Senator Fix-It

This week, the rare single guest show. But when that guest is Senator Ben Sasse, he has enough brain power to fill two segments and that’s exactly what the does on today’s episode. Mostly, we discuss his WSJ Op-Ed, Make The Senate Great Again, which is a manifesto on how to fix the World’s Greatest  Deliberative Body. Also, some thoughts on Woodward v. Trump and the less than great mayor of the City That Never Sleeps.

Music from this week’s show: The Sand Hills of Old Nebraska by Ole Rasmussen

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  1. kedavis Coolidge
    kedavis
    @kedavis

    Ricochet Audio Network: Ricochet Podcast #389

    Really?  389?

    • #1
  2. Blue Yeti Admin
    Blue Yeti
    @BlueYeti

    Fixed!

    • #2
  3. kedavis Coolidge
    kedavis
    @kedavis

    Wow, Rob.  Liberal voters are shocked when liberal politicians actually do liberal things when in office?

    Also, Biden may not be serious about stopping all fracking, but whoever he – or his puppeteers – put at EPA, might be.  At that point they can claim to have a “hands-off” policy about the “independence” of agencies such as EPA.

    • #3
  4. kedavis Coolidge
    kedavis
    @kedavis

    And of course, Ben Sasse could easily be wrong about whether repealing the 17th amendment would be good for conservatives.

    He might also be wrong to assume that people on the left, at least, would be happier to have a more powerful city government, rather than federal government.  Because a more powerful city government couldn’t force all those OTHER people to do what the left wants.

    There might be a reason why Ben Sasses is one of the most popular, if not THE most popular, guest(s) on Jonah Goldberg’s “Half-Baked Ideas” segments.

    • #4
  5. kedavis Coolidge
    kedavis
    @kedavis

    Peter says “I’ll keep this question short” and then starts telling a story about his daughter…

    • #5
  6. Arahant Member
    Arahant
    @Arahant

    Just starting, but that opening snippet about Peter’s first reliable audience is pure gold.

    • #6
  7. kedavis Coolidge
    kedavis
    @kedavis

    Also, Peter says that Ben Sasse is one of the few senators who can “get things done.”

    According to congress.gov, Ben Sasse has a record of 499 actions in Congress, most of which were just Senate resolutions.   The number of bills he introduced that actually became law, is 7.

    • #7
  8. Arahant Member
    Arahant
    @Arahant

    That buffering and lagging transition to commercial, James. That was something.

    • #8
  9. Franco Member
    Franco
    @Franco

    I can’t listen but I read the article he wrote. All pretty good ideas. Not one will ever be seriously explored, much less adopted. You know that, right? Right???

    It’s actually quite absurd.

    For me, it’s  like seeing an advertisement for Gucci next to a photo of the Twin Towers with a man in a business suit plunging to his death.

    This is pure pandering to the naval-gazing intellectual set that Ricochet attracts. Fantasizing about the ideal governmental futures that make colonizing Mars in the next generation look easy. What kind of precious world are you people living in indulging in such idle speculation? I imagine it’s pure escapism. I guess that can be excused, but don’t pretend to be “serious “ because it’s not. It’s like going to see Star Wars or Spider-Man at the movies. Get away from the riots, the absolute devastation of reasonable reportage by the media, the lies, the corruption of our institutions, the Alice in Wonderland insanity. 

    In the meantime, our country is tracking towards Venezuela, but here’s how we should Make the Senate great again. Hilfunkinlarious!

     

    • #9
  10. kedavis Coolidge
    kedavis
    @kedavis

    Franco (View Comment):

    I can’t listen but I read the article he wrote. All pretty good ideas. Not one will ever be seriously explored, much less adopted. You know that, right? Right???

    It’s actually quite absurd.

    For me, it’s like seeing an advertisement for Gucci next to a photo of the Twin Towers with a man in a business suit plunging to his death.

    This is pure pandering to the naval-gazing intellectual set that Ricochet attracts. Fantasizing about the ideal governmental futures that make colonizing Mars in the next generation look easy. What kind of precious world are you people living in indulging in such idle speculation? I imagine it’s pure escapism. I guess that can be excused, but don’t pretend to be “serious “ because it’s not. It’s like going to see Star Wars or Spider-Man at the movies. Get away from the riots, the absolute devastation of reasonable reportage by the media, the lies, the corruption of our institutions, the Alice in Wonderland insanity.

    In the meantime, our country is tracking towards Venezuela, but here’s how we should Make the Senate great again. Hilfunkinlarious!

    If not for the references to the Senate, I might think you were talking about Jonah Goldberg.

    • #10
  11. MISTER BITCOIN Inactive
    MISTER BITCOIN
    @MISTERBITCOIN

    When state legislatures chose US Senators, no one served more than 2 terms.  12 year max.

