Adam Pontius
@ampontius.bsky.social
Ph.D. Candidate @ceu IR, pol theory, and history. Research consultant, recovering campaign hack, and hockey fan.
Vienna/Belfast UK depending on the season.
https://dsps.ceu.edu/people/adam-pontius
Vienna/Belfast UK depending on the season.
https://dsps.ceu.edu/people/adam-pontius
Reposted by Adam Pontius
I wrote this song on Saturday, recorded it yesterday and released it to you today in response to the state terror being visited on the city of Minneapolis. It’s dedicated to the people of Minneapolis, our innocent immigrant neighbors and in memory of Alex Pretti and Renee Good.
Stay free
Stay free
Bruce Springsteen - Streets Of Minneapolis (Official Audio)
YouTube video by Bruce Springsteen
youtu.be
January 28, 2026 at 5:02 PM
I wrote this song on Saturday, recorded it yesterday and released it to you today in response to the state terror being visited on the city of Minneapolis. It’s dedicated to the people of Minneapolis, our innocent immigrant neighbors and in memory of Alex Pretti and Renee Good.
Stay free
Stay free
Reposted by Adam Pontius
When the CBP or ICE agent that Stephen Miller is trying to get killed dies, it is extremely important that every member of the media be told, repeatedly and loudly, that they wanted this and that people called it out in advance.
January 25, 2026 at 2:35 AM
When the CBP or ICE agent that Stephen Miller is trying to get killed dies, it is extremely important that every member of the media be told, repeatedly and loudly, that they wanted this and that people called it out in advance.
Reposted by Adam Pontius
I will just keep repeating. I have never never never seen anything like this. 30 years of reporting.
Have a larger story on this coming, but I’ve been embedded with this group, and this story from yesterday is part of what they’ve been doing in the city: religionnews.com/2026/01/22/h...
January 23, 2026 at 2:28 PM
I will just keep repeating. I have never never never seen anything like this. 30 years of reporting.
My wife and I have decided that ‘Yorgos’ ought to be its own genre of film.
There is just no clear category for what he does.
There is just no clear category for what he does.
January 9, 2026 at 8:43 PM
My wife and I have decided that ‘Yorgos’ ought to be its own genre of film.
There is just no clear category for what he does.
There is just no clear category for what he does.
Trump & Sons: providing coup d’états for very normal price since 2026.
What's happening in Venezuela isn't war, it's deal-making (and back-stabbing). As VP Delcy Rodriguez assumes power, let's re-read the Miami Herald's reporting that she negotiated with Trump in 2025 for this outcome - new boss, same regime - and that she's involved in drug trafficking herself. 1/
January 4, 2026 at 6:35 PM
Trump & Sons: providing coup d’états for very normal price since 2026.
I think this is fair. I don’t think it’s entirely accurate. Congress has restrained Trump’s instincts on NATO and Ukraine.
The issue is that GOP leadership doesn’t take issue with his policy on Latin America, so they’re very happy to let ‘carry the water.’
The issue is that GOP leadership doesn’t take issue with his policy on Latin America, so they’re very happy to let ‘carry the water.’
Trump is president to begin with because a critical share of Americans don't really care about norms and legalities. As a matter of politics, probably best to say that this was the act of a stupid and dishonest man, who doesn't really care about drugs, that could pull us into a deeper conflict.
January 3, 2026 at 4:31 PM
I think this is fair. I don’t think it’s entirely accurate. Congress has restrained Trump’s instincts on NATO and Ukraine.
The issue is that GOP leadership doesn’t take issue with his policy on Latin America, so they’re very happy to let ‘carry the water.’
The issue is that GOP leadership doesn’t take issue with his policy on Latin America, so they’re very happy to let ‘carry the water.’
To put a sharper edge on this: if you lean entirely on legal arguments then you will find yourself leaning on nothing if (when) the laws change (yes, even if they change illegally).
Moral argument first. Legal arguments in support. That’s good politics.
