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Ben Schulz

@benschulz.bsky.social
684 followers 525 following 422 posts

Proteins | Sugars | Yeast | Beer | Mass Spectrometry | Professor in Biochemistry UQ. CW chickens, fungi, cats, pups.

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Reposted by Ben Schulz
hot-pizza.bsky.social @hot-pizza.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
I’d love to know how the RBA thinks raising Australian interest rates will pressure Trump into ending his war with Iran.
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Ben Schulz @benschulz.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
You know what will happen if you tell the plagiarising parrot your secrets
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Ben Schulz @benschulz.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
It's incredible how stupid someone can become if they're paid enough by coal and gas companies
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Rosemary Mosco @rosemarymosco.com · 22/09/2026
Happy mushroom season!
A comic titled "Types of mushrooms" with 12 mushroom species. A wrinkly-looking morel is labeled "creepy but tasty". A brownish deadly galerina is labeled "boring but deadly". A witch's butter on a branch is labeled "jiggles if you poke it". A large puffball is labeled "egg". A creepy red-dripping bleeding tooth fungus is labeled "deeply disconcerting". A fly agaric with a green treefrog sitting under it is labeled "frog umbrella". A black chanterelle is labeled "chalice for forbidden elixers". Three straight-stemmed entolomas are labeled "haha, nipples". A bright purple viscid violet cort is labeled "purple is nice". A birch polypore sticking out of a birch trunk is labeled "tree nose". A complex yellow-tpped coral fungus is labeled "cursed citadel where dwells a fairy queen". A Ravenel's stinkhorn is pixellated at the top for your safety, and labeled "NSFW".
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Neil Lewis, Jr. @neillewisjr.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
Anyway, this seems like a good time to re-share this post by @colincarlson.bsky.social www.carlsonlab.bio/thoughts/the...
carlsonlab.bio
The only reason you’ll ever need not to write with AI — The Carlson Lab
Over the last year, our lab has been developing a policy on AI use. To do this, we did three main things: We read a lot of academic publications and tech news. We set up an #ai channel on our la...
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Ketan Joshi @ketanjoshi.co · 20/09/2026
Not long before this is three years old, and chatbots still cannot pass the unsolvable riddle test They will always be designed to spew out anything, because they're worthless to the companies if they were to ever be tuned to only give accurate or meaningful answers (they'd barely reply at all)
Solve this riddle: I am neither up nor down. You can eat me, but if you don't, you'll die. I
can be found inside your head, and sometimes on top of it. What am l?

The answer is “food.” 🍽️

You can eat food, and without it you eventually die.
“Food” can be inside your head metaphorically as food for thought.
It can also be on top of your head—for example, food placed on someone's head as a joke.

That said, the riddle is a bit loose, so “brain” / “hair” may be intended depending on the original wording.

Solve this riddle. I am made of metal, but I break very easily. I am lighter than air, but I'm
the heaviest thing in the universe. All parents have a copy of me, and all children hate
me. What am l?

The answer is a “rule.”

Made of metal, but breaks easily → “rule” may refer to a ruler, which can be made of metal but can still break.
Lighter than air, but the heaviest thing in the universe → a rule has no physical weight, but the consequences of breaking one can feel very heavy.
All parents have a copy of me → parents have rules for their children.
All children hate me → children famously tend to dislike rules. 😄

