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Our guest on this week’s podcast is the former governor of the State of Florida, Jeb Bush. The governor helped transform his state from Blue to Red and set the stage for men like Sen. Rick Scott and current Gov. Ron DeSantis, both of whom are said to be eying a run for the Oval Office in 2024. He surveys the current situation in DC and thinks it is past time for a generational change in leadership.
The fellas also go through “crises” and crises, crazy truth and Rob’s optimism for woke nervous breakdowns. And finally, we’ve got a return of the Lileks Post of the Week and it’s a hot one. Literally. Bravo, Kozak!
Music from this week’s podcast: I Don’t Mind by Lindsey Buckingham
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I… I… No, I just can’t do it… sad, really. But maybe someone with a comment will spur me on…
I thought that Jeb was well-spoken. He pointed out that those who are wealthy enough are above the economic damage caused by Covid. He contrasted his concern for the level of authority that emergency powers granted him as governor with the gleeful power-grabs of the progressives. His support of charter schools and home schooling was welcome.
I think perhaps he overplayed the effectiveness of the immigration policies of Reagan and Clinton which only look good in the light of the horrible mess we are seeing now. Looking back at those days, it seems we were then at the top of a slippery slope.
Overall, this was a good interview.
There was always this sense, particularly after Katrina, where a lot of people said we had elected the wrong Bush brother. But I am no fan of dynastic politics. There was a period in American history where one of three names appeared on the GOP ticket in 13 of 14 Presidential Elections. (And in 2012 we nominated another son of another politician who failed in his own bid for the White House.)
Wait until Chelsea runs EJ. Noooooo.
I became very devoted to Jeb Bush during the Terri Schiavo events. I believe he would have been a great president. He was a sane and decent person in a terrible media storm. It was one of the few times I disagreed with George’s opinions and actions and wished he had acted more forcefully, although in the end I had to admit that George was right, that the law is the law.
One thing that came out of that time was a redesign of Florida’s social services legal structure such that judges could overrule social workers. I don’t know what the status of that structure is today in Florida–I’ve seen many times in my own state whenever Republicans make the tiniest change in state law, the Democrats just bide their time until the Republicans’ eyes are elsewhere and they restore whatever it was the Republicans had fixed.
That is how Jeb Bush thinks: how do we fix this. It has been said that after the 2000 election when the Florida chads were the focus of the world’s attention, in the year that followed, election reform in Florida took place and some have since said it is one of the best systems in the country–again, I don’t know if the reforms have remained in place. I’m sure the state commission that oversaw the reform effort has since moved on to other things and perhaps the system is no longer the best in the world. But for a time, it was.
I also think he did a great job managing the series of horrible disasters that the 2005 hurricane season turned out to be.
Jeb wrote a tremendous book about immigration reform that is a detailed plan for fixing our immigration system at the state and national levels. I haven’t read it, but I know it will take a book-length effort to fix our broken system–to provide asylum when we need to and do so effectively. When do we help whole countries rather than accept economic refugees? Immigration policy needs to be a big picture plan where we consider foreign aid, military aid, and our own needs. The interests and legalities involved are legion. I think Jeb did a good job managing immigration within his own state. I’ve visited only twice, but I was impressed both times by the quality of life there for everyone who lives there.
Some people call Miami the “capital of South America.” Jeb Bush has seen the world from an invaluable perspective. He has a lot of wisdom that we could use right now.
Now I have to figure out how to hear a podcast. I’m a reader. So this will be my day’s challenge. :-) :-)
The Democrats tend to do their dynastic work on a different level. The Dingels of Michigan have held on to one Congressional seat since 1933.
It’s hopeless. It really is.
Why not let “them” run their own countries, and we tend to our interests?
Sick and tired of wealth being expropriated from our ridiculously indebted selves to satisfy the do-gooderism of the ruling class. .50 cal nests on the southern border would solve most of our problems *and many of theirs*.
The one slam-dunk justification for having a military *at all*, and somehow it’s beneath them.
Disgusting.
So — a couple of minutes in, and Peter Robinson (like him a lot!) is sanguine about the prospects of re-taking Congress in part or whole in 14 months. He finds it a laughable kabuki that we should be scared of the current administration’s scant lock on government.
I think he is not at all plugged in with the view that votes and elections do not matter like they once did, if at all any more. It is as if the whole 2020 mutiny and coup spectacle simply didn;t happen. Talk about failing to learn from current events, much less history.
We had the White House, Congress, and arguably the Supreme Court. Many of our GOP fellows are content to wipe all of that away with “Yeah, but Trump…”, as if that excuses the Paul Ryan treachery of 2016-2018. The GOP is in no position to demand anybody anywhere fall in line for any reason, and believe me, they will not. The Democrats were always going to take their shot — the GOP aided and abetted them in ruining our elected Republican President’s first term, and ensuring that there would not be a second.
