I know this is an unpopular view, but "the food was terrible, and the servings were too small," is, in many instances, a perfectly coherent and valid objection.

Hey @jamestaranto there are 8 billion people in the world, many will storm to the US if you keep your promises and offer free healthcare and housing. How many of them will you take care of in your house?

I'm occasionally reminded that Pauline Kael was not a one-off. Leftists tend to surround themselves with only other leftists and therefore have no knowledge of anything outside their bubble. Eldest told me that a liberal girl in his poli sci class said, after the 2016 election, "I don't know how Trump won. Kamala was on TV all of the time but I never saw Trump once. It was like he didn't exist. How did he manage to get so many votes." Trump was everywhere, talking to everyone. Did a Twitter/X thing with Elon, did Joe Rogan, etcetera. The ONLY way you could be unaware of this media presence is if you consumed only leftist media.

We won't have enough to form an opinion until we hear from the gym teacher and the biology teacher.

I’m only gonna do this once, because there’s only so much time one can devote to bad faith attacks, but The Bulwark overall has been extremely Platner-skeptical, while still endeavoring to analyze his popularity with Maine voters. I disagreed with this take at the time, but JVL is clear in this piece that he doesn’t like Platner and worries about populist movements in general. As he says in this piece: “That’s a powerful thing but I will be honest: I do not like it. Not one bit. I’ve seen that movie before.” He also makes clear at the top of the piece: “This is not a brief for (or against) Platner. I’m only trying to analyze what likely will happen, I’m not arguing for what should happen.” This is also annoying to me personally since I’ve taken so much heat for being unwilling to get on board with Platner from the Left. Anyone who has actually listened to us wrestle with the Platner dynamic knows that this characterization of The Bulwark is a lie.

🚨 WOW! VP JD Vance CALLS OUT Supreme Court Justice Amy Coney Barrett for upholding birthright citizenship for illegal aliens REPORTER: Some conservatives are angry with Barrett. Are you one of them? VANCE: "Do I think she made a mistake in the ruling? I do! I don't know how ANYBODY can say that if a person who is an illegal alien or a person, for example, who's pregnant and comes to the United States on a vacation, they have a baby and all of a sudden their entire family gets the benefits of American citizenship?!" "I DON'T think that's what the framers of the 14th Amendment had in mind. I don't think it's the right case." "But look, it was 5-4. Sometimes the Supreme Court makes mistakes. We're going to try to correct that mistake, but nobody's perfect, including the Supreme Court."

At 94, Ed Meese has outlived Humphrey's Executor vs. U.S., decided 91 years ago. I visited Meese at his home in Virginia and interviewed him about the rise of the originalist Supreme Court.