The riddle relies heavily on wordplay, especially rule → ruler.
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Kon Karapanagiotidis @kkarapanagiotidis.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
Did you know Australia uses the exact same private immigration detention operator as Trumps US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), Management and Training Corporation (MTC). MTC won a $2.3 billion contract to manage Australia’s onshore immigration detention network
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Ben Schulz @benschulz.bsky.social · 20/09/2026
If governments actually wanted to reduce crime, this is precisely the sort of program that should be funded and expanded www.abc.net.au/news/2026-09... Looking directly at you, "adult time adult crime" Crisafulli
abc.net.au
Cairns man dedicates his life savings to helping local kids thrive
After almost three decades working with at-risk young people through government departments, Rob Hodge found there were limits when working to change things.
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Reposted by Ben Schulz
Pookleblinky @pookleblinky.bsky.social · 19/09/2026
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fightin... The Fighting Dinosaurs specimen, catching a velociraptor fighting a protoceratops
en.wikipedia.org
Fighting Dinosaurs - Wikipedia
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headfallsoff @headfallsoff.com · 19/09/2026
people are always saying anti-AI arguments don’t understand the full nuances of the technology. which is correct. but only because it stole everyone’s work, exists solely to get you fired, has made the entire internet unusable and has been forced on everyone without consent
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Ben Schulz @benschulz.bsky.social · 19/09/2026
All they do is dog whistle
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Ben Schumann @drglycoben.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
⚠️ 🥳 check out our new pre-print led by the fantastic @sophiedschmidt.bsky.social: An in vivo chemical genetic approach for targeted glycoproteome analysis in Drosophila melanogaster: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6... We present FlyMOE, a strategy for targeted glycoprotein profiling in vivo.
biorxiv.org
An in vivo chemical genetic approach for targeted glycoproteome analysis in Drosophila melanogaster
Glycans impact every aspect of physiology. Despite the rapid increase in relevance and translational potential, there remains a lack of tools for studying glycosylation in vivo. Here, we present FlyMO...
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Ben Schulz @benschulz.bsky.social · 16/09/2026
"Labor's plan has some similarities to One Nation's migration policy" www.abc.net.au/news/2026-09... Labor, you can't beat One Nation by being politely racist
abc.net.au
Family visas for foreign students targeted in migration crackdown
International students would effectively be banned from bringing family members to Australia under a long-awaited overhaul of the immigration system.
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Reposted by Ben Schulz
Peter Anderson @zerogeewhiz.bsky.social · 16/09/2026
If there's one thing I've had reinforced by the last few days it's that the Australian government and most of the state governments are a long way behind where they need to be on the AI hype cycle. The demand isn't there and the economics are fanciful. It's gonna crash and they won't be ready.
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Ketan Joshi @ketanjoshi.co · 16/09/2026
I'm just going to keep yelling this louder and louder until it clicks: weird overpaid AI nerds hand-wringing about human extinction are trying to distract you from the extremely deadly and serious harms they are causing yesterday, today and tomorrow www.bloomberg.com/news/article...
Headline: "US Data Centers Set to Burn More Natural Gas Than Most Nations" above a photo of natural gas compressor towers, power lines and a crane at an industrial site, illustrating rising gas use tied to data centers.News excerpt reporting that U.S. data centers’ natural gas use is expected to grow by 15 billion cubic feet per day by 2035—amounting to more gas than every country except China, Russia, Iran and the U.S., citing the U.S. Energy Information Administration.
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Kelly @broadwaybabyto.bsky.social · 15/09/2026
Ed Sheeran cancelled Macklemore by kicking him off the tour over his support of Palestine. Within 48 hours, all of Sheeran’s support acts had cancelled him. This is how it’s done.
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Marisa Kabas @marisakabas.bsky.social · 15/09/2026
www.instagram.com/p/DdUoHPCpgG...
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Ben Schulz @benschulz.bsky.social · 15/09/2026
youtu.be/fgDQyFeBBIo
youtu.be
MACKLEMORE - HIND'S HALL
YouTube video by Macklemore
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Elisa Fadda @elisafadda.bsky.social · 14/09/2026
🚨 Want to be part of top #glycotime on the seaside in the California sunshine? Register to the 2027 GRC Glycobiology ⬇️ Stacy and Lance put togteher up one of the most exciting programmes I have ever seen with phenomenal keynotes! We have 32 abstracts to select, so the next speaker could be YOU! 😎
Announcement of the GRC Glycobiology 2027 to be held in Ventura CA on March 14 to 19, 2027. Blue background with an photo of Ventura from the visitventuraca.com
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Ketan Joshi @ketanjoshi.co · 12/09/2026
I know this'll ruffle feathers but I agree with this Food/Water watch analysis. Diverting renewable energy away from fossil phase-out and climate adaptation and towards melting graphics card to power chatbots is the formal end of moral purpose for clean technology.
Data Centers With Renewables Aren’t the Answer
So all these power plants and “temporary” turbines are raising power prices and polluting our communities. Why don’t we just power data centers with renewables?

