iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Mike Fragassi @refrag.bsky.social · 07/10/2026

I have never more wanted to deliberately add someone to a list

bio (username not shown): "Do not add me to your shitty, defamatory list because I'll add you to a list and you're not going to like it."

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Mike Fragassi @refrag.bsky.social · 07/10/2026

Modify the arches to look like this

Wooden arch that says "Bartertown: Helping Build a Better Tomorrow". From Mad Max: Beyond Thunderdome

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Mike Fragassi @refrag.bsky.social · 07/10/2026

Can't blame this guy one bit, but he may get the last laugh

John May of Ottawa offloaded his Key West, Fla., condo after getting sick of hearing people he thought were friends parrot Trump's harsh rhetoric about Canada.

He said he felt like he was swimming in "a sea of stupidity," with falsehoods about his country commonplace.

"Trump would say something stupid, Governor Trudeau, 51st state and all that, and they'd stand there and laugh and I'd say to myself, 'Well, I just lost all respect for you,'" May said in an interview.

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Mike Fragassi @refrag.bsky.social · 06/10/2026

Over 80° F in Chicago in October is Not Normal

Android/Google weather forecast, showing highs of 83 on Saturday, 82 on Sunday, 80 on Monday

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Mike Fragassi @refrag.bsky.social · 06/10/2026

I know what I'm rereading tonight

A copy of WRAB: Pirate Television, and The M.I.A. Tapes, by Matt Howarth, over a manila envelope with a Matt Howarth PO box return address

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Mike Fragassi @refrag.bsky.social · 06/10/2026

JJ is loudly alerting us that the evil delivery truck has come to invade our block

A black dog, facing away from the camera, looking out a window at an Amazon truck

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Mike Fragassi @refrag.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

The true sign that Chicago's Spookiest Season is upon us

A pile of the Injustice Watch "Check Your Judges" newsprint supplement, in a coffee shop

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Mike Fragassi @refrag.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

I'm not one for "cellaring" beers, but a decade ago I was gifted a case of Goose Island Islay barrel-aged Imperial Stout, and damn if it doesn't still taste amazing.

A bottle of Goose Island Islay Scotch barrel aged Imperial Stout. It is not a bomber, but the size of an ordinary beer bottle. It is next to a small half-pint glass filled with the stuff. It is a brown so dark it might as well be black, with absolutely no head.

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Mike Fragassi @refrag.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

The last guy like that who comes to mind is the "Captain's orders" guy from Winter Soldier

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Mike Fragassi @refrag.bsky.social · 04/10/2026

Our vantage point at the Ministry show last night

A sea of people under red light, ending at a band on stage, behind whom is a screen showing glitched images, here frozen in lime green, blue, and white. The venue wall, industrial, painted black, angles in and up from the right. It dominates the right side of the photo, but it does not block the stage.

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Mike Fragassi @refrag.bsky.social · 04/10/2026

Drinking in a disclosed location

A cantarito on a blank granite bar. There's a row of taps, blue lights in the wall, a small chandelier in metal hoops, tiny plastic pumpkins hanging from light fixtures, pinball games in the background. This is Elston Electric.

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Mike Fragassi @refrag.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

Breaking Albany Park News: a pho place has just reopened in the space of where the excellent LD Pho used to be

A narrow Chicago store front with a sign for "PL Pho". Too many plants & sunlight to see inside

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Mike Fragassi @refrag.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

What shows up when you Google the brick & mortar

Screenshot of Google results. Top text is "Reviews" with "Write a review" and "Add photos" buttons. 2 reviews are shown:
[php: a white "S" in a green circle:] The owner and staff are great to work with!" [Rating: 5 stars]
[php: Black woman in ball cap:] "I’m sure those white customers were not treated the same." [Rating: 1 star]

(bottom text: View all Google reviews)

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Mike Fragassi @refrag.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

Follow the path of the Master Debater

Wojack crying guy shouts, "You can't refuse the question!"
The ponytailed Master Debater, wears his Bluetooth earpiece, and resolutely declares "Yes, I can."

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Mike Fragassi @refrag.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

This article that's all about the classic "Let's see Ol' Donny wriggle out of *this* jam" tweet is really good

Similarly, New York Times columnist Jamelle Bouie told Christie in his “Museum of Twitter” series that Farrar’s tweet was “defeatist” because it played into the idea of Trump being the only person with any agency — the “main character of the world” — that everyone else is stuck reacting to.

Instead, Bouie believes it’s the people and institutions around Trump — from Republicans to Democrats, Congress to the courts — that have made the last decade possible.

“Other people don’t bother to deal with the fact that you could probably get him to go away for good. They kind of allow him to wriggle his way back in,” Bouie said. “He’s really figured out that persistence is 99% of success. All you have to do is show up and not go away, and people will be like, ‘I guess this guy is supposed to be here.’” (White House staff did not respond to a request for comment for this story.)

One skill Trump has shown, though, is a talent for reframing his scandals to convince his supporters that outrage about his behavior is part of broader liberal hostility toward them, according to Whitney Phillips at the University of Oregon who has written books about polarization and “anti-liberal demonology.” Farrar’s tweet, Phillips said, plays off the dynamic of liberals getting up in arms, and people then making fun of liberals for getting up in arms.

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Mike Fragassi @refrag.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

There's also Greer in Lincoln Park, and all of these places that participated in Stationery Store Day.

Stationery Store Day Chicagoland Saturday, August 1
[List of stores follows:]
a. favorite design
4432 N Kedzie Ave, Chicago, IL 60625
Atlas Stationers
227 W Lake Street, Chicago, IL 60606
bon femmes
4917 N Damen Ave, Chicago, IL 60625
Festive Collective
2643 N Milwaukee Ave, Chicago, IL 60647
Greenstar Paperie
5226 Main St, Downers Grove, IL 60515
Martha Mae: Art Supplies & Beautiful Things
1727 W Grand Avenue, Chicago, IL 60622
Paper & Pencil
5208 N Clark Street, Chicago, IL 60640
Paper Bunny Press
4956 N Damen Avenue, Chicago, IL 60625
Paper Love Collective
114 E Wilson Street, Batavia, IL 60510
Pretty Pages
138 S Oak Avenue, Bartlett, IL 60103

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Mike Fragassi @refrag.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

What's a poster you had in your room growing up

A poster for the Marx Brothers' Duck Soup. Their faces are rendered in an abstract, Art Deco way

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Mike Fragassi @refrag.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

I'm in a mood, but Stella is comforting me by demanding attention

Orange & white cat curled in my lap. Paws crossed. I'm petting her neck

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Mike Fragassi @refrag.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

Something I should have done a long while ago. The only news I want to hear about this idiot is if it's (technically) tragic. (If you're out of the loop, she's literally the dumbest, worst American pundit in existence, but her idiocy makes her useful and she's on the BezoWaPo editorial board)

My "muted words" on the app, showing that I've added "Megan McArdle"

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Mike Fragassi @refrag.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

Achievement unlocked: seeing the Sun Ra Arkestra play outdoors at a street fair

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Mike Fragassi @refrag.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

Arrived at the Armitage County Fair in time to take an extremely blurry photo of maybe the last guy of the night who tried to ring the bell with a giant hammer

Exactly what I described in the text of the post. I'll add that this is in the middle of a city street, closed to traffic. Everything is blurry

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Mike Fragassi @refrag.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

Getting ready for the group ride. This is only a few of the bikes here; the yard is pretty full

A bunch of bikes in a yard, lined up against a brick garage with colorful window coverings. Signs say "Reelect Rossana Rodríguez Alderwoman 33rd Ward. rossanafor33.org"

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Mike Fragassi @refrag.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

Dressy Bessy, playing at Subterranean last night. I'd love to know the story behind this venue & its layout, what was it originally built as. (And I gotta say, it's misnamed. 3 floors, all above ground. It should be "Supraterranean")

A woman-fronted rock band on a stage, bathed in red. You are looking down on the stage through a long, narrow hole in a floor, surrounded by a railing, from which people look down. The dance floor below in filled with people. An enormous chandelier dangles down, almost to eye level of the people at the railing.

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Mike Fragassi @refrag.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

On the streetlight pole at Belmont & Kimball, outside the Belmont Blue line station

DO YOU ATTACK WOMEN FROM BEHIND LIKE A COWARD?

IF SO, YOUR DAYS ARE NUMBERED.

WE'RE WATCHING FOR YOU.

[Here someone wrote in a marker: Rapists should get their dicks cut off]

On Friday, September 11 at least 2 WOMEN AND 1 GIRL were SEXUALLY ASSAULTED. The offender is described as: Hispanic Male aged 20-40 years Dark baseball cap. Dark polo shirt with two red stripes across the chest. Dark shorts Black socks with white gym shoes. Fled in a red sedan

If you have information contact Area 5 detectives at 312-746-6554 or the 17th District at 312-742-4410. If you see something or are in danger, call 911 mmediately.

