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Nick Fleisher

@nickfleisher.bsky.social

2.7K followers 720 following 5.4K posts

Linguist at UW-Milwaukee. Syntax & semantics, higher ed, Wisconsin politics &c.

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Nick Fleisher @nickfleisher.bsky.social · Nov 4

Grammar/syntax/semantics
Wisconsin politics
Academic freedom and shared governance
Philadelphia and Philadelphia sports
Modular synthesizers
Open source software
Stockholm, Sweden
All things Donald Fagen

Nora Reed (they/them ze/hir) @nora.zone · Nov 4

okay, time for a prompt post to distract us all from the horrors. quote this post with your areas of expertise, interest, hyperfixation and/or obsession and invite your audience to ask you questions about them.

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Reposted by Nick Fleisher

Don Moynihan @donmoyn.bsky.social · 1h

The elimination of USAID is a moral atrocity and all involved made a choice to enable, and then lie about, ending the lives of some of the most vulnerable people in the world.

MAE SOT, Thailand (AP) - Mohammed Taher clutched the lifeless body of his 2-year-old son and wept. Ever since his family's food rations stopped arriving at their internment camp in Myanmar in April, the father had watched helplessly as his once-vibrant baby boy weakened, suffering from diarrhea and begging for food.
On May 21, exactly two weeks after Taher's little boy died, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio sat before Congress and declared: "No one has died" because of his government's decision to gut its foreign aid program. Rubio also insisted: "No children are dying on my watch."
That, Taher says, "is a lie."

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Nick Fleisher @nickfleisher.bsky.social · 1h

George Martin, John Lennon, Paul McCartney

Monday Night Football image of Andy Reid in a suit, Travis Kelce in a Hawaiian shirt and floppy hat, and Patrick Mahomes in a pink tie and vest

Nick Fleisher @nickfleisher.bsky.social · 1h

"You can guess with your human brain what the run expectancy matrix says about trading a runner on second with no outs for a runner on first with one out."

Never Bunt | Defector

PHILADELPHIA — By the top of the ninth inning, the stadium was visibly pockmarked by absences, and people were booing Jhoan Duran’s walkout show. Duran, who was just doing his job as the Philadelphia ...

defector.com

Nick Fleisher @nickfleisher.bsky.social · 2h

This is duly scathing (though the lyrical misgivings are nothing new; "hair falling into place like dominoes" and whatnot)

No Good Art Comes From Greed | Defector

The packages arrived square and thin and carefully wrapped on Saturday afternoon. There were three of them, but only one was mine. If I could have rejected my package, sent it back from whence it came...

defector.com

Nick Fleisher @nickfleisher.bsky.social · 2h

Sorry, weirded out not in a "this place is weird" sense but in a "the vibe is palpably unfriendly" sense. But my experience of Madison is mostly limited to the UW campus, so it might just be that.

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Nick Fleisher @nickfleisher.bsky.social · 2h

Been doing this for four years and honestly the only hitch was getting a properly rated extension cord

Nick Fleisher @nickfleisher.bsky.social · 2h

For me, having spent a bunch of time in DC recently I am consistently struck by how much it reminds me of Philadelphia, in a way that NYC never has

Nick Fleisher @nickfleisher.bsky.social · 2h

Always fun to remember how SCOTUS tossed the Wisconsin gerrymandering case for lack of standing

Tom Scocca @tomscocca.bsky.social · 23h

It's not just that they're going to strike down a law against conversion therapy, it's that they're going to do it on behalf of made-up claims from a straw plaintiff who can't honestly show the law affected her at all

Tom Scocca @tomscocca.bsky.social · 23h

One thing about American's widespread distrust and disapproval of the Supreme Court is that mainstream news coverage mostly doesn't dwell on stuff like standing, so people don't even begin to grasp how rigged the Court truly is www.nytimes.com/live/2025/10...

