Episode 209 Audio: Mike Figueredo

Krystal Kyle & Friends

Our expectations were low, but the first terrifying few days of Trump, round two have been worse than anyone could have imagined. Already we’re seeing the rollback of key civil rights legislation, attacks on immigrant communities, cutting immigration opportunities for refugees, and much more. After Elon Musk’s shenanigans on the Trump 2024 campaign trail, we expected oligarchs — Trump’s fellow elites — to bend the knee. And they have: Musk, Zuckerberg, and Bezos, the three richest Americans, were all in plain sight at the inauguration. What seems even more galling (if not surprising) is that Democrats have bent the knee, too. On a scale of cooked to well done, says Mike Figueredo on this episode, we’re burnt. In his view, electoral change now seems possible: the line has been drawn, we’ve passed the threshold. Whether it’s a violent revolution or national collapse, Mike sees something other than government-led reform as the future of the country. For Kyle, it’s a question of understanding how bad the damage Trump does will be. Market downturns, austerity, economic collapse: these look like they’re lying in our path right now. Amidst all of this, you’d think the Democrats would learn to fight back — assuming they actually want to win.

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