Goodbye to George Santos and Henry Kissinger

Plus: an unexpected digression into the world of Little Debbie dessert snack cakes.

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Goodbye to George Santos and Henry Kissinger

In this week's The Reason Roundtable, editors Matt Welch, Katherine Mangu-Ward, Nick Gillespie, and Peter Suderman consider the ouster of Rep. George Santos (R–N.Y.) from Congress and unpack the debate between Gov. Ron DeSantis and Gov. Gavin Newsom, before examining the legacy of former U.S. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger.

01:33 - Rep. George Santos (R–N.Y.) ousted from Congress

12:42 - What matters when donating to Reason

17:19 - Gov. Ron DeSantis vs. Gov. Gavin Newsom debate aftermath

34:19 - Weekly listener question

47:03 - This week's cultural recommendations

Mentioned in this podcast:

"George Santos Arrested, Indicted on 13 Federal Counts, Pleads Not Guilty," by Joe Lancaster

"The Political Lies That Really Matter," by Nick Gillespie and Justin Zuckerman

"How Do We Solve a Problem Like George Santos?" by Matt Welch

"Why Did George Santos Lie About His Past To Get Elected to Congress?" by Scott Shackford

"Ask Reason Magazine's Editors Anything: Webathon 2023!" by Matt Welch, Katherine Mangu-Ward, Nick Gillespie, and Peter Suderman

"The DeSantis-Newsom Debate Was Really a Debate About COVID," by Eric Boehm

"Is California Over?" by Nick Gillespie and Regan Taylor

"Florida vs. California," by Matt Welch, Katherine Mangu-Ward, Peter Suderman, and Nick Gillespie

"Jeb Bush: Why Florida Is Winning," by Nick Gillespie, Adam Czarnecki, and Justin Zuckerman

"California's Recall Is a Revolt Against Gov. Gavin Newsom's Progressive Agenda," by Zach Weissmueller

"Henry Kissinger's Deadly Career Gives the Lie to the Myth of the Disinterested Statesman," by Christian Britschgi

"In Search of Libertarian Realism," by Matt Welch, Sheldon Richman, William Ruger, Christopher Preble, and Fernando Tesón

"A Tribute To Henry Kissinger," by Howard Landis

"Poor, Misunderstood Kissinger," by Jacob Sullum

"Henry Kissinger Rollins on Statecraft" by Nick Gillespie 

"Reason Can Do More Good With Your Money Than Government Can: Contribute to Our Annual Webathon," by Katherine Mangu-Ward

"How Reason Changes Minds, Lives, and Laws by Covering Criminal Injustice," by Matt Welch

"Give to Reason and Help Create the Next Generation of Libertarians!" by Nick Gillespie

Send your questions to [e-mail]. Be sure to include your social media handle and the correct pronunciation of your name.

Today's sponsors:

• LibertyCon International 2024
• Do you ever feel like your brain is getting in its own way? Like you know what you should do, what's good for you, but you just can't do it? Like you know what you should do, what's good for you, but you just can't do it? Therapy helps you figure out what's holding you back. So you can work for yourself, instead of against yourself. If you're thinking of starting therapy, give BetterHelp a try. It's entirely online. Designed to be convenient, flexible, and suited to your schedule. Just fill out a brief questionnaire to get matched with a licensed therapist, and switch therapists any time for no additional charge. Make your brain your friend, with BetterHelp. Visit BetterHelp.com/roundtable today to get 10 percent off your first month.

Audio production by Ian Keyser
Assistant production by Hunt Beaty
Music: "Angeline" by The Brothers Steve

What are we consuming this week?

Peter Suderman

• Silent Night

Nick Gillespie

• The Heart of A Cheetah: How We Have Been Lied to about African Poverty, and What That Means for Human Flourishing by Magnate Wade

Katherine Mangu-Ward

• “Circe, Odysseus, and the Disclosure of Hermes” by Stephen Pimentel in Antigone

Matt Welch

• Rum, Sodomy & The Lash by The Pogues

---

Comments

[Chumby]

Little Debbie snack cakes? There’s a commenter connoisseur that may weigh in on this.

[Don't look at me!]

A lot of layers to that story.

[Chumby]

That’s just the icing on the cake.

[VULGAR MADMAN]

Little Debbie is anti-gun.
Eat some other unhealthy snack.

[TheReEncogitationer]

Presumably, because it goes great as dessert for the Red Baron pizza.
🙂
😉

[Vernon Depner]

Carob is NOT chocolate. Even toddlers know that.

