Firing air traffic controllers over a busy holiday travel weekend, cutting a veterans crisis hotline, axing and then rehiring people who maintain and keep our nuclear arsenal safe: Musk and his minions aren't trying to "fix" the government. They're trying to make it more susceptible to Trump's personalized leadership. And the MIA Dems need to get out there and throw some punches since the media loves fights. Meanwhile, the US is now more of a problem than a solution on Ukraine, Elon's massive co...
Feb 17, 2025•37 min
Unlike the cowardly Republican senators who are rolling over in the face of Kash Patel's bald-faced lies, the men and women of the Justice Department are taking their oaths of office seriously by refusing to comply with a blatantly political order to dismiss corruption charges against New York Mayor Eric Adams. Meanwhile, Trump is just over the moon with Vladimir Putin—even though his army is performing quite poorly on the battlefield against Ukraine. Plus, the makeup heir advising Trump on fore...
Feb 14, 2025•56 min
While Elon claims he's storming the government to cut waste, he's also getting himself a big fat check for $400 million from the State Department for Tesla armored vehicles—though administration officials are now trying to hide the grift because the Trump glow does not extend to the weird dude. Meanwhile, McConnell may have voted against confirming RFK Jr, but he's the one who drew up the blueprint for breaking the rules. Plus, the asymmetry in passion between MAGA and the resistance, and Alex's...
Feb 13, 2025•52 min
If Republican senators had any shred of dignity left, they'd demand that Kash Patel answer why he brazenly lied under oath to them about the purge of agents at the FBI. Credible sources have come forward to say he was directing the whole thing. Meanwhile, Trump has leveled the playing field so companies doing business overseas can do all the bribing they want. Plus, our modern "boy problem," our genetic wiring to not be loners, and finding a way out of our polarization by seeing we have an oblig...
Feb 12, 2025•1 hr 8 min
The Democratic Party was made for different times, when rules were followed. But to preserve the basic power of Congress, and to prove that the Constitution is worth the paper it's printed on, the troublemakers in the Dem caucus have to get busy fighting over tariffs and a looming budget deal. Besides, Trump's strongest hand is performative outbursts—making threats and pretending he got something in return. Plus, Elon is giving away America's greatness, the EU should call Trump's bluff, and the ...
Feb 11, 2025•58 min
The new administration has been routinely breaking the law, including on Friday when it announced it was cutting funding for universities doing medical research, specifically in violation of legislation passed by Congress last year. And over the weekend, Trump, Musk, and Vance signaled a willingness to ignore court orders—a federal judge on Monday declared that the White House was doing just that in response to his order lifting a freeze on grant spending. Meanwhile, Trump designated himself the...
Feb 10, 2025•48 min
Partly because of the courts and partly because the White House keeps stepping on rakes or trying to break everything, the Dems who were too chill about Trump pre- and post-election have fully moved into 'threat to the Republic' mode. Meanwhile, angry bureaucrats, particularly at the FBI, are digging in. But don't be sanguine because the administration is still trying to take a wrecking ball to the civil service— anything that goes wrong that involves the government though (like that measles out...
Feb 07, 2025•57 min
After the dumbest member of the Senate, Tommy Tuberville, was able to block military promotions for months during the Biden administration, Dems should not back down from slowing the roll of Kash and the other remaining abominable nominees. Meanwhile, more federal workers are going to have to speak up—lawsuits don't make good visuals. The nation needs to see the faces of the men and women who are our public servants. Plus, Elon's poll numbers slip, Trump's Gaza gambit is BS, and who is the new D...
Feb 06, 2025•50 min
With Elon's 20-something operatives running the Treasury Department, it's hard not to feel that we've been severed from reality and a better Earth someplace else. Ben Stiller talks with Tim about metaphysics, avoiding politics in public, and advocating for the millions of people displaced around the world. Plus, the origin story of Severance, Adam Scott, John Turturro, and whether the show is a metaphor for life itself. Also, Tim gives a pop quiz, Ben shares his love for the Knicks, and both pon...
Feb 05, 2025•1 hr 3 min
If the Chinese hacked the U.S. government the way private citizen Elon has, it would be a major act of cyber warfare. And since Elon is a government contractor, he's now in a position to make policy calls that benefit his own companies and hurt his competitors—following the Russian oligarch model. We are in a completely lawless realm, and this is likely to continue until he is stopped. Meanwhile, government employees are being forced to choose between conforming or protecting the public. Plus, E...
