andreajlee she/her

Account inactive: see website. Developmental Editor, Speechwriter, Ghostwriter, IP Strategy Consultant/Coach. Emotional Abusive Prevention. Mixed Media Artist.

[andreajlee she/her @andreajlee]

"No is the bodyguard of yes."

Lots of change here, including getting divorced. (We really tried.) I'm simplifying; this account will be officially on 'fallow.' Been that way awhile, so just telling it like it is. My website is still working though, as am I.

Good vibes 2 all.

[Yanis Varoufakis @yanisvaroufakis]

The speech that I could not deliver because German police burst into our Berlin venue to disband our Palestine Congress (1930s style). Judge for yourselves the kind of society Germany is becoming when its police bans the following words:

Friends,

Congratulations, and heartfelt thanks, for being here, despite the threats, despite the ironclad police outside this venue, despite the panoply of the German press, despite the German state, despite the German political system that demonises you for being here.

“Why a Palestinian Congress, Mr Varoufakis?”, a German journalist asked me recently? Because, as Hanan Asrawi once said: “We cannot rely on the silenced to tell us about their suffering.”

Today, Asrawi’s reason has grown depressingly stronger: Because we cannot rely on the silenced who are also massacred and starved to tell us about the massacres and the starvation.

But there is another reason too: Because a proud, a decent people, the people of Germany, are led down a perilous road to a heartless society by being made to associate themselves with another genocide carried out in their name, with their complicity.

I am neither Jewish nor Palestinian. But I am incredibly proud to be here amongst Jews and Palestinians – to blend my voice for Peace and Universal Human Rights with Jewish Voices for Peace and Universal Human Rights – with Palestinian Voices for Peace and Universal Human Rights. Being together, here, today, is proof that Coexistence is Not Only Possible – but that it is here! Already.

“Why not a Jewish Congress, Mr Varoufakis?”, the same German journalist asked me, imagining that he was being smart. I welcomed his question.

For if a single Jew is threatened, anywhere, just because she or he is Jewish, I shall wear the star of David on my lapel and offer my solidarity - whatever the cost, whatever it takes.

So, let’s be clear: If Jews were under attack, anywhere in the world, I would be the first to canvass for a Jewish Congress in which to register our solidarity.

Similarly, when Palestinians are massacred because they are Palestinians – under a dogma that to be dead they must have been Hamas – I shall wear my keffiyeh and offer my solidarity whatever the cost, whatever it takes.

Universal Human Rights are either universal or they mean nothing.

With this in mind, I answered the German journalist’s question with a few of my own:

· Are 2 million Israeli Jews, who were thrown out of their homes and into an open air prison 80 years ago, still being kept in that open air prison, without access to the outside world, with minimal food and water, no chance of a normal life, of travelling anywhere, and bombed periodically for 80 years? No.
· Are Israeli Jews being starved intentionally by an army of occupation, their children writhing on the floor, screaming from hunger? No.
· Are there thousands of Jewish injured children no surviving parents crawling through the rubble of what used to be their homes? No.
· Are Israeli Jews being bombed by the world’s most sophisticated planes and bombs today? No.
· Are Israeli Jews experiencing complete ecocide of what little land they can still call their own, not one tree left under which to seek shade or whose fruit to taste? No.
· Are Israeli Jewish children killed by snipers today at the orders of a member-state of the UN? No.
· Are Israeli Jews driven out of their homes by armed gangs today? No.
· Is Israel fighting for its existence today? No.

If the answer to any of these questions was yes, I would be participating in a Jewish Solidarity Congress today.

Friends,

Today, we would have loved to have a decent, democratic, mutually-respectful debate on how to bring Peace and Universal Human Rights for everyone, Jews and Palestinians, Bedouins and Christians, from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea with people who think differently to us.

