iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

So it should be clear by now that it's not even foreign-born US citizens like Ilhan Omar that they think aren't real Americans, it's just non-whites generally.

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BA Porter @baporter.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

Immigrants are good. We should have more of them. Immigration should be made much easier. We are a much stronger America with robust immigration. By every single metric except racism immigrants, including illegal immigrants, are a net positive for society. Thank you for coming to my TED talk.

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Jim Lokay @jimlokay.com · 29/09/2026

If you want to really know how the outrage machine gets fired up: 1. Schmitt plans to drop “bombshell” on Smith 2. Someone plants story that Schmitt is a Vance VP contender to run same day 3. Right-wing Twittersphere gets talking points 4. Schmitt steps in it 5. Scheduled tweets go out anyway

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BA Porter @baporter.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

Btw, part of her misconduct was vouching—she got in front of the grand jury and explicitly told them to trust her because she would NEVER ask them to charge somebody if she didn't personally believe it was the right call. Her resignation letter explictly says this was a bald-faced lie.

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Michael Hobbes @michaelhobbes.bsky.social · 26/09/2026

A sentence like this appears in every one of these articles: "Sure I object to everything Trump has ever done, but on the other hand I also disagree with some things about Democrats I made up."

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BA Porter @baporter.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

This is true for a great many things these days. We have sort of collectively given up the idea that laws are enforceable against the rich and powerful. Make Crime Illegal Again.

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Don Moynihan @donmoyn.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

Once again, the Supreme Court prioritizes imaginary harms done to Trump by not allowing him to indulge in his conspiracy theories, as opposed to the very real harm done to citizens who may lose the ability to vote in this case.

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BA Porter @baporter.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

Democrats cannot keep up a resistance strategy solely predicated on electing more Dems in whatever election is coming up next, on a playing field that is requiring a higher and higher percent of the vote share just to break even. You already need a +4-6 Dem advantage just to get a 50/50 Congress

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Adam Rogers @jetjocko.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

A lot of things make me feel kind of dumb, including how to take at face value the logic of “we are a multibillion dollar transnational industry building a vengeful elder god, and we definitely won’t stop unless you regulate us the way we want, which is a secret.”

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BA Porter @baporter.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

Rarely has an election result narrative more outpaced the evidence than the whole "Trump flipped Hispanics!" bullshit. It was never real to begin with, just catnip for Beltway idiots trying to find something to point to to avoid saying Trump won because his voters like racism and are idiots.

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Cristian Farias @cristianfarias.com · 18/09/2026

In a Manhattan federal courtroom today, a lawyer for the Trump administration argued that Article II of the Constitution lets the president fire a federal employee because he’s Black, and there’s nothing a court can do about it. www.politico.com/news/2026/09...

politico.com

DOJ says recent Supreme Court ruling shields Maurene Comey firing

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jamelle @jamellebouie.net · 18/09/2026

i simply cannot imagine the level of delusion and sheer ignorance it takes to believe that the rise of Republican Nazis is some outside imposition and not something that has come from within the American right.

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BA Porter @baporter.bsky.social · 18/09/2026

Oh no! Almost two years in, they are beginning to "strategically lay the foundation for contempt." To the hills, lads!

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Wandering Hoo @wanderlib.bsky.social · 16/09/2026

So why aren't any of them in jail for contempt?

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Anne Applebaum @anneapplebaum.wsocial.eu · 14/09/2026

Your regular reminder: If the Russians stop fighting, the war ends. If the Ukrainians stop fighting, their land will be occupied, their leaders will be killed, their history and language will be erased, their children will be kidnapped to serve Russia.

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BA Porter @baporter.bsky.social · 13/09/2026

Vividly remember when a lady published a story called "Terror in the Skies Again" about her freaking out on a recent flight because she was sure some muslim passengers were planning an attack. And nothing happened, it was a wedding band, but that part never mattered en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northwe...

en.wikipedia.org

Northwest Airlines Flight 327 - Wikipedia

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Tasha @toshyou.bsky.social · 11/09/2026

In America you can get arrested for giving water to people waiting in line to vote but the president is offering you $5k to vote for his party. - Too old for this shit

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BA Porter @baporter.bsky.social · 11/09/2026

Don't print lies in the newspaper.

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Eric Columbus @ericcolumbus.bsky.social · 08/09/2026

Happy 72nd Birthday to Ruby Bridges, who at the age of 6 desegregated the New Orleans public schools. She’s younger than 30 senators and our last two presidents—and only 7 years older than Barack Obama. The past isn’t past.

Ruby Bridges flanked by three U.S. Marshals on the steps of her school

Norman Rockwell’s painting depicting the event, “The Problem We All Live With,” originally published as a centerfold in the January 14, 1964 issue of Look magazine.

