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Nathan Goodman

@nathanpgoodman.bsky.social
2.7K followers 4.5K following 538 posts

Economist who studies institutions, political economy, polycentricity, defense & peace economics, and border militarization. gunsguardsandgovernance.substack.com scholar.google.com/citations?user=1…

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Reposted by Nathan Goodman
bort @crushbort.bsky.social · 3h
a few days ago i was making small talk with a somali man about how welcoming everyone was when i stayed in a majority somali neighborhood and he immediately started tearing up and saying thank you. it didn’t feel good things have gotten so bad something that small could provoke that reaction
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Reposted by Nathan Goodman
Kevin Zollman @kevinzollman.com · 13h
Mercantilism is really intuitively appealing. I think it's genuinely difficult to get people to recognize that a country's wealth just works differently than a person or company. I think this is the fundamental reason that we don't want businesspeople running the country.
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Reposted by Nathan Goodman
The Final Straw Radio @thefinalstrawradio.bsky.social · 23/08/2026
Hadley of #Spokane3 Defendant Support talks about the cases of Justice Forral, Bajun Mavalwalla II and Jac Archer, charged with defending their neighbors from ICE. Then, Marina Christodoulou on Ontological Exhaustion via Radio Ausbruch thefinalstrawradio.noblogs.org/post/2026/08...
a drawing of the Justice Forral, Bajun Mavalwalla II and Jac Archer, plus "Support The Spokane 3" and "TFSR 8-23-26 | The Case of the Spokane 3 + Ontological Exhaustion"
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Center for a Stateless Society @c4ssdotorg.bsky.social · 07/10/2026
"Processing is not magic, a supercomputer the size of the sun can’t crack some encryption schemes and so too are there significant and inescapable constraints on processing through economic considerations." - @rechelon.bsky.social c4ss.org/content/53019
c4ss.org
Action Is Sometimes Clearer Than Talk: Why We Will Always Need Trade
Is it possible for our enemies to discover actual insights? The impulse to deny this is universal. The third reich dismissed special relativity as “Jewish physics” and lost significant advantage. The ...
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Reposted by Nathan Goodman
Electronic Frontier Foundation @eff.org · 07/10/2026
Local cops now have access to sophisticated spy tech. Learn more about cell-site simulators, automated license plate readers, drones, and more at EFF's Street-Level Surveillance project. www.eff.org/sls
sls.eff.org
Street Level Surveillance
EFF Presents: A Field Guide to Police Surveillance
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Reposted by Nathan Goodman
Paul Crider @paulcrider.liberalcurrents.com · 06/10/2026
It may be the case that Republicans have a longterm intrinsic advantage on immigration. But for at least the next two years, we can hammer into voters' minds the association of deportations with masked ICE thugs, kidnappings, concentration camps, and summary executions.
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Reposted by Nathan Goodman
ProPublica @propublica.org · 06/10/2026
NEW: The Trump administration keeps denying and downplaying that immigration agents have been detaining Americans. It’s wrong. We’ve found more than 500 U.S. citizens have been held against their will, including handcuffed or held at gunpoint.
projects.propublica.org
More Than 500 U.S. Citizens Have Been Detained, Including Handcuffed or Held at Gunpoint, in Trump’s Immigration Crackdown — ProPublica
The government doesn’t track how often immigration officers detain U.S. citizens. So ProPublica did. We’ve found more than 500 Americans who were held against their will during this Trump administrati...
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Reposted by Nathan Goodman
Frank 🏴 @newtalax.bsky.social · 03/10/2026
"agents had a practice of intimidating protesters and observers. They did this, the filing says, by doing drive-bys of the observers’ homes and, in the case of at least one observer, requiring that she be referred to secondary inspection any time she tries to cross the border"
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Reposted by Nathan Goodman
Electronic Frontier Foundation @eff.org · 05/10/2026
“My big concern is that automakers love to collect data,” EFF's @Mguariglia.bsky.social told @wired.com. “With autonomous vehicles, there’s even more data to collect. And the more data they collect, the more they’re going to find reasons to sell it.”
wired.com
Your Driverless Cab Is Spying on You
Self-driving cars from Waymo, Zoox, and Tesla are studded with cameras and sensors. Some of them are pointing at riders.
