If You’re Waiting for the Adults in the Room, Good Luck
The failure of party politics and the start of taking the power back
New Jess and John Pod out now!
We kick off this week with some real backsliding democracy stuff — the arrest of Judge (yes, a judge) Hannah Dugan by the FBI under the watch of political zealot and full-blown lunatic Kash Patel. We drag the DNC’s “neutrality” fight with modest reformer David Hogg into the daylight. We break down the difference between real populism and fascism through the lens of Sith Lord Steve Bannon (I still haven’t watched Star Wars). And we talk about why the political moment is ripe for a hostile takeover of the only other major political party — one that, while captured by performatively progressive war-horny corporate overlords, still isn’t completely in the clutches of tyrannical, fragile, fascistic idiots! Get in loser, we’re gunning for the good life!
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They’re eating the laws. They’re arresting the judges.
Trump’s FBI arrested a sitting judge.
This story will spin out in a bunch of directions. What is ICE doing in courtrooms without warrants? What was the intention of the judge? Who is this person they’re after anyway?
The threads will be endless and almost certainly buried by a fresh onslaught of even more unbelievable headlines in another action-packed week of What the Hell Is Going On in America?
But let’s not miss the forest for the trees. There’s a trend here:
Crush due process — the keystone of the Constitution they claim to love (spoiler: they don’t)
Attack press freedom
Punish political enemies
Ignore Supreme Court rulings
(Screw the people you’re claiming to save)
And now? Arrest judges
The full apparatus of the post-9/11 security state, the one Edward Snowden exposed 11 years ago, is now in the hands of people like Patel and Trump’s Counterterrorism Czar, Seb Gorka.
And it’s aimed squarely at “the enemy within” – whoever they decide that is.
So, who are these guys? What do they believe? Let’s look at the receipts:
“There’s a line that divides us. Do you love America, or do you hate America?… You have to ask yourself, are they technically aiding and abetting [criminals and terrorists]? Because aiding and abetting criminals and terrorists is a crime in federal statute.”
Not to be outdone, Kash Patel, director of the FBI:
“We will go out and find the conspirators — not just in government, but in the media… Whether it’s criminally or civilly, we’ll figure that out. But yeah, we’re putting you all on notice.”
They’re not subtle. They’re broadcasting it.
This isn’t just another crazy headline. We’re the frog, and the water is coming to a boil. It’s time to start asking yourself: How involved are you ready to be? What’s your plan?
Get comfy with the idea of strike action. Educate yourself on actions that aren’t just voting every couple of years. Update the kind of candidates you’re willing to back, because if they don’t match the moment with a clear diagnosis of the problem and a vision to solve it, they won’t be much use. The country and the crisis look different now than ever, and 9 out of 10 people in Congress are living far, far in the past.
They’re telling us exactly what’s coming. And just like every corporation that swears it cares about more than a dollar, they’ll go as far as we let them.
What is a “Populist Nationalist,” and is it Steve Bannon?
No. Steve Bannon is a classic fascist. A guy who sells performative masculine fantasy to working people as a pacifier while robbing them blind.
Steve is seen here cautioning the country about where things might go. He lays out three paths: Bernie and AOC, himself and the pack of loathsome losers he calls “populist nationalists”, or, more ominously – Luigi.
But let’s not forget how regular people reacted to Luigi. They didn’t recoil in fear. And unless you run a conglomerate that only profits by denying life-saving medical care, why would you?
No, a significant chunk of the public leaned in. Grannies (and non-grannies) on Facebook called him handsome. The internet flew into a Robin Hood-coded meme frenzy. Normies frequently whisper to me in interviews that while they don’t celebrate violence, they can understand why it happens.
ALL CIRCUS NO BREAD
What we’re seeing here is Steve Bannon doing his job. It’s a specific job that he does well. He might be the only guy besides Trump who excels at it: bringing the working class behind an elite agenda that’s of, by, and for billionaires.
I’ve always had a problem with Bannon and his crew calling themselves “populists.” Populism is William Jennings Bryan, Cross of Gold-type stuff — delivering material benefits for the people. Bannon and Trump don’t deliver bread. They deliver fantasy – All circus. No bread.
They sell masculine myths about hierarchy, racial and gender order, greatness, strength – all wrapped in patriotic cosplay, while ripping all of us off. Right now, they’re:
Killing the regulations that keep rats out of your food and your kids out of factories
Selling off public services to giant corporations that charge you for the right to survive
That’s not populism. That’s a con. It’s fascism — a slick pitch selling a billionaire dictatorship wrapped in working-class drag.
He is right to reference Bernie and AOC. They’re a threat to this whole game because they offer people something real. But a large factor in what gave Steve Bannon power in the first place wasn’t some genius strategy — it was today's Democratic Party.
Every fascist needs a straw man. And the corporate Democrats play the role perfectly. If the opposition can’t fight its way out of a wet paper bag, much less deliver the bread, the fascists win. Instead of looking like a combination sex offender/plastic surgery convention, they appear as a real alternative.