Feb 04, 2025•57 min
The president of the United States is putting his Jan 6 accomplices in charge of the Justice Department and the FBI, and clearing out any officials who would be willing to investigate the administration. It's anti-democratic, it's a coup, and it's allowing Elon and his 20-something DOGE buddies to act with impunity as they illegally access classified information and the Treasury's payment system. Meanwhile, the White House can't even get its messaging straight on the tariffs as they sabotage our...
Feb 03, 2025•1 hr 13 min
While Republican senators worked to protect Kash Patel from answering some ver-wee hard questions at his confirmation hearing, not one of them had the audacity to suggest that he is the best person to lead the FBI. Meanwhile, the new administration is clearing out some of the most seasoned and effective veterans at the bureau who will be needed during a crisis. Plus, Elon is trying to get our private financial records at the Treasury Department, and Paramount is so worried that mean Mr. Trump wo...
Jan 31, 2025•54 min
Republican senators don't care that Trump's nominees are lying—like Kash pretending he didn't know a Nazi-adjacent podcaster whose show he's been on eight times—because the confirmation process to them is all a game and truth is irrelevant. And nominees are also mad-flipping on their signatures issues: RFK, Jr. on vaccines, Tulsi on Edward Snowden, and Kash on the Jan 6 cop beaters. Meanwhile, RFK knows embarrassingly little about the programs he'd be administering, Democrats should try combat o...
Jan 30, 2025•1 hr 6 min
Trump is trying to seize powers he doesn't have—like unilaterally rewriting laws and deciding on his own how he wants to spend money Congress appropriated for a particular purpose. Will the Supreme Court stop him? And if it rules against him, will he obey the court's orders? Plus, the money angle behind RFK, Jr.'s conspiracies, and Elon's attempt at a mass buyout is not about making the government leaner and meaner. He's trying to replace good, smart people with lackeys and flunkies, like Tucker...
Jan 29, 2025•41 min
The directives putting a pause on federal grants and the firing of career DOJ prosecutors is about trying to make the entirety of the federal government the tool of the man occupying the presidency. And it's all illegal and unconstitutional. Meanwhile, Trump is exactly the kind of broken sociopath who can dominate the war for attention—the defining resource of our time. Plus, a rundown on DeepSeek, the new Chinese AI model, and why Bitcoin fans aren't more angry about the worthless, scammy Trump...
Jan 28, 2025•1 hr 10 min
Gullible Republicans have really been proving what they're made of recently, including Susan Collins, who claims Trump wants to root out corruption, even though his whole life has been a fraud—the water, the university, and "The Apprentice," just for starters. Meanwhile, the presidents of Mexico and Colombia are showing that they're not going to bend over in service of Trump's vanity. Plus, JD's Johnny-come-lately Catholicism, and the tech titans's clash with DEI may be helping the US lose the l...
Jan 27, 2025•50 min
Trump launched his first week back in office signaling to loyal followers that they are free to break the law on his behalf, while telling political opponents—including John Bolton and Mike Pompeo—that he'll put their lives at risk. Meanwhile, an office full of white faces is not evidence of a meritocracy, a shortage of VA nurses or prosecutors at the DOJ is not government efficiency, and Putin is different from the man he was during Trump's first term. Plus, the dangers of the word "invasion" i...
Jan 24, 2025•1 hr 2 min
Emotionally-stunted video game boys, who are also government contractors and/or quasi government officials, are fighting on Twitter, a POTUS who went all the way to SCOTUS to get immunity for presidents now would like the last president investigated, and America's premiere scientific research institution, the NIH, can't tell us about the bird flu—a widespread and potentially deadly virus that could mutate into a human pandemic. Meanwhile, the assault on immigration has stepped up, with raids now...
Jan 23, 2025•1 hr
All those CEOs cartwheeled down to Mar-a-Lago and then dutifully lined up at Trump's inauguration because they were fed up with social justice warriors and labor having more power—even if their bottom lines were never harmed in the process. Now, they want their next adrenaline rush and more government money without any pesky regulations hampering their highfalutin space-exploration dreams. But they may just pine for those DEI training sessions after the coming populist economic backlash. Stephan...
Jan 22, 2025•46 min
Trump tried to pencil out literal words in the Constitution and then freed 1,500 violent insurrectionists—while the media attempted to normalize it all. Meanwhile, much attention is being paid to Elon's salute, and not enough to the facts that he has an office at the White House, he's a government contractor, and paid a quarter of a billion dollars to get Trump elected. Plus, other Trump executive orders were pissy and petty, the 80s can no longer be called the decade of greed after Monday's Hun...
Jan 21, 2025•1 hr
Trump wants us to believe that nothing matters, so we'll brush off all his corruption and grifting as though everybody does it. That's what aspiring authoritarians always do, including the guy who didn't place his hand on a Bible when he was sworn in today. Meanwhile, Trump just launched probably the biggest scam in the history of the presidency with his memecoin—ordinary people will lose real money, nothing like the small-ball amounts he scoops up with his shoes, mugs, and digital baseball card...
