iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Reposted by Michael Mechanic

Nicholas Grossman @nicholasgrossman.bsky.social · 8h

Uh oh, did someone’s website and personal account experience a big drop in activity after Ukraine hit a Russian data center?

Elon Musk: “Zelensky has gone too far”

https://x.com/elonmusk/status/2109033017184338141

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Clara Jeffery @clarajeffery.bsky.social · 10/10/2026

Our own @michaelmechanic.bsky.social has written a lot about various types of wealth taxes, including this piece www.motherjones.com/politics/202...

motherjones.com

How to tax a billionaire

America's oligarchs guard their hoards jealously—but there may be a way in.

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Scott Horton @robertscotthorton.bsky.social · 10/10/2026

This man is insane. But you can count on US corporate media not to report what he said and did. "At what was supposed to be a rally for other Republican candidates in Syracuse, New York, the US president devoted a long portion of his speech airing his grievances with the Nobel committee.

theguardian.com

Trump fumes over Nobel peace prize snub and criticizes Norway

President complains about not winning prize in year he started war with Iran and says: ‘We will not forget, Norway’

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Michael Mechanic @michaelmechanic.bsky.social · 09/10/2026

The details I meant was the scenario of an outbreak on board, but weaponized plague and covid are a bit different, clearly.

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Michael Mechanic @michaelmechanic.bsky.social · 09/10/2026

Elon Musk, who destroyed USAID, causing widespread death and suffering, cares about cruelty to AIs? Total sociopath.

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Michael Mechanic @michaelmechanic.bsky.social · 09/10/2026

The irony here is that, as I've written, the word "philanthropy" comes from Prometheus' love for humankind, which he created (and Zeus hated). Elon Musk is more like the Zeus character here, and he's a downright shitty philanthropist. => shorturl.at/k1xmk

motherjones.com

Elon's fans erect 50-foot statue outside his company town

A studio promising "art so epic it will raise the birthrate" gifted a huge bronze Prometheus to Musk's Starbase.

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Michael Mechanic @michaelmechanic.bsky.social · 09/10/2026

Preaching to the choir here obviously, but deploying major government resources to pursue obviously bullshit cases against a president's perceived enemies is the definition of waste, fraud, and abuse. This is gaslighting, and one of many grounds for impeachment.

nytimes.com

How Trump’s Revenge Campaign Descended Into Turmoil (Gift Article)

The president’s allies have sought to prove a “grand conspiracy” through a sprawling Justice Department inquiry. It has buckled under staffing shake-ups, internal disputes and trouble finding evidence...

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Gillian Brockell @gillianbrockell.com · 09/10/2026

This ICE agent’s entire Instagram feed, “shooter.914,” is guns, watches, energy drinks, and alcohol.

A shooter.914 post showing a blue handgun and Reign energy drink

The console of a car with an energy drink and handgun in the cup holders.

In the foreground, shooter.914’s wrist with a fancy watch in it. Background: Two assault rifles and a Monster energy drink

A screenshot of his whole account showing more of the same

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Michael Mechanic @michaelmechanic.bsky.social · 09/10/2026

This is appalling. How do these people live with themselves?

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Michael Mechanic @michaelmechanic.bsky.social · 03/10/2026

This guy: American hero. The question, as Ed Wasserman writes, is whether today's media would be willing to run a story of this magnitude while under assault from the Trump administration. Like, maybe the Times would, and it's no angel here, but what about networks controlled by Trump allies? HERO.

motherjones.com

Daniel Ellsberg’s dark chronicles of courage and foreboding

The famous whistleblower's posthumous memoir recalls moments of triumph amid moral failure.

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Michael Mechanic @michaelmechanic.bsky.social · 06/10/2026

So when is all this going to come hit us, Zeke?

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Michael Mechanic @michaelmechanic.bsky.social · 06/10/2026

Asked Rep. Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Silicon Valley) yesterday whether he thought it would be possible to enact a national wealth tax, given this hostile Supreme Court. (His reply gave me some 2028 Khanna for President vibes.)

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Michael Mechanic @michaelmechanic.bsky.social · 06/10/2026

The facility "has six-foot-high fences around it. It's got concertina wire on top of that. It's controlled in and out. The idea that this worker broke a test tube and suddenly contracted pneumonic plague, which is inhalation plague, that does not entirely add up." —Annie Jacobsen

pbs.org

Understanding pneumonic plague after Russian lab worker's death

The U.S. is closely monitoring a potential case of pneumonic plague in Russia after a laboratory worker who studied the disease fell ill and died. Russian authorities insist there is no cause for alar...

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Michael Mechanic @michaelmechanic.bsky.social · 06/10/2026

The government is also, as we reported yesterday, separating children from families in the interior, labeling them "unaccompanied," putting them in shelters, and using payments and coercive memos to get them to give up their legal rights and leave the country.

motherjones.com

“You kidnapped my son”

ICE is now separating children from their parents and deeming them “unaccompanied.”

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Michael Mechanic @michaelmechanic.bsky.social · 06/10/2026

This is KIDNAPPING. That's a FEDERAL FELONY punishable by up to life in prison. It's also a state felony. These agents need to be prosecuted.

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Jeff Sharlet @jeffsharlet.bsky.social · 06/10/2026

"Sorry about your dead kid. Hey, you want to see my fancy party room? Look at that gold! Lotta gold. I got a new helicopter, too! Do you feel better now about sacrificing your child on my altar? Worth it, right? Look at that gold."

