Put me wherever you want: misguided socialist, toothless humanist, naïve novelist, useful idiot, apologist, denier, ally, contrarian, collaborator, traitor, inexcusable coward.
I'm your hell, I'm your dream I'm nothing in between
― papal hotwife (milo z), Tuesday, 7 May 2024 19:03 (one month ago) link
Unperson, thanks for sharing that Twitter thread, sums up a lot I've been feeling about my adopted home (though my life here only very rarely intersects with the university)
― This is Dance Anthems, have some respect (Camaraderie at Arms Length), Tuesday, 7 May 2024 19:13 (one month ago) link
I will eventually read it because the title infers it is about semantics but so far she has devoted paragraphs to climate change and seems to want to discuss “tactics” in re protest but has not used the word “tactics” when it is kinda the most obvious term due to being concise and related to the history of leftist protest / activism
― sarahell, Tuesday, 7 May 2024 21:09 (one month ago) link
McSweeneys darling and alumnus turning out to be spoiled narcissist, story at 11
― butt dumb tight my boners got boners (the table is the table), Wednesday, 8 May 2024 02:41 (one month ago) link
timely push notification from the NYT today
BREAKING NEWSSpeaking at the Capitol, President Biden said there has been a “ferocious surge of antisemitism” in the United States since the Oct. 7 attacks in Israel.
an earlier version noted that this speech was part of a holocaust remembrance day ceremony
― mookieproof, Wednesday, 8 May 2024 03:41 (one month ago) link
Salaita on the Z. Smith piece:
Smith speaks of activism that can lead to arrest or other forms of punishment, concluding that it “represents a level of personal sacrifice unimaginable to many of us.” This royal “us” betrays Smith’s position as outsider and poseur. In reality, sacrifice is eminently imaginable to the countless people who have chosen to act on their conscience and subsequently languished in prison, lost jobs and careers, or suffered exile and ostracism. It is eminently imaginable to the very students on whom Smith lavishes so much scorn. They are being punished in horrible ways and yet they keep going. Sacrifice isn’t unimaginable to “many of us.” It is unimaginable to Smith and her cohort of frivolous lickspittles. This she confirms a few sentences later with what is supposed to be a droll anecdote about her inability to give up travel to New York for the sake of the environment. “What pitiful ethical creatures we are (I am)!” she laments. This singular (and parenthetical) flash of self-awareness, meant to be ironic and thus venial, is the only aspect of the essay worth the reader’s attention.
https://stevesalaita.com/our-your-pitiful-ethics-a-response-to-zadie-smiths-shibboleth
― butt dumb tight my boners got boners (the table is the table), Wednesday, 8 May 2024 15:07 (one month ago) link
Years ago, a friend of mine once told me she was on the subway reading the New Yorker, and a man with a French accent sort of accosted her and said "This magazine -- what is it supposed to be about? It seems to me it is about nothing." More and more I think that is apt.
― longtime caller, first time listener (man alive), Wednesday, 8 May 2024 15:10 (one month ago) link
Thanks for that. xpost
― the talented mr pimply (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Wednesday, 8 May 2024 15:13 (one month ago) link
Nah, The New Yorker still publishes first-rate reporting. Then they'll publish an issue like last week's that I threw in the trash, it was so content-free.
― the talented mr pimply (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Wednesday, 8 May 2024 15:14 (one month ago) link
Yeah, it's spotty enough that I just look at the stack whenever I visit my parents and take one or two home with me for toilet reading.
― butt dumb tight my boners got boners (the table is the table), Wednesday, 8 May 2024 15:15 (one month ago) link
FWIW, the Zadie Smith essay -- like several other recent New Yorker articles that went viral (Clare Malone on Hasan Minhaj, Agnes Callard's "The Case Against Travel") -- was not published in the print magazine; it's online-only.
― jaymc, Wednesday, 8 May 2024 15:29 (one month ago) link
man with a French accent sort of accosted her and said "This magazine -- what is it supposed to be about? It seems to me it is about nothing."
I have a French friend who has been subscribing to the New Yorker since he was a kid in the 1980s and still bemoans that France has no real equivalent to it
― Guayaquil (eephus!), Wednesday, 8 May 2024 15:37 (one month ago) link
President Biden paused an arms shipment to Israel last week to prevent the U.S.-made weapons from being used in a long-threatened assault on the city of Rafah, administration officials said on Tuesday night, a sign of the growing rift between the United States and Israel over the conduct of the war.
The president withheld 1,800 2,000-pound bombs and 1,700 500-pound bombs that he feared could be dropped on Rafah, where more than one million Gazans have taken refuge, the officials said. The administration is reviewing whether to hold back future transfers, including guidance kits that convert so-called dumb bombs into precision-guided munitions.
