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The Question of the Week, maybe the month, perhaps the year, oh, heck — likely of the century is “when is the economy re-opening?” Sure, we could round up a bunch of egg-head economists to ponder and scratch their chins, but instead we went directly to the West Wing, to the room where it happens (to coin a phrase) and got our old friend and former podcaster Larry Kudlow on the Skype machine. He gives us the actual figures on the economy, the strategy, the mood, and most importantly, how we get out of this. Also, is sunlight a disinfectant? Can you inject Lysol? (Did you really think we weren’t going to talk about that?). We’ve got a Lileks Post of The Week from Southern Pessimist on cooking at home and Chef Long describes how you can cook like the stars.
Music from this week’s show: Hats Off To Larry by Del Shannon
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Doesn’t justify lying by the media, does it?
Also, it’s not like the media would suddenly start being honest if Trump was more circumspect, or even said nothing at all.
Express VPN might have more servers/IPs than other VPNs around the world, but they’re still shared, like I said. And in fact Jim Geraghty said the same thing today on Three Martini Lunch in their AD for Express VPN. The way they describe it, it’s a feature, not a bug.
Detecting and blocking VPNs might not be all that difficult. Using a VPN is likely to at least double your latency, for example, and perhaps a good deal more than double. That’s something a service like Netflix can detect.
If only a federal agency could craft a regulation to enforce RobLongian/BlueYetian discipline by the President of the United States. Such a regulation would totally not be stupid or onerous.
Apparently it is. And if he were as circumspect and wily as Obama, would you be happier? Business people brag and exaggerate. I get dunning emails from the Mass General Hospital. The tone is not much different from Trump’s. “We are doing a great job. Send a check.” (btw, it worked.)
Sorry, I did not mean that Rob was lying. But maybe colluding in a lie: Trump acts like he’s at a private meeting or college bull session, raises a speculative question, and then gets lied about on social media and “real” medai. Rob then calls him names in the context of that specific lie. Nice pattern. But yeah, I’d love it if Trump did all the things I like (defend America, love America, stand up to nonsense) with aplomb and gravitas. I guess we’ll have to wait till Tom Cotton is president.
I’d prefer to think nothing at all, remaining ignorant of the whole situation.
Yawn. It’s always someone else’s fault with you guys. Never the guy actually standing up there and shooting from the hip.
Guess I’m just naive for expecting that the adult President of The United States would figure this out on his own and make an adjustment, as it completely damages his messaging.
I strongly suspect this is exactly why he doesn’t change: because his base doesn’t demand it — they’re fine providing cover for him by blaming everyone and every thing else.
Oh, well — enjoy your President Biden and your Democratic controlled Congress. Because if he doesn’t pull it together, that’s where we’re going.
I don’t need him to be like Obama (that’s quite the non-non-sequitur, though) and I have no opinion on what Mass General is saying (another non-sequitur).
And if he (and you) care so much what social and press media react and report on vis a vis what the President says, seems to me, there’s a really easy solution: be a bit more circumspect, thoughtful, and cautious when speaking from the podium. In other words, don’t graciously hand them the club for them to use to beat you over the head with. Too much to ask?
Not sure what difference “circumspection” would make, since they’re LYING. And it seems clear they’ll happily make stuff up at other times, so why wouldn’t they just make up Trump saying something stupid, even if he actually said nothing at all? It’s not like “their side” would know the difference, or care.
Yes, ignore what I wrote and instead bring up hypothetical scenarios that might happen. Again: Trump is the POTUS. He has literally the largest bully pulpit on the planet. He controls the messaging, especially in these briefings which are broadcast live and unedited. You also act as if his Twitter feed is somehow divorced from his statements at the podium. They’re not and are often even more undisciplined (LIBERATE MICHIGAN!). Yikes.
What he’s doing maybe worked for a while (and not during a pandemic), but it’s not working now. Will he have the insight, introspection, and courage to make a change? Hope so, because the stakes could not be higher. But I’m not betting the farm (or Victor’s) on it.
Indeed they would not know the difference, or care.
Perhaps one goal of circumspection is to make sure that they only do it when they’re lying.
Another goal might be to red-pill a few more people–those who might rethinking the world when they see a blatant lie about a reasonable remark, but might not rethink when they see a freakout over a genuinely bizarre remark.