Nick Fleisher @nickfleisher.bsky.social · 2h

For me, having lived 15-ish years in Milwaukee and having always felt weirded out by Madison, the divide feels right

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Nick Fleisher @nickfleisher.bsky.social · 3h

Pretty solid. Philly-Baltimore-DC all in one region. Milwaukee, Madison, and Green Bay in three separate ones.

William Hazen @williamhazen.bsky.social · 1d

This is the most accurate depiction of the Midwest to date. Wichita has always felt like the last Midwest city while also being the first plains city.

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Nick Fleisher @nickfleisher.bsky.social · 4h

Can you even hear yourself, bro

WaPo Editorial Board: Government shutdowns wouldn’t happen if they caused more pain Democratic leaders play a dangerous game as Trump threatens not to pay furloughed federal workers.

Reposted by Nick Fleisher

Nicholas Grossman @nicholasgrossman.bsky.social · 13h

The First Amendment explicitly guarantees:

-the right of the people peaceably to assemble
-to petition the Government for a redress of grievances
-the free exercise of religion
-freedom of speech

If this priest had also been press, ICE would have violated all five 1A freedoms at once.

Kurt @flglchicago.bsky.social · 15h

Here’s video of the incident

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Nick Fleisher @nickfleisher.bsky.social · 13h

Warren Harding (d. 1923) had a mistress who lived long enough to see The Simpsons

rax ‘levon honkers’ king @raxkingisdead.bsky.social · 18h

you ever think about those real weird overlaps. like tennessee williams might have listened to the ramones

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Reposted by Nick Fleisher

Fred Thompson @yourbestfred.bsky.social · 14h

Lmao Vladdy is absolutely out of his mind

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Nick Fleisher @nickfleisher.bsky.social · 18h

We've come as close as possible to isolating the relevant variables to answer the "was it Brady or Belichick?" question

Nick Fleisher @nickfleisher.bsky.social · 20h

The number of times I have seen the date "Jan 6, 2020" mentioned by otherwise intelligent people

Nick Fleisher @nickfleisher.bsky.social · 20h

Endlessly galling to me that his only championship came at the expense of the Phillies

Reposted by Nick Fleisher

Renee DiResta @noupside.bsky.social · 21h

“Who was president in 2020?” is the question of our time

Senator Jim Banks V
@SenatorBanks
Follow g..
The 2020 Census was a fraud. The Biden admin used a shady "privacy" formula that scrambled the data and miscounted 14 states.
It included illegal immigrants and handed
Democrats extra seats. Americans deserve a fair count and l'm fighting to fix it.
Zinited Statcs SScnate
MASHNORON DEYNN
October 6, 2025
an. Thow arewutn
Socretary
U.S. Department of Commerce Washington, DXC 20230
Dear Secretary Lutaick:
I urge you to investigate and correct erroes from the 2020 Census that handed disproportionntd political power to Democrats and illogal alicns. The Census Burcau adoptod a now and opaque
voting districts. As preparod by the Biden administration, the 2020 Censas roports miscountod the population of fourteen states, ' wrongly allocating six congressional scats aod Electoral
xx conwuu tmora uy, toc taroro tu mot đoo tnn Cunu lc pung t imber of votine districts. And the reoorts de aniovety inchaded ilecnl nhens widhout track those aliens' citiz enship status, If left uncorrected, these erroes will coetinue diluting the political power of American citizens.
Consus data plays a crucial role in allocating political roprescntation and goverment funding
Under the Constitution, cach state gets Congressional represcotutives and Electoeal College votes- based on "the whole number of persons" within the state." The number of persoes is in
tum clabaabod by a consttubocalty-mandalcd dcccacaal ccavas. Pcual agcco nely on census data to allocate billions of dollars in federal funding, much of which hinges ee opulation. And states use consus data to deaw congrossicnal and voting districts, »hich the
The it eiy of tie soaren alie n tor dur at ce hor inc ae oam toy ee n
nght wilbout statsica ly signilicant ciroo.
Diffcrcntial privacy is opaque and liable to mistakcn count totals. Sure cnough, the 2020 Ccnsus ovarocunted the noculation in cicht states and undercounted it in six." Tihe most extrcmi andercount was Arkansas, at 5.04%, and the larg…

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Reposted by Nick Fleisher

Jason Kuznicki @jkuznicki.bsky.social · 20h

This is personalism. It's the Charles I scenario -- the king rules without the a legislature and simply taxes and spends in whatever way he feels like.

