The Israeli Foreign Ministry is lying. No coordination was required, and we were never told that it was. We were not in a restricted security area. We did not pass any checkpoints. Palestinian farmers do not — and should not — need permits to harvest their own olive fields. But they fear doing so, because the IDF doesn’t protect them from settler violence. We’re trying to model solidarity & co-existence between Jews and Palestinians, and to call attention to the horrors of the occupation. The Israeli government is trying to foment violence between Jews and Palestinians, and to make it impossible for Palestinians to harvest their olive groves, drive on their roads, or live in their homes.

Highly recommended opportunity!

Super interesting paper on U.S. elites, 1850–1950. The top tail of U.S. asset owners experiences rapid turnover. 70% of individuals in the top 1% are no longer there 10 or 20 years later.

I'm definitely not anti-achievement and never criticized real achievements, including by Elon. I even own two Teslas. I do expose marketing stunts that, while cool on the surface, are not the achievements they are claimed to be. Compressed air thrusters might give you acceleration boosts in any direction. They might even make your car hover for a couple of seconds if you accept replacing the passenger seat by a 400 liter high-pressure air tank. But they are not a path to actual flying cars. The same way Burt Rutan's SpaceshipOne was never going to be a path to orbital flights (just bunny hops out of the atmosphere). I am anti-Musk when it comes to politics. His political actions, the massive dissemination of disinformation through X and other channels, and his support for authoritarian regimes and racist ideas have the effect of weakening democracy and weakening human decency and social progress around the world.

The biggest, and stupidest, myth in European politics, particularly popular in France, is that Europe suffers the consequences of "austerity" and "neoliberalism". In the biggest 5 countries in Europe, more than half of the population makes its income from the state, less than half from the private sector. This is what makes the problem of reducing the welfare state so impossible: more than half of the voters are net recipients. No surprise that Italy's budget has not been balanced in 100 years, France's in 50 years (ooh la la, l'austérité!!): -France: 30 million from the state versus 21m private sector workers. State spending is 57% of GDP, taxes more than half the economy. The budget hasn't been balanced in the lifetime of most French (since 1974). - Germany: 35 million adults from the state, versus 34 million from the private sector. 10% of the population is registered as severely disabled. Public spending is over half of GDP. Germany has had a continuous budget deficit since 2019. -Italy: 23 million from the state, versus 20.5 million private-sector workers. Public spending is 51% of GDP. Italy has had a budget deficit every year since 1925, for 100 years. - Spain more people get their income from the state since 2024: 18.21 million from the public sector versus 17.9 million people working in the private sector. Since 2025, Spain also had more government employees than self-employed workers (autónomos) for the first time in history. State spending is at 45%, budget has not been balanced since 2007. - UK: 54% of households now receive more in state benefits than they pay in taxes. State spending is 44.5% of GDP, taxes (40%) are at their highest since 1950, the budget hasn't been balanced since 2001, and 1 in 5 new cars is paid by the government through a bizarre state disability scheme (Motability).