The decision to delay the delivery of the 3,500 bombs was the first time since the Oct. 7 Hamas-led terrorist attack that Mr. Biden has used his power to curtail arms as an instrument to influence Israel’s approach to the war that followed. A number of Mr. Biden’s Democratic allies in Congress have for weeks urged him to limit or halt arms shipments to Israel, something he had refused to do until now because of his strong support for the effort to destroy Hamas.
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Israeli officials disclosed the weapons pause to Axios earlier this week, but U.S. officials refused to confirm it either at briefings or privately until Tuesday night. The fact that they finally did so was a clear indication of how much frustration is growing among administration officials that their Israeli counterparts are not heeding U.S. warnings against a major operation in Rafah that could lead to extensive civilian casualties. Confirmation of the arms pause came just hours after Israel sent tanks into the city in southern Gaza.
One U.S. official said the administration began reviewing arms shipments last month when it became clear that Israel seemed to be reaching a decision on a Rafah operation. Mr. Biden initially took the position that Israel should not attack Rafah without a plan to effectively minimize civilian casualties, but in recent weeks the White House has increasingly indicated that it did not believe such a plan was even possible.
― the talented mr pimply (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Wednesday, 8 May 2024 15:47 (one month ago) link
However:
The administration is not halting all weapons to Israel and, at this point, has not made a final determination on how to proceed with the bombs withheld last week. In fact, officials said the administration had just approved the latest tranche of aid amounting to $827 million worth of weapons and equipment. The administration intends to send “every dollar” of the money just appropriated by Congress, the officials said.
― the talented mr pimply (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Wednesday, 8 May 2024 15:49 (one month ago) link
“we didn’t send this out of concern, instead we’re sending this because we actually don’t give a fuck”
― butt dumb tight my boners got boners (the table is the table), Wednesday, 8 May 2024 15:50 (one month ago) link
Wait who is being punished in horrible ways and sacrificing unimaginably? … college students camping out on campus? The Palestinian people certainly are. Idk about the students tbh.
― sarahell, Wednesday, 8 May 2024 17:22 (one month ago) link
Students are being expelled and suspended, having healthcare and housing taken away, as well as being beaten by cops and fascists
― butt dumb tight my boners got boners (the table is the table), Wednesday, 8 May 2024 17:36 (one month ago) link
They’re also being stalked by fascists like the Canary Mission and etc
Obviously this doesn't compare to the oppression of Palestinians, but I thought this piece on arrested students experiencing jail in Texas was interesting: https://www.dmagazine.com/frontburner/2024/05/what-my-students-and-i-learned-in-jail-after-protesting-on-the-ut-dallas-campus/
― rob, Wednesday, 8 May 2024 17:47 (one month ago) link
That said, I think a salient feature of these protests that gets overlooked quite a bit is that some of the students & organizers are in fact Palestinian
― rob, Wednesday, 8 May 2024 17:48 (one month ago) link
Sacrifice isn’t unimaginable to “many of us.”
I would take issue with this statement.
― Never fight uphill 'o me, boys! (President Keyes), Wednesday, 8 May 2024 17:54 (one month ago) link
I agree with the point being made, I just think it’s a bit over-the-top, especially considering Smith seemed to struggle with being slightly inconvenienced for the sake of a cause
― sarahell, Wednesday, 8 May 2024 19:11 (one month ago) link
Smith speaks of activism that can lead to arrest or other forms of punishment, concluding that it “represents a level of personal sacrifice unimaginable to many of us.”
So the article's not equating US college students with, like, lifelong political prisoners or populations under wartime - but the idea that attending a Palestine rally at US college campuses might at this point lead to "arrest or other forms of punishment" doesn't seem hyperbolic to me?
― Daniel_Rf, Wednesday, 8 May 2024 23:09 (one month ago) link
...Smith and her cohort of frivolous lickspittles
okay this is pretty good
― Andy the Grasshopper, Wednesday, 8 May 2024 23:37 (one month ago) link
The Philly police raided the Upenn encampment this morning.
― Never fight uphill 'o me, boys! (President Keyes), Friday, 10 May 2024 13:59 (one month ago) link
As a Philadelphia native and a West Philly resident as well as an observer of the world at large, I can say with conviction that UPenn is one of the most evil, nefarious institutions in the entire United States.
― butt dumb tight my boners got boners (the table is the table), Friday, 10 May 2024 14:24 (one month ago) link
(that obviously was true before this morning, but the school loves driving the point home)
― butt dumb tight my boners got boners (the table is the table), Friday, 10 May 2024 14:25 (one month ago) link
UPenn vs Oakland PD?
― sarahell, Friday, 10 May 2024 16:43 (one month ago) link
Though I am assuming UPenn is more intelligent by a country mile
― sarahell, Friday, 10 May 2024 16:44 (one month ago) link
Wharton grads don't have the best rep these days, that's for sure.
