This week we cover the full spectrum of American absurdity—starting with Rach playing the game so hard at the bowling alley that she literally peed her pants, and ending with Trump deciding to send actual troops into Oregon like it’s his own personal war game. Between strikes, gutter balls, and creeping authoritarianism, we’re asking the real question: how do you keep your bladder (and your democracy) intact when everything feels like it’s spinning out of control?

This week on Pausing Democracy 🍸, things are anything but normal. Jess gets mistaken for a senior citizen (apparently moisturizer isn’t working), Katie chokes on popcorn and pees her pants, and Rachel declares that her true happy place is Skinny Pop and binge-watching The White Lotus.

Meanwhile, in the world outside our snack bowls: the U.S. government is literally bombing boats off the coast of Venezuela and killing alleged narcoterrorists, Jimmy Kimmel has been yanked off the air under federal pressure, and the media seems weirdly silent about Tyler Robinson and Charlie Kirk’s parents. Something doesn’t add up… and we’re here to call it out.

Grab your drink, laugh through the absurd, and join us as we try to process a democracy that feels like it’s circling the drain — with a little popcorn, a lot of sarcasm, and a promise not to take ourselves too seriously.

This week on Pausing Democracy, we take on the chilling reality of political violence in America. The assassination of Charlie Kirk has left the nation reeling, and we dive into what it means for a country already teetering on the edge. With the temperature rising on all sides, the whispers of civil war don’t feel so far-fetched anymore. We talk about fear, anger, and how democracy keeps slipping further from our grasp—even as we’re just trying to make it through menopause without losing our minds.

This week on Pausing Democracy, we open with Missy’s obnoxiously smooth ride through perimenopause (yes, we’re jealous, and yes, it’s lame). From there, it’s straight into the circus. “Gaslight Barbie” and a few of her administration cronies met with Congress to push the Big Beautiful Bill—except their strategy was to just rebrand it and flat-out lie, telling constituents it helps working families instead of crushing them. Meanwhile, the Trump family pocketed $5 billion from their cryptocurrency grift, a federal judge ruled Trump’s tariffs illegal (to the tune of $210 billion in refunds owed to businesses), and administration insiders are already scheming to profit off the fallout.

But that’s not even the worst of it. Trump literally blew up a boat in the Caribbean, killing 11 people under the pretense of fighting drug cartels—experts are calling it a war crime. The Epstein files remain sealed, and survivors’ voices were drowned out—literally—by a White House-ordered military flyover. Add in the ongoing scandal of Guatemalan children, rumors about Trump’s death, the CDC chaos with RFK, and a hot mic at DOJ, and it’s another week where democracy feels like it’s circling the drain.

This week on Pausing Democracy, we’re packing up for the colonies — where bartering is back, and we’re trading low-dosage estrogen patches like contraband cigarettes. Missy’s reinventing herself as a beat poet in exile, Jen’s spiraling after On Tyranny wrecked her week, and Rachel and Jessica are quietly Googling “how to prep for the fascist regime” without ending up on a list. Meanwhile, Nevada’s government is hacked and under siege, the CDC is MIA, Alligator Alcatraz is closed (don’t ask), and Donald Trump can’t even cover his bruises — or remember the ten wars he swears he solved. Pour a drink, grab a patch, and join us in the chaos.

Jessica narrowly escaped both a sketchy medical procedure and her own road rage. Missy accidentally tipped big for a Gen Z couple with major attitude. Meanwhile, Gavin Newsom has been trolling Trump like it’s his full-time job—and honestly, we’re here for it. But let’s be real: nice-guy politics aren’t cutting it anymore. If Democrats want to win, they’re going to have to play dirty. We also get into Trump’s latest attempt to erase slavery from history, ICE proudly picking a side (and it’s not ours), and the unhinged meltdown over… the Cracker Barrel logo. Yep, democracy’s still burning—and we’ve got the cocktails.

In this week’s episode, we dive headfirst into the absurdity of the headlines—starting with whispers of a possible HRT shortage (because apparently menopause wasn’t hard enough already). We unpack the surreal rebranding of the Kennedy Center into the Trump/Kennedy Center, Ghislaine Maxwell’s eyebrow-raising work release privileges, and the latest bait-and-switch over grand jury files. We break down how tariffs are fueling more inflation, introduce you to Heritage Foundation favorite E.J. Antoni—now running the BLS—and discuss ICE’s new recruitment push. And yes, we’ll talk about Jared Wise, the high-ranking DOJ official making news for all the wrong reasons. All with our usual cocktail of menopause mood swings, political side-eye, and just enough irreverence to keep us sane.

This week on Pausing Democracy 🍸, Jessica is exhausted (possibly from perimenopause, possibly from accidentally waxing off part of her eyelid), but we are still finding the energy to rage-sip through another week of American chaos.

Trump fired the head of the Bureau of Labor Statistics because the jobs report didn’t vibe with his vibes, and then wheeled out a kindergarten-level bar graph with “new data” presented by none other than Project 2025’s Stephen Moore. Meanwhile, JD Vance’s hush-hush cabinet meeting may or may not have been canceled, and Trump’s threatening to seize D.C. with the military.

Over in Dogeland, “Big Balls” (yes, that’s a real guy) got attacked trying to help a woman, South Park returned to tear into authoritarianism, and Texas Republicans are so committed to gerrymandering they’re threatening to jail their own colleagues to do it.

Also: Jeanine Pirro is now U.S. Attorney for D.C., the DOJ mysteriously deleted parts of the Constitution from their site, NASA wants nukes on the moon, and Ghislaine Maxwell swears she never saw Trump do anything “inappropriate” (sure, lady).

Oh, and aliens might be here by November. Cheers!

On this week's Pausing Democracy, we try to process the national chaos machine, one RIP at a time. Monday started with the loss of Malcolm Jamal Warner (no, not Theo!) The US government casually dropped the long-sealed MLK files but continued to fail to drop the Epstein files.  Ozzy died too- ugh but South Park tried to cheer us up with the ultimate smackdown.  Not to be outdone by the one and only Jerome Powell! It's the fall of democracy folks, and we're hanging by a very thin thread...

After a 2-week hiatus filled with hormone surges and collective dread, we return to find the world still on fire- so to speak.  The Epstein files, or alleged lack there of, are causing quite the rattle in MAGA world.  We have a theory: what if this isn't just fallout? What if it's Heritage Foundation clearing the path for a more manageable monster?! We're connecting the dots and finding ourselves deep in the perimenopause, patriarchy, and political panic. Join us!