Baird

Former entrepreneur. Now fueled by geopolitics and sports. Plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose

[Baird @atxbaird]

@bbalsam @blu57nav @CandGoods4u Did you read the reports about systemic rape in Israeli prisons? Much much more evidence for that than anything on 10/7(actually zero concrete evidence on 10/7)

[Baird @atxbaird]

@bbalsam @jalexm12 @CandGoods4u Iran didn’t start it. God that is so moronic

[Baird @atxbaird]

@bbalsam @groovy_boat @CandGoods4u Which book would you suggest? Please one with primary sources. I’ve read over 25 on the topic—Khalidi, Said, Finkelstein, Chomsky, Pappe, etc.

What book? Name one. I bet you can’t.

[Graham Platner for Senate @grahamformaine]

Why do we treat the Supreme Court as if it’s the only branch of government without any checks or balances on its power?

There's already a compelling case to impeach and remove at least two justices.

[Graham Platner for Senate @grahamformaine]

Benjamin Netanyahu is an international fugitive.

He is charged with the war crimes of starvation as a method of warfare and of intentionally directing an attack against the civilian population; and the crimes against humanity of murder, persecution, and other inhumane acts.

[Rashida Tlaib @RashidaTlaib]

This isn't hard: Condemn Israel’s genocide without equivocation. Israel’s violent ethnic cleansing of Palestine is wrong. This is simple and any leader should be able to say so. The fact my colleague cannot bring herself to say that is concerning.

[Drop Site @DropSiteNews]

⭕️ REPORT | After 61 House Democrats urged the Trump administration this week to pressure Israel to allow Gaza’s 11,000 cancer patients to reach hospitals in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, Israel kept the Rafah Crossing closed Friday, leaving thousands of patients trapped in Gaza. Only 12 of the agreed 600 aid trucks were allowed to enter the Strip and no fuel deliveries were permitted for Gaza’s collapsed medical system.

Israeli forces have carried out at least 3,256 ceasefire violations across Gaza since the Sharm el-Sheikh agreement was reached last October, according to a report shared by the Palestinian side with mediators and obtained by Drop Site News.

In that time, Israeli attacks have killed 989 Palestinians and wounded 3,122 others. Friday alone saw 18 reported violations and 8 Palestinians wounded.

🔹 Israeli quadcopter drones opened intensive fire at civilian homes near Al-Sanafour Junction and dropped bombs on streets east of Gaza City
🔹 Artillery shell landed inside Abu Hussein School in North Gaza, wounding several civilians
🔹 Mohammad Rani Wadi, 12, shot in the left eye by an Israeli quadcopter drone on Roni Street in Khan Younis
🔹 Omar Al-Madhoun, 8, shot in the foot by armed militias operating under Israeli army protection in Mashrou' Beit Lahiya
🔹 Large-scale explosive demolitions of buildings east of Khan Younis, northeast of Jabalia Camp, and east of Jabalia
🔹 Israeli army vehicles carried out a military incursion into Al-Mansoura Street in Al-Shuja'iya neighborhood, with intensive live fire and continuous artillery shelling
🔹 Israeli army vehicles advanced and expanded the "Yellow Line" along Salah Al-Deen Street in Al-Tuffah neighborhood

Since the ceasefire took effect, 989 Palestinians have been killed — including 236 children, 110 women, and 30 elderly — and 3,122 wounded, of whom nearly half are children, women, or elderly. 95 civilians have also been detained.

Israel also continues to hold approximately 34 square kilometers beyond agreed withdrawal lines and has blocked repairs to electricity, water, and sewage infrastructure. Aid and movement restrictions remain severe:

Aid entry
▪️ Only ~36% of agreed humanitarian aid has entered — ~216 trucks per day vs. 600 agreed
▪️ Fuel deliveries at just 14.7% of required levels

Rafah crossing
▪️ Only 6,845 of 19,600 planned crossings carried out (~34.9%)
▪️ 88 individuals turned back at the crossing on the reported day

The WFP estimates 77% of Gaza's population faces acute food insecurity, including 100,000 children and 37,000 pregnant women suffering from acute malnutrition — amid what MSF in May 2026 described as a "manufactured malnutrition crisis."

[The Resonance @Partisan_12]

Dearborn has become the first city in the United States to host the “Wall of Tears,” a 100-foot-long outdoor mural honoring 18,457 children killed in Gaza since Oct. 7, 2023.

[Paul Graham @paulg]

Some of those who were against cancel culture were genuinely against cancellation. The rest just wanted to cancel different people.

[Paul Graham @paulg]

This is why real democracies have that pesky thing known as due process.

[Emma Vigeland @EmmaVigeland]

Solidarity with our friend @tparsi, one of the most important voices covering Iran and the Middle East.

