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We recorded this one yesterday in New York City, and due to travel and other issues, we’re posting it now. We talk Trump, the now official Republican nominee, get the inside scoop on that Facebook meeting from our guest Brent Bozell, and a theory about Joe Biden. Yes, Joe Biden. Finally, what’s Peter Robinson’s favorite Bob Dylan lyric? The answer may surprise you (it surprised us). Happy summer, everyone!
Music from this week’s episode:
Summertime by Ella Fitzgerald and Louis Armstrong
The brand new opening sequence for the Ricochet Podcast was composed and produced by James Lileks.
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“Where have all the flowers gone” was written by Pete Seeger.
I kind of get the impression that Bozell has spent so long as a media watchdog that he’s developed a bit of Stockholm syndrome. Based on the way others who attended the meeting talk about it, his satisfaction with Facebook’s approach is very much a minority view. Either that, or he’s the Jesse Jackson of the right. He doesn’t care about what happens as long as he’s at the table when it does.
No. It was written by Trini Lopez. Seeger covered it.
Peter-how can you vote for Trump after his comment about Cruz’s father and his doubling down on lauding Chinese action in 1989 as “strong?” Trump hates freedom and truth and as a result deserves to be defeated and deserves the universal condemnation of all conservatives.
Sneer worthy candidates are running this time around.
Yup, ridicule is the appropriate response to the ridiculous.
Time to step up…
Now I can’t speak for Peter but if you could guarantee that someone other than Hillary Clinton will be president if Trump loses, I will gladly vote for someone else, but until I can get that guarantee, Trump has my vote
Talk of moral vanity and conspicuous preening aside, the hipster hats are totally happening.
This sounds like a line from the Simpsons or something, a caricature.
On this episode:
Favorite Dylan lyric? It’s all mumbling to me.
Echoing someone else above, Bozell sounds like he has Stockholm syndrome when it comes to Mark Zuckerberg. He came off as Sally Field in the interview. “Zuck likes me! He really likes me!“. You shouldn’t trust Mark Zuckerberg as far as you can throw him.
Contd…
…
On Coulter’s “How many f****** Jews are there?” quote, how many times is that going to be taken out of context here of all places? It was a rational question using a dirty word: how much political capital will your Republican candidate waste chasing the approval of a demographic that will never vote for them in any appreciable numbers? That quote has been floated as some kind of proof Coulter is some kind of Reichsmarshall just itching to fire up the ovens again, which is, to put it bluntly, crap. This kind of thing reinforces my sense the leadership of Conservatism Inc. is pretty damn selective with both their memory, and their standards. Coulter’s no Jew hater. But she’s not of the respectable caste, and so she doesn’t get a pass.
Every GOP candidate supported Israel. But the GOP does sound like it’s making a fetish out of the Israel issue at times, like people trying to suck up to someone, like people lining up to kiss Don Corleone’s ring at his daughter’s wedding.
You can support Israel… rather strongly, in fact… and still think that the GOP panders on the subject in vain hopes of chasing a domestic Jewish vote that’s hopelessly liberal. I’d bet Coulter’s average reader is actually more pro-Israel than the average Jstreet fan.
Favorite Dylan lyric?
From Positively 4th Street:
“You got a lotta nerve
To say you are my friend
When I was down
You just stood there grinning”
It happens also be what #NeverTrumps will be saying to Trump supporters not long from now.
Jewish voters are… or were… trending to the GOP:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2015/01/07/heavily-democratic-jewish-voters-inch-toward-the-gop/
As I’m now unofficially ex-GOP, (my local election board is dragging their heals on my request) I’d be surprised if Trump’s candidacy doesn’t throw a bucket of ice-cold water on that trend.
Nah. The Alt-right never cared for the free-market, small-government policies of the #nevertrump-ers. Trump is their rocket from obscurity and back to anonymity they’ll go.
Happy Memorial Day is like saying Happy Moment Of Silence, it sort of clanks.
The Democrats are like little Grover Dill in the Christmas Story, they’re tough and nasty only because they have the hulking media gorilla behind them to beat up their enemies. Trump recognizes this and gets right in the face of the media which is something many people have been waiting for after decades of seeing one wimpy Republican after another cower in fear. I am/was a Cruz supporter but if it’s Trump on one side vs. Hillary and her pet media on the other, I’ve got to go Trump.
