Knut Lager

Interested in many things

[People's Daily, China @PDChina]

Need a hand? These robotic arms, developed in south China's Shenzhen, sort parcels along an assembly line swiftly and seamlessly.

[John Ganz @lionel_trolling]

In the 1970s, upper middle class Marxists cut their hair and tried to looked square to go organizing in factories to find that workers had long hair and smoked pot. Today, its like "hey wanna go to the cheesecake factory" and everyone is arguing what place has the best phở

[Richard Sanders @PulaRJS]

Watch this.

Lubna Speitan, author of the Greens4Palestine motion “Zionism is racism”, spells out the central obscenity of our age – the grotesque inversion whereby the victims of ethnic cleansing, Apartheid and genocide must constantly fend off accusations from their tormentors that it is they who are the racists.

“We as Palestinians are being silenced and gaslit and vilified [as we] witness the annihilation, the cold-blooded murder of our families, of our people… our children burnt with phosphorus, having to endure amputations with no anaesthetic, having their limbs torn and shredded, their bodies burnt by phosphorus, being starved to death … And to have to sit here … and try to bury my feelings so I can eloquently and diplomatically shield my anger, my rage, my anguish that every Palestinian is feeling, is an insult.” /1

[Knut Lager @KnutLager]

@HaleyforMI Fuck israel.

[Drop Site @DropSiteNews]

Pulitzer Prize-winning biographer Benjamin Moser says Israel is "actively fomenting" antisemitism by claiming to act in the name of all Jews:

"It's asking a lot of people to say that there's this Jewish army of this Jewish state with this Jewish star on their flag, and they are mercilessly slaughtering tens of thousands of children, but don't confuse them with Jews," Moser said.

He argues that the reported rise in antisemitism is simply a rise in anti-Zionism, "people reacting to Israel and the evil, wicked things that Israel has been doing in our names."

[jordan @JordanUhl]

Thread 🧵

Over 170 House Dems sent a letter to AG Blanche condemning Trump's raid on @IlhanMN's home.

Letter available here & in tweets below, you will find who *didn't* sign including Pelosi, Hoyer, Stevens, Scholten, Golden, Moskowitz & dozens more:

https://t.co/1SaeKoxxd0

[zeynep tufekci @zeynep]

This is playing with fire.

Minks and ferrets have such humanlike lung cells that they’re the standard for testing human flu transmission. (Cows aren’t!)

An H5N1 epidemic raging in a mink farm is basically the plot for Dr. Evil tries to spark a pandemic. Luck isn’t a plan.

[Knut Lager @KnutLager]

@MarcBodnick @Leahgreenb Great "joke"

[Keith Edwards @keithedwards]

this is so bleak

[privatize social security @MakeUSAVAT]

What kind of compliment is this? both Bernie and Warren get their pork.

[Knut Lager @KnutLager]

@MisterMoosen @KyleKulinski Lemme just mute you.

[נדב איל Nadav Eyal @Nadav_Eyal]

1/ Benjamin Netanyahu got the last set of polls last night. They argue Likud and his block are eroding fast.
Then, came his remarks on Israel's economy. These are among the most extraordinary he has made in a long political career. Whatever their intent, they carry real weight for the Israeli economy – before Tuesday's election, and regardless of who forms the next government.

In an interview with journalist Roy Katz, aired Friday, the prime minister said American military aid to Israel is coming to an end. "It's over. It's only a question of time," he said. Israelis should get used to no longer receiving tens of billions of dollars in U.S. defense assistance, he added, "because America has changed."

That alone is remarkable. There is a growing recognition in Israel that U.S. military aid in its current form will have to change, and might end, as bipartisan support for Israel erodes in Washington. Netanyahu himself has spoken before about wanting to wean Israel off the aid.

But there is a distance between that recognition and a sitting prime minister effectively announcing the end of one of the pillars of the U.S.–Israel strategic relationship. The current Memorandum of Understanding – $38 billion over ten years – runs through September 2028. It is embedded in a web of interests that includes the American defense industry, and Israel's diplomats in Washington work hard to sustain it. Israel's friends in Congress, operating in an increasingly difficult political environment, are still fighting to preserve the special relationship. When the prime minister himself says "it's over," that is a hard message for Israel's defense establishment, and for those in Washington still trying to help.