Sadly, the whole of the German political system has decided not to allow this. In a joint statement including not just the CDU-CSU or the FDP but also the SPD, the Greens and, remarkably, two leaders of Die Linke, joined forces to ensure that such a civilised debate, in which we may disagree agreeably, never takes place in Germany.

I say to them: You want to silence us. To ban us. To demonise us. To accuse us. You, therefore, leave us with no choice but to meet your accusations with our accusations. You chose this. Not us.

· You accuse us of anti-Semitic hatred
o We accuse you of being the antisemite’s best friend by equating the right of Israel to commit war crimes with the right of Israeli Jews to defend themselves.

· You accuse us of supporting terrorism
o We accuse you of equating legitimate resistance to an Apartheid State with atrocities against civilians which I have always and will always condemn, whomever commits them – Palestinians, Jewish Settlers, my own family, whomever.
o We accuse you of not recognising the duty of the people of Gaza to tear down the Wall of the open prison they have been encased in for 80 years – and of equating this act of tearing down the Wall of Shame – which is no more defensible than the Berlin Wall was – with acts of terror.

· You accuse us of trivialising Hamas’ October 7th terror
o We accuse you of trivialising the 80 years of Israel’s ethnic cleansing of Palestinians and the erection of an ironclad Apartheid system across Israel-Palestine.
o We accuse you of trivialising Netanyahu’s long-term support of Hamas as a means of destroying the 2-State Solution that you claim to favour.
o We accuse you of trivialising the unprecedented terror unleashed by the Israeli army on the people of Gaza, W. Bank and E. Jerusalem.

· You accuse the organisers of today’s Congress that we are, and I quote, “not interested in talking about possibilities for peaceful coexistence in the Middle East against the background of the war in Gaza”. Are you serious? Have you lost your mind?
o We accuse you of supporting a German state that is, after the United States, the largest supplier of the weapons that the Netanyahu government uses to massacre Palestinians as part of a Grand Plan to make a 2-State solution, and peaceful coexistence between Jews and Palestinians, impossible.
o We accuse you of never answering the pertinent question that every German must answer: How much Palestinian blood must flow before your, justified, guilt over the Holocaust is washed away?

So, let’ s be clear: We are here, in Berlin, with our Palestinian Congress because, unlike the German political system and the German media, we condemn genocide and war crimes regardless of who is perpetrating them. Because we oppose Apartheid in the land of Israel-Palestine no matter who has the upper hand – just as we opposed Apartheid in the American South or in South Africa. Because we stand for universal human rights, freedom and equality among Jews, Palestinians, Bedouins and Christians in the Ancient Land of Palestine.

And so that we are even clearer on the questions, legitimate and malignant, that we must always be ready to answer:

Do I condemn Hamas’ atrocities?

I condemn every single atrocity, whomever is the perpetrator or the victim. What I do notcondemn is armed resistance to an Apartheid system designed as part of a slow-burning, but inexorable, ethnic cleansing program. Put differently, I condemn every attack on civilians while, at the same time, I celebrate anyone who risks their life to TEAR DOWN THE WALL.

Is Israel not engaged in a war for its very existence?

No, it is not. Israel is a nuclear-armed state with perhaps the most technologically advanced army in the world and the panoply of the US military machine having its back. There is no symmetry with Hamas, a group which can cause serious damage to Israelis but which has no capacity whatsoever to defeat Israel’s military, or even to prevent Israel from continuing to implement the slow genocide of Palestinians under the system of Apartheid that has been erected with long-standing US and EU support.

Are Israelis not justified to fear that Hamas wants to exterminate them?

Of course they are! Jews have suffered a Holocaust that was preceded with pogroms and a deep-seated antisemitism permeating Europe and the Americas for centuries. It is only natural that Israelis live in fear of a new pogrom if the Israeli army folds. However, by imposing Apartheid on their neighbours, by treating them like sub-humans, the Israeli state is stoking the fires of antisemitism, is strengthening Palestinians and Israelis who just want to annihilate each other and, in the end, contributes to the awful insecurity consuming Jews in Israel and the Diaspora. Apartheid against the Palestinians is the Israelis’ worst self-defence.