Moral argument first. Legal arguments in support. That’s good politics.
this isn’t a bad editorial board piece but—no they are not. Law is often quite bad and never coextensive with political morality. You shouldn’t turn your moral sense off because someone found a plausibly relevant OLC opinion. www.nytimes.com/2026/01/03/o...
January 3, 2026 at 3:29 PM
To put a sharper edge on this: if you lean entirely on legal arguments then you will find yourself leaning on nothing if (when) the laws change (yes, even if they change illegally).
Moral argument first. Legal arguments in support. That’s good politics.
Moral argument first. Legal arguments in support. That’s good politics.
Reposted by Adam Pontius
Maduro is a brutal and oppressive dictator of Venezuela.
Trump has no legitimate legal basis for military action against Venezuela under United States or international law.
Both of those facts are simultaneously true.
Trump has no legitimate legal basis for military action against Venezuela under United States or international law.
Both of those facts are simultaneously true.
January 3, 2026 at 9:00 AM
Maduro is a brutal and oppressive dictator of Venezuela.
Trump has no legitimate legal basis for military action against Venezuela under United States or international law.
Both of those facts are simultaneously true.
Trump has no legitimate legal basis for military action against Venezuela under United States or international law.
Both of those facts are simultaneously true.
Reposted by Adam Pontius
In Mexico, Bogota, and Brasilia, leaders are surely looking at this and asking if he can do it in Caracas, what's stopping him from doing it here. The same realization might take a bit longer in Ottawa, Copenhagen, and London.
Shredding what little remains of trust in the USA.
Shredding what little remains of trust in the USA.
January 3, 2026 at 11:51 AM
In Mexico, Bogota, and Brasilia, leaders are surely looking at this and asking if he can do it in Caracas, what's stopping him from doing it here. The same realization might take a bit longer in Ottawa, Copenhagen, and London.
Shredding what little remains of trust in the USA.
Shredding what little remains of trust in the USA.
Reposted by Adam Pontius
i think that people really underestimate reality that
1) administration has no doctrine, it is really about a single, mercurial, and half-awake man
2) the administration is a constantly churning system with factions that rise and fall contextually
3) might not have happened if trump tower caracas
1) administration has no doctrine, it is really about a single, mercurial, and half-awake man
2) the administration is a constantly churning system with factions that rise and fall contextually
3) might not have happened if trump tower caracas
January 3, 2026 at 11:15 AM
i think that people really underestimate reality that
1) administration has no doctrine, it is really about a single, mercurial, and half-awake man
2) the administration is a constantly churning system with factions that rise and fall contextually
3) might not have happened if trump tower caracas
1) administration has no doctrine, it is really about a single, mercurial, and half-awake man
2) the administration is a constantly churning system with factions that rise and fall contextually
3) might not have happened if trump tower caracas
Well I suspect this confirms that the National Security Strategy that was just released did in fact reflect some significant policy realities.
Can’t think of a much more horrifying way Trump could have demonstrated that.
Can’t think of a much more horrifying way Trump could have demonstrated that.
January 3, 2026 at 11:29 AM
Well I suspect this confirms that the National Security Strategy that was just released did in fact reflect some significant policy realities.
Can’t think of a much more horrifying way Trump could have demonstrated that.
Can’t think of a much more horrifying way Trump could have demonstrated that.
Tonight I'm remembering Melissa Hortman. She devoted her life to bettering politics by serving her community through civic life. That she was killed for her service makes us uglier as a people and dims whatever light is left in our city on the hill.
www.thecrimson.com/article/2025...
www.thecrimson.com/article/2025...
