Today’s Ruminant features Jonah amid a group of silent watchers, staring at him while on mute in a Zoom meeting as he speaks to himself for an hour in the basement of an undisclosed location. On the docket today: Jonah returns to one of the most interesting political conundrums of our moment. Was our class of political nutjobs always crazy, or did they only get crazy in the last few years? On a completely unrelated note, why is Matt Gaetz the way he is? And, of course, Jonah speaks to the dangers of “thinking about politics like you’re watching a movie.”

Show Notes:

- The ongoing Matt Gaetz scandal

- Politico’s summary of John Boehner’s new book, On the House: A Washington Memoir

- Boehner unloads on the GOP’s “crazy caucus”

- Jonah: “I’m Not Going to Say I Told You So… But”

- Last month’s Remnant with Elaine Kamarck

- Steve Bannon and the “Island of Misfit Toys”

- Kevin Williamson: “Peter Navarro: Trump’s Nutty Economics Professor”

- Peter Navarro believes Fauci created COVID

- Memories of bleach

- This week’s second Remnant with Shadi Hamid

- Chelsea Handler on due process for Derek Chauvin

- Jonah: “Why Bipartisanship is a Weapon to Use Against Your Political Foes”

- Romney pushes Biden on bipartisanship

- The week’s first Remnant with Chris Stirewalt

- Triangulation: the dirtiest word in politics

- Bill Maher steals Jonah’s joke

- Kevin McCarthy reads Green Eggs and Ham

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