This week, we're recording on Driftglass's birthday while he's still battling a cold and sounding disturbingly like RFK Jr. meets Broderick Crawford—so we're keeping it simple and direct.

Why should Democrats stop accommodating Republican sociopaths who inflict pain on their own base as leverage? And what happens when Democrats finally say "let them burn" instead of rushing to pay the ransom?

Why are there focus groups with Trump voters but never with the Democratic base? Why is it always the Democrats' job to accommodate the ego, bigotry, stupidity, and paranoia of fragile white men?

Why are on-air consultants auditioning for paydays by insisting Democrats move to the "reasonable center"?

And what polls amazingly well that none of these hired guns want to talk about? (Hint: getting money out of politics.)

Happy Birthday, Driftglass. Get well soon. (And Happy Halloween, everyone!)

Link for this episode: The Editorial Board (John Stohr), "Republicans are used to burning their own people as leverage." https://www.editorialboard.com/the-republicans-are-used-to-burning-their-own-people-as-leverage/

Not safe for work. Recorded live from the Cornfield Resistance.

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Does Driftglass with laryngitis sound like Brenda Vaccaro? The podcasters disagree, YOU be the judge!

(See you on Thursday, which is also Driftglass's 65th birthday! Woot!)

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This week, we're examining the legacy media's desperate attempt to plug a 20-foot hole in their Both Sides narrative—and why their favorite solution won't work.

The New York Times Editorial Board insists that "moving to the center is the way to win," but the data show that this strategy is already exhausted. Talking of compromise with an enemy who wants no reconciliation is absolutely ridiculous.

Links for this episode:

On Data And Democracy Substack: "The New York Times Argues 'Moving to the Center Is the Way to Win.' But the Data Shows the Strategy Is Tapped Out." https://data4democracy.substack.com/p/the-new-york-times-argues-moving

Ryan Wilkins at McSweeney's: "The Partisans Are Wrong: Holding No Sincere Beliefs Is The Way to Win" https://www.mcsweeneys.net/articles/the-partisans-are-wrong-holding-no-sincere-beliefs-is-the-way-to-win

Robert Reich: "The Failures of Centrism" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EQzG_TrhyrY

Not safe for work. Recorded live from the Cornfield Resistance.

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• Mail: The Professional Left, PO Box 9133, Springfield, Illinois, 62791

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Find your No Kings Protest March/Rally at https://www.nokings.org/

This week, we're asking the only question that matters: Will what we do actually help?

What does it mean to be "effective" in the fight to save democracy? Did throwing pies at Bill Kristol, Rupert Murdoch, or Newt Gingrich ever change anything? And why should we always ask ourselves the Bridge of Spies question: "Would it help?"

We'll explore how the Irish Grapefruit Ladies fought apartheid and won, and why the Civil Rights movement succeeded—not just because of peaceful discipline, but because national media attention forced the federal government to act. What happens when the entire dynamic reverses and the racist thug is in the White House instead of standing in the schoolhouse door?

This a voter problem—a "Vox Populi" problem—not just a Trump problem.

The word of the day is "effective." Let's figure out what that means.

Photo from Charlottesville protest by Ted Eytan via https://inkstickmedia.com/ (Creative Commons).

Not safe for work. Recorded live from the Cornfield Resistance.

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• Email: proleftpodcast@gmail.com
• Website: proleftpod.com
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• Mail: The Professional Left, PO Box 9133, Springfield, Illinois, 62791

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This week, we're watching the media scramble for survival as tectonic forces fracture the landscape—and the billionaires are building lifeboats while Mount Vesuvius smokes overhead.

Why is The Bulwark declaring itself "the future" while The Washington Post and CBS News die?

And what does it mean that CBS just hired Bari Weiss to, let's face it, manage the death of broadcast TV news?

We'll reveal the secret to understanding what's happening to media right now: how Rupert Murdoch bought respectability, why MSNBC invested everything in elevating Never Trump conservatives instead of the Left that was right all along, and what happens when your most valuable credential is an impressive job title from an important-sounding institution.

Is Weiss's new job the worst "falling on the grenade" position ever, or is she protected by the Prince of Darkness (kinda like Bill Kristol!) destined to fail upward forever? Why can't anyone save CBS News? And what happens when your real job is to manage decline while pretending you can "win back younger audiences!" who've already checked out?

The earthquakes are getting stronger. The mountain is smoking. And the legacy media is frantically building lifeboats—but only for people who agree never to mention The Before Trump Time.

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In this week's episode, we tackle the concept of "ethos"—what people actually stand for versus what they claim to believe. Drawing parallels from the Cornerstone Speech of 1861 to George Wallace's segregationist campaign, we explore how America's ugliest movements had clear, comprehensible (if abhorrent) belief systems. But what about today's MAGA movement? Beyond rage and resentment, what do they actually stand for? (Short answer: nothing!)

In other news, we can't resist highlighting the week's most absurd moment: Kristi Noem's baffling claim that ICE arrested "the girlfriend of one of the founders of antifa" in Portland.

As the hosts point out, we're apparently all Antifa's girlfriend now - a status that puts us in good company with many other "antifa girlfriends," including Blue Gal herself!

Plus: Chicago's creative resistance tactics against ICE, and a game of "Pundit versus Pundit" you won't want to miss.

Not safe for work. Recorded live from the Cornfield Resistance.

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• Mail: The Professional Left, PO Box 9133, Springfield, Illinois, 62791

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Welcome to Book Club Day at the Professional Left, where we're spoiling a 141-year-old novel that remains the undisputed champ of American literature—and revealing why it's more relevant than ever.

What does Mark Twain's Huckleberry Finn teach us about the struggle for America's soul in the age of Trump?

Huck faces an agonizing choice: turn in his friend Jim and save his soul, or commit what he believes is a mortal sin and "go to hell." What happens when a sound heart collides with a deformed conscience?

Why are the Duke and the King—usually portrayed as "lovable scamps" in film adaptations—actually dangerous grifters who sell Jim back into slavery for "forty dirty dollars"?

How does Huck transform from a passive, undecided observer into an activist with a plan? And what can we learn from his refusal to accept the "Both Sides" lie of his era?

We're fighting the same battle Twain declared war on: a culture that wraps monstrous lies in scripture and protects them with passive, silent complicity.

All right, then—we'll go to hell.

More at proleftpod.com.

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• Mail: The Professional Left, PO Box 9133, Springfield, Illinois, 62791

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This week, we're unpacking a tale of two shutdowns—and spoiler alert: they're both Trump's.

First, the government shutdown: Why are Republicans celebrating a government shutdown while simultaneously blaming Democrats for it? How can they claim it's the "Schumer Shutdown" when they control all three branches of government? And why can't they keep their messaging straight—celebrating the shutdown on Newsmax while condemning it in Congress?

We'll reveal what 71% (you read that right, seventy-one percent!) of Americans actually think about ACA subsidies (hint: they want them extended). And just over half want the Democrats to shut down the government to get those subsidies for them.

And then, the shutdown of norms and decency: From Newt Gingrich's revisionist history in the New York Times to Bari Weiss taking over CBS News, from "Kavanaugh stops" to flashbang grenades in residential hallways—we're connecting the dots on the authoritarian playbook in action. The jackboots aren't coming. They're already here.

All that and more in this edition of The Professional Left Podcast.

More at proleftpod.com.

Not safe for work. Recorded live from the Cornfield Resistance.

Stay in Touch!

• Email: proleftpodcast@gmail.com
• Website: proleftpod.com
• Support via Patreon: patreon.com/proleftpod
• Mail: The Professional Left, PO Box 9133, Springfield, Illinois, 62791

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