The Waiting Game

This week, it’s all about the waiting: Jonah’s waiting for the cable guy, John is waiting for Kol Nidre, Rob is waiting for a pitch. Also, everything you’ve always wanted to know about Yom Kippur, the Emmy’s, what’s the deal with peak TV, Scott Walker quits, Carly rises, a mediation on practical politics, and the guys reveal their Secret Service code names. What’s yours?

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There are 32 comments.

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  1. John Hendrix Thatcher
    John Hendrix
    @JohnHendrix

    AH!  JPOD now has the Twitter verify check!

    Welcome to the dark side, jpod!

    • #1
  2. mezzrow Member
    mezzrow
    @mezzrow

    I am a Southern boy brought up in the Baptist faith, but my friend Joshua and his lovely wife came through town this holiday weekend. We made a nice slow brisket with some kasha and bowties and a lovely tsimmes.

    I feel as though I have atoned. With leftovers. Plus you get wine.

    Try getting some wine to go with your fried chicken and green bean casserole when you stay for dinner on the ground at my former church. Not going to happen. But, there is banana pudding. It’s like a Baptist tsimmes, but it comes at the end. Well, if you’re lucky, and you’ve been good, it does.

    • #2
  3. Stephen Dawson Inactive
    Stephen Dawson
    @StephenDawson

    Does Harry’s Shave’s German factory use special code to ease regulatory burdens?

    • #3
  4. Cat III Member
    Cat III
    @CatIII

    I appreciate the guys’ comments on customer service. I work in a call center (not for Verizon) and I can attest that we get a lot of calls from people that, we as low level employees, are unable to help. It’s easy to understand customers’ frustrations, but options are limited for the person on the other end of the line.

    • #4
  5. Eustace C. Scrubb Member
    Eustace C. Scrubb
    @EustaceCScrubb

    JP – We were also told by people running that they would force Obama to veto bill after bill. They did lie about that.

    And if James Lileks teaches a course in the Great Courses on Transitions, J-Pod should take it.

    • #5
  6. Brayden Smith Member
    Brayden Smith
    @

    My two cents (if it’s even worth that):

    I like the podcast, but it seems to meander for long periods of time to things that aren’t exactly culture, which I gather is the theme of the show. Walker is obviously big in the news, and when isn’t Trump, but I think Need to Know and the Flagship podcast cover presidential politics every week. If you’re talking about the culture behind it, that’s great, but after reading Jonah at NRO and John on Commentary, reruns of the Trump Show leave a bad taste in my mouth.

    The part I love the most is the talking about TV, movies, and books, which is why Rob (the insider), Jonah (the “normal” TV/movie guy) and John (the high culture critic) have the show. The Emmy talk was great, but the recommendations and reviews of TV/movies were only squeezed in at the end.

    Ricochet is killing it in general, especially the podcasts. If Ricochet podcasts were sort of like an audio version of National Review/Weekly Standard, though, we’ve got a few blank pages under the “Books and Arts” section.

    • #6
  7. Hank Rhody Contributor
    Hank Rhody
    @HankRhody

    Brayden Smith: I like the podcast, but it seems to meander for long periods of time to things that aren’t exactly culture, which I gather is the theme of the show.

    The show started as “The Goldberg, Podhoretz and Long Podcast”, for which they couldn’t find a suitable name. Ricochetti dubbed it the “GLoP” podcast from the initials, to which the podcasters initially objected. Wouldn’t you? Podhoretz figured out the final name because their discussions wandered into pop culture more often the other Ricochet podcasts, and somehow adding a pun made it better.

    So yeah, it’s sort of a theme, but from the beginning it wasn’t so.

    • #7
  8. Hank Rhody Contributor
    Hank Rhody
    @HankRhody

    I’d like to point out, Mr. Podhoretz, that taking the Animal House approach [CoC warning] to your explanations isn’t likely to engender trust in the future.

    • #8
  9. Jager Coolidge
    Jager
    @Jager

    Hank Rhody:I’d like to point out, Mr. Podhoretz, that taking the Animal House approach [CoC warning] to your explanations isn’t likely to engender trust in the future.

    Yeah, so politicians make wild promises to get votes but the real problem is that the voters are not smart or educated enough to realize that these campaign promises can not possibly happen. This is your best defense of Republicans and you still wonder why outside candidates are taking 50% of the polls?

    • #9
  10. RJCool Member
    RJCool
    @RJCool

    As I understand it, if Verizon was Jewish they could merely atone for Jonah’s poor service and all would be forgiven.  Where can I sign up?

