Madcap
@madcap777.bsky.social
I work at your local community college.
He/him
He/him
Reposted by Madcap
Trial by combat should be an option in academia. We should be able to present a tenure packet and challenge the decisions of the provost/dean in a trial by combat.
We should be able to challenge the provost to combat if they "can't see the pedagogical merit" of a course.
We should be able to challenge the provost to combat if they "can't see the pedagogical merit" of a course.
December 7, 2025 at 1:15 AM
Trial by combat should be an option in academia. We should be able to present a tenure packet and challenge the decisions of the provost/dean in a trial by combat.
We should be able to challenge the provost to combat if they "can't see the pedagogical merit" of a course.
We should be able to challenge the provost to combat if they "can't see the pedagogical merit" of a course.
Reposted by Madcap
Study after study shows campaign ads barely move the needle. So where does money’s real power come from? I ranked the five ways money corrupts politics—from least to most corrosive. What I’ve learned from 15 years of tracking political money:
Money Doesn't Buy Elections. It Does Something Worse.
Campaign ads barely move the needle. The real influence is hiding in plain sight.
open.substack.com
December 6, 2025 at 8:22 PM
Study after study shows campaign ads barely move the needle. So where does money’s real power come from? I ranked the five ways money corrupts politics—from least to most corrosive. What I’ve learned from 15 years of tracking political money:
Reposted by Madcap
NEW — I put together a list of independent journalism subscriptions that would make great holiday gifts. From music to politics, astronomy to alcohol, tech to social justice, there’s something for [almost] everyone. Support indie media *and* surprise and delight your loved ones!
My guide:
My guide:
Giving the gift of independent journalism: a guide
The Handbasket has subscription suggestions for almost everyone on your list.
www.thehandbasket.co
December 6, 2025 at 3:38 PM
NEW — I put together a list of independent journalism subscriptions that would make great holiday gifts. From music to politics, astronomy to alcohol, tech to social justice, there’s something for [almost] everyone. Support indie media *and* surprise and delight your loved ones!
My guide:
My guide:
Reposted by Madcap
Democrats will probably be winning a lot of elections by default over the next couple of years so it's important to make sure it's not guys like this who get in
December 6, 2025 at 7:40 PM
Democrats will probably be winning a lot of elections by default over the next couple of years so it's important to make sure it's not guys like this who get in
I mean, huh
We got Weird Al out here singing Killing In The Name, the time for moderation is over
December 6, 2025 at 8:40 PM
I mean, huh
Reposted by Madcap
It might be easy to find things like this merely petty or superficial, but that would be a mistake. Demeaning, erasing or eliminating celebrations or acknowledgments of Black America is straight from Redemption playbook, and is intended to reinforce the racial hierarchy and signal its reinstatement.
National parks change prioritizes Trump birthday over days honoring Black people
Free entrance days at national parks no longer include MLK Day and Juneteenth.
www.sfgate.com
December 5, 2025 at 6:30 PM
It might be easy to find things like this merely petty or superficial, but that would be a mistake. Demeaning, erasing or eliminating celebrations or acknowledgments of Black America is straight from Redemption playbook, and is intended to reinforce the racial hierarchy and signal its reinstatement.
YOU SHOULD SUBSCRIBE TO TAL'S NEWSLETTER
TRUST ME
THIS WAS RIVETING, AND I AM FROM THE MIDWEST AND LITERALLY HAD TO LOOK UP WHAT PASTRAMI IS
Beef, I guess
TRUST ME
THIS WAS RIVETING, AND I AM FROM THE MIDWEST AND LITERALLY HAD TO LOOK UP WHAT PASTRAMI IS
Beef, I guess
The sandwich newsletter is back!!! Prepare to learn more than you ever thought you would about pastrami! Origin myths! Disputes! An outstanding historical mystery! Yiddish ballads! Unlikely lyricism! The Armenian Church takes a stand! buttondown.com/theswordandt...
Notable Sandwiches #132: Pastrami
Hello, and welcome back to the Sword and the Sandwich! I’ve been struggling with a particularly pernicious case of writer’s block, for months now. Not being...
buttondown.com
December 5, 2025 at 8:02 PM
YOU SHOULD SUBSCRIBE TO TAL'S NEWSLETTER
TRUST ME
THIS WAS RIVETING, AND I AM FROM THE MIDWEST AND LITERALLY HAD TO LOOK UP WHAT PASTRAMI IS
Beef, I guess
TRUST ME
THIS WAS RIVETING, AND I AM FROM THE MIDWEST AND LITERALLY HAD TO LOOK UP WHAT PASTRAMI IS
Beef, I guess
Reposted by Madcap
The “garbage” destroying America isn’t in Minnesota’s Somalian community. It’s in the Oval Office. www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2025/1...
