It’s Still A Damn Free Country

Every so often, we dispense with the guests and just let the hosts riff on whatever comes to their minds. That’s what we did for this week’s show, as Peter, Rob, and James jam about Joe Biden entering the race, the politics of impeachment, the new found popularity of socialism, including Medicare For All and cancelling student loans (in certain sectors of the culture), and finally, Rob’s (somewhat sad) impending departure from Venice, CA.

Music from this week’s show: California by Lenny Kravitz

Actual photo of Rob’s house being packed up for moving (taken 4/25/19).

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There are 65 comments.

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  1. kedavis Coolidge
    kedavis
    @kedavis

    What to make of the claim by many, on the left, that concluding “No collusion” from the Mueller Report, is only possible using a “beyond a reasonable doubt” going-to-prison standard.  But if looked at just from a more practical “preponderance of evidence,” Trump is – to quote the Doonesbury comics of decades ago – “GUILTY! GUILTY! GUILTY!”

    • #1
  2. kedavis Coolidge
    kedavis
    @kedavis

    Also, there are some other problems about food stamps.  When people have no “skin in the game,” so to speak, they may not be very careful about how it’s used.  I see lots of people doing their food stamps grocery shopping at Circle-K, where the prices might be double or triple what they’d “pay” (except THEY aren’t really paying) at Kroger, Walmart, etc.

    • #2
  3. Samuel Block Support
    Samuel Block
    @SamuelBlock

    Whoa, what happened to ricochet…. looks different.

    I was gone for like a week.

    • #3
  4. Henry Castaigne Member
    Henry Castaigne
    @HenryCastaigne

    Samuel Block (View Comment):

    Whoa, what happened to ricochet…. looks different.

    I was gone for like a week.

    Update.

    • #4
  5. Arahant Member
    Arahant
    @Arahant

    Samuel Block (View Comment):

    Whoa, what happened to ricochet…. looks different.

    I was gone for like a week.

    Welcome to Ricochet 4.0.

    • #5
  6. FredGoodhue Coolidge
    FredGoodhue
    @FredGoodhue

    Arahant (View Comment):

    Samuel Block (View Comment):

    Whoa, what happened to ricochet…. looks different.

    I was gone for like a week.

    Welcome to Ricochet 4.0.

    It looks like change for the sake of change, not change for an improvement.

    • #6
  7. Arahant Member
    Arahant
    @Arahant

    FredGoodhue (View Comment):
    It looks like change for the sake of change, not change for an improvement.

    My understanding is that many of the features of the update were to better present the podcasts.

    • #7
  8. CliffTOP Inactive
    CliffTOP
    @CliffTOP

    Hey guys, I really enjoyed this episode. 

    You apologized a bit for no guest, but tell ya what. I’ve skipped over some guests before, but I’ve never skipped over you three bantering the topics of the day. 

    Keep ‘em coming…

    • #8
  9. Burwick Chiffswiddle Member
    Burwick Chiffswiddle
    @Kephalithos

    My guess:

    Rob’s friend’s house is in a local historic district with a board of architectural review (BOAR), and the board of architectural review doesn’t distinguish between old and new, intact and altered, or beauty and eyesore. Its regulations apply to everything within the district.

    In theory, BOARs are a fittingly federalist way of balancing the need to build and the need to preserve. In practice, though, they’re a nightmare.

    • #9
  10. FredGoodhue Coolidge
    FredGoodhue
    @FredGoodhue

    Arahant (View Comment):

    FredGoodhue (View Comment):
    It looks like change for the sake of change, not change for an improvement.

    My understanding is that many of the features of the update were to better present the podcasts.

    It’s more cumbersome to get to the full list of recent podcasts.  It’s not a big thing, but why spend lots of money to make things slightly worse.

    • #10
  11. Taras Coolidge
    Taras
    @Taras

    Listening to Rob Long, I think I understand the anti-Trump mentality a little better. 

    They’re like Russian citizens in 1917 who look upon the rising Communist movement with equanimity.  Russia has traditions and mores going back hundreds of years, they think comfortably; none of that is going to change any time soon. 

    Anti-Trumpers see no problem with undermining the President.  If progressives win the White House as a result, and take over the Supreme Court, well, they think comfortably, America has traditions and mores going back hundreds of years; none of that is going to change any time soon. 

