I just visited DC for the first time back in June. My wife and I hiked all throughout the touristy parts of the city (8-12 miles of walking per day, because we were too cheap to use the scooters). I have a few observations relevant to recent discussions on the pod:
1. It felt very safe and well maintained. Maybe it’s just because I am used to the hellscape that is greater LA, but my impression was that it was remarkably clean, attractive, and safe. I saw lots of people actually maintaining the streets and public buildings - someone re-painting the wrought-iron lampposts, a team replacing paving stones near the Library of Congress, and scaffolding blocking the view of the Supreme Court. I get that these are not the crime-ridden areas of DC, but I was pleasantly surprised that it seemed like the infrastructure was actually well-maintained and being invested in, at least in the main business, tourist, and government areas.
2. We visited several Smithsonian museums, and I did not detect any obvious anti-American propaganda. Maybe it’s because we skipped the Native American and African American museums, and perhaps I didn’t look closely enough at the others, but it all felt pretty patriotic and America first. Sidebar: The Holocaust museum was very good. Very impactful.
3. I wholeheartedly agree with Matt’s advice that the best way to know America is to go for a long road trip. The capitol is ultimately tacky and lame. I did not like the look and feel of the architecture around the National mall very much - it felt like it was trying way too hard to be taken seriously with all the fake classical/european-style architecture that was all actually super new. The massive stone buildings and pillars and monuments just felt… tacky. America is not Europe or Italy or Greece, thank goodness, so I wish it didn’t feel like it had to replicate their architecture, but bigger. It reminded me a little of the scene near the beginning of Fatherland where the tour guide was obsessed with talking about how much bigger all of the Berlin architecture was than the other classic European landmarks it was aping.
DC hasn't given up on its public built environment like some places have, but the number of homeless and panhandlers, often aggressive or visibly mentally ill or high, is huge. Just part of daily life if you walk to work every day, sometimes unnervingly so.
Totally agree about the Smithsonian. Compared to much of museum world or, god forbid, theater world, the liberalism is pretty tame. Actually it's the kind of liberalism you would want a museum to have, a humanism and curiosity. I'm sure there are some cringeworthy exceptions, but much of the Smithsonian is actually quite conservative in its curatorial decisions. There's not a whole lot of installation or performance art or other weird shit in the national gallery, and the natural History museum literally has a bunch of stuffed animals, like museums did a hundred years ago.
How much Metro travel did you do? During my brief residence there, the two worst things about the Metro were the incessant pan-handling, and the fact that the escalators were consistently out of order, and would have signs indicating that a repair could not be made for over a year.
Also, DC made a huge impression on me when I was a 7 year-old on my first visit, and it was because of bombast of the mall. It still gives me goose bumps thinking about it. It may not be your style, but as a kid growing up in the Cold War environment, it made me swell with pride.
I did zero metro travel, TBH. And I hear what you’re saying about the national mall. The sheer scale of it all was impressive. It probably should be big and over the top. This is America, after all.
If the Supreme Court actually agrees to hear the same-sex marriage case, much less overturn it in any capacity, I'll eat Kmele's guitar. This all comes from Kim Davis, the former Kentucky clerk who refused to issue marriage licenses after Obergefell (and who loves the institution of marriage so much she's done it four times.) She filed a writ of certiorari to have her fees from that case overturned, and then tacked on overturning Obergefell also.
Based on my literal minutes of research, she doesn't have much of a case. 4 justices would have to agree to hear the case. The three liberals obviously won't, and apparently Barrett and Gorsuch aren't either. Roberts will probably join them. Even if it does make it, gay marriage isn't as much of a lightning rod issue as it used to be, definitely not on par with Roe. The justices know which way the winds are blowing.
As I said in a chat post, you don't have to like same-sex marriage. But if you are in a government position that asks you to do things you are morally opposed to (and I'm curious how many liquor licenses and strip club building permits Ms. Davis has issued), you really should just quit the job. This kind of tilting at windmills is how progressives will claw their way back into power. The horse is buried, don't dig it up for a few more thwacks.
I could see it going either way but I hope you're right. You'd think that enough Conservatives on the court are smart enough to recognize that overturning Obergefell would reunite a coalition that's been pretty fractured lately. Regardless of the actual arguments it will seem like its being overturned out of spite and it will be really easy to spin as Trump's responsibility and a betrayal of his gay supporters
I support gay marriage so I am biased I guess but from a purely political optics standpoint, Kim Davis really seems like the absolute worst person to put at the front of an Anti-Gay marriage movement. She's nuts and frankly is a perfect stereotype of a small town bigot.
