The “Can You Buy a President for $889 Million” Edition
Listen to Slate's show about the Koch brothers’ $889 million commitment to the 2016 elections, the Supreme Court’s death penalty case, and Jonathan Chait’s essay about political correctness.
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On this week’s Slate Political Gabfest, Emily Bazelon, John Dickerson, and David Plotz discuss the Koch brothers’ $889 million commitment to the 2016 elections, SCOTUS’s consideration of whether the death penalty should be humane, and Jonathan Chait’s essay about political correctness.
Here are some of the links and references mentioned during this week's show:
- The Koch brothers plan to spend $889 million on what? Can the Democrats keep up?
- Slate’s Jamelle Bouie explores the Koch brothers’ Billionarie Boys’ Club.
- SCOTUS to rule on lethal-injection protocol.
- Slate’s Dahlia Lithwick explains what happened in Oklahoma in the first place.
- Read Jonathan Chait’s provocative New York piece, “Not a Very P.C. Thing to Say”—and his response to his critics.
- Is Chait right, wrong (really wrong), or somewhere in between?
- What are “microaggressions” anyway?
- Slate’s J. Bryan Lowder discusses what’s wrong (and right) with Chait’s essay.
- We can disagree without being disagreeable: Ta-Nehisi Coates vs. Jonathan Chait.
- Is it time for a new Enlightenment?
- Was David’s story on political correctness really that “dreadful”?
Emily chatters about the recent travel bans during Winter Storm Juno and whether or not an occasional travel ban might be a good way to clean up after inclement weather.
John chatters about Jeffrey Goldberg’s co-authored piece on the night the D.C. Police marched several dozen prostitutes across the 14th Street Bridge into Virginia. And revisit his chatter from last week in his moving tribute, “To the Teacher Who Changed My Life.”
David chatters about the Swedish film Force Majeure.
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Podcast production by Mike Vuolo. Links compiled by Tarik Barrett.