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Steve Olson

@steveolson.bsky.social

1.5K followers 610 following 3.6K posts

Humble ad guy. potato influencer. whiskey & cephalopod obsessed. expat minnesotan. Novice wine drinker and bonsai... uh... keeper? Sportsball: Vikings, Tottenham, Bath Rugby.

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Steve Olson @steveolson.bsky.social · Jan 10

Damn, "Hurricane Season" was dark.. A perfect book to kick off the 2025 Reading Season. I did struggle with how to feel about it, but reading @jcljules.bsky.social's 2020 review citing Marlon James' quote about the need to risk "pornography" in describing the impacts of violence helped. #booksky

Cover image of "Hurricane Season" by Fernanda Melchor

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Reposted by Steve Olson

Kevin M. Kruse @kevinmkruse.bsky.social · 4h

Portland, you magnificent weirdos

Tim Dickinson @timdickinson.bsky.social · 4h

Live from the Emergency Naked Bike Ride 🚲 where the crowd hase just erupted in cheers with the arrival of the Unipipier

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Brendan Nyhan @brendannyhan.bsky.social · 9h

Both can be true:
1. Many bad faith actors are trying to impose conservative viewpoints on academia and should be resisted as threats to academic freedom
2. Viewpoint diversity (broadly defined) is good for free inquiry scatter.wordpress.com/2025/10/07/t... eternallyradicalidea.com/p/is-higher-...

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jamelle @jamellebouie.net · 11h

a key thing about vought — and all of these guys — is that they have a totally top down and hierarchical vision of the world. they believe that the cultural changes they hate can be turned off by destroying the federal government because they can’t imagine that they emerged bottom-up in society

Thomas Zimmer @thomaszimmer.bsky.social · 12h

What he’s railing against is a profound shift in culture, status… He’s obsessed with the idea that America is controlled by a leftist “ruling elite” - but “elite” isn’t defined socio-economically or by political power, it means something like: Getting to define “real America” and who gets to belong.

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Steve Olson @steveolson.bsky.social · 21h

this is the most american thing ever.

Lynn Becker @cmgiulini.bsky.social · 1d

After spending 43 years in prison for a crime he didn't commit, evidence hidden by the prosecution reversed his conviction. Rather than finally enjoying freedom, ICE abducted him for deportation

Depraved.

www.miamiherald.com/news/local/i...

He was wrongfully imprisoned for 43 years. Moments after being released, ICE took him

Subramanyam “Subu” Vedam now faces deportation.

www.miamiherald.com

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Evan Sutton @evansutton.bsky.social · 21h

The antichrist, famously, hates wealth. For, as Jesus said, it is easier to pass a camel through the eye of a needle than to deny the righteous man who has amassed incomprehensible wealth while millions starve his ticket into heaven

Seth Cotlar @sethcotlar.bsky.social · 22h

Multi billionaire conducts months of historical and theological research into the Antichrist. Discovers, shockingly, that one thing the Antichrist would definitely do is tax billionaires. www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...

Done
theguardian.com
呃
Jump to
He believes the Armageddon will be ushered in by an antichrist-type figure who cultivates a fear of existential threats such as climate change, Al and nuclear war to amass inordinate power. The idea is this figure will convince people to do everything they can to avoid something like a third world war, including accepting a one-world order charged with protecting everyone from the apocalypse that implements a complete restriction of technological progress. In his mind, this is already happening. Thiel said that international financial bodies, which make it more difficult for people to shelter their wealth in tax havens, are one sign the antichrist may be amassing power and hastening Armageddon, saying: "It's become quite difficult to hide one's money."

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Piper @yourfriendpiper.bsky.social · 1d

I love this piece and glad this part was noted: "The question of who wins or who loses in Triangle Posting Politics is divorced from material conditions, justice, or the common good."

sarah jeong @sarahjeong.bsky.social · 1d

I have a theory www.theverge.com/policy/79849...

American politics has devolved into shitposting and aura farming

The Frog is owning the president.

www.theverge.com

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Steve Olson @steveolson.bsky.social · 1d

“It is right to seek peace for the dead. You and I both know there is no peace for those who live after.” “No,” Achilles whispers. - this, for some reason, nearly brought me to tears. #booksky

image of the cover of madeline miller’s novel, “The Song of Achilles”

Reposted by Steve Olson

Matt Ortega @mattortega.com · 1d

They really don’t give a shit. If they think it helps people or costs big business money, they don’t want it. They are ideologically opposed to the mere concept of collective action. Meanwhile the technofascists who want to head their own Network State fiefdoms are fully ob board.

Scott Hanselman 🌮 @scott.hanselman.com · 1d

WTF is their goal? Small government means every man for themselves when the next catastrophe hits? What is the point? Government isn’t a business, it’s a service for the people. You’re saving minimal money with these cuts and only hurting literally everyone

Sheryl Gay Stolberg @sherylnyt.bsky.social · 1d

BREAKING: Friday night massacre underway at CDC. Doznes of "disease detectives," high-level scientists, entire Washington staff and editors of the MMWR (Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report) have all been RIFed and received the following notice:

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Justin @sitkaworldsfair.bsky.social · 1d

I won’t be waiting for all the columnists who misrepresented and concern-trolled about DEI programs to start railing against oligarch nepotism even though it actually *does* put unqualified people in jobs they haven’t earned.

