Listen now | 0:00 Bob crestfallen over Mickey’s hat switcheroo 2:17 Mickey blames DEI for Kamala tic he finds annoying 7:56 Who’s less impressive, Kamala or Trump? 15:03 Why Bob prefers Kamala’s foreign policy team to Biden’s 29:22 The Vance dossier, revealed at last 33:44 More arguments about Kamala 48:08 Preliminary election analysis 58:43 Trump, Vance, and Springfield’s cats and dogs 1:09:28 Mickey’s Eric Adams conspiracy theory 1:11:38 Biden diplomacy? What Biden diplomacy? 1:22:52 Is cancel culture impotent? 1:28:38 Election predictions 1:33:04 Deeper election analysis
If Tim Walz is disqualified in Mickey's eyes because "he's scornful of people who disagree with him", where does that leave Trump and Vance? That's just a nakedly partisan & brain rotted take.
Is there a word I have to drop before I can call Mickey an old, small, petty, spiteful, increasingly-mortal dumbass? No one is interested in your relentless self-interest for your final years of addled, aggrieved privilege.
While I want to take the mortal high ground, Kaus' half ironic/half trolling right-wing conspiratorial opinions and double standards make me want to jump out a fucking window. His discussions with Bob add no value to the substack and make me feel sad and aggrieved. I'll skip them. Thank god they no longer due the parrot room.
Thanks. Mickey is an old, small, petty, spiteful, increasingly-mortal dumbass; no one is interested in his relentless self-interest for his final years of addled, aggrieved privilege.
Some of us are, as you can see from some comments below. It’s always interesting for me to hear a different perspective even if it’s not a favorable one, and he’s vastly different to any other Bob guest
I'm a big Parrot Room fan (and mug owner) and I look forward to the Nonzero episodes with Mickey. I like him because he's down to earth and doesn't settle for abstractions. With Chris Rufo, though, he has settled for abstractions.
Chris Rufo only knows how to tear things down. He doesn't know how to build anything good. Bob is absolutely right to wonder why the Manhattan Institute keeps him on.
I'm speaking from first-hand experience with Rufo at New College, the Florida "university" Mickey says Rufo "started". His contribution to New College has been to fan flames in the culture war and pressure the college to hire as faculty any incompetent misfit who writes an anti-DEI screed someplace. His most recent contribution was to celebrate on Twitter when the college threw the entire book collection of the Gender Studies department into a dumpster. Literally every book, literally a dumpster
Great episode. The digression to Satanic Verses brought back memories of the best of the old Parrot Room. Also Mickey genuinely seems to be having way more fun on this podcast with Bob than on his podcasts with Ann Coulter…hope he comes back post VP debate
You can ever set everything else aside and JD Vance's complete inexperience makes him totally unpalatable as a VP choice. If something happens to Trump while he's President, JD VANCE will be running the country? He is totally unqualified!
1) Kaus should stop recycling opinions from Coulter– a women who said she wouldn't vote for Ramaswamy explicitly due to his race. Who does he think is the one engaging more heavily in identity politics– what a joke.
2) The claim Kamala is in the position she is in by dint of her ethnic and gender background is not backed up by evidence. Kaus has been spending too much time ensconced in his basement consuming right-wing media.
You mean other than the fact that Joe Biden explicitly picked her because of her race and gender? Its literally more plausible to argue Shaquille O’Neill’s height had nothing to do with his position; at least the Lakers didn’t explicitly say ‘we’re only hiring centers over this height.’
Do you think she has more, equal to, or fewer qualifications than Vance? If you answer correctly, you'll begin to see why raising the issue of her race and gender is unserious.
Biden didn't publicly commit to picking a black woman as VP (he did for his Supreme Court appointment) - he only committed to picking a woman. Maybe that's a distinction you don't care about, but it's worth being accurate here.
Regardless, as Conor points out, Kamala literally has far more political experience than Vance does (who's only been a senator for 2 years). Kamala's political experience prior to being selected as VP was about the same as Pence's political experience (in terms of length) prior to his selection as Trump's VP. One wonders why he didn't have to beat back DEI accusations in spite of clearly being picked to try and shore up the evangelical vote, not because of any particular political merit he possessed.
