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matt979.bsky.social @matt979.bsky.social · 2h

News, 2026-10-01 1. Elon Musk, Newt Gingrich, & Palmer Luckey (Oculus founder; Ted Cruz once asked Mark Zuckerbeg in a hearing, "Why was Palmer Luckey fired?") will work together on a special project to use AI within the Department of War. What could possibly go wrong?

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matt979.bsky.social @matt979.bsky.social · 5h

Before he moved on from baseball, 13M was a fast-working, strike-throwing righty pitcher. The strikes sometimes led to very hard contact. He's my mini-Aaron Nola (various reasons), so I'm a big Aaron Nola fan who is also painfully aware of Nola's achilles heel (the longball).

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matt979.bsky.social @matt979.bsky.social · 11h

NFL: On 2009-10-25, Brett Favre's Vikings visited Ben Roethlisberger's Steelers, the only time those two QB faced each other. (By coincidence, Adrian Peterson scored a TD in a losing effort for MIN.) That pairing keeps its dubious record, in my opinion, but tonight's does come close.

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matt979.bsky.social @matt979.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

News, 2026-09-30 1. Eric Schmitt (R-MO) keeps pretending that Jack Smith went to an NBA game in Atlanta & fell for Schmitt's perjury trap. All that matters here is Smith's evidence that Donald J. Trump, knowing full well he lost in 2020, conspired to hold onto power by force.

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matt979.bsky.social @matt979.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

My 9 games (mechanical/electronic; tabletop below) * Age of Empires II * APBA Pro Baseball * The Bard's Tale III * Mario Kart Wii * Maze Craze * Medieval Madness[1] * Twilight Zone[1] * Wii Sports Resort * Zork [1] Pinball counts. If not then swap in Dig Dug & Blades of Steel

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matt979.bsky.social @matt979.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

Baseball: I like Philly's decision to use their best pitcher (Jhoan Duran) in the 7th. I will defend it even though it didn't work out. Use your best players at highest leverage. Duran was one out away from the 9th being the bottom of Atlanta's order.

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matt979.bsky.social @matt979.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

Sports, 2026-09-29 1. The Senate passed a bill that will make it harder for college athletes to earn money from their name/image/likeness. One thing that bill does nothing to change: 36 of 50 U.S. states have a college football coach as their highest-paid state employee.

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matt979.bsky.social @matt979.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

MLB postseason affinity: 12 playoff teams, 4 of whom I will not root for, ever (cheating; ownership support for fascism). Tiers for the other 8, bottom to top... * Nah: ATL, TB * Friends are fans: PHI, SD * Inspiring: CHW, CLE * Payton Tolle is his own tier: BOS * The clear choice: MIL

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matt979.bsky.social @matt979.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

News, 2026-09-28 1. Our Department of Education has formally rescinded LGBTQ protection from Title IX. That doesn't directly defy any Supreme Court case but Bostock v. Clayton County (2020: Civil Rights Act Title VII covers LGBTQ) implies that a non-corrupt SCOTUS wouldn't let this happen.

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matt979.bsky.social @matt979.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

Oh look. Bluesky's broken again

screenshot of error message attempting to load Bluesky feed

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matt979.bsky.social @matt979.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

Hank Green's coloring choices often indirectly remind me that Wyna Liu has put thought into this over the years and set a high bar.

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matt979.bsky.social @matt979.bsky.social · 26/09/2026

Music: 1. Find a piano (or any instrument where you know how to play specific notes) 2. Play a G (the one just above middle C if convenient) 12 times in a steady beat (basically eighth notes), emphasizing the third, seventh, and 11th ones 3. Then an A (quarter note) and F# (also quarter note)

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matt979.bsky.social @matt979.bsky.social · 26/09/2026

News, 2026-09-25 (part 2) (content advisory: more of these than usual are about sexual assault) 1. Braden Edward Peters was at his parents' house in Cape Cod when he allegedly r'd a Florida teenager . The influencer (a big fan of disfiguring his own body) has been arrested & charged.

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matt979.bsky.social @matt979.bsky.social · 26/09/2026

My favorite 21st century TV: I will use the same eligbility criteria as the much-discussed NY Times piece (I skimmed their list w/o reading their prose): Debut since 2000-01-01, any format/language (e.g. reality TV & game shows work). I've numbered mine but don't sweat the exact order.

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matt979.bsky.social @matt979.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

News, 2026-09-25 1. The Supreme Court held, 6-3, that our regime can do bulk searches on the SAVE database & can use social security number as a matching criterion. This despite 2026 midterms being weeks away & despite ample evidence of a high rate of false mismatches when soc sec is a field.

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matt979.bsky.social @matt979.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

Music, and the mashup idea that literally woke me up in the middle of the night: Ella Langtree vs. Flo Rida - "Club Can't Handle Texas"

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matt979.bsky.social @matt979.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

News, 2026-09-24 (part 2) 1. "America will never be a communist country," according to the on-screen text of a TV ad that the U.S. government literally paid for with our tax dollars.

