Conservative Conversation + Podcasts

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By Gary McVey

Contributor

Gary McVey

| September 29, 2020 (4 Hours Ago)

8 COMMENTS

It’s forgotten today, but movie audiences of the Thirties were already entertained by the futuristic, soon-to-come possibilities of seeing distant news events as they actually happened. And they already knew it would be misused. Television news would be faked, in comedies to illicitly run up a TV company’s stock price, or in drama, to maliciously […]

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By MARTIN WORNATH

MARTIN WORNATH

I am a married, 59 year old Christian white guy. So yup, I'm at the top of the "oppressor" totem pole. I am a federal worker - specifically for the VA. And with my lovely wife and 18-year old son, I currently live in the Peoples Republic of Portland, Oregon. I enjoy movies and television, walking, church activities, golfing, and reading.

| September 28, 2020

I just wanted to say that I think it would be a mistake to think that President Trump is going to destroy Joe Biden in the debate tomorrow. In fact, I would be willing to bet that Joe Biden may end up “winning” the debate. Why do I think that? First of all, in the […]

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By OmegaPaladin

Moderator

OmegaPaladin

| September 28, 2020

I’d start by coming up with a solid goal. Destroying the world. or even destroying civilization, is pointless. I currently rule nothing, after destroying the world, I would still rule nothing, and have harder time getting toilet paper. Ruling the world is almost as bad. I have a target painted on my back 24-7, and […]

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Spotlight on Kids’ Welfare Blacked Out By TDS

By Bethany Mandel

Editor

Bethany Mandel

Bethany Mandel is a part-time editor at Ricochet and columnist at the Jewish Daily Forward. She is a stay-at-home mother of four kids, six years old and younger. She also is a co-host of That Sethany Show and LadyBrains Podcast.

| September 28, 2020

15 COMMENTS

In the New Yorker today I read a powerful piece about a young Baltimore student left utterly adrift by the sudden closure of his public school. It’s the kind of story that should have been written dozens of times in dozens of cities by now but hasn’t. We all know why.

The effect of Trump’s declaration was instantaneous. Teachers who had been responsive to the idea of returning to the classroom suddenly regarded the prospect much more warily. “Our teachers were ready to go back as long as it was safe,” Randi Weingarten, the longtime president of the American Federation of Teachers, told me. “Then Trump and DeVos played their political [malarkey].” Ryan Hooper, the former soldier, saw the effect on his colleagues. “It was really unhelpful,” he said.

If I Were CDC Director…

By OmegaPaladin

Moderator

OmegaPaladin

| September 28, 2020

7 COMMENTS

I would start by taking the various department heads in a room to get my point across: Professionalism and competence earn respect. At the beginning of the Wuhan Coronavirus pandemic, 80% of people in the US trusted the CDC for information on the pandemic. It is now near 50% and falling. If the CDC is not trusted by the American people to provide advice on a pandemic, what is its purpose? (Aside from paying bureaucrats.)

The CDC must be a conservative organization. One of Conquest’s laws of politics is that any organization that is not explicitly conservative will become liberal over time, so the CDC must be conservative. What this means in practice is a presumption against restricting people’s freedom. People need to take risks and determine what is safe. We give them information so that they can make an informed decision. When we practice quarantine and lockdown measures, it should be treated like going to war or invoking martial law – never done lightly.

That’s Not How Taxes Work

By Douglas Pratt

Douglas Pratt

I'm working on becoming a very old man, as slowly as possible. I've written nine books, but for the past few years I've embarked on a new career, narrating audiobooks for Audible.com. If you would like a free copy of any of my 48+ Audible narrations, drop me a note; they give me coupon codes when each new title is released. I have invented some strange and wonderful gadgets for model fliers, which I offer at http://www.pratt-hobbies.com/. I am the proud dad of a gunsmith/electrical engineer and… [more]

| September 28, 2020

27 COMMENTS

From Larry Correia, who is not only a bestselling author, but an accountant, on the New York Times’ Trump tax story: No, You Idiots. That’s Not How Taxes Work. – An Accountant’s Guide To Why You Are a Gullible Moron.

Of course the comments are all about the “morality” of paying your “fair share”. Which isn’t how any of this works in real life. Just stop it with your vapid hot takes already. You clearly have a child-like grasp of a complex topic, and your words are making America dumber.

