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Got the full band back together for this one and we’ve got Scott Adams on base (see what we did there?). You know Scott as the Dilbert dude, but you also know that he’s been a staunch supporter of the President since the ’16 primaries. So we wanted to see where Scott’s head is at in the midst of impeachment and well, he does not disappoint. Also, Mike Bloomberg writes a big check, and Ricochet member @cowgirl wins the coveted Lileks Post of The Week for her post Service…As in: When I’m Dead, Use this Music at My Service. What’s your service song? Tell us in the comments.
Also, we’ve got a new Long Poll question for you, and finally, the new Disney + streaming service wants you to know that “older movies have ‘Outdated Cultural Depictions’”. OK, so do most people. Got a problem with that?
Music from this week’s episode: End of The Line by The Traveling Wilburys
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Poll needs one more option:
Romney will be the only Republican to vote for removal
Rob, you’re wrong about what you said at the end. Real conservatives object to Lothario types, and stand for traditional values. We’re willing to be in a coalition with those who disagree on this issue, but agree on others. However, we shouldn’t confuse Libertarianism (or Libertinism, for that matter) with traditional conservatism.
I’ve long thought the Dilbert characters would have made an interesting live-action version of “24.”
Or maybe a Mad Magazine parody.
And even using the same original actors:
Dennis HaysBERT.
Elisha CuthBERT.
Keifer Suther…BERT. Well, he can change his name.
For those who didn’t see it last week, referring to Joel Stein:
Here’s another favorite:
When it comes to classical music, I don’t think of the musical type of “movement”…
The best answer I heard from someone of about my near-retirement age when asked what music he would like played at his funeral responded, Anything composed after 2055.
James talking about sight gags in The Simpsons reminded me of an old favorite. It might be safe from cropping, I guess we’ll find out…
The car-ad bit was interesting, but how can it really be true? Are the toothpaste ads also to congratulate you on the choice you’ve already made?
Long poll: B
Also, I would much rather listen to Rob talk TV versus streaming than Scott Adams talk politics. And I’ve got a Dilbert calendar on my desk at work.
The one thing that made “Cheers” great, is that it wasnt terribly political.
The guys didnt sit around and complain about Reagan or Tip O’Neal – which makes it kinda timeless. Kids today are using the Billy Joel song “We didnt start the fire” to learn history – they’re looking up all the people that he sings about.
I think there were a lot of sitcoms from the 80s – 90s that tried to be more topical and this made them disposable, because looking back at them now, we dont remember (or know) who they’re joking about so dont get the joke… Murphy Brown springs to mind – looking back at those episodes now, kids just wont get it. Which is also why the reboot didnt work – the news cycle is completely self-contained and disposable. The last news cycle gets completely dropped in the memory hole – and is gone, going back with jokes about news events 6 months or a year ago, just doesn’t fly. A sitcom isnt immediate enough to be newsy anymore.
Look at Jeopardy! Not long ago this guy was a presidential contender:
(kinda accidentally funny that the YouTube link ends with an FU) Someone joked on twitter, this is the only Jeopardy that Avenatti is not in.
It says right there, “in 2019,” just earlier this year but he’s still forgotten! That’s pretty great. It would be nice if Adam Schiff – and others – are equally forgettable/forgotten.
Back to Cheers again, did James forget about “Gary’s Olde Towne Tavern?” It may not have been across the street, but definitely a competitor. In more ways than one! A few episodes were about them “pranking” each other, too. Including one with one of occasionally-recurring-guest-star Harry Anderson’s appearances.
There was also “Mr Pubb’s” which appeared in just one episode and then was never mentioned again.
The Long Poll doesn’t have enough options. For example, imagine a Poll Question of how many Electoral College votes will Trump win? Answers: A. More than 280. B. More than 300. C. More than 350. Or D. More than 400. What option is missing? Um, how about “Trump loses”, or “gets less than 270 Electoral College votes”?
With the question of how many Republicans vote to convict Trump, the most “negative” result allowed is 2-3 Republicans vote to convict Trump. How about the option of “More than 2-3 Republicans”? How about, GASP, “over 20 Republican Senators vote to remove Trump”, which would have been the minimum under the Nixon situation in 1974? (Actually Nixon only had a dozen Republican Senators at the end, so the answer could be over 30-40 Republican Senators.)