[JesseAz]

Finally Soros takes his role as king globalist.

Finally Biden takes his role of king fabulist.

Well deserved gents.

[VULGAR MADMAN]

Kissinger finally admits that open borders don’t work, and promptly dies.
Neat.

[Witch-Burning Nazi]

As mic drops go, it's hard to beat that!

[A Cynical Asshole]

Are you suggesting Kissinger didn't kill himself die of natural causes?

[VULGAR MADMAN]

Are you saying he couldn’t live forever?

[Pear Satirical]

The blood of children can't keep you alive forever. Though that won't stop the Clintons from trying.

[Vernon Depner]

He was definitely older than 100. He was already an adult when he arrived in the US in the early 1930s. Had to be at least 120. The adrenochrome works for a while.

[Dillinger]

>>Rep. George Santos (R–N.Y.) ousted from Congress

clearly not enough of a criminal for Congress.

[VULGAR MADMAN]

At least he didn’t lie about being an Indian.

[Syd Henderson]

Now the Senate should do the same to Menendez.

[Dillinger]

>>Gov. Ron DeSantis vs. Gov. Gavin Newsom debate aftermath

spikes in Aveda and Nocona stocks.

[Unicorn Abattoir]

By "debate" do you mean "crap fight in the monkey house"?

[A Cynical Asshole]

Shit fights in the monkey house are more organized than whatever the hell that was.

[Public Entelectual]

Henry the K's surgical wit lives on.

Half a century ago, en route to the operating room at Mass General, he asked his surgeon :

"Are you the one who did Al Haig's heart operation?"
"Yes , Doctor Kissinger, I gave him a triple bypass!"
"I want four."

[VULGAR MADMAN]

Banging Jill St. John was his greatest achievement.

[Don't look at me!]

Who isn’t envious?

[VULGAR MADMAN]

It definitely proves that god doesn’t exist.

[Chumby]

She’s older than Biden and had Kissinger inside of her. That should take some of the sting away.

[Public Entelectual]

What else did he have in common with Ben Barnes, Michael Caine, Oleg Cassini, Sean Connery, Ahmet Ertegun, Glenn Ford, David Frost, Jack Haley, Peter Lawford, George Lazenby, George Montgomery, Joe Namath, Jack Nicholson, Roman Polanski, Tom Selleck, Frank Sinatra, and Robert Vaughn?

[Diane Reynolds (Paul.)]

One the best analyses of Kissinger I've ever heard.

[NOYB2]

Greens Want EU A-Bomb

France has them. The Germans (=EU) should never get them.

[Ersatz]

are we more worried about Gemany getting them or NK getting\having them and\or Iran getting them?

Germany is at least a civilized democracy. What? we expect them to nuke London all of a sudden and march on Europe?

[TheReEncogitationer]

It would have been perfect if the cameraman rolled: “Stop sniffling and touching your nose!” on a Chiron. Then the commenter ends with: “Pretty strong meat there from Henry *Sniff!* Kissinger!”
🙂
😉

[Uomo Del Ghiaccio]

George Santos was probably one of the more honest members of congress, not because he is good, but because he was honestly corrupt. The vast majority of members of congress are just as and probably even more corrupt, but hide it and lie about it. George Santos was a troll of just how corrupt government has become and how evil elected government officials are. It's not that that appointed government officials and bureaucrats are not corrupt, because the are also corrupt. Getting rid of George Santos is like the pot calling the kettle black.

[Vernon Depner]

Illustrates the importance of The Fool in halls of power.

[TheReEncogitationer]

Is this one of those "We Say Goodbye to Sally Field" articles? Damn, I hope not! Let these two be gone!

[Jokibif0]

Elvis Costello producing a Pogues album could hardly be *less* strange.

[nibhanm]

nice podcast, Check Synthetic Gems for gems purchase

[MWAocdoc]

Seeing the political cartoon depicting Kissassinger screwing the world reminded me of one of my fave jokes:

“A hippie, a priest and Henry Kissinger were flying in a commercial aircraft when the pilot left the cockpit to tell them that they had just run out of fuel, the plane was going to crash and there were only three parachutes. The pilot took one of the parachutes and jumped out of the doomed plane. Kissinger declared that as the world’s smartest diplomat he was duty-bound to survive for the good of the world, grabbed one of the remaining parachutes and also exited the plane. The priest said that as he had lived a long and productive life the young man should take the last parachute and save himself. The hippie chuckled and told the older man, “Both of us can survive with a parachute each, Father, because the world’s smartest diplomat just jumped out of the plane with my backpack!”