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Tom Zinnen

@tmzinnen.bsky.social
403 followers 218 following 4.7K posts

Retired outreacher, formerly at UW-Madison Biotech Center

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Reposted by Tom Zinnen
Equal Justice Initiative @eji.org · 7h
A court in Tallahassee, Florida, found more than 100 Black students guilty of contempt of court after they were arrested for singing and clapping outside a “white-only” theater.
calendar.eji.org
Oct. 3, 1963 | Florida Court Convicts Students After Peaceful Protest of Segregated Theater
Learn more about our history of racial injustice.
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Reposted by Tom Zinnen
Mark Copelovitch @mcopelov.bsky.social · 14h
~Approximately no one in the general public knows because the leaders of the R1 research universities - whose budgets, programs, & personnel are entirely or significantly dependent on federal funding - have been totally absent from the public square in explaining & collectively protesting this.
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David Ho @davidho.bsky.social · 14h
I don’t think everyone realizes how bad things are for US science: For the fiscal year that just ended, the Trump regime withheld $1.4 billion from the National Science Foundation’s research budget, which is about 1/5 of its primary research budget.
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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Daniel Suitor @danielsuitor.com · 22h
Will is 100% right. Has happened to multiple clients of mine. One judge (not my case) has said that this isn't really release and ordered the person *actually* released. But it's forcing us habeas attorneys to win our cases twice (or more)
On September 9, 2026, Respondents permitted Pablo F. to exit the building where 
he was detained, but he was immediately swarmed by four ICE officers and handcuffed as 
soon as he stepped outside. (Doc. No. 25-3 at 4:48:45–4:49:26.)3
 The officers drove him
to the back of the Whipple building and returned him to a holding cell. (Doc. No. 21 ¶¶ 8–
9; Doc. No. 25 ¶ 5.) During this encounter, officers dislocated Pablo F.’s shoulder. (Doc. 
No. 21 ¶ 7.)4
 Pablo F. now bringsthis Motion seeking to enforce the Court’s Order granting 
the Petition.Again, Respondents make no attempt whatsoever to support their assertion that 
Pablo F. was released. Absent any such argument, the Court cannot agree that a reasonable 
person would have felt free to leave when exiting the detention facility and immediately 
being stopped by ICE officers. Likewise, absent some argument, the Court necessarily 
concludes that Pablo F. was subject to restraints not shared by the public generally when 
he took one step outside of the detention facility and was immediately stopped by ICE 
officers who forcibly returned him to a detention cell. Because Respondents do not make 
any legal argument that Pablo F. was ever meaningfully released from custody, the Court 
grants the motion and orders Pablo F.’s release.6
6 To be clear, Pablo F. is not arguing, and the Court is not concluding, that an order of 
release in a habeas matter renders unlawful any future arrests. Rather, the Court reaches 
the narrow conclusion that because Respondents advance no legal argument in this case to 
support their assertion that Pablo F. was released from custody, and because the 
uncontested facts show that ICE officers immediately swarmed Pablo F. as soon as he 
stepped out of the building, Pablo F. was not released from custody.
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Tom Zinnen @tmzinnen.bsky.social · 16h
A freshwater groyne?
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Tom Zinnen @tmzinnen.bsky.social · 17h
"If it's good enough for the children of the rich, then it's good enough for the children of the poor."
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Tom Zinnen @tmzinnen.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
Soon, I hope. I'd also be happy if the new bus terminal had power plug-ins so the diesel busses didn't idle their engines and become a point-source of air pollution.
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Reposted by Tom Zinnen
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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Tom Zinnen @tmzinnen.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
The winning, so much winning.😒 Unemployment rate up. Jobs up by 29,000 this month, but previous months revised down by 60,000 (net loss of 31,000 jobs). Inflation is at 3.4%, but wages are going up at only 3.0%. Workers lose purchasing power every day at these rates.
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Tom Zinnen @tmzinnen.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
Just in time for the US elections on November 3.
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Tom Zinnen @tmzinnen.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
A day off work for voting?? What a great idea! We should make Election Day (first Tuesday after the first Monday in November in even-numbered years) a Federal holiday for Everybody.
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Reposted by Tom Zinnen
Don Moynihan @donmoyn.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
New from @datahistorian.bsky.social at Can We Still Govern?: The Trump administration's "radical proposal" to alter the Census would add a citizenship question, exclude non-citizens for Congressional calculations, and remove questions about race/ethnicity. 🧵 donmoynihan.substack.com/p/the-2030-c...
