US and Netanyahu's calculation that killing Iran's leadership and crippling aerial bombardment would bring Iran to its knees are a profound misreading.
India's former ambassador to Iran has much clearer assessment
As I scroll through triumphal pro-war tweets, thinking about this image a lot today:
It's publication week! My new book takes a deep dive into how US policy on Iran has been made since the 1980's. It's a story of why US-Iran hostility has endured for now nearly half a century. Please check it out!
Netanyahu wants Iran to have
(1) Zero enrichment(2) 0 missiles (3) 0 proxies
"Reformists argue concessions can be made on enrichment (including shipping out 60% enriched uranium) if the US is prepared to lift at least some sanctions. But even they are unwilling to negotiate over the missile program"
So what would a Reverse Turing Test look like?
Students are asked to read the following for Week 1 on Embeddedness and New Economic Sociology.
Polanyi, The Economy as Instituted Process
Granovetter, Economic Action and Social Structure
Krippner, The Elusive Market
As someone who runs a lefty publication that activists read, let me tell you — X, BlueSky, and all social media are vanishingly inconsequential to our work. None of them drive traffic — most days ChatGPT generates more hits — and we all live and die by SEO and the loyalty of our newsletter subs.
NEW: "Reconstruction and Ruin" the Winter 2025 Issue of Middle East Report is now live!
This issue captures the challenges facing ordinary people in the Middle East as the warfare politics of dispossession and division continue amidst efforts to rebuild urban landscapes.
Dear Mr. Nadeau: As long as there is one upright man, as long as there is one compassionate woman, the contagion may spread and the scene is not desolate. Hope is the thing that is left to us, in a bad time. I shall get up Sunday morning and wind the clock, as a contribution to order and steadfastness. Sailors have an expression about the weather: they say, the weather is a great bluffer. I guess the same is true of our human society — things can look dark, then a break shows in the clouds, and all is changed, sometimes rather suddenly. It is quite obvious that the human race has made a queer mess of life on this planet. But as a people we probably harbor seeds of goodness that have lain for a long time waiting to sprout when the conditions are right. Man’s curiosity, his relentlessness, his inventiveness, his ingenuity have led him into deep trouble. We can only hope that these same traits will enable him to claw his way out. Hang on to your hat. Hang on to your hope. And wind the clock, for tomorrow is another day. Sincerely, E. B. White
I just stumbled across this and thought some of you might like to see it. A letter from E.B. White to a man who'd written he'd lost all hope:
If you happen to be in London on Thursday, please consider attending this conversation about On the Semicivilized -- or any of the other great talks coming up in this series "Histories of Capitalism and Race" at SOAS.
Trump: “Nobody understands a word this guy is saying.”
Reminder: 550 million people worldwide speak Spanish, 45 million of them in the USA.
Poor monolingual president. He doesn’t get it and can barely even speak English.
www.nytimes.com/live/2026/02...
for those who missed the Bad Bunny halftime show, a long clip on reddit www.reddit.com/r/nfl/commen...
Covers of These Survivals, Blues Mamas and Broadway Belters, Sex Isn't Real, Unruly Comparison, Pollution Is Colonialism, My Father the Messiah, On the Semicivilized, Atomic Bombshells, P FKN R, and Body Problems, arranged in a 5x5 grid.
Catch authors @naylandblake.bsky.social, @wolffdr.bsky.social, @jeelyachar.bsky.social, @beansvelocci.bsky.social, and @maxliboiron.bsky.social at in-person and virtual events in February!
buff.ly/SJZ076W
"Guess who is the largest direct investor in the US?"
-- @philippasigl.bsky.social
"Cash is anonymous. It’s the first choice for unhoused and undocumented communities,... for people who are legally subject to income reporting to maintain their education or benefits status, for elderly people... Cash is less vulnerable to taxation or garnishment than bank accounts...."
Our attempt to make sense of Trump II, sans sane-washing.
Big thanks to @andrewelrod.bsky.social and Maya Adereth whose editing made the piece much, much better.
Secretary General of the Council of Europe says “International law is either universal or meaningless. Greenland will show which one we choose.” Yes, well. Did Gaza show which one we choose?
www.nytimes.com/2026/01/19/o...
Can't wait to be in conversation with the four brilliant scholars organizing this series Sarah El-Kazaz, Hengameh Ziai, Lisa Tilley, and Samia Khatun. @dukepress.bsky.social , @kwissoker.bsky.social @soasuni.bsky.social
Honored to be speaking February 12th in London as part of the Histories of Capitalism and Race series of the SOAS Walter Rodney Collective Spring 2026 series. www.soas-walter-rodney-collective.com/events. www.dukeupress.edu/on-the-semic....
Been making my way through @hofrench.bsky.social biography of Kwame Nkrumah and it’s every bit as good as advertised. So good at connecting African American experience to African liberation, without ignoring the problems and contradictions. Loved it.
wwnorton.com/books/978132...
The Trump administration is asking countries that want a permanent spot on his new Board of Peace to contribute at least $1 billion.
Trump’s reported duties would include: approving the board's agenda, deciding which countries to invite, and controlling the money
"The incredible work that’s been done to crystallize a broad opposition to Israeli & U.S. genocide against Palestinians in Gaza needs to move forward. Our space at @historians.org, extraordinary capacity building, & the conversations that bring us together—we’re not going to rescind that space.”
me in @publicbooks.bsky.social thinking through what a philology beyond liberalism might look like via one book which really shows us a path forward and one which very much so does not // the age of babel is dead, long live the age of the pentecost!
The cover of Time and the Other: How Anthropology Makes its Object (1983), only teal and black, with mostly horizontal stripes
RIP German anthropologist Johannes Fabian, who passed away last Tuesday. Fabian was most widely known as the author of "Time and the Other: How Anthropology Makes its Object" (1983), a then-radical & still-influential critique of anthropological writing, knowledge-making & fieldwork relations. RIP.
Yup
www.crisesnotes.com/trump-vs-pow...
FT Column by Ed Luce: Second, adding Greenland to his column would be lucrative. Trump’s libertarian friends have been eyeing it for some time. Peter Thiel, who wants to set up crypto-empowered “network states” on undeveloped territory, has invested in Praxis, a start-up that aims to do just that and which has scouted Greenland. Trump’s ambassador to Denmark, Ken Howery, was a co-founder with Thiel and Elon Musk of PayPal. Silicon Valley is awash with billionaires invested in one kind of networked venture or another. Greenland is high on most lists. Unlike Mars, occupying Greenland is doable.
Why Greenland?
"Peter Thiel, who wants to set up crypto-empowered 'network states' on undeveloped territory, has invested in Praxis, a start-up that aims to do just that and which has scouted Greenland. Trump’s ambassador to Denmark, Ken Howery, was a co-founder with Thiel and Elon Musk of PayPal."
Blue states & cities could use sub federal public institutions to create sub federal public money
See @moneyontheleft.bsky.social for more
And follow the link to this incredible essay by Samera Esmeir from 2014 which I can't believe I never read before. www.merip.org/2014/04/a-gu...
For a great introduction to Nasser Abourahme's must-read new book, dukeupress.edu/the-time-ben..., @dukepress.bsky.social , read this conversation in Journal of Palestine Studies www.palestine-studies.org/en/node/1658.... @dukepress.bsky.social
The first time Charlie Chaplin spoke onscreen, he implored the people of the world to resist the rising tide of fascism.
Nearly 90 years later, it remains a timely message.
