Ayahuasca?

I doubt that the authors of Health Communism are Trump’s first choice of Death Panel, but I want to make their words from the intro part of this thread:

“Health is capitalism’s vulnerability. There is no capital without health—it is capital’s host. And capitalism’s greatest trick is convincing us that it exists independent of this parasitic grasp. That it is indifferent.

Health has no fixed meaning. It is fluid. Under capitalism health has been defined to embody many meanings at once: from the hyper-individualistic, biological “health” any one person possesses—always a possession, not an ontology—to global society-level constructs which attempt to give language to chances for survival at the population level. Health is a vulgar phenomenon. A race-and-class-stratified matrix of constantly intersecting regimes of artificial scarcity. A destination, something one must always orient one’s life toward. Healthy physically, socially, economically, and metaphysically. More than a thing, and so often difficult or impossible to describe, health becomes defined by the things it is not. Non-cancerous, dis-abled—as though the purest state of health is to simply not exist.

Health under capitalism is an impossibility. Under capitalism, to attain health you must work, you must be productive and normative, and only then are you entitled to the health you can buy. This fantasy of individual health under the political-economic conditions of capitalism only ever exists as a state one cannot be, to which one must always strive.”

How are they a credible game studio if they don’t understand that there’s treasure behind the waterfall?

sagacious!

homie’s smoking that PBS Newshour kush. chiefing that FDR four-timer pack. chooming that Tim Russert era Meet the Press dank.

Our posting buddy’s fucky word construction is correct and in wide use. I’m reading “A Short History of Trans Misogyny” by Jules Gill-Peterson which opens with this paragraph:

•••

Preface

“Trans misogyny” refers to the targeted devaluation of both trans femininity and people perceived to be trans feminine, regardless of how they understand them-selves. While it can manifest as a system of beliefs, trans misogyny also structures the material world through disparate life outcomes and a suite of characteristically punitive regimes. As an exercise of interpersonal or state violence, trans misogyny operates through the logic of the preemptive strike. It trans-feminizes its targets without their assent, usually by sexualizing their presumptive femininity as if it were an expression of male aggression. This process of misrecognition and projection construes its targets as inherently threatening. The threat label, in turn, justifies aggression or punishment rationalized after the fact as a legitimate response to having been victimized— a self-interested playbook if there ever was one. Whoever pursues trans misogyny enjoys the rare privilege of being at once the victim and the judge, jury, and executioner. The transgression prompting this full-court press can be as mundane as walking down the street, or a moral panic as overinflated as the putative end of Western civilization. Regardless, the passive presence of a trans-feminized person is almost always the solipsistic pretense for striking first. Trans misogyny attacks the very existence of trans femininity in attacking real people.

•••

Also, if you’re still reading, please also add to your lexicon the absolute gift that is “cissie.”

It’s a fucky word construction, but it’s correct and in wide use. Transgender and trans are different concepts. I’m reading “A Short History of Trans Misogyny” by Jules Gill-Peterson which opens with this paragraph:

•••

Preface

“Trans misogyny” refers to the targeted devaluation of both trans femininity and people perceived to be trans feminine, regardless of how they understand them-selves. While it can manifest as a system of beliefs, trans misogyny also structures the material world through disparate life outcomes and a suite of characteristically punitive regimes. As an exercise of interpersonal or state violence, trans misogyny operates through the logic of the preemptive strike. It trans-feminizes its targets without their assent, usually by sexualizing their presumptive femininity as if it were an expression of male aggression. This process of misrecognition and projection construes its targets as inherently threatening. The threat label, in turn, justifies aggression or punishment rationalized after the fact as a legitimate response to having been victimized— a self-interested playbook if there ever was one. Whoever pursues trans misogyny enjoys the rare privilege of being at once the victim and the judge, jury, and executioner. The transgression prompting this full-court press can be as mundane as walking down the street, or a moral panic as overinflated as the putative end of Western civilization. Regardless, the passive presence of a trans-feminized person is almost always the solipsistic pretense for striking first. Trans misogyny attacks the very existence of trans femininity in attacking real people.

•••

Ya just need to hammer these in with a rubber mallet and all yer problems will go away.

We’ll do it again in our lifetimes. The perennial contender Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza is waiting under the ring with a steel chair, and COVID is a hell of a tag team partner for all kinds of pathogens.

Rapid demilitarization.

Hamas is already strapped to the gills with AR pattern assault rifles thanks to captured, abandoned, unsecured, and sold IDF stockpiles along with other purchases, but you’re absolutely right.

With any luck, a free Palestine will get a Taliban sized plate of war materiel leftovers once the settlers go the way of Rhodesia.

“I was just taking my tank platoon for a stroll on your lawn”

Thank you for clarifying, and good luck on your quest. Arab Jews and local Palestinian Jews later termed Mizrahi were treated particularly awfully by the Zionists, there was even a false-flag Zionist militia bombing of an Iraqi Jewish synagogue.

For your earlier questions, I recommend chapters 1 through 6 of Ten Myths About Israel by Ilan Pappé if you haven’t encountered it already.

https://www.versobooks.com/books/2430-ten-myths-about-israel

Especially with the Leclercs.

Precision in language is a worthy goal, and another thread and time would be a fine place for a discussion about Theodore Herzl being a gigantic piece of shit who was a wrecker for what may have been a nobler movement among successful high-status Jews in wealthier parts of the Pale of Settlement during one extremely narrow time and context.

Unfortunately, you can’t just start a conversation that’s the equivalent of “swastikas are good luck charms” without seeming like an asshole.

It’s not exactly 90’s Al Qaeda out there. Hizb’Allah is a political party with seats in the Lebanese parliament and their own parallel civil society institutions like clinics. Decades in governance, plenty of reaching across aisles and cooperation with other faiths in Lebanon and such. They’ve tended to be sensitive about how they are perceived.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hezbollah_social_services

Naquora is tiny. 4,150 people, with a highest elevation of 60m. From what I can tell, the UN HQ is separate from the main village, in a former toll station and a couple buildings on a skinny beach strip that is two streets wide. The IDF really has to be going out of their way to attack UN troops, which is insane if Israel’s goal is to create a regional war where the US bails them out.

Szymon the automatic rifleman has a right to defend himself

These are the UN deployments between the Litani river and the border.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NATO_Joint_Military_Symbology

That’s fucked up, but I’m glad it’s stiffening the peacekeepers’ resolve. The IDF isn’t gonna stop shooting at UN personnel, and a lot of company size units of jumpy conscripts are gonna have some bad days before this is over. From un.org:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NATO_Joint_Military_Symbology

‘least I have a chicken in every pot’