iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Bob5 @abhidhabi5.bsky.social · 8h

It's an open secret in DC that he's a good source for NYT, WaPo, Politico, and other reporters etc. on a lot of process/infighting stories attributed to "a White House official"

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Bob5 @abhidhabi5.bsky.social · 12/10/2026

Monologue was funny, though he seemed nervous. Gillis can be very funny — my favorite one is when he takes on Shelby Foote in the Ken Burns Civil War Doc.

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Bob5 @abhidhabi5.bsky.social · 06/10/2026

Have no idea what he's talking about -- there are basically zero examples of successful athletes, engineers, writers etc. who didn't have to work hard and American culture has usually respected that.

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Bob5 @abhidhabi5.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

A lot of companies/news orgs are partnering with prediction markets -- controversies aside, they often have access to better analytics than traditional pollsters with shrinking budgets

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Bob5 @abhidhabi5.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

This song is literally everywhere now, and a big hit in even elementary schools too.

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Bob5 @abhidhabi5.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

Well, that and not viable when it means the immediate layoffs of millions of middle class people who work for insurance companies and live in swing states and

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Bob5 @abhidhabi5.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

Not all heroes wear capes

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Bob5 @abhidhabi5.bsky.social · 20/09/2026

What movement would it spur except maybe pushing everyone to abandon public schools corrupted by wretched unions and insanely woke teachers masters programs?

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Bob5 @abhidhabi5.bsky.social · 17/09/2026

That said, the US is pretty close to universal health coverage -- over 90%, depending on how you count. And most people like their health care. That said, Universal health care won't happen because it would require laying off millions of insurance workers in swing states, which is a nonstarter.

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Bob5 @abhidhabi5.bsky.social · 17/09/2026

The big problem with the Obamacare exchanges is that they lumped (1) self-employed go-getters who always bought insurance with (2) a bunch of "can't qualify for Medicaid" lower income slackers. Unfortunately, the group in category 2 has massive problems that spike costs for the group in category 1.

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Bob5 @abhidhabi5.bsky.social · 15/09/2026

I think it's not even that -- he finally has the power to get the Court to go his way on 90% of issues and (even if he croaks), he still leaves a conservative majority

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Bob5 @abhidhabi5.bsky.social · 11/09/2026

I think only the area specialists who actually spoke Arabic like Hume Horan or Robert Baer were right -- they warned that there was a democratic fervor in Arab countries, but it was a demand for radical Islamic theocracy. And they were right.

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Bob5 @abhidhabi5.bsky.social · 11/09/2026

Didn't he mostly win? Afghanistan is ruled by the Taliban. Iran more or less controls Iraq. Didnt get any change in Saudi Arabia but their sovereign wealth funds basically funded the rise of Uber and other big tech cos. Mid East is more radical islamic theocracies than before.

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Bob5 @abhidhabi5.bsky.social · 11/09/2026

There were massive protests against the Iraq War and during the Iraq War. Leading issue in 2006 midterms and one of the main reasons Obama (who was opposed to the war) became president.

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Bob5 @abhidhabi5.bsky.social · 03/09/2026

Curry in a Hurry was amazing!

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Bob5 @abhidhabi5.bsky.social · 28/08/2026

the hallucination problem is real but manageable for someone who knows how to review primary sources. But that again seems to be a skill issue — if a lazy person produces junk that’s on them. Why ban it for the smart writer who produces something better?

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Bob5 @abhidhabi5.bsky.social · 28/08/2026

A lot of law firms now use AI to expedite contract review and do legal research — and they check results and produce better briefs in shorter time lengths. obv there will always be dumb and lazy people who don’t use it responsibly but that’s on them, not the tool

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Bob5 @abhidhabi5.bsky.social · 28/08/2026

Bad AI results are almost always the product of sloppy AI use by humans. That’s no reason to “ban it for all submitters.” If someone is submitting op Eds to the Times not sure what the issue is with them using ai to sharpen arguments or do better research.

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Bob5 @abhidhabi5.bsky.social · 28/08/2026

Agree with that. But ultimately enough smart people will use it for the Best case and produce better work — like all new tech tools people will figure out how to use it for maximum most efficient benefit.

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Bob5 @abhidhabi5.bsky.social · 28/08/2026

Yes people who use it Like that are going to get slop. Smart (real) writers and polemicists who give it a rough draft of a column and go back and forth with it are imo going to get a better column

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Bob5 @abhidhabi5.bsky.social · 28/08/2026

Agree — but the latest chatgpt is really good at logical reasoning and drafting — which is why corporate law firms are paying millions for models to use for better drafting and faster research.

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Bob5 @abhidhabi5.bsky.social · 28/08/2026

Would make a good story for a writer to do a “before and after ai” to see what the results are tbh and let readers judge.

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Bob5 @abhidhabi5.bsky.social · 28/08/2026

People who are dumb and lazy asking ai “write an op ed about Trump” are going to get junk. Smart writers who draft a column and engage in back and forth with an LLM are going to get pushback on gaps in their thinking and produce something better.

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Bob5 @abhidhabi5.bsky.social · 28/08/2026

AIs have gotten extremely good at it. When the brightest mathematicians in the world use AI to solve proofs, it shows how good they are at analytical rigor. www.nytimes.com/2026/06/08/s...

nytimes.com

They Spent Years on a Math Problem. Then They Were Scooped by A.I.

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Bob5 @abhidhabi5.bsky.social · 28/08/2026

The Times ban seems dumb. AI can make arguments much better if you use it to challenge your thinking. If you ask it to come up with something from scratch you’ll get junk. But something that solves math proofs humans haven’t figured out for hundreds of years is a powerful tool for oped writers.