And that was only the opening.

"There could be sanctions, including banking sanctions," Netanyahu said. Israel, he explained, must prepare an economy capable of bypassing them.

This is a different order of magnitude entirely.

Some background is needed. In the world of international sanctions, comprehensive banking sanctions against a country are among the most powerful tools available to major powers. They are not import restrictions, consumer boycotts, or even arms embargoes. Broad financial sanctions go after an economy's circulatory system.

Israel's banks depend on the global financial system: correspondent banks, clearing, credit lines, the ability to move money across borders. Without access to banks abroad, the Israeli economy stops functioning. And such sanctions don't hit only the banks. They hit everyone who banks with them – companies, exporters, importers, investors, employers. When foreign banks become nervous about a country's financial institutions, they tend to cut ties well beyond what the law strictly requires.

In other words, a sweeping financial sanctions regime would push Israel toward the category of Iran or Russia.

It would be worse. Iran and Russia sit on vast oil and gas reserves. Even under sanctions, they keep selling – mainly in Asia and parts of the Global South. Israel's economy is not built on commodities. Its strength comes from integration into the global economy: human capital, technology, research, advanced services.

According to the Israel Innovation Authority, Israeli high-tech exported roughly $85 billion in goods and services in 2025 – 58 percent of all Israeli exports – and accounted for about half of the economy's growth. It is the engine of the economy, and it depends on foreign markets, foreign capital, and the free movement of money.

Netanyahu did not say who might impose banking sanctions. A prime minister raising this possibility, in the same breath as forecasting the end of U.S. aid, should prompt immediate questions. Is he referring to European sanctions? American ones? above all: how did Israel get to the point where this is being discussed at all?

There was more - and much worse.

[Reuters @Reuters]

Israeli forces demolished homes and damaged roads in Hebron in the occupied West Bank, forcing around 1,200 Palestinians to leave their homes a day after a Palestinian attack killed two Israeli soldiers https://t.co/VncVZYi618

[CBS News @CBSNews]

Israeli soldiers forced Palestinian families from their homes in Hebron in the occupied West Bank overnight Friday, taking control of the properties, marking houses with X signs and hanging Israeli flags from balconies. Troops also blocked roads and closed a nearby checkpoint, restricting movement in the neighborhood as the military expanded its presence in the area.

The operation followed an attack Friday in which two Palestinian gunmen killed two Israeli soldiers and wounded three others before being shot dead by Israeli forces. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had threatened a major military offensive following the attack.

[Leah Greenberg says NO KINGS ❌👑 @Leahgreenb]

I met with Finer, Sullivan, and a bunch of Biden's senior people several times throughout 2023-2024 and I cannot stress enough how maddening it is to watch them reposition now after spending the time they were actually in power gaslighting the shit out of everyone

[Knut Lager @KnutLager]

@erevolution2023 @DropSiteNews Saying Iran has an "expansionist ideology" is ridiculous, especially in context of the Greater Israel idea.

[Drop Site @DropSiteNews]

🟢 Hamas official Taher al-Nunu was repeatedly asked to condemn Iran's strikes on Gulf states in an interview with Saudi-government-controlled
Al Arabiya. He repeatedly refused, maintaining that disputes "within the Arab and Islamic nation" must be resolved through "dialogue, and dialogue alone."

The anchor pressed Nunu, media adviser to the head of Hamas' political bureau, again and again, citing a recent Ansarallah attack on a civilian airport and accusing Hamas of being one of Iran's proxies.

Nunu drew a line between what he called "Iran's defense of itself against the Israeli occupation," which Hamas supports, and Iran's conflicts with its Gulf neighbors, which he said should be settled through talks.

"We are not a proxy for any party," he said, adding that Hamas welcomes support from anyone backing the fight against Israel.

When she accused him of equating "the aggressor and the victim," Nunu replied: "Condemnation here and condemnation there will not benefit any party." He said Israel's vision of a "Greater Israel" threatens "most Arab countries," and that the region must face it with "a united front."

🎥 Al Arabiya

[Ryan Grim @ryangrim]

Yglesias Abundance politics would’ve advised Dems to ignore ICE abuse and back data center expansion. Would’ve been catastrophic politically.

[Knut Lager @KnutLager]

@Electricmood @nexta_tv Right after GW Bush, right?