Beyond Politics

No one likes money in politics. But the simple truth is, if you want to win and do the things that you believe in, you need to raise campaign cash. And one of the Democratic Party's top experts on how to do it, Josh Handelman, says, we shouldn't feel bad about that. We should embrace it. He also explains how things have changed int he past 17 years in campaigns, what works and what doesn&#...

Following Part One on the Ron DeSantis campaign catastrophe, Kartik Krishnaiyer, one the the nation's leading experts on Florida politics and proprietor of The Florida Squeeze and Matt Robison discuss whether a reboot is possible. ALSO: the biggest Senate race in the country that you probably should be paying more attention to. And another incredible, undemocratic, anti-democracy power grab. A...

When top elections analysts are asking whether your campaign is the worst in modern political history, you know things have gone south. And that's where things are for Ron DeSantis after a series of disasters, embarrassments, and acts of stubbornly clinging to insane positions. Kartik Krishnaiyer, one the the nation's leading experts on Florida politics and proprietor of The Florida Squeez...

It's time for another installment our most fun episode series on space, where we go WAY Beyond Politics. We welcome back UNH Observatory Director John Gianforte to talk about what the James Webb Space Telescope has discovered in it's first year, and run down the top five most mind-blowing images. Find the full video on our Patreon page here , and please support our work! Or if you want to...

Three under the radar stories from recent days suggest that Republicans are once again about to kneecap each other and leave a wide open path for Donald Trump. Also, disaster in Israel for democracy, an empty trying to get back to the top in New Hampshire, and what's with the death of sports sections?

The trump indictment three-peat is looming, and there are huge questions involved. Will this one matter politically and start to peal away Republicans? Can DeSantis make a surge off this? Is there a "David" strategy in this primary? AND, what does New Hampshire Governor Chris Sununu declaring he won't run for re-election mean? IS he reconsidering challenging for the nomination?

Lying. Hypnotizing. Gaslighting. Did Texas’ “serial killer whisperer” and his questionable tactics ensnare an innocent man? An amazing new podcast from journalist Maurice Chammah and the Marshall Project called "Just Say You’re Sorry" poses all of those questions and ultimately asks, what’s the price that we pay for a sense that we’ve closed the books, when we might be closing them on th...

It's our July mailbag! Your questions and comments answered, including: Why won't the media report more on the DeSantis Guantanamo Bay story? What's about to happen with the Trump case in Georgia? Does Jack Smith have a major ace up his sleeve against Trump? Is Jim Jordan going to be sued for his role in the Ohio State scandal? Who are the top five Dems who could be replacement White H...

The panel discusses the eerie parallels on a day when Donald Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu both made new legal maneuvers to stay out of prison and regain (or regain) power. Also, what does a new grand jury empaneling mean in Georgia. And is Biden crushing it when it comes to our alliances?

As we record this on the morning of July 11, Israel has once against broken out in massive protests after an overnight vote in their Parliament that pushed forward the far-right governing coalition’s plan to limit their judiciary. Protestors see the plan as nothing less that a more stealthy version of the overt power grab that Prime Minister Netanyahu announced in January and that led to a shutdow...

Every so often, the political guru that the Washington insiders listen to delivers one of his deep dive analysis memos on what’s going on under the surface in politics. And everyone drops everything to see what he had to say. So when Doug Sosnik delivered his newest analysis -- explaining what the 2024 election will come down to and what four key voting blocs would decide the outcome -- we knew we...

The Supreme Court wrapped its term with a rush of rulings, including in a pivotal case that pitted issues of free speech against anti-discrimination laws. Except, the case was built on a fantasy: a web designer who had never designed a website, and a request from a gay couple that never existed. So was the Supreme Court duped? And is the Court veering outside the mainstream of public opinion, or r...

When the Supreme Court on Thursday ruled that the race-conscious admissions programs at Harvard and the University of North Carolina were unlawful, rejecting affirmative action at colleges and universities around the nation, it created more questions than it answered about the future of racial diversity in elite college admissions. Dr. Stephanie Hall is a senior fellow at the Center for American P...