‘The Bravest Among Us’: HKS Peers and Instructors Remember Melissa Hortman, Slain Minnesota Representative | News | The Harvard Crimson
Minnesota state representative Melissa A. Hortman graduated from a Harvard Kennedy School program in 2018. Former instructors and classmates were left grieving when she was killed by an assassin’s bul...
www.thecrimson.com
September 11, 2025 at 8:59 PM
Tonight I'm remembering Melissa Hortman. She devoted her life to bettering politics by serving her community through civic life. That she was killed for her service makes us uglier as a people and dims whatever light is left in our city on the hill.
www.thecrimson.com/article/2025...
www.thecrimson.com/article/2025...
Reposted by Adam Pontius
As I would not be a slave, so I would not be a master. This expresses my idea of democracy. Whatever differs from this, to the extent of the difference, is no democracy.
—Abraham Lincoln
—Abraham Lincoln
July 14, 2025 at 12:09 AM
As I would not be a slave, so I would not be a master. This expresses my idea of democracy. Whatever differs from this, to the extent of the difference, is no democracy.
—Abraham Lincoln
—Abraham Lincoln
Reposted by Adam Pontius
Laertes: [sobs] Claudius: what a NUISANCE
www.english.cam.ac.uk/research/slo...
324 posts in and that's the end of Hamlet Act 4👀 Three RSC Gertrudes reconsidering their life choices as Laertes weeps and Claudius grumbles: Elizabeth Sellars (1961), Sian Thomas (2004), Penny Downie (2008)
www.english.cam.ac.uk/research/slo...
324 posts in and that's the end of Hamlet Act 4👀 Three RSC Gertrudes reconsidering their life choices as Laertes weeps and Claudius grumbles: Elizabeth Sellars (1961), Sian Thomas (2004), Penny Downie (2008)
August 28, 2025 at 8:36 AM
Laertes: [sobs] Claudius: what a NUISANCE
www.english.cam.ac.uk/research/slo...
324 posts in and that's the end of Hamlet Act 4👀 Three RSC Gertrudes reconsidering their life choices as Laertes weeps and Claudius grumbles: Elizabeth Sellars (1961), Sian Thomas (2004), Penny Downie (2008)
www.english.cam.ac.uk/research/slo...
324 posts in and that's the end of Hamlet Act 4👀 Three RSC Gertrudes reconsidering their life choices as Laertes weeps and Claudius grumbles: Elizabeth Sellars (1961), Sian Thomas (2004), Penny Downie (2008)
1. The more I watch academic discourse over LLMs in the more humanistic side of the social sciences that I inhabit, the more concerned I become that our anger of LLMs is obscuring our ability to understand what is really going on with mental illness and AI.
August 28, 2025 at 7:52 AM
1. The more I watch academic discourse over LLMs in the more humanistic side of the social sciences that I inhabit, the more concerned I become that our anger of LLMs is obscuring our ability to understand what is really going on with mental illness and AI.
Reposted by Adam Pontius
Admiring these early sketches & studies by Gustav Klimt ~ Study for Romeo in ‘Shakespeare’s Theatre’ + Head in Profile / Study of child / Study of a woman
August 24, 2025 at 6:01 AM
Admiring these early sketches & studies by Gustav Klimt ~ Study for Romeo in ‘Shakespeare’s Theatre’ + Head in Profile / Study of child / Study of a woman
When did it become ‘common sense’ in university governance that higher education ought to be revenue neutral?
I can’t think of anything in what university education had been historically that justifies this premise.
Too many of us allow it to stand in discourse unchallenged.
I can’t think of anything in what university education had been historically that justifies this premise.
Too many of us allow it to stand in discourse unchallenged.
August 24, 2025 at 9:14 AM
When did it become ‘common sense’ in university governance that higher education ought to be revenue neutral?
I can’t think of anything in what university education had been historically that justifies this premise.
Too many of us allow it to stand in discourse unchallenged.
I can’t think of anything in what university education had been historically that justifies this premise.
Too many of us allow it to stand in discourse unchallenged.
Reposted by Adam Pontius
If LLMs are widely being used to give legal, medical, and financial advice, why are they not being regulated accordingly
August 19, 2025 at 11:23 PM
If LLMs are widely being used to give legal, medical, and financial advice, why are they not being regulated accordingly
Your regular reminder that IQ is so useless as a standardized measurement that it’s been ‘reset’ multiple times because of an effect where successive generations score better and better on the tests.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flynn_e...
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flynn_e...
August 16, 2025 at 1:49 PM
Your regular reminder that IQ is so useless as a standardized measurement that it’s been ‘reset’ multiple times because of an effect where successive generations score better and better on the tests.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flynn_e...
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flynn_e...
The fact that the author of this piece apparently teaches professional ethics is appalling.
In which a Yale prof calls for jettisoning humanities to make way for science-only universities.
“scientists… are being punished for the sins of [humanities scholars] because we all live under one roof. I cannot see a compelling reason for our continued cohabitation.”
“scientists… are being punished for the sins of [humanities scholars] because we all live under one roof. I cannot see a compelling reason for our continued cohabitation.”
Unyoke the Sciences From the Humanities
Arts and sciences typically cohabitate. Should they?
thedispatch.com
August 14, 2025 at 2:32 PM
The fact that the author of this piece apparently teaches professional ethics is appalling.
Reposted by Adam Pontius
I’m sorry, but that is yet again very bad framing by the @nytimes.com. To say that Lula is “defying Trump” when Trump’s ask is stopping Bolsonaro’s prosecution, that’s BS. Lula literally *cannot* do that. www.nytimes.com/2025/07/30/w...
No One Is Defying Trump Like Brazil’s President
www.nytimes.com
July 30, 2025 at 3:15 PM
I’m sorry, but that is yet again very bad framing by the @nytimes.com. To say that Lula is “defying Trump” when Trump’s ask is stopping Bolsonaro’s prosecution, that’s BS. Lula literally *cannot* do that. www.nytimes.com/2025/07/30/w...
Reposted by Adam Pontius
Inevitably, there is a demographic for cyclists who get involved in actual incidents, and indeed confrontations over near misses. Would you like to guess? If you said “young men who don’t wear helmets” you get a prize.
August 6, 2025 at 11:40 AM
Inevitably, there is a demographic for cyclists who get involved in actual incidents, and indeed confrontations over near misses. Would you like to guess? If you said “young men who don’t wear helmets” you get a prize.
I’d push this a step further and argue that continual re-interpretation of political history (and political theory) is integral to healthy politics.
Even within traditional areas, like political history, there’s a ton of new interpretation that can be done. An LLM can’t answer questions about what’s incomplete in current scholarship and how to begin filling the gaps (such as trying to recover why 19th century voters switched party allegiance).
July 31, 2025 at 6:08 PM
I’d push this a step further and argue that continual re-interpretation of political history (and political theory) is integral to healthy politics.
Were Dante to have journeyed in our time, he would undoubtedly find a circle of purgatory where every lawyer and web programmer who made small adjustments to license agreements would be required to read the contracts aloud for every human being who their pop-up interrupted while doing other things.
July 31, 2025 at 1:26 PM
Were Dante to have journeyed in our time, he would undoubtedly find a circle of purgatory where every lawyer and web programmer who made small adjustments to license agreements would be required to read the contracts aloud for every human being who their pop-up interrupted while doing other things.
Reposted by Adam Pontius
I've lived in D.C. for the better part of two decades. Nearly my whole adult life. Something folks aren't talking about--a giant elephant in the room--is the amount of "brand protection" going on right now.
I don't mean fear of Trump or political persecution, although those can overlap.
(thread)
I don't mean fear of Trump or political persecution, although those can overlap.
(thread)
July 30, 2025 at 7:36 AM
I've lived in D.C. for the better part of two decades. Nearly my whole adult life. Something folks aren't talking about--a giant elephant in the room--is the amount of "brand protection" going on right now.
I don't mean fear of Trump or political persecution, although those can overlap.
(thread)
I don't mean fear of Trump or political persecution, although those can overlap.
(thread)