Unable to defeat Ukraine on the battlefield, and incapable of outmanouvering it diplomatically, Russia resorts to its most common tool: blatant, idiotic lying. We should not overstate its effectiveness but still... The fact that some world leaders are willing to retransmit it is depressing enough.

Better than nothing, but not a good outcome. Ru intimidated Europe into not touching the frozen assets. It drove a wedge in the EU as some member states are opting out of this plan. Ru will continue its hybrid war and its efforts to divide Europe, trying to get more Orbans elected to do its bidding.

Is Germany again dragging its feet and undermining a "simple" solution to the Ukraine financing problem, instead pushing the ubercomplex reparations loan? It's a tempting eurocrisis reflex that if only there were a will in Berlin, there would be a better way. But there isn't. Here is why:

Así es como se comunica que España no participará en Eurovision. Bravo RTVE. Bravo Silvia Intxaurrondo. Una vez más.

It’s true that parts of 20th-century sociology had a profoundly silly, negationist approach to environmental problems. This has been increasingly corrected over the last two decades. But some contemporary ecologists’ complete rejection of sociology? That’s a sad development.

Italian Futurism updated as Spanish Green Accelerationism with a touch of Schmitt. Would it be such a great success to replace fossil fascism with renewables fascism, which retains the worst (and factually observable) tendencies of advanced industrial society? corrientecalida.com/todo-nuevo-b...

Italian Futurism updated as Spanish Green Accelerationism with a touch of Schmitt. Would it be such a great success to replace fossil fascism with renewables fascism, which retains the worst (and factually observable) tendencies of advanced industrial society?

I love Spain dearly, and I am happy it’s doing well. But the new wave of Spanish exceptionalism is disconcerting. What keeps Spain exceptional is a constant struggle by social movements plus a receptive government, not a special consciousness. This miracle can end with one bad election result.

I really enjoyed reading and reviewing Negative Life by @jttremblay.bsky.social and @stevenswarbrick.bsky.social for Ecozon@. A wonderful book that conceptualizes art and extinction beyond pastoral narratives of interconnectedness and exalted (green) consciousness!

Esto lo debería leer mucha gente que se cree 'true left'...

I’m shocked and disappointed at how quickly everybody reverts to « Ru is a great power » and « great powers will decide Ukraine’s fate » against the ample evidence that Ukraine holds its own and Ru cannot advance and cannot militarily compel the capitulation that it keeps asking for.

Many folks are unhappy about the EU’s weak stance re: Trump. But how many would be raging if the negotiators went gung-ho and put the EU into recession? There is no material basis for this Principled Power some people demand, and there is no popular will to substitute virtues for welfare. So, then?

To me this makes sense. Institutionalism is generally in retreat before the resurgence of the strongman approach, which tends to dovetail military politics. Why wouldn't we see the consequences of this play out in Ukraine too, just as we see it in France, Germany, the UK, etc.?

A state that pursues democratic values with relative dishonesty is still preferable to a state that openly implements authoritarianism. The fact that so many people have fallen for the ploy of “honest dictatorship” shows the success of Schmittian and Heideggerian distortion of criticism.

One reason why we speak about the degeneration of the US but not China is because China is already an authoritarian state with minimal political rights, whereas there are still democratic expectations for the US. In this key dimension, China is not “on the up” and remains a terrible place to live.

No entiendo este absolutismo. Dice que los avances no son suficientes para alcanzar lo que prometen. Eso forma parte normal de una crítica seria. Pero hay una línea casi teológica en ciertos sectores donde el concepto de crisis se utiliza para rechazar cualquier comentario que no sea celebración.

Sure, people evolve, views change. But I think Romania's far-right problem is not confined to AUR, SOS and POT. I think it's deeper. And so far, Dan's actions don't look very helpful. 15/15

¿A qué espera la UE para tomar cartas en el asunto? Russia Today y Sputnik se prohibieron por bastante menos. on.ft.com/4nuLQpw

Kyiv at dawn. Hours after Putin called with Trump, he launched another massive strike at the Ukrainian capital. Putin has no intention to stop this war. When will Trump realize? And when will European leaders really start applying sanctions to Russia that hurt them instead of only talking about it?

Otra noche de calor terrible en media España. Estos son los veranos por venir. Mas largos, más intensos y mas insoportables. Hay un camino al fresquito que pasa por las renovables, las zonas verdes y la justicia social. Y otro que va al horno con más contaminación, más hormigón y más motosierra.

Russia launched the most extensive aerial bombardment of Ukraine since its full-scale invasion, signalling a sharp escalation in Moscow’s campaign and further undermining fragile hopes for a negotiated end. Ukraine’s air force said Russia had fired 537 aerial weapons... ft.com/content/88fc...

There’s an unhealthy number of drones over Ukraine tonight. A deep night. I’m reading. This isn’t golden indifference or ignorance. It’s 3 years and 4 months of the big war.

No sabes si es Ione Gamarra o Cuca Belarra.

Meanwhile, in Venice... Proud of my colleagues from the Political Epistemology group and elsewhere for participating!

Looking forward to this workshop, organized by the wonderful Alice Iacobone and Gregorio Tenti. I'll be presenting together with @jpatkaus.bsky.social. Our talk discusses the function of Anthropocene aesthetics in relation to planetary-scale dimensions of extinction and environmental disaster.

Aclarado esto. Hay mucha gente –también en la izquierda– que vendió a Trump como el candidato de la paz. Algunos hasta se creyeron esa sandez. Esa gente es exponencialmente más estúpida, y además es mala.

