Nils Gilman
@nilsgilman.bsky.social
Historian of the intelligentsia. Adored by little statesmen, philosophers & divines. Deputy Editor @NoemaMag.com. Check out "Children of a Modest Star": https://www.sup.org/books/politics/children-modest-star. Posts my own
Reposted by Nils Gilman
What biology can teach us about the body politic: "The Sovereign Individual Does Not Exist" @nilsgilman.bsky.social
(Plus- The Origin of the Species)
Incorporating the interconnected: roughlydaily.com/2025/11/24/n...
(Plus- The Origin of the Species)
Incorporating the interconnected: roughlydaily.com/2025/11/24/n...
November 24, 2025 at 4:43 PM
What biology can teach us about the body politic: "The Sovereign Individual Does Not Exist" @nilsgilman.bsky.social
(Plus- The Origin of the Species)
Incorporating the interconnected: roughlydaily.com/2025/11/24/n...
(Plus- The Origin of the Species)
Incorporating the interconnected: roughlydaily.com/2025/11/24/n...
Reposted by Nils Gilman
This is one hell of a scenario, in the sense that it puts a tight timeline on a massive global shift ánd that one struggles to find a good counterpoint.
A new Cold War is coming based less on ideological difference than a clash over the metabolic basis of modern industrial society. Here's one scenario for how that could play out (my latest for the newly launched Antikythera journal from MIT Press): hemstacks.antikythera.org/climatelevia...
Hemispherical Stacks | Hemispherical Stacks
An exploration of planetary computation, emerging geopolitics, and Hemispherical Stacks—covering AI infrastructure, cloud platforms, sovereignty, and the future architecture of global power.
hemstacks.antikythera.org
November 25, 2025 at 11:16 AM
This is one hell of a scenario, in the sense that it puts a tight timeline on a massive global shift ánd that one struggles to find a good counterpoint.
Municipal corruption has been a huge issue in many times and places in U.S. history (Tammany Hall etc.).
But in terms of presidents, Trump is by far the most personally corrupt ever, and it’s not even debatable. Shame on the Beeb. www.theguardian.com/media/2025/n...
But in terms of presidents, Trump is by far the most personally corrupt ever, and it’s not even debatable. Shame on the Beeb. www.theguardian.com/media/2025/n...
Reith lecturer accuses BBC of censoring his remarks on Trump
Dutch writer Rutger Bregman says claim that Trump was ‘most openly corrupt president in US history’ was removed
www.theguardian.com
November 25, 2025 at 1:17 PM
Municipal corruption has been a huge issue in many times and places in U.S. history (Tammany Hall etc.).
But in terms of presidents, Trump is by far the most personally corrupt ever, and it’s not even debatable. Shame on the Beeb. www.theguardian.com/media/2025/n...
But in terms of presidents, Trump is by far the most personally corrupt ever, and it’s not even debatable. Shame on the Beeb. www.theguardian.com/media/2025/n...
$10,869/sf? Case study #22 that housing prices are out of control www.latimes.com/travel/story...
Iconic Stahl House, a Midcentury Modern stunner, up for sale
The Stahl House is selling for $25 million. The current owners say its tour program will continue for now.
www.latimes.com
November 25, 2025 at 12:21 PM
$10,869/sf? Case study #22 that housing prices are out of control www.latimes.com/travel/story...
While the old establishment elites were pretty rotten, the proposed new ones make the old ones look like paragons of probity and competence. These dipshits can’t even properly appoint people: www.politico.com/news/2025/11...
Comey, James cases dismissed as judge disqualifies interim US attorney Lindsey Halligan
A judge concluded Halligan’s appointment violated laws that limit the ability of DOJ to install top prosecutors without Senate confirmation.
www.politico.com
November 25, 2025 at 12:54 AM
While the old establishment elites were pretty rotten, the proposed new ones make the old ones look like paragons of probity and competence. These dipshits can’t even properly appoint people: www.politico.com/news/2025/11...
Reposted by Nils Gilman
There is a dawning realization, even within the Trumpian swamp of grift, that Kash Patel is turning out to be a clueless, ethically-tone deaf cretin. open.substack.com/pub/charlies...
Kash's Turn in the Barrel
Plus: MAGA's foreign troll farms
open.substack.com
November 24, 2025 at 4:33 PM
There is a dawning realization, even within the Trumpian swamp of grift, that Kash Patel is turning out to be a clueless, ethically-tone deaf cretin. open.substack.com/pub/charlies...
Declining hegemons often lash out in an attempt to shore up their remaining power in the world system (hello, Suez crisis) — a fact that “American exceptionalism” narratives make both likelier and hard to perceive.
November 24, 2025 at 6:51 PM
Declining hegemons often lash out in an attempt to shore up their remaining power in the world system (hello, Suez crisis) — a fact that “American exceptionalism” narratives make both likelier and hard to perceive.
We cannot build a future we cannot imagine
November 24, 2025 at 6:43 PM
We cannot build a future we cannot imagine
A new Cold War is coming based less on ideological difference than a clash over the metabolic basis of modern industrial society. Here's one scenario for how that could play out (my latest for the newly launched Antikythera journal from MIT Press): hemstacks.antikythera.org/climatelevia...
Hemispherical Stacks | Hemispherical Stacks
An exploration of planetary computation, emerging geopolitics, and Hemispherical Stacks—covering AI infrastructure, cloud platforms, sovereignty, and the future architecture of global power.
hemstacks.antikythera.org
November 24, 2025 at 4:31 PM
A new Cold War is coming based less on ideological difference than a clash over the metabolic basis of modern industrial society. Here's one scenario for how that could play out (my latest for the newly launched Antikythera journal from MIT Press): hemstacks.antikythera.org/climatelevia...
Rickey Henderson
Jason Kidd
Damian Lillard
Marshawn Lynch
Joe Morgan
Gary Payton
Frank Robinson
Bill Russell
Jason Kidd
Damian Lillard
Marshawn Lynch
Joe Morgan
Gary Payton
Frank Robinson
Bill Russell
November 24, 2025 at 3:30 AM
Rickey Henderson
Jason Kidd
Damian Lillard
Marshawn Lynch
Joe Morgan
Gary Payton
Frank Robinson
Bill Russell
Jason Kidd
Damian Lillard
Marshawn Lynch
Joe Morgan
Gary Payton
Frank Robinson
Bill Russell
Reposted by Nils Gilman
Dismantle the Heritage Foundation and build public housing on the rubble www.axios.com/2025/11/21/h...
Heritage report blasts Trump's record on deportations
"The American people voted for mass deportations. They're getting mass communications instead."
www.axios.com
November 22, 2025 at 4:40 PM
Dismantle the Heritage Foundation and build public housing on the rubble www.axios.com/2025/11/21/h...
QOTD: “The future is purchased by the present. It is not possible to secure distant or permanent happiness but by the forbearance of some immediate gratification.” - Samuel Johnson
November 22, 2025 at 3:25 PM
QOTD: “The future is purchased by the present. It is not possible to secure distant or permanent happiness but by the forbearance of some immediate gratification.” - Samuel Johnson
"Humans are exceptional in that so much [planetary] sapient agency is concentrated in our minds, cultural initiatives and artificial environments, but we are not exceptional in the sense that this puts us above or separate from planetary evolutionary & ecological realities." noocene.antikythera.org
The Noocene: Computation and Cosmology from Antikythera to AI
An exploration of planetary intelligence, tracing how computation and cosmology—from ancient mechanisms to AI—reshape Earth and its possible futures.
noocene.antikythera.org
November 22, 2025 at 3:13 PM
"Humans are exceptional in that so much [planetary] sapient agency is concentrated in our minds, cultural initiatives and artificial environments, but we are not exceptional in the sense that this puts us above or separate from planetary evolutionary & ecological realities." noocene.antikythera.org
Correct: "The principal problem with Kingsnorth’s analysis is that it mostly ignores the ways that those of us who live in the aftermaths of the industrial, scientific, sexual, and digital revolutions are all *already* cyborgs.” www.theatlantic.com/books/2025/1...
What a Cranky New Book About Progress Gets Right
Paul Kingsnorth argues that much of today’s culture is intent on eroding what it means to be human.
www.theatlantic.com
November 22, 2025 at 2:06 PM
Correct: "The principal problem with Kingsnorth’s analysis is that it mostly ignores the ways that those of us who live in the aftermaths of the industrial, scientific, sexual, and digital revolutions are all *already* cyborgs.” www.theatlantic.com/books/2025/1...
Democracy will not have been restored in this country until every dime of this sort of graft, plus interest and penalties, has been clawed back.
New from me: Trump and his allies have decided that they are the real victims of the criminal justice system.
And while restrictive immunity laws make it difficult for actual victims to get compensation, Trump plans to just skip the courts and start issuing taxpayer-funded "reparation" checks.
And while restrictive immunity laws make it difficult for actual victims to get compensation, Trump plans to just skip the courts and start issuing taxpayer-funded "reparation" checks.
MAGA's $300 million heist
Donald Trump supports immunity for cops and prosecutors. Unless they try to hold him and his allies accountable. Then we all have to pay Donald Trump.
open.substack.com
November 22, 2025 at 1:59 PM
Democracy will not have been restored in this country until every dime of this sort of graft, plus interest and penalties, has been clawed back.
Democracy will not be restored in this country until all of the political leaders responsible for these unlawful actions are prosecuted to the maximum extent of the law. These should be prosecuted for murder, among other things. www.washingtonpost.com/national-sec...
White House blew past legal concerns in deadly strikes on drug boats
The Trump administration sidestepped skeptical lawyers across national security agencies as it pursued a military campaign against alleged narcotraffickers, officials say.
www.washingtonpost.com
November 22, 2025 at 1:58 PM
Democracy will not be restored in this country until all of the political leaders responsible for these unlawful actions are prosecuted to the maximum extent of the law. These should be prosecuted for murder, among other things. www.washingtonpost.com/national-sec...
