Jesse Jackson story - I'm walking through the Atlanta airport and I spy a guy walking towards me. He was by himself (later to find out heading to Mandela's memorial) pulling his suitcase. I recognize him - it's Jesse Jackson! As we pass, our eyes meet and I, out of nowhere did a black power fist - he immediately returned the gesture and we continued without interruption on our ways. N.B. I'm white.
I looked up the New York Post article. It included the following paragraph-
“Moammar Khadafy, the vile dictator who for decades suffocated his people under an oppressive regime while unleashing a campaign of overseas terrorism that included blowing up a jumbo jet, was heroically erased from the earth yesterday — apparently by a young gun-slinging Yankee fan.”
For anyone interested there a great interview with Meg Smaker the film maker of Jihad Rehab or Unredacted, with Sam Harris. It was a great interview she mentioned that she had a go fund me page and with in a month or so the Sam Harris crew and others had raised about $700,000 which is cool because she had mortgaged her house and maxed out her credit cards to make this movie. Anyway, as the fellows said she is a bad ass and this interview gives a lot of that history here. Including I'm pretty sure being kidnapped by terrorists at one point maybe in south America.
Thanks for sharing. Tagging onto this, she has a good interview on thad russell's podcast Unregistered (I have trouble recommending him for much these days...)
Ok, I don't think I can continue my presence on this board in good conscience without coming clean to you all about the real me. Just recently I was the beneficiary of student loan forgiveness! And it wasn't an insignificant number either(5 figures). It was under the program where if you have been paying your loans for over 20 years you get it canceled.
Philosophically I am perfectly fine with the idea that I don't deserve it(and I don't for even more specific reason than general principle). In my defense it is not like I majored in something really stupid like philosophy(I only minored in it).
So now I am caught between being philosophically opposed to something and yet receiving tremendous benefit from it. I am sure you"ll all agree the guilt I feel is punishment enough. (Unless I am dead to you now in which case I submit myself to the tribe to be voted off the island😔).
I'm philosophically opposed to the mortgage interest tax deduction (it rewards people who are definitionally doing OK and don't need it) but, of course, I take it.
(Or did, before the last set of tax changes moved the standard deduction up).
I was relatively convinced a while back that, in cases like this, the reasonable thing to to take the legally allowed benefit to the fullest extent possible, while simultaneously arguing against it.
While we’re unburdening ourselves, I will confess that I attended one of the Art Institutes, the now-closed New England Institute of Art. In my defense, when I first applied it was known as Massachusetts Communications College. It had just recently come under the auspices of AI, and moved from Boston to Brookline, when I enrolled. I was there to train in a more or less legitimate field: radio broadcasting. I also dropped out, mainly due to the commute from New Hampshire, and the tremendous expense. No student debt forgiveness back then.
Same boat. I was stunned one day to find my (meager) balance paid off. My rate was 3%, so I’ve always paid the minimum. I do worry about what the interest rate will be though when I have to pay it back anyway in taxes…
Fellow philosophy minor here! Electrical engineering major, where economics would’ve been a much smarter thing to minor in… Somehow, I thought philosophy would be the ticket to chicks since I was in a program with 93% dudes. Again, economics probably would’ve been the smarter choice…
I majored in Philosophy. (I even double-majored, in Theology!) I did briefly attend grad school for an MA in Philosophy, but decided academia wasn't for me.
Long story short, my 20 year grad anniversary is this spring, and I'm sure I'll be paying off loans for another 20.
I joke, but I do love the subject. I think if you are going to go to college you should follows what you love, not what you think will make you money. College can be a wonderful, rewarding experience in and of itself and most people don't work in their college majors anyway so have fun while you are there.
Half the time we spent writing our own stuff and half the time taking regular English classes. Coolest class I remember was Writers on Writing where published authors came in and talked about their process. Ethan Canin and Sapphire were two I remember.
The whole experience made me realize you can't teach creative writing though because there are only two ways to teach it.
1. People write stories and then you workshop them in class for feedback. That essentially means you're being reviewed by the guy whose story you didn't like last week so it is his mission in life to trash you.
2. You go the idiosyncratic route and have people write journals or observe people in public spaces and the like. That essentially amounts to you paying thousands of dollars to have someone tell you to keep a diary.
Anyway essentially my whole motivation in going to college was to escape the life I had before, which I did. Not saying it was better, but it was different, and that was a start.
