iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Taylor Kordsiemon @tkords.bsky.social · 3h

I’m late to this one, but I just started Omar El Akkad’s “One Day, Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This.” Listening to this description of Western liberalism felt like getting punched in the gut.

One of the hallmarks of Western liberalism is an assumption in hindsight of virtuous resistance as the only polite expectation of people on the receiving end of colonialism. While the terrible thing is happening, while the land is still being stolen, and the natives still being killed, any form of opposition is terroristic and must be crushed for the sake of civilization. But decades, centuries later, when enough of the land has been stolen and enough of the natives killed, it is safe enough to venerate resistance in hindsight. I tell stories for a living and there’s a thick thread of narrative by well-meaning white Westerners that exalts the native populations in so many parts of the world for standing up to the occupiers. Makes of their narrative a neat, reflexive arc in which it was always understood by the colonized and, this part implied, the descendants of the colonizer, that what happened was wrong.

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Taylor Kordsiemon @tkords.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

Before writing and directing the Oscar-nominated “The Substance,” Coralie Fargeat made this brutal thriller that is absolutely worth your time.

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Taylor Kordsiemon @tkords.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

People are dunking on this, but I think it’s pretty obviously correct.

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Taylor Kordsiemon @tkords.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

Just imagining if someone asked to light up during an interview. Wtf is this talking about?

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Taylor Kordsiemon @tkords.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

Assuming children’s media wasn’t counted (Bluey and Avatar), I actually think they got most of the best shows on here, with one HUGE exception: Fargo.

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Garnet Henderson @garnethenderson.com · 24/09/2026

Heidi Overton just started her opening statement at her confirmation hearing by thanking her lord and savior Jesus Christ

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Taylor Kordsiemon @tkords.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

I recently read Hemingway’s “The Old Man and the Sea.” Afterward, I wanted to watch the film adaptation with Robert Redford, which I KNEW existed. But I couldn’t find it. Thought I was going crazy. Turns out I was combining the title for “The Old Man and the Gun” with the poster for “All Is Lost.”

Movie poster for “All Is Lost” starring Robert Redford.

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Taylor Kordsiemon @tkords.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

The new Resident Evil movie freaking rules.

Movie poster for “Resident Evil,” featuring various limbs reaching around a doorway at odd angles.

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Taylor Kordsiemon @tkords.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

Seeing the list of finalists for the National Book Awards and having your first instinct be to look up each author to check if they’re white is *insane* behavior.

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Joe Dudek @joedudekjd.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

If I have it straight, Missouri HB1 never went into effect as a matter of state law, but under federal law, Missouri must pretend that HB1 went into effect. Which federal law compels Missouri to enforce a law it never passed? The one passed in 1789, before anyone had heard of a "party primary."

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Taylor Kordsiemon @tkords.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

This is a tough and sobering read.

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Daphna Renan @daphnarenan.bsky.social · 18/09/2026

Those who wrote the Reconstruction Amendments offered us a path. Pass a law that requires a consensus among the justices before the Court can reject acts of Congress said Bingham. Pass a law that designates our most fundamental statutes political questions beyond the reach of courts said Trumbull.

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Taylor Kordsiemon @tkords.bsky.social · 19/09/2026

1. I don’t believe this caricature of Utah’s law school for a second. 2. Even if it were true (it’s not), the author’s subjective experience at one law school is not indicative of a broader problem in legal education. 3. As a Utah practitioner, I can confirm that our recent law grads are great.

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Barred and Boujee aka Madiba Dennie @audrelawdamercy.blacksky.app · 18/09/2026

i'm not over Alito saying we shouldn't count ballots that are mailed on or before Election Day but arrive shortly afterwards bc they can “radically flip” the “apparent outcome” cannot stress enough that, until all ballots are counted, there's no outcome to flip! ballsandstrikes.org/scotus/alito...

ballsandstrikes.org

A Brief History of Sam Alito’s Delusional Obsession With Voter Fraud

His conduct in several recent cases suggests that Alito is deep in the right-wing conspiracy theory weeds.

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Taylor Kordsiemon @tkords.bsky.social · 18/09/2026

I know the competition is steep, but Ethan Hawke has got to be up there for “best actor to never win an Oscar.” (Also, just learned that in addition to three acting nominations, he has two screenwriting nominations! Some people are too talented.)

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Taylor Kordsiemon @tkords.bsky.social · 14/09/2026

“Piss off.” Saved you a click.

