Nathan Casebolt

Doomers get instablocked. Take your addiction to fear porn somewhere else.

Cortés conquering the Aztecs. Sure, some European was going to do it eventually. But Cortés: - barely escapes Cuba - stumbles across two interpreters - survives the Tlaxcalans - beats Narvaez - escapes Tenochtitlan - gets reinforced by smallpox This is a shortlist! The whole thing is insane.

Texas is going to come down to rural turnout. But I'm encouraged by a Trumpist FB friend in a Houston exurb who freaked out a little that what he could see of sample ballots was split evenly between Talarico and Paxton.

Nothing has given me reason to change the shift in perspective I had on October 8, 2025. That was the date Trump hosted his roundtable on Antifa after the killing of Charlie Kirk. As I watched the talking puddles of flop sweat, I realized these people were politically cooked AND THEY KNEW IT.

LOL not a syllable of follow-up. Losers. Sucks to suck.

Here's the thing about tipping blue, even if it's one perfect storm election. This would mean that a cohort of Repubs dislike Paxton enough to vote D for the first time. As someone who voted straight R until '16, I can tell you that breaking the taboo is a watershed for the rest of your voting life.

"So the guy called himself a king" *muffled gasps from the panel* "and he sent thousands of soldiers to quarter in my city" *Washington audibly whispers "what the f-"* "and so we, like, formed this system where we'd call up people within a minute or two if they showed up" Paul Revere: hell yes

Anna challenges the narrative of Iturbide as tyrant, tracing his fall to a bankrupt nation, divided Congress, and promises that no faction trusted by 1823. Full review: nwcasebolt.substack.com/p/the-mexica...

The Delphic Oracle said if I ask the question I will humiliate a man

re: the Ilhan Omar age thing: these are the same people— maybe literally the same people— who thought they were cooking with the Jack Smith basketball game gotcha

I'm not saying every "dirtbag leftist" was and is an amoral garbage bag, but I'm not not saying that.

>we’ve reached the worrying about prison phase of the Trump Presidency

War is peace, freedom is slavery, ignorance is truth.

Lynskey traces the experiences, ideas, and literary influences that shaped Orwell’s 1984, then follows the novel’s enduring impact on culture and our understanding of propaganda and totalitarianism. Full review: nwcasebolt.substack.com/p/the-minist...

LOL perfect

If you’re MAGA, do your best to enjoy the next two years. Because you will spend the remainder of your life looking back and realizing how you crushed your own reputation, and how you will never have power again. Two years seems like a long time, it isn’t when you look in the rear view mirror.

Whatever clout you think you get for always asserting the maximally cynical "it's always been bad and I've always known as much" perspective is worthless and actually making you much stupider as a person and more useless as a political agent.

please mr. zelensky my midterm numbers, please stop hurting diesel prices 👉👈

One of the lessons of Athens must be that democracies can inflict atrocities just as well as autocracies. Our democracy does not make us moral; we must make moral our democracy.

Siepel weaves the words of Columbus, Cortés, conquistadors, and indigenous witnesses into a gripping account of the conquest. Their voices reveal faith, cruelty, courage, and contradictions that defy simple categories. Full review: nwcasebolt.substack.com/p/conquistad...

It is a little disconcerting that so many people who know a lot about LLMs on a technical level appear to go a little insane. It would be like if there was a really cool and effective new kind of pen, and for some reason about 40% of the people involved in the pen making process went mad.

Callender’s Caribbean fantasy begins with the makings of a revenge tale, but becomes a murder mystery. Its exploration of slavery and colonialism is thoughtful, but Sigourney’s self-loathing overwhelms the story. Full review: nwcasebolt.substack.com/p/queen-of-t...

I for one think it’s bad that the president can just say crazy stuff all day every day and 99% of it doesn’t make the news because we’ve normalized having an insane president

Please stop calling me on my phone that's not what it's for

I see you're posting a photo of a loved one. must be nice. have you considered, though, that right now, some atrocity is going on that you could helplessly doompost about?

Tawwab explains how clear boundaries protect relationships by clarifying needs, limits, and expectations. She explores boundaries with family, partners, friends, work, and technology through examples and case studies. Full review: nwcasebolt.substack.com/p/set-bounda....

Additionally, I don't believe voters disliked Harris to the same extent they perceived her as unserious and unready. Vance has a bigger likeability gap than she did. I can't imagine how a VP wins a "third term" for a universally hated president when *he himself* is broadly not popular.

In the famous words of Gillian Jacobs on Community, a lot of voters are like “I can excuse the racism!” But there are no follow up questions. They don’t vote morally and are genuinely surprised when amoral people may be using the government to pillage the country.

Bakos’s memoir follows her CIA career in and out of Iraq, where she helped target Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. She condemns the war’s origins while honoring intelligence officers who fought its consequences. Full review: nwcasebolt.substack.com/p/the-target....

The Great Khan of the Plains seeks a nuclear shield for the peaceful existence of the free tribes.

Anna argues that Mexico’s first republic collapsed not from chaos at the periphery, but from centralist elites reclaiming power from the states. Factionalism, violence, and collapsing trust destroyed Mexican federalism from its outset. Full review: nwcasebolt.substack.com/p/forging-me...

Make Politics a Bunch of Boring People Droning in a Room While We Live Our Lives and the Deep State Keeps the Lights On Again

In order to deal with the constant onslaught of destabilizing news, I have adopted an attitude of "therapeutic accelerationism." Any time some event happens that will be included in a history textbook as a portent of the dark times, I crack a cold one, sit back and think "all according to plan."

I so badly want this to be true.

Saddest of trombones

Grandpa’s mad.

Platt’s history of the Opium War shows how corruption, misunderstanding, greed, and individual failures can turn unwanted conflict into catastrophe. It reveals how history emerges from large forces and flawed people. Full review: nwcasebolt.substack.com/p/imperial-t....

If this is how the GOP ends, you could be sad about the fate of Abraham Lincoln’s party. Or you could rejoice that his vision triumphed so completely that, when his party fell to racists and bigots, the nation followed his example and put it down. His truth is marching on.

Of course Kavenaugh wants to leave the door open for dictatorship later, and of course Alito and Thomas are filling their diapers with “legal opinion.” But good news nonetheless.

What a game in Houston. Really got my heart rate up. I may need to look into blood pressure pills. #BillsMafia

Uribe’s memoir recounts Colombia’s fight against violence and presents his theory of leadership: security, transparency, personal responsibility, and trust. His reflections on restoring faith in the democratic state are compelling. Full review: nwcasebolt.substack.com/p/no-lost-ca....

@LA Rams

Third quarter and Rams have played the whole game like they’re jet-lagged. For reasons beyond human ken.