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Mike Fragassi @refrag.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

LOL at that account blocking you, for posting that comment to this photo

Rick in Casablanca telling Ilsa "We'll always have Bluesky"

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Mike Fragassi @refrag.bsky.social · 26/09/2026

With alt text bsky.app/profile/mich...

Barker tells me there is a lot she doesn't like about Trump - his rhetoric about immigrants, the war in Iran, the Medicaid cuts, letting the Obamacare subsidies expire, his hostility to unions. But Democrats make her and her family feel looked down upon and are too wrapped up in trans issues and abortion. She doesn't know if she will work in politics again, spending her days instead doing book promotion, writing op-eds, and appearing on podcasts with other outcasts like Michael Tracey, the internet provocateur who explained to Barker soon after Gloria Steinem's death how the feminist icon contributed to the "satanic panic" of the 1980s and 90s, and Taylor Lorenz, a former mainstream tech journalist who has recently become known less for her reporting than her tweets.

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Mike Fragassi @refrag.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

If you people are still talking about this nonsense in 7 days I'm going to start blocking accounts

"Your muted words"
Iced coffee in text & tags
Expires in 7 days

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Mike Fragassi @refrag.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

I honestly can't tell if this is actually A+ classic trolling, like the real deal "make random strangers mad with inane takes just for the joy of the game"

I am Sofa King
@jimaccostya.bsky.social
10:12 PM Sep 24, 2026

Made over 30 replies yesterday

Is that why Obama ran for the Democratic nomination against the only female candidate since 1972? His identity politics are betrayed by his own actions. 1/2

[Quoting:]
Mark Chadbourn

@chadbou..

14h
Obama on CSPAN: "Even when I was president, I sometimes fantasised about, if you put women in charge of every government for like two years and then just kind of saw, all right, how are things going?

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Mike Fragassi @refrag.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

Written by Star Magic Jackson Jr

Jordan Peele from the Key & Peele Gremlins 2 sketch

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Mike Fragassi @refrag.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

Man this must have been written months ago. A vision of a better world that is now lost

President Curtis: "the Canadian PM owes me."

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Mike Fragassi @refrag.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

So I was added to this list, and yeah, in all probability, I likely have inadvertently reposted something made by AI at least once. But, Oh My *Gawd*, the cursed hypocrisy & audacity at using AI to determine that

Posted, Reported or Linked to Al Slop

Posted, Re-Posted, or Linked to Al Slop

Moderation list by @9021007.xyz

Made or shared Al slop, including people who mistakenly shared it. Either way, it shows up in my feeds all the same.

All spotted by me first, then double-checked by SightEngine or GPTZero. Appeal/Submit: Email aiblocks@9021007.xyz or DM me on Bluesky.

More info + FAQ: aiblocks.9021007.xyz

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Mike Fragassi @refrag.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

Chicagoans, enjoy some schadenfreude this morning capitolfax.com/2026/09/22/i...

* WSJ | Ken Griffin’s New Miami Headquarters on Pause After Construction Accident: Ken Griffin moved his Citadel headquarters to Florida after embracing the state’s friendly pro-business policies. But building a skyscraper on Miami’s porous and water-soaked shoreline is proving to be more treacherous. A drill rig that was solidifying the foundation of Citadel’s future Miami headquarters toppled onto traffic early Monday morning, crushing three vehicles, including one that burst into flames moments after the driver escaped.

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Mike Fragassi @refrag.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

Also I got a great deal on lettuce, 2 huge heads for $5, at Lincoln Square just now

The Lord of the Rings orc leader saying "Looks like lettuce's back on the menu, boys!"

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Mike Fragassi @refrag.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

Finally getting to this. "nationally, schools in predominantly nonwhite districts receive $23 billion less in annual funding than their heavily white counterparts" "In everything that we measure, these schools have less, even though the economically struggling student bodies they serve need more."

In New York, a combination of housing segregation and “academic” sorting, called school choice, that begins as early as pre-K means most Black students — even middle-class ones — are forced to attend racially segregated schools with high rates of poverty. And nationally, schools in predominantly nonwhite districts receive $23 billion less in annual funding than their heavily white counterparts, according to a 2019 analysis by EdBuild. In everything that we measure, these schools have less, even though the economically struggling student bodies they serve need more. And so the test scores and poor academic performance that typify these schools reflect not just the disadvantage of the students but, more essentially, the disadvantage of the schools.

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