Phil Klay
@philklay.bsky.social
Author of Redeployment, Missionaries, and Uncertain Ground: Citizenship in an Age of Endless, Invisible War. Teaches at Fairfield University MFA.
“I write for my country,
which no longer resembles itself –
except in the horizontal drawing of its name
and its position on the map.
…
I do not recognize this strange monster
where poems are prosecuted,
and poets are imprisoned.”
@penamerica.bsky.social pen.org/freedom-forb...
which no longer resembles itself –
except in the horizontal drawing of its name
and its position on the map.
…
I do not recognize this strange monster
where poems are prosecuted,
and poets are imprisoned.”
@penamerica.bsky.social pen.org/freedom-forb...
“Freedom Forbidden”: The Poets Behind Bars for Their Words
Since 1981, we have marked the Day of the Imprisoned Writer by sharing writers’ words to highlight the injustice of their imprisonment.
pen.org
November 25, 2025 at 6:34 PM
“I write for my country,
which no longer resembles itself –
except in the horizontal drawing of its name
and its position on the map.
…
I do not recognize this strange monster
where poems are prosecuted,
and poets are imprisoned.”
@penamerica.bsky.social pen.org/freedom-forb...
which no longer resembles itself –
except in the horizontal drawing of its name
and its position on the map.
…
I do not recognize this strange monster
where poems are prosecuted,
and poets are imprisoned.”
@penamerica.bsky.social pen.org/freedom-forb...
Reposted by Phil Klay
There seems to be this persistent and deeply incorrect sense that social media (which has made obfuscation and disinformation exponentially easier to pull off) has somehow slaked the collective thirst for factual information -- that news is obsolete
I don’t understand why Weiss thinks the desired outcome of CBS News coverage is debate.
November 25, 2025 at 5:08 PM
There seems to be this persistent and deeply incorrect sense that social media (which has made obfuscation and disinformation exponentially easier to pull off) has somehow slaked the collective thirst for factual information -- that news is obsolete
Something deeply moving about Lincoln making Thanksgiving a national holiday in the midst of the Civil War because we may “expect continuance of years with large increase of freedom” and “God, who, while dealing with us in anger for our sins, hath nevertheless remembered mercy.”
November 25, 2025 at 3:12 PM
Something deeply moving about Lincoln making Thanksgiving a national holiday in the midst of the Civil War because we may “expect continuance of years with large increase of freedom” and “God, who, while dealing with us in anger for our sins, hath nevertheless remembered mercy.”
Reposted by Phil Klay
The Secretary of Defense, ladies and gentlemen
November 25, 2025 at 1:23 PM
The Secretary of Defense, ladies and gentlemen
Reposted by Phil Klay
First Secretary of Defense you could defeat by painting a tunnel on the side of a boulder.
November 25, 2025 at 1:55 PM
First Secretary of Defense you could defeat by painting a tunnel on the side of a boulder.
“Here’s a wonderful thing for kids. Let’s attack it to get accolades from the biggest morons in our base.”
www.npr.org/2025/11/25/n...
www.npr.org/2025/11/25/n...
November 25, 2025 at 1:37 PM
“Here’s a wonderful thing for kids. Let’s attack it to get accolades from the biggest morons in our base.”
www.npr.org/2025/11/25/n...
www.npr.org/2025/11/25/n...
In which @philipchristman.bsky.social makes a compelling aesthetic objection to libertarianism
November 24, 2025 at 1:08 PM
In which @philipchristman.bsky.social makes a compelling aesthetic objection to libertarianism
Reposted by Phil Klay
This is another Section 111 case: www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2025/1...
They planned to force him to crash or shoot him for recording their crimes. They then accused him of assaulting them. www.charlotteobserver.com/news/local/c...
ICE video shows officers planned to ‘smash’ into Charlotte man filming Border Patrol
Immigration agents had a 12-pack of Modelos in their car while making arrests, Miguel Angel Garcia Martinez told investigators.
www.charlotteobserver.com
November 22, 2025 at 10:19 PM
This is another Section 111 case: www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2025/1...
