iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Reposted by Tim Longman 🏳️‍🌈

Jeff Sharlet @jeffsharlet.bsky.social · 1h

"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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Tim Longman 🏳️‍🌈 @timlongman.bsky.social · 18h

When I lived there in the 1990s, Des Moines itself offered a degree of welcome, with an alternative scene that attracted queer folk from small town Iowa. But they clearly preferred folks who were too flamboyant and blatant to move on to Minneapolis or Chicago.

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Tim Longman 🏳️‍🌈 @timlongman.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

I say this as someone from Middle America who had the good fortune to have a supportive family, but I have seen too many other queer folk whose families rejected them or whose communities drove them out.

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Tim Longman 🏳️‍🌈 @timlongman.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

This is a really powerful defense of cities and indictment of non-urban America that is worth a listen. I have never heard another journalist and certainly not a politician have the courage to say this truth.

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Tim Longman 🏳️‍🌈 @timlongman.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

You would think that Congress might at some point want to assert its authority as a separate branch of government that has authority, for example, over allocating money. But then you look at Mike Johnson and John Thune and realizing it won't happen until Congress changes.

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Tim Longman 🏳️‍🌈 @timlongman.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

I’ve been getting a bunch of these inquiries lately too - for a book that’s been out 9 years. I’m interested to hear it’s a more general trend.

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Tim Longman 🏳️‍🌈 @timlongman.bsky.social · 03/10/2026

I do hope you’re right, but my sister who lives in Florida is pessimistic while my Kansas family is all optimistic. It does feel like voter suppression has been stronger in Florida, but that often actually drives people to vote.

static.klipy.com

Boy Fingers Crossed, Hopeful and Excited

ALT: Boy Fingers Crossed, Hopeful and Excited

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Tim Longman 🏳️‍🌈 @timlongman.bsky.social · 03/10/2026

Massachusetts people are crazy. It’s a nice enough day on the Cape to get my toes wet, but the number of people swimming in the frigid water boggles my mind.

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Reposted by Tim Longman 🏳️‍🌈

Joshua Foust 🪖🎮 @joshuafoust.com · 03/10/2026

It’s weird to see so many higher education leaders beat their chests about “the decline of trust” from the public while refusing to acknowledge the conservative movement organizing to destroy it. Imagine someone stabbing you repeatedly while you complain about not having enough blood to bleed out.

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Tim Longman 🏳️‍🌈 @timlongman.bsky.social · 03/10/2026

I’m sure my 95-year-old mother will find this $90 check very useful to pay **checks notes** .015% of her monthly nursing home fee.

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Tim Longman 🏳️‍🌈 @timlongman.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

Certainly the Indian Americans I know understand American values better than Chris Rufo. His values of bigotry, exclusion, and white supremacy don’t reflect my understanding of the core American values of freedom, innovation, inclusion, and constant development.

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Reposted by Tim Longman 🏳️‍🌈

Razzball @razzball.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

Announcing the merger with Titanic footage is an incredible bit

David Ellison • @ellisonskyd... 2h
What once was the peak, is now just the beginning.
Paramount and Warner Bros. shaped over a century of culture. By combining them, we aren't rewriting history — we're equipping these iconic studios with a more powerful engine. Together, we are Skydance: a creative-first ho Show

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Tim Longman 🏳️‍🌈 @timlongman.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

The racist idea that a Black woman who was born and raised and has lived her life in Florida doesn't belong here is dangerous. The first enslaved Africans were brought here in 1619. When the US was founded, 1 in 5 people were Black. JD Vance and his ilk don't understand what it is to be American.

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Tim Longman 🏳️‍🌈 @timlongman.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

When she heard it being discussed on the news as she was passing by, my apolitical 17-year-old daughter told me that her friends were passing around articles about the Cornell rape case on Snapchat. I think this is having a massive impact.

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Tim Longman 🏳️‍🌈 @timlongman.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

Watching them rebuild the Citgo sign, which is a block from my work, has been cool.

