robert bork

The Ronald Reagan Presidency. Lots of feels about this one - and so our discussions and sketches have lots of barbs and lots of laughs to cope with the things that were done. Ronnie may not have remembered - but we did and we dish, and you'll be glad we did! This is how you deal with Reaganism - give it your ears!

This episode’s sketches were Written, Produced, and Performed by:

Gina Buccola
Sandy Bykowski
Joseph Fedorko
Sylvia Mann
Paul Moulton
Patrick J. Reilly
And Tommy Spears

This Episode’s Historians: Dr. Chelsea Denault and James McRae

Original Music written and performed by Throop McClerg
Audio production by Joseph Fedorko
Sound effects procured at Freesound.org

DB Comedy Logo Designed by Adam L. Harlett
ELECTABLES logo and Presidential Caricatures by Dan Polito

THE ELECTABLES concept was created by Patrick J. Reilly.

CAST AND CREDITS 

COLD OPEN – Written by Paul Moulton
           Dr. Nair - Tommy
           Ms. Mann - Sylvia

REAGAN – A NEW HOPE – Written by Joseph Fedorko
            Barry - Tommy 
            Phyllis - Gina 
            Ed - Paul 
            Ronnie - Patrick 
            Nancy - Syvia 

BORN TO RUN FOR PRESIDENT – Written by Paul Moulton 
            Ronnie – Patrick
            Peggy - Sandy 

ALL ABOUT RAISA – Written by Paul Moulton
            Andy - Patrick
            Raisa - Sandy 
            Nancy - Sylvia 

SIX DEGREES OF RONALD REAGAN – Written by Patrick J. Reilly
            Announcer – Joe
            Andy – Patrick
            Gary – Tommy
            Roxy – Sandy  

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For more information on DB Comedy and THE ELECTABLES, visit DB Comedy’s web site, dbcomedy.com, or DB Comedy’s host page on Simplecast.com. Follow us on Facebook at DB Comedy. Join us on The Trident Network, and listen to us on World Perspectives Radio Chicago, on Live365.com!

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Provoked by current events, we've got three political eponyms for turmoiled times. Get ready for explosives, presidential pigs, Supreme Court scrapping, and wronged rhinos.

Content note: there is some description of torture about halfway through the episode.

Find out more about this episode and get extra information about the topics therein at theallusionist.org/rhino, where there's also a transcript.

The Allusionist's online home is theallusionist.org. Stay in touch at twitter.com/allusionistshow, facebook.com/allusionistshow and instagram.com/allusionistshow.

The Allusionist is produced by me, Helen Zaltzman. The music is by Martin Austwick. Hear Martin’s own songs via palebirdmusic.com.

Support the show: http://patreon.com/allusionist

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

 
In this episode we are going to step back to October of 1973. The singular event that changes everything in Watergate was the Saturday Night Massacre. When we originally told the story we did so from the overall perspective of the Nixon White House and the news media that covered it. We travel back in this episode and let you hear the story from the oral histories of the members of the Special Prosecutor's office whose boss was fired.

It is, we thought, the best way to introduce you to several people whose oral histories will take you to the very end of our Podcast Documentary look at Richard Nixon. While this episode centers more on the Special Prosecutors you will hear from two top level Nixon staffers, Ray Price and an oral history of Alexander Haig, read by me. You will also hear from Elliot Richardson, William Ruckelshaus, and Robert Bork.

But at the end you will get a play by play from three members of the special prosecutor's office we have only brushed upon in our earlier episodes. They are the number two man in the office, Henry Ruth, who will one day become the Special Prosecutor,  along with Richard Ben Veniste, and Jill Wine Banks.  It will give you some insight as to what it was like for those in the office on the night of the firing of Archibald Cox.

This is the first of three episodes centered on the people of the Watergate Scandal and their roles in it.

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Ranked 4th as one of the best American History Podcasts of 2024
https://podcasts.feedspot.com/american_history_podcasts/

Questions or comments at , Randalrgw1@aol.com , https://twitter.com/randal_wallace , and http://www.randalwallace.com/
Please Leave us a review at wherever you get your podcasts
Thanks for listening!!