1) The guy on the sidewalk out in front of Matt’s house is either sleeping OR smoking crack- but not both
2) Sam Cooke was shot by the hotel manager after HE busted in demanding to know where his female companion was. As for the companion- she says he was drunk and trying to sexually assault her in the hotel room, so when he went to the bathroom she grabbed her clothes (and accidentally grabbed his as well) and fled. It seems plausible that he thought she had robbed him (and maybe she did), but we’ll never get his side of the story.
I’m a HUGE Sam Cooke fan by the way.
Live at the Harlem Square Club is one of the greatest live recordings of all time. It’s just so damn good. And his early gospel work with the Soul Stirrers is definitely worth checking out.
I'm surprised no one brought up Bobby Womack after talking about Sam Cooke. Legend has it he drove to Sam's funeral in Sam's car, dressed in Sam's suit, and with Sam's wife. He went on to marry Sam's wife and cheat on her with...you guessed it, Sam's daughter. That proved too much for Sam's wife and she shot Bobby after finding out. To make things even weirder Sam's daughter married Bobby's brother, Cecil, and the pair went on to have a music career.
Ok- yes. After doing a little reading, I agree that the Bobby Womack universe deserves some attention. Crazy stuff. In addition to marrying Sam’s wife and carrying on with Sam’s daughter, there’s this from Wikipedia-
“In 1974, Bobby's brother Harry Womack was fatally stabbed in the neck with a steak knife by his girlfriend Patricia Wilson in a jealous rage. She had found another woman's clothes in a room he was occupying at Bobby's house. It turned out that the clothes actually belonged to Bobby's girlfriend.”
Additionally- Bobby had two sons with his third wife Regina. I feel conflicted about highlighting this next part because one of the sons died as an infant. But I simply can’t keep this to myself-
When Moynihan brought up Cooke, I shouted, “yes!” One of my favorite recording artists, top 5, easily. An all-time great. I’ve always been troubled by the circumstances of his death. Strange, too, that there’s never been a biopic about his life. I read a few years ago that one was in the works, but it hasn’t come to fruition.
Definitely in my top five as well. Another thing that puts him in a class of his own- he wrote a ton of his own songs. “Nothing Can Change This Love”, “Change is Gonna Come”, “Bring it on Home”, “You Send Me”, “Somebody Have Mercy”…….he’s the sole songwriter on all of those. Incredible
Definitely. What a great song. Fun fact- that’s Lou Rawls harmonizing with Sam on the studio version. And here’s that famous live version for those that haven’t heard it-
As for deaths of soul artists- I want to mention Johnnie Wilder Jr.
If you don’t know who that is, he was a member of Heatwave. (Who?) They’re the band that originally did ‘Always and Forever’.
And Johnnie was the singer. He’s that guy!
It’s one of the greatest vocal performances of all time and sadly, a couple of years after its release, Johnnie’s car was hit by a van and it left him paralyzed. He still recorded after that and eventually died in 2006 ‘from complications of his paralysis’.
Oh yeah- he was also an Army vet. Sorry to bum everybody out. But what a voice!
If he’s smoking crack, he’s almost certainly grinding his teeth WAY too hard to get any winks. Of course he’ll eventually come down and crash for many hours or die on the F train or something. So in that sense, I guess the same individual could be seen on separate occasions- 1)smoking rock 2) sleeping. (Not that I necessarily have any first hand knowledge of such behavior)
I think everyone is burying the lede on the NPR story. According to the NYT article, NPR's audience is ~11% black, 16% Hispanic, and 70ish% white. That's *surprisingly* close to America's racial demographics. If those numbers are even remotely accurate, it means they were already doing a good job reaching a diverse audience, and *everyone* hated their DEI binge in roughly equal numbers. I actually find that oddly encouraging.
Also, they name for their diversity pivot is the "North Star initiative", which is a clear reference to Frederick Douglass's newspaper The North Star. If they weren't complete hacks, they might remember the slogan of The North Star: "Right is of no Sex, Truth is of no Color, God is the Father of us all, and all we are Brethren." That feels instructive.
Lastly, everyone should watch Mike Judge's new show on Peacock called "In The Know", which is a brilliant satire of NPR. It hasn't gotten much attention, but it's absolutely hilarious!
Next episode you guys should really rip into Ben Collins and his purchase of The Onion. Nobody has ever accused him of being funny and now we can finally point out how stupid he really is. Only someone that dumb can think they're funny (without ever making a single joke) enough to revive that comedy site.
