Welcome to the Wednesday edition of The Mark Steyn Show, in which Mark covers the state of play in Campaign 2020, the faintheartedness of rock-ribbed "conservatives", Supreme Court jurists in Washington and Dublin, and much more. There's another edition of The Hundred Years Ago Show, in which Warren Harding blows off proposals for presidential debates; and Mark answers Michael Lindamood's question about Trump's ideology or lack of it. Plus a consolation for Covid-clobbered 007.
Click above to listen.
Please note: As we posted today's show, we heard that Herbert Kretzmer, to whom Mark wishes a ninety-fifth birthday toward the end, had died in London. Normally, Mark would re-record the relevant portion of the broadcast, and re-post it. But he decided that he would like to leave his birthday wishes for Herbie as is. Herbie Kretzmer was a vivid presence in Mark's life during his time in Fleet Street and the West End, and he is saddened to think that, when it comes to champions of great song, there is yet another empty chair, to evoke Herbie's famous song from Les Misérables, at an ever emptier table. Mark will have more to say about Herbert Kretzmer in the days ahead.
For that brave band who prefer Steyn in visual formats, he'll be joining Tucker Carlson live across America tonight at 8pm Eastern/5pm Pacific.
If you're a Mark Steyn Club member and you'd like to submit a question for Mark to address on his next show, please leave it in the comments below. Do stay on topic - and no URLS, please, as they wreak havoc with our page formatting.
For Steyn Club members interested in using their personal podcast players to listen to The Mark Steyn Show or Tales for Our Time, we have an RSS feed here (and instructions here).
If you prefer to read your radio shows, Steyn Club members can find the transcripts here.
If you're just catching on to these audio diversions, we've done what we did with Mark's video shows and archived them in a Netflix-style tile format that makes it easy to catch up with ones you've missed. You'll find the audio Steyn Show home page here.
The Mark Steyn Show and Tales for Our Time are made with the support of members of The Mark Steyn Club. As Mark always says, Club membership isn't for everyone, but it if you're interested you can find more information here.
Comment on this item (members only)
Submission of reader comments is restricted to Mark Steyn Club members only. If you are not yet a member, please click here to join. If you are already a member, please log in here:
Member Login
36 Member Comments
Thank you for including Kinky Boots. I had always wondered what the song was about having heard that Patrick Macnee and Honor Blackman did it as a novelty in the 1960's.
Off topic: But have you considered doing a course teaching French in the spirit of or licensing the Michel Thomas method? I think it would be enjoyable.
Dear Mark Steyn: Once again, you perceive what matters- the serene confidence of the dems! One might expect them to want results declared soonest, then they can dream of throwing Trump out and installing Pres. Kamala... (oops, did it again) by Thanksgiving. No surprise, then, that dems want the victor declared........anon, if at all. Wonder if any "journo" anywhere who can get close to Hillary or Joe would ask why they think it'll be necessary to NOT announce results on Tuesday night?
My question was, if Trump wins, will they let him stay? The answer from dems is becoming clear- not likely.
Another fantastic show Mark. Don't know how you can produce such great stuff in such huge quantity.
Mark replies:
Thank you, David - although I worry that the Covid constraints are shrinking my horizons.
Thank you for closing with maestro Mark singing "Goldfinger," I have good memories of introducing Mark at the New Orleans (gold-oriented) Investment conference a few years back by filling the hall with this same recording.
I say that now because the 46th annual New Orleans Conference is going on right now (October 14-17) but "virtually" by ZOOM, and I will be moderating the political panel once again tomorrow around 1:30 pm Central, with Tucker Carlson, Doug Casey and Stephen Moore. We'll miss you Mark. (To others, this is a pay-to-view conference, sorry). I will ask a lot of tough questions about this week's media double standards on candidate coverage but I'm afraid we'll mostly be preaching to the conservative choir.
Perhaps the old "Kinky Boots" song will be the new campaign song for Senator Kyrsten Sinema (D-AZ) in the 2024 election cycle. It sounds better than her old "hooker boots" nickname.
