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Another slow news week…yawn. Uh, no. With so much to talk about, we present another super-sized Ricochet Podcast clocking in at just under 90 minutes. We’ve got our pal David French, who wants us to Stop Making Terrible Arguments for Blind Loyalty. That’s followed by two Ricochet members (that’d be Robert McReynolds and Max Ledoux) who wants us to give the President the benefit of the doubt at least some of the time. Seems reasonable, but you won’t want to miss the debate that ensues. Who won? Tell us in the comments. Also, RIP Roger Ailes, the whip smart, innovative, and yes, controversial, creator of Fox News (the Michael Wolff piece Rob refers to about Ailes is here).
Music from this week’s podcast: Happy Family by The Ramones
The all new opening sequence for the Ricochet Podcast was composed and produced by James Lileks.
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I have never been never Trump, I did not vote for him, I kept waiting for him to give me a reason to vote for him and it never came; voting against Hillary, while I get it, just wasn’t enough for me.
That being said, I’m with Trump now, were the election held today I’d vote for him knowing the many many warts we’d be dealing with. I’d like to have heard a better defense of him today. Max and Robert didn’t do a bad job, but nor was I convinced. The best argument I have heard presented is by Andrew the Great, the great Andrew Klavan (when is he next gonna be on?).
Trump fights, Trump does not hold back, he fights to win. While I wanted someone else to win the primary, I think any of the other candidates would, at this point, receiving this treatment, be hiding under their beds, and they were all going to receive this treatment.
I do see it as a case of Trump against the world, he has the vast majority of the media against him, all of academia, the entertainment industry, the public education system, all the Democrats (redundant?), elites (Bill Kristol and George Will?) and a large number of the Republicans and they are all working together to defeat what they see as a threat to their rice bowl. It could be that so many see him as such a threat means he is a real danger to the nation, but I just don’t see it, which leads me to believe he is a real danger to the status quo and I think that is a good thing.
I didn’t vote for ya’ Mr. President, but I’m with you now. This is the fight Republicans have needed for a long long time.
By your same reasoning, Trump could order Mueller not to request the records. My point was simply that the procedure to obtain these records is bureaucratic and not judicial. The larger point is that the original comment was off-topic and simply gratuitous Trump-bashing. Tax returns, OJ, and white Broncos have nothing to do with the topic at hand.
Hallmark? Not necessarily. But Joe swears a blue streak, I can tell you that.
I’m sure a lot of people in Fishtown have read the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders and know the clinical definition of “delusional narcissism” or the dictionary definition of “ambit.”
For myself, I wasn’t bothered by the crosstalk and interruptions, at least not as a participant in the conversation. That’s just the way normal people talk — if I’m allowed to make assertions about how normal people talk, that is! ;-)
I never bought into all that glutton-free dieting stuff.
So vulgarity is the bond between the average Joe and a born-rich man with gold-plated toilet seats and an Ivy-league education? Help me out here….someone said this was about class. I have a high-school education and a few years in an art atelier. I don’t make much money. I live in a Midwestern town of 5,000 people, not in a lavish Manhattan tower. Yet I’m the elitist/establishment snob because I could wish our President could display prudence, self-restraint, and show some knowledge of what his position entails? Explain, please.
The cure for the disease isnt more disease – its much less – cut the daily brief, stop the leaks – nobody speaks to the press without the approval – and possible supervision of the press office. Trump thought that after the inauguration he’d get a little space to fill out the offices he needed to fill, and in fairness he should have. Everyone of Obama’s appointments should have been escorted out of the building at 5pm Jan 20, and if there was nobody selected to fill that office, it should have been closed. Its too late to do that now, but each secretary should be doing that in his department getting the Obama appointments out. Its also vital that those responsible for leaking classified information, be found and prosecuted. Appoint someone from the Inspector General’s office, with support of DOJ, and FBI, and put an end to it. I dont think he needs congress to do that.
Its vital to his success that the daily narrative gets back to the real world, and out of 24-7 Trump hate. People are just being driven to the brink of sanity by this incessant coverage.
I’m sure a lot of people in Fishtown have read the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders and know the clinical definition of “delusional narcissism” or the dictionary definition of “ambit.”
I agree with Max that the people of Fishtown voted for Trump because of class affinity/solidarity. That’s what I alluded to with my OJ comment, Trump and OJ were both unworthy recipients of a downtrodden group’s craving for a spokesman. I said the NeverTrumpers did not vote against him on that basis.
Trump was right in firing Comey. Trump has hired qualified conservatives in his administration. Illegal immigration is down. Thought control through political correctness is breaking down. Trump is standing up to the corrupt media and left wingers and exposing them for what they really are–filth.
Is Trump a skilled politician who is making calculated decisions? No. I’d like to see any of us act strategically 100% of the time in the face of a fabricated smear campaign.