― Chyiv Kyiv (Fetchboy), Friday, 10 May 2024 17:38 (one month ago) link
I hear one is going to be our next President though
― Never fight uphill 'o me, boys! (President Keyes), Friday, 10 May 2024 17:43 (one month ago) link
From Adam Johnson:
https://open.substack.com/pub/thecolumn/p/why-does-the-nyt-keep-lying-about
The stakes of this lie—or, at best, wishful thinking based on vibes and assumptions of White House necessary doublespeak—could not be higher. It’s not a small fact. Because if the Biden team can paint themselves as good-faith peacemakers “trying to end the war” simply running into headstrong Hamas and Israeli negotiators, then they morally and optically wash their hands of the on-going carnage. If they can show good intention, if not results, they can stem off the ever-growing anger of their arming, funding, and supporting Israel’s campaign of de-population and mass killing. When a 1,500-word article about Arab and Muslim anger over Biden begins by asserting that they’re mad despite “the president piling new pressure on Israel to end the war,” it makes those refusing to back him seem hot-headed, irrational and unmovable, which is entirely the point. But they have no reason to believe he’s actually trying to end the war, because—despite assertions made by the New York Times over and over again—the White House doesn’t claim it is. And if it is, indeed, secretly fine with Israel calling it, and leaving Hamas in Gaza, then this would be an explosive, 180-degree shift in policy the Times should probably dedicate a few reporters to clarifying and laying out. Absent this actual news reporting, their reporters and editors should probably stop making up peace-loving White House policy goals that we have no evidence exist.
― Glower, Disruption & Pies (kingfish), Friday, 10 May 2024 22:12 (one month ago) link
NEW: The Biden administration just announced that it has accepted the Israeli government’s assurances that it is not violating U.S. or international law in its prosecution of the war in Gaza, a conclusion at odds with assessments made by the UN and international aid groups— John Hudson (@John_Hudson) May 10, 2024
― papal hotwife (milo z), Saturday, 11 May 2024 01:05 (one month ago) link
lol cmon what
― Humanitarian Pause (Tracer Hand), Saturday, 11 May 2024 09:41 (one month ago) link
Regular accused criminals outta try this new defence out in the US courts I reckon
― H.P, Sunday, 12 May 2024 12:40 (one month ago) link
Guys it's OK, they checked and they're not war criming. But good question!
― a man often referred to in the news media as the Duke of Saxony (tipsy mothra), Sunday, 12 May 2024 12:43 (one month ago) link
And if it is, indeed, secretly fine with Israel calling it, and leaving Hamas in Gaza, then this would be an explosive, 180-degree shift in policy
It ... wouldn't, though? The line that Israel will have "lost" or "surrendered" if Hamas remains in power, even with its military capability in ruins and the hostages freed, is purely a Netanyahu thing, not as far as I know a Biden thing. Where Biden has been consistent is in saying that Israel has the right to defend itself and will continue to get US support in doing so. But Biden has never committed himself to "any amount of destruction counts as self-defense."
― Guayaquil (eephus!), Sunday, 12 May 2024 15:31 (one month ago) link
An incredible essay from one of the teenagers shot in Burlington in November: https://www.nytimes.com/2024/05/16/opinion/politics/i-was-shot-in-vermont-what-if-it-had-been-in-the-west-bank.html?unlocked_article_code=1.sU0.59aZ.dBBiIdBepEBZ&smid=url-share
― butt dumb tight my boners got boners (the table is the table), Thursday, 16 May 2024 10:58 (one month ago) link
When I was still in the hospital, my family and I were visited by a friend who had just recently made it out of Gaza. He recounted how he saw the beginning of the Israeli bombing from his balcony, and soon after showered and left his house with a prepacked bag. He told me of tents, of hunger, of explosions, but there is one thing that really stood out for me as he recounted his ordeal.He explained how the only way for him to survive in Gaza was to accept that he had already died. Only after he had come to terms with the realization that his life as he knew it was over could he enjoy a puff of a cigarette and a sip of coffee in the morning. This acceptance is the goal of the Israeli dehumanization complex. To be Palestinian today is to accept this fate.I have been back on campus since February, and the adjustment has been tough. The man who is accused of shooting me has pleaded not guilty to three counts of attempted second-degree murder. But my mind is elsewhere. Every morning when I wake up, I check for one number. It has exceeded 35,000. It’s difficult for me to come to terms with the reality of so much loss.In class, between Mesopotamian myths and commutative algebra, a few thoughts play on a loop in my mind: How can we come back from so much grief? How could we let this happen? What are we supposed to make of the world when Palestinian deaths are excused by talking points, repeated again and again on the news? I yearn to return to my home, to my olive trees, my cats and my family.
