Elon and the mainstream conversation in Britain and America
Russia Might Be Going Broke Over Ukraine War
When commentators talk about whether the Russians or the Ukrainians are winning the war between their two countries, much attention is paid to the Russians gaining territory, even though Russia was only able to gain about 0.7 percent of Ukraine’s territory in the entire year of 2024, at an estimated cost of 420,000 Russian soldiers killed, wounded or captured. But less attention has been paid to the engines of war, the economy. At first, it seemed that economic sanctions placed on Russia by the United States, Europe and Japan were not having much impact on Russia’s economy. In more recent times, however, Russia’s economy does seem to be having difficulties.
Here is the Financial Times with an article on this topic.
Movies in the Sky
When I was a movie projectionist, the highest-paid union brothers in Local 306 threaded up reels of film, like I did, but they never entered a movie theater. They worked on airplanes, but they never left the ground. Not on the job, anyway. They were technicians for Inflight Motion Pictures, entrepreneurial pioneers and, briefly, a factor in Hollywood. In an age when regulated air tickets were much costlier, a non-stop coast-to-coast or international jetliner ride was a symbol of elite status. In 1961, TWA was first to offer the added luxury of passing the flight time watching a movie.
Inflight Motion Pictures controlled the proprietary technology. IMP technicians were the only ones permitted to handle the films, which had to be taken out, rewound, and reset for each flight. IMP was also an intermediary between the airlines and the studios. The compromises they worked out shaped the tone of most airline movies for decades to come; above all, inoffensive. Not unreasonable. Though it’s easy to make fun of censor cuts and blandness, most travelers prefer soothing to edgy. Dramas and historical films can fit the formula, but romcoms have become airline movies par excellence.
The Worst Mayor in America
After Lori Lightfoot was voted out of the mayor’s seat in Chicago following her calamitous tenure, I dearly hoped that the residents of Chicago had come to their senses about progressive mayors and would vote for someone who had some understanding of fiscal responsibility and the role of a big city mayor.
It was not to be.
Which of those decisions turned out to be mistakes?
Palisades fire from PTZ Camera on roof of high rise in Downtown. Wikimedia Commons
As with most enormous disasters, there wasn’t just one simple mistake that led to the Los Angeles fires. There appear to be many decisions, made over the course of many years, by many different people, that led to our present circumstance, in which something like this was possible. Interestingly, all of them were decisions made by leftists, in the interest of advancing leftism. For example:
California Democrats Will Need to Make Things Worse
It is probably time for the California legislature to increase taxes, impose more regulatory burdens, find new ways to punish mainstream views regarding sex and sexuality, and mandate even deeper adherence to the dogma of anthropogenic climate change. If that seems counterintuitive, I invite you to think of that august body as part of a living parasite with finely honed survival skills rather than the expected product of democratic processes. Creating pain is a survival strategy. I will explain.
The entity has its solid voting core of welfare dependency and government-funded jobs, but it is still logistically and fiscally very difficult to make that into a clear majority. The core has to be supplemented by stoking fear about a massive, yet remarkably well-concealed, white racist movement so as to get productively employed people to vote their ethnic identity rather than their natural interest in competent, lean government. Similarly, young women and those with unconventional sexual preferences must be made to fear that a right-wing movement is poised to deny them a wide range of bad choices.
A Rock and County Music Giant
Carl Perkins wrote “Blue Suede Shoes,” a 1950s rock-and-roll anthem. One of Sun Studio’s original fabulous four, along with Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash, and Jerry Lee Lewis, he inspired other musicians, including the Beatles. Yet he is largely forgotten today.
Carl Perkins: The King of Rockabilly, by Jeff Apter, is a new biography of Perkins. It puts Perkins and his contributions to rock and roll in context, explaining why Perkins is often overlooked.
The son of a sharecropper, a member of a poor white family in Tipton, Tennessee, Perkins born in the 1930s, grew up in a shack without electricity or running water. As a child he picked cotton alongside other field hands, white and black, having dropped out of school in eighth grade to support his family.
