He was a pure manipulator; his brain, if he had ever had one, must have early oozed along into the muscles of his fingers.

For months, the seven states of the Colorado River basin have failed to reach an agreement on new rules to share the river’s dwindling supply of water. The current rules expire next year, risking water supply and power generation.

lots of open space to the left of "the left" too. ✊

I just read that we are trapped between “the cheerful naked cruelty of the right vs. the sour purity tests of the left.” Seriously? Like there aren’t a million options in between, including “delightful dreams of toghetherness and solidarity” and “burning-fire creativity and exploratory thirst”?

What Iran learned from the West about hydro-engineering has essentially destroyed its capacity to manage water, and thus its resilience in a changing climate. A tragedy after 3000 years of enlightened civilisation. share.google/i50GieRs4v9M...

Throughout human history, a few assaults on science and knowledge are infamous: the burning of the Library of Alexandria, the arrest and attacks on Galileo, Soviet Lysenkoism, Nazi book burning, and now the wholesale destruction of US scientific excellence by Trump. www.usatoday.com/story/news/p...

When is Festivus? I am so ready for the “Airing of Grievances” ceremony…

Vargas Llosa se equivocó en muchas cosas, pero le dió al clavo con eso de “la dictadura perfecta.”

Mientras tanto la mayoría de votantes chilenxs decide aventarse colectivamente al precipicio. De nada les sirvió la tragedia pinochetista. Ya lo pagarán.

Mexico will deliver the water to US. It is true that Mexico was contractually obligated— but the treaty really needs to be revisited in light of climate change and the changes in the two countries’ development paths…

After UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer gave a speech in May that warned darkly about the nation becoming an “island of strangers,” a Labour representative had only the following to say: “Tough words and tough policy are required to solve tough problems.”

Ho-hum, private wells running dry serially in New Hampshire. “My guess is the number is four or five times that, but I don’t really have a way of documenting that" newhampshirebulletin.com/2025/12/09/a...

This is about water

I’m a proud and committed bike commuter, but…

"Rivers are messy: Beyond the water bias in research and management" — A new article co-authored by @brdemuth.bsky.social combines historical and natural science ways of thinking about rivers to argue for the importance of understanding them as more than simply channels of water.

As part of a symposium on Shmuel Nili's latest book, Beyond the Law's Reach?, I wrote an essay that was just published in Ethics & International Affairs. Here it is! Check out Nili's book, a great read, and also the two other excellent essays in the symposium by Michael Blake and Alex Zakaras.

Protecting glaciers is about people, food, water, and stability. Meltwater feeds rivers that support billions of people. As glaciers shrink, water becomes less predictable, affecting drinking supplies, farming, and energy downstream. #unea7 @unep.org @thegef.bsky.social 📸 : Chris 73 / CC BY-SA 3.0

Y cuando llegue el día del último viaje, y esté al partir la nave que nunca ha de tornar, me encontraréis a bordo ligero de equipaje, casi desnudo, como los hijos de la mar.

Okay, ten seconds after I say it, I see Boston Review has said it WAY better. In my opinion, this applies to pretty much any sort of change we want to make in any arena.

Asian-American Actresses Describe Struggle Of Constantly Being Typecast As Sherlock Holmes

“Workers should be internationalists—sure. But structures don’t spring automatically from cosmopolitan appeals. They must be painstakingly built upon people’s everyday practices.” @pochoaespejo.bsky.social in our latest forum:

After being told repeatedly (by us) that “Latinx” “Hispanic” and “Latin American” is *not* a race. They even invented a new category in bureaucratic forms to force us to say that it *is* a race— and now they cancel the scholarship because “Hispanic” looks like a race to them…

Need a break from the news? Here are a few quiet moments from our shoot in Laredo, Texas. We’ve been working on a new documentary about water, community, and the infrastructure that shapes life along the border.  More soon, but for now enjoy the zen!

In response, @pochoaespejo.bsky.social doubts that appeals to fundamental values can build solidarity and defeat resurgent xenophobia. Instead, she argues, institutions in local communities “are our best hope for motivating workers to join with others, locally and abroad”:

Our latest forum is now online. @leaypi.bsky.social opens with a critique of our broken politics of immigration, with responses from @pochoaespejo.bsky.social, @daralind.bsky.social , @danieldenvir.bsky.social, Alex Aleinikoff, Chandran Kukathas, and Ayelet Shachar:

Es fascinante ver como viajan las ideas. Eso de “tierra despojada”puede ser revolucionario, pero está tan importado de Estados Unidos o Canadá como los tacos vegetarianos de la Roma. ¿No?

The new Boston Review Forum is out! With a lead essay by Lea Ypi, and responses by Alexander Aleinikoff, Dara Lind, Daniel Denvir, Chandran Kukathas and Ayelet Shachar and me. @bostonreview.bsky.social @leaypi.bsky.social @danieldenvir.bsky.social @daralind.bsky.social

Genuinely sad. I was hoping for one more play. He is one of the few people who has made me happy every time I had something to do with him (including the many times I’ve read Arcadia and the million times I’ve watched Shakespeare in Love).

Lots of water news this morning (TLDR: we’re all running out). My take: The fights over immigration are mostly about sublimating anger and fear over the environment.

Even areas getting wetter may experience water shortage as the intense, sudden rainfall that climate change drives leads to flash floods + runoff which don't replenish groundwater. 3/6 share.google/0eyMBdzbmWkA...

Welcome new followers! I post mostly about rivers, but if you are interested in immigration politics, here’s an article that I wrote in 2020 where I was already calling to abolish ICE.

Welcome new followers! I post mostly about rivers, but if you are interested in immigration politics, here’s an article that I wrote in 2020 where I was already calling to abolish ICE.

“I had to take the baby from my crying wife’s arms.“ It hasn’t even been a year, and this is not a scandal anymore? What is wrong with us?

Book launch next week for Disjunctures: Indigenous Redirections in Political Theory (OUP 2025) by Yann Allard-Tremblay. Wednesday December 3, 5-7 pm, Paragraphe

And if a law is by definition a command issued by the sovereign, and the sovereign is the president, and if outside the law there’s no justice and injustice… (Somebody took “Modern Political Theory” and never read anything after the third week of classes…)

Every time I hear that this is “unskilled” labor…

People keep talking about this happening to Mexico City within a couple of decades and it’s the sort of thing that you hear and think, no, that won’t happen, people will take action before it does. But what if they don’t?

Note to self: “navigate messy dynamics” means “hanging out with other people is hard.” “Community” requires close relationships, and if you want the joy of being together, you cannot run away and hide from people’s quirks, fears, jealousy, envy, and resentment.

Water

Now, what are the best explanations for what *all this* has 40 and some percent approval rate?

asfalto intenseando

I just opened the app, read for 3 minutes, and this came to my mind. Old people may get the reference…

My latest cartoon for @theguardian.com books pages.

Tonight, over 240,000 Venezuelans will lose Temporary Protected Status. The Trump administration is dismantling our core humanitarian protections, leaving hundreds of thousands at risk of detention, deportation, and harm. Congress must protect TPS holders and pass a pathway to citizenship now.

The only actual law in political science is that when a candidate running on economic justice wins an election, the rich go to Miami…

The only actual law in political science is that when a candidate running on economic justice wins an election, the rich go to Miami…

Exactly a year ago, Ellen Wohl, @parriblue.bsky.social and I spent two days in Providence thinking about #rivers and how we conceptualize them & live with them. Here’s the result of history and fluvial geomorphology teaming up. #envhist doi.org/10.1371/jour...