At all three places where I taught, veterans and military students are admired for their service, their ability to get their academic work done quickly and extremely well, and for often balancing family and school. Not *once* have I ever heard a faculty member disparage a military student.

The SAVE America Act would centralize dangerous voter-screening power in presidential appointees, undermining the Constitution’s design, warns Cato’s Walter Olson. He notes the urgency: after trying to overturn a lost election once, Trump could gain new tools to challenge voter eligibility again.

Except as the article points out, the broadcaster stands by the film. There is an active debate in Polish society about Polish complicity and crimes, much of it sparked by Jan Gross's Neighbors, and the "they" here is not representative of modern Poland, at all.

Does he realize that a) the President can't ban mail-in ballots, and b) even if he could, it would hurt the Republican vote?

This is like listening to one of my grand-uncles rambling on from one unconnected anecdote to the next, deep in a dementia-soaked evening.

Co nie co na temat Rady Pokoju. Chyba tak ostro nigdy się nie wyrażałam... www.gazetaprawna.pl/wiadomosci/k...

"OMG, Mama, I can't believe you recognized that guy, Ricky Martin?"

Kyle Duncan, as in the judge who came to Stanford, got heckled and shouted down,* and responded by calling the students "juvenile idiots" and berating them for asking questions? That Kyle Duncan? *I am not condoning their appalling behavior, at all.

”What turns people into radical jihadist clerics? A new book suggests thwarted career ambitions. A subset of Muslim clerics who advocate for jihad started out as mainstream clerics looking for state-sponsored jobs…only to become unemployed, disenchanted, and radicalized” news.mit.edu/2017/why-som...

We never got the measles, mumps, rubella, or chicken pox vaccines as kids in communist Poland, thanks to the regime's spartan attitudes towards vaccinations. From personal experience: even mild cases are a) misery, b) so contagious, c) rife w/ horrible consequences for *adults*

There is a similar outrage in the UK, Poland, and even in Czechia about Trump's throwaway comment that NATO allies "stayed a little back, a little off the front lines” in Afghanistan

Vladimir Putin arrests journalists for spreading “fake news” and “insulting the armed forces.” But Russia doesn’t have a 1st amendment and vociferous defenders of free speech.

The Brezhnev Doctrine was first articulated in 1968, to defend the invasion of Czechoslovakia and the crushing of its reform movement. It was also invoked to justify the invasion of Afghanistan in 1979, and that worked out brilliantly, didn't it.

Nuremberg: “just following orders” is not a defense DHS: just follow the orders, even if you are despised for it

Hahah. Sob. I'm teaching Erosion of Democracy this quarter.

The USSR invaded Czechoslovakia in 1968, kidnapping the country’s leaders. In 1956, the Soviet Union invaded Hungary and had its leader executed. Of course, the Soviet Union was not a democracy, but a single party regime ruled by elderly hypocrites.

Just in time for Christmas: a great interview with an absolute legend. Theda Skocpol and Edwin Amenta on her career, US politics, the erosion of democracy, and most of all, what to do about it. sociologica.unibo.it/article/view...

National Archives in Prague in the late 1990s. No heat, diesel trucks backed into the courtyard and spewed fumes that permeated the building and lightly kippered all the researchers, and a very kind archivist kept plonking coffee right onto the KSČ Politburo documents I was carefully transcribing.

Yes, two of the biggest beneficiaries of EU funding should be easy pickings for the Trump/ Russia efforts to convince Poland and Hungary to leave the EU. www.statista.com/chart/18794/...?

See, a government list of "media offenders" is very different from federal censorship, which thankfully ended earlier in the year.

I have made it to the 7th circle of Dante's hell:

Seriously? How hard is it to cook or eat a turkey? My guy, my family of immigrants had no problem hosting Thanksgiving, including roast turkey with all the trimmings,* within 2 months of arriving on these verdant shores. *Except sweet potatoes, which remain controversial.

Book workshops are *fantastic.* Whether or not resources are an issue, the Zoom version (2-3 hours) works incredibly well and makes it much easier for participants to attend. Other book workshop tips 🧵:

Mainwaring 1993 ftw, always and forever journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1...

