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One of our best episodes yet!
Playing from 07:29 open.spotify.com/episode/6S7…
The paperback version is now out. With a new preface reflecting on the last twenty years since the book’s publication.
📚 NOW IN PAPERBACK! 🇺🇸 How much power should a president have? The Discretionary President explores the promise and peril of executive power, constitutional limits, and the balance between leadership and democracy.
👉 kansaspress.ku.edu/978070064…
#UPKBooks #Presidency @bkleinerman
Benjamin Kleinerman retweeted
Hola, soy palestino. 🇵🇸
Y como la honestidad es poco común en mi política, permítanme confesar algunas cosas.
1947. La ONU me ofreció un estado. Junto a Israel. Fronteras, independencia, reconocimiento. Dije que no. Mis líderes prometieron que la guerra "arrojaría a los judíos al mar". En cambio, lo perdí todo y lo llamaron catástrofe. No porque no me ofrecieran un estado, sino porque lo rechacé.
1948–2025. Los estados árabes podrían haberme integrado, dado derechos, pasaportes, dignidad. En cambio, me encerraron en campos de refugiados durante generaciones, para que siguiera siendo un arma contra Israel. Construyeron palacios para ellos y cárceles para mí. Me usaron como propaganda, no como personas.
1967. Tras otra guerra perdida, podría haber construido un estado en Cisjordania y Gaza. En cambio, insistí en "ni paz, ni reconocimiento, ni negociaciones". Tres noes. Cincuenta años después, sigo sin Estado. Resulta que el rechazo no paga el alquiler.
Oslo, década de 1990. Israel dijo: «Intentémoslo». Me dio autonomía. Armas para la policía. Miles de millones en ayuda. ¿Qué hicieron mis líderes? Robaron el dinero, armaron milicias y lanzaron una intifada. Atentados suicidas en lugar de escuelas. Cohetes en lugar de fábricas.
Gaza, 2005. Israel se fue por completo. Sin colonos, sin soldados. Tuve la oportunidad de convertir Gaza en un Singapur mediterráneo. Voté por Hamás. La convirtieron en Mogadiscio junto al mar. ¿Miles de millones en ayuda? Túneles, cohetes y palacios para sus líderes, mientras mi gente come comida enlatada en la oscuridad.
¿Democracia? No he tenido elecciones en casi 20 años. Hamás mata a los disidentes en Gaza. Fatah los encarcela en Cisjordania. Mis líderes cancelan elecciones porque están demasiado ocupados luchando por el poder.
Religión. En lugar de construir un futuro, pongo a clérigos en televisión enseñando a los niños a odiar a los judíos. Glorifico a los "mártires" que hacen estallar autobuses. Crío a mis hijos con canciones de sangre y fuego en lugar de libros y ciencia. Cambio la esperanza por la guerra santa.
Mundo árabe. Los regímenes árabes me llaman "hermano". Pero pregúntenles cuántos palestinos pueden vivir libremente en Líbano, Siria, Egipto o Kuwait. Me excluyen, pero celebran mi muerte, porque mi muerte es su excusa.
Absurdo. Sigo diciendo que quiero "construir un estado". E irónicamente, justo al lado está Israel: el vecino que construyó una democracia próspera, una potencia tecnológica, granjas en el desierto, ciudades de polvo. Sin petróleo, sin riqueza infinita, solo coraje. Podría haber aprendido, copiado, colaborado. En cambio, elegí la envidia y la rabia.
Obsesión antijudía. Podría haber aceptado a los judíos como vecinos. Podría haber dicho: "Dos naciones, dos estados". En cambio, repito: "Del río al mar". En lugar de exhibir el honor, la hospitalidad y la rica cultura árabe, mostré solo la cultura de la espada: la ira, el extremismo y la sangre. En lugar de gritar salaam (paz) a los israelíes, grité muerte a los judíos. Y luego finjo sorprenderme cuando los israelíes no confían en mí, cuando están enojados, decepcionados y convencidos de que no quiero coexistencia en absoluto.
Responsabilidad. Culpo a Israel de todo. Siempre. ¿Mis líderes roban miles de millones? Culpa de Israel. ¿Hamás dispara cohetes desde hospitales? Culpa de Israel. ¿Glorifico la muerte más que la vida? Culpa de Israel. La responsabilidad no es mi fuerte.
Soy palestino.
Podría haber construido una nación, muchas veces. Elegí el rechazo, la corrupción y la guerra sin fin. Podría haber vivido en paz con Israel, pero elegí vivir a la sombra de su destrucción.
Así que sí, soy una víctima. Pero con demasiada frecuencia, soy víctima de mis propios líderes, de mis propias decisiones y de mi propia negativa a abandonar el odio.
Y esa, querido lector, es la tragedia que nadie quiere admitir.
The reading list is good but strikes me as almost aggressively lacking in American classics. Lincoln/Douglas; Twain; All the King’s Men; Beloved.
Ok, this is incredible.
