iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

David L. Passmore @davidpassmore.bsky.social · 16h

CUTTING IMMIGRATION—PERIOD! Trump’s immigration agenda is not about stopping “illegal” immigration. It is a broader assault on all types of immigration. www.cato.org/blog/trump-c...

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David L. Passmore @davidpassmore.bsky.social · 12/10/2026

IMPROVING BIOSECURITY IS ESSENTIAL FOR NATIONAL DEFENSE "The government needs a permanent Operation Warp Speed for biosecurity, with the scope and budget of a national defense measure." tiny.cc/BioTr See also tiny.cc/BioDa

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David L. Passmore @davidpassmore.bsky.social · 12/10/2026

ON STRIKE—>11 DAYS, SO FAR The International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW) Local 29 represents nearly 1,500 workers in multiple agencies across the Pittsburgh metropolitan area. IBEW: ibew.org, representing >900,000 workers. The strike: www.ibew29.org/political-ac...

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David L. Passmore @davidpassmore.bsky.social · 10/10/2026

LATE POET WENDELL BERRY... How much poison are you willing to eat for the success of the free market and global trade? Please name your preferred poisons. archive.org/details/leav...

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David L. Passmore @davidpassmore.bsky.social · 08/10/2026

RECORD CRACK SPREAD A crack spread measures the difference between refined product prices & crude oil costs. See my essay at: davidpassmore.github.io/papers/Crude... Spreads reveal what crude prices cannot: buyers' willingness to pay for finished fuels relative to oil to produce them.

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David L. Passmore @davidpassmore.bsky.social · 08/10/2026

DIESEL.... Crude oil must be refined. Diesel is an economically important distillate from crude oil. Supply is restricted because of factors such as war. Prices are high. Global transportation is affected severely. Trump wants to restrict diesel exports. My take: davidpassmore.net/diesel/risks...

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David L. Passmore @davidpassmore.bsky.social · 06/10/2026

HELPING ANY WAY I CAN... An emeritus prof at Penn State, but will do my best with the offense. I'll create a committee whose members will share their opinions for about 12 weeks, with no meetings when we have student appts or breakfasts and lunches with colleagues. Report in January or February.

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David L. Passmore @davidpassmore.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

FATTIES, BEARDOS, WEIRDOS & WIMPS..... www2.thedailybeast.com/hegseth-summ...

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David L. Passmore @davidpassmore.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

DOES REGULATING AI POSE A RISK? "I’m terrified of...regulat[ing] something that we don’t understand, particularly when...fanned by … cynical forces at play....I am terrified [of] this process becoming a political hobby horse." ~ Oren Etzioni, AI entrepreneur (tiny.cc/OrenE) From: tiny.cc/AI-Reg

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David L. Passmore @davidpassmore.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

I HAVE MY OWN DOVE IN PITTSBURGH But read about Bruce. www.nytimes.com/wirecutter/r...

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David L. Passmore @davidpassmore.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

Klein, P. D., & Boscolo, P. (2016). Trends in research on writing as a learning activity. Journal of Writing Research, 7(3), 311-350. www.jowr.org/jowr/article... Writing has small to medium effects on learning, although effects increase when moderator variables are considered.

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David L. Passmore @davidpassmore.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

WRITE TO THINK, I SAY! I believe that you know nothing re a topic unless you can write about it clearly. Am I wrong? Britton 1970s: "If you can’t say it, you can’t write it."(primarytimery.com/2024/06/21/t...) But I believe: "If you can’t write it, you can’t say it." tiny.cc/WriteThink

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David L. Passmore @davidpassmore.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

Two centuries ago Secretary of State John Quincy Adams warned:

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David L. Passmore @davidpassmore.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

Thank you for your attention to this matter.

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David L. Passmore @davidpassmore.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

TRANE LIVES Tomorrow marks the 100th birthday of John Coltrane, a man who was, without doubt, the world's leading high priest and practitioner of the hot and holy rite of Jazz. View: jazzphiladelphia.org/coltrane/ Listen to “A Love Supreme:” www.youtube.com/watch?v=vMCH...

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David L. Passmore @davidpassmore.bsky.social · 18/09/2026

Brief essay here: davidpassmore.github.io/papers/Lutti...

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David L. Passmore @davidpassmore.bsky.social · 18/09/2026

CONSTITUTIONAL CRISIS RE MIDTERMS ============= Retired Judge Luttig warns of a "final battle for democracy" on 3 January 2027 by preventing the seating of duly elected legislators. Listen to Luttig's remarks at youtu.be/sJ2XZoxFj3E?... I rendered Judge Luttig's argument in an infographic.

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David L. Passmore @davidpassmore.bsky.social · 17/09/2026

FARMERS PAY AS ROLLINS EARNS ==== Farmers face soaring diesel/fertilizer prices. Dept. of Agriculture yanks support for cheaper renewable forms of energy. Agency chief Brooke Rollins & family hold millions in highly profitable oil & gas investments. View disclosure: extapps2.oge.gov/201/Presiden...

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David L. Passmore @davidpassmore.bsky.social · 17/09/2026

STUNNING EXAMPLE OF DUNNING-KRUGER EFFECT Tagging himself as "a STRONG AND SMART (High IQ) PRESIDENT" exemplifies the Dunning–Kruger effect, a cognitive bias describing the systematic tendency of people with low ability in a specific area to give overly positive assessments of their ability.

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David L. Passmore @davidpassmore.bsky.social · 17/09/2026

ON THIS DAY IN 1787... ...The U.S. Constitution was signed during the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia.

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David L. Passmore @davidpassmore.bsky.social · 17/09/2026

ME? DARK ROAST; NO ROOM FOR CREAM Pittsburgh, home, is # 9. wallethub.com/edu/best-cit...

