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vcaston.bsky.social
Victor Caston
@vcaston.bsky.social
1.2K followers 650 following 1.7K posts
Philosophy & Classical Studies, University of Michigan. In case anyone was in doubt, my opinions are my own.
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vcaston.bsky.social
Victor Caston @vcaston.bsky.social · Aug 1
Unbelievably, @nehgov.bsky.social funded our Summer Institute:

Aristotle and Contemporary Philosophy of Mind
Directors: Jose Bermudez, Victor Caston

At Texas A&M, first two weeks of June.

More details on applications to follow.
nehgov.bsky.social
National Endowment for the Humanities @nehgov.bsky.social · Aug 1
NEH Announces $34.79 Million in Grants for 97 Humanities Projects tinyurl.com/ympbr56k
NEH Announces $34.79 Million for 97 Humanities Projects
tinyurl.com
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vcaston.bsky.social
Victor Caston @vcaston.bsky.social · 6h
"AI can do it for you" — brilliant

Still waiting for the machine to do my exercise for me
michaelspicer.bsky.social
Michael Spicer @michaelspicer.bsky.social · 10h
stop thinking right now
Reposted by Victor Caston
newscientist.com
New Scientist @newscientist.com · 9h
Antarctica may have passed a climate tipping point of no return, scientists are warning, with mounting evidence that a sudden slump in sea ice formation since 2016 is linked to human-induced ocean warming.
Antarctica may have crossed a tipping point that leads to rising seas
Scientists are beginning to understand the sudden loss of sea ice in Antarctica – and there is growing evidence that it represents a permanent shift with potentially catastrophic consequences
www.newscientist.com
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Reposted by Victor Caston
michalyoudoing.bsky.social
Michal J A Paszkiewicz @michalyoudoing.bsky.social · 11h
Who actually dropped balls from towers?

Who dropped them best?
A list of experiments purportedly perforned with dropping balls from towers. It is unlikely Galileo ever dropped balls from a tower.
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Reposted by Victor Caston
starshine.bsky.social
☀️ Starshine @starshine.bsky.social · 15h
rib, and i cannot emphasize this next part enough, bit
b-dogood.bsky.social
Silence 🇺🇦🇺🇸 @b-dogood.bsky.social · 23h
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vcaston.bsky.social
Victor Caston @vcaston.bsky.social · 8h
Love this
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Reposted by Victor Caston
djangowexler.bsky.social
Django Wexler @djangowexler.bsky.social · 1d
My boss: so how's our fourth quarter looking?

Me, the sales manager at the company that makes inflatable frog suits: well, you're never going to believe this, but
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vcaston.bsky.social
Victor Caston @vcaston.bsky.social · 8h
This may be the Clown Car of all Clown Cars

The prosecutors don't have a hope of producing the documents in discovery they would need to, due to the sheer volume, but many of which would likely impugn their office.

Their choices: expose Halligan; be fired; or lose their law licenses.
emptywheel.bsky.social
emptywheel @emptywheel.bsky.social · 9h
Prosecutors Sucking Lemons in Their Vindictive Prosecution of Jim Comey

www.emptywheel.net/2025/10/11/p...
Prosecutors Sucking Lemons in Their Vindictive Prosecution of Jim Comey - emptywheel
Unless prosecutors find a way to make the Jim Comey prosecution go away, in nine days, we'll get details (in the Vindictive and Selective Prosecution motion) of the efforts Trump has already made to p...
www.emptywheel.net
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Reposted by Victor Caston
sarahtaber.bsky.social
Sarah Taber @sarahtaber.bsky.social · 1d
Farm bankruptcies are back in the news, so it's time to pull this chart out again.

Hey look they kept rising during Trump's first term. Then they went way down under Biden.

