Mona went splat and broke her wrist, but still shows up. She and Jay talk trade, Amazon and its critics, election fraud, Deep Fake fraud, Jim Acosta, entitlements, and the passing of three notable men.
Music from this week’s episode: “Sea Murmurs,” by Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco, played by Brinton Averil Smith (cello) and (his wife) Evelyn Chen (piano)
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Hope Mona gets well soon!
And I absolutely agree with Jay and Mona’s take on Jim Acosta: He didn’t deserve to be kicked out of the White House press corps.
And Jay and Mona are correct, too, when they say that both parties — Republicans and Democrats alike — make spurious charges of fraud when it suits their interests. For this reason, they should both be ashamed of themselves.
And Jay has the right idea about candidates who concede defeat with grace and humility: Hat’s off to all of them!
(Full disclosure: The above comments were made without benefit of listening to the podcast. Once I knew what the topics were, I pretty much knew what J&M’s takes would be).
Acosta is a grandstanding prima donna mic hog. If the administration wanted to ruin him for life, they’d just keep letting him talk until the rest of the media gang up and pry the mic from his hands. He’s a less talented, less restrained Helen Thomas.
I’m sorry, but this is silly, to comment before you heard it.
I am, frankly, disappointed in Jay. Matter of fact, he continues to disappoint. His cynical comments about Martha McSally’s concession being easy because she will be in the Senate anyhow were cheap and totally unnecessary. First of all, it is not a done deal that Kyl will resign; it is likely. But he gave an interview to Hugh Hewitt, in which he said that he was not sure what he was so going to do. Jay’s seat-of-pants cynicism is unkind. For someone who accuses Trump – rightly – of the same thing, it is particularly galling.
P.S. I do join Filmklassik in wishing Mona well. I fell and put my elbow out of joint once. Aside from making one feel stupid, it can be quite painful. Before it is set right, even getting it x-rayed can make one wanna cry!
Silly? No doubt. But tell me this: Were my speculations correct, or incorrect?
Well, I certainly believe the one about Jay was off track, as I stated. Mona got it right, by saying that Martha was gracious. Then Jay piped up with his unkind remarks. He is really turning me off. If it wasn’t for his music contributions, I’d prefer that Mona go it alone.
By the way, by not listening, you missed Mona’s comment about an MRI for the hand, which I did not know about. Very interesting.
Trump and Acosta deserve each other. Both love themselves way too much. It would have been far more effective to simply ignore Acosta than give him the limelight he craves, but Trump is incapable of that. His base will see it as more of “he fights!”. I just see it as more of he fights stupidly.
Re: Taxing entitlements
It is not worth the effort unless you eliminate the benefit for the top 10% who are already shouldering most of the tax burden. And we are already taxed on Social Security.
Re: Getting back more than you put in
Not if you die the day after you retire. The system is not a true annuity, it’s a redistributionist scheme (always has been). Young people should be allowed to opt out of Social Security and into a system that rewards hard work and thrift.
Re: Paul Ryan
He erased his legacy. His legacy will now be putting his party up for auction to high bidders. Principle? Gone.
Re: White House acts based on emotion
I think Trump is not really emotionally bugged by this. I think he is just using every issue effectively.
Re: Stupid question
If Trump intended to “rein in Mueller” has he not waited awfully long to start? Her question was indeed stupid and Trump was right to call her out (I don’t know about the shaming of her for other questions). It was a “Have you stopped beating your wife?” question. It starts with the premise that Trump is afraid of Mueller or what Mueller might find out. All evidence points to Trump being completely unafraid of what Mueller might find since he does not believe that there was any such collusion (and that is, indeed, how it looks).
All of you people who hate Trump so much and point to his immigration policies are ridiculous. Sure, it’s fine if France wants to protect it’s wine growers, but it’s also fine if we seek to change things to allow our wine growers to compete in France.
Trump wants to help American businesses compete abroad, and this is free-er trade. You might be right that it is better to trade for whatever we can, without imposing barriers. But if we want to lower those barriers we may have to accept some temporary pain in the form of tariffs or other barriers to lower restrictions for American businesses.
His grandstanding interferes with the proper functioning of the press corps. I think he definitely should have been kicked out for that. The problem is that that’s not what Trump wanted to kick him out for. It’s amazing how often Trump happens to stumble upon doing the right thing but for the worst possible reasons – and in this case illegal reasons that prevented him from accomplishing it!
This is a very Orwellian statement.
I certainly agree with Daniel on both statements. Let’s concentrate on the first, because it is so very important.
Because it is Donald Trump, and he can’t understand so many things properly, we tend to say that something is good or bad because it is him. But we need to try and concentrate on this issue. While I don’t fully understand the ruling that was made, relying, as it did, on the Fifth Amendment, the more it is explained, the more I am beginning to grasp it. And it was probably a good ruling – that guidelines need to be laid down before the denial of a pass.
But this has nothing to with the Freedom of the Press, and shame on CNN for trying to say it does. Denying access to the White House for a particular “reporter” is not denial of his rights as a so-called reporter. He can report from anywhere. We are talking here about respect. Reporting from the White House is a privilege. I have contempt for Trump. But he is the President. For a buffoon like Acosta to show as much disrespect for the office as he has shown, he deserves to have his credentials taken away. He will have them restored once he learns to be a real reporter, and not the Narcissistic jackass that he is.