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David L. Passmore @davidpassmore.bsky.social · 17/09/2026

MACHINES OF LOVING GRACE? I like to think (it has to be!) of a cybernetic ecology where we are free of our labors and joined back to nature, returned to our mammal brothers and sisters and all watched over by machines of loving grace. ~Richard Brautigan, 1967 tiny.cc/LOGR

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David L. Passmore @davidpassmore.bsky.social · 12/09/2026

DO NOT BE ASHAMED You will be walking some night in the comfortable dark of your yard and suddenly a great light will shine round about you, and behind you will be a wall you never saw before. ~ Wendell Berry, died 31 August, author of prose & poetry & farmer, Kentucky, escaped from New York

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David L. Passmore @davidpassmore.bsky.social · 11/09/2026

"Trump’s tariffs have been a legal, economic, and fiscal miss." Americans pay billions in new U.S. tariffs for worse terms than those Trump abandoned in Free Trade Agreements almost a decade ago. tiny.cc/TR-FL

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David L. Passmore @davidpassmore.bsky.social · 10/09/2026

HMMM..YOUR LEVERAGE IS TO BUY 0.019% OF THE BOND MARKET? “I am the house now … And you can bet against me if you want.” ~Scott Bessent, Secretary of the U.S. Treasury, threatening bond traders tiny.cc/ScBent

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David L. Passmore @davidpassmore.bsky.social · 10/09/2026

Mutiny: The Rise and Revolt of the College-Educated Working Class ~Noam Scheiber This book documents rising anger and mobilization among the lower ranks of the college-educated middle class, with college diplomas and high expectations.

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David L. Passmore @davidpassmore.bsky.social · 04/09/2026

MOTHER JONES! U.S. Labor Day soon. The story of Mother Jones is significant. Feisty devotion of an Irish immigrant to improving the lives of working people. Was said to be "the most dangerous woman in America." www.motherjonesmuseum.org www.britannica.com/biography/Mo... youtu.be/iRRS77rG5es?...

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David L. Passmore @davidpassmore.bsky.social · 03/09/2026

STEVE BANNON ON DATA CENTERS “I have not seen any issue in modern American life at the populist level that unites disparate elements of our country more than this.” tiny.cc/DTCTR

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David L. Passmore @davidpassmore.bsky.social · 28/08/2026

BACK TO SCHOOL: WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW Advice in a podcast for parents from a highly respected epidemiologist. www.cidrap.umn.edu/public-healt... @cidrap.bsky.social

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David L. Passmore @davidpassmore.bsky.social · 28/08/2026

"A headline in the Guardian read: 'RFK Jr lied in Senate confirmation hearings, newly revealed documents indicate.'" heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/p/august-27-...

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David L. Passmore @davidpassmore.bsky.social · 28/08/2026

DEFENDING U.S. ELECTIONS Download for free at: freedomtrainers.net/wp-content/u...

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David L. Passmore @davidpassmore.bsky.social · 28/08/2026

ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY.... -- Emmett Till lynched in 1955 -- Martin Luther King Jr. delivers "I Have a Dream" speech in Washington, DC in 1963 voicesofdemocracy.umd.edu

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David L. Passmore @davidpassmore.bsky.social · 27/08/2026

READY TO SIGN THE "NO TECHNOLOGY" PLEDGE? local21news.com/news/local/p...

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David L. Passmore @davidpassmore.bsky.social · 27/08/2026

ICE HAS DETAINED MORE PEOPLE THAN THE POPULATION OF ATLANTA deportationdata.org/index.html

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David L. Passmore @davidpassmore.bsky.social · 26/08/2026

CRACK SPREAD Yeh, you read that right. Crack spread. I wrote a brief essay about the pricing of petroleum products that involves the concept of "crack spread." Download at: davidpassmore.github.io/papers/Crude...

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David L. Passmore @davidpassmore.bsky.social · 24/08/2026

GLORIOUS & FREE Canada's choice was severe but temporary economic instability OR "binding itself to a pseudo-democratic fiscal basketcase of a nation, whose only apparent foreign policy objective has become domination for the gratification of its president’s slapdash vanity." tiny.cc/zf79101

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David L. Passmore @davidpassmore.bsky.social · 21/08/2026

SAY HEY - OR HAY ------- Don't say it ain't hay. It IS hay, after all! ------- Total 2026 U.S. hay production expected down 9.3% from 2015-2024 average & down 7.9% y/y. That said, 2026, hay supply/head cattle 1.59 tons, equal to the average of the past 15 years. www.beefmagazine.com/market-news/...

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David L. Passmore @davidpassmore.bsky.social · 21/08/2026

BEING CONTEMPTUOUS.... "Call it irreconcilable differences....One of the things his voters have long loved about [Trump] is the humiliation and despair he causes their fellow citizens." ~ www.nytimes.com/2026/08/21/o...

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David L. Passmore @davidpassmore.bsky.social · 18/08/2026

YOU LIKE SCARY STORIES? A water crisis plagues seven states that rely on the Colorado River. www.nytimes.com/2026/08/17/c...

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David L. Passmore @davidpassmore.bsky.social · 18/08/2026

PULLBACK ON RESEARCH TRAINING "University researchers...have lost more than $500 million due to disrupted...grants...promised...prior to fiscal 2025." "Major American research universities admitted 15% fewer students to Ph.D. programs this fall compared with a year earlier." tiny.cc/UNIVFUND

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David L. Passmore @davidpassmore.bsky.social · 17/08/2026

In America every man is free To take care of his home and his family You'll be as happy as a monkey in a monkey tree You're all gonna be an American — Randy Newman

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