iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

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Howling Techie @howlingtechie.bsky.social · 14/10/2026

Watching the new season of Shark Tank and they managed to immediately become a parody of itself by having one of the pitches be Ball 2, the sequel to Ball, powered by AI. To really seal the deal, the ball 2's battery is not rechargeable or designed to be replaced.

A screenshot of season 18, episode 1 of Shark Tank, showing two men pitching a company named "Ball 2".

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Alex Ip 葉清霖 @alexip718.com · 11h

Bullying works. Abolish the death penalty now

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Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 14/10/2026

Look at the shabby state and increasingly authoritarian trajectory of the country and ask yourself if we can endure 2 more years of a lawless Trump administration wreaking havoc with no check from Congress, then vote accordingly. This is not the time for a protest vote or purity politics.

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Matt Novak @paleofuture.bsky.social · 14/10/2026

Now that is quite a photo. (Credit: Doug Mills / New York Times)

From Doug Mills on X: White House Press Secretary Katie Zacharia and Special Assistant to the president Natalie Harp join President Donald Trump in Marine One he arrived in Wasilla, Alaska yesterday.

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Evan Bernick, a finite mode with a smol hooman and a lorg floof @evanbernick.bsky.social · 14/10/2026

I am entirely serious when I say that this should be seen as a moderate position. It specifically and surgically dismantles institutions that did not exist pre-9/11 and assigns their functions much as they were assigned pre-9/11.

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Don Moynihan @donmoyn.bsky.social · 13/10/2026

3. DOGE made false claims about employee performance in order to fire them, but did not want to put their names to these emails. So they would coerce civil servants into doing so. If the civil servants refused, they were fired. (Not just DOGE, other Trump appointees like Kash Patel did this).

The revealing moments in the civil service were lonelier. They occurred inside people’s hearts and minds, and seldom leaked to the press. After his arrival at the IRS, one of Gavin Kliger’s first acts had been to demand that the agency fire its 6,700 probationary workers, who had yet to be granted civil service protection. By law they could be fired only for poor performance. Gavin had asked Traci DiMartini, in her capacity as head of human resources, to agree to put her name on an email to the mostly young employees telling them that they had failed at their jobs. The Doge people played this trick often. They’d use or try to use civil servants as a kind of ventriloquist dummy so that they, the Doge workers, could keep their names off official documents. But Traci took one look at the email, saw it was plainly a lie, and refused to have anything to do with it. The price of that single act of resistance was her job. Gavin didn’t have the authority to fire Traci, but his new acting commissioner did. “He asked Melanie to fire Traci, and Melanie did it,” said Kathleen.

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Alex Blechman @alexblechman.bsky.social · 13/10/2026

The moral is, if you’re appointed Ambassador to Greece as an unqualified nepo hire, don’t try to do bonus grifts. The grift is being Ambassador to Greece. You are being paid to hang out in Greece for 4 years. Grift accomplished

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Catherine Rampell @crampell.bsky.social · 05/03/2026

What does this imply for those of us who are not Christian, and who labor under the assumption that we're protected by the First Amendment?

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Mei 🪽 @meidotwav.bsky.social · 02/09/2026

treat your body like a data center. consume as much water, art and literature as possible. upset local municipalities with your existence.

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Gianmarco Soresi @gianmarcosoresi.bsky.social · 08/10/2026

Man who won’t give his employees piss breaks claims many piss breaks on the horizon

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Mad Scholar Frights @mattzollerseitz.bsky.social · 08/10/2026

I, too, love to purchase companies older than most nations, with names that are known to multiple generations of people all over the world, and then get rid of the names and replace them with the name of a thing nobody gives a shit about.

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Evan Sutton @evansutton.bsky.social · 07/10/2026

This money is absolutely meaningless to Elon Musk, but it has the potential to completely rewrite your future. He's spent over $36 million in about 4 weeks, and he's adding millions a day. All to corrupt our government to push his agenda. Let your friends know what's up.

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mtsw @mtsw.bsky.social · 06/10/2026

Saying he'd be cool with Iran nuking my home city is pretty bad but not quite as bad as when Hillary said some trump supporters were deplorable so I can see why the media turned the latter into a major scandal and not the former

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Mr. Dan Zak @mrdanzak.com · 04/10/2026

A Haitian man legally immigrated to Ohio, then was given an ankle monitor bc Trump withdrew his status. He threw himself in front of truck. The trucker, who voted for Trump, is haunted. “Pierre was doing what he was supposed to do. We did not do right by him.” www.theatlantic.com/politics/202...

theatlantic.com

A Reckoning in Springfield

A truck driver out on his route confronts what the country has become.

