Sign in

wisren.bsky.social

@wisren.bsky.social
106 followers 236 following 3 posts
PostsRepliesMedia
Reposted by @wisren.bsky.social
Laura Bassett @lebassett.bsky.social · 09/10/2026
“If you don’t like public executions just don’t watch it” says the crowd trying to ban drag shows and books
4083514610584
Reposted by @wisren.bsky.social
Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 29/09/2026
🤡 Schmitt beclowns himself 🤡 Schmitt concocted an elaborate conspiracy theory that Smith traveled to Atl for a Hawks game and to collude with Fani Willis, & flashed his "evidence" before accusing Smith of perjury. There's just one problem -- his facts were totally wrong. Here's the whole sequence:
2636210085726
Reposted by @wisren.bsky.social
Robert Kelchen @robertkelchen.com · 10/09/2026
As a higher ed finance person, I keep emphasizing that more students are enrolling in high cost of educating fields like health and engineering and fewer in lower-cost fields like the humanities. This squeezes institutional budgets as cross-subsidies disappear.
insidehighered.com
Report: Humanities Majors Disappearing
Anxiety about job prospects and heavy reading loads have led to dramatic declines in humanities majors since 2012, according to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
110329
Reposted by @wisren.bsky.social
Bell @pocono.bsky.social · 03/09/2026
This should freak everyone out. This is racism and bringing back segregation. They want to make sure minorities are uneducated. There's nobody left to stop this shit www.nytimes.com/2026/09/03/b...
nytimes.com
Trump Moves to Strip Tax Exemption From Schools That Aid Minority Students (Gift Article)
The Treasury Department released rules that would prevent schools with race-based programs from qualifying for tax-exempt status, a threat to both higher education and other private schools.
13375192
Reposted by @wisren.bsky.social
Dominique Baker @bakerdphd.bsky.social · 28/07/2026
Rufo was "supplying policy blueprints and social-media firepower for an ambitious conservative overhaul. In return, FL became Rufo’s proving ground, elevating the up-and-coming activist into one of the movement’s most influential cheerleaders." www.chronicle.com/article/flor...
chronicle.com
Florida’s Great Conservative Crack-Up
In the behind-the-scenes effort to install Stuart Bell as the flagship’s new president, Gov. Ron DeSantis played a starring role — to the chagrin of his onetime allies.
28019
Reposted by @wisren.bsky.social
Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 26/07/2026
Ossoff: "The price of admission to the president's service seems to be proof you're willing to lie for him. Maybe you saw Jay Clayton refuse again and again under oath to affirm Donald Trump's defeat in 2020, or Pete Hegseth ... There's something uniquely despicable about lying a nation into war"
8157681597
Reposted by @wisren.bsky.social
Bryan Edward Stone (שָׁלוֹם) @bestonetx.bsky.social · 24/07/2026
Texas created an outcomes-based funding model for community colleges. Students and colleges outperformed expectations, so now the state wants to change the rules so they don't have to pay what they promised. www.texastribune.org/2026/07/22/t...
texastribune.org
Texas may limit community college's incentive funding
A formula designed to reward colleges for student success generated larger payouts than budgeted. Now, Texas’ higher education agency may limit how schools receive such funding.
7210104
Reposted by @wisren.bsky.social
public health guy @publichealthguy1.bsky.social · 22/07/2026
it does actually sound like taylor farms and the white house teamed up to try and blame taco bell for the outbreak. unprecedented corruption
Within hours, the White House agreed the patient surveys painted a clear picture, the people said. In an internal call, the White House aides approved statements from the public health agencies for public release — though they still only identified Taco Bell as linked to the outbreak, without naming Taylor Farms specifically.
Taco Bell moved first, releasing a statement. While it did not explicitly name Taylor Farms it said it believed "public health is a shared responsibility among restaurants, their suppliers, and authorities, and we are proud to have consistently acted quickly and proactively to protect our guests."
The agency updates on the outbreak were finally posted after 10 p.m. New York time - hours behind schedule - and also omitted directly naming Taylor Farms or saying if the company would recall products.
245109954412
Reposted by @wisren.bsky.social
Professa Murray @kalimurray.bsky.social · 20/07/2026
I have said repeatedly that Russell Vought should be impeached. Congress appropriates and this is a high crime against its powers under Article I. The most important thing DOGE did was take over the appropriations pipes at Treasury. If you wanted to close USAID and CFPB pass a bill.
