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We know you like it when the hosts get into it and we know you like it when one of them gets triggered by a certain Chief Executive. So –no spoilers!– we think you’ll enjoy the opening segment of today’s Big Show. But stick around, because we want to introduce you to two members of the media we think you ought to be aware of. First up: Alex Berenson, once a card carrying member of the elite media (the New York Times) and now a novelist who does some independent journalism on the side. His work on COVID over the past six months (available on Twitter and on his website is not to be missed. Then, meet Andrew Beaton, who covers sports for the Wall Street Journal. His no nonsense reporting on COVID and sports and the impact of the social justice movement is not to be missed. But that’s not all: we’ve got a new Lileks Post of The Week, courtesy of @DoctorRobert (it’s about oboes). Finally, we lost a great one this week. Well, those of us who were aware of him did. Guess which one of our podcasters is not really aware of the contributions to the culture Edward Van Halen left us?
Music from this week’s show: Dance The Night Away by Van Halen
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I remember those in the podcasts. They seem to have stopped, maybe Rob didn’t want any more of those “Trump Supporters” messing up his site?
Your comment would please them both, Michael
What I found amazing is how Rob puts the blame on the candidates (Trump) rather than how people vote (decide) by how someone looks or talks rather than the issues and policies. Also the fact that all the major “news” outlets have consistently mischaracterized or slanted everything about any conservative side. Rob may be right that the American public has become so decadent that perceived image means more than any substance which is a sad commentary on our republic.
Speaking of crackpot conspiracy theories I’d like to start. Given the propensity for one party to mandate wearing masks regardless of the evidence for their effectiveness, anyone care to hazard a guess whether the same party will mandate vaccinations should they win in November and a vaccine is produced?
Peter Robinson mentions Cotton Mather and “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God” in the same breath, though I trust that he is not suggesting that the former delivered the latter, which is, of course, a sermon by Jonathan Edwards.
I would like to think, on a different theological note, that Rob Long played well the role of Devil’s advocate in once more laying into Donald Trump. In any case, the responses of his two comrades were superb.
The difficult but eminently reasonable position of conservatives is that both sentimental trust in the golden hearts of the people and snooty contempt for the unwashed masses are wrongheaded. The American electorate is fickle—and, let’s be honest—ill-informed. In its defense, one could say that circumstances have made “politics” vastly too important. Is Trump his own worst enemy? I would say: his second worst enemy. The grim fact is that he and his team are up against it. Kamala Harris can get away with the “Charlottesville lie” and now a misrepresentation of even Abraham Lincoln. Why? Because the American media are overwhelmingly in the tank for her and Joe Biden.
Leftism is triumphing not because conservatives only talk to each other and do not reach out to persuade but rather because it appeals to wannabe elitists, gaga utopians, esp. brainwashed college kids, and those who wouldn’t know the “Russian Hoax” scandal from a breakfast cereal.
I am quite Proustian when it comes to tastes and odors…Horse manure? Oh, yes, except when it emanates from the Democratic Party.
I was pleased to hear Japan mentioned again. We continue to practice social distancing, and most everyone wears a mask. But those who do not are left alone, without so much as dirty looks. It could be argued that the supposedly more “conformist” Japanese don’t need a bullying Big Brother to keep thing running smoothly. One sees the same with airport security, which in Japan is vastly less intimidating than in the United States.
I listened a second and third time to hear Rob’s take. Good for Rob.
The Republican Party should cut Trump loose, before Trump destroys the Party. The 9 minutes from 8 minutes to 17 minutes were superb. Rob is telling us some hard truths, and hopefully after Trump is wiped out and we lose the Senate and more House seats, folks will stop and listen to Rob’s wisdom.
I appreciate that my fellow Ricochetti disagree with Rob. But a massive tsunami is coming. It will behoove all of us to listen to Co-Founder Rob Long to find the way back to building majorities in future elections.
It won’t be played in the gulags, Gary.
If Rob is just as correct as he was(n’t) in 2016, we’re in fine shape.
Do you really believe that the Dems will build gulags for us?
Republicans that want the Single Payer-Gun-To-Their-Head for the rest of their life and for every single generation after that.
Discuss.
Good words from a friend. “Those willing to murder the unborn should never be trusted to govern the living.”
