The Fig Economy

“If you are harmed by their actions they will not even pretend to care, let alone help you.”

Thune should just wear a gimp suit and a ball gag and a leash.

I don’t think you should! It’s incorrect! I’d just been reading this in the narrow context of Akiva saying why he didn’t think sanctions would have the claimed effect the guy he was responding to said, from Israelis’ own POV.

Maybe but that’s bringing a whole lot of extratextual baggage here? Like the screenshot was meant to be the evidence and it didn’t read like it was presented IMO, absent that other context, that’s all.

I was taking it as the first? That this is a fact (by his reckoning) that has to be worked with/around.

I’m just like genuinely seeing an “is” where everyone is telling me “no actually that’s an ought”

Genuinely wonder if he’s not doing this to Spain just to demonstrate that he can to underline his dumb argument about why he should be able to impose tariffs.

Genuinely wonder if he’s not doing this to Spain just to demonstrate that he can to underline his dumb argument about why he should be able to impose tariffs.

So this is gonna make the event that radicalizes Richard Engel against Trump, right?

No, I don’t think he’s saying this, I mean that his description of Israeli motivations is not inconsistent with it.

Good strong move that definitely makes sense sir. Thank you sir.

I feel like some folks are treating *him* saying it with a baggage I don’t have or know and makes me a little uncomfortable, but it’s certainly not inconsistent with “this population, constituted how it is, does not and will not share my moral concerns.”

I didn’t see it as special pleading on behalf of that view, just trying to describe it, in the context of “oh just do sanctions and they’ll come around.”

I think all that Akiva is trying to say in his post is that *from a lot of Israelis’ perspective*, the fear of what they believe will happen without exercising racial dominion over their neighbors is more motivating than, you know, not wanting to do that thing.

Fair though I think it’s underappreciated that in trumps case that roadmap included “be famous for decades” as maybe a load bearing piece.

I’m a broken record on this but Trump’s entire plan was clearly “kick them in the face, collect praise from Twitter, walk away.” From his perspective it’s always worked before. It seemingly never occurred to them that they may not be able to walk away.

Saw the first couple of episodes way back when though the Jonathan Majors of it all makes revisiting it less appealing.

Definitely, that loosely attached piece that got him over the line is still at play. But his base support is more premised on *him specifically* than it is on him doing X and Y happening as a result.

Remember that kid that you hung out with once or twice until you realized he liked firing a slingshot at neighborhood dogs? That’s the whole administration now.

It’s a post fact presidency but it’s also largely a post causation presidency. He can lose enough that he can’t consolidate power fully, but his rabid base is bought into his theory that’s not “I will deliver results for you” but “I am the result I have delivered for you.@

George Bush was more subject to an approval crash because he was still operating on cause and effect (I say we should do X and am then accountable for the effects of X). Trump explicitly doesn’t care about consequences and declares he’s incapable of doing anything wrong.

Trump and Hegseth don’t think they’re freeing Iran, and for all of their talking about it before the attacks, they haven’t even really tried to make that argument after the fact. Netanyahu wants to wipe Iran off the map, but Trump just wants to look like big strong missile man.

Say what you will about the neocons, but at the root of their disastrous ideology was a (very wrong) belief that on the other side of their projection of force was a better world. For Trump and his, the force is the point. They destroy stuff because they like destroying stuff.

Sometimes giving something a name is extremely harmful because giving it the name gives it a kernel to build a ritual and culture around.

Yeah I don’t remember the details but somebody had some about the methodology the last time I posted and how it extrapolated in probably invalid ways, but the general shape is still true.

THIS IS NOT HEALTHY! What it was, was easy.

Yeah I mean, they were heavy nights, but I remember a couple of times *pregaming* by splitting a case of Natty Light with a buddy.

I would do this for the cost of the beer plus $20.

A FILM BY THOMAS VINTERBERG MADS MIKKELSEN THOMAS BO LARSEN MAGNUS MILLANG LARS RANTHE FESTIVAL DE CANNES OFFICIAL SELECTION 2020 ANOTHER ROUND

(Stepping up in multiples of 100, that is, assuming a rough rate of metabolization of 1 beer per hour).