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Taylor Kordsiemon @tkords.bsky.social · 12/09/2026

Great idea. I can’t think of any Troubles that could possibly arise from this.

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Taylor Kordsiemon @tkords.bsky.social · 11/09/2026

Right or wrong, I bet Majors and Armie Hammer could have broke back into the mainstream with a couple years of good behavior and some philanthropic publicity stunts. But they’ve pretty much ensured that will *never* happen by taking on these fascist roles.

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Taylor Kordsiemon @tkords.bsky.social · 10/09/2026

Let’s just assume that partisan court packing is unconstitutional (it’s not). Who would have standing to challenge it? And who could adjudicate it? The justices’ institutional stakes in the size and composition of the Court present the clearest imaginable conflict.

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Taylor Kordsiemon @tkords.bsky.social · 09/09/2026

Thank the good Lord for community notes to prevent the spread of misinformation.

BREAKING NEWS: Iran shoots down an F-15 with a man in a flying carpet.

Readers added context

It is not F-15. It is F35

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CJ Ciaramella @cjciaramella.bsky.social · 08/09/2026

My giant cover story for the latest issue of Reason is online! My goal was to write a readable history of US prisons. I visited the Angola prison rodeo, interviewed a guy whose life sentence was overturned, and talked to historians about our shifting attitudes about crime reason.com/2026/09/08/t...

reason.com

The American prison experiment: A 250-year history of good intentions and bad results

A strange trip through the U.S. prison system's never-ending cycle of failure and reform

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pixelatedboat aka “mr bluesky” @pixelatedboat.bsky.social · 07/09/2026

Historian here. Let me explain how in the past far-right parties in Germany have caused problems not only for their own country, but for other countries as well: (1/?)

Far-right AfD wins historic victory in German state

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Leah Litman @leahlitman.bsky.social · 02/09/2026

I have a piece in the Atlantic about SCOTUS’s ballroom order - and how the Court has a very wrongheaded and destructive account of the separation of powers www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2026/0...

“The court is totally wrong on separation of powers”

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Taylor Kordsiemon @tkords.bsky.social · 30/08/2026

When I attended BYU as an undergrad, I had to get an ecclesiastical endorsement from my local LDS leaders. As I recall, I had to generally assert belief in LDS doctrine. I recently interviewed for an adjunct constitutional law spot, and the new process is different.

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Taylor Kordsiemon @tkords.bsky.social · 28/08/2026

Can’t end slavery unless there is slavery to end, I guess.

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Taylor Kordsiemon @tkords.bsky.social · 28/08/2026

And signed into law a blatant partisan gerrymander that overturned a citizen initiative banning partisan gerrymandering. And said that if we didn’t like it we should try wining elections. And retaliated against the Utah Supreme Court after it struck the gerrymander down. “Disagree better” my ass.

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Kyle Cheney @kyledcheney.bsky.social · 28/08/2026

JUST IN: Judge Talwani has again blocked the Trump administration's mail-in ballot overhaul for the 2026 elections, saying it imposes onerous requirements and threatens to disenfranchise voters / harm states. storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...

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Sam Bagenstos @sbagen.bsky.social · 28/08/2026

I bet Sam Alito would tell us this "could rest on race-neutral justifications."

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Bill Kristol @billkristolbulwark.bsky.social · 25/08/2026

Terrible. "By the time the U.S. began attacking Iran, Central Command, which said it needed a minimum of nine of its 16 [civilian protection] staffers to function, was left with one person...A U.S. airstrike hit a school, killing more than 100 children." www.propublica.org/article/hegs...

propublica.org

Top Commanders Told Hegseth Not to Cut Civilian Protection Program, Poll Showed. He Did It Anyway.

The U.S. military has killed hundreds of noncombatants since gutting its Civilian Harm Mitigation and Response mission last year. After significant blowback, the Defense Department is considering part...

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Mayor Zohran Kwame Mamdani @mayor.nyc.gov · 25/08/2026

This is truly heartbreaking. Dolly Parton was an extraordinary person and an irreplaceable champion of the working class. We are a better country because of her.

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Taylor Kordsiemon @tkords.bsky.social · 25/08/2026

Simply cancelling public debt is also a legal impossibility insofar as the debt is owed to individuals and entities in the United States. That would be a taking, which requires just compensation, which would mean having to pay the debt, which cancels out the cancellation.

