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1. according to their spokesman, women are officially supporting hamas the notion of it being "fascist" to be inclined to support against hamas is to me fascinating, and pretending to take it seriously has been a helpful exercise i shall share its fruits https://t.co/dyaQHkCHAZ
it may seem odd that a "fascist" would have anything to do with condemning a group seeking to _eradicate jewish people en masse_ but the story of jews in italy, and especially under mussolini, turns out to be a complex one
the holocaust strictly speaking did not take place in italy until after Italy had surrendered to the allies in late 1943, and then it only occurred in the rump state over which Germany retained control amusingly this roughly aligned with medieval Imperial Italy https://t.co/aCbngLRtC4
under mussolini, a series of race laws had been introduced in 1938, but they are reported to have been unpopular. italy's jewish population was small and well-integrated, and italian fascists were not universally on board with hitler's notion of racial purity for obvious reasons https://t.co/h4iIU0nSI6
i found the history of italian jews of particular interest. apparently the italkim existed and persisted continuously in Italy since old Rome; their culture and genetics reflect and confirm this ashkenazim came later, in the north, perhaps with the HRE https://t.co/Dke7514Yas https://t.co/gUCClugxnb
in any case, historical fascism seems to be at least conflicted on questions of antisemitism. but it seems to me unlikely that women, for whom our subject speaks with authority, are using "fascism" in this way i doubt she even thought about rome before posting her statement
a series of questions for my interlocutor 1. do you support the actions of the sicarii? 2. if not, why not? 3. if so, what do the existence of the sicarii imply about israeli violence against palestinians? 4. how on earth do you resolve all this https://t.co/gpY10kJTIS
remember, https://t.co/k460czpphL
2. huge pro-hamas protests in athens, via another man who enjoys thinking about Rome https://t.co/z8GqTzrXsx
here I'll just spoil it https://t.co/MBiKabDULk
report from Berlin, link to article in next tweet things seem to be somewhat rough in europe https://t.co/hi16Kmqaoy
3. this tweet (above tweet quoted) is going around a bit however the source doesn't contain these data i would guess this was a problem of pasting the incorrect link from the source, not malevolence the linked document is interesting regardless https://t.co/HcaWiupvN0 https://t.co/ekYjHPsbfU
these are survey data ofc and the methods (asking people at randomized street locations) are probably as best as can be expected given circumstances, but i would view them with even less confidence than you might western surveys https://t.co/NfVAudgZJF
4. i am posting this with no comment except to say that my views regarding the state department violate twitter's policy against glorifying violence https://t.co/oTc0Mh6yGJ
observations: * this article says "State" where the correct answer is "Defense" * my esteem of blinken has increased which I had not expected on opening the article https://t.co/u7aImCydRP
the article is actually interesting to read for information if one filters out the implicit framing. setting aside my own considerable irritation, what i hope are level notes about this: - seems like the biden administration is not subservient to agency staff, for good or ill
- the pro-palestine slant of the left is probably reflected strongly in the bourgeois left-cultured state department and so in all its works - they have been so shut down in normal channels that they view public agitation as their only possible means of achieving influence
- i don't know whether this will work by forcing a sufficient public outcry that the administration is forced to change course, but my expectation is that the administration will be extremely irritated either way, and might be able to retaliate against the bureaucrats
- to the extent this causes leftists to leave or to be forced out of the state department, it might bring about a more apolitical agency in the future. might - any people who leave in these circumstances will easily find new work in the warm embrace of our ngocracy
congressional staff are doing this too. probably coordinated i don't know much abt staffers but given what i imagine are the conditions of their employment and the temperament of their bosses i would guess they are gonna get slapped down so fucking hard https://t.co/oaMLQJeECZ
5. there have been reports of us troops in iraq downing drone attacks against them, and something more recent about expecting rocket attacks now, possible signs of retaliation (maybe scripted if the militias have warning? not sure what to make of that) https://t.co/KsHarstRgO
it could also be that they're about to do something big that would demand retaliation. i don't know much about the usual dynamics. where this is happening and inasmuch as it draws the US closer or into the war, it seems like there are at least two possibilities
(a) this is wildcat behavior on the part of iranian-backed militias and iran is just tagging along or neutral (b) iran has some active interest, the nature of which i can't guess, in dragging the united states into the conflict there may be other possibilities
as an aside to all this, i am developing a growing fascination with the density of militias in this part of the world what cause variation in the rates of formation and persistence and scopes of militias over time and space?
commentary from military guy https://t.co/rAvZXNr95l
6. i dont know who's responsible for holding these up but my bet would be egypt. low confidence but they seem to be the most ardent about maintaining control of the border, for good reason even if they can't be open about it https://t.co/EP7YxxapDA
oh wow ok maybe that was part of the report W for me if so although lmao everyones still gonna blame israel ht @marilynmaupin https://t.co/ssCKPyKrT7
7. biden just gave a fifteen minute speech i'm biased in favor of it but it felt like one of the more important speeches an american president has given in decades let me see if i can find a copy. more thoughts to follow.
