Gady Epstein

Gady Epstein

@gadyepstein.bsky.social

A longform editor at The Economist. Views expressed may be the opposite of my employer’s

9,125 Followers 1,283 Following 513 Posts Joined May 2023
3 days ago

Yes, embracing the Christian nationalist right while shunning the Jewish pluralist left gets you here

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3 days ago
Preview
Dozens killed as Israeli special forces raid Lebanese village in search of 40-year-old remains Overnight, one Israeli operation saw at least 41 people killed and 40 injured, according to the Lebanese health ministry.

Pretty serious allegation here. "Witnesses told the BBC that the Israeli soldiers had arrived disguised in Lebanese military fatigues and used ambulances with signs of Hezbollah's Islamic Health Organization."
www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

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3 days ago

I really, really, really need reporters to stop saying that the Trump administration’s MAGA/MAHA leaders are “pivoting away” from anti-vaxx rhetoric ahead of the mid-terms

If you write this, you’re really, really, really not paying attention

At all.

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4 days ago

You think you’ve got problems…

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4 days ago

acceding to a Chotiner interview is the only honorable option

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4 days ago
Preview
Live Updates: Strikes Launched Across Middle East, With No Compromise in Sight

President Trump on Saturday blamed Iran for an airstrike that hit an Iranian elementary school on February 28, killings scores of children. An analysis by The New York Times indicates that the school was most likely hit by an American airstrike. Follow live updates.

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4 days ago
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4 days ago
But the stories of the conditions at the facility, revealed in data and recordings from more than a hundred 911 calls obtained by The Associated Press - in addition to follow-up interviews and court filings — offer a disturbing portrait of overcrowding, medical neglect, malnutrition and emotional distress.
The detainees describe a camp where an average of about 3,000 people have lived per day in loud and unsanitary quarters, diseases spread easily and sleep is a luxury. The center will be closed to visitors until at least March 19 because of a measles outbreak, according to U.S. Rep. Veronica Escobar.
Detainees struggle to obtain medication and health care, lose concerning amounts of weight because of a lack of food, and live in fear of private security guards known to use force to put down disturbances. The ceilings in the windowless tents leak when it rains, and detainees only see sunlight during brief outings once or twice a week to a cramped recreation yard.
In an email, a Department of Homeland Security spokesperson who did not provide their name rejected claims of subprime conditions, saying Camp East Montana detainees receive food, water and medical treatment in a facility that is regularly cleaned. Detainee says guards bet on suicide
Like other detainees, Ramsingh said that between cleanings the rooms, restrooms and showers were often filthy and infested with insects. He said detainees stole others' food because everyone was hungry due to the small and sometimes inedible meals, which led to fights, and the conditions took a toll on his mental health.
At one point he said he overheard a security guard talking about bets made among the staff over which detainee would be next to die by suicide. The guard said he had paid $500 into a pool, with the total pot riding on the outcome. The talk was particularly jarring, he said, because he had contemplated suicide himself.
A Cuban immigrant in his 50s told the AP he requested to receive his medication for diabetes, high blood pressure and an enlarged prostate during a six-week detention at Camp East Montana, but it never arrived.
He spoke on the condition of anonymity for fear of reprisals.
Desperate, the man said he once refused to leave living quarters when a cleaning crew came. An immigration official offered him ibuprofen and urged him to consider leaving for another country.
"He says to me, 'Look, there are a lot of detainees, we don't have enough for everyone," he said. "The man from ICE says to me, 'OK, why don't you decide it's better to leave? Leave for Mexico, go to Cuba. There you can have your medicine, have your things."
Fearing death, the man agreed to self-deport to Mexico to Ciudad Juárez — across the international border from his wife and their 11-year-old son in El Paso.

AP has a new report out about the huge El Paso detention facility and the details—from 911 calls, interviews and court records—are as horrific as you’d expect apnews.com/article/suic...