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Taylor Kordsiemon @tkords.bsky.social · 24/08/2026

Pray these numbers for Trump’s approval rating hold: Nevada: -27 Texas: -22 Florida: -18 Ohio: -26 Wisconsin: -28 Michigan: -27 North Carolina: -25 Georgia: -31 www.economist.com/interactive/...

economist.com

Donald Trump’s approval rating

Follow our presidential approval rating poll tracker to see how favourably Americans view Mr Trump

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Nicholas Grossman @nicholasgrossman.bsky.social · 22/08/2026

I don’t think a good definition of “viewpoint diversity” is “you must lower your standards specifically for anti-science, anti-truth, bigots, and fascists — a healthy intellectual community needs those voices and they can’t clear the bar otherwise.”

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Taylor Kordsiemon @tkords.bsky.social · 20/08/2026

D-grade Harvey Spectre lookin ass.

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Taylor Kordsiemon @tkords.bsky.social · 19/08/2026

For anyone else who loved the works of Neil Gaiman and were sad to discover he’s a bad, bad person, might I recommend “Kraken” by China Miéville. It is whimsically weird and culty and tentacles and darkly hilarious. I’m about halfway through and it is filling the Gaiman-sized hole in my heart.

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juliacurlee.bsky.social @juliacurlee.bsky.social · 17/08/2026

The White House fired me for being transgender. In 2013 I became the first CIA officer to successfully transition. I worked for Mike Pence for a year. Then I volunteered to serve the second Trump White House.

theatlantic.com

The Wrong Kind of American

The Trump White House needed me—until the fact that I am trans became public.

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juliacurlee.bsky.social @juliacurlee.bsky.social · 17/08/2026

They needed me, and they knew from my first day. It wasn’t a problem until it was public — and then nothing else mattered. I was the wrong kind of American. What makes this country worth serving is that a trans kid from Hawaii could end up in the West Wing. Twice. I’m done being invisible.

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Taylor Kordsiemon @tkords.bsky.social · 16/08/2026

Wife’s response when I told her that we weren’t getting the drinks we ordered with our pickup.

Horchata machine isn’t working. Soda machine is dispensing non-carbonated soda

Lemonade is out

Another day in Donald trumps America

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Jørgen Heszlein @heszlein.bsky.social · 12/08/2026

New estimate of Elon Musk’s death toll just dropped www.thelancet.com/journals/lan...

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Taylor Kordsiemon @tkords.bsky.social · 11/08/2026

Not only would this not work, it would directly incentivize more invasions and violations of international law. If your reaction to international invasions is to negotiate, you are telling the invaders that you are willing to give them something every time they invade another country.

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Taylor Kordsiemon @tkords.bsky.social · 10/08/2026

If I were Royce White, I would simply avoid drawing unnecessary attention to my career in professional basketball.

Royce White’s NBA regular season statistics. He played 3 games for Sacramento in the 2013–14 season.

3 MPG
.000 FG%
0 RPG
0 APG
0 SPG
0 BPG
0 PPG

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Taylor Kordsiemon @tkords.bsky.social · 10/08/2026

Trump out here with a wax prop from a b-horror flick attached to his elbow.

Close up shot of Trump’s arm while he walks at a golf course. It’s ghastly.

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Taylor Kordsiemon @tkords.bsky.social · 08/08/2026

Three seconds. That’s all it took for me to go from a churchgoing man to someone who knows god is dead and we live in a cold, actively hostile universe.

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Taylor Kordsiemon @tkords.bsky.social · 07/08/2026

I’m at the Utah State Bar Convention, at which Governor Spencer Cox was originally supposed to be keynote speaker. Well color me shocked that he chickened out given the reception he would have received while he’s pulling this crap.

During his first term in office, Cox selected Hagen and Justice Jill Pohlman to fill his first two vacancies on the court. After that, the Legislature changed the makeup of the Appellate Nominating Commission, which vets judges.
Since that time, there had not been a woman among the 19 finalists for the last three open spots on the high court. But the governor said earlier this year that any suggestion that women weren't being given fair consideration is an "insane narrative."
"It doesn't fit," he said. "I don't go into this looking at your chromosomes when I'm making an appointment. I'm trying to find the best legal minds who will represent the state of Utah."

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Jonathon M. Floyd @jfloyd314.bsky.social · 07/08/2026

The disappointing thing about Curtis is that he was one of the last elected Republicans I genuinely believed *didn't* suck. I expected him to be Romney 2.0, and while he isn't an openly fascist nutcase on the order of Mike Lee, he has been a reliable rubber stamp for all of Trump's worst appointees.

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