Professional Left Podcast Episode 1013: Talking Dem Politics With a Dem Politician

“If you're going through hell, keep going."  -- Winston Churchill.

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Rare Photo of “Non-Maga Republican” Taken in Its Native Habitat

From Fox News, "reporting" on the Texas Senate race (h/t @airbagmoments.bsky.social for the info):

 ...Most independents (68%) and virtually all Democrats support Talarico (98%), while fewer Republicans are unified behind Paxton (89%).

In part, that’s because one quarter of non-MAGA Republicans back Talarico (24%).

As the saying goes, I was born on a Sunday, but I wasn't born last Sunday.

Ask Me No Questions and I’ll Tell You No Lies

Blood Money

Under Republican misrule, you may soon have to sell your blood to pay for your blood pressure meds.

From The New York Times:

Trump Will End Subsidies for Medicare Drug Premiums

Millions of older Americans could pay more for their prescription drug coverage next year.

The Trump administration announced on Tuesday that it intended to end a Biden-era program that for the past two years has helped tamp down the cost of monthly premiums for drug coverage for people on Medicare.

The decision means that millions of Americans 65 and older could face higher Medicare drug premiums next year, when the cost of living is already a major concern. That could be politically damaging for Republicans in the midterm elections. In the weeks leading up to November, Medicare beneficiaries could experience sticker shock while shopping for next year’s drug plan.

For 2025 and 2026, the federal government gave health insurers billions of dollars in subsidies to help them keep down drug premiums for people on Medicare. Without the subsidies, millions of people could have had to pay hundreds of dollars more a year for their drug plans.

 

I Am The Liberal Media

How It Started / How It Ends

No Half Measures

 

Politics. Boy, I Don't Know...

I Am The Liberal Media

Professional Left Podcast Episode 1006: Pump Up The Venom

“You ever get the feeling that everything in America is completely fucked up? You know that feeling that the whole country is like, one inch away from saying, 'That's it! Forget it!'."  -- Mark Hunter, Pump Up The Volume 

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Professional Left Podcast Episode 1005: Meanwhile, In Local News...

“Tonight Illinois has set a tone for the nation, that we won't stand idle hoping that our economy improves. This is a brand new day for the Illinois Republican Party. Tonight we send a message to our party that here in Illinois, there will be a new generation of Republican leaders..."  -- then-rising Tea Party Republican Adam Kinzinger after he won a congressional seat in 2012 

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Trump In The Bunker: February, 2027

Army Group Steiner Will Not Save Him

Started/Going 2026

Burn The Lifeboats

Professional Left Podcast Episode 980: Zombie Apocalypse

"My zombie films were all sort of satirical, with political messages. So I was doing them inexpensively and quietly off in left field somewhere." --   George A. Romero

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The Way Forward

No Half Measures

Professional Left Podcast Episode 979: Legacy

"No legacy is so rich as honesty." --   William Shakespeare

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A Continuation, Not an Aberration

It is time once again for a feature you will only find on OG Liberal blogs that dare to dig back into the Before Time to notice how much of the deranged, disastrous Trump  policies are not an aberration but a continuation of the trajectory the Republican party has been on for decades.  

Now we could spend this post talking about Republican hypocrisy around debts and deficits, their reliance on demonizing relatively powerless groups to win elections, or their obsession with stripping women of their bodily autonomy.  But since today's headlines are all about a ruinous Republican war-of-choice in the Middle East, let's talk about that.  And let's begin by reminding ourselves that next week will mark the 22nd anniversary of this moment from the 2004 White House Correspondents' Association Dinner.  

You know, back in the Good Old Days!  Back when Republicans took America to war soberly and seriously, with careful preparation and on the basis of unimpeachable intelligence!

Yes, that was the previous Republican president, George W. Bush, cracking wise about not finding WMD in Iraq.  Which, you might remember, was the entire predicate for that disaster.   And right therewith him, applauding and laughing their asses off, were Washington's political elite, the cream of the Washington press corps and their celebrity guests.  Because Bush making light of not being able to find the WMD was just so damn funny!

