Systemic Error Podcast

Clarence Thomas attends the swearing-in ceremony of Pam Bondi as attorney general at the White House. Photograph: Kent Nishimura/Reuters The Courtroom Is the Product A Litigation Machine, Not a Mystery Raw Story reports that Consovoy McCarthy received more than $33.5 million from nonprofit networks associated with conservative activists, according to tax filings analyzed by the progressive researc...

U.S. President Donald Trump takes questions from media at a press briefing, in Washington, D.C., U.S., April 25, 2026. REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst/File Photo The National-Security Excuse for Trump’s Monument to Himself A Vanity Project in Tactical Gear Donald Trump wants a 250-foot triumphal arch near Arlington National Cemetery. Facing opposition, he now claims the structure is needed to house drones,...

REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst Impunity Is the Policy The Lie Protects the Decision-Maker The immediate story is simple: the president publicly minimized an Iranian attack while service members documented extensive damage, deaths, hospitalizations, and destroyed aircraft. The Pentagon’s inspector general put reported losses at $3.7 billion. Troops absorbed the consequences; Donald Trump controlled the acc...

US President Donald J. Trump looks on as he makes an announcement on healthcare in the Oval Office at the White House in Washington, D.C., US, September 18, 2026. REUTERS/Evan Vucci Declaring Trump Defeated Is How Institutions Excuse Their Surrender The Victory Lap Comes Too Early Peter Wehner and Jonathan Rauch argue that Donald Trump’s second-term effort to remake American society has already fa...

REUTERS/Evan Vucci Larry Rhoden’s Press-Freedom Promise Has a Presidential Exception The Ban Is the Story President Donald Trump announced that CNN, Politico and MS Now would be barred from the White House, accused them of reporting “fake news,” and later defended the decision while South Dakota Gov. Larry Rhoden stood beside him in the Oval Office. The three organizations subsequently sued to res...

White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles looks at her phone during a speech of U.S. President Donald Trump in the Oval Office at the White House in Washington, D.C., on June 11, 2026. REUTERS/Daniel Heuer The Press Ban Was Trump’s Decision, Not Susie Wiles’s Failure to Babysit Him The Order Came From the President CNN reported that President Donald Trump barred CNN, MS NOW, and Politico from the Whi...

U.S. Representative Lauren Boebert (R-CO) leaves after the House of Representatives passed a war powers resolution on the ongoing conflict with Iran on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., U.S., July 23, 2026. REUTERS/Eric Le The Scandal Is the Power, Not the Sex An Allegation Is Not a Verdict An ethics complaint accuses Representative Lauren Boebert of sexual relationships with three staffers and of...

U.S. Senator Mark Kelly (D-AZ) speaks with members on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., U.S., October 23, 2025. REUTERS/Kylie Cooper The Illegal-Orders Machine Protects the President, Then Punishes the Warning Congress Was Cut Out on Purpose Representative Thomas Massie’s impeachment resolution accuses Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth of continuing war in Iran without congressional authorization, co...

WASHINGTON, DC - DECEMBER 8, 2020: Woman Wearing MAGA Hat at the Million MAGA March. (Photo credit: Cavan-Images / Shutterstock) The Rolex Is Not the Scandal. The White House Is. A Government With a Gift Economy A small circle of White House insiders—including Steve Witkoff, Susie Wiles, and several people in Vice President JD Vance’s office—reportedly received custom Rolex watches marked with a s...

U.S. President Donald Trump attends an observance ceremony marking the 25th anniversary of the September 11, 2001 attack on the Pentagon, in Washington, D.C., September 11, 2026. REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst TPX IMAGES OF THE DAY The Bubble Is Not the Government A Diagnosis That Lets Power Off the Hook The reported conversation offers a seductive explanation for Donald Trump’s conduct: he lied so persis...

(Andi Rice for Alabama Reflector) Alabama Republicans Aren’t Losing Control. They’re Losing the Luxury of Apathy. The Panic of the Powerful Alabama Republicans control the state government, hold a legislative supermajority, and have not lost a governor’s race since 1998. Yet weak Republican primary turnout and increased Democratic participation have party candidates openly nervous about November....

Large plume of black smoke rises from the fuel storage area at King Khalid International Airport, in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, September 19, 2026. Picture taken with a mobile phone. REUTERS/Stringer The Chokepoint Is Real. The Election Panic Is the Misdirection. What Happened The Houthis claim they attacked Riyadh and Saudi energy sites while expanding control over the Bab al-Mandeb Strait and threate...

