iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Reposted by Ben Johnson

southpaw @nycsouthpaw.bsky.social · 01/09/2026

if only there had been clues

Republicans convention delegates holding “mass deportation now!” signs

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Ben Johnson @benjaminhjohns1.bsky.social · 28/08/2026

Never heard or heard of this speech. Wow

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Reposted by Ben Johnson

Karen K. Ho @karenho.bsky.social · 27/08/2026

This gallery of ICE crop/seed art at this year's Minnesota State Fair is incredible, especially the one based on Pablo Picasso's Guernica by Jennifer Nelson, which features the last words of Alex Pretti and Renee Good in Morse code: www.cropart.com/Resist.pdf

A seed art entry in the 2026 Minnesota State Fair based on Pablo Picasso's Guernica. It features a loon, the words "Ice Out" and two representations of Renee Good and Alex Pretti’s. Notably, the mouths of Good and Pretty include their last words in Morse code:
‘I’m not mad at you,’ and ‘Are you okay?’” The artist is Jennifer Nelson.

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Reposted by Ben Johnson

Gabe Ortíz @tusk81.bsky.social · 26/08/2026

Pretti’s parents said they found out their son had been murdered after watching footage of the shooting on the news. “We watched it on TV and was like, ‘That’s our son. That’s Alex.’ And they killed him,” dad Michael recounted. “No one called us.”

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Reposted by Ben Johnson

Hello, it is me, Kira. :) @kirabira.bsky.social · 25/08/2026

She also really debunks the common justifications about religion, region, and age. Your grandparents and parents have shitty values because they have shitty values, not because of anything else. They could do better. Anyone can use their eyes to see the world and have the correct read.

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Ben Johnson @benjaminhjohns1.bsky.social · 24/08/2026

nice piece on the attack on border history. @refusing2forget.bsky.social "If you value a people’s worth and contributions, then you preserve their history in textbooks and curriculums,” the historian Trinidad Gonzales said. “You would preserve these physical markers." www.nytimes.com/2026/08/24/u...

nytimes.com

In West Texas, Trump’s Border Wall Collides With Latino History (Gift Article)

A century ago, Mexican American families came together to build an adobe church near the border. Can its bell toll again as the wall expansion nears?

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Ben Johnson @benjaminhjohns1.bsky.social · 22/08/2026

I see that in the URL; this was created by an elderly person, a retired teacher, undergoing chemotherapy, so I suspend judgement. Haven't looked at everything on the site, but nothing I saw screamed AI . . .

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Ben Johnson @benjaminhjohns1.bsky.social · 18/08/2026

note that the site is upriver from Big Bend National Park, where construction on the border wall has bene temporarily halted after a huge outcry; that moratorium seems not to apply to this stretch of the border. /2

Refusing to Forget condemns the latest DHS decision to build a wall that disturbs a sacred site in Presidio County.
More than a century ago, that site in west Texas, near the border with Mexico, became the place where a group of Mexican men and boys lost their lives in the Porvenir Massacre of 1918.
For years, the family and then descendants of the massacre's victims worked tirelessly to gather evidence, collect oral histories, and hold the state accountable for properly acknowledging this tragic history. They did so for their loved ones, for future generations, and as a sign of respect for those who were slain.
In 2015, the state of Texas finally recognized the events of the Porvenir Massacre with a historical marker approved by the Texas Historical Commission (THC). Erected in 2018, the marker details the unjustifiable actions of the Texas Rangers and U.S. Cavalry against innocents that day.
Families, scholars, and historical organizations have worked diligently to address the violence that was too often covered up by the state during the 1910s, a history that bears a troubling resemblance to what we are witnessing today.
To recklessly destroy this site with no regard for its historical importance is to disregard the memory of those who lost their lives, the decades of work undertaken by their descendants, and the significance of this historical site
-to erase history itself, and with it, part of the process of grieving and remembering.
Stand with us in supporting descendants and their families, preserving their history, and defending their right to honor and remember their loved ones.
To learn more about this history visit Refusingtoforget.org
To learn more about ways you can take action and receive updates visit https://nobigbendwall.org/

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Ben Johnson @benjaminhjohns1.bsky.social · 18/08/2026

nice piece putting the current threat against the Porvenir massacre site in the larger contexts of ranger and border history. "Texas owes it to the massacre victims’ descendants to demand that the Porvenir historic site be preserved." /1 www.dallasobserver.com/opinion/trum...

dallasobserver.com

Trump is bulldozing the site of a Texas massacre. It’s time to remember Porvenir

Closer to home, the Texas Rangers continue to take part in the whitewashing and glorification of a violent, racist past

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Ben Johnson @benjaminhjohns1.bsky.social · 17/08/2026

I don't know how the website was built, just passing along the information from the descendants who put it together . ..

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Ben Johnson @benjaminhjohns1.bsky.social · 15/08/2026

Hurrah for People of La Junta for Preservation, Lipan Apache tribal government, and Far-Flung Adventures for fighting on our collective behalf. The article gives a glimpse into the re-emergence of Indigenous people (many supposedly "extinct") in recent decades. www.texasobserver.org/indigenous-g...

texasobserver.org

Indigenous Group Sues to Stop Big Bend Border Wall on Religious Grounds

The lawsuit seeks an immediate injunction, arguing that CBP construction and surveying activities in Big Bend violates the Religious Freedom Restoration Act.

