Pettifogging

The team looks at the larger implications of the impeachment trial, the U.S. nuclear modernization ...

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The team looks at the larger implications of the impeachment trial, the U.S. nuclear modernization efforts, the history of executive privilege, and that gun rally in Virginia.

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  1. CLARK H SUMMERS

    David French is at his best when he sticks to explaining the law (and the practice of law) to the non-lawyers among us. His manner and demeanor can be very irritating, but in the end I usually find my self agreeing with him. However, when he drifts into areas not specific to his legal expertise, he does more harm than good. I recommend he stay away from 2nd Amendment topics. His sneering mischaracterization of attendees at the Richmond VA rallies on 1/20/20 as "special ops cosplayers", (among other negative comments relating to the purpose of 2A) suggests his understanding of this topic is limited.

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  2. Tom Westberg

    "Self-righteous Jonah is my favorate Jonah" was a perfect cap to one of Jonah's rants; not truly critical but giving us a quick bit of distance on the discussion, turning the corner to the next topic. Sarah also debates David on his own level, not letting him always set the terms of the debate. Surely everyone will get better with the flow of conversation, but in my opinion Sarah's interjections (and debates) keep things from settling into simple channels.

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    JohnF

    I'm looking forward to Sarah getting a bit more experience in hosting a podcast. It's a small complaint, but I found her frequent interjections/interruptions to be more disruptive than informative or entertaining and it kept the other speakers from making some of their points. I realize that the other three could quite happily talk forever if allowed to do so, but the overall flow needs to be more conversational. It's still early days though and every program needs to find its groove. I plan to continue being a regular listener.

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    Dguaspari

    There doesn't seem to be any way to download these as mp3 files and play them offline. Please remedy that.

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    James.A.Weathers

    About 23 minutes in to this, David talks about the "rot" in the voters being part and parcel to why we are getting less than desirable political leaders. This point is well taken; however, the point also needs to be made that the voters rarely have a good option. It takes a certain type of person to even want to run for high-profile political office. That kind of person tends to be morally and ethically deficient if not also incompetent. Most are narcissistic, self-serving, easily-corruptible people. Most of these public servants are lawyers, and, from what I have seen in my nearly 50 years, most aren't very good ones. The really smart people don't want any part of public office.

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      Kenton A. Hoover

      +0.5 on this (I don't agree about pols all being pond scum, it's just that it doesn't take much scum to make the pond seem scummy). However, David's remark reminded me of Brecht's line about dissolving the people and electing another. I was expecting David to follow by yelling for us to get off his lawn...

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    RandyMc

    I listened, hoping to hear some discussion of the Evans column. I know there is enough internecine arguing going on already but I suspect there is some difference of opinion amongst this group. I'd like to hear it debated and sharpened, given the emotional outrage that followed the column and David's response this past Sunday.

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