White House/screen grab The White House Silenced the Record, Then Called It Coverage Nine Minutes of Static At a Monday ribbon-cutting on the South Lawn, President Donald Trump spoke beside Marine One, but the White House’s only live feed carried unusable audio. Television networks had suspended their customary pool coverage earlier that day, and Trump took no press questions. The public received...

Former White House Deputy Chief of Staff for Policy Karl Rove looks on ahead of a funeral service for former U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney, at Washington National Cathedral, in Washington, D.C., U.S., November 20, 2025. REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst Karl Rove’s Trump Impression Is Not an Accountability Mechanism The Joke Replaced the Record The immediate story is simple: Donald Trump called Karl Rove a...

REUTERS/Nicolas Economou AI Is the Bait. Corporate Power Is the Trap. A Strange Alliance, a Familiar Anger Robert Reich reports that Bernie Sanders and Steve Bannon appeared at the same Washington conference to attack AI, data centers, and the corporate interests behind them. Their convergence does not amount to a shared politics. It shows that public anger over AI has become too potent for either...

(REUTERS) The Press Found Its Leverage—After Trump Made the Target Obvious A Retaliatory White House Robert Reich reports that Donald Trump announced on Friday that CNN, Politico, and MSNOW would be barred from the White House because he objected to their coverage. Over the weekend, according to Reich, their reporters were denied entry and their credentials confiscated. Fox News Media, ABC News, C...

REUTERS/Nathan Howard The Billionaire Veto Comes Due Money Against the Majority Alex Shephard’s account in The New Republic describes a widening split: Trump’s standing has deteriorated among key voting blocs while a small group of wealthy donors pours money into Republican campaigns. Citing a Financial Times report, Shephard writes that the top 20 donors supplied more than one-third of the $2.8 b...

U.S. President Donald Trump’s executive assistant Natalie Harp aboard Marine One, as Trump returns following a visit to North Carolina, at the Ellipse near the White House in Washington, D.C., U.S., September 16, 2026. REUTERS/Aaron Schwartz The “Human Printer” Is Not the Story A Sudden Return, Explained by Gossip Donald Trump cut short a Camp David weekend and returned to the White House without...

U.S. President Donald Trump attends an event at the White House in Washington, D.C., U.S., February 23, 2026. REUTERS The War Was His Choice. The Bill Is Everyone Else’s. The Story Beneath the Polling Donald Trump’s advisers reportedly have persuaded him that his party faces serious midterm losses. His approval has fallen amid higher oil prices, an unpopular war with Iran, and his failure to deliv...

An updated solidarity sign adding CNN, MSNOW and POLITICO hangs outside the Associated Press booth at the White House grounds after US President Donald Trump banned three major news outlets – CNN, MS NOW and Politico from the White House, in Washington, D.C., US, September 21, 2026. REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque The White House Is Using Access as a Weapon A Ban, a Lawsuit, and a Warning President Donald...

The Politics of the Unexplained Motorcade A Schedule Change Is Not a War Plan Donald Trump left Camp David early. Benjamin Netanyahu reportedly shortened his U.S. visit. American officials warned travelers about possible disruptions across the Middle East. That is the factual core. The rest—an imminent attack on Iran, a “massive escalation,” a coordinated signal—is speculation presented by journal...

An aerial view, taken through the window of an airplane, of the National Mall, including the Washington Monument and ongoing construction at the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool, in Washington, D.C., U.S., September 16, 2026. REUTERS/Kylie Cooper Gold Leaf Over Institutional Rot The Diversion Is the Decision The National Park Service is not drifting into crisis through bureaucratic confusion. The...

U.S. President Donald Trump walks at Newark Liberty International Airport as he travels en route to Trump National Golf Club Bedminster, in Newark, New Jersey, U.S., August 7, 2026. REUTERS/Elizabeth Frantz Sanewashing Is an Institutional Choice The President Has the Power Donald Trump’s conduct matters because he controls the executive branch, directs foreign policy and surrounds himself with off...

Image via Screengrab / Spectrum News. The Podium Was Never the Real Abuse of Power A Petty Scene Hiding a Serious Conflict The spectacle at Gracie Mansion was easy to package as political comedy: Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s staff repeatedly indicated that President Donald Trump’s allotted time had ended, while Trump remained beside the microphone and answered a question directed to the mayor. But the a...

House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) speaks with members of the media while arriving at the U.S. Capitol ahead of a two-week Easter recess starting at the end of this week, in Washington, D.C., U.S., March 26, 2026. REUTERS/Nathan Howard Mike Johnson’s Empty House Is Doing Exactly What Power Requires The Shutdown Without a Shutdown Mike Johnson has discovered that a speaker does not need to win a vot...