Nate Bowling
@natebowling.com
Teaching Political Science and World History in Abu Dhabi — Skeets mainly about the Seattle Sounders, the state of the world, and my generalized grumpiness
https://buttondown.com/natebowling
https://buttondown.com/natebowling
Pinned
Nate Bowling
@natebowling.com
· Nov 15
Nerd Farmer Podcast Guests
Join the conversation
go.bsky.app
If you're new to Bluesky, I made Starter Pack with past guests on my podcast, Nerd Farmer, that are on here. There's a heap of authors, journalists, academics & educators, and folks from the civic scene in the PNW.
go.bsky.app/L57tdFK
go.bsky.app/L57tdFK
When we talk about affordability we're largely talking about rising prices but that's only one side of the ledger.
On the other side is wages.
Wall Street serially rewards firms that pay poverty wages and do layoffs right in time for the earnings call.
buttondown.com/natebowling/...
On the other side is wages.
Wall Street serially rewards firms that pay poverty wages and do layoffs right in time for the earnings call.
buttondown.com/natebowling/...
When Labor Won, Wall Street Revolted: Affordability Part 3
Welcome to the rare midweek edition of Takes & Typos. I am coming to you today because last Thursday Hope had a minor surgical procedure and I spent most of...
buttondown.com
November 26, 2025 at 4:24 PM
When we talk about affordability we're largely talking about rising prices but that's only one side of the ledger.
On the other side is wages.
Wall Street serially rewards firms that pay poverty wages and do layoffs right in time for the earnings call.
buttondown.com/natebowling/...
On the other side is wages.
Wall Street serially rewards firms that pay poverty wages and do layoffs right in time for the earnings call.
buttondown.com/natebowling/...
Reposted by Nate Bowling
In October, statewide news reported that a sheriff's deputy in Texas searched thousands of Flock cameras in Washington for 'Had an abortion, search for female.’ New documents obtained by RANGE show Spokane County Sheriff's Office cameras were accessed in that search:
Texas deputy searched Spokane County Flock cameras for a woman who had an abortion– RANGE Media
Amidst nationwide and state scrutiny of the cameras, Spokane County’s Flock network was used by an out-of-state cop looking for a woman who had an abortion.
rangemedia.co
November 26, 2025 at 2:09 AM
In October, statewide news reported that a sheriff's deputy in Texas searched thousands of Flock cameras in Washington for 'Had an abortion, search for female.’ New documents obtained by RANGE show Spokane County Sheriff's Office cameras were accessed in that search:
If you're reading this you very likely follow the Seattle Sounders and get tons of free coverage from @jeremiah.sounderatheart.com.
Quality media is worth paying for. Give that man his money.
Quality media is worth paying for. Give that man his money.
If you’re already a subscriber and want to get some shopping done early, you can also buy a Supporters membership as a gift for the same discount: www.sounderatheart.com/gift-subscri...
November 26, 2025 at 4:20 AM
If you're reading this you very likely follow the Seattle Sounders and get tons of free coverage from @jeremiah.sounderatheart.com.
Quality media is worth paying for. Give that man his money.
Quality media is worth paying for. Give that man his money.
Reposted by Nate Bowling
Heading to Budapest with @natebowling.com this weekend. If you've got food/beverage recs or off the beaten path type things, hit us up!
November 25, 2025 at 6:31 PM
Heading to Budapest with @natebowling.com this weekend. If you've got food/beverage recs or off the beaten path type things, hit us up!
Here's my conversation with Jason Wilson about how the richest man on the planet is using his racist LLM to build and even more racist Wikipedia competitor.
This is episode 253 of the podcast, IYKYK.
open.spotify.com/episode/3jkq...
This is episode 253 of the podcast, IYKYK.
open.spotify.com/episode/3jkq...
November 25, 2025 at 3:46 PM
Here's my conversation with Jason Wilson about how the richest man on the planet is using his racist LLM to build and even more racist Wikipedia competitor.
This is episode 253 of the podcast, IYKYK.
open.spotify.com/episode/3jkq...
This is episode 253 of the podcast, IYKYK.
open.spotify.com/episode/3jkq...
Apropos of everything, here's a guide for breaking up with Chrome, Google Search, and their ever increasing flow of AI slop.
buttondown.com/natebowling/...
buttondown.com/natebowling/...
Breaking Up with Google Search
Today's newsletter is a bit of a hodgepodge. Hope and I are back in Tacoma and spending quality time with family along with attending our usual events and...
buttondown.com
November 25, 2025 at 3:18 AM
Apropos of everything, here's a guide for breaking up with Chrome, Google Search, and their ever increasing flow of AI slop.
buttondown.com/natebowling/...
buttondown.com/natebowling/...
I interviewed Guardian Correspondent @jasonaw.bsky.social today about Elon Musk's racist ideological project via X, Grok, and the new Grokipedia.
The whole thing is so bleak and clearly awful, I found myself at a loss at times in the conversation.
The whole thing is so bleak and clearly awful, I found myself at a loss at times in the conversation.
