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This week, partly due to the post-Oscars dearth of pop culture news, we’re deep into the news cycle as this show was recorded the morning that Rex Tillerson was shown the door. We cover that story, the continuing evolution of Hillary Clinton’s political skills, a little more on the economics of Wakanda, and yes, some good old fashioned Rank Punditry®.
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excellent show.
I don’t know why it was so funny that they had a row about “the court of St. James.” But it was.
Rob Long didn’t want to talk about the Oscars because he was SO wrong with his prediction of The Post winning everything. And the great Run Lola Run is twenty years old now. And Rob is completely wrong about the wonderful Good Place.
The nice thing about being a nationalist is not having to pander to foreigners. If the Chinese see fit to insult America over a movie, so be it. They don’t have to watch the film. If Hollywood were more patriotic it would spend more time worrying whether its films sell in America than whether racist Chinese are upset because some film has too many black people in it.
Fact check: True.
Jonah honestly believes Trump set Tillerson up to fail?
Trump forced him to spend a year on his org chart, institute racial quotas, support the Paris Accords and Iran treaty and oppose the Jerusalem embassy? Maybe just a word edgewise on Pompeo’s superb qualities from Jonah?
Amazing. On every non-Trump topic Jonah doesn’t call balls and strikes. He throws nothing but strikes. He’s a conservative Clayton Kershaw.
On Trump, you could put a salt and pepper beard on Bartolo Colon and get more insightful commentary.
Rob on both Hillary and Trump was spot on though. What a disgrace.
Rob is not completely wrong. He underestimates how good season 1 of the good place was but he wasn’t completely wrong. It is almost always a better idea to make shows shorter. That was his basic point and it was legitimate.
Well what I want with nationalists is a bit more concern about absolutely everybody who is an American citizen. I would be intellectually interested and possibly even sympathetic to a strain of nationalism that tells racist Chinese to pound sand in favor of America. I feel that there is no intellectually coherent non-ethnic nationalism out there.
I honestly have never done any research about the Chinese opinions of blacks so I can’t comment about it. However, I did live in China for a few years and I assure you that racism is a big part of that society. With the exception of one individual Han Chinese I knew, every Chinese I met despised the Xin Jiang ren (in the west they are called Uighurs.) I worked late and I liked visiting bars so I ate Xin Jiang ren food quite often. They were a bit more polite to me than the Han Chinese if I am honest so I have a soft spot for them.
What the average Han Chinese hate the most also hate Japanese while watching their movies. The idea that people watch American movies and then hate Americans less is absolutely false. Foreign pop culture does almost nothing to change the bigotry of society. As was mentioned in some GLOP episode that I can’t recall, Rob Long or Jonah mentioned that, ‘the Israelis and Palestinians watch each others t.v. shows and they still hate each other.’
I disagree with Rob Long that the regular Han Chinese refer to the typical Southern Chinese as an N-word. When I lived in Wenzhou the Wenzhouese people made fun of themselves as being southern barbarians. What specific southern Chinese group is he referring to?
Rob is not completely wrong. He underestimates how good season 1 of the good place was but he wasn’t completely wrong. It is almost always a better idea to make shows shorter. That was his basic point and it was legitimate.
Which is why The Good Place has a short season for a network, 13 episodes broken into two runs, as opposed to the average network run of 20 plus episodes (see Kevin Can Wait, or not).
I am completely with Rob on countering the incessant “you have to do it competently” meme, as if past administrations have not come under scrutiny for their own major calamities—usually recognized a good deal later. For example, North Korean diplomacy since Eisenhower, greatly exacerbated under Clinton because everyone before him had also bobbled the ball, now said to be on the brink only because of the man in the oval office. (I say this in full awareness of Trump being a caricature of immense distractions and thus a wild card for danger; practically speaking, though, short of revolution or assassination, there’s no way to address the issue quickly.) Then there’s Iranian diplomacy under Obama, led in large part by a sophomoric fiction writer who basically spat on the media while they protectively downplayed him in coverage of the talks. I’m hopeful a better approach to Iran can be found in the chaotic present. Yemen falls into civil war and Obama continues to call his Yemen policy a model of success against terrorism. The Clinton catastrophe of Benghazi, arguably a primary factor in massive mass migration of north Africans into Europe in 2015, something that could have nationalistic ripple effects because the middle cannot seem to hold. Going back a ways, I just heard Amity Schlaes describe how FDR frittered away the entire year of 1933 allowing academic agriculturalists to experiment with the economy. And there’s been some pretty excellent writing arguing that high-speed rail is merely a continuation of federal bureaucratic thinking beginning with the interstate highway system.
We romanticize the past to such an extent these days it’s as if each issue begins at a perfected day one. As for myself, I’m trying to ride the chaos with my eyes open to eternity.
Note: This post has been edited slightly since it was posted a little while ago.
Mistaken posting. Sorry.
Rob‘s Jack Benny was pretty good. JPod needs to work on his Rochester – an A for improv effort, though.
It’s hard to tell, but are John and Jonah never-Trumpers? If not, they sure seem to have a hard time talking or thinking about anything else. At least they find each other amusing.
They are all never-Trumpers.
Jonah describes himself as a Trump Skeptic, as do I. I am just curious as to why we must be insulted by some people continuing to call us by names we reject?
