Ricochet is the best place on the internet to discuss the issues of the day, either through commenting on posts or writing your own for our active and dynamic community in a fully moderated environment. In addition, the Ricochet Audio Network offers over 50 original podcasts with new episodes released every day.
I start today’s podcast saying I’m sick of talking about Trump and then…we talk about Trump. Which is suggestive of everything about American politics at this moment. Then: did Maui’s emergency management chief do an honorable thing or a cowardly thing quitting his job in the middle of the disaster? Give a listen.
Subscribe to The Commentary Magazine Podcast in Apple Podcasts (and leave a 5-star review, please!), or by RSS feed. For all our podcasts in one place, subscribe to the Ricochet Audio Network Superfeed in Apple Podcasts or by RSS feed.
The problem with the official in Hawaii is not whether he was fired or resigned (he was fired), it is that he, like so many other Biden appointees, is completely unqualified for his job and should never have been hired! They won’t come outright and say he was fired because that would make it Biden’s fault, which indeed, it is.
His entire cabinet falls into this category – Buttigieg, Mayorkas, Grandholm, Harris …
Abe’s recommendation of Wake in Fright prompted me to watch the film last night. I have generally unmixed feelings about Australia a country that seems to punch above its weight not only because it is invariably on the right side of its international responsibilities but also because in the many years, I lived in the UK the many Aussies I met were decent hard-working folk whose lack of pretension and general amiability made them good companions. This film presents an alternative nightmarish vision of the Australian character as a poisonous mixture of heavy drinking allied to threatening and aggressive male bonding rituals. There is a term probably now passé called Ocker or Ockerism which is what Australians themselves use to describe this substratum of the Australian male. The late Barry Humphries even had a character built around this -Sir Les Patterson- a drunken philistine who was the louche version of Dame Edna Everage.
Despite Australia being called ” The Lucky Country” what is shown in the film is an Outback so remote and joyless that it breeds binge drinking,gratuitous violence(the kangaroo slaughter is hard to watch),and for any thinking person a wish to get a ticket to London . All this is probably unfair but the film very effectively draws you into watching the descent of the lead character into this hell . So many thanks again Abe for the recommendation.
Last December I saw a joint The Temptations and The Four Tops show. One hour for each group and one elderly survivor for each group. Great concert!