donmoynihan.substack.com
The 2030 Census is in Trouble
Trump wants to add a citizenship question and ban questions on race
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Tom Zinnen @tmzinnen.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
If you are ever feeling short of spine, go see a librarian. They have plenty on hand to loan you.
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Tom Zinnen @tmzinnen.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
The Calvinism is strong in these ones.
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Tom Zinnen @tmzinnen.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
Alas, Grover Norquist’s shrinkage dictum works for universities, too.
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Karin Wulf @kawulf.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
Contrary to billing change over time as our beat, as a historian I'm here to tell you that violence against women is an absolute constant. Not generations but centuries of activism & policies have made that violence only somewhat more public. Our daily news reminds us how and why.
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Mark Copelovitch @mcopelov.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
Today, I got to sit here for two hours and do this again. Absolute best job in the world. More great questions & discussion from smart students about class, current events, favorite films, & many other things. The kids are so alright, it’s incredible. Touch grass & talk to them, higher ed pundits.
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Tom Zinnen @tmzinnen.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
This raises the vital role that ROTC units at universities play in ensuring the officer corps is roundly educated and not blindered to military mindset.
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Anne Helen Petersen @annehelen.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
This is *the* piece. Kate Manne, professor of philosophy at Cornell, speaks truth to the totality of failures at the university — and why students protesting the war in Gaza have faced far harsher consequences than any of the Cornell 7: www.thecut.com/article/what...
thecut.com
What It Feels Like at Cornell Right Now
As a professor at the Ivy League school, Kate Manne has known many, many victims. There’s a palpable feeling on campus, she writes, that this is big.
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Tom Zinnen @tmzinnen.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
Curling?
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Tom Zinnen @tmzinnen.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
The building was not just surrounded! It was breached and sacked! Congress people were running for their lives in the fucking halls of the Capitol. Let’s get things straight, Tillis!
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Tom Zinnen @tmzinnen.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
Please continue this pun-ishment 🔥
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Hannah Vardit @hannahvardit.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
you will encounter more opportunities in life to change the batteries on a smoke alarm than you will to run into a burning building and no one gives a shit you changed those batteries but it is still very important and why are you waiting on a burning building, know what i’m saying, it’s a metaphor
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Joe Walsh @walshfreedom.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
This. It has always been this. A sitting American president did this. And because he did this, he should have been convicted and put behind bars. And the fact that we never held him accountable for these crimes will forever stain this country. And we may never recover from it.👇
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George Conway ⚖️🇺🇸 @gtconway.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
We absolutely, positively want a delusional, psychotic and psycopathic president talking about taking cities out with nuclear weapons. It’s all good, right? Nothing to see here, media?
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Tom Zinnen @tmzinnen.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
Every beer barrel needs one🍻👍🙏
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Max Kennerly @maxkennerly.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
Sure, the 2024 election was one too, but 2026 might be the clearest intelligence test ever presented to the American electorate. Taken at face value, he's saying he stole hundreds of billions from the gov't, hid it somewhere Congress can't reach, and he pinky swears he will give you a piece. Really.
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Tom Zinnen @tmzinnen.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
Proctologists will never lack for business as long as Karl Rove is alive.
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PROFS @profsuwmadison.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
PROFS is deeply concerned about recent federal action impacting the distribution of National Institutes of Health research grants. Our statement is below. profs.wisc.edu?p=10162
PROFS Statement on the Executive Order 
Impacting National Institutes of Health Research Awards

