iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Doug Saunders @dougsaunders.bsky.social · 10h

I saved democracy by stealing this from the president

Doug Saunders @dougsaunders.bsky.social · 16/10/2026

Also they made themselves even more appetizing with their AI-generated food pictures. One of my kids speculated that they wanted their sign to say “infused” but were vocabulary-challenged. I’m not sure either word is terribly appetizing

220 2

Doug Saunders @dougsaunders.bsky.social · 16/10/2026

This local place finally closed. I always imagined their convo with the sign maker SM: so you want a nice burger picture on it? Burg guy: No, a syringe. Just a syringe. SM: Ok… then you might want an adjective to describe your burgers — “tasty” or “hand made.” BG: Yeah! I’ve got an even better one

5172 17

Doug Saunders @dougsaunders.bsky.social · 14/10/2026

With different source material, James Cameron could have made a much less stressful movie (Clip via @adamtooze.bsky.social)

150 5

Doug Saunders @dougsaunders.bsky.social · 09/10/2026

Finally a candidate from a social-democratic party wins an election in Latin America! Let’s all hail Peru and the inspiring leadership of the Ahora Nación party’s candidate, uh, Hitler Mussolini Simeon Flores

84114 41

Doug Saunders @dougsaunders.bsky.social · 07/10/2026

Flowers on the glass roof of the empty-shelved library in Babelplatz commemorating the 1931 Nazi book burning. Fresh for today.

2356 35

Doug Saunders @dougsaunders.bsky.social · 04/10/2026

Watching Inglourious Basterds on German TV, one of the few occasions you’ll legally see a swastika in this country (even museum displays about the period show red flags with no symbol). Christoph Waltz’s voice dubbed into German is bizarre — apparently done by Waltz himself

2191 19

Doug Saunders @dougsaunders.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

In fact, the legendary English summer basically begins in September and peaks in early October

1180 18

Doug Saunders @dougsaunders.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

In the years since I last visited my friend James Payne, he became justifiably famous for his Great Art Explained channels and for his hugely successful book. So we assumed he’d want an escape from all that. But no, he passionately wanted to Explain some Great Art. And it was the greatest afternoon!

2280 28

Doug Saunders @dougsaunders.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

It pleases me not at all to see this stuff on Oxford St. in SEPTEMBER

5210 21

Doug Saunders @dougsaunders.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

Wait, the guy who sang these lyrics is endorsing the flaky right-wing mayoral candidate? The guy who has been on the radio for decades singing “Philosophers and ploughmen, each must know his part”? Inconceivable!

485 8

Doug Saunders @dougsaunders.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

Fancy restaurant in Brussels. Beautiful room, a little too chic, decent generic haute cuisine. And les toilettes? Oh. On second thought I think I’ll go back to the hotel. (And they’re unisex. Nothing wrong with that prima facie, but this doesn’t help. Yes they become a bit translucent. Still)

5283 28

Doug Saunders @dougsaunders.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

Both major German weekly papers had basically the same story and imagery. The throwing-out of the centre and the search for the centre, as the Volkspartei get ditched for authoritarian left and right in former DDR and Berlin. I don’t think “centre” is the right framing for normal politics of L & R

080 8

Doug Saunders @dougsaunders.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

I think it goes with this one (which I suspect needed special dispensation to be legally shown)

070 7

Doug Saunders @dougsaunders.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

And this timely but rather on-the-nose sculpture by Maurizio Cattelan in his huge and unsettling exhibition

1110 11

Doug Saunders @dougsaunders.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

Absolutely terrific stuff at Berlin’s Neue Nationalgalerie. Including a small bit really original exhibition on Berlin between the wars, far beyond usual Otto Dix etc. This little piece by Jeanne Mammen from 1931 is titled “Transvestite Bar.” Berlin had 170 specifically queer bars then.

1469 46

Doug Saunders @dougsaunders.bsky.social · 26/09/2026

At Rosenthaler Kebab in Berlin. No it does not get better

1351 35

Doug Saunders @dougsaunders.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

It is even better when — hat tip to @jfallows.bsky.social — it appears in this format:

030 3

Doug Saunders @dougsaunders.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

Trump respects and admires left-wing dictators more than he does right-wing autocrats or any form of democratic leader, part MCCLXII. Cf. North Korea, China, Venezuela, and of course the "highly respected" Belarus

190 9

Doug Saunders @dougsaunders.bsky.social · 20/09/2026

Also I can’t think of 59 top cities with triumphal arches. Rome, sure. Paris’s is a tacky exception to Haussmann elegance, Berlin’s now symbolizes the end of 2 regimes. I suspect this’ll be described like London’s embarrassing Marble Arch was in 1847 — “resembling a huge sugar erection”

5321 32

Doug Saunders @dougsaunders.bsky.social · 18/09/2026

I’m pretty sure their fate is some parts floating and other parts sinking right to the bottom

2111 11

Doug Saunders @dougsaunders.bsky.social · 17/09/2026

To those who say it’s not worth building ties with Europe because it’s “on the decline”

57616 76

Doug Saunders @dougsaunders.bsky.social · 11/09/2026

All the questions raised on the bottom of the op-ed page are answered by the top of the op-ed page

0194 19

Doug Saunders @dougsaunders.bsky.social · 07/09/2026

The fact that one of the world’s more morally repugnant conflicts is of great importance to you does not make it a significant factor in German elections. Voters are motivated by the issues below. Foreign/military does register but its almost 100% about the big imperialist threat to their east

