Make It Make Sense with Grant Hermes

Make It Make Sense with Grant Hermes

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Make It Make Sense with Grant Hermes episodes

  • Republicans Are Paying $25,000 to Attend a Convention That's Just About Trump.

    Something that has never happened in American history is underway in Dallas right now: the first-ever midterm Republican National Convention. Past midterm conventions have been about righting the ship, the party coming together, figuring out its message, getting organized. This one is about Trump. He is the keynote speaker both nights. The topics on the schedule are his policies, his accomplishments, his agenda. Senate Majority Leader John Thune is not attending. At least 70 congressional Republicans told Politico they weren't planning to go. Swing state candidates in Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Iowa are staying home to campaign.

    The ones who did go paid for the privilege. A single ticket for a member of Congress: $25,000. A roundtable with JD Vance: $75,000, plus $35,000 more for a photo with him. A photo with Trump: $89,000. A roundtable with Trump: $250,000. A leadership breakfast with Mike Johnson: $100,000.

    There are now serious questions about where this money is going, specifically whether some of it is being funneled into Trump's MAGA Inc machine, which has been spending the bulk of its campaign cash on national ads about Trump rather than helping vulnerable Republican candidates in close races.

    Before Dallas: the mail-in ballot rule got blocked again, the DOJ ran to the Supreme Court the same hour, the USPS Inspector General officially opened an investigation into the whistleblower's disclosure, and an appeals court blocked DHS from using a voter database a federal judge already said was built from illegal data. Canada's retaliatory tariffs went into effect targeting steel, aluminum, milk, cheese, and more — hitting Michigan hardest. And Trump posted AI images of himself as a Warhammer 40K emperor, a Space Force uniform based on Nazi SS costumes, and admitted on social media to trading stocks while in office.

    Join the SaySo News App! SaySo is a brand new news app built for people who actually want to be informed, not just keep scrolling. No outrage-chasing algorithm, no AI slop, just vetted creators delivering fact-driven coverage you can get through in a few minutes a day. I'm one of the early creators on the platform, posting there alongside others I trust. Check it out and download SaySo.

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    17 min
  • The Lawyer for the USPS Whistleblower On The Record w/ WhistleblowerAid's David Kligerman

    EDITOR NOTE: This episode was recorded before a federal judge in Massachusetts issued her ruling blocking the mail-in ballot rule. 

    North Carolina and Delaware started sending out mail-in ballots today. Two weeks from now, most other states will follow. And the USPS mail-in ballot rule that a whistleblower says was built to "catastrophically fail" is still being fought over in federal court, with the Trump administration asking the Supreme Court's shadow docket to let it go forward.

    David Kligerman is the senior vice president and special counsel at WhistleblowerAid.org. He is the lawyer for the USPS whistleblower. This is his first extended on-record conversation about the case, how his client came forward, what they disclosed to Congress, and what happens next.

    Among the details that have not been widely reported: the whistleblower found their way to Whistleblower Aid through a kind of underground railroad process, listening to a show like this one, reaching out, being passed along through trusted civil society contacts until they arrived at a law firm that could protect them. David says this raises a serious question: how many other people inside the federal government have something to disclose and simply haven't found a safe way out yet.

    The episode also covers the broader landscape of whistleblowing under this administration: inspector generals gutted and weaponized against the people they're supposed to protect, the Office of Special Counsel neutered, the Merit Systems Protection Board dismembered, federal employment rules being rewritten to put protected positions into at-will categories. And what David thinks changes if Democrats win the House: subpoena authority, the ability to hold hearings, and what he expects will be a far more robust environment for disclosures.

    If you work inside the federal government and have something to share: WhistleblowerAid.org. Conversations with attorneys are free, anonymous, and fully protected by attorney-client privilege.

    USPS Whistleblower Disclosure

    Make It Make Sense Substack: DHS Citizenship List

    CHAPTERS:

    0:00 Ballots go out in North Carolina and Delaware today. Here's why that matters right now.