292112680
Reposted by @wisren.bsky.social
Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 08/07/2026
😳 Trump just flubbed his way through his meeting with Zelenskyy, at various points referring to the "Islamic Republic of Japan," repeatedly calling Zelenskyy "President Putin," and railing against the "JCPOC" Here's the blooper reel:
41033881402
Reposted by @wisren.bsky.social
Don Moynihan @donmoyn.bsky.social · 03/07/2026
Don't want to speak ill of the dead, so getting this Mitch McConnell take out now. He saw Trump with complete clarity, as a danger to America, but protected him anyway. Perhaps more than anyone, he had the power to end Trumpism, but chose party over country. donmoynihan.substack.com/p/jan-6-and-...
And yet…McConnell refused to vote to convict. Seven of his colleagues did, and with McConnell’s leadership, more would have done so, potentially enough to get to the supermajority needed. With conviction, the Senate could have also taken the vote to block Trump from running again. Doing so would have ended Trump as a political power. McConnell was clearly considering this option. In an oral history interview at the time the House was impeaching Trump, McConnell said

But apparently you can impeach somebody after they leave office, and if that happens, there’s a second vote in the Senate, which only has to pass by a simple majority, that prevents that person from seeking office again. So he could not only be impeached, but also eliminated from the possibility of a comeback for this office. So it is significant.

In the end, McConnell protected Trump from punishment. It was not just the refusal to vote to convict. After a swift House impeachment, he pushed to delay the Senate trial. He opposed the Senate joining in a Congressional investigation of Jan 6. He endorsed Trump in 2024, although this matters little except to further diminish McConnell’s dignity, as it was clear by this point that the Republican Party was Trump’s and McConnell’s time of influence was at an end.
42795092545
Reposted by @wisren.bsky.social
Jay Willis @jaywillis.net · 30/06/2026
The legal arguments for Trump's birthright citizenship executive order are vapid and embarrassing. Multiple lower court judges legit laughed DOJ lawyers out of the room. The fact that four Supreme Court justices twisted themselves into logical pretzels to buy it is a constitutional emergency.
ballsandstrikes.org
The Constitution Is On Life Support
Four justices are prepared to stuff the Fourteenth Amendment’s promises in the garbage because Mister Trump demands it.
4938061030
Reposted by @wisren.bsky.social
Mark Joseph Stern @mjsdc.bsky.social · 30/06/2026
I am stunned that the constitutional question was so close. I thought it would be 6–3 or 7–2. It is profoundly disturbing that four justices would allow either the president or Congress to rewrite the plain text of the 14th Amendment. This is obviously a good outcome, but the margin is alarming.
5544421113
Reposted by @wisren.bsky.social
Radley Balko @radleybalko.bsky.social · 30/06/2026
Jesus, Ezra. That isn't what happened at all. Rufo did not "try to figure out if" it's true." He gleefully amplified the lie, then offered a bounty to anyone who could retroactively "prove" it. It spurred death threats. Thousands will soon be deported because of it. Many of them will die.
1163779818
Reposted by @wisren.bsky.social
Daniel A Collier, PhD @dcollier74.bsky.social · 20/06/2026
Ok, people have been asking me what I am seeing in my new wave of IDR/PSLF interviews. So far, I have 43 (60+ minute) interviews done and I have generated a visual abstract of the core findings. Something to strongly consider essentally ALL said they have no trust in the system right now.
03111
Reposted by @wisren.bsky.social
Chris Murphy @chrismurphyct.bsky.social · 20/06/2026
The plan is for this plane to be in service for two years and then Trump will take if for himself. No President has ever stolen an Air Force for himself. And you paid for it. The total cost could be $1 billion of your money for a new luxury jet for Trump and his family.
