iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Elizabeth - Backyard Wildlife Journal @hilaritee.bsky.social · 05/04/2025

I mean Joe Biden regularly rode the train. Guess he's stronger than these conservative "big men".

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Adam Keiper @adamkeiper.com · 02/04/2025

Wow. Just wow. How Trump set the tariff rates. This is blithering, staggering, mind-boggling, jaw-cracking, gums-bleeding stupidity.

Screenshot of three tweets from @JamesSurowiecki dated 2 April 2025. (1) "It's also important to understand that the tariff rates that foreign countries are supposedly charging us are just made-up numbers. South Korea, with which we have a trade agreement, is not charging a 50% tariff on U.S. exports. Nor is the EU charging a 39% tariff." (2) "Just figured out where these fake tariff rates come from. They didn't actually calculate tariff rates + non-tariff barriers, as they say they did. Instead, for every country, they just took our trade deficit with that country and divided it by the country's exports to us.

So we have a $17.9 billion trade deficit with Indonesia. Its exports to us are $28 billion. $17.9/$28 = 64%, which Trump claims is the tariff rate Indonesia charges us. What extraordinary nonsense this is." (3) "Even given that it's Trump, I cannot believe they said "We'll just divide the trade deficit by imports and tell people that's the tariff rate." And then they decided to set our tariffs by just cutting that totally made-up rate in half! This is so dumb and deceptive."

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Elizabeth - Backyard Wildlife Journal @hilaritee.bsky.social · 31/03/2025

@minakimes.bsky.social Liked your beer snake story! That was pretty fun. I think it'd be gross to sit in the beer snake section tho

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The Bulwark @thebulwark.com · 24/03/2025

The Trump administration seriously texted war plans to The Atlantic’s Jeffrey Goldberg. The stupidity is horrifying! Watch @timmiller.bsky.social's response.

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Acyn @acyn.bsky.social · 12/03/2025

Kelly: When I was flying in combat over Iraq during the first Gulf War, I didn’t expect that there was a 10-year-old kid sitting in South Africa who would one day become the richest guy in the world and call me a traitor for doing my job. Now, he kind of acts like a 12-year-old kid

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Tom Hearden @followtheh.bsky.social · 11/03/2025

Trump offered 10,000 Trumpcoins for a Cybertruck (by the way Trumpcoin traded sub $10 last night - everyone who bought this pos after the first 20 minutes it was launched is now under water - most massively so)

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The Atlantic @theatlantic.com · 11/03/2025

In Ukrainian towns under Russian occupation, children are "systematically estranged from their Ukrainian identity," Tetiana Kotelnykova writes. "Their textbooks tell them they are part of 'Russian World.' Their teachers tell them Ukraine does not exist."

theatlantic.com

My Hometown Became a Different Country

Not by choice, but by force.

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Judd Legum @juddlegum.bsky.social · 11/03/2025

BREAKING It's now illegal not to buy a Tesla

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David Burbach 🇺🇸 @dburbach.bsky.social · 09/03/2025

This is go to prison forever malfeasance. A guy who is currently a SpaceX employee also serves as an FAA official who cancels a big contract to award instead no-bid to his own employer and starts installing hardware without statutorily required tests and assurances

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Jonathan V. Last @jvl.bsky.social · 03/03/2025

Can't wait for the Party of Reagan to explain how Lech Walesa is a woke commie simp.

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The Atlantic @theatlantic.com · 07/03/2025

Pete Hegseth has ordered a massive review of DOD computer archives in an attempt to “align” the department with Trump’s directive to eliminate anything related to DEI. @radiofreetom.bsky.social asks: What are America's warfighters so afraid of?

theatlantic.com

The Pentagon’s DEI Panic

What are the nation’s warfighters so afraid of?

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Tom Nichols @radiofreetom.bsky.social · 05/03/2025

America does not need a ‘resistance,’ or stale slogans, or people putting those slogans on little paddles. It needs an opposition party that boldly defends the nation’s virtues, the rule of law, and the rights of its people. www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archiv...

theatlantic.com

Democrats Are Acting Too Normal

In her response to Trump’s address, Democratic Senator Elissa Slotkin failed to capture the hallucinatory nature of our national politics.

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Maurice J. Casey @mauricejcasey.com · 07/03/2025

Being a historian, people ask me if I think the US is living through Germany 1933. I answer no, analogies are always imperfect but to me it feels more like Russia 1999: a blatant theft of state assets and liberals in a fugue state, refusing to believe the arc of progress is bending against them.

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George Conway ⚖️🇺🇸 @gtconway.bsky.social · 07/03/2025

It’s a fair wager this change in policy can be traced to the unconstitutional birthright citizenship executive order.

