iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Mike Somes @illiterature13.bsky.social · 3h

My nerdy thing I’m mostly mad about as a bit today is in churchy spaces people will say something “convicted” them if it proved how what they thought before was wrong and they now firmly believe a new stance. But, this is the original meaning of “convince” the word they need “convict” to replace!

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Mike Somes @illiterature13.bsky.social · 14h

I mean, I kind of agree that they aren’t grabbing citizens by mistake. During Metro Surge they tried to grab observers when they could.

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Eric Umansky @ericumansky.bsky.social · 20h

NEW FROM PP The Trump admin keeps denying immigration agents are grabbing Americans, so we tracked it 500+ Americans detained 70+ kids, some cuffed or zip-tied 60+ held after filming 36+ held for day+ w/o access to lawyer ~12 deported (yes, deported) projects.propublica.org/american-cit....

projects.propublica.org

More Than 500 U.S. Citizens Have Been Detained, Including Handcuffed or Held at Gunpoint, in Trump’s Immigration Crackdown — ProPublica

The government doesn’t track how often immigration officers detain U.S. citizens. So ProPublica did. We’ve found more than 500 Americans who were held against their will during this Trump administrati...

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Mike Somes @illiterature13.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

It’s unfair that the sibling rivalry roast takes place in Saint Paul because even team Minneapolis is overwhelmed by the awe and majesty of Minnesota’s Capital city. The One City. The Lone City. America’s most ethical metropolis.

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Mike Somes @illiterature13.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

Romo slowly deteriorating as a commentator each season was underappreciated. Our jaded influencer poisoned society demands the immediate dopamine hit of a public crash out, and no longer respects a slow unraveling.

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Mike Somes @illiterature13.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

If the media is going to act like this about Watson just because the Browns are 3-1 I hope they don’t win another fucking game.

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Mike Somes @illiterature13.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

Rodgers: So, Mike, there’s these tanks you see, and Fauci keeps these frog guys in ‘em. I saw their feeble amphibian arms tapping on the glass. He’s keeping them in a lab! Tomlin: Look, I built the bathrooms in the football stadium exactly like we have them here

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Mike Somes @illiterature13.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

This game is a trap for people who look and think “wait, THAT guy is their quarterback? Well I have to root for the other team now”

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Mike Somes @illiterature13.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

I got a book as a gift that was the conservative response to Howard Zinn and it was surprisingly kind of normal until we got to the Watergate part, where the historian was completely bent out of shape over anyone even daring to investigate Nixon. That book was written in the late 90’s.

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Mike Somes @illiterature13.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

Thinking about how ICE arrests are sky high even without a surge thanks to deals with local law enforcement, and I think it highlights what a dire threat having processes that “demote” people to some kind of lesser status are to freedom.

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Mike Somes @illiterature13.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

Grok already demonstrates this, but one of the obvious non-technical limiters on the usefulness of ai is that its usefulness as a propaganda tool will always outpace its use as a productive one.

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Mike Somes @illiterature13.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

I agree with the version of the theory published here, that the playing field is biased towards autocracies who can censor at home and broadcast at will abroad. As a McLuhan degen, I will go further and say social media is inherently biased toward post-truth discourse, which benefits authoritarians.

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Mike Somes @illiterature13.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

As an expert in extremism, I know that the Big Media Tour is an integral step in the deradicalization process.

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Mike Somes @illiterature13.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

It’s funny how much interest there is in “I was a liberal until I awakened to the fact I’m really a fascist psychopath” but there’s no interest at all in the “I was raised completely conservative in deep red America and am a socialist now because Trump laid bare The Horrors beneath the system” arc.

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Mike Somes @illiterature13.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

I think part of the reason humanities education gets increasingly seen as “fake” and “pointless” at the Gen Ed level is that we’re increasingly spending that instruction time just trying to catch people up on critical skills they needed to have learned in high school.

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Mike Somes @illiterature13.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

The rules on how to format dialogue in fiction were handed down to us on stone tablets from Mount Sinai. After bringing the commandments down, Moses had to hike all the way back up to get the style guide. When you italicize dialogue, you make him do all that walking for nothing.

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Mike Somes @illiterature13.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

Mostly upset because Karmically Iowa should not be allowed to win after trying a field goal down 5 with two minutes left

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Mike Somes @illiterature13.bsky.social · 26/09/2026

Of two minds on the whole “interviewing Peter Thiel” thing. On the one hand it’s more of the zero pushback access media that contributed to this mess in the first place, on the other people seriously underestimate how dumb and how invested in being awful tech VC types really are unless they see it.

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Mike Somes @illiterature13.bsky.social · 26/09/2026

I actually agree with the NYT show list in exactly the order it was written

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Erik Hane @erikhane.bsky.social · 26/09/2026

Been wondering when we might see more of this. All the industries conservatives pretend to love rely on the labor that ICE is trying to drive out.

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Mike Somes @illiterature13.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

It’s not riveting at all. Looks like a combination of carving and sanding, to me.

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Mike Somes @illiterature13.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

I think people would be a lot healthier if we just made sure their microbiome had enough good gut bacteria with guns.

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Mike Somes @illiterature13.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

www.maptap.gg September 25 100🎯 100🎯 93🏆 100🎯 100🎯 Final score: 986 Getting mixed up on which side of the water #3 was is going to haunt me. So close to the perfect game.

maptap.gg

🎯MapTap Daily Geography Game

Play MapTap - the daily geography game! Find 5 world locations on a 3D globe with historical stories. Free browser-based daily game for geography lovers.

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Mike Somes @illiterature13.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

Me and the boys are gonna pop down to the lab and peep the new Amoeba through a microscope.

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Mike Somes @illiterature13.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

Also I get that it’s never easy in higher ed, but I think schools need to come to grips with the fact that the business environment they were in was unbelievably favorable from 2000 until 2024. People were willing to borrow insane sums of money to attend. They had no tax liability.

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🎃ℌ𝔞𝔩𝔩𝔬𝔴 ℑ𝔞𝔫👻 @mplsnightmayor.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

This is all true, and also at a fundamental level, you'll be missing the point if you don't also understand that every University President and Provost will fight to keep it this way.

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🌬Breeze @cool-summer-breeze.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

This is the Stolen Neighbors Quilt. Each of the 11,000 squares represents a person taken by ICE in Minnesota.

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Mike Somes @illiterature13.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

Y’all better watch out. Every day we inch closer to “Mike’s Higher Ed Manifesto: A Thread in 458 Installments.”

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Mike Somes @illiterature13.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

U of M’s general budget malaise reminded me of this questionable decision Walz made in appointing regents. The state needs to take an active interest in how its flagship university is being run. racketmn.com/walzs-dubiou...

racketmn.com

Walz’s Dubious U of M Board Regent Choices Are the Last Thing We Need - Racket

The guv acquired a rare opportunity to hand-pick University of Minnesota leadership. It seems he stacked the deck with loyalists.

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Daniel Suitor @danielsuitor.com · 24/09/2026

I don't have time to write more, but ICE is working to remove people to third countries in violation of D.V.D. v. DHS. I've been up since 5:20 A.M. working with two other attorneys to prevent our client from being shipped out. If you rep someone at risk of third country removal, check on them NOW

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Mike Somes @illiterature13.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

Kind of a secondary point, but seeing how the Trump admin illegally impounds and redirects agency funding that Congress has appropriated for non-MAGA projects, you can’t “get back to work” funding things like USAID without impeaching the current cabinet anyway.

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Mike Somes @illiterature13.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

Gotta get my best reporter on the Middle East beat. The American public needs to know Houthi, What, Where, When, and Why

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Mike Somes @illiterature13.bsky.social · 20/09/2026

I agree overall with the idea that job prep is not the main mission of college, but even if you do choose that as your framework sweating over the minutiae is a critical skill. All details are “dry and academic” until they’re the thing that is blowing up your budget.

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Mike Somes @illiterature13.bsky.social · 19/09/2026

If you are hesitant to come forward because you think it’s embarrassing to acknowledge you touched the bat, think of how much worse it’ll be if you die of rabies, and that’s how everyone knows you were the one who touched the bat.

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Mike Somes @illiterature13.bsky.social · 18/09/2026

Finally got around to the New Yorker’s Minneapolis piece and it was really well done. I knew things were worse over there than in Saint Paul but hearing from people who were on the front lines was so important and also maybe a little too much somber reflection for a Friday afternoon.

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Mike Somes @illiterature13.bsky.social · 18/09/2026

So little money for the arts, so much money for buildings where art theoretically could be performed.

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Mike Somes @illiterature13.bsky.social · 18/09/2026

Perilous Fight (Star Spangled Dance Mix)

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Frederick Melo, Reporter (TwinCities.com, Pioneer Press) @frederickmelo.bsky.social · 16/09/2026

On Sept. 9, newsroom management gave us less then two weeks to cull the herd — 2 or 3 of us must go. What do you cut when you’re down to bone? Would St. Paul benefit from not having a City Hall beat? No more State Capitol reporter? No more schools? We must choose by Monday, or layoffs likely follow.

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Adam Gurri @adamgurri.liberalcurrents.com · 16/09/2026

We have started our subscriber drive this week. For $60 dollars you can access our Discord community right now, get a copy of this year's issue of The Reconstruction Papers, and reserve next year's. But I'd like to highlight some of the work we've done this year on the main publication.

liberalcurrents.com

Redeem This Deal to Subscribe to Liberal Currents Today!

Reserve your copy of next year's issue of The Reconstruction Papers.

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Mike Somes @illiterature13.bsky.social · 14/09/2026

I even read for a magazine so I know that the submittable “in progress” means nothing and yet I get so excited every time it changes over anyway

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Mike Somes @illiterature13.bsky.social · 11/09/2026

This thread nails it. A large subset of Americans has proven they cannot distinguish between the adrenaline rush of hatred and an actual feeling of community and purpose in their lives. “9/12” nostalgia tries to turn that fatal character flaw into a virtue.

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Tom McAllister @tmcallister.bsky.social · 09/09/2026

I have a story in the new issue of New Delta Review, a story about a man who has invented a futuristic toilet, which was prompted by a dream in which a friend kept bragging about how he'd invented "the toilet of the future." I think it's pretty good. ndrmag.org/waste

ndrmag.org

Waste

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Aaron Blackshear @aaronblackshear.bsky.social · 08/09/2026

You may have seen claims that AI is solving previously unsolved math problems. What actually happened is they stole the work of human mathematicians working on those problems, and then threatened those mathematicians if they didn't let OpenAI take some of the credit

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Alan Allport @alanallport.bsky.social · 06/09/2026

Know the signs: LMAO — “Late Modernist, Ambiguous Ontology” BRB — “Bildungsroman, Basically” IDK — “In Denial, Kafkaesque” NGL — “Narrator’s Getting Loose” WYD — “What’s Your Diegesis”

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Mike Somes @illiterature13.bsky.social · 06/09/2026

Caught it before they could get the live update. Dewey defeats Truman

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Mike Somes @illiterature13.bsky.social · 04/09/2026

Sad to see I’m nowhere near the top of that poll, but I’m content to be influential in the “only 10 people read his posts, but all ten of those people also posted” kind of way.

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