Observations: The QandO Podcast

Jeffrey Epstien was arrested on a number of charges related to, but separate from, his earlier kid-touching conviction. Who else will get caught up in this net? Other than Secretary of Labor Acosta, who was essentially forced out of office for not being tough enough on Eptsein's initial plea deal. AOC basically called the Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi, a racist this week. As Omar said in The Wire, "You come at the King, you'd best not miss," and AOC's Chief of staff was savaged by a Tweet from the House Democrats earlier today. The White House held a Social Media Summit this week, whose high point was a near fistfight between an apparently drunk Playbow reporter and Sebastian Gorka in the Rose Garden. Good times. A gay writer penned an article in The New Republic today, stating, basically, the Pete Buttigieg would be bad president because he hasn't had enough hot, gay sex with hot, gay men. The article was removed during the brodcast. Also, Kim Jong-Un is now officially the head of state for North Korea, replacing his father, who's been dead for years.

Donald Trump had a July 4th celebration in the capitol, featuring the military, tanks, and aircraft flybys, which has never happened before in the entire history of the Republic. Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez seeks media camera attention at a rate that shame CHuck Schumer, a feat previously thought impossible. The Democrats presidential candiates had debates, and the winners seems to be--so far--Buttigieg, Sanders, Biden and Harris. Speaking of Joe Biden, he declared that this Russian election meddling would never have been alowed under Barack's and his watch. Um. Ok. Antifa seems to consist mainly of vicious, cowardly narcissists. Brett Weinstein has started an new podcast, the Dark Horse podcast, which should be a must listen for anyone of any political stripe. Artificial General Intelligence is still scary.

After a couple of weeks away due to medical issues, we're back! The Democrats had their presidential debate. They want to give everything away for free. Especially if you're an immigrant. We didn't go t war with Iran, so that's a good thing. Mainly we just tried to catch up on everything we missed while I away.

Special Counsel Robert Mueller went on national TV to say he couldn't find evidence to support a prosecution of President Trump. He continued by saying that he couldn't prove Trump didn't commit a crime. That was about one sentence too far, as Attorney General Barr quickly made clear. Hopefully, we can now get to the bottom of the whole means by which this investigation was started in the first place. Trump spoke to sailors in Japan on Memorial Day, during a ceremony in which the Navy either did, or did not, hide the USS John McCain from the president's view. In response to Georgia's newly-implemented abortion restrictions, Disney announced that doing business in that sate would be...problematic. Meanwhile, they're opening a new park in...wait for it...Saudi Arabia. Nancy Pelosi may be--frighteningly enough--the smartest Democrat in the House of Representatives.

Attorney General Bill Barr now has authority to declassify all the records about the Mueller collusion investigation, and its origins. This should be interesting. Theresa May had one job as Great Britain's Prime Minister. She failed. Now it's someone else's turn. Naomi Wolf learned live on Radio 3 in the UK that the central thesis of her new book is based on a misunderstanding of a legal term. Some fellow regaled Twitter with a long story about how he and a buddy accidentally stole a brick of heroin from MS-13. Now he says the story's fake, and he's set upa GoFundMe to finance his attempt to flee into hiding. How threatening is the advent of AI to our social and political order? And, considering that we have a gotcha culture where the slightest anti-PC infraction can deprive you of your livelihood, how could it get any worse?

After Dale's appendectomy, the podcast is back from hiatus, though without an ailing Bruce. Technically, this is the third podcast attempt of the evening. There were...issues. But finally, everything worked long enough for Michael and Dale to discuss how awful the media is. Alabama's new abortion law, but it's probably headed straight for Federal court. Universities are morphing into 5-year academies for barista training. Apple may be facing bad news on the anti-trust front. The people who run the SAT for college admissions have come up with a fantastic idea for making the SAT utterly useless.Our politics has turned into vicious arguments for the lowest stakes imaginable.

New information this week indicates that the FBI--and perhaps the CIA--were, in fact, spying on the Trump campaign. Moreover, the Mueller report may...misstate how some of the players became involved and when. Bill Barr, the AG, was roasted by Democrats this week, and one wonders how much of it is sincere, and how much of it is pre-emptive attacks on Barr's credibility in anticipation of upcoming criminal referrals that may reflect badly on the FBI--and on some Democrats. Bruce and Dale argue that they were in the real military, before it got so soft and cushy. Venezuela is melting down, but that's not really our problem. It may, however, be Brazil's.

Uncle Joe--Biden, not Stalin--has joined the 2020 Democratic race for president. Whether he can overcome the testosterone-laden stench of maleness, or the scintillating glare of his whiteness to win the nomination is an open question. But, probably not. In any event, the Dems are putting together quite a weird list of policy proposals, though they may appeal to the murderers in jail who would presumably vote for them. The American media sucks. Even the Brits do better "Florida Man" stories than the US media. Things in Asia are getting interesting. While American politicans treat Russia as a world-spanning global opponent (they aren't), China is calmly, quietly building a blue-water navy, and going around poking stuff with a stick to see how we might respond.

We finally have the Mueller Report, which tells us 1) there was no collusion with Russia, and 2) Donald Trump is a bit of an asshole. Some Democrats are already calling for impeachment, but they're mainly the same ones who've been calling for impeachment for months. Can the Democratic majority in the House stop themselves from trying to impeach the president? Seems like a high-risk strategy, especially when ongoing investigations into how the whole Trump inquiry got started are still pending. The media is howling for impeachment non-stop, though, so we'll see what happens. Also, a brief look at popular culture, and why rigidly expressing a single point of view has made it so boring.

We're back, after a 1-week medical hiatus. This week, AG Barr said it's clear that the government was spying on the Trump campaign, a charge Democrats rejected. They prefer to refer to it as the secret gathering of information by anonymous intelligence agents. Hopefully, we'll get the appropriate evidence. And that some of these spies go to jail. This business of government officials getting a pass for misconduct is getting old. Many Democrats are running for president, but the one guy who could clearly defeat Trump, crazy Uncle Joe Biden, probably can't win the nomination. Politicians are generally corrupt buffoons, by the way. Transformative technologies are changing our lives, and hopefully won't leave us all unemployed.