97 Comments
Jan 20, 2023Liked by Matt Welch

Kmele no longer mentioning places of employment is like the Virginia schools withholding National Merit Awards info to keep from hurting the other students.

Expand full comment

If I don't hear a discussion of Melissa Ethridge using David Crosby's sperm within the first 10 minutes, I'm turning it off.

Expand full comment

Man I hope MM’s Maddow podcast isn’t the G&R Chinese Democracy of podcasts. Can’t wait!

Expand full comment

Thank god, I was going through TFC withdrawal.

Expand full comment
Jan 21, 2023Liked by Matt Welch

"Republicans are hypocrites so I guess we're just doing MMT now" is both obviously true and tremendously depressing to those of us who actually plan to keep living here more than a few more years.

Expand full comment

Fifth dropped at the perfect time for me to rationalize β€œif I’m waiting on this large hunk of beast to satisfactorily braise itself, I might as well just make the pasta too.” Now I’m a little drunk & super-full.

Expand full comment
founding

Wait, Reader's Digest was "conservative"?? That was just a thing that sat on top of my parents shitter without being touched while I was a kid. Mind blown.

Expand full comment
founding

No matter how many times I've heard it, whenever I hear Moynihan's Rev. Jackson voice, I crack up and keep chuckling for the duration of the bit. I actually don't think there is a limit on how long I'd laugh for if he kept it up...hours at least.

Expand full comment
founding

I am with Moynihan on the subject of nuclear weapons being used over Ukraine. Primarily because Russia doesn't stand to lose anything if it is unsuccessful in Ukraine. Their worst prospect is having wasted a decade, squandered their international credibility, and returned more or less to the place they were in 2014. Their own borders will remain intact, they will be able to receive a pass on reparations and guarantees against prosecution as well as the retention of their nuclear and conventional arms in return for peace and Ukraine's acceptance into NATO. Every war ends in negotiated peace, this one will be no different.

If Russia were to use atomic weapons in Ukraine none of that will comes to pass. One should always understand that it is the threat of nuclear weapons which has value but the use of those weapons all but ensures the destruction of that state as every western power which possesses nuclear stockpiles will hit them so hard that no other nation would even consider following that example in the future. Nuclear arms, of any type, will result in a world war and one which the east cannot withstand. They will be utterly destroyed and dismantled in the aftermath.

It may be a possibility, but an incredibly unlikely one.

Expand full comment

I have less of a problem with the term β€œobjective” in the context of classroom curriculum. While I understand the argument put forward by Kmele, what he seemed to be pushing for was something akin to the β€œfairness doctrine” of the legacy media, only applied to the classroom. I’m sorry, but there is no universe I can imagine where the 1619 project is part of the curriculum, even if the β€œother side” is presented as well. Because in my opinion the 1619 project is objectively bullshit. I don’t want my kids (grandkids in this case) taught that in grade school, where the goal is not to present them with β€œboth sides” but to present them with easy to digest morsels that lay the foundation for what will later be (in college or young adulthood) the ability to think coherently and then decide what’s right and wrong. It is this sense of β€œobjective” - something simple and non controversially true - that is the point of the legislation. In summary, don’t expose my young children to woke bullshit. They’ll get enough in college.

Expand full comment

While I don't disagree that many reasonable (and even eventually-proven-correct) Covid opinions were inappropriately suppressed, Jay Bhattacharya hasn't exactly covered himself in glory. I wouldn't blame his colleagues for treating him as a dingbat.

His original Santa Clara County antibody study (from March 2020) was a total mess. Like, his wife was recruiting participants via Facebook from their kids' school [0]. Then, with his ridiculously unreliable (wrong) data in hand, he authored a WSJ opinion piece [1] saying that "the real fatality rate could in fact be closer to 0.06%". That's off by ~10x, which is totally fine (many people were off by 10x in the other direction), but an honest person would revisit that, but he just kinda rolled with it.

His dipshittery got much worse in December 2022 when he joined the DeSantis Public Health Integrity Committee [2]. Nothing is wrong with looking back at the various Covid policies and seeing what was good and what was dumb and harmful (there's lots!). This includes vaccine policies -- AstraZeneca and J&J have a confirmed body count, and some of the recommendations for the mRNA vaccines are cavalier and less-than-evidence-based (e.g, [3]). But this committee is just partisan nonsense -- it includes Bret "Still on Mount Ivermectin" Weinstein, who is a completely dishonest actor. No reputable person would agree to join that committee.

On a semi-related topic, my candidate for the biggest scientific fuck-up during Covid is the airborne vs droplet transmission scandal [4]. (And I think everyone's candidate for biggest policy fuck-up is the Fall 2020 school closures).

[0] https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/stephaniemlee/stanford-coronavirus-study-bhattacharya-email

[1] https://www.wsj.com/articles/is-the-coronavirus-as-deadly-as-they-say-11585088464

[2] https://www.flgov.com/2022/12/13/governor-ron-desantis-petitions-florida-supreme-court-for-statewide-grand-jury-on-covid-19-vaccines-and-announces-creation-of-the-public-health-integrity-committee/

[3] https://youtu.be/Q794f__8ZgI

[4] https://www.nytimes.com/2021/05/07/opinion/coronavirus-airborne-transmission.html

Expand full comment
founding

Confession: I know (and could recite verbatim) each David Crosby song Matt listed. I own most of CSN/Y’s catalogue, and have seen them in concert several times. I rarely confess such truths in a public forum, but hey, we all have our faults, right? I hope you’ll let me stay. πŸ™

My Dad’s an early Boomer/hippie. He played CSN/Y, the Beatles, the Allmans, the Doors, Jefferson Airplane, etc. on reel-to-reel constantly when we were kidsβ€”probably to make sure Catholic school didn’t indoctrinate us too much. πŸ˜† Regardless, RIP Baby Daddy Crosby. You had a good run.

Expand full comment
founding

In 1994, I saw β€œPhantom of the Opera” and Tom Stoppard’s play β€œArcadia” in London. Superb shows.

Expand full comment
founding

I’m not a David Crosby fan, but I am a Bob Lefsetz fan (despite his TDS+) bc of how he writes about music. If you’re curious why Crosby is famous, Lefsetz does a good job highlighting the why: https://lefsetz.com/wordpress/2023/01/20/david-crosby/

Expand full comment
founding

Just returned from San Francisco, my old stomping grounds, and can report that the crime is real. Within one hour of arriving in the City by the Bay, out rental had the back window smashed and all of our luggage was gone. Luckily the criminal - who had hit five other cars (at 2:30pm during a short window of sunshine) already - only managed to take one backpack with only a few piddly items before being chased off by passersby.. The police came afterwards and took the rest to Central Station so they didn't get stolen by someone else.

Oh, and yes, I took our laptops inside with us. That's what I get for trying to get my kids (and myself) a delicious Ghirardelli ice cream sundae.

Expand full comment

As much as I'd love to enter a competition to attend the theatre with Kmele...does it have to be to see Phantom?! πŸ˜‚

Expand full comment