Robb Stankey 👨‍🔬
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robb.stankey.me
Robb Stankey 👨‍🔬
@robb.stankey.me
360 followers 440 following 48 posts
Scientist in synthetic biology and natural products. Formerly served as Trustee for Shorewood Hills, WI. Interests include microbiology 🦠, space 🔭, birds 🐦, cycling 🚴, and the interface between religion ⛪️ and politics 🏛️
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Reposted by Robb Stankey 👨‍🔬
"How do we trust this village knowing that we have this liar among are midst"
That's how tonight's Shorewood Hills Trustees' budget meeting public comment started... Madison really deserves a public civility award by comparison.
Reposted by Robb Stankey 👨‍🔬
A fun byproduct of unitary executive theory—if the president controls everyone under him, he can demand they transfer hundreds of millions in tax dollars into his bank account
Breaking News: President Trump wants $230 million from the Justice Department for investigating him, people familiar with the matter say. Any settlement might ultimately be approved by senior department officials who defended him or those in his orbit. nyti.ms/4hmIi5X
Reposted by Robb Stankey 👨‍🔬
NEW: After The Washington Post reported Monday on the demolition of the "East Wing facade," a new picture obtained by Law Dork that was taken on Tuesday shows that a substantial portion of the entirety of the East Wing has been demolished.
Reposted by Robb Stankey 👨‍🔬
the president has destroyed the east wing of the white house without so much as a word of input from anyone else to build a royal ballroom paid for with bribes
NEW: After The Washington Post reported Monday on the demolition of the "East Wing facade," a new picture obtained by Law Dork that was taken on Tuesday shows that a substantial portion of the entirety of the East Wing has been demolished.
Reposted by Robb Stankey 👨‍🔬
We're going to do <less> w/ less at R1 universities, unless federal funding is restored, & the sooner R1 chancellors/presidents get in front of microphones & loudly, collectively start telling people that's the case, the better. The lack of doing this & not shaping the political debate is maddening.
As @neillewisjr.bsky.social said (bsky.app/profile/neil...), this is not sustainable, & we will have to do less. Academia is already rife with unpaid labor.

Again, the same courses/labs/degree programs simply will not exist, & the quality of what's left will decline. You can't have it without $.
And, if you work in higher education and your department somehow survives this, you will be expected to do as much or more with much less
Reposted by Robb Stankey 👨‍🔬
Once again, EVERY R1 research university depends on federal funding for ~15-25% of its budget. You simply can't unplug the largest or 2nd-largest source of $$ of every R1 university & expect it not to have devastating consequences for graduate education, which will spill over to undergrad education.
Wow. Harvard nuking its PhD programs

- Science PhD admissions reduced by more than 75%
- Arts & Humanities reduced by about 60%
- Social Sciences by 50–70%
- History by 60%
- Biology by 75%
- The German department will lose all PhD seats
- Sociology from six PhD students to zero
Harvard FAS Cuts Ph.D. Seats By More Than Half Across Next Two Admissions Cycles | News | The Harvard Crimson
The Faculty of Arts and Sciences slashed the number of Ph.D. student admissions slots for the Science division by more than 75 percent and for the Arts & Humanities division by about 60 percent for th...
www.thecrimson.com
Reposted by Robb Stankey 👨‍🔬
You need to see this…

Just so we’re all clear on the gravity and historical significance of what Trump has done to the East Wing of the People’s House.
Reposted by Robb Stankey 👨‍🔬
the year is 2030. the white house remains half demolished because president trump refused to pay construction workers and musk gutted government spending. two thieves sneak into the white house using a truck mounted ladder and steal the constitution
Reposted by Robb Stankey 👨‍🔬
Once again, one reason Trump says & does whatever he wants is bc every societal institution, including the media, has totally normalized & internalized the idea that the laws, the Constitution, & the international treaties we have signed & ratified simply don’t apply to this one guy. It’s maddening.
No mention at all of the fact that Trump doesn't have the legal authority to do this, that plans haven't even been reviewed (because the office is closed for the government shutdown), that the size and cost estimates keep changing, etc., etc.
Part of White House Is Reduced to Rubble. Trump’s Ballroom Will Rise in Its Place.
www.nytimes.com
My family walked through this very entrance to the White House in 2023, now being destroyed to build Trump’s Golden Temple to his vanity.
Reposted by Robb Stankey 👨‍🔬
White House begins demolishing East Wing facade to build Trump’s ballroom.

Full Story: wapo.st/42RiU2q
Reposted by Robb Stankey 👨‍🔬
Here's a gift link to the New York Times' coverage of the initial Tea Party rallies in April 2009 which inspired the media to treat it like a massive movement.

Check out how tiny the crowds were:

Philly: 200
DC: "several hundred"
Boston: 500
Austin: 1,000
Houston: 2,000
Tax Day Is Met With Tea Parties (Published 2009)
www.nytimes.com
Reposted by Robb Stankey 👨‍🔬
Everything leads back to Fox News in our misbegotten era. I think other media followed their lead, so if they were covering it so intensely, it must be big. I mean, they represent "real America" after all.
Reposted by Robb Stankey 👨‍🔬
A 60 second summary of some of the biggest and best sights from #NoKings Day.

Congratulations to every single organizer, volunteer and attendee👏

History.
Reposted by Robb Stankey 👨‍🔬
No Kings - Madison, Wisconsin

#nokings
Reposted by Robb Stankey 👨‍🔬
Finally, someone captured the girth of my wiener. 🌭 📸
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Reposted by Robb Stankey 👨‍🔬
Reposted by Robb Stankey 👨‍🔬
This wouldn't be happening if authoritarianism was consolidated.

They're weaker than they want you to think.
BREAKING: UVA rejects the Trump Administration's Compact.