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matt979.bsky.social @matt979.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

News, 2026-09-24 (presumably part 1) 1. Last night U.S. District Judge Timothy Kelly issued a 14-day TRO (temporary restraining order) banning White House press pass revocation. Our regime has already violated the order, even as People's Republic of Chiana state-run media get a (literal) pass.

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matt979.bsky.social @matt979.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

News, 2026-09-23 (part 3?!?) 1. Carlos Josue Marchena Marchena died in ICE custody in Louisiana, the third kidnapee death there in 6 months. He is diabetic, but as our regime kept shuttling him between states he missed meals & insulin shots while consistently not getting enough water to live.

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matt979.bsky.social @matt979.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

News, 2026-09-23 (part 2) 1. Wilber Rafael Garcés Perez (the man shot by ICE-holes in Austin after they plowed into his car) still has a bullet lodged in his back, causing excruciating pain & partial paralysis. He's still not getting proper medical care.

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matt979.bsky.social @matt979.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

2026-09-23 1. In our president's UN speech, the threat to "annihilate" Iran was (contrary to what I wrote before) presented as active/current. He also said they'd make a deal after midterm elections. Iran's president subsequently addressed the UN, vowing never to "bend the knee."

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matt979.bsky.social @matt979.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

The "Not paid for by ratepayers" disclaimer on social media ads bought by California's for-profit utility corporations raises a lot of questions already answered by the "Not paid for by ratepayers" disclaimer.

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matt979.bsky.social @matt979.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

BRUX, BREEZE, CAR, and SHUCK would be an excellent category for a sports-themed Connections puzzle. BRUX is an obscure verb for clenching one's teeth, probably best replaced with A BEAR, except that only people who knew the category anyway would hear that correctly.

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matt979.bsky.social @matt979.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

News, 2026-09-22 (part 2) 1. Miami police pointed a taser at Dallas guard Paige Bueckers back in April, when Bueckers's teammate was arrested for punching a creepy man. (If your sports references are too old or too male, imagine if a Boston cop had swung a billy club towards Isaiah Thomas.)

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matt979.bsky.social @matt979.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

News, 2026-09-22 1. Our president addressed the United Nations today. He repeated his spurious claim to have ended eight wars, reminisced about deciding whether to "annihilate" Iran, & claimed that going forward we will refer to large language models as "super-intelligence." (So, "AI" it is.)

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matt979.bsky.social @matt979.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

News, 2026-09-21 1. The TV news outlets stepped up after our president (illegally) excluded CNN et al: "[E]ffective today, the [White House] TV pool will not be covering events designated as pool coverage of the President." That's from Bryan Boughton, head of the Fox News Washington bureau.

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matt979.bsky.social @matt979.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

Educational hard choices: Given the discourse over Nikole Hannah-Jones's piece about where she sent her daughter to school, I want to express immense gratitude about a very specific, best-of-both-worlds privilege I had, while also thinking harder than I had before about some implications.

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matt979.bsky.social @matt979.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

News, 2026-09-20 1. ICE-holes in Austin shot Wilber Garcés after sideswiping his car & firing into his windshield. They did not let his wife or his lawyer see him in the hospital, & after his release they kidnapped him to parts unknown.

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matt979.bsky.social @matt979.bsky.social · 19/09/2026

News, 2026-09-18 (part 2) 1. Our regime can't get its story straight as to how many U.S. troops have died in the Iran War. The Pentagon's public database lists 18 but several officials told WaPo it's 22 if not 23. Congress held 30 hearings on Benghazi yet 0 to this point on the Iran War.

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matt979.bsky.social @matt979.bsky.social · 18/09/2026

News, 2026-09-18 1. Our regime put up (then deleted) an AI-generated social media post with the line "Get off our roads, you don't know how to drive Mr Singh." Days later, some jerk stabbed a Sikh man 17 times (unprovoked) at a Wyoming truck stop. Our government knows exactly what it's doing.

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matt979.bsky.social @matt979.bsky.social · 18/09/2026

News, 2026-09-17 (part 2) 1. We may have committed a war crime when we destroyed an Iranian school (killing 160 kids), according to a UN report that found "reasonable grounds to believe" we launched "indiscriminate attacks resulting in the loss of life or injury to civilians."

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matt979.bsky.social @matt979.bsky.social · 17/09/2026

News, 2026-09-17 1. Iryna Gorb is free, seven weeks after ICE-holes kidnapped her from SFO. Video of the Ukrainian's abduction was shocking at the time (still is). Now ICE-holes carry out 20-40 airport arrests per day.