Breitbart. #War
Thanks, MarciN. I may give it a shot.
At 13: or so, Rob segues into an ad for some fruit-seed homeopathic speed by referencing “low energy”. We are sure that no offense was intended toward the eventual guest :-)
Easy: just click the play button at the top of this post. And make sure the volume on your device is turned up.
24: or so, Rob Long dismisses Hunter Biden’s laptop as “trivial” and a mis-allocation of time and energy.
Yet the Hunter laptop was the Hillary e-mail server of its time — the fumbled smoking gun that if exploited could have made the case against the respective corrupt crime family. See the @jimgeorge post here for the latest: https://ricochet.com/1057154/did-the-media-and-big-tech-conspire-to-assure-bidens-election/
Big GOP not interested. They either plan to benefit from democrat rule, or they already benefit from it. Or both.
Governor Bush mentioned the anticipated age of the presumptive nominee for POTUS in 2024, as 75-77. Trump is 75 now, and would be 77-78 around 2024/5. Was Bush talking about Trump?
@jameslileks excellent pick for Post of the Week.
@kozak I never knew I wanted to visit a nuclear fallout site before!
Yay, Lileks REPRESENTS for the fact that the Hunter Biden laptop was key to unwrapping the Biden pay-for-play crime family, and that the topic was disappeared (v.t.) by a conspiracy of the willing — big tech, big media, and big government.
Rob Long demurs. Sigh. Rob, bless his heart, want s us to get out there and make the case for conservative values etc etc. Good luck with that. In whose media? The Hunter laptop contained evidence for prosecutable crimes, none of which will be mentioned in polite company again.
The media is now climbing down from their cover-up, now that the coast is clear. This is your evidence that the deep state has already secured this flank.
Good on Robinson and Lileks for stating some fo the facts about this. Rob (Mr. Long), you’re simply missing the importance of what happened here. You want to press reset and be decent. It’s noble. But these are no longer noble times.
Donald Trump got Ned Starked.
The Government Is Running Out Of Money™
Everything Moves Towards Communism All Of The Time™
Everything Moves Left All Of The Time™
We are not a nation of laws, we are a nation of political will. – Steve Deace
Twitter, Facebook, etc. censored the laptop story because they knew it was dangerous.
Why is Rob so dismissive of Hunter Biden story. He had ties to the CCP. If the CCP setup a honey trap for a nothing like Eric Swallwell, what do you think they did to the son of the VP?
Great interview with Jeb Bush. I liked what he said about the immigrants from Haiti. They are good people. Several years ago, my son went there as a photographer for a Catholic charity, and he took this picture:
The only major disagreement I had with what Jeb Bush had to say was about the age issue among our elected officials.
Age shouldn’t disqualify anyone anymore than one’s last name. It’s a dumb arbitrary marker of nothing.
The lifespan today is marvelously long. We’ve adjusted our goals and life treks to reach those goals accordingly.
A person will finish high school at age 18, go to college until 22. Whether that person goes into the military or graduate school or a career, as he or she works his or her way through life, it will take years to check off the boxes to become a university president, a U.S. senator, a governor.
People are becoming Renaissance citizens in which they have several life paths that complement each other and inform each other. You’re a better teacher because you were once a great stockbroker.
I don’t want to lose that experience.
And I’ve always thought that Ronald Reagan’s age was his strongest characteristic. He had so much confidence. That is something that comes only from seeing the end of the story.
I took Jeb’s age critique more as a denunciation of the permanent grifter class. But maybe that’s just what I listen for.
I’m also opposed to powerful political families prospering, but…
I don’t think there are any single characteristics about people that mean much as to what they think or what they will do in some circumstances.
I think what is troubling all of us looking at the Democrats is the lack of outside-world experience. For Democrats, the game is all about longevity and political payback, not talent or ability: “It’s his turn,” “It’s her turn.” “He has experience in this government role.”
What I saw, and millions of other people also saw, in Donald Trump, was someone who brought a fresh pair of eyes to Washington, someone who had had a variety of roles in his life and experiences such that he more closely resembled the people the politicians actually represent than he resembled the politicians.
And other pairs.
Better to learn it sooner than later, Rob is wrong about practically everything he says.
Maybe he was adopted out from the Biden family?
Easy solution for me, I skipped the JEB! stuff.
Peter and Rob were both sounding like they think a slide into socialism can’t happen in the US THIS YEAR, as if it hasn’t been a “slippery slope” for 40 years or longer.
No wonder the site has been slow.