I didn’t specialize in ancient political theory, and so while I assume there’s a killer joke to be made here I don’t know Plato well enough to pull it together.

From an email to one of our faculty members.... Not even Plato can escape censorship at Texas A&M!

Americans forgetting why the post-WWII order was created

New year, new "Things People Blame the Jews For." And this one couldn't be more topical!

We are being led by book one Dudley Dursley.

From last month.

I’m just going to again float the prospect that Trump v. US immunity doesn’t prevent any extraditions if another country were to indict a US president for a crime.

Trump and his cronies can try to dress this up, but it is an illegal act of war to replace Maduro and grab Venezuela's oil for his billionaire buddies. Full statement below:

I can think of few things more “elitist” than an unqualified hack whose only journalistic qualification is telling billionaires “you were right all along” and who barely seems to recognize there’s a world outside of Brooklyn deciding for the whole country who counts as an “average American”.

It’s not a competition, but Nathaniel definitely says “dada” more than “mama”. (It is a competition, and I’m winning.)

Okay gang, it's the New Year's Resolution post!

Speaking of typos, someone should direct Ms. Dhillon to U.S. v. Murphy, 406 F.3d 857, 859 n.1 (7th Cir. 2005), aka the greatest footnote in appellate court history. scholar.google.com/scholar_case...

Did a quick hit on Telemundo Portland about the implications of the Chicago SCOTUS decision on our fair city.

Is it better than the New Year's Resolution post? You decide! It's the annual Debate Link "Out/In" list!

It is hard to fathom how anyone was gullible enough to think that going all-in on the Trump admin's xenophobia was a good bet as a *means of fighting antisemitism*, and w/Trump imposing sanctions on researchers for the crime of opposing antisemitism what was already obvious is, well, even more so.

Nathaniel hit the beach for the first time today. He hated it. But he was a brave trier.

My baby caught his first real cough this week. He's fine -- miserable last night, but fine -- but it did serve as a healthy reminder to hate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. with every fiber of my being. Because it's bad enough feeling helpless when your baby has a basic cough. Now imagine it was the measles.

A slight tangent, but there’s an interesting confluence between SCOTUS’ hyperexpansive unitary executive theory and its complete allergy to letting courts holding the government responsible for what Trump says when assessing the legality of executive actions.

The mass resignations at the Heritage Foundation (over it legitimizing gutter racists like Nick Fuentes) are seen by many as a sign the conservative think tank is in disarray. I disagree. I think Heritage is betting this is exactly what the modern GOP base wants, and I think their bet will pay off.

Guess who said it (and when)? "For some white men, preoccupation with oppression has become the defining feature of their existence. They have fallen prey to the very aspects of the modern ideology of victimology that they deplore." (Answer in the next post).

Look you don’t get it. Bari Weiss is preparing a blockbuster debate titled “How much do opponents of the Salvadoran torture gulag hate freedom?” Brought to you by Bank of America.

The useful thing about JD Vance is that he has no principles and is constantly chasing the prevailing conservative political winds, so if he’s talking like this it’s because he perceives this is what the current GOP electorate wants to hear.

Tonight’s dumb napkin cartoon…

You notice the “debates” they want to host are always things like “has feminism failed?” and never “is the GOP a white supremacist party?”

“Wouldn’t you rather be part of a movement with antisemites than take your orders from a Jew?” Just a vile human being.

Unfortunately, there is a certain sort of leftist whose brain breaks once they feel they've been deprived of their revolutionary birthright by losing to the Jews, and they fall *deep* into the deep end of the pool. It seems Jamaal Bowman may be in that category. Sad.

It is interesting to see @nexusproject.bsky.social described this way, since at our launch I would *not* say that we thought of ourselves as a "progressive alternative to the ADL." To the contrary, we had a fair number of ADL-affiliated people we were working with. www.jta.org/2025/12/18/p...

This is a real shame. A Wider Bridge did tremendously important work, and despite being the regular target of frankly conspiratorial slanders centered around "pinkwashing", was absolutely committed to walking the progressive walk.

I’m Sandor-critical. The Mountain all the way.

Guys ... they fixed it! I knew "Mickey" had an "e" in it! (It used to be rendered "Micky Mouse").

I saw a bunch of posts about how wonderful Rob Reiner’s movies were and thought it was just one of those nice things where people talk about people whose work they like. Then I saw the actual news.

The other day, I chatted with a friend who immigrated to the US from an authoritarian country in part to get away from the repression, who told me her friends from home were absolutely *roasting* her right now. “So how’s America working out for you? Is it sooooo free?”

Ahmed al Ahmed is a hero who saved countless lives. He is owed a debt of gratitude that can never be repaid. He is also absolutely NOT my "model of solidarity". Solidarity shouldn't look like this.

That’s an insane policy. But I kind of hope professors collude with students to get every prof “suspended” with pay due to a “complaint”. Grind the entire university to a halt. This policy is more than prone for abuse, it is a form of abuse—so why not abuse it?

I won’t say there’s a ton new here, but there are some superb quotes from Greenblatt articulating his grand strategic vision for the ADL: namely that with Jews facing levels of vulnerability unprecedented in the 21st c., now more than ever we should cut ourselves off from our allies and go it alone.

Yep. The Trump admin is sowing disorder, terror and chaos in the hopes that it’ll prompt voters to run to the “party of order”,* but it’s actually just making people associate GOP rule with disorder, terror, and chaos. * Also bc of a sincere ideological commitment to sowing terror.

Democrats should promise that, upon retaking power, they will extradite Donald Trump’s second-favorite pedophile back to Romania to face criminal charges.

Those new TikTok ads where they pretend TikTok serves a purpose other than spreading misinformation about vaccines are not at all persuasive. See also: OnlyFans trying to pretend that it’s a site to be a patron for aspiring athletes or something. It’s like, come on. We both know what you’re about.

What is *wrong* with this guy?

“Marks are evidently a critical part of the Trump coalition, but absolutely none are bigger than the ‘Donald the Dove’ set.” I mean, “Donald the free speech defender” has to be up there, right?

My brother is a UVA diehard and this feels very, very mean.

I’ve said it before, I’ll say it again: while there are some distressing things about how young progressives relate to Jews; the signals coming from young conservatives are absolutely terrifying.

I'm sorry, but the fact that the newspaper is called "The California Democrat" is hilarious in this context. Couldn't be better bait if it was designed.

You might have seen that WaPo article on how "anti-DEI" initiatives may hurt men (esp. White men) the most. But beyond the schadenfreude, what lessons should we actually derive from this seemingly unintended consequence?

I'll name a TV series containing a memorable elevator scene.

Those of you who aren't sports fans might not know just how corrupt FIFA is. It is COMICALLY corrupt. Like, almost *United States Supreme Court* level corrupt.

I think this dovetails well with the anti-corruption message Dems should concentrate on. How much money has Trump, his family, and his lackeys looted from the taxpayers already? And SCOTUS—in the tank for corrupt pols generally and Trump specifically—will be a primary obstacles to getting it back.

Josh Blackman is primarily useful for stripping the faux-legal veneer from conservative jurisprudence and just saying what they mean aloud, in all of its ugly lawlessness and partisan triumphalism. His post about the Texas redistricting SCOTUS decision is a great illustration.

The latest Nathaniel dispatches, including winning the nighttime sleep battle via submission.

Would you rather have $1 billion, or one dollar that magically doubled in value every day?