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This week, we are very media centric: first, a few thoughts about the Ingraham-Hogg contretemps, then a deep dive into the Rosesanne phenomenon with noted TV expert Rob Long. After that, it’s out good pal Robert Costa, national political correspondent for The Washington Post and inexplicably a Phish fan (but we still love him). Finally, Niall Ferguson, the Hoover Senior Fellow and the author of The Square and the Tower: Networks, Hierarchies and the Struggle for Global Power stops by for a detailed conversation about Facebook — what they did, whether they’ll stop, and can they survive. By the way: Ricochet never has and never will sell your personal info. And we close with some thoughts on Easter. But no chocolate bunnies. Sorry about that.
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I love hearing the behind-the-scenes stuff when James tells Scott to cut something, then gives a countdown and gives us Take 2.
We can’t even mention a town in Austria without Max coming and harassing us, but James is telling Peter in the Flagship Podcast to perform immoral acts? How low the standards have fallen.
Oy, there were lots of resets in this show and clearly I didn’t catch them all. Where is this one?
James Lileks is the only one not watching television in the photo.
(Hmm, it must be a sports contestants not involving a Minnesota Vikings playoff run…)
I like it when you don’t catch them. So by all means, don’t work so hard!
He’s breaking the fourth wall.
Speaking of missed resets, @jameslileks said “Bob Costas” twice when introducing Robert Costa. (Are any of us so young that we don’t know Bob Costas is a different person?)
Yeah, there was a reset there too (I wanted James to read Costa’s intro after we got Bob on the line, so we did it twice). Wasn’t a good edit point so I left the repetition in.
Too much sausage making in this show…
MMM, sausage good!
And my original point wasn’t that James said the name twice. It was that he said the WRONG name twice.
I had pancakes and smoked sausage with apple sauce for dinner tonight. Good stuff.
Off my game, alas. Couldn’t hear myself and it just threw me off the whole dang show.
It’s probably our ages too, James (@jameslileks if that helps get you an automated notice or something). Not any kind of sports fan, but I used to see Bob Costas’ late-night talk show regularly. Although I liked Tom Snyder better. “Robert Costa” doesn’t really tweak my neurons.
On the plus side, your photo for this podcast edition doesn’t make you look like a Centauri (or Minbari). Unlike the previous one, which I commented on there. Although you do make a handsome Centauri. (Alas, your ears are in the wrong places to be a Minbari anyway.)
The age of the country is amazing to ponder. Years ago, when he was hosting for Rush, Walter Williams talked about this and mentioned that he’s been around for a third of the country’s life. I computed my fraction and it was a sixth.
I now live in New Mexico and a few years ago they celebrated their centennial of statehood and yet Santa Fe is the oldest capital in the country. Another first for Obama was that he was the first president to be born under the same flag that he served under. We hadn’t stood still as a country long enough for the flag to stabilize.
Around the twelve minute mark.
That is one of the coolest pieces of trivia I’ve heard in a long time.
I very much enjoyed Mr. Lileks’ reporting of the increase in his family’s business in Fargo (even googled its name, and there it was, complete with Streetview!).
Of course, it does not apply to Donald Trump. He was born under a 48-Star flag.
As long as he does not look like Narn. Then he would have big problems.
A lovely detail.
When I was growing up, my parents hung a flag next to our front door on the Fourth of July and Flag Day–and it only had 48 stars. The country had 50 states by then, but we had no money to spare, and I recall finding myself fascinated as a little kid by the way each row of stars was offset from the rows above and below it.
This is apropos of absolutely nothing. It’s just a memory that comes back to me now with a certain kind of sweetness.
But the Narn do seem to have a way with the ladies.
This is what I wrote about Roseanne just over a year ago:
http://ricochet.com/archives/wow-when-did-roseanne-barr-join-the-center-right/
“Wow, things have changed! Her retweets include many pro-Trump websites, Israel websites (she is part Jewish), Donald Trump, Gavin McInnes, Sharia Watch UK, Paul Joseph Watson (editor-at-large of Infowars.com), Texas Governor Greg Abbott, Geert Wilders, The Washington Free Beacon, Larry Klayman, Daniel Pipes, James O’Keefe, The Drudge Report, Ann Coulter, Judicial Watch, Sean Davis from The Federalist, Sean Spicer, James Woods, Sarah Palin, infowars, Sean Hannity, PJMedia, Michelle Malkin, and Pamela Geller.”
p.s. @blueyeti her name is Ingraham.
Sadly it seems like the GOP has yet to learn any lessons from 2016.
Bob Costa kept trying to open eyes and ears to reality, but there was no listening going on. Mitt Romney lost bigly (as the orangeman would say) in 2012. What has changed with Mitt or the United States to swing in the think tank direction since then? Why would Tom Cotton or Ben Sasse or John Kasich (who has failed miserably both times he ran for President) do anything of value in a primary run in 2020?
As Mr. Costa noted unless the GOP and the movement conservative world wakes up and realizes this isn’t a fever dream which will just go away and return to “normal” in 2020 or 2024 then I don’t know what the purpose is to even keep talking about politics.
There is a lot of 2×4 learning that needs to go on.
I’m days late on this but…. Romney? We are up against the most viscous and dirty street fighters in history and the last time we sent this guy into the ring for our side we found out he has no idea how to fight. He’s conceding putts while they’re swinging chains at his head. Harvard Debate club vs Hells Angels.
And Kasich? The human toothache? Hahahahahahaha
LA Times, 1902: So far the first mention i’ve seen of a direct ancestor in my area, my great-great grandfather and two of his cousins recently arrived from Pennsylvania “returned last evening from a day’s hunt in the foothills, having bagged thirty-two cottontails”.
Rob looks like he’s about to murder John Goodman.
Goodman looks like he doesn’t care if he does.
Just watched the first episode of the Roseanne reboot.
Wow, that was bad. Bad script, bad acting, just bad. Even my 11-year-old, halfway through the show said “This isn’t very good”.