Rachel Dolezal is no doubt curious as to why she must be insulted by some people – such as her white parents – continuing to call her a white person, an identity she rejects.
Huh?
Rachel Dolezal – a white woman – describes herself as a black woman.
Jonah may describe himself as a Trump Skeptic all he wants. But to we not-entirely-casual observers, Jonah’s criticism of Trump’s style overwhelms the total of say, Jonah’s praise of Trump’s dismantling of the regulatory state + Jonah’s praise of Trump’s effective opposition to blatant media bias and lies + Jonah’s praise for Trump’s naming of Betsy DeVos as Secretary of Education and giving her free rein + Jonah’s praise for trying a new tactic (actual opposition!) to North Korea, the most murderous dictatorship in Jonah’s lifetime + Jonah’s praise for the nomination of Scott Pruitt as Director of the EPA + … well, I bet you get the idea, skeptic though you may be.
I think you missed my relatively simple point, (which I made using your phrasing).
Rachel Dolezal describes herself as black. Jonah describes himself as a Trump Skeptic. Overwhelming evidence disputes both descriptions.
I think it stinks when a person describes himself or herself so inaccurately that it invites accusations of dishonesty.
First, Quisp is better than Quake.
Second, I kinda got lost on the metaphors. Is Jonah an umpire or a pitcher? Does Bartolo Colon have a reputation for … um, … lack of insight?
I think I agree that Jonah – like most never-Trumpers – is so hung up on Trump’s style, and particularly on Trump’s stylistic errors, that Jonah ignores the issues. On many issues, Trump is far better than any Republican alternative would have been. For example, Scott Pruitt at EPA, Betsy DeVos at DoEducation, and the declared war on the administrative state.
Your equating of the two is invidious. One look at the demented young lady disproves her claims. It is a matter of simple fact. So, saying she is white is like saying I am a man: It is obvious. Your calling Jonah a Never Trumper is an opinion. Further, It is an insulting opinion. Continuing to argue this is pointless, irritating, and just a waste of time.
If you continue to engage in insults, I shall not make the mistake of engaging with you again. Plain enough?
I disagree.
Some people consider it an insult to disagree. If that’s you, then I won’t miss you. But if you have evidence to support your implied contention that Jonah is somehow not a never-Trumper, please present it. As I suggested, I’ve never heard Jonah praise any of the indisputably praiseworthy accomplishments that I mentioned, and I listen to Jonah quite a bit.
Trump is far more effective at dismantling the bureaucracy than Reagan was. Is there an alternative Republican presidential candidate who could plausibly be more effective than Trump at promoting de-regulation? Would any other Republican president even have bothered to withdraw from the Paris climate change accords?
An honest Trump skeptic would have to admit by this point that Trump has been a strong net positive in favor of conservative principles.
I have never been particularly concerned with labeling people that might possibly be NeverTrumpers. I didn’t think it was my job to police NeverTrump sentiment, and bring NeverTrumpers (or Trump Skeptics) into line.
But I’ve heard enough thin-skinned, childish whinging about NeverTrumpers (or others) allegedly being “disrespected” by the label NeverTrumpers were pleased to give themselves, that it appears it may be desirable, or even necessary to use the labels where appropriate, just to keep them from being shamed out of the discourse.
I don’t think of NeverTrumper as being anything but descriptive. I think that Trump skeptic would we somebody who didn’t vote for the Trump but is hopeful that he can do good things in the Presidency. I don’t get any hope from Jonah so I think he is a NeverTrumper. I don’t think he’s a bad person or anything – I’ve preordered his next book on audible for Heaven’s sake.
I just think it’s an accurate statement. Disagree with me if you so desire. But that is how I honestly see it.
Does nationalism have to be intellectually coherent? The whole point of nationalism is to keep social conflict from spiraling out of control. There are perfectly rational reasons for Northeastern and Southern white people to hate each other’s guts. Respecting each other’s rights and treating each other fairly doesn’t really make sense intellectually. Nationalism is how we keep these sorts of social fault lines in check.
It seems like the same thing applies to the left/liberal whackos these days. Those terms have – deservedly – come to be seen as epithets, so the people who those terms accurately describe, insist on being called “progressive” instead. Which is nonsense, and not only because there’s nothing actually “progressive” about what they want to do.
I like to think there’s a difference between NeverTrumpers that hate Trump voters and NeverTrumpers that don’t, though. Jonah dislikes Trump on a personal level, but he doesn’t seem to have the same visceral hatred for Republican voters that certain other NeverTrumpers have. Compare that to Kevin Williamson, who likes to have emotional rants on podcasts that go along the lines of “Poor white people blame all their problems on brown people from across the border who steal their jobs! They just want welfare! Immigration and trade restrictions are welfare!”
(I get the impression that Kevin is a pretty decent editor and manager at NRO, but he needs to be kept far, far away from politics and policy).
This is the nub. You confer on to yourself the ability to judge whether someone is honest or not. Jonah has called them as he sees them. He is on Special Report many times, and has praised Trump when he thought he was right, as have I. I have Posts on Ricochet to that effect. If someone had any respect for another, he would accede to his wishes. Therein lies the insult.
I do not take disagreement as an insult. That would be juvenile. I like a healthy, respectful, debate. As you may have guessed, I am very high on respect, and do not think well of anyone who refuses to confer it.
BTW, whether I am missed or not – by anyone – will not keep me up night.