In this episode, Matt and Brian discuss:

• Donald Trump’s seemingly deteriorating mental state;

• The political valence of antisemitism vs. Islamophobia;

• Why institutional opponents of antisemitism don’t hold Republicans to any standard.

Then, should there be a moratorium on artificial intelligence development? The nature of the risks suggest yes, but the logistical and political challenges seem insurmountable. But, then, shouldn’t A.I. developers be taking a firmer stand? Why do they make dire warnings about A.I. risk out of one side of their mouth, but then devote all of their political efforts to attacking candidates who support A.I. regulation. Will there be a grand settlement before something terrible happens? Or will catastrophe be what spurs action, and we just have to hope it doesn’t come too late?

Answers are available in full to listeners and viewers on YouTube. Check out our new channel, or upgrade your subscription and pipe full episodes directly to your favorite podcast app via your own private feed.

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Further reading:

• Matt on the known unknowns about data centers.

• Brian goes insane.

• Jacob Pachoki—chief scientist at Open AI, whose president funds the big A.I. Super PAC—on A.I. risk.

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In this episode, Matt and Brian discuss:

• Why is Donald Trump clinging so hard to the wrong side of a 25-75 issue?

• Is free-floating data-center hatred a good thing, or is the public making a mistake?

• What’s the right line for Democrats ahead of the election—and in the new Congress?

Then, Hakeem Jeffries hinted this week that Democrats would run on a simple agenda: End Trump’s Iran war; end his trade wars; end his war on people’s pocketbooks. But he has not provided similar specificity about the Democratic oversight agenda. Are Democrats going to repeat the mistakes of 2019 and 2020, when they were too eager to work with Trump substantively, and too reluctant to check and expose him? Is the spirit of Resistance One really dead, or are Democratic voters mostly just frustrated by the lack of follow through.

Answers are available in full to listeners and viewers on YouTube. Check out our new channel, or upgrade your subscription and pipe full episodes directly to your favorite podcast app via your own private feed.

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Further reading:

• Brian argues that Democrats will regret it if they think their voters no longer want them to wage “resistance” style politics.

• Matt argues Democrats should promise to surrender to Canada in the trade war.

• David Wallace-Wells on what the data-center backlash is really about.

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In this episode, Matt and Brian discuss:

• Why Donald Trump keeps doing the same kind of stupid shit over and over again;

• What Congress (maybe the next Congress?) could do to stop him;

• The extent to which this is driven by corruption vs. Trump’s own personality disorders.

Then, are Trump’s power rivals letting him off the hook too easily? Why are Democrats supporting protectionism for cattle ranchers rather than attacking Trump’s cronyism or attacking his broader protectionist regime? Why are civil servants silent as he calls the reliability of official U.S. economic and demographic indicators into question? Why is the Supreme Court letting him impose illegal policy for months or years at a time? And what would it take to correct all of these failures?

Answers are available in full to listeners and viewers on YouTube. Check out our new channel, or upgrade your subscription and pipe full episodes directly to your favorite podcast app via your own private feed.

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Further reading:

• Matt’s paean to Mark Carney.

• Brian wants Democrats to borrow from Trump’s playbook for normalizing power grabs, but to soften the public for court expansion.

• sounds the alarm over the political infiltration of the Census Bureau.

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In this episode, Matt and Brian discuss:

• The Natalie Harp ploy, and how Ossoff yoked national attention to Donald Trump’s broader degeneracy;

• Whether Ossoff provides (finally!) a template for the moderates-who-fight synthesis we’ve been promised;

• Unanswered questions about how much of this glow up is luck, and whether Ossoff’s actual record will hold up in a presidential primary, if he run and has a left-wing opponent.

Then, Democratic Party officialdom has pulled back together pretty well after bruising primaries in Michigan and Wisconsin. But on the fringes, influential progressives and moderates continue to take potshots at the nominees they were hoping to beat: progressives at David Crowley in Wisconsin; moderates at Abdul el-Sayed in Michigan. What are they thinking? Could Bernie Sanders and AOC tamp down the cheap-seat heckling from the left? Could Chuck Schumer snuff out big-money anti-el-Sayed activism in the center? And where will moderate, pro-Israel Jewish voters take their political resources if they leave the Democratic Party, but have no home in the increasingly Groyperified GOP.

Answers are available in full to listeners and viewers on YouTube. Check out our new channel, or upgrade your subscription and pipe full episodes directly to your favorite podcast app via your own private feed.

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Further reading:

• Brian asks why more Democrats don’t sound like Ossoff specifically on the Iran war question.

• Matt on the differences between the left-wing insurgency and the progressive establishment.

• Natalie Harp: More than Trump’s “human binkie.”

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In this episode, Matt and Brian discuss:

• What was Woke One;

• Which aspects of it do progressive leaders now concede were “crazy”;

• Why did it happen in the first place?

Then, how relevant is any of this for near-term politics so long as Donald Trump is in power wrecking the economy? The country keeps losing jobs (or putting up extremely week monthly jobs numbers). Congress is about to give Trump more power to impose tariffs. And there’s no clear offramp to the war in Iran. Are Republicans simply fucked? If so, why hasn’t the war been a bigger political disaster for Trump? Could Democratic leaders forge a factional truce around a midterm-campaign promise to end the war next year? Or is it going to be 2007 all over again?

Answers are available in full to listeners and viewers on YouTube. Check out our new channel, or upgrade your subscription and pipe full episodes directly to your favorite podcast app via your own private feed.

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Further reading:

• Matt on how the high cost of living is tearing Republicans apart.

• Brian takes a stab at a Woke One origin story.

• Why are Democrats voting to give Trump more tariff power?

• The doctor advising Republicans on how to lose weight says his miracle diet gives him orgasmic, wipe-free poops.

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In this episode, Matt and Brian discuss:

• The deal Democrats struck with Susan Collins to avoid a pre-midterms government shutdown;

• What Democrats could have demanded that might have won back respect from their voters while either a) making the election more secure, or drawing national attention to the GOP’s intent to cheat;

• Why establishment Democrats didn’t want this fight; but neither, apparently, did leaders of the left-insurgent faction.

Then, if after all this, there’s such little appetite in the party for procedural hardball, should we have any hope at all? Would a Democratic trifecta in 2029 simply not make any structural changes to U.S. democracy? If so, would progressives be better off trying to work with GOP extremists now to abolish the filibuster while Republicans are still in power? Will a mainline figure emerge who unites the party, holds Republicans accountable, and leads the country back to normalish politics? Or is it horseshoes all the way down?

Answers are available in full to listeners and viewers on YouTube. Check out our new channel, or upgrade your subscription and pipe full episodes directly to your favorite podcast app via your own private feed.

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Further reading:

• WE HAVE A YOUTUBE PAGE NOW! You can watch this episode in full there, and we’ll be rolling out new subscription options over the coming weeks. Hit like, subscribe, and all the other buttons.

• Brian on Democrats squandering their last pre-election chance to fight Trump.

• Matt’s plan to swap voter ID for filibuster abolition.

• and on the rightward lean of unmobilized Latino voters.

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In this episode, Matt and Brian discuss:

• Why Trump was unable to make surrender stick;

• The peculiar case of the missing oil crisis;

• Whether Trump’s untrustworthiness, and Iran’s experience exploiting U.S. election deadlines, means he’ll be unable to get another ceasefire on the books before November.

Then, why aren’t Trump’s horrifying failures triggering a flight to safety among his political allies? Is it because the Democratic Party is in shambles? Or because Trump loyalists control too much of the media? A bit of both? What do Ken Martin’s failures as DNC chair tell us about the state of Democratic opposition politics? And should we take heart in the fact that Democratic pushback against an oligarchic takeover of Warner Bros. seems to be working?

Answers are available in full to listeners and viewers on YouTube. Check out our new channel, or upgrade your subscription and pipe full episodes directly to your favorite podcast app via your own private feed.

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Further reading:

• WE HAVE A YOUTUBE PAGE NOW! You can watch this episode in full there, and we’ll be rolling out new subscription options over the coming weeks. Hit like, subscribe, and all the other buttons.

• Matt on the difficulty defining class in the U.S.

