Napoleon Dynamite

Guys, can we stipulate that Trump is petty, narcissistic and intellectually lazy, and then move past it? Costa gives you an inside-the-room report of the utter deceit and dishonesty of the Senate GOP on Obamacare repeal -- the central tenet of the GOP for 8 years -- and you are fixated on irrelevant debate comments he made about the Scottish NHS nearly 2 years ago?

And to answer James' weary question: Are we to be more focused on SCOTUS appointments, Circuit appointments, regulatory reform, tax cuts, energy production, education and justice department sanity, military preparedness, VA reforms and illegal immigration reduction than Trump's Professor Irwin Corey confusion of Napoleons and Empires and his inept understanding of the urban planning history of the "Paris we love"?

Yes.

Oh, Rob. You're not full of it. At worst you're half full of it.

On the other hand, at best you're half full of it too ...

You guys are weird.

The disparagement of elites never involves trying to replace brain surgeons with bricklayers. The most moronic Tweeter ever implies that Homer Simpson ought to run the nuclear power plant. No one questions that some people are better at some things than others. There's never a questioning of meritocracy.

Instead, the disparagement of elites always refers to Our Betters, the self-styled "elites" -- people in positions of power and influence who have taken it upon themselves to boss the rest of us around -- not because they're afraid we'll make the wrong decisions (except in elections) but because they're afraid that they won't be the ones who make the decisions.

That's all: power qua power, and any claims to the betterment of society are pernicious lies.

I keep running into this weirdness with the conservative punditry -- y'all act like you're on the verge of being tossed out of your positions by a torch-wielding mob, and so you have to justify the fact that you're the ones on the podcast and the rest of us are not.

Chill out, man. Sheesh.