This pushes the “Stockholm Syndrome” analysis past the breaking point. Nowhere in the podcast does Bozell sympathize with the media goals of the left. Additionally, do you deny all the work Bozell and the MRC has done to bring light to the silliness and group-think of the left? Besides, didn’t we just kick around Google’s obnoxious doodles? We should be skeptical of any olive branch from Zuckerberg/FB but it doesn’t hurt to be open.
Female perspective regarding the use of venues like Facebook to spread the conservative perspective: Totally true, I love sharing stuff from Ricochet or NR. The problem is that things are stated in a way that makes it so political that at times I don’t want to post it unless the opening sentences or main line is phrased in a way that is persuasive, funny, and/or winsome rather than merely a typical political line that everyone is weary of. I believe we have a handle on what is actually true to reality, so we can point things out in a way that resonates with the obviousness of their truth immediately, but we have to be clever rather than whining and complaining. Tone is everything, and there is a certain tone on social media that favors that which is more positive and very quick in the points it makes. We need happy warrior quotes, and like your guest said, they need to link to stories, personal stories that illustrate the point…rather than logical arguments.
The thud you just heard, EJ? That was my wife, fainting.
I’m having trouble downloading this episode. I have failed three ways. Even on this page, the episode seems to play from the start but freezes if I skip to the middle.
Try clearing your browser’s cache.
The podcast needs to spend a lot less time on the very thin analysis of Trump, reaction to Trump, why Trump annoys you and so forth.
He will be the candidate, there will be a donnybrook of an election, lots of conventional wisdom is going the way of military strategy in WW1 and the GOP voters are tired of running into machine guns while the comfortable class mutters about proper behavior and decorum, cavalry charges of the past and longing for a proper leader.
All it needs now is for Ricochet to brand it’s own water.
The most dismaying thing about this podcast was not Peter’s unfamiliarity with the work of Bob Dylan. That was amusing and endearing.
No, the most dismaying thing was Brent Bozell’s thinking that Charlie Daniels is an effective method of telling conservative “stories” and reaching non-conservatives and a new generation of potential conservatives.
Good grief. That is the kind of Squaresville thinking that is not amusing but rather is counterproductive.
How about the WWE?
I guess that’s a bit better. It is a nicely done piece. I don’t happen to know any kids or adults who watch WWE, but I’m not going to fall prey to Pauline Kael-like thinking.
Peter,
Last week, I said I was astonished (don’t remember the exact wording) by the fact that it was Rob who made the perfect social conservative argument in response to your (grudging) support of trump.
I think you misunderstood, and it may be that others are in the same boat I am. My comment was not intended to call your character into question at all. Rather, it was an expression of astonishment at the role reversal, with you taking the somewhat pragmatic approach and rob taking the firm principled approach.
I think we all go back and forth between those outlooks, especially where elections are concerned, but generally on the podcast, you and Rob are on the opposite sides.
I apologize if it came across as unduly harsh.
Your character remains as solid (in my mind, and likely most ricochetti) as it has always been.
-ryan
Coulter was far more respectable until very recently. I’ll trust Rob’s more knowledgeable opinion of her, but she is now a part of the commentary that I completely ignore. It seems like a waste.
A somewhat higher percentage than usual might be voting for the GOP, but don’t for a minute think it’s anywhere close to a majority.
If Peter had known Dylan lyrics, it would have been–to me–like the old Saturday Night Live sketch where Dana Carvey impersonates Jimmy Stewart describing how he wrote his poem “My Rocking Chair” after an adventure involving a bottle of tequila and a 16-year-old hooker in Tijuana.
Peter, please, don’t ever change.
Respectfully disagree. Trump is the story, and pretending otherwise doesn’t change things.
He is also unbelievably divisive, and pretending otherwise doesn’t change that either.
Something now feels off to me when I hear the plug for Ricochet. We are advertising civil, intelligent, right-leaning conversation – in the age of Trump. This website represents the exact opposite of Trump. He violates our CoC with practically every syllable, makes personal attacks, and does not have well-thought-out positions. Now when Rob Long reads the plug for people to join Ricochet, I feel like in a way he’s ignoring the fact that a huge number of right-leaning Americans just gave a big fat ‘no thanks’ to civil, right-leaning conversation. Republicans just nominated a guy who is the opposite of what this website is all about. That should probably be addressed somehow in the advertisements and the way the site is pitched.