I wonder if Collins was as heartbroken and reflective following the Nashville Covenant School Shooting, which left six people dead, including three children…
For those who don’t remember, that’s the one about which Pres. Biden joked:
I'm at the point where I just listen to the intro to find out if Kmele is there so I can make my case for being his replacement. (Then I listen to the rest and make notes of the things I would have done better than Kmele.)
The U of MN was troubled by a (rather small) encampment on the mall the past week or so. The school's reaction was to shut down all the buildings around it over concerns for "safety."
Earlier this week, the interim president met with protest leaders and reached agreement to have the encampment cleared. This involved a number of statements promising the U would "divest" and other demands.
Now they're having to meet with Jewish student groups to appease them.
Local news had a former member of the regents who was very critical of the move. It was refreshing to hear a serious person saying that university leadership had failed to provide a safe campus environment. His take on the outcome was that they've just opened the door to having to do more in the future to placate them.
Now they know that tantrums get them ice cream. Great.
I work at UMN, so I've been following this closely. I'm on the other side of campus, so I didn't see any of the camps, but our collaborator had to cancel some experiments we'd planned because of the shutdowns.
The president made a tepid agreement with the protestors, which was mostly just boring lip service. The protestors get to address/hector the Board of Regents, the U agrees to vague support, "ongoing discussions", and so on. In exchange, the protestors shut down the camp and pinky-swear that they won't screw up graduation.
Yesterday, the president sent out another email after meeting with various Jewish groups. He outlined a set of "commitments" that sort of mirrored the agreement with the protestors. (For example, they also get to annoy the Board of Regents.) So yes, the protestors were rewarded for throwing a tantrum. But the Jewish groups got basically the same thing just by asking nicely, and they didn't have to sleep in the rain. There's probably a broader lesson there somewhere, but who knows.
I'm also Jewish, FWIW, and I found this whole thing ridiculous. Like most hard sciences, my department is very multicultural, but no one really talks about politics (Baruch Hashem). This shit really hasn't affected me at all. However, one thing that stood out to me is that the president pledged support for Palestinian students and for *Jewish* students. He hasn't said a goddamn word in support of the *Israeli* students. His letter seemed to intentionally avoid mentioning Israel or Zionism. I've spent the last 20 years on college campuses. I can't remember any group ever receiving nearly as much hate and vitriol than Israelis have recently. There's just a palpable feeling on campus that Israelis are simply "unwelcome".
Ah yes, No Step on Snek, inspiring stuff, much like Patrick Henry's "I can haz Liberty or I can haz cheeseburger?"
Jesse Jackson story - I'm walking through the Atlanta airport and I spy a guy walking towards me. He was by himself (later to find out heading to Mandela's memorial) pulling his suitcase. I recognize him - it's Jesse Jackson! As we pass, our eyes meet and I, out of nowhere did a black power fist - he immediately returned the gesture and we continued without interruption on our ways. N.B. I'm white.
Rainbow Coalition for the win!
hehehe!
I looked up the New York Post article. It included the following paragraph-
“Moammar Khadafy, the vile dictator who for decades suffocated his people under an oppressive regime while unleashing a campaign of overseas terrorism that included blowing up a jumbo jet, was heroically erased from the earth yesterday — apparently by a young gun-slinging Yankee fan.”
The greatest newspaper in the country
Don’t Step in Snek was a Reddit thing, lol. I feel like this is one of the rare times Matt is super wrong.
Bit of a senior moment, really.
On the plus side I’m having a really fun time imagining someone saying:
“In the great words of our Founding Father, Thomas Jefferson: Don’t Step on Snek!”
You might enjoy these
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=fovaVGhbhn4
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=PoHyF6ny3T8
More of a 4chan thing originally, but potato potato.
Reddit at its best was just a “best of” 4Chan, so that makes sense.
For anyone interested there a great interview with Meg Smaker the film maker of Jihad Rehab or Unredacted, with Sam Harris. It was a great interview she mentioned that she had a go fund me page and with in a month or so the Sam Harris crew and others had raised about $700,000 which is cool because she had mortgaged her house and maxed out her credit cards to make this movie. Anyway, as the fellows said she is a bad ass and this interview gives a lot of that history here. Including I'm pretty sure being kidnapped by terrorists at one point maybe in south America.
https://www.samharris.org/podcasts/making-sense-episodes/300-a-tale-of-cancellation
Thanks for sharing. Tagging onto this, she has a good interview on thad russell's podcast Unregistered (I have trouble recommending him for much these days...)