    • #11
  12. Taras Coolidge
    Taras
    @Taras

    I’m still waiting for Republicans to figure out that the response to “Medicare For All“ is to tell senior citizens, “They want to destroy your Medicare!“

    Doctors are willing to take some Medicare patients, in spite of the low reimbursement rates, because they make their living on their privately insured patients. 

    • #12
  13. Taras Coolidge
    Taras
    @Taras

    The guys brought up the update:  The new font is pretty, but less legible than the old one.  It appears to be calligraphy-inspired, with thick vertical lines and thin horizontal ones.  

    This tends to make different letters look alike to my poor old eyes, like “c” and “e” —  I keep rechecking I didn’t put down the same letter twice — and “b” and “h”.

    • #13
  14. Rightfromthestart Coolidge
    Rightfromthestart
    @Rightfromthestart

    Taras (View Comment):

    I’m still waiting for Republicans to figure out that the response to “Medicare For All“ is to tell senior citizens, “They want to destroy your Medicare!“

    Doctors are willing to take some Medicare patients, in spite of the low reimbursement rates, because they make their living on their privately insured patients.

    Republicans consultants are hopelessly incompetent at messaging, even when  they aren’t actively working to lose like Steve Schmidt and Nicole Wallace. They constantly allow the Democrats to get away with dropping the word ‘illegal’ from the immigration issue. Even in this podcast no one pointed out that health ‘care’ and health ‘insurance’ are two entirely different things, Peter came close. 

     

    • #14
  15. Taras Coolidge
    Taras
    @Taras

    Rightfromthestart (View Comment):

    Taras (View Comment):

    I’m still waiting for Republicans to figure out that the response to “Medicare For All“ is to tell senior citizens, “They want to destroy your Medicare!“

    Doctors are willing to take some Medicare patients, in spite of the low reimbursement rates, because they make their living on their privately insured patients.

    Republicans consultants are hopelessly incompetent at messaging, even when they aren’t actively working to lose like Steve Schmidt and Nicole Wallace. They constantly allow the Democrats to get away with dropping the word ‘illegal’ from the immigration issue. Even in this podcast no one pointed out that health ‘care’ and health ‘insurance’ are two entirely different things, Peter came close.

     

    A classic moment of this kind was when media “conservatives” accepted the sly liberal standard of painting conservative states red and liberal states blue.  This has created permanent confusion, very useful to the left.  For example, when I told a friend that ex-communist David Horowitz refers to himself as a “red-diaper baby“, he couldn’t understand what I was talking about. 

    Even a battler like Tucker Carlson gives tacit approval to the false narrative of “black lives matter“, instead of crushing it with the actual statistics on race and crime.  For example, that 24 times as many blacks are killed by other blacks as by the police; and that blacks kill whites two or three times as often as the reverse. 

    • #15
  16. Arahant Member
    Arahant
    @Arahant

    Taras (View Comment):
    For example, that 24 times as many blacks are killed by other blacks as by the police; and that blacks kill whites two or three times as often as the reverse.

    Or that some police departments, especially those in larger cities, tend to have minorities over-represented on the force. In other words, many of the police shootings of blacks are done by blacks.

    • #16
  17. Samuel Block Support
    Samuel Block
    @SamuelBlock

    CliffTOP (View Comment):

    Hey guys, I really enjoyed this episode.

    You apologized a bit for no guest, but tell ya what. I’ve skipped over some guests before, but I’ve never skipped over you three bantering the topics of the day.

    Keep ‘em coming…

    Aha! I’m glad to have been publicly seconded… I’ve said this a few times. Clearly, the hosts don’t find themselves as interesting as we do. The problem, as I see it, is that any guests who aren’t at the top of their game tend to slow things down a bit. Ive noticed that Mr. Robinson has been playing more offense over the last several weeks – how many guests can compete with that?

    • #17
  18. kedavis Coolidge
    kedavis
    @kedavis

    Rightfromthestart (View Comment):

    Taras (View Comment):

    I’m still waiting for Republicans to figure out that the response to “Medicare For All“ is to tell senior citizens, “They want to destroy your Medicare!“

    Doctors are willing to take some Medicare patients, in spite of the low reimbursement rates, because they make their living on their privately insured patients.

    Republicans consultants are hopelessly incompetent at messaging, even when they aren’t actively working to lose like Steve Schmidt and Nicole Wallace. They constantly allow the Democrats to get away with dropping the word ‘illegal’ from the immigration issue. Even in this podcast no one pointed out that health ‘care’ and health ‘insurance’ are two entirely different things, Peter came close.