Woah! I had no idea Kim Davis had been married four times (2x to one man). We live in a country where THAT woman gets married to three different men and then wants to dictate to others about who they can marry in any way? I hope not.
My politics skew left, at least compared to most 5thers, I'd say. But I have no problem with saying that the Rosenbergs were guilty (as were Joe Hill, Sacco and Vanzetti, Alger Hiss, etc.). As a staunch opponent of the death penalty, I wish that they had not been executed, but especially Ethel, for two reasons. First, she seems to have been less culpable in the crime than Julius. And second, it was wrong to leave two young boys as orphans. In this, I recently learned that J. Edgar Hoover agreed with my feeling so. Must be one of the few things on which he and I could have ever agreed. But even such an odious figure had a mother.
I’m glad Moynihan had Brace Belden on his show, because I do believe in free speech. I’m sure he’s “brilliant” in whatever way of value Moynihan measures that. I used to be a regular listener to True Anon, and I did find value ~ and humor ~ there.
That was before Oct 7.
I knew that Brace, and his Pick Me Girl/ AsaJew cohost were Marxists. Of course, I knew the basic principles of Marxism, but, I was quite naive about the embedded antisemitism.
So, post Oct 7 episodes of True Anon were a rude awakening.
Can someone be brilliant, but believe that Zionism is equivalent to fascism, and that Israel shouldn’t exist, and that there’s an actual genocide happening in Gaza?
Can someone be brilliant and be that blinded by ideology?
The only way, in my estimation, that someone could be brilliant, and espouse these things, is if they actually don’t believe them, but it serves their prejudices and hatred well. It serves other goals, in which the narrative is a tool, and the truth can be sacrificed in the service of these other goals.
I think Stephen Miller’s take on the white , old hippies is spot on. Penn station and Grand central have had national guard troops complete with rifles everyday for 24 years. I have no objection to unarmed NG troops being present in our Capital. .Cleaning up our capital makes sense. The people of DC deserve a clean , safe city to live in without fear of being carjacked or walk past the smell of piss and weed. Getting the homeless off the streets is inherently compassionate and moral. Trump has spent his career in the Hospitality business. foreign dignitaries and their staff shouldn’t be given a list of areas to stay away from due to concerns of being robbed or assaulted.
Also good to point out that you don't see a whole lot of people (any?) who are would-be victims of violent crime in bad neighborhoods speaking out against these efforts. I wish I could be in Matt's camp about the military roaming the streets of DC, but I was also alive for the 80's and 90's and heard all about how much better off the general populace felt under the environment of broken windows policing. Trump obviously lived through that as well, and probably remembers the general effectiveness of it.
P.S. I love sour cream & onion potato chips, so, I’d seriously consider accepting the bribe before knowing there was actually not chips but cash in the bag.
Speaking of indigeneity, amongst all the silly, stupid, obnoxiously woke books on prominent display at my school is a book "Autumn Peltier, Water Warrior" that talks about how water is sacred for the Anishinaabe but people showed up who didn't "cherish" water properly? It is full of mystical Hoo Haa that ought to be insulting to anyone with half a brain. These are the people who believe in "SCIENCE".
“ Only if we disregard race in how we judge one another will we be able to address the real crisis in society: the spiritual and moral free-fall given to us by identity politics.”
I'm with Kmele. Taking your kids on vacation, with some exceptions, is basically just you watching your kids in another place but with no breaks for them being in school or whatever.
This is why I will die on the hill to all my cool and broke or pretentious and rich friends about how cruises are passe and low-rent. If I get to put my kids in a Disney kids club for most of the day and not have to be in the office working on stuff, I am at a level of relaxation that is hard to get to if I'm trying to tour through Italy with a 7 year old and a 2 year old.
Just returned from an Alaskan cruise and listening to this late as a result. You sir are 100 percent correct. Best vacation ever. I came back relaxed if tired due to a red-eye. My kid didn't love the kids club but we got a few hours to do our own thing.
I'll also add that our fellow travelers were great.
