Like I say in my bio^

Thank you #Knicks!

Gazans are calling for mass protests on June 26 against Hamas and its entrenched authoritarian, fascistic rule. The campaign, “The Voice of the Oppressed,” seeks to amplify the silenced majority in Gaza – voices crushed not only by Hamas, but also by its enablers in the West Bank, across the Arab and Muslim worlds, and within Western “pro‑Palestine” activist circles. Gazans are exhausted by endless wars with Israel, perpetual Islamist repression, the collapse of their national hopes, and life as hostages to the suicidal nihilism of the Muslim Brotherhood and the Islamic Republic of Iran. Stand with the people of Gaza and elevate their voices; never speak over those who have lived under a terror regime that destroyed the Strip in the name of “resistance.” Hamas will fall, externally and internally, no matter how long it takes.

Heartbreak doesn't feel permanent by accident. It's designed to. The designer is Mother Nature. She tells you the sadness will last forever because your ancestors had to learn from loss. If grief wore off by morning, you'd lose the same way again. The pain had to feel infinite, or they wouldn't take the lesson. But she also tells the same lie in reverse. When you fall in love or finally land the job, she whispers that this will last too. Chase the gazelle. Stay in the hunt. The high has to feel permanent, or they wouldn't chase it again. Except emotions don’t last. They can’t last. Because they're a signal system. Something crosses your horizon — a threat, an opportunity — and the limbic system tells you to approach or avoid. An emotion that doesn't pass is an alarm that won't stop ringing. It took me decades to figure this out. Now, when someone cuts me off in traffic, it bums me out for a minute. Then I think: this won't bother me in an hour. So I get a head start on not caring right now. When it comes to emotions: Intensity is real. Permanence is a lie. Next time a feeling feels like forever, remember: Mother Nature lies. Forever never lasts.

Social media has accelerated the trend, but let’s be clear: the collapse of Israel’s standing in the United States didn’t just “happen” to Israel. It was the direct result of a series of catastrophic political decisions by Benjamin Netanyahu over the past decade. 1. Netanyahu chose to drag Israel directly into partisan American politics. Opposing the JCPOA was not itself unique. The Gulf states also disagreed with the deal. But Netanyahu went far beyond policy disagreement. He organized a speech before Congress behind the back of the sitting American president in order to directly confront Barack Obama and align Israel with one side of America’s political divide. That moment, ten years ago, was the beginning of the end of bipartisan consensus around the US-Israel relationship. It planted the seeds for Israel becoming a partisan issue in American politics. 2. Netanyahu chose to empower extremists like Itamar Ben-Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich in order to maintain power. He helped engineer alliances with them, brought them into the center of Israeli politics, and handed them real authority over national security and settlement policy. The images Americans now see almost daily on social media — violent settler attacks in the West Bank, Ben-Gvir celebrating with a noose cake, a Palestinian journalist emerging from prison emaciated and abused under systems overseen by Ben Gvir’s ministry and being interviewed on CNN. All of that has done enormous damage to Israel’s image. Those outcomes were not inevitable. They were the direct consequence of Netanyahu’s political choices. 3. Netanyahu chose to prolong and prosecute the Gaza war in a way that maximized devastation. After October 7, there was overwhelming sympathy for Israel in the United States. Americans broadly agreed Israel had the right to respond to Hamas’ atrocities. But the war did not need to continue for so long, nor did it need to be prosecuted this way. A year before it ended, most Israelis were prepared to support ending the war in exchange for the hostages. Netanyahu repeatedly extended it because ending the war threatened his coalition and his political survival. At the same time, he refused to seriously empower or work with alternative Palestinian leadership that could replace Hamas. So Israel fought a devastating war while ensuring Hamas would still remain part of Gaza’s future afterward. The images coming out of Gaza more than anything else have transformed global and American opinion. Had the war ended earlier after Israel had achieved what military objectives it realistically could, Israel would not be facing anything close to this level of backlash today. 4. Netanyahu played a major role in pushing the United States toward war with Iran. That war is deeply unpopular in the United States. It directly cuts against what Donald Trump promised much of his own political base, namely, avoiding getting bogged down in another Middle East war with no clear strategic rationale and no plan for how to win. It has dramatically driven up oil prices, and will have long term direct economic impacts that Americans will feel every day. And now, just as the JCPOA fight a decade ago began the fracturing of Democrats on Israel, this Iran war is beginning to fracturing of conservatives. It will take time but you already see it.  So no — this is not fundamentally about social media. It is not simply a mysterious surge of antisemitism, a lack of hasbara, or genius social media of Iran and Qatar. And it is not primarily the result of advocacy groups or messaging campaigns. At its core, what we are witnessing is the cumulative consequence of a series of disastrous decisions by Benjamin Netanyahu — decisions that have been bad for Israelis, bad for Palestinians, bad for the United States, and bad for the broader Middle East.