Many data center companies are pledging to (eventually) do just that. But even if these pledges weren’t just empty greenwashing promises, powering data centers with clean energy is utterly unrealistic. It also threatens the progress of our already dangerously slow energy transition.

Continuously powering a 1 GW data center would require nearly 20,000 acres of solar panels or 185,000 acres of onshore wind power. We cannot afford to waste the time, space, or money to build renewables for Big Tech’s profit machines. 

Already, data center growth is outstripping available renewable energy supply and redirecting renewables from other industries. It’s drawing urgently needed renewables from existing technologies and resources. We need to focus our renewable energy resources toward thos
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Terence Tao @teorth.bsky.social · 11/09/2026
A group of 25 Fields Medalists, including myself, have made a joint declaration on Math and AI: mathandai.org . We welcome additional signatories. See also this article in the Economist announcing the declaration: www.economist.com/science-and-...
mathandai.org
Declaration — Math and AI
Read the declaration and add your name.
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Nick Riley @nmriley.bsky.social · 28/08/2026
Glycoproteoforms are the unit of biological information in the glycoproteome, but measuring intact glycoproteins to capture combinatorial modification states remains a huge #glycotime challenge. @timveth.bsky.social tackled this issue head on in the latest preprint from @riley-research.bsky.social
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Yung En Chee @yungenchee.bsky.social · 02/09/2026
"There have been a lot of provocative comments made [about climate change] over the last few days from all sides of the debate & I find it very unhelpful." NOW IS NOT THE TIME FOR ACCOUNTABILITY says PM of super-majority govt that's approved 36 Coal+Gas projects www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
Part of a First Dog on the Moon cartoon

above an image of a snow-clad mountain range are the words:
'A glacier collapses, a 50m wall of liquefied rocks and ice hurtling down at 170 km/h rolling house-sized boulders but this is not the time to talk about climate change'

Frame below is an image of a fossil fuel extraction facility with the words:
'According to the prime minister this tragedy is NOT the time to talk about climate change but IS time to turn on Beetaloo, the biggest gas tap in the country which will spew 1.2 billion tonnes of carbon over its lifetime.
In the left corner is a suited man with a hard hat labelled 'Minister for Ignoring Climate Change'

In the bottom panel, a guy in a hotdog suit shrugs. The words say 'We're all trying to find the guy who did this!'
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Ketan Joshi @ketanjoshi.co · 01/09/2026
Politicians like Anthony Albanese say stuff like "now is not the time to discuss climate" in the wake of fossil-fuelled disasters because they know that **there is no single better time** to talk about it, and his fossil fuel donors know that too.
News article screenshot headlined "Climate change a debate for later, PM says on Nepal floods," showing a serious middle-aged man wearing glasses and a light-blue button-up shirt outdoors against blurred trees.
PRIME MINISTER: Look, I think on Nepal, there will be time to examine the science and what has occurred here. My thoughts are solely focused, at this point in time, on the families and on the extraordinarily difficult time that we’re going through and offering our support to Nepal. And we'll continue to do that. Those debates will take place. But I don't think, from Australia's perspective, now's the time. My focus is very much on people who are incredibly traumatised by not knowing what has happened to their loved ones.
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Ketan Joshi @ketanjoshi.co · 01/09/2026
Which one is Scott Morrison speaking to press in the midst of the 2020 Australian bushfires? Which one is Anthony Albanese speaking to press after the 2026 Nepal floods?
"There have been a lot of provocative comments made [about climate change] over the last few days from all sides of the debate and I find it very unhelpful. There is a time and a place to debate controversial issues and important issues, right now it's important to focus on the needs of Australians who need our help”


