Zareena Grewal

YouTube video by The Mark Thompson Show Jeffrey Epstein, The Difference Between Conspiracy & Conspiracy Theory, Sarah Kendzior

"Every administration had people directly connected to Epstein in top positions. Barr, Blinken, Acosta, etc. You can play 'six degrees of Jeffrey Epstein' but it's like, the guy down the hall. You don't have to look very far."
www.youtube.com/watch?v=e84j...

*that signals Trump's desire to ban state AI laws

Mahmood Mamdani on Zohran, Uganda and forced expulsion: ‘Who is part of the nation and who is not?’ After being expelled from his homeland in 1972, the academic has grappled with questions of political belonging – a major theme of his son’s mayoral campaign

I spoke to Mahmood Mamdani about his new book, his expulsion from Uganda, his son Zohran, and *that* NYT article.

The exact plan isn't detailed in this article, but we know what the plan is: relegate as much of what the Department of Education does to the private sector so the rich can get richer — and because undermining education makes it easier for authoritarian regimes to rule.

It is genuinely incredible to me how much evidence there is to support investing in the public good and how much animus there is to do this simple, effective thing.

University of Texas silent on Trump compact as deadline looms Most other invited universities have rejected the administration’s offer tying priority federal funding to campus policy changes.

"This narrative that faculty are indoctrinating students is a manufactured crisis...You can trace it back to a network of right-wing think tanks, but it seems the university is treating it as if it is real.”

- Karma Chávez, President of AAUP UT-Austin

@utaustinaaup.bsky.social

Saudi F-35s, congrats Brett McGurk it was all worth it, you did the thing, Lockheed Sealed Delivered

I literally called it

When will Biden dead enders admit that it was probably bad that his most cherished foreign policy advisor was literally a crypto-Republican freak lol

As one of the 3 dozen people on here who actually pay attention to this issue and MENA more broadly as a job it is still very amusing to see people think it's the left who loves this plan. The most voracious defenders of it are Blob careerists or their orbiters— Blinken, McGurk, Lindsey Graham, etc.

Whereas some people are just bigoted and do shallow conspiracism to explain this it's actually rather simple— those in the foreign policy establishment like each other and like the same five bad ideas they constantly give each other. If Democrats ever want to evolve they need to find alternative.

Barring a dramatic reversal, it seems like MBS will have managed to acquire almost everything he wanted out of a trilateral agreement between the US, Saudi, and Israel without actually having to join any such agreement.

They're always weird, they never think they're weird, it's important to say they're weird. Grownups shouldn't tell other grownups they're demonic and you're a freak if you do.

Donate to Diana to ensure that Zohran's successor is a committed socialist!

Indigenous Activists to COP30: “We Will Fight to the Death” Indigenous people lead COP30 protests against agribusinesses that “want to take everything.”

Reporting from Belem, Mark Hertsgaard of @coveringclimatenow.org writes about Indigenous protesters who pushed their way into the main entrance of COP30's "Blue Zone," where Indigenous voices have been largely excluded.

every epstein email is some creep complaining about MeToo and then being like “oh before i forget, any advice on how to use my position of authority to force women into sleeping with me?”

Interestingly, it does not seem like this is contingent upon normalization with Israel like the Israelis were demanding.

Trump has just announced that the United States will sell F-35s to Saudi Arabia.

Here’s a gift link (no paywall) to the article, “Catholic bishops condemn ‘indiscriminate mass deportation’ in rare statement”:

wapo.st/448fDw6

i wrote about shame, its role in our civic life, and why we need to make america ashamed again.

maybe i’m naive but i think it’s kinda doomerism to always be saying this is gonna take decades to undo or you’ll be old or dead when it ends. first it doesn’t matter, plant trees you won’t live to sit in the shade of. second great change is capable of happening very quickly

Alice Wong taught us that disabled people don’t just leave memories behind—they leave infrastructure. Lineages of care. Methods of collectivity, survival. She named the connective tissue that holds our communities together, even across death, even across the losses that come too fast and too often.

Epstein’s War

The Patriotic Blonde on Twitter writes: "People are posting this all over social media. What a sad end to something we all worked so hard for. I never thought it would end this way." Attached are four photos of people burning their MAGA hats.

please don't do this. MAGA hats are made from an acrylic blend, which will release toxic chemicals when set on fire, potentially harming you and downwind woodland creatures

I would like to say that the online MAGA people are NOT in fact the persuadables. They aren't going to be brought *onboard.* That will happen or not in actual community with people. Sorry.

Alice Wong was a hero and a baddass. 💔
Read her books. 👇🏼
www.goodreads.com/author/show/...

"There were spaces to meet (and argue), spaces to organize and plan – and spaces to socialize too... Having different groups sharing the same space provided opportunities for people to learn how to organize together." "Yet now, the left is looking at a very different and less vibrant landscape."...

"Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich accused Netanyahu of “silence and diplomatic disgrace” on the issue, arguing that the prime minister had failed to respond forcefully to recent unilateral recognitions of a Palestinian state by several countries."

The insertion of the language is in part seen as a concession to the Saudis and other Arab and Muslim states in order to get them to sign onto the ISF, and to the EU in order to acquire their funding capabilities. However, it can also be seen as an attempt to placate Saudi demands re: normalization.

PM’s far-right allies up in arms over US plan’s offer of path to Palestinian statehood As Washington weighs selling F-35s to Riyadh, Israel said insisting sale be conditioned on normalization; politicians, settler leaders oppose two-state solution as part of deal

The United States has quietly put language supportive of a two state solution into its UNSC resolution concerning the postwar future of Gaza as part of negotiations with the EU and Arab League— and in response the Israeli right is fuming and demanding that Netanyahu make clear his opposition to it.