PREMIUM BEEF ... The Chicken McNugget Hour of Power ... The tastiest Long John Silver's fryer effluent ... Overwhelmed by NBA and NHL postseason options ... Playoff triage... The nicest guy in sportswriting (it's Jon Bois) ... The ever-upward evolution of the NBA ... Hero Ball and Phrenology ... Meal Drift, late-night stew, casual wok sexism ... Never go Full Derelict ... Bill O'Reilly and all the ways we failed ... Dr. Noonian Soong and the positronic dryer ... Weird Al'ing anything you own or do...

015 - The Degradation of the Spheres

50 States of Blue's "Spectacle of Trump" Editor Jeb Lund and a rotating cast of fellow journalists and assorted comic-writer/attorneys discuss recent political and sports events through the prism of our broken and bizarre online discourse, talk to the occasional famous person, and try to leaven things via a Patreon-exclusive Hallmark Christmas Movie review podcast. It's very, very successful. Everyone loves it.

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News & Politics

Comedy

Guest host CHARLES STAR and RANDOLPH BRICKEY recap June's Supreme Court madness beginning with: A judge who loved the troops and playing games too much ... THEME ... GAMBLE v. UNITED STATES: Separate sovereign, double jeopardy and the criminal president ... Larry Krasner again ... RBG on dual-sovereignty and individuals ... Double jeopardy, Blockburger and stacking charges ... BREAK ... Plugs ... FLOWERS v. MISSISSIPPI ... A series of reversals for racism ... Alito's bafflement at the actual justice system ... Thomas: Exculpating prosecutors, "reverse racism" ... How to not NOT fake peremptories ... BREAK ... MONT v. UNITED STATES: On probation, three days from retirement ... Getting a probation violation while in jail ... Notorious RBG ... Probations, cases and multiple jurisdictions ... REHAIF v. UNITED STATES: Demonstrably bad student, obviously troubled guy and gun-possessor ... Is it "see something/say something" paranoia or actually scary? ... Knowing violations ... A shining moment for Sam Alito's issue-spotting clerk trollery ... The excesses of "possession of a firearm" ... BREAK ... GUNDY v. UNITED STATES: Pedophilia defense as administrative law crumbles ... A nine-month period of administrative phantom zone ... Alito's love-letter to a future Kavanaugh ... Gorsuch: No Gods, No Masters, Unbounded Discretion ... BREAK ... KNICK v. TOWNSHIP of SCOTT ... Force state exhaustion; state exhaustion precludes federal claims ... Takings law: You cost me billions in child poison! ... Billionaires walling off beaches ... Kagan: No one cares about stare decisis anymore ... FRANCHISE TAX BOARD of CALIFORNIA v. HYATT ... Decades of losing your own settlement, still not paying taxes ... Kagan signaling about the census and gerrymandering ... BREAK ... PDR NETWORK v. CARLTON & HARRIS CHIROPRACTIC: I'm the Fax Spam ... The GOP turning its back on Chevron ... No government left worth ruining ... VIRGINIA URANIUM v. WARREN: Downing millings, chasing tailings ... Gorsuch: World Class Alienating Pedant ... Roberts trolling RBG just to do it ... Gorsuch loses the women again ... Gerrymandering, Wisconsin and permanent anti-majoritarian legislatures ... The future is screaming ... • Intro theme courtesy of Ted Leo • All other music by Chris Collingwood of Look Park and Fountains of Wayne.

