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Krystal and Emily discuss Jon Stewart shreds Stephen A, Greta Thunberg reveals Israel kidnapping details, AI LA video goes viral in dystopian preview.

Taren Stinebrickner-Kauffman: https://x.com/TarenSK 

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There’s a new evil genius on Capitol Hill, one that privacy experts warn could empower tech billionaires like Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg to issue their own private currencies. The Senate is poised to pass the GENIUS Act, which would give so much free rein to such “stablecoins” that it could destabilize the rest of the economy.

Today on Lever Time, Arjun Singh sits down with Lever reporter Luke Goldstein to understand the GENIUS Act, how it could turn Big Tech companies into unregulated banks, and why this should be a concern for the rest of us.

You can read Luke’s full story on the GENIUS Act and the future of “ZuckBucks” here.

Jon Stewart examines chaos in the MAGA-verse, as escalating ICE raids in Los Angeles erupt in protests, Stephen Miller hunts for nonviolent immigrants, Elon plays the Epstein card on Trump, and the Trump-Elon alpha male war reveals itself as a sensitive baby feud.

Stephen A. Smith, bestselling author & host of “The Stephen A. Smith Show,” sits down with Jon to discuss why he would rather be a hellraiser than an elected official, how politicians have divided and contributed to the demise of this country, and why the messenger matters in politics. Smith, who recently signed a 5-year contract with ESPN and a multi-year deal with SiriusXM, also discussed a comment he made about Jalen Brunson that Stewart considers “an impeachable offense,” their ride-or-die love of the Knicks, and the reason the Buffalo Bills may be at fault for Trump’s presidency.

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Bulgaria to enter EUROZONE trap

“Can Democrats Learn to Dream Big Again?,” wonders Samuel Moyn in the New York Times. “The Democrats Are Finally Landing on a New Buzzword. It’s Actually Compelling,” argues Slate staff writer Henry Grabar. “Do Democrats Need to Learn How to Build?,” asks Benjamin Wallace-Wells in The New Yorker. 

For the past few months, news and editorial rooms have been abuzz with talk about a new, grand vision for the Democratic Party: abundance. Abundance, according to its media promoters—chiefly NYT’s Ezra Klein and The Atlantic’s Derek Thompson—is a political agenda that espouses the creation of more of everything we need: housing, education, jobs, and energy, to name a few examples. To accomplish this, we are told, we must aim to eliminate bureaucratic red tape that has for so long bogged down production, innovation, and capital’s innate capacity and desire to provide a better, more abundant life.

It’s an alluring promise—if suspiciously vague and devoid of class politics: obviously, doing more good things is better than doing fewer good things, right? Who can argue with this generic premise? Who wouldn’t want to support an agenda that’s effectively the Do Good Things Agenda?

Scratch the surface, however, and what one finds it isn’t just a folky, common sense treatise against red tape, but something more sinister and dishonest, something more slick and shallow. What one gets is a standard entryist strategy that begins with a so-vague-it’s-incontestable hook—illogical or corrupt regulations are bad—the quickly pivots into a Silicon Valley flattering, and often Silicon Valley funded, political agenda, a narrative designed to blame inequality and our objectively broken political system on too much regulation and “bureaucracy” rather than there being too much power in the hands of an elite few.

What one gets, in other words, is a counter to left populism. What one gets is the latest attempt to reheat neoliberalism as something fresh, innovative and able to excite the voting base.

Last week, in Part I of a two-part series we’re calling “The Empire Strikes First,” we discussed the Democrats’ post-2024 apologia, propped up by scapegoats ranging from trans people to “economic headwinds” to Harris actually being too far left.

On this episode, Part II of the series, we explore what comes next: the 2028 Democratic strategy and the so-called abundance agenda that is increasingly shaping it. We’ll examine how Democratic media influencers and policymakers use lofty, seemingly progressive rhetoric to rehabilitate and re-sell the same old neoliberal deregulation, privatization, and austerity narrative that got us here in the first place, and ensure that no left-wing movement—that could, god forbid, require a meaningful change in the party—get in their way.

Our guests are the Revolving Door Project's Kenny Stancil and Henry Burke.

**UNLOCKED premium episode 40, now available for all listeners. Support us here: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.patreon.com/spassbremse⁠**

Germany's material and rhetorical support of Israel has long been unyielding, even in the face of genocide charges from international organizations and other European countries' growing condemnations of it's conduct in Gaza. However, in the last few weeks, a growing chorus of German politicians and media figures have begun to finally criticism Israel. Is something finally changing?

To answer, Ted speaks to German journalist Hanno Hauenstein (@hahauenstein), a rare media figure with actual expertise in the region and an important voice of reason in Germany's (to date virtually non-existent) Israel debate. They discuss the history of pro-Israel Staatsräson, the radicalization of the concept after October 7, and why the conversation might be now changing.

Read Hanno's Substack here: https://hannohauenstein.substack.com/

Listen to our episode with Daniel Marwecki (which we reference multiple times) here: https://creators.spotify.com/pod/show/spassbremse/episodes/52---Whitewashing-and-Statebuilding-German-Israeli-relations-wDaniel-Marwecki-e2dgpn5/a-aaovn89

Follow Spaßbremse on Twitter (⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@spassbremse_pod⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠). Music by ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Lee Rosevere⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠. Art by Franziska Schneider. Edited by Nick.

Support us on Patreon here: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.patreon.com/spassbremse

¡Tómala! On Sunday, June 1st, Mexico went to the polls to elect the entire Supreme Court and half of the federal judiciary (the other half will be elected in 2027). Kurt and José Luis will have the full rundown of this historic step forward in bringing democracy to a branch riddled with corruption, nepotism, obscene privileges, and collusion with oligarchies domestic and international. Sunday also saw local elections in the states of Durango and Veracruz: our hosts will parse through those results and discuss what implications, if any, they have at the national level. And in Losers and Haters, our own cull of the worse takes on the judicial elections - not very hard to find, it must be said.