On September 18th, the Trump administration ordered the Office of Management and Budget to draft new rules, in the form of an executive order, that would affect how the National Institutes of Health would make research awards. The proposal would create a committee that would have veto power over the scientific committee’s decisions about the granting of awards, and would politicize decisions about what science to fund, rather than base them in science.

On September 23rd, major news outlets reported that the White House is moving away from the proposal after significant pushback from Republican and Democratic members of Congress.
But make no mistake: the Trump administration is no friend of science, and it will undoubtedly continue to intrude politically on the eighty-year-old compact between the federal government and the nation’s research universities to advance scientific discovery, knowledge, and research wherever it leads.

This latest episode shows the power of advocacy: had those brave senators and representatives not expressed their objections to the Trump administration putting its political thumb on the scale of research, it would have moved forward with its plan. And PROFS is aware of this power, and plans to use it. We are in contact with members of the Wisconsin Congressional Delegation in Washington, urging them to reject the administration’s Lysenkoist approach to discovery, and will continue to advocate for the advancement of knowledge free from ideological and political constraint.

September 28, 2026
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Tom Zinnen @tmzinnen.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
I’m experiencing sangfroid schadenfreude
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Tom Zinnen @tmzinnen.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
Ranchers put the crimson in these three red states. Suck it up, cowboy.
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Mark Copelovitch @mcopelov.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
“A move some lawmakers called illegal” Journalism, what is it, anyway? 🤷‍♂️🤦‍♂️
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Greg Todd @1gregtodd.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
When Trump’s DHS sent Nevada a list of 185 names that it claimed identified noncitizens who had been improperly allowed to register to vote, state election officials got to work. The state checked. Every single person on the list was a lawful citizen. nyti.ms/3TuTCWa
nyti.ms
From 15,000 to 185 to Zero: Trump’s Claims of Illegal Voting in Nevada Fizzle
It was the Trump administration’s latest stumble in its effort to find proof of widespread noncitizen voting, despite decades of evidence that it is extremely rare.
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Tom Zinnen @tmzinnen.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
@notpodium.bsky.social A wood lectern bearing a carved mouse. (also, this lectern comes pretty close to having its own podium upon which the one-legged lectern stands) Source video: www.facebook.com/share/r/1Drw...
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Tom Zinnen @tmzinnen.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
Google is channeling Homo correctus by thinking I intended to type "hitting us" rather than "hitting usa".
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Don Moynihan @donmoyn.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
New at Can We Still Govern?: At a time when other institutions have bent the knee, public sector unions have fought Trump, acting as canaries in the coalmine, warning us how cuts will lead to disasters like the explosion of food borne illnesses we've seen. 🧵 donmoynihan.substack.com/p/unions-aga...
donmoynihan.substack.com
Unions Against Voughtism
Federal unions can connect the dots to reveal the dangers of gutting government capacity.
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Mark Copelovitch @mcopelov.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
@danshafer.bsky.social, as always, covering Wisconsin politics as no one else does.
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Tom Zinnen @tmzinnen.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
What?! No "Wednesday Nite @ The Lab"?? 🤷‍♂️🍻
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Tom Zinnen @tmzinnen.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
Yet we teach our children how Splendid & Magnificent Is Our Constitution, despite the structural wreckage. Unrestricted presidential pardon power is part of the Constitution. It's a huge flaw. It's a get-out-of-jail-free card for presidential cronies & presidents. But the Flaw Is the Law. Arghh
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Tom Zinnen @tmzinnen.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
"Who's gonna make me?" is the question slung by bullies, thugs and Trumps.
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Tom Zinnen @tmzinnen.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
The MAGA Mindset: Red tape for businesses = bad Administrative burdens for people = good
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Tom Zinnen @tmzinnen.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
@notpodium.bsky.social View from the mosh pit 👀
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Tom Zinnen @tmzinnen.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
Imagine that! A dense source of protein that is also rich in amino acids!
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Tom Zinnen @tmzinnen.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
The Thug. Wildly attractive to a slice of society.
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Tom Zinnen @tmzinnen.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
As Pence underscored, the VP does not serve at the pleasure of the president. The VP is subject to the Constitution and to federal statutes and to federal regulations, but as I understand it the VP not subject to the president’s policies.
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Scott Horton @robertscotthorton.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
On Sep 11 in Alamo, Texas, Luis Ochoa and another teen stopped to film ICE agents during a vehicle stop near a school. Agents pulled one from their car, struck him, used pepper spray, and detained them for 8 hrs even after they proved their citizenship, one ICE agent stating, 'I don’t give a damn.'
krgv.com
Mother of teen detained in viral Alamo ICE arrest video deported
The mother of a 17-year-old detained by ICE in a viral Alamo, Texas incident has been deported to Mexico, raising concerns among legal experts about potential retaliation for speaking out.
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Tom Zinnen @tmzinnen.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
My mother was June Marie Deutsch, born June 1, 1928, in Aurora, Illinois, USA. No relation, that I know of; but then, for me at least, one point of this memorial is that we are all related.
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Rebecca Solnit @rebeccasolnit.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
"The disappeared*" was a term for those the military dictatorship in Argentina imprisoned/tortured/murdered during the dirty war. *"detenidos-desaparecidos" (detained-disappeared)
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Don Moynihan @donmoyn.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
I don't have the energy to rebut everything in this piece, but it reaffirms the impression that these people did not know or care how government works and never bothered to find out. The reporter's framing is pretty credulous "many people disagree" with stuff that is easy to fact check.
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ashley fairbanks @ziibiing.com · 22/09/2026
your regular reminder that all is not well for those of us living in red states that women are still bleeding out in parking lots and dying because they can’t access abortion care we deserve not to die
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