iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

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Charlie Warzel @cwarzel.bsky.social · 1h

There is a moment at the very very end of Abdul El-Sayed's podcast with Ezra Klein (book recommendation section) where he talks about the idea of "speaking truth to pain" and this will be staying with me for an extremely long time. www.nytimes.com/2026/09/25/o...

But there’s also something about truth to pain. We talk a lot about truth to power, but I think it’s actually a lot harder to speak truth to pain. I say that as someone who went to medical school, realizing that in a lot of our politics right now, we’ve got to get a lot better at speaking truth to pain if we’re going to get through some of these challenges that we have.

What does “truth to pain” mean?

It’s one thing to look power in the eye and say: You’re wrong about this. But there’s a way in which pain is very difficult to reason with. Because when somebody is in their pain, they’re in their trauma. They see that pain, and they may not see what’s causing it.

I remember just very explicitly being in a trauma ward with a gunshot wound patient and watching this big guy with his hand on his gunshot wound. All the folks are trying to pull his hand off his pain, that point of his gunshot wound, this clear vulnerability.

And this emergency room doctor had the presence of mind to be like: Everyone, stop. And she looks him in the eyes, and she’s like: I get that really hurts, and I’m so sorry that you’re here. You don’t want to be here. We don’t want you to be here. But if you don’t let us fix this, you could die. So I’m going to take your hand, and I’m going to move it off, OK? Because I need to get there so that you can live.

She was speaking truth to pain. He understands he’s at the hospital, he needs care, but he also doesn’t want anybody to touch the wound. Which is a natural thing. And I think it is a really great metaphor for how we think about a lot of these challenges we talked about today.

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Alejandra Caraballo @esqueer.net · 4h

They're moving on from trans youth towards advocating banning care for trans adults, just like we said they would.

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Allen Orr @allenorr.bsky.social · 4h

Trump did not retreat on mass deportation. He refined it. There are outsourced arrests, rushed hearings, and hidden cruelty. In darkness is the new strategy. www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026...

theguardian.com

From mass raids to quiet crackdown: a timeline of Trump’s strategic ICE pivot

After switching tactics, federal agents are detaining and deporting record numbers of people from the US

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Andrea Pitzer @andreapitzer.bsky.social · 5h

Flotsam and jetsam on the morning walk with Area Dog.

A photo of a suburban gutter, with a single woman’s black dress shoe visible at left and a sprig of crabgrass growing in the crack between the blacktop and cement at right.

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Andrea Pitzer @andreapitzer.bsky.social · 17h

I wrote about those who are being forced by events to see at least some of the damage Trump is doing, and the ways that his skyrocketing unpopularity opens doors for the rest of us.

degenerateart.beehiiv.com

Opening the blinds

Authoritarians reveal themselves, even to followers who prefer not to see.

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Andrea Pitzer @andreapitzer.bsky.social · 20h

It's stunning to me how many corporate and elected leaders are showing their asses regularly these days. Not only through their corrupt actions, but also in a basic bare-bones lack of any capacity to think at even a rudimentary level.

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Andrea Pitzer @andreapitzer.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

Area Kid is reading Pride and Prejudice for the first time, and I'm anticipating entertaining commentary (though I have no predictions about what it will be).

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Aaron Reichlin-Melnick @reichlinmelnick.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

In response to people going after him for this, Friedersdorf claimed that he genuinely had no idea Rufo had anything to do with the Haitians in Springfield slurs and then got mad at people for acting like he was being a complete rube.

BillielsTheOne 9/20/26 “Rufo? The dude who earnestly repeated the lie about cats and dogs being eaten in Springfield? He believes in colorblind equality?”

Conor Friedersdorf • 9/20/26

“I'd missed his involvement in that and agree that, whatever it says about his beliefs, it reflects badly on him.”

@josephgfrancis, 9/21/26
“just incredible how people paid to write about politics for major publications can be more ignorant than random twitter users who didn't have to search hard to find this”

Conor Friedersdorf, 9/21/26 “Maybe I saw it and forgot. Or maybe I wasn't on X that week. You people are unbelievable--as if anyone has perfect recollection of every post relevant to something they do a quick x post about. Of course the hive mind of X collectively recalls more things than I do individually.”

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Andrea Pitzer @andreapitzer.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

Pretty sure this is a lost lyric from Warren Zevon.

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Greg Sargent @gregsargent.bsky.social · 26/09/2026

Elites that surrended to Trump in 2025 miscalculated, letting his imagined cultural dominance spook them into inflating the price of getting on his bad side. But now the logic of collective resistance has been confirmed as sound. Should have realized this earlier! newrepublic.com/article/2158...

