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Posts by Chris Newfield

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They want you to die - Lawyers, Guns & Money I think it’s still insufficiently appreciated that if the second Trump administration consisted of DOGE and nothing else it would still be one of the very worst in American history: Every night, Kathe...

The MAGA war on knowledge www.lawyersgunsmoneyblog.com/2026/04/they...

6 hours ago 1 0 0 0
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Faculty Defect From Texas Publics, Citing Censorship Fed up with the state’s censoring of Plato, Joan of Arc and Romeo and Juliet, humanities professors are leaving Texas public institutions in pursuit of academic freedom.

Faculty Defect From Texas Publics, Citing Censorship Concerns www.insidehighered.com/news/faculty...

10 hours ago 0 0 0 0
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Details here reinforcing the fact that Texas Republicans have eliminated academic freedom in that state. And also this, from one of the departing profs: it's not a popular position, it's a distraction position (from the Rs doing nothing for people's everyday issues other than making them worse).

10 hours ago 0 0 1 0
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Faculty Defect From Texas Publics, Citing Censorship Fed up with the state’s censoring of Plato, Joan of Arc and Romeo and Juliet, humanities professors are leaving Texas public institutions in pursuit of academic freedom.

'Texas A&M philosophy professor Martin Peterson is leaving the university after administrators told him in January that he couldn’t teach Plato’s Symposium in his philosophy class; they said the ancient Greek philosopher’s work violated the system’s restrictions on gender and sexuality content.' 1/3

19 hours ago 3145 1241 143 306
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Government Workers Say They’re Getting Inundated With Religion “This has never happened before,” one government employee tells WIRED. “I have never gotten a message like this from anyone.”

“This has never happened before,” one government employee tells WIRED. “I have never gotten a message like this from anyone.”

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Child: I know your name. Mamdani.

Obama: What’s his first name?

Child: Mayor.

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Photo shows a heap of older style phones with the text “Planned obsolescence is now outlawed in France. It is a crime to intentionally reduce the lifespan of a product to force customers to replace it.”

Photo shows a heap of older style phones with the text “Planned obsolescence is now outlawed in France. It is a crime to intentionally reduce the lifespan of a product to force customers to replace it.”

Love France 🇫🇷 They understand the importance of the battery life of a Nokia 3310

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The Shocking Secrets of Madison Square Garden's Surveillance Machine Famously vengeful Knicks owner Jim Dolan has long spied on people at his iconic arenas. WIRED goes deep inside the operation that allegedly tracked a trans woman, lawyers, protesters, and more.

For @wired.com’s April cover, we take you inside Madison Square Garden’s surveillance machine — which has allegedly tracked a trans woman, lawyers, protesters, and more.

Revelatory work from @noahshachtman.bsky.social & @robertsilverman.bsky.social that I’m proud to publish and urge you to read.

3 days ago 218 96 5 8
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This is a good thread, and it's worth noting that the strategy of complaining that conservative ideas are being ignored *in spite of all the attention is being paid to them* is basic right wing strategy and has been for decades. It's long been the primary way of disciplining media as well.

3 days ago 125 39 1 3

“Communism for business majors” would enroll really well

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The College Affordability Crisis is Real, but the Media is Looking at the Wrong Schools Sturges Hall (Photo by Keith Walters ’11) Opinion By Costas Solomou, Vice President, Enrollment Management Published by the Office of Enrollment Management When Yale University released its Committee ...

"the colleges that dominate the headlines are not the colleges that most Americans attend

their core mission: to serve students from all backgrounds, at a price families can actually afford, prepare graduates for real careers and meaningful lives."

www.geneseo.edu/enrollment-m...

3 days ago 634 176 20 28

yes thank you. really too bad the NYT folds all these issues into "colleges deserve blame." It turns out campus thought control is a nonissue here. The biggest needs are to (1) to refocus on the academic core, which won't reduce controversy but reveal its point; (2) move $$ from admin to academics

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i'm amazed at the opposite reactions to the Yale Report and the "Yale Profs Say It's Colleges' Fault" NYT piece. so much more critical on Bluesky, such a relief

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No shortage of things to improve about US higher ed (most of which have nothing to do with Yale), but "plunging trust" is principally the product of a coordinated propaganda campaign and it's irresponsible for the report to avoid mentioning it

5 days ago 37 16 5 0
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Senior NHS officials warned staff over criticising rollout of Palantir platform Ethical objections and uneven adoption have made the tech group’s contract a divisive issue within English health service

“If you criticise Palantir’s platform one more time, you are going to lose your job.”

