In their final episode of 2025, Driftglass and Blue Gal try to sum up the entire awful year in just a few key words or phrases. 

As they close out nearly 16 years of podcasting together, the hosts reflect on the core lies drilled into Americans' heads so long that people automatically reach for them whenever the truth becomes too uncomfortable to face.

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Driftglass and Blue Gal bring their epic year-in-review series to a close, covering September through December and finally boxing up 2025 to send it to hell. The hosts examine the final months of a year that saw legacy media trapped in their own 'Both Sides Do It' prison, DOGE's promises evaporate into nothing, and the Epstein files get a (incompetent, but still) cover up.  But there's also hope in this finale—a massive Blue Wave in November's elections, governors standing up to federal overreach, and signs that Trump's floor might finally be cracking. As they close out the longest decade of their lives, Driftglass and Blue Gal thank their listeners for sticking with facts, empathy, and each other through a year when all three were under constant assault.

h/t @markeymarx on Bluesky for the cover artwork 

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Driftglass and Blue Gal continue their review of 2025, covering May through August in this second part of their series. 

The hosts show how the Republican Party's corruption and chaos isn't something new or unexpected—it's exactly what the party has been building toward for decades through right-wing talk radio and Fox News. They walk through major events from those months, including media companies giving in to Trump's demands, the White House deleting official transcripts, federal agents being sent into cities, and military honors given to January 6th rioters. 

Throughout the episode, Driftglass and Blue Gal make clear that this disaster didn't happen by accident—Republicans got exactly what they voted for three times, and now everyone is living with the results.

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Driftglass and Blue Gal reflect on what they call an "annus horribilis"—a genuinely awful year that fundamentally changed America as Trump's second term brought unprecedented corruption, chaos, and the erosion of democratic institutions. From Qatar's $400 million Boeing 747 bribe to Trump's crypto schemes and the $300 million White House ballroom boondoggle, they catalog the scandals that made 2025 feel like the longest decade of their lives. 

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Trump's "affordability" tour crashes into reality, with the president telling struggling Americans to buy fewer pencils and dolls while his own supporters admit they can't afford groceries. David Brooks' embarrassing 2009 love letter to John Thune as the GOP's wholesome future collides with Thune today holding the biggest bag of political excrement in modern history as the ACA subsidy vote collapses. Republican lies are finally colliding with the lived experience of MAGA voters who can't fake-news their way out of rising prices and broken promises. Trump goes full mafia boss, threatening to strip all federal funding from Indiana if they don't redraw their congressional map to his liking. The special election bloodbath heading the GOP's way arrives while the toilet piranhas of MAGA influencer-land turn on each other.

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We examine the difference between political "weather" and "climate" this week, starting with Trump once again bribing farmers with $11 billion after his own tariffs destroyed their markets. We play audio demonstrating Trump's cognitive decline and discuss his increasingly unhinged Truth Social posts, including a bizarre rant about Marjorie Taylor Greene. The Republican Party is now held together by violence and threats, from ICE brutality to intimidation of Indiana legislators. We revisit the enduring plague of "Both Sides" media coverage with examples from Pharrell Williams to prosecutors describing the DC pipe bomber. But there's hope—the Democratic base is finally done giving Republicans second chances, as Mrs. Frazzled's viral video demonstrates.

Post YOUR suggestions for the 2025 Crookie Awards here! 

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The dangerous convergence of Trumpian immunity and media complicity creates for Trump an imaginary “kingdom” once reserved for anointed kings.  Our Constitutional form of “government of the people” has been corrupted by both MAGA's belief that Trump operates with divine authority above the law and a mainstream media that protects its own incompetent insiders at all costs.  As a side quest, what does Mark Halperin's endless media rehabilitation tour have in common with Trump's pardon spree, and why should we be terrified by the answer?

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No show today; we've had quite a weekend.  

We'll be back to our regularly scheduled podcasting on Thursday.  See you then! 

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In this week's episode, we experience the whipsaw—that aggressive, back-and-forth sawing motion that's now a perfect metaphor for what Republicans are doing to millions of American families over the Affordable Care Act.

We watch in real time as Trump's promised two-year ACA subsidy extension is announced, then delayed, then killed by Mike Johnson—all within 48 hours. Why did Republicans pull the rug out from under tens of millions of Americans who depend on these subsidies? Because destroying every trace of Barack Obama's legacy remains their load-bearing promise to the MAGA base.

We also discuss why Mamdani's meeting with Trump wasn't surprising (treating grandpa like he's at the nursing home works), celebrate Lindsay Halligan's legal troubles, and reveal that a huge number of MAGA accounts on X are actually foreign side hustlers getting paid to polarize Americans. Plus: DOGE employees suddenly realize Elon might not protect them from prosecution, Bari Weiss wants to redefine acceptable debate by elevating "charismatic" figures like Alan Dershowitz, and Trump denies disaster aid to Chicago after devastating summer storms.

Happy Thanksgiving from the Cornfield Resistance!  (We're off Thursday but will be on The Bob Cesca Show on Wednesday, 9/26!) 

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In this week's episode, we dive deep into the infrastructure project nobody wants to talk about: the construction of political lifeboats.

What are we witnessing as Trump's administration unfolds? We're seeing the familiar pattern of those who enabled catastrophe beginning to build their escape routes—just as they did after the Bush administration collapsed, when the "Fake Tea Party" served as the greatest mass escape operation since D-Day—allowing pro-Bush Republicans to magically transform into constitutional conservatives who'd never heard of Bush or Cheney. 

We borrow from Buddhist concepts of Big Boats and Little Boats to understand how media validators help the guilty avoid accountability. We hear from a Charlotte resident about what Trump's policies are doing to his city right now. And we ask: when Trump falls, will there finally be a reckoning—or just another round of "let's look forward, not backward"?

 All this and more on this week's Professional Left podcast.

Warning: This episode is not safe for work.

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