Jan 20, 2025•44 min
Trump governed as a wartime president against blue America, so expect him to keep stirring up culture battles—but the Dems have to avoid getting drawn into them. Kamala and the party were undone in '24 by looking like they cared more about niche issues than putting food on the table. Meanwhile, Biden has left Trump a lot of room to consolidate a bigger coalition than he's ever had. Plus, for Republicans shrugging off climate change and threatening to withhold fire aid to California, here's a new...
Jan 17, 2025•50 min
Pam Bondi is likely to sail to confirmation—even if she's an election denier and pretends she was born yesterday—because she meets the simple qualifications of being a lawyer and former prosecutor, and because she's not a frat paddle come to life i.e. Matt Gaetz. But the fact that she wasn't able to clearly state that the U.S. is her client, not Donald Trump, is a giant red flag. Ditto for his personal lawyers also coming on board. Plus, the ominous removal of Mike Turner from the House intellig...
Jan 16, 2025•57 min
Being secretary of defense is one of the hardest jobs on the planet. But after Pete Hegseth was plucked from a part-time Fox & Friends gig, Republican senators could only kiss his ass and act starstruck during his confirmation hearing—all to ensure he takes their calls when they need military equipment or contracts in their states. Meanwhile, Nancy Mace has been a con artist from the beginning, Trump nominated Nazi-curious Joe Kent to run the National Counterterrorism Center, and Tulsi think...
Jan 15, 2025•1 hr 4 min
Real estate is everything in Los Angeles. Karen Bass's absence from the city when the fires broke out, and now her seeming aloofness, has instantly made her look unfit for the job of mayor. Even Gavin Newsom is distancing himself from Bass. Meanwhile, while we wait on the facts behind the fires, all the Silicon Valley VC guys and Elon need to shut the f*** up. Plus, Mike Johnson is a disgrace, Zuck has no inner core of values, and TikTok Zoomers need to get a better understanding of free speech ...
Jan 14, 2025•1 hr 7 min
Trump's favorite judge, Aileen Cannon, has been attempting to exercise authority she doesn't have over Jack Smith's required report on his investigations of the Jan 6 case and the hoarding of classified docs—but she'll be a model of loyalty that Trump will expect for all his judicial appointments. Meanwhile, it's a big week of hearings for his nominees, Wray could do more to oppose the politicization of the FBI, and what is up with Fetterman? Bill Kristol joins Tim Miller. show notes Bob Kagan's...
Jan 13, 2025•52 min
"Mother" Pence is owed an apology. She snubbed Trump so hard and so beautifully at Jimmy Carter's funeral—and wasn't about to make nice with the man who was all-in on Jan 6 rioters trying to lynch her husband. Meanwhile, the catturd crowd is mad at Amy Coney Barrett for not falling in line, and running off to Greenland while American neighborhoods are on fire is not America First. Plus, the risks of Trump dominating the battlespace with all the stupid stuff. Amanda Carpenter joins Tim Miller for...
Jan 10, 2025•56 min
Americans have been spending more time alone—and less time doing face-to-face socializing—than we have for at least 60 years. And our alone time is impacting the economy, our politics, and our personalities, particularly among young people. Meanwhile, the fires in Los Angeles are a heartbreaking reminder that the California landscape was meant to burn—and it will keep happening whether we like it or not. Plus, the mystery around the sister of Sam Altman. Derek Thompson and Liz Weil join Tim Mill...
Jan 09, 2025•1 hr 14 min
Trump talked a lot more about Hannibal Lecter during the campaign than one of his actual top priorities: extending his 2017 tax cuts. With those $4.5 trillion in cuts set to expire by the end of the year, that's the first major item of business for congressional Republicans. But how they get paid for will affect people's lives. Tim takes a deep dive into the reconciliation process that would allow Republicans to make deep cuts to programs without having to work with Democrats. Plus, the billiona...
Jan 08, 2025•1 hr 7 min
Mark Zuckerberg is doing all he can to get an audience with the big man at Mar-a-Lago, including praising Trump's (faux) free speech bona fides and restructuring Meta to eliminate fact-checking. Maybe it's because Zuck wants to show his middle finger to the mean tech reporters—or maybe it's because Trump threatened to imprison Zuck. Plus, the conspiracies around Jan 6 v 9/11, and the potential threat to our financial system from crypto. Charlie Warzel joins Tim Miller. show notes: Charlie's piec...
Jan 07, 2025•56 min