You will also remember that, three years later, as the Bush administration was imploding and the war in Iraq was now indisputably a catastrophe – after Hurricane Katrina, after Terri Schiavo, after Republicans were crushed in the midterms and Bush’s poll numbers had cratered – we find Bush's Brain, Karl Rove, doing this at the 2007 WHCD:

And who's that right behind Rove?  One of his backup dancers on that infamous evening?

Yes it's David Gregory.  Four years after the Iraq invasion, three years after Bush’s WMD joke video, during a period when the Bush administration was under heavy criticism over the war and the Valerie Plame scandal, there’s Dancin' David Gregory happily going along with the bit.

A year later Gregory would be promoted to the Big Chair on Meet the Press, where he would spend the next six years destroying whatever shreds of credibility that show still had.  In 2018 he would be replaced by Chuck Todd, who was just as terrible as Gregory in exactly the same way.     Todd would go on being an embarrassment to his profession for nine long years, until 2023, when they replaced him with  Kristen Welker, who is just as terrible as Gregory and Todd in exactly the same way.

So pardon me if I'm not shedding too many tears over what Bezos is doing to The Washington Post or Ellison is doing to CBS News.  Yes, it's terrible, but the legacy media was doing quite an efficient job of immolating themselves in a bonfire of cloistered arrogance long before Trump's billionaire button men showed up.  

Now that we've covered Bush making jokes about WMD at the White House Correspondent’s dinner during a time which our Never Trump friends desperately want us to remember as the Good Old Days of serious, cautious Republican leadership, don't forget that our Never Trump friends also would like us to remember that time as a period of Republican transparency.  None of this "hiding critical wartime information from the American public" nonsense.  And, of course, we are to believe that Republicans during this time were always respectful, never attacking or slandering their critics.  All of that is Trump stuff!   

Except is it?  Really?

From Democracy Now, March 26, 2004

Rice Agrees to Meet 9/11 Commission But Only in Private

After coming under intense criticism, the White House offered Thursday to have National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice meet again with the 9/11 Commission. But White House officials said she would appear only in private and not under oath.

Rice was the center of criticism during the recent 9/11 hearings for refusing to appear. Former Senator Bob Kerrey said “My gosh, I think she was on every single network the day the commission opened its hearing this week, attacking our witnesses.”

The New York Times also reports–almost in passing — that Rice is planning to leave her job at the end of the year.

Meanwhile the White House continued to attack former counterterrorism chief Richard Clarke who is accusing the Bush administration of not heeding warnings before Sept. 11.

Senator Tom Daschle said “I have a simple request for the president today: Please ask the people around you to stop the character attacks they are waging against Richard Clarke. Ask them to stop their attempts to conceal information and confuse facts. Ask them to stop the long effort that has made the 9/11 commission’s work more difficult than it should be.”  

And of course you remember this.

So let’s compare Bush’s Iraq debacle with Trump’s Iran debacle.  The Good Old Days when Republicans were awesome, and the Bad New Days when Republicans are terrible.  

Lying us into war?  Check.

Claiming that we had no choice because the threat was imminent and terrifying?  Check.

Making up excuses after the fact?  Check.

Radically downplaying the downsides?  Overpromising and underdelivering?  Check and check.

Complete failure to prepare the public for what this war would really mean?  Check.

Keeping critical information from the public?  Check.

Slandering critics? Check.

Well, OK, but what about this?

From The New York Times, March 16, 2026:

With Threats and Claims of ‘Treason,’ Trump Pressures Media on the War

The Trump administration has unleashed a multifaceted pressure campaign against news organizations as it increasingly bristles at media coverage of a Middle East military operation that many Americans oppose.

Official Pentagon briefings now include attacks on outlets like CNN, with Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth nit-picking headlines. President Trump is turning to his bully pulpit on Truth Social to accuse “Highly Unpatriotic ‘News’ Organizations” of airing “LIES” about the war and musing about “Charges for TREASON.”

The goal seems to be pressuring journalists to back off critical coverage of the war effort, or to at least encourage the public to second-guess reporting that runs counter to the administration’s preferred narrative. And the effort has gone well beyond words.

