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Still haven't gotten Covid. Moynihan's just weak. You also need to consider a Gary Stewart drankin song for the outro...

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The book Moynihan was referring to, about the guy who went to the German town after WW2 to perform an ethnographic study, I believe, is They Thought They Were Free by Milton Meyer. If not, my apologies, but you should still read that one as well.

Shameless plug- Coincidentally enough, I recently wrote a short review on that book, which you can find here, if you’re so interested:

https://www.gordoncomstock.com/p/the-nazis-and-letters-from-the-devil

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Moynihan crystallizes the journalistic condescension towards the public so well. The feeling that our brave newspaper men/women & TV talking heads need to guide us to the light, it’s a plague on the entire industry. Hubris doesn’t even begin to describe it. Also fellas (if you’re even at Liberty to talk about this....) what the hell happened here >> https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-features/fbi-raid-abc-news_producer-1234613619/ I’m fascinated by this ABC News producer who disappeared off the face of the earth and NOBODY is talking about it.

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Oct 21, 2022·edited Oct 21, 2022

I liked it better when the Republicans didn't like the Russians, too.

Train of thought relatedly... Maybe I'm forgetting (I am stoned and just shotgunned two beers), but have y'all discussed the Iranian protests? I'm 100% onboard with US support for Ukraine, but I wish the US were supporting the Iranian protestors and (probably?) also not seeking to reenact the nuclear deal. IDK maybe that would result in worse results, but I loathe inconsistency!

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Yes let's talk about the protests in girls' schools. Makes me cry.

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I sorta loved the cluelessness of the 538 bunch about how most people stay close to where they were raised, but it was well reflected in Nicholas Kristof arguing he should be permitted to run for governor of Oregon because it was always his home in his heart. He hasn't resided there since 1984 (living in Westchester County) but hey he has a farm in Yamhill, so local.

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Former TFC guest Jody Avirgan kept it real on 538 with Clare Malone.

Now it's a different pod...

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I loved The Party, MM is right, the movie is hilarious. Peter Sellers was a comic genius and his physical comedic skills were at their best in that movie. Also ion the movie was Claudine Longet who was famous for her relationships having been married to Andy Williams and romantically involved with the skier Spider Sabitch (unfortunately for him). The end of that relationship becoming a famous SNL skit

Great podcast guys.

I would also like to recommend a podcast episode that also dropped today on a podcast called The Rest of History discussing the short tenure of Liz Truss. The podcast is delivered with brilliant British humor by two noted British historians (Tom Holland and Dominic Sandbrook). Well worth a listen. I also think that they would be great guests for MM's historian interviews.

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Also highly recommend We Have Ways of Making You Talk with Tom’s brother James Holland. Didn’t MM and Sandbrook get into a plagiarism dust up?

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That I don't know

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thanks for the reference

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Oct 21, 2022·edited Oct 21, 2022

Here's the Cowen article referenced: https://marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevolution/2022/10/classical-liberalism-vs-the-new-right.html

They were absolutely right, it is well worth the read regardless of what you take away from it.

edit: Also, tremendous episode. I don't often have to listen more than once, but this one required me to actually set my shit down and give it my full attention. You guys have always been good, but you've really found your stride the last couple years. . .In my humble opinion. Looking forward to that piece on the media kakistocracy

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Regarding Covid....my partner's brother was hospitalized this past June for a broken hip. While there, they of course tested him for Covid and the test was positive although he was asymptomatic. His status was listed as a "Covid hospitalization." While I don't have this kind of proof about Covid deaths, we have been reading and have heard from friends who work in healthcare that the same kind of negligent and inaccurate cataloguing happens. One goes into the hospital for a stroke, say; is tested and found to have Covid; dies from complications of stroke. Listed as Covid death.

So when I was arguing with a friend about incorrect stats of actual number of people who died from Covid, he kept screaming about the millions dead, he was like "well what number is good enough for you? What number do you want it to be?" and I just said "correct. I want the number to be actually correct."

This is clearly too much to ask of us.

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I’ve been here. You’d think I was a Holocaust denier with some of the reactions I’ve gotten

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Exactly. There's a difference between a million and quarter of a million if we care about other goals like opening schools, getting people back to work, preventing horrific mass depression.

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Oct 22, 2022Liked by Matt Welch

Re: Blake Edwards, the man has such an unpredictable filmography. And you’re right, you couldn’t do a proper retrospective in these times. I don’t think you mentioned that he directed the uncancelable Breakfast at Tiffany’s (thanks Mickey Rooney). And I also recommend two non-Peter Sellers entries, the very sobering Days of Wine & Roses, and the very unsettling Experiment in Terror, both starring the lovely Lee Remick.

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Oct 21, 2022·edited Oct 21, 2022

you guys need to take a page out of the chapo playbook and devote an entire episode to the insane shit that rod dreher says, does, and believes

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9iLOHWedylQ

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9rLYp4--p0o

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When it comes to Herschel Walker, don't discount the fact that Stacey Abrams is on the same ballot, and that Warnock's not a great candidate himself. If the Democratic party ran decent candidates, Walker would be down by double-digits.

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Kmele’s what -about-isms are intolerable, and are literally harming people physically.

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Licherally.

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Not a word of a lie in anything said on this episode. I wholeheartedly endorse every position uttered

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An underrated point: Britney NEEDS the conservatorship.

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And Kmele’s thoughts on gender roles were spot fucking on.

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As the great Bill Burr said "there are no feminists in a house fire".

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Apparently. Yikes.

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How is that even possible?

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YouTube’s censorship in the historical documentary world is nuts. Channels like Real Time History and TimeGhost/World War Two get the book thrown at them for the mere mention of certain historical topics

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I think that Lincoln Project doc was mentioned last episode, so I started with the first episode and couldn't get more than 10 minutes into it because the people were so obnoxious. Rick Wilson reminded me a little of a real life Kendall Roy—all over-compensating try-hard bluster and phony foul-mouthed bravado. I skipped ahead and watched the final episode, which was more entertaining because it was all about the scandals and people quitting.

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Initially gave a bunch of $ to LP.

“The enemy of my enemy is my friend”

But that justification wore thin after the novelty and “amusement” of their ads no longer titillated…

Irredeemable assholes.

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Yeah, I also donated money to them early on and thought they might be onto something, but it turned real fast for me right after the election. Now they just come across as pompous blowhards and scare-mongers. Oh well, fool me once...

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It's impossible at this point to accurately "redo" the Covid death numbers, but there have been analyses, including by the CDC, that look at comorbidities, and that, along with the excess deaths number, probably gives you a pretty good idea of what number of people died 'from' rather than 'with'. Given the way it's counted and the numbers are still heavily weighted towards the elderly and obese, and how dang transmissible the thing is, I'd guess the 'with' numbers would be above 50%.

Also, no mention of CA AB2098? Matt, I would've expected you especially to be all over that topic. I'm surprised given how much mention other certain free speech topics get on this podcast that we haven't even heard a discussion on this yet.

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Thanks for the tip.

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