Episoder
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As the Supreme Court wraps up its term, the boys again summon Damon Root, author of Overruled: The Long War for Control of the U.S. Supreme Court, to break down the various rulings (for those of us who donât pay attention but still want to convince Scott Bakula to time travel and deport baby Kmele). Post-Damon, another hourâŠduring which Matt tells the story of his car being smashed up by Russian trash men (which, surprisingly, is not a euphemism), Zohran code switches, the Big Ugly Bill lurches through the Senate, and stupid ârevolutionariesâ think itâs their moment. Yet again.
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* Fleeeeeeeee
* Donât mess with the Zohran
* Andrew Cuomo, Shah of NYC
* Eric Adams to the rescue? (Oof)
* Post-colonial Disney movies
* Scarcity Democrats
* Pull the fire alarm on this drunk idiot
* This means nothing for national Democratic politics
* And isnât about Israel
* Were the bunkers busted?
* Hot Ukrainians save lives
* NATO not so bad after all
* Joy Reid, smug master of Wikipedia
* OKC saluted
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Mangler du episoder?
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No listener mail this time. Weâll double up on the next Members Only. Just an hour-long conversation about IranâŠ
(Moynihan note upon relisten: Qasem Soleimani was the commander of the Quds Force within the IRGC, not the IRGC itself)
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Two episodes in one! First, the lads discuss Iran, the legacy of the Iraq War, and MAGAâs internecine battles over foreign policy. And then Harry Siegel, the great chronicler of New York City politics, stops by to answer that hugely important question: will the financial capital of the world, the city with the largest Jewish population outside of Israel, soon be governed by an anti-capitalist weirdo who thinks that âglobalize the intifadaâ is just another way of saying âgive peace a chanceâ?
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Moynihan and Welch talk to Nadav Eyal, senior columnist for Yedioth Ahronoth and one of Israelâs most prominent (and best-sourced) journalists. Typically, we would keep a bonus episode like this one behind the paywall. We were feeling generous today. But never rely on our continued generosity. So subscribe, cheapskate!
* Meetings cancelled, meetings kept
* How the attack on Iran unfolded
* James Bond is a Jew
* Taking out the IRGC leadership and partially neutering Iranâs missile capabilities
* Was Iran actually readying a nuclear weapon?
* Was Trump part of an elaborate ruse?
* Western Europe reactsâŠ
* Does Israel actually drive American foreign policy?
* The Mossad stuff is impressive. ButâŠ
* Nadavâs Twitter thread
* The first 48 hours are the easy part
* Netanyahuâs political prospects
* And lots, lots more
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Senator Rand Paul joins the lads to lament the big, beautiful bill; the big beautiful Soviet military parade; the Twitter halfwits waging war on him; his partyâs descent into populist voodoo economics; whether or not heâs an advocate of âopen bordersâ; and what he makes of Marines on the streets of Los Angeles. After the senator leaves, Foster, Moynihan, and Welch stick around to discussâŠall those same issues.
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* A grim anniversary
* Elonâs brilliant troll
* The big, ugly bill
* Bannon tells the truth. But is still a liar
* How dare they attack their attacker??
* They have cards
* Asymmetric and immoral
* Changing mindsâŠby human sacrifice
* The blackest propaganda
* The New York Times v. Palantir
* And much, much more
This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.wethefifth.com/subscribe -
This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.wethefifth.com
* ABBAâs Vietnam
* Barnen i Nicaragua
* Mike Tyson, Ratso, and Cus the Communist
* Burning down the house / sort of scolded by a firefighter
* The rent is too damn free
* Everyone is contemptuous of everyone
* Is Trump the Bernie Goetz of Harvard?
* Rebutting âhigher ed is just fineâ revisionism
* From YAF to Students for Liberty to Turning PointâŠ
* Dating apps, height discriminaâŠ
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* Racist Macca?
* Some bad names
* In praise of (trans?) Pee Wee
* Does Long Duck Dong denounce his past?
* Was that a Reaganite video game?
* Trade war nonsense: the court saysâŠmaybe not
* Moynihanâs $700 dress (including a $250 tariff)
* Kmele on CNN
* The end of Elon
* Just like Reagan and Thatcher but not all
* No suspects, no DNA, no fingerprints, no leads
* MI:7 DEI
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* We think we *might* have talked about politics in this episode?
* Happy anniversary Christian Cooper!
* Talking to the dude who made those drug PSAs
* The Glug (1981)
* 2020: The year that broke America
* Burning down the house (almost)
* The tax protestor in our midst
* Johnny Rotten, Johnny Ramone, the Plastic People, and the politics of punl
* Nick of Schumpeterian GatsbyâŠ
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* The ritual humiliation white genocide slide show!
* Thatâs not really true. But it doesnât really matter, does it?
* Trolling with refugees
* That Mandela picture MM mentionedâŠ
* Uncle Paul
* âWell do you DENOUNCE that language? Huh? Huh? Did you even say thank you??â
* The big, not-so-beautiful bill
* The trillion dollar dome
* Gaza and the â14,000â
* Our Original Sin and Korean Robert
* When did he lose it?
* That Christie clip is actually six years old. But here it is.
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* Jack London and hobo Oakland
* The lovely government of Qatar
* Trump in Saudi
* A carnival of corruption
* Chasing heroesâŠ
* The end of the âintroventionalistsâ
* But do they *fear* him?
* The new Chomskyites
* Declining freedomâŠ
* Trumpâs fat, rich friend who wants price controls
* The triumph of gesture politics
* Black Leo
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You demanded, we complied. Last month in this space, I interviewed science/technology/Covid journalist David Zweig about his great new book, An Abundance of Caution: American Schools, the Virus, and a Story of Bad Decisions. It was a bracing conversation, filled with damning media/elite criticism, blue-state horrors, and F-bombs galore.
Then a funny thing happened: Dozens of you wonderful paying subscribers said Mr. Welch, tear down this paywall, so we can share this with our normie friends! And so I have.
A good time to mash the subscribe button!
Now itâs your turn, o demanding listeners (and even non-demanding freeloaders) â letâs hook some new normies into your favorite podcast, and maybe persuade some of you fence-sitters about the primo content youâve been missing out on. As Pope Bob from Chicago has taught us, the more people subscribe, the more special treats for everybody. Amen.
Without further ado, the original text for the episode.
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On May 11, 2020, as I was navigating personal collapse (âitâs been a really shitty two months,â I said on an interesting-to-listen-to-now Special Dispatch #20), my two daughters were wrestling unhappily with Zoom school, and all three of us lads were in the process of buying Covid cars, I came across a Wired article that landed like a Cher-style open-handed slap across the face: âThe Case for Reopening Schools: Lots of other countries have decided that it's time to take this step. Why is the US holding back?â
The piece, by David Zweig, was very contrary to the U.S. news coverage at the time, chock full oâ studies and data points and hyperlinks, and opened like this:
Schools are reopening in countries around the world in response to a substantial body of evidence that children are largely unaffected by Covid-19 and minimally contagious when they get infected. Experts and policymakers abroad also acknowledge that school closures perpetuate a long list of known harms to children.
Yet, oddly, the US is following a divergent path.
Along with other real-world evidence trickling in from around the globe, Zweigâs essay (plus a June 24 follow-up), was part of my four-month journey from close-the-schools alarmist to open-the-schools monster, the latter condition from which I would spend more of my journalistic energy over the ensuing few years than I care to remember.
Zweig, also a New York City parent of two schoolkids at the outbreak of Covid, is determined never to forget. His book An Abundance of Caution: American Schools, the Virus, and a Story of Bad Decisions, is more than mere rage-calorie score-settling, however. At heart, he tells me in this occasionally fiery conversation, itâs about how we make decisions under crisis, and how our country operates under duress.
