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’re back from the holiday break and have Georgia on our minds. As such we welcome Erick Erickson, host of “Atlanta’s Evening News” on WSB AM/FM, and he joins to us to analyze “suitcase-gate” and give us his take on January’s double US Senate election in the Peach State. (Erick’s podcast is available right here on Ricochet.)
Then we talk to old friend Dr. Jay Bhattacharya, Professor of Medicine at Stanford University. As the Covid-19 vaccination comes to market, what’s the best way to do it? Who gets priority and who shouldn’t be bothered?
Eustace C. Scrubb walks away with the coveted Lileks Member Post of the Week for his essay on the passing of David Prowse, one half of the man behind Darth Vader.
Music from this week’s episode: The Devil Went Down to Georgia by Charlie Daniels.
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.
Erick Erickson knows his stuff.
Thanks for another great podcast guys.
Rob Long is driven by not being embarrassed. That explains a lot.
On The Crown.
I think that it was despicable on how Thatcher was portrayed. The Gillian Anderson, who portrayed her, did say she did not like her. I did not watch it, but the movie The Iron Lady, which was portrayed by Meryl Streep emphasized the elderly Margaret Thatcher.
Strangely, Thatcher’s authorized biographer, Charles Moore has said that Anderson’s portrayal was an accurate one. His three volumes on Thatcher are generally well regarded by Thatcher fans. My only explanation is that he conducted his interviews of her in her twilight years.
If you want a good look at Thatcher only two years before she assumed office, check out the Firing Line interview in 1977 when she was leader of the Tory opposition. She was said to be sexually attractive to the men who surrounded her, and I could see something of it during that interview. I suspect that she was a restrained flirt. Anderson’s portrayal bleached all of that out.
I’m attracted to The Crown like a moth to a flame. I agree with Rob that the institution is useless, though I will say that I have some admiration for Queen Elizabeth.
Yet, I can’t quite reach a suspension of disbelief when I look at Tobias Menzies’s portrayal of Prince Phillip, as well as Olivia Colman’s portrayal of Queen Elizabeth.
The Prince Charles portrayal by Josh O’Conner is believable, and so is Emma Corbin’s of Princess Diana. Going by my own shallow knowledge of those two, I have the feeling that Charles is probably shown as slightly meaner, while Diana has some rough edges smoothed out. I don’t remember what documentary I was watching but I remember someone saying that Diana was dumb as a post. I believe she was all EQ but no IQ (lots of empathy, but no real intelligence). And I think she was meaner towards Charles than is portrayed in The Crown, and probably was mean to the servants as well.
I had some sympathy with Prince Harry not wanting to play 2nd fiddle to his brother, but it went away when he tried to hold onto his titles as he moved away from Britain.
I have read some biographies of some of the Royals, post Queen Victoria, and I don’t know why they do it, especially the ones who will not become the monarch.
The UK should kill off the monarchy when Queen Elizabeth dies, and I think it’s in danger of fading away under Charles’s leadership.
To be fair, he’s far from being alone, which is part of why we are in the mess we are in.
Anderson is as miscast as John “Too Tall” Lithgow was as Churchill. But hey, when you’re sleeping with the writer/show runner/producer you get the part you want. She is, quite frankly, doing a poor imitation of Meryl Streep.
Labourites don’t understand Thatcher anymore than Democrats understand Reagan. Her three wins and record length as PM mystifies them.
There’s a lot of the show that infuriates me. Peter Morgan is obsessed with ERII and has written a movie, a stage play and a miniseries on her. (Four years ago he was named in the New Year’s Honours and was awarded a CBE, which he received in a ceremony with Prince Charles. It’s the closest he’s ever been to the royal family.) Speculation on private moments is one thing but he makes up things for which there is plenty of public record. For example in Season 3, he completely rewrote the young prince’s speech for his investiture as the Prince of Wales. The damn thing exists on video tape, there’s no reason to make it up.
There was the speculative article about friction between HRM and the PM. Both sides denied it. The Queen has successfully stayed out of the political life of the nation, but I think she had great respect for Thatcher. She payed Thatcher more honour than any other of her PMs save Sir Winston. Denis Thatcher was awarded a hereditary title, only the third one outside the royal family since 1965. (One of the others went to another Conservative PM, Harold McMillian.) She attended the party to celebrate Baroness Thatcher’s 70th birthday and, of course, attended her funeral, something she had only done previously for Churchill.
How can this be a fair election?
We all saw the campaign this summer. President Trump from Labor Day to Halloween spoke at rallies with combined crowds of well over 100 000, during the same period Biden had rallies attended by under 200. We saw the primaries. 95% of republican turn out voted for President Trump – when he was virtually running unopposed, and the vote was basically unnecessary. Biden could barely get the boomers to the polls to support him, the DNC had to clear the field for him to win.
The Biden campaign lost support among, Blacks, Latinos and Union Workers (primarily construction and police unions) as compared to Obama’s victory in 2008, and Yet still managed to get more votes than Obama did? While wining fewer counties? Biden only won 17% of the counties?