California An Ideological Dumpster Fire
Ain’t diversity grand! Just ask California Governor Gavin Newsom. Just ask L.A. Mayor Karen Bass (recently back from Africa). Just ask L.A. LGBTQ fire chief Kristin Crowley. Just ask virtually anyone in a position of power in that once great state, now literally burning and coming apart at the seams. Diversity, Equity, Inclusion! Shout it to the heavens!
And run for your lives.
In Defense of Ethnic Discrimination
We’ve got all the wrong people in charge in this country. Thankfully, I don’t live in Los Angeles, but if I did, I would not want a lesbian named Kristin Crowley in charge of the fire department. The LA Fire Department website boasts, “Chief Crowley took the oath of office on March 25, 2022 – becoming the first female and LGBTQ Fire Chief in the LAFD. Chief Crowley leads a diverse department.” That’s not gonna save my house or life in an emergency.
The Irish have run American fire departments for a century or more. I want a tough Irishman named Murphy in charge of the fire department. Someone who looks like he could drink all night with the boys and still haul you out of a flaming building the next day. Someone who might have engaged in a few fisticuffs in his day. Someone who would run toward the fire and not toward a TV camera.
With this episode the Three Whisky Happy Hour emigrates into its very own identity on Ricochet and Steve’s new group Substack, “Political Questions,” but not to worry—the old Power Line Show will live on in its old format as an interview show. The 3WHH, meanwhile, is rebooting with some new formats. We’ll be doing some show with a single-subject format; on some we’ll do a round robin of hot topics and reflections on currtent news items, and we’ll even have some guests from time to time, as well as emergency shows when somethingbig happens—or we get a new single malt in whose virtues we just have to share.
And having completed our emigration to a new logo and format, it seemed only logical that we’d take up as our primary focus this week the issue of immigration, with an attempt at an orderly procession through the key aspects of the matter: How much is too much? Should we have an immigration pause? What’s up with the H1-B visa controversy anyway? How should skills-based immigration be done, and should we move to some kind of point- or auction system to regulate immigration.
Interesting Times in the 2025 Minnesota Legislature
On Tuesday, January 14, 2025, Minnesota’s 94th legislative session is due to be called into order by Steve Simon, Minnesota’s elected secretary of state. What happens next in the MN House of Representatives is a constitutional crisis. The basic facts:
The MN State Senate also has interesting times ahead. In November, Minnesota voters elected 34 Democratic Senators and 33 Republican Senators. However, one of the Democratic Senators died in December, and there is a special election in a few weeks. That district is solidly Democratic (probably Plus 40), and it is unlikely a Republican will win. In addition to this situation, one of the Democratic senators is currently being tried for burglarizing her stepmother’s house (a fun story in itself). The senator is begging the court to postpone the trial. All Republican senators and several Democrat senators are on record recommending that Senator Burglar resign or not be seated. We’ll see how that turns out.
Saturday Night Radio
On our last episode, our hero … Sorry. On our last episode, we showcased a beautiful 1937 model Zenith radio, so we’ll keep the chronology going with a 1938 Philco Model 38-5x. Another beauty! Our last show also had a picture of Jack Benny in “The Big Broadcast of 1937.” We’ll keep that chronology going, too, with “The Big Broadcast of 1938.” A fun comedy with an all-star cast about a transatlantic boat race. (What if the Pacific identified as the Atlantic? Would it be trans-Atlantic?) “The Big Broadcast of 1938” is notable, too, as the film in which Bob Hope debuted what would become his signature song, “Thanks for the Memory.” The song would further go on to win the 1938 Oscar® for “Best Song” …
Quote of the Day – Envy
The envious man seeks not his own gain, But the fall of another, And in his malice, loses his soul, For the gods despise such hearts. – Euripides
There are massive wildfires running out of control in the Los Angeles Basin. They have been burning all week and will likely continue until they burn themselves out. The local and state governments have failed utterly at stopping them and will likely continue failing until the fires run out of fuel.
The Palestinians Will Never Accept Israel’s Existence
Week after week, we’ve watched Hamas “negotiating” with Israel for a ceasefire. Recently, participants and observers were celebrating that headway was being made, but as usual, Hamas broke off activities once again. The terrorists remain focused on their major goal: driving Israelis into the sea. Any agreement short of that will be a failure to them.
