iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

I liked this eight months ago, and I had forgotten it! How had I forgotten this amazing detail? How are the Bills this snakebitten?

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Mav Wreck @mavwreck.bsky.social · 7h

I was going to make a tartar sauce crack, but I actually did the work. Turns out tartar sauce is named for steak Tartare, and thus refers to the same hostile horsemen.

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Mav Wreck @mavwreck.bsky.social · 12/10/2026

The kids already did exponential growth in 2020, though.

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Mav Wreck @mavwreck.bsky.social · 08/10/2026

As @woulditdongagain.bsky.social calls it, a unicorn! bsky.app/profile/woul...

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Mav Wreck @mavwreck.bsky.social · 07/10/2026

Feels a bit like rural Ireland. I saw a young couple having trouble with a MBTA card machine in Boston many years ago & stopped to help them. When they thanked me, I heard the Irish accent, and asked where they were from. Turns out it’s one town over from my parents’ homes.

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Mav Wreck @mavwreck.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

Holy fsck - was Trump *worse* than the worst-case scenario?

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Mav Wreck @mavwreck.bsky.social · 04/10/2026

Who are you rooting for to win the World Series?

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Mav Wreck @mavwreck.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

The right activated many of those 50%, and it turns out they were more likely to be anti-trans rights. The current state is now probably 35% pro, 55% against, and 10% don’t care. Unfortunately, it’s a lot harder to swing votes from anti to pro than it is to inflame a latent issue.

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Mav Wreck @mavwreck.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

Republicans swung public opinion on the issue by (a) including it in the Trump era right-wing backlash and (b) raising the issue’s visibility. Basically, back in 2016, people were probably 25% for trans rights, 25% against it, and 50% not caring.

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Mav Wreck @mavwreck.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

Sadly, I don’t think that’s true. I think positive trans-rights views in the mid-late 2010s were an extension of the pro-gay-rights wins of the Obama era, combined with the issue’s limited visibility.

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Mav Wreck @mavwreck.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

Fair point. A few questions then… 1. How do you propose we change people‘s minds within the space of an electoral cycle or two? 2. What do you think the odds of success are? 3. Beyond simple success or failure, what are the consequences of your efforts?

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Mav Wreck @mavwreck.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

I just don’t know how politicians can change voters’ minds on this matter - at least not within one or two electoral cycles. Sadly, I think the best you can do right now is to put Dems in office, even if all it means is harm reduction. Our electoral system really does force binary choices.

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Mav Wreck @mavwreck.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

Yes, you deserve support and legal protection. Yes, politicians should act like leaders and not blindly follow public opinion. Yes, this is mostly an issue because Republicans created the drama. Unfortunately, the Republicans succeeded! This seems like a very sticky issue outside of blue states.

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Mav Wreck @mavwreck.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

Exactly this. I don’t think elected leaders can change the public’s mind on this issue - and certainly not within one electoral cycle.

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Mav Wreck @mavwreck.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

…much less a red state like Ohio where Dems are hoping against hope to win a Senate seat. And yes, having Dems in control in Washington helps. At the very least, they’re not going to fight those blue states that do protect trans rights. It’s sad, but all we can get right now is harm reduction. 🎬

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Mav Wreck @mavwreck.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

I even know some Democratic voters who are “holding their nose” and voting Democrat - not because the party is weak on trans rights, but because the party supports them! I just don’t think a loudly pro-trans candidate can win in a swing state…

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Mav Wreck @mavwreck.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

I know they’re using this witch hunt as a wedge issue - and it’s a prelude to go after gay rights, women’s rights, etc. Unfortunately, outside of safe blue states, the issue is political poison for Democrats. It completely turns off swing voters.

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Mav Wreck @mavwreck.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

All you can do is choose the party closest to your views. Refusing to vote - or even voting third party - is basically giving up any chance to steer the government. As for trans rights…I get it. They’re in a horrible place. The GOP has successfully created a moral panic.

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Mav Wreck @mavwreck.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

Your metaphor isn’t valid, though. Your choice isn’t between an abusive SO and being alone, or between being on a team & going it alone. You’re stuck with a government led by one of the two major parties. Absent major structural changes, there’s no third option. 🧵

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Mav Wreck @mavwreck.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

I don’t care much they’re losing, I just care that the garbage time touchdown went to Golden instead of Watson.

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Mav Wreck @mavwreck.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

I’m not sure what your priority issue is, but in general, Democrats are trying to steer the bus away from you. They may not succeed because other people are pulling at the wheel and the steering is a bit broken, but they’re trying. Republicans will happily aim the bus right at you.

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Mav Wreck @mavwreck.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

The odds of getting 60 progressive senators in the current political environment is essentially zero.