Now they're up again? So weird. Thanks Farm Bureau for the graphic
Screenshot from Farm Bureau article on farm bankruptcies. It shows farm bankruptcies climbing steadily 2014-2020, falling by half in 2021, & continuing to fall through 2023.
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Reposted by Victor Caston
sherylnyt.bsky.social
Sheryl Gay Stolberg @sherylnyt.bsky.social · 17h
BREAKING: Friday night massacre underway at CDC. Doznes of "disease detectives," high-level scientists, entire Washington staff and editors of the MMWR (Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report) have all been RIFed and received the following notice:
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vcaston.bsky.social
Victor Caston @vcaston.bsky.social · 17h
This is investigative journalism, not "access" journalism. They work for the public, not the powerful.

They deserve our financial support.
propublica.org
ProPublica @propublica.org · 18h
Reps. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., and Rob Wittman, R-Va., and Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, all voted for cuts to the CFPB.

Yet collectively, they routed more than 1,000 constituent complaints to the agency, ProPublica found.

(Published August)
By @joeljacobs.bsky.social
These GOP Lawmakers Referred Constituents to the CFPB for Help. Then They Voted to Gut the Agency.
Many of the same Republican lawmakers who have targeted the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau for cuts have collectively directed thousands of constituents’ complaints about banks, credit cards, lo...
www.propublica.org
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Reposted by Victor Caston
joshtpm.bsky.social
Josh Marshall @joshtpm.bsky.social · 20h
If GOP wants to abolish the filibuster over this, awesome. It helps Rs way more than Ds. It’s also a central reason for loss of faith in government over the last 25 yrs. Rs can reopen the govt tonight if they want. If they want to do it to make sure 15 million lose their health care that’s on them.
ringwiss.bsky.social
ringwiss @ringwiss.bsky.social · 23h
“And that’s why we nuked it twice in the past month.”
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Reposted by Victor Caston
walterolson.bsky.social
Walter Olson @walterolson.bsky.social · 17h
New from me at Cato: I go through the numerous and massive First Amendment and academic-freedom violations of Trump's proffered "compact" with universities and then talk about the mechanism by which it would be enforced, by way of what I describe as a "retroactive push-button guillotine."
Universities Must Defend Their Independence by Rejecting Trump's "Compact"
The Trump administration has proffered a “compact” to universities that would require them to surrender their independence and academic freedom. How many First Amendment violations can we identify in ...
www.cato.org
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Reposted by Victor Caston
fritschner.bsky.social
Aaron Fritschner @fritschner.bsky.social · 1d
A few minutes ago in the House:

- Speaker Mike Johnson officially cancels votes next week, extending the House recess through a fourth week

- House Republicans block Democrats from passing a bill to pay the troops during the shutdown, ensuring they will miss paychecks next week
House Press Gallery: During today's pro forma session, the Clerk read a message from the Speaker designating Tuesday, October 14 through Sunday, October 19 as a district work period. Punchbowl's Briana Reilly: House gaveled in and out of its pro forma just now w/o recognizing Rep Elfreth, who was seeking to UC a mil pay bill from Rep Sykes. Elfreth told reporters after that House Dems stand “ready and willing to take” up standalone legislation to pay troops.
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vcaston.bsky.social
Victor Caston @vcaston.bsky.social · 18h
touché
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vcaston.bsky.social
Victor Caston @vcaston.bsky.social · 19h
A most excellent beginning
reichlinmelnick.bsky.social
Aaron Reichlin-Melnick @reichlinmelnick.bsky.social · 19h
UPDATE: Judge Perry issued an opinion explaining why she blocked the Texas National Guard deployment in Chicago.

She begins with Alexander Hamilton’s rejection of a “preposterous” idea that the Constitution lets a President deploy a State’s militia to a different State for political retribution. 🧵
OPINION AND ORDER Since this country was founded, Americans have disagreed about the appropriate division of power between the federal government and the fifty states that make up our Union. This tension is a natural result of the system of federalism adopted by our Founders. And yet, not even the Founding Father most ardently in favor of a strong federal government believed that one state's militia could be sent to another state for the purposes of political retribution, calling such a suggestion "inflammatory," and stating "it is impossible to believe that [a President] would employ such preposterous means to accomplish their designs." But Plaintiffs contend that such an event has come to pass, and argue that National Guard troops from both Illinois and Texas have been deployed to Illinois because the President of the United States wants to punish state elected officials whose policies are different from his own.
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Reposted by Victor Caston
slothropsmap.bsky.social
Nick (derogatory) ✨ @slothropsmap.bsky.social · Jul 16
Hadn’t realized we reached the Fascist Leader Talking In An Endless Loop At Sites Of Mass Transit stage of the dystopia.

