Systemic Error Podcast

What happened AlterNet, citing Washington Post reporting, identifies Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito as the Trump ally whose opinions have become “mocking” and contentious. Harvard law professor Richard Lazarus said Alito has moved further right in his votes, rhetoric, and judicial posture as Donald Trump’s second-term agenda has reached the Court. The Post reported that Alito supported the Tru...

What happened AlterNet reports that President Donald Trump is preparing for possible congressional investigations of his family if Democrats win control of Congress in the November 3 midterms. Citing the Daily Mail, it says Trump may reserve part of MAGA Inc.’s roughly $400 million war chest for potential legal costs involving Barron Trump, Melania Trump, and Jared Kushner. Representative Yassamin...

What happened AlterNet reports that leaked recordings from a September 24 fundraiser captured Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton complaining about his campaign and saying an outgoing senator wanted him “to lose.” CNN said the latest audio came from an attendee who opposed Paxton. The supplied report appears to misidentify that senator as Paxton himself, leaving that sentence internally inconsistent...

What happened AlterNet reports that former Social Security Commissioner Martin O’Malley called Donald Trump’s stated offer of $5,000 to every American adult if Republicans retain Congress in the midterm elections “straight-up bribery.” O’Malley argued that conditioning a public payout on an electoral result amounts to paying people to vote a certain way. The interview also addressed Social Securit...

What happened AlterNet reports that historian Timothy D. Snyder predicted Donald Trump would claim the Nov. 3 election was rigged if Democrats won. The article does not establish that Trump had announced such a plan; “what losers do” was Snyder’s description of the anticipated claim, not a reported admission from Trump. Speaking with former Republican strategist Steve Schmidt, Snyder urged voters...

What happened AlterNet reports that only four of 16 Republican candidates and party leaders surveyed by Syracuse.com planned to attend President Donald Trump’s Friday rally in Syracuse for New York gubernatorial candidate Bruce Blakeman. Among those staying away were Onondaga County Executive Ryan McMahon, District Attorney Bill Fitzpatrick, both Republican candidates for two Central New York stat...

What happened AlterNet reports that the Trump administration imposed sanctions on the International Criminal Court shortly after the 2026 Nobel Peace Prize went to Navi Pillay, a former ICC appeals judge. The timing prompted speculation about revenge for President Donald Trump’s Nobel loss, but the reporting does not establish that explanation: The New York Times said the administration had planne...

What happened AlterNet reports that Donald Trump grew frustrated with Kimberly Guilfoyle after she solicited investments for her businesses from Mar-a-Lago members, including through a 2022 dinner that guests reportedly discovered midway was a pitch for her American Dream alcohol brand. According to The Wall Street Journal reporting cited by AlterNet, Trump complained that Guilfoyle was supposed t...

What happened AlterNet, citing Axios, reports that President Donald Trump publicly attacked Fox News after White House officials and senior Republican operatives privately complained about the network’s coverage of Abdul El-Sayed, the Democratic nominee for an open U.S. Senate seat in Michigan. Republicans reportedly fear that Fox appearances are helping El-Sayed reach center-right voters and weak...

What happened AlterNet reports that psychologist John Garrison interpreted footage of President Donald Trump appearing to doze during an Oval Office meeting with Susan Dell as possible “microsleeps.” Garrison said such episodes can have several causes but argued that dementia or a brain injury could explain Trump’s rapid shifts between apparent sleep and wakefulness, lapses in attention, and momen...

What happened The Alabama Supreme Court did not decide whether Sen. Tommy Tuberville satisfied Alabama’s residency requirement. AlterNet reports that the court upheld the dismissal of a challenge to his eligibility, ruling that courts lacked jurisdiction to reconsider the Republican Party’s determination that he qualified as a resident. The justices said a primary-election contest under state law...

What happened AlterNet reports that the Norwegian Nobel Committee awarded the 2026 Nobel Peace Prize to Navi Pillay and used the announcement to defend international law against attacks on international courts. New York Times reporter Amanda Taub interpreted the committee’s warning about sanctioned judges and besieged institutions as a clear, though implicit, rebuke of President Donald Trump and o...

