Donors and Grifters

Don’t draw red lines if you’re not going to keep them.

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Sorry, Steve Hayes. Sarah, Jonah, and Mike start with Ukraine’s request for cluster munitions and the state of NATO. Jonah cynically uses Steve’s absence to flex his juvenile humor chops. Spanish wine is wildly overrated. Then:

–Pence campaign prognosis

-A scavenger hunt to get on the debate stage

–Ramaswamy’s Mary Kay pyramid scheme

-Sarah on Sesame Street

–War of words and farting at RFK Jr. press dinner

–GOP leads in midterm turnout

–56% of voters think Biden took bribes

-Not worth your time (?): Zuck vs. Musk cage match 

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Comments (71)
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  1. Sarah Lea Riley

    Running behind, just catching up on the July podcasts now. I heart you guys. Love your banter and camaraderie. So good (for me) to be able to laugh at such silliness. Thank you!!

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    Denise Cote

    Reading the comments - some of y'all need to lighten up. Everything can't be serious all the time. I love the banter, camaraderie, and genuine affection these folks have for each other. Laughter is good medicine.

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  3. Jasper Casey

    So the pro move is to donate $1 to Burgum, then use the $20 gift card to fund a donation to Will Hurd, right?

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    Denise Cote

    Sarah, I'm one of those few people who actually DOES type in the url for websites. To be fair, I have written code in ms-dos in the past.

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      C C Writer

      Keyboard! Never stopped using. 80+ wpm. On tablet now, good for podcast, bad 4 typing. Desktop best for writing & surfing.

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        Denise Cote

        I have a wireless keyboard for my laptop. It's the only way to go if you have to write if you ask me.

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          C C Writer

          (Now I'm on the computer, so I can just sort of think what letters I want and my fingers make them on the keyboard without my even having to look much, the way I first learned way before there were computers. No thumbs involved except on space bar, no need to allow AI to try to guess what you mean and mess it up.)

          Yes, laptop works too--the point is a full-size keyboard and sitting down! It's so much faster and more accurate. I have no need to be walking down the street and chewing gum and stepping in utility access holes while writing. Those are separate activities.

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    Wilhelm

    THIS is why I subscribe.
    Thank y'all!

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    Njh2005

    Listening to this on the drive from FL to DC had me laughing so hard I nearly ran off I95. I had to rewind so my now awake wife could hear what had nearly led to her untimely demise.

    On a more serious note, the attitude of our NATO allies over our sending Dual Purpose Improved Conventional Munition (DPICM) artillery and rocket rounds or “cluster munitions” has me annoyed. European opposition to the use of this type of munition emerged when it was convenient for them, in the years after the fall of the Soviet Union when the threat to their security from Russia seemed to to have disappeared. Prior to that NATO was completely reliant on them to have any chance of countering a Soviet/Warsaw Pact move into Western Europe. The Soviet advantage in the number of artillery tubes and rocket launchers, not to mention tanks and armored infantry vehicles, meant we would have to destroy them at a far greater rate than could possibly be achieved using unitary warhead artillery rounds.

    Military leaders in Germany, Britain, France, etc… know this and understood the necessity of these munitions at the time for their own defense.

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  7. Brandon Hartley

    Ha! Oh man, I loved this podcast. I completely get Steve's perspective. But one thing I love about The Dispatch is when your honest love for one another comes shining through. Sometimes that comraderie generates sarcasm and abrupt opinions, but you all treat each other like family and I freakin' love it.

    BTW, if you're curious about the male mentality and "measuring," you really ought to read this absolutely fascinating and depressing late June article in the New Yorker (I was just depressed to see that it was co-published by ProPublica, but I promise it is a great article).

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  8. Jstevenson85

    Left that “hanging out there.”

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    Chuck

    First, this episode was quite entertaining, and while I don't want this every week, I enjoy the episodes when the crew gets a little silly.

    That said, it's clear the this panel has almost no experience fighting. Training and conditioning are both relevant, but also both secondary to experience and attitude.

    Also, when it comes to motives for donating to Chris Christie to get him into the debates, I think Jonah gets the motives wrong. Quite a few of us want to make sure candidates overtly critical of Trump make the stage, but it's not for the spectical of it. The are things that need to be said, which many more prominent candidates have proven unwilling to say. We need Christie, Hurd, Hutchison, et al to say them. 2015 demonstrated that one person attacking Trump is insufficient. It's not clear that a chorus will do it, but I want to see it tried.

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  10. Richard Kennedy

    Ahhh. The perfect mid-July weekend podcast nodding to serious issues. One question.

    Are Daddy and Daddy fighting again?

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