2282161897
Reposted by @wisren.bsky.social
Jake Grumbach @jakemgrumbach.bsky.social · 18/06/2026
My new theory paper (early draft) A new reason why concentrated wealth destroys democracy: common ownership A standalone media owner maximizes profit. A common owner like Musk (who owns X + SpaceX) will run the media firm at a loss to increase the $ of his total portfolio tinyurl.com/mcekr7cd
Wealth Concentration and Democratic Erosion:
A Theory of Media and Common Ownership*
Jacob M. Grumbach„
June 18, 2026
Abstract
I develop a model of how extreme wealth concentration harms democracy through
a common ownership problem. A standalone profit-seeking media firm will maximize advertising revenue and audience size, producing content that is orthogonal
to democracy. In contrast, an owner who controls both a media firm and other
large firms can use the media firm to produce anti-democratic content, which
reduces the profitability of the media firm but maximizes the profitability of the
overall business portfolio through greater rents from an authoritarian leader (e.g.,
preferential regulatory treatment or public contracts). Anti-democratic content
grows in the owner’s wealth and in the authoritarian premium, the differential
value of concentrated capital under authoritarian governance. I theorize three
extensions: an oligopolistic setting in which reduced democratic content is a common pool resource; an endogenous authoritarian premium based in the authoritarian’s targeting problem; and owners that vary in proactively or reluctantly
supporting the authoritarian.
13547189
Reposted by @wisren.bsky.social
scarylawyerguy.bsky.social @scarylawyerguy.bsky.social · 14/06/2026
started/going
17563881589
Reposted by @wisren.bsky.social
The Bulwark @thebulwark.com · 07/06/2026
Trump: "I didn't guarantee no war." Trump guaranteeing no more wars:
26952992100
Reposted by @wisren.bsky.social
Adam Cohen (My Personal Views Only) @axidentaliberal.bsky.social · 07/06/2026
Trump filed 60 cases claiming the 2020 election was rigged. He lost them all His own Attorney General said the election was fair Yet today he says it was crooked-then insults Meet the Press and storms out Stop begging him to stay, Katie Weller Call him a liar to his face and lay out the proof
1913543
Reposted by @wisren.bsky.social
Eddy Conroy @econroy.bsky.social · 06/06/2026
It’s insane that we are where we are today because he was made fun of at the Correspondents dinner, but that’s basically driven everything he’s done since. Also why billionaires shouldn’t exist, no one should have the power to take a grudge this far.
720842
Reposted by @wisren.bsky.social
Carl T. Bergstrom @carlbergstrom.com · 06/06/2026
Remember the current NIH director going on about protecting researchers from government censorship? Today his people called the police in to forcibly remove my colleagues from their own society meeting for sharing an editorial published in their flagship journal that was critical of him. Gift link
nytimes.com
Police Remove Diabetes Experts From Conference for Distributing Critique of Trump Administration
5629151465
Reposted by @wisren.bsky.social
Silverman on Security @silvermansecurity.bsky.social · 31/05/2026
1) Someone really needs to push back on this idea of 1st Amendment zones. I haven't taught polisci 101 in 20 years, but last time I checked the entire US was a 1st Amendment zone. 2) What's the point of having 1st Amendment zones if you're just going to have police rampage through them?
231483399
Reposted by @wisren.bsky.social
Elizabeth Cronise McLaughlin @ecmclaughlin.bsky.social · 31/05/2026
Former human rights lawyer here: under international human rights law, bombing or gassing a medical facility is a crime against humanity. Last night, the NJ state police gassed the medic tent at Delaney Hall over and over and over again until medics had to abandon it and flee for their lives.
371432658
Reposted by @wisren.bsky.social
Jay Edidin @edidin.bsky.social · 29/05/2026
so, this is deeply, deeply horrifying thedreydossier.substack.com/p/i-found-a-...
thedreydossier.substack.com
I found a second vote.gov — and it's registered to the White House
There is a moment in every investigation where the thing you have been looking for finds you instead.
6838042402
Reposted by @wisren.bsky.social
hannah gais @hannahgais.bsky.social · 23/05/2026
It’s worth noting that when Jan. 6 happened, the pro-Trump right used dozens of conspiracy theories to try and offload blame from themselves—e.g., claiming it was “antifa,” “feds.” Now, they seem keen to just admit they did it—all of it—and it was good.
