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

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.“

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,”

“…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…”

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.

“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...

Ukraine Faces ‘Difficult Choice’ Over U.S. Plan to End War, Zelensky Says

“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...

Profiles in courage

I would have challenged him to a contest to see who played the best fiddle.

“You can find meanness in the least of creatures, but when God made man the devil was at his elbow.“

Episode 85: Zarathustra and Judge Holden Podcast Episode · Manifesto! · 11/21/2025 · 1h 43m

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...

I don’t think Kundera is correct in all he says about translation…but I did think that bit was funny.

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

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!'"

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?"

"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

Paul Elie's The Last Supper: Art, Faith, Sex and Controversy in the 1980s

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...

Nietzsche, Paul Ree and Lou Salome

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

Catholic Bishops Rebuke U.S. ‘Mass Deportation’ of Immigrants

“We are disturbed when we see among our people a climate of fear and anxiety around questions of profiling and immigration enforcement. We are saddened by…the vilification of immigrants. We are concerned about the conditions in detention centers.”

www.nytimes.com/2025/11/12/u...

Thank you

Happy birthday Marines!

Same.

Things Worth Remembering: Finding Meaning in the Madness of War Memorizing poetry began as a way to kill time in the Marines. It turned into a lesson in how to live with the possibility of death, writes Phil Klay for The Free Press.

‘He growled, “When one of your Marines is dying, what are you gonna do, recite poetry at him?”

Well . . . no, probably not.’

I wrote about the Yeats poem “An Irish Airman Foresees His Death” for @thefp.com

www.thefp.com/p/things-wor...

Trump has accused boat crews of being narco-terrorists. The truth, AP found, is more nuanced One was a fisherman struggling to eke out a living on $100 a month. Another was a career criminal. A third was a former military cadet.

GÜIRIA, Venezuela (AP) — One was a fisherman struggling to eke out a living on $100 a month. Another was a career criminal. A third was a former military cadet. And a fourth was a down-on-his-luck bus driver.

apnews.com/article/trum...

Oh man, I can see why.

‘Is there a name for the period between a person’s fatal diagnosis and their death? There should be. This time by its nature cannot possess the qualities that constitute “ordinary” time’

Peter Catapano on editing Oliver Sacks in his last days

pghrev.com/the-afterliv...

SCOOP: Trump Swaps Decorated Admiral With 33-Year-Old DOGEr The highly unorthodox personnel change affects a critical government research role.

“THE EXPERIENCED HEAD OF A CRITICAL OFFICE that helps organize important technical research and disburse billions of dollars in funding for the U.S. Navy is being replaced by a 33-year-old former DOGE employee with no apparent naval experience”

www.thebulwark.com/p/scoop-trum...

What Trump Could Learn From Ulysses S. Grant The last American crisis over civilian-military relations ended with a general’s historic choice.

From my book: "Grant was forced to arbitrate the Constitution—to choose between its two sources of civilian oversight of the military. He followed the law: In peacetime, Congress’s authority is supreme in matters of military policy. The commander in chief’s authority is supreme only in wartime.”