Pardon the Politics

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The votes are in, mostly, and Chuck is back. Jeezy, Manny and Chuck take stock of the morning after the midterms: a blue wave Chuck says he did not see coming, the politicians whose next move just got complicated, and Manny’s warning to Republicans that you can’t carry the victories without carrying the L’s. 

Then Democrats face divided government and the filibuster debate; Stephen Miller becomes Chief of Staff; Vance, DeSantis, and Rubio start jockeying for 2028; the hosts ask who in the administration takes the fall; and a $5,000 check never arrives. 

Pickle of the Week goes to Mississippi’s Senate race. 

The Spotlights cover Israel after its election, Georgia’s blue wave, and the DOJ versus congressional oversight. 

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It’s the final 48. With Chuck away for the night, Jeezy and Manny open with the late twist in Michigan: Haley Stevens appeared with Republican Mike Rogers at a Detroit church two days before the election, and the hosts ask whether this is a policy break or a primary grudge, and who it is really meant to reach. Then Alaska, where a federal judge dismissed the Justice Department’s ballot lawsuit, and Manny explains why proving voter intent may be impossible. Back home, early voting in North Carolina has closed. Jeezy reads the record numbers, Manny is “unimpressed and unshocked,” and he walks through the three constitutional amendments on the ballot. 

Plus a Moses-and-the-golden-calf riff, Manny’s ruling on when Christmas is allowed, Election Day reminders for North Carolina voters, and how to watch our live coverage Tuesday night on YouTube, X, Instagram Live and Twitch.

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About a week from the November 3 midterms, Jeezy and Manny (Chuck is out this week for family matters) say policies are optional and the drama is mandatory. They take on the Ramaswamy ad featuring Amy Acton’s estranged mother and where campaigns draw the line, Abdul El-Sayed’s calm answer to the attacks on him in Michigan, the Susan Collins and Troy Jackson fight in Maine, and the Justice Department’s pre-election lawsuit over Alaska’s two Sullivans. Manny makes his case that Trump is headed for a lame-duck term, with reads on the Senate and Texas. 

The Pickle of the Week goes to Virginia state Sen. Louise Lucas, who is indicted and says she is not resigning (allegations, not convictions). 

The joint Spotlight: Israel’s election as the votes come in. Plus North Carolina’s early-voting deadline, election-night plans, and Manny’s Top Host ask. 

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Early voting is already underway across the country, and the numbers are loud. Georgia opened with a record day and North Carolina’s first days ran well ahead of 2022, but Manny has one message: congratulations, you voted, and it’s still the first quarter. Chuck breaks down who is voting in Georgia, the hosts trade notes on yard signs, Trump’s stop in Greenville and the campaigns getting it right in Michigan and Mississippi, and Jeezy and Chuck salute the students fighting for access to the polls in Guilford County. 

The Pickle of the Week goes double: Kimberly Guilfoyle’s resignation and a White House press secretary who lasted five days. 

Spotlights: Manny on the Oregon school shooting, Chuck on France’s youth uprising, Jeezy on Trump’s endorsement of Netanyahu. Plus the Top Host ask, new merch, and a Maduro tag.

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Three weeks from Election Day, Jeezy, Manny and Chuck take the midterm tunnel state by state. 

Ohio’s Senate race pits Sherrod Brown’s comeback bid against John Husted’s FirstEnergy and data-center headaches, while the governor’s race sets a COVID-era health director against Vivek Ramaswamy’s outsider pitch. Arizona’s Hobbs–Biggs brawl runs straight into a Colorado River cut that voters now rank as their top concern. In Maine, Susan Collins leans on seniority against Troy Jackson as Trump’s Canada tariffs hit fuel and road salt. 

In other news: Trump’s diesel deal with Putin, the Pentagon’s plan to livestream a firing-squad execution, and the Tennessee execution that failed. The Pickle of the Week lands in North Carolina, and the Spotlights go to the Supreme Court’s new term, the Protect College Sports Act, and the Nobel Peace Prize and ICC sanctions. 

Plus the line to remember: Election Day is not the day to vote. It is the last day to vote.

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Four weeks out from Election Day, it's put up or shut up time. This is a short bridge week: no main topic, just the stuff that matters right now.

Georgia's voter registration deadline is Monday, Oct. 5. North Carolina's is Friday, Oct. 9 at 5 p.m. Early voting is already open in several states and opens this week in several more. Check your registration, and don't assume you know where you vote.

Also this week: Jeezy, Chuck, and Manny on the Angela Paxton ad. A look at the road ahead (Ohio, Arizona, and Maine next week, then live election night coverage). And news for the PAC (Politically Active Citizens): the official logo and first wave of merch are on the way.

Reach one, teach one. Get to the polls.

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Explicit: contains adult language and mature humor.

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Episode 100. A lot of folks didn't make it here. We did.

Jeezy, Manny, and Chuck hit a milestone, and the listeners finally get a name: the PAC, Politically Active Citizens. Then it's a midterm double-header, Texas and Michigan, plus the $810 million Pickle of the Week and three Spotlights.

TEXAS
Talarico vs. Paxton for the Senate, and Abbott vs. Hinojosa for governor. The hosts go through Paxton's file, the turnout math, and Chuck's question for both governor candidates' tax plans: where's the money coming from for schools? Manny puts his Texas prediction on the record.

