…this is not happening in a vacuum. It’s happening at a time that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is under multiple indictments for corruption and bribery, at a time when tens of thousands are gathering in protest around the nation and calling for his removal. And most important, it’s happening at a time when his government continues to entrench the occupation and undermine even the hope of a two-state solution.

Israel’s existential problem is not Abu Dhabi or Dubai or the dark side of the moon. Its problem is its conflict with the Palestinians who live thirty minutes from Tel Aviv, under a 53-year-old oppressive occupation which is a calamity for Palestinians and Israelis alike.

On the El Al flight from Dubai, and certainly from outer space, you don’t see the flames that are turning Palestinian and Israeli lives to ashes, that are denying liberty and dignity from generations of Palestinians, and burning ever-growing holes in the body of Israeli democracy.

As far as an existential issue, while the Palestinians issue must be dealt with sooner or later, the true existential issue for Israel and the moderate Sunni world is Iran and its hegemonic ambitions. The Palestinians are not the primary issue for Arabs or for Israel’s immediate security, as evidenced by these treaties and the lack of outrage in the Arab world, except by the political Islamists in Tehran and Ankara.

…outraged Americans do a disservice by comparing Dawn Wooten’s allegations with the atrocities committed by Hitler and his ilk. This is an American practice. And pretending forced sterilization is a byproduct of the Trump administration alone is an exercise in revisionist history.

Thus far, no one has obtained direct corroboration from women who allege they were forced into a hysterectomy. On Tuesday night, the Intercept published a story on the allegations around the hysterectomies that quoted several anonymous women staying at ICDC who shared stories about how they felt they had been pressured into having a hysterectomy, and who noted that they were frequently forced to go without an interpreter, but it was unclear if they had gone through with the procedure.

… the accusations, which echo of the ugly history of coercive sterilization in the US, have sparked widespread outrage — including calls for formal investigations. But this is far from the first time that ICE, the federal agency charged with enforcing immigration law in the US, has been accused of neglecting immigrants’ health and safety, especially amid the coronavirus pandemic.

His plans for infrastructure investment, greening the economy, and boosting the caregiving sector for children and seniors are versions of ideas that had been incubating for years in liberal think tanks and activist groups. Each plan, if funded at the levels that Biden has called for, would boost aggregate employment over time. Whether they boost employment quickly enough to significantly reduce the nation’s massive level of unemployment, however, depends on Biden and the Democrats’ ability to proceed with Rooseveltian speed.

Joe Biden is now scrambling to show he cares about the destruction of millions of American jobs and the erosion of our industrial base…The problem is that Biden has nothing new to offer when it comes to helping our firms attain that market dominance, especially in the vital advanced manufacturing industries that will win the 21st century.

The solution cannot just be smoothing the transition to Chinese dominance.

Taken individually, none of Biden’s proposals has the transformative appeal of Sanders’s Medicare for All plan, Elizabeth Warren’s wealth tax, or Andrew Yang’s universal basic income. But if Congress passed Biden’s economic policy agenda, and it worked as designed, it would make life easier for countless working Americans who need a helping hand.

I haven’t seen a full-throated defense of him by the American Association of University Professors or any other national academic organization.

Nor have I heard about any organized protest at USC… Too dangerous. Too controversial. Too scary… And that’s the heart of the problem: our own lack of courage.

As people, we have to remember that there are so many things that are designed to offend us–that are intended to offend us–that we’ve got to try and make sure that we don’t get offended by the things that aren’t made to offend us.

They accused Patton of “negligence and disregard” and deemed the Mandarin example “grave and inappropriate.” They referenced the killings of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor. “Our mental health has been affected,” they wrote. “It is an uneasy feeling allowing him to have power over our grades. We would rather not take this course than to endure the emotional exhaustion of carrying on with an instructor that disregards cultural diversity and sensitivities and by extension creates an unwelcome environment for us Black students.” The email is signed “Black MBA Candidates c/o 2022.”

The Jewish year of 5780 was supposed to be a fresh start, providing hope and inspiration. Instead, we have witnessed a year of turmoil, illness, dissent and disruption. Everything has changed. But what have we learned?

Members of the House Problem Solvers Caucus on Tuesday released what they viewed as an effective compromise offer amid the ongoing impasse between Democratic and Republican negotiators over the next phase of Covid-19 aid. The proposal includes about $1.5 trillion in funding, and lands somewhere in between Republicans’ latest $650 billion “skinny stimulus,” and Democrats’ more generous $2.2 trillion proposal…

The primary driver of the fires this year, he said, is California’s rising air temperature. Over the past century, climate change has warmed California by about 3 degrees Fahrenheit. This warming has now started to affect the behavior of water stored in vegetation across the state. In hotter, drier air, liquid water is more willing to become a gas.

One potential solution to this new chemical mystery on Venus is to immediately pour efforts into going there, leading to a near-future “Venus Rush.” But much like other moments in history where we have rushed forth, humans have the ability to curtail possible futures, and to create great harm, when we rush.

…the planet could very well be home to geochemistry we’ve never thought possible. Answering these questions and fully ruling out natural explanations means we need to get up close.So let’s go to Venus! Of course, that’s easier said than done.

The big secret is out. A bunch of your finest science nerds have cracked the case and discovered there is life tens of millions of miles away—here, on the beautiful planet of Venus. Yeah, no duh. Congrats on the big reveal. We have a polite request:

Stay away.

We’re serious. We’re not interested. No missions to Venus, no exploratory spacecraft, no sleepovers. That goes for your space-crazed billionaires as well as your governments. If we wake up one morning and look out and see Bezos, Musk and Branson wandering around in bespoke spacesuits, we’re going to be really ticked off. – Venus