Stacy Fahrenthold

Israel is bombing Beirut.

Eskandar Sadeghi-Boroujerdi | The dry and the wet burn together The war launched against Iran by the United States and Israel is a war of choice and of hubris. There is scarcely even...

"Iran’s aim now seems to be not to secure victory but to raise the war's cost to prohibitive levels. What follows is a strategy of endurance and attrition. The Islamic Republic has prepared for the possibility that the US and Israel might opt for direct confrontation."

www.lrb.co.uk/blog/2026/ma...

While I'm here: censure and remove Sen. Sheehy for his role in the assault

Respect for Brian McGinnis, who used his uniform and his limbs for good today. It's too rare but always welcome!

Early 1920s, looking for transit refugees!

Why so many of y'all are sleeping on the US Consulate in Bombay is beyond me.

I also learned what pounce powder is, because these Bombay files are covered in it.

TIL that if you request materials at Archives 2 and it comes shrink wrapped, that means it hasn't been read since the building opened in 1994.

Harvard is fighting Trump. UC president says he wants to try ‘a better course’ UC President James B. Milliken defended the university's decision to not sue the Trump administration over funding cuts and said it was the university's responsibility to engage.

Faculty + unionized workers are the real leaders of the University of California, repelling funding cuts and attacks on research and teaching. The UC President and highly-paid administrators sit on the sidelines with harebrained dreams they can negotiate with Trump. www.latimes.com/california/s...

A useful thread about today's UCLA lawsuit. He suggests that the significant narrowing from the "giant" Title VI case--involving a fine, funding freezes, and a slew of "demands"--to this might reflect an awareness of "the major weaknesses" of the Title VI case...which CUCFA/AAUP are so far winning!

Justice Department Sues University of California Over Antisemitism

Well, the DOJ has done it: they have filed a lawsuit against the University of California over antisemitism.

The complaint contains some falsehoods. But as someone who teaches and writes about Title VII, I'm equally struck by what the complaint doesn't say.

A few thoughts— 🧵

DOGE Bro’s Grant Review Process Was Literally Just Asking ChatGPT ‘Is This DEI?’ Federal grants that had been approved after a full application and review process were terminated by some random inexperienced DOGE bros based on whether ChatGPT could explain—in under 120 characte…

"To flag grants, Fox entered this command into ChatGPT:

'Does the following relate at all to DEI? Respond factually in less than 120 characters. Begin with ‘Yes’ or ‘No’ followed by a brief explanation.'

Fox did nothing to understand ChatGPT’s interpretation."

www.techdirt.com/2026/02/19/d...

Congratulations, that is awesome!! 💐

Tell Texas A & M Regents to End Censorship Join me in adding your name to a letter to the Board of Regents asking them to end policies that threaten academic freedom!

Support academic freedom at Texas A&M (and everywhere!) by adding your name to this letter from @penamerica.bsky.social Something concrete to do to resist #censorship, #DefendResearch, and support knowledge!

act.pen.org/a/end-academ...

Thousands of institutions abandoned programs, ended or rewrote scholarships, closed down clubs and publications, all in pre-emptive compliance.

And you know why?

Mostly because they wanted to do it if they thought they could blame someone else for it.

It looks closer to fuchsia to me.

In the linked essay the author argues that retreating from trans rights issues will not serve Democrats electorally (and it won't!).

Pairing this with Dems' retreat/repress approach to Dem voters who oppose Israel's genocide in Palestine throws this into even sharper relief. Retreat abets fascism.

^final thought: it's no wonder, to me, that activists whose entire politics is based on violently refusing others' the right to exist find one another. It's no wonder they recognize their shared interest in hate, fantasies of annihilation. May they lose every battle they choose!

Incidentally, the anti-trans orgs share tactics--and often, membership--with the "campus antisemitism" astroturfing orgs. So here in CA Mums for L*berty is allied with StopAntis*mitism and other groups that embrace doxxing, online outrage, and seek to contrive real violence on uni campuses.

In Davis a destructive anti-trans activist routinely stalks children with her camera, doxxes trans folks, and assaults people. She harms people on purpose, on camera.

She's supported by a national orgs that incentivizes her behavior for clicks. They want to manufacture perception, not change minds.

AAUP: Academic freedom on the line | Where ‘viewpoint diversity’ betrays the common good History professor Priya Satia critiques Paul Brest's recent Daily op-ed. "To endorse the language of 'viewpoint diversity,'" Satia writes, "is falling for a feint in an existential war on academic fre...

"Disciplines reject what isn’t intellectually valid... If the discipline of Geology determines that the flat-Earth theory doesn’t meet its standards, geologists do not need to hire flat-Earthers and provide lessons in flat-Earth theory to their students."

stanforddaily.com/2026/02/17/v...

National AAUP statement on the attack of a journalist by a Chase Center affiliate at OSU.

This isn’t just any professor being violent. This is the product of shared governance being dismantled.

So another UAW strike looks like it's coming, because we faculty have a long, muddy letter that doesn't tell us to pick up struck labor but tells us to pick up struck labor.

If you're mad these letters aren't clear, understand that lack of clarity is precisely engineered!

This is awesome. University of California employees — Your retirement is invested with the private equity firm that owns ICE’s charter airline for Africa and Asia deportations. www.motherjones.com/politics/202...

I moved my money! A @uofcalifornia.bsky.social faculty initiative to divest our retirement savings from state violence, war, fossil fuels is up and running. It's simple: 1) open your retirement portfolio, 2) move your money into UC's Social Equity Fund!

Learn more here: www.ucmoveyourmoney.org/home

An interesting side quest in a project I'm working on. The Sacco & Vanzetti case as reported by the American Legation in Tehran, 1921. British officials responding:
1)"I don't remember hearing of this case before.."
2)"the death penalty pronounced... is being used for Communist propaganda purposes."

The false symmetry of Jewish-Arab partnership Under conditions of apartheid, binationalism requires Israeli Jews to relinquish leadership and join the Palestinian-led struggle for decolonization.

Jewish-Arab partnership does not begin with a new “joint” Jewish-Arab party. It begins with an uncomfortable choice: recognizing that political space is not neutral, that those who benefit from structural supremacy must choose to join the struggle rather than lead it.

www.972mag.com/false-symmet...

The American Historical Association, Scholasticide, and the Inherent Politics of History BY ALAN PARKES History is always political. Last month, the American Historical Association’s (AHA) leadership chose to override its own members for a second year, again vetoing a resolution on sch…

In this important new post in the AAUP blog, Alan Parkes points to how @historians.org has deployed a false idea that acting in support of Palestine and Palestinian history is "political," whereas its other advocacy is (somehow?) not.

academeblog.org/2026/02/10/t...

Happening tomorrow!

NEW: Leqaa Kordia — who’s been in ICE detention for nearly a year, since ICE took her the same week as Mahmoud Khalil — has been hospitalized after having a seizure.

Her whereabouts & health are now unknown.

The Trump admin alleges she supports Hamas because…she sent money to help family in Gaza.