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Eric Shmeric @ericdienstfrey.bsky.social · 18h

These YouGov polls are showing a total decimation of Republicans in the Senate, my goodness. OH: D+4 TX: D+6 KS: D+3 NE: I+1

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Eric Shmeric @ericdienstfrey.bsky.social · 06/10/2026

Still, COLORLESS TSUKURU TAZAKI is his masterpiece, hands down.

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Eric Shmeric @ericdienstfrey.bsky.social · 06/10/2026

Of his 3 core surreal epics -- which are all flawed in some way -- 1Q84 is by far the strongest and the only one that follows through on its structural promises. Maybe because it has the most time to breathe length-wise.

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Eric Shmeric @ericdienstfrey.bsky.social · 06/10/2026

Finishing up my second read of KAFKA ON THE SHORE. This is such a good book yet such and unbelievabluly messy book at the same time. It's long, the structure stops working, and the curse mystery gets buried by the middle. But so many brilliant moments too.

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Eric Shmeric @ericdienstfrey.bsky.social · 06/10/2026

Imagine being as thin-skinned and emotionally fragile as Alito.

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Taniel @taniel.bsky.social · 06/10/2026

folks, i can't tell you how many times i've rewatched this ad *that republicans are paying people to see*

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Eric Shmeric @ericdienstfrey.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

Former frat boys make great alumni donors, as they get hired at lucritive companies due to their frat connections. If you want to kill off frats, stop hiring frat boys. Make the entire system toxic on the job market. Do you really want to hire unethical people who break the law with impunity?

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Eric Shmeric @ericdienstfrey.bsky.social · 03/10/2026

When I was in college I interned for Pam Abdy when she was a young and up-and-coming producer at Jersey Films. She was good people, but I wasn't smart enough to figure out to turn that internship into a job-job after college.

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Eric Shmeric @ericdienstfrey.bsky.social · 03/10/2026

They need to poll Idaho, Florida, South Carolina, Alabama, and Arkansas.

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Eric Shmeric @ericdienstfrey.bsky.social · 03/10/2026

Is it standard to say "delete the wondow"? I've had two basement water specialists come out, and both used that phrase to mean fill in the window that's leaking water... as if this were a game of Minecraft. Anyway, not deleting it.

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Marc Elias @marcelias.bsky.social · 03/10/2026

🚨BREAKING: Tarrant County voters filed an emergency lawsuit Friday accusing Republican county officials of intentionally making it harder for Black and Hispanic residents to vote by eliminating dozens of Election Day polling places. www.democracydocket.com/news-alerts/...

democracydocket.com

Tarrant County voters sue to block GOP polling site cuts targeting minority voters

The lawsuit comes a month after the GOP-controlled Tarrant County Commissioners Court approved the cuts in a 3-2 vote despite intense opposition from residents and the court’s two Democratic commissio...

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Eric Shmeric @ericdienstfrey.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

There's so much to unpack in this story.

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Eric Shmeric @ericdienstfrey.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

It's from TAKING OFF. If you like Schiavelli it's a must-see.

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Eric Shmeric @ericdienstfrey.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

I agree. And honestly, the race is probably 51/49, not the 5 point race other polls show.

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Eric Shmeric @ericdienstfrey.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

Their likely voter model is probably underweighting younger, first time voters.

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Taniel @taniel.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

Fox News releases two new polls. —Iowa: Josh Turek (D) up 49/47 for Senate. —Texas: James Talarico (D) up 51/49 for Senate. That's among likely voters. Strikingly (& against CW?), Dems lead by more among registered voters: Talarico +7, Turek +4.

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emptywheel @emptywheel.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

Renee Good's family filed two lawsuits today. The first, against, USG, is a standard wrongful death. The second is a Klan Act lawsuit against Jonathan Ross, AND STEPHEN MILLER and Greg Bovino. It names Nick Shirley and Christopher Rufo as non-party co-conspirators for their racist propaganda.

44. At all relevant times, Defendants Ross, Miller, Noem, Lyons, Homan,
Bovino, and the John Doe Federal Agents acted under color of federal law and within the
scope of a joint enterprise with the private actors described below. Defendant
Lewandowski acted in part under color of federal law and in part, as alleged below, as a
private person, his federal status having been limited to a temporary part-time designation
that his conduct exceeded. Shirley, Rufo, and Ben Bergquam, and the other non-party
private actors described below, agreed to and in fact participated in the conspiracy alleged
here: each acted in concert with, and with the knowledge and encouragement of, federal
officials.

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The Shadow Over Innschwartz ✨🦑✨ @benschwartz.bsky.social · 01/02/2025

when i start talking about jack benny

The image shows Dennis Hopper in the movie "Apocalypse Now" as he raves on and on like he's in a cult about what a great man Col. Kurtz (Marlon Brando) is.

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Eric Shmeric @ericdienstfrey.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

Gonna wait a few months before I DARE order Bend Sinister or his short stories.

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Eric Shmeric @ericdienstfrey.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

Played roulette and got the new covers in thr mail.

Nabokovs The Gift and Laughter in the Dark, with the new covers

Murakami's COLORLESS TSUKURU TAZAKI, with the new cover

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Eric Shmeric @ericdienstfrey.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

Schmidt's staff likely fed the evidence into ChatGPT and asked it to come up with a line of questions based on the texts they collected. ChatGPT then built some questioning strategy and made them all feel like it handed them a home run. When really it was just moronic slop.