I naively thought my systemic depression over our impending political doom had reached its nadir, but then Mark had to go and skewer Subway's bread, which I ingest roughly three times a week. Can I get any credit for going with the wheat option or avoiding the cheese and mayonnaise to keep the overall calorie count down? Surely packing on the extra spinach in lieu of lettuce affords me an indulgence in their sugary bread.
Perhaps I'm looking at this all wrong. Perhaps the Subway bread will afford me a relatively quick death so as to spare me the pain of living in this world once everything goes to hell after our moronic, uninformed, brainwashed populace elects a man who suffers from early onset dementia and who is obviously being controlled by an unseen left-wing cabal.
So I thank God for the sugary bread at Subway. The sooner it works its magic, the better.
Mark replies:
Good luck, Wayne, but be prepared: Many Obamacare plans don't cover Subway Bread Disorder, and even Blue Cross-Blue Shield Cadillac plans usually deem the Subway Bread doctor "out of network". And then of course the Subway Bread ward at your local hospital has been converted to an empty Covid ICU. The "magic" may be in short supply...
I think you would be better off to go down the street to McD's and get a hamburger, fries and drink, not the super size ones but the ones they used to sell for 49¢. Regrettably, the drink will have fructose and the fries will be cooked in some unsaturated vegetable oil instead to the old oil-suet mix. I was looking at my college year book and in the shot of students changing classes everyone was thin! This was before the days of diet pop, low calorie cookies, kale and arugula. After we started eating "healthy" we all got fatter.
In any case, you would be happier and the cattlemen and potato farmers would appreciate it.
With respect to the concerns on this thread about Judge Barrett's appearance before the Senate Judiciary Committee, did she look like she even broke a sweat? In the face of "tough" questioning from the likes of Senators Durbin, Harris (or her grotesque visage via video link from within the same building), and Hirono, she needed a fly-swatter (better a can of Raid), not a note pad. If Senators didn't preen, grandstand, and preachify, what would be their point?
No, as I lightly touched on below, the true death-blow to democracy occurred not on your TV screens, but on your laptop or smart phone screens. And it was not belched by elected officials but tapped discreetly by Big Social censors. If you missed it, that was the point. The story of Hunter Biden's laptop, abandoned like his love-child with the stripper, has to be read, and read again, to be believed. But then you'd have to be able to read it at all, and the Dorseys and Zuckerbergs were not about to allow that. Published by perhaps Alexander Hamilton's greatest gift to the Republic, the New York Post (not Times, Post), the story could not be read or shared on the platforms with monopolies on most reading and sharing in the world today. The press thought it had buried (or at least covered with brush) the myriad stories of Joe Biden's personal enrichment, let alone his extended family's. The thing about shoveling, as my lower back can attest to, is that by covering up something over here, you might uncover something else over there. Something perhaps that, owing to its stench and state of decay, would have been better off left interred. That would be Hunter.
If Joe had remained the senator from Delaware, no one would have cared. Hunter might not have had the same opportunities to pimp out his "guy", but the grift available to a senator's son is not chicken scratch. Even as VP, Joe's personal wealth, and that of his brothers, children, sisters, cousins, aunts, would have remained mere rumor. But nominees for President of the United States receive more scrutiny, and secrets emerge (skeletons or Easter eggs depending on your point of view). And even then, Biden almost made it. And still might if the Dorseys and Zuckerbergs have enough ball gags to go around.
Someone wrote that Hunter was Joe's Anthony Weiner. Not quite. Weiner was every bit the sleazeball Hunter is, but he did not share Hillary's literal and figurative DNA. Hunter is attached to Joe at the hip, or wherever they carry their wallets.
It gets better: Twitter's homepage has the Washington Compost story at the top blaring that Biden did not use his influence to get that Ukrainian prosecutor sacked. There is literally video of Biden bragging about doing just that. Remember Darlymple's shrewd observation on totalitarian governments forcing people to accept and repeat outright lies: It is intended to degrade them because they know it is a lie and are thus complicit in the lie.