“There will be time to examine the science and what has occurred here. My thoughts are solely focused, at this point in time, on the families and on the extraordinarily difficult time that we’re going through and offering our support….those debates will take place. But I don't think, from Australia's perspective, now's the time”
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Canadian History Ehx @cdnhistoryehx.bsky.social · 25/08/2026
Before Europeans arrived, these were some of the names for The Great Lakes: Superior: gichi-gami (great sea) Erie: erielhonan (long tail) Michigan: michigami (long body of water) Ontario: Ontarí'io\kanadario (great lake\beautiful water) Huron: karegnondi (fresh water sea)
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Brian Merchant @bcmerchant.bsky.social · 27/08/2026
The backlash to data centers, Flock, Meta glasses, and AI, is loud, animated, bipartisan, and wielding real power. It's the most popular and united political movement in the nation right now, and it's still growing. So of course Silicon Valley is in complete denial.
bloodinthemachine.com
With the backlash to data centers, Flock and AI glasses, a mass opposition to big tech is underway. Silicon Valley is in denial.
The backlash against data centers is difficult to understand if your salary depends on your not understanding it.
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Ben Schulz @benschulz.bsky.social · 27/08/2026
Remembering Yayoi Kusama 🌈🍄🔴😢 theconversation.com/the-only-met...
share.google
‘The only method I have found that relieved my illness is to keep creating art’: remembering Yayoi Kusama
The Japanese artist, acclaimed for infinity mirror rooms, sprawling seas of polka dots, and dancing pumpkins, has died at 97.
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Chris Ashwood @cashwood.proteaglyco.com · 26/08/2026
“This Perspective proposes a model-to-mechanism burden of proof that distinguishes prediction from explanation, imputation from observation, attribution from causality, cross-layer coherence from mechanism, and diagnostic performance from biological validity.”
static.klipy.com
Can't Read Sign Meme
ALT: Can't Read Sign Meme
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Ben Schulz @benschulz.bsky.social · 26/08/2026
Predictably stupid and short-sighted of Crisafulli. Predictably cowardly of Albanese.
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Ben Schulz @benschulz.bsky.social · 26/08/2026
Should probably just use MRM
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FT @fucktheory.bsky.social · 25/08/2026
Imagine being talented and beautiful and rich and famous and still the most noteworthy thing about you is how good a person you are.
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Ben Schulz @benschulz.bsky.social · 24/08/2026
“Any entity that facilitates money laundering on behalf of Iran will be removed from the US dollar system" Sounds like a golden opportunity for BRICS
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Ben Schulz @benschulz.bsky.social · 24/08/2026
The Crisafulli Queensland government bulldozers the tents of homeless families with nowhere else to stay, while slashing funds for homeless services and emergency housing www.abc.net.au/news/2026-08...
abc.net.au
'Buy a tent': Single mother turned away by crisis services
A single mother of four says she was told to "buy a tent and find somewhere to pitch it" after reaching out to every housing service in her region for help.
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Ben Schulz @benschulz.bsky.social · 24/08/2026
In the next 5 years Elon Musk will have killed 14 million people, including 4.5 million kids younger than 5
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Ben Schulz @benschulz.bsky.social · 24/08/2026
A 6.7 km yard on the hour every hour for 7 days 🤯 Phil Gore is something else philgore.com.au
philgore.com.au
PROJECT 168 | Phil Gore | Telethon 7 Fundraiser
Phil Gore will run 6.71km every hour, on the hour, for seven straight days (168 laps) to push the limits of backyard ultra running, in support of Telethon.
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Michael West @michaelwestbiz.bsky.social · 22/08/2026
"A definition that tars four in five Australians is not detecting hatred. It is outlawing majority opinion." Andrew Brown - arrested for Israel t-shirt - on the J Fagan decision on #antisemitism #auspol michaelwest.com.au/segal-ihra-a...
michaelwest.com.au
Segal's speech code meets the law: Justice Fagan wrecks Canberra's Israel exception - Michael West
The Israel lobby wrote itself a dictionary - the IHRA definition of antisemitism. Justice Desmond Fagan, NSW Supreme Court, collapsed it.
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fesshole 🧻 @fesshole.bsky.social · 20/08/2026
I told my Son that due to the hosepipe ban, he has to sit down to go to the toilet. Which means I don't have to clean up after him.
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Ben Schulz @benschulz.bsky.social · 20/08/2026
I find the rage of some in the neurodiverse community about @professor-dave.bsky.social's recent thread very strange. He just said that not everyone with ADHD is the same. Clinical diagnoses can be useful to create categories, but the underlying biological traits are always quantitative.
