The 1990’s produced some of the all time best singer-songwriter music. They also produced Polyester Bride.

Trump calls on Israeli president to pardon Bibi. Unlike Brazilian case, emphasizes he respects Israeli judicial independence, i.e. no sanctions if case isn’t dropped

New England be New Englanding

I object to the Ben Gvir led passage in preliminary Knesset vote of capital punishment for terrorists. But Hamas condemning it as a violation of humanitarian law and human rights is a bit rich.

Israeli soldiers speak out on killings of Gaza civilians IDF soldiers tell documentary of opening fire unprovoked and arbitrary designations of who was an enemy www.theguardian.com/world/2025/n...

Thank you last year’s me for leaving me with lecture notes on this slideshow. Seriously, what a cool move.

I wrote a thing about the generational cliff Israel is facing in US public opinion and why it's not going away easily (if at all). If you thought it was interesting, share it, and I would love to hear your thoughts.

Vladeck points out that the lower court’s findings on harms to the plaintiffs weren’t even considered by the majority. I suspect that that’s because they’re committed to believing gender dysphoria is a made up thing

🚨 WaPo SCOOP: Inside the crisis at the Heritage Foundation The group behind Project 2025 is facing a rebellion — and has been for months. The Tucker Carlson/Nick Fuentes/antisemitism saga is just what caused it to break into the open. 🎁 Gift link:

A core challenge of epistemology—especially political epistemology—is that the final, all things considered answer to hugely important & consequential questions is often: "we don't know, and probably can't know." A desperation for such unavailable answers drives demand for snake oil substitutes.

Do I want falafel?

thermostatic backlash remains undefeated

Full text of the US circulated UNSC draft resolution on Gaza transitional arrangements (in Arabic). www.alqudsalarabi.co.uk/%D8%A7%D9%84...

A James Bond movie, but it's just the villain working to set up their scheme

"Tuesday’s federal budget is expected to flip a long-established script for the Canadian military and the Department of National Defence" since "they are likely going to be in the uncomfortable position of having so much cash it will be hard to keep up." www.cbc.ca/news/politic...

I will send a fully armed battalion to remind you of my love

I spent a long time on flights today so two lukewarm movie takes: 1. Sully - not sure how this became a feature film. 2. Priest - cool steampunk vampire dystopia. Bettany is a strong lead. Kinda sad it didn't get the very obviously intended sequel

Today's "One First" dives into the question #SCOTUS is now asking in the Illinois National Guard case—and why "regular forces" *does* mean only the military; why the Trump administration should therefore *lose*; and why that *won't* necessarily provide a justification to invoke the Insurrection Act:

She has been arrested, as has the Chief Military Prosecutor under suspicion of obstruction. Her phone is missing.

I deleted the thread since it’s misleading now. Israeli Chief JAG went missing after becoming target of public scrutiny and right wing attacks over her leak of investigation video of abuse of Hamas prisoners. She has since been found healthy following report of note left behind in her car.

I often use the term “baseball statistics”. As a pejorative.

INVENTOR: ive got a great new toy idea for you, it's called... the Radio Flyer TOY EXEC: oh wow, so it's like a plane that flies via... radio? INVENTOR: it's not a plane TOY EXEC: oh...Kay, so it's INVENTOR: its a little red wagon TOY EXEC: with ... a radio on it? INVENTOR: theres no radio

Hades 2 is amazing. And also runs are a tad long and I am a little daunted by all the possibilities. I’ve haven’t finished either route yet.

This is happening now. Hundreds of thousands of ultra-Orthodox men block entrance to Jerusalem in mass anti-draft rally www.timesofisrael.com/liveblog-oct...

The early page, with DOI for citations and is now available on the Journal of Democracy website. www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/10.1086/...

ordinary americans are filming ice agents and trying to save their neighbors. for all the hemming and hawing during 2024 about how democracy was an elite concern, the elites gave up far more quickly than average people.

Some exceptions but a good rule of thumb to understand which federal employees will be paid during the shutdown is whether their job involves carrying a gun. No gun, no paycheck. open.substack.com/pub/donmoyni...

New, from me: Trump is prioritizing paying the armed forces over other federal employees during a shutdown. He is trying to win over the rank and file even as he tells military leaders to target “the enemy within.” 🧵 open.substack.com/pub/donmoyni...

You could open a Hitchcock themed restaurant with the amount of crow the Israeli government was forced to eat this week

Trump’s Time interview is incredibly important in the Israel context. I’ll be posting bits of it with commentary later but in the meantime here’s the whole thing. time.com/7327689/trum...

For the same reason people keep going back to flag burning criminalization. The human animal responds strongly to symbols.

Big. This, and Trump’s statement today that he gave his word to Arab states Israel will not annex the WB and that annexation will lead to loss of US support, set the ceiling for Israeli settler hopes. Formal annexation is off the table and never going on it. Not the Trump they were hoping for.

Funny thing is Americans did give the money but now you can’t spend it

I’d like to lodge a complaint

Are there any major cases being heard against ICE deployments or is it all National Guard related?

“You can’t mutual aid state capacity” is a great summary

Suzanne Mettler, co-author with Trevor E. Brown of Rural Versus Urban, appeared on The @ezraklein.bsky.social Show for @nytimes.com:

Just saw the actual vote record. Lapid and some of his members actually voted for. God help us

My “Israel is not a client state” T-shirt has a lot of people asking questions already answered by my T-shirt

Knesset passes preliminary vote to annex Jerusalem-adjacent settlement city Maaleh Adumim. Netanyahu worked and failed to prevent the vote in a sign of how he sees the (very low) tolerance Trump has for annexation now. Lapid didn’t object to the measure in order to embarrass Bibi. 🤦‍♂️

Bureaucratic defederalization

So, are we doing the Short Congress next?

Hades is one of my favorite games ever. Hades II is shaping up to be just as good, if not better. And it’s so much more complicated somehow.

I know it doesn’t feel like that On Here, but in Israel the mood is mostly post-war. As part of that the coalition is back to trying to legislate away democracy. The latest idea is a great example autocratic-legalism, as @kimlanelaw.bsky.social calls it. 1/2

“Bibisitting.” @yair-rosenberg.bsky.social has coined precisely the right word to describe what the Trump administration is doing by sending out multiple people on a rolling basis to Israel to ensure that Netanyahu doesn’t explode his side of the ceasefire agreement.

OMG. Bibisitting is brilliant. @yair-rosenberg.bsky.social , hats off to you man

Rubio likely to arrive next. It was a real open question how focused the administration was going to remain on the Gaza plan post live hostage release. The answer so far is VERY and mostly seems focused on handling (read: micromanaging) Israel

Just trolled the parent’s class group chat. Wish me luck

Israeli national security advisor Tzachi Hanegbi to immediately depart from office. Reports are that he was dismissed by Netanyahu over his objection to the Gaza takeover operation and Qatar strike.

God, folks have either never learned, or have totally forgotten how to read. As in basically understand basic text