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On today’s podcast, we assess the cleverness or stupidity of the Trump administration’s decision to refuse cooperation with Congressional subpoenas, and its confrontational posture toward Iran, Venezuela, and China. Give a listen.
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“Ha ha you weren’t really a billionaire”
“Ha ha your party ruined healthcare”
I don’t get that thought that exposing Trump as a fraud will have Democrats welcomed as liberators.
Does anyone else get sick of hearing mainstream elites whine about norm breaking? It used to be a norm in American politics that serious mainstream politicians did not promise to punish entire ethnic groups. The disappearance of that norm in the early 2010s didn’t shake the faith of moderates in the legitimacy of America, and frankly that disappearance did far more damage to America than Trump ever could.
I know it’s a cliche, but those who live in glass houses should not throw stones at others. It does not speak well of our institutional norms that the vast majority of Republicans now believe that both white and black people are discriminated against in our society. This is a problem “reasonable” elites created, not the fringes.
They go around praising John Yoo for attacking Trump for withholding certain oversight information to Congress. Then Noah says that Trump should be impeached for trying to fund the wall. John Yoo is also the one who wrote the National Review article entitled, “The Law Will Be on Trump’s Side If He Declares an Emergency to Fund His Wall”. That was essentially the same view as libertarian law professor Glenn Reynolds, AKA Instapundit.
I know that Jonah Goldberg just proclaimed in his last podcast that he was willing to support impeaching George W. Bush along with Maxine Waters and who knows who else over the McCain–Feingold Act, but you can’t really have a republic when everything is considered to be an impeachable offense and where the chief executive is constantly under siege. Democrats always protect their own party, so under this scenario the only presidents that could be removed from office would be Republicans which is more like anti-democracy. Heads I win, tails you lose.
You guys really think that Trump is more or a dictator than Obama who you just said through Eric Holder refused to turn over documents while Bill Barr did turn over documents almost immediately?
A truthful Washington Post story? I’m not willing to trust ANY mainstream media stories without additional non-biased sources. I remember one of the somewhat big reasons why I was nervous about Trump being elected was that he supposedly watered down the Republican platform to not support Ukraine over Russia. In Byron York’s most recent podcast I learn that the exact opposite was true as the party platform was strengthen not weakened. This fact didn’t have much of anything to do with Trump as it was the work of an older Texas lady who was a Ted Cruz delegate, but Trump’s team did not object. I believed that story for three years! Now I learn that the opposite was true.
Yes. I get the feeling they will still be talking about this after the Trump administration is decades in the past.
Thank you to all the Ricochet commenters who give me advance warning about whether or not I should waste my time on a particular podcast! Needless to say, I will skip this one. :)
That was an incredible podcast, wasn’t it? I came away feeling so sorry for Maria Butina who has been grossly abused by our gov’t. It also called into question most of the breathless smears against Trump in the Mueller report (possible obstruction of justice). Just who do they think they’re kidding? Well, most Americans, as it turns out (and the press is complicit). I read some of the reports of Maria’s “crimes” and it’s a travesty. I hope that Trump pardons her and clears her name.
I thought that, surely, with all the over-the-top nonsense coming out of the House – especially the finding of Barr in contempt of Congress by a party-line vote – that these jokers would have something supportive to say about Trump.
I thought that, surely, with all the information coming out that Trump was indeed telling the truth about Obama spying on him (for which he was castigated for two years), that now these clueless, arrogant Trump haters would have to come around.
Seems not.
Maybe the Commentary podcast should address the Byron York interviews. They seem to prefer to live in an alternative reality bubble created by their own enemies. What is the fun and point of that?
(Perhaps some of the people involved from that part of the world are Jewish as apparently Ukraine now has a Jewish president and a Jewish prime minister as I guess the first country to have that distinction outside of Israel. I don’t think they mentioned that either. George Papadopoulos seemed to get disparaged, but I think his primary foreign policy contact was with Israel through friends of Benjamin Netanyahu while his Hudson Institute colleagues included people like Scooter Libby and Douglas Feith. Imagine how Papadopoulos would have been treated by the conservative Trump-haters if his contacts had been through some other Middle East country?)
A great Commentary Podcast. I am so tired of Trump’s breaking of norms, and his total stonewall. I am so tired of the unwillingness of Republicans to call Trump out. At this point I predict that the Dems will take the Presidency, and the Senate, and will build their majority in the House. No one is above the law.
The West Point Code of Conduct is simple: “A cadet will not lie, cheat or steal, or tolerate those who do.” Trump is disqualified on the first three, and it appears that most of the rest of the Republican Congress and party openly promote, let alone tolerate,Trump’s execrable behavior.
It never ceases to amaze me just how much of a moral vacuum upper middle class American culture is. So, Trump is disqualified for being a liar. Obama, meanwhile, fomented an actual race war within the American lower middle class, but he wasn’t a liar so I guess it’s all good.
Most people in the upper middle class lie. They get away with it because they go to great lengths to maintain plausible deniability–“he really believes what he’s saying, he can’t be lying”. But while upper middle class people are very good at projecting sincere belief in person, the lies they tell are so patently absurd that they make Trump’s behavior seem normal. Trump didn’t break the norm against lying, he just isn’t very good at it.
Oh yeah, Commentary Magazine is well known for its high opinion of President Obama.
The problem with Commentary is they’re too enmeshed in elite culture. They’ve been several times when during a controversy you could hear real fear in John and Abe’s voices on the podcast, as they tried to distance themselves from whatever the controversy was. For what it’s worth, I think Abe and John (though not Noah) agree with much of what people like me say, it’s just it’s such a taboo to say it (it doesn’t help that Noah is still doing the Young Turk thing).
JPod tends to fall on the side of Obama having good intentions on things we consider malfeasance
I think it is an exaggeration to call it a race war, but he definitely stoked racial conflict for his own political gain.
And, he was the Lying Liar of Liartown. Trump can never hope to equal Obama’s lies.
Obama deliberately pitted poor people of different races against each other in direct economic conflict. He encouraged the idea that native-born American poor people didn’t deserve what they had, and their wealth should be redistributed to foreigners. Everyone forgets his second amnesty EO because the courts blocked it, but it really was a big deal. It involved far more people than just the DACA population.