In case you missed it, NBC News journalist Kristen Welker began her new gig as host of the “Meet the Press” with a Donald Trump interview. This morning NBC News published a piece fact-checking Trump: “Former President Donald Trump made...
Russian invasion of Ukraine (2022)
Victoria Amelina, January 1, 1986- July 1, 2023
On Tuesday of this past week, a Russian missile struck a crowded pizzeria in the city of Kramatorsk, Ukraine. One of those killed was an award-winning writer, Victoria Amelina. Here is an auto-biographical piece she wrote, “Expanding the Boundaries of...
Belarus, Ukraine, Russia: an eclectic reading list
The events of this past weekend had a number of Cold War and Russian history and politics experts excitedly feeling relevant. What exactly happened and what does it mean? I appreciated this analysis from Tom Nichols at The Atlantic. In...
Pope Francis on Ukraine
The Pope wants peace in the Ukraine. He opposes Russian war crimes, but is not acting diplomatically on behalf of the West in the way John Paul II did during the Cold War. Over at The Atlantic, John Allen, the...
Ukrainian mothers who traveled into Russian-occupied Ukraine to get their children back
The war in Ukraine has largely faded from the news of late, but this does not mean that the suffering there is any less profound. An emotional piece in the New York Times this weekend highlights the impact of war...
Ideas in progress: Amanda McCrina
What is the focus of your current book project? What are the main stories that you hope to tell in this book? My current project is a historical spy thriller set in postwar London, in the run-up to the Victory...
Historical reflections on civilians and war one year into the invasion of Ukraine
Eleven years ago this month, I had the privilege of co-organizing (with the amazing Nicola Foote, a historian of Latin America and the Caribbean) a conference on civilians and warfare in world history. We eventually published an edited collection of...
The war in Ukraine and the struggle over cynicism
This Friday, February 24th, will mark the one-year anniversary since the beginning of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Several posts on this blog this week, therefore, will reflect on different aspects of this war. It’s very curious how negatively some...
Why do some on the right-wing hate Volodymyr Zelensky?
Here is David French at The Atlantic: “I just want to punch him.” That’s what Candace Owens told her 3.3 million Twitter followers in response to a video of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky thanking Americans for their support in his...
Should we start preparing for a Ukrainian victory?
While we were all watching coverage of Queen Elizabeth II’s death, the Ukrainian army was taking back towns occupied by Russian troops. Here is a taste of Anne Applebaum’s recent piece at The Atlantic: But even though the fighting may...
18 members of the House of Representatives vote against Finland and Sweden joining NATO
Finland and Sweden want protection against Vladimir Putin’s Russia. As we have seen in Ukraine, Putin has expansion on his mind and both Scandinavian nations border Russia. When a NATO nation is invaded, all of the other NATO nations are...
Archivists are hard at work trying to save Ukraine’s digital history
Here is Ally Markovich at “Berkeleyside”: When Russia launched its war on Ukraine six weeks ago, a frenzied attempt to save the country’s cultural heritage from destruction began: Religious artifacts were moved underground to secret bunkers in Ukrainian cities. But...
Genocide
Here is Eugene Finkel of Johns Hopkins University: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, visibly shaken by evidence of the Russian military’s atrocities against Ukrainian citizens in the recently liberated suburbs of Kyiv, on Sunday condemned the slaughter as genocide. The Biden administration has...
Charlie Kirk is not the only one creating watchlists and encouraging students to record their teachers. Putin is also doing it.
Charlie Kirk and his gang at Turning Point USA are not the only ones encouraging students to record teachers and create watchlists of unpatriotic educators . So is Vladimir Putin and his Russian henchmen. Here is Jeanne Whalen at The...
Pope Francis expresses solidarity with the people of Ukraine
Watch: Learn more here....
The GOP anti-Ukraine caucus
There members of the Congress who love Russia. Here is William Saletan at The Bulwark: After years of defending a pro-Putin American president and dismissing Russia’s interference in American elections, Republicans have returned to their old shtick: accusing Democrats of...
Rod Dreher says that America has “few champions” like Viktor Orban, but Florida governor Ron DeSantis gives him “hope”
We covered this yesterday, but Dreher continues to drool all over of the pro-Putin/anti-Zelensky Hungarian president. Here is a taste of his post: “Viktor Organ or Joe Biden?: We cultural conservatives in America have very few champions like Orban. Maybe...
Even the devil can quote scripture
Shakespeare was right in the “The Merchant of Venice.” In a Hitler-like rally in Moscow’s Luzhniki Stadium, the site of the 2018 World Cup final, Russian president Vladimir Putin told a gathered crowd of reportedly 200,000 (according to Moscow Police)...
Debunking the Ukrainian biolabs myth promoted by Charlie Kirk and Eric Metaxas
Watch Metaxas and Kirk talk about the potential of Ukrainian biolabs that might be created bioweapons and coronaviruses. This is how fear-mongering works. Kirk says that he can’t be sure about such biolabs, but that does not stop him from...
I guess this is one way of opposing Putin
From the city of Plano, TX: Thanks to Shane Claiborne for posting this on Twitter....