iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Derrell Durrett @derrelldurrett.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

A lot of strategy on offer for somebody who's a supposedly disinterested observer. GOPers should double down on acting the fool so everyone knows exactly where we all stand.

Image of two X posts from @lxeagle17, Lakshya Jain. Text:

Lakshya Jain

@lxeagle17

FWIW if I was the GOP, I would just cut Texas and start focusing on Kansas, Iowa, Ohio, Maine, Alaska, Michigan, and Minnesota.

They're demographically friendlier and Texas is as expensive as all of them combined, with no evident ROI on Paxton's slim airtime edge.

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Oct 4, 2026

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Lakshya Jain @lxeagle17.

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Would you rather spend $250M in Texas where the first $200M have done nothing as is -(again, Talarico's lead has only expanded!) OR would you rather spread that in 5 other states that are whiter, where you could potentially limit Dem gains or do some damage in a flip?

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Derrell Durrett @derrelldurrett.bsky.social · 24/08/2026

As is his wont, Ed makes the point plainly and clearly. It's truly galling for me to see this happen, if only because I'm watching too many of my acquaintances and family fall for the bullshit spewed by those fascists. I mean, I'm the one they complained was bad at sharing.

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What we see now, and the reason everything feels so chaotic, is that one of the factions is seceding from the deal. Our "CPSU" was two parties agreeing to share custody of a state and a system; increasingly, and certainly not exclusively in the United States, we see far-right parties more than willing to fight for sole, unitary control of the broken remnants of the state and society if the alternative is to continue to share custody of a more functional (if obviously imperfect and flawed) state.

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Derrell Durrett @derrelldurrett.bsky.social · 23/08/2026

I've heard it suggested that, in order to search properly now, one has to ask questions in natural language, rather than in the clipped search-ese that we've all become familiar with. It seems to work better for me, IAC.

Image of a modern Google search on the phrase "we are both class traitors" followed by the AI overview saying:

That phrase echoes a famous historical exchange between Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev and Chinese Premier Zhou Enlai, where they acknowledged their vastly different backgrounds yet joked that they were both "traitors to our class". The Atlantic

As an artificial intelligence, I don't have a social class, a personal background, or a stake in human economic...

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Derrell Durrett @derrelldurrett.bsky.social · 01/08/2026

Happy #ColoradoDay! It's Colorado's sesquicentennial!

A mountain goat looks at the camera on the top of Torrey's Peak in 1990.

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Derrell Durrett @derrelldurrett.bsky.social · 18/07/2026

I'm not sure what is xenophobic here.

Since spring 2025, the Knox County Sheriff’s Office arrested more than a dozen suspects with alleged ties to Chinese organized crime who officials said were traveling across the country and using stolen credit card information to purchase gift cards and launder money.

In a review of cell phones seized in connection with the cases, investigators found the suspects were using special apps that contained the stolen credit card information but disguised them as games to evade detection.

“They look like anime games. They kind of look like Pokemon characters,” said Lawson, who’s been investigating the fraud ring. “We would just kind of start tapping on them … and we would find the ones that were the actual tap-to-pay apps.”

On a national level, Homeland Security Investigations’ Project Red Hook targets gift card fraud and other forms of digital retail crime. So far, it has led to at least 239 arrests since January 2024 and is targeting some of the largest Chinese organized crime groups operating in the U.S., HSI said.

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Derrell Durrett @derrelldurrett.bsky.social · 14/07/2026

This kitty would like you to have a better day. (Though, to be clear, said cat has no interest in meeting you or any other human.)

A cat looks somewhere besides the camera.

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Derrell Durrett @derrelldurrett.bsky.social · 07/07/2026

Yo, @npr.org, if you're going to interview a Christian nationalist about how much he loves the Constitution and how he thinks it's a religiously inspired document, the least you can do is ask him why his vision is at odds with Art. VI, Sec. 3. www.npr.org/2026/07/06/n...