Then there are the bell weathers, 19 counties that have voted for the winning presidential candidate going back 50, 60 and some even 75 years. Their streak all ended this year, all 19 voted for Trump. Trump won both Florida and Ohio, I think he’s the first candidate to win both states, but loose the election since re-construction.
Biden’s margin of victory comes down to 6 or 7 counties in 4 states – all of which have long and colorful histories of democrat election fraud. There was not ‘wide spread’ voter fraud – there was very selective and targeted fraud.
The election results make no sense to what I’ve seen with my own eyes. Who should I believe my own eyes or CNN?
It maybe never provable, but I can’t ever believe Biden won this election.
I’ve watched the first two seasons of The Crown.
I don’t know if I will watch any more. If they mess with Margaret Thatcher, I will be highly upset. I find it impossible that they would not ridicule Margaret Thatcher as Margaret Thatcher still seems to be the most hated figure in all of Great Britain especially among certainly British actors and celebrities and the working class. Perhaps some of that hate has faded over 30 years due to time, some of the joke prime ministers that they have had since Thatcher, and the fact that some of the crazed British actors and celebrities have passed away or faded into the background.
…
Rob hates the Royal Family. Their military service is at least admirable.
I like Queen Elizabeth and Prince Phillip. Prince Phillip has some of the Trump qualities. Besides he’s almost 100. Prince William and Kate seem fine. Prince Edward and Princess Anne in the background seem fine I guess, but who knew that Prince Andrew had gone Epstein crazy.
…
This Ricochet episode was better than I thought it would be.
The number of app-based conservative news channels is mind blowing.
I think OAN is the only one you have to shell out for.
If you start at 38:00 I think this is pretty profound about COVID-19 policy.
https://omny.fm/shows/the-dan-proft-show/december-02-2020
Dan Proft would be a very good guest because he talks to everybody about COVID-19 policy.
“Home is where you are going to get it.”
They knew in April with the big problem was: 15 minutes, indoors, around a spreader. In my opinion both sides of the central planning arguments ignore this fact way too much. Ignoring the weather is my other peeve.
Regarding the free market concepts, the government was absorbing tons of the risk for developing the vaccines. I think it’s really a “public goods” problem. This gets to another thing that angers me. In an economy structured like ours is, non-libertarian in every way, and based on credit growth and inflation, it’s 100% on the government to comprehensively handle a pandemic i The idea that most businesses and families should reserve for this given that structure is evil. Look at that tweet I posted above if you think I’m wrong. The human and financial capital destruction is evil.
This is brutal.
That’s what bugs me the most about this graphic:
Even if this type of “vote counting” only happened in a few select places, how can they ‘splain it, Lucy?
This whole thing needs a total colonoscopy by the right type of political scientist. The data is shocking.
And yet judges seem uninterested unless they can produce stacks of ballots marked “I Am Fraudulent” and signed and notarized by the perpetrator.
I’m not a fan of the monarchy at all but enjoyed The Crown. There was some history and events that I was unaware of.
It was clear that the writers hated Margaret Thatcher and Jillian Anderson’s portrayal was a bit over the top in certain points, made to make her look especially hardhearted. But there were also some moments of dialog where I felt that they captured very well the divide between the establishment Conservatives (those with Titles and wealth accumulated by simply being in charge for centuries and that “shop keepers daughter” who worked hard and rose through will and ability. To me, it had a Tea Party vs. Establishment vibe – and I’m pretty sure it was unintended on the producers part.
There is one part where the Thatcher’s are invited to Barlmorough Castle in Scotland, they’re taken aback of the size/number of rooms they are given to stay. Margaret also insists on unpacking her husbands suitcase instead of the servants, ‘that’s a wife’s duty!’ – I’m sure they wrote that to undermine her, I found it endearing, like something my Mom or Aunts would have done. Not out of some male domination place but out of love for their husband as was common during that time, for that generation.
Even judges nominated by Trump.
OccupantCDN writes:
“How can this be a fair election?”
Among my American and European friends, I can count not even half a dozen who would not smugly sniff: “Of course it was fair! Sanity has triumphed! Orange-Man is gone!” That is perhaps what I find most discouraging. What are they thinking? Are they thinking at all?
I must confess that I was hoping that “suitcase-gate” would be treated as a “wh0-dunnit” rather than as “nobody-dunnit”…Deeply concerned about the potential disaster for Japan and the other free nations of this region in a Biden/Harris administration, my good wife faithfully follows every theory about election fraud and insists that I follow the latest account of the mass conspiracy. (One translation of “deep state” in Japanese is literally ‘government of darkness’. It feels Tolkienesque.) When, having listened to the first part of the latest Ricochet podcast, I rashly passed on Peter Robinson’s conclusion that AG William Barr’s assessment should be accepted until further notice, she responded quite indignantly…My reasoning, for what it’s worth, is that after over four years of relentless anti-Trump propaganda from the media and the Democratic Party, together with DT’s own propensity to alienate, he lost the election, albeit narrowly, and that the contention that there was enough fraud to swing the election away from him is simply not plausible…All eyes should now be on the runoff election for the Senate in Georgia.
