“U.S. officials have discarded the idea of legal constraints altogether,” write ‪@oonahathaway.bsky.social and @scottjshapiro.bsky.social. “There is no real argument to defend the government’s behavior. No pretense. No attempt to persuade.”

As @postguild.bsky.social assesses the damage from last week’s layoffs, it turns out between 44% and 47.5% of the newsroom has been axed. It “may have been the biggest one-day wipeout of journalists in a generation.” washingtonian.com/2026/02/09/a...

Annexation. Israeli security cabinet expands powers in occupied West Bank in move that finance minister says will “fundamentally change the legal and civil reality” there. He said the govt was “burying the idea of ​​a Palestinian state” www.ft.com/content/ee9c...

Bad Bunny and the Americas won and the New England Epstein-Trumps lost.

Israel's partial reopening of Rafah offers little relief, leaving Gazans trapped in endless delays for medical care, education, and family reunification:

Yeah but where do you put this on your Lyterati faculty productivity report

I’ve disliked the Seahawks since the 2012 Fail Mary when fake refs called a fake TD to give the Packers a real loss, and the 2014 NFC championship heartbreak. The Patriots are an odious franchise owned by a Trump loving Epstein class slime lord who deserve nothing. I’m over the Fail Mary.

I don’t know when I’ll find the right moment to use this spread from “Bowie for Babies” but rest assured that when that moment comes I will be ready.

“Under any other president, a UAE royal secretly paying $500 million to the Trump family’s crypto business would cause a political earthquake in Washington. There would be demands for an investigation by Congress, televised hearings, and months of damage control” — my latest @theguardian.com

It sparks at least a little joy every time I figure out how to disable one of the new AI features in my email or phone.

At least 556 Palestinians have been killed in Israeli strikes since a U.S.-brokered truce came into effect in October, including 24 on Wednesday and 30 on Saturday, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry.

Trump sanctioned UN officials because they warned US companies about complicity in Gaza. Destroying international justice to protect Israel, ad infinitum www.reuters.com/investigatio...

Happy to share my new article on Saudi Arabia’s regional policy. Setting aside the misplaced talk of a “return to Islamism,” I situate Saudi strategy historically and show how Riyadh’s “zero-conflict” turn is being undermined by ongoing Emirati and Israeli interventionism.

This is a tragedy not merely for the source (US should not be purchasing from Israel's defense industry while #Gaza genocide is ongoing), but the arms bought: ♦️Cluster munitions are an inherent war crime. They have little military utility, and kill or maim civilians (often children) for decades.

“Riyadh and Abu Dhabi are in an economic conflict at home and in several proxy military battles abroad. Their quarreling will shape the region for the next decade, including how they approach security engagements with Western powers” - another take www.foreignaffairs.com/united-state...

Camille Lons on how “The Saudi-UAE clash is reshaping dynamics across Yemen and the Horn of Africa.” ecfr.eu/article/powe...

DOD “signed a $210 million deal to buy advanced cluster shells from one of Israel’s state-owned arms companies… large new commitments to a class of weapons and an Israeli defense establishment both widely condemned for their indiscriminate killing of civilians.” theintercept.com/2026/02/06/p...

bad bad bad www.theguardian.com/global-devel...

raise your hand if you are not, in fact, in the Epstein files

Wish my publisher had greenlit that book I wanted to write about how elite impunity was the core of global politics and how Trump mirrored Arab Gulf regimes back when I proposed it on 2017.

This has slowly been happening at all but flagship public universities. This would accelerate the practice, and I expect more states (including some blue states) to follow suit in the coming years.

Fire all the good journalists, double down on the dumbest take havers. Can’t go wrong.

In Syria, following impressive international successes and the recent reunification of the country, time has come for a more inclusive political transition to secure and consolidate the gains achieved @crisisgroup.org @foreignaffairs.com www.foreignaffairs.com/guest-pass/r...

Imagine trying to teach an opinion writing course, where half the course is devoted to challenging students’ perceptions and biases so they can argue their opinions more persuasively. You’d get fired in week one. www.nytimes.com/2026/02/04/u...