4130971007
Reposted by @wisren.bsky.social
Diedrich Bader @diedrichbader.bsky.social · 22/05/2026
this is happening
Chris Van Hollen pointing out that a man pardoned by the president went on to molest two children and said he’d 
pay them off from the new 1776 slush fund
492348734
Reposted by @wisren.bsky.social
much ado about muffin @muffindoin.bsky.social · 21/05/2026
good lord
By early this year, many on Fetterman’s staff were incredulous and exhausted. In private, their boss was acting like a Republican, they say. In January 2026, Fetterman sent to a group chat with staffers a screenshot of an article headline about how the average working family spends nearly $4,000 annually on health care. “How should it cost? Free?” he complained in the text, which I obtained. “I don’t understand what affordability it is.”

The same month, after the Epstein files were released, Fetterman texted a staffer, “Epstein was a nothing burger. Worst pics I’ve seen were from Clinton lol.” When Alex Pretti was killed by ICE in Minneapolis, Fetterman was consumed with grievances about how Democrats were hypocrites for defending Pretti’s right to legally carry a firearm: “Kyle Rittenhouse brought a gun to a protest. He was roundly condemned for that. Why are now democrats defending the nurse it was legal to carry. Both legal weapons. Square that,” he texted
1213587640
Reposted by @wisren.bsky.social
Ben Collins @bencollins.bsky.social · 19/05/2026
I think the reason I've been a little ambiently mad all day is because January 6th rioters are statistically the most likely group of pedophiles in the world and they clubbed a guy to death and they're going to be rich from the tax money that I give to the country I live in.
418164624188
Reposted by @wisren.bsky.social
Sanho Tree @sanho.bsky.social · 19/05/2026
Bill Clinton used to have to walk across the street to use a private telephone to make fundraising calls so as not to violate the Hatch Act by using public resources for partisan purposes. Trump makes campaign commercials from behind the Resolute desk.
271559462
Reposted by @wisren.bsky.social
Prof Dynarski @dynarski.bsky.social · 17/05/2026
What’s happening to science in the US now? In the future? 20% fewer grad students at MIT sums it up well Our future is fewer scientists, patents, cures, discoveries Less growth, less progress, less knowledge
14836
Reposted by @wisren.bsky.social
Tressie McMillan Cottom @tressiemcphd.bsky.social · 10/05/2026
www.npr.org/2026/05/07/n...
npr.org
Campaign staffers tell NPR they make 'thousands' betting on their own candidates
Campaign staffers are turning private polling data into personal paydays. They describe the election prediction market as a "Wild West" for staffers.
715558
Reposted by @wisren.bsky.social
Central NJ Yimby 🏗️🚲🚇🇺🇸 @princetonyimby.bsky.social · 08/05/2026
I don't really understand the point of voting if some right-wing judge can just toss out anything we vote for?
0111
Reposted by @wisren.bsky.social
Don Moynihan @donmoyn.bsky.social · 07/05/2026
What is especially galling is that this saved zero dollars, since the cruise ships pay for the inspections. And now their industry is less trusted because of perceived health risks. Amazing lose-lose policymaking.
743139958
Reposted by @wisren.bsky.social
T.J. Stiles @tj-stiles.bsky.social · 07/05/2026
I can totally see the argument for the Supreme Court as a conservative institution that modulates and slows abrupt changes. But the court’s majority conserves nothing. They are radical extremists without ideological or theoretical consistency, pushing the interests and plans of a political party.
1131660
Reposted by @wisren.bsky.social
Ari Berman @ariberman.bsky.social · 07/05/2026
John Roberts claims the justices aren’t “political actors” Spare us the sanctimony. By destroying VRA in middle of election the court put its thumb on scale of midterms, turbocharging Trump’s gerrymandering war & imperiling majority-Black districts across South www.motherjones.com/politics/202...
motherjones.com
After SCOTUS destroyed the Voting Rights Act, southern states rush to pass Jim Crow voting maps
“We’re seeing the greatest purge of Black power since the era of Reconstruction.”
32571200
Reposted by @wisren.bsky.social
Nicholas Grossman @nicholasgrossman.bsky.social · 06/05/2026
Higher ed is under authoritarian attack. Joining the fiction that all college is a sociology class you don’t like, and that Dem politicians are beholden to it, doesn’t help. Around 40% of Americans went to or are in college. No other group that big gets cast by so many national figures as abnormal.