In this episode we bring this historic month to an end. The Israeli's agree to a ceasefire with Egypt and Syria at the behest of our government and negotiated by Henry Kissinger.  The ending of the war where it was, would eventually help lead to the Camp David Accords between  two of the three countries involved, that would come to fruition years later by President Jimmy Carter.  Egyptian President Anwar Sadat probably lost his life for his willingness to reach out for peace with Israel as well. 

The aftermath of the Saturday Night Massacre also weakened President Nixon's position and was the catalyst for the first real push to move toward impeachment against him.  In my opinion, one clear hero of the events emerged, Robert Bork the Solicitor General.  It would come at a price a decade later when Ted Kennedy mauled him and worked to steal his dream of becoming a Supreme Court Justice. No matter those events, Robert Bork would become and continue to be a hero to the conservatives of America and his mistreatment at the hands of Ted Kennedy was the single event that galvanized a movement that would eventually succeed in getting six conservative justices on today's Supreme Court. 

We end this show with a long segment that dealt with two of the historic events of October 1973 with the only real heroic figure to emerge from these events, Robert Bork. 

Ranked 4th as one of the best American History Podcasts of 2024
https://podcasts.feedspot.com/american_history_podcasts/

Questions or comments at , Randalrgw1@aol.com , https://twitter.com/randal_wallace , and http://www.randalwallace.com/
Please Leave us a review at wherever you get your podcasts
Thanks for listening!!

SHOWDOWN!!

There was no question that after a junior officer of the Federal Government faced down the President of the United States on National Television that that junior officer was not going to have his job long and Archibald Cox didn't.  Richard Nixon ordered Attorney General Elliot Richardson to fire him. Richardson refused, as did his next in line William Ruckelshaus before finally the true hero of the night stepped up and did the deed. Robert Bork, the Solicitor General, fired Cox and then held the Justice Department together for two and a half months all while being under attack for having done the right thing,  Richard Nixon was , contrary to popular belief, justified in that decision. 

We were dangerously close to a war with the Soviet Union as both sides sat on the sidelines helping the two sides of a conflict in the Middle East. In fact, this was the closest the two nations had come since the Cuban Missile Crisis a decade before. There was no way that Richard Nixon was going to let Archibald Cox, nor his Special Prosecution Force, get away with such insubordination at such a moment. I would dare say that the history you have read about would have looked totally different had it involved any other President other than Richard Nixon. That is how egregious this act by Cox was no matter how avuncular he appeared that night on television. 

The chain of events this situation set off changed everything for President Nixon and it was largely in my opinion unfair. Archibald Cox should never have been appointed in the first place. He was a known Nixon hater, puppet of the Kennedy family, and he loaded up his staff with rabid partisans that either came from the Kennedy-Johnson Administrations or were prosecutors who had spent years chasing gangsters and treated the Nixon staffers as though they were members of a crime family. 

From this point on Richard Nixon was at war with a prosecution staff , who in my opinion, was willing to do , say, and perform any sleight of hand necessary to get the only target they were actually focused on, the facts be damned. And that target was Richard Nixon, and they cared not who all's lives they had to ruin to do it. 

FYI - We will be returning to this event in next seasons shows,

Ranked 4th as one of the best American History Podcasts of 2024
https://podcasts.feedspot.com/american_history_podcasts/

Questions or comments at , Randalrgw1@aol.com , https://twitter.com/randal_wallace , and http://www.randalwallace.com/
Please Leave us a review at wherever you get your podcasts
Thanks for listening!!

John takes a look at the US Supreme Court's Dobbs decision which struck down Roe v. Wade. It has some interesting sections on 'stare decisis' (precedent), judicial hubris, and what is referred to in the judgment as "raw judicial power." We then comment on a couple of Justice Centre cases out of Saskatchewan; one in which a complaint against a law student for holding incorrect opinions is withdrawn, and another in which a doctor is suing for wrongful dismissal for expressing incorrect opinions about vaccines for children.

Cornell Law School LLI: Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization

Cornell Law School LLI: Stare decisis

Yahoo News, Jun 24, 2022: World leaders decry the Supreme Court's 'horrific' decision to overturn Roe v. Wade, saying 'abortion is a fundamental right'

National Catholic Register, May 5, 2022: The Dobbs Decision Leaked: What Does It Mean?

Daily Signal, Jan 18, 2018: 3 Reasons Why Pro-Life Young Adults Like Me Are Dangerous

Daily Signal, Jan 17, 2017: How Ultrasounds Inspired the Pro-Life Cause

CBC, Jun 24, 2022: U.S. Supreme Court overturns Roe v. Wade, leaving abortion rights up to states

Justia, US Supreme Court: Planned Parenthood of Southeastern Pa. v. Casey, 505 U.S. 833 (1992)

NPR, Dec 19, 2012: Robert Bork's Supreme Court Nomination 'Changed Everything, Maybe Forever'

CanLII: R. v. Morgentaler, 1988 CanLII 90 (SCC), [1988] 1 SCR 30

CBC, Apr 20, 2022: Budget puts abortion access on the table in future health funding talks with provinces

CanLII: Trinity Western University v. Law Society of Upper Canada, 2018 SCC 33 (CanLII), [2018] 2 SCR 453

Justice Centre, Jun 23, 2022: Complaint withdrawn against U of S law student who was forced to defend his opinions on racism in a classroom forum

Justice Centre, Jun 24, 2022: Saskatchewan surgeon sues Health Authority and College of Medicine after being terminated and defamed for questioning covid vaccines for children

Theme Music "Carpay Diem" by Dave Stevens

“I have love in me the likes of which you can scarcely imagine and rage the likes of which you would not believe. If I cannot satisfy the one, I will indulge the other.”
― Mary Shelley, Frankenstein

"Man," I cried, "how ignorant art thou in thy pride of wisdom!”

― Mary Shelley, Frankenstein

Have we created Frankenstein's Monster?

FOX News Founder Roger Ailes started with a noble idea. To give conservatives a level playing field in the form of a news network that presented the conservative viewpoint in its editorializing and a fair and balanced network in its reporting. As an advisor to President Richard Nixon he saw the unfairness the President was subject to every day he got up out of bed to fight for the American People.  He was also witness to the nullification of Richard Nixon's 49 state win and his forced resignation from the Presidency. 

Now you may not agree with that assessment but millions of people through out the land did agree with it and were angry about what they had seen happen to Richard Nixon. Then they sat on the sidelines and watched the Democratic smear machine destroy a nominee for the United States Supreme Court in Robert Bork and later watched the blueprint for taking out a Presidency put to use again and again in an attempt to undermine both President Ronald Reagan and later George H.W. Bush.  This included a very convenient October surprise just as President Bush was surging in the polls in 1992. Special Prosecutor Lawrence Walsh indicted Casper Weinberger and several others and included notes Weinberger had made that made Bush out to have lied about his knowledge of the Iran-Contra Affair.  All just 4 days from the Presidential election. 

IT was then that a fed up Roger Ailes decided we had to do something to protect conservatives from a media and Democratic Party willing to do and say anything to weaponize government and bring down Republicans.  He founded FOX News and in retaliation the Liberal Left founded MSNBC. From there came the rise of Social Media and the ability to spread misinformation all over the society. This all occurring while these cheerleader news networks fanned the flames instead of telling the news.  We have ended up with a very divided society with extremists at the wheel stirring up the masses, all while the news networks make billions turning news into entertainment. 

It ought to scare everyone in America and I think I speak for millions when I say we are all tired of it. This episode shows you a brief history of how a noble effort to protect future Presidents from the injustice that took out President Nixon has morphed into a society on the brink. And how we need to return to the worthy ideals espoused by the very President whose demise led to our current situation. 

I would also remind people of an easy rule of thumb I have followed when evaluating the things I hear on the news and in the rumor mills of politics. "If it sounds stupid, crazy or complicated it usually is" if we would all learn to follow that simple formula a lot of what we see today could be avoided. 


What happens to the monster at the end of Frankenstein?

At the end of the novel, Victor dies on Robert Walton's ship in the Arctic Circle. The boat captain finds his body and the monster who mourns Victor's death in the room. The Creature disappears from the boat to kill himself. Victor and the monste

Ranked 4th as one of the best American History Podcasts of 2024
https://podcasts.feedspot.com/american_history_podcasts/

Questions or comments at , Randalrgw1@aol.com , https://twitter.com/randal_wallace , and http://www.randalwallace.com/
Please Leave us a review at wherever you get your podcasts
Thanks for listening!!

In this episode, Robert Fojo discusses President Joe Biden's State of the Union speech, Biden's many gaffes and difficulty speaking compared to his past history in the Senate, the confirmation hearings of Judge Robert Bork in 1987 and Biden's speech before the Senate, and a comparison of Biden's proposal for more government with the first principle of conservatism that government is intended to protect our rights.

