Scott Douglas Jacobsen: Are American billionaires and political elites becoming more odious or less odious? Rick Rosner: It depends on your time frame. For one thing, we didn't always have billionaires. But if you're talking about the top one-hundredth of one percent of Americans, your time frame is a century, 50 years, or even 70 …
Continue reading Ask A Genius 1238: The Odious Gilded Age with Electric Cars and Nike Sneakers
Rick Rosner: Fox News named Trump "Patriot of the Year" tonight at some ceremony. Scott Douglas Jacobsen: Is that what they call it? Like their annual version of Time's "Person of the Year"? Rosner: I don't think it's an award that has existed before—unless I'm wrong. Cynical people on Twitter are saying this is just …
Continue reading Ask A Genius 1212: Patriot of the Year Latitude
Scott Douglas Jacobsen: How do you feel about the Trump situation coming up in a month? Rick Rosner: Carole is more nervous than I am, but, you know, there are reasons for both optimism and pessimism. On one hand, most Americans oppose many of his policy goals. On the other hand, many Americans aren't paying …
Rick Rosner: What made American Republicans so bad compared to broader times? How did they get so bad? And that leads to related questions: How did Democrats get this way if they did? And how did things, in general, get so bad? Are today’s Democrats akin to the Republicans of the nineties or 2000s? Has …
Continue reading Ask A Genius 1202: Propaganda Models in the States and Russia
Rick Rosner: What’s going on? Let’s talk about Peanut the Squirrel. Have you heard of Peanut the Squirrel? Scott Douglas Jacobsen: No. What is it? Rosner: This is the latest weird, but oddly unified, Republican push to make people angry at Democrats. Here’s the story: a guy runs an unlicensed wildlife sanctuary—it’s not a big …
Scott Douglas Jacobsen: So, it looks like it was a complete slaughter against the Democrats. Rick Rosner: As far as I know—and I haven’t checked in the last half hour—Harris isn’t even leading the popular vote. I thought it was impossible for Trump to win the popular vote. I assume that when the West Coast …
Continue reading Ask A Genius 1200: The Slaughter of the Dems
Rick Rosner: So, it’s the day after, and Trump has won. You noticed during our chat before we started taping that I was nodding off because I didn’t get much sleep last night. Carole was freaking out, grabbing me, and asking, “What are we going to do? What’s going to happen?” She was also telling …
Continue reading Ask A Genius 1199: The Day After Blues for the Blues
Scott Douglas Jacobsen: What do you think Trump’s first moves will be? What do you think the people around him will do first? Rick Rosner: There have already been reports that Trump is talking with Putin about the Ukraine war, which would be against an Act, I believe. Anyway, it's against the law for someone …
Continue reading Ask A Genius 1198: Trump’s Likely First Moves
*Interview conducted in November, 2024.* Rick Rosner: We could discuss early voting in the U.S. About 42 to 43 million people have already voted, with 10 days remaining before the election. That’s a solid turnout. Scott Douglas Jacobsen: What are the numbers for past elections? Rosner: In 2020, 101 million people voted early. In 2016, …
*Interview conducted in November, 2024.* Scott Douglas Jacobsen: So what was that tweet about again? I remember seeing it. It was about a dirty mask from today, October 26th. Rick Rosner: Yes, it was about a dirty mask. I had posted a picture of a worn-out mask. I'll add the tweet link later. Jacobsen: What …
Continue reading Ask A Genius 1187: Getting Older, Flossing, and Masks
Rick Rosner 