I've been really enjoying the latest @Commentary podcast & their discussion of the Cracker Barrel brouhaha. They make many good points that disagree with how I've been thinking about it, which is helpful in rounding out my own thoughts.

There's only one thing I'd add. One thing that's missing in all of this is the actual financial situation of Cracker Barrel as a publicly-traded company. Their stock price has tanked since its post-pandemic high, losing nearly 70% of its value since 2021. In the year to date, it's seen a 16% decline in traffic.

I've read already this morning that the fact that there was no red carpet for Zelenskyy at the airport like there was for Putin means that the White House is deliberately disrespecting Ukraine. This sort of spread at the White House pretty much disproves that contention.

https://twitter.com/MaryMargOlohan/status/1957488478087757901

The meetings are entirely different in their specifics - White House v. military base, multilateral v. bilateral, etc. - so it's not surprising that the diplomatic protocol would vary as well. This is perfectly respectful for a multilateral summit in the nation's capital.

This article is such a crock of shit, but it showcases the ahistorical revisionist narrative perfectly. So let's dive in, going tweet-by-tweet & explaining exactly why this is a bunch of hot garbage.

A 🧵:

https://twitter.com/NathanJRobinson/status/1953125097255960841

First, there's this banger, claiming that Hiroshima was a purely civilian target.

https://x.com/NathanJRobinson/status/1953125286339313960?t=AcLNNHrmdHz7LETcFo40ig&s=19

These people are so upset because this one raid has totally destroyed the entire Obama foreign policy legacy & worldview.

A short thread 🧵:

https://twitter.com/TVietor08/status/1936585788692812278

They claimed that a nuclear deal was the only way to avoid total war with Iran. In reality, that deal incentivized & augmented Iran's malign actions - nuclear & otherwise - culminating in October 7 & Iran's growing nuclear weapons program.

2/

It's amazing to see these supergenius tech bros, who claim to have the ability to fix all our problems with government, fail to grasp even the basics of modern American fiscal & economic history. Just embarrassing stuff.

So here's a lesson for you, @DavidSacks.

🧵:

https://twitter.com/DavidSacks/status/1890891286095237158

The men who came back from WWII voted for a massive expansion of our already-growing social welfare state, one that was built by the man their parents voted for, FDR. They didn't want to pay exorbitant taxes, so they financed it with debt.

Had a great dinner tonight at Lazy Days South here in Marathon.

Went with a bit of a Cinco de Mayo theme to honor the defeat of the French by our Mexican neighbors 161 years ago today. Started off with a spicy margarita, while my wife had a Corona.

#twittersupperclub For food, we began with a couple of appetizers: raw oysters & conch ceviche. The ceviche was quite tasty, especially with some lemon & avocado. And the oysters were downright spectacular. They were enormous, too, which is always a treat!

#twittersupperclub

To round out the day in Key West, we stopped at the awesome Hemingway House museum, where the famed author spent quite a bit of his fascinating life.

The whole place was about as Key West as you could get, from the architecture, to the gardens, to the cats everywhere.

1/7 The interior of the house was awesome & chock full of Hemingway history. The tour guides are informative & quite humorous too.

2/7

A brief 🧵:

The impact of the pandemic on mental health has been enormous. I've heard a lot about this from close family members who are psychotherapists. But as far as I can tell, the virus itself isn't the proximate cause.

1/ We humans are biologically programmed to thrive on social interactions & live in social situations. But in the past year, those basic human interactions & needs were newly coded as terrifying, dangerous, & even potentially deadly.

2/

I'm reading The Russian Revolution by Richard Pipes for fun (yes, I'm a huge nerd) & it's remarkable at how many passages stood out as applicable or relevant to our modern day. This thread will contain a few standouts from my reading. 🧵 This first one really made me stop & reread it: "The technique of translating specific complaints into general political demands would become a standard procedure for Russian liberals & radicals. It precluded compromises & partial reforms: nothing, it was alleged, could be...