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Dustin A. Chacón @lingdustin.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

I've heard people make claims that AI would lead to a new Renaissance, but I didn't imagine it'd happen like this:

Screenshot of a Tweet from Pope Leo XIV. It reads:

"In this era of artificial intelligence, it is becoming urgen to distinguish human art from what machines produce. There is an ontological difference, even before an aesthetic one, between art and what a machine can generate through statistical calculation based on millions of images created by others. Algorithms lack the spark of humanity. For this reason, the Church wishes to renew an alliance with artists and cultural institutions to safeguard our humanity."

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Blue Meme @bluememe.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

When your policies are so popular you have to pretend they aren’t your policies when an election approaches.

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ArtButMakeItSports @artbutmakeitsports.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

Circus Performers, by Walt Kuhn, 1978, 📸 via @marisakabas.bsky.social

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Austin Krell @austinkrell.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

LeBron James took his name tag and removed it from the podium and asked, “You guys all know who I am, right?”

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Dean Baker @deanbaker13.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

Trump cancelled government contracts to punish states and counties that didn't vote for him, but what else is new? www.cambridge.org/core/journal...

cambridge.org

The Punitive Dimension of Presidential Particularism | American Political Science Review | Cambridge Core

The Punitive Dimension of Presidential Particularism

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Chad Houck @chadahouck.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

I had the same experience, and nearly repeated during Cool Beans.

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Linda James @ljamesnc.bsky.social · 18/09/2026

FFS. There is only one slab of granite that Americans want this guy’s name carved into.

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☠°。Die Siebenschläfern *.ﾟ☠ @sababausa.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

Instead of tariff-exempt potash from Saskatchewan (the world's biggest supplier, and which has rail-links directly to the US), Trump thinks why don't we just substitute a landlocked Russian-client-state located 4,500 miles from any US farmer

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Micah @rincewind.run · 21/09/2026

this might not sound like a big deal but I’m not sure there is any single thing that will upset trump more than not being on the teevee

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Ken Tremendous @kentremendous.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

I wish there were a single sentence that could simultaneously encapsulate and explain every single problem we have in modern society.

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Jordan aka Jirdan @slclunk.com · 20/09/2026

I honestly can’t think of a better metaphor than the Department of War inviting a guy who padded his boxing records with scrubs right until he got hospitalized by someone who could actually fight

Department of War E
@DeptofWar
X.com
Last Thursday, we welcomed Logan and Jake Paul to the Pentagon to meet with our warriors.

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David Dayen @ddayen.bsky.social · 17/09/2026

🚨NEWS: So this is totally crazy. A Republican candidate in Texas is sending texts that say "Attachment: $5,000 Check … Pres. Trump just authorized it," and a link to the "portal" to get the money goes to a fundraising page for him to pay off a personal loan he made to the campaign!

prospect.org

Republican Nominee in Texas Using Trump’s $5,000 Promise to Deceive Voters - The American Prospect

Eric Flores is an Army veteran and lawyer running to unseat Democratic Rep. Vicente Gonzalez in Texas District 34.

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Stephen @tgk.bsky.social · 17/09/2026

Good thing we didn't construct 90% of our nation's infrastructure in fanatical, slavish devotion to driving!

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Don Moynihan @donmoyn.bsky.social · 16/09/2026

US higher ed got major help from Germany collapsing in the 1930s. I don't think US higher ed will collapse in the same way, but Trump is certainly helping China. From a former Northwestern professor who is now a Dean at Peking University: donmoynihan.substack.com/p/china-than...

“It’s very stupid,” he said. “Invention doesn’t come out of the blue.” He gave an example: if the U.S. reduces funding for cancer research, “it would now be natural that China might invent a cancer vaccine before the U.S.”….“The current world order was built by a group of geniuses, mainly in the U.S., who hailed from Europe,” Rao said. “If Trump had maintained the order effectively, China would find it very hard to get through. Trump really helped us.”

