u/franglish9265

Following a scene in which numerous high-profile attendees were observed violently clawing at their own skin, officials at Madison Square Garden acknowledged Wednesday that a severe bedbug outbreak was spread throughout Knicks’ celebrity row by actor Michael Rapaport during the evening’s game. Witnesses reported that Rapaport arrived visibly disheveled, repeatedly raking his fingernails across clusters of inflamed welts on his calves and forearms before sending flecks of what appeared to be live insects and skin flakes tumbling from his sleeves and pant cuffs. By the second quarter, celebrities including Steve Schirripa, Ciara, Fat Joe, and Ice Spice were seen writhing and scratching frantically in their seats, with Ciara audibly shrieking that she could see bugs swarming all over her clothes and her seat’s upholstery. Arena officials later confirmed that the infestation had been directly traced to Rapaport and described the actor’s hygiene as “uniquely conducive to parasitic spread.” Several reports indicated that the staff was prompted to seal off the entire celebrity row under plastic tarps and spray the area with industrial fumigants. At press time, Rapaport dismissed the situation as overblown, telling reporters, “Everybody’s got bugs—that’s New York,” while casually shaking a dusting of bedbug husks out of his hair.

In a thread of tweets, Adam Johnson introduced this article thus:

> I wrote about J Street’s “cut off military aid to Israel” PR gambit which, upon closer inspection, is clearly a time-buying scam that 1) aligns w/ Netanyahu’s “phase out” plan & 2) provides a fake Israel-critical talking point for Dems increasingly under pressure from their base.

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2:

> Jonathan Chait joins the campaign, along with J Street, Lindsey Graham and Netanyahu, to severe US military funding of Israel to blunt opposition and give the appearance of distance between democrats and Israel while maintaining the status quo of arming genocide and apartheid

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3:

> Also this is one of the most evil and cynical things I’ve ever read: here Chait argues there’s been “selective attention” on Gaza by activists vs the West Bank not because 100X more people have been killed/it’s widely seen as a genocide but because they all secretly love Hamas

> > Revealingly, the movement is focused on Gaza, to the point where Gaza is often used as shorthand for its goals. Although Gaza has seen the worst carnage, it was also the staging ground for horrific mass attacks on civilians. Pogroms by Israeli settlers in the West Bank have no defensive rationale, yet they have received a fraction of the attention bestowed on Gaza. The most convincing explanation for this selective attention is that Gaza, but not the West Bank, is controlled by Hamas, and the pro-Palestinian activist network in the U.S. is in solidarity with Hamas.

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4:

> Just to clarify: there’s an emerging consensus among israel defenders to push for a “cut US military aid to Israel” because technically “aid” only means funding (despite it colloquially meaning military sales but whatever). So it’s clearly not “a good first step” but cynical PR