It was called the “Turning Point USA Action Conference” and it was, in essence, a celebration of Donald Trump, Trumpism, and all things MAGA. I didn’t get a chance to watch much of it beyond Trump’s speech, but several people...
Ukraine
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...
Ideas in Progress: Julie Durbin on vocation, mission, teaching, and the creative life (Part I)
I have gotten glimpses but would love to hear more about your vocational life so far. You are currently an academic, but you have also spent a significant part of your life on the mission field in Ukraine. What was this like? What...
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...
Michael Kazin: American leftists should support Ukraine
The Georgetown historian weighs-in at Dissent. Here is a taste of his piece, “Reject the Left-Right Alliance Against Ukraine“: At critical times, foreign wars have tested the moral convictions of American leftists and affected the fate of their movement for...
There were three major investigations of Donald Trump’s presidency. What if we took them as a whole?
There are three published investigations of Donald Trump and his presidency: The Mueller Report, the House Intelligence Committee Report on Trump and Ukraine, and the January 6th Report. Future historians will bring these reports into conversation with one another. Carlo...
Rod Dreher in Hungary: “blogging and backtracking”
Here is Hungarian writer Balázs Gulyás on the mess the conservative blogger is making in Hungary: Last week, Rod Dreher, the American author now living in Hungary, caused a diplomatic scandal that has gone largely unnoticed in his home country....
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...
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...
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...
More books to help us understand the Russia-Ukraine war
Harvard University Press offers seven: Stanislav Aseyev, In Isolation: Dispatches from Occupied Donbas Volodymyr Rafeyenko, Mondegreen: Songs about Death and Love Serhii Plokhy, The Frontline: Essays on Ukraine’s Past and Present Yuri Kostenko, Ukraine’s Nuclear Disarmament: A History Karel C....
Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky speaks to Congress
Watch:...
Report: Russian government tells its media to puff Tucker Carlson
David Corn of the progressive magazine Mother Jones is reporting that the Russian government has urged media outlets in the country to feature clips of Tucker Carlson. Here is Corn: On March 3, as Russian military forces bombed Ukrainian cities...
Andrew Sullivan on the post-liberal Right’s Putin problem
Earlier this week at Current I wrote about the conservative nationalists who love Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán and (to a lesser extent to be sure) Russian president Vladimir Putin. These critics of American liberalism are in a tough spot these...