    • #10
  11. Benjamin Glaser Inactive
    Benjamin Glaser
    @BenjaminGlaser

    For Christ has not entered the holy places made with hands, which are copies of the true, but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us; not that He should offer Himself often, as the high priest enters the Most Holy Place every year with blood of another. He then would have had to suffer often since the foundation of the world; but now, once at the end of the ages, He has appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself.” — Hebrews 9:24-26

    • #11
  12. Mate De Inactive
    Mate De
    @MateDe

    Jager:

    Hank Rhody:I’d like to point out, Mr. Podhoretz, that taking the Animal House approach [CoC warning] to your explanations isn’t likely to engender trust in the future.

    Yeah, so politicians make wild promises to get votes but the real problem is that the voters are not smart or educated enough to realize that these campaign promises can not possibly happen. This is your best defense of Republicans and you still wonder why outside candidates are taking 50% of the polls?

    I think the issue with the fellas in the podcast in general is the Rise of Trump, they really don’t know why THIS GUY is the one that is getting the support. I’ve been listening to the callers on some talk shows and many of the people know full well that Trump is not a conservative and do understand that, but their support of Trump is that he is a fighter. Democrats for years play with the rules and use backdoor methods to userp the will of the people, and Trump supporters want that. They are tired of pundits and politicians saying, we have rules and laws and the president has veto power and we can’t shut down the government, meanwhile the Democrats seem to do whatever they want and get away with it. That is the reason people support Trump, they do know he’s not a conservative.  I’m not a Trump gal but I know why people are supporting him.

    • #12
  13. RPD Inactive
    RPD
    @RPD

    They try to make the case that the Presidency requires and experienced politician, and then put up Obama as an example.  In what way is inexperience the problem with the guy? It’s his value and goals, which he has been successful in promoting and ramming through, which has been the issue.  We should be so lucky to get a conservative amateur who is as successful at getting his his way.

    • #13
  14. Benjamin Glaser Inactive
    Benjamin Glaser
    @BenjaminGlaser

    Some of our best Presidents had almost no elected experience (Washington, Lincoln, Eisenhower to name three).

    • #14
  15. rod Inactive
    rod
    @rod

    if you guys don’t know what the republican establishment is, it’s because you are the republican establishment.

    • #15
  16. Solon JF Inactive
    Solon JF
    @Solon

    We are lucky to have these guys on ‘our side’. The analysis of the presidential race and Trumpcito was helpful.

    • #16
  17. Commodore BTC Inactive
    Commodore BTC
    @CommodoreBTC

    as Cruz says, tell the truth, and do what you said you would do

    DC polls/media get mad because Cruz is telling the truth about McConnell/Boehner not doing what they said they would do when they campaigned

    • #17
  18. Carey J. Inactive
    Carey J.
    @CareyJ

    Cat III:I appreciate the guys’ comments on customer service. I work in a call center (not for Verizon) and I can attest that we get a lot of calls from people that, we as low level employees, are unable to help. It’s easy to understand customers’ frustrations, but options are limited for the person on the other end of the line.

    Correct. The people who take customer service calls typically make $10-$15/hr. The turnover is so high that most of them have been in their jobs less than a year. Very few have been in their jobs three years. A cable TV call center has literally hundreds of people taking calls whenever they’re open.

    Here’s a question for you folks who hate customer service. If you were running a billion dollar company, would you give any real authority to hundreds of new employees who don’t make much more than minimum wage?

    • #18
  19. Carey J. Inactive
    Carey J.
    @CareyJ

    Rubio is considered “establishment” because he allowed himself to be co-opted by the establishment. Remember the Gang of Eight? It’s a typical establishment ploy: take a charismatic newcomer and entice him into becoming part of the problem, instead of the solution.

    • #19
  20. Carey J. Inactive
    Carey J.
    @CareyJ

    One of the secrets of Trump’s support is that the Republican base hates the Republican Party donor class. All of the “conventional” candidates are dependent on the donor class, because they need their money.

    Trump isn’t dependent on the donors. He has enough money to fund a credible campaign out of his own pockets. This freaks the donors out. How do you bribe someone who’s worth billions of dollars? How do you threaten someone who doesn’t need anything you have to offer? That’s what’s behind the War on Trump. It’s not about whether Trump would or would not be a good President. It’s about the donors’ inability to control him.

    And even genuinely conservative politicians are freaked out. They resent Trump because he routinely ignores the rules they have to play by.

    • #20
  21. Carey J. Inactive
    Carey J.
    @CareyJ

    We have the Export/Import Bank because the donor class likes it, and the GOP establishment is owned in fee simple absolute by the donor class.

    • #21
  22. Miffed White Male Member
    Miffed White Male
    @MiffedWhiteMale

    Rob, nice save on the S-Bomb during the Podcast.

