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Timothy Ryan

@tjryan02.bsky.social

Professor of Political Science at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Navigare necesse est. https://timryan.web.unc.edu/

1,646 Followers  |  266 Following  |  216 Posts  |  Joined: 10.10.2023  |  2.1354

Latest posts by tjryan02.bsky.social on Bluesky

Time for student subject pools to make a comeback! πŸš€

18.11.2025 21:06 β€” πŸ‘ 7    πŸ” 1    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0

Not great, Bob.

18.11.2025 20:36 β€” πŸ‘ 5    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 1    πŸ“Œ 0
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Careful, folks. ChatGPT appears to be daydreaming today.

18.11.2025 16:25 β€” πŸ‘ 1    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0

It also seems basically what they tried to get Mike Pence to do on 1/6/21. Which was… problematic.

Don't mishear me! Senate malapportionment is bad. I'm just chewing over my thoughts on this particular mechanism for addressing it.

30.10.2025 16:01 β€” πŸ‘ 0    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 1    πŸ“Œ 0

This is interesting. So the idea is that the presiding officer gets to decide the rules for tallying votes? This seems like a recipe for anarchy. E.g. the next VP could just change the rules back and now the Senate is just a proxy for the executive branch.

30.10.2025 15:38 β€” πŸ‘ 0    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 2    πŸ“Œ 0

"Potential ethical conflicts" πŸ™‡β€β™‚οΈ

21.10.2025 19:25 β€” πŸ‘ 2    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0
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And the award for journalistic understatement of the year goes to…

21.10.2025 19:23 β€” πŸ‘ 4    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 1    πŸ“Œ 0

It's as if we are living in a bizarro world where corruption was a virtue to be encouraged, like bravery and conscientiousness.

18.10.2025 14:11 β€” πŸ‘ 2    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0

Something that the Santos commutation crystallizes for me is that Trump does not only *tolerate* corruption, such as when it serves his interests. (This would be bad enough.) He proactively rewards it, even when unrelated to his interests. (See also Eric Adams--a Democrat!)

18.10.2025 14:09 β€” πŸ‘ 5    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 1    πŸ“Œ 0
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Harvard Students Skip Class and Still Get High Grades, Faculty Say

At Harvard, students can register for two classes that meet at the *same time* because classes are Important and we’re Very Serious about education.

www.nytimes.com/2025/10/06/u...

12.10.2025 13:01 β€” πŸ‘ 8    πŸ” 1    πŸ’¬ 2    πŸ“Œ 0

My wife's roots are in Georgia. I've thought about how it's quite possible that one of her relatives killed one of mine, or vice-versa.

03.10.2025 14:07 β€” πŸ‘ 1    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0

No doubt you've seen the movie Glory. (I rewatched it recently.)

03.10.2025 13:22 β€” πŸ‘ 2    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 1    πŸ“Œ 0
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Neat! Here is a history of my relative, written by someone in the National Archives, many years ago.

02.10.2025 21:03 β€” πŸ‘ 1    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0
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AI tools helped me finish a replica of the regimental flag that my 3x great grandfather fought (and died) under during the Civil War. It's based on a photo of the deteriorated flag that I got from the New Jersey State Museum.

I like how it came out! And what it symbolizes.

02.10.2025 19:33 β€” πŸ‘ 21    πŸ” 1    πŸ’¬ 3    πŸ“Œ 0

Yes. (See p. 8)

www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/...

02.10.2025 15:36 β€” πŸ‘ 1    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0

Today's cute teaching example of the kind of policy that a federal bureaucrat would need to make: when a blind person hires someone to groom their seeing eye dog, is this a tax deductible medical expense? See below for the answer.

02.10.2025 15:36 β€” πŸ‘ 1    πŸ” 1    πŸ’¬ 1    πŸ“Œ 0
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The Myth of the Campus Snowflake The students I encounter as a university president aren’t afraid of free speechβ€”quite the contrary.

Nice mention of my Free Expression work, three paragraphs from the bottom.

02.10.2025 14:30 β€” πŸ‘ 2    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0
Post image 30.09.2025 23:24 β€” πŸ‘ 0    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 1    πŸ“Œ 0
Sixta and the grooming standard
YouTube video by Taran Axethorpe Sixta and the grooming standard

Apropos of nothing, here is a montage from the great 2008 series Generation Kill where John Sixta--the battalion yutz--bangs on and on about adherence to the "grooming standard." (NSFW)

www.youtube.com/watch?v=VQr9...

30.09.2025 20:45 β€” πŸ‘ 2    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 2    πŸ“Œ 0

You want my letter of recommendation to be answers to six questions that you came up with, and that are specific to your organization.

I want to write one general purpose letter that covers all the same substance and that I can upload to *any* organization.

We are not the same.

25.09.2025 17:12 β€” πŸ‘ 4    πŸ” 1    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0

UNC Political Science is hiring in methods!

UNC has an amazing department and the triangle is a great place to live.

Tenure Track Assistant Professor in Methods (Deadline Oct 24)

link to the postingπŸ‘‡
unc.peopleadmin.com/postings/307...

#polisky #psjobs #poliscijobs

24.09.2025 18:00 β€” πŸ‘ 13    πŸ” 13    πŸ’¬ 1    πŸ“Œ 0
Assistant Professor This tenure-track position includes 40% teaching, 40% research and 20% service to the department/college. The service portion includes, but is not limited to search committees, review committees and a...

UNC is hiring in Political Methodology. Please spread the word and encourage people to apply.

unc.peopleadmin.com/postings/307...

24.09.2025 15:16 β€” πŸ‘ 1    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0
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Former Provost Sues UNC-Chapel Hill Trustees Over Closed Meetings Chris Clemens accused the trustees of "hiding matters of grave public concern,” including tenure debates, using a Signal group and closed session.

Happening at UNC.

24.09.2025 12:56 β€” πŸ‘ 0    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0

I'll credit Thomas as a committed originalist when he points to the clause in the Constitution that grants the president near-blanket immunity from criminal prosecution.

23.09.2025 17:48 β€” πŸ‘ 3    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0

Of all the times in history that someone was handed $50,000 cash in a takeout bag, what percentage of them do you suppose were completely legitimate and above-the-board?

22.09.2025 23:20 β€” πŸ‘ 7    πŸ” 2    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0

"Preregistration isn't handcuffs" ~ Me.

If it were, Alexander Fleming might have to roll back his happenstancial discovery of a bacteria-eating "mold juice" (penicillin).

12.09.2025 17:30 β€” πŸ‘ 3    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0

In NC, you need a prescription for Covid. My PCP wants me to come and visit the office to get said prescription. It's so bananas.

My mom got sent home from CVS because her doc gave her an Rx for Pfizer and that CVS only had Moderna. She had to get the Rx updated and go back.

12.09.2025 01:43 β€” πŸ‘ 1    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 2    πŸ“Œ 0

Political violence is bad. That’s it. That’s the tweet. (Skeet.)

10.09.2025 20:53 β€” πŸ‘ 6    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0
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This is true, but the number of districts that are way out of whack is quite small. (See below.)

01.09.2025 13:52 β€” πŸ‘ 0    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 1    πŸ“Œ 0

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