Brian Gongol Show on WHO Radio - June 17, 2017

Brian Gongol


Podcast: Updated weekly in the wee hours of Sunday night/Monday morning. Subscribe on Stitcher, Spreaker, Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, or iHeartRadio


Please note: These show notes may be in various stages of completion -- ranging from brainstormed notes through to well-polished monologues. Please excuse anything that may seem rough around the edges, as it may only be a first draft of a thought and not be fully representative of what was said on the air.

Programming notes

Saturday -
6:35pm: Barnstormers pregame
7:05pm: Iowa Barnstormers vs. Sioux Falls Storm

Endorsement: iHeartRadio app

Segment 1:

BUT FIRST: The opening essay

21st Century conservatism

On Thursday, I responded to a comment on Twitter with the following:

I stand unwaveringly behind that sentiment. It's not easy to make a deep moral claim in 140 characters, though, so I'd like to address a follow-up question:

I'm reluctant to "name names" because I don't think it's particularly dignified. People shift tactics and allegiances all the time. Ronald Reagan was an unapologetic Democrat before he became the patron saint of the modern Republican Party. Dick Morris worked for Bill Clinton before becoming a Republican -- while David Brock flipped prominently in the opposite direction. And to turn to a very specific and current media example, Glenn Beck has prominently recanted some of his own worst behavior. People can (and do) sometimes change, so I'd like to avoid going on the permanent record as being "against" someone when I hold out hope that they might end up seeing the light. At least for today, I'd like to bite my tongue.

But I do not have the same hesitation about railing against the behaviors to which I object so strongly. Here are some of my complaints:

Imposter conservatives expect protection from the state from things they don't like.

Imposter conservatives fear competition.

Imposter conservatives drive forward by staring into the rear-view mirror.

Imposter conservatives don't know where their intellectual traditions come from.

Imposter conservatives reflexively reject new ideas.

Imposter conservatives favor instincts over intuition.

Imposter conservatives think a great past was lost and must be reclaimed.

Imposter conservatives look for someone else to blame instead of turning within.

Imposter conservatives think that might makes right. Mercy is a privilege reserved for those who are already strong.

Imposter conservatives want to "smash the state" instead of limiting government.

Imposter conservatives think America is about an identity you can see. It's not. America is an idea, and anyone who embraces that idea is, at heart, an American.

Imposter conservatives want to blame someone else for taking something away.

Imposter conservatives reject the indispensability of American leadership in the world.

Inbox zero

Subject line/message: Dear Brian, just happened to tune in to WHO. I could feel your liberal slip showing immediately. So, Brian, have you ever taken to task the media that has completely gone negative in all of its reporting of President Trump.

Response: Thanks for reaching out. I'm afraid the only thing you sent me was a truncated message in the subject line, so if you had more to say, you're welcome to write back.

I would ask you to consider the following:

Calling people names is behavior unbecoming of an adult. If you want me to take your criticisms seriously, saying things like "your liberal slip [is] showing" is an ineffective way to do it. I'm not sure what causes you to think I'm "liberal" (assuming by that you mean "leftist"). I'm a free-market capitalist who believes in limited government and the rule of law. I have consistently embraced those positions since I started hosting my show on WHO Radio 14 years ago. If you sampled one segment of one episode and concluded that I'm a left-winger, I would encourage you to listen to anything in my back catalog of shows. They're all available here: http://whoradio.iheart.com/media/podcast-gongol/ Have I criticized anyone in the media? Of course I have. Do I think "the media" has gone "all negative on Trump"? No. I think there is a lot of critical coverage, but I think he creates more than enough material all on his own. I expect the media to be critical or even adversarial with those in power, because that's the point of the First Amendment...no matter who occupies the Oval Office.

I seek to be specific in my criticisms of the President, just as I tried to be specific about criticizing Presidents Obama and Bush before him. I have a very long list of criticisms of President Trump, just as I did for President Obama, and most of them stem from his deviations from the conservative principles of limited government, free markets, individual liberty, and the rule of law.

When he deviates from those principles, he's not being a conservative, and when I call him out for those deviations, I'm not being a leftist or a liberal. I'm standing on the same principles that have defined the center-right of American politics for at least a century.

Thanks for listening.

Segment 2: Bill Cosby on trial

Segment 3:

Make money

Amazon buys Whole Foods

Business and Finance Nestle might sell off its US candy business

Butterfinger, Crunch bars, and Sweet Tarts could all go on the auction block

The week in technology

Business and Finance Absorbing Yahoo is going to cost Verizon half a billion dollars

That's a whole lot of spending just to get a new asset to fit under the corporate umbrella

Segment 4:

Clean up after yourself

Business and Finance Rumors of looser capital-reserve requirements

Anything that would reduce the amount of reserve capital required to be held at banks should require some pretty extraordinary justification

Segment 5:

Make money

Interview with Rep. David Young

Segment 6:

By the numbers

News "The average rent in Oakland now is $2,400 a month"

The shortage of housing in the San Francisco Bay area is apparently at titanic proportions. KGO quotes a housing official as saying there have been 500,000 new jobs created and only 50,000 new housing units built in the last half-decade. The resulting shortage appears to be creating strain all over the place, including among senior citizens who now can't afford housing. The fact that sufficient new housing hasn't been produced when demand should be somewhere on the scale of ten times new supply suggests that some kind of regulatory or resource constraint is creating a massive chokepoint. And, when in doubt, assume that developers will find a way to overcome the resource constraint (like available land) with money (like building taller towers), so there's a pretty good chance you're looking at a regulatory choke.

Repatriating some of our trade deficit with real-estate investments from overseas

Segment 7:

Have fun

Class reunion weekend

Des Moines has come a long way in 20 years

Coincidental with Father's Day

Advice for reunions?

Segment 8:

Your role in cyberwar

News US Senate approves new sanctions on Russia

And appears to seek new ways to constrain the President along the way

Computers and the Internet Lawsuit result could categorize LinkedIn as a "work environment"

Such a definition might subject it to a giant wave of new internal and external restrictions and policies

Unsorted and leftovers:

News France's startup political party is crushing legislative elections

En Marche is perhaps the most interesting and most disruptive startup of modern times

News Tennessee enacts free community college for almost all adults without degrees

An educated (and credentialed) workforce is one way to induce demand

Science and Technology Autonomous cargo ships are coming

A substantially larger prospect than self-driving cars -- and yet, in technological terms, not that far away

This week

Have fun

Clean up after yourself

Mind your business

Quote of the Week

Iowa news

Contrary to popular opinion

Hyperbole is going to kill us all

Curiosity, competence, and humility

Have a little empathy

Stop the deliberate ignorance

Tin Foil Hat Award

Yay Capitalism Prize

Capitalist solution of the week

Kickers

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