055 - The Cliven Bundys of Stare Decisis

Guest host CHARLES STAR and RANDOLPH BRICKEY break down THE MUELLER REPORT, up to and including: The part everyone loves ... THEME ... Charles' intro ... A light 400 pages of high crimes ... No Collusion Section ... Cheating ships passing in the night ... Carter Page: Sincere Russophile ... Unanswered Page pitch emails ... Two Russian Paths: Hacking and bozos ... Russia "skeptics" capitalizing on #Resistance weirdo straw men ... Valid, independently reportable corruption stories ... Young Trump imprinting on strongmen vs. Kingly ambition ... Terminal international solipsism ... Fictional Puerto Rico ... Michael Flynn: Kidnaping and murder-for-hire plotter ... Brain-wormed mercenaries ... Let's hack the server ... Find 30,000 phantom emails ... There was and is something to investigate ... Been to Prague ... "Skeptics'" mischaracterize mainstream journalism ... BREAK ... There is only power now ... Don Jr. wanted to collude so hard ... Was something of value offered? ... No prior cases ... Was it a willful violation? ... Too dumb for culpability ... Unpursued ... Is is it de minimis/valuable enough? ... Unresolved ... How semi-cooperative ... "We didn't delete our texts and don't know why they're gone" ... Hope Hicks, Moral Person ... Footnote #489: My handwriting! ... Public service refusal ... Manafort, Randolph and Mortimer Duke ... The first moderating voice was a Ukrainian hatchet man ... BREAK ... Was it obstruction of justice? ... Ahhhh, I'm f*cked ... Bob Barr's BS framing of obstruction ... Chris Christie: Sagely corrupt ... You can't fire the FBI ... Rosenstein: Deliberate dope ... Pages of Comey vindication ... Joe Friday obstruction facts ... KT MacFarland ... Bannon and Kushner: The biggest liars ... Reince Priebus ... This everyday totally bizarre semi-legal illegal stuff ... Definitely obstruction, but unindictable ... Tolling the statute ... Untested formal rule ... Mueller: The non-conflict-of-interest golf membership ... BREAK ... Dictated statement for Jeff Sessions ... Jared Kushner originating adoption lie ... Hope Hicks, redux ... Don Jr.'s one flash of genius ... Democratic setup claim ... What acts were definitely obstructive? ... Pardon to Manafort, Cohen's statements to Congress, attempts to fire Mueller ... Failures to obstruct ... Lifelong privilege is not an affirmative defense ... Success is not a requisite for an obstruction of justice case ... BREAK ... Jerome Corsi: Dumb, with Korsakoff's Syndrome ... "That never happened" ... Inky Carter Page ... Should they impeach? ... Investigate, investigate, investigate ... If you don't enforce subpoenas, it's a constitutional crisis ... Staff up AND keep impeachment on the table ... House Oversight Committee's subpoena ... AOC ... 1880 legal citation ... Regulating finance ... Blind trust fakeout ... Preserving the House subpoena power ... Gorsuch recusal ... Goodnight! • MUSIC: "Balalaika," by Firewater • "Trans-Continental Hustle," by Gogol Bordello • "Un Jeune Homme Bien," by Petula Clark • "From Ankara to Izmir," by Douglas, Barenberg and Meyer • Intro theme courtesy of Ted Leo.

054 - The Monster Idiot Fog

CHARLES STAR and RANDOLPH BRICKEY return for: Michael Avenatti's Empire Records ... THEME ... Speeding someone to their death ... Dunn (Alabama DOC) v. Domineque Ray: When your resources are out of imams ... Five days is a fast-enough legal response ... Uniform bipartisan condemnation ... Murphy v. Collier (Texas DOCJ): No judicial resources for Buddhists ... YOU don't get a spiritual advisor! And YOU don't get a spiritual advisor! ... Prison is a black box and must remain a black box ... Literally, God is dead ... BREAK ... Bucklew v. Precythe: As contextually good as hanging! ... Horse Flatliners ... Everything in the Princess Bride is humane ... Bucklew's savage use of judicial resources ... The danger of an unexamined execution ... Tucker Carlson's single good deed ... Valid counter-options for execution ... BREAK ... US v. Avenatti (Central District of California): Faked tax returns, in arrears, poaching client's settlement ... Bailing out Tully's Coffee ... Patrick Dempsey ... $100k loan ... Should've done arson ... Zero payroll taxes or returns ... Circumventing liens ... "General counsel for Tully's" ... BREAK ... US v. Avenatti (Southern District of New York): This could not have gone worse ... Just a cartel that steals from children ... Tom Emanski ... Insane retainer demand ... Threatening the meanest lawyer in America ... The FBI framing questions ... Misreading public perception of the NCAA ... You're client is so extortable! ... Can't we overcompensate your client vs. My client's a crook ... Tweeting the back half of your threat ... LA Law's Permanent Midnight ... BREAK ... Mike Geragos: The Good Example ... Seeing Trump as self-apotheosis ... Failing to out-elect your own crimes ... "That's enough crimes" ... Fighting his execution ... CREDITS ... • Music courtesy of Chris Collingwood of Look Park and Fountains of Wayne, and Ted Leo., except "(I Wanna Be) Like Mike" by Teknoe.

