#1727 Super-Powered Men For Good and Ill: Fascism, Media, and the Manoshpere
Air Date: 8-6-2025
Today's slate of topics may feel disjointed at first until you realize that they're not. We set out to produce an episode in which we explored powerful men and those who look up to them from various angles and so that ended up including both real and fictional men from supervillains to superheroes.
Read more#1726 Epstein Forever: Trump flails as criticism finally comes from inside the MAGA house
Air Date: 7-31-2025
Who would have thought that a political movement built almost exclusively on conspiracy theories and a cult of personality would end up being threatened by the cult leader being implicated in the biggest and worst conspiracy coverup… even though it’s been well documented for decades?
Content warning for detailed accusations leveled against Trump and Epstein by their alleged victims.
Read more#1723 Scam Nation: Trumpism is the Art of Screwing You Over in Every Way Possible
Air Date: 7-16-2025
It increasingly feels like we are completely past the era of legitimate differences in political philosophy and policy preferences. Now that the Republican governing style has been completely consumed by Trumpism, we've entered the era of scam politics which fits nicely with Trump's traditional retail scams, capitalism's continual reinvention of financial scams, and the new age of crypto scams.
Read more#1722 Imbalance of Powers: The Supreme Court and Executive Branch Collude for Unchecked Power Grab
Air Date: 7-12-2025
The idea of the founders was to separate and balance the powers of the federal government and that, as Madison wrote, ambition would counteract ambition. The problem we face now is that the ambition of the Supreme Court is to give as much power as possible to the executive branch because, ironically, they seem to be nostalgic for a king.
Read more#1719 The Fascist Playbook: Immigrants, Brown Shirts, and the Backlash
Air Date: 6-28-2025
The militarization of Trump's deportation regime and response to protesters is the clearest example of his desire to implement a fully authoritarian government. Pure and simple.
Read more#1714 Trump's Anti-Knowledge Agenda is Inviting the Next Authoritarian Dark Age
Air Date: 6-6-2025
Today, Trump's administration is doing everything in its power to end the era of educational dominance the US has enjoyed for decades. The simple fact that explains the change is that democracy used to be valued across the political spectrum while todays Republican Party is authoritarian and understands that an educated public is a public that demands democracy while an uneducated public is much easier to manipulate and oppress.
Read more#1711 How It Started, How It's Going: Assessing the Flooded Zone Full of Shit
Air Date: 5-21-2025
A popular MAGA refrain is, "promises made, promises kept." The key is having known which promises to take seriously. Weaponizing the government against his enemies and attempting to wield dictatorial power, sure. Benefit his supporters or the working class more broadly, or rid the government of waste, fraud, or corruption... not so much.
Read more#1701 Lead, Follow, or Get Out of the Way: Installing the Backbone Democrats Need
Air Date: 4-2-2025
Love them or loathe them, the Democratic Party is the political institution available to the left to structurally take on Trumpism but we need a whole lot of new energy and new commitments to the fight to turn them into an opposition worthy of the moment we face.
Read more#1698 Resistance is Not Futile: Support the collective revolt against Trumpism (Special Podcasthon!)
Air Date: 3-18-2025
SUPPORT INDIVISIBLE WITH A DONATION AND SIGN UP WITH YOUR LOCAL CHAPTER!
In this special Podcasthon episode, we're joining thousands of podcasts around the world in taking the opportunity this week to support a cause or organization that we believe in. In this time of fighting fascism, Best of the Left has chosen to support Indivisible, the grassroots organizing team that's working to resist Trumpism and pressure Democrats to do the same. Follow the link in the description of this episode to make a donation but also take a moment to find and join your local Indivisible chapter to stay engaged.
Read more#1697 The Trump World Order: Are we the Baddies?
Air Date: 3-15-2025
It always bears repeating that the progressive perspective on the state of the world is not that everything was going just fine before Trump showed up but there's a world of difference between the leftist desire to improve things and Trump's bull-in-a-china-shop foreign and economic policies. Allow us to list the ways.
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