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.
We’ve got Hillbilly Elegy author J.D. Vance here to talk about investing in startups in the midwest. We’ve got The Factor on permanent hiatus. We’ve got terrorists in France trying their best to influence an election. And we’ve got some unlikely dinner guests in the White House. What have you got?
Are you a podcast listener who’s not a Ricochet member? We’ve got a special offer for you — join today at the special price of $2.50 per month and support this content AND read the legendary Ricochet Member Feed as well as comment on podcast posts. Come on! Join us today!
Music from this week’s episode: High Tech Hillbilly by George Jones
Subscribe to The Ricochet 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.
Great Photoshop, @ejhill.
Peter looks pretty disgusted holding onto Sarah Palin.
I approve, @ejhill.
Is Rob identifying as a woman today. Harvard approves!
I assume you are referring to this.
I loved the interview with J. D. Vance. I loved loved loved that book. Besides his insightful social commentary, he has such a great talent for story telling.
I already ‘Liked’ this and I haven’t even listened yet. That’s great Photoshop, @ejhill and I am jealous of your talent!
Vance sounds like a salesman. So perhaps he can pitch redistribution programs for rednecks and hillbillies as crowdfunding for another season of Justified.
Alaskan governors qualify as hillbillies these days, @ejhill? Good one, nevertheless.
Who at FOX News was most similar to O’Reilly in style and content? Tucker Carlson. FNC isn’t changing strategy. They replaced O’Reilly with the person most likely to hold onto his audience. After Carlson, Eric Bolling is most similar and he’s moving up as well.
A Quake reference! You’re full of surprises, James. I’m sure your daughter appreciates having a dad so hip! Perhaps you can educate Rob about StarCraft the next time he says audiences need fresh meat. The game is nearly 20 years old, yet millions of people are still excited about a “remaster” (minimal brush-up) and a presidential candidate is campaigning with it.
A Quake 2 reference, to be specific. The first was muddled – new engine, no plot – but the second was a great shooter. Arena was just a ballistic meat salad The 3rd didn’t get the love it should have gotten; I think was better than the first Doom reboot.
I’m still grousing that the latest iteration of Wolfenstein didn’t make it to the Mac; last FPS I played was Bioshock Infinite, which set the bar so high I may retire.
But Yale stares, aghast.
Agreed on all fronts. I can’t handle the twitch games much on the xbox (which I play a game on about once per year). Gramps here might be reduced to Scrabble tournaments.
This isn’t the only factor, but you can only be idealistic about immigration to the extent that you have a libertarian-ish economy with a lot of disbursed prosperity. People need individual agency otherwise they will default to stuff that gets unworkable. We are only different to France by degrees on this.
Kevin Williamson wrote a great article that relates to this. California is the opposite, which Victor Davis Hanson is so good at explaining. Mark Krikorian had great article recently, too but I can’t find it.
Tomi Lahren got over-hired so much, so fast it’s unbelievable. Why is she doing opinions when she doesn’t ever read books? How much can you know at that age?
I enjoyed that meat salad. Doom’s latest iteration was impressive, particularly because of its return to snappy movement and its inclusion of a map&mode editor on console.
Star Wars: Battlefront 2 looks to have an interesting campaign, developed by a different studio than its other modes. And Activision finally realized Call of Duty fans don’t want sci-fi, so it’s back to WW2. Sniper: Ghost Warrior 3 might also be worth looking into.
But if you loved Bioshock, you would probably enjoy Dishonored 2 and Prey more than any straight FPS.
I’m most looking forward to Middle Earth: Shadow of War this year. It’s incredible how much they have added since the original. The Nemesis system might be the greatest step forward for the industry in recent years, leaving aside VR and AR.
If James like Bioshock, then he should really go back to System Shock 2 and the original Deus Ex. I think he would appreciate their plots and storytelling.
Because when you can get your eye candy and confirmation bias all in one place, that’s a winning formula. Pathetically sad, but true.
Hillary did have a clear campaign theme: Vote for me because I’m a woman.
Best sales pitch I’ve heard from Rob. Less pleading, more confidence that whoever takes advantage of the deal *will* like the commenting features.
As for the #NeverComment school of thought, I can attest that I was skeptical that I would do so when I signed up. But what’s the downside? It’s not like you’re going to be berated by a bunch of jerks like on Facebook or Twitter.
I am very glad to chip in for the excellent podcasts. I wish they would get a monthly one at least from the FEE or Learn Liberty guys ( the nice libertarians / Austrians LOL ) to balance this place out.
I know you folks have spent considerable time urging “free riders” like me to finally join the community by paying for a subscription. I finally joined last night. But sadly it wasn’t the result of your nagging ;) it was J.D. Vance‘s point about why one should invest in “fly over” America . The notion that a medium to large city in southern Ohio (or for that matter the southern central valley of CA) will be a mini tech hub with significant venture capital is not the point. The point is more like: venture capital seems to be almost exclusively flowing to “tech” startups while unexploited sources of innovation that are not “tech” may be elsewhere. And that may include cities in deplorableland.
As an example, The University of Georgia (where I teach) is a top 100 research powerhouse. But no one ever thinks of it as such, because its research is often not in the sexy Silicon Valley associated technologies. It’s agricultural innovations, veterinary medicines, textiles, forestry, patents involving the processing of chicken feet etc etc. By number of patents commercialized it is near the top in the US. I believe that Vance is really suggesting that there is better ROI potential by investing and powering startups in less sexy industries where expertise may exist. There are not many chicken debeaking experts in Mountain View.
Besides hasn’t Silicon Valley already taken all the low hanging internet/tech fruit? Why invest there?
I think what Vance is also saying is inputs are more affordable in Ohio etc. so the ROI is higher or you can take on more risk.
The other thing is, all of that tech stuff is deflationary and our whole *&^% system is based on inflation. Government, finance, homes, everything. People have no idea what a mess this is. (Here is the part where I babble about David Stockman LOL).
The bad policy manifests as social problems, war, and asset bubbles. It will get worse. What are they going to do? Tax the high earners more to get the GDP up? It’s all nonsense. Means testing Medicare is wealth taxation. 66% of Americans aren’t liquid for $2000 in under 30 days. The system is breaking down, big time.
Welcome @davidclowery!
I did play System Shock – same developer as the Bioshock series.
I’ve been trying to play the latest Alien game – great environments, but too much stealth and not enough weapons.
Here, a for-real GOP Senator doesn’t get that this is about our inflationist system clashing with deflationary technology and globalized labor.
You should also play the old Star Trek adventure games. The voice work was done by the original cast, since they were all alive at the time.
I think the perjorative used for Mrs. Palin is snowbilly.
Their album Ala-Ska is a bit too 90s for me.
Drusus, I’m right here. My ears were burning and not from feathering my hair this time.
Oh, man, adventure games. I got my fill during the Infocom days, and may lack the patience. Last ST game I played was Elite Force, which wasn’t bad; used the 2nd gen Unreal engine, I think. Orchestral score, lotsa Borg zapping.
The Star Trek games have relatively easy puzzles. If you want a hard, disturbing adventure game play I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream, based upon the short story by Harlan Ellison. He even voices voices the primary antagonist.
Fortunately we can always count on you to keep it classy around here.