Tom Ridge Sniffs Joe Biden’s Hair

By Rodin

Rodin

| September 28, 2020

66 COMMENTS

Former (Republican) Pennsylvania Governor and Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge has endorsed Joe Biden. Ridge has apparently never been enthralled by — first candidate and then President Trump — because “civility and respect, not … childish name-calling and [T]witter tirades.”

Yes, Biden is truly civil and respectful. Just ask Justice Clarence Thomas. If you want to be disgusted by the electronic lynching conducted by a “civil and respectful” man read through Ann Althouse’s post this morning.

Member Post

By ctlaw

ctlaw

| September 28, 2020

22 COMMENTS

CNN is trying to figure out how to blame Donald Trump. Read More View Post

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By Dr. Bastiat

Dr. Bastiat

I grew up on a hog farm in Ohio. I practice concierge medicine in Hilton Head, SC. I'm a bleeding heart conservative - I hate statism because it is heartless - it suppresses the potential of its subjects, it focuses on equal distribution of misery rather than maximizing potential for joy, and it tends to make liars and thieves of nearly everyone. I'm much more of an ideological conservative than a political Republican. I find the heterogeneity of the right stimulating, and the homoge… [more]

| September 28, 2020

26 COMMENTS

I continue to read here and elsewhere how important tomorrow’s debate is. If Biden looks lost, he’s toast. If Trump sounds rude, he’s toast. And so on. And I understand that point of view. But, well… Well, actually, no; I don’t understand that point of view. Who on earth could possibly be undecided at this […]

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Bloom Where You’re Planted

By She

Reagan

She

"She can milk She brews good ale She can sew She can knit She can wash and scour She can spin She hath many nameless virtues . . ." She is a recovering IT professional living on a farm in Southwestern Pennsylvania with numerous sheep, goats, rabbits, cats, dogs, and a long-suffering husband. Anyone wishing to know more about She can find Her at rightwingknitjob.com, or can email Her with the name"ricochetshe" at the address of the server that handles google mail. Blogging, on my own recognizance… [more]

| September 28, 2020

23 COMMENTS

I’ve had the dickens of a time coming up with something to say about this month’s group writing topic which, to recapitulate is, “if I was a —, I would —.”

Fortunately, in the midst of expostulating about several unwelcome events in my life right now (like the recent, untimely, and–as it turns out–very expensive demise of my refrigerator only a decade into its young life), I expressed that frustration to a Ricochet friend who made a few suggestions which set me on a different path to those I’d been struggling with (thank you very much). As a result of that, here I still am, and here we go (not quite fully in line with the prescribed structure, but, as with everything else in my life it’s the best I can do, and if it’s not good enough, read no further or–as my dear departed mother would often say–“just do the other thing”).

Officer Discretion

By Doug Watt

Moderator

Doug Watt

| September 28, 2020

28 COMMENTS

I was asked in a comment how I would have handled a situation that has gone viral on YouTube. A woman attending her son’s football game was confronted for not wearing a mask. She refused to leave the game and was tased, handcuffed, and then removed from the game. You can find the video on the internet so I’m not going to include it in the post.

My personal belief is that police officers assigned as school resource officers can be misused by school administrators. They end up enforcing administrative rules rather than state statutes concerning criminal law that has been legislated by elected officials.

Member Post

By Freeven

Freeven

Freeven is a member of Ricochet.

| September 28, 2020

11 COMMENTS

I was reading the Wikipedia entry for Amy Coney Barrett and found this line curious: Barrett was a member of the Federalist Society from 2005 to 2006 and from 2014 to 2017. Read More View Post

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An Empty SCOTUS Seat: Epstein & Yoo on Ginsburg, Barrett, the Hearings, and the Future of the Court

By Peter Robinson

Founder

Peter Robinson

Peter Robinson, former Reagan speechwriter, wrote the historic Berlin Wall address in which President Reagan urged Mikhail Gorbachev to "tear down this wall!" Peter Robinson is now a research fellow at the Hoover Institution and hosts the interview program "Uncommon Knowledge." Peter is a co-founder of Ricochet.