If Tim Walz is disqualified in Mickey's eyes because "he's scornful of people who disagree with him", where does that leave Trump and Vance? That's just a nakedly partisan & brain rotted take.
Is there a word I have to drop before I can call Mickey an old, small, petty, spiteful, increasingly-mortal dumbass? No one is interested in your relentless self-interest for your final years of addled, aggrieved privilege.
While I want to take the mortal high ground, Kaus' half ironic/half trolling right-wing conspiratorial opinions and double standards make me want to jump out a fucking window. His discussions with Bob add no value to the substack and make me feel sad and aggrieved. I'll skip them. Thank god they no longer due the parrot room.
Thanks
Thanks. Mickey is an old, small, petty, spiteful, increasingly-mortal dumbass; no one is interested in his relentless self-interest for his final years of addled, aggrieved privilege.
Some of us are, as you can see from some comments below. It’s always interesting for me to hear a different perspective even if it’s not a favorable one, and he’s vastly different to any other Bob guest
I take some of that back.. Trump is going to solve aging and death, right?
I'm pretty sure that's a direct quote.
Why don't you have a cocktail by the pool and stfu while you wait for your appointment.
I'm a big Parrot Room fan (and mug owner) and I look forward to the Nonzero episodes with Mickey. I like him because he's down to earth and doesn't settle for abstractions. With Chris Rufo, though, he has settled for abstractions.
Chris Rufo only knows how to tear things down. He doesn't know how to build anything good. Bob is absolutely right to wonder why the Manhattan Institute keeps him on.
I'm speaking from first-hand experience with Rufo at New College, the Florida "university" Mickey says Rufo "started". His contribution to New College has been to fan flames in the culture war and pressure the college to hire as faculty any incompetent misfit who writes an anti-DEI screed someplace. His most recent contribution was to celebrate on Twitter when the college threw the entire book collection of the Gender Studies department into a dumpster. Literally every book, literally a dumpster
Great episode. The digression to Satanic Verses brought back memories of the best of the old Parrot Room. Also Mickey genuinely seems to be having way more fun on this podcast with Bob than on his podcasts with Ann Coulter…hope he comes back post VP debate
One slightly funny Vance dossier item:
“In 2016, it was reported that Vance tweeted “what percentage of the American population has @RealDonaldTrump sexually assaulted?””
You can ever set everything else aside and JD Vance's complete inexperience makes him totally unpalatable as a VP choice. If something happens to Trump while he's President, JD VANCE will be running the country? He is totally unqualified!
Mickey was right. 8:45 in and I’m done with this.
1) Kaus should stop recycling opinions from Coulter– a women who said she wouldn't vote for Ramaswamy explicitly due to his race. Who does he think is the one engaging more heavily in identity politics– what a joke.
2) The claim Kamala is in the position she is in by dint of her ethnic and gender background is not backed up by evidence. Kaus has been spending too much time ensconced in his basement consuming right-wing media.
You mean other than the fact that Joe Biden explicitly picked her because of her race and gender? Its literally more plausible to argue Shaquille O’Neill’s height had nothing to do with his position; at least the Lakers didn’t explicitly say ‘we’re only hiring centers over this height.’
Do you think she has more, equal to, or fewer qualifications than Vance? If you answer correctly, you'll begin to see why raising the issue of her race and gender is unserious.
Biden didn't publicly commit to picking a black woman as VP (he did for his Supreme Court appointment) - he only committed to picking a woman. Maybe that's a distinction you don't care about, but it's worth being accurate here.
Regardless, as Conor points out, Kamala literally has far more political experience than Vance does (who's only been a senator for 2 years). Kamala's political experience prior to being selected as VP was about the same as Pence's political experience (in terms of length) prior to his selection as Trump's VP. One wonders why he didn't have to beat back DEI accusations in spite of clearly being picked to try and shore up the evangelical vote, not because of any particular political merit he possessed.