Firehose #155: Don’t Kiss That Ring

Also: A bit too much ranting, tbh.

Thanks to my treasured Reason colleague and fellow aspirational honey badger R-o-b-b-y Soave for joining on Episode #517, having previously appeared on #332 back in 2021. Robby, who was covering the (predominantly left-of-center) campus speech-constriction and government-ordered illiberalism years before many commentators we shall not name acknowledged that there might be a problem (if only to complain about disproportionate interest thereof), is unsurprisingly critical of the Trump administration’s pugilistic, buttinskyite remedies, writing this week that “Safe Spaces Are Coming Back to Brown University—All Thanks to Trump.”

* For this week’s Firehose, I’m going to just march through our activity chronologically, in part to demonstrate (to myself, anyway) that what may look like a fallow week was anything but. So on Monday, after publishing a Cooperstown-delayed weekend email, I recorded a Reason Roundtable with special guest … Robby Soave! We talked about that South Park episode (discussed around these parts in #516), Trump’s pressure campaign on media companies, the Hulk Hogan/Gawker clash, “woke A.I.,” the deregulatory impacts of the Big Beautiful Bill, and so forth:

(For more on South Park, I recommend Greg Lukianoff [#216, Members Only #183, #427]; for more on the administration’s “extortion industrial complex,” please read FIRE’s Tyler Tone; for more on MAGA vs. academia, try Walter Olson; for more on Hogan/Gawker, seek Ethan Strauss [#185, #333, #383, M.O. #151, #408].)

* Tuesday brought forth Moynihan’s long-awaited interview with Sam Tanenhaus about his l-o-o-o-o-o-ng awaited biography Buckley: The Life and the Revolution That Changed America:

(Andrew Sullivan [#139, #200 & #449] interviewed Tanenhaus back in May.)

* Tuesday afternoon, Reason posted a ranty bit from me about Brendan Carr, the Federal Communications Commission, and Trump’s awful free-speech record:

(More on Carr from the great Jacob Sullum.)

* Tuesday evening came a rollicking Uncomfortable Conversations live show at The Comedy Cellar, at which host Josh Szeps (#25, #80, #103, #117, #196, #328, #423, #445, M.O. #231) posed a lot of Fuck-Marry-Kill-type questions to me, Kmele, Noam Dworman, plus a late-arriving (and quite hilarious) Jesse Singal (#111, #171, #501):

On Stage in NYC: Panel Show at the Comedy Cellar

(RIP to Josh’s father, the great Australian actor Henri Szeps, who you should read about here. Sample: “His showstopping theatre performances ranged from Gandalf in the stage production of The Hobbit; Sigmund Freud in the award-winning Freud’s Last Session; Sam Mendes’ reboot of Cabaret with Tina Arena and Toby Allen for which Szeps won the Helpmann Award for Best Male Actor in a Supporting Role in a Musical.”)

* On Thursday, I published our latest (heartbreaking!) Mailbucket, then the aforementioned Stormin’ Noam Dworman posted our Live From the Table conversation, which included discussion of Keef, Mamdani, shithole NYC airports, YIMBY noise complaints, rent control/stabilization, humility, Gaza famine, media collapse, gatekeeping vs. nutbaggery, and more:

(Re: my prediction about a deadly plane crash in New York, read some Robert Poole.)

* Thursday eve came my birthday rager. Pictorial evidence:

(Must-read Ian Leslie on growing older.)

* Another Reason-edited rant from me? Sure, why not. TL;DR, Don’t kiss the ring.

(BTW, Gladiator is still holding up:

* Then on Friday, after recording #517 (dare I mention here that we taped a so-far unreleased Members Only on Tuesday?), I published a Reason piece titled, “Trump Is Openly Using the Presidency To Enrich the Trump Brand: And generations of allegedly anti-corruption Republicans just don't care.” Here’s how it begins:

The president of the United States on Tuesday held a ribbon-cutting ceremony in Balmedie, Scotland, to mark the opening of the new Trump International Golf Links, owned by his family (at least until he exits the White House), and designed by his son Eric.

In his cheery promotional remarks, Donald Trump thanked the media ("today they're not fake news, they're wonderful news"), gave a shout-out to his daughter-in-law ("Lara, I want to thank you, the head of the Republican Party"), and praised various dignitaries on hand.

"I want to thank, by the way, the prime minister, who was here last night, and who was really very gracious; loves the place," he said, referencing the United Kingdom's Keir Starmer, who also joined Trump at another of his Scottish golf properties before hopping on Air Force One with the Trump clan for a sneak peek at Balmedie. "This will," the commander in chief predicted, "be a tremendously successful place."

(Must-must read, Jack Shafer, “Trump’s Honest Graft: The president has turned himself into the central dispenser — and recipient — of economic opportunity.”)

* OK, that was the week that was, albeit with a half-day or so left. If you must talk about Sydney Sweeney’s boobies, I do recommend Ben Dreyfuss ((#83, #97, #148, #214, Members Only #129, M.O. #140, #392, M.O. #180), Kat Rosenfield (#448), and Sarah Hepola (#354).

Oh right, and pal Jamie Kirchick (#55, #347, #394) was just on Bill Maher!

* Comment of the Week comes from Bill Allen:

Faulkner made it through 4 hours before punching out to the infirmary. Spent a few days in there then left. She was put in a nearly impossible situation by people with an agenda, and was ill-prepared. I happened to be there for it, sweating my ass off in the Charleston heat.

Nancy entered with the Class of 2000. Her dad was commandant. She had accumulated enough credits that she graduated with my class (‘99). Didn’t know her well but she came into a completely different situation than Shannon, just a year later (and post-VMI case), and was prepared.

Walkoff is (hopefully!) a tease for the next Members Only: