Beyond Politics

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?

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 buy? Have you had an honest disc...

We've known Trevor Chandler for a long time: as a congressional staffer, LGBT rights activist, and political organizer. So when decided to jump into a local San Francisco race, it didn't surprise us. What did surprise us was the message he decided to run on. Could it be the key to pushing back on the Fox News attacks and unifying the Democratic Party?

Former Ohio Democratic Party Chairman David Pepper is out today with Saving Democracy , a how-to guide on how individuals and small groups can actually tilt the balance of power away from right-wing extremists and back to sanity and democracy. David joins us to explain why state governments have become engines of Republican extremism, and how effective it can be for grassroots Democrats to fight b...

Republican Senator Tim Scott has everything his party should want in a Presidential contender...except a clear path to being the nominee. The panel looks at whether he, Nikki Haley, Mike Pence, Asa Hutichinson, Vivek Ramaswamy, Ron DeSantis or anyone else has any chance of wresting the nomination away from Donald Trump, and whether retail politics-heavy states like New Hampshire can actually help.

Are Black Voters Actually Going…MAGA? In 2020, 12% of Black men voted for Donald Trump. By 2022, headlines were proclaiming an historic shift in Black America to the Republican Party, with CNN declaring “Voters of color are backing the GOP at historic levels” and the NY Post saying “Young, Black Americans are turning to the GOP.” If this is true, it would represent a crisis for Democrats, since Bl...

A brief review of the ham-fisted attempted cover operation for Trump that was the Durham special counsel investigation, how it fell apart, and why it still seemed to be a political success for Republicans. Also what is a "nothingburger" anyway? Will President Biden actually agree to put more work requirements on Food Stamps? And should we raise the voting age to 25?

After last week's disaster, can the media prevent Trump from serving us poison again? That was basically the question that was posed to me this morning by Howard Monroe, legendary West Virginia radio broadcaster. It's a question that we're all continuing to grapple with in the wake of the CNN town hall with Donald Trump last week. Is there any way for the media to cover Donald Trump, d...

Philadelphia Inquirer National Columnist and Pulitzer Prize Winner Will Bunch joins to lay out why everything we saw from Donald Trump in the catastrophic town hall last night was terrible...but unsurprising. The real shock wasn't even the way CNN was complicit in setting up the disaster. Rather, it was another group that really brought a low point to the entire night.

As the debt ceiling standoff begins to dominate political discussion, serious legal scholars are beginning to debate whether the Constitution offers a simple way out. Also, Alicia makes a moving plea to her own Republican Party on immigration. And could the writer's strike be good for America?

On Sundays, we post shows from Financial Life Planning with financial advisor Mike Morton and man-in-need-of-advice Matt Robison. This week: we have interest rates now, so what does that mean, in a nutshell, for our daily lives. And is there anything we need to, you know, DO about it? The answer is: YES! We cover: Mortgage Rates - How the increase affects your payments (not in a good way!) Home Eq...

Justin Elliott is one of the team of reporters at ProPublica who conducted the blockbuster investigation that uncovered the Clarence Thomas corruption scandal. Elliot takes us inside the story and how he reported it. His reporting uncovered the financial ties between Harlan Crow and Justice Thomas: millions of dollars in gifts, benefits, and luxury trips. His newest article revealed strange detail...

Matt walks into the belly of the beast, joining Alicia Preston guest-hosting on the Jack Heath show, one of the top conservative radio programs out there. They cover the question of when are politicians too old, and the controversial idea that we spend too much money on senior citizens anyway.

US Senator Sheldon Whitehouse joins us to expose a "toxic cocktail of creepy billionaires and phony front groups and dark money" ruling the Supreme Court in this interview coming fresh off a blockbuster Senate hearing. Corrupt right wing Justice Clarence Thomas and his wife have raked in millions from people with cases before the court. It's all part of a broken system that funnels h...

Republican insiders think so, and they see an emerging strategy to try to take DeSantis down in one particular early primary state. Also, what is up with the big new messaging plan from Democrats on the Republicans debt ceiling plan, and will it work? And how worries should we be that three of the four biggest banking failures in US history happened in the last couple months?

Financial advisor Mike Morton and Matt Robison dive into when it makes sense to borrow money to pay for stuff (like cars) vs. digging deep into your savings. And does it make sense to use a HELOC? And what the #$%^ IS a HELOC anyway?

President Biden is running for re-election, but are his chances of beating Trump uncomfortably...even? Also, what does a new rule say about whether Democrats are swinging too far to the left? And is there a simple deal to be had on the debt that could save America from economic catastrophe?

Tucker Carlson has been a disaster for America, and he is an embarrassment that Fox News is trying to put behind them. But the big question is, will Fox get any better without him? And what about the rest of the media, which seems perpetually locked in both-sides-ism and unwilling to provide the context to help Americans understand what has been happening in our country in the age of Trump. Mark J...