Reposted by Phil Klay
On one side of my family we have zero knowledge of our lineage before my grandpa. There was just nobody left to ask. He wasn’t even sure if his last name was real or made up. And there’s a story like this in almost every Ukrainian household.
Today is Holodomor Remembrance Day
Today is Holodomor Remembrance Day
🕯 Eternal memory to all victims of Holodomor. A moment of silence.
November 22, 2025 at 5:31 PM
On one side of my family we have zero knowledge of our lineage before my grandpa. There was just nobody left to ask. He wasn’t even sure if his last name was real or made up. And there’s a story like this in almost every Ukrainian household.
Today is Holodomor Remembrance Day
Today is Holodomor Remembrance Day
Reposted by Phil Klay
The Moscow Times: „The very emergence of such a U.S. initiative signals, in Putin’s view, that Washington is capitulating. And capitulating not because it has suffered losses — it has lost neither tanks nor aircraft nor soldiers — but because it is tired,frightened and eager to avoid involvement.“
November 22, 2025 at 5:28 AM
The Moscow Times: „The very emergence of such a U.S. initiative signals, in Putin’s view, that Washington is capitulating. And capitulating not because it has suffered losses — it has lost neither tanks nor aircraft nor soldiers — but because it is tired,frightened and eager to avoid involvement.“
Reposted by Phil Klay
this could mean several different things, none of which are reassuring
![“The question is, is it legal just to kill the guy if he’s not threatening to kill you and you’re outside an armed conflict? There are people who are simply uncomfortable with the president just declaring we’re at war with drug traffickers,” said a former senior official familiar with the debate.
“Internally, a lot of people are treating this like the rendition program,” the former official said. “It’s one thing to get rid of [Iraqi dictator] Saddam Hussein or [Libyan autocrat] Moammar Gaddafi for counterterrorism reasons. This is different.’’](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:maiw2rfujepnphhrejytvuu5/bafkreiecj776a2owo634tm7djoq4xyfwoteenbzzind7uxqlvnfkfiak7u@jpeg)
November 22, 2025 at 2:38 PM
this could mean several different things, none of which are reassuring
On “modern so-called incomprehensible poetry”:
“it's like it's something you have to understand with something other than intelligence, or your mind,”
“it's like it's something you have to understand with something other than intelligence, or your mind,”
November 22, 2025 at 3:46 PM
On “modern so-called incomprehensible poetry”:
“it's like it's something you have to understand with something other than intelligence, or your mind,”
“it's like it's something you have to understand with something other than intelligence, or your mind,”
“…all religions and faith say, or try to say, something about that, and they all do say it but in different ways, they're like languages, I say, and actually they all say only the tiniest little bit about realities, yes, as I've so often said myself, just think if all the colours had names…”
November 22, 2025 at 3:07 PM
“…all religions and faith say, or try to say, something about that, and they all do say it but in different ways, they're like languages, I say, and actually they all say only the tiniest little bit about realities, yes, as I've so often said myself, just think if all the colours had names…”
“By summer, the NSC’s entire full-time legal staff of about half a dozen was gone… including the shop’s top lawyer, former Pentagon general counsel Paul Ney …Ney had been among the lawyers who had raised concerns about the legality of lethal strikes.”
www.washingtonpost.com/national-sec...
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 2:46 PM
“By summer, the NSC’s entire full-time legal staff of about half a dozen was gone… including the shop’s top lawyer, former Pentagon general counsel Paul Ney …Ney had been among the lawyers who had raised concerns about the legality of lethal strikes.”
www.washingtonpost.com/national-sec...
www.washingtonpost.com/national-sec...
“The 28-point proposal from the White House — which Kyiv has said was drafted without its involvement — would give Russia most of what it has asked for, including the surrender of Ukrainian territory and sharp limits on Ukraine’s military”
www.nytimes.com/2025/11/21/w...
www.nytimes.com/2025/11/21/w...
