Philip Luke Johnson

Calling Cormac McCarthy’s authorial style a “mistake” that AI no longer makes is so funny

Albanese’s policy on Iran makes us complicit in the collapse of international rules The Albanese government has stood by as the foundations of the international order were destroyed

Here’s me in the Guardian today.

The Aukus submarine pact has dragged Australia into the Trump administration’s illegal war on Iran in all but name. This was all entirely forseeable.

The train has left the station: Agentic AI and the future of social science research | Brookings A new era of agentic AI agents has begun. What does it mean for social scientists? Solomon Messing and Joshua Tucker discuss.

besides some very recent work (eg Josh & Sol's linked Brookings piece) the debate over LLMs in political science has been bereft of recent history. we're working in the aftermath of a 30-yr war over methods that nearly crashed the discipline, after all :thread:

This new phase was months in the making, but the first operation failed “because the targets slipped away.”

Screenshot of three results from a Google search. The top two results (from Reddit and the Independent) ask who is 'Madeline' in Lily Allen's new album. The third result is the Wikipedia page for Madeleine Albright.

Truly the political bombshell of 2025, and still no one is talking about it.

Great reporting on the combo of real attacks and fake images after the death of “El Mencho” Oseguera Cervantes. 👇

(I’m quoted in this, but you could take everything I say out and it’d still be great reporting.)

"Mexico in flames"? Dear friends, Many have reached out after seeing the international news from Mexico — the army deployment, the cars and shops on fire, the blockaded streets. I understand and appreciate why — the sce...

My newsletter roundup of some things to watch and read to understand what actually happened in Mexico in the last few days

www.thetroubledregion.com/mexico-in-fl...

Accountability Shock Cambridge Core - Latin American Studies - Accountability Shock

Accountability Shock is out with CUP! It explains why transitional justice tools deter criminal wars in new democracies. Grateful to Guillermo Trejo and @juanalbarracind.bsky.social for an amazing collaboration and to all who shared their expertise with us.

www.cambridge.org/core/books/a...

Not shown: absolute berserk birds going at it since first light.

Narcobloqueos ya!

I propose to make universal the old policy of the Blackfriars conference at the American Shakespeare Center:

If you do not end your paper on time, you will be forced to exit, pursued by a bear. Literally, a bear will come take your paper from you.

Once these detention camps were created at GTMO, the infrastructure was put into continuous use. These camps provided the foundations and materials for the War on Terror camps. GTMO has been used for detention almost nonstop since the 90s. Once camps are built, a purpose is always found for them.

The Cartel of the Suns is a fiction circulated by the US govt to justify actions against Venezuela. Insight Crime keeps repeating the fiction.

Opinion | Trump Is Not a Nationalist. He’s Something Worse.

I don't think we can understand US government policy on the Americas without centering the pardon of Juan Orlando Hernández, ex-pres of Honduras.

@jeanguerre.bsky.social makes sense of what would otherwise be this baffling (and quickly forgotten) pardon.

www.nytimes.com/2026/01/29/o...

A stack of old university course readers, spiral or plastic bound and with different coloured covers. The top reader is for a course called “Construction and Deconstruction.”

Stumbled upon a bunch of PDFs in their natural habitat.

'One-off' literary festival to take place in lieu of Adelaide Writers' Week A community literary festival will go ahead in the wake of the cancellation of Adelaide Writers' Week, but those involved say it is not a replacement for the original event.

Constellations not cancellations!

www.abc.net.au/news/2026-01...

Would that be the same “social cohesion” that led to Adelaide Writers’ Week falling apart?

I wrote about the “gunboat isolationism” practiced by the US government in the 19th century, and how it’s coming back today.👇

He’s published a bunch of books but doesn’t covet the Nobel Prize in Lit.

Four new pamphlets from the USDA about the food pyramid that all look like CAH cards

Why the new food guidelines look like Cards Against Humanity

Thanks for humoring a dumb gag in response to an important point!

As Gregor Samsa awoke one morning from uneasy dreams he found himself transformed in his bed into

This is also the outcome many in Venezuela fear most: they capture Maduro, wash their hands of any real regime-change plan, and unfurl a “Mission Accomplished” banner. Meanwhile, the same players keep running Venezuela, nothing materially changes, and conditions on the ground could actually worsen

I always tell students if you ask a good question the article will write itself

He estado preguntando y hasta ahora nadie tiene una respuesta inmediata y satisfactoria: si les pido que recomienden una novela latinoamericana reciente (digamos, los últimos diez años), que sea divertida, en el sentido de graciosa, y que no sea sobre violencia ¿cuál recomendarían?

Just read this passage in “We Are Green and Trembling” by Gabriela Cabezón Camara…

“Here it is. The lightning-thunder.”
“It is a hummingbird.”
“A lightning-thunder.”
“What does the lightning-thunder do?”
“Fire. It makes fire when it is angry.”

NYT copies Tiny Desk concerts, but makes employees work through the whole set.

Editor: You get that frontispiece for Leviathan?
Etcher: Sure did boss, real fucking sexy just like you asked.

Literature Is Not a Vibe: On ChatGPT and the Humanities | Los Angeles Review of Books Rachele Dini discusses OpenAI’s “A Machine-Shaped Hand” and an academic sector in crisis.

I'm excited to share my piece in Los Angeles Review of Books @lareviewofbooks.bsky.social, which examines OpenAI's claims about ChatGPT's creative writing skills, Big Tech's weaponisation of grief and nostalgia, and the collapse of the academic humanities. lareviewofbooks.org/article/lite...