Good to know.
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Reposted by Victor Caston
audrelawdamercy.bsky.social
Barred and Boujee aka Madiba Dennie @audrelawdamercy.bsky.social · 21h
aaand we are officially in the hide-your-neighbors stage
sophiesherry.bsky.social
Sophie Sherry @sophiesherry.bsky.social · 1d
During a military-style raid on a building in Chicago’s South Shore, one resident heard a knock on his door. 

It wasn’t the feds —  it was a mom and her 7-year-old daughter, pleading for help.

He let them hide in his unit for the next 3 days.

chicago.suntimes.com/immigration/...
Neighbor shielded 7-year-old during South Shore federal raid: ‘I didn’t want them to take her’
During the Sept. 30 raid one tenant protected a terrified girl and her mom. Remnants at the complex, including a detailed map of all the units, offer clues to what authorities may have known before th...
chicago.suntimes.com
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riana.bsky.social
Rianamator 🦇🎃👻 @riana.bsky.social · 19h
"Stanford's Pfefferkorn warns that while US tech companies are not state-controlled, they have in her view become 'happy handmaidens' when it comes to 'repressing free speech and dissent.'"

www.wired.com/story/apple-...
Apple Took Down These ICE-Tracking Apps. The Developers Aren't Giving Up
“We are going to do everything in our power to fight this,” says ICEBlock developer Joshua Aaron after Apple removed his app from the App Store.
www.wired.com
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Reposted by Victor Caston
kylegriffin1.bsky.social
Kyle Griffin @kylegriffin1.bsky.social · 1d
Breaking: MIT just became the first university to reject an agreement that would trade support for the Trump admin's higher education agenda in exchange for favorable treatment.

"Fundamentally, the premise of the document is inconsistent with our core belief." www.nytimes.com/2025/10/10/u...
M.I.T. Rejects a White House Offer for Special Funding Treatment
www.nytimes.com
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vcaston.bsky.social
Victor Caston @vcaston.bsky.social · 1d
!!!
Reposted by Victor Caston
bbkogan.bsky.social
Bobby Kogan @bbkogan.bsky.social · 1d
Three key points:
1) The admin has been planning mass firings to begin in October since February
2) The work necessary to carry out mass firings is illegal during a shutdown, violating the Antideficiency Act, which carries a criminal penalty
3) This harms America, ridding us of talent and expertise
Russ Vought v @russvought The RIFs have begun. 12:27 PM • 10/10/25 • 15K Views
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vcaston.bsky.social
Victor Caston @vcaston.bsky.social · 1d
Useful, valuable tips for deleting Amazon data collection and tracking
eff.org
Electronic Frontier Foundation @eff.org · 4d
Happy Amazon Prime Day! Amazon collects mountains of data about how you use the service, but there is a setting you can change to make it harder for the company to use that data to sell you more things. #OptOutOctober www.eff.org/deeplinks/2...
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Reposted by Victor Caston
wyden.senate.gov
Senator Ron Wyden @wyden.senate.gov · 1d
Thoughts and prayers to Cosplay Cop Kristi who had to brave the dogs, farmer’s markets, capybaras, and marathon runners of Portland this week.
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joncooper-us.bsky.social
Jon Cooper @joncooper-us.bsky.social · 1d
👇👇
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scottjshapiro.bsky.social
Scott Shapiro @scottjshapiro.bsky.social · 1d
Some personal news: My Soros check just cleared at Antifa Savings & Loan so I'll be at the No Kings rally on October 18th.
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