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This week, a little history and a little current events. First, author/historian Ken Adelman on his new book Reagan at Reykjavik: Forty-Eight Hours That Ended the Cold War, and on the what lessons from that summit can be applied to the current crisis in Russia. Then, our old fiends Bill Kristol stops by for some conversation on the state of the races to retake Congress, and yes, even 2016. Finally, we wrap up the show with a bracing conversation about Misthiocracy’s post, Who has a rebuttal for this San Jose minimum wage article? We’ve got an answer, but it’ll cost you $10 bucks an hour to fix it.
Music from this week’s’ episode:
Do You Know The Way To San Jose by Dionne Warwick
спасибо, EJHill.
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James should be making a fortune in radio advertising or movie trailers. It’s hard to believe he wasn’t always the podcast host.
The lesson all Republicans should draw from that meeting between Reagan and Gorbachev: If you don’t need to compromise, don’t compromise.
“[Russia] has less than one fourth of the nuclear weapons than the Soviet Union had.” And that matters? Is this why Obama is so cavalier about Iran getting the bomb? Having more than one nuke is like owning more than one car: it’s nice to have a backup, but you only need one at a time.
As I recall, Titus Andronicus at least explored the conflict between loyalty to family versus loyalty to the state. It’s like a modern Antigone.
Modern diplomacy is the opposite of Steyn’s quip “The process is the punishment.” Instead, “The process is the reward.”
Speaking of members and member levels how many members are there? Is there a clock type counter that I’m not seeing. We’ve had the countdown to Ricochet now we need a count up.
This was a great podcast. I could have listened to Mr. Adelman for much longer. Also, Bill Kristol is always good.
broken link for Reagan at Reykjavik: Forty-Eight Hours That Ended the Cold War
I know it is impolite to bring this up but not sure what to make of Ken Adelman’s 2008 endorsement of Barak Obama,which was more of an anti-McCain endorsement than a pro-Obama one. His reason for supporting Obama was based on “temperament and judgement” in his words. I guess in terms of character being evasive, deceptive, and associating with a cast of characters including Bill Ayres, Reverand Wright and Rashid Khalidi counts for more than surviving a prison camp in Vietnam. Still bitter when I think of Chris Buckley, George Will, Ken Adelman and Peggy Noonan getting taken in by this guy.
Yes! And wikipedia needs an entry for “Lileksian segue.”
EJ – one of the very best!
Thanks for all the work you do for this site. We really appreciate it. Especially when the work is this good and fun and funny.
I’m sorry I don’t say it more often.
Me too. I should be leading the applause every week on the podcast, for that matter.
Play not working, nor the MP3 link.
Contrasting what passes for today’s diplomacy versus what Reagan was doing in the 1980’s – and enduring the slings and arrows for it – is an abject lesson in how to both negotiate, and lead.
Conversations aren’t leadership. I guess when you think of “national interests” as more international ones, then you don’t have much to lead from, which means you’re ready to acquiesce at the merest hint of a frown or a raised eyebrow. With all the high-powered lawyer types dotting the WH countryside (like Barry and Billary), you’d think they could scrounge up a pair of clankers between them, but neither of these two fatuous knuckleheads could navigate the challenges of getting their sandwich built at Subway without a sidebar and asking what everyone else is doing regarding the mayonnaise.
I can’t imagine having any one of the WH crew as a parent, out in the real world. They’d be raising legions of milquetoasts, who, coincidentally, make for fantastic federal employees.
Both work here. Do you have anti-virus or ad blocking software running?
Bill Kristol always sounds to me like he has a mouthful of marbles. He sounds that way on the Weekly Standard podcasts, too.
An even better stage direction from Titus Andronicus: “Enter Lavinia, ravished.”
That takes a real actress.
Duane, thanks for the link to that truly pathetic article by Adelman. The man is very seriously not able to think clearly. To have those reservations about Obama and the Dems (mentioned in the article) clear in his mind and not see that Obama would be worse for this country than McCain — this is truly truly a sick situation with people who can’t act rationally.