US administration investigating Iran war critic Trita Parsi, says report https://t.co/8aR1sKZdQ0

[Baird @atxbaird]

A moronic argument. States and governments are formed by violence and maintain control by either providing for their people or more violence. The Palestinians have been under siege for 80 years where conditions are only getting worse. There’s no opportunity to improve so they use violence. Sam Harris is an immoral idiot.

[Thomas Massie @RepThomasMassie]

59 years ago today, Israel attacked the USS Liberty in international waters. 34 crew members were killed and 174 were wounded by the IDF.

Today, I spoke on the House floor to honor the fallen and to recognize the survivors who were present in the gallery.

[Bob Brigham @BobBrigham]

@trouble_man90 Graham Platner KO’d an incumbent governor. He has the best message of any Democrat running in the 2026 midterms.

You don’t have to accept him, he’s going to win without the Israel-first crowd. In fact, that’s why he’s winning big.

[Baird @atxbaird]

@johnarnold @jacobstokes Trita Parsi’s book on JCPOA negotiations sheds light on how difficult and different these negotiations are. JCPOA took years and hard sanctions before starting negotiations that took almost 2 years.
Highly recommend.

[Baird @atxbaird]

@johnarnold @jacobstokes Unlikely there’s a settlement. More likely we walk away. Iran won’t settle without getting everything up front and doubtful Trump will give him that. Guessing walking away will require some catastrophic economic event.

[Frances 'Cassandra' Coppola @Frances_Coppola]

West Bank Palestinians formally laid down their arms in 1993. Since then, Israel has killed 6,500 West Bank Palestinians, including at least a thousand children.

In 2018, Palestinians in Gaza launched a peaceful protest. Israel responded by killing hundreds and maiming thousands.

Unarmed Palestinians are constantly at risk of death and injury at the hands of Israeli Jews, both soldiers and civilians.

The historical record shows that Palestinians are far more likely to be killed by Jews than vice versa.

Sam Harris has written poisonous nonsense.

[hasanabi @hasanthehun]

it was worth being banned from the uk to get the javier bardem notice

[Ryan Grim @ryangrim]

It's kind of wild to find out that the Republican in the NYT story that says she had a toxic relationship with Graham Platner is Lyndsey Fifield. Having been in DC for too long, I know a decent number of people who know her quite well. For a long time she was the co-host of a podcast with her best friend Bethany Mandel, called Ladybrains, though she has also worked for multiple super PACs, the Chamber of Commerce, and the Heritage Foundation.

Some background, presented without judgment: In 2014, Fifield began work as digital director for American Action Network, a Republican Super PAC that oversees House races. The next year she became social media manager for the Heritage Foundation, where she stayed for the next seven years.

In 2022, she joined the Super PAC backing Nikki Haley for president, switching to the official campaign side the next year, and staying until the campaign flamed out. She now lists herself as a visiting fellow at the Independent Women’s Forum, a prominent dark money group that is best known for helping usher Brett Kavanaugh on to the Supreme Court and giving Susan Collins the talking points she needed to make her decisive speech in his favor.

The NYT breezed past all this, saying she was "a Virginia conservative who has worked for right-leaning groups and Republican campaigns."

In an interview for a news outlet called Red Alert Politics that named her to a “30 under 30” list back in 2016, she said that she wanted to “emulate the late conservative blogger Andrew Breitbart’s approach to online activism.” Breitbart, known for pushing the boundaries when it came to political combat, is perhaps best remembered for having exposed Anthony Weiner’s penchant for sending nudes to young girls, and for his work elevating James O’Keefe.

That she worked for Independent Women's Forum recently is even wilder since IWF played a critical role in Kavanaugh's confirmation and in persuading Collins to support it.

Heather Higgins, chair of IWF, laid out the group’s role in a talk several years ago. “We wrote a memo. It was used by a lot of members of the Senate and the House, Fox News, and elsewhere. Most important, Susan Collins told me that without that memo, she would not see how to support him,” Higgins said. “And if you look at the speech she gave on the Senate floor, it’s entirely the playing out and architecture of how we said to structure the argument — what to say and how to say it, which is just so gratifying. We’re watching TV and we’re like, ‘That’s ours! That’s ours!’”

Meanwhile, the timeline Fifield gives of their relationship is confusing, because during at least some of that time she was actually dating a different person, her longterm boyfriend who became her fiancee before she called off the wedding in 2018. We all know this because she and Mandel did a podcast episode on it that went mega-viral in Republican circles back then. Apparently this is the kind of thing the NYT thinks is important now, so I guess it requires more reporting. I'll report back.

Here is Heather Higgins celebrating IWF's role in getting Susan Collins to confirm Kavanaugh:

[Thomas Massie @RepThomasMassie]

On June 8, 2026, I’ll speak on the floor of the House to honor and memorialize the brave crew of the 🇺🇸 USS Liberty who died and were wounded in an unprovoked attack by 🇮🇱 Israel on June 8, 1967. Catch my speech on @cspan.