The Commentary Magazine Podcast
1,435 episodes — Page 24 of 29
The Bill House Democrats Want Will Destroy Them
Today’s podcast goggles at the prospect of Democrats in the House passing a gigantic spending bill that will be dead on arrival in the Senate—and hand Republicans every weapon they need to destroy Democratic hopes in 2022. Give a listen. Source Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
It's Even Worse for Democrats Than They Know
Chris Stirewalt joins us on the podcast today for continued analysis of the electoral trainwreck for Democrats this week and what on earth they think they’re doing with the two bills in Congress in its wake. Give a listen. Source Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Wow. The Elections. Wow.
The startling results in Virginia and New Jersey—not to mention on Long Island and in Buffalo and Minneapolis—mean that we’re living in a different country politically today from the one we were living in yesterday. We have many explanations for why. Give a listen. Source Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Can't Anybody Here Play This Political Game?
More evidence of Democratic disarray in Washington yesterday, and the confusing apparent decline of Democratic hopes in the Virginia governor’s race, bring to mind Casey Stengel’s plaint about managing the 1962 Mets: “Can’t anyone here play this game?” Meanwhile, Afghanistan falls into hellfire. Give a listen. Source Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Let's Go, Brandon?
Today’s podcast covers a panoply of topics, from the foolishness and corruption of the “Lincoln Project’ to whether a three-word slogan should be considered an act of terrorism to the Washington Post’s gargantuan January 6 investigation and on. Give a listen. Source Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
We Told You It Was Going to Be a Disaster
Today’s podcast features a cautious victory lap from the crew—who pretty much predicted the slapstick collapse of Joe Biden and the Democrats yesterday on Capitol Hill. The lap is cautious because we still can’t quite believe they’re as bad at this as they look. Give a listen. Source Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
The Great Democratic Faceplant
On Tuesday, Joe Biden and his allies sent political observers into a frenzy with the announcement that a deal had been reached on a social safety net bill. But there was no deal, and there will be no votes. Is there anything that explains this behavior but abject incompetence? American Enterprise Institute senior fellow Matthew Continetti joins the podcast today to discuss this and more. Source Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
The Eternal Return of the Democrats’ Infrastructure Debacle
The Democratic Party is flirting with failing to meet a deadline to pass both physical and social infrastructure in precisely the same way they failed weeks ago. Is that really possible? Also, the Chinese hypersonic missile threat and American complacency. Source Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Take Their Money and Run!
Today’s podcast takes up the so-called “billionaires tax” that is the hot topic in Washington and subjects it to scrutiny—is it constitutional? will it generate sufficient revenue? what will the consequences be for ordinary people?—which is maybe the worst (or best!) thing you could do to such a concept. Then, it’s education and why Democrats and liberals seem unable to understand why it may be... Source Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
The COVID Story Is Coming Out
James B. Meigs joins today’s podcast to discuss his two articles in the November issue of Commentary. One, “COVID and the Authorities: It’s Even Worse Than We Thought,” has only gained momentum over the past week as more has emerged to suggest leading figures in the public-health community might have been involved in a major cover-up at the beginning of the pandemic. The second... Source Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
What It Means to Be Courageous
Bari Weiss joins the COMMENTARY podcast to discuss her article in the new issue: “We Got Here Because of Cowardice. We Get Out With Courage.” She outlines the threat posed by wokeness, and how dissenters against this authoritarian dogma can reverse course. Source Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Who's Laughing Now?
Can laughter survive the scrutiny of self-serious social justice activists? Director, producer, and screenwriter of such hits as “Airplane!” and the “Naked Gun” series, David Zucker joins the show to discuss his article in the new issue of COMMENTARY, “Destroying Comedy,” and the woke threat to humor. Source Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
First, Do No Harm
The podcast welcomes former Deputy Secretary of Health and Human Services Tevi Troy back to discuss his article in the latest issue of COMMENTARY, “Wokeness, M.D.” We discuss the ideological threat to the dispassionate conduct of medical science and how ideology is guiding public health practitioners’ approach to the pandemic. Source Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
What George Orwell Knew About Wokeness
Wilfred Reilly joins the podcast today to talk about his essential article, “The Whiteness of Wokeness.” As we discuss the phenomenon of well-to-do Caucasians supposedly speaking on behalf of the needs of African-Americans and those of color, we delve into the brilliant observations of George Orwell 85 years ago in his book, The Road to Wigan Pier. Then we talk about the Virginia governor’s race. Source Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Colin Powell, American
Today’s podcast pays tribute to Colin Powell’s extraordinary American story and asks why his memoir isn’t taught in schools while memoirs about racial bitterness are. We also wonder at the larger meaning of the DC comic book company’s decision to remove the words “American way” from the Superman slogan and what it means about the possibilities of a conservative counterculture. Give a listen. Source Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Now They're Trying to Cancel Netflix—and Space Exploration!