Mr. Trump’s top media regulator, Brendan Carr of the Federal Communications Commission, issued an explicit warning to broadcast television networks on social media, writing that “hoaxes and news distortions” could lead to the revocation of licenses for local stations, a threat that Mr. Trump said he was “so thrilled to see.”  

Surely there was no Bush administration equivalent of these attacks on the free press during the Before Time, right?

Well...

From The Brookings Institution, April 11, 2006:

Misplaced Blame: The Media’s Performance in Iraq

Throughout the Iraq war, the Bush administration has complained about the tenor of media coverage in Iraq. Paul Bremer did so during the first year of the American presence there, and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld as well as Vice President Dick Cheney make the point repeatedly. The complaint that we see only the bad news, not the good, has become increasingly prevalent within the U.S. armed forces as well.

…the broad argument by the American media’s critics is often badly overstated. While the overall image of Iraq conveyed by the mainstream media may be somewhat more negative than reality, it is not far off. If we lose in Iraq, it will most likely be because of events on the ground there, not a prematurely wavering political support here.

In fact, one can make a reasonable argument that the American public’s view on Iraq is just about where it should be given the facts. The public is enormously impressed by our troops, but depressed about the general lack of major progress on the ground and upset with the Bush administration for overpromising and underpreparing in regard to the war.

And then there is the filthy business of war profiteering.

From The Huffington Post, September 17, 2006:

Halliburton and Cheney: War Profiteers in Chief Fight to Keep Their Wallets Fat

Halliburton's stock has risen 200% since the invasion of Iraq three and a half years ago. David Lesar, its CEO, made over $40,000,000 in 2004 alone.

We all by now know that Dick Cheney retired from the Pentagon in 1993 to accede to the throne of Halliburton, an oil field services company based in Houston. After Mr. Cheney left Halliburton with tens of millions of dollars in his pocket largely earned because of his connections to Middle East dictators, Halliburton had to cough up $2.3 billion in cash, about $1.2 billion in stock and another $55 million in IOUs to help pay off the tens of thousands of people in this country who had suffered and/or died of asbestos poisoning at the hand of Dresser, which Mr. Cheney had acquired and for which Mr. Cheney was (and apparently still is) handsomely compensated. If this sounds a bit like Mr. Cheney's due diligence with respect to weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, it should. He never bothered to look at what Dresser had before he bought it for Halliburton and he never bothered to look at what Iraq had before he broke it for the U.S...

Until very recently, there has been relatively little penetration into the popular psyche of the role played by Halliburton in particular and other private military contractors in general. 

The reason is simple: the Bush Administration and its Congressional foot soldiers ranging from George Allen and John Warner of Virginia to Rick Santorum of Pennsylvania have refused at every turn to allow for any oversight at all, even though Democratic Senators have asked for such bi-partisan review for years. 

Of course, it’s still early days in Trump’s Iran Fiasco, but does anyone doubt with so much money sloshing around and so little oversight, that Trump and his mob of looters and plunderers will soon be stuffing their pockets as fast as possible?

From The New York Times, March 13, 2026:

 The Oil Tankers Trump Seized Are Costing the U.S. Millions of Dollars

Although President Trump said seizing tankers would be a financial boon, the cost of maintaining just one aging ship has already reached $47 million.

The seizures have put the U.S. government in a financial bind. The ships are highly expensive to maintain. And the Trump administration cannot legally sell the oil in these tankers without a judge’s permission.

Maintaining the seized tankers has already cost the United States tens of millions of dollars — in one case, $47 million in only three months — and complicates Mr. Trump’s claims of swift financial victories from his military operations targeting Venezuela and Iran.

From Time Magazine, March 19, 2026:

'It Takes Money to Kill Bad Guys': Trump's Iran War Set to Boost Profits For These Defense Contractors

Administration officials have signaled that Trump will soon request Congress approve tens of billions of dollars in supplemental funding to replenish U.S. weaponry supplies. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth confirmed on Thursday that the Pentagon had sent the White House a request $200 billion in additional funds, though he stressed that the figure "could move."