Not sure how difficult it is to find a sportswriter regular Ricochet members can relate to, but another swing and a miss with this one. Clay “Corona Bros” Travis would have been a perfect complement to Alex Berenson. Instead we get some guy from the WSJ – who reads the Journal for sports? – who toes the party line and claims you can’t really know why television ratings have dropped. Except that you can because the NBA already announced no SJW shenanigans on television next season. Here’s a suggestion, stop trying to do sports especially when your hosts obviously know nothing about them.
As for Roberta, is there anyone out there these days who more clearly evidences a case of projecting his own TDS into his analyses? Remember when it was the common consensus that Trump was going to be easily reelected? Then something called the Coronavirus panic struck and that changed. What would Rob be saying now had nothing like the virus or BLM nonsense happened? I’m sure he’d have come up with something just as transparently lame as his admittedly broken-record takes have been. I’m glad Peter called him out for his caricature of Trump supporters. I doubt he’s ever had a real conversation with one. And what does he want from Trump? An apology for wrecking forever his GLOP pals, the WS, and NR in less than four years? It’s amazing he can’t see how much the political landscape has been changed forever. Then again, his ringtone is probably the Cheers theme song and I’m sure he still expects everyone to cry “Norm!” when he walks into the room, hearkening back to the days when he had anything relevant or interesting to say.
No. It’ll be a wall, and we’ll just be put on the other side of it.
Except for rich people. They have to stay and pay for everything.
Listen to the latest Power Line podcast. I thought they had some really good descriptions about how to think about the left wanting to shove “democracy” down everybody’s throat. They really want a hell of a lot of “free” stuff which can only be manifested by government force.
This is a very dense, technical discussion, but it’s very good at explaining why central bank easy money and Congress or the government can’t just increase the supply of what we need to live better. I mean it is just a brutal Perry Mason case closed situation after you listen to it. It would be really cool if somebody could make a simpler version that most conservatives and libertarians could appreciate.
https://ttmygh.podbean.com/e/teg_0006/.
Man, I am not a fan of the Breitbart site, but in poking around to find an easy summary of 2016 vs. 2020 polling in October, it’s hard to find an easy summary.
But I’ll link the article, and show the bullets below. Not a fan of polling in general, since even in tightly contested races that are separated by only a few points, the samples always consist only of people who respond to polls, and leaves out whatever percentage of people who vote but don’t respond to polls.
Which may be a small percentage, or a big one, and will vary by a specific race, etc, but it’s a gap that always exists.
https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2020/10/10/13-polls-in-october-2016-that-showed-hillary-clinton-with-a-big-lead-over-donald-trump/
1. PRRI/Brookings Poll released on October 19: Hillary Clinton leading Donald Trump by 15 points
2. NBC/Wall Street Journal Poll released on October 10: Hillary Clinton leading Donald Trump by 14 points in a one-on-one contest and 11 points in a four way race
3. AP Poll released on October 26: Hillary Clinton leading Donald Trump by 14 points
4. Monmouth University Poll released on October 17: Hillary Clinton leading Donald Trump by 12 points
5. ABC Poll released on October 23: Hillary Clinton leading Donald Trump by 12 points
6. Atlantic/PRRI Poll released on October 9: Hillary Clinton leading Donald Trump by 11 points
7. Saint Leo University Poll released on October 26: Hillary Clinton leading Donald Trump by 11 points
8. USA Today/Suffolk University Poll released on October 27: Hillary Clinton leading Donald Trump by 10 points in a one-on-one race and by nine points in a four way race.
9. Fairleigh Dickinson University Poll released on October 6: Hillary Clinton leading Donald Trump by 10 points
10. SurveyUSA/Boston Globe Poll released on October 14: Hillary Clinton leading Donald Trump by 10 points
11. CBS Poll released on October 17: Hillary Clinton leading Donald Trump by nine points
12. Bloomberg Poll released on October 19: Hillary Clinton leading Donald Trump by nine points
13. CNBC Poll released on October 27: Hillary Clinton leading Donald Trump by nine points
On Election Day 2016, Donald Trump surprised those polling firms, the mainstream media, the Democratic Party, and Hillary Clinton by easily securing the presidency with a 306 to 232 Electoral College victory over Clinton, despite losing the national popular vote to her by two points, 46 percent to 48 percent. (The final Electoral College totals counted when Congress convened to formally count the votes in January 2017 was 304 for Trump, 227 for Clinton, with seven cast for various other candidates by faithless electors.)
