2414 - Welcome To The Era Of Oligarchs w/ Heather Digby Parton

Happy Friday! Sam and Emma speak with Heather Digby Parton, contributing writer at Salon.com and proprietor of the blog Hullabaloo, to round up the week in news. First, Sam and Emma run through updates on the Supreme Court’s affirmation of the TikTok ban, Biden and Trump’s following denunciations of said ban, Israel’s ceasefire sabotage, Trump’s cabinet nominees, medicare drug price negotiations, and Mike Johnson’s enforcement of the Trump regime, before watching Bernie push Trump treasury pick Bessent on why he doesn’t think working people deserve fair wages. Digby then joins, as she, Sam, and Emma dive right into the devastating wildfires continuing to ravage LA, and the right’s immediate push to politicize the event for all of their culture war BS, targeting Newsome, Bass, and DEI, before shifting to the greater absurdity of blaming people for failing to deal with an issue (climate change) that you refuse even to acknowledge. Expanding on this latter element, Digby tackles how LA is already being set up for Big Tech disaster capitalists to swoop in, diving deep into the setup of Trump’s uber-oligarchy, what Big Tech wants from the relationship, and what makes them distinct from both contemporary and historical oligarch comparisons, wrapping up the show by waxing on the horrors of a Polymarket populist future.

And in the Fun Half: Sam and Emma take some highlights from the hearings for Trump’s Administrative nominees, including Bessent’s abject fear of taxing the wealthy, Russell Vought’s attempt to shirk the “has repeatedly fantasized about terrorizing bureaucratic agents” accusations, and Hegseth’s utter embarrassment in the face of Elizabeth Warren. They also unpack right-wing reactionaries’ attempt to pin California’s forest fires on those damn meth-smoking homeless people in urban Los Angeles, plus, your calls and IMs!

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Check out Digby's work at Salon here: https://www.salon.com/writer/heather_digby_parton

Check out Hullabaloo here: https://digbysblog.net/

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