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Eric Shmeric @ericdienstfrey.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

This is the kind of ad that damages Rs nationally, not just in Nebraska.

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Eric Shmeric @ericdienstfrey.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

This pivot to SI is giving "People's Front of Judea" vibes.

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Eric Shmeric @ericdienstfrey.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

My new extort-- I MEAN business model is to record a billionaire humiliating himself and/or breaking the law. Then, I announce that I've put that recording in a new documentary. THEN... I sell the film's "distribution" rights to that billionaire. Catch 'n kill. Shmatch 'n kill. I just made ten mil.

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Kevin Elliott @kjephd.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

Did Anthropic's Claude discover something new in biotech? Well, just like with those recent alleged math proofs, it looks like it was given the answers in advance from real humans doing actual research. (gift: www.nytimes.com/2026/09/27/s...)

Dr. Mestre and his colleagues have yet to publish their findings. But for the past three years, they have regularly used Anthropic’s A.I. models as they have written code, drafted manuscripts and performed other tasks.

In doing so, Dr. Mestre said he and colleagues shared key findings about the enzymes with Anthropic.

Anthropic said that Claude’s key contribution was identifying an array of RNA molecules and a protein associated with reverse transcriptase in a system. But Dr. Mestre said that he and his colleagues had made that discovery over a year ago.

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Eric Shmeric @ericdienstfrey.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

The anger at Cornell is more than justified. But who are the police officers who chose not to charge anyone? They seem much more at fault for mishandling this.

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Eric Shmeric @ericdienstfrey.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

A reminder that everything Fetterman says and does is motivated by his inability to raise $$ from Ds. Only Rs are donating to his campaigns and PACs at this point. So if he's saying "maybe I'll switch to R, I dunno" he's really saying "Do you want me to be an R? Then send me $$ and we'll find see!"

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Dan O’Sullivan @osullyville.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

Today I saw the new 4 hour documentary Musk, directed by Alex Gibney. There were too many times to count that a sold out theater burst out laughing at Elon Musk, something he said or did, even sometimes just how he looked. I believe that is his worst nightmare come to life.

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Eric Shmeric @ericdienstfrey.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

Something I've been noticing about AI generated writing... it imitates linear argumentation really well, but it's paragraphs are rarely linear. Whereas student writing often seems disjointed and all the points are buried, but big picture wise it tends to be fairly linear underneath the surface.

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Eric Shmeric @ericdienstfrey.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

HAPPY GO LUCKY is such a perfect movie.

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Eric Shmeric @ericdienstfrey.bsky.social · 26/09/2026

Yeah, no real complaints. But I was secretly hoping for another "Would've Could've Should've" ... which, I know, that's on me.

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Eric Shmeric @ericdienstfrey.bsky.social · 26/09/2026

An odd way to reveal Joe Manchin is your new speechwriter.

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Dr. Jennessa Hester 🍒 @cherrypoppunk.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

It's important we listen to the man who spent over a billion dollars to make Quibi

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Eric Shmeric @ericdienstfrey.bsky.social · 26/09/2026

I like "Cleveland!" the most. But yeah... Jack's the better producer and songwriting partner at this point in her career.

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Luke LeBrun @lukelebrun.ca · 26/09/2026

Tech companies suddenly decide they can, in fact, moderate content on their platforms after all

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Christopher Webb @cwebbonline.com · 25/09/2026

QUESTION: What’s going on with Susan Collins and the bribery scandal? But explain it to me like I’m five. ANSWER: Here you go 👇🏽

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Troy Jackson @troyjackson207.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

Susan Collins is blatantly corrupt. Hollywood couldn't write this in a script.

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Farran Smith Nehme 🇱🇧 @selfstyledsiren.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

For the Criterion Current, I wrote about the 1948–1951 trilogy of U.K. anthology movies based on W. Somerset Maugham short stories: QUARTET, TRIO and ENCORE. All three are on the Criterion Channel. I enjoyed them so much I spent all summer reading Maugham stories. www.criterion.com/current/post...

Dirk Bogarde and Honor Blackman in "The Alien Corn" episode of QUARTET (1948)

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Eric Shmeric @ericdienstfrey.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

And, in elem schools, looking for the "moral" in every book you read. It teaches that art appreciation and engagement is about finding the message in the subtext, when there are more productive ways of engaging with texts, and when morals are things you create and then impose onto the text.

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Eric Shmeric @ericdienstfrey.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

Much of it just comes down to an instinct to want your tastes to become more popular. And to use morality to justify your tastes. When the moral justification is often pretty thin, and it can slip into the policing of tastes pretty quickly.

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Eric Shmeric @ericdienstfrey.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

Yes. And in media studies scholarship, I've also seen right-wing slippage in popular, yet simplistic, "good object/bad object" analyses (they are typically disguised, though).

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Eric Shmeric @ericdienstfrey.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

Yes, I've noticed something similar. One's favorite celebs becomes a part of their identity, and they develop a toxic emotional investment in defending and attacking others by way of their personal tastes. So there's a conformity element as well which is also tied to fascism.

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