A British friend, no wild-eyed radical and, indeed, a monarchist, gently insists that Biden is very much a “centrist” and that everything will now return to “normal.” It’s a dismal reminder of how one believes what one wants to believe, whether that little boys who say that they are really little girls are indeed little girls or that there were little green Orcs in the Dominion voting machines.
I know I am a voice in the wilderness here.
“We just don’t see anything–any evidence that would overturn the election results.”
Seriously? None of you see a problem with a statement like this coming from ANYONE?
Circumstantial evidence and sworn testimony convicts when it piles up.
Yes, any SINGLE piece of evidence can be dismissed IF it, of itself, would not “overturn” an election.
But that’s not what is happening here.
NONE of you have bothered to watch the DAYS of sworn testimony and video evidence presented across multiple states?
NOT ONE?
You relied merely on HEADLINES and the authorities of others? You have NO desire to check out the piles and piles and PILES of circumstantial evidence that, to any rational mind not implanted with the notion of “no evidence that would overturn election results” is powerful and persuasive?
Many videos.
Dozens and dozens of sworn-under-penalty-of-perjury statements delivered live.
Hundreds if not thousands of sworn statements beyond that.
An incredible number of statistical anomalies ALL GOING THE SAME WAY?
You are avoiding all of this?
And the thought is not occurring to you that the same people who brought you the proven Russia Hoax for 4 years would stoop to massive election fraud to get the President out of office who is threatening all of their careers and taxpayer-funded lifestyles and corruption?
Or the fact that the GOP we had thought to be merely cowardly and weak and are now proving themselves to be complicit and corrupt?
I understand the desire to sleep, to continue to trust your main avenues of news, to avoid the nauseating reality of what’s going on under all the corruption, lockdowns and fraud.
But what you are missing, Gentlemen, is this:
A sleeping giant IS awakening. You feel it, and glance at it in some of your comments before looking away, as people did so many decades ago.
But right now you prefer to dream the dream of “Peace in our time.”
There is an earthquake coming.
And it is tens of millions strong.
It’s dismaying how many people seem to forget how bad some of those old “normals” were.
Here’s hoping.
And what the reaction to “the old normal” is likely to be in 20204.
The Tea Party was asking nicely.
Electing Trump was asking not nicely.
I’m a little afraid of what’s likely to come next.
The Japanese monarchy remains remarkably popular and, on the whole, non-controversial, and that is because the members of the imperial family are expected to adhere to rather strict guidelines. They hold no vast personal wealth, and whatever their private views on various subjects, they are expected to keep them private. Years ago, a prince, now deceased, went to the then emperor and asked permission to become a commoner. The request was refused, and that was the end of that…Some members are more admirable than others, but their scandals are relatively minor. The likes of a Prince Charles, Prince Andrew, or Prince Harry are unthinkable.
Since we are referencing Babylon 5, and the question as asked, “What Do You Want?”
I’ve soured on the Ricochet podcast. I will read the comments to confirm I should pass on it. It just reduces my aggravation to do so. Last one I listened to, it was only the old pop song played at the end that I enjoyed.
Thanks! Although I do kind of cringe at the word “old.”
The non-guest parts were entertaining this time. But Erick Erickson seems like he can’t see the trees for the forest, or something. Kinda reminds me of Andrew McCarthy in a way, who seems to be continually “shocked” at how unethical people in the agencies he used to be associated with can be, no matter how many times they “shocked” him before. (Which sounds a bit like Peter Robinson too, really.)
“Dr Jay” didn’t say anything that was new to me.
But everyone needs some Lileks on a weekly basis.
I thought the whole show was good.
Given how often it has been misreported and misunderstood, it’s probably necessary to review what Attorney General Bill Barr actually said about voter fraud:
Barr told the AP that U.S. attorneys and FBI agents have been working to follow up specific complaints and information they’ve received, but “to date, we have not seen fraud on a scale that could have effected a different outcome in the election.”
https://apnews.com/article/barr-no-widespread-election-fraud-b1f1488796c9a98c4b1a9061a6c7f49d
Barr’s statement is consistent with — already! — finding enough fraud to flip the results in, say, two states, but not three, so that with or without fraud Joe Biden would still be the winner in the Electoral College.
No matter how clear the evidence turns out to be in the end, no judicial panel would ever dare give the election to Trump; especially not after a year in which the Left has so thoroughly demonstrated its propensity for violence.
However, the more evidence of voter fraud that is unearthed, the less of a mandate Joe Biden and Kamala Harris can claim, and the less damage they can do.
And so I ask the panelists, Erickson and Long especially, why are you fighting to protect Biden and Harris’ mandate?