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Only a very few guests warrant two segments on the Ricochet Podcast aka, America’s Most Trusted Podcast® and one of those people is the great Norman Podhoretz (around these parts, we call him “The Podfather). We talk to Norman (who’s a sprightly 89) about his recent conversion to a supporter of the President, the history of the Conservative movement, how he may have singlehandedly invented the hippy, and much more. Norman is a walking, talking museum of American politics of the last 70 years, and we highly recommend this interview. Also, are aliens among us (or at least above us)? A Ricochet Podcast investigation.
Music from this week’s show: E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial Soundtrack by John Williams
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Kasich — to use the Irish expression ‘A toothache of a man’
Absolutely, it was America’s warriors who saved Iraq. However, in the Senate McCain held point.
One of George W. Bush’s great failures was not to fight back against the “no WMD’s in Iraq” canard and the “Bush lied, thousands died” smear.
Which is why some of us appreciate a Republican President who always fights back …
Ok, Fair point, just because they’re supposed to be on a short trip, doesn’t mean it actually was. But it couldn’t have been that much longer – as the boat didn’t run out of provisions while they were lost at sea.
I was thinking about it today, wouldn’t have been funny if the millionaire guy was on an extreme fantasy shipwreck vacation – that he had paid off the coast guard not to respond to them? So maybe the people went back and reported the shipwrecked crew – but the coast guard just shrugged it off …
Re: Rob’s question to Mr Podhoretz about Hillary’s personality versus Trump’s and why the election was so close: I doubt most people who voted for Hillary, believed that she looked down on THEM. She did, of course. But they didn’t believe it.
I have something to think about. Michael Malice’s go to political bromide is “Conservatism is progressivism going at the speed limit.” I really think that’s true. Everything’s been going one way since Woodrow Wilson. Ronald Reagan didn’t change the trend that much. You can’t get reelected unless you hand out the graft. You can’t get elected if you are serious about fixing entitlements. But of course all of this stuff doesn’t work so now populism and socialism is breaking out all over the place. The GOP isn’t going to come up with a strategic plan and the left sort of doesn’t need one. We areN’T going to get strategic until something really bad happens, like a Western bond market collapse.
Harding and Coolidge did reverse much of Wilson, but Hoover and FDR took it to the limit and we haven’t seen reversals since. Just a quibble.
(italics added) Crowd size. NeverTrumpers are unhinged, and thus difficult if not impossible to reason with, in my experience.
Yeah, so under Trump’s tax bill the better part of a TRILLION dollars can be repatriated, which can then be taxed AND used for domestic investments – but Trump bragged about crowd size! The narcissist.
Yeah, so ISIS has been reduced to a pinprick, and Trump is bombing Russia-backed rebels in Syria when they step out of line – but (as Gary complains) Trump lied about what Ted Cruz’s dad was doing sixty (60) years ago! The liar.
By the way, John McCain was wrong on taxes, wrong on immigration, and John McCain proudly authored a spectacularly unconstitutional law restricting the freedom of political speech. McCain is an historical example of how not to be a conservative Republican. Those who cite McCain as an example to follow cannot credibly claim to be conservatives or Republicans. Hypocrites, sure – McCain is a shining example of how to be a hypocrite.
I announced I wasn’t going to run in 2020 and got just as many yawns . . .
Yeah, but you would have gotten more votes. It’s one way to get you out of town. Nobody likes the messiness of tarring, feathering, and riding them out on a rail anymore.
Oh sure. Send Stad to Iowa. Like there isn’t enough riff-raff here already.
Iowa needs a better class of riff-raff. :-)
I was going to give thefarmersdog a shot but they want my email before showing me a price. No thanks. I tolerate ads from companies I do business with though I don’t care for them. I won’t give you my email before even buying something.
So set up another free gmail account just for them, and ignore anything else that comes to it.
I don’t give my PRIMARY email even to places that I DO buy from.
I haven’t read any of the other numerous comments, just want to drop my thoughts into the mix.
I absolutely loved the flow of this show. The interview with Mr. Podhoretz was so interesting that it could have gone much longer. The last section discussing the New York Times article about aliens was brilliantly scripted to lead up to James’s final comment, which honestly made me LOL. So let me take this opportunity to identify what I think was an outstanding performance. The talent and quick wit displayed by @jameslileks is always a pleasure to take in. Whether he’s commenting on an issue, transitioning to the next section, or peddling the wares of the fine companies that support the podcast, he demonstrates creativity and thoughtfulness, giving the listener something interesting. Bravo!
Strongly agree about James. Some of us (perhaps just me, here?) started hearing him years ago, on Hugh Hewitt’s show and Northern Alliance. He’s the reason I started with Ricochet, and the main reason I started paying. (Sorry, Rob. Your pitches are good for the average listener, but you never said the one thing that would move me the most: “Join and pay, or NO MORE LILEKS!!!”)