Driftglass and Blue Gal bring their epic year-in-review series to a close, covering September through December and finally boxing up 2025 to send it to hell. The hosts examine the final months of a year that saw legacy media trapped in their own 'Both Sides Do It' prison, DOGE's promises evaporate into nothing, and the Epstein files get a (incompetent, but still) cover up. But there's also hope in this finale—a massive Blue Wave in November's elections, governors standing up to federal ...

Driftglass and Blue Gal continue their review of 2025, covering May through August in this second part of their series. The hosts show how the Republican Party's corruption and chaos isn't something new or unexpected—it's exactly what the party has been building toward for decades through right-wing talk radio and Fox News. They walk through major events from those months, including media companies giving in to Trump's demands, the White House deleting official transcripts, federal agen...

Driftglass and Blue Gal reflect on what they call an "annus horribilis"—a genuinely awful year that fundamentally changed America as Trump's second term brought unprecedented corruption, chaos, and the erosion of democratic institutions. From Qatar's $400 million Boeing 747 bribe to Trump's crypto schemes and the $300 million White House ballroom boondoggle, they catalog the scandals that made 2025 feel like the longest decade of their lives. More at proleftpod.com. Stay in Touch...

Trump's "affordability" tour crashes into reality, with the president telling struggling Americans to buy fewer pencils and dolls while his own supporters admit they can't afford groceries. David Brooks' embarrassing 2009 love letter to John Thune as the GOP's wholesome future collides with Thune today holding the biggest bag of political excrement in modern history as the ACA subsidy vote collapses. Republican lies are finally colliding with the lived experience of MAGA voters who can't fake...

We examine the difference between political "weather" and "climate" this week, starting with Trump once again bribing farmers with $11 billion after his own tariffs destroyed their markets. We play audio demonstrating Trump's cognitive decline and discuss his increasingly unhinged Truth Social posts, including a bizarre rant about Marjorie Taylor Greene. The Republican Party is now held together by violence and threats, from ICE brutality to intimidation of Indiana legislators. We revisit the...

The dangerous convergence of Trumpian immunity and media complicity creates for Trump an imaginary “kingdom” once reserved for anointed kings. Our Constitutional form of “government of the people” has been corrupted by both MAGA's belief that Trump operates with divine authority above the law and a mainstream media that protects its own incompetent insiders at all costs. As a side quest, what does Mark Halperin's endless media rehabilitation tour have in common with Trump's pardon...

No show today; we've had quite a weekend. We'll be back to our regularly scheduled podcasting on Thursday. See you then! Support the show

In this week's episode, we experience the whipsaw—that aggressive, back-and-forth sawing motion that's now a perfect metaphor for what Republicans are doing to millions of American families over the Affordable Care Act. We watch in real time as Trump's promised two-year ACA subsidy extension is announced, then delayed, then killed by Mike Johnson—all within 48 hours. Why did Republicans pull the rug out from under tens of millions of Americans who depend on these subsidies? Because destroying...

In this week's episode, we dive deep into the infrastructure project nobody wants to talk about: the construction of political lifeboats. What are we witnessing as Trump's administration unfolds? We're seeing the familiar pattern of those who enabled catastrophe beginning to build their escape routes—just as they did after the Bush administration collapsed, when the "Fake Tea Party" served as the greatest mass escape operation since D-Day—allowing pro-Bush Republicans to magically transform i...

GOP rats are slowly but surely abandoning the sinking Trump ship, and we have to ask: Will "Republican Lifeboats" once again successfully allow the MAGA/Tea Party faithful to escape accountability? We analyze Marjorie Taylor Greene's masterful deployment of the "Magic Words" to blame "both sides of the aisle," framing her slow-motion exit from the Trump pandemonium bandwagon as an act of high principle. She's the first and possibly best lifeboat builder of the post-Trump era, claiming victimh...

This week, we're talking about the Epstein Files, the shutdown that wasn't really about the shutdown, and why six words might just end a presidency. Meanwhile, some privileged podcasters are dismissing angry "online" Democrats as if losing our healthcare is just a theoretical concern. Plus: The increasingly evident mental decline of a president: Trump goes from "inventing" the word "affordability" to *not wanting to hear about it.* George Orwell's question—"Was he, then, al...

This week, we're celebrating our first post-Blue Tsunami show! Democrats won across the board on Tuesday, and we're sleeping a little better. To quote Churchill: "This is not the end, but it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning." Happy 21st blogiversary to the amazing Fran Blue Gal! Zohran Mamdani won NYC mayor with over 50% of the vote. And yet the Wall Street Journal immediately declared, "Election Wins Won't Ease Democratic Party's Troubles." And hoo boy Tucker Carlson just released...

This week, we're recording on election day while awaiting results to find out which version of "Democrats are doing it wrong!" the pundits will run with tomorrow. We open with words of wisdom from Illinois Governor JB Pritzker to the American Federation of Teachers. Then we come to bury Dick Cheney, not to praise him. We'll explore our "12 Rules for Staying Fing Sane," which we redefine as a playbook for Democratic victories. And then we dive deep into Three Days of the Condor (RIP Robe...

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...

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!) Stay in Touch! Email: proleftpodcast@gmail.comWebsite: proleftpod.comSupport via Patreon: patreon.com/proleftpodor Donate in the Venmo App @proleftpodMail: The Professional Left, PO Box 9133, Springfield, Illinois, 62791 Support the show

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...

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 Rig...

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 r...

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 wee...

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 de...