Ed Kilgore

Gage Skidmore/Flickr You realize there are people whose intensely held political views seem to be in conflict with their intensely held religious views, and wonder how they negotiate the transition from one to another. But you don’t expect to see it handled quite this way (h/t Sarah Posner): JESUS WOULD FIGHT FOR OUR SECOND AMENDMENT […]

Michael Vadon/Flickr So Bernie Sanders is scheduled to give his so-called “socialism speech” this afternoon, placing his own professed “democratic socialism” in the tradition of FDR, usually thought of as the US’s closest brush with European-style Social Democracy. According to the New York Times‘ Patrick Healy, there’s one big reason he’s taking this risky step: […]

I just don’t think we did enough here yesterday to celebrate the departure from the presidential contest of Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal. So here’s Colbert: Looks like I’m going to be in a Colbert audience in New York next week. Can’t wait!

U.S. Department of State/Wikimedia Commons The more we hear of the fight against IS as a war for the hearts and minds of Muslims throughout the Middle East, the more some rather conspicuous absentees in the war becomes apparent. The Brookings Institution’s Bruce Riedel asks some very uncomfortable questions at Al-Monitor: In the wake of […]

Nothing is capturing my fancy from the various birthday lists, and after all we’re down to the last two days, so I’ll just go with stuff I really, really like if that’s okay. This is something I remember hearing on college radio very late at night: jazz fusion guitar wizard Larry Coryell (with his wife […]

‘Twas a day I experienced through the haze of a big dose of DayQuil, and even then I was coughing and slumping over the computer. Definitely time for a big old nap. Here are some remains of the day. * Bush Super-PAC Right to Rise has now spent close to $20 million in early-state TV […]

I think I paid brief, sardonic notice in a roundup to Gov. John Kasich’s nifty new idea of “a new government agency to push Judeo-Christian values around the world.” It occurs to me today that with the GOP presidential field having been “winnowed” by the departure of Bobby Jindal, I should take more seriously the […]

Now that Republican presidential candidates are increasingly lining up behind the idea of reengaging Sunni militants with ground forces in Iraq and Syria–Jeb Bush just expressed an ambition to become the third politician named Bush to send U.S. troops into Iraq–you have to wonder all over again if these people are completely immune from learning […]

A couple of readers in random comment threads have suggested maybe my new gig will let me sleep in to a normal PST wake-up time. Afraid not. I’ll be joining a virtual conference each day at the accustomed 5:00 AM. And no Daylight Video in the queue to enable me to hit the snooze button […]

Gage Skidmore/Flickr At the Plum Line today, Paul Waldman notes a rather puzzling aspect of Republican national security rhetoric now that it’s All About Terrorism. Jeb Bush is doing a big speech today calling for a significantly larger defense budget. Why is that? While Republicans always want the military to be bigger than whatever it […]