I have an elderly friend who was a schoolgirl in Nazi Germany and they had to repeat lies they were taught about how well the war was going, etc. At home with her family they would discuss the truth, but only in hushed whispers in case the neighbors might hear. Sounds all too familiar.
There's no law against media-driven propaganda or of media bias in elections. That's been around forever, newspapers giving their endorsements to candidates, promoting a particular viewpoint, etc. But this is much more sinister - the deliberate manipulation of the public, many who are gullible and not well-informed and unfortunately rely on social media for their information. And because signing up for Twitter, et al is free, it's not the same as buying a magazine or newspaper (or online paywalls) where you understand you're entering into a consumer/business compact and there might be a slant to what you are reading as they are selling and promoting a particular viewpoint.
Social media sites are just relentlessly spewing their biased "information" to everyone with a smart phone or computer and under their ever-changing rules of engagement, making judgements about what people can or can't see. That's just blatant censorship under the guise of "protecting" the public from news misinformation.
Thanks Mark, +++ musical segment.
If Trump wins it will be the greatest endorsement of conservative policies in a generation. Trump is almost universally abhorred as an individual but his agenda overpowers even that factor. Build the wall, bring the jobs back, and put China on notice that its thieving days are numbered. He might not get it all done but at least he's talking about it. If the Republicans and 'right wing' parties around the world don't get the message that these are winning policies then they deserve to spend forever in opposition.
James Bond, and "Goldfinger" in particular, may eventually be responsible for my death. You see, I took up smoking after seeing "Goldfinger" and reading the book. I've been a smoker ever since.
To a boy growing up on a farm in rural West Virginia, the world of "Goldfinger" and Bond was... wonderful. It had everything I wanted -- beautiful women, sports cars, incredible action, gold, etc. Alas, the only thing I could get my hands on back then were the cigarettes. And so, in my effort to be like James Bond, I took up smoking. I imagine that, just like with Covid-19, whatever I die from, the smoking will be blamed.
In case any of you feel compelled to tell me I should quit, don't bother. To slightly change a Benny Hill joke, his was about drinking, tell me that cigarettes are slow death and I respond, "that's okay, I'm in no hurry."
That's a very funny tale, S. I hope that my rejoinder will achieve anything like the same standard. I didn't take up smoking, and guns didn't work out, but I have at times been sure that women would be the end of me. I still think so every time I run into one of those feminist ambushes tripped by some arcane construal of some idiom or the other to which I hadn't devoted enough self-loathing reflection. I can't say that my life would have been much poorer without James Bond, and it will take a little more than the postponement of the release of the next episode to make my head explode, but of course I have vices of my own. Some aren't difficult to spot.
Mark, if you could be the campaign advisor/ speech writer for the abyss-avoidance side in these final weeks, that would be ideal.
Also, the VP should be more visible: if suburban women don't like Donald Trump they can vote for Mike Pence. There isn't much time, as the President said. He needs to reiterate the (surprisingly honest!) Wolf Blitzer message: the Democrats are purposefully destroying American lives and livelihoods.
PS. The Mailbox Q&A was interesting, including Trump's personal views on universal healthcare. Americans might fear socialised "death panels", but the real problem is capitalist Big Pharma et al. Dr Fauci has nothing to say about the underlying epidemic (vis-Ã -vis Subway sandwiches) because drug companies - and "healthcare" in general across the West - rely on populations with chronic diseases.
PPS. Hope the IPA Zoom talk will be posted soon... the parts I saw were inspiring! #StoutheartedMen
For your comment about Wolf Blitzer....do you think there's any chance that some democrats are now worried that Biden may actually win?
Does anyone here think that any democrat functionary looks at Trump and says "Gee, he may have a point about China and trade deals."?
I was surprised by WB's directness. And persistence. Maybe the media lies are getting to the people who (knowingly) propagate them.
The sudden surge in censorship is *extremely* alarming. The latest on Hunter Biden wasn't just ignored by the press: it was actively buried on social media. Vaporised. Big Tech election interference in plain sight.
