Nate Bowling
@natebowling.com
2.5K followers 570 following 2.4K posts
Teaching Political Science and World History in Abu Dhabi — Skeets mainly about the Seattle Sounders, the state of the world, and my generalized grumpiness https://buttondown.com/natebowling
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If you're new to Bluesky, I made Starter Pack with past guests on my podcast, Nerd Farmer, that are on here. There's a heap of authors, journalists, academics & educators, and folks from the civic scene in the PNW.

go.bsky.app/L57tdFK
Nerd Farmer Podcast Guests
Join the conversation
go.bsky.app
natebowling.com
I gotta get @davidneiwert.bsky.social back on the podcast. It's been too long!
natebowling.com
Open AI is currently building a data center in Texas that will require roughly the equivalent of the power the Hoover Dam produces to operate.

Last week the Whitehouse killed a renewable energy project that was going to produce as much powers as three Hoover Dams.

None of this makes any sense.
natebowling.com
I one thousand percent agree and I genuinely can't fathom how like 40% of the country is enraptured with all of it. It's a confederacy of dunces.
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I honestly can't fathom this lack of empathy for my fellow human beings
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I almost dropped my phone when it was explained that the rationale for expanding the camping ban is a DECREASE in shelter capacity in the city.

Maybe I'm just out of touch but I can't fathom the way in which hating unhoused people has become so popular.
natebowling.com
A culture of "show me your papers" is distinct to three historical regimes:
1. Fascist Germany
2. The Soviet Union and its satellites in Eastern Europe
3. The US for free Black Americans during slavery

None of those are worth emulating but here we are anyway
natebowling.com
This is an outstanding conversation about how the city council in Tacoma is functionally banning people experiencing homelessness from much of the city.

open.spotify.com/episode/6Mex...
Let’s Talk About Tacoma’s Plan to Ban Homeless People (Oct. 9, 2025)
open.spotify.com
natebowling.com
Every few generations, societies have to rediscover and confront that concentrated wealth is corrosive. This is not a new story, but we didn’t live through the others.

The sooner we reckon with the damage it is causing, the sooner we can begin to repair the harm.

buttondown.com/natebowling/...
Oligarchy Degrades Everything - Health Care Edition
Corporations deciding which diseases are “worth” curing, which lives are “worth” saving breeds despair. That, that quiet despair, is the deepest moral cost of oligarchy.
buttondown.com
natebowling.com
If you're replying to this from Seattle or Tacoma you should be asleep!
natebowling.com
As a teacher, I'm obliged to be anti-bullying. But man...
ericacbarnett.bsky.social
Downtown could have "like, a 10-foot wall" where people could talk to AI versions of historical figures. "How cool would this be if we had like, a 10 foot wall. It's interactive and it's historical. And you could talk to Martin Luther King."...
natebowling.com
As a teacher, I'm obliged to be anti-bullying. But man...
ericacbarnett.bsky.social
Downtown could have "like, a 10-foot wall" where people could talk to AI versions of historical figures. "How cool would this be if we had like, a 10 foot wall. It's interactive and it's historical. And you could talk to Martin Luther King."...
natebowling.com
There was a very lively discussion about the ban on the Channel 253 Member Slack this week and the factions on the council pushing it.
natebowling.com
I'm in a similar boat but Sadalge has recently disappointed me with his support of the expanded camping ban. But I also note my stance against these bans is increasingly out of the mainstream.
natebowling.com
As of now, top of the docket: Tacoma Mayor, City Council Pos 4 & 5, and Port Commissioner.

NGL, I need to read up on the Charter Review Board positions.
natebowling.com
Hey #Tacoma peeps, we're going to record a Channel 253 Audio Voters' guide for the upcoming off-year elections. Is there a local race or ballot measure you feel conflicted over or want to hear more about?
natebowling.com
PKs are better than extra innings, just saying
natebowling.com
The leading experts in authoritarianism are fleeing the country because the fascist project is far further along than anyone seems to comprehend.
natebowling.com
Sir, we all know. Instead of skeeting your way through it, make unmasking ICE agents and clarified rules of engagement for agents a part of your demands for reopening the government
Reposted by Nate Bowling
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Van Lathan >>>> Van Jones
natebowling.com
Every Sunday I used to sit with my grandma and watch Murder She Wrote and 60 Minutes.

This country needs an Andy Rooney so damn bad right now.