I think the idea that I hold that are 'conservative coded' in the US but normal for comparativists is: getting all the votes in on one/two day(s) + counting them by the next day should be the goal for a functioning democracy

I thought that the guy in California’s name was “Chad Blanco” which is supper “Dwayne Camacho” sounding.

Telling an LLM 'make this sound more like *your own name*' is the darkest shit I can imagine

Faculty friends: follow our union and vote!

Very sad news. I only knew Raul as a friendly social media interlocutor for many years but I used his blog with my own students many times. He provided public goods for social scientists generously. All solidarity to those who knew him better.

If I can’t ctrl + f on your instructions and find “pages” or “words”, and if you don’t specify if bibliography does or does not count, you, the journal, have failed

Turning into a stump speech.

I’m ignorant of art so I chose to believe “Celine” here refers to “Dion”

If you want to vote for an outsider it’s great if they came through an org that might have noticed they are an asshole. Unions and non profits are imperfect but can probably serve that function as well as our broken party system can now. Even more so if we make our unions and non profs better.

I don’t give money to a party whose goal is to destroy my industry. I’m not a soybean farmer.

Yeah, they don't try to hide it.

My parenting hot take (actually a writer hot take) is to make sure your kid’s initials look good with their last name. Maybe they’ll not like the name you give them but it’s complicated to change. Give them some good initials so they can go by that.

Our admins have unionized with AFSCME! The university works because they do!

Correct. Sincerely, card carrying AFT member.

Things my wife and I, two non-Star Wars people have called the new Star Wars movie that's constantly being advertised on TV: Pedro Pascal and Baby Yoga The Mandochlorian and Honeygrow Grover and the Mandolin Grugo and the Mitochondria Turner and Hooch in Space

I wish the 'ban corporate ownership' thing really moved the needle on rental costs (and I'm open to the idea it might in some contexts) but it really seems to be a distant runner up to 'build more g-d housing'

Imagine if we did this in Nevada and designated it for k-16 education?

Having had the misfortune of tasting US made tear gas in the Middle East, this is sadly nothing new. The US should stop selling this stuff to crappy regimes throughout the region. They make plenty of weapons all on their own.

I just saw somebody on social media correct a blind person for calling themselves blind. Honestly I don’t know what’s easier than letting people call themselves whatever they want. How can you even summon the energy to care?

I have some followers here younger than me so let me be clear: this is not true.

One of these things is not like the others.

This is also true of the podcast conversions. I love Conan O'Brien's podcast, and he seems to have a large staff he pays well...but I don't think it's a union shop and his NBC show almost certainly was.

Oh God. The Youths have invented right-wing Cloward-Piven

I sometimes do some simulations and policy proposals in my Middle East Politics class, this is like an idea from the student who missed 7 meetings and didn't do the reading.

Islamophobia and antisemitism are birds of a feather. Muslims and Jews (and for that matter all minorities) realize that and fight them together.

I had one student loan forgiven under PSLF, and 2 more have 6 months left. Of course MOHELA just raised my monthly payment by $150. Cannot wait to be done.

The Temistat to Cappt flight was always the worst.

AI-forward copyediting.

Never look at the comments, but I just saw a social media thread where someone said the main problem in Reno, NV is 'too many apartments' .....

Man, there real is an academic twitter diaspora. I just read Eric Gartzke ripping into Graham Allison on LinkedIn of all places.

These guys joining graduation just off the quad

These guys joining graduation just off the quad

And then. And here’s where I get cancelled out west. Cattle ranches and farms for animal feed.

I appreciate that a lot of the energy around anti-data center actions is about being anti-tech oligarch. It would be cool if we could also bring that energy to golf courses. I think I’d rather have a golf course moratorium than a data center moratorium.

Faculty at Pennsylvania State University voted to unionize by a 75% margin. The unit has both tenure and non-tenure system faculty. Campaign is affiliated with SEIU radio.wpsu.org/2026-05-14/p...

So, Pennsylvania people, union people, who can Zoom in and talk to my AAUP/AFT chapter at a big-ish public school about how Penn State faculty organized and get things done?

The dorkiest IR guy in your grad school cohort just had their heart skip a beat.

This is why the only multiple PhD in fiction I like is Bruce Banner. His many phds are canonically linked to his mental illness. (YMMV on how sensitively that topic is handled in different eras)

Operation “what millionaire wants to be a dentist” starts now!

And if you want to be serious about the category “gun deaths” the majority of those are suicide.

My students at best feel like it’s a necessary evil. Most hate it. They especially hate when I use it (I only use it to see what it spits out as answers to exams/assignments)

These things are a bad idea.

I'm sorry, I'm Jewish, if I wanted obscure interpretations of the Bible based on alphanumeric nonsense we have our own ways of doing that for the past 1400 years.

A couple years ago I might have said that those turning to a framework of "eugenics" were maybe being too cavalier, but here is the President ranking brown dudes by IQ, so maybe I was wrong.

I had loaners and finally coughed up the cash when my first phd graduated. Congrats to all the grads and their tired professors this weekend.

I know gym content is cringe but good god do muscles grow slow in your 40s.

I like when they get my name, the course name, and the department wrong. PSC 407 Comparative Political Economy to PolySci 302 International Economics

Gradebook exported in a (brief?) window Canvas was up. I suspect it won't be up forever.

I am feeling good about the 'don't send me Canvas messages with all your medical information looking for an excused absence in this class where I've never, ever, taken attendance' policy I have.

Canvas, the Strait of Hormuz for American education