John Holbo
@jholbo.bsky.social
Professor of Philosophy, Illustrator of Philosophers
https://www.onbeyondzarathustra.com
https://www.onbeyondzarathustra.com
Reposted by John Holbo
Jack Goldsmith on the legality of the Venezuela operation: open.substack.com/pub/executiv...
On the Legality of the Venezuela Invasion
Executive branch precedents can be garnered to support the action—which does not, of course, mean that it is lawful.
open.substack.com
January 4, 2026 at 3:01 AM
Jack Goldsmith on the legality of the Venezuela operation: open.substack.com/pub/executiv...
Rubio, why? Why are you taking their industry? Why?
But you know, that old grifter was smart and so slick, that he thought up a lie and he thought it up quick.
I'm taking it home to my country, my dear. I'll fix it up there, then I'll bring it back here.
But you know, that old grifter was smart and so slick, that he thought up a lie and he thought it up quick.
I'm taking it home to my country, my dear. I'll fix it up there, then I'll bring it back here.
WELKER: If the purpose of the operation was to capture Maduro and bring him to justice, why does the US need to take over the Venezuela oil industry?
RUBIO: Well, we don't *need* to. We have plenty of oil in the US. We want to see the oil proceeds of the country benefit the people of Venezuela.
RUBIO: Well, we don't *need* to. We have plenty of oil in the US. We want to see the oil proceeds of the country benefit the people of Venezuela.
January 4, 2026 at 4:49 PM
Rubio, why? Why are you taking their industry? Why?
But you know, that old grifter was smart and so slick, that he thought up a lie and he thought it up quick.
I'm taking it home to my country, my dear. I'll fix it up there, then I'll bring it back here.
But you know, that old grifter was smart and so slick, that he thought up a lie and he thought it up quick.
I'm taking it home to my country, my dear. I'll fix it up there, then I'll bring it back here.
Blue-pilled.
I am trying to find the right term for the idea that governing decisions are disproportionately shaped by perceptions based from online bubbles, or aimed to please an imagined online audience.
What would be a good term?
*poster brain?
*podcast brain?
What else?
What would be a good term?
*poster brain?
*podcast brain?
What else?
January 4, 2026 at 4:26 PM
Blue-pilled.
Reposted by John Holbo
Chris Murphy: "Clearly this is wildly illegal. This is a president who has been operating illegally since he was sworn in -- stealing from the American people, seizing spending power, now dragging America into a war overseas ... Donald Trump's entire foreign policy is corrupt."
January 4, 2026 at 2:47 PM
Chris Murphy: "Clearly this is wildly illegal. This is a president who has been operating illegally since he was sworn in -- stealing from the American people, seizing spending power, now dragging America into a war overseas ... Donald Trump's entire foreign policy is corrupt."
One of the main objections to democracy has always been: but if you let everyone vote, even the have-nots, the poor - who outnumber the rich - will vote to convert their political power into economic power. They'll vote to take the property of the haves, destabilising the system for everyone.
Corrupt tech billionaires are buying power to tilt the world in their favor.
Even the co-founder of Y Combinator is saying it. ⬇️
The radical death cult rising from Silicon Valley venture capital is metastasizing rapidly.
It's an existential threat to democracy and humanity.
Even the co-founder of Y Combinator is saying it. ⬇️
The radical death cult rising from Silicon Valley venture capital is metastasizing rapidly.
It's an existential threat to democracy and humanity.
January 4, 2026 at 4:11 PM
One of the main objections to democracy has always been: but if you let everyone vote, even the have-nots, the poor - who outnumber the rich - will vote to convert their political power into economic power. They'll vote to take the property of the haves, destabilising the system for everyone.
Reposted by John Holbo
It’s sobering to look back on the run-up to the Iraq war—a period of unceasing chattering-class debate, elaborate official lies, media complicity, unavailing global protest, in the end a giant stitch-up—and have it seem like some sort of paradise of public deliberation compared to these gangsters.
