iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Matt Lavine @mattplavine.bsky.social · 18/07/2026

If only there were a people whose identity, for more than a 1000 years, has been based on the ability to read, then we would have proof of mass literacy before the creation of Socialism in mid-19th C Europe. אַתָּה חוֹנֵן לְאָדָם דַּֽעַת

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Matt Lavine @mattplavine.bsky.social · 18/07/2026

From NYT: "The mayor said it was unclear to him whether he has the legal authority to order [the arrest]." 1. Read the Const'n. It's the oath you took. (Points for checking with lawyers?) 2. Criminal breaks law. Gov't must enforce law without violating other laws. (Or is DSA anti-democracy?)

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Matt Lavine @mattplavine.bsky.social · 18/07/2026

From NYT: “He’s a war criminal who has been charged by the International Criminal Court . . . . And what you will find is that is an opinion that is held by many . . . .” 1. Trump justifies his actions also with "many" as the basis. 2. To arrest man on diplo. missions is also a violation.

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Matt Lavine @mattplavine.bsky.social · 18/07/2026

Before Trump and after Trump, Amers needs be anyone they are not. But to believe in being American requires fighting for equality of rights, opportunities, and treatment by and through our institutions.

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Matt Lavine @mattplavine.bsky.social · 18/07/2026

1. El-Sayed is voicing essential democratic principles and sounding like every non-Southern Democrat for the past 70 years. 2. Before this race, AIPAC paid Stevens to defeat Rep. Levin for his work on the 2-state solution. 3. J Stewart chided Walz for D Cheney's endorsement.

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Matt Lavine @mattplavine.bsky.social · 14/07/2026

It's not merely the agility of his brain or body. Bernie's intellectual rigidity has always prevented him from grasping the difference between a democracy built on the premise of human equality and a dictatorship premised on inherited power and sustained by appeasing the masses.

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Matt Lavine @mattplavine.bsky.social · 08/07/2026

I still think the tattoo has distracted from the willingness to manufacture a false identity to make a guy "authentic." FDR did not belong to the working class, so, by today's "progressives," would he have been unacceptable?

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Matt Lavine @mattplavine.bsky.social · 08/07/2026

"Progressive" used to apply to advocates of equality in rights, opportunities, treatment. Now the label applies only to claiming that Israel, even on Oct 8 23, was the one evil state. A party of "socialists," whose energy came from blaming all the world's problems on Jews, isn't progress.

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Matt Lavine @mattplavine.bsky.social · 07/07/2026

Please tell me the nation that fully implemented this law: "One law shall be to him that is homeborn and unto the stranger that sojourneth among you."

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Matt Lavine @mattplavine.bsky.social · 06/07/2026

I am neither an anthropologist nor an archaeologist but it seems that terms like "native" and "aboriginal" and "indigenous" are rarely as applicable as users of these terms suggest. More, I tend to reject claims of "blood and soil" by anyone. Build a just nation and then call it the promised land.

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Matt Lavine @mattplavine.bsky.social · 05/07/2026

To those who say that we are rushing this issue of civil rights, I say to them we are 172 years late. The time has arrived to get out of the shadow of states' rights and to walk forthrightly into the bright sunshine of human rights. People are looking to America for precept and example. 7/14/48 HHH

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Matt Lavine @mattplavine.bsky.social · 05/07/2026

Vermont became the first jurisdiction in the world to adopt a written declaration of abolition. 4. With notable exceptions, the Cont'l Army leadership was dominated by opponents of slavery. 5. The Decl of Indep was not signed July 4. The phrase "all men are created equal" was not Jefferson's.

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Matt Lavine @mattplavine.bsky.social · 05/07/2026

1. The July 1776 Decl of Indep did not achieve independence for anyone. 2. The July 1777 Vt Const'n: That all men are born equally free and independent [and] no male person, born in this country, or brought from over sea, ought to be holden by law ... as a servant, slave or apprentice. 3. Thus -->

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Matt Lavine @mattplavine.bsky.social · 04/07/2026

I've admitted my failure to research Platner, but to say I gave him some favored status is contrary to the past 60 years of my life and all 40 years of my professional life. Like others, I fell for his story, which, I suspect, was his goal. Don't confuse my stupidity with others' evil.

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Matt Lavine @mattplavine.bsky.social · 04/07/2026

For the sin of being duped into believing that Platner's story was true and for the sin of not doing any research on his story, s'lach lanu, m'chal lanu, caper lanu. I'm going to wait for a few extra stars in the sky this (actually next) year.

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Matt Lavine @mattplavine.bsky.social · 04/07/2026

The Arts of Confed - signed in 1781 - set the rules for the States' coordination. It created no National Gov't. The Federalist Papers, published in 1788, were essays designed to persuade NYers to ratify the Const'n, which established the Nat'l Gov't.

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Matt Lavine @mattplavine.bsky.social · 04/07/2026

I still don't know whether he knew it was a Nazi tat. But when a guy invents his bio, his credibility is not great. I really thought he was just a well-meaning guy from limited means. Lying about your life was bad even before the Internet, esp when the phony story is the reason for running.

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Matt Lavine @mattplavine.bsky.social · 04/07/2026

As I said elsewhere, sorry about being away but you were right. I was duped. Thank you. The only thing worse than my believing that this guy invented his bio is that the guy invented his bio. In a way, the debate over his tat was a distraction.

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Matt Lavine @mattplavine.bsky.social · 04/07/2026

Sorry about the late response, but, yes, I was a sucker for his self-promotional story. Thank you for alerting me.

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Matt Lavine @mattplavine.bsky.social · 03/05/2026

Nice, but enjoy a good scrap. Huh.

