Go Wildcats! 🏀

Thanks for having me @amewington.bsky.social and @davidsoncollege.bsky.social, and for this awesome swag 😎

Thank you @anderlouis.bsky.social for meeting my seminar students to discuss Bogan "War & Peace." In a fit of Tolstoyan "live-in-the-moment" enthusiasm, I forgot to take pics with that larger group, so here's a few of us yesterday w/ the Bogan translation! Yay to creativity & multiple Englishes!

Poster advertising a screening of the Ukrainian documentary, Intercepted.

Local Davidson friends, pls join us for a screening of the 🇺🇦 documentary, “Intercepted,” followed by a Q& A with the director. Wed. Feb 11 at 6:30 pm.

The Epstein Files and Russiagate are the Same Thing For years the culture war has assigned these scandals to opposite teams.

more here

Reported from and on hundreds of protests in Russia, wrote countless stories about the “feared riot police,” and not once did I see or hear of them killing a person, just to give a sense of where we are

Amanda Ewington and Ander Louis sitting together in a Melbourne street café.

Amanda Ewington and Ander Louis sitting together in a Melbourne street café. She holds a copy of his “bogan translation” of Tolstoy’s War & Peace.

From Bluesky connection to meeting irl in Melbourne, what a treat to chat with @anderlouis.bsky.social about his translation of Tolstoy’s W&P into Aussie, and his other literary and musical pursuits!

Tolstoy's "Strider" (Kholstomer) is told from the perspective of a horse; also his "Three Deaths" has the perspective of a tree! As another commenter noted, Anna Karenina, also offers an animal's perspective (Levin's dog, Laska).

Russia launches record drone and missile barrage on Ukraine [FREE TO READ] Kremlin sends more than 500 Iran-designed drones after US stopped delivery of crucial interceptors

Russia launched its largest-ever drone and missile barrage on Ukraine overnight – right after speaking by phone to Trump and two days after the US halted the delivery of some key weapons to Kyiv, including air defense missiles.
@fabricedeprez.bsky.social on.ft.com/44dDuuX

@anderlouis.bsky.social I’m excited to share your opening of War & Peace with my seminar students this fall. We devote the whole semester to War & Peace. I’m married to an Aussie and my older son has relocated to Oz. What a wonderful combination of Australia and Tolstoy you’ve created!

My mind is on Australia, where I'm headed later this week, and I stumbled across this gem. I'll be sharing this with my W&P seminar students this fall!

Russia hits Ukraine with biggest air attack of the war Assault marks sharp escalation in campaign, as Zelenskyy calls for more western help with defence systems

Russia launched the most extensive aerial bombardment of Ukraine since its full-scale invasion, signalling a sharp escalation in Moscow’s campaign and further undermining fragile hopes for a negotiated end. Ukraine’s air force said Russia had fired 537 aerial weapons...
ft.com/content/88fc...

Thank you to Riva Evstifeeva for welcoming me at the Bibliothèque russe Tourguenev. A fascinating history, dating back to the 1860s, & intertwined w/ revolutionary & feminist history & various waves of emigration. And, since today is Pushkin's bday, here she is w/ наше всё! tourguenev.fr/francais/

The consequences that befall Musk now that he's attacked Trump publicly will be a measure of how well the US fits the competitive authoritarian model. The more severe, the better the fit. I despise Musk, but for the sake of US democracy, I hope his punishment doesn't violate the rule of law.

Elon-Trump. This is like watching the Prigozhin turn against Putin - where for 24 hours we all hoped they’d mutually self-destruct, taking their henchmen , toadies and cronies down with them. A pox on both their houses.

elon probably saw trump as a puppet, the same way russian oligarchs saw yeltsin’s successor as a puppet, the same way german oligarchs saw hitler as a puppet, the same way roman oligarchs saw octavian as a puppet, the sam

This is the major professional organization for Slavists, bringing together literature scholars, historians, political scientists . . . Not that I was planning on returning to Russia under Putin, but wow. Yes, a major blow.

'We're playing into Russia's hands': Ex-U.S. ambassador to Ukraine on why she resigned YouTube video by PBS NewsHour

The now ex-U.S. ambassador to Ukraine on why she felt compelled to resign. “Peace at any price is not peace, it’s appeasement.”
youtu.be/yNXgYg_lfAo?...

Conservatives used to talk about the internal enemy that was trying to destroy the United States from within. There is no better description of what the Trump administration is doing than that, without even an attempt at justifying their wanton destruction.

Can only be described as regime propaganda

HAPPENING NOW: Rümeysa Öztürk appears remotely for her bail hearing in Vermont federal court! 🧵

It is an understatement to call these acts of censorship and violations of academic freedom “culture wars.” The Trump administration is determining what can be taught, dictating what students can read, saying what ideas are acceptable, and disallowing inconvenient facts and texts.

I don't understand how the Times can never determine whether Trump is lying but can say with certainty when he is joking.

Blue sign with an American flag and words: "Due process for all! Justice for all!"

Blue sign with an American flag and words: "Real patriotism=Protecting the Constitution"

My sign for today's local protest: Not very creative, bit hopefully clear. I can't wait to check in this evening and see photos from around the country.

Toilet paper? Like in 2020?

If the agent of an embittered KGB officer somehow won the US presidency and entered into the office bent on destroying the USA in its national influence, network of alliances, and the American people’s quality of life, what would he be doing differently?

I want a president who is tougher on Putin than he is on Harvard.

Trump Pressures Ukraine to Accept a Peace Plan That Sharply Favors Russia (Gift Article) The U.S. proposal would freeze territory along the current front lines of the Russia-Ukraine conflict, which Ukraine has rejected.

Shameful!!
"But the United States is essentially settling on a deal that favors the aggressor in the war, one that forces Ukraine to accept the forcible rewriting of its border and give up its hope of eventually joining NATO, as other former Soviet republics have." www.nytimes.com/2025/04/23/w...

YOU: Interpreting literature has no real practical or political application! Get a real job!

SUPREME COURT: This entire political argument, and indeed our understanding of American freedoms, hinges on how we interpret fictional characters’ decision-making in a children’s picture book.