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Andrea Pitzer @andreapitzer.bsky.social · 26/09/2026

Area Dog, Area Dog’s +1, and Neighbor Dog.

Three dogs stand on grass, their bodies pointing more or less toward each other. One, a little Sheltie, is inside a chain-link fence. The other two are black and white larger dogs on leashes trailing back toward the photographer.

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the Mountain Goats @themountaingoats.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

Jackie Jackson died two days ago. His death did not get the fanfare that the big celebrities get but I assure you he was no less than any of them: a titan astride the earth. In this thread, a few of the songs he played bass on. You know these songs. You know their bass parts. youtu.be/DKVB_CtU8XQ

youtu.be

Pressure Drop

YouTube video by Toots & The Maytals - Topic

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Andrea Pitzer @andreapitzer.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

The Friday roundup is here, with links to the podcast! Also, god help me, I wrote about recent discourse. "You do not help your own cause when you show up to an argument with little or nothing in the way of receipts."

degenerateart.beehiiv.com

September 25 Friday roundup

Links to the podcast! Also: what we talk about when we talk about Mao.

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Andrea Pitzer @andreapitzer.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

When you get to the castle on a rainy night and knock, here's who opens the door.

A photo of Melania and Donald Trump in dark attire, both looking menacingly at the camera.

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Radley Balko @radleybalko.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

Raskin made a holy shit observation on MS Now this afternoon: Since taking office, Trump has made a million dollars per hour for himself. Every hour, he has made more than twice the president’s annual salary.

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The Déliquescent Future @bothpithyandangry.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

"The reason that there’s always a box is because when the prime goal is punishment, the long-term detention of people is always going to create a space for the next worse thing."

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Kyle Cheney @kyledcheney.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

JUST IN: A federal judge has issued a permanent injunction upbraiding ICE for mass arrests that have strained detention facilities and forced detainees all over the country into "overcrowded, squalid, and degrading rooms for excessive periods of time" www.nysd.uscourts.gov/sites/defaul...

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Jason D. Salvagni @salvagni.org · 24/09/2026

I love this so much

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Drew Harwell @drewharwell.com · 23/09/2026

Five cops in Indianapolis were just criminally charged with abusing Flock to spy on their ex-wives, their wives' ex-partners and women they met on duty. Audit was triggered by us at the @washingtonpost.com, the prosecutor said. From last month: wapo.st/4yfNHng

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Whitney Curry Wimbish @whitneycwimbish.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

@detentionwatchnetwork.org just put out a press release saying that Marchena Marchena died because ICE medically neglected his diabetes, an agonizing way to die. Torture.

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🗽LOLGOP🗽 @lolgop.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

"Even a concentration camp needs a next-worse place to send people, in order to punish them more severely."

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Andrea Pitzer @andreapitzer.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

Yo, microphone check—one, two—what is this?

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Melissa Gira Grant @melissagiragrant.com · 22/09/2026

“…when The City Reporter tried to enter one of the new immigration courtrooms on the third floor Monday, security guards barred the reporter from entering. A DHS police inspector later threatened The City Reporter with arrest for trying to wait in an elevator bank outside the new courtrooms.”

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Meade Krosby @meadekrosby.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

Some of the most harrowing stories of climate suffering and injustice I've heard have come from prisons. This is long overdue, and needed well beyond Texas.

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Olúfẹ́mi O. Táíwò @olufemiotaiwo.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

even conceding the distorting effects of colorblind discourse post Cold War / apartheid, it's wild how committed people will be to applying this skepticism to periods of history where the commitment to white supremacy was completely explicit

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Elon Green @elongreen.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

Headline is not as strongly worded as the quote.

"There are reasonable grounds to believe that the reported 68 attacks that killed 223 people constituted crimes against humanity of murder under customary international law," Mr. Saul, a professor of international law at Australia's University of Sydney, concluded.

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Andrea Pitzer @andreapitzer.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

You know he spent a week working on that.

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Mat Honan ✅ @mathonan.com · 21/09/2026

Our reporters spent the past year and some months investigating deaths along the "virtual wall" of the southern border. Their investigation reveals that a humanitarian crisis at the border has unfolded in view of the government’s own cameras: www.technologyreview.com/2026/09/21/1...

technologyreview.com

The US spent billions on border surveillance. Why can’t it catch people before they die?

Surveillance towers, increasingly powered by AI, promised faster responses to crossings. Our investigation of deaths near the towers found they are failing to deliver.