Looking for another Klobuchar-Buttigieg prediction there, Gary?
Haven’t you had enough?
I’ve listened a few times, and I still can’t figure out why Rob mentioned Linda Tripp. Did he have a brain fart while trying to compare “The Whistleblower” and “Deep Throat” (the Watergate source, not the porn movie)?
Also, when Scott Adams said that he didn’t expect things to happen that he didn’t like, with Trump as president. And one example seemed to be “judges undoing abortion stuff.” That’s something he WOULDN’T like? Does that mean Scott Adams is pro-abortion? If that’s the case, I’m very disappointed.
If anyone voted for Trump and they weren’t worried about his lack of civic executive experience, and lack of foreign policy knowledge, you weren’t being realistic. So far so good.
Meanwhile, we’ve got Joe Biden for example, with DECADES of foreign policy knowledge and experience, every bit of it WRONG.
Hillary Clinton wasn’t much better, if any.
And how much foreign policy experience do Kamala Harris, Elizabeth Warren, Bernie Sanders, or the Gary Robbins Dream Team of Amy Klobuchar and Pete Buttigieg, have?
More than Trump.
Foreign policy has one hell of a lot of moving parts to it. It’s a mine field.
I’m glad Trump is there, but he brings absolutely no free bandwidth to the job.
When I worked in an office, Dilbert cartoons were running a few weeks behind real life office occurrences with such consistency that people suspected I actually was Scott Adams.
When was the last time we elected a foreign policy president? We’ve kicked a few to the curb because of it, but it’s usually an “Oh, by the way…” kind of thing. Domestic issues usually rule the day at the ballot box.
It is the most important thing when voting for President. At least for me.
Agreed. Mr. Adams should stick to cartoons.
Let me give an example.
Marco Rubio knows a lot about foreign policy. He is a legislator but he knows enough about this stuff that he has some useful civic knowledge so it doesn’t stick his foot in his mouth, he gets how government actually operates etc.
Rubio has a lot of free bandwidth to learn on the job. Trump does not.
I like Trump anyway.
Rob Long’s critique of streaming services perfectly described the Ricochet business model.
@ejhill ‘s artwork is wonderful. Ricochet in DilbertLand.
There is so much cool subtlety here.
The problem with Democrats and foreign policy is how much they have to unlearn after they enter office.
Jimmy Carter belatedly rebuilding our defenses after he learned the hard way what Republicans already knew about the Soviet Union.
Barack Obama moving troops back into Iraq after he took them out.
Obama and Hillary Clinton pressing the reset button with Russia, assuming that the problems with them were America’s fault.
Harry Truman belatedly opposing the Communist takeover of tiny South Korea, after he sat on his hands while the main event, China, was lost. This may prove to be the greatest foreign policy disaster in American history.
In general, Democrats are inculcated with an unrealistically negative, Howard Zinn-ish view of the United States, and an unrealistically positive, Noam Chomsky-ish view of our enemies. Thus the apology tours to which Democratic Presidents are so prone.
That’s why an inexperienced but patriotic Republican is to be preferred to an “experienced” but unpatriotic Democrat.
Democrats also do foreign policy for domestic political considerations. They were briefly anti-communist from about the late 40s to the late 60s, but this was because they feared losing elections, not because they understood communism.
@jameslileks One of my favorite cartoons from 1912:
If you get Sirius XM, I highly recommend the interview of Lee Smith on Breitbart News At Night from a couple of days ago. Extremely informative on Turkey, Ukraine, and the Kurds.
Ukraine is a lost cause. If we help them out with armaments that may be good, but the average person’s life in Ukraine will never ever improve. The whole place is a cesspool. One thousand oligarchs run roughshod all over Ukraine.
Smith makes a good case that Trump is on the right track with the Kurds and Turkey.
There aren’t that many Repubs ready to commit political suicide.
CAN they really unlearn it?
All that was my point too, especially about Biden but it applies to all of them.
Reagan observed: