“Sticking up for our institutions means…pushing back on Trump and the efforts of his allies. But some groups continue to indulge in a ruinous fantasy: That it’s possible to rebuild trust in our elections by ignoring Trump’s efforts to subvert them.” thebulwark.com/p/ukraine-stil…

“If fusion voting were the norm today, it would provide a way for Republican and unaffiliated moderates and centrists to cast a vote for Biden without endorsing a Democratic party they mostly disagree with.” thebulwark.com/p/the-power-of…

“Fusion voting…resolves the wasted vote and spoiler vote dilemmas. It allows third parties to be constructive, not destructive. It signals major-party elected officials that they should not take the minor party’s voters for granted.” thebulwark.com/p/the-power-of…

“Finchelstein immediately recognized Trump’s lack of concession following the 2020 election for what it was.He could nimbly recognize potential fascism in the offing—and how Trump-like figures had lurched from traditional populism toward would-be fascism.” thebulwark.com/p/trump-meets-…

76 years ago today: “On the fifth of Iyar 5708, Friday, May 14, 1948, 4:00 p.m. in Tel Aviv, 9:00 a.m. in New York, the Provisional State Council convened in the Tel Aviv Museum to declare that an independent Jewish state would come into existence…” jewishreviewofbooks.com/zionism/16208/…

“Credit where due: Donald Trump understood the American establishment much better than I did.”
— ⁦Jonathan V. Last⁩

And much better than I did as well. open.substack.com/pub/thebulwark…

“Congressional Republicans have adopted a new line of attack against President Biden. They say he’s imposing an “arms embargo” on Israel…Right-wing media joined in the attack…The accusation is bogus.” thebulwark.com/p/republicans-…

“At every turn the Democrats…stepped in to clean up a mess. The Republican nihilists have repeatedly refused to cooperate or compromise on critical legislation, then lambasted their leaders as the “uniparty” for relying on votes from the Democrats.” thebulwark.com/p/republicans-…

The classic poem for Yom Hazikaron, Israel’s Memorial Day is “The Silver Platter,” by Natan Alterman, describing fallen soldiers as “the silver platter on which the Jewish state was given.'

The full poem:

The Silver Platter
Natan Alterman

And the land grows still, the red eye…

Sirens ring out across Israel in commemoration of Yom HaZikaron, Israel's Memorial Day

And they are caving to a small--really, tiny--minority of their students. The 60's protests could be large. These almost never are, and yet the universities are intimidated. It's one thing to bow to a majority of your students. It's another to capitulate to a small minority.

Interesting to read media characterizations of Duke University commencement. In particular, main speech by Seinfeld.

Look, folks:
1. There were 20k+ people there.
2. Accounts that say 'dozens' of people pointedly walked out are correct. I'd say about 4 dozen. 50 people. Out of 20k.

'Europe' may be a joke to many nationalists -- and I understand them. But Europe is not a joke to millions of others -- including Georgians and Ukrainians. They wish to express their nationhood within Europe -- and to be free of Moscow's yoke.

'It' a free country. You can skip your commencement if you want. But expressing contempt for those who enjoy the ceremony? Mocking those families for whom their kid’s commencement is important or meaningful, or perhaps just pleasant or fun? That’s bad.'
thebulwark.com/p/two-cheers-f…

Jerry Seinfeld says he couldn’t understand why the Harvard grads on his staff were so embarrassed about it:

“I’m not talking about Harvard now. I’m talking about the way it used to be. You’re never going to believe this, but Harvard used to be a great place to go to school.”

Is the progressive movement an effective vehicle for progressive policy? I think the answer is very clearly, “No.”

Take universal healthcare, the baseline progressive political idea. If we were to build that in this country, we would need wide populist agreement, a massive…

Georgians, fighting for independence. The West ignores Russian aggression, and resistance to it, until a lot of blood is spilled. Then they learn to ignore that, too.

May 11, 1980: Julius Erving’s layup from under the basket against the Lakers in G4 of the finals.

“It’s still the greatest move I’ve ever seen in a basketball game, the all-time greatest.”- Magic Johnson.