Episode #1024: Best Parade Ever
First Broadcast: 6/23/25
Because President Trump was jealous of the Bastille Day parade he saw in Paris when he visited France in 2017, and because he admires the military might authoritarians like Kim Jong Un of North Korea and Vladimir Putin of Russia display in their countries' parades, Trump ordered a military parade to be held in Washington D.C. on June 14, ostensibly to commemorate the 250th anniversary of the formation of the U.S. Army, and "coincidentally" happening on Trump's 79th birthday. The result was a parade that was sparsely attended by the public, not at all as fearsome as those put on by his dictator friends (and not even as synchronized as the Beijing Olympics), utterly boring to many attendees, and completely dwarfed by the "No Kings" protests happening around the country on the same day, which were attended by around 5 million people nationwide, becoming one of the largest protests in American history. If nothing else, the combined effect was a clear sign that millions of Americans still like democracy, still oppose the fascist tendencies of Trump & his ilk, and still might have a chance of winning the Congress in next year's midterm elections (less than 15 months away! *gulp*). In the meantime: Stay cool like the D.C. subway!
Episode #1025: Just Because You Can...
First Broadcast: 6/30/25
On June 22, 2025, President Donald Trump made Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Natanyahu's dreams come true by sending a group of B-2 stealth bomber planes to bomb three nuclear fuel enrichment sites in Iran, using 30,000-pound bombs to--in Trump's words--"obliterate" those facilities. The degree of obliteration is subject to debate, with one leaked report from the Pentagon suggesting that Iran's ability to enrich enough radioactive material for a nuclear weapon has only been delayed for a few months at best (and no increase of radiation levels was detected after the attacks either), while Trump and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth insist that "obliterated" is the only acceptable description for the Iranian facilities' current state. Regardless, shouldn't we all be outraged at how Trump made a complete about-face from being a vocal critic of Presidents bombing Iran to becoming its latest proponent now that he's in office? Shouldn't we also be outraged over how Trump completely bypassed getting Congressional approval for this act of war--especially since the latest intelligence said Iran didn't have a nuclear weapon, and the majority of the country was opposed to taking military action against Iran in the first place? Trump's fans seem to be divided over their Dear Leader suddenly taking part in one of the "endless wars" he pledged to not get involved in--but how long will their objections last? Should we assume we New Yorkers have yet another target on our back as a result? I vote "nay" on that last one, if only because it makes no sense to live in fear when we have so much work to do when we eventually undo all the horrors that have been done by Trump and his acolytes so far (perhaps the tide is already turning!). Maybe, in the end, this event will be similar to President Reagan's bombing of Libya in 1986, and not inevitably lead to a wider conflict somewhere. So, with that in mind, I'll try to continue thinking positively about the future. Keep hope alive, damn it!
Episode #1026: Round 2
First Broadcast: 7/7/25
In what may turn out to be one of the biggest upsets in New York City election history, State Assemblymember Zohran Mamdani won this year's Democratic primary for Mayor, beating second-place finisher ex-Governor Andrew Cuomo by 12 percentage points, or over 116,000 votes. This is a stunning victory when you consider that Mamdani was polling around 1% at the beginning of the year, and was outspent by Cuomo's PACs by around $26 million during the campaign; but apparently buckets of money and name recognition are no match for a decent ground game and policies that genuinely appeal to people. Naturally, since Mamdani is a member of the Democratic Socialists of America, President Trump has labeled him a "communist" (totally different head, man), and since Mamdani was born in Uganda, Trump is also questioning his naturalized citizenship, so we've got 4 months of that to look forward to. Will Democratic unity, the youth vote, and appeals to a more affordable city prevail over an incumbent who wanted to bypass the primary, a compatitor who already got shellacked once, a Republican best known for being the head of a vigilante group, and a lawyer who wants to stand out from the crowd by--sigh--hiring even more cops? Let's hope Mamdani keeps his momentum going, because I'm already crossing my fingers for another rent freeze!