Michael Pollak

Amusingly, we were both born in 1958 and we both just retired.

And no, I'm not changing my avatar. Posting is what retirement is for!

(They got the math wrong, though. We're both 67. Months matter.)

Thanks for the head's up!

[me, a journalist who spends all day every day on a social media app where the discovery algorithm is personally controlled by its owner, captain birdseye] you know, a lot of people are talking about fish fingers, we should probably cover that

Has Israel crossed the annexation threshold in the West Bank? Six ‘game-changing’ recent cabinet decisions may push the occupation past a tipping point toward permanent Israeli rule, says Yesh Din director Ziv Stahl.

Has Israel crossed the annexation threshold in the West Bank?

Six ‘game-changing’ recent cabinet decisions may push the occupation past a tipping point toward permanent Israeli rule, says Yesh Din director Ziv Stahl.

Interview with Yesh Din director Ziv Stahl

www.972mag.com/israel-west-...

Epstein Family Values • EQUATOR The billionaire patriarchs of the American far-right want to rule an economy of masters and servants

Melinda Cooper's essay is a pleasure, if you're an "Engels on patriarchy 2.0" kind of person

www.equator.org/articles/eps...

It was your deft parallelisms to the present that slapped me in the face as new.

- that the Phoenix program kept 100k people in ‘an archipelago of secret torture centres’

- the paragraph on SOG

- the phrase "exploitable minority"

- "terrorist infrastructure" as "civilian supporters"

If, like me, you loved this book, you'll love this article. It's not a repetition of what you've read, it's a complement, a wider historical context, with a couple of stunning claims with citations.

Tobias Gregory · A Terrier and a Camel: Milton’s Theology Milton was an anticlerical, anti-hierarchical, individualistic godly Protestant. He belonged to no parish, sect or...

Theology is rarely so charming & clear. Remember the Arian heresy? Milton believed it. Turns out it's common sense & that's why they had to kill anyone who said it in public. It was the establishment view that was insane all those millennia.

Nothing like today.

www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...

No surprise, I agree with what @dsquareddigest.bsky.social says here. One addition to the first point: if LLMs do create mass white-collar unemployment (which I think is unlikely but not impossible) that will shift the macroeconomic policy tradeoffs toward stimulus. open.substack.com/pub/backofmi...

This is just really embarrassing for these guys. Your intellectual hero is an amphetamine casualty from the Britpop years. It would be less ridiculous to be queuing up for a lecture by Ginger Spice.

to make a very dumb, first principles, analogy: Hollywood productions did not become lighter in workforce when they suddenly got the tools to make stuff in an easier way than hydraulic mechanical sharks

Screen shot from Paul Embery’s X account: Respect to this police officer. Confronted by radicals demanding the arrest of a Christian preacher on the grounds that Whitechapel "is a Muslim area" she was calm and professional and gave them short shrift. Let's see more of this from the police. Has a video of a woman police officer talking to a group of Muslim men

This clip is all over the other place and has made its way onto GB News and Talk TV so I’ll do a bit of an explainer here too!

The clip doing the rounds is of a fantastic police officer telling a group of Muslim men that a Christian preacher nearby is entitled to freedom of expression.

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How ‘homeland’ put America on the path to illiberalism A phrase from the 1990s altered America’s sense of itself — and its political trajectory

Steven Simon on the Un-American spell cast by the word "homeland"

www.ft.com/content/f073...

Why Iran is betting on war [FREE TO READ] Tehran thinks a drawn-out conflict could eventually yield a better deal than what Trump is offering today

My piece in Financial Times on why Iran may pursue diplomacy but may take its chances with war as.ft.com/r/ef11ca76-6...

The Coming Conservative Turn Against Israel Goes Much Deeper Than You Realize It’s not just about politics. It’s also about theology. And it’s going to have a massive impact on Zionism, U.S. foreign policy — and even the place of Jews in America.

.@jbjudis.bsky.social on the sharp fall of premillennialism among young Evangelicals & the consequent fall in support for Israel

www.notus.org/perspectives...

Another question: when were the two biggest accelerations in productivity growth in postwar history? The answer is, the mid-1960s and the late 1990s. In both cases, productivity growth rose by about 2.5 points for a number of years. And then ask: what were labor markets like in those periods?

Jude Wanga in the LRB blog

www.lrb.co.uk/blog/2026/fe...

Europe Is Squandering Its Leverage Over China Dalia Marin argues that Chinese firms be required to enter joint ventures with local companies to access the EU market.

Don't be misled by the headline, which is the right one to sell it to EU decision-makers. But it's the opposite argument of what usually follows such a sentence. By Dalia Marin

www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/c...

By Aziz Huq & @vanessawilliamson.bsky.social

www.nytimes.com/2026/02/17/o...

If Team Abundance is looking for rules and regulations that get in the way of all kinds of useful and life-improving work, they could start with patents and copyrights.

One thing you will learn, if you read a good history of American settlement like Greg Grandin's *América, America*, is how much the English wars of extermination against Native Americans developed directly out of, and were self-consciously modeled on, their near-contemporary wars on the Irish.

.@billmckibben.bsky.social on why what looks like the next El Niño is such a horrifying thought

billmckibben.substack.com/p/an-el-nino...

Sadly, they did this trick with Reagan in the 1980s a few times and it never left a dent. Can't help feeling it's just them sticking their tongue out when teacher turns his back. If he catches them they'll abase themselves.

YouTube video by The Grayzone The life and work of Michael Parenti: a tribute with his son, Christian

Max Blumenthal interviews Christian Parenti on his dad Michael. Perhaps the best tribute to a father from a son I've ever heard. A stout defense, a fond reminiscence, and a revelation of origins and parallels.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=ynp4...

7 Hard Lessons Democrats Must Learn in 2026 by Austin Ahlman and Ben Winsor

libertyandpower.substack.com/p/7-hard-les...

Sharp piece, sharp formula from @adamserwer.bsky.social

www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2026/0...

Defaming Francesca Albanese Those who have made it their profession to defame her and all for which she advocates, defame only themselves

Mouin Rabbani's short, sharp & complete indictment of all involved in the latest attempt to defame Francesca Albanese, the conscience of the world.

mouinrabbani.substack.com/p/defaming-f...

Well, it's appearing in an opinion column. They're still calling them detention camps in their news reports. The NYT had op-eds talking about how the other stuff was wrong too. It's functional for them. Besides saying they air both views, it builds credibility they use for whitewash.

Opinion | This Is Much Worse Than Mere Detention

Short, sharp case by @jamellebouie.net that “concentration camp” is the technical term & "detention camp" is the propaganda. The camps are criminal means to a criminal purpose. Denotation is unmasking, going along is abetting.

www.nytimes.com/2026/02/14/o...