     

    • #11
  12. James Lileks Contributor
    James Lileks
    @jameslileks

    Arahant (View Comment):

    That buffering and lagging transition to commercial, James. That was something.

    I hope it was a good something. ;) You never know when you’re winging it. 

    • #12
  13. kedavis Coolidge
    kedavis
    @kedavis

    MISTER BITCOIN (View Comment):

    When state legislatures chose US Senators, no one served more than 2 terms. 12 year max.

    Reason enough why the senate would never go along with repealing the 17th amendment.

    • #13
  14. Arahant Member
    Arahant
    @Arahant

    James Lileks (View Comment):

    Arahant (View Comment):

    That buffering and lagging transition to commercial, James. That was something.

    I hope it was a good something. ;) You never know when you’re winging it.

    We do want the Post of the Week every week, by the way.

    • #14
  15. Dotorimuk Coolidge
    Dotorimuk
    @Dotorimuk

    Can DiBlasio run for another term? I hear how much he is “universally loathed”, but I wouldn’t be surprised at all if he wins re-election.

    Same as all these moron mayors in the rioting cities, and every California kook official. 

    • #15
  16. kedavis Coolidge
    kedavis
    @kedavis

    Dotorimuk (View Comment):

    Can DiBlasio run for another term? I hear how much he is “universally loathed”, but I wouldn’t be surprised at all if he wins re-election.

    Same as all these moron mayors in the rioting cities, and every California kook official.

    Even if they don’t re-elect the current moron, they’ll just elect some other moron.

    • #16
  17. Arahant Member
    Arahant
    @Arahant

    kedavis (View Comment):
    Even if they don’t re-elect the current moron, they’ll just elect some other moron.

    Now, that’s just guaranteed.

    • #17
  18. MISTER BITCOIN Inactive
    MISTER BITCOIN
    @MISTERBITCOIN

    Arahant (View Comment):

    kedavis (View Comment):
    Even if they don’t re-elect the current moron, they’ll just elect some other moron.

    Now, that’s just guaranteed.

    As long as the moron does the ‘right’ thing.

    Milton Friedman: it’s not about getting the right people… it’s about making it politically profitable for the wrong person to do the right thing

     

     

    • #18
  19. RufusRJones Member
    RufusRJones
    @RufusRJones

    DiBlasio doesn’t know how despised he is.” He has to have set the world record for this.

    “The press was serious in those days”. The media alone is the reason to vote for Trump and all Republicans.

    In Minnesota when the emergency powers go away they have to legislate mask wearing. I am majorly looking forward to that. The evidence for those things gets worse by the week.

    Maybe he’s including himself, but Ben Sasse is known as being more of a pundit than a leader that actually moves the ball.

    “We haven’t modernized policy for a different era etc.” I’ve said this over and over and over. We are not dealing with the deflation from globalized trade and automation. The whole government and financial system is set up for inflation. That is the problem. This is also how you end up with socialism, populism, and out of control centralized government. The second the Soviet Union fell we should have  undone every single thing Woodrow Wilson, FDR, and LBJ did.

    He  really nailed it. We have a non-decentralized government in a bidding war for the whole country that is breaking said government. If it was decentralized as originally intended that couldn’t happen.

    Executive overreach. DACA is totally illegal. Obama said it was totally illegal. Then he did it anyway with an executive order. Then Trump tried to undo it. The supreme court stopped him. That’s the actual game today. Act accordingly.

    “Insurance portability.” Employment-based insurance has to be wiped out.

    The Senate intelligence committee is headed by Richard Burr. This is not a good example.

    The thing is when he talks about the middle is being crowded out, the problem is government isn’t decentralized. The “left edge” is going to seize it and then shove it down your throat and then this ground never gets taken back again. If Trump loses you’re going to get single payer. These Republicans that are voting for Biden are idiots. The ACA was a lie to force single payer and it’s working perfectly.

    • #19
  20. RufusRJones Member
    RufusRJones
    @RufusRJones

    My basic observation is Sasse 100% right, but you have to work with the government you have. The left keeps the ground they take. They have a whole system for it. They sacrifice political people but then they get taken care of financially. Now is not the time for idealism.

    • #20
  21. RufusRJones Member
    RufusRJones
    @RufusRJones

    I haven’t totally thought this through, but the other good thing about what Ben Sasse is talking about is cities and states wouldn’t be able to get money from the feds for really stupid projects if the government was set up the way he’s recommending. It’s really amazing how much bad leftist policy get shoved down our throats in this system.

    • #21
  22. RufusRJones Member
    RufusRJones
    @RufusRJones

    Franco (View Comment):
    I can’t listen but I read the article he wrote. All pretty good ideas. Not one will ever be seriously explored, much less adopted. You know that, right? Right???

