Jiu-Jitsu Red to Blue: Crushing MAGA Under The Weight of Their Own Arguments

Another month, another criminal indictment for Donald Trump — and that means another flood of MAGA lies, distortions, distractions, ironies, hypocrisies and willful self-mortifications. Yet again, they insist: up is down, black is white, the vice president decides what electoral votes to count, and conspiracy to defraud the American voter is a right under the First Amendment.  It’s hard to counter...

In the biggest culture-war duel of the summer,  Barbie: the Movie  competed against another blockbuster — and it wasn’t  Oppenheimer .  It was the coincidentally-released Florida state standards for the teaching of African-American history. While MAGA went nuts over a barely-seen cartoon map and gender-warring dolls, Democrats (and a few Republicans) took aim at the state-sanctioned soft-pedalling...

In any universe that values democracy, war-torn Ukraine is the center, and NATO is the indispensable force of gravity. In the mind of MAGA, Ukraine is an invisible dot on a map that no American need bother looking at, and NATO is an old bit of clutter America might as well throw away. Host Tish Durkin delves into the distinction between those polar-opposite positions — and why it truly, madly, dee...

Of course, you haven’t. Between MAGA and the media, Joe Biden would get more attention for tripping over a sandbag than for saving the world.   Host Tish Durkin lists a few of the major disasters that have not hit the headlines because they have not happened: the crippling strikes that have been avoided, the global economy that has not crashed,  the giant surge of migrants across the southern bord...

Independence Day has come and gone, but there’s no end to the fireworks over what, and whom, to celebrate. In this encore episode, host Tish Durkin revisits a theme of even greater relevance than it had when first recorded in 2022: the true legacy of America’s founders — a legacy that MAGA claims to defend, but works hard to destroy.

When smoke gets in your eyes... and the fire is thousands of miles away, it’s time to stop denying climate change. When a million extra people die in the peak year of a pandemic, it’s time to stop equating COVID-19 with the flu. When the prevalence of guns and that of gun deaths both happen to skyrocket, it’s time to stop feigning blindness to any connection between the two. When the President of...

What does a great British thespian-turned-lefty-firebrand-parliamentarian have to do with the congressional arm of the American right? In this  Summertime Short, host Tish Durkin riffs on the coincidence of two events in one recent week: the death of rags-to-resplendence actor/politico Glenda Jackson and the issuance of the MAGA-minded Republican Study Committee's budget proposal for fiscal 20...

Another scandal, another round of Republicans trying to spray the stench of Donald Trump all over his adversaries. Ever since the unsealing of the stunningly specific federal indictment of Trump, Republicans from the Speaker of the House on down have been crying foul over Trump’s being criminally charged for document-handling infractions they deem very similar to those taken by the former Secretar...

In Iowa last week, Ron DeSantis meant to summon the best of Winston Churchill as he called for a war on “woke.”  What he actually evoked, though, was the worst of Margaret Thatcher. Host Tish Durkin points out the eerie similarities between the present-day DeSantis “don’t say gay” (or Black) assault on education, and Thatcher’s 1980s version of the same.  That version found its most potent express...

Florida governor Ron DeSantis has officially entered the race for president, positioning himself as the young, brash right-winger who can deliver Trumpism without Trump. In one media-hyped announcement after another, DeSantis has served up such chunks of MAGA red meat as recruiting military vets to teach in public schools, creating a law enforcement unit exclusively devoted to fighting “election c...

No matter what their political stripe, nice, normal Americans all seem to agree on one thing: while Republicans may have gone crazy-far to the right in recent years, Democrats have gone just as crazy-far to the left. Host Tish Durkin urges nice, normal Americans to snap out of this consensus because it is built on nothing. Having previously tackled health care, child care, voting rights and the ec...

Not to be out-Foxed in its quest for right-wing viewers, CNN recently hosted a town hall that amounted to a Trump rally. That spectacle has come and gone, but consider what remains:  the distinct sense of a mass media willing, yet again, to play on Trump’s terms. Host Tish Durkin looks back in anger — and forward in apprehension.

Lately, many Americans have  accepted the theory of political relativity. This is the oft-expressed notion that while Republicans may have gone far right in recent years, Democrats have gone just as far to the left. This theory is baseless, and issue by issue, host Tish Durkin debunks it. On health care, child care, voting rights and the economy, Democrats are, by and large, where they have been f...

