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This week, Bolton bolts, we debate the debate with The Washington Post’s Henry Olsen, kick around the culture with The Atlantic’s Andrew Ferguson, we’ve got a new Long Poll question for you (but you have to be a Ricochet member to vote), Lileks awards the coveted Member Post of The Week, and some thoughts on the 18th anniversary of 9/11.
Music from this week’s show: My City of Ruins by Bruce Springsteen
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Boll & Branch
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Rob is truly terrifying with Biden hair.
I’ve enjoyed Gladwell’s books. Full of great sermon illustrations. (Didn’t enjoy them as well as Andy’s Lincoln and college books.)
If I heard correctly, Mr. Robinson referred to his co-hosts as a “son-of-a-bitch” and a “bastard.” Not overly harsh language for many of us, but from Peter it reminded me of Richie Cunningham trying to act tough . . .
In regards to #4, someone posted a picture on the site this week showing that record sales are on track to pass CD sales. Probably because most people stream and don’t purchase physical media, but record players are making a bit of a comeback. Still was an odd line last night.
I certainly understand Andrew’s preference for writing about culture over politics now. Because today’s culture is tomorrow’s politics.
The number of Conservatives who truly believe this, though, is probably less than 3 percent. Oh, they’ll nod their heads when you bring it up to them, but they don’t actually believe it, and the subject frankly bores them (“Meh”) and they’re far more comfortable talking about the next election.
But a work like What the Constitution Means to Me is a much better indicator of where we are as a country than anything going on in the political realm.
And it could never have been a Broadway hit until recently.
I voted for Biden on the Long Poll that asked “who do you want to run against Trump,” but not because I thought he would be the easiest candidate for Trump to beat. Rather, he scares me the least. If he won, I think a Biden presidency would be unremarkable, he would bring back in the same folks from the Obama administration and continue similar policies, whereas Sanders and Warren are out to move the party and the country much further to the socialist hard left.
I guess I missed that.
We ran out of time on this week’s show. Will for sure get to this next week.
Guys, seriously, what is going on? Joe Biden was tops in last week’s “Which Democrat Do You Hope Runs Against Trump?” poll. Now’s he’s got the lead in the “Which Democrat Do You Think Has the Best Chances Against Trump?” poll. What?
See my prior comment:
What’s will the sped-up intro montage?
Yeah I noticed that too, at first I thought I’d accidentally hit the button that plays podcasts at higher speeds.
Biden still has the best lane to the Dem POTUS nominee and need not veer least right to meet or beat Trump at the middle. His predilection for gaffs and advancing age limit his chances.
Careful, Vance. Mock me and I’ll, I’ll–I’ll tell Rob on you.
As usual, Joseph, your reasoning is impeccable.
Well, that’s weird. I have no idea why that happened (encoding error?), but I have uploaded a new version that is at the correct speed. Thanks for the heads up.
It would be very, very helpful if we could have a 10 second replay option.
Not sure what you mean by that. A skip ahead/back button?
Yep, we have older ears out here, and the folks have a tendency to talk over each other.
Also, take away Peter’s Eminem playlist – it’s affecting his vocabulary.
The record player thing is odd and it kind of hides the part of the statement about how government needs to go into the houses of POC and show them how to be parents. Other than what spews from Beto’s mouth, that was the most offensive thing I heard all night.
For thousands of years of human civilization, every society believed that the government is sacred. If the Mikado of Japan or the King of England was unrighteous, heaven would punish the whole country. The King was an embodiment of the people for heaven. I think the NeverTrumper have that religious belief system or an echo of that religious belief. Hence all the pearl clutching.
The thing I don’t understand about Andrew Ferguson is why he isn’t more upset about the attempt to destroy the constitution by the left than he is about Mr. Trump’s incivility. I just can’t see Trump as wreaking the destruction on American society that the left has done since the Baby Boomer era.
He thinks Trump has turbocharged the hysteria, and the conservatives that have acquiesced are more responsible than the libs that see red.
Web audio players have very limited features. What I’d suggest is downloading the file to your desktop and the using QuickTime, Windows Media Player or a third party player to play the file. There are hundreds of them.
Most podcast players for mobile devices also have this feature built in.
OK thanks
Why believe that North Korea testing a long-range missile – or even a nuclear weapon – shortly before the 2020 election would benefit the Democrat candidate rather than Trump? Even if you thought Trump wasn’t strong enough on them before, the idea that any of the Dems – even, perhaps especially, Biden – would be tougher, is incredible.
He becomes Newt Gingrich.
And Rob misinterpreted “his own” poll. Because it didn’t ask “which Democrat candidate do you hope runs against Trump because they’ll be the most likely to lose.”
As I posted previously, by lacking that specificity, the poll was worthless.
I love this.
Amateur comment on Afghanistan: The geography of that place is ridiculous. Too much of their population is too close to Iran, the “no mans land”, and Pakistan. There is no improving that place even setting aside the more discussed chaotic factors. Hell, Kabul is only 200 miles from Kashmir.
I completely agree with Andy about Malcolm Gladwell. I always thought that guy was full of crap.
I also completely agree with what he says about elections. Democracy has become what he is talking about, and you are not thinking straight if you don’t just detest government and everything related to it, now. A few decades ago it wasn’t like that. Conservatives need to get realistic.