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Here’s what we don’t discuss on this week’s show: not a word about Sharpie markers, maps, or the tracking of certain weather events. Nope, not a word. Here’s what we do talk about: The WSJ’s Kim Strassel stops by to talk about Comey, Mueller, and an investigation that went far off the rails (P.S. feel free to pre-order her new book, which she will discuss in more detail on the show next month). Then, we debut a couple of new features: first, The Long Poll (we’re still working on the name…). Look for it on the top right of the page, vote, and help Rob fulfill his dream of mainstream media mentions from his elite media buddies. Then, say hello to Lileks’ Post of The Week, in which James himself selects a member written post for Ricochet Podcast fame and glory. Who wins this week’s coveted mention? You’ll have to tune in to find out!
Music from this week’s episode: Hurricane by Lin Manuel-Miranda from Hamilton
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I voted for Cory Booker in the poll. But the reality is that all the Democrat candidates are Cory Booker.
Elizabeth Warren is both the most likely Democratic POTUS candidate and the easiest for Trump to defeat.
I voted for Biden because I think a Democrat is going to win and he is the best of a very, very bad bunch. It is so depressing.
I did the graphic last night prior to recording (I do that a lot during football season.) I just didn’t get the hat trick here, I’m wearing the Golden Sombrero.
There is an argument that in environments with harsh winters, people became nicer and more cooperative with their neighbors because they will die without their help. Arguably, this is why Canadians are nicer and Scandinavian countries have incredibly low rates of corruption.
I voted for Joe Biden because he will probably be the easiest to beat (he is terrible on the campaign trail, progressive true believers will not be enthusiastic about his candidacy, and he basically nullifies all the arguments against Trump – nepotism, gaffes/word vomit, creepy me-too issues).
He is also the least objectionable should he win.
In my experience (4th to 7th grade) North Dakotans (NordaKodans, old-school pronunciation) are just the nicest, but my dad (native of Grand Forks) noted that in his youth you got a few family axe murder-suicides every winter in sod houses out in the middle of the prairie. Familiarity really does breed contempt sometimes.
I voted for Yang (doubled his vote!) because he has at least one interesting, actually sane idea, although he should have a sit-down with Charles Murray and think about it a little more deeply.
I like Yang. I can’t vote for him but I like an honest smart guy.
I don’t think the opportunity will come up. And given the state I live in, there’s no question that I’ve already voted for him the minute he wins his party’s nomination, no matter who I actually vote for.
On another subject, wasn’t there a “wrapping a child in a fresh-killed ox during a blizzard” scene in either The Emigrants or The New Land? I remember Max von Sydow, an ox, a child, and a Minnesota blizzard.
I think you mean that Cory Booker stood up, and they all said, “I am Spartacus.”
Yang’s rhetoric is refreshing. He’s more like a technocrat that really believes in his proposed solutions instead of a pandering Democrat that just wants a high paying job that comes with a lot of power and perks.
The only reason we are talking about UBI is because every single western government has done every single thing wrong in the face of wage deflation and job destruction from globalized labor and robots. It’s basically a ruling class policy to keep the status quo.
I find his rhetoric dangerous – he packages a lot of totalitarian policies into mild sounding words, and his technocratic approach increases the chance that those mild sounding but actually quite dangerous ideas will in fact be implemented.
For honesty, I want Bernie Sanders. He’s not really honest, but his rhetoric provokes more honest debate of ideas. And if he is elected it is unlikely that any of Sanders’ ideas will actually get implemented because his abrasive personality means that he won’t be able to work with anyone.
Right. In the end statism and central planning are bad ideas. Like I said, this is about trying to keep an old system intact. “Experts” and the various people that have power or stakes in the old system are going to keep doing stuff like this. There are too many Republicans that don’t understand this or don’t want to understand it.
I’ve heard this before and it makes sense to me.
lol
The question is surely complicated: Which of those candidates with a plausible chance of winning the nomination will be most easily be defeated? Joe Biden may be most likely to win the nomination, but I don’t think that he is as vulnerable in November 2020 as his past history and ongoing gaffes may suggest. There are, I fear, too many wishy-washy voters willing to fool themselves, with, of course, a lot of help from the media. The lefties may grumble but in the end will conclude that they can live with a white male pseudo-Catholic, who won’t let them down on the “social issues,” will do nothing about immigration, and will be Obama II on foreign policy. Bernie Sanders ought to have no more of a chance than, say, Norman Thomas. (Anyone out there old enough to remember him?) Stranger things could happen than he might get the nomination, but then, of course, he’d be defeated. But…I’m afraid that the campaign would wind up being marred by the (phony) issue of anti-Semitism. The media would pounce on idiotic statements from alt-right, and then the already murky waters would reek…If there have to be smears, let them be about alleged misogyny—and (gasp!) deep-seated prejudices on the part of the unwashed against leftist, wigwam-flipping Harvard professors who have claimed to be Native Americans.
