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Wannabephd, Ph.D

@wannabe-phd.bsky.social
51 followers 166 following 305 posts

Data analysis and reporting in higher ed. Mostly hot takes, occasional well thought out analysis.

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Wannabephd, Ph.D @wannabe-phd.bsky.social · 08/08/2026
Oh my god, I can’t believe I never thought of this. Of course it was part of the grift. I just thought Trump had an unhealthy obsession with outdated trade policy, but of course the point of the tariffs was so that companies, including ones close to his family, could pocket the money.
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Wannabephd, Ph.D @wannabe-phd.bsky.social · 31/07/2026
We’re deporting you because when you get deported you’ll be traveling outside the country which isn’t allowed and allows us to deport you. Don’t think about it too much; it makes perfect sense if you don’t think about it.
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Wannabephd, Ph.D @wannabe-phd.bsky.social · 30/07/2026
Someday some politician is going to get a lot of votes saying “I’m passing a no more BS law” that attaches real penalties to lies made by public figures. Like yeah it has the potential to be abused, but if we get to that point, a law being on the books isn’t going to be the difference in overreach.
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Wannabephd, Ph.D @wannabe-phd.bsky.social · 30/07/2026
Fox’s polling division (at least as of last time I paid attention a cycle or two ago) have actually been fairly good. Historically there hasn’t been a particularly large Republican bias. Still OH, NC, and GA are almost definitely outside of the MOE. That’s a big deal, especially at this point.
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Wannabephd, Ph.D @wannabe-phd.bsky.social · 25/07/2026
I mean the principal of the thing is problematic. But from a pure vote calculus if they republicans want to be down a vote for the rest of the cycle … let them …? Like Beshear can’t nominate a Democrat, the appointment likely would be halted by the courts if he tried.
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Wannabephd, Ph.D @wannabe-phd.bsky.social · 24/07/2026
No, I don’t think he got carried away. He systematically targeted organizations who were investigating him.
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Wannabephd, Ph.D @wannabe-phd.bsky.social · 24/07/2026
The lie detector determined THAT was a lie!
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Wannabephd, Ph.D @wannabe-phd.bsky.social · 23/07/2026
If @jenpsaki.bsky.social or @karinejean-pierre.bsky.social ever said anything like this they would have been crucified on every major network for a week! “I tHiNk hE SuPpOrTs tHeM?!?” That’s the best you got?
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Wannabephd, Ph.D @wannabe-phd.bsky.social · 23/07/2026
You do have lots of opportunity to do oversight … you’re just not doing it
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Wannabephd, Ph.D @wannabe-phd.bsky.social · 23/07/2026
The generic ballot crept up for several months. Polling average was between +4 and +5 Dem for a while, but has increased steadily as more people pay attention to the election. IF (and it’s a big if) it keeps trending up, we’re looking at the biggest midterm loss for the incumbent in decades.
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Wannabephd, Ph.D @wannabe-phd.bsky.social · 22/07/2026
I mean I’m waiting to hear the news as much as anyone, but the Senate math is a good reason to *not* hear the news.
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Wannabephd, Ph.D @wannabe-phd.bsky.social · 22/07/2026
Is the empathy in the room with us?
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Wannabephd, Ph.D @wannabe-phd.bsky.social · 22/07/2026
It’s stuff like this that really makes me believe the conspiracy theories that he hates asylum seekers because he’s thinks they are people who belong in a mental institution.
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Wannabephd, Ph.D @wannabe-phd.bsky.social · 22/07/2026
Didn’t he (or someone else) say this a few weeks ago and get relentlessly dunked on?
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Wannabephd, Ph.D @wannabe-phd.bsky.social · 19/07/2026
Honestly it’s getting kind of funny at this point, because the first thing I thought is this will eventually turn into him releasing some posts to people who paid money then bet on the opposite and never release the posts.
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Wannabephd, Ph.D @wannabe-phd.bsky.social · 15/07/2026
Ooh I know this one! Dem goals have been to pass policies to fix things, and this are subject to filibuster and reconciliation rules Reps over the last few decades have only wanted to cut programs and taxes which can be done through reconciliation The first requires 60 votes, the second is 50+VP
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Wannabephd, Ph.D @wannabe-phd.bsky.social · 13/07/2026
The downstream consequences of this are huge. Like if you take this to its logical conclusion, Russia assassinated a sitting, senior US Senator. Any president would have trouble figuring out how to react, this one is going to bumblefuck his way to a second war.