So why do these negotiations continue? What does either side hope to accomplish? Exploring the issues on both sides has been a passion of mine; I admit that I am a Jew and have visited Israel several times, but not lately. Still, like most Westerners, I want to live to see peace in the Middle East. A book I just read was probably intended to suggest there was a way to peace. After I finished reading it, however, the possibility of reaching a practical and workable agreement seems extremely unlikely.
It’s finally here: 2025! And your favorite podcast is finally back in order to maintain some continuity in these tempestuous times. James, Charles and Steve cover raging fires in Los Angeles and the jaw-dropping incompetence of the Golden State’s leadership. On a cheerier note, they enjoy the changes taking place in Canada and at Meta, Inc.
Plus, Dan MacLaughlin joins today to discuss Jimmy Carter’s legacy, and, given Dan’s title as the baseball crank, the gang has at a few questions on the great American game.
Will They Rebuild Los Angeles?
Far Left Prioritizes Its Victims Using an Anti-Creation Ruler
Ann is back from her holiday break with stories you may have missed since her last show:
Obama Bros Trash Biden’s Old, Tired & Feckless Rhetoric
A special free speech edition of the pod! Meta’s Mark Zuckerberg says he’s returning Facebook back to its free speech roots, while Elon and X make waves in the United Kingdom by bringing the “grooming gang” scandals back to the forefront.
We talk to First Amendment lawyer Tom Julin and round it out with the Parting Shot.
Quote of the Day: What’s happiness all about, anyway?
“I am determined to be cheerful and happy in whatever situation I may find myself. For I have learned that the greater part of our misery or unhappiness is determined not by our circumstance but by our disposition. The greatest part of our happiness depends on our dispositions, not our circumstances.” — Martha Washington
There is something quintessentially American about this assertion. You can make of yourself and your life whatever you choose. Sometimes it means blinding yourself to events that can easily ruin your day. I do a fair share of counseling and I often ask someone with a tendency to complain if they are an optimist or a pessimist, to which they frequently respond, “I’m neither. I’m a realist.” To which I respond, “You mean you’re a pessimist.” What people define as reality invariably appears bleak and dark to them.
Beyond the Polls is back! This week, Henry sits down with the Washington Post’s Jason Willick to go over Donald Trump’s haul ahead of his second inauguration. The duo speculates on everything from the president-elect’s comments about desired new territories, defense aspirations, and tariffs, before considering how all of this fits with the MAGA coalition and how his maneuvers will play with the judiciary that Trump helped build in term one.
Plus, Henry surveys the electorate’s sentiments on presidents past and present as laid out in the latest Economist/YouGov poll.
Team of Giants
I love telling stories, which is one reason why most of my audiobooks are histories and biographies. Even when the writing is dry and academic, some historical characters are always entertaining to read about. When a book comes along that is not only focused on remarkable people but written by a gifted storyteller, it lights me up. My 89th audiobook is just that. I had an absolute blast producing it, and I think it’s one of the best books I’ve done.
Team of Giants by Matt Bernstein focuses on the years leading up to and including the Spanish-American War. Any book with Theodore Roosevelt in it can’t go wrong. Add in William Randolph Hearst and General “Fighting Joe” Wheeler, and you’re in for a great ride. This narrative also includes Hearst’s father George, the Silver King, who was a miner with an almost intuitive gift for prospecting; Richard Harding Davis, the hyper-competitive newspaperman; and the strange, antisocial, consumptive writer Stephen Crane following TR’s band as a reporter.
TR, of course, dreamed for years of leading a regiment of cowboys into battle, and in 1898 he got his wish. He endured personal tragedy and toughened himself building ranches in the Badlands on the way. William Randolph Hearst was standing the world of New York newspapers on its ear, with spectacular yellow journalism, and equipped a steamboat as a mobile printing facility to produce the first English language newspaper in Cuba during the war. General Wheeler was a Confederate war hero who was determined to prove that he and his fellows were good, patriotic Americans, even if it meant fighting in Cuba when he was deathly ill and could hardly stand. Their stories will lead you to an understanding of the times that began the American Century.