053 - Jerry Lundegaard's Basta Move

CHARLES STAR returns and RANDOLPH BRICKEY appears for the first time for: Talking book ... THEME ... No collusion ... Wrong Garza ... Garza v. Idaho ... Case summary ... Screwing up a good deal for a bad plea ... Judicial resources ... A perfectly silent court of appeals ... BREAK ... Clarence Thomas's dissent continued ... Client self-immolation ... McCoy and his closing/sentencing ... Just file the damn pre-appeal paperwork ... Anders brief ... Thomas and the right to "effective" counsel ... The "farce and mockery" standard ... Rights a government is "capable" of ... Louisiana and Missouri's crowded dockets ... Here's your case, governor ... Opportunistic indifference to indigent rights ... Pulled off indigent defense docket for competence ... Judicial resources again ... Adnan Syed and single judicial-resources bite at the ineffective assistance apple ... No long-term conspiracy here, it's just Thomas ... Distinguishing out defendant rights ... Cell phones ... BREAK ... Larry Krasner travails in Philly ... Charging, bail and plea policy memo-manifesto ... Rejected sentencing recommendations ... U.S. attorney charging a convenience-store robbery as a federal crime ... Active sabotage and a warning to progressive DAs everywhere ... Hypocrisy and federalism ... Disrupting the docket ... Shirley Jackson's The Plea Lottery ... No judicial pushback ... The racial bias is where the mandatory minimums are ... Legislatures and elections policing leniency ... Marijuana, not charged, but probable cause ... CREDITS ... • Music courtesy of Chris Collingwood of Look Park and Fountains of Wayne, and Ted Leo.

052 - Our Precious Judicial Resources

Deadspin founder WILL LEITCH appears for the fifth installment of "Two Dads Talk Thanksgiving" and: Eponymous, not titular ... Layered flooring in apartments ... Load-bearing parlor ... Thanksgiving plans ... A sudden Thanksgiving death ... An active family Thanksgiving ... Cursed places ... Died in the guest bedroom ... Things have happened between these walls ... Goodbye to the childhood home ... Dad built our house around me ... One last project for the ultimate handyman ... BREAK ... Learning to bake bread the Martha Stewart way ... Do you say you baked the bread yourself? ... Bakin' via cheapskatery ... Olive oil utility belt ... Finding solace/escapism in opting for basic labor ... Fantastic Beasts and why that movie sucks ... Go away, JK Rowling ... Chris Jones and Buzz Bissinger shout-outs ... Twitter doesn't promote traffic at all ... Success means being able to abandon social media ... BREAK ... Are we confronting our families this Thanksgiving? ... We know America was never normal ... Covering Trump coming down the escalator ... It's OK to not engage this BS ... Hit your cousin ... Do you self-censor in anticipation of bro rage? ... B*rstool Sports ... A journalist's job is to get yelled at ... Be sad as hell, but you're still a white guy ... "It was easy for ME to vote!" ... Old white sportswriter privilege ... Born on third base, claiming a triple ... This is a fake job, a nurse is a real job ... BREAK ... What malpractice is the media committing this year? ... Endless airtime for Trump's opinion ... Inauguration Day dispelled any belief in Trump's evolution ... The Prisoner's Dilemma of covering Trump outrage ... Labor reporting vs. Cletus Safari ... "Trapped by the base" THAT YOU BUILT ... Pareene's take: Just don't go, just don't cover it ... The indestructibility of shamelessness ... Wanting to take a swing at the shameless ... Faith in GOP voters abandoning the party ... The media's fallacious default to GOP "adulthood," popularity and "normalcy" ... Parties TELL their voters what to accept/reject ... BREAK ... Write letters again ... How many words makes a letter a letter? ... Everyone loves stamps, I got stationary ... P.O. Box, Will Leitch, Georgia ... TELEGRAM SCHTICK ... Will's hero appearance on the Hallmark podcast ... Plugs ... Scaramucci ... CREDITS...

015 - The Degradation of the Spheres

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