I know young activists want validation and to feel heard. I can meet them half-way. I hear what these kids are saying, but I can't validate it because they are indefensibly moronic, silly, and morally deformed. 1/
wsj.com/us-news/educat… If, say, grad students wanting better pay butchered babies, murdered and raped civilians, and took the children of their professors hostage, you know what we would call them? Butchers, murderers, and rapists. 2/

So last night I watched the @AlbertBrooks documentary. It's great, especially the first hour. This thread isn't about that, tho.

Like Brooks, it's very Jewish, in some of the main ways I love and identify with Jewishness: humor, guilt, loving nostalgia for family. 1/ It's all build on a conversation/friendship between @robreiner and @AlbertBrooks. They met in high school and had famous funnymen as parents.
To say I disagree w/Reiner on politics is an understatement. But I also feel like he could be a cousin or uncle. Which got me thinking 2/

I think this article gets the causality almost perfectly backwards. It wasn't the right's defeat that launched the trans stuff as a political issue, it was the left's success and need for a new cause, which in turn invited the conservative backlash. 1/ nytimes.com/2023/04/16/us/… Just as a chronological fact, the issue didn't start with the GOP opposing trans athletes in sports. The issue started with .. the issue! -- pushing trans athletes in sports. You can say that's good, bad, or mixed. But you can't start with the right's *reaction* as the start. 2/

Kirsten sends pics from the midday adventure 1/ Zoë waits to ambush Pip

The news is now out there. So, I should say something here. My beloved mom, Lucianne Goldberg, passed away yesterday. She died peacefully at home, surrounded by people – and pets! – who loved her. 1/ My daughter insisted on flying here from California to be with her, which gave grandma great joy. It gave me that mix of pride and anguish you feel when your child endures pain for being courageous and kind. 2/

The work must be done The cause endures

Pippa had a day

As someone who has been audited by the IRS twice, all of this "If you did nothing wrong, it's no big deal" stuff is infuriating. 1/ When I was audited the first time, it was legit because I screwed up in not reporting a small amount of money (I'd lost the 1099 for a speaking gig). Fair enough but even so the process was an enormous ass ache. 2/

This tweet elicited a lot of outrage from Democrats. They argue 3 things:
1) I'm letting MAGA voters off the hook for their decisions. They argue I'm
2) Funding the most beatable opponent is just normal politics
3) The MAGAs would've won anyway.
Let's take them in order. 🧵 1/

https://twitter.com/JonahDispatch/status/1544090517322997761

If you think I've let MAGA voters -- or candidates -- off the hook, you haven't read me since 2015. It's a ridiculous claim not worth much rebuttal. Just ask them if you don't believe me. 2/

‘Merica

Okay, I spent another chunk of my weekend storing comic books. So here is part two of my epic need thread of covers-of-interest. There’s no other criteria than “I think this cover/issue is notable” for one reason or another. 1/

https://twitter.com/JonahDispatch/status/1523691735464878081

Who remembers “Not Brand Echh”? 2/

I’ve been (finally) going through my old comic book collection, to properly store it (bag all the good stuff, better boxes etc). Alas, I’m about 30 years too late for some. I made a good start this weekend but it’ll take a while 1/? I took pictures of covers that I thought were fun, funny, interesting or nostalgic (as opposed to the most rare or valuable). This will be of little interest for those not interested in such things. But some will dig it. So here’s a thread I’ll return to as I make my way through.

Gen X is trending. FWIW, I hate generational stereotyping and think it's deeply flawed. But it's also a thing. So: We're the last generation born before the internet but the first to embrace it. Meanwhile... 1/4 Cable and social media has made a lot of younger people and older people crazy. It's complicated, but as a generalization, I think Gen Xers are the most immune to the craziness (for reasons too complex to get into here) Still.... 2/4

I've been thinking about this whole DST thing. Numbers are an abstraction. Time is an abstraction. Math is an abstraction. Yet @scottlincicome's critique rests on an assumption that there is exterior, uniform, and constant time outside our perceptions and constructs. 1/ But if I understand Einstein correctly, our perception of time as a discrete thing is the product of our internal wiring. Indeed the whole separation of time, space, energy, and matter is at some level artificial. Time is also relative. 2/

Lotta folks criticizing me for not understanding nationalism. Meh. I think they don't follow the "nationalist" movement in the U.S. very closely. So let me explain my point. 1/

https://twitter.com/JonahDispatch/status/1496701330248937477

A few years ago, Yoram Hazony wrote a book called The Virtues of Nationalism. In it he argued that the nation-state is the highest, best, form of political organization and that "globalism," "transnationalism," the UN, and the EU threatened it. 2/

On the recommendation of many on this site, I was told I should watch The Fall. We just finished the final season, and I have to say you were all wrong. It started okay but it had no idea where it was going. Virtually every character was unlikeable and the end was stupid. I like Gillian Anderson, but her character was exhausting and exhaustingly implausible. The killer was awful and I resented the effort to make him charismatic never mind sympathetic.

Some thoughts on the Woodward stuff.
I increasingly try not to tweet my first takes in response to big, important, news.
The Woodward story is a good illustration why. I’ve changed my mind several times on Milley in the last 24 hrs. I’m glad I didn’t get locked into a take. 1/ I think the idea that it is *obvious* Milley is guilty of “treason” (by which most people who don’t care about definitions mean “very bad”) or that he’s a hero is kinda tribal silliness.

One reason I think that… 2/

So a few thoughts catching up after a very busy day. 1. I thought Biden's speech -- which I finally watched -- was an incoherent hodgepodge.
2. Some of the stuff he proposes looks legally/constitutionally dubious (even tho I think gov't has extraordinary powers in pandemic). 1/ 3. That said, a lot of this may be more "legal" than people think, but that's partly because a crazy amount of power has been delegated to the bureaucracy. In other words, the outrage may not be that this is illegal but that it's legal. I'd like to learn more.
2/

Proof of life pics. A series starting with, The Furry Barracuda. Then there’s “This is mine because I sleep on it,” spaniel.

Hugh, I'm perfectly happy to heap blame on Biden. You are the one who refuses to acknowledge the reality that Trump deserves his share too (and so does Obama, the Pentagon, the Afghan gov etc.). You're being a wild-eyed partisan in the face of this calamity. 1/

https://twitter.com/hughhewitt/status/1426677891388088325

In fact, I've lashed into Biden many times for this catastrophe.
Have you ever once criticized Trump for negotiating with the Taliban? For taking their assurances at face value? For wanting to bug out faster/sooner than Biden did? 2/

From the end of Wednesday's G-File on the Politics of Ressentiment (cc @AlexNowrasteh)