iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

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Charlotte Garden @charlottegarden.bsky.social · 25/08/2026

In which Brett nicely sums up the relationship between union organizers and union lawyers

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Pitchfork Economics @pitchforkeconomics.bsky.social · 26/08/2026

Franchising is sold as the American dream: own your business, be your own boss. @briancallaci.bsky.social says the reality is often much darker: corporate control, worker exploitation, and responsibility pushed onto someone else. 🎧 This week on Pitchfork Economics: bit.ly/4irWGwn

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Brian Callaci @briancallaci.bsky.social · 05/08/2026

He is a character from some Charles Portis/Mark Twain novel. Truly one of those "only in America" personalities.

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Brian Callaci @briancallaci.bsky.social · 14/07/2026

Started a new in-office job today. My wife is texting me photos of how the dog is handling it

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Arin Dube @arindube.bsky.social · 13/07/2026

The impact of AI on jobs is uncertain. What is certain: assessment of job-creation/destruction by tech company CEOs should be heavily discounted, or ignored altogether. Tech CEOs have no insights in labor economics, and have bad incentives on this issue.

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Brian Callaci @briancallaci.bsky.social · 09/07/2026

Brings into relief the very dumb discourse that No Kings was "bigger than the civil rights marches." NK was good, but there's a qualitative difference b/t CR marches as demonstrations of deep organization and force and NK's loose one-off mobilizations.

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Mark Andrew Price @pricelaborecon.bsky.social · 08/07/2026

I don’t think "Dem HR ladies" is labor coded or working class aligned. It comes from the same place everything that is terrible in the last two years has come from. The backlash to the Me Too and Black Lives Matter movements.

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Mark Andrew Price @pricelaborecon.bsky.social · 08/07/2026

A lot of HR haters on this thread. HR serves the executive & board and always acts in institutional interest not employee interest. The animus of “HR lady” is precisely anger at the overlap of employee and employer interest in preventing sexual misconduct. It’s not about “the man” it’s about the dog

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Senator Chris Van Hollen @vanhollen.senate.gov · 07/07/2026

Palestinian pediatrician, Dr. Hussam Abu Safiya, has spent 18 months in Israeli prisons without trial or charge. His lawyer reports his life is in immediate danger, following torture and poor treatment in prison. He must be released immediately.

theguardian.com

Detained Gaza doctor almost unrecognisable after injuries in Israeli jail, lawyer says

Hussam Abu Safiya faces ‘tangible danger to his life’ following 18 months in prison without charge or trial

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Brian Callaci @briancallaci.bsky.social · 07/07/2026

My dad had a middle finger rubber stamp he used to reject management contract proposals. One time my little brother (maybe with some sibling help) stamped his whole body in ink before we walked to school.

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Thea Riofrancos @triofrancos.bsky.social · 06/07/2026

I spoke to @newleftreview.bsky.social about the political economy of climate: supply chain geoeconomics, why Biden’s signature climate policy didn’t stick, political weakness of green capitalism, Chinese industrial policies, global South resource nationalism &more newleftreview.org/issues/ii159...

newleftreview.org

Thea Riofrancos, The New World Climate Order, NLR 159, May–June 2026

An interview about the new parameters of climate politics, with the breakdown of global consensus. As the EU re-opens coal-fired plants and the US shuts down wind farms, China gouges the earth to chur...

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Jake Grumbach @jakemgrumbach.bsky.social · 01/07/2026

greedflation theory (sophisticated version) explains a lot

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Brian Callaci @briancallaci.bsky.social · 25/06/2026

With deviations correlated with being venomous. We are all 7 y/o boys.

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Doc Hammertime @dochammertime.bsky.social · 24/06/2026

The Spurs told ESPN that Jalen Brunson is going to have patch things up with San Antonio following last weeks finals victory

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Seth Cotlar @sethcotlar.bsky.social · 24/06/2026

Sociologist C Wright Mills had a term for such ideologically blinkered “centrists” back in the days of the Cold War: Crackpot Realism.

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amy brown 👻 @amybrown.xyz · 24/06/2026

went down to the centrist convention. they’re all shaking and crying, I heard one guy say “I’m starting to think a better world IS possible.” the lady next to him slapped him in the face

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Arin Dube @arindube.bsky.social · 22/06/2026

We could have had a very different rollout of LLMs than we actually did. It could have focused on building applications that made life easier for everyday use. Limited but useful. Instead, the buildout was focused on a radical and flawed proposition: that it could replace much of human labor.

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Brian Callaci @briancallaci.bsky.social · 22/06/2026

Have to give Greenspan this: with his "traumatized workers" analysis of the declining influence of low unemployment on wages and inflation, he understood the institutional-political determination of reserve army/NAIRU dynamics better than most.

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Brian Callaci @briancallaci.bsky.social · 22/06/2026

This is the entire story of the post-1980 period: GDP growth never recovered pre-1974 growth rates, but profits, stock prices surpassed anything seen since WWII. Misleading the well-off to believe we were in a time of wider prosperity than we were.