Forced sterilizations in the workplace and its ties to Robert Bork, failed Regan Supreme Court Justice nominee.

The 46th President of the United States Joseph R.  Biden has set an extraordinary example of the power of relationships through out his long career. He was first elected at age 29 to the United States Senate and through his entire career has made reaching across the aisle its hallmark. 

Here we look back at  three of the unique relationships that he has formed and the example they set for all of our leaders today about reaching across the aisle , making a difference, and having your friends stick with you in crisis. 

Profiled here is his friendship with Senator Strom Thurmond, Senator John McCain and finally a look back  at a very divisive battle in the late 1980s over the Supreme Court Nomination of Robert Bork,  where Biden's philosophy of not making enemies out of political adversaries may actually pay benefits in the coming months with another old friend, The Senate Leader of the Republicans, Mitch McConnell. 

Ranked 4th as one of the best American History Podcasts of 2024
https://podcasts.feedspot.com/american_history_podcasts/

Questions or comments at , Randalrgw1@aol.com , https://twitter.com/randal_wallace , and http://www.randalwallace.com/
Please Leave us a review at wherever you get your podcasts
Thanks for listening!!

In this much anticipated crossover event, Matt and Sam take aim at the conservative legal movement with Rhiannon, Michael, and Peter—the brilliant and funny team behind the 5-4 podcast, a Know Your Enemy favorite. For those who are not yet fans of the show, it's "a podcast about how much the Supreme Court sucks" that offers "a progressive and occasionally profane take on the ideological battles at the heart of the Court’s most important landmark cases, and an irreverent tour of all the ways in which the law is shaped by politics." Topics discussed in this conversation include the origins of originalism, the founding of the Federalist Society, Robert Bork's disastrous confirmation hearings, the way the media covers the Supreme Court, and how the Left can fight back. 

Know Your Enemy listeners can check out 5-4 here.  Follow @fivefourpod on Twitter for their latest episodes, along with hosts @AywaRhiannon, @_FleerUltra, and @The_Law_Boy. Special thanks to podcast guru Leon Neyfakh (@leoncrawl) for helping make this happen.

Listeners, especially new ones, might want to revisit Know Your Enemy episode eight, "Koch'd Out," for a deep dive into some of the foundations and institutions mentioned in this conversation.

...and don't forget to support KYE on Patreon to listen to all of our bonus episodes!

Whether the decline began with the sliming of Robert Bork or the segregationist filibusters of civil rights legislation, the modern U.S. Senate has been on a downward spiral for some time.

What the Senate needs now is an overhaul of its rules, one that preserves the rights of the minority in some cases—key legislation, for example, and perhaps appointments to the Supreme Court—while also reflecting the speed at which the world moves today. Simple majorities on appropriations and time limits on debate over minor nominees are two obvious reforms. They could be traded, for example, for agreement on the high court vacancies and how long those debates should last.

The Senate’s dysfunction is astonishing to Americans who have to make things actually run, who have to do their jobs to keep their jobs. Donald Trump has shrewdly taken aim at the Senate’s vulnerability as an issue. It would be best for both parties to head off change imposed from pressure from the outside with change organically orchestrated from within by those with care for the body and its original design.

It is time to extend what I call the “Reid-rule reforms,” and it’s time to do so now.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Whether the decline began with the sliming of Robert Bork or the segregationist filibusters of civil rights legislation, the modern U.S. Senate has been on a downward spiral for some time.

What the Senate needs now is an overhaul of its rules, one that preserves the rights of the minority in some cases—key legislation, for example, and perhaps appointments to the Supreme Court—while also reflecting the speed at which the world moves today. Simple majorities on appropriations and time limits on debate over minor nominees are two obvious reforms. They could be traded, for example, for agreement on the high court vacancies and how long those debates should last.

The Senate’s dysfunction is astonishing to Americans who have to make things actually run, who have to do their jobs to keep their jobs. Donald Trump has shrewdly taken aim at the Senate’s vulnerability as an issue. It would be best for both parties to head off change imposed from pressure from the outside with change organically orchestrated from within by those with care for the body and its original design.

It is time to extend what I call the “Reid-rule reforms,” and it’s time to do so now.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.