iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Reposting that essay whenever Brooks is mentioned is one of my little missions in life.

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It is a paradox: he is an intellectual vacuum yet he can vent rhetorical flatulence.

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Is this what you had in mind when you voted to confirm Bessent, @cantwell.senate.gov? Please explain. As a constituent I am still baffled by your decision and nothing that you or your beleaguered staffers have said provides any meaningful explanation. You owe it to your constituents to explain.

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They've had him on regularly for like 20 years. Total institutional failure.

As I've been saying lately, I used to believe that there is too much imposter syndrome in the world. I now believe that there is not remotely enough of it.

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Alex Merz 🇺🇸🇨🇦🇺🇦 @merz.bsky.social · 3h

No AI and no AI-directed wetlab that is anticipated in the reasonably foreseeable future can do the kind of exploratory membrane reconstitution biochemistrymy lab is doing. My colleagues may or may not think we're asking the most important questions but they are questions that AI *cannot* answer.

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The extent to which I have seen good scientists diminished by bad money is just… really depressing.

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Alex Merz 🇺🇸🇨🇦🇺🇦 @merz.bsky.social · 3h

That pretty much encapsulates my feelings about the field of molecular gerontology.

Alex Merz 🇺🇸🇨🇦🇺🇦 @merz.bsky.social · 3h

I saw the best minds of my generation destroyed by madness, starving hysterical naked, dragging themselves through the negro streets at dawn looking for an angry fix, angelheaded hipsters burning for the ancient heavenly connection to the starry dynamo in the machinery of night -Alan Ginsburg

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Reposted by Alex Merz 🇺🇸🇨🇦🇺🇦

Ruha Benjamin @ruha9.bsky.social · 5h

“Texas Tech’s censorship policy does not just affect the humanities. According to the AAUP lawsuit, medical students at the campus in El Paso are no longer permitted to learn about racial disparities in medical care or how to treat underserved populations.” www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2026/1...

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Alex Merz 🇺🇸🇨🇦🇺🇦 @merz.bsky.social · 4h

@cantwell.senate.gov, I'm still trying to understand why you voted to confirm Bessent. Is this what you had in mind? Asking as a baffled constituent.

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Alex Merz 🇺🇸🇨🇦🇺🇦 @merz.bsky.social · 16h

It is particularly telling (but again, not surprising) that you invoke Tuskegee as a comparator, and then do not address its well established historical consequences.

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Alex Merz 🇺🇸🇨🇦🇺🇦 @merz.bsky.social · 16h

Before reading this I would have predicted that you would not address predictable adverse effects of the trial on community trust and subsequent interaction with the health care system. That prediction was, unsurprisingly, correct. I did not expect much of you and was not disappointed.

United Farm Workers @ufw.bsky.social · 18h

Reposted by Alex Merz 🇺🇸🇨🇦🇺🇦

Warrantless stops and violent roving patrols by masked federal agents across California, especially the Central Valley, have been terrorizing farm workers for the past 5 days. The chaos is escalating. full statement: www.dailykos.com/stories/2026...

United Farm Workers union condemns brutal
ICE surge impacting farm workers in Central Valley; highlights Rep. Valadao's comments as 'insulting' to his constituents

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Alex Merz 🇺🇸🇨🇦🇺🇦 @merz.bsky.social · 17h

There may well be but they aren’t showing themselves yet.

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Alex Merz 🇺🇸🇨🇦🇺🇦 @merz.bsky.social · 17h

I did not say I was certain. Insaid that was my bet. Reading is fundamental.

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Alex Merz 🇺🇸🇨🇦🇺🇦 @merz.bsky.social · 17h

Note that the decline is linear meaning that the likelihood that a given Trump approver will flip is *increasing* over time. This is the opposite of what we’d expect to see with a hard floor of support.

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WSJ Op-Ed page was like that even before Murdoch bought the paper.

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I mean, yes. But the post being replied to is about Rubio.

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www.impactcounter.com/dashboard?vi...

Probably close to 750,000 deaths in the first year, with half a million of those being children. And that's just deaths. Probably 9M excess malaria cases, etc.

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Hasn't happened yet and my bet is it won't.

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I've heard Marco Rubio called many things but this is the first time I've heard him called "West Coast."

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