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Reposted by Nathan Goodman
Simulated Chollas @simulatedchollas.bsky.social · 05/10/2026
The land they’re carving in two for that atrocious double border wall
Mountains of green trees and rock faces in the Madrean Sky IslandsPronghorn in the prairies of the San Rafael ValleyMountain, prairies, and trees in wash/gulch
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Reposted by Nathan Goodman
Defend Our Juries @defendourjuries.bsky.social · 04/10/2026
DEFEND OUR JURIES We’ve stood against David Lammy’s attack on trial by jury since it was first proposed. We believe it to have been a direct attempt to block acquittals of people of conscience in protest trials. This is a step in the right direction: www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
bbc.co.uk
Courts backlog will fall despite scrapping plans to curb jury trials, Alex Norris insists
Proposals to limit jury trials were first introduced by former justice secretary David Lammy last year.
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Nathan Goodman @nathanpgoodman.bsky.social · 03/10/2026
Many societies that historically did not have prison systems instead relied on reputation, ostracism, outlawry, etc. You can debate whether that's better or worse than prison, but it's clearly a kind of alternative governance arrangement.
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Nathan Goodman @nathanpgoodman.bsky.social · 03/10/2026
Part of what's objectionable about prisons is that they trap prisoners in situations where they have no ability to exit, which gives guards & fellow inmates incredible leeway to abuse captive victims. In contrast, disassociation is a type of exit of the sort prisons prevent.
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Nathan Goodman @nathanpgoodman.bsky.social · 03/10/2026
You can simultaneously favor prison abolition & strong reputation mechanisms, boycott dynamics, and ostracism.
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Reposted by Nathan Goodman
Will Stancil @whstancil.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
ICE’s new tactic, witnessed repeatedly at the federal building in MN: when a detained immigrant makes a successful habeas petition, release the immigrant for a few steps outside the building… then tackle and re-arrest them, and claim the habeas petition has been honored and nullified
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William Gillis 🏴 @rechelon.bsky.social · 03/10/2026
This happened in the twin cities in 2008. SWAT teams raided the homes of anarchists on Friday before the RNC, held people without charges over the weekend and labor day, then for the two "working days" they're allowed.... then let one go on Thurs and immediately re-arrested her outside the building.
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Reposted by Nathan Goodman
Alex Pilkington @alxpilk.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
June 1978: seventeen women in San Francisco founded Samois, the first lesbian S&M group whose records survive. May 1983: it quietly closed. No raid, no lawsuit. A year later, many of the same women started over with bylaws. New Leather & Lavender essay: what carried across. 🧵
Leather & Lavender quote card on cream paper: “That sort of knowledge lives in a dozen heads and shows up on no inventory anywhere.” Beneath: “What crossed from 1983 to 1984. Who takes the print job. Who stands at the door.”
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Reposted by Nathan Goodman
William Gillis 🏴 @rechelon.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
I believe with near perfect credence that teddy bears are not morally relevant agents, *nevertheless* I think it's good that we frown on and recoil viscerally from those who attempt to torture teddy bears, because of what such behavior signals and habituates.
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Reposted by Nathan Goodman
Christopher Hudson @chrishudsonjr.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
“A fully freed market means liberating essential command posts in the economy from State control, to be reclaimed for market and social entrepreneurship. The market that would emerge would look profoundly different from anything we have now.” - Charles W. Johnson @c4ssdotorg.bsky.social
c4ss.org
The Many Monopolies
A fully freed market means liberating essential command posts in the economy from State control, to be reclaimed for market and social entrepreneurship
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Nathan Goodman @nathanpgoodman.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
Thanks to @murosinvisibles.bsky.social for having me on Pirate Wire Radio to discuss border militarization and its adverse consequences for civil liberties.