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Tim Longman 🏳️‍🌈 @timlongman.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

The woman who checked me out at Wegman's was Congolese, and I had the most fun speaking with her in my bad Lingala and generally good French. She seemed happy to meet someone who had been to her country. The US is so much richer because of the diverse populations we have welcomed.

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Reposted by Tim Longman 🏳️‍🌈

Tim Longman 🏳️‍🌈 @timlongman.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

Trump's attack on international education continues. Among $1 billion items Trump cut in illegal rescissions yesterday were the program that was supposed to have replaced Title VI to fund foreign language and area studies education and the Fulbright-Hays program.

politico.com

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Tim Longman 🏳️‍🌈 @timlongman.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

I’m getting an amazing number of donation requests from Adam Hamilton (2 or 3 a day), considering that it’s been 40 years since I lived in Kansas!

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Tim Longman 🏳️‍🌈 @timlongman.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

If you live in a state where universities had Title VI NRCs, contact your congressional reps. This funding benefited schools in Indiana, Ohio, Kansas, Michigan, Texas, and Arizona, not just elite coastal schools. Congress needs to demand the DoE act as Congress instructed.

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Tim Longman 🏳️‍🌈 @timlongman.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

They are absolutely determined to make America stupid again. That’s the only way they’ll win elections in the future.

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Tim Longman 🏳️‍🌈 @timlongman.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

It’s the self righteous arrogance of so many pundits that is so frustrating: “How dare you hold me accountable when I say stupid uninformed things. You are only allowed to praise me when I say something original and well informed (which I almost never do).”

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Tim Longman 🏳️‍🌈 @timlongman.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

I think this is a new kind of Buddhist family shrine.

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Tim Longman 🏳️‍🌈 @timlongman.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

It feels like the Bluesky cardinal rules of not needing to always respond, blocking liberally, and being kind are getting lost. A lot more nasty engagement these days.

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Tim Longman 🏳️‍🌈 @timlongman.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

The tag line “Paid for by the US government” at the end is the kicker. F Trump and his toadies. I don’t want my tax dollars paying for fascist propaganda.

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Tim Longman 🏳️‍🌈 @timlongman.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

If only the Trump administration really were going with super intelligence instead of super stupidity.

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Tim Longman 🏳️‍🌈 @timlongman.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

Because this is money already allocated by Congress with bipartisan support and because the pocket rescission is considered illegal, it is worth trying to contact your Congressional delegates to demand that the money be spent as allocated.

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Tim Longman 🏳️‍🌈 @timlongman.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

Recovering from Trump's bad policies will take many years. The attack on universities will make us a dumber, less competitive country. The attack on international studies and language study will make us less competitive and less secure. Trump: Making America Stupid Again.

whitehouse.gov

President Trump Takes Historic Action to Eliminate Wasteful and Harmful Spending

President Trump is committed to utilizing all possible tools to cut wasteful and harmful government spending that does not benefit American citizens. Last

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Tim Longman 🏳️‍🌈 @timlongman.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

The CAANN competition ran this summer, with many universities across the country applying and results to be announced September 15. Instead, after running the whole competition, Trump claimed that foreign language education is part of a "woke" agenda and harmful spending.

Text from White House Press release speaking against "woke international education"

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Tim Longman 🏳️‍🌈 @timlongman.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

Last year, Trump canceled the last year of Title VI FLAS and NRC funding that provided scholarships and paid instructors for less commonly taught languages. This year they proposed replacing it with Centers Aligned with Areas for National Need (CAANN).

ed.gov

Centers Aligned with Areas for National Need (CAANN) Program (84.015C)

The Centers Aligned with Areas for National Need (CAANN) program provides grants to institutes of higher education (IHEs) to address one or more areas of national need by teaching modern foreign langu...

