Polidicks

There's one big news story this week and it's Reddit's troll war against Wall Street. Jeb and Tim chew over the finer points of a politically utopian vision of what this may mean (Occupy 2.0, anyone?) before moving onto discussing the Democrats' potentially reforming the filibuster rules in the Senate.~LINKS~Adam Jentleson's Kill Switch Indiebound & AmazonAlex Pareene's New Republic piece Fine, Keep the Filibuster. Kill the 60-Vote Requirement Instead.

We're back. American Political journalist/writer Jeb Lund and New Zealand comedian Tim Batt have returned after taking an entire Presidential term off to assess the damage and share what they've been up to in the intervening period. In this episode - Jeb can't bring himself to even bet on the planet being here in another four years but has been following the Church of High Sorkin that is the Biden/Harris inauguration with a glistening eye. He's also got the receipts on Matt Gaetz. Tim interested in the Senator Bernie Sander's new roles are Grumpy Opa who is a bit cold/Senate Budget Committee Chair. Also, what will come of the Republican Party from here on in (probably more of the same!) Will Biden live through his term? (Don't ask Tim.) And AOC blew off the inauguration to hang out with Teamsters? Cool.LinksTim's Worst Idea of All Time pilot for YouTube

This week Jeb and Tim chat about the first out loud moves from the Mueller investigation; the indictment of one-time Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort and his collague Rick Gates, plus the guilty plea of 30 year old campaign staffer George Papadopoulos. Also this week; What's that uranium thing all about? The importance of the GOP's tax reform proposal and assessing how much does Kevin Spacey sucks.

US political journalist Jeb Lund and kiwi comedian Tim Batt chat discuss the bungled operation in Niger leading to the deaths of four special forces soldiers and Trump's bungled condolence call to one of the widows. Also this week; Betsy DeVos is a nightmare that's finally starting to surface on the news as a result of rescinding 72 policy documents guiding schools on Special Education; a Putin critic's US Visa is pulled suddenly and New Zealand finally has a government!

Hollywood's dark underbelly has been exposed and Jeb and Tim discuss whether the Weinstein fiasco will lead to even more public airing of abuses by powerful men or stop dead at the ruined film executive. Trump's military moral authority is questioned, in light of him talking and joking while a flag lowering ceremony is taking place at a military base during a Fox interview. Meanwhile actual (terrible) policy is still happening too; This week, the continuation of Project Destroy Obamacare. On a lighter note, New Zealand still doesn't have a government and nobody seems to mind too much.

The horrific mass murder in Las Vegas won't change a dang thing about America's gun laws. President Trump is leading the way to no legislative victories in spite of the GOP's command of the White House, House of Representatives and Senate while they try one more bite at the healthcare apple before moving into tax reform. The Steele Dossier is still in play for the secretly still continuing Russia investigation by Rob Mueller and New Zealand's just had an election but has no idea who's in charge yet!