    2:46 Meet David Kligerman: SVP and special counsel at WhistleblowerAid.org, lawyer for the USPS whistleblower

    2:58 How the USPS whistleblower found their way to Whistleblower Aid: an underground railroad through civil society

    5:00 The bigger question: how many other people inside the government have something to disclose and can't find a safe way out

    5:18 Nine months of Whistleblower Aid cases: ICE, Social Security, HUD, and what's still in the pipeline

    7:30 The landscape for federal whistleblowers right now: inspector generals weaponized, Special Counsel neutered, MSPB dismembered

    9:21 How the USPS whistleblower came forward and what they disclosed to Congress

    14:00 What the disclosure actually says: haphazard development, zero failure protocol, court order violated

    18:00 Congress is now asking for an investigation: what subpoena authority changes and why it matters 

    22:00 What David thinks a Democratic House means for whistleblower disclosures: a game changer

    24:44 The "cavalry" effect: how the prospect of Congressional oversight is already encouraging more people to come forward

    27:10 What you can do right now if you work inside the federal government and have something to share

    29:32 WhistleblowerAid.org: free, anonymous, fully protected by attorney-client privilege

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    31 min
  • The Candidates Who Rejected Corporate Money Won Anyway w/ End Citizens United's Tiffany Muller

    The 2026 midterms are on track to be the most expensive in American history, $12 billion in ad spending alone, before counting what's sitting in PACs and super PACs. 100 billionaire families are contributing over 20% of total election spending. Most of it is dark money: you don't get to know who donated, why, or what they're asking for in return.

    Tiffany Muller is the head of End Citizens United, the organization fighting to get corporate money out of elections. She's back on the show for the second time this cycle to break down where things actually stand with 60 days to go.

    The most surprising finding from this primary season: candidates who pledged to reject corporate PAC money are outperforming candidates who took it. El-Sayed won in Michigan without PAC money. Angela Nixon won in Florida without PAC money, outspent 16 to 1. The data is suggesting that in 2026, the corporate money pledge may actually be a political asset rather than a liability.

    Then there's the AI ads problem. AI is set to spend $150 million in this election cycle producing political content. In the final stretch before November, voters are already seeing a deepfake of Governor Kathy Hochul doing a walk-and-talk saying things she never said, a James Telerico ad placing him in a dress, and an LBJ-style Daisy ad remake. Minnesota banned AI in political ads. An outside group used an AI likeness of the Democratic candidate there anyway. Only three states have any law on the books at all.

    And the Supreme Court just issued a new ruling, NRSC versus FEC, that opened even more floodgates for big money.

    End Citizens United

    Make It Make Sense Substack

    CHAPTERS:

    0:00 The most expensive midterm in history: $12 billion, dark money, and why Grant sat on this interview

    2:05 Tiffany Muller: President of End Citizens United, back for her second appearance this cycle

    2:42 Where things actually stand: still on track to shatter every spending record, and then the Supreme Court opened more floodgates

    4:10 Michigan at $60 million, North Carolina and Ohio Senate races potentially hitting $1 billion each

    5:09 Dark money explained: the shell company chain that makes sure you never find out who's actually paying

    6:35 100 billionaire families contribute over 20% of all election spending: what that actually means for your vote

    7:40 The corporate money pledge: why candidates rejecting PAC money are winning anyway

    10:00 El-Sayed in Michigan, Nixon in Florida: the data from this primary cycle on no-PAC candidates

    14:00 The NRSC versus FEC ruling: what the Supreme Court just opened up for big donors

    18:00 Can you fix this system? What actual reform looks like and why it's harder than it sounds

    22:00 The bipartisan case: this broken system hurts voters on both sides of the aisle

    26:00 AI ads in the 2026 midterms: $150 million, deepfakes of real candidates, and only three states with any law

    29:00 Kathy Hochul walking and talking. James Telerico in a dress. The LBJ Daisy ad. All AI. All real.

    31:25 Minnesota banned AI ads. An outside group used an AI likeness of their candidate anyway.

    33:46 What has to happen before November and what Grant will be tracking in 2027

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    36 min
  • Trump Calls 75% of Americans Stupid Over AI Data Centers

    A USPS whistleblower, protected by Whistleblower Aid, came forward today with allegations that in order to meet the September 1st deadline for the new mail-in ballot rule, the Postal Service violated a federal court order, developed an untested screening system under what insiders called a "shit show" timeline, and implemented a zero failure protocol that could mean millions of American voters never receive or have their mail-in ballot returned this election cycle.