Josh Szeps did a good interview too: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sBx2CvvMRyQ
Ok, I don't think I can continue my presence on this board in good conscience without coming clean to you all about the real me. Just recently I was the beneficiary of student loan forgiveness! And it wasn't an insignificant number either(5 figures). It was under the program where if you have been paying your loans for over 20 years you get it canceled.
Philosophically I am perfectly fine with the idea that I don't deserve it(and I don't for even more specific reason than general principle). In my defense it is not like I majored in something really stupid like philosophy(I only minored in it).
So now I am caught between being philosophically opposed to something and yet receiving tremendous benefit from it. I am sure you"ll all agree the guilt I feel is punishment enough. (Unless I am dead to you now in which case I submit myself to the tribe to be voted off the island😔).
Oh, grab that sweet cash.
Correct.
I'm philosophically opposed to the mortgage interest tax deduction (it rewards people who are definitionally doing OK and don't need it) but, of course, I take it.
(Or did, before the last set of tax changes moved the standard deduction up).
Uncle Sugar still takes plenty from you.
Thank you Matt. I now feel comfortable saying, officially, God has spoken on the matter.
I was relatively convinced a while back that, in cases like this, the reasonable thing to to take the legally allowed benefit to the fullest extent possible, while simultaneously arguing against it.
While we’re unburdening ourselves, I will confess that I attended one of the Art Institutes, the now-closed New England Institute of Art. In my defense, when I first applied it was known as Massachusetts Communications College. It had just recently come under the auspices of AI, and moved from Boston to Brookline, when I enrolled. I was there to train in a more or less legitimate field: radio broadcasting. I also dropped out, mainly due to the commute from New Hampshire, and the tremendous expense. No student debt forgiveness back then.
I have a small business and get hammered by the IRS every year. But you can buy me a drink if we ever meet, and I'll consider us even.
Same boat. I was stunned one day to find my (meager) balance paid off. My rate was 3%, so I’ve always paid the minimum. I do worry about what the interest rate will be though when I have to pay it back anyway in taxes…
Fellow philosophy minor here! Electrical engineering major, where economics would’ve been a much smarter thing to minor in… Somehow, I thought philosophy would be the ticket to chicks since I was in a program with 93% dudes. Again, economics probably would’ve been the smarter choice…
Psychology or "communications" are where you find those classes with almost all women.
I majored in Philosophy. (I even double-majored, in Theology!) I did briefly attend grad school for an MA in Philosophy, but decided academia wasn't for me.
Long story short, my 20 year grad anniversary is this spring, and I'm sure I'll be paying off loans for another 20.
I joke, but I do love the subject. I think if you are going to go to college you should follows what you love, not what you think will make you money. College can be a wonderful, rewarding experience in and of itself and most people don't work in their college majors anyway so have fun while you are there.
I feel like if you pay your student loans for 20 years with all the interest they tack on your good. I hope I’m nearly there!
Creative Writing. That's...more marketable....right?
About as marketable as my major, Francophone Literature. Didn't have to up my game or anything after that...
Half the time we spent writing our own stuff and half the time taking regular English classes. Coolest class I remember was Writers on Writing where published authors came in and talked about their process. Ethan Canin and Sapphire were two I remember.
The whole experience made me realize you can't teach creative writing though because there are only two ways to teach it.
1. People write stories and then you workshop them in class for feedback. That essentially means you're being reviewed by the guy whose story you didn't like last week so it is his mission in life to trash you.
2. You go the idiosyncratic route and have people write journals or observe people in public spaces and the like. That essentially amounts to you paying thousands of dollars to have someone tell you to keep a diary.
Anyway essentially my whole motivation in going to college was to escape the life I had before, which I did. Not saying it was better, but it was different, and that was a start.
I’m 28 minutes in and I have two corrections-
1) The guy on the sidewalk out in front of Matt’s house is either sleeping OR smoking crack- but not both
2) Sam Cooke was shot by the hotel manager after HE busted in demanding to know where his female companion was. As for the companion- she says he was drunk and trying to sexually assault her in the hotel room, so when he went to the bathroom she grabbed her clothes (and accidentally grabbed his as well) and fled. It seems plausible that he thought she had robbed him (and maybe she did), but we’ll never get his side of the story.
I’m a HUGE Sam Cooke fan by the way.
Live at the Harlem Square Club is one of the greatest live recordings of all time. It’s just so damn good. And his early gospel work with the Soul Stirrers is definitely worth checking out.