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People are showing up to Bernie and AOC rallies in record numbers because they feel what we all feel: we’re sliding into total control by the dumbest, greediest people in America.
And while our winner-take-all elections shoehorn a country of 340 million people into two viable political parties, let’s be real – in many states and districts, the corporate Democrats are third-party spoilers to compelling independents.
Look at 2024. There were 33 Senate races across the country. Democrats underperformed the last Democrat that ran in 29 of those races. They only broke even in 3 races. The only meaningful overperformance, and by these standards it was huge, was Dan Osborn. He was a labor leader in Nebraska running as an independent with no Democrat in the race. He outpaced the last Democrat by 8 points in a ruby red state. 8 points. The next closest races were the three that broke even.
How many states and districts are as red or redder than Nebraska? Plenty. In all of them, you could argue that a Democrat is the third-party spoiler to a compelling independent running on a working-class agenda and personal freedom for all people.
The truth is simple.
The Democratic party is ripe for a hostile takeover – just like Trump did to the GOP. Don’t confuse this with a “reform the Democrats from the inside” plan. That’s not what I’m talking about.
I’m talking about a Trump-style takeover – a movement that sweeps through the only viable party left for people who aren’t down with how things are going. A movement made up of people who have to work to survive, tapping into the clear appetite for real economic populism that Bernie and AOC are proving through their record rallies. An appetite that cuts across the left-right divide. Trump supporters are hungry for it. They’ve been telling me for years.
But in the absence of a real political movement offering the goods, they’re chowing down on lies from a dude running a bait-and-switch for billionaires.
This is why Democrats need to look inward. The call is coming from inside the house. If you’re swapping real material gains – stuff that goes above and beyond the New Deal – for more means-tested corporate crap, you’re doing more to empower MAGA than most.
So, take it over. The bums won’t throw themselves out. Primaries where the party is viable. Labor independents where it’s not. Put the corporate core of the party out of business. Let them start podcasts with The Bulwark. Let them run cute ads with the Lincoln project in harmless obscurity.
Let a new generation of real-deal economic populists deliver the goods that Trump can only lie about.
The DNC’s “Neutrality” Scam Is Back. David Hogg and his Modest Reforms are the Target.
Ken Martin is beefing with David Hogg.
Martin, the newly elected chair of the Democratic National Committee, is notable for defending the idea of “good billionaires” during his campaign for the seat. David Hogg, the 25-year-old reformer and Parkland shooting survivor, was elected as one of five DNC vice chairs in 2025.
Here’s what Hogg said after winning:
“I want to build a Democratic Party that is authentic, relatable, earns people’s trust, and wins again — and that stops apologizing for being who we are. We don’t need to be cowards. We need to be bold, aggressive, and fight.
The reason people should vote for us isn’t just because we’re not Republicans — it’s because we’re damn Democrats.”
Hogg recently unveiled plans to spend $20 million through his group, Leaders We Deserve, to run primaries against do-nothing Democrats in seats with no danger of flipping Republicans.
He’s also tried to extend an olive branch, saying:
“It isn’t necessarily just out with the old and in with the new. I would say it’s out with the ineffective and in with the effective.”
In response, Ken Martin said he’s drafting bylaw changes to require DNC officers to stay “neutral” in all Democratic primaries.
New names. Same old game. A corporate establishment, now fronted by Ken Martin, is trying to push out a young, moderate reformer by making the debate about “neutrality.”
Let’s get into that. And let’s start by calling “neutrality” what it’s always been — an act.
This is politics, baby. Centrists always pull the same move: Oh, civility! Unity! Neutrality! But it’s just branding. It’s a way to paint any movement away from their grip on power as chaotic, biased, or dangerous. They’re not neutral. They’re just trying to look like the adults in the room while maintaining a death grip on power as everything falls apart.
The only thing in the middle of the road is yellow lines and roadkill. Politics is never neutral, nor is the DNC. Best proof? 2016.
Leaked emails showed DNC officials plotting to use Bernie Sanders’ faith against him in the South, drafting talking points for Hillary Clinton, and treating the Clinton campaign like the default. No surprise. Most DNC staff were Clinton-era loyalists.
Debbie Wasserman Schultz had to resign. Donna Brazile took over and later confirmed that Hillary’s campaign had taken operational control of the DNC before the primary even ended – thanks to a fundraising agreement that gave them power over staffing, messaging, and the budget.
So yeah – not neutral.
After the fallout, they slapped together the “Unity Reform Commission.” It made some marginal changes, like reducing the power of superdelegates, but it didn’t fix the norm. State parties are still little fiefdoms of backstabbing and corporate control.
Then came 2020.
Biden finished fourth in Iowa, fifth in New Hampshire, second in Nevada (where Bernie blew everyone out with 40%) – and then magically, the entire centrist apparatus moved heaven and earth to rescue him in South Carolina and shut Bernie down a second time.
Yes, people voted. But let’s not insult anyone’s intelligence by pretending “neutrality” had anything to do with what goes on behind the scenes when the chips are down.
