Proud to publish this piece from my former student, who writes that Russia's lawfare in the European Court of Human Rights is "transforming [it] into an unwitting accomplice in one of the most sophisticated disinformation operations of the modern era.” americansunlight.substack.com/p/russias-la...

Russia’s Lawfare Playbook: How the Kremlin Weaponized Human Rights Courts to Launder Disinformation

When the Kremlin wants to legitimize a lie, it doesn’t just hold a press conference – it files a lawsuit.

americansunlight.substack.com

The Universal Periodic Review (UPR) is a peer-to-peer evaluation of a country's rights record. All 193 UN member states are expected to participate, and even states like Russia and China do. Today, the US took the unprecedented step of withdrawing from the UPR www.reuters.com/world/europe...

US withdraws from key UN human rights report, draws criticism from rights advocates

The United States will not participate in a U.N. review of its human rights record, officials said, a move that rights advocates called a worrying retreat from Washington's global engagement on rights and justice issues.

reuters.com

May infamy follow him for the rest of his days. www.washingtonpost.com/national-sec...

Rubio recasts long-held beliefs with cuts to U.S. human rights reports

The State Department’s annual human rights reports arrive a half-year late with significant cuts and little fanfare from America’s top diplomat.

washingtonpost.com

As of today, Elon Musk is thought to be responsible for the death of 300,000 adults and kids due to the illegal closure of USAID (source: www.impactcounter.com/dashboard?vi...) That's a 103 deaths per hour, each day. And it will get worse. His legacy is one of death, destruction, and failure.

On Friday, my son stayed home from school because he had a sore throat and wasn’t feeling well. He went with my husband to his office for the morning while I handled our daughter. When he came back at lunch, he was not interested in eating, saying his throat hurt too much. 1/n

If we know where they were sent, but it isn’t to detention: exile. If we know where they are & it’s in detention: extraordinary rendition. If we don’t know where they are, but we know someone’s holding them: kidnapping. Otherwise, if we don’t know where they are: disappearance.

Mehdi Hasan@mehdirhasan.bsky.social · last yr.

Given the literal definition of deportation is removing a foreigner or noncitizen from the country, we - journalists, media orgs - should probably all stop referring to the ‘deportation’ of a 2 year old US citizen. It’s NOT a deportation. I’m not sure what it is. A kidnapping?

Heparin is just like an iPhone, except it's a bit more compact and you use it to prevent blood clots instead.

Soumya Rangarajan, MD, MPP@soumya-goblue.bsky.social · last yr.

Your Michigan Medicine colleagues would appreciate if you relay the message that a basic medicine we use 1000x per day in the hospital, heparin, is also dependent on China, and people will die without it

The only way forward, that I can see, requires both courage and collective action. If we’re not going to fight for our students and our scholarship, then what the hell are we doing anyway?

Aaron Shaw@aaronshaw.bsky.social · last yr.

University presidents, the time is now! Unshackle the general counsel's office! File all the lawsuits! Release the faculty upon the op-ed sections! Write to your alumni, parents, and donors! You have nothing to lose but a tiny percentage of your enormous endowments... www.nytimes.com/2025/04/08/u...

A good reminder to follow everything Eunji Kim does. She is so smart and just has an intuitive understanding of how people engage with entertainment media. She’s also hilarious. oh and her new book is coming out in a month: press.princeton.edu/books/hardco...

The American Mirage

How the entertainment narrative of upward mobility distorts the harsh economic realities in America

press.princeton.edu

Jake Grumbach@jakemgrumbach.bsky.social · last yr.

Two papers that made me realize that public support for antidemocratic politicians is more personalistic-cultish and less ideological than I thought Kim & Patterson 2024: www.cambridge.org/core/journal... @noamgidron.bsky.social et al 2025: onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10....

As someone educated outside the elite doctoral programs, EITM was huge for me. If you want to be good enough at finding stuff out (i.e., "research") to be paid to do it, there's no substitute for being around the best of the best and trying to learn from them.

Empirical Implications of Theoretical Models@eitm-institute.bsky.social · last yr.

Applications for the 2025 EITM Summer Institute are now open! Program dates: Aug 4-15. Program location: University of Michigan. Deadline: April 15. eitminstitute.org/institute/20...

This year we will be in Michigan in August. Apply if you are midway through your PhD program in the social sciences to learn from the best in the discipline how theory and empirical methods come together!

Empirical Implications of Theoretical Models@eitm-institute.bsky.social · last yr.

Applications for the 2025 EITM Summer Institute are now open! Program dates: Aug 4-15. Program location: University of Michigan. Deadline: April 15. eitminstitute.org/institute/20...

This segment from @maryannefranks.bsky.social is an incredibly tight argument that captures the breadth of the Trump assault on free speech perfectly and in less than a minute. Spread it far and wide.