Is Trump ultimately right in what he is accomplishing? Yes.
Max, I hear your point loud and clear–the corrupt media would make this “scandal” disappear if Trump were pushing a progressive agenda. (There wouldn’t even be a scandal in the first place. Like you said, it’s all rumors and anonymous sources).
I don’t know … maybe it’s just my discomfort with confrontation, but this one (and the resulting comments) made me a little sad. I do admire that the guests and hosts can argue so passionately and still be friends, though. The episode cover photo seems more emblematic of the listeners than the podcast participants.
Just to point out the defense James used when saying that in being labeled “never Trump” is an easy way to dismiss critics of Trump. However in that same vein Rob several times seemed to imply that if someone is a trump supporter that they seem to be unable to find fault with trump, which is also an easy way to dismiss someone as just having blind allegiance. It works both ways.
The Trump victory is not really about Donald Trump, the man. He represents a movement of the people trying to take back the power from the federal government, and to stop the leftist march on the culture. In it’s basic form that is what it was about. The folks who voted for Trump see a corrupt government with a corrupt media covering up for them. A leftist corruption of so many of our institutions and they want it to stop. It is the Left who is the enemy of freedom and the problem I had with the Never Trump crowd is they didn’t seem to get that
I didn’t say you were elitist or a snob.
I have the solution to all of it. The hysterical name calling. The needless personalization. The vitriol and hatred which might get a person maced or beaten if it happened in the really real world. We need a meet up. Let’s do this, Leeeroooy Jenkins!
The Never Trump crowd on one side and the reluctant Trump or Pro Trump side on the other.
We all kick each other in the crotch until one or no one lives. We are all pawns in a greater game.
We who are about to have our gonads destroyed salute you!
Rochambeau. I get to go first.
I’m on your side in this fight so you can’t get me unless you really need payback. You can have at Lileks but be warned….I’ve been told he’s….well….different
Oh, I get that the Left is the enemy of freedom. I’ve been convinced of that for decades (while Trump was a liberal Democrat). I won’t describe myself as “Never Trump” as it didn’t have a shelf-life for me after the election. I would like to see Trump succeed in most of his agenda, but I doubt that he’ll get very far because he is, essentially, a very unserious man in a very serious position, and he doesn’t seem to be able to rise to the occasion. Every time he seems to be doing OK and I breathe a sigh of relief, he acts stupidly and impulsively. Sure, the press and Democrats are out to get him (they are one in their worldview), so it would be nice if he could stop acting like a moron and not give them so much red meat. But he will. That’s what he does. I don’t think he’ll be able to control his worst impulses, so I don’t expect much progress on his agenda. If he can get another originalist on the Supreme Court, I will be happy enough. That’s it for progress.
@OccupantCDN
Your talking about turning the White House into the PMO! Lets continue to Canadianize the White House. Were the secret power behind the throne not Russia. We get no respect.
Same here. It was not even noticeable during the heat of the conversation.
No one cross talked as bad as Jpod does of GLOP. Man, it is great when Jonah gets a word in.
Rush Limbaugh. As far as I could see, he is one of the best (along with Victor Davis Hanson) interpreters of Donald Trump. They each have the ability to see both the forest and the trees.
To be honest, for it is hard to tell what is real and what is the media narrative that we marinate in on a daily basis. Especially after 8 years of the media fawning over obama and covering up his corruption. Trump’s tweets do seem to be somewhat true however worded badly. Trump is in a difficult position and I don’t think he is unserious, I think he is probably surprised at how Washington actually operates and is trying to navigate those waters. In my opinion the fact that the media, the congress, the “deep state”, academia and the like is a sign that the left has gotten entirely too powerful which didn’t happen overnight but the trump victory was step one in a very long process.
I almost didn’t listen to this episode because I find Rob’s continual Trump rants tiresome, but I was captured at the notion of two defenders of Trump given a platform. Ricochet does surprise.
While I suppose we can look at this as an example of the dynamism of the new media, I just found it rather depressing. We all know where Rob stands on Trump, that he insisted on his guests finding fault with the guy instead of encouraging them to win him over was a low point in a podcast that has always been such a good source of fun conversation and thoughtful interviews. I would have liked the guests to have forced Rob to comment on the Syria strike, the slowing of the flow of illegal immigrants across the border, the increased economic optimism. It’s hard to do that in the moment, I know, but golly, how tiresome is a host lambasting his guests?