• Brian on how to divide and conquer the billionaire class.

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In this episode, Matt and Brian discuss:

• The moral and political advantages of Medicare for All as an abstract concept, and how health care had become the motive force driving the growth of the Sanders movement;

• Why no plan to open up Medicare to all beneficiaries has ever become law, and who’s principally responsible;

• How the Bernie Sanders plan came into existence, and what it would take to get a version of it enacted without accidentally blowing up the health care system.

Then, even if this is a good idea on the merits, would it serve the political purpose of dialing down the factional war? Do progressive insurgents want single payer health care or do they want the issue to run on? Do they want policy wins or do they want to take over the Democratic Party? Is another truce, like the one Joe Biden forged in 2020 with Sanders and his allies possible? And would it hold even if a consensus left-center agenda didn’t drive Democrats back into full control of government?

Answers are available in full to listeners—just upgrade your subscription and pipe full episodes directly to your favorite podcast app via your own private feed.

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Further reading:

• WE HAVE A YOUTUBE PAGE NOW! You can watch this episode in full there, and we’ll be rolling out new subscription options over the coming weeks. Hit like, subscribe, and all the other buttons.

• Brian’s original case: Why the Democratic establishment should surrender to the left on Medicare for all.

• Matt’s blueprint for a center-left counterinsurgency.

• Greg Casar: “In the past, there were some progressives, including people I’ve been friends with for a long time who used to say, I’d rather see you lose righteously than win politically and strategically. And I’ve learned to respectfully disagree with those people. We can’t afford to lose anymore because the cost of losing is just so high.”

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In this episode:

• Matt gives an on-the-ground rundown of how the Maine Democratic Party is going about choosing Platner’s replacement on the Senate ballot;

• Brian tries to sniff out whether Maine Democratic voters feel burnt by the Sanders operation, and thus may insist on a nominee from a different faction;

• Matt and Brian talk about Monday’s ICE murder in Maine, and how it’s shaken up the race even further.

Then, why did Lindsey Graham succeed where other’s failed to use flattery to get what he wanted out of Donald Trump? How will McConnell’s absence, and the fact that the South Carolina governor appointed Graham’s sister as his interim replacement, affect the GOP’s ability to advance its agenda, including Todd Blanche’s attorney general nomination? And was Graham secretly a hero of American democracy?

Answers are available in full to paid subscribers—just upgrade your subscription and pipe full episodes directly to your favorite podcast app via your own private feed.

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Further reading:

• Brian on how to eulogize dead fascism enablers.

• Matt on the Trump GOP’s authoritarian approach to immigration enforcement.

• ’s rundown of the Maine convention process.

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In this episode Matt and Caitlin discuss:

• Why objectively successful red state governors struggle to obtain national attention.

• The constraints and upsides of dealing with an opposition legislature.

• The New South tradition of business-friendly pro-growth Democrats.

• Applications of these points to Alaska, Michigan, and other states that lack the underlying economic strength of California or New York.

Paid subscribers also get to hear about the left’s misguided attacks on former Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo and a brief update on events in Maine.

Further reading:

• Roy Cooper’s tough on crime ad campaign.

• What Mary Peltola means when she says she’s “pro-fish.”

• The American Prospect complains that the Commerce Secretary met with commercial enterprises.

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In this episode, Matt and Alex discuss:

• Troy Jackson, the man who really is the thing Platner sort of pretends to be.

• Paul Le Page, the “Trump before Trump” figure likely to replace Jared Golden in the House.

• How a pedophile brought ranked-choice voting to Maine.

• Why Susan Collins is probably toast.

• Lifestyle businesses and downward mobility.

Plus paid subscribers will get an exacting level of detail on the political geography of Maine, Platner’s specific appeal in Washington County and on working waterfronts, and the clash between what made him so fascinating as a primary candidate and what’s objectively the easiest path to win a general election.

Further reading:

• Susan Collins touts her pork barrel achievements.

• ICE detains a small town general store owner.

• How Maine’s two most recent governors changed the state.

• Refugee resettlement in Lewiston, ME.

