#1730 The Axis of the Dark Personality Triad: Unfit Leaders and the Suffering They Cause
Release Date: 08/16/2025
#1737 State of the Resistance: Labor, Anger, and Knowing That We've Been Here Before
Best of the Left - Leftist Perspectives on Progressive Politics, News, Culture, Economics and Democracy
Air Date 9/16/2025 Between recent Labor Day rallies and Republican Town Hall meetings, we're seeing that resistance to Trump's deeply unpopular policies is alive and well. Plus we're going to look at some historical legacies of resistance movements that can both inform and inspire us today. Be part of the show! Leave us a message or text at 202-999-3991, message us on Signal at the handle bestoftheleft.01, or email Check out our new show, SOLVED! on ! (Members Get Bonus Shows + No Ads!) KEY POINTS KP 1: KP 2: KP 3: KP 4: KP 5: KP 6: KP 7: (00:53:35) NOTE FROM THE EDITOR On what our...
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#1736 Not the Opposition Party the Country Need Right Now
Best of the Left - Leftist Perspectives on Progressive Politics, News, Culture, Economics and Democracy
Air Date 9/11/2025 I've always learned the high-level understanding that the Nazis were partly able to come to power because the opposition at the time was too caught up with infighting to create a coherent resistance. With hindsight, it's easy to lament how badly they miscalculated the circumstances but living through the modern day and watching the Democratic Party struggle gives even more clarity to how that kind of inability to get organized in the face of existential threats to democracy can happen. Be part of the show! Leave us a message or text at 202-999-3991, message us on Signal at...
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#1735 Trump's Making Friends of Enemies and Enemies of Neighbors (Foreign and Domestic Wars)
Best of the Left - Leftist Perspectives on Progressive Politics, News, Culture, Economics and Democracy
Air Date 9/7/2025 Trump has been setting a new tone both at home and abroad which is shaking up everything from the war in Ukraine to threats of force against Mexico, Venezuela, and our own American cities with the militarization of domestic policing. And we made all of this before Trump posted an Apocalypse Now meme about using the Department of War against Chicago. Be part of the show! Leave us a message or text at 202-999-3991, message us on Signal at the handle bestoftheleft.01, or email KEY POINTS KP 1: KP 2: KP 3: KP 4: KP 5: KP 6: KP 7: KP 8: (00:56:33) NOTE FROM THE EDITOR...
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SOLVED! #21 - GerryF**ked: How to Fix Congressional Representation and End Homelessness
Best of the Left - Leftist Perspectives on Progressive Politics, News, Culture, Economics and Democracy
Air Date: 9–3-25 Today, Jay!, Amanda, Deon, and Erin discuss: Ch. 1 - The surprising origins of Gerrymandering Ch. 2 - The options we have to improve congressional representation for everyone in the country Ch. 3 - Democratic states response to Republican gerrymandering threats Ch. 4 - The argument for DC statehood and the people to blame for why it hasn’t happened yet Ch. 5 - How to end homelessness and what you can do to help those being targeted in DC SOLVED! BACKSTAGE: Beyond the Algorithm: The only correct opinion about the Cracker Barrel rebrand (This episode drops on...
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#1567 How to Sell an Immoral Economic System to the Masses (Throwback)
Best of the Left - Leftist Perspectives on Progressive Politics, News, Culture, Economics and Democracy
Air Date: 6–20-2023 Today, we take a look at the story of how neoliberalism was born, how corporations were organized to help push it into the mainstream, and how the courts were reshaped to permanently tilt the rules in favor of corporate power. Be part of the show! Leave us a message or text at 202-999-3991, message us on Signal at the handle bestoftheleft.01, or email Check out our new show, SOLVED! on ! (Members Get Bonus Shows + No Ads!) ! SHOW NOTES Ch. 1: Ch. 2: Ch. 3: Ch. 4: Ch. 5: Ch. 6: Ch. 7: Ch. 8: Ch. 9: Produced by Jay! Tomlinson...
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#1734 Where is the Revolutionary, Anti-Fascist Art?
Best of the Left - Leftist Perspectives on Progressive Politics, News, Culture, Economics and Democracy
Air Date 9/1/2025 The way people consume almost every variety of media, entertainment, and art is different now than it was only 10-15 years ago. That means that the way protest music, revolutionary art, and even mass market productions and performances are going to be different, feel different, and likely find you in different ways than in the past. But the drive to create never dies and art will always be part of the resistance to oppression. Be part of the show! Leave us a message or text at 202-999-3991, message us on Signal at the handle bestoftheleft.01, or email Check out our new...
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SOLVED! #20 - America’s Brain Drain: How Scientific Empires Fall
Best of the Left - Leftist Perspectives on Progressive Politics, News, Culture, Economics and Democracy
Air Date: 8–28-25 Today, Jay!, Amanda, Deon, and Erin discuss: Ch. 1 - How scientific empires fall Ch. 2 - How fascists of the past have destroyed their country’s scientific progress in fear of inconvenient truths Ch. 3 - How other countries are taking the opportunity to poach American scientists Ch. 4 - Living in a society that is shifting away from believing in evidence based science Ch. 5 - The 1938 pro-science manifesto that defended democracy against fascism BACKSTAGE: Beyond the Algorithm - Trump’s eugenicist mindset and what we didn’t have time for from our main articles ...