January 3, 2026 at 9:51 PM
It’s sobering to look back on the run-up to the Iraq war—a period of unceasing chattering-class debate, elaborate official lies, media complicity, unavailing global protest, in the end a giant stitch-up—and have it seem like some sort of paradise of public deliberation compared to these gangsters.
Make America Nuanced Again!
For my enemies, straight-talking realpolitik about the consolidation of power, control of the judiciary, and rampant corruption. For my friends, a complex host of extraordinary legal issues at the intersection of international law and the presidency.
January 4, 2026 at 2:23 AM
Make America Nuanced Again!
Reposted by John Holbo
the tactical success here - that they went in and got him and no troops died - is going to dramatically raise the bar on the shit they think they can get away with at home and abroad and that terrifies me
January 3, 2026 at 5:07 PM
the tactical success here - that they went in and got him and no troops died - is going to dramatically raise the bar on the shit they think they can get away with at home and abroad and that terrifies me
I have questions.
Trump on Venezuela: "We're going to run the country until such time as we can do a safe, proper, and judicious transition"
January 3, 2026 at 4:52 PM
I have questions.
We just had a little argument to settle which philosopher name would be best for a cat and I won: Horkheimer.
January 2, 2026 at 9:05 PM
We just had a little argument to settle which philosopher name would be best for a cat and I won: Horkheimer.
I don't like to think about Jan 6. It's too enraging.
my theory of Jan 6 is that nobody (except for a few weirdos) likes to think about it. from 2021-2025, the investigations/prosecutions meant that Biden was the guy who was making people think about it (which they hated). now Trump is the guy making them think about it and they also hate that
In @nytopinion.nytimes.com
“Tragically, America is still living in a political era that began on Jan. 6, 2021,” the editorial board writes. “Recognizing as much is necessary to bring this era to an end before it has many more anniversaries.”
“Tragically, America is still living in a political era that began on Jan. 6, 2021,” the editorial board writes. “Recognizing as much is necessary to bring this era to an end before it has many more anniversaries.”
January 2, 2026 at 7:03 PM
I don't like to think about Jan 6. It's too enraging.
Impossible for me not to like Stranger Things 5 because I've been watching with my younger daughter since season 1, when she was the same age as the kids - intense. And I have my own memories of D&D, and urgent recourse to bikes to get to friends' houses in different suburban cul-de-sacs. Perfect.
January 2, 2026 at 5:09 PM
Impossible for me not to like Stranger Things 5 because I've been watching with my younger daughter since season 1, when she was the same age as the kids - intense. And I have my own memories of D&D, and urgent recourse to bikes to get to friends' houses in different suburban cul-de-sacs. Perfect.
The full "Guards! Guards!" is 13 hours, not 3. Hey, sell what the people want, but I think they missed a step not marketed this as "Abridge-Me-Own-Throat Bowdler's Discworld Novel Series".
January 2, 2026 at 12:44 AM
The full "Guards! Guards!" is 13 hours, not 3. Hey, sell what the people want, but I think they missed a step not marketed this as "Abridge-Me-Own-Throat Bowdler's Discworld Novel Series".
Reposted by John Holbo
Mamdani: For too long, those fluent in the good grammar of civility have deployed decorum to mask agendas of cruelty
January 1, 2026 at 8:00 PM
Mamdani: For too long, those fluent in the good grammar of civility have deployed decorum to mask agendas of cruelty
No known portrait of Robert Hooke exists, but one often sees this fictional portrait, which is actually from 2009. It is based on contemporary descriptions of the man. But if you consult those descriptions they do NOT say: he looked like if Nosferatu were Emo Philips.
January 1, 2026 at 8:35 PM
No known portrait of Robert Hooke exists, but one often sees this fictional portrait, which is actually from 2009. It is based on contemporary descriptions of the man. But if you consult those descriptions they do NOT say: he looked like if Nosferatu were Emo Philips.
