iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Steve Smith @monkeysaddle.com · 26/06/2026

@radiofreetom.bsky.social’s is right about Boston alleys with @timmiller.bsky.social. There’s maybe 3 of them, all no longer than a short walkway. But they are worth a visit. A couple of them: Greenough Lane. And though not in Boston, Graffiti Alley sets the tone:

Greenough Lane run in 2022 Boston blizzard

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Steve Smith @monkeysaddle.com · 13/04/2026

The only way that will restore the Rule of Law, in Hungary, and the U.S.: Magyar: "No mercy, they will need to take responsibility for all their actions."

Péter Magyar: "Our country wants to live again. It wants to be a European country again."

Magyar's speech is powered. From a contact in the audience: "He's basically just asked all the puppets, all the supreme justices, all the heads of media, all the heads of the ministries to leave their jobs tomorrow and not wait to be fired."

He's announced that Hungary will join the European Prosecution Office so anyone in the country can be charged.

Magyar: "No mercy, they will need to take responsibility for all their actions."

Magyar says he's starting work with the EU and NATO immediately.
"The EU doesn't have to worry anymore."

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Steve Smith @monkeysaddle.com · 12/04/2026

m.youtube.com/watch?v=yR74...

BRIGHTON
I want a decision, sir.

FEISAL
You want me to fall back on Yenbo, Colonel.

BRIGHTON
Well you're not doing much good here sir! ... Sorry to rub it in sir, but - (bursting out; he has been over this ground a dozen times)
We can't supply you here sir!

FEISAL
You could supply us through Akaba!

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Steve Smith @monkeysaddle.com · 04/04/2026

Sir, you staged your death by your own hand in full view of Captain America?

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Steve Smith @monkeysaddle.com · 04/04/2026

One reason I enjoy @theatlantic.com (subscribe!) is that its silly self-parodic think pieces seldom descend below “Lice are actually okay!”

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Steve Smith @monkeysaddle.com · 24/03/2026

Robert E. Lee massacred hundreds of American soldiers who tried to surrender at Petersburg and elsewhere. Lee beat and flagellated people that tried to escape enslavement by Lee, then Lee tortured them by pouring salt into their open wounds. Robert E. Lee was a traitor and his memory is a disgrace.

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Steve Smith @monkeysaddle.com · 18/03/2026

“Solemn articles were written about the supposed significance of Greenland … as if Trump’s interest in the Arctic island were not entirely derived from the fact that it looks very large on a Mercator projection.” Maybe brief that the Mercator Jacobian 1/cos² latitude scales Greenland’s area 12× ?

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Steve Smith @monkeysaddle.com · 12/03/2026

“In major disputes capabilities for repression grow, both because governments are likely to mobilize significant additional forces and because repression of dissent is likely to be supported by nationalist groups.” archive.org/details/bomb...

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Steve Smith @monkeysaddle.com · 12/03/2026

Sir, you demanded that Henry “think big.” Which of these toadies would tell the President, “That, I think, would just be too much”?

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Steve Smith @monkeysaddle.com · 10/03/2026

A map of the Inland Empire from David Lynch’s father’s PhD dissertation.

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Steve Smith @monkeysaddle.com · 07/03/2026

@michelebella.bsky.social Here’s the group photo of the 509th’s 390th Air Service Group with your grandfather (row 7, 5th from right) and mine.

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Steve Smith @monkeysaddle.com · 07/03/2026

@michelebella.bsky.social Thanks for your important comments on this. It’s disgraceful. Do you have a copy of the 509th’s album? It credits your grandfather Corp. Armen Shamlian. I wonder if he took this personal photo of my grandpa in front of the B-29 Great Artiste. bsky.app/profile/monk...

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Steve Smith @monkeysaddle.com · 07/03/2026

I have my grandfather’s “509th Composite Group First Atomic Bombardment” photo album of the 509th’s service in the atomic bombing and surrender of Japan. There’s a cartoon of a hat waving cowboy riding a phallic atom bomb that I speculate must be Kubrick’s inspiration for Dr. Strangelove’s finale.

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Steve Smith @monkeysaddle.com · 04/03/2026

Yes! I also recommend her influences and those she influenced. My path to enjoying Satrapi started with Wacky Packs as a kid. After reading Maus decades later, I was amazed to learn that they were both created by the same guy! Satrapi credits Spiegelman’s impact: m.youtube.com/watch?v=7i9V...

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Steve Smith @monkeysaddle.com · 02/03/2026

archive.org/details/bomb...

It is also true that forcible removal of the regime by popular opposition groups is unlikely as long as military forces are loyal to the government. To overturn a government, opposition groups must do more than passively resist government orders; they must wrest possession of important instruments of national control, such as communication, transportation, and administrative centers. Opposition groups are at a great disadvantage in any contest of force, however, since they usually lack organization, training, and heavy weapons. Quite small contingents of well-armed forces loyal to the regime can disperse, decapitate, and deter most mass movements against the government or collective civil disobedience. In major disputes capabilities for repression grow, both because governments are likely to mobilize significant additional forces and because repression of dissent is likely to be supported by nationalist groups. Unless the society is so badly divided by domestic cleavages before the dispute that the government lacks authority, opponents criticizing government policy labor under a legitimacy disadvantage, and if necessary, dissent can be forcibly repressed. As a result, it is unlikely that either government policy or the regime itself can be changed by popular pressure. In short, punishment does not empower opposition groups.

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Steve Smith @monkeysaddle.com · 28/02/2026

archive.org/details/bomb...

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Steve Smith @monkeysaddle.com · 27/02/2026

"Friends" is a beloved American sitcom that aired from 1994 to 2004, following six young adults—Rachel, Ross, Monica, Chandler, Joey, and Phoebe—living in New York City. The show explores their friendships, romances, careers, and personal growth over ten seasons.

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