Again, not once has the media asked “Can we afford ICE?” the way they obsessed about affordability with Biden’s student loan debt relief or Obama’s health care plan. And the media surely isn’t going to ask “Can we afford this?” about this crazy military spending increase 🤔🤷‍♂️ bsky.app/profile/mcop...

Omg this Washington Post editorial against taxing the rich is real. I was sure it was an internet joke I wasn’t aware of. www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/202...

It’s astonishing how little attention is being paid as Trump blunders towards war with Iran with virtually no discussion or debate. The eternal sunshine of the bomb Iran mind crowd are cheering it on, nobody else seems to be paying the slightest attention.

Trump’s team is vastly overrating what force can accomplish against Iran, dramatically underestimating the risks, and assuming Iran will capitulate to demands it has always rejected. It’s worked for him enough times that he thinks he can get away with anything. It’s a recipe for absolute disaster.

Looks like the rumors were true - Libya’s Saif al-Islam Gaddafi killed in a home ambush. www.aljazeera.com/news/2026/2/...

Remarkable: Trump's planned migrant prison camps are hitting deep resistance in red areas. In Virginia's partly rural Hanover (+26 Trump) opposition is intense. GOP leaders in other states are opposed. Voters are rejecting mass deportations big time. 1/ (new piece) newrepublic.com/article/2060...

New Bellingcat investigation: Made in the USA: How American-Built Weapons Have Wrought Destruction in Gaza. The article examines how US-made weapons have been used in Israeli strikes and the civilian harm linked to their use. www.bellingcat.com/news/2026/01...

I expected the cuts would be bad but I'm honestly stunned and sickened seeing how many great journalists the Washington Post just lost. People who nailed huge investigations, documented war zones, exposed horrific crimes, dropped all at once for failures they did not cause.

Fire the journalists, keep the crappy oped columnists, see if you can drive readership all the way to zero. www.nytimes.com/2026/02/04/b...

Called this in early January, and yes it’s fascinating abuaardvarkghost.ghost.io/the-saudi-ua...

Good lord

a detailed look at the mechanics of the new American censorship regime It runs on threats of accusations, administrative ambiguity, and pervasive, amorphous fear of sudden termination.

More detail on Omar Shakir’s resignation from HRW over its interference with report on Palestinian right of return. jewishcurrents.org/researchers-...

Palestinian families evacuated from Gaza to Jordan describe children injured by Israeli attacks, lives erased, and the pain of leaving a shattered homeland behind:

Hiring surge for right wing professors driven by legislative mandate, federal pressure (and pro-Israel counterparts though this article doesn’t go into that part of it). Would be easy for desperate job seekers to game this if they had no morals, standard, or shame. www.chronicle.com/article/the-...

This is crushing. Fuck everyone who chose this or supports it.

Everything going great now that peace has arrived

First customer of the season!

This is really sad. HRW (with Shakir) did monumentally important work with the “apartheid” report. Bad bad bad.

Two HRW employees that make up the entirety of the organization's Israel and Palestine program are stepping down after the leadership blocked a report that deems Israel’s denial of Palestinian refugees the right of return a "crime against humanity." www.theguardian.com/world/2026/f...

“Yom insists on seeing Jordan for itself, not as a function of American interests or of Israeli concerns..based on deep field research and an encylopedic knowledge of the political science literature.. will likely productively annoy certain audiences.” abuaardvarkghost.ghost.io/this-must-be...

"You need only know this: Whatever is happening with your data, it is important enough to the most egregiously lawless administration in American history that it be collected and consolidated." www.nytimes.com/2026/02/03/o...

More than a year after the Nov 2024 ceasefire, there are still 64,000 internally displaced people in Lebanon, according to the IOM. www.aljazeera.com/features/202...

“A US disaster response firm submitted a plan to White House officials that would guarantee 300% profits and a seven-year monopoly over a new trucking and logistics plan for Donald Trump’s Board of Peace in Gaza” - what’s Trump cut? Corruption all the way down. www.theguardian.com/world/2026/f...

“Too often, as he notes, Jordanians don't recognize their country in the books and articles written about it. They will recognize the Jordan he portrays here.” Sean Yom joins me for this week’s Middle East Political Science Podcast abuaardvarkghost.ghost.io/this-must-be...