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Reposted by Nathan Goodman
Joshua Collins @murosinvisibles.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
piratewireservices.com
How militarization of borders inevitably erodes domestic liberties
The US is a test-case in how “tough on migration” quickly evolves into criminalization of dissent
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Reposted by Nathan Goodman
Joshua Collins @murosinvisibles.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
How militarization of borders inevitably erodes domestic liberties The US is a test-case in how “tough on migration” quickly evolves into criminalization of dissent LATEST podcast for Pirate Wire Radio (full episode below)
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Electronic Frontier Foundation @eff.org · 02/10/2026
"Surveillance is not safety," EFF's Rindala Alajaji said, via @nbcbayarea.com. "That’s why EFF and the ACLU of Northern California are suing the city of San Jose on behalf of SIREN and CAIR - because in a single year, San Jose PD ran over 250,000 warrantless searches on this location data."
nbcbayarea.com
'Surveillance is not safety': Protesters push San Jose to shut down Flock camera network
Protesters issued a renewed call for San Jose to shut down its network of roughly 500 automated license plate reading cameras.
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Reposted by Nathan Goodman
John Pfaff @johnpfaff.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
My latest @ms.now, on why it‘s not (legally) cruel and unusual for Tennessee to try to execute Christa Pike again, even w all the risks that remain, but also on why Gov. Bill Lee has far more political room to use his clemency than our conventional political narrative suggests.
ms.now
Opinion | Tennessee botched its attempted execution of Christa Pike. It shouldn’t try again.
John Pfaff: Gov. Bill Lee can do what the Supreme Court will not — and prevent a punishment that already feels morally cruel and unusual.
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David Roberts @volts.wtf · 01/10/2026
If you can stomach it, here's a detailed reported story from @dropsitenews.com on the schoolchildren that the US bombed in Iran. However angry you are, it's not angry enough.
dropsitenews.com
Massacre at Minab: The School That Became a Grave
The bombing of an Iranian school, killing 120 children, is one of the worst U.S. war crimes since Vietnam. Drop Site spoke to survivors, first responders, parents, and witnesses. This is their story.
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Andrew Thrasher @tituslegaldesign.com · 01/10/2026
"BENTON COUNTY, Arkansas — Benton County leaders are defending their decision to approve a fund connected to the county’s 287(g) partnership... Justice of the Peace John Rissler says some people went as far as calling the money 'blood money' and 'bounty money.'" Because it is, John.
5newsonline.com
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The UnPopulist @theunpopulist.net · 01/10/2026
Abolish ICE Before Its Abusive Tactics Spread to Other Law Enforcement: A Conversation With Radley Balko The agency has gone rogue and cannot be reformed By @shikhadalmia.bsky.social www.theunpopulist.net/p/abolish-ice…
theunpopulist.net
Abolish ICE Before Its Abusive Tactics Spread to Other Law Enforcement: A Conversation With Radley Balko
The agency has gone rogue and cannot be reformed
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Electronic Frontier Foundation @eff.org · 30/09/2026
Getting Signal up and running on your phone only takes a couple minutes. If you've already got it set up, take a minute to help your friends, too. ssd.eff.org/module/how-...
ssd.eff.org
How to: Use Signal
Download location: Google Play Store, Apple App Store System requirements: Android 5 or later, iOS 13 or later Version used in this guide: Android: 7.38.6 iPhone: 7.5.1 License: GPLv3 Level: Beginner Time required: 15-20 minutes Other reading: https://signal.org/ https://support.signal.org/ https://signal.org/blog/ Table of Contents Download and Install Signal Register and Verify...
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Sheryl Weikal says Prosecute ICE @leftistlawyer.com · 30/09/2026
Chicagoland friends, I have a favor to ask. I have a pro bono client, a Black woman, who is currently facing charges for allegedly pointing a gun at her abusive ex - who admitted to raping her. I would love if there could be a show of support for her at her next few court dates.