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Brian Callaci @briancallaci.bsky.social · 22/06/2026

Working on presentations for book talks, so going back to my files for visuals. These are Dunkin' Donuts brochures from the 1960s. Amazing that franchisors (and related businesses) have avoided joint employer liability for this long.

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Brian Callaci @briancallaci.bsky.social · 22/06/2026

One of the best explanations of causal inference I have read. Maybe it was a mistake to adopt the colloquial term "cause" rather than inventing a jargon word, since what social scientists mean by "cause" (a "what if" question) diverges from the plain English meaning (a "why" Q).

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Brian Callaci @briancallaci.bsky.social · 19/06/2026

Frankly impressed that JD Vance has written two whole books on a subject as dull as JD Vance.

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Brian Callaci @briancallaci.bsky.social · 19/06/2026

Earlier than I thought, the evolving English language has left me and my reading comprehension behind.

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Brian Callaci @briancallaci.bsky.social · 14/06/2026

Honestly never really believed real-life book stores would carry it. Very cool to see!

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Brett "Solidarity 2026" Banditelli @banditelli.org · 05/06/2026

Man voters just want to drink gas and man can't afford gas to drink.

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Brian Callaci @briancallaci.bsky.social · 05/06/2026

With University of Utah and the New School heterodox economics PhD programs under attack, the task is clear: Mayor Mamdani must create a PhD program at John Jay College, City University of New York

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Jake Grumbach @jakemgrumbach.bsky.social · 26/05/2026

(it was created as a Civil War holiday)

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Brian Callaci @briancallaci.bsky.social · 25/05/2026

Yes, it has indeed made shareholders (and some franchisees quite rich). It has done so, in large part, by incentivizing franchisees to drive worker wages as low as people, while systematically excluding workers from labor rights.

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Kim Kelly @kimkelly.bsky.social · 15/05/2026

How many other small agencies are suffering these death-by-a-thousand-cuts scenarios? How many other lifesaving regulations have been put on ice or buried entirely? How many more workers’ lives are at risk because a Trump drone picked an agency name off a list? inthesetimes.com/article/trum...

Screenshot of In These Times article by Kim Kelly. Text reads: Trump’s Latest Target: Coal Miners’ Safety
In one fell swoop, the Trump administration took an axe to the agency tasked with handling legal disputes around mine worker safety. It could signal even deeper cuts to worker protections coming down the pike.

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Lenore Palladino @lenorepalladino.bsky.social · 07/05/2026

I'm writing something about public pension funds & data centers & risk -- this total mess strengthens my goal to get elected to the MA PRIM Board! have a friend who works for MA state government? Pls send them to my website so that they can vote before May 22nd!! lenorepalladino.me

lenorepalladino.me

Lenore Palladino, Ph.D.

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Brian Callaci @briancallaci.bsky.social · 07/05/2026

Just FYI NYC and DC: this is now on shelves at Barnes & Noble Union Square and Politics & Prose!

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Gabriele Gratton @grattonecon.bsky.social · 07/05/2026

MARKET POWER IS POWER New working paper with @bartonelee2.bsky.social Thread below! 1/5 gratton.org/papers/Marke...

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Hamilton Nolan @hamiltonnolan.bsky.social · 30/04/2026

"Why are all the journalists laid off now" this is why. Pretty simple.

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Maia @maiamindel.bsky.social · 26/04/2026

the 1973 oil shock basically destroyed a huge chunk of american culture (drive ins, etc) and i think covid did the same

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Brett "Solidarity 2026" Banditelli @banditelli.org · 20/04/2026

Happy @briancallaci.bsky.social day let's all start our strike notices with "Dear Joint Employer"

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Marshall Steinbaum @econmarshall.bsky.social · 20/04/2026

🚨🚨Revised paper 🚨🚨 The Balance of Power in Franchising w/@ulrichatz.org, Blake Eliason, @mikelipsitz.bsky.social, @pnorlander.bsky.social, & @stpinto.bsky.social. We built the 1st comprehensive panel dataset of franchise contract terms: 46,000 documents, 4,500 chains, 20+ provisions, 2009-2024. /1

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The Sling @theslingutah.bsky.social · 13/04/2026

New Slingshot Episode in which @briancallaci.bsky.social discusses his new book, Chain of Command (Chicago Press), on the latest episode of The Slingshot with @halsinger.bsky.social and Darren Bush.

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David Dayen @ddayen.bsky.social · 10/04/2026

Franchise owners have become less like independent businessmen and more like a badly treated employee stripped of all their rights. Jarod Facundo reviews a new book on how franchisors put this legal regime in place. prospect.org/2026/04/10/a...

prospect.org

Vertical Vertigo - The American Prospect

Brian Callaci’s book describes the deregulatory strategies franchisors use to protect their profits.

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