As a non-contributing financial supporter of Ricochet (kids, work, hobbies take up most of my time), I have enjoyed the podcasts since they were numbered in the double digits and listened religiously on my dog walks. But to be honest, I’m losing interest and it’s not because I am an avid Trump supporter, though I do support his efforts and hope that he can change the standard operating procedures of federal government. No, it’s that I can listen to that incessant critique of Trump’s tweeting and behavior anywhere on the internet, both in the traditional and new media, and frankly I would hope that the founding members would find some new material. I would like to hear Salena Zito take on Rob on the flagship podcast. She has, better than any working journalist, explained the Trump voter in dispassionate and thoughtful terms.
Max talked about the class divide, which absolutely exists as one knows living in a small Ivy League college town. That divide is characterized by the photographer Chris Arnade and his idea of the “back row kids” who voted for Trump, people who deserve our compassion. If Trump’s policies make their lives better, and that’s what he says he is going to do, who are we – lucky middle-class, college educated, somewhat financially secure – to inhibit his efforts by challenging him on the very attributes that got him the nominations and won him the election in the first place? As Rob knows, there aren’t enough conservatives in the country to elect a true conservative to the White House.
Roger Ailes died this week, and as we know, he created an empire by catering to an audience looking for an outlet. If Ricochet wants to increase its market share, perhaps we can have a different point of view from every podcast opining on the president’s tweets and behavior on a weekly basis.
Someone in that podcast should have stated the obvious. Conservatism would be better served if Trump were to resign and Mike Pence were elevated to the Presidency.
Prior to November 8, 2016, the choice was between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump.
Today the choice is between Donald Trump and Mike Pence.
Clearly Mike Pence is the better choice for the conservative agenda.
What are you saying? Throw out the guy who won and give it to his running mate? Unbelievable. Pence didn’t win the nomination because he didn’t run. How is it “conservative” to undermine the guy who did?
Perhaps true, technically, however a short-sighted view I think. If Trump is removed for some illegitimate or “ticky-tack” offense, and the Republican establishment supports it, or even stands by silently and allows it to happen, what will 2018 and 2020 look like? Do you think those voters currently dissatisfied with Washington will be more or less dissatisfied? More or less likely to vote for a future Republican candidate? My view is it would ultimately be destructive to our cause.
Trump was right in firing Comey. Trump has hired qualified conservatives in his administration. Illegal immigration is down. Thought control through political correctness is breaking down. Trump is standing up to the corrupt media and left wingers and exposing them for what they really are–filth.
Is Trump a skilled politician who is making calculated decisions? No. I’d like to see any of us act strategically 100% of the time in the face of a fabricated smear campaign.
Is Trump ultimately right in what he is accomplishing? Yes.
Max, I hear your point loud and clear–the corrupt media would make this “scandal” disappear if Trump were pushing a progressive agenda. (There wouldn’t even be a scandal in the first place. Like you said, it’s all rumors and anonymous sources).
NR should be supporting Trump, instead it’s too busy acting “smart” and losing the half of the country who wants to see a conservative agenda.
If we unite, then we will win. Once we win, we can have the intellectuals at NR fine tune our policies.
Yeah I think people advocating the removal of Trump are playing with fire. A fire that could really burn. He won the election by playing the system better than anyone else. The vast majority of voters and people are not on Richochet or watching the various news sources. As far as they are concerned Trump is doing fine and its still Nov 9th 2016.
You want to see real Trouble. Force him to resign in favor of Pence without something like an obvious Watergate. That would be really really really bad.
Correct, I was referring to Robert. He was there defending a libertarian position, not Trump. He did well, in that regard, however, it would have been nice to see two pro-Trump voices rather than one plus an anti-leftwing media propaganda libertarian.
I wouldn’t say I have any main sources of information. I don’t have a TV but I like to listen to Special Report on Sirius XM. I check out what’s on hotair.com. I subscribe directly to the White House Facebook page and YouTube channel (and did long before Trump was elected). I really enjoy Andrew Klavan’s podcast. If I had more time in my day I would always listen to Three Martini Lunch and The Daily Standard, too. My wife’s an editor at National Review, so I usually have pretty good idea of what they’re covering even if I don’t read all the articles myself. We also subscribe to CRTV, but again, there’s not enough time in the day. My wife and I will watch a LevinTV episode every few weeks, especially after some particular event that we’re interested to hear Levin’s take on. We also enjoy Louder with Crowder and usually watch his Thursday show (on Friday or Saturday). This week Crowder got a lot wrong, though, we thought. He kept on saying that Trump has never had a relationship in his adult life in which he was not the boss telling other people what to do. That’s crazy talk from Crowder. Yes, Trump’s been a boss for a long time, but we have no idea about the many relationships he’s had for the past 50 years. Crowder was sort of verging into what Scott Adams would call the Psychic Psychiatrist Illusion. I do read Adams’ blog, and also Ann Althouse and Powerline. And Ricochet, obviously!
Robert was upfront from the beginning on what his stance would be and I enjoyed listening to his take.
But I agree, two Trump supporters would have been preferable