    You can’t argue with this. 

    This is one of several reasons that Principles First group is ridiculous. They are a bunch of navel gazing civics freaks that are being controlled by the left and what amounts to neocons or closet Rockefeller Republicans. I swear, every single thing Heath Mayo says is wrong or obviously banal, but that crowd eats it up.

    Parenthetically, it seems like there is a new wacky fact about their convention speaker lineup about every month. 

     

    • #22
  23. Arahant Member
    Arahant
    @Arahant

    MISTER BITCOIN (View Comment):
    Milton Friedman: it’s not about getting the right people… it’s about making it politically profitable for the wrong person to do the right thing

    • #23
  24. RufusRJones Member
    RufusRJones
    @RufusRJones

    Here is another thing he doesn’t account for: 

    Does the rise in crime in some of our major American cities correlate to the election of so-called progressive prosecutors? These “reform” district attorneys have immense potential to reshape the justice system as a whole. Newt’s guest is Jason Johnson, President of Law Enforcement Legal Defense Fund.

    The Truth About Soro’s DA’s 

     

    • #24
  25. The Cloaked Gaijin Member
    The Cloaked Gaijin
    @TheCloakedGaijin

    After both parties get a chance to expand the Supreme Court, conservatives will no longer be moaning about those 5-4 decisions.

    They will moan about those 9 to 8 decisions and those 13 to 12 decisions…

    • #25
  26. Jon1979 Inactive
    Jon1979
    @Jon1979

    Dotorimuk (View Comment):

    Can DiBlasio run for another term? I hear how much he is “universally loathed”, but I wouldn’t be surprised at all if he wins re-election.

    Same as all these moron mayors in the rioting cities, and every California kook official.

    NYC mayors starting with Giuliani have been term limited to eight years, like presidents … but if you have billions of dollars like Michael Bloomberg, you can pay off enough people to get around that rule and serve another four years.

    Bill de Blasio has wasted billions of dollars, but he doesn’t have it lying around in a mason jar to buy another four years, like Bloomberg did, which is why he’s supposedly pushing for his equally-woke-and-money-wasting wife, Chirlane McCray, to play Hillary to his Bill and run for mayor next year.

    Assuming everyone not batshirt crazy hasn’t moved out of the city, that’s a non-starter for 2021. But whether or not NYC voters would even elect an Ed Koch next year, let alone a Rudy Giuliani, is still an open question. Koch’s election in ’77 put a temporary brake on the craziness that started with Lindsay’s election in ’65, but as a Democrat, Koch wasn’t all-in on breaking things up, and really lost a lot of interest in fighting the rest of his party after he lost the 1982 gubernatorial primary to Cuomo. So that’s probably what New York’s going to get next year — a mayor who is less woke than de Blasio, but who is only willing to go so far in challenging the status quo that de Blaiso and other progressives have put in and caused the city’s latest decline (and sadly for the city, even that’s more likely to happen if Biden wins than if Trump gets re-elected. It’s a dead-solid lock some prog in 2021 is going to run for mayor blaming Trump for everything, and with enough candidates in the field and TDS running rampant, they might actually win).

    • #26
  27. EHerring Coolidge
    EHerring
    @EHerring

    Arahant (View Comment):

    Just starting, but that opening snippet about Peter’s first reliable audience is pure gold.

    Yes, but can’t top their telling of the first time James and Peter met.

    • #27
  28. EHerring Coolidge
    EHerring
    @EHerring

    James Lileks (View Comment):

    Arahant (View Comment):

    That buffering and lagging transition to commercial, James. That was something.

    I hope it was a good something. ;) You never know when you’re winging it.

    Even my husband was in awe of that one.

    • #28
  29. EHerring Coolidge
    EHerring
    @EHerring

    Re the “left” “right” debate and what makes sense when explaining government, Kibbe on CR now Blaze TV had a great video explaining governance. He used a pyramid with totalitarian things at the base and freedom at the top. The more freedom they had, the higher on the pyramid they were. Left and right merely determined which side of the pyramid they were on. It clearly showed that Marxism and Fascism had more in common than Fascism and Conservatism. This is what a jotted down after watching it.

    • #29
  30. RufusRJones Member
    RufusRJones
    @RufusRJones

    EHerring (View Comment):

    Re the “left” “right” debate and what makes sense when explaining government, Kibbe on CR now Blaze TV had a great video explaining governance. He used a pyramid with totalitarian things at the base and freedom at the top. The more freedom they had, the higher on the pyramid they were. Left and right merely determined which side of the pyramid they were on. It clearly showed that Marxism and Fascism had more in common than Fascism and Conservatism. This is what a jotted down after watching it.

    I am so glad I saw that. 

    • #30
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