A major new poll has good news for Donald Trump. But somehow, it has even better news for President Biden. Strangely, it also brings unsettling news about how Americans view our system and the choice that they are determined to make, yet seem to hate.

Former President Donald Trump and Florida Governor Ron DeSantis are descending on New Hampshire at this very moment to hold dueling political events, as new national polling shows a widening gulf between them, and between Trump and the rest of the field. Why is Trump growing his lead, and will that last?  Also, MAGA shenanigans hit the US House of Representatives, and the results would be funny if...

When the Supreme Court issued a surprise ruling on Congressional maps last week, it not only created a pathway for Democrats to re-take the House in 2024, it also kept critical protections first enacted in the Voting Rights Act that the Court has otherwise chipped away in recent years. Michaeleen Crowell worked on reauthorizing the Voting Rights Act for civil rights icon Congressman John Lewis, an...

Matt Robison joins legendary radio broadcaster Howard Monroe to analyze the American crossroads that we reached yesterday: a twice indicted former President - whose case is being overseen by a political crony who could let him off the hook - and a minefield of bad outcomes ahead. What do we know from legal scholars, polling, and history about what could happen next?

Law Professor Steve Vladek was in the middle of explaining a pivotal Supreme Court decision to us when he delivered us some chilling news: a little-used legal rule would allow Trump-appointed judge Aileen Cannon to overturn a guilty verdict in the classified documents case and set Trump free even if he is convicted. Professor Vladek explains what this is all about. Plus: what does that key SCOTUS...

Matt Robison and Cliff Schecter tackle listener questions in part two of our mailbag. Can MAGA family members be persuaded? What is happening with the Supreme Court Clarence Thomas scandal since it disappeared from the news? Is Casey DeSantis even crazier than Ron? Did Mark Meadows flip? Can we, or should we, have Congressional term limits? What happened to Sydney Powell? Can we recall Congressman...

Former President Donald Trump is going to be indicted again, this time on federal charges stemming from his secreting away classified documents from the White House. Former prosecutor and Congressman Paul Hodes runs through why we are seeing these charges, what we can read in to the fact that the Department of Justice is bringing them, and why they could spell deeper legal peril for Trump than the...

One of the upsides of the fact that we now have 20,000 subscribers and climbing on the Blue Amp channel on YouTube is we have a really big interactive community that can throw questions at us and that we can give responses to, and vice versa. If you are interested in participating in a future mail bag, then just So when we asked them to throw questions at us, they came through bigly! Today, we cov...

New Hampshire Governor Chris Sununu didn't just decline to run for President. He issued a dire plea to fellow Republicans to turn away from their current course of culture war and wedge issue politics, before they destroy themselves. Also: why is Biden so accomplished and yet so unpopular? The panel unpacks Matt Robison's Newsweek article on that question, and the eerie rise of RFK Jr. Fir...

This is PART TWO of our show on how do you teach your kids about money, without making it a chore for you? We're once again bringing you an episode from Financial Life Planning with Matt Robison and Financial Advisor Mike Morton. Do you offer an allowance? Is it tied to chores or some other ‘work?’ Do you give your kids the freedom to spend their money with abandon or try to control what they...

Congressional insider and former Chuck Schumer right hand man on policy Ryan McConaghy joins to grade Matt Robison's argument that the debt ceiling deal was a huge win for President Biden, and also evaluate whether it was a win for Kevin McCarthy as well, and what the real world impact will be. Then: can Congress accomplish anything else after this? And will Senate Democrats finally do away wi...

Were there clear political "winners" and "losers" in the debt ceiling deal that will prevent a total meltdown of the American economy? Or is this a much more nuanced situation? Could everyone have actually come out ahead? The panel points out how you can tell. Also, why the sudden Republican agreement to impeach their hardest-charging warrior?