Exhausted American Summer

Sarah, Steve, Jonah, and David discuss the state of the 2020 race as we kick ...

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Sarah, Steve, Jonah, and David discuss the state of the 2020 race as we kick off the first week of summer, and what the revelations in John Bolton’s book mean for the president’s administration.

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  1. Avatar photo
    John Russell

    Some time after listening to this podcast I realized what my answer to Sarah's pop culture question would be, to wit "Which sitcom character do you most identify with?" Answer: Ralph Kramden (as played by Jackie Gleason in The Honeymooners).

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    Merrijane

    Interestingly, I was allowed to watch Three's Company, Love Boat, and all the rest, but not soap operas. My parents generally watched the evening shows with the whole family. I was so naive, I didn't understand half of what was going on during the risque parts. We were a very conservative Mormon family ... so maybe my parents didn't get it either? Anyway, we generally preferred sitcoms to drama.

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    Kev_WDE

    I was not allowed to watch, until I was 16, SNL or Monty Python. (Or Fawlty Towers).

    Got peaks of them when the babysitter knew no better when I was 9-13. They were forbidden fruit, and it fueled my rebellion.

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      Kev_WDE

      *peeks*

      We need an edit feature.

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        Merrijane

        Right! What is this, twitter?

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        Ethan Cordray

        Yes to needing an edit feature.

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    Angie

    PS: I bought George Carlin's album the 10 words you can't say on Radio...with my own money when I was 16...my dad when he found out just told me not to play it around my younger siblings...lol

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    Angie

    That was fun...I have a list of what I couldn't watch too...my parents pretty much checked everything out, books, movie, TV before they would let us watch it...I'll never forget they took us to the drive-in and I forgot what the first movie was...but, it was a family movie...the second one was Bily Jack I believe it was called, which started with a woman tied to the ground and a potential rape...by dad hi tailed it out of there, no idea why the drive-in did that...now, as a teenager, I found ways around most of the censoring...lol..( to be fair my dad as I got older gave my more leeway and trusted my judgment most of the time)

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  6. linda

    I grew up in a 50's culture. I went through college in a 60's culture. I had been married for 6 yrs when "3's Company" came on and I couldn't believe it. It was a "we are all going to hell in an handbasket" event. My problem was while what was called free love back then was never seen on TV . TV gave all kinds of things legitimacy which wouldn't have been on TV just a few yrs before. Just so ya know it was a stupid show. If you never watched it you didn't miss much. Cultural wars, my friends, and that was what the very stupid insipid poorly written show was about. The culture wars have been going on for a very long time. It wasn't invented by Trump.

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    I Was a Crooked Lawyer

    Interesting discussion on the Trump crusade against voting by mail. Believe I heard this correctly: to date, Dems in FL have requested 300,000 more mail ballots than Reps. Hadn’t really thought about it but the panel opinion was that Trump attack on vote by mail will actually depress total GOP vote. Line of thinking that if Fearless Leader says my vote might be stolen I’ll just wait and go to polls. The law of unintended consequences. I am old school on political adages like: (1) anybody you can vote early is one you don’t have to worry about election day and (2) election day weather still occasionally a decisive factor. Of course the more obvious explanation for the 300,000 Dem edge in FL is an enthusiasm gap which is a really bad harbinger for Trump. If he loses big, which looks more likely every day, Dems could emerge with 53-55 Senate seats, ugh.

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      Kev_WDE

      It’s almost like they haven’t thought through any of this, because Dear Leader says it’s a sham and all they can do is fight it.

      I’m starting to wonder if he breaks 90 electoral votes.

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    Travis Atkinson

    One part of the conversation that stood out to me was around the Bolton book and what I think was a missed opportunity in that discussion about Bolton's motives and purpose for both serving in Trump's Administration and in writing the book. Admittedly I am only about 100 pages or so into the book but even this far in Bolton does not seem to shy away from the fact that he had an agenda and worldview (show me an NSA or SoS that doesn't) and he felt he could help steer Trump in what he viewed the most favorable direction for US National Security. One can disagree with his aims but I don't think Bolton is the first to think he can steer a President in the right direction as he sees it.

    This is not altogether different from those trying to steer Trump on Judges, or Economics etc. And an advisor should challenge the President, not be just a yes man at least until the decision has been made. What I think happened based on his own telling was that Bolton thought he could manage Trump and still achieve what he viewed as America's National Security interests. He eventually found out he was wrong, Trump could not be steered as he is essentially a ship without a rudder.

    One of the most illuminating passages on this point IMO comes pretty early on where you have Bolton pulling Kelly who was Chief of Staff aside after a meeting with the Japanese Prime Minister Abe and essentially berating Kelly for the "fruitless" briefing that was largely caused by Trump being himself. Bolton tells Kelly "This is not a Trump Problem, this is a White House staff problem." Kelly shot back, "I don't need a lecture from you...", wherein Bolton says he's not lecturing, just telling the truth. And then he concludes this little aside with the following... "But in truth, Kelly was right and I was wrong. It was a Trump problem, and it never got fixed."

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  9. Butch Porter

    Did anyone else notice that David actually sounds quite a bit like Ron Howard (narrator of Arrested Development, of course)?

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      Kev_WDE

      I think he sounds a lot like Ron Howard when he was on the same cast as Andy G & Don Knotts.

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    Alex Fordney

    Steve should have re-framed the pop-culture question to which Spanish Red Wine he identifies with most.

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    1. Scott Mc

      But Jonah would have left.

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