What happened AlterNet reports that the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division presented evidence to a federal grand jury alleging that former White House aide Cassidy Hutchinson lied to Congress. The article does not establish that the grand jury returned an indictment or specify which statement prosecutors allege was false. Hutchinson testified before the House committee investigating the Ja...

What happened AlterNet reports that former Homeland Security official Miles Taylor argues the failed prosecution of former Olympic canoeist David Hearn exposed a broader danger: federal prosecution being used to retaliate against perceived enemies of President Donald Trump. Hearn was detained after touching a peeling liner at the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool, publicly accused of vandalism and...

What happened AlterNet reports that Trump administration officials may be laying rhetorical groundwork to blame Canada if Republicans suffer midterm losses, but the reporting does not establish a coordinated plan. The evidence cited is recent anti-Canada rhetoric from Trump trade adviser Peter Navarro, including his warning to Canadian lobbyists against purported interference in elections in Maine...

What happened AlterNet reports that newly released White House documents show FBI investigators collected phone metadata associated with Susie Wiles from at least February through May 2023. The records reportedly catalogued whom Wiles contacted, when calls occurred, and how long they lasted during “Plasmic Echo,” the investigation into Donald Trump’s handling of classified documents and presidenti...

What happened AlterNet reports that U.S. Ambassador to Greece Kimberly Guilfoyle allegedly asked Eric Deters, a former Kentucky congressional candidate, to secretly pay her $100,000 American Express bill shortly before her July 9, 2025 confirmation hearing. According to a Wall Street Journal report cited by AlterNet, Guilfoyle suggested she could connect Deters—who wanted help with personal tax an...

What happened Jimmy Kimmel marked Fox News’s 30th anniversary with a montage of the network turning trivial cultural disputes into political grievances. As AlterNet reports, the segment featured outrage over Barack Obama’s tan suit and coffee-cup salute, an alleged “war on Christmas,” gender-neutral branding for Mr. Potato Head, supposedly “woke” Lego, and the green M&M’s redesigned footwear. Kimm...

What happened The word is “corrupt.” AlterNet argues that Democrats should make Republican corruption their central message in the 2026 midterms and the 2028 presidential election, citing an Axios-reported national poll in which a majority of registered voters surveyed reportedly chose “corrupt” to describe Donald Trump. The article points to Péter Magyar’s anti-corruption campaign against Viktor...

What happened AlterNet reports that Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services administrator Mehmet Oz raised his voice and accused Gray Media reporter Molly Martinez of being “deliberately duplicitous” after she contrasted two provisions of President Donald Trump’s domestic policy law: an estimated $137 billion reduction in federal Medicaid spending in rural areas over ten years and a $50 billion...

What happened AlterNet reports that Lawrence O’Donnell used Donald Trump’s shifting pronouns during a Wednesday campaign rally in San Antonio to renew his warning that changes in the president’s speech could indicate dementia. While recounting Melania Trump correcting his pronunciation of “vegan,” Trump briefly referred to “he” before returning to “she.” O’Donnell argued that such departures from...

What happened AlterNet reports that Missouri Republicans’ attempt to engineer a seventh GOP-held U.S. House seat was blocked before the November midterm election. Acting on President Donald Trump’s advice, Republican lawmakers approved new boundaries in September 2025 that weakened the Kansas City-based district represented by Democrat Emanuel Cleaver. Courts ultimately required the state to use i...

What happened AlterNet reports that the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division presented evidence to a federal grand jury alleging that former White House aide Cassidy Hutchinson lied to Congress. The article does not establish that the grand jury returned an indictment or specify which statement prosecutors allege was false. Hutchinson testified before the House committee investigating the Ja...

What happened AlterNet reports that U.S. Ambassador Kimberly Guilfoyle was accused of seeking $100,000 from Trump donor Eric Deters, describing the alleged demand as an attempt to monetize political access. The article suggests her standing within Donald Trump’s circle may protect her from his anger, but it does not establish that Trump has decided to retain or punish her—or prove why he would do...

What happened AlterNet reports that investor and former journalist Steven Rattner used five economic and political comparisons on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” to argue that Republicans could suffer major losses in the 2026 election. The charts do not actually predict a “bloodbath”: they show conditions Rattner considers as bad as, or worse than, those preceding the Democratic takeover of Congress in 2006...