100 1

Doug Saunders @dougsaunders.bsky.social · 02/09/2026

I haven’t had a “take immediate cover” screaming-phone alert since Abu Dhabi every night in March. This was probably more dangerous than Iran’s cruise missiles, but of course this alert came 10 minutes too late as I was pinned in an outbuilding with the kid watching boughs crashing around us

4251 25

Doug Saunders @dougsaunders.bsky.social · 01/09/2026

As a fan of David Cronenberg’s 1999 masterpiece Existenz, I welcome the AI-generated food photos on restaurant windows

5162 16

Doug Saunders @dougsaunders.bsky.social · 29/08/2026

Regulating streamers and social media is normally a bad idea, I write. But we fail to realize US platforms have become broadcasters, their default feeds promoting as fact the ideas behind Canada’s surge in antisemitic attacks. RT and Press TV were taken off cable for less.

45423 54

Doug Saunders @dougsaunders.bsky.social · 26/08/2026

I wrote about the widespread Ukrainian belief, even within his own circle, that Zelensky is also Churchillian in the other sense of the word — that is, a really bad domestic leader www.theglobeandmail.com/opinion/arti...

2193 19

Doug Saunders @dougsaunders.bsky.social · 26/08/2026

Since we’re considering trade reprisals — I wrote last year about how easy it would be for Canada to make toilet paper completely unavailable to Americans. It could be done without any tariffs or embargoes. It may be happening already. www.theglobeandmail.com/opinion/arti...

50776244 776

Doug Saunders @dougsaunders.bsky.social · 22/08/2026

“America has changed.” Veterans of the Trump I trade talks have been saying since last year that these ones won’t be receptive to the “Team Canada” approach, absolutely will not be completed by end of 2026, will require multiple rejections and walk-aways, and may be best not completed.

1417 41

Doug Saunders @dougsaunders.bsky.social · 21/08/2026

That’s definitely a way to be “former”

170 7

Doug Saunders @dougsaunders.bsky.social · 20/08/2026

They can put it back on the shelves as a bargaining chip. That doesn’t mean we’ll be buying it or serving it. That national taboo will be harder to break.

66212 62

Doug Saunders @dougsaunders.bsky.social · 20/08/2026

“Entertainment Alert” is exactly the right classification

1201 20

Doug Saunders @dougsaunders.bsky.social · 20/08/2026

Adding all that resource-consuming AI to my phone‘s operating system has at least caused it to give me lots of deep insights

3271 27

Doug Saunders @dougsaunders.bsky.social · 18/08/2026

Aside from being alarmed that the Youtube advertising algorithm seems to think I'm a very specific sort of middle-aged man, I'm concerned that the Filipina women allegedly wanting to meet me have apparently been overthrown by this Japanese woman's poorly designed watermelon-smuggling operation

3565 56

Doug Saunders @dougsaunders.bsky.social · 10/08/2026

Do I really want this sexist power-washer wand?

3120 12

Doug Saunders @dougsaunders.bsky.social · 01/08/2026

The American urge to ignore basic hygiene and kill your loved ones did not end with the pandemic

1213 21

Doug Saunders @dougsaunders.bsky.social · 31/07/2026

Here’s what the White House, echoing Project 2025’s proposal, says is the “radical indoctrination” that justifies gutting the 61-year-old daycare program for poor kids

1104 10

Doug Saunders @dougsaunders.bsky.social · 31/07/2026

This is what the Heritage Foundation, which now reportedly spends its time debating “who the bad guys were” in WWII and other antisemitic stuff, asked for — and got. A systematic war on poor toddlers

24224 42

Doug Saunders @dougsaunders.bsky.social · 25/07/2026

I particularly like how he’s had the AI portray Canada as pristine wilderness and his country as a denuded wasteland of terrible urbanism, crowded sprawl, deprived housing, absent privacy and roads that literally go nowhere

3131881 318

Doug Saunders @dougsaunders.bsky.social · 23/07/2026

It’s mistaken to read the nuke deal as about the kingdom trying to get WMDs. It could always just buy them from Pakistan. Instead, it’s the kingdom frantically trying to diversify now that its trillion-dollar be-like-Dubai plan has gone up in flames Still, this is hilarious

2236 23

Doug Saunders @dougsaunders.bsky.social · 17/07/2026

Trump’s most aggressive campaigns of persecution and litigation have not been directed at left-wing or Democratic Party-linked bodies, but those most respected for neutrality and impartiality — 60 Minutes, the BBC, CNN, the NYT, Harvard, the federal reserve, the freaking Smithsonian Institution…

0145 14

Doug Saunders @dougsaunders.bsky.social · 14/07/2026

Gaaa! If you’re going to make one of them permanent it should be standard time not DST! This way, it’ll be 2 or 3 hours between waking up and the sun rising in northern cities

117417 74

Doug Saunders @dougsaunders.bsky.social · 14/07/2026

The failure here is lack of realization that collective defence is its own national interest. Middle countries didn’t join NATO for US protection, but to make it unnecessary for any one country to need that level of armament. Non-US NATO is collectively better armed than USA

3151 15

Doug Saunders @dougsaunders.bsky.social · 08/07/2026

What, on top of the entire world of anxieties and pressures and demands on my attention, now I need to worry about THIS?

1150 15