Impeach, remove, disqualify.

George Pearkes @peark.es · 20h

Well that's not how appropriations work at all

*WHITE HOUSE TO TRANSFER TARIFF REVENUE TO FUND WIC: LEAVITT

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Nick Fleisher @nickfleisher.bsky.social · 1d

This one? Dear lord

Nick Fleisher @nickfleisher.bsky.social · 1d

This idea—that the compact will somehow create the conditions for action in a terminally dysfunctional Congress—just makes no sense to me. Allen makes it her core thesis without ever explaining why we should believe it.

Paradoxically, then, this act of executive overreach creates the conditions for redirecting executive overreach into effective legislative behavior.

But we can’t get there from here without a deal made first between leading institutions of higher education and the White House. A deal on the core principles in a compact could then become a framework for negotiating on legislation.

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Nick Fleisher @nickfleisher.bsky.social · 1d

See also: people who say we must "restore trust in higher ed"

Nicholas Grossman @nicholasgrossman.bsky.social · 1d

I keep waiting for the powers that be in media to grasp the concept of bad faith, realize how often "restore trust in news" and similar statements mean "stop doing journalism, lie more in ways I like," come from people ideologically committed to destroying trust in news, and can never be satisfied.

Karl Bode @karlbode.com · 1d

I too am keen to "restore trust in news" by turning a major broadcast network into a 24/7 slurry of right wing culture war propaganda and engagement trolling

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Nick Fleisher @nickfleisher.bsky.social · 1d

*booing intensifies*

Philadelphia Inquirer Sports @phillysport.bsky.social · 1d

“When the game is going good, it’s wind at our back, but when the game is not going good, it’s wind in our face," Nick Castellanos said of Phillies fans at the Bank.

A photo of Nick Castellanos sliding into the third base with a headline in black text over a white background that says "Nick Castellanos says Red October is a double-edged sword: 'The environment can be against us.'"

Nick Fleisher @nickfleisher.bsky.social · 1d

*Pete Hegseth psyching himself up in the mirror on a Saturday morning in the Fox studios*

max tani @maxtani.bsky.social · 1d

Bari Weiss introduced herself to CBS News staff today on the network's 9AM call, saying she wants to "win," which requires restoring trust to CBS. She also said she was excited for staff to get to know the Free Press, and ended her remarks by saying: "Let's do the fucking news."

Nick Fleisher @nickfleisher.bsky.social · 1d

Nobody under 65 was out of middle school when the Saturday Night Massacre took place

Dave Weigel @daveweigel.bsky.social · 1d

Durbin is retiring, but this is a classic "Dem leaders are old" line.

Most conservatives now think Nixon did nothing wrong. Do people born after 1990 know what Nixon did? Doubtful

Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 1d

Durbin: "What has taken place since January 20, 2025, would make even President Nixon recoil. This is your legacy, AG Bondi."

Reposted by Nick Fleisher

Gregg Gonsalves @gregggonsalves.bsky.social · 1d

And now @acls1919.bsky.social speaks out. Just. Say. No. To Trump's compact on higher ed. It's extortion plain and simple. www.acls.org/news/acls-st...

ACLS Statement Regarding White House “Compact for Academic Excellence in Higher Education”

ACLS stands firmly against this latest White House effort to divide faculties by giving special privileges to students in “hard science programs” and its demand that institutions abolish “units that p...

www.acls.org

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