What about antisemitism?

It is always a clear and present danger. And it must be eradicated, especially amongst the ranks of the Global Left and the Palestinians fighting for Palestinian civil liberties –around the world.

Why don’t Palestinians pursue their objectives by peaceful means?

They did. The PLO recognised Israel and renounced armed struggle. And what did they get for it? Absolute humiliation and systematic ethnic cleansing. That is what nurtured Hamas and elevated it the eyes of many Palestinians as the only alternative to a slow genocide under Israel’s Apartheid.

What should be done now? What might bring Peace to Israel-Palestine?

· An immediate ceasefire.
· The release of all hostages: Hamas’ and the thousands held by Israel.
· A Peace Process, under the UN, supported by a commitment by the International Community to end Apartheid and to safeguard Equal Civil Liberties for All.
· As for what must replace Apartheid, it is up to Israelis and Palestinians to decide between the 2-state solution and the solution of a Single Federal Secular State.

Friends,

We are here because vengeance is a lazy form of grief.

We are here to promote not vengeance but Peace and Coexistence across Israel-Palestine.

We are here to tell German democrats, including our former comrades of Die Linke, that they have covered themselves in shame long enough – that two wrongs do not one right make – that allowing Israel to get away with war crimes is not going to ameliorate the legacy of Germany’s crimes against the Jewish People.

Beyond today’s Congress, we have a duty, in Germany, to change the conversation. We have a duty to persuade the vast majority of decent Germans out there that universal human rights is what matters. That Never Again means Never Again. For anyone, Jew, Palestinian, Ukrainian, Russian, Yemeni, Sudanese, Rwandan – for everyone, everywhere.

In this context, I am pleased to announce that DiEM25’s German political party MERA25 will be on the ballot paper in the European Parliament election this coming June – seeking the vote of German humanists who crave a Member of European Parliament representing Germany and calling out the EU’s complicity in genocide – a complicity that is Europe’s greatest gift to the antisemites in Europe and beyond.

I salute you all and suggest we never forget that none of us are free if one of us is in chains.

[Daniel Swain @Weather_West]

Folks with self-described severe climate anxiety now reach out to me (& other climate scientists I know) essentially every week. It is often hard to know how to respond, since climate scientists are not trained clinical psychologists. (1/12)
https://t.co/uiuoZutrMy

[GREG ISENBERG @gregisenberg]

I'M FEELING SPICY TODAY

I'll say the quiet parts out loud:

1. Revenue per employee is going through the roof. What happens when tech companies need 10% or lower of the employees? Mass layoffs and less hiring.

2. Your big tech company job is at risk. If we’ve learned anything from the 2021/2022 layoffs is that you probably should have a side hustle if you’re at bigtech

3. Most VCs are soul-searching right now. What's the role of VC in 2024 when it’s never been cheaper to build software? Chasing LLM startups or hardware companies.

4. Most brand social accounts are dead. Some creators will be created to be C-Suite at large brands. These deals will be 7-8 figures.

5. All SaaS apps are about get copied. AI makes that easy. Prices of SaaS products will go down.

6. There's a bunch of creators on tech X who literally just copy people's content.

7. Affiliate marketing is in its heyday. TikTok has become the largest affiliate platform in the world.

8. Cash flow is way more interesting than valuation. Your stress levels are way lower when you run cash-flowing businesses versus on the VC train

9. Lot of jerks on the internet, but building an audience is worth it.

10. It's still low status to build an audience. Only once you hit thousands of likes per post does it move up status. Keep going.

11.There is no middle class creator. You are either scrambling to pick up a dollar or follower or flooded with dollars or followers

12. Dividends are about to get way more common for founders. Raising money and giving a % of future profits makes so much sense

13. If you want to get rich, don’t be a VC-backed founder. Odds are against you. Be a VC-backed founder if it's your dream.