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Joyce White Vance @joycewhitevance.bsky.social · 07/03/2025

The find out part

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George Conway ⚖️🇺🇸 @gtconway.bsky.social · 07/03/2025

TRUMP TARIFF CHESS Feb 1: announces tariffs on 🇨🇦🇲🇽 Feb 3: pauses tariffs on 🇨🇦🇲🇽 Feb 27: announces tariffs on 🇨🇦🇲🇽 Mar 4: imposes tariffs on 🇨🇦🇲🇽 Mar 5: delays 🇨🇦🇲🇽 car tariffs Mar 6: pauses tariffs on USMCA-compliant 🇨🇦🇲🇽 goods Mar 7: threatens tariffs on 🇨🇦 dairy (250%) and lumber

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Peter Baker @peterbakernyt.bsky.social · 08/03/2025

Trump administration has identified words to be banned on government websites or at least be wary of using. Among them: women, race, injustice, climate science, pollution, victim, historically. www.nytimes.com/interactive/...

nytimes.com

The Words Federal Agencies Are Discouraged From Using Under Trump

Federal agencies have issued guidance to employees on hundreds of terms to limit or avoid using. An analysis of government websites shows many of the same words being removed.

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California Dreamin’… 😎 @jerasikehorn.bsky.social · 07/03/2025

What a wonderful idea…👇 Let’s. Do. This. ✨

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Will Jennings📉🗳️ @drjennings.bsky.social · 07/03/2025

American public opinion is completely discordant with reality right now. Gallup polling via news.gallup.com/poll/657581/...

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Yan Matusevich @ymatusik.bsky.social · 07/03/2025

Just got an email from the Fulbright Association. As of right now, funding has been cut off to 12,500 US citizens currently abroad and and more than 7,400 foreigner scholars and students in the United States

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Anna Bower @annabower.bsky.social · 06/03/2025

Gee I wonder why it was necessary for the President to tell his [checks notes] Senate-confirmed cabinet heads that they, not Elon Musk, are in charge of the federal departments that they were selected to run

President Donald Trump convened his Cabinet in person on Thursday to deliver a message: You’re in charge of your departments, not Elon Musk.

According to two administration officials, Trump told top members of his administration that Musk was empowered to make recommendations to the departments but not to issue unilateral decisions on staffing and policy. Musk was also in the room.

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Seth Cotlar @sethcotlar.bsky.social · 06/03/2025

This is what weak, flailing leadership looks like. His inability to make meaningful change in areas like this explains the desperate, authoritarian bluster of his largely illegal Executive Orders. This is the sort of leader who opposing politicians should definitely NOT cater to.

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Chris Hayes @chrislhayes.bsky.social · 06/03/2025

What you want from economic policy is constant chaotic day to day volatility combined with extreme complexity and opacity.

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Greg Sargent @gregsargent.bsky.social · 06/03/2025

"Elon will do the cutting" is going to end up in a lot of legal briefs. Thank you for that one, Donnie

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Joshua Erlich @joshuaerlich.bsky.social · 07/03/2025

y’all this is absolutely wild. trying to ban lawyers from federal buildings lol. this man is so cooked.

Sec. 5. Personnel. (a) The heads of all agencies shall, @ the extent permitted by law, provide guidance limiting official access from Federal Government buildings to employees of Perkins Coie when such access would threaten the national security of or otherwise be inconsistent with the interests of the United States. In addition, the heads of all agencies shall provide guidance limiting Government employees acting in their official capacity from engaging with Perkins Coie employees to ensure consistency with the national security and other interests of the United States.

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Catherine Rampell @crampell.bsky.social · 06/03/2025

Civil servant source says DOGE has made agencies much less efficient: "Work has ground down to a stunning degree and management is spending a significant amount of time responding & preparing to respond to the chaos incited by the never ending barrage of EOs & accompanying memos" Many make no sense🧵

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Eliot Higgins @eliothiggins.bsky.social · 04/03/2025

The US will no longer worry about civilians getting in the way of their bombs: www.nytimes.com/live/2025/03...

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Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 07/03/2025

Trump: “I think Russia has been acting very well.” Russia:

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Anne Joseph O’Connell @ajosephoconnell.bsky.social · 07/03/2025

Exactly! That is not going to fly, even with this Court (1792, 1795 Vacancy Acts). If the President claims inherent authority under Article II to name acting officials only when the Vacancies Act does not apply, that assertion depends on a very peculiar & implausible interpretation of Article II.