Amazing times, K. My parents were sure that they lived through humanity's worst turmoil - the great depression, world war, the cold war, the sexual revolution, what have you - but we're going well, too.
On an entirely different tack, wouldn't it be marvellous if it were finally a proclivity for corruption which sank the Democrats? It's not as if it's some flash in the pan. Forget senility, forget Wicked Uncle Tweaky, forget screeds of poor policy, forget riots, forget lending support to terrorists and criminals: turns out at the end of the day that they've never been much more than a bunch of crooks. Coolest. I can see the Hollywood script: "Wrinkly crone, clacking dentures: Da envelope light dis week; now I gonna haveta clip ya."
I listened to most of the Amy Coney Barrett ("ACB") U.S. Supreme Court ("S. Ct.") confirmation hearing.
My takeaway:
(1) I wish ACB had been my Constitutional Law ("ConLaw") professor during law school since she explained the U.S. Constitution, cases, and the law in terms anyone could understand;
(2) ACB was the most reasonable and certainly the smartest person at or near the hearing (some U.S. Senators including the Dems' VP nominee Skyped in their oddball and largely irrelevant presentations and questions from nearby offices);
(3) most Judiciary Committee members made little to no sense and used their time to preach about some political point or the other; and
(4) I might be be persuaded to support "court packing" if it means the court would be "packed" with nonactivist, unbiased judges of my choosing. I kid, but I am assuming ACB would make a good faith attempt to be an unbiased and fair justice on the S. Ct. since she came across as credible, capable, and seemingly more of an academic than an activist who would be able to compartmentalize and set aside her personal beliefs when deciding cases before her. Fingers crossed.
There is no reason ACB won't be confirmed in the coming weeks. She is definitely qualified to be a justice on the S. Ct. by the simple terms spelled out in the U.S. Constitution and by any subsequent standards we've imposed since that document was ratified.
I would say you did not miss much by not watching the hearing. There were some interesting bits that served as a refresher on ConLaw that I enjoyed listening to. And this point may be less important, but it is still nice, I thought ACB was charming. As long as we might have to listen to someone on the S. Ct. for possibly 20-30 years, assuming confirmation and her good health (knock wood), it might as well be a charming person.
With you, E.
I've been wondering what the point of the ACB hearings really is. She's qualified, the Republicans have the votes, so spare us the political theater. However, somebody or somebodies think this is politically advantageous. Why the Republicans put up with it is hard to say other than they want to appear fair and open minded in a way that I think their base considers pathetically stupid and indecisive. Most Republicans are cravenly tone deaf. But what do the Democrats hope to accomplish? They must know that the optics are not very good for them, so why do this pornographic political theater? My theory is that what they really are trying to accomplish is to destroy the American public's concept of how their government is designed and intended to operate. They are purposefully destroying Civics 101 before our eyes. They are telling America that leftist politics is everything all the time. Politics and law cannot be seen as separate functions of government. The courts don't exist to objectively determine the constitutionality of laws without regard to politics, but what they really are are super legislatures that cannot be called to account by the public at the ballot box. We must be fully persuaded that this is the true nature of the courts, that there is nothing unusual or abnormal about any of this. The Democrats must dumb down the public concept of constitutional governance at every opportunity and in every way possible in order to advance their agenda. If ACB or anyone else thinks they can apolitically adjudicate cases they are to be seen as liars, conspirators, and ideologues. The Democrats are seeking the destruction of constitutional government and they will not let any opportunity go to waste to undermine any understanding of it or loyalty to it. What other practical reason could there be for such a sordid and meaningless spectacle?
The average Democrat voter has no problem with the optics of these modern day witch hunts and reputation smearing hate fests. Certainly one of the goals is to dissuade qualified non-activist judges from even considering an appointment. Who in their right mind would subject their loved ones to what Bork, Thomas and Kavanaugh were forced to endure. The appalling character assassination is a feature not a bug.