I’ll keep pushing this line of analysis because I’m increasingly convinced the clearest path out of this mess is for Dems to adopt a relentless anti-corruption, anti-inequality, anti-oligarchy, pro-democracy platform. The Dem leadership hasn’t realized it yet, but they’re now a reform party.

On the other hand, life in the European Soviet satellites has vastly improved: people are so much better off (richer, freer) by 1995 or in 2025 than they were in 1975. (notable and horrific exceptions: FYR and Albania in the mid-1990s)

Zohran Mamdani won with 50.4%. Eric Adams won in 2021 with 67%. Bill de Blasio won in 2017 with 66%

How did the interview go, sweetheart?

One more reason to use and protect mail-in ballots (81% of CA’s ballots were mailed in the last election.)

Neville Chamberlain would like a word

The Cuomo campaign should also appeal to its Balkan voters, addressing Estonians, Latvians, and Lithuanians.

The town over from our tiny one: patriotic songs, unicorns and giraffes, banjos and ukuleles, and so much hope. Then we bunked off and the local restaurants made a killing.

Putin, an autocrat, passed a Foreign Agents law in 2012. Orban, an autocrat, uses investigations, tax audits, regulations, and new laws to harass civil organizations in name of sovereignty. Both sought to intimidate civil society, so that no independent or opposing voices remained.

After the drone attack, Poland has invoked Article 4 of NATO. Note: a) Article 4 calls for consultation, NOT mutual defense, b) Not the first time Russia has "accidentally" bombed Poland, nor the 1st time Poland used Article 4 c) Yes, it's a Putin troll; no, it is not an inevitable escalation

Every day, my mother carefully boiled milk, bc otherwise we'd be exposed to tuberculosis, massive GI issues, and other pathogen-borne disease. When we came to the US, you could just drink milk cold! straight from the bottle! with no gross coat to skim! Welcome to communist-era Poland, y'all.

A must read, especially for anyone who thinks that making little concessions and keeping your head down will work:

Nicolae Ceaușescu was known as the Genius of the Carpathians, the Man of Humanity, the Hero of Heroes and Romania's First Architect. He was endlessly praised by his inner circle, the media, and state-organized public demonstrations. And then came December 25, 1989.

Stalin purged his brilliant general Mikhail Tukachevsky, known for his commitment to professionalism. He was executed, along with several other generals, in 1937. Stalin also purged over 35K officers. The result was the Winter War disaster, and a near-total lack of preparation for Barbarossa.

To punish critics and to intimidate dissidents, the communist parties in the Soviet bloc would conduct raids on their apartments, searching for more pretexts to put them on show trials.

You can end an assault immediately by saying you consent. Just remember how you asked for it.

Red carpet for Putin:

At just over 2 troops per 1000 inhabitants, the deployment to DC is larger per capita than the US deployment in Afghanistan except during the Obama surge 2009-13.

All that, and then the attentiveness/ admiring looks. Astonishing.

Putin scored a major PR victory: claiming agreement where none exists, once again trotting out the "root causes of the conflict canard," and getting his "businessmen" to do their intelligence jobs. Trump profusely thanking him was just the cherry on top of this noxious sundae.

Someone teach the fine folks of Anchorage to chant “Путин-хуйло!” stat

Just to clarify, the HHS and NIH will abandon research into mRNA Covid vaccines because people don't trust them, but will continue research into mRNA cancer vaccines because they could save lives and eliminate fatal disease.

No, he’s not giving Putin Alaska, but he is giving Putin a huge gift: the legitimacy of touching down on US soil at the invitation of a US president. A reward for the full-scale invasion of a sovereign, democratic country that the United States and its European allies support.

Trofim Lysenko insisted on Lamarck being right, rejected Mendelian genetics, and as Director of the Institute of Genetics of the Soviet Academy of Sciences, was responsible not only for the political prosecution of his critics, but for idiotic policies that led to the deaths of thousands.