Tag: Three Martini Lunch

As Chad Benson’s week of sitting in for Greg comes to a close, everything is coming up roses for the Republicans in the midterms – the GOP gubernatorial candidates are enjoying a well-timed late surge of momentum, a slew of Senate seats that once seemed out of reach are now in play, and not only are Democratic candidates avoiding Joe Biden, they’re keeping their distance from Kamala Harris and the Clintons.

Chad Benson remains in for Greg Corombos, and the midterms are heating up. Chad and Jim wonder whether Kathy Hochul’s shrinking lead in New York is significant, gaze across the Atlantic at a leadership crisis in the United Kingdom, and wonder why Arizona Democratic gubernatorial candidate Katie Hobbs is so scared to get on a debate stage with Kari Lake.

Join Jim and Greg as they react to independent voters turning very negative on President Biden. They also highlight a Michigan audit showing many more nursing home deaths from COVID than Gov. Gretchen Whitmer previously admitted. And they sense Russian military activity could be coming soon in Ukraine as the U.S. considers evacuating the family members of American diplomats there.

 

Join Jim and Greg as they share three martinis with former Connecticut Sen. Joe Lieberman, who was also the vice presidential nominee for the Democrats in the 2000 presidential campaign. They discuss why Lieberman sees Russia and Iran as the biggest immediate threats to U.S. national security and his blunt assessments of how the Biden administration handled the withdrawal from Afghanistan and how it is approaching Iran . They also discuss why communist China is not as high among imminent threats on Lieberman’s list. And Lieberman offers his reaction to Senators Manchin and Sinema standing up against the rest of their party on the filibuster and describes what it was like for him to stand alone on the Iraq War, opposing a public option on Obamacare and more.

Join Jim and Greg as they welcome news of a pretty big shift in political party allegiance over the past year. They also unload on the tech executive and partial owner of the NBA’s Golden State Warriors who coldly declared that he and most people do not care about the plight of the Uighurs in China. And they’re frustrated to learn that the gunman at the Texas synagogue hostage crisis was allowed into the U.S. despite numerous red flags.

 

Join Jim and Greg as they welcome new Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin and applaud him following up on his campaign promises on his very first day. They also credit the FBI for a successful resolution to the hostage crisis at a Texas synagogue on Saturday but then fume as the bureau, the media, and the president claim the motive for the incident is a mystery. And they hammer the Salt Lake Tribune for suggesting the national guard should be called in to make sure the unvaccinated never leave their homes.

 

Join Jim and Greg as they applaud Democratic Senators Kyrsten Sinema and Joe Manchin for refusing to eliminate or alter the filibuster despite massive pressure from their own party. They also welcome the Supreme Court’s decision striking down President Biden’s vaccine mandate on all businesses with more than 100 employees while also noting a separate decision that upheld the mandate on personnel at health care facilities. And they take a look at even more signs that Russia may be planning to invade Ukraine in the coming weeks.

Join Jim and Greg as they dissect the stunningly horrible poll numbers for President Biden in a new poll both on key issues and his overall performance. They also shake their heads as the backlog of cargo ships off America’s west coast gets worse and worse. And they are flabbergasted as just how bad Vice President Kamala Harris is at the simplest parts of her job, like answering basic questions.

 

After a brief discussion about outgoing Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam commenting on his blackface yearbook photo, Jim & Greg welcome polls showing just 40 percent of Michigan voters are ready to re-elect Gov. Gretchen Whitmer. They also grimace as year-on-year inflation is the worst in almost 40 years. And they hammer President Biden for saying anyone not supporting the Dems’ plan on elections reform is the equivalent of George Wallace, Bull Connor, and Jefferson Davis.

 

Jim & Greg welcome the return of in-person schooling to Chicago after a four-day hissy fit from the Chicago Teachers Union. They also sigh as President Biden reportedly makes no progress in trying to deter Russian military action in Ukraine. And the Biden administration gets caught flat-footed again as out supply chain problems grow.

 

Join Jim and Greg as they welcome Senate Republicans making their decisions about running in 2022 and with two incumbents deciding to run again, the GOP odds of taking the majority probably improved. They also fume as New York City Mayor Eric Adams decides to support a city council resolution allowing 800,000 non-citizens in the city to vote in municipal elections. And they’re stunned as Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor claims – in oral arguments – that 100,000 kids are seriously ill with COVID and that many of them are on ventilators. None of that is anywhere close to accurate.

Join Jim and Greg as they welcome the news that Senate Dems have virtually no hope of advancing their bill to federalize elections and BBB isn’t faring any better. They wince as the December jobs report once again comes in way below expectations. And they throw up their hands as Connecticut orders COVID-positive patients into nursing homes.

 

Join Jim and Greg as they enjoy watching the left openly fight over whether schools should have in-person instruction right now. They also cringe as Russia send troops into Kazakhstan to help crush protesters. And they discuss the January 6th anniversary and why one critical figure has never been found.

After noting Sen. Schumer’s latest failure to kill the filibuster, Jim and Greg serve up three crazy martinis! First, they hammer the Chicago Teachers Union for refusing to teach in-person over the Omicron case numbers. They also unload on the Virginia Department of Transportation for continuing an ugly governmental trend of admitting a major problem but insisting that nothing could have been done better in response to the traffic nightmare on I-95. And their heads are spinning as the CDC releases absurdly burdensome recommendations for fighting COVID and that private employers are following the mandates and firing people while nothing happens to unvaccinated federal employees.

Join Jim and Greg as they welcome evaluations showing the GOP likely to gain seats – and a House majority – thanks to redistricting. They also frown as former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo won’t face any charges for his COVID nursing home cover-up or his harassment of women. And they shudder at the 24-hour-plus nightmare for travelers on I-95 in Virginia, wondering why Gov. Ralph Northam didn’t take decisive action sooner and why so many people are blaming Glenn Youngkin, who won’t be governor until next week.

Happy New Year! Join Jim and Greg as they are pleasantly stunned to see the European Union embracing natural gas and nuclear power as their wind and solar energy efforts fall far short of producing the amount of energy needed. They also slam Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer’s latest effort to skirt the filibuster to pass Dem legislation on elections. And they hammer teachers unions for once again leading the charge to return to distance learning or just “pause” schools for two weeks to weather the Omicron cases of COVID.

Happy New Year! Jim and Greg conclude the Three Martini Lunch Award season by announcing their choices for person of the year and turncoat of the year. They also make some rather sobering predictions about 2022.

 

It’s media day in our year-end Three Martini Lunch awards and Jim and Greg have plenty to say about how things were covered – if they were covered at all.  Specifically, they look at the stories the mainstream media covered far too much, the ones they conveniently ignored because they didn’t fit their narrative, and they highlight what they saw as the best stories of 2021.

 

More year-end awards today!  Jim and Greg embark on the second half of their six-episode saga known as the 2021 Three Martini Lunch Awards. Today, they offer up their selections for the best political idea, worst political idea, and boldest political tactics for the year. For the first two categories, their selections are derived from the same big stories but each has a different focus. But they choose completely different issues when it comes to boldest tactics.

 

Jim and Greg are back for the third round of their prestigious Three Martini Lunch Awards. Today, they discuss the worst scandals of 2021, with Jim choosing an international mess of epic proportions and Greg opting for a national security crisis much closer to home. Then, they reveal their choices for the best and worst political theater of 2021.