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In this episode, Matt and Brian discuss:

• How this lazy and corrupt endeavor went to shit so quickly;

• Why it serves as a useful metaphor for Trump’s Iran war, and just about every initiative he’s undertaken autocratically;

• Whether this should also be a cautionary tale for Abundists, who often see the appeal of sweeping aside red tape and process to Get Things Done Fast.

Then, Brian briefly ventures into amateur architecture and engineering with some proposals for fixing the reflecting pool for all time. (Surely no one’s thought of THIS before!) But we mostly assess the damage done by Jewish-American Iran hawks, via their effort to make Israel an appendage of the GOP (currently controlled by a corrupt con artist) and steer the U.S. into a losing war. Will they ever reflect on the harm they’ve caused? Is schadenfreude the order of the day? Or is that just whistling past the graveyard? And are there lessons here for leftists who are now tempted to make common cause with Trump against Israel?

Answers are available in full to paid subscribers—just upgrade your subscription and pipe full episodes directly to your favorite podcast app via your own private feed.

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Further reading:

• Brian on the self-righteous, right-wing American Jews who were being cavalier with Jewish lives all along.

• Matt on how Trump’s (autocratic) war on state capacity is coming home to roost.

• Brian again, on how Trump switching sides in the war he lost doesn’t make him a Palestinian liberationist.

• Matt, again, on how Trump’s “reflecting pool” foreign policy is “violent and cynical and bad.”

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In this episode, Matt and Brian discuss:

• Why the terms of the peace deal, such as we understand them, are so unacceptable to the Iran hawks who made strategic alliance with Trump because they thought they could manipulate him into war;

• How a deal that’s both weaker than JCPOA and leaves Iran with de facto control over the Strait of Hormuz changes geopolitics—and is likely unacceptable to Israel;

• Whether Democrats should rub Trump’s defeat in his face, or let him pretend he won to reduce the risk that he goes back to war.

Then, Elon Musk became a trillionaire last week, after taking SpaceX public. And he did so thanks in large part to Nasdaq, which changed its own rules to require Nasdaq index funds to buy SpaceX stock, and bid up its price, despite the fact that the company lacks any near-term path to profitability. Is this a reasonable evolution in Wall Street’s treatment of mature companies when they go public? Or was Nasdaq snookered by Musk’s many grandiose promises of future growth and technological development? Should passive investors really have no recourse to scrutinize and challenge these companies when they change rules governing how our money is invested? And what should happen if it turns out Musk is just exploiting laws, rules, and markets to turn our IRAs and 401ks into piggy banks to bail out his failing companies?

Answers are available in full to paid subscribers—just upgrade your subscription and pipe full episodes directly to your favorite podcast app via your own private feed.

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Further reading:

• Catherine Rampell on the SpaceX IPO.

• Vanguard urges calm on the SpaceX IPO.

• Former AIPAC spox can’t believe the leopard ate his face.

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In this episode, Matt and Brian discuss:

• The results, and the merits of the California election system, which maximizes ballot access, but at the expense of quick ballot counting.

• What should California Democrats, and the national party, do about the scourge of GOP election lies?

• Would Democrats really have been better off if they’d managed to lock Steve Hilton out of the governor’s race, like they locked Spencer Pratt out of the LA mayor’s race?

Then, how do you solve a problem like Graham Platner? How do you catch an oyster, and snarf it down? How embellished is his self-depiction as a blue-collar outsider? How consistent is a clear, chronological recitation of his checkered past with his redemption story? Are we even anywhere near the point where it would make sense for Democratic voters in Maine to stay home or vote for Susan Collins, rather than Vote Blue No Matter Who as a harm-reduction strategy?

The answer to the last question is “no,” but the answers to the rest are available in full to paid subscribers—just upgrade your subscription and pipe full episodes directly to your favorite podcast app via your own private feed.

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Further reading:

• Matt’s 17 thoughts about Graham Platner, from before the latest developments.

• Brian argues California Dems should streamline their election process and simultaneously disqualify proven election liars from ballots in the state.

• ’s Liar’s Kingdom.

• Brian’s 2017 piece on the pitfall of embracing “believe all women” as a political standard (tl;dr, some women are committed Trump loyalists with MAGA ethics).