I have to wonder if you’ve been actually reading the posts of “us guys” if that’s your take.
“We” don’t care enough about President Trump’s discipline when speaking from the podium of the White House Press Room to assign blame. (Blame for what, exactly? That Trump is from Queens, not the Upper East Side?). Words are words. Action is action.
Take Salena Zito’s advice: take Trump seriously, not literally. The press – clowns that they are, take Trump literally, not seriously.
Who are “you guys” going to blame for all of that? I blame Trump.
Would that they ONLY took him literally, instead of making up BS about what he “really” said, or “meant.”
Hey @libertydefender, that’s a fine list and President Trump is right to be proud of it. But –and this is important– those are mostly signature Republican voter issues. Great, right? Uh, no…you see Trump cannot win re-election with only Republican votes. There aren’t enough of them in the states he needs Electoral College votes from to win the election. He MUST get a ton of Independent and a good chunk of Democratic voters in those states to win this thing. And the voters in those states don’t really care about most of those issues. They care about their pocketbooks (looked good until about six weeks ago — maybe it’ll come back, but we really don’t know right now). They care about consistency, they care about health care (sorry, but dismantling ObamaCare plays terribly in the Upper Midwest), and yes, they care about behavior. They don’t like the name-calling, they don’t like the Tweeting, they don’t like the division he sows. You can see that in his approval ratings over time. One can absolutely argue that the economy er, Trumps all of those other issues, and that’s probably correct. But again, that may well be off the table now. We’ll see.
A short anecdote: Before I was in this job, I worked in the entertainment business. Got to work a lot of great entertainers. The best ones (and Trump is one of the best showmen ever — and I mean that as a compliment) found a routine that worked for them that audiences responded to and then honed it and stuck to it. BUT, they also had an innate sense of when the act began to stop working, when audiences were getting a little tired of the act, and the great ones made adjustments. Some small ones on the edges, some made wholesale changes and re-invented themselves and has second (or even third) careers.
I wonder if President Trump has that ability? Can he change and be the President for the COVID era? Because it’s a different era than the one we were in 3 months ago. Hope so. Because if he doesn’t, I fear we’re going to wake up on November 7th to a very different country.
Somehow I didn’t notice that concern for attracting independent and Democrat voters was the reason for Rob‘s complaint. … in this podcast and nearly every podcast since Trump’s election.
Call me Pollyanna, but I just don’t see America electing a President who is clearly suffering from senile dementia, not even with Stacy Abrams as a running mate.
Who outside of the hard left thinks that Stacy Abrams is an asset to the ticket? She’s such an angry looking sourpuss I don’t think even black men would vote for her.
I’m not speaking for Rob — he’s more than capable of speaking for himself and does so every week. I’m speaking for myself and addressing why Trump’s behavior matters now. We’re 7 months out from an election. It’s crunch time and no room for self-inflicted errors.
I highly doubt Biden will pick Abrams. Her biggest accomplishment is losing the GA Governor’s race, and Biden has clearly demonstrated that he needs no help with the African American vote.
Going to guess he picks someone who can help him in the Upper Midwest — Amy Klobuchar or maybe (horrors) Governor Whitmer.
If he picks Gretchen, he has to keep her, right? We don’t have to have her back. We can do without her, really.
You say “clearly” but a lot of people don’t even seem to know who Biden IS, let alone his… issues… The media has protected him for years, and will continue to.
Biden painted himself into a corner by announcing that his veep will be a woman. This rules out taking any of the Democrat Governors who are perceived as successful on COVID-19. Which Witmer isn’t.
On the other hand, what will the Bernie bro’s think of Klobuchar?
There is also the Governor of NM, who has been competing with Dear Gretchen.
It’s been bad but not as arbitrary as ‘No Seeds’ Gretchen.
You may be on to something. She’s “Hispanic”, i.e., “pretend non-white”.
¡Sí!
Took $5 million from Michael Bloomberg to shut up during the primary. Socialism is complicated.
Trump has never had to speak under the pressure of being a political / government executive and it frequently shows. There is nothing else like it.
Comrade Abrams doesn’t believe all women.
Sound volume is so low, I can’t follow this from anywhere but a foot or two right in front of my laptop.
Make sure you have the volume control on both the web player and your laptop turned up.