Quotations

Alastair Crooke:

Beijing can fund itself cheaply and almost indefinitely – and thus can outlast the U.S. grand strategy to contain China.

Retired US Ambassador Chas Freeman:

So Israel is at odds with the entire world and the latest polls, as you implied, show that it is widely regarded as a pariah internationally. 97% of Turks feel strongly that that Israel should not exist. So, Israel used to pose the question does Israel have a right to exist and the answer now that is coming back from the world is not if you behave the way you do, then you do not have a right to exist. 

So what is at stake is not just the prospect of Israeli expansionism but the very continued existence of the Israeli state itself in a sort of parallel to the demise of the two Christian crusader kingdoms in the 11th 12th centuries.

Mike Levin

@MikeLevin

This is so insanely corrupt, I can’t even believe it. More than half the donors to Trump’s $400 million White House ballroom just won over $50 billion in new federal contracts in six months. And here’s the part that should make your blood boil. Sixteen of these 27 donors were facing federal enforcement actions, antitrust reviews, labor cases, securities charges. Many of those cases have been quietly dropped or scaled back since Trump took office. You write a check, your legal problems disappear. That’s not a coincidence. The White House won’t even release the full donor list. They’re hiding it on purpose, because daylight is the one thing pay-to-play can’t survive. A federal judge already ruled ballroom construction has to stop until Congress authorizes it. Government is supposed to serve the people, not auction itself off to the highest bidder. When access goes to whoever pays the most, working families always end up paying the price. We either end the corruption, or the corruption will end us.

Hunter Ash

@ArtemisConsort

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1h

No matter what your theory about birth rate collapse is, there’s some data point that disproves it. Japan didn’t have the pill when fertility collapsed. There are highly patriarchal countries where fertility is collapsing. It’s collapsing in countries that are still poor. It’s collapsing in places with more generous social support for families. It’s almost like a psychic alien just decided to phase humans out.