2912 - The Dark Brandon Takeover Continues w/ Alex Pareene & Astra Taylor

Emma hosts Alex Pareene, Contributing Editor at the New Republic and proprietor of the AP newsletter on Substack, to round up the week in news. Then, Emma is joined by Astra Taylor, co-founder of the Debt Collective and author of the recent book Remake the World: Essays, Reflections, Rebellions, to discuss Biden's student loan forgiveness program. Then, Emma is joined by Astra Taylor, co-founder of the Debt Collective and author of the recent book, “Remake the World: Essays, Reflections, Rebellions,” to discuss Biden's student loan forgiveness program. Emma also touches on the likelihood of the Mar-a-Lago affidavit’s release today, Biden’s BOOMING (44%) approval rating, and recent appearances in the wake of electoral Ws having much more energy. Then, Alex Pareene drops by as he and Emma get right into the rising charisma of supposed “Dark Brandon,” as he begins feeling himself coming out of the success of the IRA, January 6th Committee, and canceling student debt, as Democrats finally come along on the whole “actually, getting things done is a good thing” idea (with months until the midterms we can only hope it wasn’t too little too late). Next, they dive into the mixed bag of the NY election results, discussing the Democrats absolutely blowing the bag with redistricting, employing the weight of that failure to push progressives into infighting, and why the lesson to be learned from this is to upset the first-past-the-post electoral system, employing ranked voting and other experimental policies, and to either detach from or completely reinvent Congressional Electoral Committees like the DCCC. Wrapping up they dive into the intensifying 1/6 Committee, walking through the foolish institutionalism that would have Merrick Garland believe that following DOJ requisites would shield him from backlash, assessing his base entering the midterms, and the importance of actually putting forwards multiple issues beyond “they’re being unfair to me” in winning an election (See: Hillary 2016). Astra Taylor and Emma then conclude the free half by walking through the story of student debt relief, beginning during the Occupy Wall Street movement, met with the typical media dismissiveness, only to evolve over the next decade (with help from Congressional progressives like Warren, Sanders, and even Schumer) into a political movement that not only has viability but even practical implementation, wrapping up by taking on the legitimacy of the “minimal relief” critiques on the debt forgiveness.

And in the Fun Half: Emma watches as Blake Masters starts a to-thiel coverup of his anti-abortion past, Jared Kushner discusses his billionaire fantasies of immortality and Martha MacCallum asks if it’s hard to be part of a family that gets arrested so much. Tim Pool brings it back to the mediocre rock of the ‘90s, and – much to Jesse Watters’ titillation – Missouri brings back spanking as an academic punishment.  The crew also responds to the “why do you deserve student debt relief if you went to a private college” talking point, plus, your calls and IMs!

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