Stephen Lurie

gaffes, blunders, and flip-flops only exist if you don’t know what you yourself believe

"The Clarifier," new art at @truthdig.bsky.social:
www.truthdig.com/cartoons/the...

ICYMI, an essay that explains this:

This is insane, terrible, and also an opportunity for polarization that the Democratic party cannot miss.

The vast majority of Americans do not want an authoritarian state. Show them you’re the only ones fighting against it.

Substack's extremist ecosystem is flourishing Yup, they're still at it.

Relatedly, thanks to @marisakabas.bsky.social and @katz.theracket.news for their persistent agitation around moving off substack.

Here’s a clear update on that from them today: theracket.news/p/substack-s...

You might say… his clowning achievement

Eric Adams is persistently a clown but removing a bike lane he had installed in order to try to gain a few hundred votes in an election he will lose by hundred of thousands is certainly his best work.

In 2018, an elder leftist Israeli activist told me I could understand the status of Israeli society if I imagined an America where Trump had been in power for decades — an idea that feels as resonant today about the present there as it does about one future here.

When this is over, in addition to the prosecution of leaders for crimes against humanity, the people of Israel will need an immense truth commission.

Being Jewish After the Destruction of Gaza by Peter Beinart: 9780593803899 | PenguinRandomHouse.com: Books NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • A bold, urgent appeal from the acclaimed columnist and political commentator, addressing one of the most important issues of our time “At this painful moment, Peter...

This is also in the spirit, but not quite the same approach, as @peterbeinart.bsky.social’s book you can still try to get in the hands of anyone who can move www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/775348...

Jewishness will never escape Gaza empty-brain.ghost.io/jewishness-w...

Today we learned Andrew Cuomo is directly coordinating with Donald Trump, even as this President sends masked agents to rip our neighbors off the streets and guts the social services so many New Yorkers rely on.

It’s disqualifying and a betrayal of our city.

Adam Shatz · The World since 7 October The inability of Western powers to condemn Israel’s conduct – much less bring it to an end – has made a mockery...

essential illustration of what I’m talking about in this essay in this Shatz piece, h/t @diplomatofnight.com www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...

supremely pathetic — and telling!!

what Jewishness will have to mean now: empty-brain.ghost.io/jewishness-w...

Countries should boycott Olympic Games, including this one, that are used as propaganda for authoritarians who disappear their political opponents and engage in widespread persecution.

Border Patrol at a Home Depot in Los Angeles days after the 9th circuit affirmed a court order that purports to block this exact behavior. They don't even know who they're chasing! This is insane. Send them all to jail.

Now up at Empty Brain, my occasional blogletter, newly moved over to Ghost. You can subscribe here: empty-brain.ghost.io

An attempt to reckon with who “we” are:

Jewishness will never escape Gaza empty-brain.ghost.io/jewishness-w...

Andrew Cuomo couldn’t allow his first, tepid recognition of reality — that the Israeli government, with the full support of the Trump administration, is starving the people of Gaza — last more than a few hours without walking it back.

This is someone who believes in nothing.

We could have had cancer vaccines, and instead the United States will contribute nothing whatsoever to mRNA research, condemning millions of people worldwide to unnecessary illness and death

NECTARine … they really got it right with that one

My theory is that if we taxed most of these people without telling them and the people they pay to manage their money didn't tell them, they'd never notice.

And if you'd never notice you should be taxed even more.

It is, of course, unthinkable that the Democratic Party would join a propaganda trip to any other state actively committing genocide but of course I am an antisemite for saying so.

in this essay I will explain:

Curious where people see the most fertile ground for this — is it faculty and student shut downs of universities? Corporate boycotts? what else?

The last few months have made it very clear that there has to be some kind of popular threat (organized by the left) to make institutional elites weigh the price of capitulation to the regime. Without that, corporate, educational, organizational leaders will just swallow the shame and comply.

huge crowd of Jews in NYC with @ifnotnowmovement.org tonight showing just how many anti-genocide, anti-starvation, anti-occupation Jewish New Yorkers there are