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#1733 The Impossible Promise of Make American Healthy Again: MAHA vs MAGA
Best of the Left - Leftist Perspectives on Progressive Politics, News, Culture, Economics and Democracy
Air Date 8/27/2025 RFK Jr. and the Make America Healthy Again movement aren't completely wrong about everything, they often identify the larger structural problems with the US health industrial complex even if their proposed solutions are wildly off the mark. But the problem they failed to see coming when partnering with Trump and the Republicans is that they're only going to be allowed to misguidedly defund and dismantle parts of the government that support health which is in line with the broader burn-it-all-down vibes of the MAGA movement, but under no circumstances will they be allowed to...
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#1732 It's Never Just About the Kids (Online Censorship, Age Verification, and the Project 2025 Agenda)
Best of the Left - Leftist Perspectives on Progressive Politics, News, Culture, Economics and Democracy
Air Date 8/24/2025 The nature of politics and public policy is that there's always a need to balance opposing interests. Almost nowhere is there a more intractable set of opposing interests than in the attempt to protect children from harmful content on the internet while maintaining free access to adults, particularly because people wildly disagree about what qualifies as harmful and what degree of privacy invasion is an acceptable tradeoff. Be part of the show! Leave us a message or text at 202-999-3991, message us on Signal at the handle bestoftheleft.01, or email Check out our new show,...
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#1731 Raw Power, the Presidency, the Courts, and Democracy in the Balance
Best of the Left - Leftist Perspectives on Progressive Politics, News, Culture, Economics and Democracy
Air Date 8/20/2025 There's been a faction of conservatives who have been trying to instill king-like powers into the presidency for a long time, so it shouldn't be surprising that Trump is getting so much help from the packed court and the apparatchiks in the states who are more than happy to turn their precious federalism on its head as long as their king is in charge. Be part of the show! Leave us a message or text at 202-999-3991, message us on Signal at the handle bestoftheleft.01, or email Check out our new show, SOLVED! on ! (Members Get Bonus Shows + No Ads!) Use our links to...
info_outlineAir Date 8/16/2025
There's the old Douglas Adams quote stating that, "Anyone who is capable of getting themselves made President should on no account be allowed to do the job" which is a good general rule to live by. But then there are the real baddies, those would-be leaders who possess one or more of the dark triad of traits that spells real doom for the societies that elevate them to power: narcissism, psychopathy, and machiavellianism. Today we compare and contrast Donald Trump, Vladimir Putin, and Benjamin Netanyahu. Xi Jinping also fits nicely on this list as an honorable mention but happens to not be part of the focus today.
Be part of the show! Leave us a message or text at 202-999-3991, message us on the infamous Signal at the handle bestoftheleft.01, or email [email protected]
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KEY POINTS
KP 1: The World War II Lessons Trump, Putin, & Netanyahu Actually Learned - Tad Stoermer - Air Date 8-8-25
KP 3: Totally Unexpected - HasanAbi - Air Date 8-7-25
KP 5: Kyiv-based Analyst: 'Ukraine Is Being Sidelined From Talks' - LBC - Air Date 8-10-25
KP 7: Donald Trump Wants to Seize Your Reality - Mother Jones - Air Date 8-8-25
(00:49:39) NOTE FROM THE EDITOR
On why humanity is better than we seem and how we can save ourselves
‘Self-termination is most likely’: the history and future of societal collapse
DEEPER DIVES
(00:57:15) SECTION A: TRUMP THE LIAR
A1: Trump Rejects Reality - The Muckrake Political Podcast - Air Date 8-5-25
A2: Trump Pushes Forward with Revenge Presidency - All In with Chris Hayes - Air Date 8-8-25
A4: Trump Vs. the Bureau of Labor Statistics - The Journal. - Air Date 8-4-25
A5: Trump Thinks You're Very Stupid - The Majority Report w/ Sam Seder - Air Date 8-9-25
(01:32:17) SECTION B: NETANYAHU THE MANIPULATOR
B2: Why Bibi Netanyahu Is on Trial - ABC News In-depth - Air Date 4-26-24
B3: DEBUNKED: 14 Israeli LIES About Gaza Famine - Owen Jones - Air Date 8-8-25
B4: Mehdi Hasan Explains Why the War in Gaza Wont End Soon - LBC -Air Date 8-5-25
(02:09:13) SECTION C: PUTIN THE STRATEGIST
C2: What Happens When You Confront Putin in Public - Penguin History - Air Date 8-7-25
C3: Why Putin Is so Hard to Overthrow - Search Party - Air Date 8-18-23
(02:27:11) SECTION D: MYTHS COLLAPSE
D2: America's Authoritarian Turn - Harvard Radcliffe Institute - Air Date 3-3-25
D4: How Gaza Exposes The Myths Of The System - Andrewism - Air Date 8-5-25
(03:07:29) SECTION E: THE MEN BEHIND THE THRONE
E1: Who's the Man Who Has Putin's Ear? - NewsNation - Air Date 4-8-22
E4: Aleksandr Dugin: The Far-right Theorist Behind Putins Plan - 60 Minutes - Air Date 4-12-22
SHOW IMAGE CREDITS
Description: A composite image of a pleased-looking Trump holding up a triangle that says “The Dark Triad” in the center, and “Narcissism”, “Machiavellianism”, and “Psychopathy” along each side. Vladimir Putin, Xi Jinping, and Benjamin Netanyahu are pictured underneath.
Credit: “The Dark Triad” by Manitee71, Wikimedia Commons, License: CC-By-SA 4.0 | “Putin-politics-kremlin-russia” by DimitroSevastopol, Pixabay, License: Pixabay | “Xi Jinping 2019” by Palácio do Planalto, Wikimedia Commons, License: CC-BY-SA 4.0 | “31/03/2019 Jantar na Residência do Primeiro-Ministro de Israel” by Palácio do Planalto, Flickr, License: CC-BY-2.0
Produced by Jay! Tomlinson
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