Krystal Kyle & Friends

We’re releasing our convo early this week to give you the latest news as debt ceiling negotiations reach the eleventh hour on Memorial Day weekend. With David Dayen as our guest, we dig into the political scene unfolding in the debt ceiling negotiations, from key figures (Biden and McCarthy) to what’s on the docket for spending cuts thanks to Republican austerity — and no thanks to Democrats’ negotiating prowess.

Republicans have made it clear that the debt ceiling itself is their concession — they’re doing all they can to set the terms of this parley. Is Biden, hailed by centrist Democrats during his campaign as the great negotiator capable of reaching across the aisle in a way his further-left counterparts could not, actually living up to that promise? Or are we seeing the Democrats giving in and playing by Republicans’ rules of the game? We answer all these questions and more on this week’s episode. You can listen to this conversation on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Pandora, and more. Thanks for tuning in.

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Media fawns and humiliates themselves over Secretary Pete, Ron DeSantis sinks to new lows in his war on trans people, and Kyle reveals that time he almost had to debate Alex Jones. We have a lot to talk about on this week’s episode of KK&F. And we’re thrilled to be joined by Jason Nichols a leftist who frequently appears on Newsmax.

Jason discusses his strategy and goals for appearances, his views on “platforming” extremists, and how he stays sane in the face of insanity.

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Acting as the attorney for the families of those killed in the Sandy Hook shooting, Mark Bankston played a central role in the crucial defamation cases against Alex Jones for his dangerous, highly public denial of the shooting. Now, he explains what constitutes defamation — and why that label can get so controversial. It’s tied in, of course, to an analysis of current events. Just a few weeks ago, Fox News paid $787.5 million to Dominion Voting Systems in a settlement over claims that 2020 election conspiracy theories spread by Fox resulted in harm to the company.

Fox’s massive resources, along with the popularity of its claims of election fraud, have emboldened the company to make and stand behind such conspiracies. Who has the power to fight back, and on what legal grounds? What kind of speech is protected under American free speech rights, and what crosses the line into defamation? These are the questions we’re lucky to have Mark to answer for us, and we’re glad you’re joining us for the discussion. You can listen to this conversation as a podcast when it’s released later tonight on Spotify, Pandora, Apple Podcasts, and more.

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News of Clarence Thomas’s expensive gifts from a billionaire GOP donor has sharpened our sense that the rich and and powerful play by different rules — and benefit accordingly. Other Supreme Court justices are benefiting, too. Reporting out of Business Insider just today shows that Jane Roberts, wife of Chief Justice John Roberts, took in $10.3 million over the course of eight years for connecting top lawyers with firms and corporations. (And, as TNR reports, Congress has known about it for months — but we’re just finding out about it now.) Then there’s a story from earlier this week in Politico about the chief executive of a top law firm buying property co-owned by Neil Gorsuch nine days after Gorsuch’s confirmation to the Supreme Court. Politico also reports that since the purchase, the law firm, Greenberg Taurig, has interacted with Supreme Court cases twenty-two times.

It’s a bleak picture of the state of our judicial system, bought and paid for with corporate and billionaire dollars. What do we do with that picture, and how does it come together? How can we change it? We’re digging into these questions with insightful political scientist and writer Corey Robin, and we hope you enjoy the episode — it’s available on Spotify, Substack, Apple Podcasts, Pandora, and more.

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With this week’s guest, Daniel Nichanian, we dive into the recent trend of GOP “culture warriors” failing to make successful bids for school board seats in recent Midwestern elections. Krystal points out that given the relatively large pool of resources these candidates often have to draw upon for smaller local elections, many expected the far-right strategy to win these elections through virulent anti-trans and anti-CRT platforms to be more successful. But in fact, these candidates have fallen short, and Daniel’s analysis reveals that while right-wing candidates are still using anti-LGBT messaging to win elections elsewhere in the country, progressive candidates’ focus on issues immediate to the improvement of learning conditions may well be helping them pull ahead. Learn more and join us for the full episode above.

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We've got a wide-ranging and thought-provoking conversation with author and political commentator Norman Finkelstein, covering everything from the 2020 Sanders campaign's strategy and messaging, the current state of American politics, political appeals to the working class, and more. Norm joins us to talk about "hyper-wokeness," both its manifestations in the 2020 presidential election and beyond. How do identity politics and class struggle interact, and how did we see that on debate stages and campaign trains? What role should identity politics play in political discourse at large? Norm has plenty of thoughts to share on these topics and we hope you'll join us for the debate.

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In Episode 119 of KK&F, we’re joined by lawyer and journalist Bradley Moss to learn the ins and outs of Trump’s developing criminal case. Now, as Trump actually heads to court, we’ll see how his base mobilizes around their perception of the former president as wrongfully accused or persecuted, and how Trump himself continues to refute the charges he’s facing. The case will, we expect, be a major point of focus as we head into a new season of presidential campaigning, and we’ll continue to talk about how mainstream media will respond to case developments, as well as how the Republican Party will be forced to respond. You can listen to this episode as a podcast when it’s released tomorrow on Spotify, Pandora, Apple Podcasts, and more.

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What is Steven Donziger up against? In our extensive conversation with him this week, we ask him to walk us through the charges he faced as a result of targeting from Chevron, how he appealed those charges, and why it’s significant that this appeal won’t be considered by the Supreme Court. Steven explains that he was charged with contempt of court and sentenced to 6 months in jail back in 2021 for refusing to hand over personal electronic devices to Chevron for their perusal. A district attorney had refused to prosecute him, but when a federal district court judge appointed a friend of his (who worked for a Chevron firm, it bears noting) to go after Steven, private corporate prosecution led to Steven’s sentencing.

As Steven, himself an attorney, points out, this degree of unapologetic, outright corporate power being wielded for private prosecution is truly unprecedented. We hope you, like us, will appreciate hearing from Steven on this crucial case, reflecting on how corporate power and lack of accountability goes all the way up the American judicial system. Remember that you can listen to this episode through Spotify, Substack, Pandora, Apple Podcasts, and more.

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Welcome back to KK&F, where the great Matthew Zeitlin gives us a primer on the conditions that led to the March 10 fall of SVB (Silicon Valley Bank), which had been involved with nearly half of tech companies backed by venture capital. He also helps us understand the significance (and the truth) behind Biden’s claim that what the Fed did for SVB following its failure was not a bailout.

How should we assess the admin’s decision to guarantee uninsured deposits — is Biden right that because taxpayer dollars aren’t going into the bank to revive it, we can’t call this a bailout? Or is this a useful framework to think about the government’s decision to take unusual action to shore up a floundering financial institution?

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April 11 marks the four-year anniversary of Julian Assange’s incarceration in a maximum-security prison. Back in October, he appealed the decision to extradite him to the US, where he faces life in prison; his health is suffering as he waits to hear the decision on the appeal. Since the beginning of his incarceration, Gabriel and John Shipton, Julian’s brother and father, have worked tirelessly to share the urgent story of the repression he’s faced for drawing attention to American war crimes. Now, their documentary, Ithaka — evoking both an “international odyssey” and an eventual homecoming — tells that story more powerfully than ever, and they’re doing a tour across the country to accompany the film’s release.

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