The biggest takeaway of yesterday's election is that you can win in NYC as a progressive and in Virginia as a moderate Democrat. Thanks for coming to my TED talk

During my times the PhD students workroom at the University of Wisconsin political science department, where Cheney started, but not finish his doctorate had a picture of him with the caption "You can always quit." Well, he eventually did.

Vienna people, if you have nothing better to do Thursday evening, do come!

Also, hosts a campus or two of this or that prestigious university. Just sayin

"Nathaniel Redmond, director of the Yale school of public health, said on Tuesday that the “horror, scale and velocity of killing” in El Fasher had left pools of blood visible from satellites" Pity the West simply does not have any tools to pressure UAE, which is the RSF's main funder and supplier

That special smell of Totenkopf in the morning

I would have loved to live in this Soviet Union. Unfortunately, only the actually existing one was available

the Sudan Solidarity Collective has partners in El Fashir distributing aid. give what you can bsky.app/profile/nisr...

"UN refugee agency official Jacqueline Wilma Parlevliet said that the new arrivals told stories of widespread ethnic and politically motivated killings, including reports of people with disabilities shot dead because they were unable to flee" this keeps getting worse www.ctvnews.ca/world/articl...

I am old enough to remember people in the West and especially college students, actually giving a damn about Darfur. Now, nobody gives a shit. I have no idea why, it's not like there is a legal limit on the number of conflicts and massacres one can care about, Gaza or Ukraine are not an excuse.

I am old enough to remember people in the West and especially college students, actually giving a damn about Darfur. Now, nobody gives a shit. I have no idea why, it's not like there is a legal limit on the number of conflicts and massacres one can care about, Gaza or Ukraine are not an excuse.

I am old enough to remember these very people being totally OK the Russian invasion because there were politicians with Nazi symbols in Ukraine.

Can't wait for the stage where the federal government starts doing "hearts and minds" in the country's major cities.

It's too bad, I am sure Putin just found a footnote in an overlooked 13th century Byzantine account of Kipchak hunting rituals that would finally convince everyone that Ukraine belongs to Russia and was so ready to share it with the President

Yet another media request asking to speak on the relations between Trump and Zelensky. Dozens after every meeting. Still waiting to see when, instead of asking a political scientist to talk about Trump-Zelensky they finally realize they need a psychologist talking about Trump's relations with Trump.

Yep, it might, God forbid, even invade and take Kyiv in 3 days. Very worrying.

Easy. Offensive Constructivism. It's all constructed within Putin's head, and it is offensive to everyone who knows history. I actually predicted that this is exactly what Putin would do, he is consistent in his obsessions, but thought Trump would just fall asleep like everyone else.

I mean, it is probably not as bad as using ChatGPT for your homework assignment, but I do wonder what happens when ChatGPT hallucinates and advises him to deploy a regiment that doesn't exist, commanded by a colonel that it just made into an imaginary location in a context of a real conflict

Joel Mokyr wins the Nobel Prize. Wow. Just wow.

Finally. Long overdue. So late. Shouldn't have ever happened. Just the beginning. Never, ever again. But this time, for real. Who am I kidding...

בָּרוּךְ אַתָּה ה' אֱלֹהֵינוּ מֶלֶךְ הָעוֹלָם מַתִּיר אֲסוּרִים

In honor of spooky month, share a 4 word horror story that only someone in your profession would understand: Manuscript Central Account Opened

"What air defense doing" might be an appropriate thought to have at those challenging moments.

Fox News, bless their hearts, decided to blur the face of the IDF's only serving Lt. General (aka the Chief of the General Staff) while leaving the shoulder rank as is. Great job, they are currently clean on opsec. Here is the piece, btw: www.foxnews.com/world/thousa...

Can we hope that when (if?) the war in Gaza in over the world, and especially the West will finally turn their attention to this mass murder. The violence is bankrolled by the West's closest allies/partners, it's not like there is no leverage and it is just a local fight. Or am I just too naive?

Can we hope that when (if?) the war in Gaza in over the world, and especially the West will finally turn their attention to this mass murder. The violence is bankrolled by the West's closest allies/partners, it's not like there is no leverage and it is just a local fight. Or am I just too naive?

The Gaza war feels like it lasted forever, our entire lifetime, past, present, and future. That is, until you remember that Russia's invasion started a year and a half before Gaza and has no sign of ever ending.

repost this if an editor has ever saved you from yourself

The first, maybe the only time in my life when I look forward to reading something on Truth Social.

Are we there yet?

All rational choice decision making models I can think of suggest that it is rather hard to make people resign when their staying out of jail depends on not resigning

The plan that Netanyahu just agreed to is Exhibit 19765 for how squeezable Bibi is when push really comes to shove. Which is something folks with knowledge of Israeli politics all know but it somehow took almost two years for the US to discover that they just need to demand, not beg

My bombing was taken out of context, and I apologize for any inconvenience it might have caused

I have gotten used to living in a city that has a Viale Uljanov Lenin, Via Carlo Marx, Via Massimo Gorki etc. but I just drove on Via Ho Chi Minh and I have questions

They have [expletive] lost their [expletive] minds

I have finally reached that stage of my career where I can assign and teach Umberto Eco's book in my class. Unfortunately, the class is research methods and the book is How To Write a Thesis

And if Netanyahu annexes the West Bank, they might even consider opening an embassy at some point

Another consequence is that future generations of US experts, policymakers and security officials won't have a chance to be taught about key parts of the world by people with insider understanding of those places. Which would be ok 99% of the time but you really don't want to see the remaining 1%

That would be a dangerous escalation. Being an historian, my colleague @radchenko.bsky.social must remember the WWIII that started last time a NATO member shot down a Russian plane that violated its airspace. Consultations and deep concerns work just as effectively as a deterrent

Yemen Riviera, anyone?

N=1 etc., but still... I have been teaching a class on autocracy for a decent numbers of years now. This semester the number of students I have is the lowest ever, by far. If in the past I had a full class and a waiting list, nothing like that this semester. Can't explain what's going on.

I have heard this view many times and interestingly, I am hearing it more now than in the past. Often it is little more than a convenient excuse to sit back and do nothing. Even when it isn't, the distance from here to complacency is short. "Kyiv in 3 days" is history but Russia might as well win

Today, millions of people suddenly discovered, to their astonishment, that the North Atlantic Treaty also has articles 1 to 4. Thanks to the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation for their educational efforts

It's all very concerning, and we all should be gravely concerned. When we do, they will also become concerned, troubled even. And that's how we protect ourselves, by close cooperation and mutually assured concerns.

So, how is the rules based international order treating you this morning?

I have a feeling this time Trump is going to get very, very angry. And blame Ukraine

Weird parallels to Russian nationalist sci-fi/fantasy writers of 1990s who started with cautiously describing the world from the perspective of the "dark side" and then moved to proudly calling themselves orcs, Moscow as Mordor etc. But these guys lost the Cold War, didn't win the presidency

Wait, I thought Vietman was a woke loser war, have I missed something since yesterday?

To be followed by an executive order renaming every Slavic Studies department the Department of War and Peace

Poll of Palestinian opinion by Zogby. Please note -The universal revulsion towards Hamas in Gaza (92% hold them responsible for the "situation") -Low support for armed struggle (only 4% in Gaza) -Low support for "one democratic state" - around 13% institute.global/insights/geo...