I would like to live in a high-trust society. The decline of trust is something worth caring about, and reversing it is something worth doing. We should not have to live constantly wondering if we're being lied to or scammed. Trust should be possible again.

still the best tweet

“While spacewalking I realized something, I used to think I was scared of heights but now I know I was just scared of gravity.” ― Artemis II Astronaut Reid Wiseman

Simplesmente fascinado com esses vídeos da Lua 🥹

Here are some ways in which the world has gotten better.

An excellent analysis of the disruptions to traditional warfare caused by the widescale implementation of cheap, rapid iteration drone warfare.

I liked the world better when the news came on for 30 minutes and then we did other shit for 23 1/2 hours. Now it follows you around all day like a hobo begging for change.

to explain. this question forces a binary comparison where one does not exist in the real world. to make matters worse, due to known conceptual/ideological differences, the question will 'load' differently depending on where one falls on the political spectrum. a liberal, such as myself, will likely 'parse' the question in many different ways, so if one compares liberals to liberals, you don't really know which underlying factor informs the difference. for me, here are the universe of possible differences, many of which, again, do not align in a binary. palestinians -do not have a state -governed by authoritarians who brutalize them -used as human shields -subject to extreme income inequality -in gaza, live in a war-zone; in west bank, are occupied and subject to unaccountable tribal/right-wing violence -subject to extreme indoctrination -no civil liberties -oppression of women -lack appropriate medical care -are exploited/fetishized in propoganda across the world, often by those who claim to want to help them -suffered extreme civilian loss of life, as well as civilian injury the list goes on and on. these human beings suffer gravely. their own 'government' doesn't just fail to protect them, but seeks to harm them. critically, however: this 'side' also started the war. israelis -did not start the war, yet are blamed for it -suffered a genocidal massacre that directly targeted their family/neighbors for their ethnicity -within the massacre, women were raped -the massacre was not just denied, but celebrated. and not just celebrated by the ostensibly uninformed; celebrated by the intellectual elite -people were stolen from them. these people were starved, raped, tortured, murdered. babies were strangled to death. the elderly were starved to death. -the stolen people were mocked by the world. their pictures torn down. their humanity denied. even the children were ridiculed -though they have the protection of iron dome, still live within constant war -live with threat of terror attacks, stabbings, etc -know the other side wants to genocide them, a fact the world denies -are told they have no right to exist; are lied about by everyone, including the NGOs and the un. suffer constant blood libel -must do twisted prisoner 'trades' such that they 'trade' 15 terrorists who have killed/sought to kill their people for one civilian again, the list goes on and on how am i supposed to compare these two sides in a binary? if absolutely forced, i would probably choose 'palestinians' due to their *concrete* greater vulnerability, though that itself is complicated by the fact their leaders create and exploit this vulnerability. am i expressing sympathy for just the civilians? removing their leaders from the equation? i do not know. the question does not make this clear. the populations both suffer, but in very different ways. i cannot 'measure' my relative sympathies in such circumstances. i would prefer to say i have immeasureable sympathy for both. this, among other reasons, is why it is a bad polling question.

A camera attached to a mountain goat in the French Alps and the stunning scenery that followed

This guy shows how to rescue yourself if you fall through ice. 📹rewildu

Is it just me, or is the apparent lack of guardrails for this social network created for autonomous AI agents a really dangerous idea?

I would offer that Alex Pretti putting his body—with his hands up—between a woman and the BP agent who had just violently shoved her into the snow, offer stark competing visions of manhood. Pretti, a nurse caring for veterans, who took a face full of pepper spray to shield that woman, is a much better masculine ideal that the masked coward shoving the woman and executing a man on his knees. MAGA may venerate the latter, but most people in a healthy society want the former.

12,000 Iranians have been massacred in just 2 days. My heart is in a million pieces for my beloved homeland. Not only is there a nationwide internet blackout, but agents are going door to door confiscating starlink devices. This is a full-scale dystopian terror operation. The communication shut down is so that the regime can commit a mass elimination project in the dark. Iranians not only have no access to the outside world, they have no access to each other. To medical services, to family members, to neighbors in need. They can't seek help if wounded. They have asked of us one thing: be their voice. Speak where they can't. Share their stories. Urge your administrations to act. Every red line has been crossed and @POTUS must come through on his promise and act now. In the dark, we're not just their voice. We're their only source of light. #Iran

Kidnapping children to indoctrinate them is one of the most evil, depraved things it's possible to do to both the children and the parents. Amoral Russian sociopaths are systematically doing this to tens of thousands of Ukrainian children. #AbductedChildren #BringKidsBackUA

If Israelis are genociding the Palestinians - as so many muslims & people of good faith on the left have been arguing - why are Israelis dancing in the streets and celebrating their genocide ending long before it had a chance of being completed? x.com/i/status/1976216637754…

From unanimous 9-0 opinion from the US Supreme Court from last year: “Government officials cannot attempt to coerce private in order to punish or suppress views that the government disfavors”