Text of Article VI is pictured. Section 3 reads:

3. The Senators and Representatives before mentioned, and the Members of the several State Legislatures, and all executive and judicial Officers, both of the United States and of the several States, shall be bound by Oath or Affirmation, to support this Constitution; but no religious Test shall ever be required as a Qualification to any Office or public Trust under the United States.

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Derrell Durrett @derrelldurrett.bsky.social · 04/07/2026

Noah on the sclerosis of thought permeating America that might well be its downfall. open.substack.com/pub/noahpini...

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And yet we’ve reached the stage where we can peer through the fog and see how this grand experiment might be heading toward its conclusion. Much of the country has eased into a comfortable equilibrium of sclerosis; local veto power either prevents the construction of factories, housing, energy, transportation, and other infrastructure, or delays it by decades, or raises the cost to multiples of what other rich countries pay. The past has become more valuable than the future to many Americans; they cling desperately to the power to enforce stasis, preserving a facade of the country they grew up in at the expense of the very dynamism that made that country great.

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Derrell Durrett @derrelldurrett.bsky.social · 29/06/2026

The mere existence, as anything other than a piece of speculative fiction, of the second graf of this piece from @joshtpm.bsky.social is the perfect distillation of our dystopian reality. talkingpointsmemo.com/edblog/anti-...

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Lets start by saying this is blatantly anti-constitutional, though of course it’s possible that the corrupt Supreme Court will allow it.

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Derrell Durrett @derrelldurrett.bsky.social · 18/06/2026

Art. VI of the United States Constitution would like a word.

Text from image:

The Senators and Representatives before mentioned, and the members of the several state legislatures, and all executive and judicial officers, both of the United States and of the several states, shall be bound by oath or affirmation, to support this Constitution; but no religious test shall ever be required as a qualification to any office or public trust under the United States.

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Derrell Durrett @derrelldurrett.bsky.social · 17/06/2026

As always, read @jamellebouie.net, here pointing out in terms a child can understand, that the counting of votes in an election is merely an accounting of the past, an opening of the box to see if the cat is alive or dead. www.nytimes.com/2026/06/17/o...

Image of text from article:

Now, it is important to say that even as we use the language of motion to describe election results, the fact of the matter is that the outcome is set at the moment the polls close. Someone won; the job of election officials is to count the votes and say who that was. There is no “blue shift” or “red mirage.” Nothing changes when a candidate starts strong and then falls behind; that movement is nothing more than an artifact of the order in which ballots are counted.

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Derrell Durrett @derrelldurrett.bsky.social · 08/06/2026

I was told GOPers objected to safe spaces. www.npr.org/2026/06/07/n...

Text from article:

"I am deeply concerned about the situation in Toledo tonight," Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine said in a statement. "Summer festivals should be safe spaces for families to spend time together without fear of violence."

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Derrell Durrett @derrelldurrett.bsky.social · 04/06/2026

Equally obviously. It's this @mattbors.bsky.social cartoon come to life.

The famous Matt Bors cartoon (@mattbors.bsky.social).

Four-panel comic:

Panel 1: Woman looking at phone: My GAWD these Trump people are racist.
MAGA guy: That attitude is what's pushing me to be racist!

P2: W: Say what?
MG: Might as well! You say I'm a Nazi, so, fine, I'll be a Nazi if that makes you happy.

P3: W: It doesn't.
MG: I bought this Waffen SS uniform for Halloween. You'll cry "Offensive!" so maybe I'll just wear it every day.

P4: MG, shaving his head, getting a swastika tattoo: I just hate to do this.
I feel bullied, really.

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Derrell Durrett @derrelldurrett.bsky.social · 01/06/2026

OTOH, I give you today's good news from 270.

Two fledgling American robins just prior to leaving their nest.

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Derrell Durrett @derrelldurrett.bsky.social · 22/05/2026

There's a robin nest on the back patio, and that must be why the cats are all worked up that time of day, since they're not allowed outside, furry murder machines that they are. (In fairness, I'm not convinced one of them would be a successful murderer.)