14. A bunch of creator-led products are going to burn their brand in an instant. Some will be pretty high profile.

15. People are waking up to the fact that working for big tech is tough, working at a vc-backed startup and the safest/most desirable place to be is go independent

16. Most ghostwritten tweets have no soul. People aren't dumb, they recognize that tweet is written by an agency.

Hope you enjoyed these spicy Xmas takes. Thanks for an incredible 2023 and for following me @gregisenberg

Maybe I overdosed on eggnog, but was feeling spicy.

17. Christmas ugly sweaters are not ugly, they actually look beautiful and make you warm/fuzzy inside

[a chirp in the jungle @ChirpJungle]

@historyinmemes In 1945, Tsutomu Yamaguchi survived the atomic blast at Hiroshima, dragged himself to an air raid shelter, spent the night, caught the morning train so he could arrive at his job on time in Nagasaki, where he survived another atomic blast.

[Barack Obama @BarackObama]

Affirmative action was never a complete answer in the drive towards a more just society. But for generations of students who had been systematically excluded from most of America’s key institutions—it gave us the chance to show we more than deserved a seat at the table.

In the wake of the Supreme Court’s recent decision, it’s time to redouble our efforts.

[andreajlee she/her @andreajlee]

@shaboom 8 but all over please and catch it before it flops off the stick and … one and only one all season. 🫶🏼

[NY Book Editors @NYBookEditors]

Subscribe to Literary Agent Alert -- a weekly newsletter for authors looking for agents in their genre.

[Canada Council for the Arts @CanadaCouncil]

The last 50 years of the #ArtBank have been shaped by extraordinary relationships from across Canada. As part of the #ArtBank50 celebrations, a few of our client share their perspectives on the art rental program. Read their stories in this blog post: https://t.co/wkjpi7ihEo

[Nathan Baugh @nathanbaugh27]

In 2011, Pixar employee Emma Coats shared its “22 Rules of Storytelling.”

They’re a masterclass in story, psychology, and human connection.

Here are 10 gems:

[Canada Council for the Arts @CanadaCouncil]

📚 The #PublicLendingRight registration period, open to Canadian authors, illustrators, narrators, photographers and editors, runs until May 1st, 2023. For registration information and the program’s eligibility criteria, please visit: https://t.co/wQqQLKg7Yr #PLRCanada

[Coach A @gfuzzyrocks]

@profgalloway

[Scott Galloway @profgalloway]

US Offices Reach 50% Occupancy for First Time Since Pandemic Hit https://t.co/Txl7O6ASqJ

[ruthannharnisch @ruthannharnisch]

Hey @profgalloway You & author @monaeltahawy agree that profanity = power & not bad character. #patriarchy forbids women to use #unladylike words. Mona says #FuckThatShit & tells women who dare to refuse control: employ profanity purposefully. (Yr praise of @michelleisawolf 💯)

[Sophie Vershbow @svershbow]

Last night my friend’s boyfriend was taking a photo of our group and a gen Z girl walked by, grabbed the phone out of his hand, took the best photo we’ve ever seen, handed the phone back, and walked away.

[Canada Council for the Arts @CanadaCouncil]

The @CanadaCouncil is 🇨🇦’s public arts funder. We’re proud to contribute to the vibrancy of a creative and diverse arts and literary scene through our grants, services, prizes and payments to artists and arts organizations from Canada. https://t.co/uMBSqkJyP3

[andreajlee she/her @andreajlee]

@dickiebush 2022 review 👍🙂

[Judy Louie Brown @mcjude]

Since 2016 Dad & I have waged sprout war: I’ve hidden them in chocolate, in his toothpaste, he has retaliated by filling my bedsheets with them... It is an even-sided conflict, with both resorting to greater nefariousness & descending to even more underhand deception each year.