I remain baffled by the expectation that if you just speak gently to these lunatics that run institutions like the Smithsonian or Ivy League Universities and extol all the great virtues of free speech that somehow they're going to stop spending our tax money building the infrastructure that will usher in the slow demise of said virtues. The Trump administration could be as gentle as you want and more, but the moment the wannabe communists get back in power, they will absolutely go back to all the same shit they were doing before. How do I know? Because we fucking saw it when 'Scranton Joe' and his merry band of 'moderates' were in power, promising to bring back 'normalcy' and returning 'adults to the room'. Money was spent at the point of the government gun to produce a guide to 'white culture' that listed 'timeliness' as some sort of cultural fault. Our premier educational institutions are sinking their previously sterling reputations to placate anti-semitic campus radicals while accepting inordinate sums of federal money (despite already having gigantic endowments and pretending to be 'non-profits'). The people who run the institutions feed themselves and their families on these divisions existing in perpetuity. You can speak all day about the grift and economic illiteracy of the current administration and I'll wag my head in violent agreement. But I think it's a fantasy to think that you can tell the fanatics that you're not spewing heresy and they'll just quit doing it when their livelihoods depend on selling vengeance packaged as justice.
I would absolutely 100% listen to a "Michael Moynihan Googles and then Yells About Smithsonian Exhibits" podcast.
DON'T ENCOURAGE HIM
"I Don’t Like What He's Doing But At Least He's Doing SOMETHING" is pretty much the poster quote for the entire Trump presidency.
💯
I just visited DC for the first time back in June. My wife and I hiked all throughout the touristy parts of the city (8-12 miles of walking per day, because we were too cheap to use the scooters). I have a few observations relevant to recent discussions on the pod:
1. It felt very safe and well maintained. Maybe it’s just because I am used to the hellscape that is greater LA, but my impression was that it was remarkably clean, attractive, and safe. I saw lots of people actually maintaining the streets and public buildings - someone re-painting the wrought-iron lampposts, a team replacing paving stones near the Library of Congress, and scaffolding blocking the view of the Supreme Court. I get that these are not the crime-ridden areas of DC, but I was pleasantly surprised that it seemed like the infrastructure was actually well-maintained and being invested in, at least in the main business, tourist, and government areas.
2. We visited several Smithsonian museums, and I did not detect any obvious anti-American propaganda. Maybe it’s because we skipped the Native American and African American museums, and perhaps I didn’t look closely enough at the others, but it all felt pretty patriotic and America first. Sidebar: The Holocaust museum was very good. Very impactful.
3. I wholeheartedly agree with Matt’s advice that the best way to know America is to go for a long road trip. The capitol is ultimately tacky and lame. I did not like the look and feel of the architecture around the National mall very much - it felt like it was trying way too hard to be taken seriously with all the fake classical/european-style architecture that was all actually super new. The massive stone buildings and pillars and monuments just felt… tacky. America is not Europe or Italy or Greece, thank goodness, so I wish it didn’t feel like it had to replicate their architecture, but bigger. It reminded me a little of the scene near the beginning of Fatherland where the tour guide was obsessed with talking about how much bigger all of the Berlin architecture was than the other classic European landmarks it was aping.
DC hasn't given up on its public built environment like some places have, but the number of homeless and panhandlers, often aggressive or visibly mentally ill or high, is huge. Just part of daily life if you walk to work every day, sometimes unnervingly so.
Totally agree about the Smithsonian. Compared to much of museum world or, god forbid, theater world, the liberalism is pretty tame. Actually it's the kind of liberalism you would want a museum to have, a humanism and curiosity. I'm sure there are some cringeworthy exceptions, but much of the Smithsonian is actually quite conservative in its curatorial decisions. There's not a whole lot of installation or performance art or other weird shit in the national gallery, and the natural History museum literally has a bunch of stuffed animals, like museums did a hundred years ago.
How much Metro travel did you do? During my brief residence there, the two worst things about the Metro were the incessant pan-handling, and the fact that the escalators were consistently out of order, and would have signs indicating that a repair could not be made for over a year.
Also, DC made a huge impression on me when I was a 7 year-old on my first visit, and it was because of bombast of the mall. It still gives me goose bumps thinking about it. It may not be your style, but as a kid growing up in the Cold War environment, it made me swell with pride.
I did zero metro travel, TBH. And I hear what you’re saying about the national mall. The sheer scale of it all was impressive. It probably should be big and over the top. This is America, after all.
If the Supreme Court actually agrees to hear the same-sex marriage case, much less overturn it in any capacity, I'll eat Kmele's guitar. This all comes from Kim Davis, the former Kentucky clerk who refused to issue marriage licenses after Obergefell (and who loves the institution of marriage so much she's done it four times.) She filed a writ of certiorari to have her fees from that case overturned, and then tacked on overturning Obergefell also.
