September 8, 2026

A MESSY POST FOR A MESSY SUBJECT:  Labor.

Posted at 1:44 am by Sarah Hoyt

September 7, 2026

OPEN THREAD: Monday, Monday.

Posted at 9:30 pm by Glenn Reynolds

JONATHAN TURLEY: The Clancy Trial: When “Twelve Angry Men” Becomes One Angry Man.

“I hope that guy can sleep well at night.”

Those words from Kevin Reddington on the steps of the Plymouth, Massachusetts Courthouse were part of a diatribe against the “guy” who was reportedly the sole holdout in the Lindsay Clancy trial. The scene was a fitting end to a visceral trial, but it added a vindictive element that should prompt Judge William Sullivan to call out the seasoned defense attorney.

After declaring that the 11-1 mistrial was “no time to gloat,” Reddington bragged repeatedly about “crushing” District Attorney Tim Cruz, whom he also attacked. He insisted that, in the trial, no one said a single negative thing about his client as a mother — ignoring that little matter of the three young children whom she had strangled to death, one by one.

But it was his attack on the holdout juror that was a breathtaking abandonment of restraint and decency. Reddington knows it is very likely that the name of this juror (he has already been identified as one of only three males on the jury) will eventually be uncovered by Internet sleuths. He effectively put a target on the back of a juror who committed the unpardonable sin of not being convinced by his arguments.

The fact that this is one of the three male jurors only ramped up the rage. This case prompted a striking gender divide between men and women, with many women expressing sympathy for Clancy and anger at the system for failing her.

Yes, I’m pretty sure the holdout juror is sleeping just fine at night: The Postmodern Defense of Lindsay Clancy. O.J. Simpson for middle-class white women.

Posted at 9:14 pm by Ed Driscoll

THAT WAS THE DECADE THAT WAS: Conspiracies Everywhere; What to Do?

I keep coming back in my mind to all of the “conspiracy theories” that have come true since 2016.

I have told friends in the past: “The more you see, the more you see.”

It’s a delicate balance to be distrusting of most things without wandering into paranoia. I often believe the biggest damage that has been done to the country since 2016 is that anyone who is even slightly politically aware is now distrustful of everything, and I cannot say I blame them.

The problem is, not everything is a conspiracy. Some things are the result of mere incompetence. Other things actually are what they appear to be. Some other things are, in fact, deep, dark government conspiracies.

Having said that, I know that our nation’s recent history does warrant a sense of paranoia. Consider the things we now know to be true; below is a list of former “conspiracy theories” that we were right about all along:

Read the whole thing.

Posted at 8:30 pm by Ed Driscoll

BEGUN, THE CLONE WARS HAVE:

I’m not sure how well MiniMax H3’s digital Denzel would look projected onto a 50-foot movie screen, but digitally recreating actors has come a long way from the complexity of Industrial Light and Magic recreating Peter Cushing and Carrie Fisher for 2016’s Star Wars: Rogue One:

Posted at 8:14 pm by Ed Driscoll

UM:

That exit quote is… wow.

Posted at 7:56 pm by Stephen Green

VDH: What Happens to MAGA When Trump Is Gone?

A post-Trump MAGA future involves several preliminary considerations. The first is the health, longevity, and political viability of Trump himself in retirement. No one can predict Trump’s future vigor and energy with certainty. Yet even his supporters accept that the whirlwind pace of the start of Trump’s second term is unsustainable for any 80-year-old man, especially one who reportedly scarcely sleeps, eats as he pleases, and wades into public crowds almost daily.

In addition, there is the question of whether Trump’s second term will be judged successful or will be overshadowed by the partisan hysterias of the first term and its aftermath—two impeachments, lawfare, hoaxes like Russian “collusion” and Hunter Biden laptop “disinformation”—or by crises such as the Covid-19 pandemic, yet another conflict in the volatile Middle East, and the post–George Floyd rioting. The next two years are also an open question: If there is an economic downturn, or if the ongoing war with Iran continues too long into the future, it could fundamentally imperil Trump’s legacy.

Finally, recent history is against Trump. No modern president emeritus—even the most popular—has ever been able to significantly affect the policies of his party or choose his successors. Barack Obama came the closest when he stayed put in Washington after his second term ended in 2017 and sought to help guide the flailing Joe Biden presidency between 2021 and 2025. Yet even despite Obama’s alleged surrogate role, his political capital diminished during the 2024 campaign in direct proportion to his visibility.

Similarly, Ronald Reagan left office after two successful terms and after moving his party markedly to the right. But instead of continuing Reaganism, his vice president, George H.W. Bush, almost immediately talked of a “kinder, gentler nation,” raised taxes, toned down Reagan’s cultural fights against liberal orthodoxies, and sought to expand supposedly insufficient social services with “a thousand points of light” of volunteer citizen participation. Bush was also more likely to use considerable military force abroad.

Harry Truman, who assumed the presidency after Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s death, also gradually drifted away from Roosevelt’s domestic and foreign policies. He inaugurated the Cold War against the Soviet Union, sought successfully to save South Korea from communist invasion, and was regarded as a far more centrist, realist, and hawkishly anti-communist commander in chief.

As a general rule, an administration’s unique political and personal brand is likely to erode under the next presidency, even if it is from the same party. Ex-presidents usually do not wish to, or cannot, imprint an agenda on their successors.

Jesse Kelly has some thoughts on the craziness that’s right around the corner:

Posted at 5:30 pm by Ed Driscoll

THE CRITICAL DRINKER: Crash And Burn – The Elliot Page Story.

Posted at 5:14 pm by Ed Driscoll

MOVE ALONG CITIZEN, NOTHING TO SEE HERE:

Posted at 4:36 pm by Ed Driscoll