    Yes, “even” Trump has done better there, by talking about how people have “insurance” that they can’t afford to USE.  Because of high deductibles, etc.

     

    • #18
  19. kedavis Coolidge
    kedavis
    @kedavis

    Taras (View Comment):

    I’m still waiting for Republicans to figure out that the response to “Medicare For All“ is to tell senior citizens, “They want to destroy your Medicare!“

    Doctors are willing to take some Medicare patients, in spite of the low reimbursement rates, because they make their living on their privately insured patients.

    Also numbers/digits such as 2, 5, and 8.  It might look cool and modern on phones/tablets/etc, but on real computers I find it troublesome.  That’s one reason why re-adding the different background color for number of post comments, etc, would (hopefully) make them more readable.

    Simply using a larger font in some places would help too.

    • #19
  20. The Cloaked Gaijin Member
    The Cloaked Gaijin
    @TheCloakedGaijin

    Rob should have moved to Minnesota to be with James Lileks for a year or so.

    I want to move to Minnesota just so I can write in “James Lileks” in as a name to replace Ilhan Omar.  Think of the comedy writing opportunities.  Pat Paulsen would have nothing on this scenario…

    • #20
  21. kedavis Coolidge
    kedavis
    @kedavis

    I think James is hoping that nobody ever does that.  And certainly that it never SUCCEEDS.

    • #21
  22. Peter Robinson Contributor
    Peter Robinson
    @PeterRobinson

    Samuel Block (View Comment):

    Ive noticed that Mr. Robinson has been playing more offense over the last several weeks – how many guests can compete with that?

    Gee, my wife never has any trouble.

    But thanks to you, Samuel, and to Clifftop, for putting us at ease regarding shows when it’s just the three of us hosts. We tend to feel a little sheepish about it, honestly–this week, we had a couple of guests lined up, and something came up at the last minute for each. But if listeners don’t mind too terribly much–well, as I say, you set our minds at ease. 

     

    • #22
  23. Stad Coolidge
    Stad
    @Stad

    Taras (View Comment):
    Doctors are willing to take some Medicare patients, in spite of the low reimbursement rates, because they make their living on their privately insured patients. 

    Very few these days.  Most have signs in their offices “No longer taking Medicare patients.”

    My doctor’s private practice went belly-up because he had too many Medicare patients, and the reimbursments from the government were always below what it actually cost, and chronically late.

    • #23
  24. Stad Coolidge
    Stad
    @Stad

    Rob’s take on food stamps being a success made me think (Damn him!).

    If food stamps are viewed as food vouchers and they work great, then why not do the same thing with public education vouchers?  Food stamp vouchers didn’t put grocery stores out of business, so why would education vouchers put public schools out of business?

    • #24
  25. Henry Castaigne Member
    Henry Castaigne
    @HenryCastaigne

    teen girls overweight single parents

    Once again, the source of all of America’s problems are broken families. The government was very stupid and made things worse as Rob and James pointed out but the biggest factor is a lack of Dads for children.

    • #25
  26. Samuel Block Support
    Samuel Block
    @SamuelBlock

    Peter Robinson (View Comment):

    Samuel Block (View Comment):

    Ive noticed that Mr. Robinson has been playing more offense over the last several weeks – how many guests can compete with that?

    Gee, my wife never has any trouble.

    But to be fair, your comments about her don’t leave the impression that Mrs. Robinson is any ordinary lady.

    Plus, home court advantage.

    • #26
  27. Morley Stevenson Member
    Morley Stevenson
    @MorleyStevenson

    Where is the volume control?  Response can be sent to morley.stevenson@gmail.com.

    • #27
  28. Arahant Member
    Arahant
    @Arahant

    Morley Stevenson (View Comment):
    Where is the volume control?

    On your computer.

    • #28
  29. Blue Yeti Admin
    Blue Yeti
    @BlueYeti

    Arahant (View Comment):

    Morley Stevenson (View Comment):
    Where is the volume control?

    On your computer.

    This is the correct answer. All modern keyboards have a volume control. 

    • #29
  30. Arahant Member
    Arahant
    @Arahant

    Blue Yeti (View Comment):

    Arahant (View Comment):

    Morley Stevenson (View Comment):
    Where is the volume control?

    On your computer.

    This is the correct answer. All modern keyboards have a volume control.

    And if the keyboard doesn’t, the software on the machine does.

    • #30
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