December 4, 2025 at 5:08 PM
The “garbage” destroying America isn’t in Minnesota’s Somalian community. It’s in the Oval Office. www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2025/1...
Reposted by Madcap
subscribe to the handbasket, a one-person operation that produced both of these stories in one day.
www.thehandbasket.co/subscribe
www.thehandbasket.co/subscribe
December 4, 2025 at 3:48 AM
subscribe to the handbasket, a one-person operation that produced both of these stories in one day.
www.thehandbasket.co/subscribe
www.thehandbasket.co/subscribe
Reposted by Madcap
This is disgusting, cowardly garbage. Let trans women play tennis. Everyone who entertained 'just asking questions about men in women's sports' should understand that this was never, and is is not, about sports, but pretending it was sure did pave the way to erasing trans people from public life.
USTA bans trans athletes from competing as women to comply with Trump executive order
The national tennis governing body's policy change was made with no announcement.
www.thehandbasket.co
December 4, 2025 at 2:03 AM
This is disgusting, cowardly garbage. Let trans women play tennis. Everyone who entertained 'just asking questions about men in women's sports' should understand that this was never, and is is not, about sports, but pretending it was sure did pave the way to erasing trans people from public life.
Reposted by Madcap
Every use-case people think they "need" and LLM for is actually papering over a different issue. The teacher using ChatGPT to write narrative reports bc the demand is unreasonable & overwhelming *actually* needs more support and/or compensation or a reduction of demand. It's a LABOR issue.
December 4, 2025 at 3:20 PM
Every use-case people think they "need" and LLM for is actually papering over a different issue. The teacher using ChatGPT to write narrative reports bc the demand is unreasonable & overwhelming *actually* needs more support and/or compensation or a reduction of demand. It's a LABOR issue.
Reposted by Madcap
It’s true. We shouldn’t pretend that. Trumpist culture is not the same as American culture and not equal. Trumpist culture is proudly ignorant, defiantly against America’s founding values and subsequently developed values, venomously bigoted, and generally despicable.
Fox News' Will Cain: "I’m sure there are very honorable law-abiding upstanding citizens and contributors from the Somali community here in the United States, BUT..."
He goes on to say "we aren’t going to pretend here that all cultures are of equal value or the same."
He goes on to say "we aren’t going to pretend here that all cultures are of equal value or the same."
December 3, 2025 at 10:31 PM
It’s true. We shouldn’t pretend that. Trumpist culture is not the same as American culture and not equal. Trumpist culture is proudly ignorant, defiantly against America’s founding values and subsequently developed values, venomously bigoted, and generally despicable.
Reposted by Madcap
I will say, if I never again hear “private public partnership” again in my life, I will have heard it enough.
December 3, 2025 at 6:28 PM
I will say, if I never again hear “private public partnership” again in my life, I will have heard it enough.
Generational theory is bullshit AND ALSO Gen X is the best generation because we were the last kids who were allowed to grow up by ourselves, not shepherded through a variety of adulthood-training programs
December 3, 2025 at 5:02 PM
Generational theory is bullshit AND ALSO Gen X is the best generation because we were the last kids who were allowed to grow up by ourselves, not shepherded through a variety of adulthood-training programs
Reposted by Madcap
Maybe related, maybe not — I talked with Emily Keegin about rural aesthetics and politics
www.nytimes.com/2025/12/02/o...
www.nytimes.com/2025/12/02/o...
Opinion | The Aesthetic That Explains American Identity Now
www.nytimes.com
December 2, 2025 at 5:44 PM
Maybe related, maybe not — I talked with Emily Keegin about rural aesthetics and politics
www.nytimes.com/2025/12/02/o...
www.nytimes.com/2025/12/02/o...
Reposted by Madcap
Teaching thing I find useful: if a student stops showing up for class, make the subject line of your email "Is everything OK?" When people are overwhelmed they'll often avoid even opening bad-news emails (cf. me & my bank statements). This way, they know I'm reaching out to help, not chastise.
December 1, 2025 at 11:40 PM
Teaching thing I find useful: if a student stops showing up for class, make the subject line of your email "Is everything OK?" When people are overwhelmed they'll often avoid even opening bad-news emails (cf. me & my bank statements). This way, they know I'm reaching out to help, not chastise.
Reposted by Madcap
Reuters reached out to everyone that Trump or his subordinates singled out publicly for retribution, and reviewed hundreds of official orders, directives and public records. The result: the most comprehensive accounting yet of his campaign of payback.
www.reuters.com/investigates...
www.reuters.com/investigates...
November 27, 2025 at 1:48 AM
Reuters reached out to everyone that Trump or his subordinates singled out publicly for retribution, and reviewed hundreds of official orders, directives and public records. The result: the most comprehensive accounting yet of his campaign of payback.
www.reuters.com/investigates...
www.reuters.com/investigates...
We see something similar at YLCC, although not yet as pronounced as described here. I chalk it up to the way American high school is now taught (at least where I am).
An issue we're seeing at all levels of university is that many students are simply refusing to do *anything*. They aren't reading the syllabus, aren't following assignment guidelines, aren't engaging with material, ignoring deadlines. And this might seem like old news, but it truly has ramped up.
November 29, 2025 at 10:31 PM
We see something similar at YLCC, although not yet as pronounced as described here. I chalk it up to the way American high school is now taught (at least where I am).
Someone told me I would have been a good carnival barker. It wasn't meant as a compliment. I totally take it as one
What is the best compliment you ever received? Putting aside whether or not you believed it.
November 27, 2025 at 11:29 PM
Someone told me I would have been a good carnival barker. It wasn't meant as a compliment. I totally take it as one
Reposted by Madcap
We're gonna need a truth and reconciliation commission and Nuremberg style trials to reckon with all of this evil, and any Dem candidate for office who shies away from a full reckoning in the name of "moving forward as a nation" can get well and truly fucked
I feel much safer today knowing that we deported a Babson College student back to a country where she hasn't lived since childhood.
She wasn't even flying internationally. She was flying to Texas.
She wasn't even flying internationally. She was flying to Texas.
A Babson College student wanted to surprise her family for Thanksgiving. She was deported instead. - The Boston Globe
Any Lucia Lopez Belloza was at Logan to catch a flight to Texas when immigration authorities detained her as she was about to board the plane.
www.bostonglobe.com
November 27, 2025 at 4:29 PM
We're gonna need a truth and reconciliation commission and Nuremberg style trials to reckon with all of this evil, and any Dem candidate for office who shies away from a full reckoning in the name of "moving forward as a nation" can get well and truly fucked
Reposted by Madcap
It's a tangent to Dr Cottom's point, but I love love love working with GED/HiSET students. Give me a classroom full of them and I know we'll have a stellar semester. They show up; they work and think; they know what they're about
I mention because yes sociologist of education. But I also mention because my entire personal code of ethics about educational attainment is core to my moral belief system.
I attended my grandmothers GED diploma ceremony. I would not mock that, not even for a destructive political troll.
I attended my grandmothers GED diploma ceremony. I would not mock that, not even for a destructive political troll.
November 27, 2025 at 5:11 PM
It's a tangent to Dr Cottom's point, but I love love love working with GED/HiSET students. Give me a classroom full of them and I know we'll have a stellar semester. They show up; they work and think; they know what they're about
This just reaffirms my drive to, somehow, be named the Grand Duke of Luxembourg
November 27, 2025 at 12:27 AM
This just reaffirms my drive to, somehow, be named the Grand Duke of Luxembourg
Two of the best writers/thinkers here on Al Gore's Internet*, presented free of charge!
_________
*Or Beyonce's Internet, depending on your Terms Of Service
_________
*Or Beyonce's Internet, depending on your Terms Of Service
"Identity politics are not about dividing groups and comparing them. It's about building solidarity across groups and coalition-building, recognizing the commonalities across different forms of problems and what you do together," says @louiseseamster.bsky.social. newrepublic.com/article/2033...
November 26, 2025 at 10:27 PM
Two of the best writers/thinkers here on Al Gore's Internet*, presented free of charge!
_________
*Or Beyonce's Internet, depending on your Terms Of Service
_________
*Or Beyonce's Internet, depending on your Terms Of Service
Master of Magic
Arguably the original XCom; the sequels were fine but I like more of a sandbox than they provide
Arguably the original XCom; the sequels were fine but I like more of a sandbox than they provide
Warcraft II bsky.app/profile/ikex...
I would like to know! 🤓👾
November 26, 2025 at 5:54 PM
Master of Magic
Arguably the original XCom; the sequels were fine but I like more of a sandbox than they provide
Arguably the original XCom; the sequels were fine but I like more of a sandbox than they provide