As a general rule, if we are talking about politics on the podcast, it is not going to be about good news. That just isn't the way that people talk about politics, but more to the point our politics just have not generated a lot of good news of late. This hasn't kept us from talking about it, for better and worse, but it has generally kept episodes with even trace amounts of political content in a specific emotional lane. That lane, which is basically Heated Dissatisfaction, would seem to be a good fit for a Ray Ratto guest spot, but while this week's episode does feature our beloved Grumpsville Bureau Chief, it also begins with nearly a half hour of shockingly sunny politics talk. Listening back over it, I found it more reassuring than anything else—a reminder that, if circumstances provide, I can actually talk about this stuff without sounding like someone shouting from atop a milk crate outside a public park.
Which is not to say that I didn't sound a little bit like that. One promising electoral outcome is just one promising electoral outcome, and the real thrill of seeing a candidate that is listening and trying beat one who won't and isn't only goes so far. But while we talked about the bad stuff that haunts the edges of all this—a decadent and mediocre elite that won't change or leave, the general nastiness and stupidity of every moment, the impossibility of being a mayor—we also managed to talk about the promise in one unexpected primary win in New York City without making it too much bigger than it is. Ray parsed the fine line between hatred and contempt; we pondered the question of where sour and unhappy nepo-creeps come from and somehow wound up handing it to Jim Irsay and nearly sort of handing it to James Dolan, the two bluesman wolves within each rich failkid. We talked about how there has to be more to participating in democracy than just staving off the future every couple years, and also those awful old Truly Tasteless Jokes books. I probably don't need to tell you that I talked a lot in here.
After the break, when we turned in earnest to The Sports Part of the podcast, things leveled out a bit. Ray used the (very good) NBA Finals to talk about NBA dynasties and why we mostly don't have them anymore, the new and more challenging work of building a champion, and the possible decline of superstar-heavy team-building strategies. Drew asked whether Shai Gilgeous-Alexander is actually fun or not, and Ray mounted a decently spirited defense of Shai as a not-that-cynical scorer. We also talked about how and why the Finals were good—the fun of watching teams without weak spots trying to figure out each other's weak spots, and of two absolutely locked-in rosters playing exceptional team basketball—and why ESPN's coverage of it fell so far short.
We also got into some baseball, discussing the Rafael Devers trade and why the Giants and Red Sox made it, how teams talk themselves into trading really good players, and the Giants being in the right place at the right time when the Red Sox decided to send a nasty message. It also would not be a Ratto episode if we did not touch on his anti-muse, Athletics owner John Fisher. We addressed his increasingly desperate attempt to move the team to Las Vegas. And that, give or take a Funbag question about walking on the moon, was about it—an episode that dealt with politics, feckless nepo-shitheels, and ESPN's reckless deployment of Stephen A. Smith, with Ray Ratto on it, that somehow came out decently sunny-sided. Another world really is possible.
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