iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Kevin Rooney @kevinrooney.bsky.social · 20/05/2025

Hopefulness can be hard to come by these days — that probably makes it all the more important.

Kevin Rooney @kevinrooney.bsky.social · 13/05/2025

A Russian biologist — here LEGALLY — was arrested & has been incarcerated for 3 months. Her science could extend healthy lifespans & help treat Alzheimer’s and cancer. This is not only cruel but will result in the world's best & brightest going elsewhere. This hurts us all. dub.sh/ScientistDetained

dub.sh

Opinion | I’m a Russian Scientist in ICE Detention (Gift Article)

I was detained at Logan airport after I did not complete a customs declaration for frog embryos.

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Kevin Rooney @kevinrooney.bsky.social · 12/05/2025

Adventures on the lower Chesapeake (VA eastern shore) — a premium east coast sea kayaking spot. Amazing videography by Jeffrey Franco! Not pictured: The 15-20 mph hour winds we had at the start. After that challenging 1st hour things went swimmingly; the winds calmed down and the weather was great.

youtu.be

Chesapeake Kayak Camping Weekend 2025

YouTube video by Jeffrey Franco

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Kevin Rooney @kevinrooney.bsky.social · 12/03/2025

"What you are seeing is a president who ran for re-election to avoid prosecution and to get revenge on people he accused of stealing the 2020 election. He never had a coherent theory of the biggest trends in the world today and how to best align America with them to thrive..." dub.sh/Friedman-on-...

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Kevin Rooney @kevinrooney.bsky.social · 10/03/2025

The destruction of the Washington Post continues. 😡

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Kevin Rooney @kevinrooney.bsky.social · 05/03/2025

This will decrease the quality & availability of medical care, mental health services & disability compensation. It will also affect veteran homelessness & suicide prevention. Since 1/3 of VA employees are vets themselves it will increase vet unemployment. This is a betrayal. dub.sh/AP-VA-job-cuts

dub.sh

Trump administration plans to cut 80,000 employees from Veterans Affairs, according to internal memo

The Department of Veterans Affairs is planning an “aggressive” reorganization that includes cutting 80,000 jobs from the sprawling agency.

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Kevin Rooney @kevinrooney.bsky.social · 27/02/2025

WashPost: "Who’s looking out for the public interest here when you get the person who’s cutting budgets and personnel from the FAA, suddenly trying to benefit from still another government contract?" This is an egregious violation of conflict of interest rules meant to protect taxpayers. #Oligarchy

dub.sh

FAA targeting Verizon contract in favor of Musk’s Starlink, sources say

Turning the $2.4 billion project over to Musk’s company would be a major test of conflict-of-interest rules in government contracting.

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Kevin Rooney @kevinrooney.bsky.social · 25/02/2025

Canaan Valley, West Virginia. ❤️

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Kevin Rooney @kevinrooney.bsky.social · 18/02/2025

I happen to think Pete Buttigieg is a brilliant guy, but these ideas don’t require brilliance—just basic competence in governance.

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Kevin Rooney @kevinrooney.bsky.social · 16/02/2025

Read or listen. Klein certainly doesn't let liberals off scot free. [gift link] On Congressional Republicans: "What an unbelievably strange life – to rise as far as they have in politics, to wield as much power as they could, and to be as afraid [of Trump] as they are." dub.sh/EzraKleinNYT

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Kevin Rooney @kevinrooney.bsky.social · 13/02/2025

That'll be a helluva story to tell. 😳🐋 AP: 'A humpback whale briefly swallows kayaker in Chilean Patagonia — and it’s all captured on camera' apnews.com/article/chil...

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Kevin Rooney @kevinrooney.bsky.social · 12/02/2025

Snow noir ❄️ ‘round midnight 🌙 (Part 2)

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Kevin Rooney @kevinrooney.bsky.social · 12/02/2025

Snow noir ❄️ ‘round midnight 🌙 (Part 1)

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Kevin Rooney @kevinrooney.bsky.social · 11/02/2025

Trump voters, the separation of powers should matter to you, too. Ignored court orders = a meaningless Constitution = end of democracy. A future president could ban your guns—or take any other action you find appalling—but Congress and the courts will be powerless. It's not about left or right.

wapo.st

Analysis | What is a constitutional crisis?

And why we’re in one

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Kevin Rooney @kevinrooney.bsky.social · 03/02/2025

Musk/Trump plan to shut down the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau to "save money." It is already saving us money! Wash Post: "CFPB halts work. Consumer watchdog agency was formed after the 2008 financial crisis." wapo.st/3WMUp3r [gift article] Consumer Reports' details on CFPB: dub.sh/CFPB

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Kevin Rooney @kevinrooney.bsky.social · 28/01/2025

Government watchdog group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) have done important work for the American people for many years but now is a particularly important time to support them.

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Kevin Rooney @kevinrooney.bsky.social · 25/01/2025

This song and performance is just gorgeous. 'Mar Vista' by Lily Meola and Lukas Nelson, with Bre Kennedy adding a third vocal. Wow. www.lilymeolamusic.com

youtube.com

Lily Meola - 'Mar Vista' with Lukas Nelson (Live Performance Video)

YouTube video by Lily Meola

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Kevin Rooney @kevinrooney.bsky.social · 23/01/2025

Orwellian. Stalin would approve.