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Reposted by Ben Johnson

James Talarico @jamestalarico.bsky.social · 14/08/2026

I'll never steal your pen.

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Ben Johnson @benjaminhjohns1.bsky.social · 14/08/2026

and here is more information about the massacre and its many afterlives; to my knowledge, the glowing exhibit on JM Fox, commander of the Ranger unit that led the massacre is still up at the Texas Ranger Hall of Fame. refusingtoforget.org/porvenir-mas...

refusingtoforget.org

Porvenir Massacre - Refusing to Forget

Editor's Note (January 2026): Some links in this post have been updated or removed since original publication. The Texas Ranger Museum has significantly

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Ben Johnson @benjaminhjohns1.bsky.social · 14/08/2026

thanks and apologies; I changed my settings. And I didn't realize that this helps with text blocs, so thanks again!

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Reposted by Ben Johnson

Refusing to Forget @refusing2forget.bsky.social · 13/08/2026

Refusing to Forget condemns the latest DHS decision to build a wall that disturbs a sacred site in Presidio County. Stand with us in supporting descendants and their families. Learn more about this history: refusingtoforget.org Take action: nobigbendwall.org

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Ben Johnson @benjaminhjohns1.bsky.social · 08/08/2026

We can stop this by erecting a confederate monument on the site. Then they wouldn’t trash the place. @refusing2forget.bsky.social

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Reposted by Ben Johnson

ACLU of Texas @aclutx.bsky.social · 04/08/2026

BREAKING: We're suing Texas A&M over the university system’s unconstitutional censorship policy. Administrators are canceling or restricting courses that discuss race, gender, and sexual orientation. Public universities are meant for sharing knowledge — not banning it.

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Reposted by Ben Johnson

Gregg Gonsalves @gregggonsalves.bsky.social · 02/08/2026

Need to have some frank talk about #Yale President McInnis, General Counsel Alexander Dreier and the trustees. First, they keep saying that they are compelled to enter into a settlement with the #Trump administration. Untrue. 1/

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Ben Johnson @benjaminhjohns1.bsky.social · 03/08/2026

Punishment for some of your many sins

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Ben Johnson @benjaminhjohns1.bsky.social · 03/08/2026

Let us hope that this is another sign, like the revolt against right-wing school boards, that the fog is lifting and we can again honestly discuss our past and present, free from the wrath of insecure oligarchs like Bryan. /9 www.politico.com/news/2025/11...

politico.com

In culture war backlash, Democrats sweep school boards

The party recruited and invested in school board races to oust Republicans. It worked.

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Ben Johnson @benjaminhjohns1.bsky.social · 03/08/2026

Imagine that Bryan's last suit (to date -- maybe he'll sue me once he reads this) won. How much would historians and and professional orgs self-censor? Like Musk and Trump, that’s the strategy. Can’t write his own convincing history, can’t convince TSHA board or members 8 apnews.com/article/elon...

apnews.com

Musk's X sues liberal advocacy group Media Matters over its report on ads next to hate groups' posts

Elon Musk’s X filed a lawsuit against Media Matters for America, saying it manufactured a report to show advertisers’ posts alongside neo-Nazi posts.

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Ben Johnson @benjaminhjohns1.bsky.social · 03/08/2026

But it was part of a bid to silence honest and therefore sometimes critical histories that Texas' governing class has embraced, from banning Plato @tamu.bsky.social, telling students and profs they can't study gender or sexuality, firing profs for 1st amend. /7 www.aaup.org/news/aaup-te...

aaup.org

AAUP, Texas AAUP-AFT Sue Texas Tech over Restrictive Course Content Policies

The AAUP and Texas AAUP-AFT sued Texas Tech University System Chancellor Brandon Creighton and members of the board of regents over two system memoranda that stifled debate, undermined students’ educa...

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Ben Johnson @benjaminhjohns1.bsky.social · 03/08/2026

In some way this fight has already been settled, since most serious historians of Texas left the TSHA after this madness, forming the www.alliancefortexashistory.org. As was obvious and as many people reportedly told Bryan at the time, winning the first lawsuit was a Pyrrhic victory. /6

alliancefortexashistory.org

Alliance for Texas History

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Ben Johnson @benjaminhjohns1.bsky.social · 03/08/2026

Wise's role, not to my knowledge reported on, was critical; he bragged about intervening with the office of TX's notoriously corrupt attorney general now US Senate candidate Ken Paxton, to keep the not for profit division to quash this specious suit. /5 www.texastribune.org/2025/12/09/t...

texastribune.org

Paxton’s campaign against nonprofits gets court approval

Courts have said that the attorney general can use a 100-year-old law to demand entities’ internal records and sue to shut them down if he believes they’re violating the law.

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Ben Johnson @benjaminhjohns1.bsky.social · 03/08/2026

Bryan’s stated rationale—defending a version of history in which Anglo pioneers moved west, “bringing freedom for all,” and that the board (that appointed him as interim ED!) was not legit —was always absurd, but his use of wealth and pol connections (esp am.tsha.events/session-pres...) was not. /3

am.tsha.events

Justice Ken Wise – TSHA Annual Meeting

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