Based on my literal minutes of research, she doesn't have much of a case. 4 justices would have to agree to hear the case. The three liberals obviously won't, and apparently Barrett and Gorsuch aren't either. Roberts will probably join them. Even if it does make it, gay marriage isn't as much of a lightning rod issue as it used to be, definitely not on par with Roe. The justices know which way the winds are blowing.
As I said in a chat post, you don't have to like same-sex marriage. But if you are in a government position that asks you to do things you are morally opposed to (and I'm curious how many liquor licenses and strip club building permits Ms. Davis has issued), you really should just quit the job. This kind of tilting at windmills is how progressives will claw their way back into power. The horse is buried, don't dig it up for a few more thwacks.
I agree with your assessment; and, if I have to eat Kmele’s guitar, it seems there won’t be much to have to get down?
I could see it going either way but I hope you're right. You'd think that enough Conservatives on the court are smart enough to recognize that overturning Obergefell would reunite a coalition that's been pretty fractured lately. Regardless of the actual arguments it will seem like its being overturned out of spite and it will be really easy to spin as Trump's responsibility and a betrayal of his gay supporters
I support gay marriage so I am biased I guess but from a purely political optics standpoint, Kim Davis really seems like the absolute worst person to put at the front of an Anti-Gay marriage movement. She's nuts and frankly is a perfect stereotype of a small town bigot.
Woah! I had no idea Kim Davis had been married four times (2x to one man). We live in a country where THAT woman gets married to three different men and then wants to dictate to others about who they can marry in any way? I hope not.
To marry two of the current trends: Labubonic plague.
🤣😂👍👍
My politics skew left, at least compared to most 5thers, I'd say. But I have no problem with saying that the Rosenbergs were guilty (as were Joe Hill, Sacco and Vanzetti, Alger Hiss, etc.). As a staunch opponent of the death penalty, I wish that they had not been executed, but especially Ethel, for two reasons. First, she seems to have been less culpable in the crime than Julius. And second, it was wrong to leave two young boys as orphans. In this, I recently learned that J. Edgar Hoover agreed with my feeling so. Must be one of the few things on which he and I could have ever agreed. But even such an odious figure had a mother.
Visited the Smithsonian in the last decade, my 3 big memories are
1. Disappointment that the moon lander was in storage for a remodel they were doing.
2. More disappointment at the butterfly exhibit being closed.
3. A section on black history and culture where I saw a sign that explained that expecting black people to be on time is racist.
The first two, I also would’ve been disappointed.
That last one I did not see coming!
I didn't see it coming either! The minerals and gemstones section was amazing though.
I’m glad Moynihan had Brace Belden on his show, because I do believe in free speech. I’m sure he’s “brilliant” in whatever way of value Moynihan measures that. I used to be a regular listener to True Anon, and I did find value ~ and humor ~ there.
That was before Oct 7.
I knew that Brace, and his Pick Me Girl/ AsaJew cohost were Marxists. Of course, I knew the basic principles of Marxism, but, I was quite naive about the embedded antisemitism.
So, post Oct 7 episodes of True Anon were a rude awakening.
Can someone be brilliant, but believe that Zionism is equivalent to fascism, and that Israel shouldn’t exist, and that there’s an actual genocide happening in Gaza?
Can someone be brilliant and be that blinded by ideology?
The only way, in my estimation, that someone could be brilliant, and espouse these things, is if they actually don’t believe them, but it serves their prejudices and hatred well. It serves other goals, in which the narrative is a tool, and the truth can be sacrificed in the service of these other goals.
If he does believe these things, he’s a moron.
I think Stephen Miller’s take on the white , old hippies is spot on. Penn station and Grand central have had national guard troops complete with rifles everyday for 24 years. I have no objection to unarmed NG troops being present in our Capital. .Cleaning up our capital makes sense. The people of DC deserve a clean , safe city to live in without fear of being carjacked or walk past the smell of piss and weed. Getting the homeless off the streets is inherently compassionate and moral. Trump has spent his career in the Hospitality business. foreign dignitaries and their staff shouldn’t be given a list of areas to stay away from due to concerns of being robbed or assaulted.
Also good to point out that you don't see a whole lot of people (any?) who are would-be victims of violent crime in bad neighborhoods speaking out against these efforts. I wish I could be in Matt's camp about the military roaming the streets of DC, but I was also alive for the 80's and 90's and heard all about how much better off the general populace felt under the environment of broken windows policing. Trump obviously lived through that as well, and probably remembers the general effectiveness of it.