The same play is now being run on David Hogg, a DNC member whose crime is wanting to primary dead weight Democrats in safe seats. And here’s the wild part: David Hogg isn’t some far-left radical. His reforms are modest. He’s not even close to Bernie (who, by European standards, is center-left).
If David Hogg is “too much” for the Democratic Party, then it’s properly screwed. Because what this reveals, in a surpise to few, is that the DNC will go to any length to stop even the mildest reforms. Even after a second Trump loss. Even with historically low Democratic popularity.
They’ll still cling to decaying, corporate, legacy-seat politicians whose biggest recent accomplishments are racking up medical incidents instead of thwarting fascists or delivering for working people.
There is but one viable party to face all that’s before us. It is the task of people of good conscious to drive out the menace currently neutering its ability to respond to our problems.
These people will put corporate profits over a livable planet. They won’t deliver real wins. And they will lose to Trump again – maybe in 2028. I condemn Ken Martin, the DNC, and this tired power play in the strongest possible terms. The Democratic Party will either be taken over Trump-style, or continue down the path of leaving itself and all of us behind… I guess there’s a third option: some purgatory hell where Gavin Newsom runs a half dozen times as things continue to crumble.
But who’s got time for that? We got a world to win dammit.
A Little Note About a Big Strike: Get Familiar with what a General Strike Really Means.
Up until now, the idea of a general strike has mostly lived on the internet, popping up every time things get bad. It’s always felt a little like the people who threaten to move to Canada at any point during the right-wing nose dive we’ve been on since Toby Keith started singing about cramming a boot in the world’s ass after 9/11.
But the political moment we’re surviving gives us a new lens to look through.
A real general strike means enough of society withholding their labor and participation in the way things work — for long enough — to shut it down, make clear demands, and force real change.
You might’ve seen this “3.5%” idea floating around the internet lately. It comes from political scientists Erica Chenoweth and Maria J. Stephan, who studied 323 major resistance campaigns between 1900 and 2006. Their finding? Every campaign that successfully mobilized 3.5% of the population achieved its goals.
But pay attention to the fine print: Mobilized. Campaigns. Goals.
Not just vibes. Not just outrage.
As Anand Giridharadas put it when interviewing labor dynamo Sara Nelson:
“This isn’t Ferris Bueller’s Day Off.”
In other words, a general strike isn’t just getting 11 million Americans to call in sick one day. That would already be an organizing miracle in this country, but it wouldn’t be enough on its own.
We’re talking about real, organized campaigns: leadership structures, strategy, tactics, timelines, clear demands, total commitment from 3.5% of the population (again, about 11 million people).
We haven’t seen anything like that in America in my lifetime. And it’s not something to take lightly, or to think signing up at generalstrikeus.com is going to magically solve. Only a real movement, with all of the above, can do that. But signing up, educating yourself, and starting to organize right now is the first step. It has to happen before anything else can.
So sign up here. I did.
We’re in a pickle – to put it lightly. And we need to start thinking of ourselves as the only ones who can save us. Pick your poison, the problems are endless. But as Sara Nelson, a woman the Democratic Party (and everyone) should be taking notes from, puts it:
“You have to define the problem, set your demands, and back it up with what you’re willing to do.”
It’s time for each of us to answer the questions: What do we want? And what are we willing to do to get it?
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“Alright, your turn: What’s one real change you want to see, and one thing you’re willing to do for it?”
Eye on the Ball — A Constant Reminder of What’s in Reach
A dope-ass world where we’re all good.
There’s no good reason why less rich nations can provide their citizens with healthcare, retirement, good wages, union protections, excellent public schools, clean air and water – an entire menu of public services that make the good life easy to live – while we’re told it’s somehow out of reach here.
Whatever excuse the ruling class feeds us is obvious bullshit, and I think that’s important to remember.
They have to tell these lies to justify the mess we’re living in, and to keep up their sociopathic wealth hoarding at everyone else’s expense.
Don’t forget it. There’s an entire world to win – whenever we’re ready to win it.
This Is What Media Looks Like Without a Boardroom
No one tells me what I can or can’t say. There’s no marketing team. No HR department. Just one person doing journalism with the rage of a thousand unionized baristas.
If you think media should be free to read, not for sale, and capable of calling Elon Musk a ghoul, then toss five bucks in the jar.
$5/mo. $60/yr.
One real change I want to see? Let's go back to our earliest roots and have a tax revolt. What would happen if millions of Americans decided not to file and pay their federal taxes next year? (To be on the safe side, I'd want to put money into some kind of escrow account, to be paid when the lawbreaking stops).
I don't have the experience or know-how to start this. But I'd seriously consider joining if some organization created a credible way to do it.
Love that you're back - I'd just like to add that the national brand on certain issues is what seems to have dragged the party down in red states. Osborn was pretty firmly against immigration and other cultural issues that have been embraced by the national party including AOC and Bernie. I also think the data you cite comparing to 2018 is unfair - since not a presidential. Brown in OH and Tester both also overperformed Harris - as did Gallego and Slotkin.
Osborn and Nathan Sage are great blueprints - but I wonder how other factions of the party, particularly on the left, would embrace them.