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Michael Mechanic @michaelmechanic.bsky.social · 06/10/2026

A president inviting the destruction of major American cities, including a city that hosts a large part of the Navy fleet, just seems like grounds for impeachment or the 25th Amendment. Even uttered in jest—and who really knows what's in this guy's head—it is, at best, profoundly unpatriotic.

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Michael Mechanic @michaelmechanic.bsky.social · 06/10/2026

A Cayman Islands source gave Blum incriminating intel on 20 ultrarich Americans defrauding the US Treasury. He took it to the IRS in Miami, where a special agent looked over the documents and told him to get lost. Blum had expected gratitude. “This whole thing is a career killer,” the agent said.

motherjones.com

Oligarchs are robbing America blind, and the IRS is powerless to stop them

The Wealth Defense Industry and its politicians have seen to that.

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Michael Mechanic @michaelmechanic.bsky.social · 06/10/2026

Can you imagine handing something like that to a 14-year-old boy, who lacks the brain function to process it? Is quite evil.

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Michael Mechanic @michaelmechanic.bsky.social · 06/10/2026

The administration is “scaring kids as a way to circumvent the law,” Jen Smyers, ORR’s deputy director under Joe Biden, told @samanthamichaels.bsky.social and @isabelaalhadeff.bsky.social.

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Michael Mechanic @michaelmechanic.bsky.social · 06/10/2026

Shocking: Trump officials are offering $2,500 or more to detained teens as young as 14 if they agree to leave the US. Kids also get a memo threatening long detention, and prosecution of noncitizen parents, if they press their legal case: “You will be detained for a prolonged period of time.”

motherjones.com

“You kidnapped my son”

ICE is now separating children from their parents and deeming them “unaccompanied.”

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Michael Mechanic @michaelmechanic.bsky.social · 06/10/2026

Wild type doesn't spread very efficiently, but since this was a plague lab, chances are it wasn't wild type

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Michael Mechanic @michaelmechanic.bsky.social · 06/10/2026

Took this last night. I've never seen $7.19 gas in America.

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Michael Mechanic @michaelmechanic.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

Trump's 2018 "zero tolerance" policy was denounced on both sides of the political aisle as inhumane, and a federal court ruled it illegal. Now the Trump administration is separating families again, only this time more quietly, and away from the border.

motherjones.com

“You kidnapped my son”

ICE is now separating children from their parents and deeming them “unaccompanied.”

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Michael Mechanic @michaelmechanic.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

They won't tell us the truth. Not a chance.

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Michael Mechanic @michaelmechanic.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

We actually may have enough antibiotics in our stockpiles. But the logistics of getting them out to everyone are tricky. I hope the Russians can contain their fuckup in any case.

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Reposted by Michael Mechanic

Mother Jones @motherjones.com · 03/10/2026

A CNN report hurt Jared's feelings, but numerous outlets, including @motherjones.com, have detailed his vast global conflicts of interest.

motherjones.com

Does Jared Kushner know what a conflict of interest is?

In Israel and elsewhere, the line between his diplomacy and quest for wealth is fuzzy at best.

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Michael Mechanic @michaelmechanic.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

Annie may be the best sourced journalist in the US about stuff like this.

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Michael Mechanic @michaelmechanic.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

Well, they're just two different modalities of the same disease. Not two different diseases.

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Michael Mechanic @michaelmechanic.bsky.social · 04/10/2026

Not a pandemic yet! Just an outbreak for the moment.

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Michael Mechanic @michaelmechanic.bsky.social · 04/10/2026

So embarrassed! It's pneumonic plague, not pneumatic! That would pertain to tires. Forgive my Sunday brain.

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Michael Mechanic @michaelmechanic.bsky.social · 04/10/2026

Clarifying note: The Black death that ravaged Europe was both bubonic (not airborne, spread by fleas) and pneumatic (airborne)

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Michael Mechanic @michaelmechanic.bsky.social · 04/10/2026

Much depends what we don't know. Pneumatic wild type plague isn't a prolific spreader, according to this. But we don't yet know whether this strain may have been made more transmissible. This post has interesting context and some optimism: "I'm not buying toilet paper yet."

alexwasburne.substack.com

The Irkutsk Plague

What to make of the Irkutsk pneumonic plague incident so far

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Michael Mechanic @michaelmechanic.bsky.social · 04/10/2026

A lot depends on what the strain is and whether they can contain it geographically. If an infected person gets out of the quarantine area, that's bad, and if it travels overseas, worse. We can handle the odd cases of plague, which occur naturally here, but a large outbreak would be super worrisome.

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Michael Mechanic @michaelmechanic.bsky.social · 04/10/2026

This was precisely the Annie Jacobsen scenario. Pray it's not a weaponized version of the plague. Seriously. They said it was from a BSL-3 lab (BSL-4 it the most secure), so a good chance it isn't but god help us if it is.

motherjones.com

Even without AI, the risk of a biological attack, or accidental release, is terrifying

Annie Jacobsen's latest book speaks to the monstrosities we've locked away—for now.

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Michael Mechanic @michaelmechanic.bsky.social · 04/10/2026

This is all hands on deck! Pneumatic plague is airborne and nearly always fatal if untreated. Wiped out 150 million, half of Europe, way back when. Treatable with antibiotics, but we don't have enough antibiotics. Also from a lab in Russia, where they still have weaponized plague. Total nightmare.

motherjones.com

Reports of a plague outbreak in Russia follow the death of a researcher

Several hospitals in the Irkutsk region have been shut down and up to 200 workers have been quarantined.

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Reposted by Michael Mechanic

The Tennessee Holler @thetnholler.bsky.social · 03/10/2026

Speaking of Kushner… cc: 🇺🇸 media

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