632663
Reposted by @wisren.bsky.social
The Downballot @the-downballot.com · 05/05/2026
This is partisanship at its rawest. SCOTUS has clamped down on lower courts for rulings that could alter maps many *months* before an election—even when those maps have been judged illegal. Here, it's rushing to let the Louisiana GOP change a map *while an election is underway.*
5831031221
Reposted by @wisren.bsky.social
The Atlantic @theatlantic.com · 04/05/2026
Chief Justice John Roberts once decried partisan gerrymandering as “unjust.” Last week, the high court made a decision that doesn’t just tolerate but encourages the practice, @dgraham.bsky.social argues:
bit.ly
How the Supreme Court Came to Accept a Practice It Called Unjust
The Court went from condemning partisan gerrymandering to effectively encouraging it.
2132697
Reposted by @wisren.bsky.social
Morgan Polikoff @mpolikoff.bsky.social · 23/04/2026
A lot of folks were approvingly sharing Kelsey Piper's post about the problems of educational research. Here's my take. // Ill-Informed Essays About Education Research are Weak and Sloppy. Why? edpolicyhub.substack.com/p/ill-inform...
edpolicyhub.substack.com
Ill-Informed Essays About Education Research are Weak and Sloppy. Why?
Morgan Polikoff
65719
Reposted by @wisren.bsky.social
Mike Boylan-Kolchin @mbkplus.bsky.social · 23/04/2026
Rufo is the epitome of a bad-faith interlocutor. If you have a tenured position, you’re representative of the fetid rot of academia. Don’t have a tenure-track job? You’re a failure. And that’s even before considering the gender angle. Why anyone engages with him as a serious critic is beyond me.
48413
Reposted by @wisren.bsky.social
Jack Jenkins @jackjenkins.me · 07/04/2026
This is: 1. Deeply moving. 2. The first time I've ever seen a real-life astronaut be anything other than serious or happy in space. Obviously they have been (they're human), but folks on earth have only ever seen this in movies or on TV. Imagine watching your tears of grief float around you.
242352467
Reposted by @wisren.bsky.social
Katie Mack @astrokatie.com · 05/04/2026
“Copy Moon joy” #Artemis
3336811198
Reposted by @wisren.bsky.social
Anthony Michael Kreis @anthonymkreis.bsky.social · 31/03/2026
I don’t relish this. But, if law profs try to sell the Supreme Court a historical fantasy and change a constitutional rule for 340 million people, which if adopted, destroys the entire constitutional order. Honesty must yield to niceties. We have a higher calling. www.motherjones.com/politics/202...
motherjones.com
The nonsense case against birthright citizenship
Meet the conservative legal minds telling the Supreme Court to side with Trump.
20754182
Reposted by @wisren.bsky.social
lastpositivist.bsky.social @lastpositivist.bsky.social · 16/03/2026
Genuinely just bonkers to watch the USA do this to one of the most successful and innovative hubs of scientific research the world has ever seen. All those years of Free Speech On Campus debates and it turns out they actually wanted less cancer research. Absurd.
4533431029
Reposted by @wisren.bsky.social
Brendan Cantwell @cantb.bsky.social · 13/03/2026
At long last, The Postliberal University is available for pre-order! hep.gse.harvard.edu/979889557111...
hep.gse.harvard.edu
The Postliberal University
An urgent exploration of the political and social conditions that shape contemporary higher education governanceIn the 2010s, many state governments began to...
67329
Reposted by @wisren.bsky.social
Marisa Kabas @marisakabas.bsky.social · 12/03/2026
Lawyer: You don't regret that people might have lost income? Cavanaugh (DOGE): No, I think it was more important to reduce the federal deficit from two trillion dollars to close to zero. Lawyer: Did you reduce the federal deficit? Cavanaugh: No, we didn't.
27157921696
Reposted by @wisren.bsky.social
Justin Wolfers @justinwolfers.bsky.social · 13/03/2026
I kid you not... The same White House that forgot that invading Iran might lead it to close the Strait of Hormuz, is now arguing (through Peter Navarro) that war with Iran is a good idea because it'll prevent Iran from closing the Strait of Hormuz.
47150281799
Reposted by @wisren.bsky.social
WeRateDogs @weratedogs.com · 12/03/2026
This is Lance. He may have overreacted a little bit to a leaf, but when you are two inches from the ground, anything could be a potential threat. 12/10 (TT: katiemhartline)
1135136533