Notices by Joyce Park (troutgirl@hachyderm.io)

In thinking about Gaza now, I've come to a few conclusions.

1) Most Americans don't seem to understand how FEW actual Palestinian Americans there are in this country -- only about 170k -- and they represent at least two separate waves of immigration. Quite a few are Christians whose families have been here since before 1967 -- Edward Said was among this group -- and many Palestinians have intermarried with other Arabs etc. The idea that American Arabs are going to stand as a single voting bloc

that can and should push Kamala Harris to stop the genocide seem pretty dubious to me. Interestingly enough, Chicagoland appears to have the largest single group of Palestinian Americans but I did not see them come out to protest in any numbers.

2) I see a lot of Gaza single-issue voters who seem to be more concerned with Israel not getting weapons FROM US than they really are about Israel not getting weapons. It is 100% certain to me that if we cut them off they will go to China.

already be a pretty moot point. We sent a CARRIER GROUP to the Red Sea to fight Houthi rebels with drones! Look what the Ukrainians have accomplished with their drones. The world of weaponry is in a period of MASSIVE ferment right now, but the trend is definitely smaller and cheaper. Israel has a massive advantage in software, but obvs they still want to buy US technology.

4) It's genuinely less clear to me than ever who is negotiating -- who is even CAPABLE of negotiating -- a ceasefire from

Luckily Russia's ability to make weapons seems to be at a low ebb, because that would be even worse. Realignment from US ally to Chinese would have VERY unpredictable consequences and is clearly the thing that Biden is trying to avoid.

3) The star of the current YC class is a startup that makes CHEAP CRUISE MISSILES. Instead of $3mm per missile, they will go for $300k each. In conjunction with the amount of warfighting that has already been converted to drone warfare, expensive US weapons may

the Palestinian side. Hamas had two leaders nominally speaking for Gaza, they assassinated one and the other is a fighter not a diplomat. A ceasefire, much less lasting peace, does not seem to me to be in the power of the POTUS to deliver at this time. I'd love to be wrong, but there you go.

@MisuseCase @ohmu I heard that Rashida Tlaib, who would ordinarily be the Palestinian American spokesperson, refused to speak. There's no upside for her either!

@MisuseCase @ohmu Oh because she supports a one-state solution :/

@MisuseCase @ohmu Israel absolutely won't accept a single-state solution and if they did it would be based on a calculation that the WORST people in their society can outbreed the Palestinians so... Nope I'm not gonna support any of that.

@MisuseCase @ohmu Not that at some level it's any of my business how they work it out. One of the reasons I've avoided this topic is that, having come from a country traumatically split by the Great Powers, I'm not eager to have an opinion about it for others. Also I'm VERY uncomfortable with religious motivations.

@MisuseCase @ohmu Agree not looking good. Israelis seem to have split into a weak peace movement and a strong atrocity movement. BUT I'm not part of their culture and can't, for instance, tell where the families of the kidnapped really fall besides wanting their loved ones back dead or alive.

@evan @darnell I would 100% like to eat an ice cream with Joe Biden!

I've noticed that the happiest families amongst my cousins are the ones where for various reasons the parents couldn't hover over the kids too much.

Like one of my cousins had triplets and the parents both worked and everything over there was more like running a small girl scout troop than helicopter parenting. During the baby shower the mom just sent us a big spreadsheet with enormous quantities of baby wipes and diapers, and begged us not to gift any adorable shit. I once ran into them at

Of all the things that poor people allegedly "waste" money on -- lottery tickets, tattoos, steak dinners or whatever -- the actual biggest one I see is USED CARS. When you're really poor, you're just constantly in this cycle of "buy shitty car, perform repairs you can't afford, until you finally reach the point where that particular car can't be repaired any more -- at which point you'll probably lose your job too". I think car ownership also plays into the whole idea that poor people should

live further and further out from where the jobs and transit are. I have a friend who lives in a VERY remote area, and basically every time they do something to try to improve their life... the effort founders on the shoals of yet another shitty used car.

There's no woman so beautiful, so successful, so wealthy, or so apparently strong in this world that she can't be secretly a victim of domestic violence.

@thomasfuchs I got it yesterday -- after waiting a month for an appointment at Rite Aid -- and the pharmacist said they didnt have doses until recently.

Michael Lewis's whole thing is gleeful lack of irony, taking people at their own face value. That actually works great for people who aren't egomaniacs or grifters -- which is why his books about government workers or anonymous quants are his best. This mode is obvs terrible for egomaniacs or grifters... and SBF is clearly both.

Isaacson is a whole different issue. He is a true believer in outdated Great Man and Progress of Technology theories. He WANTS to create a mythos.

It scares me that so many Americans, including friends of mine, are normalizing the idea that "good people" should be able to SHOOT and potentially execute "criminals" for things like shoplifting or breaking into cars or doing drugs on the street. Also that we should go to actual war with neighbors over drugs. What have we become?

@carnage4life Anyone who lets a guy like this on their cap table has no one but themselves to blame.

I keep seeing posts about Dianne Feinstein, and she is not going to suddenly quit due to her health because by all accounts SHE HAS DEMENTIA. Let's normalize saying this. Like many dementia patients, including our parents, she thought she could wait until THE LAST MINUTE to deal with the situation and she was wrong. Now her private health issues have become a public problem. Gen X, let's avoid making our younger loved ones go through this.