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Another big news week and we’ve assembled the appropriate heavy hitters to help us parse it: first up, Victor Davis Hanson weighs in on North Korea, the IG report, and why the case for collusion is looking weaker and weaker every day. Then, Andrew McCarthy (listen to his brand new podcast, The McCarthy Report) stops by for some in-depth analysis on that IG report and what it means for the President. Also, Robinson returns from Spain and reports on what it’s like to hang out with rich people. Olé!
Music from this week’s episode: Spanish Bombs by The Clash
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I continue to see headlines from Democrats’ media lapdogs that present a polar opposite portrayal of events. Will the facts have greater consequences than the fiction?
The Left has made habit not only of contesting election results but contesting description of every political event. Without agreed facts, there can be no civil debate. Without conversation, politics will get uglier.
EJ, EJ, EJ! I laughed so hard just looking at the picture. I haven’t even listened yet, and I’m already in a great mood. Thank you.
At around the 10 minute mark, James, you nailed! Reprehensible liberal actions are excused because their intentions were good. Conservative’s, or Trump’s, good actions are irrelevant because both had bad intentions.
It just makes my blood boil that these democrat bureaucrats get away with it and sometimes even enhance their careers by bringing their politics to work. Lois Lerner did get chased down her street once but she is living on a full government pension and probably still reciting: “I did nothing wrong”. Try being a Republican and working for the Federal government. You have to keep your opinions to yourself or you will be sent to work in the basement or they will find a way to fire you.
I really do hope that Trump is as smart as VDH thinks he is, because otherwise we are in real trouble.
¡Ah! ¡Que gusto escucharle a Don Pedro hablar el español!
Why am I not allowed to post here? Do I not have a podcast membership and isn’t this a podcast post??
I guess I can, even though that annoying notice “Please upgrade your membership level in order to comment on posts” persists.
I usually enjoy the Ricochet podcast. The 3 hosts are usually stellar and the banter is witty. A couple comments:
Fair criticisms. A lot of factors conspired against us in this show — Victor Davis Hanson was on his farm where the phone connection is terrible, James had a new mic and didn’t know how to mute it (he does now), and Rob’s internet was completely down and had to move to another location minutes before we started.
These shows are taped live and once we start, it’s very difficult to start (guests are booked at specific times and we have to get to them on schedule). We promise to try and do better on the future.
On your note about the volume — I’ve checked it on multiple devices including a car bluetooth setup and it all seems fine to me. Anyone else think the levels are too low?
No. They are good for me. I usually have my headphone volume at the lowest level.
Really, it sounded like someone was bowling!!!
That was Rob. He went to the local alley for better reception. 😁
And the only place nearby with free wifi?
Totally and utterly my fault. Birch woke up, came into my room, found a big bone, and started chomping. I was googling HOW TO MUTE BLUE SNOWBALL while Yeti begged me to do something in the Slack channel.
It’s so depressing to me that someone as smart as VDH has so utterly jumped on board the 7-dimensional-chess narrative with the President. If this had been any liberal President meeting with the North Korean leader at this time in history, he would have condemned it in the harshest terms. But since it’s Trump, he switches his analysis to factor in that times have changed, and the situation is quite different now than it was in previous administrations. So now it’s fine, and perhaps even brilliant, that Trump is extending the olive branch and praising Kim. Or, if Trump had done the opposite and doubled down on opposing NK, that would have been brilliant as well. Whatever he does will have been brilliant.
I cannot imagine that this is anything other than VDH talking himself into whatever argument he needs to reach for in order to support the President. He has a right to be a partisan, but I can no longer pretend he is one of our great political minds anymore. He is simply a political rationalizer.
I still find much benefit in reading (or listening to) Mr. Hanson, but I too believe he is becoming an apologist for Pres. Trump. He seems to bring up historical parallels between Pres. Trump and other people (e.g. Patton) but I doubt he has any more insight into Pres. Trump’s mind than the rest of us. You can pound square pegs in round holes if you use a hammer and don’t mind mutilating the pegs.
Mr. Hanson suggests that Pres. Trump has some deep understanding of human nature. Really?
Well, if he does, it’s probably about the darker side of human nature since he seems to revel in his own base instincts and lavishes praise on various dictators.
Just a thought: If Trump has an understanding of the “darker side of human nature”, that understanding will be useful in dealing with people such as the leader of North Korea, and a few other leaders as well.
I think “most leaders” is the term you want. Even George Washington didn’t start out as the Cincinnatus he became.
Unfortunately I think his understanding comes from his own darker side as he obviously admires what he perceives as strength (toughness).
Toughness, endurance, and determination are elements of strength, and if one doesn’t understand the darker side of human nature, he can’t claim to understand human nature at all.
There is a big difference in understanding and admiration.
True. But with regard to toughness, endurance, and determination, I both understand and admire them.
I find it impossible to regard murderous dictators as anything other than scum.
I wasn’t talking about the individuals. I was referring to the characteristics that I listed. I seek to embody them myself.
Well, even Churchill got a lot of criticism for his comments about Erwin Rommel: “May I say across the havoc of war, a great general.”
Even Churchill was wrong occasionally but he certainly didn’t say that about Hitler. You do not show “toughness, endurance, and determination” in any positive sense by systematically starving your people. And Trump IS talking about the individuals.
He was not wrong on that occasion; he could have said it about Hitler. Hitler won the Iron Cross, actually two, one First Class and one Second Class in the first World War. The German command did not give those out casually. It is a part of the silliness of modern thought to believe that one cannot recognize the strengths of his enemies even as he struggles to defeat them completely.
And, yes, you are correct to point out that those characteristics I listed can be used negatively.
And it is very wrong to praise those characteristics when they are used negatively. I believe Churchill was wrong to use the word “great” to describe Rommel in any capacity. He paid a political price for doing so.
Once again there is a difference in recognizing and admiring.
The characteristics remain what they are, admirable. It might be tactically wrong to praise them in an enemy, but that is a different issue.
I have enjoyed this podcast since its inception. As the flagship podcast of the website, I’d like to make a general comment to Ricochet podcasters. STOP MULTI-TASKING! During Mr. Hanson’s interview someone was tidying their house/office/something, but who cares. It is incredibly disrespectful to the speaker and the listeners. Why on earth should we want to listen if the people delivering the podcast are too bored to pay attention? At minimum, utilize the mute button on your phones.
@blueyeti I couldn’t post this here before, for some reason the site kept saying I wasn’t logged in and couldn’t comment, just for this one, although it worked for other podcasts and even other “episodes” of this one. Weird.
Anyway, I’ve encountered this issue with other shows. A podcast volume can “never” be too high, as long as there’s not clipping. Turning down the playback volume is easy and does not add distortion. But if it’s too low, turning up the volume on a playback device can introduce more noise/distortion, possibly run out of gain before reaching a listenable level… and then if your phone rings or something, prepare to be deafened!
In the past I’ve used something as simple as Nero 7 “Wave Editor” to quickly and easily increase the volume level for an entire podcast, and it takes about 30 seconds to load, process, and re-save. I’ve also used it to increase the volume just for certain callers, etc. It’s a little more complicated – more than a single step – but still quite easy.
Adding some normalization/compression might be helpful too, especially for people listening in their cars or elsewhere without noise-cancelling headphones. Dennis Miller used to think it was clever to whisper to radio-show callers on cellphones at the airport, from his soundproofed studio with high-end headphones and studio mike. But it was dumb.
Check your DMs.