MICHIGAN
El-Sayed vs. Rogers for the open Senate seat, and Benson vs. James for governor. The hosts cover the Israel and Iran tightrope, the Trump factor, and Manny's calls, including which county to watch on election night.

MARK YOUR CALENDAR
Texas voter registration closes Oct. 5. Michigan registration closes Oct. 19 (online or mail). Election Day is Nov. 3.

ALSO THIS WEEK
The UN General Assembly (diplomacy, then threats) and a rumored driver strike over diesel prices.

PICKLE OF THE WEEK
The $810 million pocket rescission. Congress approved the money, a request sent five days before the fiscal year ends means it can expire before Congress gets its full review, and Jeezy asks who gets the final say.

SPOTLIGHTS
Manny: taxpayer-funded White House TV ads ("Paid for by the U.S. Government")
Chuck: TikTok's settlement with Alabama
Jeezy: the Supreme Court and the SAVE voter database

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Reach one, teach one. New episodes every Monday.

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Georgia's ballot is loaded, and we broke it down. This week Jeezy, Manny, and Chuck head south for a full midterm deep-dive into Georgia: the toss-up governor's race between Keisha Lance Bottoms and self-funded healthcare billionaire Rick Jackson, John Ossoff's Senate fight against Mike Collins, Lucy McBath's third-different-district battle in CD6, and the three constitutional amendments hiding at the bottom of the ballot. Plus: the U.S. officially confirms it has weapons in orbit, Mitch McConnell goes viral, gas prices creep toward a record, and Italy picks a fight over hijabs in schools. All that, a Pickle of the Week for Pete Hegseth, and the PTP merch store is finally live.

In this episode:

• Georgia's governor's race: Bottoms vs. Jackson, dueling ethics scandals, and a $108M self-funded war chest
• The Ossoff-Collins Senate race and its 10-to-1 fundraising gap
• CD6: Lucy McBath's redistricting odyssey vs. Kevin Martin
• Georgia's 3 constitutional amendments, explained
• Key Georgia voting dates: registration, early voting, Election Day
• Mitch McConnell's viral return to the Senate floor
• Diesel prices, the Iran war, and the Strait of Hormuz
• The Greenland/Denmark "deal" Trump is calling a victory
• CNN, MSNBC, and Politico denied White House press access

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Two years ago, this show was two guys and a Zoom link. This week we hit Episode 99 on our 2-year anniversary, and it's the longest one yet, because there was too much to leave out.

The centerpiece: a full down-ballot breakdown of North Carolina's 2026 midterms, the open Senate seat (Cooper vs. Whatley), the Supreme Court race (Earls vs. Stevens), the Don Davis rematch in CD-1, and the General Assembly races that actually draw the state's maps, including Senate Leader Phil Berger's primary loss. If you live in NC, this episode is basically your ballot guide: early voting runs October 15–31, and the registration deadline is Friday, October 9.

Then things got weird: the heads of OpenAI, Anthropic, and xAI publicly aligned this week on slowing AI development, days after a whistleblower report. Chuck and Manny walk through why that alignment is either a genuine warning sign or a very convenient ask for government money, and why it matters either way.

We closed with the GOP's first-ever midterm convention and the $5,000 "tariff dividend" promise that needed a walk-back before the week was out. Jeezy does the math on what $5,000 actually buys once gas, groceries, and rent take their cut.

Pickle of the Week goes to Sen. John Fetterman. Spotlights cover the Fed's rate-hike odds, a lab-grown biological computer out of Singapore, and Mitch McConnell's expected return to the Senate floor.

Thank you for two years. We started this on a whim and you're the reason it's still going.

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This week it's just Manny and Chuck holding it down. With the mic split two ways, the guys build the hour around Manny's lane: constitutional authority, federal rulemaking, and the courtroom back-and-forth behind the fastest-moving voting-access story of the midterm cycle so far. Three storylines, one converging Friday, Trump's Executive Order 14399 and the USPS's brand-new mail-ballot verification portal (which, per a whistleblower, was built by two teams who each built their own kill switch without knowing the other team existed), North Carolina's State Board of Elections quietly rewriting four mail-ballot rules the same morning ballots hit mailboxes, and a fresh round of FBI voter-data subpoenas out of Nevada. Plus: the guys announce a four-state midterm special arc starting with North Carolina and Georgia, tease PTP's 100th episode and 2-year anniversary coming up in the next couple of weeks, and close with Spotlights on a new North Korea–Russia bridge and a scary weapons incident at an Ohio governor's-race campaign event.

Topics covered:
The national mail-in ballot fight: EO 14399, the USPS's 95-page final rule, a whistleblower's account of the portal build, and the injunction-court-injunction pattern headed to a September 8 Supreme Court briefing deadline

North Carolina rewrites its own mail-ballot rules: signature mismatch, unsealed inner envelopes, multiple ballots in one envelope, and who's allowed to hand-deliver, all passed as memos, not formal rules, on a party-line vote

DOJ/FBI subpoenas in Nevada: 7 subpoenas over 9 months, a DHS nine-state voter-fraud “surge,” and a claim of nearly 16,000 non-citizen registrations that DHS itself walked down to 185 “potential” cases

Manny's Spotlight: an armed man rushes a candidate event in Ohio, and the real cost of political security, including former Gov. Cooper's quarter-million-dollar security bill

Chuck's Spotlight: North Korea and Russia open their first road bridge

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