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Leonore (Lee) Carpenter @leecarpenter.bsky.social · 19/08/2026
In case you are an academic who is currently being gaslit into believing that you're a caveman who wants their students to be jobless if you resist allowing AI in your classrooms... I present to you Berkeley Law's response, which can be summarized as "Fuck off directly into the sun."
law.berkeley.edu
Artificial Intelligence Policy
Effective Summer 2026 Purpose Future lawyers may need to use artificial intelligence (“AI”) fluently. But the current state of the technology requires that AI use be coupled with the cognitive […]
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Typas Lab @typaslab.bsky.social · 20/08/2026
Excited to share our paper with @savitski-lab.bsky.social, led by @tarabartolec.bsky.social, Karin Mitosch & Clément Potel, out now in @nature.com. We show that T7 phage broadly disables bacterial defenses using a unique ‘loose cannon’ protein kinase. www.nature.com/articles/s41...
nature.com
Pervasive phosphorylation by phage T7 kinase disarms bacterial defences - Nature
The T7 bacteriophage deactivates bacterial defence systems through T7K phosphorylation of nearly all host and phage proteins during infection.
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Ben Schulz @benschulz.bsky.social · 20/08/2026
It's not too late for Brisbane to pull out of hosting the Olympics (and we should) www.jonathansri.com/canceltheoly... Very sensible thoughts as always from @js.jonathansri.com.ap.brid.gy
QLD Premier David Crisafulli standing in front of a CGI stadium in Barrambin, proudly saying "What if, instead of houses for the homeless, domestic violence shelters, hospital upgrades, and new public transport services, I cut down hundreds of trees to build this giant stadium over 1 km from the nearest train station?"
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Andrew MacKellar @hansoliton.bsky.social · 18/08/2026
I have ADHD. I'm also a physicist. I got the ADHD diagnosis about a year and a half ago, after really struggling with work for a few years. I didn't know about it when I was in school, or when I started a physics undergrad as a mature student, or through my PhD. I have thoughts:
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Karen Attiah @karenattiah.bsky.social · 16/08/2026
My latest, on how the British/global media hounded Jason Arday to death. “Given the history of white media’s key role in terror against Black people, at what point do we call such actions of journalism outlets digital terror campaigns? “ karenattiah.substack.com/p/jason-arda...
karenattiah.substack.com
Jason Arday's Death and the Age of Digital Racial Terror
What Jason Arday's death by media mob says about the old machinery of anti-Black terror in the algorithmic age.
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Ben Schulz @benschulz.bsky.social · 16/08/2026
Electric trucks are already cheaper per kilometre than diesel. Government investment in nationwide charging infrastructure would remove the biggest barrier to electrification, increase fuel/energy security, and save liquid fuels for where they're really needed. www.abc.net.au/news/2026-08...
abc.net.au
Fuel security or electrification? We've crunched the numbers
The war in Iran has drawn attention to something invisible to most Australians — we use a lot of diesel to keep this country running.
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Bruno Dias @brunodias.dev · 14/08/2026
go on say some shit again about how concern about data centers is overblown
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Ben Schulz @benschulz.bsky.social · 12/08/2026
Mr Trump proves yet again that he is a dangerous idiot www.abc.net.au/news/2026-08...
abc.net.au
Trump signs order to reduce childhood vaccines and break up MMR shots
The revised vaccination schedule recommends immunising children against 11 diseases, six fewer than currently recommended.
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Seleucid Dreamer @smollusk.bsky.social · 12/08/2026
the best part is most of the "wait, there might be reasonable exceptions" posts are about the human skin book
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Ben Schulz @benschulz.bsky.social · 11/08/2026
Orienteering ftw theconversation.com/taxi-drivers...
theconversation.com
Taxi drivers rarely die of Alzheimer’s – how complex mental maps and spatial reasoning protect your brain
Working with and living in spatially complex environments may help delay cognitive decline, though more research is needed.
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Phil M 🦻🏼💚 🍉 🏳️‍⚧️ 🇵🇸 @phillm.bsky.social · 09/08/2026
Oops! The billionaires are getting tetchy again. They always do when somebody proposes a system in which they pay their fair share of taxes, or stopping them from taking us to the cleaners and rinsing us of every penny of disposable income that might improve our standard of living. #TaxWealthNotWork
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