Solidarity to all NHS workers opposing this toxic corporation. Shame on those bullying them. But they won’t stop us. We’re going to ditch Palantir.

www.ft.com/content/ff70...

6 days ago 10583 3633 246 151
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Opinion | Trump Is in Over His Head

Trumpism is the culmination of a longtime conservative war against responsible governing as frivolous and unnecessary since, as Sen. Rick Scott said the other day, “All government does is mess up your life. Government is always the problem.”
www.nytimes.com/2026/04/15/o...

5 days ago 57 17 8 3
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Country that lectures Iran on democracy arrests another 523 people for peacefully protesting The absurdity surrounding the UK’s treatment of Palestine Action and its supporters has reached new lows.

Country that lectures Iran on democracy arrests another 523 people for peacefully protesting
open.substack.com/pub/councile...

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The world's worst dealmaker screws up the Iran negotiations Forget the "Art of the Deal” myth.

New in PN: The world's worst dealmaker screws up the Iran negotiations

"All of Trump’s weaknesses as a negotiator are now on display: His childish understanding of power, his inability to grasp the perspective of his opponents, his belief that anything can be accomplished by threats and violence."

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Alex at UCalif resources are allocated partly on academic standing but mostly on quant comparisons like majors, s-f ratios, payroll costs, enrollment trends, workload problems. Humanities Mergers, an old trend, = downsizing, sometimes survival but not strength. Prob isn’t faculty cluelessness

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Perfect summary of Trumper Xity

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I spent 16, SIXTEEN years fighting this crap.

I can’t believe it 😭

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Let's feel good. This is the latest in a string of victories against fascism around the globe. I'm thinking of Koreans thwarting the autogolpe and convicting Yoon Suk Yeol, and Brazilians convicting Bolsonaro. And in the US, we are very well positioned for November midterms.

1 week ago 668 117 6 1
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The fact that Orbán conceded so quickly — let alone at all — shows the astounding extent of the opposition's win.

Orbán had literally no chance whatsoever to contest the result.

He was decisively and clearly rejected by the Hungarian people.

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Orban was a cornerstone of the international anti-trans movements. Hungarian trans people were among the early targets of his authoritarian regime.

It'll take a long time to come back from it all but I hope Hungarian trans people sleep slightly better tonight.

1 week ago 2505 543 4 11
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CORNELL AAUP | When the Deal Goes Down The Cornell Chapter of the AAUP critiques the University's response to the 2025 settlement deal with the Trump administration. They call for accountability and transparency in order to preserve the…

"Now, more than ever, we need a university that can serve as a beacon for democratic society, by deepening our commitments to academic freedom, shared governance and the public mission of higher education."

— Cornell AAUP

@cornellaaup.bsky.social

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MA courses and entire departments are being closed, redundancies are sweeping the sector - and the UK Government is running a ‘Choose Canada’ marketing campaign

1 week ago 30 16 1 0
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Under California state law, all law enforcement agencies must report the number of so-called less-lethal munitions used. Is the LAPD providing honest reports?

🎥: @shoton35mm.bsky.social

1 week ago 449 166 17 12
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Liner Note 51. Academic Freedom of the Third Kind, in a Very Bad Time Stonehenge on December 21, 2025    In the end, the university’s main value is its intellectuality, the treatment of everything that is with ...

here's my post on why we should push the academic freedom to study what you want-- not go to college to study for a job. The evidence is that good wages don't come from specific majors or courses, so actually study what you really care about. utotherescue.blogspot.com/2026/04/line...

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I don't think Wolff is the primary target of Melania's ire, but he is one target and may limit Melania's ability to respond to Amanda Ungaro.

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