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dierken.bsky.social
Startup founder, angel investor, trying to be helpful
26 posts 32 followers 81 following
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Posts 21 Comments 22

This is how patronage systems work in totalitarian transition. Claw back all resources and then (in showy performances of beneficence) bestow them selectively to supplicants now in your debt. What once were public services become private favors.

submitted 4 days ago • 18 comments

Fun times on Substack

submitted 17 days ago • 0 comments

Much ado about the role of renewable energy (RE) in the Spanish blackout. The investigation into the effective cause is still ongoing, but many pointed to the fact that RE has no ‘inertia’. Is that true? The answer is: yes, but ... 🧵

submitted 44 days ago • 43 comments

1990s culture wars: We’re cancelling the Enola Gay exhibit bc veterans and historians can’t agree whether we should celebrate its role in ending WWII or critically assess the decision to use nuclear weapons 2020s culture wars: We’re cancelling the Enola Gay bc “gay” is a no-no word

submitted 100 days ago • 83 comments

Tuesday Tunes open.spotify.com/track/7hezq4...

submitted 116 days ago • 0 comments

This excellent interactive tutorial on misleading data visualizations explores the idea of a "counter chart" — the graph you draw in response to refute a misleading claims flowingdata.com/projects/dis...

submitted 120 days ago • 53 comments

Monday mood open.spotify.com/track/5hVT2a...

submitted 124 days ago • 0 comments

Another example of what cutting science funding is doing to our leading university research programs in the U.S.: dismantling things like the Soybean Innovation Lab at UIUC, which have made US crop yields dramatically higher.

submitted 126 days ago • 9 comments

Don't know why I have to point this out, but because this is social media: observing that gutting the US intelligence community helps the adversaries of the United States is not the same thing as enthusiastically endorsing every CIA black op and every NSA overreach of the past 75 years.

submitted 130 days ago • 14 comments

No one's blaming Democrats for causing this crisis, but yes, many of them are failing to meet this moment. One Democratic senator could bring the chamber to a halt. House Dems can go to fed agencies being gutted by Musk with cameras in tow. Governors can push back. State AGs can bring lawsuits.

submitted 133 days ago • 751 comments

A government that deliberately abandons the rule of law is not morally entitled to its protections.

submitted 133 days ago • 114 comments

Draw your own conclusions, but Donald Trump is not behaving like a leader who expects democratic accountability for himself or his party next year or in 2028.

submitted 133 days ago • 903 comments

The thing to understand about Trump is like in his first term, he doesn’t want to govern. He doesn’t want to learn. He wants to campaign and look good. Republicans know this. So there are battles going on right now to take control of the actual process of governing.

submitted 140 days ago • 4820 comments

Wish the Dems would understand this. The public opinion research is pretty clear that mass opinion follows the cues of their leaders. It's why every R believes there was mass fraud in 2020.

submitted 141 days ago • 14 comments

Do not let them tell you what a fascist salute is. Do not let them try to parse the very obvious words of the 14th Amendment. Tell them to shut up and move on. Being drawn into debates is playing their game

submitted 141 days ago • 0 comments

People on TikTok are reporting ICE raids happening in small cities in various states. To get past algorithmic censorship, they’re writing down the information on paper and holding up and shuffling through the handwritten signs as they talk about pretend subjects like shopping, food, and animals.

submitted 142 days ago • 422 comments

One thing about me is that I will fight Nazis until I’m six feet in the ground.

submitted 142 days ago • 4339 comments

Monday Morning Mood open.spotify.com/track/5kIdVC...

submitted 145 days ago • 0 comments

Fractured light

submitted 146 days ago • 0 comments

Evergreen post

submitted 146 days ago • 0 comments

“When you see that men get richer by graft and by pull than by work, and your laws don’t protect you against them, but protect them against you… you may know that your society is doomed.” — Francisco d’Anconia

submitted 211 days ago • 0 comments