    The whistleblower's most alarming claim: "Catastrophic failure would be a feature rather than a bug." The zero failure protocol works like this: if a single ballot in a batch of 5,000 to 10,000 can't be matched, the entire batch gets returned to the state. USPS doesn't fail. The state fails. Except the current mail delivery error rate is 15 to 20%, caused by wet barcodes, bad GPS signal, scanner malfunctions, none of which are fraud. Any of them can trigger the zero failure protocol.

    The whistleblower also says USPS restarted development work after a federal judge ordered them to stop, and that the Postmaster General lied to Democratic senators in writing in July, saying work was still halted.

    On the data centers: 75% of Americans oppose building AI data centers in their communities. Bipartisan, coast to coast. The day before Trump called those people stupid, Andreessen Horowitz, OpenAI co-founder Greg Brockman, and other AI billionaires launched a super PAC called Building the Future to spend tens of millions backing pro-data center candidates. Trump has millions personally invested in AI data center development companies. Grant explains why this is the most bipartisan political grenade of the midterm cycle, and why Trump just handed Democrats a ready-made corruption campaign issue.

    Editor's note: Grant meant to say "billion liters of water, not million liters of water" here

    CHAPTERS:

    0:00 Breaking: a USPS whistleblower comes forward with allegations the mail-in ballot system was built to fail

    2:00 The Federal Mail Ballot Portal explained: what it was supposed to do and why none of it exists yet

    4:00 "A shit show": what USPS officials were saying internally about the development timeline

    6:00 The zero failure protocol: how one bad barcode can reject 10,000 ballots at once

    8:00 The current mail error rate is 15 to 20%: why zero failure is mathematically impossible

    9:30 The court order USPS violated: a federal judge said stop. They didn't. The Postmaster General lied about it.

    11:00 "Catastrophic failure would be a feature rather than a bug": the whistleblower's conclusion

    12:30

    Sponsor break

    14:00 75% of Americans oppose AI data centers in their communities: why this is the most bipartisan issue of the midterms

    16:00 What data centers actually do to your town: noise, water depletion, rising utility rates, temporary jobs

    18:30 Trump's personal investments in AI data center companies: why this is his golden goose

    20:00 Andreessen Horowitz and OpenAI launch a super PAC the day before Trump calls data center opponents stupid

    21:30 Why Trump just handed Democrats their best corruption campaign issue of the cycle

    23:00 The GOP midterm convention next week: Trump-a-Palooza and the Heaven's Gate vibes

    This episode is sponsored by Cozy Earth. Get in on the Cozy Earth Labor Day Deal! Cozy Earth's bamboo sheets and brushed bamboo pajamas are temperature-regulating, insanely soft, and built for actually sleeping cool. Use code MIMS25 at CozyEarth.com for 30% off — and when you do, you're also supporting the show.

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    21 min
  • She's Won 24 Lawsuits Against Trump. Here's What She Thinks Is Coming Next

    This week has been one of the most chaotic and fast-moving weeks in the fight over how Americans will vote in November. The USPS mail-in ballot rule went final. A judge blocked it. The Supreme Court lifted that block. Another judge put it back in place. All in the space of four days. And through all of it, Common Cause has been in the middle of the legal fight.

    Virginia Kase Solomon is the president of Common Cause, the 56-year-old nonpartisan pro-democracy organization that fought Watergate reforms, ended the Vietnam War effort, and is now on the front lines of every major election protection lawsuit of this moment. She is also the former president and CEO of the League of Women Voters. Common Cause has won 24 lawsuits against this administration. They are plaintiffs in the mail-in ballot case, the voter roll data case, and at least one more that Virginia says is coming.

    Grant and Virginia talk through what the chaos of this week actually means for your vote in November, why the confusion itself is part of the strategy, what a third reconstruction looks like and why Virginia believes it is possible, why the mail-in ballot attack may be an own goal that unites more voters than it suppresses, and what the Texas cattle ranchers who voted for Trump are now saying to Common Cause organizers on the ground.

    866-OUR-VOTE or 888-VE-Y-VOTA (Spanish) 

    CommonCause.org

    Make It Make Sense Substack

    This episode is sponsored by TelosRX. Connect with licensed U.S. providers online to see if a GLP-1 weight loss treatment is right for you. Prescription required after consultation; results vary. Consult a doctor before taking any medications. 

