Dinner Table Politics

Another session of the Utah State Legislature is almost complete. Lawmakers did a number of disappointing things this session, including changing ballot initiatives and fumbling an ill-conceived tax overhaul. But perhaps the most disappointing thing that happened was the derailing of a ban on conversion therapy due to Rep. Karianne Lisonbee and Governor Herbert watering down a bill that was unopposed by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, which prompted Equality Utah's director Troy Williams to resign from the state's Suicide Prevention Task Force. Abby and Jim discuss the history and future of conversion therapy - Sigmund Freud does not come across well - and also debate what anatomical terms are appropriate for a family-oriented podcast.  

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Abby and Jim finally talk about what everyone's talking about - and no, it's not Khloe Kardashian and some guy named Tristan that Jim's never heard of. It's the Michael Cohen testimony! Will it bring down Trump? (No.) Jim applies lessons from Wonder Woman's husband and stock price analogies to explain why Trump's approval ratings have actually gone up since the testimony. Senator Rand Paul is voting against Trump's emergency declaration, though. Will that matter? (Probably not, no. Sorry.) 

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The Utah State Legislature is almost done with its legislative session! Abby and Jim review some interesting developments happening local, such as a bill to get rid of straight party voting, changes to voter initiatives, and how delegates elect candidates. (Bernie Sanders comes up at the end.) Jim also reviews his brush with scandal during his father's 2010 campaign and Abby provides an excellent synopsis of an episode of The Office. 

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Abby and Jim break down President Trump's national emergency declaration and recount the history of previous presidential action going back to the National Emergencies Act signed by Gerald Ford back in 1976. Is Trump misusing his power? How expensive is the wall? What did the late Sen. Bob Bennett mean by "budget dust?" The wall is creating both physical and political divisions, which have manifested themselves in the Jussie Smollett debacle. This series of unfortunate events also allows Abby to discuss the book series "A Series of Unfortunate Events" and its subsequent adaptations. Plus: Jim sings with a cold!

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Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez's Green New Deal has been endorsed by several presidential hopefuls, but is it a good idea? Abby agrees in principle, but Jim worries that it's too expensive and accomplishes nothing. Abby and Jim then recount the mess surrounding the GND rollout, with AOC previously insisting that an FAQ posted on her site referencing "farting cows" and economic security for people "unwilling to work" was just a Republican hoax. (It wasn't.) Jim also recounts AOC's faulty campaign finance reasoning, and Abby laments that Kanye hasn't tweeted anything since the beginning of the year.

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Donald Trump's big speech! How did he do? Abby and Jim break it down, including all the shout-outs to Buzz Aldrin and other celebrities in the audience as Abby assures us that the moon actually exists. Where did Trump succeed? (In highlighting abortion extremism.) Where did he fall flat? (In calling for an end to investigations.) And does Trump know what he's talking about when he says America isn't a socialist country? Also, how can he complain about illegal immigrants ruining the economy after bragging about how great the economy is?

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Howard Schultz, CEO of Starbucks, is teasing a possible independent candidacy for president. How well have third-party presidential candidates done in the past? (Abraham Lincoln did pretty well.) Jim tells Abby stories of H. Ross Perot, and how Abby's grandfather made a $10,000 bet with him in a Senate hearing. Learn what happened to the Reform Party he founded, and how it was essentially killed by a former speechwriter for Richard Nixon who flirted with holocaust denial. Elizabeth Warren's wealth tax also comes under scrutiny, and Jim describes the first time he heard a wealth tax proposal - from Donald J. Trump. 

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Recorded on Martin Luther King Day, this episode of Dinner Table politics recounts MLK's time as a Trekkie, and how the civil rights leader persuaded Nichelle Nichols to keep playing Lt. Uhura. (The geeky nature of this story does not make Abby very happy.) Jim and Abby also discuss the fallout from the Covington School encounter with Native American protestors that demonstrated just how far we have to go to fulfill Dr. King's dream. President Trump's (short) visit to the MLK Memorial also gets a mention, and both Jim and Abby identify their least favorite DC monument. And who really is fourth in command of the Enterprise? 

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Did the dinosaurs have politics? That's just one of the insightful questions Abby asks as Jim and Abby discuss the fallout from what is now the longest government shutdown in history. Who can save us from this national nightmare? Probably not Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who seems to think that being morally right excuses being factually incorrect. Jim and Abby discuss where AOC is wrong and where she is right, as in her schooling of former Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker on marginal tax rates. Also learn why Anderson Cooper is the nation's uncle, but only on his mother's side. And which Carolina is Lindsay Graham from? The answer probably won't surprise you. 

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Why are you running for office? It's a question every politician is asked, and very few have a good answer. Abby thinks there's only two reasons: money and power. Jim recalls Mitt Romney's answer when he ran for Governor of Massachusetts in 2002, and he breaks down Elizabeth Warren's most recent answer, which is that she's trying to stop billionaires from taking everything for themselves. This leads to a discussion of capitalism, communism, gravity, and why all economic wisdom is encapsulated in the Parable of the Rolling Stones. 

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