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r_ephemeral

@rephemeral.bsky.social
514 followers 312 following 1.2K posts

“Everyone knows that in modern communication, messages compete for attention and cancel each other out. And that they are picked out for reasons that need have nothing to do with their truth.” —Bernard Williams

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r_ephemeral @rephemeral.bsky.social · 5h
and football
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r_ephemeral @rephemeral.bsky.social · 5h
he’s in from Bogata
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ae @aelkus.bsky.social · 20h
so the thing is here that *negative polarization actually is a superpower* when it comes to trump
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r_ephemeral @rephemeral.bsky.social · 05/10/2026
it’s not a drug war
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r_ephemeral @rephemeral.bsky.social · 05/10/2026
longest-serving Republican Speaker. cornerstone of today’s GOP, in every way
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r_ephemeral @rephemeral.bsky.social · 05/10/2026
Stuart Stevens’ book grappled pretty honestly with this history; Longwell’s erstwhile colleague Charlie Sykes, somewhat less so
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r_ephemeral @rephemeral.bsky.social · 05/10/2026
scrolling alone
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r_ephemeral @rephemeral.bsky.social · 04/10/2026
oh man I would have lost it if I’d heard Holy, Holy… or St. Thomas… that is a lot of work!
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r_ephemeral @rephemeral.bsky.social · 03/10/2026
reading Adarand v. Peña was shocking. originalism gave a clear answer, but one that was inconvenient for Republican judges. so Scalia forgot originalism existed, and instead typed up a third-rate Wall Street Journal op-ed to run in the Supreme Court Reporter
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r_ephemeral @rephemeral.bsky.social · 03/10/2026
one time I had a dream that I found a bunch of records—well, CDs—in the garage from a re-re-release, in which he penned comments on his earlier commentary from the first reissue thanks for this review. great perspective & roadmap.
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r_ephemeral @rephemeral.bsky.social · 03/10/2026
would read “A Social History of ‘You Light Up My Life’ by Debbie Boone”
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r_ephemeral @rephemeral.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
gonna start a band of militant monophysites, or at least convince Pete that there is such a group
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maura quint @mauraquint.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
Yes every woman has been harassed, many assaulted. But every woman has also experienced invisible loss from moments she avoided harassment. She felt a space becoming unsafe, so she left, while men stayed on. And in leaving, she lost: opportunities, experiences, learning, promotions, even simply fun.
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r_ephemeral @rephemeral.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
not much talent over on that side these days bsky.app/profile/reph...
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r_ephemeral @rephemeral.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
I tried to do this awhile ago—worked on becoming an Alex Rodriguez defender. honestly I wasn’t able to stick with it too long. best of luck!
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r_ephemeral @rephemeral.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
the wonder-working power of inertia, maybe?
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r_ephemeral @rephemeral.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
“Do not talk or think about the actions of the state of Israel. Instead we at The Atlantic request that you consider being mad at… ummm… a Jewish playwright”
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r_ephemeral @rephemeral.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
I was always mad that people felt the need to take Paul Ryan’s “regulatory uncertainty” talking point seriously; but am retroactively more mad
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r_ephemeral @rephemeral.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
the way to become a has-been is, as you note, to lose a primary better, for the utility-maximizing GOP pol, to be Santorum (lost a general by double digits; went on to win Iowa) than primary losers like Lugar or Bob Inglis there’s not a GOP constituency for normalcy. it’s all infotainment
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Meredith Rose (from the grave) 👻 @mrose.ink · 29/09/2026
...and, importantly, eliminating the Office of Technology Assessment, or OTA. What was the OTA? It was a small office, housed entirely within Congress, whose entire job was understanding complex technology issues and writing reports to explain them to legislators. 3/
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r_ephemeral @rephemeral.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
maybe the kids’ table adjunct to the first debate, with whoever the 2028 Mike Castle is
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r_ephemeral @rephemeral.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
it’s so, so determinedly self-blinding that you have to wonder what’s driving him to engage in this this schtick.
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r_ephemeral @rephemeral.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
thanks!
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r_ephemeral @rephemeral.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
would be a bit gauche tho were Todd Achilles to win & then drag Jim Risch’s corpse around Glacier National Park
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r_ephemeral @rephemeral.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
hmm, clearly a woke out-of-touch coastal elite who could never win except in the bluest areas
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r_ephemeral @rephemeral.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
Hmm, maybe I’ll give it another try… Not my usual genre/era tho—needs more Brooks & Dunn (And yes, exactly, on Choosing Texas. I also like the little guitar lick)
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r_ephemeral @rephemeral.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
I started the video; but after a few seconds realized I didn’t want to waste my beautiful mind on something like that. Your screencap of what AI says about it does enough (And I don’t even mind “Choosing Texas”! Doubtless in large part because I just found out about it a week ago)
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Patrick Daugherty @rotopat.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
Someone whose wealth is derived from a grandparent born in *1855* is no longer spending $200 million on politics this cycle because they're upset voter suppression isn't happening. Good system
