Show / And Spinal Tap"
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Julian Sanchez @normative.bsky.social · 15/09/2026
All of this is a lie. Anyone who has visited recently knows the KC was not "in a virtual state of collapse," and anyone who can read a tax filing can see that it was not "losing hundreds of millions of dollars". In fact, its finances were pretty healthy UNTIL Trump trashified it.
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Nick Fleisher @nickfleisher.bsky.social · 15/09/2026
Reminds me of Kelefa Sanneh's classic New Yorker line about Michael Pollan: "His chief criticism of Chicken McNuggets is that they are insufficiently delicious. (Has he tried them with the hot mustard sauce?)"
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David A. Graham @dgraham.bsky.social · 15/09/2026
@rickhasen.bsky.social with the heater here: electionlawblog.org/2026/breakin...
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Hannah Walser @hkpmw.bsky.social · 15/09/2026
Some would argue that a “setback” is *by definition* not “irreparable”!
Merriam-Webster’s first definition of “setback” is “a checking of progress”
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Nick Fleisher @nickfleisher.bsky.social · 15/09/2026
"Gentle reminder tactical warhead" is pretty good
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Nick Fleisher @nickfleisher.bsky.social · 14/09/2026
Remote-operated attack helicopter parenting
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