There’s a very special place in hell for people who move into a new house with a beautiful garden or lots of trees and then proceed to cut the trees and destroy the garden to make room for plastic toys and/or outdoor kitchen
Huss/ein Banai
@hbanai.bsky.social
Associate Professor of International Studies at Indiana University-Bloomington. Books on liberalism, democracy, human rights, Iran, and US-Iran relations. Working on a book on enmity in politics. Co-Editor, Int'l Studies Review. hussbanai.info
It’s be very naive to think he’s not going to interfere with the midterms
Aaron Rupar@atrupar.com · last wk.Trump: “My REAL Polling Numbers, not those made up by the Fake News Media, are the best they have ever been”
President Trump had threatened to prevent the opening of a new $4.5 billion bridge linking Detroit and Windsor, Ontario. After the two countries signed a last-minute deal, the bridge is now set to open Monday. https://wapo.st/3RReRAQ
Some of the consequences of policies pushed by Woolsey in the MENA (to say nothing of the radicalization of the GOP): Failed states in Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, Yemen, Syria & Lebanon Unwinnable wars against Iran, leading to IRI bomb Nuclearization of Saudi Arabia Isolation & weakening of Israel
PBS News@pbsnews.org · 3w agoFormer CIA Director James Woolsey has died. He was 84 years old. His tenure under President Bill Clinton was a rocky one, marked by the 1994 arrest of CIA case officer Aldrich Ames, who sold secrets to the Soviet Union for nearly a decade.
Was great talking to @gregsargent.bsky.social about the quagmire the Trump admin has gotten us into in Iran - a war of choice started by a President who is divorced from reality and a SecDef who thinks tough talk and bombs equal strategic success. Feels like a new forever war with no end in sight.
Greg Sargent@gregsargent.bsky.social · 3w ago"When you elect a madman...you get a paramilitary roaming American cities...and US military going around the world [thinking] you advance American power at the end of a gun." On the pod @marieharf.bsky.social is great on how Trump's pathologies got him stuck in Iran: newrepublic.com/article/2133...
Trump is never subtle or vague about his intentions. The key question for him always is whether he can get the Republican Party to ram them through into reality. He’s done pretty well over the last 10 years so why stop now.
Glad to see this argument move beyond political theory and be voiced by more empirical political scientists as well
Petter Törnberg@pettertornberg.com · last mo.‘Polarization’ has become the master concept for diagnosing our current democratic crisis. But this is not polarization. It is the radicalization of the political right. By misdiagnosing it, we risk becoming complicit in the crisis. 🧵 Just out in Perspectives on Politics doi.org/10.1017/S153...
Isn’t a helipad just a cement/asphalt circle with an H painted on it? That costs $5 million somehow?
The Washington Post@washingtonpost.com · last mo.President Trump has begun construction on a new White House helipad, his latest change to the historic grounds, according to three people. Lockheed Martin will donate $5 million to help cover the cost of the helipad, according to a company official. https://wapo.st/4gM6kZV
imagine trying "I know I've been gone four months but I'll explain when I'm back" if you were a shift worker at Arby's
CNN@cnn.com · last mo.Rep. Tom Kean Jr. will be “fully transparent” about his nearly four-month absence when he returns to Washington on Tuesday, a spokesperson told CNN. https://cnn.it/4xUYFPf
In response to Trump's apologists, note that U.S. fuel costs of the Iran war alone (due to higher-priced gasoline and diesel) surpass $62.6 billion today, enough to fund NASA, the EPA, CDC, FDA, National Park Service AND Dept of Commerce for an entire year. "Winning"? iranwarcost.watson.brown.edu
Not enough commentary about how much money he wastes on bad ideas he’s late to www.nytimes.com/2026/06/23/t...
Mark Zuckerberg Directed Meta to Create a Prediction Markets App
nytimes.com
After 107 days of hostilities, the war in Iran has settled into a stalemate—the “least admired of diplomatic outcomes,” writes @hbanai.bsky.social. “Still, this result doesn’t need to be a defeat for the United States.”
When a Cease-Fire Is Really a Stalemate
Equilibrium with Iran is the best America can do.
foreignaffairs.com
New in @foreignaffairs.com : PWH Non-Resident Senior Advisor @hbanai.bsky.social weighs in on the U.S.-Iran cease-fire. Read his analysis here: www.foreignaffairs.com/war-iran/whe...