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    CHAPTERS

    0:00 The fastest-moving week of the election fight yet: what happened with the mail-in ballot rule

    2:30 Meet Virginia Kase Solomon: president of Common Cause, 24 lawsuits won, former head of the League of Women Voters

    3:18 56 years of Common Cause: founded during Watergate and Vietnam, back at the same fight

    5:43 How do you grapple with the Groundhog Day feeling of fighting the same battles again?

    8:00 What the chaos around the mail-in ballot rule is actually designed to do: confusion is the strategy

    11:00 What Common Cause's lawsuit says and where the legal fight stands right now

    15:00 Why the mail-in ballot attack might be an own goal: one in three Americans voted by mail in 2024

    18:00 The third reconstruction: what transformative change looks like beyond just rebuilding what was there before

    20:00 The million conversations: what Common Cause is actually hearing from everyday Americans at kitchen tables

    22:00  The Texas cattle ranchers who voted for Trump and are now asking "who do I trust?"

    25:00  Grant's observation: people everywhere want the same basic things, we're just not saying so

    28:00  Why the mail-in ballot attack might unite voters across party lines rather than divide them

    29:42 What a third reconstruction actually looks like: not rebuilding the old, but something new

    33:37  The bait and switch: what Trump promised rural voters and what they're actually getting

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    37 min
  • Trump's Midterm Hail Mary Is More Trump

    68 days to the midterms. The road to Republicans keeping the House is all but closed. And this week the White House made a series of moves that look like the early stages of declaring a national emergency around the election.

    First: the USPS mail-in ballot restriction rule went into effect despite no federal framework for it to operate in and no time for states to comply. USPS is telling states that any ballot from a state that doesn't comply will not be delivered or returned.

    Second: Trump declared a national emergency to secure America's bulk power systems, specifically citing critical software and digital capabilities, which voting machines and vote-counting machines are classified as under federal law.

    Third: DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin told the White House Transparency Task Force that Chinese-made parts were found in some election equipment in some states and that this could compromise the midterms. He cited a 2024 intelligence assessment. He left out the very next sentence of that assessment, which says foreign actors will probably refrain from attacking because they almost certainly could not alter vote counts without detection.

    Fourth: DHS is now withholding disaster relief funding from states that won't conduct hand-counted paper ballot audits, even though hand counts are demonstrably less accurate than the machines we already use.

    Fifth: ICE arrests hit 50,000 in July, a 70% increase from the month before. A Republican governor in Wyoming has asked his attorney general to investigate aggressive federal election monitors.

    Trump can't suspend an election under a national emergency. But he can disrupt one. And he can use the chaos to claim the results are fraudulent. It's the only way he's ever won.

    Grant also breaks down Trump's midterm strategy of spending $400 million not on close races but on ads about his own accomplishments, why Republican strategists are nervous about it, and why renaming Lake Ontario "Lake America" will ruin the final verse of Gordon Lightfoot's Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald.

    CHAPTERS

    0:00 Trump's midterm strategy: make it about him, spend on ads, and hope 33% approval is enough

    2:00 251 endorsements, nine losses, and why his 87% success rate with non-incumbents is genuinely impressive

    3:30 South Carolina runoff: $800K, a campaign trip, and Darlene Graham wins thanks to Trump

    5:00 The Atlantic: Trump wants ads about himself and his accomplishments. GOP strategists are worried.

    6:30 The polls: negative 48 net approval overall, negative 42 on the economy, negative double digits even on immigration

    8:00 Lake Ontario becomes Lake America by executive order. 

    9:00 The scapegoat setup: Trump promotes a list blaming Republicans for not being loyal enough

    10:30

    Sponsor break

    12:00 The five pieces of a potential national emergency around the election: here's what was announced this week

    13:00 Piece one: USPS mail-in ballot rule goes into effect with no framework and no time

    14:00 Piece two: national emergency declared over the power grid, citing critical digital infrastructure

    15:30 Piece three: Chinese parts in voting machines — and the sentence Mullin left out of the intelligence report

    17:00 Piece four: DHS holds disaster relief hostage over hand-counted paper ballot audits

    18:30 Piece five: ICE arrests hit 50,000 in July, up 70%. A Republican governor investigates his own federal monitors.

