Author | Lightnews

Ezra @ezraq.bsky.social · 3d

Yeah you're probably right. Nootbaar at 6, Helsley at 10 makes sense to me. I'd rather spend that 7 mil you allocated to a catcher to get Bieber instead of Bassitt, and I'd spend the rest on Rogers. That leaves no room for signing a FA 5 starter.

Ezra @ezraq.bsky.social · 7d

Who would you prefer from the second tier of starters if they add 2 SP via FA?

Ezra @ezraq.bsky.social · 10d

And I think this is what most people want when they say they want a Palestinian state. So asking for Israel to be a Jewish state by this definition is no less unfair than asking for a Palestinian state by this definition.

Ezra @ezraq.bsky.social · 10d

Jews worrying about the risks of Jews being a minority in every country in the world and having nowhere they can always count on being able to flee to is completely reasonable given Jewish history.

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Ezra @ezraq.bsky.social · 10d

Instead, they mean that Israel should be a state that sets an immigration policy that ensures diaspora Jews always have a country to flee too and that ensures Jews don’t become a minority in Israel.

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Ezra @ezraq.bsky.social · 10d

What do you mean by ethnonationalism? By Jewish state? By Jewish state, most Jewish Zionists don’t mean that Israel should be excusively Jewish or make non-Jews second class citizens.

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Ezra @ezraq.bsky.social · 10d

Moving on in a conversation without stopping and addressing what these terms mean allows them to set the terms for the conversation and permits these demonizing misreprentations to fester.

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Ezra @ezraq.bsky.social · 10d

“Ethnonationalism” and “Jewish state” are big scary terms people throw around to invoke big scary associations such as Nazism, white nationalism, apartheid South Africa, etc, and to suggest that this is what Zionists secretely (or openly) want too.

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Ezra @ezraq.bsky.social · 10d

I realize this person is almost certainly unreachable, but I strongly believe that in these sorts of conversations we need to stop and define terms.

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Ezra @ezraq.bsky.social · 10d

When such a person engages in antisemitism, they are not “crossing a line” or failing to critique Israel in a non-antisemitic way, and assuming they are is unfair and makes it harder to combat antisemitism because it makes it harder to understand where these strains of antisemitism come from.

Ezra @ezraq.bsky.social · 10d

But this framing assumes that is where they are coming from, which is unduly generous and potentially misleading. There are people who admit to being “radicalized” about Israeli because they saw how well Hamas treated the hostages on social media.

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Ezra @ezraq.bsky.social · 10d

Do some people start out purely motivated by a goodhearted desire to condemn the actions of the Israeli state because of their concern for Palestinians and then “cross the line” into antisemitism? Sure.

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Ezra @ezraq.bsky.social · 10d

The assumption that their prime motivation is to “critique rape culture” and that their racism is simply a matter of them mistakenly going too far in that “critique of rape culture”—crossing a line—is unduly generous and profoundly misleading about where this racism is coming from.

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Ezra @ezraq.bsky.social · 10d

I take serious issue with this framing. It’s akin to responding to people who fixate on black men committing sexual violence in racist ways by saying “you don’t have to engage in racism to critique rape culture”.

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Ezra @ezraq.bsky.social · 15d

There is if you want to undermine indigenous rights! “Sorry you’ve been colonized for so long that you’re no longer indigenous” is a disastrous position for the left to take.

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Ezra @ezraq.bsky.social · 16d

Mi ideal offseason is Beiber or Suarez, Gray, Nootbar, Rogers and someone like Kyle Finnegan. Seems like they have more to spend than I expected so that seems doable at around 75 mil.

Ezra @ezraq.bsky.social · 16d

Nootbar seems like a good fit considering the lack of obvious answers in RF. Maybe trade for Gray and Nootbar and take on like 26 mil of Gray’s contract.

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Ezra @ezraq.bsky.social · 16d

I mean, he has velocity in the past, but not so much this year. It will need to tick up a whole lot in a relief role and hopefully it will.

Ezra @ezraq.bsky.social · 24d

You really have to give yourself a mulligan for Jerar Encarnación. The guy lost most of the year to injury, and his two healthy stints were broken up by more injury.

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Ezra @ezraq.bsky.social · Sep 7

Looking at Savant, that's definitely concerning, but I also wonder if the sample size is large enough for that to be very meaningful. He didn't seem to have such extreme struggles at AAA, though the quality of offspeed pitches is obviously worse at AAA.

Ezra @ezraq.bsky.social · Sep 6

Why not?

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Ezra @ezraq.bsky.social · Sep 5

Ward would be fine. Kwan would be great, assuming his recent dip is injury-related and he recovers completely. I'd rather they see what they have in Gilbert and Matos rather than making a very small upgrade (eg someone more comparable to Yaz), assuming they invest more heavily in pitching.

Ezra @ezraq.bsky.social · Sep 5

Yeah that would be depressing. I think even if we’re being optimistic though they likely won’t go get Bieber and Bo so I’d rather they get Bieber (plus Rogers and hopefully some rotation depth).

Ezra @ezraq.bsky.social · Sep 5

And my Rogers + Bieber scenario doesn't give them a 4/5 starter or a closer, which you could argue should come before upgrades to the lineup. As much I'd like them to upgrade the lineup, I just don't think adding a free agent bat like Bo is the best allocation of money.

Ezra @ezraq.bsky.social · Sep 5

You can imagine a world where Schmitt, Matos, and Gilbert are able to give you decent production at 2B and RF. Finding a number 2/3 starter will be more difficult and in my mind should be the first priority, with rebuilding the bullpen coming second.

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