iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

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David Simon @audacityofdespair.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

American journalism has reached that point wherein if you cover the White House or opine on national events as a columnist for a major news organization, you must be called "piggy," "sleazebag," or "human scum" by this president. If you are not, you must -- as a gutless and craven cipher -- resign.

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James Fallows @jfallows.bsky.social · 04/07/2026

Taking a hit for the team: Watching Caligula at Mt. Rushmore. The "idea" part of the speech, read from script, is extended, Joe McCarthy-toned denunciation of Communism as the era's greatest threat. Recall that his three closest chums internationally are: -Putin -Xi Jinping -Kim Jong Un

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David Simon @audacityofdespair.bsky.social · 02/03/2026

Worth a re-up 11 days later. And I honestly wish it wasn't.

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Max Berger @maxberger.bsky.social · 28/02/2026

I promise you that the government that murdered Alex Pretti and Renee Good does not give a flying fuck about the protests in Iran.

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Brian K Gruber @briankgruber.bsky.social · 09/08/2025

Ukraine Day One: Punk Medical Surgeon, Kids Art Workshop, Athletes Competing Under Attack After a 20-hour long haul from Bangkok and a 13-hour jaunt through the Polish and Ukrainian countrysides, a first day in #Ukraine for my cross country journey. open.substack.com/pub/briangru...

open.substack.com

Ukraine Day One: Punk Medical Surgeon, Kids Art Workshop, Athletes Competing Under Attack

Stories of bravery, service, and resistance are everywhere

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Brian K Gruber @briankgruber.bsky.social · 03/08/2025

I leave tomorrow for Warsaw then across the border to Ukraine for my monthlong jaunt gathering stories of life, love and art during the time of resistance to the Russian invasion. Here is a short video describing the project with ways for you to follow along and participate. #Ukraine

youtu.be

Time to Go: A Video Descriptor of My Ukraine Project

YouTube video by Brian Gruber

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Brian K Gruber @briankgruber.bsky.social · 31/07/2025

My Ukraine adventure begins with a ferry to Surat Thani. On to Bangkok. Then a weekend of celebration and a flight to Warsaw 9pm August 4 on my birthday. I get to enjoy 69 (years) 4 more days. #ukraine #kyiv #travel #lviv #kharkiv #odesa

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Brian K Gruber @briankgruber.bsky.social · 29/07/2025

I will adjust my travel schedule as I go but the basic plan is an August 4 (birthday!) departure from Bangkok; Warsaw 5-7; Lviv 7-9; Kyiv 9-16; Kharkiv 16-20; Odessa 20-24, with possible stopovers in other cities such as Poltava and Dnipro. taxiingtheplanet.com

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Brian Gruber (@briangruber)

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Brian K Gruber @briankgruber.bsky.social · 24/07/2025

I wil be traveling across Ukraine in August gathering stories and music. If you know Ukrainian artists, teachers, activists, public servants, or storytellers who deserve an audience, please contact me. Details at: briangruber.substack.com/p/updated-pl... #Ukraine #resistance #Kyiv #Kharkiv #Odesa

briangruber.substack.com

Updated Plans for "My Fabulous Ukrainian Vacation: Get Involved!

Art and Love in the Time of Resistance

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Brian K Gruber @briankgruber.bsky.social · 24/07/2025

🌍 New Adventures. New Name. Same Mission. I’ve just relaunched my Substack as 6C48: Taxiing the Planet—a tribute to my father’s NYC cab and to the stories that move us across borders. The first dispatches will be coming from Ukraine next month. You can follow along at: 👉 briangruber.substack.com

briangruber.substack.com

6C48: Taxiing the Planet | Brian Gruber | Substack

Dispatches from the road—interviews, stories, and reflections on art, love, and resistance. Click to read 6C48: Taxiing the Planet, by Brian Gruber, a Substack publication. Launched 2 months ago.