The last podcast of the week finds us in a ruminative mood as we discuss Dave Chappelle’s controversial special and the finger-wagging response to it—and wonder at the finger-wagging being done in response to the journey of William Shatner into space. Give a listen. Source Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Trump Threatens the GOP
Today’s podcast takes up Donald Trump’s statement that Republican voters will not turn out to vote unless the 2020 vote is somehow resolved in his favor. What does this portend? Will the results in the Virginia and New Jersey gubernatorial elections suggest a different future? And what about all this “national divorce” stuff? Give a listen. Source Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
The Mechanics of ‘Popularism'
A discussion about the lingering and unknowable negative health effects of mid-pandemic mitigation measures that may not even be fully visible to us for years. Also, the center-left’s new obsession with the political strategist David Shor and his prescription for Democratic success: “popularism.”... Source Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Vaccine Mandate Craziness
The podcast crew takes up the new effort in Texas to prevent private businesses from requiring employees to vaccinate, and what it says about the politics of the jab nationwide. Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Biden Agonistes
Liberals are beginning to panic about the decline of Joe Biden’s popularity and what it might mean, and we’re there to help explain it to them! Also, what’s going on with the supply chain, and is Trump playing a role in Biden’s troubles? Give a listen. Source Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Kicking the Debt Limit Can Down the Road: Who Benefits?
Today’s podcast takes up the question of whether McConnell blinked, why Schumer attacked a deal that gave him a face-saving way out, why Manchin put his head in his hands while Schumer did that, why Donald Trump is doing what he’s doing, and why the Chinese are doing what they’re doing in Taiwan. Oh, and some COVID stuff. Give a listen. Source Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Is He a Fool or an Idiot?
Today’s podcast looks at a Quinnipiac poll that has very bad news for Joe Biden in it and wonders at the choices he’s made that have led him to this pass. How are we to understand him? Give a listen. Source Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
The Wrong Way to Deal with Facebook
Today’s podcast takes up the charges of the Facebook whistleblower and asks whether her perspective is the right one or whether she misunderstands the nature of Facebook’s challenge to American society. And what exactly are Democrats up to when it comes to raising the debt ceiling? Give a listen. Source Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
When Crime Gets Close to You
The podcasters today consider crime up close and personal—yesterday I was in proximity to four different acts of violence and another was nearly burglarized. Is there a larger meaning to these actions? Do they connect somehow to the president’s seeming acceptance of the harassment of Kyrsten Sinema? And how are we to understand them in light of the Justice Department’s decision to focus on... Source Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Wait, Why Are They Saying It's Good They Failed?
The podcast crew expresses puzzlement at the Democratic party spin that the failure of both big spending bills this weekend needs to be viewed as some kind of ideological and partisan triumph. Why? How? What on earth is going on here? And why is Anthony Fauci threatening Christmas? Give a listen. Source Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Losing Is Winning, Spending Costs Nothing—and Other Liberal Delusions
Today’s podcast notes that liberal opinion seems determined to cast the left’s refusal to spend $1 trillion because it wants to spend $4.5 trillion as some kind of victory—and asks whether that makes any sense. Give a listen. Source Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Progressive Failure Is Manchin's Success
Today’s podcast explains why Joe Manchin will never, ever, ever, ever do anything near what the progressives in his party want—because it would be the end of him and he wants to remain his state’s dominant politician. We also discuss the finger-pointing among Bidenites about the Afghanistan disaster, whether it’s OK to desire the political failure of your adversaries, and why we’re no longer... Source Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Are Politicians Lying More?
The revelations yesterday that emerged from Congressional testimony featuring two top officials involved in the Afghanistan debacle reveal Joe Biden to be as mendacious as Donald Trump when it comes to matters of policy. Is this something new for the presidency or is this just more evidence that all politicians lie? And does that kind of lying have a corrosive effect on America’s social fabric? Source Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
We Need Our Own ‘Music Man’
Between rising crime rates and contradictory reporting on how the Afghanistan pullout failed so spectacularly, the COMMENTARY podcast could use what Donald Trump reportedly relied upon to calm him down: a “music man” who would soothe him with the score of the Andrew Lloyd Webber musical, “Cats.”... Source Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Biden, AOC, Trollope, and the Tonys
Today’s podcast asks the question: What do America’s most famous leftist member of Congress and Anthony Trollope’s fictional 19th-century political character Phineas Finn have in common? Also: What’s more popular among Democrats, spending a mere trillion dollars or spending many trillions of dollars? And: Why didn’t the Tony Awards bestow their largesse on a Black Lives Matter play? Give a listen. Source Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Constitutional Crisis, Shmonstitutional Crisis
Today’s podcast takes up Robert Kagan’s much-discussed Washington Post piece claiming a Trump constitutional crisis is already upon us. Is it, though? Give a listen. Source Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Should Republicans Pop the Popcorn?