Ruby Bridges talking with President Obama as they look at Rockwell’s painting while it was temporarily displayed at the White House in 2011.

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BA Porter @baporter.bsky.social · 05/09/2026

Psyched to go to my only #BlueJays game of the year in 2026 as they play the Royals in KC this evening. Me and my girls are the extremely rare Kansas #BlueJays fans, gonna be out there repping the team in 100 degree heat LFG!

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Michael Hobbes @michaelhobbes.bsky.social · 04/09/2026

"What's behind the appeal of the far right?" is one of those questions pundits keep asking but wherever you look, the answer is simple: Racism and lying www.dw.com/en/germany-i...

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BA Porter @baporter.bsky.social · 02/09/2026

Not to be ageist or anything, but Susan Collins sounds like shit.

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BA Porter @baporter.bsky.social · 01/09/2026

Huh. Worth the read. Maybe I've been too blase in poo-pooing the impending hostile AI takeover.

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Radley Balko @radleybalko.bsky.social · 30/08/2026

It’s mind-blowing that we have literal white nationalists in the White House carrying out unfathomably cruel, abusive, white nationalist policies, and the punditariat has spent the last two weeks debating if some people were too intemperate after a Black man was murdered by cops six years ago.

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Rodger Sherman @rodger.bsky.social · 26/08/2026

Remember if you’ve ever heard a Republican claim they’re actually ok with immigration but just want all the immigrants to do it legally, they were lying

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BA Porter @baporter.bsky.social · 26/08/2026

Something that is long overdue is national reform of how NDAs are allowed to work. What was intended as a limited way to protect trade secrets has become a catch-all accountability shield for the rich and powerful. www.npr.org/2026/08/26/n...

npr.org

In Louisiana, NDAs covered up a data center deal that residents didn't know was coming

Residents of tiny Boyce, La., yelled at local officials for signing agreements that hid a pending deal for a data center. NDAs, common in Louisiana data center deals, are coming under more scrutiny.

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BA Porter @baporter.bsky.social · 26/08/2026

I used to have a list of "if I could wave a magic wand" creative projects that'd only be possible with a VERY specific celebrity involvement, and one of my favorites was a remake of "Oh God! You Devil" with Dolly Parton in the George Burns dual role. Tell me that's not a beloved classic.

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BA Porter @baporter.bsky.social · 25/08/2026

A niche argument I used to make back in the early blog days is that somebody really ought to make a nonpartisan, broad-community push for a constitutional amendment explicitly naming privacy as an enumerated right, because some day we'll be sorry we never actually did that.

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mtsw @mtsw.bsky.social · 24/08/2026

The "school security industry" is a way to bankrupt school districts by redirecting funding away from teachers and giving it to various kinds of cop-adjacent chuds instead. The Plot To Enslave America

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Nathan Goldwag @goldwagnathan.bsky.social · 23/08/2026

The single most impactful social/cultural development over the last decade (that virtually no retrospectives of "woke" have engaged in) is the new elite consensus that moral judgement is itself inherently illegitimate.

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Anil Dash @anildash.com · 22/08/2026

So, it’s not a conspiracy, and you are not imagining it. The biggest and wealthiest tech leaders are genuine fascists. They are leading an active and intentional systematic attack on labor. And they have radicalized each other while sidelining or removing the remaining decent execs in the industry.

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BA Porter @baporter.bsky.social · 23/08/2026

For decades many people warned moderate Republicans that the fringe they were making common cause with and the tiger they had by the tail was advancing bigotry, authoritarianism, Christian nationalism etc. and they constantly poo-poo'd that criticism as unfair and they were wrong and we were right.

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Michael Hobbes @michaelhobbes.bsky.social · 20/08/2026

The media relentlessly promotes the narrative that progressives are too mean to anti-vaxxers and we must bring them around with compassion. This isn't true and isn't helping. The more public sympathy you show them, the more empowered they are in their beliefs. www.statnews.com/2026/08/19/s...

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Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 20/08/2026

perfect synopsis of modern Republicanism

Darline Graham: I tripped up on one question last night, regarding Taiwan. I don't speak politician. I was just honest. Of course, Taiwan is our friend. But I think people in South Carolina are more worried about boys in girls sports.

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Michael Hobbes @michaelhobbes.bsky.social · 19/08/2026

Wild that we're still having a conversation about the radicalism of Democrats

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Michael Hobbes @michaelhobbes.bsky.social · 17/08/2026

Rank and file Republicans are turning against LGBT acceptance and GOP politicians are leaning into bigotry in both rhetoric and policy. But it is you, the progressive queer or ally, who needs to open your mind and consider other people's feelings. news.gallup.com/poll/710810/...