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Brian K Gruber @briankgruber.bsky.social · 08/07/2025

Ukraine offers a vital set of lessons as to how to throw off a corrupt leader. I visited in 2019 for Surmountable book and share the chapter in Substack. Resistance. Massive protests for months. What to watch for as Trump calls in the thugs. #Ukraine #Euromaidan open.substack.com/pub/briangru...

open.substack.com

What I Saw in Ukraine and Why I'm Going Back (Part Two)

Excerpts from my Kyiv interviews for Surmountable

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Brian K Gruber @briankgruber.bsky.social · 07/07/2025

I will be returning to Ukraine in August, six years after my visit to Kyiv to write about the EuroMaidan revolution. I’ll go to express my solidarity with the Ukrainian peoples’ resistance to Russian aggression. bit.ly/3Tq3ywE

bit.ly

What I Saw in Ukraine and Why I'm Going Back

Excerpts from my Kyiv interviews for Surmountable

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Brian K Gruber @briankgruber.bsky.social · 05/07/2025

I will be singing these seven songs each day on my 70th birthday jaunt through Ukraine. I will be seeking out Ukrainian songs and songwriters on similar matters of social justice, peace, and ecology. And gathering stories of living under the threat of violence from the air.

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Brian K Gruber @briankgruber.bsky.social · 03/07/2025

Wow. This woman is magnificent.

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Brian K Gruber @briankgruber.bsky.social · 03/07/2025

OK, I'm going. On my 70th birthday, August 4th, I will fly to Warsaw, then travel the length and breadth of Ukraine for my 7th book. It will be a sequel, a postscript of sorts, to last year's My Fabulous Fascist Summer Vacation.

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Aaron Ross Powell @aaronrosspowell.com · 02/07/2025

We're going to need Nuremberg trials when this is over, yes, and to send a significant number of people currently in the federal government to prison. But we're going to need an unwavering commitment to ostracizing the supporters of it, as well. Never accept them again in polite society.

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Brian K Gruber @briankgruber.bsky.social · 27/06/2025

Great inspiration to me as a young fellow. RIP. Old one too.

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Brian K Gruber @briankgruber.bsky.social · 24/06/2025

As the endlessly militarist USA tumbles into one more illicit intervention, relevant lessons learned from my jaunt around the world to scenes of a half century of USA military interventions. open.substack.com/pub/briangru...

open.substack.com

What I Learned From My Jaunt Around the World for "WAR: The Afterparty"

My conclusions from a Cambodian beach after four months of travels in 2014-15

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Molly Knight @mollyknight.bsky.social · 22/06/2025

If you were too young in 2003 here is what Bush told the American people: 1) The Iraq War won’t cost a lot of money 3) We won’t need a lot of troops 4) We’ll bring peace and freedom to Iraq 5) We’ll find WMDs 6) We’ll be welcomed as liberators 7) It will be easy 8) It won’t take long All lies.

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Brian K Gruber @briankgruber.bsky.social · 22/06/2025

She continues to impress. Top shelf erudition, passionately delivered, relevant and detailed.

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Brian K Gruber @briankgruber.bsky.social · 20/06/2025

“My Fabulous Fascist Summer Vacation : A Journey Through Europe’s Hearts of Darkness” is available as print and ebook at amzn.to/3NxJd5K. You can have it as a free PDF at bit.ly/MFFSVpdf.

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Melissa Nadia Viviana 🐸 @resistrebelrevolt.net · 15/06/2025

Marching bands in Atlanta came prepared for a stand-off with the Proud Boys: playing the infamous Bella Ciao that became an anti-fascist anthem after World War 2. ✊ The lyrics are Italian but you can see the translation below 👇

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Bill Kristol @billkristolbulwark.bsky.social · 14/06/2025

What a contrast: On the one hand, one grandiose spectacle in the nation's capital, a panorama of propaganda put on by an aspiring autocrat. On the other hand, thousands of assemblies of free citizens across the nation, authentic celebrations of the proposition that here the people rule.