What he both discovers and explicates, in fascinating detours through Evidence-Based Medicine and the philosophy of science, is that two institutions in particular let us down: Public health elites, and the media. âThis is an extraordinarily compelling story about evidence being ignored and dismissed,â he says. âThey ignored empirical evidence that was right in front of their fucking face.â
Trust me, youâll want to get to the last 15 minutes here, where Zweig describes how this process transformed his politics. It was âthis revelatory moment,â he says: âOh my God, I was a complete arrogant asshole.â Few others are spared.
Some links:
* Excerpt in The Atlantic, âThe Disaster of School Closures Should Have Been Foreseenâ
* Excerpt in The Free Press, âHow Covid Lies Destroyed Kidsâ Livesâ
* Zweigâs Substack, Silent Lunch
* NPR, âWhat Parents Can Learn From Child Care Centers That Stayed Open During Lockdowns,â June 24, 2020
* The New York Times, âHow 132 Epidemiologists Are Deciding When to Send Their Children to School,â June 12, 2020
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* The Bill Bixby of East Egg
* Figure it out, people
* Solitude: City vs. Country (not a reference to the Jonathan Richman song, btw)
* AllemansrÀtten and who makes the most money in your postal code
* Jawohl CHEF!
* Banning internships will help the poor
* âWorse than Watergateâ and the Ballad of G. Gordon Liddy
* How does one start restoring a car
* The brilliance of our modâŠ
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UPDATE: The initial version of this episode was missing two audio clips, both of them featuring exceptionally stupid people saying exceptionally stupid things. To be honest, you were be better off not hearing either of them. But the episode has been corrected, the punishing stupidity included, and now youâre worse offâŠ
* Notes from a live event (going live later today)
* Fifdom represents
* Spotify exposes!
* RIP Swampy
* India, Pakistan, and the American retreat
* Ending power, hard and soft
* Marjorie Taylor Chomsky
* Israeli endgame
* Portnoyâs NYT complaint
* Piers Springer and the forbidden word
* Donât give money to meth head Nazis who yell at babies
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* Tickets for tomorrowâs Moynihan-moderated debate at the Village Underground can be purchased here! And subscribe to the Moynihan Report YouTube channel!
* Winnipeg land acknowledgements
* Prison competition
* Tariffs for erotic French movies
* Traitorous Hollywood not paying enough to make movies
* A listener wants to talk about Steph Curry
* Rare books
* Lying on the factâŠ
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Theyâre all back. And they recorded a very fun, very long oneâŠduring the dayâŠto minimize drunken regrets. So many topics are coveredâthe Koch brother, the last episode, bad interviewers, bad manners, the strange new media, the strange new Ukraine strategy, exit Walz, etcâthat we might as well dispense with the usual bullet points and just get right into itâŠEnjoy!
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Moynihan couldnât make it (we donât know where he is, but if you see a shirtless man yelling at a parking meter in lower Manhattan, please let us know). In his absence, Kmele and Welch cover a wide swath: alien oceans and scientific hype cycles, the collapse of local journalism, the rise of YouTube basketball nerds, and why Luka DonÄiÄ is the peopleâs MVP. They also wade into darker watersâfederal crackdowns on campus speech, student visa censorship, and the increasingly authoritarian posture of Trump 2.0.
Plus: reader mail, a reluctant defense of David Hogg, a rant about scams and AI voice fraud, and a minor audio glitch that might actually be evidence of extraterrestrial life.
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ErrrâŠ.This one gets pretty heated. But weâre all still friends! We think. And Moynihan is now sober and his blood sugar is back to normal, so thereâs that too. Either way, hats off to Batya for braving another episode with three people who disagree with her on pretty much everything. We talk Tariffs, Trump, lawfare, Ukraine, and everything in between.
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* The Hungarian dentist and the prostitute theory
* Your TV wife sees Hitler all the time, no?
* FacilitateâŠ
* Dinners with politicians
* A digression on Big Star (FYI: "Holocaustâ)
* Elder scams
* Apple Watches and proof of life
* Back to Rogan and Murray
* A trip to Libya for a copy of the Green Book
* #9 Fifth Dream
* Doing an impression of a smart person / Paul believes
* A theory âŠ
- Se mer