November 24, 2025 at 6:15 PM
I interviewed Guardian Correspondent @jasonaw.bsky.social today about Elon Musk's racist ideological project via X, Grok, and the new Grokipedia.
The whole thing is so bleak and clearly awful, I found myself at a loss at times in the conversation.
The whole thing is so bleak and clearly awful, I found myself at a loss at times in the conversation.
Reposted by Nate Bowling
Local elections aren’t failing, our information ecosystem is.
This week’s Olympia Time digs into how confusion beats big ideas when local media is thin, plus updates on The Olympia Standard’s new direction and what to read next.
Subscribe for clarity.
buttondown.com/OlympiaTime/...
This week’s Olympia Time digs into how confusion beats big ideas when local media is thin, plus updates on The Olympia Standard’s new direction and what to read next.
Subscribe for clarity.
buttondown.com/OlympiaTime/...
Confusion wins
I left the election season and didn’t send this newsletter for a few weeks. Mostly because I was fiddling with the tool to send it with, was traveling and...
buttondown.com
November 23, 2025 at 3:23 PM
Local elections aren’t failing, our information ecosystem is.
This week’s Olympia Time digs into how confusion beats big ideas when local media is thin, plus updates on The Olympia Standard’s new direction and what to read next.
Subscribe for clarity.
buttondown.com/OlympiaTime/...
This week’s Olympia Time digs into how confusion beats big ideas when local media is thin, plus updates on The Olympia Standard’s new direction and what to read next.
Subscribe for clarity.
buttondown.com/OlympiaTime/...
Reposted by Nate Bowling
November 23, 2025 at 9:42 AM
I desperately need the US to stop having news for a while
November 22, 2025 at 8:35 AM
I desperately need the US to stop having news for a while
My school recently instituted a phone free campus policy for students and by the end of the second week boys were huddled in circles during breaks showing and teaching each other close magic and card tricks.
November 21, 2025 at 7:17 PM
My school recently instituted a phone free campus policy for students and by the end of the second week boys were huddled in circles during breaks showing and teaching each other close magic and card tricks.
Thinking about young professionals today likely heading into their first major market correction.
This is the 2008/9 Great Recession bottom and the total US market ever since.
When the AI bubble pops the market will tumble but selling locks in a loss.
This is the 2008/9 Great Recession bottom and the total US market ever since.
When the AI bubble pops the market will tumble but selling locks in a loss.
November 21, 2025 at 3:00 AM
Thinking about young professionals today likely heading into their first major market correction.
This is the 2008/9 Great Recession bottom and the total US market ever since.
When the AI bubble pops the market will tumble but selling locks in a loss.
This is the 2008/9 Great Recession bottom and the total US market ever since.
When the AI bubble pops the market will tumble but selling locks in a loss.
Announcement: If you teach an American Government course, you should be prepared for QUESTIONS today.
This email drop has taken ahold of the students as hard as anything since January 6.
They caught me all the way off-guard.
This email drop has taken ahold of the students as hard as anything since January 6.
They caught me all the way off-guard.
November 17, 2025 at 8:55 AM
Announcement: If you teach an American Government course, you should be prepared for QUESTIONS today.
This email drop has taken ahold of the students as hard as anything since January 6.
They caught me all the way off-guard.
This email drop has taken ahold of the students as hard as anything since January 6.
They caught me all the way off-guard.
Reposted by Nate Bowling
"When we talk about consumer prices rising much faster than inflation, we are talking about a wealth transfer from Main Street to Wall Street."
A number of people equal to the population of Taiwan get their insurance from ACA exchanges.
The fallout from this week's "let them eat cake" capitulation will rock these families financially.
It's another brick in the wall of unaffordability and soaring costs.
buttondown.com/natebowling/...
The fallout from this week's "let them eat cake" capitulation will rock these families financially.
It's another brick in the wall of unaffordability and soaring costs.
buttondown.com/natebowling/...
The High Cost of Capitulation
I’m going to keep today’s newsletter relatively brief because we are traveling. We’re on our way back from a weekend in Al Ain, in the interior of UAE. It is...
buttondown.com
November 16, 2025 at 4:54 PM
"When we talk about consumer prices rising much faster than inflation, we are talking about a wealth transfer from Main Street to Wall Street."
A number of people equal to the population of Taiwan get their insurance from ACA exchanges.
The fallout from this week's "let them eat cake" capitulation will rock these families financially.
It's another brick in the wall of unaffordability and soaring costs.
buttondown.com/natebowling/...
The fallout from this week's "let them eat cake" capitulation will rock these families financially.
It's another brick in the wall of unaffordability and soaring costs.
buttondown.com/natebowling/...
The High Cost of Capitulation
I’m going to keep today’s newsletter relatively brief because we are traveling. We’re on our way back from a weekend in Al Ain, in the interior of UAE. It is...
buttondown.com
November 16, 2025 at 3:25 PM
A number of people equal to the population of Taiwan get their insurance from ACA exchanges.
The fallout from this week's "let them eat cake" capitulation will rock these families financially.
It's another brick in the wall of unaffordability and soaring costs.
buttondown.com/natebowling/...
The fallout from this week's "let them eat cake" capitulation will rock these families financially.
It's another brick in the wall of unaffordability and soaring costs.
buttondown.com/natebowling/...
We did a nostalgia movie weekend trip with some friends. Each of us picked one film we hella messed with when we were younger to see how they stood up.
Here's the reviews...
Here's the reviews...
November 16, 2025 at 7:58 AM
We did a nostalgia movie weekend trip with some friends. Each of us picked one film we hella messed with when we were younger to see how they stood up.
Here's the reviews...
Here's the reviews...
Elite class solidarity is an under discussed sociological force driving American decline
November 15, 2025 at 1:11 PM
Elite class solidarity is an under discussed sociological force driving American decline
The Biden DOJ had access to all these files and didn't release them. Someone help me understand because I don't get it.
November 14, 2025 at 2:06 AM
The Biden DOJ had access to all these files and didn't release them. Someone help me understand because I don't get it.
During the latter Bush years, my thanks for doing anti-war organizing was a federal informant infiltrating our veteran's organization, and a Black van spending excessive time outside of my apartment and the house of the local anarchist kids.
Where's my check?
Where's my check?
A handful of GOP senators want a half million bucks each because their cellphone records were lawfully subpoenaed by Jack Smith. Imagine how much they’d be demanding if they were actually victimized by government thugs
NEW: @propublica.org investigated the Chicago apartment raid where kids were zip-tied and citizens detained for hours. They find:
- NONE of the arrested were criminally charged
- NO evidence the building was "filled with TdA terrorists."
- ZERO legitimate reason for DHS to rappel from a Blackhawk.
- NONE of the arrested were criminally charged
- NO evidence the building was "filled with TdA terrorists."
- ZERO legitimate reason for DHS to rappel from a Blackhawk.
November 13, 2025 at 3:54 PM
During the latter Bush years, my thanks for doing anti-war organizing was a federal informant infiltrating our veteran's organization, and a Black van spending excessive time outside of my apartment and the house of the local anarchist kids.
Where's my check?
Where's my check?
Unless you're headed for a specialty where writing is central, for instance law, the typical kid entering university needs to be able to competently write something in the neighborhood of a thousand words.
That can be taught, delivered on demand, and assessed, all fully sans AI.
That can be taught, delivered on demand, and assessed, all fully sans AI.
November 13, 2025 at 2:54 AM
Unless you're headed for a specialty where writing is central, for instance law, the typical kid entering university needs to be able to competently write something in the neighborhood of a thousand words.
That can be taught, delivered on demand, and assessed, all fully sans AI.
That can be taught, delivered on demand, and assessed, all fully sans AI.
Reposted by Nate Bowling
November 12, 2025 at 3:29 AM
Reposted by Nate Bowling
Read the replies — just crazy, income-devouring jumps in what people on the exchanges will pay for health coverage. I do hope Republicans and Dems who have made this possible understand the tsunami of electoral rage that’s about to hit them
My ACA current plan is going from $385/mo to $821/mo.
November 11, 2025 at 3:12 AM
Read the replies — just crazy, income-devouring jumps in what people on the exchanges will pay for health coverage. I do hope Republicans and Dems who have made this possible understand the tsunami of electoral rage that’s about to hit them
My intro to noir novels was via the Southern variety, by way of Elmore Leonard.
I hadn't read James Ellroy, nor given him much thought until @jordanharper.bsky.social mentioned him in an interview this summer.
I cracked into "LA Confidential" today and holy hell, I get it! It goes hard as hell.
I hadn't read James Ellroy, nor given him much thought until @jordanharper.bsky.social mentioned him in an interview this summer.
I cracked into "LA Confidential" today and holy hell, I get it! It goes hard as hell.
November 10, 2025 at 3:39 PM
My intro to noir novels was via the Southern variety, by way of Elmore Leonard.
I hadn't read James Ellroy, nor given him much thought until @jordanharper.bsky.social mentioned him in an interview this summer.
I cracked into "LA Confidential" today and holy hell, I get it! It goes hard as hell.
I hadn't read James Ellroy, nor given him much thought until @jordanharper.bsky.social mentioned him in an interview this summer.
I cracked into "LA Confidential" today and holy hell, I get it! It goes hard as hell.
There was a story in the WSJ last week about a guy from California in his 60s whose ACA premiums are going to jump to $35,000 a year.
Or he can move overseas for six months and a day per year and get travel insurance that also works domestically for $700 per month or $8,400.
Or he can move overseas for six months and a day per year and get travel insurance that also works domestically for $700 per month or $8,400.
November 10, 2025 at 1:34 AM
There was a story in the WSJ last week about a guy from California in his 60s whose ACA premiums are going to jump to $35,000 a year.
Or he can move overseas for six months and a day per year and get travel insurance that also works domestically for $700 per month or $8,400.
Or he can move overseas for six months and a day per year and get travel insurance that also works domestically for $700 per month or $8,400.
Reposted by Nate Bowling
Instead of calling the Democrats losers, you might consider that their definition of winning is not what you hope it is
November 10, 2025 at 1:21 AM
Instead of calling the Democrats losers, you might consider that their definition of winning is not what you hope it is