A very furry cat licks her front paw while curled on a futon.

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Derrell Durrett @derrelldurrett.bsky.social · 29/04/2026

Found this in the yard. Which leaves me wondering how the concept that a rabbit's foot is somehow lucky.

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Derrell Durrett @derrelldurrett.bsky.social · 26/04/2026

Find something, anything, in life you love as much as this cat loves the neighbor's shoes.

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Derrell Durrett @derrelldurrett.bsky.social · 25/04/2026

These two hope you have a very pleasant and clean #Caturday.

A very furry cat cleans herself lying on a couch.

A cat on a counter. His tongue is licking his nose.

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Derrell Durrett @derrelldurrett.bsky.social · 22/04/2026

This is as chill as this cat has ever been. It's taken over three years for her to be this chill.

A ragdoll cat looks slightly left to the camera as she lounges on a bed.

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Derrell Durrett @derrelldurrett.bsky.social · 15/04/2026

Sort of. It's on the segment of Iris west of 30th. It's easy to miss because it's been decaying ever since they left.

2880 Diagonal Hwy Boulder from satellite on Google maps.

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Derrell Durrett @derrelldurrett.bsky.social · 08/04/2026

Only recent nature photo. It's a cloud!

A weird lenticular cloud above a parched brown landscape.

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Derrell Durrett @derrelldurrett.bsky.social · 02/04/2026

I found this, too. But it's equally fact-free. Cite me those scholars, man. Because I'll bet most of us found them silly.

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For many years, a robust norm held in American politics: You could be in favor of legal immigration while still opposing illegal immigration. The two were fundamentally different, the thinking went, and supporting one while opposing the other was a coherent, mainstream position. That norm is now in danger of collapsing—under pressure not only from the right, but from left-leaning immigration advocates and scholars who have coalesced around the idea that all immigration restrictions are indefensible, abandoning the legal/illegal distinction in the process.

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Derrell Durrett @derrelldurrett.bsky.social · 01/04/2026

I would like to thank @pkrugman.bsky.social for giving coherent voice to my Zorn. After the stupidest thirty two days of the 435 days of this administration, I'm now I articulate. open.substack.com/pub/paulkrug...

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How the hell did we manage to do this? I mean, the objective reality is that this was never going to be... Maybe it wasn’t even going to be doable. There were reasons why we didn’t go to war with Iran, particularly why we didn’t go to war in a way that basically became an existential threat for the regime so that they have no compunction about creating lots of damage because the alternative result is annihilation for them personally. But everybody who thought about it even for a couple of minutes, anyone who knew anything, particularly anyone who’d been paying attention to four years of war in Ukraine … we know something about what modern war looks like and about the inability of countries that have conventional superior forces to avoid major damage from drones and missiles. So this was completely, unbelievably stupid.

How did we get there? Well, there was a very good article by Tobin Harshaw in Bloomberg, and mostly I’m just riffing off what he wrote, but I think that it deserves wider circulation. He resurrected a book I had forgotten about, a 1976 book by Norman Dixon called The Psychology of Military Incompetence. It was very British oriented, but the lessons apply; Dixon looked at the great military disasters of British history.

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Derrell Durrett @derrelldurrett.bsky.social · 25/03/2026

These showers have one flow rate.

A sign outside a shower room in a public rec center which has a "shower emoji" above the text "Slow the flow/Save H2O" (except written like a chemist there at the end).

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Derrell Durrett @derrelldurrett.bsky.social · 18/03/2026

Tried to add video above and failed. In the words of the Castillan dive guide, an "evil dolphin."

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Derrell Durrett @derrelldurrett.bsky.social · 18/03/2026

Ooooh! Which boat? We were there in June '24, and other than freezing our butts off it was an amazing trip!

A plaque under water marking the location as the Archipelago de Revillagigedo as "bien natural de patrimonio mundial."

