Coronavirus Machismo

Sarah, Jonah, and David discuss Joe Biden’s lead in the polls, the special election in ...

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Sarah, Jonah, and David discuss Joe Biden’s lead in the polls, the special election in California, what is “Obamagate,” and the future of social distancing and coronavirus.

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  1. Mike M

    Another fine episode.

    I have a suggestion for two moot courts/debates for the "Russia Hoax". Assemble a fact based timeline of events starting in Mayish 2016 up to the end of the Mueller probe bisected by the inauguration. Make it available for all of us as homework. Then two moot courts, Jonah serves up fact/episode/observation; David defends Trump; Sara prosecutes Trump; Steve issues a ruling.

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    Angie

    Thank you....really enjoyed this..made me laugh a lot...and proud of myself for having read about most of this before listening...coincidentally..from written pieces...

    It is uncomfortable and hard sometimes ( but not a bad thing)...when the flaws on my "side" of the aisle come up...I wince...but, I listen...

    I love you guys...

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    BrettH

    I agree wholeheartedly that the coronavirus helps Joe Biden’s campaign. History shows that the guy is a gaffe machine. Who knows how the election will unfold in these unprecedented times. I do, however, have the sneaking suspicion that if Biden just keeps his head down and his mouth shut he’s the next president. I just hope the Senate remains in GOP control.

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  4. Kevin Barthel

    "get these squirrels off of me" made me laugh. Agree, with Jonah - Biden should stay in the basement.

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    Grandma B

    I enjoyed listening to the podcast as well as reading Jonah’s column about the face mask terrorists. Those of us who wear masks do so to protect others should we unknowingly harbor the virus. We do so out of concern and kindness for those around us. It is a small act of charity that costs us nothing, but is an outward expression of caring. A significant minority of people seem to believe that parroting the worst attributes of our president and bullying those they perceive as vulnerable or weak is a form of courage. How I wish Dr. Krauthammer was still alive so he could explain this very disquieting phenomenon.

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  6. Brad N

    Performative Masculinity and Herd Immunity: It's the biggest proponents of herd immunity who are also most likely to call others sheeple for staying home and wearing masks. The livestock metaphors running strong, can we dive deeper into that?

    Herd Immunity only comes after substantially thinning the herd. It requires individuals to adopt a herd mentality and follow the herd into an infection and then either survive or die. So, who are really the sheeple in this analogy?

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  7. Jason Runyan

    Tater tots, chicken wings, and cheese curds? Steve just moved UP a notch in my book! If Kraft macaroni & cheese was on that list, he'd move up to deity!

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  8. Sean Bigler

    Love the podcast. On the point of polls showing political partisanship on the economy versus public health.... I would be interested to see a breakdown on that same question based on an age demographic... 20-29, 30-39, etc.

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  9. Kevin Linde

    I like the Dispatch. It is pretty closely aligned with my Trump skeptical thinking. There were two issues that frustrated me about this podcast.

    1) David French's long explanation of the maximalist Obamagate conspiracy theory and then a short dismissal of the Trump arguments by him and Jonah. There were very serious problems here. The FBI lied to the judges (or at best mislead them) to pursue a partisan investigation of the opposition party by the party in power long past the time when this was justified. It was directed from the top. This is a real scandal. It would be better if the Dispatch cleared up for your listeners what parts are true / backed by evidence or not. NOT just dismiss the whole thing as a big conspiracy theory and Trump should have been able to deal with it anyway.

    2) No review of Fauchi's scientific performance or evidence. Only an appeal to authority "he's the expert". He also: predicted millions of US deaths, hyped the risk to young and healthy people, made apocalyptic arguments about states shutting down too slow, hammered GA for opening too soon, etc. NONE of this was backed by the evidence at the time or the results since. Predicting a huge second wave worse than the first if, for example, kids go to school is of course possible but not backed by the evidence. That's what Rand was getting at. Listen to Fauchi he knows how diseases spread but also look at the evidence, compare, and think.

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      Don S.

      I would like to comment on your second point. I believe your critique is somewhat unfair of Dr. Fauchi. I am struggling to understand what evidence you refer to that was so conclusive at the time decisions were being made early in this pandemic that would have said this was not going to be that bad. Even right now they are still trying to understand how this new virus affects people. You are faulting him for recommendations made 2-3 months ago on information that has been learned through our experiences but was not available then. I would assume you believe the information we were getting out of China was not as definitive as we would care for and Italy certainly seemed to be a scary situation. He would be remiss in his job, and as a public health official, if he did not present worst case scenarios, so he offered advice based on his training and experience, He, and other doctors, looked at the evidence that was there and made recommendations. I would say that some of these recommendations have had their desired impact - the worst case scenarios did not occur. Yes I understand Sweden took a different tack. But you know, we are not Sweden and Sweden is not the US. It is still too early to say that any of us can speak with any authority as to what are or were right or wrong decisions because we are still in the middle of it. Critiquing him on the issue about kids in school not backed on evidence - I would ask what evidence? we are gathering that evidence right now looking at other countries, but the scenario he presents is possible. Our political leaders can blow his assessment off if they so choose and if it doesn't happen, well then thank the Lord. I'm sure he will be happy he was wrong. I guess I could have shortened this whole comment if I just had said you and Dr. Paul are doing some serious Monday morning quarterbacking. That's your right. I happen to appreciate that we had someone with his experience giving advice to our political leaders that ultimately make the decisions.

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  10. James R

    Great podcast as always (I listen on my runs).

    re: Obamagate

    1) I was hoping for a discussion on why the effin' heck do we still put "gate" at the end of all "scandals."

    2) David's review of the topic seemed all about Republican Trump-Supporters (RTS) pouncing with nothing mentioned about recent development on unmasking or the Oval Office meeting, which all seem to have a bit of an odor; or have I just fallen for RTS talking points?

    Keep up the good work.

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