Abortion is a serious matter, but host Tish Durkin can’t help but laugh out loud at parts of the recent Senate Judiciary Committee Hearing on Abortion and Women’s Health. The biggest joke: the travelogue of abortion restrictions in “civilized” Europe offered by MAGA Senators Lindsey Graham and Ted Cruz. U.S. senators really ought to access Google before they deny access to abortion based on foreig...

Now that President Joe Biden has officially announced that he is running again, his supporters and detractors alike have launched into a fresh round of fixating on his old age. But as host Tish Durkin points out, it’s his opponent who will be the candidate of old ideas….very old ideas.  Whether the GOP nominates Donald Trump, Ron DeSantis, Nikki Haley, or someone else, that nominee will have to be...

On a spring-break trip to Spain, host Tish Durkin hopes to swap her obsession with current U.S. politics for  a crash course in Iberian history…only to find threads of current U.S. politics running all through Iberian history, from the trashing of Muslim-built aqueducts by the followers of the "Catholic kings" to the smashing of Spanish social advancement by Francisco Franco...

Yes, we have already moved on to Louisville — but host Tish Durkin is still processing Nashville via an all-too-typical MAGA interview given right after Uvalde. With an assist from similarly gun-glorifying Rep. Thomas Massie of Kentucky and a super-friendly Fox interviewer, Rep.  Tim “we’re not gonna fix this” Burchett runs through the usual pretend excuses  (The Constitution) and problem-plagued...

Host Tish Durkin schools MAGA Congressman Tim “We’re not gonna fix this” Burchett — and, by extension, the NRA-bound GOP — on the facts about mass shootings. In the first of two episodes devoted to parsing one short, sadly-typical interview that Burchett gave Fox in the wake of Uvalde, Durkin delves into the latest irony around Republican calls for improved mental health services (it’s not just ab...

Another school, another shooting. There are no words for the massacre at Covenant School in Nashville, but host Tish Durkin tries to find some. Her main political question: which party should be viewed as out-of-touch and crazy? Democrats, who agree with the vast majority of Americans — and gun owners — that there is nothing unconstitutional about restoring the gun-safety laws that worked just fin...

Host Tish Durkin analyzes the MAGA reaction to the failure of Silicon Valley Bank, particularly on the parts of presidential hopeful Nikki Haley and her all-but-declared rival, Ron DeSantis. Whether blaming the mess on Diversity, Equity and Inclusion,  the imaginary recklessness of SVB depositors, or Joe Biden’s supposed love for coastal billionaires over good, plain flyover folk, the GOP nominees...

January 6, 2021 was a bad day for America, and a worse one for the GOP. Yet, by releasing thousands of hours’ worth of footage of that event to Fox firebomber Tucker Carlson, Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy has blown the whole thing right up again. But will it blow up in his face? Host Tish Durkin analyzes why this is a strategy for MAGA — and a travesty for everybody else.

Host Tish Durkin sets the stage, and the terms, for another round of political JiuJitsu. Her goal: expose, explain and ultimately explode the myth of real-life, “real American” policy competence that the MAGA-bound GOP has spent years effectively spinning about itself. From crime to COVID to the constitution; from education to the economy…the myth of GOP superiority is only as powerful as Democrat...

A mini-episode today. It's a quick hello and welcome if you've landed here by way of Tish's current piece in the Oprah Daily. With 2022 behind us, we're also in the process of rebranding the show to "Jiu Jitsu Red to Blue." And yes, we're STILL crushing the GOP under the weight of its own arguments.

Against all odds, the midterms have left Democrats – and democracy -- in shape to fight another day. And with Republicans in firm control of Florida, Texas, Ohio, and the House of Representatives, there will be plenty of fighting to do. Nonetheless, this Thanksgiving, host Tish Durkin serves a heaping platter of Thank The Lord, with a generous side of That Could Have Gone So Much Worse and a big f...

What’s a rookie political podcaster to do when her recording slot falls on the afternoon of the election, before any results are known, but the episode won’t drop until two days later, when (much of) the outcome has become clear? Host Tish Durkin tries to focus on truths worth telling no matter who’s won what on November 8. But mostly, she pigs out on Halloween candy and panics.