"Certainly one of the goals is to dissuade qualified non-activist judges from even considering an appointment."
This is no doubt accurate.
So, ACB uses a benign phrase, ("sexual preference"), which had hitherto been used by politicians of all stripes, the Democrats decide to weaponize it against her, and Merriam-Webster immediately redefines "preference" to make it an offensive term. Within 24 hours, the NY Post has the smoking gun on Hunter Biden and his dealings in Ukraine, their story and pictures are shared over social media, and within an hour or two Big Tech shuts it all down including locking the White House press secretary out of her account. Absolutely repulsive. If Facebook/Twitter, social media, mainstream media, and so on are working this hard to protect a potential Biden administration, imagine what will happen if he wins
I saw the Biden story on Twitter this morning about 9 AM PST, but maybe they removed it shortly thereafter.
This should be all anyone needs to know in order to understand the existential threat these organizations pose to liberty. But the biggest story of the century is no story at all. These organizations are on the cusp of ending western civilization as we know it, and western civilization is largely unaware of its impending death. Astonishing.
"Hitler should sue to get his good name back."
That's the best line of the year.
I have listened to the question from Michael and the answer from Mark at the 29 minute point a few times now, and will listen to it a few times more. I feel it's the most important and insightful half dozen minutes I've heard in recent months, even years. I will share more on it tomorrow.
Another thing, who knew Poland was so bellicose a hundred years ago?
Józef Piłsudski was born in Vilnius (Polish: Wilno) and was determined that his birthplace would be within the re-created state of Poland.
Poland had just been brought back into existence, after nearly two centuries of subjugation by Russia, Prussia and Austria. The Bolsheviks thought of Poland as the most advanced province of the Russian empire and hence, according to Marxist "logic," the region most likely to erupt in revolution. In the event, Poland preferred independence, but disputed her new boundaries with both Lithuania and Ukraine. After a very brief period of independence, Ukraine was dragged into the USSR and Soviet forces expected to roll over Poland just as easily.
The Soviet forces were commanded by Mikhail Tukhachevsky, but he answered to a commissar by the name of Stalin. It seems that each blamed the other, when the Soviet forces suffered a crushing defeat near Warsaw. Stalin never forgave the Poles; ethnic Poles within the USSR suffered disproportionately in his purges. Nor did Stalin forget or forgive Tukhachevsky, one of the three army marshals, out of five, to be executed during the military purges of 1937.
Joseph Conrad wrote quite a bit on this at the time and was assisted in a narrow escape at the outbreak of WWI by the US Embassy in Italy.
And more recently, J. When, with the help of Prime minister Chamberlain, Germany progressively seized Czechoslovakia (and a sufficient arms industry to expand to the Mediterranean, borders of Spain and pretty much up to the Volga), Poland was quick to seize a bite-sized chunk of Czechoslovakia too. History is a complex business: Disney wouldn't have been able to make much sense of the details.
Amazing to think that, when Conrad wrote in English, he was using his fifth language.
Should have rephrased. Who, besides the learned and well-read members of this club knew Poland was so bellicose a hundred years ago?
PS: The song introducing Mark's "100 Years Ago" segment actually goes "A hundred years from today...". Maybe all those folks from Massachusetts topped themselves upon seeing in the crystal ball who would come to represent their great-grandchildren in the Senate. I know I have to fight the urge every day.
For the record, Lloyd George was born in Lancashire, not in Wales.
It occurs to me with a fright that with China and Ukraine laying claim to large swathes of the Biden clan, how long before China declares Hunter a sovereign territory? Didn't Joe, as VP, help arm Ukraine? Will Jimmy Biden, Hunter's uncle, be called upon to take up a Kalashnikov in defense? Which side will the other uncle, Frank, take? Or will Hunter settle matters by remaining loyal to his Chinese masters while bedding the Dnieper Dollybird, Yulia Tymoshenko, thus single-handedly uniting the thrones (while denying paternity to the bastard offspring)? Joe himself has depreciated in value to scrap, though you might get something for the capped teeth and hair plugs.