Ilya
@iwinham.bsky.social
Political Theory. Bookworming. College Professoring.
Winston Smith opens his diary and writes:
Down With AI!
Down With AI!
Down With AI!
Down With AI!
Down With AI!
Down With AI!
Down With AI!
Down With AI!
December 3, 2025 at 2:20 AM
Winston Smith opens his diary and writes:
Down With AI!
Down With AI!
Down With AI!
Down With AI!
Down With AI!
Down With AI!
Down With AI!
Down With AI!
Everybody wants to be #1. But only one will succeed. A few will come close. The result: everybody is poaching top talent. This post is about Lane Kiffen and universities in general. The result is always very many angry, heartbroken students.
December 1, 2025 at 2:34 AM
Everybody wants to be #1. But only one will succeed. A few will come close. The result: everybody is poaching top talent. This post is about Lane Kiffen and universities in general. The result is always very many angry, heartbroken students.
“The task of the totalitarian police is not to discover crimes, but to be on hand when the government decides to arrest a certain category of the population.”
—Arendt
—Arendt
October 9, 2025 at 12:10 PM
“The task of the totalitarian police is not to discover crimes, but to be on hand when the government decides to arrest a certain category of the population.”
—Arendt
—Arendt
“The totalitarian ruler proceeds like a man who persistently insults another man until everybody knows that the latter is his enemy, so that he can, with some plausibility, go and kill him in self-defense.”
—Arendt
—Arendt
October 9, 2025 at 11:20 AM
“The totalitarian ruler proceeds like a man who persistently insults another man until everybody knows that the latter is his enemy, so that he can, with some plausibility, go and kill him in self-defense.”
—Arendt
—Arendt
A good one to reread: slate.com/news-and-pol...
Words Matter to Donald Trump, Unless He’s the One Speaking Them
Words matter a lot to Donald Trump. They matter so much to him that—in his telling—the very words used by President Obama to characterize terrorism not...
slate.com
October 8, 2025 at 11:17 AM
A good one to reread: slate.com/news-and-pol...
Jesus, read Augustine people! Everybody wants peace! It’s a universal desire. People don’t go to war because they hate peace. They want peace on their own terms.
August 18, 2025 at 8:02 PM
Jesus, read Augustine people! Everybody wants peace! It’s a universal desire. People don’t go to war because they hate peace. They want peace on their own terms.
“The aim of an arbitrary system is to destroy the civil rights of the whole population, who ultimately become just as outlawed in their own country as the stateless and homeless.”—Hannah Arendt
August 18, 2025 at 12:30 AM
“The aim of an arbitrary system is to destroy the civil rights of the whole population, who ultimately become just as outlawed in their own country as the stateless and homeless.”—Hannah Arendt
Reposted by Ilya
They are addicted to the polarization trope. It blinds them to the story of their lives they continue to ignore: the fascist takeover of America.
Redistricting Push Would Further Divide a Polarized Congress www.nytimes.com/2025/08/17/u...
Redistricting Push Would Further Divide a Polarized Congress www.nytimes.com/2025/08/17/u...
Redistricting Push Would Further Divide a Polarized Congress
www.nytimes.com
August 17, 2025 at 6:58 PM
They are addicted to the polarization trope. It blinds them to the story of their lives they continue to ignore: the fascist takeover of America.
Redistricting Push Would Further Divide a Polarized Congress www.nytimes.com/2025/08/17/u...
Redistricting Push Would Further Divide a Polarized Congress www.nytimes.com/2025/08/17/u...
Reposted by Ilya
If we are wrong, the Constitution of the United States is wrong. And if we are wrong, God Almighty is wrong…we are determined here in Montgomery to work and fight until justice runs down like water, and righteousness like a mighty stream.
Martin Luther King, Jr.
August 16, 1967
Martin Luther King, Jr.
August 16, 1967
August 16, 2025 at 7:46 PM
If we are wrong, the Constitution of the United States is wrong. And if we are wrong, God Almighty is wrong…we are determined here in Montgomery to work and fight until justice runs down like water, and righteousness like a mighty stream.
Martin Luther King, Jr.
August 16, 1967
Martin Luther King, Jr.
August 16, 1967
Reposted by Ilya
Trump is a far-right president, with many influential extremist advisors--Russ Vought, Stephen Miller, Steve Bannon, Laura Loomer, Darren Beattie, Pete Hegseth--and a Congressional majority full of far-right politicians like Mike Johnson. Why is the Trump administration not talked about this way?
August 13, 2025 at 1:52 PM
Trump is a far-right president, with many influential extremist advisors--Russ Vought, Stephen Miller, Steve Bannon, Laura Loomer, Darren Beattie, Pete Hegseth--and a Congressional majority full of far-right politicians like Mike Johnson. Why is the Trump administration not talked about this way?
Reposted by Ilya
The CEO of a a multi-trillion dollar company went to the White House, openly handed the US president a gift made of gold, and his company got a special exemption to tariffs the president has illegally imposed.
Also, the Founders took bribery so seriously the Constitution bans it 3 separate times.