| September 28, 2020

3 COMMENTS

John Yoo is a professor at the University of California–Berkeley School of Law and a visiting fellow at the Hoover Institution. Richard Epstein is a professor of law at NYU, a professor of law emeritus at the University of Chicago, and a fellow at the Hoover Institution. In this wide-ranging discussion, recorded the day after Amy Coney Barrett accepted President Trump’s nomination to the Supreme Court, the professors discuss Barrett’s qualifications and why it was correct and proper to nominate her now—five weeks before an election. They also provide, based on her writings on stare decisis (the legal principle of determining points in litigation according to precedent), insight on how Barrett may rule on some issues sure to be put to in front of the court in the near future, including abortion. Finally, Epstein and Yoo remember Ruth Bader Ginsburg, whom they both knew personally, and discuss her career, both as a jurist and as an activist.

If I Could Change 1 Big Life Decision, I’d Listen to My Faculty Advisor

By RushBabe49

Thatcher

RushBabe49

Born & raised in WA, work in aerospace industry. I play violin. I'm Business Survey Chair of ISM-Western WA.

| September 28, 2020

30 COMMENTS

I was a psychology major in college, for the wrong reason. Earlier, when I was in junior high school, my parents took me to the University of Washington Adolescent Clinic. It was their opinion that I was a screwed-up kid, and needed help. In my opinion, I was just fine, and someone else in the family was the problem. But since I was the kid, parents ruled. The intake procedure for the clinic was a big meeting around a conference table, with me, my mother, and four clinicians, including a psychiatrist. They asked me and my mom questions, and we answered. I enjoyed the meeting and answered everyone’s questions honestly. After the meeting, I met with the psychiatrist, a very nice lady. What she told me was that I was correct. I was fine. Mom was the problem. That took a huge weight off me, and I decided then and there that I wanted to be a psychologist when I grew up. Uh, wrong.

So I majored in psychology at college. I really, really wanted to be a counselor, so I could help kids like I was helped. In my senior year of college, I was required to take a course called “Research Participation”, or “rat-running” in the local psych slang. I had to design an experiment involving running rats through a maze; compile the data; and write a paper with the results. I had no real interest in research, but I did it anyway. I came up with the bright idea of exposing one group of rats to loud noise, and the other group of rats to no noise; run them all through the maze afterward, and see if the two groups’ performance was different. My lab partner was my boyfriend, who was afraid of rats! So I handled the rats, and he compiled the data. We found some really screechy music, and I took the record to the AV lab and made a continuous loop of tape with this really awful music, to play for the study group of rats (the others were the control group). Then, every night for a week, I would go to the lab and for an hour I played the noise for the study rats, then spend some time with the control rats, so they all saw me for the same length of time.

Dear Never Trumpers: If Trump Is So Unpopular Then Why…

By The Cloaked Gaijin

The Cloaked Gaijin

| September 28, 2020

19 COMMENTS

…is President Trump doing better in the polls in many states than the more traditional establishment Republicans?

Looking at RealClearPolitics:

Picture Worth 1,000 Unrelated Words

By Vance Richards

Vance Richards

Never you mind about me.

| September 28, 2020

I just saw this in my LinkedIn feed.

Member Post

By Douglas Pratt

Douglas Pratt

| September 28, 2020

0 COMMENTS

My narration of Last Stop, Carnegie Hall was published today on Audible and iTunes. Unless you’re heavily into classical music you might not give this title a second look, but you’d be missing a gem. William Vacchiano was more than a gifted musician. He was principal trumpet for the NY Philharmonic under conductors including Bernstein, […]

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Durham Report Delayed Until After Election

By Rodin

Rodin

| September 28, 2020

27 COMMENTS

Gateway Pundit is reporting that the Durham “report” will not see the light of day until after the election. Is this a gack of monumental proportions or a “ho hum?” Those of us who are convinced that the most epic treasonous conduct is about to be disclosed are justifiably outraged that this information is being withheld from the public at a critical time of decision. Those of us that see nothing wrong with the patriotic Americans using whatever tool was at hand to deny effective power to Orange Man Bad will see any other decision as mere political opportunism coordinated by and at the behest of the President.

In other words, nothing changes. Each group fears that without the “correct” timing of the report, the election will be improperly influenced. Denying important information for undecideds in the view of one; propagandizing undecideds in the view of the other.