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Aaron Reichlin-Melnick @reichlinmelnick.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

Stay tuned for more on this from mainstream reporting hopefully later today, but Bob's got the gist of it; last week, it appears that ICE began disappearing people from the Online Detainee Locator System the moment they get a final order of removal. Yes, this is as deeply screwed up as it sounds.

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Oleksa Drachewych @odrachewych.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

In news no one could've seen coming, Putin's United Russia party wins the State Duma elections and with a greater margin than before! Oh and Kadryov remains in charge of Chechnya with 99.85% of the vote! What an incredibly legitimate win this all is! Managed democracy wins again.

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Candice Bernd @candicequestions.com · 21/09/2026

NOW: Just arrived at the intersection of Research Blvd and Anderson Lane—near where ICE shot & wounded 29-yr-old Wilber Rafael Garces Perez earlier today. Between 300-500 people still holding intersection here. ICE is reportedly not letting Garces Perez’s family access him at the hospital.

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Musicology Duck @musicologyduck.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

new posters up around the senate side of Capitol Hill aimed at republican women

Flyers that say “close down America’s child jail at Dilley Texas” and “from one mom to another” artwork is an illustration of a kid in a bunny hat shown from the back. The smaller print says “these five moms can make this stop” and names senators Britt, Murkowski, Moore Capito, Hyde-Smith and house rep Hinson

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Aaron Reichlin-Melnick @reichlinmelnick.bsky.social · 20/09/2026

Even more details here. bsky.app/profile/clan...

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Beth Macy @bethmacy.bsky.social · 20/09/2026

I’m so honored that Gov. Abigail Spanberger came to Grottoes to introduce me at a picnic put on by the Waynesboro/Augusta/Staunton/Rockingham Dems. She’s been with me since Day One, endorsing me and encouraging Virginians to knock doors, donate, and, most importantly, and go vote!

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Jonathan C Slaght @jonathanslaght.com · 19/09/2026

I've already posted about @andreapitzer.bsky.social's upcoming SNOWBLIND (@stmartinspress.bsky.social, 2027), but I've just finished & it's so good. Can't wait for the world to read about Brusilov, Albanov, Konrad, Zhdanko, & the others who in 1912 endured what I would not wish on my worst enemies

the cover of an early manuscript of SNOWBLIND: Death on the Polar Ice, by Andrea Pitzer

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Andrea Pitzer @andreapitzer.bsky.social · 20/09/2026

Two visions of America going forward: Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts vs. Sniper Enclave Triumphal Arch.

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Andrea Pitzer @andreapitzer.bsky.social · 20/09/2026

All I have to add to this post is that somebody is skipping leg day.

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Gillian Branstetter @gbbranstetter.bsky.social · 18/09/2026

The Kansas Republican Party attempted to use a new state law requiring driver's license to only list sex at birth to invalidate the voter registration and candidacy of a transgender woman running against a Republican for a state House seat. They were rebuffed by the Secretary of State.

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Andrea Pitzer @andreapitzer.bsky.social · 19/09/2026

The Friday roundup is here, with links to the podcast! I also wrote about the good things happening along with the bad things, and why this is a great time to do something about all of it.

degenerateart.beehiiv.com

September 18 Friday roundup

Links to the podcast! Also, the tide is turning. Keep shoving sticks in the spokes.

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Sanho Tree @sanho.bsky.social · 18/09/2026

Tonight! Hands around the Kennedy Center is Friday 6:30-8:00pm.

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Illia Ponomarenko @ioponomarenko.bsky.social · 18/09/2026

The story of how Nestle and Auchan refused to leave Russia in 2022, only for Putin to eventually seize their businesses with a single stroke of the pen, deserves to be told by sages as a biblical parable.

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Alejandra Caraballo @esqueer.net · 17/09/2026

Called it. The father was charged with punching the child while the mother did witness intimidation to cover it up. www.wbur.org/news/2026/09...

The case was reported to the state in early 2025. Both parents were charged in connection with an incident at the family’s Southborough home in late January of that year, according to court documents. WBUR is not identifying the teenager, who is a minor.

Joseph Kutzko was accused of punching and threatening his then-15-year-old child at the family home on Jan. 28, 2025, records from Westborough District Court show. A Southborough police detective wrote that Kutzko punched the victim in the shoulder and pulled them by their hair. Kutzko later allegedly threatened to kill the victim “for not singing in tune during a birthday celebration,” according to court records.

Kutzko was arrested the next day and pleaded not guilty. In setting bail, the judge referred to three prior restraining orders against Kutzko, one of which is permanent. She did not say whether any are tied to this case.

The child’s mother, Arlene Kutzko, was charged with witness intimidation after allegedly pressuring the child to “tell the school that she was exaggerating and being stupid.”

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