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matt979.bsky.social @matt979.bsky.social · 17/09/2026

News, 2026-09-16 (part 3) 1. Mitch McConnell's handlers wheeled him into the Senate chamber & "helped" him cast a vote. He did not speak; he did flash a "peace" sign. Which reminds me, someone very dear to me lost a parent to dementia (diagnosed mid-1990s, passed away 2000). About a year ago...

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matt979.bsky.social @matt979.bsky.social · 17/09/2026

News, 2026-09-16 (part 2, if earlier quotes are part 1) 1. Tierra Walker should have lived. She endured severe preeclampsia but doctors, fearing strict Texas anti-abortion laws, refused to do what it would have taken to save her life. Her estate has sued Ken Paxton & other relevant politicians.

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Reposted by @matt979.bsky.social

Helen Rosner @hels.bsky.social · 16/09/2026

Kid was asking some pointed questions about how babies are born which led to me drawing the best picture I’ve drawn in my life

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matt979.bsky.social @matt979.bsky.social · 16/09/2026

Quotes, 2026-09-16 1. "Give us another chance, or give us another couple of years" -JD Vance, our vice president, making a desperate pitch for Republican votes in the midterm elections. One party has controlled the House, Senate, & WH for 20 months, yet they're all scared of you-know-who.

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matt979.bsky.social @matt979.bsky.social · 16/09/2026

News, 2026-09-15 (part 2) 1. A Pennsylvania 18-year-old became the state's 4th measles death of 2026. More precisely they died of acute disseminated encephalomyelitis, a sudden (painful) inflammation of the brain & spinal cord, caused by measles.

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matt979.bsky.social @matt979.bsky.social · 16/09/2026

News, 2026-09-15 1. Umar Kremlev, the oligarch who (according to Pro Publica) paid for our president's son's wedding, heads the International Boxing Association, a body too corrupt for the International Olympic Committee. The Putin crony also has (by Russian law) a gambling monopoly.

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matt979.bsky.social @matt979.bsky.social · 15/09/2026

News, 2026-09-14 1. SCOTUS protected the 2026 midterm elections from US Postal Service interference, leaving in place the injunction that blocks restrictive ballot mailing rules. Kavanaugh concurred; you know which two dissented. I will still take my ballot to a dropoff box.

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matt979.bsky.social @matt979.bsky.social · 11/09/2026

Ohio, 2026-09-11 1. Stephen Woytek, political director for Sen. Jon Husted (R-OH), lost his job today. WaPo reports that Woytek was photographed in SS uniforms, used nazi soldiers for social media profile pics, and created a public Spotify playlist that he called Tales from Rhodesia.

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matt979.bsky.social @matt979.bsky.social · 11/09/2026

The postponement also meant Tony Gwynn's final MLB game (coincidentally the game of Rickey Henderson's 3000th hit) was at home in SD (2001-10-07) rather than the SF Giants game I went to 2001-09-30. Barry Bonds went into the 9/30 game with 69 HR but stayed at 69.

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matt979.bsky.social @matt979.bsky.social · 11/09/2026

News, 2026-09-11 1. 25 years ago today, 19 terrorists flew passenger planes into buildings, killing over 3000 that day. (We now know more than 3000 people died from health problems caused by airborne debris, and that NYC mayors from Giuliani onward lied about the Ground Zero air quality.)

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matt979.bsky.social @matt979.bsky.social · 10/09/2026

25 years ago today (2001-09-10) the house I lived in (46th Ave, Outer Sunset, SF) had an ant infestation. So when I woke the next morning to my roommate's exclamation - "We are under attack!" - at first I assumed it was more ants. After yesterday's extreme heat, today we (in Alameda) have ants.

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matt979.bsky.social @matt979.bsky.social · 10/09/2026

2026-09-10 1. Missouri will use its pre-gerrymander map, as the Supreme Court has spoken (again). A contempt hearing is under way for MO Secretary of State Denny Hoskins, the consequences of his attempt to evade SCOTUS's previous ruling.

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matt979.bsky.social @matt979.bsky.social · 10/09/2026

News, 2026-09-09 (part 2) 1. 30 prison inmates in rural Kansas pooled their money to pay off the school lunch debt at a nearby district. Not my usual type of top item but... School lunch debt shouldn't be a thing! That radicalized me & I continue to be shocked it doesn't radicalize us all.

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matt979.bsky.social @matt979.bsky.social · 09/09/2026

News, 2029-09-09 1. ICE-holes kidnapped Adam Abdullah from St. Paul & sent him to Guantanamo Bay. Abdullah was here legally, with a work permit & regular ICE check-ins. Our regime calls him a criminal because of unpaid parking tickets.

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matt979.bsky.social @matt979.bsky.social · 09/09/2026

Anyone want to point out something interesting those three things have in common in terms of previously unprecedented human participation? (So if, hypothetically, one were trying to defend expression whose only human contribution is the humans whose work was stolen... well...)

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