One other comment about that podcast I posted on #105.
What those guys are talking about we have been doing since 1987 and definitely by 1996. The debt to GDP charts etc. start going bad under Reagan and then 43 didn’t do a damn thing to get us on the right track to prevent all of this populism and socialism taking off. Our last chance was right around 15 years ago. This is a real mess to deal with politically right now. Republicans voting against Trump don’t have any solutions.
The other thing is that Rob’s apoplexy around the Senate and House races: I’m thinking he’s missing the point. If we had a completely different candidate, and a swirling, healthy miasma of Republicans being ushered in on the coattails of a more popular president (remember, this would be a theoretically popular Republican president, a unicorn seen only in nostalgia videos from 4 decades ago), does Rob think actual conservative policies would result?
Would spending go down?
Would entitlements decrease?
Would GDP increase to 1980, 1990 growth rates (3/4/5%, vs. 1/2/3%)
Would the US Embassy have moved in Israel?
Etc. The go-along club in DC, with a more traditional president, would just continue the slow death spiral of debt and spending, and reliance on the gov’t giving you things. Nothing would change.
I’m hoping something changes.
That’s what I was saying in the other comment I made. We crossed the Rubicon along time ago. Now it’s about keeping asset bubbles intact so you can act politically and seize political power.
It was a huge mistake to just not let everything fall apart in 2008. Humanity would be better off and it would be easier to pitch normal conservatism and libertarianism. That is one of the huge takeaways for me personally from that podcast. Really we should’ve done it before that, but people don’t get what I’m talking about.
I wanted Ted Cruz to get an office to get us off all of this inflationism crap, but this just isn’t the right time. Then you have to deal with some real side effects and some political side effects of this track.
This is a three minute video by Devin Nunes on the election. You can’t argue with this. The YouTube version isn’t up yet so I can’t embed it.
https://www.bitchute.com/video/rBewLkhYjv5C/
This is outstanding on lockdowns and masks. It’s on all the podcast platforms if you prefer.
Isnt anyone upset, that Democrats have spent the last 3 years falsely investigating, indicting and persecuting their foes?
You do realize the (R) won the Presidency, the Senate, and the House in 2016. After the Mueller Insurance Policy kept the Russia Hoax alive the (D) was only able to win the House, which is the normal historical course of events.
Why do you keep pretending we lost, why do you keep pretending there is only a later on (R) someday future in your imaginary NT mind.
The time to put Conservative policy into effect is when you win.
The (R) won in 2016 and you immediately began advocating to defeat (R) and went as far as giving money to (D) candidates.
It was your choice to leave the (R) Party and Conservatism, so stop pretending you are either of the two.
If you support candidates in the current (D) Party then you are a genuine Leftist (D) … again the formula: If you vote for the (D), then you are a (D) is really very straight forward and obvious to most every logical mind.
Not so much. Especially when you consider that TDS, at least as manifested in Republicans, could be a variant of Stockholm Syndrome.
I go by what they say. There were a lot of folks who said, “Oh, Hitler doesn’t really mean that stuff he’s saying.” But he did. If they can pack the court and pack the Senate with new states like PR and DC, it will cement their position in power, and that gives us Venezuela at best.
More to the point, with cancel culture and suppression of free speech and bad-thought, they really don’t need to build the gulags.
Gary thinks that if they could just get rid of Trump, they can rebuild the Republican Party in their NT image. Wrong. The NTs abandoned the party and will not have any say in its path in the future. Trump or no Trump, they are relegated to perpetual wiener dog, yappy status as a fringe minority who can’t displace all the rest of us.
They say that about the pro Trump voters and politicians too. All of the Principles First types talk like this all of the time.
I have no big opinion about any of it except to say that I want to see what things look like in the next 2 to 4 years.
I will not trust anyone who abandoned us for the Democrats.
If there is a Democrat tsunami for the second General election, I would suggest that our Republican Party will reconsider its commitment to Trumpism.
I am not leaving. And we will rebuild the party without Trumpism.