Ukraine Faces ‘Difficult Choice’ Over U.S. Plan to End War, Zelensky Says
www.nytimes.com
November 21, 2025 at 8:08 PM
“The 28-point proposal from the White House — which Kyiv has said was drafted without its involvement — would give Russia most of what it has asked for, including the surrender of Ukrainian territory and sharp limits on Ukraine’s military”
www.nytimes.com/2025/11/21/w...
www.nytimes.com/2025/11/21/w...
Profiles in courage
November 21, 2025 at 1:11 PM
Profiles in courage
“You can find meanness in the least of creatures, but when God made man the devil was at his elbow.“
November 21, 2025 at 1:57 AM
“You can find meanness in the least of creatures, but when God made man the devil was at his elbow.“
Jake and I are joined by Aaron Gwyn to discuss Nietzsche's Thus Spoke Zarathustra and Cormac McCarthy's Blood Meridian.
podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/m...
podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/m...
Episode 85: Zarathustra and Judge Holden
Podcast Episode · Manifesto! · 11/21/2025 · 1h 43m
podcasts.apple.com
November 21, 2025 at 1:56 AM
Jake and I are joined by Aaron Gwyn to discuss Nietzsche's Thus Spoke Zarathustra and Cormac McCarthy's Blood Meridian.
podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/m...
podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/m...
I met my translator. He didn't know a single word of Czech. "How did you translate it?" I asked. "With my heart," he said.
—Kundera’s adventures in translation
—Kundera’s adventures in translation
November 20, 2025 at 12:34 PM
I met my translator. He didn't know a single word of Czech. "How did you translate it?" I asked. "With my heart," he said.
—Kundera’s adventures in translation
—Kundera’s adventures in translation
Graham Greene to Salman Rushdie after the publication of The Satanic Verses:
"Rush-die! Come and sit here and tell me how you managed to make so much trouble! I never made nearly as much trouble as that!'"
"Rush-die! Come and sit here and tell me how you managed to make so much trouble! I never made nearly as much trouble as that!'"
November 17, 2025 at 7:37 PM
Graham Greene to Salman Rushdie after the publication of The Satanic Verses:
"Rush-die! Come and sit here and tell me how you managed to make so much trouble! I never made nearly as much trouble as that!'"
"Rush-die! Come and sit here and tell me how you managed to make so much trouble! I never made nearly as much trouble as that!'"
Pope John Paul II: "You always make one step forward and one step back."
Milosz: "Can one write religious poetry in any other way today?"
Milosz: "Can one write religious poetry in any other way today?"
November 17, 2025 at 1:27 AM
Pope John Paul II: "You always make one step forward and one step back."
Milosz: "Can one write religious poetry in any other way today?"
Milosz: "Can one write religious poetry in any other way today?"
"I don't have any desire to live on a planet that has no heroes, and no angels, and no saints, and no art.”
—Patti Smith to William S Burroughs
—Patti Smith to William S Burroughs
November 15, 2025 at 11:43 PM
"I don't have any desire to live on a planet that has no heroes, and no angels, and no saints, and no art.”
—Patti Smith to William S Burroughs
—Patti Smith to William S Burroughs
If you’re a fan of art, faith, sex or controversy (or all four) you should come see me interview the great @Paul_R_Elie about his fantastic new book at @FairfieldUMFA on Monday at 730pm.
events.fairfield.edu/event/paul-e...
events.fairfield.edu/event/paul-e...
Paul Elie's The Last Supper: Art, Faith, Sex and Controversy in the 1980s
events.fairfield.edu
November 15, 2025 at 11:42 PM
If you’re a fan of art, faith, sex or controversy (or all four) you should come see me interview the great @Paul_R_Elie about his fantastic new book at @FairfieldUMFA on Monday at 730pm.
events.fairfield.edu/event/paul-e...
events.fairfield.edu/event/paul-e...
I’d never seen this Nietzsche photo before. Quite something.
November 14, 2025 at 8:36 PM
I’d never seen this Nietzsche photo before. Quite something.
“For I desired mercy, and not sacrifice; and the knowledge of God more than burnt offerings.”
—Hosea
—Hosea
November 13, 2025 at 2:17 AM
“For I desired mercy, and not sacrifice; and the knowledge of God more than burnt offerings.”
—Hosea
—Hosea