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wwells.bsky.social
Findley Family Professor of International Affairs, Illinois College. Comparative Politics, IR, and African Studies. UCLA PhD. All opinions mine and mine alone.
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We feel that this is an apt time to share this. We’re actually quite impressed that 3/4 of the B2 pilots successfully used google map directions.

RIP to a tremendously talented writer who wrote with precision and verve. "American Ground: The Unbuilding of the World Trade Center" is the single best book to read on the aftermath of 9/11 in NYC. William Langewiesche, the ‘Steve McQueen of Journalism,’ Dies at 70 www.nytimes.com/2025/06/16/b...

Based on crowd-sourced records of No Kings Day event turnout, and extrapolating for the cities where we don't have data yet, it looks like roughly 4-6 million people protested Trump across the U.S. yesterday. That's nearly 2% of the U.S. pop! Mobilized anti-Trump resistance is exceeding 2017 levels

Nations typically throw military parades to demonstrate their organizational prowess and national unity. So…uh… message received.

We have self-reports or news accounts from 320 of the 2,000 No Kings Day events across the US today. Up to an unofficial tally of about 575,000 people now. Extrpaolating from that, total would be around 4.5m people, or about 1.3% of the pop. Some error I'm sure. Thanks to everyone crowdsourcing!

“For us to try to imitate what the Soviets are doing in Red Square would make us look weak.” said US president Dwight Eisenhower , ex-commander of allied forces in Europe during WWII chrisbarsanti.net/20...

Do you know how badly you have to screw up as a Republican to get this kind of turnout in IDAHO? #NOKINGS

Stay classy, San Diego. #NoKings

👋 Hello, we're the United States Institute of Peace (USIP)! We are very happy to join @bsky.app, and thrilled to announce that our website, www.usip.org, is back online! We look forward connecting here and bringing you useful content, resources and opportunities for peacebuilders around the world.

The "I'll lower costs and get us out of endless wars" candidate is now presiding over surging costs and brand new wars.

Most expansive single-day news cycle in several years.

Iran Is Breaking Rules on Nuclear Activity, U.N. Watchdog Says www.nytimes.com/2025/06/12/w...

www.nytimes.com/live/2025/06...

I don't like it when @profjessblankshain.bsky.social freaks out. Not a good sign for the health of civil-military relations.

To this old Africanist, Trump is simply the American version of Mobutu Sese Seko. From NYT's @peterbakernyt.bsky.social Trump’s Feud With Musk Highlights His View of Government Power: It’s Personal www.nytimes.com/2025/06/08/u...

If it has not already happened, China’s carbon-dioxide emissions are likely to peak in the next couple of years. Analysts are more concerned about what happens next

If I’m reading this correctly — and I’d like to think that I am — the U.S. Court of International Trade just handed the Trump administration its biggest, most sweeping legal defeat this year. reason.com/volokh/2025/...

Most of Trump's tariffs were just ruled illegal (because they were based on nonsense). This is the second best possible off-ramp for the U.S. economy. The best would be if Congress were to take back the power the Constitution gave it. www.nytimes.com/2025/05/28/b...

How do superpowers die? Mostly, as it turns out, by suicide.

Breaking - Win for Harvard. Judge issues TRO on Trump administration ban on Harvard’s ability to enroll international students www.cnn.com/2025/05/22/u...

Presidential vote among whites shows continued income polarization (data from @electionstudies.bsky.social's 2024 timeseries), with income negatively correlated to GOP presidential vote.

Stanford's Joel Cabrita, professor of history, writes about the long history of #USA support for #SouthAfrica, or at least white, Afrikaner South Africans. time.com/7287684/hist...

Three things made the US a rich and powerful nation: the rule of law, its science & innovation system, and openness to foreign talent. Remarkable how Trump has taken a sledgehammer to all three. No enemy of this country could do more.

Great news! I'm told a few moments ago US Institute of Peace Board Chair Amb. George Moose went to the USIP building where he and legal counsel were able to retake possession after the recent court decision. They were accompanied by a small team securing the building and assessing maintenance needs.

Meanwhile, the Trump admin has imported the Tate brothers, members of the Sinaloa cartel, and antisemitic Afrikaners.

From our new issue: "Separate but Unequal: Ethnocentrism and Racialization Explain the 'Democratic' Peace in Public Opinion" by Brian Rathbun, Christopher Parker, and Caleb Pomeroy. #APSRNewIssue www.cambridge.org/core/journal...

“And so the Greeks send me this horse, we’re talking about one of the most beautiful horses you’ve ever seen. So big. So strong. Normally they keep this kind of horse for themselves but they were such big fans they said sir, please take our big wonderful horse we’ll even bring it to your house”

Morbidly curious if Iran could come up with a gift to Trump big enough to get him to “it’s fine if they have nukes. Big deal.”

I just really need everybody to understand that everything that’s happening in and to the global economy now (and all the businesses and people in it) is the entirely predictable result of the intentional decisions of one guy who doesn’t understand how the global economy works.

the new Pope: "JD Vance is wrong"

Joseph Nye, who coined the term ‘soft power’, dies aged 88 https://www.ft.com/content/f78aab9d-9cb0-4194-a9a3-b6d545dfc725

Best thing I've seen on TV in a long, long time.

The number of vehicles sold by Tesla fell 81% year-on-year in April in Sweden and 73.8% in the Netherlands, with steep falls in Denmark, France, and the UK, despite demand for EVs going up.

What began as a rapid drop in U.S. imports as shippers cut orders from manufacturing partners around the world has now extended into a nationwide export slump, with the agricultural sector taking the hardest hit.

HAHAHA— #Harvard is hilarious 😂 Secretary of Education Linda McMahon, WWE billionaire, wrote a letter to Harvard and they gave her the ENG 101 treatment and shared it on social media. Ivy League trolling 🤌🏼