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Kate Hagen's House of Horrors 👻 @thathagengrrl.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
"Meanwhile, Jane Doe dropped out of Cornell and was denied her request to get her tuition refunded so that she could transfer to a different college. She hence faced more severe consequences than most of the men who she alleges gang-raped her." www.thecut.com/article/what...
thecut.com
What It Feels Like at Cornell Right Now
As a professor at the Ivy League school, Kate Manne has known many, many victims. There’s a palpable feeling on campus, she writes, that this is big.
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Reposted by Nathan Goodman
It's Going Down @igd.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
The Trump administration has used far-Right influencers as an extension of the state itself.
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Electronic Frontier Foundation @eff.org · 29/09/2026
“In some ways, Axon is actually worse than Flock,” EFF's @maassive.bsky.social told @indyweek.bsky.social. “Flock never had mobile license plate cameras, and Axon does. They install them on patrol cars, and that means patrol cars become like roving data vacuums.”
indyweek.com
Apex Town Council Committee to Make Recommendation on Flock
Under pressure from residents, the town council is reconsidering the Apex Police Department’s contract with Flock.
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Kristen Collins @kristenrosec.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
Anakin and padme meme. Anakin: I am going to teach teens about Adam Smith’s wealth of nations. Padme: the part about how “those who live by profit” have “an interest to deceive and even to oppress the public,” right? 
Anakin stares. Padme: “the critique of state capture, right?”
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ben chambers 🏴 @benjaminchambers.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
rationalists are like cybernetic socialists who think supercomputers can trivially solve the calculation problem even if true there are still other knowledge as well as logistical problems with central planning that supercomputing cant magically solve, just as agi will still face real constraints
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Center for a Stateless Society @c4ssdotorg.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
"By criminalizing drugs—deciding what an adult can put into her own body—the state has immersed the country and world in a cycle of violence that has very little, if anything at all, to do with actually preventing people from using drugs." - David D'Amato c4ss.org/content/7586
c4ss.org
No Good Guys in the War on Drugs
David S. D'Amato on the real substance of the War on Drugs.
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Reposted by Nathan Goodman
Electronic Frontier Foundation @eff.org · 29/09/2026
Our new “Privacy’s Defenders” podcast talks to the activists, lawyers and technologists who have fought for a better, more secure and private digital future – a future that’s still attainable. Episode 1, “Cowboys, Cypherpunks and Visionaries,” is our origin story.
eff.org
Privacy’s Defenders Podcast: Cowboys, Cypherpunks and Visionaries
People are increasingly concerned about the ways in which mass surveillance is tracking our every move: from Flock license plate readers to face recognition to creepy ads that – based on what we see a...
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Michael Kagan @michaelgkagan.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
www.nytimes.com/2026/09/29/u...
nytimes.com
ICE Plans 5,000 New Hires to Help With Deportation Drive
A similar surge last year resulted in undervetted officers initially being let in and then removed as the agency skipped basic checks for new recruits.
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Nathan Goodman @nathanpgoodman.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
There are probably some types of lies (e.g., fraud) that it is permissible to coercively interfere with. But I don't think all lies are like that. Giving the state or other coercive enforcers extensive powers to decide what's true & coercively suppress what they deem false seems dangerous.
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Nathan Goodman @nathanpgoodman.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
America's First Amendment remains a powerful tool for protecting free expression. But to fully protect free speech, we need to rein in executive power. Right now, the executive branch has far too much power to surveil, sanction, repress, & harass speakers that its leaders dislike.
Now, I don’t want to be too alarmist here. As Ben pointed out, the First Amendment provides relatively strong free speech protections compared to most constitutions worldwide. I don’t think we’re doing quite as poorly as the UK or France yet. But even in America, free speech is threatened by the power of the executive branch, especially when it is bolstered by powers acquired over decades in the name of national security and counterterrorism. To truly protect free speech, we need more than just a set of good court rulings under the First Amendment — we need to rein in executive power. Otherwise, the executive branch will continue using surveillance, sanctions powers, criminal prosecutions, militarized police, and more to chill and stifle dissent. Thank you.