    20:00 What a national emergency around the election would and wouldn't do: Trump can't cancel the vote

    21:30 The playbook: play the victim, claim the game is rigged, disrupt, deny. It's worked before.

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    18 min
  • The Supreme Court Won't Stop Trump's Mail-In Ballot Block. For Now.

    On Monday the Supreme Court issued an unsigned shadow docket opinion lifting a federal judge's block on Trump's new postal service rule, the one that would let USPS decide not to deliver or return mail-in ballots. The conservative majority didn't say the rule is legal. They said the challenge came too early because USPS hadn't published its final rule yet. That final rule goes public tomorrow.

    One in three Americans voted by mail in 2024. Roughly 100 million people. Eight states and Washington DC run entirely vote-by-mail elections. In Utah, 95% of voters voted by mail. If USPS follows the executive order but the citizenship verification list doesn't exist yet, which it doesn't, because DHS hasn't built it, then USPS has no list to check ballots against, which means it either sends nothing out or returns nothing that comes in.

    Grant games out three scenarios: elections decided by incredibly small margins, members of Congress not seated because states can't properly carry out elections, or a zombie Congress come January with no legal authority to act, concentrating even more power in the White House. Most experts don't think it gets that far. But this is a new door for claiming fraud after the election, and with the president in the White House instead of the wilderness, the deny stage of the executive override playbook is going to be better resourced than 2020.

    The good news: there is a second lawsuit from the League of Women Voters and Common Cause that will now be ripe for the Supreme Court to hear, and time, for once, may be on the side of voters.

    On Canada: Trump demanded Quebec reduce its use of the French language as a condition of trade talks. Canada's Prime Minister called it an act of colonization. Ontario's Premier called Trump a dictator. Trump threatened to rename Lake Ontario "Lake America." Grant explains why this is the Southern Strategy applied to international relations and why the actual tariffs don't kick in until after the midterms.

    CHAPTERS

    0:00 The most jam-packed week of news yet and it's only Tuesday: what's on the board

    1:30 Canada trade war: 50% tariffs, $50 billion in goods, and why we get 99% of our natural gas from Canada

    3:00 Trump called this deal "the best agreement we've ever made" when he signed it in 2020. Now he hates it.

    4:00 How the talks collapsed: the White House team imploded and then demanded Quebec stop speaking French

    5:30 Canada calls it colonization. Ontario's Premier calls Trump a dictator. Trump threatens to rename Lake Ontario.

    7:00 The Southern Strategy goes international: why this is culture war, not trade policy

    8:30 The good news: the actual tariffs don't kick in until after the midterms

    9:30

    Sponsor: TelosRX

    11:30 The Supreme Court clears the way for the postal service mail-in ballot rule: what actually happened

    13:00 Ripeness explained: why the Court said the challenge came too early and what happens tomorrow

    14:30 One in three Americans voted by mail in 2024. Here's what happens if USPS follows the order with no list.

    16:00 Gaming it out: three scenarios from small margins to zombie Congress

    18:00 The Purcell principle, Justice Jackson's dissent, and why timing is the real legal battlefield

    19:30 The second lawsuit: League of Women Voters and Common Cause, and why time may be on voters' side

    21:00 This is a new door for election denial — and it's harder to fight from the White House than the wilderness

    This episode is sponsored by TelosRX.  Connect with licensed U.S. providers online to see if a GLP-1 weight loss treatment is right for you. Prescription required after consultation; results vary. Get started HERE.

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    22 min
  • A Former Intel Officer Explains Exactly How Trump Plans To Hijack The Midterms

    74 days to the midterms. Alexandra Chandler is the Director of Free and Fair Elections at Protect Democracy, a former Naval Intelligence officer and former intelligence analyst under the Secretary of Defense. Her organization is currently suing the Trump administration over the postal service mail-in voting rules, the voter roll data grabs, FCC regulatory threats against media, and multiple state-level election interference attempts. She is fighting this fight every single day.

    The most important thing she explains in this conversation is the executive override framework: the three-stage playbook Protect Democracy identified by studying 2020, Trump's behavior out of power, and authoritarian precedents worldwide.