Today’s podcast asks whether the signs of Democratic crackup are so pronounced that those who oppose Biden and Company should just sit back and watch in amusement as their opposite numbers dissolve into acrimony and paralysis. Or is this bad for the country? And now that 75 percent of all Americans over 12 are at least partially vaccinated, why can’t we celebrate this achievement? Give a listen. Source Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Suppressing Speech and Going After Israel
Today’s podcast points out the continuing scandal of the media’s and Big Tech’s efforts to suppress stories they don’t like—both about Hunter Biden and about China’s role in the promulgation of COVID—and what the practical consequences for them both may be. And then we get into the Democratic party’s courtship of political meltdown, shown in part by an effort to defund Israel’s anti-missile... Source Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
It's Not All About the Base
Today’s podcast asks why the Biden people immediately assumed horseback Border patrol officers trying to deal with the overwhelming problems in Texas were doing wrong, and what it says about the administration’s desperate efforts to hold on to its progressive base. Give a listen. Source Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Biden's Cascade of Bad News
Today’s podcast takes up Biden’s horrid Friday afternoon, with three bad pieces of news in an hour—and the coming crisis within the Democratic party over its ambitions to pass more than $5 trillion in spending in a month. Give a listen. Source Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
The Lost Thread
Today's podcast looks at the increasing Republican-conservative tendency to support the actions of the mob on January 6, the consequences therefrom—and asks whether Peggy Noonan's provocative column today in the Wall Street Journal is right that America has somehow "lost the thread." Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
The Other Insurrection
California Gov. Gavin Newsom easily survives the effort to recall him from office. Are there lessons for Republicans ahead of the 2022 midterms here? Also, the revelations in a forthcoming book that Gen. Mark Milley conducted his own foreign policy and violated the chain of command under Donald Trump. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Somewhere Over the Horizon, Lies Are Told
Today's podcast takes up the dishonesties of Secretary of State Blinken, the self-discrediting idea of "over the horizon" intelligence, fake polls supporting a president whose poll numbers have gotten very bad, and a horrible and instructive event at Barnard College involving observant Jews being told to violate the tenets of their faith to fill out a COVID form. Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Can the Damage Be Undone?
In the wake of a somber 9/11 anniversary, the COMMENTARY podcast surveys the depressing intellectual and political landscape that typifies American discourse. Is the reaction against classical Western liberalism reversible? The “crushing morosity” is thick in this episode. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Biden's Neurotic Pitch and the 9/11 Anniversary
Today's podcast takes up Joe Biden's COVID speech and plans and asks how we are to understand a president who says you have nothing to fear if you're vaccinated but he's going to protect you from the unvaccinated. And we discuss the enduring impact of 9/11. Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Solving the Hostage Crisis You Started
We're back after the Labor Day and Rosh Hashanah break to discuss the Biden administration's negotiations with terrorists and the praise it's getting for doing so; the fact that Biden is now trying to put us on a war footing against COVID; and the Biden team's effort to change the plotline of the last month by firing Trump officials. And what is going on with Trump and boxing? Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
The Bad News Bidens
Today's podcast deals with the onslaught of lousy headlines and developments surrounding the president, from horrible jobs numbers to Delta fatalities to polls showing a significant decline in his support. Why is this happening? Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Abortion Comes Roaring to the Fore
Today's podcast takes up the Supreme Court's refusal to stay Texas's new restrictive abortion law and asks whether its existence heralds the beginning of a grassroots liberal movement on par with the grassroots conservative movement that arose when the Court made abortion a constitutional right nearly half a century ago. And, yes, more on Afghanistan. Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Joe Biden's Disgraceful Speech
Today's podcast takes a long, hard, close, serious, and polemical look at Joe Biden's self-justifying address to the American people on the Afghan catastrophe. Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Philip Larkin and the End of the Afghan War
Today's podcast is about consequences: Who deserves to be held responsible for the debacle in Afghanistan and why. Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
No, We Weren't There to Bring Democracy
Today's podcast tries again to take up the ludicrous argument that our purpose in Afghanistan was to install a liberal democracy. We also talk about the labor shortage and the end of the eviction moratorium. And are movie theaters too loud? Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Biden Fails to Meet the Measure of the Moment
On Thursday, at least 13 Americans and over 100 Afghan civilians were killed in two suicide attacks on the outskirts of Kabul’s international airport. The response to that event by Joe Biden and his administration wholly failed to meet the gravity of the circumstances with which they are confronted. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
The Price of Dishonor
The whole crew is back together to discuss an inadvertently telling op-ed by Ezra Klein that defends the dishonorable behavior of the United States in the present moment by falsely characterizing the entire past twenty years and the purposes of the fight in Afghanistan, among other places. And we discuss whether liberals have entirely lost the thread of their connection to ordinary Americans. Give a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
The Democrats’ Crumbling Legacy
Between the debacle in Afghanistan, the return of pandemic-related pessimism, and what Nancy Pelosi admitted was the “controversial” $3.5 trillion budget deal that may not even pass the Senate in its current iteration, what are Democrats leaving behind? It may not be much after voters get their say next November. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Hostages Abroad and Hostage at Home
Author and editor emeritus of The Daily Wire, Ben Shapiro, joins the podcast today to talk about the ongoing nightmare in Afghanistan, which is evolving from a debacle into a hostage crisis. But Americans get no respite at home as COVID has evolved from a pandemic into a lifestyle brand. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices