Jonathan V. Last's Blog

November 11, 2016

New Substandard Podcast

Episode 1.3 features G.I. Joe #21, an ode to Zima, and the great Marvel vs. DC movies debate.

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Published on November 11, 2016 08:58

October 28, 2016

October 27, 2016

The Weekly Substandard

So I’m doing a podcast now with Vic Matus and Santino. It’s about movies, allegedly. Though I suspect we’ll wind up spinning off into lots of different topics. As the Czabe always said, it’s not really a “movie” show, it’s an “us” show.


Anyway, you can listen to it here or over at the iTunes store, if that’s the way you consume your podcast material.


This week’s episode is about film adaptations, starting with Jack Reacher and riffing through the Tom Clancy movies, Goodfellas, The Godfather, Layer Cake, and much else. Don’t miss the Elvish.

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Published on October 27, 2016 06:30

October 20, 2016

Clinton-Trump 3: Dark Side of the Moon

Third debates usually don’t matter. But if this one turns out to matter, bye-bye House and Senate.

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Published on October 20, 2016 06:14

October 13, 2016

This Is As Good As It Gets

Three quick items:


1: The election is over.


2: What comes next?


3: A parable of late-stage Trumpism.


We’ve reached the stage of Trump where the only question is how big the rout will be. My own sense is that we’re heading toward a Cat-5 superstorm where the House is gone and Paul Ryan steps down before Christmas. But maybe not.


I’m not pretending to have precognition here, mind you. This outcome was always a very real possibility with Trump. As soon as he clinched the nomination in May the chance of a Democratic wave election was at least as good as a chance of a narrow Trump victory.


But since August Trump’s loss has been nearly inevitable. (Evitable?) One of the great miscalculations of 2016 has been the continued denial of this reality by elected Republicans trying to save their seats. It was a failure of imagination that has only compounded the catastrophe for the party.

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Published on October 13, 2016 06:55

October 10, 2016

2016 Debate #2 wrap-up

Verdict: Trump did just well enough in St. Louis to keep Pence, Ryan, and Priebus from hitting the self-destruct button.

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Published on October 10, 2016 05:25

October 6, 2016

Clinton Is Strategy, Trump Is Tactics

You’ll never guess which skill set wins that fight.


Also: VP debates don’t matter.

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Published on October 06, 2016 09:25

September 27, 2016

Trump-Clinton First Debate

It was the go-away debate. Clinton didn’t win, but Trump lost. And it probably won’t matter except to bring wandering D’s back onto the reservation.

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Published on September 27, 2016 08:18

September 23, 2016

Evan McMullin’s Grand New Party

I spent some time with the only conservative in the 2016 race.

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Published on September 23, 2016 06:29

September 19, 2016

Meanwhile, over at the model home . . .

A look at how my inadvertent attempt to institute a regime of gender-neutral toys went over with the kids.

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Published on September 19, 2016 08:47