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Kevin Rooney @kevinrooney.bsky.social · 21/01/2025

A reminder about the actions of the violent felons who the Felon-in-Chief has pardoned. Law and order?

youtu.be

January 6th Assault on Police and the Capitol

YouTube video by KMR

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Kevin Rooney @kevinrooney.bsky.social · 19/01/2025

What an extraordinary athlete! #HTTC My hat’s off to the Lions for an amazing season and my heart goes out to their passionate fans (including many of my Detroit cousins).

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Kevin Rooney @kevinrooney.bsky.social · 14/01/2025

A jury should have been allowed to hear this case. The justice system failed the voters. Reuters: Special counsel report found Trump engaged in ‘criminal effort’ to overturn 2020 election – dub.sh/Sp-Counsel-Report

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Kevin Rooney @kevinrooney.bsky.social · 07/01/2025

Another trek down Pennsylvania Avenue, 48 years later. Welcome back to DC, President Carter. R.I.P. 🙏

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Reposted by Kevin Rooney

Protect Democracy @protectdemocracy.org · 05/01/2025

The U.S.’s winner-take-all electoral system depresses electoral competition which impacts voter turnout. Here are the three reasons proportional representation — an alternative to winner-take-all — increases voter turnout. 🔗 www.ifyoucankeepit.org/p/what-if-we...

Don’t blame it all on apathy. U.S. voter turnout is chronically low, and our winner-take-all electoral system isn’t helping.

Here’s why.

Voters are less incentivized to turn out under a winner-take-all system because it creates:
“Safe” districts: Over 90% of U.S. congressional seats are safe for one party or another, resulting in elections that are predetermined.
Less responsive candidates: In safe districts, winning candidates only need to respond to their party’s core voters instead of all constituent needs.
Losing votes get no representation. Votes for the losing candidate aren’t redistributed, so those voters are left without representation–even when they do vote.

But when more votes count, turnout increases.
Unlike winner-take-all, proportional representation produces multi-member districts and multi-party systems. Votes have a greater chance for impact, which encourages higher turnout and leads to:

Better representation for more voters,
More competitive elections, including third party candidates
Greater inclusion of minority voters

Read more at ifyoucankeepit.org

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Kevin Rooney @kevinrooney.bsky.social · 04/01/2025

An editorial cartoonist just quit @washingtonpost.com because her cartoon was rejected due to the point of view she took in it. "The cartoon that was killed criticizes the billionaire tech and media chief executives who have been doing their best to curry favor with incoming President-elect Trump."

dub.sh

Why I'm quitting the Washington Post

Democracy can't function without a free press

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Kevin Rooney @kevinrooney.bsky.social · 23/12/2024

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays! 🎅

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Kevin Rooney @kevinrooney.bsky.social · 21/12/2024

Good news for DC: Violent crime is down about 35%. DC is set to close 2024 with the lowest violent crime rate in three decades. 👍🏼 "During the same time last year, DC reported more than 5,200 violent crimes. So far this year, there have been fewer than 3,400 reported incidents."

dub.sh

D.C. sees record drop in violent crime, reaching a 30-year low by end of 2024

U.S. Attorney Matthew Graves says, "Prosecution can influence these numbers, but not control these numbers."

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Kevin Rooney @kevinrooney.bsky.social · 17/12/2024

We are a broken society when this can happen and nothing – NOTHING! – will change. American gun culture is uniquely dystopian, where the right to own an arsenal is fiercely defended while the right to simply feel safe is ignored, even when it's the safety of children. 😡

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Kevin Rooney @kevinrooney.bsky.social · 14/12/2024

The moon briefly in the DC area around midnight. Beautiful! My smart NASA astrobiologist friend @drfunkyspoon.bsky.social said something about the “23° degree arc.” So I googled it: “A ‘23 degree arc moon’ typically refers to a halo around the moon, specifically the edge of a ‘22 degree halo’..."

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Kevin Rooney @kevinrooney.bsky.social · 13/12/2024

Soccer in the city.⚽️ Fire in the sky.🔥

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Kevin Rooney @kevinrooney.bsky.social · 01/12/2024

"If you want to assemble the infrastructure of an authoritarian government, this is how you do it."

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Reposted by Kevin Rooney

Tiziano Piccardi @tiziano.bsky.social · 25/11/2024

New paper: Do social media algorithms shape affective polarization? We ran a field experiment on X/Twitter (N=1,256) using LLMs to rerank content in real-time, adjusting exposure to polarizing posts. Result: Algorithmic ranking impacts feelings toward the political outgroup! 🧵⬇️

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Kevin Rooney @kevinrooney.bsky.social · 22/11/2024

"As scary as it seems right now, remember this: This time in world history is a call to action for all of us in this profession. It is a call to fight those who attempt to discredit us; it is a call to fight for the public’s trust; and it is a call to defend our work at all costs." - Jessica Lessin

dub.sh

How the news media is quietly preparing for a hostile second Trump administration | CNN Business

The startling revelation this week that MSNBC hosts Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski’s journeyed to Mar-a-Lago to meet with President-elect Donald Trump prompted a question that many members of the...

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Kevin Rooney @kevinrooney.bsky.social · 20/11/2024

In troubled times try to stay hopeful. From Irish poet Derek Mahon. ☘️

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