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Don Moynihan @donmoyn.bsky.social · 16/09/2026

Trump's attacks on US higher ed, and Chinese scholars in particular, has been a gift to China's efforts to surge past the US on science and innovation. One report from Renmin University summed it up: "Thank Trump." 🧵 donmoynihan.substack.com/p/china-than...

donmoynihan.substack.com

China: “Thank Trump”

The big winner of Trump’s assault on higher ed is America’s chief geopolitical rival

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404 Media @404media.co · 15/09/2026

Cops are putting gibberish, jokes, or other nonsense into Flock’s “reason” box, highlighting the casualness and lack of care some cops have when searching an incredibly powerful surveillance system. @jasonkoebler.bsky.social reports. Read now: www.404media.co/cops-search-...

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Chad Houck @chadahouck.bsky.social · 10/09/2026

Is there a middle ground where you can believe that these folks overinflate their own products while also desiring true reformed regulation, which is currently nonexistent?

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Alex Attinson @alexatt.bsky.social · 10/09/2026

Y2K but for gas pumps.

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Alex Ip 葉清霖 @alexip718.com · 10/09/2026

BREAKING: In August, *every single one* of the 2,646 refugees admitted in the U.S. were white South Africans. In FY 2026, the U.S. has admitted a total of 12,901 white South Africans, three Afghans (back in November), and nobody else. For reference, the U.S. admitted 100,060 refugees in 2024.

rpc.state.gov

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mtsw @mtsw.bsky.social · 09/09/2026

they are refusing to help because the President of the United States and a bunch of his friends raped kids with Epstein

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Todd @toddhecker.bsky.social · 09/09/2026

Trump said if I voted for Harris we would have a war with Iran and $100 a barrel oil. Turns out he was right.

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Tom Joscelyn @tomjoscelyn.bsky.social · 08/09/2026

This is yet another telling example of the Trump regime’s racism. There’s no pretense here of targeting criminals - the usual excuse for mass deportations. DHS is specifically encouraging Haitian “doctors, lawyers, scholars and engineers” to leave. Any decent society would value these people.

DHS encourages “doctors, lawyers, scholars and engineers” to leave with some sort of $3,000 payout, its naked racism.

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Bill @bill-of-lefts.bsky.social · 05/09/2026

Even from a purely national pride perspective, this requires you to think that the 100 year period from 1926 was a failure for the United States, instead of the zenith of its power, prosperity, and influence

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Diedrich Bader @diedrichbader.bsky.social · 06/09/2026

What’s funny about his new hair color is that he’s in the Epstein files more than anyone else

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Tony E 🇨🇦🇬🇷 @t0nye.bsky.social · 04/09/2026

EVERYTHING to him is zero sum with a winner and loser, no mutual benefit. He's a chronic loser whose super power is finding even bigger losers to hold the bag when it falls apart. As a businessman, it was the banks. As a criminal, it was his lawyers. As president, it's going to be US citizens.

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Alice's Restaurant is No More @adrenrocker.bsky.social · 04/09/2026

Piker, an idiot who doesn't like Democrats and who most normal people do not know is a litmus test for Democrats. Musk, a virulent racist, the richest man in the world and one of the GOPs top donors is not a litmus test for Republicans. Siiiiiiigh

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mtsw @mtsw.bsky.social · 04/09/2026

it's insane they do this bend-over-backwards "critics say it raises questions" shit when the actual law just says "its illegal to put living people on currency"

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Aaron Reichlin-Melnick @reichlinmelnick.bsky.social · 03/09/2026

A bit more than a decade ago, Florida passed a bipartisan law, sponsored by a woman who'd go on to be DeSantis' Lieutenant Governor, which offered in-state tuition to Dreamers and other undocumented youth. It's depressing how quickly the pendulum swung towards total exclusion.

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David Burbach 🇺🇸 @dburbach.bsky.social · 03/09/2026

If the President of Harvard had posted what Elon did, an armed DOJ anti-Semitism strike force would already be on the way to seize the campus If just a random Harvard undergrad had posted it, DOJ would cut off its grants and launch an investigation

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Matt Novak @paleofuture.bsky.social · 01/09/2026

This is pretty fucking wild. I had assumed in a worst case scenario he would target blue zip codes and toss ballots based on technicalities but this is even worse than I imagined.

Not only is this system astonishingly untested, USPS has simultaneously implemented an
impracticable zero percent failure rate.
13 When ballots are submitted to USPS in large-volume
batches, if any one ballot in the batch cannot be verified against the Portal, all ballots in that
batch will be rejected. For example, if a state election official brings a batch of 10,000 ballots to
USPS and USPS is unable to match just one of those ballots against the Portal – because, for
example, someone has recently changed their name after marriage or they’ve moved – then
USPS would refuse to mail the remaining 9,999 ballots as well. As the whistleblower notes,

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