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Matt Lavine @mattplavine.bsky.social · 03/05/2026

So rich people are intrinsically incapable of ignorance? Your elitism is showing.

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Matt Lavine @mattplavine.bsky.social · 03/05/2026

My conception of tzedakah and atonement extends to the ignorant and the repentent. How many goats should he sacrifice to win your forgiveness?

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Matt Lavine @mattplavine.bsky.social · 03/05/2026

No. The Electoral College, like the 3/5 clause, grew from the anti slavery delegates' effort to reduce the power of the Slave States, after they were outmaneuvered in trying to ban slavery.

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Matt Lavine @mattplavine.bsky.social · 03/05/2026

Or we could accept that a young man from rural Maine had no idea that a scary tattoo had any historic significance. Has anyone noticed that we're celebrating the 250th Anniversary of a Nation established in 1789?

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Matt Lavine @mattplavine.bsky.social · 02/05/2026

The professionals seem to have enforced our Nation's proclaimed values, official conduct that is far more worthy of attention than the misconduct of 2 teenagers.

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Matt Lavine @mattplavine.bsky.social · 02/05/2026

From what I read, the County school admins banned 2 players from a County high school softball team for their conduct and the team forfeited games. Condemn the children or their parents but maybe give credit to the educators?

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Matt Lavine @mattplavine.bsky.social · 02/05/2026

Faith in the capacity of humans is the premise of democracy.

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Matt Lavine @mattplavine.bsky.social · 02/05/2026

1. Where in the article is there evidence of "deliberately hit?" 2. What aspect of the First Amdt permits 4 or 5 kids following an older man to his car, blocking the car, and shouting at him?

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Matt Lavine @mattplavine.bsky.social · 01/05/2026

I'm not sure it's an arithmetic problem. We have more than a century of important dissents. Interested in the misuse of exec power? Try Wm O Douglass's dissent in Laird v. Tatum. How about the misreading of the 14th Amdt? Read JM Harlan in Plessy. Noting new today.

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Matt Lavine @mattplavine.bsky.social · 01/05/2026

Exactly how did the justices on the U.S. Supreme Court reach a 9-3 decision? Will they write epic dissents when the vote is 6-3?

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Matt Lavine @mattplavine.bsky.social · 16/04/2026

Even if I agree with the sentiment, I prefer opinions based on facts. SJ Res 32 never mentions bombs. It prohibits the sale of "bulldozers; spare and repair parts; . . . technical and logistics support services; . . . and other related elements of logistics and program support."

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Matt Lavine @mattplavine.bsky.social · 03/02/2026

Was your day before or after Nancy's "just say no" campaign?

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Matt Lavine @mattplavine.bsky.social · 03/02/2026

Michael Wilbon made this point today on his show with Tony Kornheiser. Perhaps more concerning, take a look at the coaches being replaced.

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Matt Lavine @mattplavine.bsky.social · 28/01/2026

You could start by reading Chisholm or read what Mason said about English slavery at the Convention or read any history of the Empire's 18th C. near monopoly of the slave trade.

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Matt Lavine @mattplavine.bsky.social · 25/01/2026

Even w/out a reversal of Laird v Tatum, the US Const'n does not permit a US military occupation of an American city. Maintaining, not rewriting, the Const'n better serves our Republic.

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Matt Lavine @mattplavine.bsky.social · 25/01/2026

Please reconsider your assertion of "States Rights." The doctrine was rejected in Chisholm v. Ga in 1793. Enslavers revived it to defend slavery. As one sponsor of the 13th Amdt told the House: "To thinking men, nothing seems more absurd than the political heresy called States rights.”

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Matt Lavine @mattplavine.bsky.social · 24/01/2026

In 1783, Gen. George Washington delivered his final address to the Continental Army. He praised his men for their sacrifice, which had resulted in “rescuing Millions from the hand of oppression and establishing an Asylum for the poor and oppressed of all nations [and] religions.”

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Matt Lavine @mattplavine.bsky.social · 12/01/2026

"The act of turning the military loose on civilians ... raise[s] serious and profound constitutional questions [and] must be repudiated as a usurpation dangerous to [Americans'] civil liberties." -- Wm O Douglas, dissent in Laird v. Tatum (1972).

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Matt Lavine @mattplavine.bsky.social · 04/01/2026

I hold people to a higher standard those who have superior talent and education and opportunity. I am disappointed when they claim the moral high ground yet choose the acquisition of material wealth or political power. This is not to excuse the misconduct of the immoral.

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Matt Lavine @mattplavine.bsky.social · 04/01/2026

So you believe that the US Constitution determines the power of the Executive Branch? How very American rule of law of you.

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Matt Lavine @mattplavine.bsky.social · 04/01/2026

It might be useful for every American to know which part of our bicameral legislature has the power to impeach. Hint: it's not the Senate.

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Matt Lavine @mattplavine.bsky.social · 03/01/2026

I, too, hold people who should know better to a higher standard. I tend to accept more readily the barbaric tribalism of avowed tribalists.

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Matt Lavine @mattplavine.bsky.social · 03/01/2026

Ah, you object to the hypocrisy. I'm not sure that the left has a monopoly on this particular character flaw. PS. Some might call our dispute "Talmudic." I could happily take your side of the debate.

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Matt Lavine @mattplavine.bsky.social · 03/01/2026

Point 1 is not limited to the left or far left. Choosing total power over promised principle has long been the victor's tradition. When GW retired after achieving independence, King G remarked: "If he [gives up his power], he will be the greatest man in the world."

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Matt Lavine @mattplavine.bsky.social · 03/01/2026

So the word refers to a rejection of democracy? Is there a philosophy beyond adolescent crankiness?

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