    • #22
  23. Fredösphere Inactive
    Fredösphere
    @Fredosphere

    Waaait a minute–what’s the first oldest monotheistic religion?

    • #23
  24. Podkayne of Israel Inactive
    Podkayne of Israel
    @PodkayneofIsrael

    RJCool:As I understand it, if Verizon was Jewish they could merely atone for Jonah’s poor service and all would be forgiven. Where can I sign up?

    No, according to Maimonides’ “Laws of Repentance”, Verizon would have to make amends to Jonah himself first. And it would not be considered complete repentance until Verizon found itself in the same position to give Jonah poor service as before, with the same possible profit margin as before, and yet rejected that option and given him excellent service.

    The Lord G-d of Israel is long-suffering, full of loving-kindness and Truth.

    • #24
  25. Hank Rhody Contributor
    Hank Rhody
    @HankRhody

    So on the subject of waiting for the cable guy to show up why don’t we track them like package deliveries?

    You get an email with a link in it. The associated webpage says “Cable Guy X is assigned to your problem. You are number eight in the queue. On average it takes him N minutes to resolve problems. Given travel time, we expect he could make it as early as <low estimate> but he might not get there until <high estimate.>”

    And then update it every time your cable tech finishes a job. If he’s not going to get there before the end of the shift, warn the customer as soon as it becomes remotely likely and keep them updated.

    • #25
  26. Petty Boozswha Inactive
    Petty Boozswha
    @PettyBoozswha

    I think you guys dismiss how much people are gaming the polls at this stage, I think there is a lot of strategic/protest voting for Trump, in the same way I don’t think Cain or Santorum had much real support last time but the voters wanted to hold the door open for Mitch Daniels. I also think educated voters have plenty of reasons to be furious with the Vichy leadership of McConnell. When Harry Reid wanted to pack the DC circuit he changed the filibuster rule the way Trump would trade in a wife for a new model. We were promised a bill on Obama’s desk every week that would draw distinctions between the parties and set us up for 2016, where are those bills.

    • #26
  27. Cat III Member
    Cat III
    @CatIII

    Carey J.:

    Cat III:I appreciate the guys’ comments on customer service. I work in a call center (not for Verizon) and I can attest that we get a lot of calls from people that, we as low level employees, are unable to help. It’s easy to understand customers’ frustrations, but options are limited for the person on the other end of the line.

    Correct. The people who take customer service calls typically make $10-$15/hr. The turnover is so high that most of them have been in their jobs less than a year. Very few have been in their jobs three years. A cable TV call center has literally hundreds of people taking calls whenever they’re open.

    Here’s a question for you folks who hate customer service. If you were running a billion dollar company, would you give any real authority to hundreds of new employees who don’t make much more than minimum wage?

    A lot of the problem lies with the consumer. People hate customer service, but they hate high prices more. Hiring lots of experienced Americans is expensive and the public hasn’t been willing to make the trade-off.

    Not that the companies should be let off the hook. They’re massive bureaucracies themselves. May fortune befall the man who finds a way to improve the customer service model of major corporations.

    • #27
  28. kylez Member
    kylez
    @kylez

    Fredösphere:Waaait a minute–what’s the first oldest monotheistic religion?

    I thought he might have been referring to pharoah Akhenaten, Tut’s dad, who started monotheistic worship, and changed his name accordingly. This was in the 14th c. b.c., and i think predates the writing of the Torah/Pentateuch. Watching a program on this a few years ago, they described this as the world’s first monotheistic religion, and I suppose that has become a fashion, but is bogus, since the early events of the Torah – Noah, Abraham etc. – predate Akhenaten by centuries. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Akhenaten

    The Wikipedia page for Abraham claims “the majority of scholars believe” the Torah was written during the Persian exile. I have no idea if the majority of scholars really believe that, but it is ridiculous, and that argument sounds like global warming “consensus” territory to me. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abraham

    • #28
  29. Fredösphere Inactive
    Fredösphere
    @Fredosphere

    kylez:

    Fredösphere:Waaait a minute–what’s the first oldest monotheistic religion?

    I thought he might have been referring to pharoah Akhenaten, Tut’s dad, who started monotheistic worship, and changed his name accordingly.

    That dude came to my mind too. But even if you accept the timing, Akhenaten’s religion would be merely the earliest monotheism. Hardly the oldest, if by “old” you mean “age”–it’s shelf life was one generation.

    • #29
  30. Eric Wallace Inactive
    Eric Wallace
    @EricWallace

    As Rob was talking about, what’s the best book (or books) to read about the LBJ presidency?

    • #30
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