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Nathan Goodman @nathanpgoodman.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
These sanctions powers, which trace back to the Bush administration's reaction to 9/11, illustrate a more general problem: during crises, the executive branch has been able to consolidate extraordinary levels of power.
The “specially designated global terrorist” classification traces back to an executive order signed by President George W. Bush in September 2001, after the September 11th attacks — a horrible tragedy. That crisis was used as the occasion for the Bush administration to set up a classification under the IEEPA, the International Emergency Economic Powers Act, which some of you might recall is also what the Trump administration used — unsuccessfully — to try to implement tariffs without going through any legislative action. The IEEPA was used, in a much more genuine crisis, to create a category that the State Department can unilaterally apply to any foreign group it deems terrorist.At first, they applied this to groups where I wouldn’t dispute the classification — Al-Qaeda is a terrorist organization, doing things that I would say are not First Amendment protected. But some of the other groups this is being applied to — again, with no charges, no due process, no court proceedings, and no clear way to contest it in any US court of law (especially because you would need to, in order to even hire the services of a lawyer or acquire funds to hire a lawyer, potentially overcome some of the relevant sanctions on anyone transacting with you). This makes it all too easy for the executive branch to clamp down on foreign groups it doesn’t like, thereby making them radioactive, and preventing both mutually beneficial exchange and speech acts that implicate or connect people to these organizations. I’d say that’s pretty dangerous. The costs for speakers associated with the designated group can be severe. The administration functionally has the power to unilaterally impose serious costs on its political opponents.
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Nathan Goodman @nathanpgoodman.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
These types of sanctions involve the executive branch exercising significant concentrated power, with very few checks placed on them by other branches of government. Moreover, private parties (such as banks & payment processors) tend to over-comply.
Due to federal sanctions, PayPal shut down Autistici/Inventati’s PayPal account, Banca Etica (the Italian bank they had an account with) closed their bank account, and the organization has now shut down. All of this occurred with no charges ever needing to be filed in any court of law against Autistici/Inventati. No trial, no due process, no warrant. The executive branch claims the power to unilaterally impose these types of sanctions on any foreign group.
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Nathan Goodman @nathanpgoodman.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
The designation of the Italian tech collective Autistici/Inventati (A/I) as a "Specially Designated Global Terrorist" is a similarly problematic attack on free speech. Not just for its effects on A/I itself, but for its effects on the speech of users like @thefinalstrawradio.bsky.social
Now, last month, the administration escalated their use of federal counterterrorism law against those they disagree with politically. The State Department designated an Italian tech collective called Autistici/Inventati as a “specially designated global terrorist”, and the Treasury Department subjected them to sanctions.

This organization operated an encrypted email service, a blogging platform called NoBlogs, and various other free-at-point-of-service technological services for groups and individuals who hold anti-fascist, anti-militarist, anarchist, and anti-capitalist political views. Now, the State Department, in their statement classifying them this way, did identify some users of these services who they allege have committed crimes, including terrorism and sabotage. But while some users of the services committed or praised crimes, there were also users who simply distributed political literature, organized protests, ran anarchist book fairs (where various people distribute literature, sell patches and zines, and so on), operated an academic journal (Anarchist Studies, which until recently had its blog on the NoBlogs platform), or put out political podcasts, such as The Final Straw Radio.
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Nathan Goodman @nathanpgoodman.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
The surveillance of anti-ICE activists in Minnesota as part of Operation Puppet Master, the prosecution of the Minneapolis 15, and the singling out of political beliefs for special scrutiny via NSPM-7 all represent this kind of impermissible crackdown on political speech.
So, one set of examples: in Minneapolis and St. Paul, Minnesota, earlier this year, as well as at the end of last year, thousands of ICE and Customs and Border Protection agents occupied the city.