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Derrell Durrett @derrelldurrett.bsky.social · 04/03/2026

@laloalcaraz.bsky.social helps us grasp the real intent of the war with Iran.

A Lalo Alcaraz cartoon depicting a patch for "Operation Epstein Fury" where many smart weapons are aimed at a box labeled "Epstein Files".

The Lalo touch is that the patch is basically head shaped and there's a red necktie where Donald Trump would wear it.

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Derrell Durrett @derrelldurrett.bsky.social · 14/02/2026

@laloalcaraz.bsky.social gives us some perspective on how the plebes of ICE are reflecting on their redeployment.

A Lalo Alcaraz cartoon in which two masked ICE agents wearing red armbands with a black T on a white circle background stand next to a burning trash can in which a copy of the Constitution burns. There is a trail of blood behind them staining the snow, and an SUV parked in the background. One says, "Well, I'm kinda sad we're leaving Minnesota." The other replies, "I won't miss the weather. But we did some good work here."

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Derrell Durrett @derrelldurrett.bsky.social · 11/02/2026

Currently listening to @volts.wtf and @michaelhobbes.bsky.social discuss reactionary centrism in the media, and this piece sure goes there, right in the first paragraph. www.theatlantic.com/national-sec...

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If you’ve never seen a laser shoot an aircraft out of the sky, the experience can be unsettling. The weapon fits comfortably into the trunk of a car. It makes no noise and emits no light, not even the glowing red beam that’s so familiar from the movies. When a team of Ukrainian soldiers and engineers took me to see their prototype the other day, it seemed easy to use. Almost too easy.

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Derrell Durrett @derrelldurrett.bsky.social · 03/02/2026

One thing that's gonna have to end is administrative subpoenas. www.washingtonpost.com/investigatio...

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“There are no real safeguards anymore,” he said, “until people recognize that we’re all potential targets.”

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Derrell Durrett @derrelldurrett.bsky.social · 03/02/2026

@laloalcaraz.bsky.social has definitely captured the vital essence of Trump's view of how it's going in Minnesota.

A Lalo Alcaraz cartoon, in which the president, wearing a KKK hood ear patch, is restrained and bound in a padded room whilst reporters aim microphones at him, asking "Mr President, how's your immigration crackdown going?" and he responds loudly, "Pretti! Good!"

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Derrell Durrett @derrelldurrett.bsky.social · 02/02/2026

If you had told 25-year-old me that this would be the experience of any people in the United States in 2026, I would have asked when the next civil war happened. www.nytimes.com/2026/01/31/u...

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“What’s worse, you get stopped, you exercise your rights, and you risk forcibly being taken away?” she asked herself. “Or you just give in?”

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Derrell Durrett @derrelldurrett.bsky.social · 29/01/2026

Seems like a good approach to dealing with the ICE goons.

A Berkeley Breathed "The Bloom County Boys" 4-panel comic.

Panel 1: Steve's mom answers the door, with a variety of guns pointed in her face.

Steve's mom: Goodness, fellas! So late for an ICE raid!

Faceless goons: We're here for the Pluto peace ingot left behind by the alien immigrant invaders.

Panel 2: Steve's mom: Oh, but first Boopsie-Daisy's special hot whiskey toddies!

Panel 3: Steve's mom makes said toddies whilst Opus looks on "Hmmm hmmm."

Panel 4: Steve's mom: Down the hatch!
(Mostly Horse Tranquilizer, says a bubble that points at the toddies.)
Goons: Yum!

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Derrell Durrett @derrelldurrett.bsky.social · 26/01/2026

I dunno about that. This woman looks like she mighta voted for murder.

A woman in a wheelchair beams while looking up at the stage during the 2024 GOP national convention. She's wearing a baseball jersey with "Alabama" written in a script font, and is holding a sign that says "MASS DEPORTATIONS NOW!"

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Derrell Durrett @derrelldurrett.bsky.social · 22/01/2026

@laloalcaraz.bsky.social shows us what Trump is really up to with Greenland.