― butt dumb tight my boners got boners (the table is the table), Thursday, 16 May 2024 11:00 (one month ago) link
Thank you for that, heartbreaking
― longtime caller, first time listener (man alive), Thursday, 16 May 2024 11:10 (one month ago) link
Meanwwhile, Ilan Pappe stopped and questioned for several hours at Detroit airport https://x.com/jeremyscahill/status/1790874217828827473
― butt dumb tight my boners got boners (the table is the table), Thursday, 16 May 2024 12:31 (one month ago) link
tipsy probably knows more about it than me but my sister spent all night at the county jail supporting arrested protestors in Knoxville, including beloved falafel guy Yassin.short documentary about him here - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yz4Q_SlbZgQ
― Humanitarian Pause (Tracer Hand), Thursday, 16 May 2024 13:06 (one month ago) link
Yeah, here's a little roundup we wrote on it today fwiw:
Yassin Terou, the well-known and widely lauded proprietor of Yassin's Falafel House, was reportedly arrested along with other pro-Palestinian demonstrators at the University of Tennessee on Wednesday evening.
WBIR-TV reported that Terou was part of a group taken into custody by UT Police. The group had gathered for a Nakba Day Vigil, remembering the expulsion of Palestinians by Israelis during the 1948 war that led to Israel's establishment. The event was organized by the People's School for Gaza, which has been leading protest efforts on campus.
Apparently the issue was where the protesters chose to assemble. UT had told the group it could conduct its protests on a plaza near the Student Union. Tisha Benton, vice chancellor of communications for UT Knoxville, told the News Sentinel that UT police attempted to move protesters away from the lawn in front of the College of Law on Cumberland Avenue and those who refused to leave were arrested.
UT confirmed 11 arrests last night, according to the News Sentinel. Observers on site — as well as news photographers — identified Terou as among those taken into custody.
Terou, a Syrian refugee who started his popular falafel chain 10 years ago after selling sandwiches outside a local mosque, has become a cultural fixture in Knoxville and beyond. He has long advocated for tolerance and inclusiveness of many kinds, has led food aid efforts after natural disasters, and recently started a nonprofit called Seeds and Bridges focused on helping people without housing.
In 2018, his restaurant was named the Readers Digest Nicest Place in America and was featured on ABC's Good Morning America. He served as master of ceremonies for Knoxville Mayor Indya Kincannon's 2019 inauguration ceremony.
He even serves on the Board of Visitors of UT's Department of Religious Studies. A profile of Terou on the department's website says, "We appreciate all that he has done and continues to do to strengthen our community and bring people together and we look forward to bringing his unique voice and boundless energy to our students."
Terou has also been active in pro-Palestinian efforts in recent months, calling for an end to the war in Gaza and providing food to protesters at public events.
"I'm doing my part at least, and I'm gonna be who I am," he told WBIR in an interview last week. "I'm gonna ask them to stop the killing of any civilians, any innocent people, anywhere."
― a man often referred to in the news media as the Duke of Saxony (tipsy mothra), Thursday, 16 May 2024 13:20 (one month ago) link
damn. I love that falafel place.
― c u (crüt), Thursday, 16 May 2024 13:31 (one month ago) link
May go there for lunch today. I doubt he'll lose much business over this, people who go there in general are probably sympathetic, but I'd like to show some support.
― a man often referred to in the news media as the Duke of Saxony (tipsy mothra), Thursday, 16 May 2024 13:35 (one month ago) link
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MNL_3kuGqz0
Worthwhile vid connecting what Adam Tooze has written about how badly Columbia’s endowments have been managed and connecting that up with how our ruling elite are completely incompetent now across the board
Also a shorter talk here on the cycles of left protest/recuperation https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KelbwZUo_5o
― Glower, Disruption & Pies (kingfish), Thursday, 16 May 2024 17:11 (one month ago) link
Beautiful.
Absolutely LOVE this. Suella Braverman gets the silent treatment she deserves 😂Not even worthy of a response. Bloody brilliant.pic.twitter.com/pobNu2Xxw2— Bushra Shaikh (@Bushra1Shaikh) May 16, 2024
― xyzzzz__, Friday, 17 May 2024 06:51 (one month ago) link
lol
― symsymsym, Friday, 17 May 2024 07:01 (one month ago) link
Who is on the megaphone?Oh, it's my son. pic.twitter.com/co4ZtdLgMe— Claire Hopkin 🏴 (@claireindubai) May 16, 2024
― xyzzzz__, Friday, 17 May 2024 09:58 (one month ago) link
I'd camp anywhere for the chance to ice out Suella, congrats to those kids!
The Sonoma State president has been put on leave by the CSU for agreeing to protesters' demands:https://www.politico.com/news/2024/05/15/sonoma-state-president-leave-gaza-00158285
Meanwhile afaict the UCLA pres has suffered zero consequences for allowing a violent extremist mob to assault students for hours
― rob, Friday, 17 May 2024 12:59 (one month ago) link