This storm is what we call progress
November 21, 2025 at 11:58 PM
This storm is what we call progress
Reposted by Nils Gilman
The good AND bad news is that Dems seem disinclined to do Merrick Garlandism all over again. But that means they’re going to have to prepare for a plot against America that’ll make the subversions of 2016, 2020, and 2024 seem quaint. www.offmessage.net/p/maga-disar...
November 21, 2025 at 4:35 PM
The good AND bad news is that Dems seem disinclined to do Merrick Garlandism all over again. But that means they’re going to have to prepare for a plot against America that’ll make the subversions of 2016, 2020, and 2024 seem quaint. www.offmessage.net/p/maga-disar...
Reposted by Nils Gilman
things happening on the other site you wouldn’t believe
November 21, 2025 at 4:52 AM
things happening on the other site you wouldn’t believe
Reposted by Nils Gilman
I don’t know if a president vowing to send the military after has political opponents meets the legal threshold for treason, but it comes a hell of a lot closer than saying that if so ordered, the military should refuse.
November 20, 2025 at 6:15 PM
I don’t know if a president vowing to send the military after has political opponents meets the legal threshold for treason, but it comes a hell of a lot closer than saying that if so ordered, the military should refuse.
"The fundamental theorem of algebra" is nowadays not considered as belonging to algebra
November 20, 2025 at 9:53 PM
"The fundamental theorem of algebra" is nowadays not considered as belonging to algebra
Reposted by Nils Gilman
They were advised that the policy was illegal, but they ignored and sidelined the top SOUTHCOM lawyer. Covering up inconvenient legal advice doesn’t make the act legal. Trump & Hegseth are testing for compliance with every illegal act. When they decide to shoot protesters, they want only obedience.
As we knew all along, these were murders.
“The lawyer at U.S. Southern Command, which oversees the operations against alleged drug-smuggling boats near Venezuela, disagreed that the strikes are legal and was overruled, according to six sources.”
“The lawyer at U.S. Southern Command, which oversees the operations against alleged drug-smuggling boats near Venezuela, disagreed that the strikes are legal and was overruled, according to six sources.”
Top military lawyer raised legal concerns about boat strikes
The lawyer at U.S. Southern Command, which oversees the operations against alleged drug-smuggling boats near Venezuela, disagreed that the strikes are legal and was overruled, according to six sources...
www.nbcnews.com
November 20, 2025 at 7:20 PM
They were advised that the policy was illegal, but they ignored and sidelined the top SOUTHCOM lawyer. Covering up inconvenient legal advice doesn’t make the act legal. Trump & Hegseth are testing for compliance with every illegal act. When they decide to shoot protesters, they want only obedience.
It's true that nooses and swastikas are only "potentially" divisive, because if you exclude Nazis and Klansmen from the service, then there's a strong consensus on what these things symbolize. www.washingtonpost.com/national-sec...
U.S. Coast Guard will no longer classify swastikas, nooses as hate symbols
The military service, which falls under the Department of Homeland Security, has drafted a new policy that classifies such items “potentially divisive.”
www.washingtonpost.com
November 20, 2025 at 9:39 PM
It's true that nooses and swastikas are only "potentially" divisive, because if you exclude Nazis and Klansmen from the service, then there's a strong consensus on what these things symbolize. www.washingtonpost.com/national-sec...
But the deep difficulty we face is that such outcomes, necessary as they are to restore the constitutional order, can themselves only be achieved extra-constitutionally. I am deeply unsure how to square that circle.
If a legitimate form of constitutionally-backed rule of law is ever to be restored, perpetrators MUST go to jail for these depredations, the money made MUST be clawed back, and the political enablers MUST be lustrated. The penalties must be so severe that no one will ever dare try this shit again.
When the top JAG at Southern Command told the Pentagon that their plans to blow up fishing boats based on suspicions that they might have drugs in the cargo hold was certainly illegal, Hegseth simply ignored him, while others told him his career was over. www.independent.co.uk/news/world/a...
November 20, 2025 at 6:53 PM
But the deep difficulty we face is that such outcomes, necessary as they are to restore the constitutional order, can themselves only be achieved extra-constitutionally. I am deeply unsure how to square that circle.
The IAEA shows that once an existential threat reveals itself as ungovernable by sovereign states alone, new post-sovereign governance architectures inevitably emerge. My latest (with Jon Blake): governtheplanet.org/case-study/i...
IAEA: A Proto-Planetary Institute • Planetary Compendium
This case explores the IAEA as an institutional prototype for planetary governance, through its transnational safeguards that limit state sovereignty.
governtheplanet.org
November 20, 2025 at 6:52 PM
The IAEA shows that once an existential threat reveals itself as ungovernable by sovereign states alone, new post-sovereign governance architectures inevitably emerge. My latest (with Jon Blake): governtheplanet.org/case-study/i...