A new classical Catholic high school just opened in Fairfax County (St. Jerome Institute) — this is what a serious education looks like:
– Phones collected at the door
– Every class is a seminar discussion
– 15-20 students seated facing one another
– Art and music are required, NOT elective
– Math class teaches "the intrinsic beauty of math"
– Entire curriculum is integrated: philosophical and theological questioning in every class
And here's the literature section of the reading list:
9th grade (Exodus & Odyssey):
– Homer, Odyssey
– Genesis
– Plato, Euthyphro and Apology
– Virgil, Aeneid
– Exodus
– Beowulf
– Song of Roland
– Gospel of Luke
– Plato, Phaedo and Crito
– Acts of the Apostles
– Hemingway, The Old Man and the Sea
– Wilder, Our Town
10th grade (God & Nature):
– Creation myths
– Plato, Timaeus and Symposium
– Aristotle, De Anima
– Plotinus
– Augustine, Gregory of Nyssa, Bonaventure, Aquinas
– Sir Gawain and the Green Knight
– Shakespeare, A Midsummer Night’s Dream
– Descartes, Meditations
– Bacon, Newton, Darwin
– Berry, Wilder, Tolkien
– Tocqueville
– Benedict XVI
– Cather, Death Comes for the Archbishop
– Faulkner, The Bear
11th grade (God & the Human Person):
– Sophocles, Oedipus Rex
– Plato, Symposium
– Aristotle, Nicomachean Ethics
– Augustine, Confessions
– Shakespeare, Twelfth Night and King Lear
– Hobbes, Leviathan
– Swift, A Modest Proposal
– Austen, Pride and Prejudice
– Shelley, Frankenstein
– Hopkins
– O’Connor
– Martin Luther King Jr.
– Dostoevsky, Crime and Punishment
– John Paul II
12th grade (God & Society):
– Plato, Republic
– Dante, The Divine Comedy
– Aristotle, Politics
– Augustine, City of God
– Aquinas, De Regno
– Natural and human law
– Machiavelli, Hobbes
– Locke, Rousseau
– Marx and Engels
– Dignitatis Humanae, Evangelium Vitae, Centesimus Annus
– John Courtney Murray
– Leviticus
– Dostoevsky, The Brothers Karamazov
– The Declaration of Independence
– The Constitution
– The Federalist Papers
"They gain an in-depth knowledge of Western civilization from Athens, Rome, and Jerusalem through England and the founding of our own country."
Benjamin Kleinerman retweeted
You were duped. Again.
We all saw the “massive” walkout from the UN general assembly. It seemed like Bibi was talking to en empty room. Some journalists even reported that. Even some Israeli journalists made that claim.
Guess what. The media lied to you. Shocked?
Here are the facts.
The footage is real. As Netanyahu walked up to speak, dozens of diplomats got up and left. It looks like most of the world refused to listen to him. Some even called it proof that Israel is now a pariah state.
And now, reality.
More than 120 countries stayed. That's nearly two-thirds of the world.
All five veto powers stayed: the U.S., China, Britain and France.
So did most of Europe. Even Ireland, one of Israel's toughest critics remained.
So who walked out? And why does it look like so many?
Each country gets six seats in this hall, so when one delegation walks out, several people stand up and walk.
And the Palestinian mission had asked countries to bring as many staff as possible and walk out together.
That can make a walkout bigger than the number of countries behind it.
In Europe, Spain was the only major country to leave its seat empty.
In Latin America, Brazil walked out.
South Africa's seats were empty too.
The rest were mostly small Caribbean island nations, which skip most speeches anyway.
Even in the Muslim world, at least two countries, UAE and Bahrain, stayed.
The walkout was real, but most of the world stayed in the room.
Just thought you’d wanna know the truth.
Benjamin Kleinerman retweeted
Mayor Mamdani, you said war criminals who set foot in New York should be arrested.
Good news. One is in New York city this week.
The president of the Islamic Republic is coming to the United Nations, right here in New York.
He heads the regime that massacre innocent protesters. They gunned down unarmed protesters in the streets, hanged our children, and sent its agents to Brooklyn to kidnap and kill a New Yorker.
That New Yorker is me. The FBI files and federal indictments are public. Look them up.
If you have the courage to talk about arresting those responsible for crimes against humanity, start with the man sleeping five miles from your office.
Are you willing to act, Mayor? Or do Iranian lives not count?
In honor of Constitution Day:
theconstitutionalist.org/202…
The Constitutionalist is back! A new episode with Jordan Cash on state constitutions and constitutions in general.
open.spotify.com/episode/6Il…
Benjamin Kleinerman retweeted
Kyle Kuzma, forward for the NBA's Milwaukee Bucks, says Palestinians deserve "freedom from Hamas" and "Iranian-backed terror."
This is what actual integrity looks like.
The most striking thing about this story is that she was essentially punished for not genuflecting before the authorities.
She Let Her Son Go for a Walk. Now She’s a Convicted Criminal. thefp.com/p/she-let-her-son-…
APSA should conclude as a matter of scientific truth that Abraham Lincoln is the greatest statesman in human history.
I’ve said it before but I’ll say it again: there’s a great tv show waiting to be made that takes place in an airport bar.
But I did find one of the few airport bars in this godforsaken airport. #OHare sucks.
From the article: "The Anti-Defamation League said it recorded 2,847 antisemitic incidents at non-Jewish K-12 schools from 2023 to 2025, a 188 percent increase over the total for the three previous years." At least The Free Press is covering it.
open.substack.com/pub/bariwe…
Funny that New York Times immediately starts talking about Islamophobia. I struggled to find any articles about the much more prevalent and wide-spread amount of anti-semitism in America. nytimes.com/2026/08/11/us/po…


