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Wannabephd, Ph.D @wannabe-phd.bsky.social · 13/07/2026
100% perfect, no notes
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Wannabephd, Ph.D @wannabe-phd.bsky.social · 08/07/2026
The lie detector determined THAT was a lie
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Wannabephd, Ph.D @wannabe-phd.bsky.social · 08/07/2026
Wait, so the guy that literally everyone said had a ton of oppo just waiting to be released after the primary, had another scandal right after the primary? You’re telling me the thing that literally everyone predicted, in fact, came true?
static.klipy.com
Surprised Pikachu Meme
Alt: Surprised Pikachu Meme
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Wannabephd, Ph.D @wannabe-phd.bsky.social · 01/07/2026
Israel affected the election, not in an election determinative way. When combined with other stances did it cost her the election, maybe? I don’t want Harris because Reps will likely bumble themselves into two massive landslides in 26 and 28. I want the leftiest leftist possible to be the nominee.
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Just a Dad 📎 @dadmakingcans.bsky.social · 19/06/2026
Can we finally all agree that the argument “we should run the country like a business, and therefore elect businessmen to run it” has been a failed experiment?
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Wannabephd, Ph.D @wannabe-phd.bsky.social · 11/06/2026
Is anyone surprised by this, a major part of his background before becoming SecDef was complaining about how rules of engagement were hamstringing soldiers. There isn’t much of anything more central to who this guy is than “the rules of war are dumb.”
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Wannabephd, Ph.D @wannabe-phd.bsky.social · 05/06/2026
So let me make sure I have this right. He has a tattoo he knew was a Nazi tattoo, he serially cheated, and his internal polls only show him up 4 in what is almost certainly going to be a blue tsunami nationwide? At this rate we’ll flip Texas, Ohio, and North Carolina before we flip Maine.
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Wannabephd, Ph.D @wannabe-phd.bsky.social · 05/06/2026
Well they did spend the greater majority of the first term saying “Obama” so it’s weirdly one of the few places they’re consistent.
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Wannabephd, Ph.D @wannabe-phd.bsky.social · 28/05/2026
Somewhat hot take: I think if you’re younger than 40 and you aren’t having a conversation with someone older than 40, using “data” as a plural, though grammatically correct, comes across as pretentious and annoying.
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Wannabephd, Ph.D @wannabe-phd.bsky.social · 28/05/2026
This really feels like they’re floating the idea to gauge the level of pushback. It’s not getting the traction it should because people, for some reason I’ll never understand, think they won’t do the mind numbingly stupid thing. They’re going to see the lack of pushback and just do it… 😩
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Wannabephd, Ph.D @wannabe-phd.bsky.social · 27/05/2026
This administration has made a mockery of the presidency since it started. That’s not new… But this picture really made me feel sad in a way I didn’t think was possible any more. It’s just like the truest representation that the country’s highest office is essentially a three ring circus.
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Wannabephd, Ph.D @wannabe-phd.bsky.social · 22/05/2026
This right here. It’s technically the idea behind separation of powers even if it didn’t happen in practice. But like we should structure more institutions this way.
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Starfire’s Deranged Neocon Foreign Policy Podcast @irhottakes.bsky.social · 22/05/2026
See, the thing is that whether USAID was a cynical op to expand imperial influence or a sincere act of goodwill from the United States, all those Africans are still dead.
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Wannabephd, Ph.D @wannabe-phd.bsky.social · 22/05/2026
At this rate when is the cabinet going to be entirely men?
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Wannabephd, Ph.D @wannabe-phd.bsky.social · 19/05/2026
The media is going to suddenly discover that sanewashing behavior and not holding politicians to account was bad on January 21st, 2029. There will be all kinds of op-eds along the lines of “we messed up and here’s how we plan to be incredibly hostile to a new democratic POTUS.”
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Wannabephd, Ph.D @wannabe-phd.bsky.social · 17/05/2026
Is he gonna do it? Because it’s late enough in the cycle we could probably mitigate most of the damage. Do it Thune, I triple dog dare you. I can honestly say I’ve never wanted anything more in my life. Waste your filibuster nuke on a ballroom. Please, I’m begging you…
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Wannabephd, Ph.D @wannabe-phd.bsky.social · 17/05/2026
I think Trump could come out on January 19th and be like: “You’re all stupid, I told you years ago I would run as a Republican because you are easy to manipulate. You still voted for me. I did terrible things and you cheered. You should be ashamed.” And Republican politicians would still suck…
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Wannabephd, Ph.D @wannabe-phd.bsky.social · 17/05/2026
How much does he want the ballroom? Because he has the opportunity to unintentionally save American politics by going scorched earth on the filibuster this close to the midterms. He won’t, but we can dream right?