Spare me the Western savior complex that tries to justify this madness. I despise the Islamic Republic as much as anyone else. I want them gone. But war will not bring stability to Iran. War will not bring prosperity to our people.

It’s depressing to see repeated waves of hand-wringing and mental gymnastics to excuse and empathize w Ru’s invading army which wages an imperialist conquest and rapes, loots, executes Ukrainians w extremely rare signs of compunction.

It would be a lot easier to build a broad consensus around the idea that assassinations, terror attacks and other violent unlawful acts against civilians are categorically unacceptable (as they are) if folks were not expected to normalise the mass killing of dehumanised Palestinians

Y hablando de derechización, la de la sociedad israelí. No es lo mismo Netanyahu que los israelíes pero el 62% se declaran de derechas, el 73% entre los que tienen entre 15 y 24 años. De izquierdas, solo el 12%. elpais.com/internaciona...

This isn't around the corner. This isn't coming soon. We're in it now. Every time you've watched a documentary about a genocide, ethnic cleansing or indiscriminate mass murder and wondered what you do? the answer is, whatever you're doing now, that's what you do

Apocalyptic scenes from Kyiv overnight. Russia sent in 250 strike drones & ballistic missiles. 8 cities attacked & ALL civilian targets - colleges, shops, homes. History shows that weakness only emboldens the aggressor & Trump’s strategy with Putin has been a catastrophe. (📸 Cyrille Amoursky)

Generally, diasporas voting far-right is rationalised through alienation: they are excluded, do not belong, were forced to leave. Obvious, but this does not explain how and why these sentiments are captured by the extreme right. One missing component is media consumption habits and channels.

Israel has rapidly accelerated its destruction of Rafah in April and May. It's hard to understand the magnitude of this, even when spending time analyzing recent satellite imagery. From me, Samuel Granados, Aaron Boxerman, and @rileymellen.bsky.social Gift link: www.nytimes.com/interactive/...

Medicine on a Larger Scale: Global Histories of Social Medicine, eds @ahlie.bsky.social, Jeremy Greene, and me, will be available open access from @cambridgeup.bsky.social in May 2025. In a world of growing health inequity, radical social medicine has never been more urgent! #histstm #histmed #sts

Europe has benefitted from extractivism, externalizing the worst ecological damage abroad. But is the solution to start mining aggressively and destroying more ecosystems in Europe? To drive global climate change at an accelerated pace? To erode what minimal gains nature conservation has won?

My lecture explores conceptual tools for understanding cultural and environmental extinction. I focus on two case studies: the representation of extractivism in the work of Edward Burtynsky and memory aesthetics in Giovanni Michelucci’s Longarone Church, built to commemorate the Vajont disaster.

I think it's very safe to say that nuclear power advocates have done way, WAY more cynical exploitation of the Spain blackout that then fossil fuel industry has (either directly or through their proxies) It's all bad but this is particularly brazen -> archive.ph/kppH7

Much ado about the role of renewable energy (RE) in the Spanish blackout. The investigation into the effective cause is still ongoing, but many pointed to the fact that RE has no ‘inertia’. Is that true? The answer is: yes, but ... 🧵

Who needs affordable housing, walkable neighborhoods, and community activity when you can have chatbots for friends, AI shlock for culture, and conspiracy theory for politics? They'll soon put poor Charlie Brooker out of business with this nonsense.

una expresión local de dinámicas globales

Ha sido una cobertura madrileñocentrista a tope, anécdotas de otros puntos de España y Portugal no existe.

Por mucho que sea importante el control público y la existencia de un contrapoder frente al mercado, no deberíamos enamorarnos del Estado tan fácilmente. El último siglo es también una larga historia de abusos del poder estatal, y basta con un mal resultado electoral para volver a lo mismo.

Apocalyptic television produced in North American, or following this particular palette, tends to depict the smallest breach in social order as causing immediate desocialization and violence. It’s a bullshit ideological trope. In most cases, people band together and help each other out.

Having lived in Canada, when people are saying "We're all Canadians today," well, I really hope not because that country's baseline is natalist biopolitics, conservative nationalism, and a legacy of cultural genocide that the state attempts to disavow by throwing extractivist money at some people.

En la izquierda occidental hay un sentido común de proteccionismo nacional que se proyecta al Sur Global de forma natural. Ellos lo defendían coyunturalmente para remediar un desequilibrio histórico, su petición era la igualdad de condiciones. ¡Hacer lo mismo aquí implica defender un privilegio!

Entre 2019 y 2024 el gasto militar aumentó en 0,4 puntos porcentuales del PIB. Al mismo tiempo, el gasto en sanidad aumentó 0,7 puntos; el de pensiones, 0,6; el de educación 0,2. Decir que son partidas incompatibles es falso (y, por cierto, el típico discurso de la derecha).

Perhaps we truly live in times of extreme “derechización” if a mildly progressive and populist head of one of the most reactionary political institutions on Earth can be celebrated as a beacon and North Star of the Left.

Un debate feroz sobre construir o no más vivienda. Tiene sus puntos importantes, como la política de construcción, etc. Pero me sorprende que no haya tanto debate sobre, e.g., la construcción de centros de datos. La vivienda me parece bastante más compatible con cualquier izquierda que la otra cosa…

The US seems to have limited leverage everywhere except for the EU, where its influence is disproportional. But I suppose this is what happens when you externalize your security and defense.