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In this episode, Matt and Brian discuss:

• Would the Democratic Party be better off or worse off with two Democrats (Xavier Becerra and Tom Steyer) at the top of the California ballot?

• Is Donald Trump’s spiraling presidency cause for schadenfreude, alarm, or both at once?

• Is the latest Platner scandal worse than the previous ones? Part of the same story?Distinct in ways that might be more likely to put off older voters? And what should he do to get back into a commanding position?

Then a look ahead to 2029 (but possibly sooner). Inflation and interest rates and deficits and debt are all high. When Democrats next regain power (if not sooner) they will face enormous pressure to cut deficits—and unlike in 2009, it’ll be for a good reason. How should they present this to the public. What’s a sound and moral way to retrench, particularly given the rapacious greed that ballooned deficits under Trump? And how should they frame their opening bids, so they don’t get stuck in another lopsided austerity negotiation with Republicans?

Answers are available in full to paid subscribers—just upgrade your subscription and pipe full episodes directly to your favorite podcast app via your own private feed.

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Further reading:

• Brian argues Democratic operatives planning for the post-Trump era need to go back to the drawing board.

• Matt argues it’s time to start freaking out about the national debt.

• ’s précis on the Broadview Six fiasco.

• A reminder that Colorado Dems still could and should oust Jared Polis.

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In this episode, Matt and Brian discuss:

• Jared Polis…what the fuck?! (Redux.)

• Jake Auchinchloss…what the fuck?!

• Democratic National Committee…what the fuck?!

Are all these intraparty recriminations why Dems seem like they’re MIA in the fight against Trump? Or are there structural issues that prevent Democrats from driving attention to GOP weaknesses? Are progressive and mainstream media outlets covering Democratic infighting because that’s where the conflict is? Or are their readers and viewers simply more interested in Democratic factionalism than in the partisan food fight? If Democrats took a page from the GOP and made a big stink about everything—Trump’s physical deterioration, his humiliating defeat in Iran, his impeachable corruption—would media outlets cover it? Or is the media ecosystem really just rigged against them?

Answers are available in full to paid subscribers—just upgrade your subscription and pipe full episodes directly to your favorite podcast app via your own private feed.

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Further reading:

• on Colorado Democrats’ obligation to investigate Jared Polis.

• on why Trump’s failing health isn’t a media or opposition-party obsession, the way Biden’s was.

• : Impeach Todd Blanche.

• : Democrats shouldn’t fall for the revisionist history of Trump’s impeachments—it is wrong to say they backfired.

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In this episode, Matt and Brian discuss:

• Jared Polis…what the fuck?

• Are Republicans simply winning the fight for historical memory of January 6?

• Would impeaching Polis, or removing Virginia supreme court justices, be purely expressive, or is there value in showing strong intolerance for fascism?

Then, if Democrats aren’t really looking for procedural toe holds for resisting Republican election theft, are they at least maximizing their electoral advantage ahead of the midterms? The picture is mixed! Will they prevail on Republicans to quash Trump’s pro-insurrection slush fund, filled with $1.8 billion in stolen public money? Are they broadening the map as much as possible? Does the end of Bill Cassidy’s career doom us to 40 years of insurrectionist right-wing politics? The short answer to all of those questions is “maybe.” The long answers are much more fascinating and available in full to paid subscribers—just upgrade your subscription and pipe full episodes directly to your favorite podcast app via your own private feed.

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Further reading:

• Brian noticed a positive change in Democratic partisan fighting back in September.

• But he worries they haven’t reached clarity on the need to maximize procedural advantage at every turn.

• Matt: Out with moderation, in with “schmoderation.”

• Mother Jones on the progressive case for Tina Peters clemency.

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But for Trump, that’s about the only good news. He’s lost the war he launched against Iran, and keeps falling asleep on the job as an eerie hantavirus outbreak slowly spreads here and abroad. Yet as the public grows more outraged, Trump only seems truly engaged on one highly eccentric suite of issues.

In this episode, Matt and Brian discuss:

• What the late break of Republican judicial activism means for the midterms, GOP efforts to steal the midterms, and the post-midterm race to gerrymander even more aggressively.