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Wannabephd, Ph.D @wannabe-phd.bsky.social · 17/05/2026
The “conservative media” doesn’t have the same ring to it as “liberal media,” but like we need to collectively get together and figure out how describe the sane-washing, unequal both sidesing, and difference in expectations of competence the media has of republicans and democrats.
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Wannabephd, Ph.D @wannabe-phd.bsky.social · 17/05/2026
Republicans have spent the last sixty years saying government sucks. When they win, they reduce funding, cut staffing, and destroy programs to make government worse at doing things. Then they rinse and repeat, and we wonder why everything sucks. This isn’t a Trump thing, they’ve always sucked.
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Wannabephd, Ph.D @wannabe-phd.bsky.social · 17/05/2026
This guy (Cassidy) is the epitome of performative opposition. He went on a long rant about how RFK would be terrible, voted for him, and is now justifying how RFK isn’t as terrible as he actually is. He’ll be replaced by a MAGA sycophant, but I’m not sad to see him go.
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Quantian @quantian.bsky.social · 14/05/2026
US universities genuinely are like “welcome to Tennessee Agricultural College in Bumfuck Nowheresville. We invented the modern potato and our facilities include a particle accelerator, nuclear reactor, and TOP500 supercomputer. Tuition is $12,000 for instate students and we have 40,000 of them”
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Wannabephd, Ph.D @wannabe-phd.bsky.social · 13/05/2026
I mean does this really surprise us? Given that their policy platform has basically just been “the libs suck” for the last decade, this seems in line with expectations.
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Wannabephd, Ph.D @wannabe-phd.bsky.social · 08/05/2026
I’ll be shocked if they don’t just stick with the hits. Probably something along the lines of: “Massive fraud” Or “Trump wasn’t on the ballot”
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Wannabephd, Ph.D @wannabe-phd.bsky.social · 08/05/2026
I mean I’d love for us to take the Senate, but that’s not required to oust Schumer. We can do that basically whenever. He was one of the ones (along with Pelosi), telling Biden to pass the torch. It’s about time he finally takes his own advice.
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Wannabephd, Ph.D @wannabe-phd.bsky.social · 30/04/2026
This is just … like why does anybody care? I don’t believe anyone really cares about prediction markets’ opinions on the election.
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Wannabephd, Ph.D @wannabe-phd.bsky.social · 30/04/2026
I mean she’s right, and I’m glad someone finally said it. One of the biggest hurdles in front of Democrats is they bend over backwards to find ways to fund programs without increasing taxes. Another is means testing literally everything instead of just creating programs everyone can benefit from.
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Wannabephd, Ph.D @wannabe-phd.bsky.social · 29/04/2026
I have been reluctant to go on a rant about the structure of our system, and how most people don’t understand it. But given the destruction of the voting rights act, I guess now is as good a time as any. This post is kind of right, but probably not for the reason the author thinks.
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Dr. Damien P. Williams, dread portent down from a mountain cave @wolven.blacksky.app · 29/04/2026
So in case it's not clear, the supreme court just told you why you need to fight like hell to pack every state legislature, judicial bench, governorship, & congressional house & senate seat with people who Actually a) Give A Shit and b) plan to Do Something About their, SCOTUS', massive depredations
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Wannabephd, Ph.D @wannabe-phd.bsky.social · 29/04/2026
I really sat in a Constitutional Law class a few years ago making, what I thought, was the extremely obvious and reasonable argument that it’s just ideology. They just rule based on ideology And everybody except the other PhD student in the class was flabbergasted I would even suggest such a thing
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Wannabephd, Ph.D @wannabe-phd.bsky.social · 29/04/2026
Could not have said it better myself
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Wannabephd, Ph.D @wannabe-phd.bsky.social · 29/04/2026
I want liberal politicians to start writing out legislation. Start getting buy in and votes from Congress. Start out the 2028 term with just bill after bill passed with minimal debate because they did all that work before. Bill number one should be packing the Court
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Wannabephd, Ph.D @wannabe-phd.bsky.social · 29/04/2026
Hi Chris, welcome to the party, there’s sports on the TV and corn hole in the back. You’re a little late, but that’s ok.. I’d say this is par for the course for this administration, a pretty normal day. Not a lot of people are doing much to call it out when it happens. Maybe you can fill that role?
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