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Bob5 @abhidhabi5.bsky.social · 26/08/2026

Most evangelicals I knew growing up voted straight Republican but were pretty nice and normal and not otherwise political at all. In terms of education, more complicated -- but they supported rigorous AP classes and standardized tests across the board that were generally good IMO

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Bob5 @abhidhabi5.bsky.social · 26/08/2026

Oh and can’t sound off on extremely online fringe issues like immigration or trans stuff

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Bob5 @abhidhabi5.bsky.social · 26/08/2026

Keanu Reeves, Taylor Swift, Alyssa Liu all seem pretty universally well liked. Secret is to be good at what you do, generally kind, and not “speak at a political convention” type.

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Bob5 @abhidhabi5.bsky.social · 24/08/2026

Seems to be rando low level stuff all over the map. But hard to see a huge national crisis akin to Iraq War, peak "Great Recession", or election night shock of Trump 16 that's going to turbocharge another wave.

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Bob5 @abhidhabi5.bsky.social · 24/08/2026

Most of our problems right now seem to be overrated and the result of algorithms that prize "black-white" thinking. Everyone and everything has to be classified as "right" or wrong as opposed to nuanced and complex.

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Bob5 @abhidhabi5.bsky.social · 24/08/2026

One of the benefits of a Humanities education is realizing that people can be brilliant and stupid at the same time -- Rockefeller, Henry Ford, Gandhi, etc. Musk is obviously spot on about certain things and wrong about others. Not sure why that's a surprise?

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Bob5 @abhidhabi5.bsky.social · 24/08/2026

To expand on a point Aryeh made, the new book sorta feels like the Wright equivalent of McPhee's "Annals of the Former World" -- not the same because it's not an anthology but it is a bringing together of a lot of themes from older works to explore a new technology/event.

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Bob5 @abhidhabi5.bsky.social · 24/08/2026

My guess is it will be more 22 -- an underwhelming midterm that drives more Dems to therapy. They haven't realized yet that polls overstate their support by 5-10 points because no one responds to polls except old liberal boomers

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Bob5 @abhidhabi5.bsky.social · 18/08/2026

What's more "equal"? Rich kids have way more time to game bs extracurriculars or sports like crew or squash. But not (say) Calculus, Organic Chemistry, or a Hum final. Or first year blind-graded law school exams.

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Bob5 @abhidhabi5.bsky.social · 18/08/2026

Same, but I felt that when it came to post-career options in fields like consulting, finance, or grad school GPA and test scores were the great equalizer. They tend to keep dumb rich kids out and let smart poor kids in.

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Bob5 @abhidhabi5.bsky.social · 18/08/2026

GPAs (especially in undergrad, law school, med school) are the one fair shot working class kids get. A great equalizer. The whole concept of "blind grading" began at Harvard Law because a dean wanted to ensure that the smartest (as opposed to wealthiest) students could get good jobs

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Bob5 @abhidhabi5.bsky.social · 03/08/2026

I'm a moderate -- think Bill Clinton and Obama were great presidents. Would def. not vote rather than vote for someone aligned with the DSA/Green New Deal/socialism even if the choice is someone to the right on immigration.

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Bob5 @abhidhabi5.bsky.social · 27/07/2026

The obvious flaw with that plan is military commissaries only sell to a fixed population with guaranteed salaries and no real risk of theft/loss. So this is completely different and doomed to fail

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Bob5 @abhidhabi5.bsky.social · 22/07/2026

A misleading stat -- there were still extremely wealthy individuals and de facto billionaires -- but their money was tied up in trusts and other tax shelters

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Bob5 @abhidhabi5.bsky.social · 08/07/2026

It's kind of like how David Remnick/Bill Keller learned all the dirty little tricks they needed to ascend the corporate ladder quickly by covering the last days of the Soviet Union -- the most corrupt bureaucracy in history.

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Bob5 @abhidhabi5.bsky.social · 08/07/2026

Ryan Grim knows that if he runs enough dubious Gaza stories, Nika (whose dad owns the LA Times) will let him do whatever he wants.

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Bob5 @abhidhabi5.bsky.social · 08/07/2026

A surprising number of them learned an important journalism life skill there -- how to get a billionaire (or Foundation) to bankroll you by catering just enough to that billionaire's obsession. In the case of Drop Site, it's catering to billionaire nepo baby Nika Soon-Shiong's obsession with Gaza

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Bob5 @abhidhabi5.bsky.social · 27/06/2026

Freddy the German Tourist who’s going viral on Twitter by appreciating Buccee’s, Wal Mart, and Chili’s

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Bob5 @abhidhabi5.bsky.social · 26/06/2026

Like, how is that even a coherent policy position? Has same vibes as far right saying we should abolish the Federal Reserve or IRS

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Bob5 @abhidhabi5.bsky.social · 26/06/2026

Never understood why people think Medicare for All is a good idea in the US or even possible. At a minimum, it would mean putting millions in the insurance and healthcare industries out of work in the short term.

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Bob5 @abhidhabi5.bsky.social · 08/06/2026

I genuinely dont understand the Luddite view on this. So many people I know use it to make everyday life and work life easier and more convenient.

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Bob5 @abhidhabi5.bsky.social · 26/04/2026

Man everyone on this site really is insane or someone who couldn’t get a tenure track job

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Bob5 @abhidhabi5.bsky.social · 16/04/2026

It’s every article not written by Peter Baker

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