In our rowdy interview this morning, Jan Mickelson – on WHO in Des Moines and the top radio host in Iowa – called me a “a thorn in the side of contentment.” I said that phrase summarizes my life pretty well. Jan has the heartiest laugh of any talk show host I know. And since he’s from Iowa, he’s almost always good natured.
Jan asked about the hubbub over the Silent Shakespeare article from last month’s Wall Street Journal. He volunteered to pantomime his thoughts on the matter but I said that might not work so well on the radio. I admitted that since I was raised in the mountains of Virginia, I have always been biased against pantomime. He was puzzled by the “twat troll” label for me that that article spurred from the Washington City Paper. He asked what it meant; I said I didn’t know but that “’twat troll’ almost rolls off the tongue but you’re not sure where it is rolling.” Jan added, “Or where it is going to end up.”
Jan asked what I thought about the Trump boomlet. I said, “Trump is a lightening rod by people who distrust or are nauseated by politicians who come along year after year and promise to fix things and the government keeps getting bigger and more intrusive – and it is still very dishonest. Here’s someone who promises to take a hammer some of that. Many people are desperate for a leader. Many of his supporters are not well-informed on his previous positions.”
Jan mentioned that some state GOP leaders plan to require candidates to support the eventual GOP nominee and not run as a third-party candidate in order to get on that state ballot. I replied, “This is one more reason why it is bad for political parties to control the ballots. They are trying to fix it in a way that people’s anger will not show up. Trump is hitting a live nerve because so many people are angry. I hope other candidates can find a way to channel that anger in a more fruitful way to put a leash on politicians and the power of government.”
We talked about the continuing coverup of the 2002 congressional report on the 9/11 attack, especially regarding the possible role of the Saudi government. I mentioned that George W. Bush kept that report suppressed until after he invaded Iraq and now, 13 years later, the Obama administration is now suppressing it. Rep. Walter Jones, a very conservative congressman, is pushing to get that out. We need to get the facts out there on 9/11…. Our Middle Eastern policy has been a fiasco because we continue trusting people we never should have trusted in the first place… We have jumped into these controversies that the U.S. government has no idea what it is doing – like trying to find ‘moderate rebels’ in Syria.”
I also commented, “It is nonsense for us to be blindly supporting the Saudis and the other governments in that part of the world because we have been dragged into one disaster after another. There is no learning curve in Washington. You have the boys from Iowa sent overseas to fight and die – and it doesn’t bother the congressmen they still have very comfortable lifestyles, chauffeurs, and whatever… Folks in this neck of the woods are not bleeding from those wars like people in Iowa do.”
You can download the MP3 or listen to the interview by clicking below
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