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Derrell Durrett @derrelldurrett.bsky.social · 21/01/2026

The lede in this piece from @mford.bsky.social is almost too much. The real question for us is how we get past this, because things ain't looking so good. newrepublic.com/article/2054...

Image of text:

The Supreme Court is running into a problem: There appears to be a gap between what the court writes in its opinions and what the justices in the majority actually mean.

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Derrell Durrett @derrelldurrett.bsky.social · 11/01/2026

It seems fairly clear that consensus opinion is rapidly congealing on "The Trump regime is trying to impose fascism, and it's using ICE as its shock troops." open.substack.com/pub/noahpini...

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Is this America now? A country where unaccountable and poorly trained government agents go door to door, arresting and beating people on pure suspicion, and shooting people who don’t obey their every order or who try to get away? “When a federal officer gives you instructions, you abide by them and then you get to keep your life” is a perfect description of an authoritarian police state. None of this is Constitutional, every bit of it is deeply antithetical to the American values we grew up taking for granted.

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Derrell Durrett @derrelldurrett.bsky.social · 06/01/2026

I am a landlord. This is a message from a tenant. This is a unit in a ski town. Rent was due yesterday. This is why I'm a socialist who supports public housing.

Image of text from message:

Rent is on the way. We got paid our tips and such today as we now only get them every Tuesday so just waiting for it to clear into my omaha account and then can Zelle the rest. Sorry for it being late. I tried to see if I could get paid when I worked Sunday and it was a no go. My cb bank doesn't zelle or anything so it takes a little bit longer to get it from here to there.

She ( my boss) almost took cash tips away that we used to get at the end of every shift and was going to do them via paycheck. We begged her not to do this so the compromise was all tips paid out only once a week. Thanks for your understanding!

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Derrell Durrett @derrelldurrett.bsky.social · 23/12/2025

Quote with your favorite photo from 2025.

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Derrell Durrett @derrelldurrett.bsky.social · 03/12/2025

This is well and truly amazing. Thanks, @themountaingoats.bsky.social! I'm only four songs in, and I'm hooked!

A photograph of the book, "This Year: 365 Songs Annotated" by John Darnielle, in my lap.

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Derrell Durrett @derrelldurrett.bsky.social · 20/11/2025

Can't figure out how to share a gift link here, but I find it absolutely insane that a desert country wants to pursue nuclear power when solar plus storage is far better and sure to become moreso. Unless you're hellbent on building a nuke. messaging-custom-newsletters.nytimes.com/dynamic/rend...

Image of text from article.

An agreement to transfer U.S. nuclear technology to Saudi Arabia to help it build a civilian nuclear energy program and diversify its economy away from oil, a central part of Bin Salman's Vision 2030 plan.

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Derrell Durrett @derrelldurrett.bsky.social · 09/11/2025

The IEA might be the stupidest, most easily misled "expert" organization in human history. They refuse to learn from history. www.nytimes.com/interactive/...

An image that depicts actual growth of installed solar electric generation capacity as against projections from the IEA. Said capacity has risen from about 50 GW to about 700 in the en years since, and every projection from the IEA has either been flat or has expected a decrease, when instead it has increased all but two years in the middle of the first Trump administration.

Text from the article:

3. Solar is spreading faster than we thought it would.

Solar power has been the largest source of new electricity generation for the last three years. Most of this new solar infrastructure is coming up inside China, and Chinese companies are making so much surplus solar equipment cells, modules and everything that goes into them that prices have plummeted.

Forecasts keep underestimating solar growth

Source: IEA STEPS via BNEF and Embe

Today, solar panels hang from apartment balconies in Germany and cover vast areas of desert in Saudi Arabia. Solar and onshore wind projects offer the cheapest source of new electricity generation. Little wonder, then, that in India's electricity sector, more than half of the generation capacity now comes from solar, wind and hydropower.

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