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markshore.bsky.social
Mark Shore
@markshore.bsky.social
2.2K followers 1.2K following 5.6K posts
interests are politics, how states collapse, the media, and science, especially climate change, astronomy and geosciences

"A Republic, if you can keep it." Ben Franklin

photo: red sunset over the Pacific from the coast of Hawai'i
Posts Replies Media Videos
markshore.bsky.social
"Ladies, I'm here to give you a biological reality check."
Photo of Matt Goodwin, aspiring British Reform politician. He's a white male, maybe in his mid-thirties, with short brown hair and wearing a navy blue suit and pale blue tie. He's looking at the camera and smiling, showing his teeth. The overall effect is uncanny; the Goodwin-bot looks eerily human. photo from The Guardian
February 13, 2026 at 11:35 AM
markshore.bsky.social
yeah, well they thought that about cool indestructable Pierce Brosnan volcanologists in 1997, and it turned out there was only one of them
Still from Dante's Peak (1997) where Pierce Brosnan, wearing a denim shirt and sporting a field watch, is speaking on a cell phone on a sunny day, tree-covered Cascades hills in the background. Brosnan is very handsome by the standards of professional actors, which is obviously why he was cast for the part of a geologist.
February 2, 2026 at 7:42 PM
markshore.bsky.social
the same photo of a Cybertruck on a partly knocked down bollard between the front wheels on Reddit poster JayGatsby52 writes on r/CyberStuck Found on facebook. Owner says he "mistook the pedals. The horrible grammar/spelling and copium in the comments is incredible.
January 23, 2026 at 3:55 PM
markshore.bsky.social
and he's been keeping America safe since the 1950s too
color still of the Chief (Edward Platt) from the 1960s Get Smart TV series he is a balding middle-aged white man in a suit and tie, with a perpetually exasperated expression
January 23, 2026 at 1:36 PM
markshore.bsky.social
Saruman gestures to a palantir stone, telling Gandalf "and with this I can watch the evil plans of the Enemy"

irritated by their incessant chatter, Sauron leans out a window and shouts at them to keep the noise down
Bologna's landmark two towers, tall rectangular towers of light pinkish brown brick several hundred feet high, build by wealthy medieval families as a show of wealth. There were once many dozens of them, but only a few remain. The nearer one has been shortened in the past and is visibly leaning off vertical as its foundation crumbles, and is separated from street traffic by a ring of stacked steel cargo containers. It probably can't be saved. photo by me
January 22, 2026 at 10:17 PM
markshore.bsky.social
as was foreseen
black and white still from Dr. Strangelove (1964) with Air Force Major Kong (Slim Pickens) astride a nuclear bomb dropped from his damaged B-52 on a Soviet military base Kong, a Texan, is waving his non-military cowboy hat and gleefully yelling as he rides the bomb down like a bullrider however the explosion will trigger the Soviet's Doomsday Device, so it all ends in tears
January 19, 2026 at 5:06 PM
markshore.bsky.social
also millions affected by racialized felony disenfranchisement in the former Confederacy

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Felony_...
figure from Wikipedia of states colored by the percentage of voting age American citizens who have been disenfranchised due to a past felony conviction the states with the highest rates (Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, Tennessee, Kentucky, and Virgiana) are all former members of the Confederacy (Florida voters passed a constitutional amendment restoring voting rights that the Republican legislature and governor decided to ignore)
January 17, 2026 at 11:28 PM
markshore.bsky.social
let's see, large highly legible letters and numbers on a vest (and badge), like

Robert P. Nazi
ICE
ID 123456

or a QR code like this? tough call...
a small QR code symbol encoding the text in the post
January 14, 2026 at 5:49 PM
markshore.bsky.social
looks he triggered the contact switch on a tactical flashlight
detail of a screenshot from a bystander video of an ICE agent slipping and falling on an icy (haha) sidewalk... a colleague is reaching out, either to help or (they are ICE) instinctively moving to strike a vulnerable target what appears to be a flashlight is shining in front of his left leg and illuminating a patch of snow with bright yellowish light; based on the ambient light levels this seems to be early twilight
January 9, 2026 at 11:27 PM
markshore.bsky.social
*you* get a state, and *you* get a state, and you *all* get states!
low resolution screenshot of Oprah in a bright red dress, arms outstretched, yelling "you get a car, and you get a car, and you all get a car!" while giving out new cars to a studio audience in 2004 (it was a GM promotion and anyone who accepted had to pay a gift tax of about $7000)
January 8, 2026 at 9:17 PM
markshore.bsky.social
[spoilers]

one!
the same 29th Annual Great Backyard Bird Count poster as originally posted, but with the goldeneye duck circled in red as a silly joke
January 7, 2026 at 4:26 PM
markshore.bsky.social
geologically and geographically it's part of North America, although it may take a polar projection to make that more clear

politically, culturally, and economically, it is not
Google Earth view of the Northern Hemisphere centered on the narrow strait between Ellesmere Island and Greenland
January 7, 2026 at 3:36 PM
markshore.bsky.social
compare the candid photo on the left with the NYT's glamor photo on the right
color photo of Curtis Yarvin, a middle-aged white male with long messy hair, glasses, and a receding double chin, trying to look serious he's wearing a pale yellow golf shirt buttoned up to his neck under a pale blue collarless sport jacket(?) black and white headshot of Curtis Yarvin with collar-length hair, not wearing glasses, in a leather jacket, staring directly at the camera in an edgy way with his head tilted down to conceal his receding chin
January 6, 2026 at 5:12 PM
markshore.bsky.social
I don't read German but this is very funny for a construction technical report

begin at the beginning, I guess
photo (Figure 2 in the linked report) of a green tractor towing a red hay baler and a green trailer packed high with bales of hay, in a field of dry light brown hay under a partly cloudy sky
January 6, 2026 at 2:48 PM
markshore.bsky.social
keep up the pace, the top 10 is within sight!
[looks at the top 10]

wtf? and this is supposed to be the smart posters app??
screenshot of some of the current Bluesky top ten accounts (this is not a place of honor) 4 Mueller, She Wrote 5 George Conway 6 Ron Filipkowski 7 Mrs. Betty Bowers 8 Robert Reich 9 MeidasTouch
January 5, 2026 at 9:04 PM
markshore.bsky.social
RTVRN
black and white photo, New York City ca. 1924, Park Avenue, looking south. There are three lanes (including street parking) each way plus a wide central pedestrian median with plants and benches. Model T style cars are on the road, and women with children and baby carriages on the benches, as well as a number of pedestrians. A single cat is visible. All are now gone. RIP. 2024 Google Street View of Park Avenue (NYC) looking south from 54th St. After a century, only one or two buildings are recognizable.
January 3, 2026 at 12:37 AM
markshore.bsky.social
or a murder
the early Simpsons meme where a bunch of horrified children look on as (iirc) Homer beats up a clown one boy is pointing with his eyes squeezed shut saying "Stop! Stop! He's already dead!"
January 2, 2026 at 12:54 AM
markshore.bsky.social
"Something is going on with the electorate."
a two panel screenshot from a 1994 Simpsons episode Principal Skinner is looking puzzled. "Am I so out of touch?" In the next panel he settles it. "No, it's the children who are wrong."
December 31, 2025 at 8:33 PM
markshore.bsky.social
this meme but with the Libs of TikTok style stochastic terrorist in a pool of blood beside a video camera
a three panel cartoon in the first a young male is riding a bicyle and holding a long stick in the second panel he's inserting the stick between the spokes of the front wheel in the third panel he's crashed on the side of the road and is holding his knee in obvious pain it has been memed countless times, usually with text where he is blaming a third party who had nothing to do with any of this
December 31, 2025 at 8:22 PM
markshore.bsky.social
respectfully disagree... might have led to an entirely new leadership in Congress and eventually the White House
actor Terry Crews, a 6' 2" 250 lb former NFL player, playing President Dwayne Elizondo Mountain Dew Herbert Camacho in the 2006 film Idiocracy. He is a muscular black man with long straight hair past his shoulders. standing at a podium with an American/Brawndo flag backdrop, looking directly at the camera and wearing a tight sleeveless shirt with the presidential seal, and stars and stripes wrist bands, arm bands, and bandana
December 30, 2025 at 12:04 AM
markshore.bsky.social
would 100% watch
photo of me holding a paperback Barnes & Noble copy of The Voyage of the Beagle by Charles Darwin the cover illustration is a watercolor, HMS Beagle in the Murray Narrows, Beagle Channel [Tierra del Fuego] by Conrad Martens, the Beagle's ship artist
December 25, 2025 at 8:27 PM
markshore.bsky.social
I think someone joked around inspired by some of the early computational fluid dynamics simulations of aerosol dispersion of Covid
2022 tweet complimenting NBC for putting in the work, replying to another tweet about an NBC News report on the dispersal speed of farts illustrated by a computational fluid dynamics diagram with a seated and standing person
December 25, 2025 at 4:53 PM
markshore.bsky.social
a triple decker bacon cheeseburger with the bun laminated with edible(?) gold foil
December 24, 2025 at 8:12 PM
markshore.bsky.social
I think this individual's opinion of how other people should look and dress in public should carry a great deal of weight
a photo of Rod Dreher, a middle aged right-wing intellectual with messy hair, a gray and white beard, heavy black framed round glasses halfway down his nows, wearing an inexpensive blue, white and black checked shirt
December 18, 2025 at 11:04 PM
markshore.bsky.social
but the finance manager looks like this and you can't stop smiling as you sign the documents without reading the terms
Pikachu, a cuddly yellow pokemon with big upright ears like a fox and a lightning bolt shaped tail, smiling and waving
December 18, 2025 at 5:13 PM