Video: Dispatch Live for November 22

Watch the video of our weekly livestreamed conversation.

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In the pre-Thanksgiving edition of Dispatch Live, David, Kevin, Declan and Esther started with some good old-fashioned rank punditry. They probably had a few takes that would upset one of your uncles around the dinner table this week. Then, Esther—admitting she might be the least fun person to have at a World Cup viewing party—dove into the human rights abuses surrounding the host country, Qatar. Finally, the gang discussed what the special counsel appointed to the Trump investigations means for the country and for Trump himself, and why NASA’s Artemis mission had David suddenly not caring about the national budget. 

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  1. Paulkempf

    Content you won't find anywhere else: Kevin's offhanded anecdote about the employment service that seeks out Hindu or Christian--kafir--Indians for placement in Qatar, because as nonMuslims they would have no legal rights, so would be subject to the whims of the service or the employer without recourse.

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    BaltoJohn

    As a fellow space nerd, I had to say Thank You, David, for your comments about the Artemis project. Even before Sputnik, I watched Werner von Braun with rapt attention whenever he was on the Sunday evening Disney show. I felt a personal loss each time one of our Vanguard rockets blew up on the launch pad and only slight relief when the Explorer satellite finally reached orbit. The climax for this space nerd, of course, was the lunar landing. The live coverage was the only instance in recorded history of Walter Cronkite being speechless on air - briefly, to be sure. For years, I've had a clear memory of Cronkite softly saying at the moment of touchdown, "Oh, Jesus!", but I've never heard anyone since then remark on it. I was beginning to doubt my memory. This morning, I tracked down the recording of the CBS live coverage, and I was right! Here's the link: https://youtu.be/hzhtrA3CzNg The touchdown is at the 5h 18m time mark.

    Since then, I've found few things if any more annoying than the complaints of the social justice warriors about the space program. I want to see a show of hands of those who think the world would have been a better place if von Braun and his fellow scientists had surrendered with their files to Stalin.

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  3. Paulkempf

    It strikes me that among the reasons for the shift in the atmospherics surrounding Trump is Rupert Murdoch's change of heart. I recall reading that his shift in attitude was occasioned by the much-maligned January 6th Committee hearings. (Liz Cheney's Revenge?) Whatever the reason, the NY Post's post-election characterization of Trump as Humpty Dumpty and Florida Man, and Fox's cutting away from his announcement of his candidacy is a sea change. And I'm noticing a certain cautious reserve among hitherto raving MAGA talk radio hosts that I suspect is related, by virtue of the timing. They haven't stepped off the Trump Train yet, but they're gathering their things as if they're getting ready to disembark at the next stop.

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  4. BenP

    As a huge soccer (henceforth "football") fan, I appreciate the extended conversation on the Qatar World Cup tragedy/fiasco. I agree with everything said, and I think we should also add that even if there was no bribery, Qatari officials still lied through their teeth about abiding by FIFA's rules. There are, apparently, no formal consequences to this. The alcohol sales thing is just comic... Qatar knew that FIFA required allowing alcohol sales and had forced Brazil to allow it when they hosted, despite a national ban on alcohol in football stadiums. Qatar said they said they'd do it, but then a couple days before the tournament they just said "nope, you can't make us" with no recognition that they'd gone back on an agreement. But the really grotesque thing, from a sporting viewpoint, is moving the tournament from the summer to the winter.

    When Qatar won their bid, they did so while promising to build enclosed air conditioned stadiums that would allow a summer tournament. Soon after, FIFA took the role of saying "hey, maybe this whole summer thing is a bad idea, we could maybe move it to the winter?" Qatar kept insisting they could host it in the summer, and FIFA publicly were the entity saying "hey, let's move it". It looked like a good-cop / bad-cop routine, with FIFA publicly arguing against their own standards and Qatar responding with "really? are you sure? OK, if you insist...".

    The negative impact of moving the World Cup from summer to winter is immense. Professional football leagues and tournaments have had to go on pause (FIFA doesn't give a damn because they represent international football - matches played by national teams. They have no interest in the English Premier league, Spanish La Liga, German Bundesliga, European Champion's League, etc.). So, rather than the World Cup being an event that occurs during the offseason of professional football, it is competing with professional football, and fans still have the current (paused) season on their minds. The World Cup is supposed to be an exciting event that we look forward to once the professional season ends in May. This time it's an interruption. It is also competing with all other sports playing during the winter. In the USA, this is awful - the summer is the offseason for almost all sports. In late November, almost all other sports leagues are active. And the players get no break between league football and either end of the world cup, so no surprise that this time around there are more injured players than usual who are being forced to miss the tournament. Financially and logistically it is idiotic to play the World Cup in the winter.

    So, we've got a World Cup in a deeply illiberal country with no footballing tradition, infrastructure that was built rapidly at great human cost, being played at a time that makes no sense, and the hosts are flouting FIFA's rules with impunity. The only heartening thing is that FIFA's president felt the need to launch into a tirade in defense of this tournament, which shows that it's not been the feel-good PR win that FIFA and Qatar envisioned back in 2010. Maybe world football will learn from this mistake.Show less

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  5. Paulkempf

    There's more to the Jack Smith story than his unsuccessful prosecution of Bob McDonnell:

    "...[T]he Justice Department convened a meeting with former IRS official Lois Lerner in October 2010 to discuss how the IRS could assist in the criminal enforcement of campaign-finance laws against politically active nonprofits," the committee wrote in a 2014 letter to DOJ. 'This meeting was arranged at the direction of Public Integrity Section Chief Jack Smith.'"
    https://justthenews.com/accountability/political-ethics/new-trump-special-prosecutor-overturned-supreme-court-tied-irs?utm_source=offthepress&utm_medium=home

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  6. Raincheck

    An Arnold Palmer is not, in fact, 1/2 iced tea and 1/2 lemonade, though that is what you well get most often if it order it. That or a blank stare.

    Arnold Palmer’s beverage of choice was in fact 1/3 lemonade and 2/3 iced tea, and it is a much better, more balanced drink.

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    Joe Delanis

    I didn't think it was possible for my admiration and fandom of Mr. Kevin D Williamson to grow any bigger...

    ...until I heard him mention - if only in passing - he's a wrestling guy.

    I know you hate Ohio, Mr. Williamson, but I think your opinion of my home state would be (somewhat) improved by attending a Buckeye home match? Or maybe you could do a Wanderland covering the upcoming Walsh Jesuit Ironman ("the tournament where state champs go to die") up in Cuyahoga Falls?

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