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4 days ago
Caitlin KALINOWSKI over X

I resigned from OpenAl. I care deeply about the Robotics team and the work we built together.
This wasn't an easy call. Al has an important role in national security. But surveillance of Americans without judicial oversight and lethal autonomy without human authorization are lines that deserved more deliberation than they got. This was about principle, not people. I have deep respect for Sam and the team, and I'm proud of what we built together.

OpenAI head of robotics just resigned over company deal with the Pentagon saying…

“Surveillance of Americans without judicial oversight and lethal autonomy without human authorization are lines that deserved more deliberation than they got”

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4 days ago

“I think we got into this situation in part by a lot of people in the mainstream thinking it was more important to be polite than to call things by their true names…You do not get authoritarians to behave better by being meek and gentle and polite. You get it by being strong.”

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5 days ago

Baudrillard: totally exonerated, no wrong doing

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5 days ago

I have seen this overlap in real time, same people who echo the “Mamdani needs to reassure Jews” line are also doing the “stop whining about Platner’s Nazi tattoo.” The common denominator is Islamophobia and antisemitism, which are two sides of the same coin.

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6 days ago
Preview
Senators demand investigation after ninth American killed by Israeli settlers or soldiers in West Bank Lawmakers cite ‘consistent pattern’ in which Americans are being killed ‘without justice or accountability’

A good letter from Senate Democrats demanding a federal investigation into the murder of a Philadelphia-born Palestinian American named Nasrallah Abu Siyam.

Interestingly, neither of the two senators from Pennsylvania itself signed on. Nor did either NY senator, one of whom is Minority Leader.

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6 days ago
Preview
Exclusive: US investigation points to likely US responsibility in Iran school strike, sources say U.S. military investigators believe it is likely that U.S. forces were responsible for an apparent strike on an Iranian girls' school that killed scores of children on Saturday but have not yet reache...

"US investigation points to likely US responsibility in Iran school strike, sources say"

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6 days ago

Does feel like quite some overlap between “Mamdani needs to reassure Jews” Dems and “stop whining about Platner’s Nazi tattoo” Dems

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6 days ago
Preview
ICE detains reporter Estefany Rodríguez in Nashville - Nashville Banner Reporter Estefany Rodríguez, detained by ICE with no arrest warrant, may face deportation. Her attorneys seek immediate review of the legality of her case.

ICE has arrested and detained a Nashville journalist who reported stories critical of ICE. She’s married to a U.S. citizen and has been seeking asylum here after fleeing death threats in Colombia because of her journalism there.

They’ve already sent her to Louisiana.

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6 days ago
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Donald Trump must find a way to cut short his ill-considered conflict with Iran. His rash approach is sowing chaos econ.st/3OYibZ1

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1 week ago

I have a secret to tell Marc: The reason for being a moral, decent, good person is not so that people like you and stop criticizing you. In fact, you're right, they won't. You do it anyway.

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1 week ago

Oh I have it somewhere, in storage

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1 week ago

Oh it gets better

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1 week ago

no, looks fascinating. Probably more informative than the fake Soviet newscast I taped for a 7th grade social studies unit on the centrally planned economy

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1 week ago

the rise of Solidarity owing something to the ruthless capitalism of Western banks is a good one

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1 week ago

It’s from GHW Bush mocking (it would seem) an old Bircher expression from the Cold War and China v Taiwan

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1 week ago

You’re not going to believe how dumb the origin story for this is

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1 week ago

fwiw, I wrote this lengthy piece where I talked to medical professionals and trans people all of whom were very clear that gay and lesbian kids are not being forced to be trans. www.readtpa.com/p/no-gay-and...

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1 week ago
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1 week ago

The usage of “2.0” indicates this was produced by a FriedmanLLM

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1 week ago

Also, people need to look up Ike’s nuclear policy

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1 week ago

Yes of course agreed

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1 week ago

No single person is the undisputed face, fair enough. There’s probably 3 or 4 faces

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