P.S. I love sour cream & onion potato chips, so, I’d seriously consider accepting the bribe before knowing there was actually not chips but cash in the bag.
I can't wait for the Martyr Made podcast on how "Deutsche Physik" is an "indigenous way of knowing", contrary to the Jüdische Theory of Relativity.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deutsche_Physik
Speaking of indigeneity, amongst all the silly, stupid, obnoxiously woke books on prominent display at my school is a book "Autumn Peltier, Water Warrior" that talks about how water is sacred for the Anishinaabe but people showed up who didn't "cherish" water properly? It is full of mystical Hoo Haa that ought to be insulting to anyone with half a brain. These are the people who believe in "SCIENCE".
The NAAMCH "whiteness" document. As has been pointed out numerous times on the Fifth white hippy mentality controls academia and should not be casually dismissed...https://archive.org/details/whiteness-chart-smithsonian-nmaahc-washington-d.-c.
James, I tried this link and it came up as not found
Thanks. While the link worked, the image was blurry. I was able to find it here and it was clear.
https://www.newsweek.com/smithsonian-race-guidelines-rational-thinking-hard-work-are-white-values-1518333
Wow, tax dollars were spent on this!
I have this quote I saved from Thomas sowell.
“ Only if we disregard race in how we judge one another will we be able to address the real crisis in society: the spiritual and moral free-fall given to us by identity politics.”
Then there are these basic tips for raising your family and how to live your life,
“ I came across this while reading an article about parenting. I think it applies to everyone and not just children
Treat everyone with respect.
Whatever you undertake, give it your best effort.
You, and only you, are accountable for your actions.”
All that other stuff is bullshit and purposely dividing people.
Well that's odd, try this... https://duckduckgo.com/?t=ffab&q=nmaahc+whiteness&ia=images&iax=images&iai=https%3A%2F%2Farchive.org%2Fdownload%2Fwhiteness-chart-smithsonian-nmaahc-washington-d.-c.%2F__ia_thumb.jpg
I think the post could do:
- sour cream and bribes
- I bet you can’t grift just one
- crunch time for city hall
- spudgate
Good news for Matt, apparently the Miley Cyrus photo was digitally altered for clickbait and she looks pretty normal in the actual photo.
Came here to say this! Definitely altered, she still looks great
Yeah, the pics Moynihan shared just after the pod were ... very healthy.
I'm with Kmele. Taking your kids on vacation, with some exceptions, is basically just you watching your kids in another place but with no breaks for them being in school or whatever.
This is why I will die on the hill to all my cool and broke or pretentious and rich friends about how cruises are passe and low-rent. If I get to put my kids in a Disney kids club for most of the day and not have to be in the office working on stuff, I am at a level of relaxation that is hard to get to if I'm trying to tour through Italy with a 7 year old and a 2 year old.
Just returned from an Alaskan cruise and listening to this late as a result. You sir are 100 percent correct. Best vacation ever. I came back relaxed if tired due to a red-eye. My kid didn't love the kids club but we got a few hours to do our own thing.
I'll also add that our fellow travelers were great.
Fifth Column Cruise when?
I remain baffled by the expectation that if you just speak gently to these lunatics that run institutions like the Smithsonian or Ivy League Universities and extol all the great virtues of free speech that somehow they're going to stop spending our tax money building the infrastructure that will usher in the slow demise of said virtues. The Trump administration could be as gentle as you want and more, but the moment the wannabe communists get back in power, they will absolutely go back to all the same shit they were doing before. How do I know? Because we fucking saw it when 'Scranton Joe' and his merry band of 'moderates' were in power, promising to bring back 'normalcy' and returning 'adults to the room'. Money was spent at the point of the government gun to produce a guide to 'white culture' that listed 'timeliness' as some sort of cultural fault. Our premier educational institutions are sinking their previously sterling reputations to placate anti-semitic campus radicals while accepting inordinate sums of federal money (despite already having gigantic endowments and pretending to be 'non-profits'). The people who run the institutions feed themselves and their families on these divisions existing in perpetuity. You can speak all day about the grift and economic illiteracy of the current administration and I'll wag my head in violent agreement. But I think it's a fantasy to think that you can tell the fanatics that you're not spewing heresy and they'll just quit doing it when their livelihoods depend on selling vengeance packaged as justice.