Most of the recent changes in LGBTQ+ attitudes have occurred among Republicans. For example, in 2021 and 2022, 55% of Republicans said they favored legal same-sex marriage, but today, the figure is 37%. Among independents, support has dropped six points, to 67%, while Democrats’ views are the same as in 2022 (87% in favor).

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BA Porter @baporter.bsky.social · 17/08/2026

I hope it's becoming clear to more and more people that the problem of Democratic Party torpor is not going to go away on its own, or that these people will somehow be shaken out of it if we just vote for them hard enough in the next election.

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Hakeem Jefferson @hakeemjefferson.bsky.social · 17/08/2026

“I was asked not to mention the Times at all. I’m choosing not to honor that norm, b/c silence abt how accountability journalism gets suppressed is itself a form of suppression.” Read the back story of how @nytimes.com and @thebulwark.com killed @adambonica.bsky.social’s piece. What a mf badass.

data4democracy.substack.com

With Fear and Favor

Institutions don’t have courage. They have incentives.

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Elizabeth Spiers @espiers.bsky.social · 16/08/2026

One of the Dem weaknesses is that we refuse to attack the MAGA base. Meanwhile they attack Dems as inherently evil people who might be demonic and whatever their corrupt politician is doing “Dems are worse”

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Peter @notalawyer.bsky.social · 16/08/2026

this is mostly true of dem elites, who have internalized the idea that conservatives are more authentically American.

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Max Kennerly @maxkennerly.bsky.social · 15/08/2026

Funny thing about LLMs-as-judge is, if you spend time trying to use them in legal analysis, you come right back around to one of the first things lawyers learn in law school: The way a question is framed can change everything.

Careful assessments of these interpretive uses converge on a sobering conclusion: the machine does not eliminate judgment; it relocates it. In the most thorough evaluation of LLM-assisted constitutional interpretation to date, Andrew Coan and Harry Surden found that model outputs are highly sensitive to prompt framing, to the choice among competing models, and to the stochastic variation inherent in text generation, such that the same interpretive question can

yield materially different answers depending on choices the human interrogator makes.237 Interpretation by LLM therefore implicates the same theoretical disputes between formalism and realism that its proponents imagined they could bypass. The interpreter’s discretion does not disappear; it migrates into the prompt, the selection of the model, and the decision about which output to credit. Coan and Surden describe the result as a law of conservation of judgment: an LLM may perform any given task better or worse than a human, but the choice whether and how to use it is itself a normative judgment that no computational system can make on our behalf.238 The objectivity that machine interpretation appears to offer is, in this sense, a redistribution of subjectivity, moved out of the published opinion, where it is visible and reviewable, and into framing choices, where it is neither.

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Don Moynihan @donmoyn.bsky.social · 15/08/2026

Another day, another impeachable offense: The White House ordered federal agencies to block resources to Colorado because it had punished an election denier. www.nytimes.com/2026/08/14/u...

As President Trump fumed late last year over Colorado's imprisonment of Tina Peters, a convicted election denier, a White House special assistant organized an urgent "brainstorm call."
The goal, outlined in an email sent to officials at five federal agencies, was to "prioritize Colorado for the purposes of ensuring grants and federal support are in line with administration priorities," the assistant, Emily Underwood, wrote on Dec.
15.
"Please come prepared to discuss immediate actions that your department or agency can take with respect to Colorado," Ms. Underwood added.
The next day, the Department of Transportation and the Department of Energy, whose representatives were invited to the brainstorm, announced they were canceling hundreds of millions of dollars in federal grants for Colorado projects.

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BA Porter @baporter.bsky.social · 14/08/2026

It's probably a bad sign when the first public address from the new attorney general of the United States is them flagarantly breaking the law and throwing it right in our fucking faces.

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BA Porter @baporter.bsky.social · 14/08/2026

Joe Biden on DAY ONE could have demanded his AG have the DOJ review and revise its OLC opinion on criminal liability of sitting presidents—literally a memo, but which served as the fulcrum precedent because it was the only one out there—but chose not to because he was above all that, and here we are

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BA Porter @baporter.bsky.social · 14/08/2026

It's easy to poo-poo these as clumsy or non-binding, but remember a huge reason we got the Mueller report cop-out and then the SCOTUS ruling on presidential immunity is because of OLC memos that any Democratic president or attorney general could have simply rewrote, but never did.

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Don Moynihan @donmoyn.bsky.social · 13/08/2026

This is a good example of something that is entirely political (the government dislikes higher ed and foreign people) and has large economic impacts but will get less attention than "woke one" from our pundit class.

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Larry Glickman @larryglickman.bsky.social · 06/07/2026

Kind of remarkable that so much of the discourse is about the dangers of extremism in the Democratic Party.

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BA Porter @baporter.bsky.social · 12/08/2026

Jesus. Go peruse this thread.

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