youtube link https://t.co/D3qL01glvl haven't found a transcript yet but will post when available
i think i may have been wrong about this i somewhat wonder if there has been a coup within the administration with the leftist faction losing the fight so---the speech https://t.co/WF6k7PuF0p
biden has never been a man who could meet this kind of challenge, an exemplar of mediocrity notable at his best. today he is in his dotage his staff is doing what staffs do but they're leftover c-stringers from the obama administration and they have no vision to guide them
biden framed israel as a conflict in the same mold as ukraine and explicitly classed putin in the same category as hamas, as perpetrators of atrocities against american imperial subjects, and american participation in those conflicts as a defense of our global order
those are my words, not his. i don't use them as pejoratives. he condemned both antisemitism and islamophobia and specifically condemned the recent murder of a palestinian american boy. he advanced a catholic notion of american-ness.
i don't this this is a speech trump or obama could or would or given. W is closer but he was more bluntly bellicose. possibly it's nearer to HW in tone but i was too young then to really know. i think clinton would have equivocated more.
the speech was strikingly nonpartisan. party was not mentioned one. foreknowledge of this speech may have been a trigger for the revolt of staffers and of State. its framing of the united states was a political-sense reaction to their revolution. NGOdom is probably aghast.
i don't think the speech was especially strong in writing nor in delivery to be real with you what's remarkable about it is its decisiveness and explicitness on several questions that have been lingering and disputed https://t.co/BZniMM4EyS
this was in my mind a reassertion of presidential actoritas as many of you know, in Rome "power"--the formal direct command of the state--was termed _potestas_ _actoritas_, authority, was softer and socially-mediated: less than a command and more than a suggestion
Presidential auctoritas varies with context and with the office holder, but in recent decades has waned through Clinton's crassness, abuse and overextension by W, Obama's frivolity, and Trump's outright profanity. Tonight was an attempt to reassert the American pontificate.
response in image https://t.co/MOfDQoWJV6 https://t.co/vsrvI0PpVX
eg: the contents were nonpartisan but this is a huge flex on republicans it highlights that they're a shambles; and the left will be incentivized to endorse the importance of helping israel quickly if they want to publicize republican disarray and frame it as criminal negligence https://t.co/XF3u1QD2PH
god dammit i swear i know how to spell this and i dont know how i messed it up twice in a row https://t.co/GJ81M0yoxw https://t.co/H6rfWOq0lI
it's very interesting to notice when newspapers are willing to act as stenographers of the us government and when they apply lawyerly rigor and precision to their claims from @AP https://t.co/Ro96RnSkVP https://t.co/betwNImp4Y
9? something like that al jazeera really sticking to an israel-did-it line i am a bit surprised by this. i occasionally used to skim them during world events for some kind of sense of an arabic world perspective and they seemed . . . i mean not awful https://t.co/bH9WJKGE99
it's worth noting that al-jazeera is sort of an organ of the qatari state im not sure how much control they exercise over the contents but it seems like the answer may not be zero if so does this reflect a stance of qatar, and is this representative? i dont know https://t.co/5rbSYrG1vI
10. good faith thread from a palestinian perspective about reactions in the arab world this tweet was particularly notable imo been thinking about this a bit large crowds are dangerous to all regimes but especially to those with no popular legitimacy https://t.co/6rQfPxtIMy
my expectation is that this might actually be constraining the actions of the arab principates they all remember this man, most famous for inventing the Dreamworks Face but also notable for his political activities https://t.co/cz0ByCXtz0
well. dark mode dreamworks face https://t.co/0ggHQ5bjcm
@eigenrobot Found a livestream that captured how it looked when I saw it on TV. Includes surrounding commentary. They stopped another channels' content to broadcast this and showed about 20 minutes of it. https://t.co/x1zvYVr5yT
@eigenrobot It started out with talking about some kind of drone + missiles being shot down by by U.S. forces, which adds weight to the idea of pay them them reinforce their iron dome. This has some more context for that (happened earlier today):https://t.co/yaR8fDOiCn
@eigenrobot If you can't find it, afaict you can get captions for this stuff by looking it up on https://t.co/LOmrybTd3P but they don't tend to have live stuff -> news usually takes a day lag before they are captioned and archived properly.
@eigenrobot It's kinda gross that they are roping in a 90B military aid package for Ukraine and then adding 10b for this disaster. It feels like taking advantage of the crisis. If anyone balks against this package, they can be framed as pro hamas.
@eigenrobot I can't find the text of the proposal to read it, but It looks like they may not be able to vote as many people are out Friday? This is going to be one heck of a political shitfest.https://t.co/V3jPcrP2cW
@eigenrobot There's more interests at play here than the typical stuff that meats the eye. Framing it as funds to replace old ammunition by promoting America's dominance as a key player in protecting the world is kinda ironic. Makes sense tho.https://t.co/JlFHHlAyMO
@eigenrobot That being said, I have a bit of a jaded take on this space and suspect that most of this is a big political game. It is fairly predictable how the current situation is being co-opted to push funding thru.https://t.co/2IoXAzzEky