"It takes money to kill bad guys," Hegseth told reporters. "So we’re going back to Congress to ensure we’re properly funded, for what’s been done, what we may have to do in the future." He added that the money was needed to ensure that the country's stockpile of ammunition is "not just refilled, but above and beyond.” 

Then there is this depraved Trump-era innovation.  From The Atlantic, March 18, 2026:

Maybe Turning War Into a Casino Was a Bad Idea?

A disturbing new low in the Polymarket era

On March 10, the journalist Emanuel Fabian reported on a missile that had been launched from Iran. The warhead hit an open area outside Jerusalem, which Fabian confirmed by speaking with rescue services and reviewing footage of the explosion. He wrote a short post on The Times of Israel’s live blog and moved on.

Meanwhile, gamblers had wagered millions on the unfolding events of the conflict. Fabian’s post became the subject of a major dispute on Polymarket, a popular prediction market where people can bet on the outcome of almost anything. The site had allowed users to guess when Iran would initiate “a drone, missile, or air strike on Israel’s soil”: More than $14 million was riding on whether such an attack had happened March 10.

People started reaching out asking Fabian to change his article. Some argued that Israel Defense Forces had not officially mentioned such an attack occurring on that day, and others said that the explosion he had reported was the result of a missile being intercepted, which according to Polymarket’s terms wouldn’t count as a strike “on Israel’s soil.” Confident in his reporting, Fabian did not amend the text. 

And just to button it up, let's go back to the promises these two Republican presidents made to the American people when they were candidates.

During the October 11, 2000 presidential debate with Al Gore, Republican candidate George W. Bush said this:

“If we're an arrogant nation, they'll resent us. If we're a humble nation, but strong, they'll welcome us… Our nation stands alone right now in terms of power, and that's why we've got to be humble.”

And this: 

"I'm not so sure the role of the United States is to go around the world and say, 'This is the way it's got to be.'"

24 years later, here is Republican candidate Donald Trump running for president: 

You see kids, Trump was not a break with the Republican past, he was a continuation of it: the end-state of a trajectory the GOP has been on for half a century.  

Of course the parallels aren’t exact, but if you put all of the malignant, corrupt, arrogant elements of the Bush administration's war with Iraq into a compression machine that would make it all bigger, faster, dumber, much louder and more reckless and with a giant, billionaire-backed hammer coming down on the media… you’d have Trump’s Iran War.

Burn The Lifeboats

Professional Left Podcast Episode 978: WMD

"I think we agree, the past is over." --  George W. Bush, May 10, 2000

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Professional Left Podcast Episode 977: An Apple Made of Razors

"As societies grow decadent, the language grows decadent, too. Words are used to disguise, not to illuminate, action: you liberate a city by destroying it. Words are to confuse, so that at election time people will solemnly vote against their own interests." --  Gore Vidal

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Je Ne Te Ferais Pas Pipi Dessus Même Si Tu éTais en Feu. Et Tu Es en Feu.

Please forgive my Google Translate French.  I can practically hear Madame Alfille wagging her finger at me and scolding me for wasting my time on debate and track in high school when I should have joined her French club.

Alas, I am poorly made, and this was the best French translation I could come up with for, "Wouldn't Piss On You If You Were On Fire.  And You Are On Fire."

From Raw Story: 

Trump’s panicked plea goes largely ignored by world leaders: 'No country stepped forward’ 

President Donald Trump issued a plea Saturday to several countries in the hopes that they would “send ships” to a major shipping route off the coast of Iran to help the United States’ war effort against the Middle East nation, a plea that as of Sunday afternoon appeared to go largely ignored 

In response to the U.S.-Israeli joint military siege launched late last month, Iran has vowed to attack any sea vessels aligned with the United States and its allies that attempt to pass through the Strait of Hormuz, a major shipping route through which 20% of the world’s oil trade flows. As a result, oil prices have skyrocketed, reportedly sparking panic within the Trump administration.