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Tim Longman 🏳️‍🌈 @timlongman.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

politico.com

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Reposted by Tim Longman 🏳️‍🌈

Tim Longman 🏳️‍🌈 @timlongman.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

Historians: Roger Taney’s Supreme Court was the worst in history, with the Dred Scott decision directly fueling the Civil War. John Roberts: Hold my beer🍺 …

huffpost.com

Supreme Court Lets Trump Admin Use Social Security Info To Screen For Noncitizen Voters

The unsigned decision overrules lower court decisions that blocked the data-matching across government agencies.

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Tim Longman 🏳️‍🌈 @timlongman.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

I’m old enough to remember when conservatives complained about universities being too ideological and forcing a narrow set of ideas on students. Now they’re all in on promoting ideology and a narrow set of ideas, as long as it’s theirs.

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Tim Longman 🏳️‍🌈 @timlongman.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

I stepped outside my office to hop on my bike to ride my bike to go teach my class and then remembered I had driven today and had to jog to get to class on time. So yes, it’s that kind of week.

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Tim Longman 🏳️‍🌈 @timlongman.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

Even though Roger Marshall graduated from my high school, I’m even more taken by Iowa, where the governor’s race, the senate seat, and three of the four congressional seats are all in play. The times, they are a-changing!

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Tim Longman 🏳️‍🌈 @timlongman.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

He was mayor of San Francisco when I lived there. I wouldn’t trust the man to walk my dog. He’s a total political animal who doesn’t seem to have core principles. Just whatever seems politically expedient. Hard pass.

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Tim Longman 🏳️‍🌈 @timlongman.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

“[T]here are going to be people jumping off the Trump train and we should be careful not to assume that their maneuvering is a belated embrace of liberal democracy. They should be vetted.”

thebulwark.com

Portrait of an Anti-Anti-Trumper in Despair

The fire rises.

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Tim Longman 🏳️‍🌈 @timlongman.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

It was reported in the news that the threat was a hoax, but some of the diplomats on the flight learned that there was a real threat. Apparently there was a Ugandan plan to shoot us down over Congo and use it as a pretext to start a war with Rwanda. We landed safely in Kigali. Good times!

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Tim Longman 🏳️‍🌈 @timlongman.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

In the morning, I got to walk around old town Malta, which was lovely. We loaded up the buses at 2 and headed back to the airport. We were told they had searched the plane and found no threats, so we continued on our way as though nothing had happened.

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Tim Longman 🏳️‍🌈 @timlongman.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

I ended up in a room with a couple of other Americans, one of whom graciously offered to sleep on the chair cushions. (Because of which, I will always have a positive opinion of the Carter Center where she worked).

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Tim Longman 🏳️‍🌈 @timlongman.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

So we went knocking on doors. I remember one guy knocking on a door where a Congolese nun in full habit opened up, shook her head, and said, “Sorry, no men!”

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Tim Longman 🏳️‍🌈 @timlongman.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

When my bus got to the hotel, we found there were no more hotel rooms available, since they’d handed them out as singles. They told us to go see if we could bunk with some of the other passengers who had rooms.

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Tim Longman 🏳️‍🌈 @timlongman.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

Meanwhile, some passengers had scanned the news and seen the terrorist threat against our plane reported … and the fact that the Italian Air Force had scrambled jets to shoot us down if we crossed into Italian air space. (This was a few months after 9/11).

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Tim Longman 🏳️‍🌈 @timlongman.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

But there was only one bus, so it took three trips. The flight crew left first, and we were then left to fend for ourselves. I was on the last bus trip which left the airport after midnight.

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Tim Longman 🏳️‍🌈 @timlongman.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

It was 2 in the afternoon, and one of my fellow passengers predicted (accurately) that we would be there all night. At about 10 that night, the captain announced that we would spend the night in Malta. They loaded us onto a bus to go into town…

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Tim Longman 🏳️‍🌈 @timlongman.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

Inside, the captain called everyone together. Standing on a chair he told us that there was no mechanical problem but instead a terrorist threat against our plane, which was deemed credible. He asked us to wait while they figured out how to proceed.

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