Senate Judiciary Democrats 🇺🇸@judiciarydems.senate.gov · 2y ago

WOW. Watch a constitutional law expert completely DEBUNK Republicans’ censorship crusade, while articulating exactly how Donald Trump is threatening freedom of speech. 🔥

I knew Dan Drezner when his headings were like "Sanctions work somewhat better than you think."

Daniel Drezner@dandrezner.bsky.social · 2y ago

I guess I'm mad as hell and I'm not going to take it anymore. Fuck decorum. danieldrezner.substack.com/p/american-f...

A competent Democratic Party would have this clip all over the airwaves and social media inside of 24 hours.

MeidasTouch@meidastouch.com · 2y ago

Trump’s commerce secretary Howard Lutnick says if Social Security skipped a check, his mother-in-law wouldn’t complain—and if you would, it indicates you are probably a fraudster. Insane.

I'll be moderating a panel on Birth Right Citizenship at @umfordschool.bsky.social (and try to bring a comparative perspective). The panel includes legal scholars and historians (see below), join us on FRIDAY March 28th! fordschool.umich.edu/event/2025/c...

Current and Historical Challenges to Birthright Citizenship

The Trump administration has asked the Supreme Court to allow restrictions on birthright citizenship to partly take effect, even as the initial executive order is blocked nationwide by three federal a...

fordschool.umich.edu

The people Attorney General Bondi is calling “terrorists” have had no trial and no chance to defend themselves. We do not know who they are. Ignoring the Constitution does not make us safe. It puts us all in peril.

Great way to advertise the book 👍🏼 I didn't know about it but now I do and immediately bought the book. www.vanityfair.com/news/story/m...

Ex-Facebook Employee Is Blocked From Promoting Tell-All Memoir

Meta has forcefully denied the allegations in a new memoir, “Careless People.” Now, an arbitrator has prohibited the author from distributing it.

vanityfair.com

They will not stop until Americans stand up to them. Today, the Senate Democrats failed that test. Tomorrow, I hope that the rest of us come together to defend our values and principles.

The New York Times@nytimes.com · 2y ago

President Trump on Friday opened a third attack against a private law firm, restricting the business activities of Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison just days after a federal judge ruled such measures appeared to violate the Constitution.

vote your vote, but don't lie to constituents. have some fucking dignity.

...topics such as the Civil War..."??? It literally became a national cemetery *because of the Civil War. We're not a serious country. Or, more accurately, this isn't a serious government

The Washington Post@washingtonpost.com · 2y ago

Arlington National Cemetery has scrubbed information about prominent Black, Hispanic and female service members and topics such as the Civil War from its website, part of an effort across the Defense Department to remove all references to diversity, equity and inclusion from its online presence.

Trump and Republicans set this up as an unprecedented power grab so they can slash and burn government services on their terms. I’m a firm NO — on cloture and final passage — on this ‘CR’

Again, if university presidents/leaders want to shape public opinion & the politics of the moment, rather than idly sitting by why Trump destroys free speech & dismantles the entire business model of 🇺🇸 higher education, here is the opportunity to do that. Loudly. Collectively. Publicly. Immediately.

Mark Copelovitch@mcopelov.bsky.social · 2y ago

I'm just a small-town professor. I'll never be a provost or chancellor. But here's some free advice: we're about to hold the most watched college sports event in 🇺🇸. Every college president should be all over TV, at every game, explaining why the March Madness of federal budget cuts is a huge crisis.

Last week, I presented at my final Conflict & Change PhD Workshop @uclspp.bsky.social. Once again, ECRs from around the world shared their projects. I’m grateful for the opportunity to have been involved as both an organizer and a presenter from the beginning of my PhD! Hope to come back someday. 🙂

We find similar evidence from residence of Texas across two different types of natural disasters: doi.org/10.1016/j.gl...

Disaster experience mitigates the partisan divide on climate change: Evidence from Texas

Despite the abundance of real world events and scientific information linking the worsening extreme weather to climate change, public attitudes toward…

sciencedirect.com

Dana R. Fisher (aka the Apocalyptic Optimist)@fisherdanar.bsky.social · 2y ago

Another paper showing climate shocks lead to support for climate action among conservatives. Analyzing data collected in Florida, the paper finds Republican positions change after personally experiencing loss from climate-exacerbated extreme events. www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Another paper showing climate shocks lead to support for climate action among conservatives. Analyzing data collected in Florida, the paper finds Republican positions change after personally experiencing loss from climate-exacerbated extreme events. www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Tyranny requires your fear, your silence, and your compliance. Democracy requires your courage.

📢 “He’s trying to steal Medicaid to enrich himself. He’s gutting NASA to line his pockets with SpaceX. He’s looting everything good in America for private profit.” - @aoc.bsky.social at today’s #SaveOurServices NYC rally. The fight isn’t over. Join us: go.savepublicservices.com