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eric anders @ericanders.bsky.social · 14/06/2025

Pussy Riot on the steps of City Hall in Downtown Los Angeles, unfurling a banner that says IT’S BEGINNING TO LOOK A LOT LIKE RUSSIA. #NoKings

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Khashoggi's Ghost @urocklive1.bsky.social · 12/06/2025

Sadly, this is America now. And it's up to us to return it to the America we know and love.

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Ruth Ben-Ghiat @ruthbenghiat.bsky.social · 08/06/2025

Fake emergencies to justify crackdowns-not very original

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darth™️ @darthbluesky.bsky.social · 06/06/2025

always the shittiest people u most expect

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Brian K Gruber @briankgruber.bsky.social · 02/06/2025

Humor me. I have an idea for a 7th book. A sequel to My Fabulous Fascist Summer Vacation. I was outraged at the treatment Zelensky received from Vance in the Oval Office. He scorned an invitation to come to Ukraine, saying he wasn't interest in coming on a propaganda tour. So I thought I would go.

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John Scalzi @scalzi.com · 23/04/2025

Anyone who internalizes this line of bullshit will absolutely always be outflanked by people who know how to actually do things

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Jake Grumbach @jakemgrumbach.bsky.social · 19/04/2025

reagan/bush judges: "this administration's shocking arguments would reduce the rule of law to lawlenssness" neocons: abolish ICE david brooks: communist manifesto Dem leadership, top liberal consultants/pundits: the latest NYT/Ipsos has Trump up +4 on immigration, +9 with noncollege men

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Kevin M. Kruse @kevinmkruse.bsky.social · 15/04/2025

We've seen videos like this before, but usually when you see a tearful wife pleading with the kidnappers who have taken her husband, she's not talking to the U.S. president

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Brian K Gruber @briankgruber.bsky.social · 15/04/2025

Mike Masnick is a highly respected tech reporter who I interviewed for Surmountable about the 2012 protests against SOPA/PIPA. He is doing extraordinary political reporting on the emerging fascist state. Follow him on Bluesky. @mmasnick.bsky.social

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Will Bunch @willbunch.bsky.social · 10/04/2025

Here's a real "national emergency": College kids won't, and often can't, read a book from cover to cover. The rise of what one prof calls "functional illiteracy" in the iPhone Age is happening right when our imploding democracy needs critical thinkers My new column www.inquirer.com/opinion/stud...

inquirer.com

Young people won’t, or can’t, read a book. Now democracy is dying. Coincidence? | Will Bunch

A viral conversation about the near-death of reading by U.S. college students in the iPhone era reveals a threat to democracy.

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Brian K Gruber @briankgruber.bsky.social · 11/04/2025

The end times. A nation of imbeciles. Cool.

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Ida Bae Wells @nhannahjones.bsky.social · 26/03/2025

When scholars of authoritarianism and fascism leave U.S. universities because of the deteriorating political situation here, we should really worry.

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Mike Masnick @masnick.com · 21/03/2025

This is how you take a stand.

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Acyn @acyn.bsky.social · 21/03/2025

AOC: I want to live in an America that guarantees healthcare to every person. I want to live in an America that has a living wage for every person I want to live in an America where you have free speech to express yourself and not be afraid of being put on a list or deported.

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Shepherd @neolithicsheep.bsky.social · 21/03/2025

The person who punched Richard Spencer and instantly made him a meme never got caught. Just threw one punch and skipped off into immortality. I think about that a lot.

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Stef "inclusion is a human right" Christensen @wikisteff.bsky.social · 15/03/2025

Voice of America is silent. I remember in the Cold War when the Soviet Union wanted nothing more than to silence the Voice of America. Today's the day it happened.

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Gremliny Nussboo @emilynussbaum.bsky.social · 16/03/2025

In a way, it all makes sense, because it’s a strategic attack on anything that can oppose authoritarianism: journalism, the courts and the ability of ordinary people to stage a protest

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