    Stage one is deceive: use the federal government's tools to spread disinformation, selectively declassify intelligence, produce fake studies, poison faith in the process, and galvanize a political base. Stage two is disrupt: use the lies from stage one as justification to invoke emergency powers and interfere with election machinery. Stage three is deny: when disruption fails in court, use the original lies to claim the results where you lost were fraudulent, setting up the grievance for the next cycle.

    Grant and Alexandra also discuss why this president is attempting the authoritarian playbook from a position of genuine weakness rather than popularity, what happens when you try to compress the political environment while being deeply unpopular, and how that desperation changes the nature of the threat heading into November.

    The conversation ends with specific, concrete things every person listening can do: know your state's voting rules, volunteer as a poll worker or monitor, encourage early voting, volunteer with the Democracy Legal Defense Network if you're a lawyer, and support local independent journalism.

    How You Can Protect Democracy

    Protect Democracy: Executive Override

    CHAPTERS:

    0:00 74 days out: the White House is setting up to undermine free and fair elections. Here's who fights back.

    2:38

    Meet Alexandra Chandler: 13 years in US intelligence, now Director of Free and Fair Elections at Protect Democracy

    3:12

    How under threat are our elections right now? Alexandra's honest answer.

    4:00

    The playing field vs. the machinery: two separate threats that require two separate frameworks

    5:00

    Why this president is attempting autocracy from a position of genuine weakness — and why that's more dangerous

    7:30

    The executive override framework: deceive, disrupt, deny — the three-stage election theft playbook

    8:30

    Stage one — deceive: fake studies, selective declassification, disinformation to poison faith in elections

    9:15

    Stage two — disrupt: use the lies as justification to invoke emergency powers and interfere with machinery

    9:45

    Stage three — deny: when courts stop the disruption, use the original lies to claim fraud and set up the next cycle

    10:27

    The direct through line from 2020 to January 6th to 2026: Grant and Alexandra connect the dots

    12:00

    "Admirably sustainable and renewable": the only recycling this administration does

    14:00

    The postal service rule, the voter roll grabs, ICE at polling stations: what's actually being attempted

    20:00

    Zero for 23 in court: why the shadow docket is the next battlefield

    28:00

    What healthy democracies do that ours doesn't: proportional representation and structural reform

    35:00

    How to inoculate yourself against what's coming: specific actions every person can take right now

    39:00

    Know your state's rules, volunteer as a poll worker, support local journalism, and help lawyers find election work

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    43 min
  • $40 TRILLION Dollars In Debt And Counting

    Primary season is officially over. 75 days to the midterms.

    In Alaska, former Democratic Congresswoman Mary Peltola got more first-round votes than sitting Republican Senator Dan Sullivan in a race nobody thought would be competitive. Alaska is officially a toss-up. In Florida, Democratic Socialist state representative Angela Nixon beat Alexander Vindman — who outraised her 16 to 1 — in the Democratic Senate primary. She ran no corporate or PAC money, led sit-ins at the governor's office with a pink megaphone, got arrested for trespassing, and won. In South Carolina's Republican runoff, Mark Sanford — yes, that Mark Sanford, the one who went hiking on the Appalachian Trail while actually visiting his Argentine girlfriend — is running against Darlene Graham, Lindsey Graham's sister, who was booed off her own primary stage when she accidentally admitted she opposed the Iran war.

    On the national debt: the US passed $40 trillion this week. It has doubled in the last decade, and economists point to two drivers — the 2017 Trump tax cuts and the Republican pattern of spending more and paying back less under every Republican president since 1980. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent announced the government is buying back US bonds to stabilize the dollar. When asked about the global oil economy directly connected to what he's doing, he said he didn't understand it.

    And then JD Vance told a group of young Republicans the US has had it too good for too long as the global currency standard and implied the country should pull back from that position. His mentor and financial backer Peter Thiel, for context, last year couldn't answer whether he thought humanity as a species should survive.

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    CHAPTERS:

    0:00 Primaries are done. 75 days to the midterms. Here's what just happened.

