This is when we should have stopped Stephen Miller
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But the next best time is now. Michael Edison Hayden—author of "" and co-host of ""—gives the backstory of blockbuster stories he wrote while working for the Southern Poverty Law Center, based on emails . The context he adds to that story, and the connections to his new book about extremists buying a castle in a small West Virginia town, help explain how America got to where we are now. Support this podcast and help change brains by .
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"As an American Citizen" | Woke Hoth Guy's Federalist #1
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Spend a minute and a half thinking about what's happening in Minneapolis as an American citizen. We don't know who Woke Hoth Guy is but we share this only out of respect for his words and solidarity. Found here:
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Will Your Vote Count? w/ Ari Berman
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Will your vote count in 2026? It may be the most important question we can ask right now. There's no one better to ask than Ari Berman. He's the author of MINORITY RULE and GIVE US THE BALLOT. He is also the National Voting Rights Correspondent for Mother Jones, and he has been covering the "GOP War on Voting" for over a decade.
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How to Stay Ahead of Trump on Epstein
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Read more: Trump Keeps Demanding that You Stop Talking about His Jeffrey Epstein Problem If Dems Successfully Message on News Outlets Lefty Pundits No Longer Read, Did It Ever Happen?
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How Trump Wants to Solve His Ghislaine Maxwell Problem
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Marcy Wheeler looks deeper into news that Trump's former defense attorney, now the deputy attorney general, will reach out to Ghislaine Maxwell. She lays out how Trump is orchestrating a cover-up scheme to protect himself from damaging Epstein revelations by getting Ghislaine Maxwell out of prison through a cooperation deal that will target his political opponents instead.
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Another Squirrel to Chase
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Donald Trump was desperately trying to regain his superpower, attempting to grab attention and refocus it. He ended up on an Obama conspiracy theory that's already been re-litigated five times. Read more at emptywheel: https://www.emptywheel.net/2025/07/18/tulsi-gabbard-accuses-kash-patel-of-covering-up-for-the-obama-deep-state/
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The Failing Superpower of Epstein's Buddy
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emptywheel's Marcy Wheeler explains that the bubbling Jeffrey Epstein scandal is about two things: the underlying scandal and any ties Trump has to it, and the way it has disrupted Trump’s normal super power ability to command and direct attention. Read more: Jeffrey Epstein Is about Trump’s Failing Ability to Command Attention https://www.emptywheel.net/2025/07/13/jeffrey-epstein-is-about-command-of-attention/
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How the Right Abuses Language
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Marcy Wheeler explains the crucial distinctions in how liberals and the right-wing use language, the role of journalism, and the impact of amplifying polarizing messages. See how journalists act as data mules for Trump's truth social posts and the broader. And find out how FEMA's failures present an opportunity to build solidarity in everyone victimized by the regime's malicious ineptitude.
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MAGA Demands the "Real" Epstein Files
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Find out more: https://www.emptywheel.net/2025/07/07/pam-bondi-admits-she-must-fire-kash-patel-and-dan-bongino/
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Trump's Trolls' Turn
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Marcy Wheeler digs deeper into the Catturd Deficit that allows white supremacists to use Xitter to rig the news. Then she looks at how Trump's illegal war on Iran has created unprecedented fractures in his base, from Russian useful idiots like Marjorie Taylor Greene to anti-Semitic voices like Candace Owens, and even convicted January 6th participants like Joe Biggs. She explores how to exploit these cracks using the same tactics that got Trump elected, turning his own troll army's playbook against them.
info_outlineThe rhetorical analyst who wrote the book on Trump's demagoguery explains the power of positivity and weirdness.
2016 was the year we all became pundits. 2024 may be the year we all become rhetoricians. And no one is better at explaining how words help create and destroy democracy than Jennifer Mercieca.
The author of DEMAGOGUE FOR PRESIDENT: The Rhetorical Genius of Donald Trump can tell you why our wannabe American dictator has been so effective on the stump. But this conversation ended up being more about why he’s flailing now.
In February, Mercieca advocated for “weirdifying” fascism, and the new Democratic nominee for vice president, Tim Walz, has embraced a cousin of that strategy. She also told us in our last conversation how the MAGA plan was to turn Biden into a “beta male,” and we explored how that strategy may have worked too well for Trump.
And we talked about how the forces of freedom can learn from Swifties. There’s also some fun stuff for history buffs, though you may never look at the 1824 election the same way.
Catch up on all the episodes of “How are you feeling about democracy?” here.
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