“Hopefully China, France, Japan, South Korea, the UK, and others, that are affected by this artificial constraint, will send Ships to the area so that the Hormuz Strait will no longer be a threat by a Nation that has been totally decapitated,” Trump wrote in a social media post on Saturday.

Begging a community of nations -- which he has spent a decade shitting on -- to come and save his rapidly decomposing ass from a catastrophic war of choice he launched with no plan and no warning is the most beta cuck thing I have ever heard of.

And so far the silence from other nations is coming through loud and clear.

In Japanese:  Tatoe kimi ga moete ite mo, kimi ni shōben o kakeru koto sae shinai yo. Soshite kimi wa ima, moete iru nda.

In Simplified Chinese: Jiùsuàn nǐ húnshēn zháohuǒ, wǒ yě lǎndé sā pào niào jiù nǐ. Ér nǐ xiànzài quèshí zhèng zháohuǒ ne.

In Korean: Nega bultaoleugo iss-eodo ojum han bang-uldo an ssal geoya. geuleonde neon jigeum bultago issjanh-a.

Welsh: Fyddech chi ddim yn Pissio Arnoch Pe Byddech Ar Dân. A Ti Ar Dân.

Cockney:  I wouldn’t ‘ave a slash on ya if ya was goin’ up like Guy Fawkes Night — and look at ya, you’re already bleedin’ burnin’, ain’t ya

Even in Klingon:  Vaj Dunay'Qo' meQlI'chugh vay'. 'ej bImeQlI'.

Burn The Lifeboats

Politico Discovers Political Primaries

How horny is the political media for any "Democrats in Disarray" story?  On the venerable Blue-Balls scale of 1-to-10 they're now clocking in at around a 12.  Which is how the usual rough-and-tumble of Illinois politics is magically transformed into a Big Story about splitting, division and splintering, so mama, break the fainting couch out of storage and fetch the spirit of hartshorn!  

The New York Times also knows a free lunch when they see it:

Will Another Black Woman Join the Senate? This Messy Primary Is Set to Decide. 

Two Black female candidates may split Democratic primary voters in Illinois, and anger is growing at well-funded efforts to widen the divide.

Messy.  Split.  Divide.  Better make that two doses of hartshorn!  

Election day is Tuesday, March 17, so this will all be over in three days. 

And, if you dig down a few paragraphs you find...

Unlike other major Democratic primaries for Senate this year, the contest is not so much a test of the party’s ideological or messaging direction — the three candidates are broadly similar on policy and style — as it is a fight over identity and who deserves a Senate seat.

But that's not much of a lede, is it?  So much better to frame it as a bar fight that'll be settled on St. Patrick's day in Chicago.  

But now riddle me this: if Politico and the Times really wanted a story of rancor and disarray in Illinois primary politics, why not focus on the Republican party?  After all, instead of running three, well-known political professionals, the Illinois GOP senate primary is a freak show with Six!Count 'Em!Six! weirdos and nobodies all competing to see who will get hog-slaughtered in the general election in November.  Which is why bigger name Illinois Republicans like Mike Bost and Darin "Disgrace to his Family Name" LaHood took a big ol' pass at running for that office this year.  

Or how about the Illinois gubernatorial primary, where Four!Count 'Em!Four! goofballs are competing feverishly to see who gets to lose to JB Pritzker in the Fall?

See what I did there?  Answering my own question?  Because in Illinois it is a foregone conclusion that, barring a tectonic event involving pods from space and zombies,  whoever wins the Illinois Democratic senate primary will, along with Pritzker, win at a walk in the general election.  

Which, from a policy and governance, perspective, is obviously great news.    But which, from a "fun news stories" perspective, has deprived Politico readers of the opportunity to learn about characters like perennial Illinois office-seeker, Jimmy Lee Tillman II, who is the son of longtime (now retired) Illinois alderwoman, Dorothy Tillman, and who runs under the name "Dr. Jimmy Lee Tillman II" although no one can tell you what exactly he is a doctor of.  

According to his campaign website, Dr. Jimmy Lee Tillman II would like you to know that "Our state stands at a crossroads", that "Illinois is the battlefield and Chicago is the frontline."