It really doesn’t matter which individual democrat wins, just like it really doesn’t matter which individual republican wins.
It’s about the infrastructure of government the winner brings with them.
A republican, even a Donald Trump, is going to result in at least nominally “right wing” government, because that’s the predominant alignment of the republican party people that are going to fill the jobs .
A democrat, whichever one gets elected, is going to be nutty left wing, because that’s the predominant alignment of the current democrat party people that are going to fill the jobs.
And the Left mostly keeps the ground they take. The ACA is working perfectly. There are hundreds of Democrats that have signed on to Medicare For All. Everything is like that. Act and think accordingly.
Rob Long’s mention of Tokyo and washlets caused me to sit up, as it were, as I have spent most of my life within 40 minutes of the Japanese capital and have installed in our modest abode the device he mentions…There’s a certain cultural irony here: Not so many decades ago, Japanese toilets, particularly in public places, were enough to send all but the most stalwart Occidentals fleeing for the airport. And in many parts of the countryside, the sewage system had not extended far enough to allow for flush toilets. That has all dramatically changed.
In a condo my wife and I own in Waikiki, Honolulu, we set about installing a washlet–at much less expense, as I recall, than Rob Long mentions. We purchased what we needed from a local company with a Japanese-speaking agent…
Technologically, we have come a long way since the days of Louis XIV’s commodes, but the curse of étatisme remains, except that now it’s coupled with “progressive” hypocrisy…Somewhere I read that Leonardo Dicaprio, grand protector of the environment, jets about hither and yon, taking with him his own custom-made device.
I wanted to vote for Steve Bullock or Michael Bennet. Please provide more options.
That one is easy to answer. Rob said the poll options included only those with at least a snowball’s chance of actually winning. But even with that disclaimer, he was actually far too inclusive.
link
Trump has to get reelected so the ACA can be wiped out. The GOP has to set up a non-Soviet universal system and sell it to the public. If the Democrats get their way it will be a horror show.
I voted for Yang because he seems the most focused on ideas, the least dishonest, and the least likely to portray his GOP opponent as a tool of Satan. Of course I wouldn’t vote for him, but he just seems to the best option of a pool of terrible alternatives. I still haven’t decided that I can cast a vote for Trump, but the Democrats seem bent on selecting someone who will drive undecideds to Trump as the less insane choice.
Regarding the idea of polling the Ricochet community, I think this is a great idea and you should keep it up for a while to see how it goes.
Agree. Also, the Lilek’s Post of the Week is a great idea!
I ruled out the midgets who barely qualify for the debates. I think Biden would be their strongest candidate (barring an on-stage stroke) because he won’t scare the horses. Buttigieg would activate the Pavlovian drool of progressives who’d thrill at the frisson of voting for a Gay Person, and I wouldn’t count on that being outweighed by black and Latino resistance to the same. Voting for a woman president has lost some of its novelty, but not all, and Warren would benefit. Harris combines the race and the gender cards. In short, I think identity politics is currently a net positive for the Dems because it will activate them more than it will activate their opponents in the opposite direction, and Sanders is the only one who has a strong chance of being nominated but who has no identity politics mojo whatsoever. I think he’d be quite easy to beat. So I pick Sanders.
Obviously if we work against Trump, the Deep State and the media will save The Republic.
Be sure to listen to the Jerry Dunleavy interview on examining politics if you actually believe that.
I wanted to vote for Beto in the poll because Trump doesn’t have to beat him – O’Rourke will beat himself. Besides, I’m dying to see what he’d eat after he loses the Presidency . . .
As for growing up in Minnesota and North Dakota, @jameslileks might be interested in the book Nothing To Do But Stay by Carrie Young. It’s the story of her mother, who was a three-year-old immigrant from Norway in the 1880s. What struck me the most was the harsh conditions – especially the winters – and how they survived day to day.
a technical glitch with the RSS feed regarding episode 463
http://feeds.feedburner.com/ricochet
the above feed points to a file that is only 48 k bytes. clearly not big enough to contain any audio.
on the other hand episode 463 CAN be downloaded from the “superfeed”
http://ricochet.com/superfeed/
so the “ricochet podcast only” RSS feed must be pointing to a different file or location than the “all podcasts” superfeed RSS
i’m downloading using BeyondPod app running under Android 9
Is @jameslileks saying “screen time” or “scream time” in that circle commercial? Works either way.
@garymcvey You were mentioned in this week’s Ricochet podcast.
Wow! Rob’s got some serious fruit salad on that shirt.
I want to hear them all say “I am Spartacus!”