Scott Horton @robertscotthorton.bsky.social · 1d

Trump said he deserved a cut for brokering the TikTok deal, and at once there was agreement that his son Baron would have a top executive slot... though he hasn't asked for it, and has no apparent qualifications to hold it. This is how Trump 2.0 works. www.telegraph.co.uk/us/news/2025...

Barron Trump tipped for top TikTok job

US president’s 19-year-old son could be appointed to the app’s board

www.telegraph.co.uk

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Steve Olson @steveolson.bsky.social · 1d

love the pull another fielder each inning!

Steve Olson @steveolson.bsky.social · 1d

RAISE THE DOUGIE

Steve Olson @steveolson.bsky.social · 1d

Starting to regret deciding to watch my first baseball game of the season today.

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Robby Kalland @rkalland.bsky.social · 1d

🕯️
🕯️ 🕯️
🕯️ position 🕯️

🕯️ players pitching in 🕯️

🕯️ a playoff game 🕯️
🕯️ 🕯️
🕯️

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Steve Olson @steveolson.bsky.social · 2d

the “frogs together strong” kills me.

Steve Olson @steveolson.bsky.social · 2d

not the point, but also… TAX DOLLARS SHOULDN’T COVER JUNIOR STAFFERS STAYING AT THE FOUR SEASONS

Anna Bower @annabower.bsky.social · 3d

Paul Ingrassia, Trump’s nominee to lead the office investigating Jack Smith, has recently been investigated for harassing a colleague, Politico reports.

“Eventually the woman discovered that Ingrassia had arranged ahead of time to have her hotel room canceled so she would have to stay with him..”

=
POLITICO
By DANIEL LIPPMAN
10/09/2025 08:22 PM EDT
f
In late July, Paul Ingrassia, the White House liaison for the Department of Homeland Security, arrived at a Ritz-Carlton in Orlando with a lower-ranking female colleague and others from their department. When the group reached the front desk, the woman learned she didn't have a hotel room.
Ingrassia then informed her that she would be staying with him, according to five administration officials familiar with the episode. Eventually the woman discovered that Ingrassia had arranged ahead of time to have her hotel room canceled so she would have to stay with him, three of those officials said.

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ArchPundit @archpundit.bsky.social · 2d

Punk bands played his stuff in the 80s, dipshit

The Wall Street Journal @wsj.com · 3d

Compared to Dylan and Springsteen, country-music legend Johnny Cash can seem deeply uncool. It took time for me to appreciate his profound, plainspoken strength, writes Jon Fasman.

Essay | Can We Finally Give Johnny Cash His Due?

Compared to Dylan and Springsteen, the country-music legend can seem deeply uncool. It took time for me to appreciate his profound, plainspoken strength.

on.wsj.com

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Steve Olson @steveolson.bsky.social · 3d

i prefer conspiracy connoisseur…

Steve Olson @steveolson.bsky.social · 3d

I so want this to be true, and after listening to TLOAS, I am feeling stronger about it.

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Steve Olson @steveolson.bsky.social · 3d

Was able to get MOSTLY off my phone (if you don't count navigation) for the last 2 weeks while I was on vacation, but frustratingly didn't make time to read at all.

Until the flight home, when I managed to get through about 75% of "Song of Achilles" which definitely lives up to the hype.

Steve Olson @steveolson.bsky.social · 3d

Honestly, 2025 is hard enough for everyone. Glad we don't have to find a way through it without Dolly Parton.

Reposted by Steve Olson

Don Moynihan @donmoyn.bsky.social · 4d

The elimination of USAID is a moral atrocity and all involved made a choice to enable, and then lie about, ending the lives of some of the most vulnerable people in the world.

MAE SOT, Thailand (AP) - Mohammed Taher clutched the lifeless body of his 2-year-old son and wept. Ever since his family's food rations stopped arriving at their internment camp in Myanmar in April, the father had watched helplessly as his once-vibrant baby boy weakened, suffering from diarrhea and begging for food.
On May 21, exactly two weeks after Taher's little boy died, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio sat before Congress and declared: "No one has died" because of his government's decision to gut its foreign aid program. Rubio also insisted: "No children are dying on my watch."
That, Taher says, "is a lie."

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Mark Copelovitch @mcopelov.bsky.social · 4d

Folks look at you like you're crazy when you say we're in the midst of the worst, most unprecedented Article I constitutional crisis in American history, & then this guy speaks again

Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 4d

Q: Do you agree that the mayor of Chicago and governor of Illinois should be in prison?

MIKE JOHNSON: Should they be in prison? I'm not the attorney general. I'm not following the day to day on that

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Adam Weinstein @adamweinstein.bsky.social · 6d

Kinda wild that Zach Bryan is to the left of CBS News today

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Steve Olson @steveolson.bsky.social · 5d

Dublin is amazing, but even I am going to balk at potato gelato. @darthbluesky.bsky.social were you aware of this?!

A gelato store sign reading: “ Sample our potato special.”