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Anne Joseph O’Connell @ajosephoconnell.bsky.social · 07/03/2025

Read this. Trump is claiming inherent power to name an acting head of a Senate confirmed board, where the Vacancies Act doesn’t apply (and there’s no agency succession provision). Forget removal. This is Appointments Clause madness. Means he could name folks to MSPB and NLRB without the Senate.

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Kyle Cheney @kyledcheney.bsky.social · 06/03/2025

NEW: A federal judge ordered the reinstatement of NLRB member Gwynne Wilcox and warned that the nation may be on a slippery slope to a presidency that is above the law. www.politico.com/news/2025/03...

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Mark Cuban @mcuban.bsky.social · 07/03/2025

Someone needs to explain to our Sec of Commerce how capitalism works. America has a GLOBAL TRADE SURPLUS on services. Services have the highest margins and profits of our exports. That is where capital and expertise focused. It is why we dominate in tech globally.

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Sherrilyn Ifill @sifill.bsky.social · 07/03/2025

Trump’s bad week: - reversed on tariffs after stock market free fall - thanked the CJ, said “I won’t forget it” like a mob boss [see below] -targeted Perkins Coie cause they are on him. -said Elon is head of DOGE at SOTU despite lawsuit posture; called cabinet today to tell them they are in charge.

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The Atlantic @theatlantic.com · 28/02/2025

"We may never know why Trump is so perversely loyal to Putin," and "we don't know exactly why Musk went all in for Trump and Russia," Garry Kasparov writes. "But the urgency of their actions I do understand, and it's a dire warning":

theatlantic.com

The Putinization of America

Trump’s deference to the Russian dictator has become full-blown imitation.

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George Conway ⚖️🇺🇸 @gtconway.bsky.social · 27/02/2025

“Especially in light of the billionaire’s other blatant efforts to cozy up to Donald Trump, Bezos’s move is more than a gut punch; it’s more like a death knell for the once-great news organization he bought in 2013.”

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Dan Froomkin/Press Watch/Heads Up News @froomkin.bsky.social · 26/02/2025

Brave to @jeffstein.bsky.social, WaPo's chief economics correspondent, for not wasting any time in stating what must be stated. Hopefully the first of many.

Massive encroachment by Jeff Bezos into The Washington Post’s opinion section today - makes clear dissenting views will not be published or tolerated there

I still have not felt encroachment on my journalism on the news side of coverage, but if Bezos tries interfering with the news side I will be quitting immediately and letting you know

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Sarah Karlin-Smith @sarahkarlin-smith.bsky.social · 26/02/2025

Breaking: FDA's March meeting to select flu shot strains for 2025-2026 season has been canceled per email sent to committee members, a VRBPAC member told me. drug companies need about 6 months leeway to make shots in time for fall vax campaigns. #healthpolicy

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Anne S Kim @anne-s-kim.bsky.social · 26/02/2025

100% agree. Trump wants to make it hard for any of his targets to get top-notch representation from an elite firm, especially if it's pro bono. White-shoe firms will justify their silence and recusals on the grounds of "protecting" their clients and "preserving access."

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Rachel Maddow @maddow.bsky.social · 24/02/2025

www.nytimes.com/2025/02/23/u...

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Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 19/02/2025

Bernie Sanders: "The struggle against Trump, the struggle against oligarchy, which is led by Elon Musk ... that's not gonna be won here in Capitol Hill. It's gonna be won by millions of people all over this country standing up and saying, 'we fought and died for democracy.'"

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Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 19/02/2025

Congrats, America. We're now on Putin's side.

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Carl Quintanilla @carlquintanilla.bsky.social · 19/02/2025

“.. We now have an alliance between a Russian president who wants to destroy Europe and an American president who also wants to destroy Europe,” another European diplomat observed in recent days ... “The transatlantic alliance is over.” @politico.com www.politico.eu/article/dona...

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George Conway ⚖️🇺🇸 @gtconway.bsky.social · 19/02/2025

What President Putin wants, President Putin gets.

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George Conway ⚖️🇺🇸 @gtconway.bsky.social · 19/02/2025

Far from trying to distract, he’s seeking to draw attention to the fact that, in his own (deranged, psychotic) mind, he answers to no one else—and, as he said earlier this week, cannot “violate any Law.” We disregard his words at our Constitution’s peril.

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Susan McPherson @susanmcp.bsky.social · 15/02/2025

Wow. As one German said, "Americans de-Nazified Germany at the end of WWII and now you are re-Nazifying Germany," in response to JD Vance's meeting with the head of the AFD rather than the sitting German Chancellor. ~David Brooks on @pbsnews.bsky.social www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kuox...

youtube.com

Brooks and Capehart on the Trump administration’s challenge to the judiciary branch

YouTube video by PBS NewsHour

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