Reposted by John Holbo
I love this piece by @mollycrabapple.bsky.social—and not just for the obvious reasons:
www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
They tried to smear him as an antisemite – but Mayor Zohran Mamdani walks in a rich Jewish tradition | Molly Crabapple
When I look at Mamdani, I don’t see some radical departure. I see him an heir to the Yiddish socialism that helped build New York
www.theguardian.com
January 1, 2026 at 2:58 PM
I love this piece by @mollycrabapple.bsky.social—and not just for the obvious reasons:
www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
The Republican Party is a big tent. We've got folks who say Hitler was a genius and folks who say he was an infallible genius. Teach the controversies!
Curtis Yarvin, JD Vance’s friend & ideological influence, ended 2025 by claiming “only Hitler spoke the truth” about “too many subjects” & “Hitler was a genius.”
Extremism isn’t fringe on the right. Once marginal online extremists like Yarvin are influential at the highest levels of government.
Extremism isn’t fringe on the right. Once marginal online extremists like Yarvin are influential at the highest levels of government.
January 1, 2026 at 5:36 PM
The Republican Party is a big tent. We've got folks who say Hitler was a genius and folks who say he was an infallible genius. Teach the controversies!
Reposted by John Holbo
DHS now says it's aiming for 100 million deportations. In an amazing coincidence, there are 104 million Black and Hispanic people living in the U.S. right now.
![@DHSgov on X: The peace of a nation no longer besieged by the third world.
[Image of a beach] America after 100 million deportations](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:eppsmw5nfmdzhfeymtzd3xbe/bafkreiccvipzc5mayvbrzoo3cxhkp2iayuhphh4grk6lziqajuk7d2leee@jpeg)
December 31, 2025 at 11:04 PM
DHS now says it's aiming for 100 million deportations. In an amazing coincidence, there are 104 million Black and Hispanic people living in the U.S. right now.
The Jack Smith testimony is just enraging. What more can one say?
January 1, 2026 at 2:56 AM
The Jack Smith testimony is just enraging. What more can one say?
Reposted by John Holbo
back in the day films were well written, were art, they were *about things*
December 30, 2025 at 7:55 PM
back in the day films were well written, were art, they were *about things*
From the back of Walt Disney's Uncle Scrooge #16 (1956). Art by Carl Barks.
December 31, 2025 at 6:07 PM
Reposted by John Holbo
Real "oh my god, she admit it" moment here. Trump is treated as an uninteresting figure without agency so we can dump endless criticism on liberals for how they react to his "natural disaster." He "doesn't participate in moral frameworks" lmfao
December 30, 2025 at 6:28 PM
Real "oh my god, she admit it" moment here. Trump is treated as an uninteresting figure without agency so we can dump endless criticism on liberals for how they react to his "natural disaster." He "doesn't participate in moral frameworks" lmfao
Surely anti-anti-Antigone is peak phoney-baloney. www.thefp.com/p/the-troubl...
December 31, 2025 at 4:25 PM
Surely anti-anti-Antigone is peak phoney-baloney. www.thefp.com/p/the-troubl...
This Kat Rosenfield tweet got deservedly dragged over at twitter. Easy to forget, maybe, when you write for the FP, but spinning up saleable anti-anti-Trump false equivalencies about downstream second-order effects on social trust takes a lighter touch. No, don't just HACK at it.
!["as with the Resistance shenigans and political purity testing that rose to dominance in our media and arts institutions circa 2019, the people engaged in this behavior seem not to have thought through its downstream effects on social trust even the tiniest bit"
[In retweet response to an announcement of lots of artists cancelling at the Kennedy center]](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:b7nwyonilwymqnwhomv6yfvy/bafkreia2aiziaw3druzfo3yphvf2xh6rxsk6e5cozcp6po7tpx7fqpa6lm@jpeg)
December 30, 2025 at 5:09 PM
This Kat Rosenfield tweet got deservedly dragged over at twitter. Easy to forget, maybe, when you write for the FP, but spinning up saleable anti-anti-Trump false equivalencies about downstream second-order effects on social trust takes a lighter touch. No, don't just HACK at it.
Reposted by John Holbo
Well, fuck
December 30, 2025 at 2:58 AM
Well, fuck