Give me a break. The UAE is the main financial, military and logistical backer of the RSF, probably the most brutal, rapey, genocidal paramilitary force in existence today.
Both Trump and Netanyahu chose to support Orbán in the Hungarian elections. Orbán's a thug, a Putin stooge, a pain in the ass for Europe, and a disaster for Hungary, which he turned into the most corrupt and one of the lowest-performing member state in the EU. This is unacceptable behaviour from so-called allies.
Strange move by Netanyahu. Aligning himself with Orban (and in the process with Putin) will further inflame tensions between Europe and Israel.
I'm slightly puzzled about how little some Jewish intellectuals apparently seem to know about antisemitism over the last millennia. Antisemitism predates Christianity, and has taken endless forms, and it has reinvented itself many times. This (those drawings), whatever it may be - legitimate criticisms of Israel or hatred of Jews - is definitely not typical of the nazi Germany brand of antisemitism.
The West Bank is experiencing daily pogroms overiewedv, if not coordinated, by the IDF. If zionists hoped to regain support from the West, they should condemn and stop those now, rather than writing endless meandering and obfuscating posts about vigilantism and whatnot ...
The word "nazi" has largely lost its connection to the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in Germany (1933-45) to now mean anyone who is deeply wicked and evil.
It remains intriguing that this 'art', which the Nazis would have condemned as degenerate (Entartete Kunst) - they particularly hated this type of naïve, expressionist modern art - is being called out as "nazi-era racist imagery".
One of my most authoritarian views is that immigrants and refugees should integrate into their new home, and whilst it is fine for them to keep elements of their culture (e.g. cuisine), they should never try to drag their host country into wars at the other end of the world.
One of the biggest disappointment in my life was the realisation that many, if not most, 'free speech champions' were easily offended, fragile, people, with an inflated sense of uniqueness and entitlement, as soon as they are exposed to views they loathe.
The Nazis would have qualified this as degenerate art.
I have some sympathy for the people who feel repulsed by those drawing. Though, art is often meant to shock and offend, and there is nothing in those drawings that breaks the law in a liberal democracy. The police officer's response feels perfectly adequate to me.
This would seem to be advocating a military strike on an operating nuclear power plant. Apart from being criminal, it's also very stupid.
Senator Graham on invading Iran’s Kharg Island:
We did Iwo Jima, we can do this.
NOTE: In the Battle of Iwo Jima during World War II, U.S. forces suffered approximately 26,000 total casualties over 36 days of fighting.
This story is insane. The role of universities is to provide education, research and civic engagement, not to police nano-aggressions.
Israeli settlers are to the IDF what Basij are to the IRGC.
What US Congress Doing?
I mean, my understanding was that the US was a constitutional republic with sophisticated, tripartite system structured around the principle of checks and balances, established by the 1789 Constitution to prevent any branch of the government - executive, legislative, or judicial - from becoming overly powerful.
Yet all recent US policy decisions seem based on the whims of its increasingly demented president, and his small clique of sycophants.
Revolting statement. This is not normal behaviour by a head of state.
Harvard has ~20% Jewish undergraduate students, many Jewish staff and the current president is Jewish. Claiming Harvard is institutionally antisemitic strikes me as unreasonable.
What this lawsuit will achieve though, is to fuel the perception that Jews are being unfairly favoured over other ethnicities / religions, which in turn will feed antisemitism.
More evidence Netanyahu is dead and has been replaced by an AI droid. The real Netanyahu was far too slick to make such a blunder when messaging the West ...
Assassinating heads of state has been taboo since at least the Treaty of Westphalia. There are a number of very practical reasons it's a very bad idea. For one, it makes it near impossible for states to negotiate. It also galvanizes public opinion (in places such as Iran) behind the regime. It's seen as an attack on the whole people.
How are they spreading disinformation?
A photo update on Tiny, Sniffy, Pookie and Wolfie.
I suspect this post has been largely misunderstood. To clarify, I still believe in the values of the West, the enlightenment, democracy and human rights, and I feel so disappointed right now, by the supine governments in Europe and the inane administration in the US, unwilling and unable to rein in the current psychotic regime in Israel.
This is performative nonsense aimed at Western audiences. Those daily pogroms in the West Bank wouldn't happen without the support of the IDF
Trump is planning to send Netanyahu a strongly worded cheque ...
If only Trump had a say ...
The world's on fire. Millions of people got displaced in the Middle East. Iran's getting bombed back into the preindustrial era, and as it lashes out again its neighbours, the global economy is getting obliterated.
Meanwhile, North London is in the throes of the most bizarre "pastry war".
Very, very bad news.
As I wrote in Material World, Ras Laffan is one of the most important industrial sites not just in the Gulf but in the world. LNG, helium, other products. Massive.
Whatever happens next, serious damage to this site could reverberate for months, maybe years.
You may complain about it, but this is obviously correct. I think the preferences of Israelis are psychotic, but it's their preferences and, given those preferences, what is bad for other people is good for them.
For instance, to the extent that Israeli actions make it harder for Trump to find an off-ramp, this is bad for the US and the rest of the world because it means the economic fallout will be worse, but it's good for Israel because it means that Iran will be wrecked even more. They will also suffer economically but think it's worth it.
The only risk for Israel is that, if shit really hit the fan and the war results in a global economic meltdown, a future US administration will prevent them from "mowing the lawn" again to prevent that from happening again, which incidentally gives them even stronger incentives to drag the war out and collapse the regime if they can.
There is also a risk that, beyond the question of Israel's freedom of action toward Iran specifically, Americans will get tired of constantly being wrapped up in Israel's affairs and it will destroy the "special relationship", but rightly or wrongly the Israelis assume that it's just a matter of time before this happens anyway.
Surprisingly strongly worded article in the Guardian condemning the latest assault on Lebanon by Israel - quite an outlier in the meek and supine Western media.
IMPEACHMENT ODDS CLIMB TO 72%
Prediction market data shows the probability of Donald Trump being impeached before 2028 has risen to 72%, trending steadily higher in recent months.
https://kalshi.com/markets/kximpeach/president-impeached/kximpeach?utm_source=walterbloomberg
Donald Trump is easily the worst president for free speech in modern U.S. history, and now there's data to prove it.
South Carolina must be a weird place ...
No love lost for the Basij but the Israelis are exhibiting absolutely zero care in their strikes in Tehran. They are bombing checkpoints in the middle of the busy street. This will be killing and wounding civilians. It is the same permissiveness towards civilian casualties as seen in Gaza. Reprehensible targeting strategy. You can see probable civilian casualties in this footage alone and it’s just what the IDF has released.
The problem with AI videos having become largely undistinguishable from genuine ones, is not so much the circulation of fake evidence, but that all genuine filmed evidence will be dismissed unless it supports peoples' presumptions.
We are moving fast from a post-truth, to a post-evidence, world ...