W.E.D.em Boyz

Seeing talk of ending this war ramping up and I so desperately hope it’s true

The stock market is supposed to be purely rational and yet it jumps 600 points every time Trump says “and we’re looking at growing the economy very strongly.”

I’d also add that while antisemitism has a high conversion rate to violence, in the US it doesn’t equate to other isms or phobias. American Jews aren’t discriminated against in employment or education or healthcare. So to regularly center antisemitism falls flat for a lot of people.

I don’t really disagree with any of that. I’d just conclude by saying I’ve seen this same Beinart argument no less than 1,000 times since the genocide began. At a certain point one has to realize it has exhausted its usefulness and focus on things that could actually be useful.

2) I'm not just reacting to this one piece. This approach to opposing the Gaza genocide and now Iran among anti-Zionist jews has very consistently focused on antisemitism.

3) On your last point, I actually think it's quite bad if you can only oppose these horrors because it might blowback on you.

A few things.

1) We are 8 days into this war and less than 48 hours from Israel committing one of the worst war crimes of the 21st century. Timing matters.

Ezra Klein did a thing about this war igniting antisemitism on his podcast as well. I'm glad to see American Jews willing to push back against Zionism, but you are not the story here, the story is the Iranians and Lebanese and Gazans (and Syrians and Yemenis) who continue to starved and killed.

From Peter Beinart's Substack: The Danger This War Poses to American Jews It’s Almost Guaranteed To Supercharge Antisemitism

I'm sorry but American Jews are like 500th on the list of people impacted by this war, and it feels a bit self-centered to be focused on this right now.

"Sleeper cells" are the most obvious fake propaganda nonsense of all time, and it's embarrassing whenever anyone takes them seriously. We are truly a nation of TV watchers.

It's literally raining oil in Tehran. This is eco-terrorism.

Ambitious politicians could offer free or subsidized childcare, healthcare, housing, or paid leave. But they don't, because the idea of doing something like that has somehow become seen as too radical. So instead we get tax credits and rebates.

This is stupid for the reasons many other have already said, but it's also worth reflecting here on the fact that we only know how to deliver benefits through the tax code anymore. The idea of the government proactively delivering new benefits and services is dead.

A big part of this is a media feedback loop. For my entire lifetime, the press has advanced the position that being moderate is a good thing and being too ideological is a negative thing that extremists do. Of course people are then going to identify as moderate, regardless of their actual beliefs.

We are really bad at understanding "moderate" as a signifier. When someone on Twitter or Bluesky identifies as a moderate, they are saying they have centrist political beliefs. But when many poll-takers call themselves moderate, they essentially mean "reasonable, rational person."

The competitors would be DiCaprio and Denzel. Both of them are obviously much better actors and are critical darlings, but in terms of a Q rating among the general public, I am not sure if Carell doesn't rank higher.

He is the star of The Office which is one of the 3 (?) most important TV shows ever. 40-Year-Old Virgin is arguably the defining comedy of the 2000's, and Crazy Stupid Love is THE modern rom com. Add lasting hits like Little Miss Sunshine, The Big Short, Anchorman. Now he's settled into his dad role

I was thinking about this the other day, does Steve Carell have a claim to be one of the most important American actors ever? Who has been more influential than him in the 21st century?

Dem primary: Platner - 43.3% Mills - 38.0% Undecided 18.7%

General election H2H Collins - 44.6% Mills - 43.0% Collins - 41.8% Platner - 48.6%

New polling out of Maine

There was a girls school, a boys school, and a preschool all on separate floors in the same building

It's not just a girl's school

Schumer calling on Trump to tap into the strategic petroleum reserve amid spike in gas prices, saying SPR “exists for moments exactly like this.” “When wars and global crises disrupt energy markets, the United States has the ability to act, but President Trump and his administration are refusing to do so.”

This is Chuck Schumer trying to bail Trump out politically so he can continue the war in Iran, which Schumer of course supports.

Barak Ravid, after reporting 500 times that Biden was totally furious at Netanyahu, gets to return to his favorite beat

Attacks leave dead vs killed

It plays out the same way every time. Israel/the US obviously carry out some atrocity but deny it. The compliant press takes their denials and write that it’s “unclear” who is responsible. Propagandist use that reporting to deflect blame. A week later, when it matters much less, the truth comes out.

I guess it’s nice that MSM is debunking the lies, but it’s also so frustrating that we have to be dragged into this shit every time. This is the Israel playbook. Every rational person knew exactly what happened here on day one. The press should have reported it as such.

And of course we’ve spent so much of the last couple of years talking about men being “under attack” or “alienated” as if feminism is the dominant ideology and we aren’t still living under patriarchy

We have discourse like this constantly and don’t even recognize it. For example, “has the body positivity movement gone too far?” is an uncontroversial question that even serious pollsters ask. The assumption is that fat people have become accepted and celebrated in our society. Obviously absurd.

The most powerful sleight of hand of establishment discourse is taking the demands of marginalized social movements and making them seem like they are dominant. The clearest current example is talk of “trans ideology” as if they are the ones with power in society.

There was in fact a cover up of Biden’s senility until the election was near and a replacement was in place. The press is similarly covering up Trump’s senility and medical events. And they obviously can’t pursue a story suggesting he’s a pedophile. The emperor must be dressed, even if unpopular.