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Mav Wreck @mavwreck.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

Which would you prefer? A Dem who votes against half your legislation, but still votes for your judicial nominees? Or a Republican who opposes you on everything? Heck, wouldn’t you prefer a Dem who votes against you 90% of the time but still gives you control of the chamber over a GOP candidate?

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Mav Wreck @mavwreck.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

Purity would prevent people like Manchin from being elected. Most of the time, though, you would not get a progressive replacement. You’d get a Republican one.

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Mav Wreck @mavwreck.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

Thanks! That’s what got me to follow her, and I wanted to go back and read it after this. You saved me the trouble of finding it.

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Mav Wreck @mavwreck.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

It might play well in Rockland. I assume he already has the Hasidic bloc vote sewn up.

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Mav Wreck @mavwreck.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

Yep. I did my own version of the Drake Equation for this, and it didn’t take horrible odds to make it unlikely he’d make an NFL roster. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drake_e...

en.wikipedia.org

Drake equation - Wikipedia

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Mav Wreck @mavwreck.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

I’d love to see who polls better upstate.

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Mav Wreck @mavwreck.bsky.social · 16/09/2026

BREAKING: The Soggy Bottom Boys will no longer be opening for Ed Sheeran.

from left to right: Tim Blake Nelson, George Clooney, and John Turturro playing Delmar O’Donnell, Everett, and Pete Hogwallop in the 2000 movie _O Brother, Where Art Thou?_

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Mav Wreck @mavwreck.bsky.social · 15/09/2026

Thanks for the details. Would AI be able to help, say, a vengeful grad student with access to a lab & basic knowledge get enough info to build an existing bioweapon?

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Mav Wreck @mavwreck.bsky.social · 14/09/2026

What can they do in the minority?

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Mav Wreck @mavwreck.bsky.social · 13/09/2026

Trumpists don’t care about the damage. They just want immigration to stop, no matter the cost. Over in the Bad Place, so many people say things like “we knew Trump was bad, but he was the only candidate who would shut down immigration so we voted for him anyway.”

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Mav Wreck @mavwreck.bsky.social · 11/09/2026

No, but it’s exactly the scenarios I’ve seen in far too much speculative fiction. It makes me worried that too many people in the AI world would be excited to build the Torment Nexus.

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Mav Wreck @mavwreck.bsky.social · 10/09/2026

Did anyone else call him Dropson or am I imagining things?

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Mav Wreck @mavwreck.bsky.social · 10/09/2026

I’m assuming one is Fetterman - who’s the second?

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Mav Wreck @mavwreck.bsky.social · 09/09/2026

I’m not sure where she got it, but it looks like Rep. Luna installed it in all that hollow space in her head. bsky.app/profile/atru...

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Mav Wreck @mavwreck.bsky.social · 09/09/2026

No, there are plenty of other things it’s good at! Like being a speculative bubble “asset”. Or a modern Ponzi scheme.

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Mav Wreck @mavwreck.bsky.social · 09/09/2026

In the last 24 hours, I’ve seen AI learning to control a robot to paint the Golden Gate Bridge, and a drug supposedly synthesized in a garage and designed by AI. It’s not hard to see these as precursors for AI-controlled factories building drones or AI-created bioweapons. bsky.app/profile/brit...

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Mav Wreck @mavwreck.bsky.social · 09/09/2026

I was sitting there watching Shelton send so many returns just past the baseline in the 4th and figured Alcaraz had the win in him… …but unless I’m missing something, Alcaraz started doing more of the same near the end of the fifth set. Was that a sign of fatigue on his part?

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Mav Wreck @mavwreck.bsky.social · 09/09/2026

I didn’t know you could hit a tennis ball that fast.

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Mav Wreck @mavwreck.bsky.social · 09/09/2026

Alcaraz in a marathon U.S. Open quarterfinal match? Well, I never!

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Mav Wreck @mavwreck.bsky.social · 09/09/2026

There ought to be a very simple compelling vision - a part of the Right wants to go back to something like Jim Crow at best, and the Holocaust at worst. Sadly, “don’t enable the Right’s revanchist monsters” isn’t compelling for a large swath of the population.

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Mav Wreck @mavwreck.bsky.social · 09/09/2026

How do those cookies compare to, say, hermit bars?

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Mav Wreck @mavwreck.bsky.social · 08/09/2026

Thanks so much for burning the midnight oil for us fans. 😀

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Mav Wreck @mavwreck.bsky.social · 08/09/2026

Going to the moon was a nationwide project requiring heroic effort, insane attention to detail, and a significant amount of risk to the people making the attempt. As of yet, it’s not the sort of thing people can do as a daily commute. I’d put AI in the same category now.

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Mav Wreck @mavwreck.bsky.social · 08/09/2026

True! But I was talking about the safety of relying on AI in general.

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