• Now that the gerrymandering cycle is cooked for 2026, what more could Democrats do to pad their margins, so that biased maps don’t cost them the House?

• Is the hantavirus outbreak something worth treating seriously, or something worth beating Trump over the head with?

Then, given the bleak political outlook for the GOP, isn’t it weird that Trump’s only able to sustain focus on building a palace ballroom, and various other monuments to himself? Will Republicans vote to spend a billion dollars on the ballroom? Would it be better (politically, or in schadenfreude terms) for Dems to divide Republicans, so that the ballroom never gets built, or for Republicans to do Trump’s bidding, so that Democrats can tear down the ballroom in 2029? Would Democrats tear down the ballroom? And if they copped out on that, who would be to blame?

All that, plus the full Politix archive are available to paid subscribers—just upgrade your subscription and pipe full episodes directly to your favorite podcast app via your own private feed.

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Further reading:

• Brian argues the Democratic surrender in Virginia, after the adverse, partisan gerrymandering ruling, is a very bad omen for November.

• Matt argues the hantavirus outbreak is a reminder that the government should be preparing for the next pandemic, rather than dismantling pandemic prevention programs.

• Robert Kagan argues Iran has Trump in checkmate.

• Nate Silver on the risk that Democrats will underreact to Republican gerrymandering next year, and leave seats on the table.

• Brian in December 2024: The New Gilded Age Will Be Streamed

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In this episode, Matt and Brian discuss:

• What does the decision, by Sam Alito and the five other Republican Supreme Court justices to effectively end the Voting Rights Act mean for the gerrymandering fight, and the race for House control in 2026 and 2028?

• Should the Supreme Court’s decision, which was widely predicted, make us rethink our assessment of the Democratic Party’s posture in the gerrymandering fight?

• Should Democrats lean in to the race politics of the GOP’s campaign to eliminate black representation in the South, or should they heed misgivings within the party about increasing the salience of race in politics generally?

Then, do things look any better in the Senate. Fixing this down the line will probably require a Democratic trifecta, which means putting up as many Senate wins as possible. So why have party leaders had such a hard time steering primary voters to viable candidates? Is the crisis in confidence among Democrats in Chuck Schumer feeding bitter infighting within state parties? And what, short of resigning and giving way to a new leadership team, could Schumer do to regain trust in his electoral judgment?

All that, plus the full Politix archive are available to paid subscribers—just upgrade your subscription and pipe full episodes directly to your favorite podcast app via your own private feed.

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Further reading:

• Matt argues Ken Martin is doing a terrible job running the DNC.

• Brian notes that even if Democrats win the midterms in a wave, the rump GOP will be the party’s most fascist incarnation yet, and they should prepare for opposition politics with that in mind.

• TPM on the Democratic Party’s preparations for Trump-Republican midterm subversion.

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In this episode, Matt and Brian discuss:

• Are false flag conspiracy theories coming back into vogue on the left because it’s taboo to point out that Trump makes politics angrier and more violent?

• Is it more that everyone knows Trump’s character is so poor that he would fake an attempt on his life to gain political advantage?

• Are lesser forms of radicalism justified in response to his affronts, or is it all counterproductive?

Then, what the f&ck has any of this got to do with the White House ballroom? Will Republicans bully Democrats into authorizing its construction? Will Republicans bite the bullet and finance the ballroom through budget reconciliation? Can we trust any Democratic presidential candidate who won’t commit to demolishing the ballroom? And what was the White House Correspondents’ Association thinking by extending an invitation to a president who wants to destroy journalism as a vocation?

All that, plus the full Politix archive are available to paid subscribers—just upgrade your subscription and pipe full episodes directly to your favorite podcast app via your own private feed.

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Further reading:

• Brian argues politics in America are unusually violent not just because of Trump’s words, but because he governs like a tyrant, and oppression swells the ranks of indivdiuals who choose to take matters into their own hands.

• Matt argues that lowering prices is a better approach to public anger than (e.g.) “microlooting.”

• A Manhattan Institute survey found that 46 percent of Democrats believe “the assassination attempt against Donald Trump in July 2024 was orchestrated by his supporters to increase sympathy for him.”

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