When a Cease-Fire Is Really a Stalemate
Equilibrium with Iran is the best America can do.
foreignaffairs.com
I’m on a flight back from an academic workshop in Italy, where the widespread sentiment was that Meloni - along with many other European anti-liberal populists - is waking up to the reality that Trump is so much more devious than just an ally in bigotry and cruelty towards migrants
Financial Times@financialtimes.com · 2mo agoMeloni accuses Trump of pandering to west’s enemies ft.trib.al/8GgFJNa
This is so goddamn embarrassing.
Tariq Panja@tariqpanja.bsky.social · 2mo agoExclusive: Iran were hustled out of the United States so quickly that the team’s players had to be iced and bandaged on the plane back to their base in Mexico. A team medic recounts details of a chaotic, pressurised 48 hours Iran endured at the World Cup. www.nytimes.com/2026/06/17/w...
This war was the culmination of a counterfeit narrative he circulated in a way that neither GOP hawks nor Netanyahu could do on their own. Will he pay any price for it? I'm not sure; but many others already have and will continue to, in blood and treasure. open.substack.com/pub/hedgeofs...
A Counterfeit War's Inevitable Landing
Never forget why and how this all began
open.substack.com
CNN correctly reports “The signing of a memorandum of understanding between Washington and Tehran is expected to kick off 60 more days of negotiation on ending the war.” www.cnn.com/2026/06/14/w...
Live updates: Trump says agreement reached with Iran | CNN
President Donald Trump says an agreement with Iran has been reached and the US will end its naval blockade on the country. Follow live updates.
cnn.com
The bundle of deranged psychological impulse, vulgar con artistry, delusional expectations, and empty threats that led to this misbegotten war - the whole thing packaged in one post.
🔥 SEN. @ossoff.senate.gov: “This war in Iran is the worst foreign policy blunder since Iraq. And just like the Iraq war, it’s a war built on lies. The ‘America first’ President who said he would end foreign wars, now he says all we can afford is war.”
Literally did a TV interview about his “Iran will be hit very hard” post 40 minutes ago in which I said “Let’s not put too much stock into what he says because he may well say the exact opposite today”… like clockwork!
George Pearkes@peark.es · 2mo agoNever mind I guess! Spoos bid, crude offered on this.
Back in April, I argued in @foreignaffairs.com that US and Israel have different motives on Iran. They're rendered all the more unmanageable by Trump's wish to be seen as dictating terms. More than anything, this is the gamble that didn't pay off for Bibi. www.foreignaffairs.com/iran/america...
America and Israel Have Different Endgames in Iran
A Shared Enemy, but Diverging Views of Its Motives and Character.
foreignaffairs.com
Edward Luce@edwardluce.bsky.social · 2mo ago"I call all the shots. Netanyahu doesn't call the shots." My telephone interview with Trump this afternoon. as.ft.com/r/c4067a44-d...
Marjane Satrapi has left. AFP quoted a "member of her close circle" as saying she had "died of sadness a little over a year after the death of Mattias Ripa, her husband and the love of her life." Absolutely devastating loss of a brilliant artist and brave soul. Her art remains.
Very well put. Very saddened by this news. He was a remarkably kind, generous, and sweet person
Don Moynihan@donmoyn.bsky.social · 2mo agoJust deeply shocked and saddened to hear about Raúl’s passing. He was an exceptionally generous community builder in the scholarly world. He will be sorely missed.
What's really astonishing is not the far right authoritarian party doing this, but the near-total lack of <loud public collective action> by university chancellors & presidents to oppose this existential crisis. Almost impossible to overstate how total a failure of leadership this is.
Katie Mack@astrokatie.com · 3mo agoIt’s truly astonishing to see how comprehensively the US government is tearing down every part of the system that has made it up until now a world-leading power in science, research, and technological development. The entire world will suffer from this wanton destruction.
‘The illicit flows of money, “between 2 and 5 per cent of everything”, are such an important phenomenon in the contemporary global order that our current state of ignorance is indefensible.’ John Lanchester on money laundering. www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...
John Lanchester · Squillions: Where’s all the cash?
If it were an industry, money laundering would be the third biggest business in the world, behind commercial property...
lrb.co.uk
Pro tip: anytime Ahmadinejad’s name is mentioned, know that he’s not the real story
Tom Pepinsky@tompepinsky.com · 3mo agoIf you are thinking “wait, Ahmedinejad wasn’t an ayatollah, this doesn’t even make sense on its own terms” congratulations you are so much further ahead of the game than these numbskulls
Well, this is the end of Ahmadinejad now… www.nytimes.com/2026/05/19/u...
Early War Goal Was to Install Hard Line Former President as Iran’s Leader
nytimes.com