I am Dr. Jimmy Lee Tillman II from Chicago—leading the MAGA Cavalry as the only GOP candidate who can win Chicago and has the strong name recognition statewide that Republicans need to win in Illinois. I'm also the only GOP candidate that the Democrat machine is afraid to face. While other candidates have ideas, I have a proven record of accomplishments.

As a bestselling author, historian, Heritage Foundation Academy Fellow, and President of the Martin Luther King Republicans,

And so forth.

Then there is Jeannie Evans, a partially self-funded attorney, would like you to know that she is "Unstoppable. Innovative. Illinois." and appears to think that it's 1994.  As a " a mother, wife, and winning attorney" and "Not a Politician",  once she's in the U.S. Senate, she  promises to:

...bring that same unstoppable energy to build Illinois’ future: reducing taxes and costs, supporting innovation and education, securing safe communities, and creating opportunities for every family and business. The future doesn’t wait. Let’s build it.

Not a word about MAGA, America First or Donald Trump is to be found anywhere in her campaign website.

And let's not forget, Pamela Denise Long -- occupational therapist and political newcomer -- who has also heard the Siren's Song of the Senate.

We are in a fight for the soul of our nation.  Cancel culture is off the rails. Gender ideology has gone too far. Mass immigration has flooded our neighborhoods and job sites. 

And

I never wanted to be a politician. I was convinced to run for office after Illinoisans tapped me to help stop the flood of illegal immigrants into Chicago. Unlike the powers that be, I've spent the last four years and hundreds of hours listening to a diverse array of Americans express their needs and concerns. I see the Black American voting bloc has finally begun to divorce the Democratic Party. At the same time, Americans of all stripes are sick of the divisive rhetoric that gets politicians elected but keeps neighbors apart.

Her campaign website features several embedded YouTube videos of her talking about things like the horrors of DEI and ending birthright citizenship, with a giant picture of Donald Trump rampant on an American flag as her background.  

Casey Chlebek is also running for U.S. Senate on a platform of cutting practically every form of taxation you can think of.    That's his "MAGNA" plan: Making America the Greatest Nation Again.  

Casey is the former President of the Polish American Congress (Illinois Division) and his site features all the usual MAGA yadda yadda about open borders, CRT, and  Trump being awesome.  And, damn it, he is not a politician.  But I think the real story here is found in the second line of his campaign resume.

Former Commodore of the Chicago Yachting Association and the Joseph Conrad Yacht Club.

Come on!  If you write about politics and you can't take yachts, "Commodore Casey" and tax cuts and run all the way down field with it, then get outta the business kid.  

 

I Am The Liberal Media

We’ve Already Established What You Are.

Now we're just haggling over the price.

From MSNOW:

Dark money group offers influencers $1,500 for posts attacking Chicago Democratic primary candidate

Progressive House candidate Kat Abughazaleh told MS NOW the secretive campaign is “filled with false and defamatory claims.”

A week out from a crowded and contentious Democratic primary in Illinois’s 9th Congressional District, Amanda Informed, an online influencer in Florida received an email with an offer: one negative post about candidate Kat Abughazaleh on Instagram and TikTok, for $1,500. 

The request, which came from a secretive political organization called Democracy Unmuted, was forwarded to her by Matt Anthes, founder of Advocators, a digital marketing agency focused on politics and advocacy through micro-influencers.

They're scared of her.

Good.  They should be. 

Honestly, any influencer (god, how I loathe that word) who gets this offer should take the money and then just post a copy of Kat's own "negative" ad:

No Half Measures

The Boy Who Cried Wolfowitz

No Half Measures

So. Much. Winning.

A year ago the promises filled the air like ticker-tape confetti.  $2,000 rebate checks in every mailbox, DOGE sleuthing out $2 trillion in government waste to balance the books, tariffs so painless and juicy we’d never have to pay income taxes again, gas and electric bills sliced in half, and, of course, no new wars.  

A vision of effortless prosperity, where the money rolled in, the bills disappeared, and reality was chloroformed and stuffed in a closet.

Burn The Lifeboats