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Let’s just disclose this right upfront: we had some pretty big technical issues during the production of this show (Skype went down during the Andy McCarthy segment — Andy is preparing a criminal complaint against them on our behalf) and James Lileks could not get his computer to recognize his mic (he blames a cheap Chinese dongle — oh, the humanity), so apologies, this is another Lileks-defecient show (kudos to @hangon for winning the Lileks Post of The Week honors for his post The New Energy Economy: An Exercise in Magical Thinking). That said, as previously mentioned, we’ve got the great Andy McCarthy (you must buy his new book Ball of Collusion: The Plot to Rig an Election and Destroy a Presidency) on all of the legal machinations around impeachment, and political consultant to the stars (and NR contributor) Luke Thompson on why Trump did nothing wrong in his phone call with Zelensky and some expert analysis on the Senate races coming up next fall. Also, Peter Robinson is worried about Liz Warren; and finally, does the window seat control the window shade or should there be darkness throughout the cabin? We hash it out, but tell us your thoughts in the comments. Special note to Ricochet members: don’t forget to vote in this week’s Long Poll to the right (or below if you’re on a mobile device) of this post. What? You’re not a member? JOIN TODAY.
Music from this week’s show: Shot With His Own Gun by Elvis Costello
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Boll & Branch
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I didn’t get that part of Peter’s comparison between Warren and Clinton. Warren is quite the scold. I’ve seen the comparison that Hillary is your ex-wife and Fauxcahontas is your mother-in-law.
I confess to having been flabbergasted by the seriousness with which Peter Robinson and Rob Long seem to take Elizabeth Warren. Yes, there is the old saw “No one ever went broke underestimating the intelligence of the American public.” But so gullible is it surely not…
I do not live in the United States and have not spent enough time there to understand the bizarre politics of the country, but I do see the most discouraging extent to which the media control the narrative. Still, my impression is that Americans make up in common sense what they often woefully lack in factual understanding.
I would hazard another factor: Hillary Clinton was defeated not only by her own ineptitude (and blatant dishonesty) but also by her image as the sort of woman even women dislike. My guess is that millions of voters who have never heard of Pow Wow Chow, EW’s plagiarized cookbook, will nonetheless think to themselves: “She’s just like my old primary-school teacher. Ugh! Better Trump!”
Rob’s view of the past “civility” of airplane and train travel is based on a relatively brief period in the middle of the 20th Century. Stories about what train travel was like in the late 19th Century make today’s airplane travel look civilized. So, I don’t think we can entirely blame the general decline of civilization for the state of today’s airplane travel.
Great podcast, But: Window seat versus aisle seat? That’s even worth discussing?
One other thing about Warren.
It really gets under my skin when all of those candidates that are attorneys ***lie*** about what happened in Ferguson, Missouri. That whole thing was completely adjudicated by both the Obama DOJ and state-level court. I assume she’s said the kid was murdered by the cop, because all the other ones did it too.
I don’t think lawyers should be able to tell unmitigated lies about the justice system and it’s even worse if they are trying to be POTUS. I think they deserve very rough legal or ethics treatment for doing that. It’s anti-civilization.
Remember that beer summit thing? The professor was completely out of line. Obama just made everything about that situation worse. Bill Clinton completely deserved to be impeached. Bar card and head of the justice system. I keep hearing new abuses by JFK, RFK, LBJ, Nixon, Lois Lerner, Fast and Furious, now we have FISA-gate. This is chaos. Are libertarians that crazy? No.
It’s important to take them all seriously until they are defeated.
Another thing here, too. She was interviewed a while ago by a rapper who has a radio show and he brought it up. It was interesting because Warren claimed that the Boston Globe did a thorough investigation and she was completely exonerated.
Trump better keep that in his back pocket for whenever the Mueller accusations start making their rounds.
I think Warren is a very dangerous candidate too, but that might have more to do with environment I’m in. Either way, team Trump better start moving on her now.
@peterrobinson, my term for Rob’s segue to the Boll & Branch spot is “Lileksian.” Rolls off the tongue, doesn’t it?
Too bad he can’t pronounce Boll.
That’s what SHOULD happen. But I expect a lot of them will vote for her anyway, because they figure that somehow they’ll benefit more by what is taken from other people, than they will lose by what is taken from THEM.
Unfortunately we look destined to run a candidate with a massive disapproval rate against Warren. You thought 2018 was bad? 2020 looks to be a massacre on the scope of 1974, 1964 or 1932.
I suppose you’re going to tell me the GOP we’ll get more votes by being “nice” and selling austerity.
The fact is you aren’t going to get your idealistic desires until after the bond market collapses.
Enough with the negative waves, Moriarty!
It seems maybe Ed Koch had a point. If the voters fire Trump – and elect a socialist – they deserve to be punished.
Yeah, but those who vote otherwise get punished, too.
I remember reading in one of Xaviera Hollander’s books that Chinese dongles are so small they don’t need to be hidden.
TMI, TMI, TMI!
There’s a name I haven’t heard in a long time.
how high is the automatic floor? 40%?
According to the Texas bar, 1986, Ms. Warren self identified as ‘American Indian’.
didn’t Clarence Thomas and Anita Hill work at EEOC during the 1970s or 80s?
I agree that Trump should not underestimate Warren just like Hillary underestimated Trump.
I completely forgot about that cookbook. It’s a terrible title, very juvenile title.
I think Warren thinks that the Cherokee controversy is behind her but she is being naive.
Scott Brown attacked her fake background in 2012 Senate race.
that’s right.
the rapper called her ‘Rachel’ … I forget her last name, the ‘white’ woman who pretended to be ‘black’.
it was a great segue but i can’t remember what he said lol
That’s the point I make too, to people who can’t bring themselves to vote for Trump because he’s so icky, or whatever.
It would be nice if only the people who vote for high taxes, had to pay them.
Gary, clearly the Democrats don’t agree with you — or they wouldn’t be trying to force Trump out before the election.
Reagan is the answer.
Trump is a big government Republican who has $1 Trillion Annual Deficits. The Republican Party needs to run a limited government conservative, not a populist.