I'm surprised no one brought up Bobby Womack after talking about Sam Cooke. Legend has it he drove to Sam's funeral in Sam's car, dressed in Sam's suit, and with Sam's wife. He went on to marry Sam's wife and cheat on her with...you guessed it, Sam's daughter. That proved too much for Sam's wife and she shot Bobby after finding out. To make things even weirder Sam's daughter married Bobby's brother, Cecil, and the pair went on to have a music career.
Ok- yes. After doing a little reading, I agree that the Bobby Womack universe deserves some attention. Crazy stuff. In addition to marrying Sam’s wife and carrying on with Sam’s daughter, there’s this from Wikipedia-
“In 1974, Bobby's brother Harry Womack was fatally stabbed in the neck with a steak knife by his girlfriend Patricia Wilson in a jealous rage. She had found another woman's clothes in a room he was occupying at Bobby's house. It turned out that the clothes actually belonged to Bobby's girlfriend.”
Additionally- Bobby had two sons with his third wife Regina. I feel conflicted about highlighting this next part because one of the sons died as an infant. But I simply can’t keep this to myself-
The sons were named Truth Bobby and Bobby Truth.
Bobby was a real slimeball but he was smooth. See the track below for proof.
https://youtu.be/dBV-t86N7OM?feature=shared
Killer groove. Thanks for sharing.
When Moynihan brought up Cooke, I shouted, “yes!” One of my favorite recording artists, top 5, easily. An all-time great. I’ve always been troubled by the circumstances of his death. Strange, too, that there’s never been a biopic about his life. I read a few years ago that one was in the works, but it hasn’t come to fruition.
Definitely in my top five as well. Another thing that puts him in a class of his own- he wrote a ton of his own songs. “Nothing Can Change This Love”, “Change is Gonna Come”, “Bring it on Home”, “You Send Me”, “Somebody Have Mercy”…….he’s the sole songwriter on all of those. Incredible
Sam Cooke holds a special place in my heart as my wife and I chose Bring It On Hone to Me as our first dance song.
Definitely. What a great song. Fun fact- that’s Lou Rawls harmonizing with Sam on the studio version. And here’s that famous live version for those that haven’t heard it-
https://youtu.be/jkLZ_pVwU3k?si=7fQ7tJqHT5FkdlJO
That first BABAY! blew my toes right off. Thanks!
As for deaths of soul artists- I want to mention Johnnie Wilder Jr.
If you don’t know who that is, he was a member of Heatwave. (Who?) They’re the band that originally did ‘Always and Forever’.
And Johnnie was the singer. He’s that guy!
It’s one of the greatest vocal performances of all time and sadly, a couple of years after its release, Johnnie’s car was hit by a van and it left him paralyzed. He still recorded after that and eventually died in 2006 ‘from complications of his paralysis’.
Oh yeah- he was also an Army vet. Sorry to bum everybody out. But what a voice!
Take time to tell me....
If he’s smoking crack, he’s almost certainly grinding his teeth WAY too hard to get any winks. Of course he’ll eventually come down and crash for many hours or die on the F train or something. So in that sense, I guess the same individual could be seen on separate occasions- 1)smoking rock 2) sleeping. (Not that I necessarily have any first hand knowledge of such behavior)
I think everyone is burying the lede on the NPR story. According to the NYT article, NPR's audience is ~11% black, 16% Hispanic, and 70ish% white. That's *surprisingly* close to America's racial demographics. If those numbers are even remotely accurate, it means they were already doing a good job reaching a diverse audience, and *everyone* hated their DEI binge in roughly equal numbers. I actually find that oddly encouraging.
Also, they name for their diversity pivot is the "North Star initiative", which is a clear reference to Frederick Douglass's newspaper The North Star. If they weren't complete hacks, they might remember the slogan of The North Star: "Right is of no Sex, Truth is of no Color, God is the Father of us all, and all we are Brethren." That feels instructive.
Lastly, everyone should watch Mike Judge's new show on Peacock called "In The Know", which is a brilliant satire of NPR. It hasn't gotten much attention, but it's absolutely hilarious!
In The Know is awesome, and no one is ever going to see it because NBC intentionally buried it on peacock
The scene with Fabian and Jorge Masvidal is one of the funniest things I've ever seen. I just hope they get a second season!
>Right is of no Sex, Truth is of no Color, God is the Father of us all, and all we are Brethren
God I wish I could turn the clock back to 1995-1999 when I was a young lad and most sane people (including progressives) had this as an actual ideal.
