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kevinrothrock.me
Russia watcher supreme. @meduza.io English-language managing editor. Ugly American based in Portland, Oregon. Signal: @KevinRothrock.01 / Find all my junk here: https://linktr.ee/kevinrothrock
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The Economist warns that Russia is preparing a large-scale summer offensive aiming to "break Ukrainian morale and deliver Putin a symbolic victory at almost any cost." Captured Russian officers describe it as “one last push" to crush Ukraine's will to fight. www.economist.com/europe/2025/...

submitted 3 hours ago • 1 comment

Interesting article by David Todd on France's legacy of "transformist racism" ("racial mixing as a panacea for the world’s troubles," albeit to "reverse" non-whites' "degeneration"). Todd says France's official "color blindness" today relies on *historical* blindness. www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...

submitted 3 hours ago • 0 comments

submitted 4 hours ago • 1 comment

Very positive review of Wes Anderson’s new film, “The Phoenician Scheme," from Richard Brody. Makes me want to see it even more. I look forward to the day, still years from now, when all my kids are old enough to take an interest in non-animated cinema... www.newyorker.com/magazine/202...

submitted 13 hours ago • 3 comments

Portland's mayor is optimistic about ending unsheltered homelessness by 2026 despite (checks notes) rising homelessness in each of the past 17 months...

submitted 15 hours ago • 2 comments

"Dude, the Russia–Ukraine thing is the most vicious...," says Vance, commenting on the Trump admin's "actually trying to bring this stuff to some settlement and to some close" efforts, in Ukraine and ... Israel.

submitted 16 hours ago • 1 comment

Playwright Evgenia Berkovich has been barred from participating in further performances while in prison. In April, Soviet dissident Alexander Podrabinek sparked controversy when he accused Berkovich of compromising her political prisoner status by "collaborating" in a prison puppet show.

submitted 17 hours ago • 0 comments

The United States believes that Russian President Vladimir Putin's threatened retaliation against Ukraine over its drone attack last weekend has not happened yet in earnest and is likely to be a significant, multi-pronged strike, U.S. officials told Reuters. www.reuters.com/business/aer...

submitted 1 day ago • 2 comments

This is my new favorite emoji of all time: 🫩

submitted 1 day ago • 2 comments

Zelensky says the Russian truck drivers who drove the semis packed with drones to Russian airfields last weekend were unwitting accomplices. This declaration will likely only deepen the Russian authorities' suspicion of these drivers. abcnews.go.com/Politics/zel...

submitted 1 day ago • 1 comment

My mom texted me this joke to tell my son, and I didn't have the heart to inform her that kids today have no idea who Bugs Bunny is.

submitted 1 day ago • 1 comment

This is the organization that effectively every US-based scholar of Russia/former Soviet Union belongs to

submitted 3 days ago • 0 comments

If this scandal costs Luiza her job in Paris, she should come to Portland and reopen the little antique store that Stalin's punk-rock granddaughter used to run. (It went out of business during the pandemic, sadly.)

submitted 2 days ago • 1 comment

Susan Pedersen in @lrb.co.uk reviews Sheila Fitzpatrick's book on Soviet displaced persons. Pedersen takes issue with Fitzpatrick's "lucky victims" framing and levels a polite (albeit rather personal) criticism related to her late husband. The book sounds fascinating. www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...

submitted 2 days ago • 1 comment

Great read by @lalehkhalili.bsky.social in @lrb.co.uk on America's military-industrial complex and Silicon Valley's mission to elbow its way to a better spot at the Pentagon's feeding trough. Big Tech sees itself pioneering a new era, but the continuity screams at you. www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...

submitted 2 days ago • 1 comment

The rate limit screen at Truth Social never gets old.

submitted 2 days ago • 0 comments

It's supposed to get up to 95⁰ on Sunday. Really annoying that the splash pads aren't opening for another week. Put down your calendars and respond to the heat, bureaucrats!

submitted 2 days ago • 1 comment

It seems no despot can resist the charms and appeal of the “super-app.” meduza.io/en/feature/2...

submitted 2 days ago • 1 comment

Goes without saying among parents, but there is exhilaration in sitting down at your desk to begin work after your spouse takes over with the (three small) children. With a pair of headphones, glowing monitors, and time at last, who needs vacations? Who needs nutrition? The universe is at peace.

submitted 2 days ago • 1 comment

“They gave Putin a reason to go in and bomb the hell out of them last night,” Trump says of Kyiv’s Operation Spiderweb attacks last weekend. So much for the “Putin is crazy” attitude!

submitted 2 days ago • 8 comments