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r_ephemeral @rephemeral.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
and yet I am not in fact tired of the winning
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Don Moynihan @donmoyn.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
As @noamlupu.bsky.social has documented, we consistently do not see working class representation in elections. So policymakers systematically lack first hand experience of the policies they impose on the poor. That gap in knowledge is often filled by stereotypes. bsky.app/profile/prin...
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r_ephemeral @rephemeral.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
it’s striking how little he has to say about what the message should be, beyond an incohate Fear and Loathing
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r_ephemeral @rephemeral.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
“We may have democracy, or we may have wealth concentrated in the hands of a few, but we cannot have both” — pseudo-Brandeis stays vindicated
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r_ephemeral @rephemeral.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
really pound the pavement, at least three different appearances in separate districts every day
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r_ephemeral @rephemeral.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
how could it be otherwise?!? the Anglo-Saxons were conquered by the Normans! that’s 3 things right there, just on those names!
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r_ephemeral @rephemeral.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
please let there be consequences! finally!
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r_ephemeral @rephemeral.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
just as—following the GOP’s previous period of cult of personality—with W. circa 2008 the Democrats must make the stench stick this time
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r_ephemeral @rephemeral.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
hmm, Harvest Moon and Ramble On leap to mind, and My Old School… but definitely a lot more listens here lately to “We Fell in Love in October” by Girl in Red. I imagine there’s a good Joni Mitchell answer here, but I can’t think of one www.youtube.com/watch?v=iggm...
youtube.com
girl in red - we fell in love in october
YouTube video by girl in red
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r_ephemeral @rephemeral.bsky.social · 20/09/2026
not “infiltrated,” but “controlled at all levels”
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r_ephemeral @rephemeral.bsky.social · 20/09/2026
at least fewer people were physically harmed here than in the battle of Adrianople
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r_ephemeral @rephemeral.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
“formerly ‘reasonable’ corporate interests” were of course shown to be not so reasonable in the Obamacare era web.archive.org/web/20110513...
web.archive.org
Show Him the Money - James Verini
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r_ephemeral @rephemeral.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
I think the very first book my daughter brought home from the library was “What Was the AIDS Crisis” she’s not a fan of Ronald Reagan
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[Christopher M. Federico] @chrispps.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
I'd go further: at this point, the NYT and other mainstream journalistic outlets -- given their business-related need to continuously ship both-sides polarization porn -- are doing way more than El-Sayed is to keep Piker relevant and make him a more influential figure than he otherwise might be
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r_ephemeral @rephemeral.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
a old-fashioned Disney take on the pin factory would be pretty cool!
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r_ephemeral @rephemeral.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
will he drop out before a single vote is held, or will he finish 6th a few times first?
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hilzoy @hilzoy.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
I’m thinking of the 1950s, when there were actual people who defended STALIN on the grounds that, hey, you were either on board with humanity’s glorious future or you were a reactionary.
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Urban Land Rent 🇸🇴🚰 @urbanlandrent.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
Germany’s political leadership believed in esoteric theories around racial supremacy and ultimately believed good outcomes would naturally flow from Aryan’s natural superiority. This is the same vibe the GOP has in 2026.
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r_ephemeral @rephemeral.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
Tatum is such a positive dude (Jaylen, of course, was possibly an even *bigger* force for positivity in Boston, and it will forever be a sore spot that he didn’t play his whole career here)
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mathletic.bsky.social @mathletic.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
This should haunt Yggy for the rest of his career
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r_ephemeral @rephemeral.bsky.social · 15/09/2026
so too Philip K. Dick www.bostonreview.net/articles/hen...
We live in Dick’s world—but with little hope of divine intervention or invasion. The world where we communicate and interact at a distance is increasingly filled with algorithms that appear human, but are not—fake people generated by fake realities. When Ashley Madison, a dating site for people who want to cheat on their spouses, was hacked, it turned out that tens of thousands of the women on the site were fake “fembots” programmed to send millions of chatty messages to male customers, so as to delude them into thinking that they were surrounded by vast numbers of potential sexual partners.

These problems are only likely to get worse as the physical world and the world of information become increasingly interpenetrated in an Internet of (badly functioning) Things. Many of the aspects of Joe Chip’s future world in Ubik look horrendously dated to modern eyes: the archaic role of women, the assumption that nearly everyone smokes. Yet the door to Joe’s apartment—which argues with him and refuses to open because he has not paid it the obligatory tip—sounds ominously plausible. Someone, somewhere, is pitching this as a viable business plan to Y Combinator or the venture capitalists in Menlo Park.
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r_ephemeral @rephemeral.bsky.social · 14/09/2026
“Do other countries exist? An investigation” but seriously, thanks for pushing this idea forward!
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