They carried out deportations against immigrants, but also, in the process, brutalized and even killed US citizens in the vicinity. Minnesota residents organized in opposition, as is their First Amendment right. They organized Know Your Rights trainings, held protests in the streets, watched and monitored ICE and Border Patrol agents (you do have a First Amendment right to watch and record law enforcement and agents of the state). Now, the federal government spied on these Minnesota residents, sending undercover agents to Know Your Rights trainings, protest planning meetings, churches, and other First Amendment–protected events.This surveillance operation was called Operation Puppet Master. They have since brought federal conspiracy charges against 15 people allegedly involved in these protest movements. The indictment, and federal statements about the indictment, classify the defendants as tied to Antifa, short for anti-fascist. Under a federal directive called National Security Presidential Memo 7, or NSPM-7, beliefs such as “anti-fascism, anti-Americanism, anti-capitalism, and anti-Christianity” are to be treated as a priority for federal counterterrorism efforts and investigations. These ideological commitments are treated as tied to terrorism. I’m not going to argue to you that people who hold these beliefs are incapable of committing crimes of terrorism: people with all sorts of beliefs can commit violent acts, or acts of property destruction, that are not First Amendment protected.But when the government singles out particular groups of people for special scrutiny because they hold political beliefs the administration disagrees with, that poses a problem. As Adam Goldstein, an attorney with the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (which Vero helpfully quoted from earlier) points out, “the administration outlined a plan linking viewpoints it doesn’t like with domestic terrorism, and a plan to investigate people with those viewpoints. […] That is, functionally, a disincentive to freedom of expression and freedom of belief”.
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Nathan Goodman @nathanpgoodman.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
My colleagues & I recently discussed possible limits to free speech. I argue that regardless of what the appropriate limits are, people with power have incentives to try to repress speech to a degree that's impermissible. When this happens, we need to push back. And I argued that's happening now.
pursuitofliberalism.com
Are there limits to free speech?
here’s what we each argued during a recent debate!
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Eryk Salvaggio @eryk.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
This, from Dennett, I wish I'd taken to heart earlier in my life. www.themarginalian.org/2014/03/28/d...
How to compose a successful critical commentary:

1 You should attempt to re-express your target’s position so clearly, vividly, and fairly that your target says, “Thanks, I wish I’d thought of putting it that way.”
2 You should list any points of agreement (especially if they are not matters of general or widespread agreement).
3 You should mention anything you have learned from your target.
4 Only then are you permitted to say so much as a word of rebuttal or criticism.
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Olúfẹ́mi O. Táíwò @olufemiotaiwo.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
personally I think making your side of any dispute think worse for the tasty mcvibes of putting down an out group is rarely a good trade off, unless you have extremely powerful propaganda tech at your disposal or don't need your side's brains for anything later
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brian nam-sonenstein @bson.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
ICE cannot do what it’s doing without local law enforcement. They need their manpower and infrastructure. That means if you want to stop ICE you are going to have to confront police collaboration and police power. I’m sorry but progressive hopes of avoiding this conflict are a recipe for failure.
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Le Monde in English @english.lemonde.fr · 25/09/2026
Amnesty International calls for ICE to be abolished
lemonde.fr
Amnesty International calls for ICE to be abolished
In a report titled 'We Had Whistles, They Had Guns,' the NGO documents widespread human rights violations committed by ICE in the United States.
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Nathan Goodman @nathanpgoodman.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
In particular, I emphasized NSPM-7, the prosecution of the Minneapolis 15, and the designation of Autistici/Inventati as a "Specially Designated Global Terrorist." These all illustrate how concentrated executive power in the security state threatens free expression.
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Nathan Goodman @nathanpgoodman.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
I recently appeared on a panel/debate about free speech with some of my colleagues. I argued that political leaders have incentives to restrict speech so as to make their power less contestable. I argued NSPM-7 & related repression is an example of just that. open.substack.com/pub/thepursu...
open.substack.com
Are there limits to free speech?
here’s what we each argued during a recent debate!
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