    2:00 Alaska: Peltola gets more votes than Sullivan in a race nobody thought was competitive

    4:00 Ranked choice voting explained: how Alaska's jungle primary actually works

    5:30 Alaska is officially a toss-up: the Sarah Palin through line and what makes Alaska Republicans different

    7:00 Florida: Angela Nixon beats Vindman 16-to-1 in fundraising, wins with a pink megaphone and no PAC money

    9:00 The DSA wave hits a statewide race: why establishment Democrats are panicking again

    10:30 Florida Congressional seat: Cory Mills out, arms dealing and domestic assault allegations explained

    12:00 South Carolina runoff: Mark Sanford vs. Darlene Graham, who got booed off her own primary stage

    14:00 Sponsor break

    15:30 The national debt hits $40 trillion: how it doubled in a decade and who economists blame

    17:30 Scott Bessent admits he doesn't understand the global oil economy he's been managing

    19:00 Trump wants to claim the Strait of Hormuz as US territory. His own Secretary of State says it's illegal.

    21:00 JD Vance tells young Republicans the US has had it too good as the global currency standard

    22:30 Peter Thiel couldn't answer whether humanity should survive. He funds JD Vance.

    23:30 What all of this means for prices, your mortgage, and your daily life

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    24 min
  • The President's "Human Binky" And His Lawyer

    Natalie Harp. She's a 35-year-old White House staffer who credits Donald Trump, not her doctors, with saving her life from bone cancer. She slept in the women's locker room of Trump's Bedminster golf club during the 2024 campaign to be physically closer to him. She leaves devotional notes in his documents and in his lunch. The Secret Service flagged her as a potential threat to the president. Maggie Haberman called her Trump's "human pacifier." And when Trump hid in the catering cart in Turkey, he brought two people: Pete Hegseth, who makes sense, and Natalie Harp.

    Senator Jon Ossoff mentioned her at a Georgia rally in a way that clearly implied an affair. Grant explains why that implication was sexist and harmful regardless of political stripe, why the Republican outrage over it is cynical and selective, and what the Harp story actually tells us about what this White House runs on.

    But first, Todd Blanche's first weekend as official Attorney General. He attended a Republican gubernatorial rally in New York, which is almost certainly against federal law and definitely against the norm of a politically independent DOJ. Then he went on Meet the Press and said the quiet part loud: he doesn't believe in DOJ independence. He said Trump has never asked him to do anything unethical or illegal, which is a lie that Grant documents in detail, including the Comey indictment, the journalist harassment, the slush fund, the IRS immunity deal, and a federal judge referring Blanche for formal discipline for attempting to defraud her court. He also accidentally called Trump his client on live television. Later in the interview, Blanche announced the DOJ is taking its 23 failed voter data lawsuits to the Supreme Court's shadow docket. Grant has been saying this was coming for weeks.

    Cheers to two Years of Make It Make Sense! Independent journalism only works with your support, so thank you! The price is still $5/month, but that changes August 20th. Subscribe now to lock in $5/month or $50/year!

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    CHAPTERS: 

    0:00 Todd Blanche's big debut weekend as Attorney General

    2:00 The Meet the Press interview: "I'm not into that idea" of DOJ independence

    3:30 Why Blanche's claim that Trump never asked him to do anything unethical is a documented lie

    5:00 Blanche accidentally calls Trump "my client" on live television

    6:00 The 139-year history of DOJ independence and what the White House's own executive order says about it

    7:30 The reflecting pool question: "proof is a pesky thing" and the case Blanche wants to revive

    8:30

    23 failed voter data lawsuits headed to the shadow docket: Grant called this weeks ago

    10:00 Sponsor break

    11:30 Who is Natalie Harp: bone cancer survivor, OAN anchor, Trump devotee, "human pacifier"

    13:00 The notes, the locker room, and being flagged by the Secret Service as a potential threat

    15:00 Why she was in the catering cart: the two people Trump took when he thought Air Force One might be attacked

    16:30 Senator Ossoff names her at a rally: what he implied, why it was sexist, and why the outrage is selective

    18:30 The Fox News Kamala Harris joke the same people cheered: the hypocrisy documented

    20:00 What Blanche and Harp have in common: the price and the reward of near-fanatical loyalty to Trump

    This episode is supported by Klear Protein. It's a clear whey protein you mix with water for a light, refreshing drink. 20g of protein, zero sugar, zero lactose, and no bloat. MIMS listeners get an exclusive 20% off any product, the best deal they offer with the code MIMS25. level up your protein game at klearprotein.com. (I earn a commission when you use my link.)

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    25 min

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