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@nvalvo.name

647 followers 880 following 1.1K posts

Manuscript Editor, U Chicago Press.

Posts Replies Media

🫥 @nvalvo.name · 29/09/2026

Bald guy from Onion worst person you know meme.

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🫥 @nvalvo.name · 26/07/2026

From p. 82: What this refers to is the joint US-Saudi air war against the Iranian aligned Houthis in Yemen. That’s drone war against irregular forces, many of whom are only hazily combatants. Do the Houthis threaten American interests? Nope. But they threaten the Saudis and other Gulf Monarchs!

Through aggressive diplomacy backed by U.S. military power, the Administration has worked alongside allies and partners to deter and defend against Iran and its terrorist surrogates. President Biden has postured U.S. military forces in the region and authorized precision airstrikes on key Iranian-linked targets tied to attacks against U.S. troops to deter further aggression by Iran. President Biden has also continued to protect the American people from terrorism, au rizing military strikes that took out ISIS emirs and the leader of
Al Qaeda, Ayman al-Zawahıri.

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🫥 @nvalvo.name · 30/06/2026

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🫥 @nvalvo.name · 09/05/2026

Just took this a minute ago.

River North/Streeterville skyline from the Ohio Street beach.

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🫥 @nvalvo.name · 28/04/2026

Well, it can be. It’s two axes, one for degree of popular participation in power and the other for the presence of a king. (And of course we could add other axes….)

A graph with two axes. The y-axis runs from democratic to oligarchical, and the x-axis runs from monarchy to republic. In each corner, there are emoji of the flags of countries that represent those traits. For example, Spain is a monarchy with democratic institutions, but Saudi Arabia is a monarchy with oligarchic institutions. On the republican side, Brazil is a republic with democratic institutions, and North Korea is a republic with oligarchic institutions.

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🫥 @nvalvo.name · 23/04/2026

I’m not sure where this falls on the ontic/ontological divide, but it’s a good recipe!

Picture of a cookbook page, opened to read:
CULIU BAI CAI 醋溜白菜
CHINESE CABBAGE WITH VINEGAR

Chinese cabbage has a mild favor with just a hint of mustardy sharpness and, after cooking, a delightfully juicy texture. The following is a Sichuanese version of a simple but satisfying supper dish that is made in many parts of China, in which brown nice vinegar lends its mellow fragrance to the greens. The vinegar is added at the end of the cooking time, to preserve its aroma.

The name of the dish reminds me of a song, to the tune of "Happy Birthday," which my Sichuanese friends Zhou Yu and Tao Ping sung to me once on my birthday in Chengdu: “hanca/ baica/ tudou! Hancai baicai tudou!” It sounds a bit like the words to "Happy Birthday," but means "Amaranth, Chinese cabbage, potatoes! Amaranth, Chinese cabbage, potatoes!"

11 oz (300g) Chinese leaf
Salt
2 tsp Chinklang vinegar
cabbage
2 tbsp cooking oil
1 tsp potato flour mixed with
¼ tsp sugar
1 tbsp water (optional)

Cut the cabbage into 3/8 in (1-2cm) slices. Bring a pan full of water to a boil and blanch the cabbage for a minute or two to soften the thicker parts of the leaves. Remove to a colander and shake dry. Add the oil to a seasoned wok over a high flame, swirl it around, then add the cabbage and stir-fry for a couple of minutes. Add the sugar, and salt to taste. Pour in the vinegar and stir swiftly in. If you are using the flour mixture, add it now and stir quickly to allow it to thicken the juices. Serve.

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🫥 @nvalvo.name · 25/02/2026

I think you may find the answer she seeks in Hegel's Phenomenology of Spirit, §§109–10. Namely, you make "anything" by failing to translate the sense-certainty of "something" into words that cannot sustain the required level of determinateness. That should clear it up for her.

Hegel, from the Phenomenology, in Pinkard's translation: "They speak of the existence of external objects, which, to put it more precisely, can be determined to be actual, absolutely individual, wholly personal, individual
things, each of which is absolutely unlike the others. This existence is said to have absolute certainty and truth. They mean this piece of paper on which I am writing (or rather have written) this. But they do not say what they mean. If they actually wanted to say what they mean about this piece of paper, and if they wanted to say it, then it would be impossible because the sensuous “this,” which is what is meant, is inaccessible to the language which belongs to consciousness, that is, to what is in itself
universal. In the actual attempt to say it, it itself would thereby rot away. Those who began a description would not be able to complete it; rather, they would have to leave it to others, who would finally themselves have to confess to speaking about a thing that is not. They therefore do mean this piece of paper, which is here totally other than the one mentioned above, but they speak of actual things, external or sensuous objects, absolutely individual entities, etc. That is to say, they say of them merely what is universal; thus, what is called the unsayable is nothing other than the untrue, the irrational, what is merely meant. – If nothing more is said of a thing..."

Hegel, continued: "than that it is an actual thing, an external object, then it is only articulated as the most universal of all, and what is thereby articulated is its sameness with everything instead of its distinctiveness. If I say: “An individual thing,” then to a greater degree I say something entirely universal about it, for everything is an individual thing. Likewise, this thing is anything one pleases. To characterize it more precisely: As this piece of paper, every and each bit of paper is a “this piece of paper,” and I have only spoken, as usual, of the universal. However, if I wish to lend a helping hand to speech, which itself has the divine nature of immediately turning the meaning upside down, then of making it into something else, and in that way of not letting the meaning get into words at all, then by my pointing out this piece of paper, I thus learn from experience what the truth of sense-certainty in fact is. I point it out as a here, which is a “here” of other “here’s,” that is, which in itself is a simple ensemble of many “here’s,” which is to say, is a universal. In that way, I receive it as it is in truth, and instead of knowing what is immediate, I perceive.

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🫥 @nvalvo.name · 16/02/2026

Uh, yeah, that's one way to describe the neoliberal development-driven university. The whole point was to de-democratize these institutions and restore them to the control of elites.

NYT headline that reads: "Epstein's Ties with Academics Show the Seedy Side of College Fundraising: Professors and presidents are often eager to raise outside cash. Some are now facing blowback after connecting with Jeffrey Epstein"

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🫥 @nvalvo.name · 05/02/2026

Sometimes the LAX Harley-Davidson store (?!?) presents you with a very rich text.

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🫥 @nvalvo.name · 25/01/2026

The challenge for this argument is that they did knowingly vote for something that logically implied what we are seeing. Many said at the time that the scale of deportation Trump was calling for would require a police state. Lo and behold. media-cldnry.s-nbcnews.com/image/upload...

Attendees at the 2024 RNC with Mass Deportation Now! posters

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🫥 @nvalvo.name · 20/01/2026

I’m not sure what you’re looking at, but here’s what I see: a position that a year ago was a fringe among Democrats is now nearly unanimous among Democrats, favored by a majority of independents, and even considered by a small slice of Republicans. truthout.org/articles/mor...

According to data examined by Civiqs, 42 percent support getting rid of the agency while 50 percent oppose doing so, a split of just 8 points. This represents a major shift from a year ago, at the start of President Donald Trump's second term, when only 24 percent of Americans supported abolishing ICE and 59 percent opposed the idea, a 35-point split.

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🫥 @nvalvo.name · 09/01/2026

Good morning from the Starbucks on the 12th floor of the Chicago Ritz-Carlton, where I am doing some work while waiting out a routine medical procedure a few blocks away.