I feel so betrayed by the progressive movement, it is so alien and envious/hateful now.
+1 for in the know.
It is a little too "on the (k)nose" for me.
But presumably accurate.
And so funny.
The people who came up with the NPR north star project should spend more time listening to The Breakfast Club.
They should have named their HR compliance head "Fist of the North Star"
I want to hear a classic rant from one of you about Trump headlining the Dave Smith circus that is the LP National Convention. I need it so bad!
Next episode you guys should really rip into Ben Collins and his purchase of The Onion. Nobody has ever accused him of being funny and now we can finally point out how stupid he really is. Only someone that dumb can think they're funny (without ever making a single joke) enough to revive that comedy site.
Ladies and gentleman, The Onion’s new owner:
https://youtu.be/uG8O1lMeG9A?feature=shared
I wonder if Collins was as heartbroken and reflective following the Nashville Covenant School Shooting, which left six people dead, including three children…
For those who don’t remember, that’s the one about which Pres. Biden joked:
https://www.newsweek.com/joe-biden-jokes-about-christians-being-targeted-nashville-school-shooting-1791009
March 27 marked a year since that tragedy. The White House typically releases a statement on the anniversary of such terrible events (or, say, George Floyd’s birthday: https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2023/10/14/statement-from-president-biden-on-george-floyds-50th-birthday/). They did not do so for this one.
I'm at the point where I just listen to the intro to find out if Kmele is there so I can make my case for being his replacement. (Then I listen to the rest and make notes of the things I would have done better than Kmele.)
The U of MN was troubled by a (rather small) encampment on the mall the past week or so. The school's reaction was to shut down all the buildings around it over concerns for "safety."
Earlier this week, the interim president met with protest leaders and reached agreement to have the encampment cleared. This involved a number of statements promising the U would "divest" and other demands.
Now they're having to meet with Jewish student groups to appease them.
Local news had a former member of the regents who was very critical of the move. It was refreshing to hear a serious person saying that university leadership had failed to provide a safe campus environment. His take on the outcome was that they've just opened the door to having to do more in the future to placate them.
Now they know that tantrums get them ice cream. Great.
Exactly. Give them an inch, they'll take a mile.
I work at UMN, so I've been following this closely. I'm on the other side of campus, so I didn't see any of the camps, but our collaborator had to cancel some experiments we'd planned because of the shutdowns.
The president made a tepid agreement with the protestors, which was mostly just boring lip service. The protestors get to address/hector the Board of Regents, the U agrees to vague support, "ongoing discussions", and so on. In exchange, the protestors shut down the camp and pinky-swear that they won't screw up graduation.
Yesterday, the president sent out another email after meeting with various Jewish groups. He outlined a set of "commitments" that sort of mirrored the agreement with the protestors. (For example, they also get to annoy the Board of Regents.) So yes, the protestors were rewarded for throwing a tantrum. But the Jewish groups got basically the same thing just by asking nicely, and they didn't have to sleep in the rain. There's probably a broader lesson there somewhere, but who knows.
I'm also Jewish, FWIW, and I found this whole thing ridiculous. Like most hard sciences, my department is very multicultural, but no one really talks about politics (Baruch Hashem). This shit really hasn't affected me at all. However, one thing that stood out to me is that the president pledged support for Palestinian students and for *Jewish* students. He hasn't said a goddamn word in support of the *Israeli* students. His letter seemed to intentionally avoid mentioning Israel or Zionism. I've spent the last 20 years on college campuses. I can't remember any group ever receiving nearly as much hate and vitriol than Israelis have recently. There's just a palpable feeling on campus that Israelis are simply "unwelcome".
Either way, this might all be unraveling. Apparently there were "dueling Gaza rallies" last night between pro-Israel and pro-Palestinian groups (https://www.startribune.com/protesters-briefly-clash-at-dual-pro-israel-pro-palestinian-rallies-at-the-university-of-minnesota/600363661/). I wonder when we get to hear this "open, productive dialogue" that the president keeps talking about...
Listening to Matt defend don't step on snek is the fif version of seinfelds "war what is it good for"
Great episode. A. Disney is a snek and should be stepped on. Surprised no mention of the House (Lawler) antisemitism bill. Thanks as always.
Here is an amazing song titled after Sam Cooke’s last words: https://youtu.be/ouuqJ0pkWvU?si=CZeDo0b7UdUtrLPV
That’s awesome. Very cool tune. Thanks for sharing. It says it was filmed at Cheetahs in Silverlake!