Also, the Founders took bribery so seriously the Constitution bans it 3 separate times.
August 9, 2025 at 1:36 PM
The CEO of a a multi-trillion dollar company went to the White House, openly handed the US president a gift made of gold, and his company got a special exemption to tariffs the president has illegally imposed.
Also, the Founders took bribery so seriously the Constitution bans it 3 separate times.
Also, the Founders took bribery so seriously the Constitution bans it 3 separate times.
Reposted by Ilya
As with Covid testing and unemployment data, Trump would prefer that we not know the truth about greenhouse gas emissions. Pure authoritarianism.
www.nytimes.com/2025/08/08/c...
www.nytimes.com/2025/08/08/c...
E.P.A. to Stop Updating Popular Database After Lead Scientist Criticized Trump
www.nytimes.com
August 8, 2025 at 10:16 AM
As with Covid testing and unemployment data, Trump would prefer that we not know the truth about greenhouse gas emissions. Pure authoritarianism.
www.nytimes.com/2025/08/08/c...
www.nytimes.com/2025/08/08/c...
Reposted by Ilya
The idea that President can negotiate/dictate bilateral “deals” by using the full force of the federal government to punish and humiliate his perceived enemies goes against the whole idea of the rule of law. That should be the story, rather than normalizing this authoritarian behavior.
August 5, 2025 at 11:24 AM
The idea that President can negotiate/dictate bilateral “deals” by using the full force of the federal government to punish and humiliate his perceived enemies goes against the whole idea of the rule of law. That should be the story, rather than normalizing this authoritarian behavior.
Oh geez. Trump really said on social media “People don’t explain to me, I explain to them!”
August 5, 2025 at 12:14 AM
Oh geez. Trump really said on social media “People don’t explain to me, I explain to them!”
Reposted by Ilya
Ezra Klein loves to overintellectualize the far right, giving them mainstream coverage and legitimacy, while pretending to just wanting to "understand the other side." #usefulfools
August 3, 2025 at 7:48 PM
Ezra Klein loves to overintellectualize the far right, giving them mainstream coverage and legitimacy, while pretending to just wanting to "understand the other side." #usefulfools
Relevant again.
The entire project of statistical science is bound up in the progressive faith that society can be reformed for the better. Naturally Trump needs to destroy this too.
August 2, 2025 at 2:10 AM
Relevant again.
Reposted by Ilya
“Forget about intelligence” is a pretty good mantra for this administration
Host: Are you saying the US did not see intelligence that the Supreme Leader had ordered weaponization?
Rubio: That’s irrelevant
Host: No, that's a key point
Rubio: No it’s not… Forget about intelligence
Rubio: That’s irrelevant
Host: No, that's a key point
Rubio: No it’s not… Forget about intelligence
June 22, 2025 at 5:00 PM
“Forget about intelligence” is a pretty good mantra for this administration
Nonviolent protests are nonviolent until the police get involved. That’s how they work.
June 10, 2025 at 9:34 PM
Nonviolent protests are nonviolent until the police get involved. That’s how they work.
Eichmann vibes
ICYMI — ICE DIRECTOR: “These are real people with real families you’re hurting.”
He says this not about immigrants… but about ICE agents. A record-setting lack of self-awareness.
He says this not about immigrants… but about ICE agents. A record-setting lack of self-awareness.
June 8, 2025 at 1:54 AM
Eichmann vibes
Where is Cornel West these days?
June 8, 2025 at 1:37 AM
Where is Cornel West these days?
Reposted by Ilya
I feel like Musk could really blow MAGA's collective minds just by continuing to tweet out facts the rest of us have known for years but never penetrated their media bubble.
June 5, 2025 at 8:13 PM
I feel like Musk could really blow MAGA's collective minds just by continuing to tweet out facts the rest of us have known for years but never penetrated their media bubble.
Reposted by Ilya
As with Noem, Duffy, Hegseth, Musk, & McMahon, Trumpism rewards officials who evince a complete lack of interest in, and even a hostility to, governing, & convey a boastful and belligerent ignorance about the most basic functions of their duties.
I asked Secretary McMahon if she had done ANY analysis about how the Department of Education would be able to perform its basic obligations under the law before firing HALF of its staff.
NO analysis was done. None.
These people want to take a CHAINSAW to public education with a BLINDFOLD on.
NO analysis was done. None.
These people want to take a CHAINSAW to public education with a BLINDFOLD on.
June 4, 2025 at 12:07 PM
As with Noem, Duffy, Hegseth, Musk, & McMahon, Trumpism rewards officials who evince a complete lack of interest in, and even a hostility to, governing, & convey a boastful and belligerent ignorance about the most basic functions of their duties.
Again, Trump does not “look at the facts.” He hands you the facts.
Trump’s team doesn’t “look into” or “research” anything. They act based on whatever story they want to tell about reality.
May 31, 2025 at 2:58 PM
Again, Trump does not “look at the facts.” He hands you the facts.
We no longer honor those who died in war like the late great Pericles
May 26, 2025 at 5:44 PM
We no longer honor those who died in war like the late great Pericles